Chapter 124: Chapter 8

MAEVE

Trust was a luxury I couldn’t afford here. So, I did what I was good at—I sought my own truths.

Adelie was more than just a luna to me, she was someone I’d willingly lay down my life for.

The king was away, and Adelie and Kairos were off in the human world. I could only hope she wouldn’t end up killing him.

I didn’t buy the idea that she was no longer in love. I just prayed their reunion wouldn’t shatter her all over again.

I crouched down, picking the lock to the Alpha King’s study with a needle. He never left it unlocked. If he had nothing to hide, why would he? The pack and house were well-guarded, so what was he so worried about?

I slipped in quietly, closing the door behind me. I began my search at his desk.

There were stacks of papers, but I knew he wouldn’t leave anything incriminating out in the open. So, I searched through drawers, shelves, and boxes. I even checked under the table for a hidden compartment.

Nothing caught my eye. Maybe there was nothing to find. Or maybe I was just being paranoid.

ADELIE

We rushed back to the pack. Even though Kairos was still in the dark about what was written, he obeyed.

I headed for the king’s study, leaving Kairos behind, only to run into Maeve. “Is the king in?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not sure. What’s up?”

“Later,” I replied, continuing toward the study. I turned back to her. “Your room is on the other wing.”

She shrugged again. “I got lost. Don’t worry.” She was lying. But why?

“Okay,” I said, letting go of my suspicion. Maybe she was just lost. But it was unlike her to admit it. She’d usually have a sarcastic comeback ready. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to admit she got lost.

I shook my head and continued on my way. When I reached the king’s study, I found the doors locked.

“Alpha is in the downstairs library,” Collin’s voice startled me. He was leaning against the wall behind me, hands in his pockets, looking completely at ease.

“Thank you…,” I said, rushing off.

Had Maeve and Collin been together? She had come from the same direction.

I pushed the thought aside. There were more pressing matters at hand. I stormed into the library. “Tell me!” he demanded immediately.

“I received a letter. But you can’t show it to Kairos,” I said, handing him the envelope. His brow furrowed as he took it.

Just then, Kairos walked in.

I held my breath, waiting for Leonard’s reaction to the same words I had read, hoping he wouldn’t let Kairos see it.

~Dear Adelie Murrell.~

~We have noticed that you have received our invitation. We offer you a lifetime work opportunity for me. An allied rule.~

~An offer you can refuse.~

~Please note that your resignation will result in a visit to your child Elias Murrell and his father Kairos Garcia.~

~For further instructions go to the pit this night.~

Leonard looked up at me. “Blackmail,” he muttered to himself.

“What does it say?” Kairos asked, trying to grab the letter. But Leonard walked over to a lit candle and set the letter on fire, letting it burn to ashes. So, he didn’t completely despise me. He could have used this opportunity to tell Kairos that Elias was his son, but he didn’t.

Kairos’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t a fool. He knew there was something he wasn’t being told.

“Either she goes to them or they take her child,” Leonard explained to Kairos.

Kairos turned to me. “You’re planning to go?” He asked.

I looked at him, incredulous. “Are you crazy? I have a child.” I couldn’t just abandon Elias.

Maeve appeared in the doorway. “Before her child, she would have. There was nothing stopping her from sacrificing her life for the world. But a child changes a woman’s mind.”

“You had nothing to live for?” Kairos asked. That’s why Maeve had said it. Maybe she enjoyed belittling Kairos. Or maybe she also suspected that he remembered everything. Or maybe we were both in denial that he did.

I looked at Kairos. “Back then, people didn’t appreciate how I was surviving for them. So no. I had nothing to live for.” I turned my gaze back to Leonard. “I will go tonight. But I will need your men on watch.”

Leonard nodded.

“Why couldn’t I see the letter?” Kairos asked.

“It was addressed to me,” I snapped at him.

“Secrets?” he questioned. “I thought it’s best that none of us kept secrets in this situation.”

I slowly turned toward him, crossing my arms. “Leonard read the letter, he knows. You are not entitled to know a single thing about me.”

His jaw clenched. “You purposely didn’t want me to read it. Or am I wrong?” he questioned.

My face twisted in disgust. “And so what? I don’t want you to know anything about me.” I stepped closer to him, my nostrils flaring. “I don’t want you to look at me. I don’t want you to breathe in my direction! I don’t want to be in the same room as you!”

He stood there, a tear threatening to escape his eye. But he forced a smile instead. “I apologize.” His voice broke, and I felt like a monster. “I will try to stay out of your way from now on.”

He stormed out of the library, slamming the doors shut.

I flinched at the sound.

It was just me, Maeve, and Leonard left. But Leonard also made his exit. Before he left, he stopped by me.

“He should know,” Leonard said.

“Then he should have stayed.”

He nodded. “I understand.”

Leonard left the library. Before Maeve could ask me anything, I beat her to it.

“What were you doing upstairs?” I asked.

It took her a few seconds to understand my question. When she did, her face turned red. “I got lost.”

“With Collin?” I never took her for the secret romance type.

“Why with Collin?” Her eyes widened with worry.

“He was there when I went to the king’s study.”

She looked down. “I was alone there.” She couldn’t even meet my gaze.

“Okay,” I said. I wouldn’t push her, but I didn’t want her to lie to me either.

“Please, call Esty here,” I told her, and she quickly left.

MAEVE

I walked down the corridor, and there he was—Collin.

With my head held high, I walked past him as if nothing was out of the ordinary. “Where are you headed?” he asked.

“To my room,” I replied quickly.

“Don’t get lost.”

I cleared my throat and smiled at him. “I won’t.”

But then, Kairos popped into my mind. “Collin,” I called out, surprising him. “Did you see where Kairos went?” I asked.

“Out. By the garden.”

I quickly moved past him to find Kairos, but he grabbed my arm. “You hurt me,” he said, staring at me.

I swallowed hard.

We maintained intense eye contact. I wasn’t one to back down. “You lunged at me.”

“You are stronger than me. You knew that. I knew that. Everyone knew that, and you still hurt me.”

My lips slowly parted. “Then why did you fight me?”

“To see for myself. And you challenged me.” A faint smirk played on his lips. “You burn too easily. Your passion is misplaced, Maeve. You can’t respond to my challenges like that. Not with the power you have.”

I pulled my hand away from him but stayed close. “You don’t know me!”

“It triggers you. That I don’t fear you, doesn’t it?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You have too much anger in you.”

I felt it then. The anger he was talking about. “You know that I am stronger than you. Then don’t provoke my anger.”

His eyes dropped for a split second before returning to mine. “It could be your downfall. Your inability to control it.”

I stepped closer to him, face to face. Maybe too close. “Stay out of my business.” My voice was as bitter as I could make it. We were too close for comfort, but I was too far in to back out now.

He looked down at me, smirking. “You are a very beautiful woman, Maeve.”

My eyes darted from one of his to the other, my cheeks heating up. I blinked rapidly. He chuckled softly.

“Don’t try to trick me!”

“I’m not. I’m simply stating what my eyes see.” He reached up and took hold of a strand of my hair. “Come for a walk with me sometime.”

What was he doing?

I swatted his hand away and made my exit, grateful for the outdoor breeze that cooled my flushed cheeks. Damn Collin, always trying to get under my skin.

I headed straight for the garden where Kairos was busy with a rose bush.

“Kairos!” I called out. He spun around, surprised. “Maeve?” he questioned when I didn’t respond. “Can I assist you?”

“Is it easier for you to lie than face your fears?” I challenged him.

He gave me a sweet smile. “What are you talking about?”

“I know you remember everything. You’re a coward!” I spat, my anger flaring. “You had a second chance and you abandoned her. Now you have the nerve to act like everything is okay. Like you’re okay. Coward!”

I spun around, my blood boiling, but he spoke up. “I did it for her.”

I froze, slowly turning back to face him. He was staring right at me, leaning on his shovel.

I was right. He remembered everything. I had hoped he didn’t, that there might be some sort of explanation. But now, that seemed unlikely. “You hurt her…”

“If I had stayed, I would have hurt her more,” he said, dropping the shovel and sitting on the grass, stretching his legs out in front of him and leaning back on his hands.

“I wanted to kill her,” he confessed, and my anger evaporated. “Christopher messed me up. Even after he was gone, I couldn’t shake the thoughts. The images were still there.”

“But you were yourself again…you wouldn’t…”

He cut me off. “I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t… I was afraid that my madness would take over when she was vulnerable.”

I sat down next to him. We both watched the pack’s people. “Why didn’t you tell her that?”

“I wanted her to grow. I was holding her back. If she had to live with my twisted mind, I would still be holding her back. Her mind is a wonder. She’s powerful and does so much for her pack. I know she’s fixed it. The reputation has only grown stronger since she took over. Would she have done it with a sick husband?”

Probably not…

She had accomplished so much despite him. She learned and trained every day, never stopping. She kept herself busy, probably to avoid thinking about him, but it pushed her to grow.

“Do you still think…about killing her?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I think now… I know I wouldn’t do it. But I still feel guilty seeing it.”

“Why do you pretend?”

“I’m scared.”

“Of her?”

“Of the feelings that are still there. I don’t have a place to go back to anymore. She even has a child now.”

I wanted to tell him that the child was his. That he should go back to her for that reason. But I couldn’t.

“How is Fala?” he asked.

“I don’t know. She left to live in the human world.”

“As a rogue?”

I nodded. “She’s safe.” I had visited her once. She was working a human job now, as a waitress. She had an apartment in the city center. She seemed happy. I had never seen her happy in a pack.

“We were never close. Somehow, she went her own way long before we separated. She was always my sister, but only in name.”

She was there, but never close enough.

“I don’t know why. I should have felt close to my sister. We never really bonded.” He laughed to himself. “Maybe I’m not meant to have a relationship with a woman.”

“She sometimes visits our pack. She loves Elias. He calls her his aunt.” I looked at Kairos, lost in his thoughts. “Maybe it’s not over.”

“She doesn’t need me.”

She didn’t. She was stronger than ever. “She might still want you.”

He forced a laugh. “What do I say to her? I left, but now I’ve changed my mind?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know their feelings. “Explain why you left.”

“She hates me,” he said with certainty.

“She’s not a hateful person… I think she’s mistaking her feelings for hate. She’s hurt. Because she loved you, and still does.”

“I don’t deserve her love.”

I looked at him, waiting for him to meet my gaze. “You’re denying two people love. You and her. You’ve been apart for five years. Has your love faded?” I asked him.

He didn’t respond, but I knew his answer. “I know that hers hasn’t,” I said.

“She’s changed.”

I shrugged. “Only on the outside. And even if she has, what difference does it make?”

He shook his head. “It’s not right. It’s not fair for me to come back now and ask for her heart.”

They were both so foolish. I stood up, looking down at him. “You’re lucky to have had a second chance at love. Some of us aren’t so fortunate.”