Unanswered questions
Xander POV
I know what I did was wrong, and nothing I do right now can fix it, but she also needs to understand something. Her father
knows.
How does he know? Suddenly, she shows up and he finds out things that have been kept secret for decades. There has only been one change around here that could account for it, and it’s her.
Part of me wonders if the serum hurt her that much because she was lying. Was it a punishment? The only thing I can work out is that she lied, and the serum punished her more. That, though, makes no sense.
We’ve done it before and never had that issue.
Walking through, I look around the house. It’s early morning again. She slept the entire day and night away. As I enter the room, food is on the table.
“Please, can you take Serafine’s food to her room from now on?” I look at the maid, who nods.
Garrick and Killan are waiting by the door. I want to ignore them, sit and eat, and overthink everything, but none of it makes
sense.
“Sit,” I say. “Let’s talk.”
They do, both of them.
“So, not only do we need to find out why the Hollowfang Raven came to her rescue, but why she reacted so badly to the serum.” Garrick watches me as he speaks.
I’ve no idea where to start. “We need to pull in all our research. We have two outcomes. The serum reacted differently to her, which means we need to find out how and why. Or, someone switched it, knowing she was going to be punished. Again, we need to find out how and why.”
“We considered that,” Killan explains. “Which is why we had it checked, the serum was the same. So it reacted to her !differently.”
That makes this worse and harder. “Get the maids to begin reading and searching. Not a single book is ignored or skipped.”
I look toward a beta, and he nods before walking out.
“There may be a connection,” Killan says. “Between the way she reacted to the serum and the Hollowfang Raven’s saving her. Maybe something in the serum is from them?”
That could be the answer, but again, we have no evidence, nothing. I can’t just agree based on thoughts or ideas without any evidence. As I think that, I realise I already did, with Serafine, I did it.
“How is she today?” Garrick looks at me.
“She wants me to stay away from her, so I’m giving her the space she needs.” It’s the only thing that I can do. Something tells me she might reject me, and I deserve it, I know that I do.
“Did you get a sense of why it hurt her so much?” he asks.
“Her wolf was going,” I say quietly. “Not muted like it was meant to be, it was ripping apart, pulling itself from the bond with her. I had to use my wolf to keep her wolf there, otherwise she wouldn’t have one right now.”
Their eyes widen. “We can’t use that again, not if the risk is someone losing their wolf entirely!” Killan stares, like this is a disaster, which it is. I accept that.
“We don’t, every batch of the serum will be destroyed, other packs may use it, but we will not. There needs to be another way to punish people without it.”
“Her wolf is fine now, though, right?” Garrick asks.
“We pulled her back, but even her wolf is distant; she will be rejecting me.”
They both stare at me. “You made a mistake,” Killan argues.
“No, I almost killed her wolf, and her. Do we have any information, anything new on how her father found out?”
“You don’t think it was her?” Garrick stares at me in shock
“I’m not sure. What I do know is that I acted with Successfully unlocked! how it ended. Now I want real proof, and if it wasn’t Serafine, I’m killing whoever spoke.” Call me a cowar, but i want Suineone else to blame for me hurting Serafine, for her hating me.
The bond between us feels weak, not in the sense it will snap, but like she’s forcing herself away, hiding, covering herself. Like she’s ready to run, to reject me and live without me.
1/2
Unanswered questions
I can’t let that happen, call me evil, call me a monster, but she’s mine.
“What about The Calling?”
Garrick’s words have me freeze. It’s tonight, I totally forgot.
“She won’t be taking part, even I know that. She’s too weak to anyway, I explain. Which I’m glad, as the thought of Betas and such touching her? I can’t deal with that. Yes, it’s the rules, it’s how things work, it’s for our wolves.
I can’t, though, I can’t be there and watch that. Then again, I wouldn’t know. I never took part with my last mate as she died before I could. Now that I think about it, will my wolfs needs be strong enough to flore and push through seeing her with another person?
“I need some Betas, Gamma, and such to travel after The Calling. I need them to ask about stories of the serum severing the bond. I also need them to dig deeper into how her father found out about things here.“–
Garrick laughs. “You think he would say? If he’s telling people it’s Serafine, he has a plan clearly.”
My stomach twists. “He wanted her dead, he wanted me to kill her.” What if, after she told him, he realised she was free, and spoke out, so I would kill her?
He almost succeeded, that serum almost destroyed her, and does he know? He knows many packs use it instead of physical violence, so did he know that she would react differently?
Wait…I look up. “That book we thought was a journal, the one that when we wrote in, the ink ran off the page,” I say, and they both nod.
“What of it? Do you think it has answers?” Garrick leans closer.
“She has it.” I look between them.
“Serafine? You’re saying Serafine has the book? Since when and why?” Killan stares at me.
Maybe that’s the answer. It reacts differently to her, so maybe the book is the answer? Not that we know anything about it,
and I’m not sure she will tell me, not now. She no longer trusts me, and it will take a lot to build up that trust again.
