Ghost From The Past Haunts The Present

Chapter Four.

Rylan’s POV.

“Run Rylan! Don’t look back! Take your brothers and hide! Now!”

Even after all these years, I could still hear my mother’s scream, I could still see the fear in her eyes as she shoved my brothers and I away from the hall just before she was cut down by a feral right before my eyes.

I could still feel the splash of her blood on my face, I could smell their burning flesh…

My entire clan wiped out in a night by Ferals while my brothers and I hid inside Mom’s closet.

The nightmares still haunted me and not even soaking my hands in the blood of the man responsible could save me from it.

“Mmhhmm” a soft sound pierced through the darkness around me and my eyes shot up to the bed in the center of one of the lavish bedrooms in our house.

Aurelia was fast asleep on the bed, my wolf vision picked up every single detail of her body while I stood at a corner, watching.

I had no idea how long I’d been standing there but it was long enough to know that whatever had happened back in the pack house when I touched her was no coincidence.

The sensation was still wedged deep inside my chest, pulling me towards her in a way that shouldn’t be possible. Luckily for me, my brothers had been too intrigued by her to notice it.

“You’re making a mistake Rylan, developing a conscience now is only going to complicate things later on for us.” Kade’s voice rang out in my head.

What if he was right? What if sparing her was a mistake?

I ran my fingers over my face in frustration as I pushed myself off the wall and began to make my way towards the bed in the darkness.

Her father was the real monster, but she had nothing to do with it. Aurelia was the exact opposite of who her parents were, so different that I sometimes wondered if she was truly theirs.

But the resemblance was too much to ignore… her hazel eyes reminded me so much of the man that destroyed my life. Her blonde hair framed a beautiful face that shared a striking resemblance with her mother’s.

That witch! At the mere thought of it, I felt my blood boil hot underneath my skin.

Zane used us, manipulated us into thinking he had saved us when all he did was twist us into the killing machines he needed to rule all seven packs as one.

We were kids, we had no idea what he was doing to us, all we knew was that he had saved us from the monsters that wiped out our clan.

As I watched her sleep, I saw her mother's face—the same face that watched coldly as Zane locked us in silver cages that burnt our flesh simply because we had failed a mission.

He starved us, whipped us until we were half dead because we had refused to kill a pregnant she-wolf he saw as an enemy.

For years, our loyalty kept us at his feet until… I found out the truth.

The attack on my family wasn’t random. Zane didn’t come to rescue us like we thought, he sent the ferals that wiped out my family, he planned everything!

I didn’t regret helping Kade kill him, he deserved it and I would do it all over again without a second thought but… now, I wasn’t so sure.

The death of those monsters crushed Aurelia , the young, smiling girl that had helped me bandage my wounds when we were young was gone and in her place was someone filled with hatred and rage.

I should have taken her away sooner, she should never have been there to witness it but this was all I could do to save her.

Kade didn’t give her off as a tribute, her life was bargained for. Our help in wiping out her parents, in exchange for her life.

“Lavender.” Xan’s voice filled my head.

Our minds were linked in a intimate manner, I could hear and feel everything, Xan, my wolf, felt without any difficulty.

“She smells like lavender.” He growled as he nudged me forward, closer to Aurelia.

Now wasn’t the time for that though, the reason I was here, lurking in the darkness of her room was because I was curious to know if I was right.

That pull I felt… it couldn’t possibly be…

I leaned closer to her, inhaling her scent deeply as I stared down at her face. Her skin glowed softly in the dark, her freshly washed hair fell across her face attractively and her lips…

They looked so full, soft and were slightly parted as her chest steadily rose and fell.

Xan stirred restlessly, pushing me to move closer against my will.

The urge to kiss her violently pumped through my veins, overwhelming me while her intoxicating scent wrapped itself around my brain, blocking my sense of reasoning.

“She’s his daughter! I shouldn’t even feel this way towards her! I should hate her with every drop of my blood.” I whispered to myself through gritted teeth but Xan wasn’t listening to me.

The pull towards her was a physical force, an invisible link yanking me forward, too powerful for me to resist. I fought it, my muscles straining but I was helpless against it.

Within seconds, my lips were just inches away from hers that I could almost feel it brushing against hers.

My breath caught in my throat as an intense sensation shot through me. Xan, thrilled by the contact, pushed forward.

Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open.

My entire body froze in place as my eyes widened in shock but I was too startled to move an inch away from her.

She looked unfocused and drowsy, her eyes stared straight into mine with such intensity that robbed me of my ability to speak.

A low, possessive growl rumbled through my chest as Xan uttered the words I had dreaded for a long as I could remember,

“Mate!”

Time seemed to have stopped for a moment and before I could react, a single tear escaped from her eyes and rolled down her temple into her hairline.

The edges of her lip curve into a heartbreakingly, sad smile as she blinked up at me,

“Liam…” she whispered softly and I felt my shoulders stiffen, “you came back.”

Those words landed a gut-wrenching blow on me, I wasn’t sure if the idea of her mistaking me for the mate we had killed was…

My thoughts were cut off abruptly when she lifted her head and pressed her lips against mine.

I froze.

The kiss was everything I instinctively craved yet everything I consciously hated.

The irony was so vicious, mocking me to a point where I didn’t know if I should pull her closer or wrap my hands around her throat and finish what her father started.