Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Nine
+25 BONUS
Riley’s blue eyes were just like mine–that was the only thing I’d gotten from her. The rest was all my father.
Her skin was pale–paler than snow, the kind of ghostly pale I’d only imagined. Her white dress clung to her body as if it were wet. I couldn’t speak. I was frozen.
“Ethan, you need to return to your pack. There’s a war”
I let out a bitter laugh, the shock finally wearing off. “You can’t be serious, Mother. You finally show up after all these years, and that’s the first thing you say? No ‘How are you?‘ No ‘How did you manage to stay alive?‘ You know, those kinds of basic questions?”
“I don’t have time.”
“I get it; you are indeed very busy. Perhaps we should start with, ‘Where the hell have you been all these years?”
She gave me a sad smile. “I never wanted to leave, but I was a danger to the pack–to everyone around me. I was a threat to you. I couldn’t let that happen. I was trying to protect you.”
“Protect.” I repeated the word, “Seems like everyone is either trying to help me or protect me–like I’ve lost the ability to do either myself.”
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but you need to know the truth. The only reason Thane lived long enough to raise you, even for those few years, was because the Moon Goddess intervened. He should have died in that cave.”
I didn’t bother asking about the ‘cave‘–Even though I had no idea what she was talking about. But if her time was limited, I needed to discover the truth.
“She had gone against fate to save his life. I cannot explain it to you, but perhaps I could show you.”
She stepped closer, placing her hands over mine. But I felt nothing. She was no longer flesh and blood, I realized— she was a ghost.
A burst of bright light flared, and suddenly, I was no longer in the bathroom. I was in a… cave. This must have been the very one she had spoken about. The air was cold, and only then did I realize I was wearing nothing but a towel–except, when I looked down, the towel was gone. In its place was a pair of washed–out blue jeans. I had no memory of putting them on.
“This is where it all began.” She whispered to me.
Two men were in the cave with us.
When I looked closer, I recognized one of them–Thane. My father. The other man bore a resemblance to him, but he was a stranger to me. The stranger held a blade to my father’s heart. Thane wasn’t giving up, his hands gripping the weapon, trying to keep it from driving any deeper. Blood seeped from his palms where the blade cut into his flesh. But it was clear–he was losing. The other man had the upper hand. It was only a matter of time before he couldn’t hold it back any longer.
I refused to stand by and watch. I moved to help–but I passed right through them, like a ghost. They didn’t even flinch. They couldn’t see me. I turned to her, my jaw tightening. “We need to do something. He is going to die.”
But she only shook her head.
“It might look very realistic but this incident happened a long time ago. There’s nothing you can do about it,” she said.
A man appeared–literally out of nowhere. I recognized him instantly. I’d seen his pictures before–Beta Axel. The Beta who had died trying to save my mother. And yet, here he was, very much alive.
1/2
+25 BONUS
Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Nine
I watched as he picked up a bottle and silently closed in on the man pinning Thane to the ground. Then, without hesitation, he struck.
The attacker jolted in shock, his expression shifting to something almost like fear. He had every right to be afraid. Axel had practically materialized from thin air.
“He was supposed to be dead,” Riley said, her voice unreadable. I wasn’t sure if she meant Axel, Thane–or both.” Thane should have died here. But the Moon Goddess had mercy. And yet, interfering with fate always comes at a price.”
Today’s Bonus Offer
