Chapter 24: Chapter 24

unedited

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I couldn't reach her on the phone.

Despite the girl having an awful lot on her plate, from her alpha responsibilities to training to maintaining her relationship with her mate, she always picks up the phone.

Especially if it's me that's calling.

No matter how busy she used to be back when my Father was Alpha, swamped underneath mountains of homework or fighting case studies that her sensei would set her, she would always pick up her phone and find time to talk to me. She would always talk to me in her head, telling me how much of an ass sensei Yukumura was being, taking away my nerves or upset by making me laugh.

The silence greeting me after the answer tone was spiking my anxiety, my finger nails bitten down to the stub. I couldn't even mind link her anymore, and not being able to hear her voice was making me want to rip my hair out.

I had mind linked Jasper, begging for him to come pick me up and take me home, knowing that Kaden was nowhere near done with the rogue downstairs. I needed to get away from his cruel eyes, hate filled words.

Jasper keeps sending me worried glances, the longer we spend in the car, the more it fills with an unspoken tension. His arms are tight, his fingers wrapped white around the steering wheel. He's tense, like he thinks I'm going to do something reckless and is making himself ready to spring into action.

He knows me so well.

Whilst his eyes are on the road, I turn to look out of the window before mindlinking a couple of the guards Kaden introduced me to last week. They were all lovely, and all roughly my age, Thomas, Zac and Bianca all jokes until serious kicks in.

They're triplets, and they were the ones guarding my house during the week that Kaden had me on house arrest. Thomas acts younger than his twenty four years of ages, with his childish comments and dry humour, his sister constantly having to keep him in check. Zac sits on the outside and antagonises the pair of them, making comments that fuels their sibling irritation for one another.

They were great company when I was wallowing in my own self pity, and I know that Kaden half trusts Zac with my wellbeing enough to let him and his family watch over me. They jumped at the chance to help out the Luna, not bothering to ask whether or not Kaden had approved the leave to my old territory.

Perhaps, despite the fact the three of them are some of Kaden's more experienced guards, they haven't heard of the threat that the rogue in the cell told me about my old pack. They have just jumped at the chance to help their Luna, get one foot in the door of Kaden's trust, explains why they didn't downright refuse me.

Jasper pulls up outside my house, all the lights switched off. The streetlamps create a dim glow on the remnants of my party, the champagne flutes standing delicately on my porch railing, the windchimes that the pups brough me hanging from my gutter. The wind is causing them to softly bang together, creating a quiet tune before being swept up into the breeze.

"Lola, I beg you." Jasper pleads once he switches off the engine. "Stay here until Kaden gets home. He has a plan but he just needs you to be patient."

"This is my old pack, my family, my best friend. There is only so much patience I can give him and you know that." I sigh, running a hand through my hair as I hear the triplets in my head. They're almost here, so I need Jasper to go. "But I'm not stupid enough to betray Kaden, so you don't have to worry about me."

Jasper squeezes my hand gently before unlocking the car, allowing me to slip outside. The night breeze picks up and bites at my skin, goosebumps erupting on my uncovered arms and legs. I step away from the car and towards the house, watching as Jasper drives down the street and turns right, the sound of the engine slowly disappearing from my wolf hearing.

I hate lying to them, but I'm not going to my old pack without Kaden. I'm not an idiot, he would take away all of my freedom the second I returned, but I need him to understand how important it is for me to go.

So I wait until Zac, Thomas and Bianca pull up outside my messy house, and we've driven towards the edge of the territory before I let Kaden know what I'm doing.

"You better be fvcking kidding me Lola!" He barks in my head once I tell him what I'm planning. I wince, the sting of his words bouncing around my head.

"We're going to wait for five minutes on the edge of territory." I reply to him as calmly as I can manage, my hands shaking at my sides. My voice wavers, my nerves seeping into my tone. I want him to agree with what I'm doing, I want him to join me. I don't want him to hate me.I want him to be with me if things are as bad as they pray they won't be.

I sigh in relief when I hear his voice in my head, no longer filled with anger or venom. "Lola I'll be there in three, please don't go anywhere without me."

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There are no guards posted on the edge of territory.

The entrance is quiet, the crescent moon statue sitting alone next to the outpost, snow gathering at it's feet. The security railing is open, the sharp wind blowing it around dangerously. There is not one footpprint in the snow, the white blanket left untouched.

I was right to think that the threat wasn't hollow.

Thomas brings the car to a stop outside the pack house, and my heart crawls up inside my throat at the sight of the door being wide open. The surrounding houses have been dark, no signs of life, the doors locked and the curtains pulled tight across the windows. We tried Otis' clinic and even if he isn't around there are always patients, but today the whole place was cleaned out. It was like it had never been used.

"Lola, wait here." Kaden orders me, removing his hand from mine and getting out of the car. I start to complain, open my my mouth to shout and say it's my old pack, but he stops me. "Please Lola, there may still be hostile people around, I'm just going to take Zac and make sure it's safe.

He kisses me softly on the tip of my nose, running his fingers across my jaw. "I promise you can get out of the car, just let me check first. I can't have you getting hurt."

I nod my head as he closes the car door, leaving me inside with Thomas behind the wheel, and Bianca sat next to me. They keep sending glances my way, half expecting me to jump out of the car and disobey Kaden. I don't blame them, because under other circumstances I would be launching myself into that pack house trying to find someone, anyone.

"It'll be fine." Thomas tries to assure me. "There isn't anyone here because their alpha will have sent them all to the bunker. It's normal procedure."

"I get that Tom." I sigh, running my hands over my weary face. "But there should still be some guards around, it shouldn't look like this."

The minutes stretch on, no sign of Kaden or Zac, and my worry is increasing by the tenfold. Bianca is trying to lighten the mood by playing games like I-Spy, and pin anything she can find on Thomas, but as much as I want it to, it isn't making much difference.

"Look, they'll be back any second." Bianca assures me, stretching her legs. "Plus I need to get out of this car or I swear I'm going to lose all felling in..."

"Lola!" Kaden's voice sounds panicked as he screams from inside the house. It sends a cold shiver down my entire body, because Kaden is never panicked. I stumble out of the car, fear spiking through my heart, Thomas and Bianca chasing after me. The smell of blood hits me when I walk into my old pack house, and I feel tears spring to my eyes when I recognise the only scent in the house.

"God please no." I cry, running up the stairs towards the scent I recognise so well.

The scent I used to have sleepovers with, playfight on my bed with, talk about her crushes wrapped up in blankets inside the pillow forts we used to make. I have pictures of her all over the house, fond memories of her and Lyle chasing me around my house, beating up pups that were mean to me, accompanying me to high school parties and taking me swimming.

I barge into a room, where Kaden and Zac are stood in shock, towering over my best friend lying on the floor.

Her skin is sickly and pale, her lips blue and chapped. Her usually fiery red hair is clinging limply to her bare shoulder, black blood pouring from a wound in her stomach. Her veins are close to her skin, black blood pumping slowly up her arms and towards her neck.

She's still awake though, her bright blue eyes full of fear and sadness.

"Lola." She rasps, a painful smile stretching across her lips. "I'm glad you're here."

"Oh my god, Sophia." I cry, falling to my knees by her side and clutching her hand in mine tightly. "What happened to you?"

"We were attacked by rogues a couple of hours ago." She starts, swallowing thickly. "We managed to get everyone to the shelters, warriors included, because there were too many of them."

"What happened?" I ask quietly, pressing my hand tightly against her wound to try and stop the bleeding.

"Mark is...Mark is dead." She whispers faintly, tears springing at the corner of her eyes. A stray drop trails down her bruised cheek, yet she makes no effort to wipe it away. "He was killed protecting the pack whilst they ran to the shelters. I feel, I feel so empty Lola."

I hug her close to my chest, tears streaming down my cheeks. I loved Mark like a brother, and now I know he's gone it's like a hole has opened inside my chest.

I can still picture the way she'd look at him when she was 16 years old, how I would third wheel with those two but not mind. I remember the time she told me they'd sealed the mate bond, how red her face was with embarrassment, it almost matched her hair.

"How did you get your wound?" I ask her once she's stopped crying, occasionally hiccuping against my shirt.

She laughs dryly, a wry smile on her face. "Some rogue coward shot me with a crossbow, laced the top in wolfsbane and the arrowhead was silver."

I take a closer look at her wound, ripping her already ruined shirt to reveal a large puncture wound, the small splinters of shaft of the arrow still inside. It looks like that's what's stopping her wound from healing, but the wolfsbane is already heavily in her system now, there's nothing we can do.

"I'm not scared to die Lola." I hear her breathe out softly against my face. I look up to see nothing but truth in her eyes. "I'm not scared to die anymore."

"You're not going to die." I smile weakly, my vision blurry. "You're going to be fine."

I hear her wheeze in pain, but she still manages to give me an eye roll that has me laughing. "We both know that this poison will kill me. But I'm not afraid to die because I know that Mark is waiting for me with the moon."

"There is so much that I haven't gotten around to telling you." I whimper, cupping her limp face in my hands. It's warm and clammy, but familiar against my skin. She laughs, black liquid dribbling from her closed lips, her eyes almost smiling.

"You always were slow to catch me up." She grins, her eyes slowly losing focus. "Tell me everything now."

"Well I finally became Luna of Dawn Star." I laugh, watching as her face lights up. I look at Kaden, and there is a sadness in his eyes that I've never seen. He looks so sorry, so guilty that there isn't anything he can do. "And I finally finished the mate bond. Like you said, heat had its ways."

I pull down the collar of my shirt to proudly reveal Kaden's mark on my neck and a real laugh bubbles from her cold lips, before it changes to a large, fitful cough.

"You know." I whisper, watching as her eyelids start to flutter closed. "I really think I've found my Mark."

"You do?" She mumbles, her words becoming quieter until they're barely audible. "In that idiot?"

I hear Kaden growl playfully behind me as he comes and sits by my side, Zac's footsteps indicating he's leaving the room. "Yes, in me Sophia so looks like you're stuck with me."

"You'll take good care of her like you promised." She asks him, her eyes fully shut. "You'll never leave her or hurt her."

"Never." He promises, taking her free hand in his and squeezing tightly. "I always keep my promises Sophia."

"Good." She says, and I feel her grip on my hand lessening, and I watch as the light in my best friend dies, her wolf with her.

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So this isn't supposed to be posted for another day, but it's 3AM over here, I didn't post last Monday and I can't sleep so here it is!

I hope everyone is having a good winter break, and if you celebrate Christmas I hope you had a great one.

Again, I'm sorry for not posting on Monday, 1 reason is I was spending time with my family, 2 is that i hadn't actually finished this chapter because I hit a block.

I'm hoping that I managed to get the emotion I aimed for into the last scene, I'll admit I did get a little blurry eyed at a couple of points.

I'm really sorry that she's gone, but you'll understand in the next few chapters that it was necessary for the story. I have had this planned for a while now, it wasn't a whim kind of plot twist, I was just looking for the right moment.

So anyways dudes and dudettes,

Please please please vote, leave comments, add to reading lists, GET THIS BOOK OUT INTO THE WATTPAD COMMUNITY.

I love everything that you guys do, i love reading your comments on my book, and the messages you guys leave on my wall honestly warms my heart.

Peace and love guys,

Lauryn xoxo

(The next update will not be Monday 1st, but Monday 8th if all goes to plan)