Chapter 98: Chapter 98

“You understand that I would follow your path no matter where you go, Helena.” Bruce nodded in approval, allowing her to take the initiative. “The night before David Zoe’s arrival in the city, Helena woke me up in the middle of the night, screaming. Her cheeks were soaked with tears, and her heart was beating so fast that it scared me. She was sobbing, talking about a fierce battle. I held her by the shoulders and called her name loudly. I continued shouting until my voice became hoarse. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up in a jump.” Helena trembled slightly. “She told me, ‘When you cross paths with the girl, you’ll recognize her, help her. Give her what she needs, and the world will flourish.’”

“Will you really know?” I laughed ironically, shifting my gaze to a golden mirror hanging on the wall behind me. I shook my head, rejecting the idea that something a child had mentioned years ago could be related to me. Honestly, I wished with all my might that I wasn’t the girl they were talking about, but I couldn’t even tell such a big lie. I’ve always known that as soon as the High Table found out about me, war could break out. I assumed I would fight alongside my comrades, face life or death by their side. This little revelation only confirmed what we all had in mind, but it was the only fragment of truth I could bear at that moment.

“Having a grand destiny is not something one desires. They’re challenging, painful, and often intricate. And they rarely unfold as we expect.” Bruce shared with me, with a firm and resolute voice. He wasn’t the kind of person to evade his problems; he faced the pain and moved forward. “Lives are always lost when change comes to the world. It’s horrendous and bloody, a loss of life, but it’s an undeniable reality. Those who bring about change will always encounter resistance. The question is, do you consider this cause worth it, Sussan?” I didn’t need time to reflect before finding my answer. It had been there all along, something I knew but wasn’t willing to admit.

“This… this purpose is more significant than my own desires, than all of ours. It’s worth giving life for. We will rescue entire generations of children from being hunted, enslaved, and exploited for their abilities. The white wolves will reclaim their place in the world, and we will allow them to live according to their desires.” I expressed to both Bruce and Helena, gathering much more confidence than I actually felt. “Those willing to change and adapt can maintain their position at the High Table, but those who try to plunge us deeper into darkness won’t survive in this new order, none of them will.”

“We’ve stood with the white wolves for a long time, enduring the oppression of the High Table.” Bruce growled in disapproval. “Our pack will fight alongside yours, Luna Sussan.”

“We know you don’t want war, but our hope is scarce.” Helena smiled softly. “We spent years under the rule of the High Table, watching as David gained more and more power. He will never yield unless forced.”

Ethan and I called our own guards to escort us back to our suite. I felt somewhat relieved, with a little more hope inside me. We had spent another stretch of time conversing with Bruce and Helena. I narrated how I met the twins, and Helena described her encounter with a young Bruce when he was a novice Alpha. Though we remained unknown in many aspects, Helena was the kind of person you could fully trust. She was completely sincere, unadorned, and absolutely fierce when it came to her loved ones. Bruce could be a bit rough, but every bit of suffering his mate had endured at the hands of the High Table had also left its mark on him.

“I doubt I can fall asleep after that, especially with everything that’s happening tonight,” I sighed, leaning against Ethan’s chest. “Do you think Nicolas will really release Liam if his wolves come out unharmed?”

He’ll have to, or he’ll face serious consequences before the day ends,” Ethan emitted a soft growl. “We’ve never been apart for this long before. It’s not like with normal siblings. We’ve never had disagreements or felt the need to be apart. We’ve always been like one person.”

“I feel the same way, you know?” I murmured, cuddling against Ethan’s side. I felt a sore throat and burning eyes from holding back tears, but I was tired of crying. I missed Liam so much and longed to see him again that my body ached, but I refused to stay here crying. That’s not what a werewolf would do, and it’s definitely not what a Luna would do. “I feel like a part of me is missing. I can feel it out there, but I just can’t reach it.”

A knock on the door pulled us out of the bedroom and into the living room. Ethan opened the front door as I sat on the arm of the couch with a cup of coffee in hand. We spent that sleepless night. I had been loading up on caffeine since dinner, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. That night, we would know whether our plan to rescue Nicolas’s friendly white wolves had worked or not. The idea of having Liam back in just a few days was overwhelming. I was connected, with or without the coffee.

Axel entered the room, followed by Thomas. Axel seemed to fit in with these people. He was always impeccably dressed and had that same haughty attitude. Although I no longer despised him completely, we were far from being friends.

“Let’s dive into this, shall we?” Axel sighed, pulling out a manila folder filled with documents. He pinched the bridge of his nose briefly before continuing. “These are the offers that the members of the High Table are presenting. Here are the official documents. They contain all the details, including the fine print.”

“The question is, are you interested in any of these offers?” Thomas inquired, looking at Axel with disdain. I sometimes forgot that both of them were in their forties. They often acted like squabbling siblings.

“If David Zoe weren’t the man I know, it would have been a tempting offer,” Axel chuckled, shaking his head.

“Robert’s proposal isn’t bad either, but the fine print is full of additional conditions,” Thomas said, pulling out more papers from the manila folder. He spread some of them out in front of us, pointing out highlighted points on the page. “Basically, you’d allow him to conduct experiments, monitor you, and test your abilities in the way he deems appropriate.”

“That would give him a lot of power over me,” I realized immediately. “All of that could be used against me.”

“I agree,” Axel nodded, looking me in the eyes. I pulled away a bit from the protection he seemed to offer, and tried to pretend I hadn’t felt it at all. “It’s best to dismiss his offer altogether.”

“That leaves us with Sven Ross,” Thomas said, pulling out a few more sheets of paper. He frowned as he handed me the page, and I understood why when I looked at the contract he had prepared.

While the others had pages and pages of conditions and stipulations, Thomas’s contract was about a paragraph in length.

“He just wants an alliance?” I laughed. “Is that it?”

“Specifically, it states that under no circumstances would Luna Sussan be obligated to defend Alpha Sven Ross or his pack using her white wolf abilities,” Thomas repeated, smiling as he finished. “He’s straightforward, and that’s not always a bad thing. It’s always better than beating around the bush with fancy words.”

“They don’t sound so fancy if you have an education,” Axel rolled his eyes in an unrefined way.

“What do you think of Sven’s offer?” Ethan asked, sliding over to me across the couch where we were both seated.

Though I was the Luna, I still got nervous when asked what I thought we should do. I wasn’t used to having so much power to make decisions, but I was finally enjoying having control over my life.

“I think… I think I want to get to know him more. Thomas is right, it’s simple, but it can’t be all there is to him.” I told Ethan earnestly. “He seems like the kind of Alpha we could form an alliance with, but we also don’t know him well enough. It’s not very wise to accept an alliance with someone we barely know.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Ethan chuckled softly. “Unfortunately, they’re expecting your answer tomorrow. We don’t have much time to figure out who Sven Ross really is.”

“Plus, there’s no offer from Maurice Evans.” When I heard the name Maurice, my attention shifted, away from Ethan. It was Thomas who spoke. “It’s quite odd that he hasn’t made an offer, considering the other members have. He usually lines up with any team David is involved with.”

I was never good at lying, so I just hoped I had managed to hide the shock and guilt from my face. Ethan’s hand on my back and the fact that neither seemed to notice anything helped calm me down. Thomas and Axel left almost an hour later, after going over the plan for the white wolves for the fifth time. Aly showed up shortly after, nervous and more than ready to stay up all night with us.

The three of us did what we could to distract ourselves, but movies and video games could only take you so far. Eventually, there was nothing to do but think and wait.

“Are you going to pour?” I asked once Ethan entered the bathroom to take a shower. Honestly, he had gone to give us some time alone, but I appreciated the gesture anyway.

“Pour?” Aly asked, clueless, though she knew exactly what I meant.

“Yes, pour,” I laughed. “You’ve been trying to tell me something since you got here. Now, what is it?”

“Oh, yeah, well,” Aly stuttered, which was very different from her usual confidence. She didn’t usually get nervous easily, which made me worry that something bad had happened.

“I’m getting nervous now,” my laughter faded, causing Aly’s eyes to widen like saucers.

“Oh, no! It’s not anything like that!” She laughed breathlessly, but I could tell it sounded forced. I waited until her laughter subsided, and she finally relented. Within her emotions, I sensed a flash of that deep pain that always plagued her.

“It’s okay. Something happened with Nicolas. I mean, between him and me. It took me a moment to understand. In an instant, I thought maybe they had been together in the romantic sense, but wouldn’t that be something positive? Unless the experience hadn’t been good, I assumed.

“Don’t go down that path. I can practically read your mind, and no, we didn’t. Don’t even dare to imply it.” She smiled, burying her face in the pillow on my bed. I let her have that moment. When she finally lifted her head to breathe, she was only slightly flushed.

“I can… feel the pull of the bond, and I know he feels it too. He thinks mistreating me will drive the bond crazy, but it’s only making me impatient. I went out yesterday to make a video call with my parents, and as I walked in, I ran into him. Literally collided. He got frantic when he realized it was me, and you know I won’t tolerate that behavior, so I stood my ground. He pushed me against the wall again, and before I could confront him, he looked at my lips. I knew he wanted to k**s me, I knew because I felt it too, and I just stood there paralyzed, unable to move.” It took me a while to process what he meant. The last thing I wanted to do was crush any hope Aly might have with Nicolas. No matter what she felt for him, she didn’t deserve that.

“If he changed his mind, would the bond between you two remain intact?” I asked, as there were still some gaps in my understanding. There wasn’t much I could say, let alone do. Instead of making empty promises, I did what I could to make sure she knew I was here.

“Is that something you would want? You know that, whatever happens, I support your choice, right?”

“I’m not sure what I want, Sussan. The bond makes me want it, but how can I love someone who never wanted me from the start? I wasn’t good enough for him, so how could I be now?” She asked, and I felt my heart break alongside hers. I had no idea how she managed to keep from crying. My eyes were already filling, I fought against teary blinks. A final testament to Aly’s strength; her voice never wavered as she opened her heart.

“This is the last thing I wanted. When I imagined my partner, I saw my future. I saw my family, our children, and my parents. What makes it even worse, Nicolas looks exactly like I always imagined my partner. Maybe someday he’ll regret what he did, but I won’t beg him to love me. A short life where I’m free is better than a long one trapped with a man I’m supposed to love.” I let Aly say everything she needed, even as her face turned red with anger and she spewed all kinds of colorful words about Nicolas. Her temper often overshadowed everything else, but she never, ever backed down.

The three of us stayed awake until our eyes became heavy and dry. The coffee I drank now had a bitter, stale taste, even though the machine in our suite was high quality. No amount of caffeine in the world kept me awake, and when my eyes closed, I didn’t have the strength to question it.

A small, constant beep abruptly pulled me from my sleep. It wasn’t the sound of a heartbeat monitor, but something more annoying. The beeping was rapid, sharp, and echoed throughout the room.

It took me several seconds to return to my conscious and lucid state.

“The phone!” I gasped, my voice hoarse and sore.

I leaped out of bed at the same time as Aly and Ethan. The three of us had fallen asleep in the spacious king-size bed, a tangle of limbs and wrinkled sheets.

We competed to grab the phone until Ethan managed to get it first. He pressed the answer button quickly, and I watched as his hair stood up in a peculiar way on top of his head. I promised I would laugh about that later if we got good news.

Ethan’s emotions remained inscrutable as he spoke to the man on the other end of the phone. Meanwhile, I was bouncing from one foot to the other, waiting for the words that would bring Liam back to us.

I took a deep breath as Ethan’s pain filtered into me. I felt trapped in my own mind, unable to feel the weight of my own body. I felt like I was falling, but I didn’t fully return to reality until Ethan’s arms wrapped around my waist, preventing me from collapsing on the floor. Although he couldn’t prevent tears from running down my cheeks, he did prevent me from collapsing.

“They’re in Axel’s territory, sweetheart. In a few hours, they’ll be in our village. The men did it, the white wolves are safe.” Ethan whispered against the top of my head, holding me close as I let out a cry of relief.