Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
“How do we get out of here, Ashley?”
With Cameron, I would just wake up, but now, with her blood, I’m panicked.
She ignores my question. “It’s your fault anyway,” she tells me. She waves her hand. “All of this.”
She grabs a stone and tosses it into the water. “One little action can cause so many ripples…”
Okay, clearly a metaphor. “I’m pretty literal, Ashley, so why don’t we save us both the aggravation. Tell
me why we’re here.”
“Cameron devotes nearly all of his attention to his own pack so I’m going to assume when ites to
other packs and their politics that you’re fairly useless.”
That’s insulting. But whatever. “Like I said… I’m here. You can talk in riddles or we can justy out all
our cards and figure out a way to co-exist.”
She scoffs. “How would that work? Are you going to share your beloved Alpha with me?!”
Part of me wants to say, ‘which Alpha?’
Oddly, the thought of ‘sharing’ would’ve made me blind with rage once upon a time. But I’ve since
learned that love isplicated.
“I wouldn’t begrudge you or your daughter, Ashley. If that’s what you’re thinking. Cam wants you to get
better.” Deep down I know that. He resents the lies, and the heartache, but he doesn’t hate this woman.
“You’ve been married to Cam for years now, surely you know him.”
A tear tracks down her face. “He’ll never forgive me for this.”
No, he probably wouldn’t. But he hadn’t rejected her outright. Which would’ve been one way to sever
the bond between them. If he truly hated her, he could’ve done that the moment he awakened.
Maybe he hadn’t for fear of my condition, or maybe he didn’t want to have to look his daughter in the
eyes one day and admit that he had killed her mother. I don’t know.
“I’m sure you have your reasons,” I say.
“Please don’t cate me or patronize me. She did that.” The vehemence in her voice makes my blood
Content ? N?velDrama.Org 2024.
run cold.
She skips another stone and it skids across the surface before sinking. There’s a metaphor in that too, I
think. Like we’re here in this world…until we’re gone.
Hmm.
“My parents invited her–which makes it all the worse, you know. We invited that evil bitch right into our
home. I me my father… he never got over her.”
“Oh?”
She points to the mountain. “Ournds ranged from Denali down to British Columbia. Our pack was
strong. Cultured. Our ties to thend were steeped in conservation and our roles as protectors. Then
he came.”
“Who?”
“Come now, you know who… his stench is on you.”
I don’t think she means Cameron. “Eric?”
“We knew he was ambitious. We knew he wanted to unify every pack within his reach–and that’s the
problem…he keeps expanding his reach.”
I can see where this is going.
“We could’ve bested him. My brother is fierce. Powerful enough to rival your two precious Alphas. But
we were told not to fight. We were told to make peace.” Ashley’s eyes are dead when they swing to
me. Defeated in a way that feels almost soulless.
“My pack,” she says, “we practice the Old Ways. A Seer came–my father called for her… She told me
my marriage would be the saving grace of my pack. She made it sound like it would be perfect. That
when we met, he would take one look at me and forsake all else.”
What she’s describing sounds exactly like what happened when she met Cam.
Another chill goes up my spine.
“We believed. I believed. I wore my mother’s gown. I was so happy thinking I could serve my pack and
help us grow. I wanted to marry and start a family of my own. Per Adriana’s predictions, we set out a
I file away the name Adriana.
She wipes the tears from her eyes. “We prepared for a grand wedding. And Eric…he prepared for war.
We were so foolish. So stupid. He brought a force hundreds of wolves strong.
“He killed our guards, destroyed a thousand years of history when he burned our ancestral home and
its archives. What’s worse…he didn’t even have to kill my father to im hisnds. The dishonor was
so great, most of my pack deserted my dad.”
I can imagine her in her dress, thinking it would be the best day of her life and then being tricked and
betrayed and losing everything.
It’s…tragic.
More tears fall.
“My mother–the one who actually raised me–did you know she took her own life?”
I gasp.
“Two years ago. I’d thought to find her here…” She looks around.
But this ce is not heaven or some blissful afterlife. It’s a trap–and the moment I think it, the truth of
my statement resonates in me. This is a ce for souls that are trapped between this world and the
next.
“I-I’m sorry, Ashley.”
Her nasty look tells me she doesn’t want my pity.
I try to piece together the timeline. Her pack was set up by some Seer–and instead of the wedding
Ashley anticipated, Eric usurped hernds and everything her pack owned.
Was it any wonder she wanted revenge?
And in seeking revenge she sought out a coven for the spell that let her bewitch Cam and gain ess
to his pack’s power and money. She funneled those resources back to her brother somehow, and they
attacked Eric.
“Oooh, I can see the wheels turning in that little head of yours,” she taunts me. “Have you figured it all
out then?”
Some of it, maybe. “What was the price, for the coven to cast the spell?”
She shudders. “I had to give a gift I didn’t even know wasing… my ability to see.”
We’re back to riddles again.
“That’s the irony, you realize,” she tells me. “That I should inherit the same abilities of the woman
whose cursed visions led to all of this…” She casts her hand out, epassing this space and the
darkness and death looming in the distance.
“Mia,” she chides. “Did you think it was just your bond to Cameron that allowed you to find me?” She
purses her lips. Her smile is mean. “From one formerly moon-kissed girl to another…”
“W-what do you mean?”
“Come now, you look just like her…”
“Who?”
“Our mother.”