Chapter 118: Chapter 2

KAIROS

I plunged my arm into the sewer drain, spotting a tiny toy bear clinging to a root that jutted out from the ground. I stretched out on the pavement, reaching for it with the utmost care to prevent it from falling further into the abyss.

With the cold metal of the drain pressing into my sides, I finally managed to snag it.

I grunted loudly as I pulled out the unscathed teddy bear. “Here you go,” I offered it to the timid little girl who had been too scared to ask for help.

She clutched her bear tightly and flashed me a smile. She didn’t utter a word. She wasn’t much of a chatterbox. But she was a sweetheart.

I, on the other hand, wasn’t exactly approachable. I never really tried to be.

She scampered off to her friends, leaving me lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. I adjusted the brace on my wrist, growing weary of it. This was the third week of waiting. The doctor had said I could remove it by the end of this week.

I was losing the will to keep it on.

I removed my wrist brace and laid it beside me, slowly rotating my hand.

I had injured myself in a brawl with a rogue werewolf. We hadn’t shifted. But damn, he was strong. Or maybe I was just weak. I didn’t have the same drive I once had. I felt like an ordinary wolf here. It was as if any alpha blood I had had vanished.

But I had chosen this for myself. Every decision I made was my own. No one forced me into anything. I was responsible for how my life had turned out.

I was living in the king’s pack now. Training. Training others. I had begged Alpha King not to give me any title. I just wanted to live alone. Separate. Like a nobody. Not belonging to anything or anyone.

I fulfilled all the duties the king entrusted me with. This pack was grander. Wealthier. The buildings here were unlike any others. The people were industrious, like worker bees. It was a dreamland to live in, the pinnacle of any wolf’s aspirations.

I never socialized with the people here. Many different species resided here. Werewolves. Hybrids. Elemental beings…nymphs. We had a few. The king wanted this place to be a haven of beauty and grace, so he invited various types of nymphs to live in the quaint forest cottage and oversee nature.

They were pleasant. They did what they were supposed to do…but they weren’t as strong. They lived in their own little world. They didn’t linger in conversations with pack members. They didn’t even like to make eye contact with others.

They spent their days wandering around the forest and the pack. At night, they slept. When the full moon rose, they all gathered for a ritual.

I had once peeked at them during their sacred time. I was curious about what happened. They each sang a beautiful melody, expressing their gratitude to Mother Nature.

But they weren’t like the nymph I once knew.

I liked my life here. I liked being useful. But I knew I would never love it here.

Because she wasn’t here… I had left her in my old pack and embarked on my journey to become a rogue. But I decided to take a chance on my luck and reconnect with a long-lost friend.

She was better off without me. I heard she was doing great now. Even more powerful and influential than before. I never asked for details. I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to think about it. I just wanted to know she was all right. And she was. More than all right.

When I arrived at the king’s pack, I told him everything. As much as I could… I couldn’t tell him the real reason, so I gave him reasons that seemed too trivial for leaving. But I stuck to it, insisting that those were the reasons. If only he knew…

~Flashback~

~“Does she know why you left?” he asked, then answered his own question. “Of course she doesn’t. How could you do that to a woman you claim to love?” He was livid with me.

“Wouldn’t you rather fight for her? What kind of man are you? If you love a woman, you do everything for her. You fight until you can’t anymore!”~

~I stood up and met his gaze. “I don’t want her to fight! I can’t protect her. I’m holding her back from achieving her potential. I love her more than anything else. I love her so much that I’m willing to leave while I can cause the least damage.

“And give her a chance at a happier life. A life she deserves. I’ll live my life tormented by thoughts of her if I have to, just to ensure she’s where she’s supposed to be.” I was certain he didn’t want me there.~

~I grabbed my bag and waved at him. “I do ask you to keep this to yourself. It’s the least you can do.”~

~I headed for the exit. “Kairos…Wait…” he called out.~

From that moment on, I lived in Alpha King Leonard’s pack.

I left Adelie… She wasn’t a werewolf. She wasn’t meant to live as a mate. She was a nymph. Meant to live with other nymphs. To do what nymphs are meant to do… To care for and love nature as their one true love.

I was always meant to love her. But she was meant to love the world around her. She wasn’t meant to be tied down. And that was a decision I made. I chose to leave her and let her achieve greater things.

It was cowardly of me… But she was in danger around me. Something I would never let her know. How dangerous I was to her.

As I made my way through the pack, I noticed nymphs leaving the king’s castle. All of them…this was unusual. But I was aware of what had been happening with them for the past few months.

We all thought it was just some kind of maniac, but he never stopped. Leonard had enlisted all sorts of people and creatures to try and find the culprit. But it was a dead end.

I was headed to a greenhouse. A grand building. The pack grew crops, vegetables, and fruits in large quantities to feed everyone in the pack. The ground nymphs were a great help.

They couldn’t exactly manipulate the plants to grow, but they made the ground fertile.

We had an outdoor field filled with all sorts of things, and in the greenhouses, we grew more exotic plants that required a specific environment.

A few people were working inside. I was using a shovel to loosen the ground to make furrows afterward. One of the Omegas was working beside me.

“The nymphs say it’s going to be a good year for crops,” he grunted as he dug his shovel in.

“It’s always a good year,” I replied.

“Well, sometimes it’s better than others.”

I continued digging. The ground here was very hard. “In the time I’ve lived here, it’s always been good. They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t make a difference,” I tried to reason with him.

The man chuckled under his beard. It seemed like he wouldn’t take anything I said to heart. He was an old man, convinced that he knew all there was to know about the world. “Curious creatures they are.”

I glanced at him. He kept smiling. “Beautiful, but strange,” he remarked.

“How so?” I asked. He didn’t seem particularly prejudiced or upset about anything. It seemed more like he was thinking out loud.

“They barely seem human.”

“Are you human?” I countered.

His smile didn’t fade. But he smiled at me like a father would at his son. “We are human creatures, they are spirits,” he rested his elbow on the shovel handle, looking at me. “I’ve read their books,” he told me. “Do you know what they say?” he asked.

He had no idea how well I knew all of it. “No. What do they say?” I humored him.

“They can live their entire lives without interacting with another person,” he seemed lost in thought. “How can they be human then? Humans go mad without interaction.”

“They interact. Just not with us.” I rested my arm on my shovel, mirroring him. “They interact with their element, like with any other person. But we don’t have the capacity to understand it. They still feel and they still hurt. Just not like we do. Not for the things we do.”

My gaze dropped. “And they still love. But not like we do. Not like we would understand. But they love. They love every little thing around them. More than we could ever love anything. And that gives them the greatest capacity for love. That makes them the best at understanding love…”

The man kept looking at me. “They will never understand the love we as humans feel. It’s not the same.”

I pursed my lips and went back to digging. The man remained standing, but he was looking out the window we had opened to let in more air while we worked.

“Already heading out?” he asked.

I glanced over to see he was referring to the nymphs, but I didn’t engage.

“It’s all right,” he reassured me. “They’ve suffered heavy losses. That lunatic will finally be stopped. If none of the king’s allies could help, she might. I believe she will.”

He continued to speak as I kept on digging. “My mate and I have heard impressive things about her. Remarkable deeds she’s accomplished. I have friends from her region. We discussed her during my last visit. The children in his pack are terrified of her. There are so many stories about her, it’s hard to know which ones to believe.” His gaze remained fixed on the departing nymphs.

“Her?” I questioned.

He broke his trance to look at me. “Yes. The nymph that the king invited to investigate the disappearances.”

“Which nymph?” I asked immediately, trying to connect the dots.

“I don’t know her name…but the king is certain she’ll be of help.”

“Which nymph?” I repeated, hoping my tone was friendly enough.

His curiosity piqued, his eyes narrowed. “The death angel one,” he replied.

My throat tightened. The death angel one? I doubted there were many of those. I dropped my shovel. “I’ll be back,” I said, and left.

I half ran toward the king’s castle. The guards didn’t stop me. I had the freedom to come and go as I pleased, thanks to the king’s orders. Even here, he made me feel at home. His mate did too. His children always greeted me warmly.

But this wasn’t a social call. I stormed down the hallway and burst into his study.

“You invited her here to get her killed?” I yelled at Leonard. How could he be so reckless?

He turned his head slowly to look at me, completely unfazed. He put his pen down and clasped his hands together. “Twenty-seven nymphs have been murdered, with clear signs they’re after her.”

“If they’re after Adelie, they want to kill her. Can’t you see that’s why I left? To keep her safe.”

“I’m not trying to kill her. I’m trying to save my people,” he retorted.

“And in doing so, you’re putting her in danger! What’s wrong with you? I asked you for one thing, to not bring her here.”

“If she wasn’t going to be of help, I wouldn’t have called her. I never agreed to that promise if it meant going against the needs of my pack.”

He stood up. “Not everything is about you, Kairos. Especially not this. This is about my people, whether you like it or not.”

“Fine!” I snapped. “Just let me know when she leaves and I’ll come back,” I said, heading toward the doors.

“Do as you please. You’ll have peace of mind not knowing what she’s up to. Who she’s fighting against.”

I slowly turned toward him. How could my mind be at peace knowing she was fighting but not knowing who? I didn’t want her to fight at all. I didn’t want her to be in danger.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“I’m telling you that if you leave, you won’t know what danger she’s in. So you should leave, it’s better not knowing.”

I shook my head. “No. You’re trying to mess with me.”

“Or maybe you should stay. If you hate yourself so much, you should torture yourself more and see her. Addicts get high from that sort of thing.”

I slammed my hands on the table. “What are you doing!?”

“I’m trying to say that I might actually need you when I’m trying to do something. You keep living here acting like you’re helping but not helping when I ask you. If you wanted to help, you would have called her earlier.

“I don’t care how hurt you may be. I don’t care about that when my people are in danger. It’s only a matter of time before they decide to kill my people, my nymphs. But if I can’t count on you, then leave now.

“I don’t want to see you while I’m doing something worthwhile, go have fun while I save my pack. I don’t need you. More so, I don’t need a boy sulking about his past choices. You’re not stupid, Kairos, but you act like a teenager. If you’re not willing to help, leave for now. I won’t try to hide you while she’s here.”

“You’re putting her in danger,” I said.

Leonard looked at me. “Then stay and watch over her.”

I shook my head. “I’m leaving.”

“If you don’t want her to question, there are other ways to stay,” he said.

I didn’t want to stay, but I wanted to hear him out.

“If you leave, she’ll find out you live here anyway. She can put the pieces together. Talk to people. They’ll speak whether you want them to or not. And when she finds out, she’ll want to find you. And it will be easier than ever.

“But since your conscience isn’t clear anyway, there’s a way to deceive her a little more. That way, you can stay, be near while she’s here. And be of some use to me.”

I walked up to his table and sat down across from him.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table, and looked at me. “If you want this to work, you need to carefully consider your actions over the past five years,” he said.