Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Rhea
It’s not long before I’m back and all of it’s cut short–ended. To think I could leave and never come back, was wishful thinking. Perhaps I thought that Aron wouldn’t come after me if I did. Maybe I assumed wrong. Maybe I didn’t know anything at all.
“Take it,” he says, looking down at the small bottle in my hand and then at me. “Now” He’s still angry, furious, actually. The fury rolls off of his shoulders in waves. I can sense it, and I don’t think there’s a moment when it isn’t simmering under his skin.
I glance around in his room quickly before I unscrew the top of the bottle. “It won’t kill me?” I ask, just for confirmation. He briefed me on it, the plant, on this plant that can bring my wolf back. The one he wanted to give me this morning. I was not there.
“Of course not,” his voice is hard.
“Can we do it tomorrow? Maybe when you’re calmer and-”
“Now. Drink it, Rhea.”
It feels as if I’m standing in front of an execution block, and that I’m only a moment away before it all comes falling. But then, I suppose I want my wolf back. More than anything else. I just want him to be less–furious at me. That seems like a difficult thing.
“Okay,” I swallow a ball of nervousness in my throat, pushing past the anxiety. My fingers twitch in the air for a second. The bottle, it’s in my grasp but for a moment I almost think of what my wolf would feel when she is back.
It would feel great. Amazing. I’m sure.
I pour a small amount of it into my mouth, tasting it at first. It tastes like something raw, something herbal. Like the earthiness of soil that makes it way in on rainy days. It’s sweet and bitter at once. Not too bad, not too great either. Just bearable.
“All of it.”
I look up at Aron again and sigh before nodding. I tip the bottle again and empty it into my mouth before swallowing it quickly. It goes in, doesn’t really leave an aftertaste, and then, it’s just gone. The taste and the texture, everything is over.
“That is all?” I ask, wondering what’s meant to happen now.
When Ezra forced the poison down my throat, it happened quickly. My wolf died in a span of a few hours. By the time I was back here, at the manor from the pack house, she was dead.
“Yes,” he moves away from the fireplace. Go, sleep in your room. Marcella will watch over you throughout the night, and if anything happens, she’ll tell me.” I put the bottle away on the table before glancing back at him.
“But-”
“Go now.” He still doesn’t let me speak about anything at all.
I glance at Kovas, remembering his words from earlier, even if they are a little fuzzy in my mind now. ‘Don’t fight with him!‘
Well, it’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Nothing. Because he won’t let me talk to him at all.
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11:29 Thu, 17 Apr
Chapter 76
1%
And with that, I step away from the couch and out of the lounge room on the upper floor. When I step outside, Marcella’s already here, waiting for me, making sure I go straight into my room rather than anywhere else. I go into my room with her.
The lights are still on, and the bed is still made. Everything is as I left it. My bag, which I had taken with me, is now on the side of the room, bought back.
A failed attempt.
“Where did you go?” Marcella asks me as soon as I shut the door behind her.
“Nowhere,”
She watches me for several long moments as if not knowing what else to do or what else to say.
“Aron went mad. I’ve never seen him this…upset,” she takes in a breath, “You should’ve spoken to me if Mrs. Alena came to you–I could’ve helped you.” Her expression changes a bit, and she seems troubled. It’s understandable. I did disappear out of nowhere and worried her.
“I’m sorry, but I thought I had no option at that time.”
“Why?”
I look at her, trying to understand whether this is a good idea or a bad one. But when I see her concern, I figure she deserves to know the truth, especially because of how involved she has gotten with me lately.
“I had no place here as a human. Why would I? And even if I did, I’d be stopping Aron from progressing ahead, from mating with someone suitable.”
“Who told you this?”
“His mother.”
Marcella nods after that. There’s a realization in her eyes. She remains silent for a couple of moments, longer than expected, before speaking again, “You know well enough that Aron has grown to have strong feelings for you, Rhea. Right?” She questions me with raised eyebrows.
I swallow thickly, unsure of what to say. Because yes, I do know about it. Somewhat. I have noticed that. But that doesn’t mean anything. It certainly doesn’t mean Aron wants me as anything other than what I am right now to him.
He hasn’t confessed.
Marcella takes my silence as something. She quickly gets up and nears the bed.
“Let’s get you tucked in before the effects of that extract sets in,” She begins to help me get out of my clothes and I allow her to do that. “It will take a couple of hours. There might be some pain, especially when you first shift again but you’ll be fine, so nothing to be concerned about.”
For remaining of the evening, I find myself staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. I shift, turn and twist over the bed all while I feel uneasy within my skin. I’m not sure if it’s all that happened or if it’s the extract.
But it’s something.
Marcella remains in my room, sitting by the window, with a book in her hands while she keeps an eye on me. We don’t talk much for the rest of the night.
Suddenly, around midnight, I feel a wave of discomfort settles over my body. And then complete warmth. Warmth that feels like something’s crawling underneath my skin. My wolf. She’s coming back. She’s finally coming back.
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11:29 Thu, 17 Apr
Chapter 76
It’s not painful, not as losing her.
Instead, it feels like a relief, one I’ve been wanting for a long time now.
