Page 32

Chapter

Thirty

A BBIE

I can’t explain what she’s doing. It makes no sense, and before I know it, Azalea’s eyelids flutter and she passes out.

I can feel her in my head, her essence or presence tainting and touching the darkest parts of me, twisting and manipulating.

She lifts the weight of my past from me.

I feel free. It’s as if I’m no longer trapped in the nightmares I’ve survived and am now merely an observer, dissociated from them.

I still remember everything, but the feelings that haunt and trap me are no longer there.

It’s as if she has erased those completely.

When she passes out, everyone goes into panic, while all I can do is stare. I think I’ve killed her, but Trey Gannon is quick to whisk me out of there and away from everyone. Yet, I want to check on Azalea. Need to know I haven’t hurt her.

“She is awake, Abbie. Damian just mindlinked me,” Gannon tells me.

I nod, staring at where Tyson lies on the bed, nestled between our pillows.

“You need to shower. You’re covered in blood, and I don’t want Tyson waking up seeing you like this,” Gannon instructs.

It was Tyson we fought over first then Sia. Only recently did I learn that my aunty was Gannon’s true mate… and he killed her. Yet strangely enough, I feel nothing for that woman; hardly remembering her - my mother - who fought back when we left my grandmother’s house.

That was when we left the pack we lived in and went on the run; also when we met Marrissa who at that time was known by Della to us.

We were attacked by bandit rogues, then Della and Jason came to our aid; after which we stayed with them ever since.

I’m beginning to realize how small the world truly is… how interconnected all our pasts are. But it leaves questions unanswered, ones I’m not sure I want the answers to.

“Why did you kill her? Was it just because she left you?” I ask Gannon.

Gannon sighs, kneeling next to me where I sit on the couch by the small bookcase of children’s books that Gannon got for Tyson. Most of them are pop-up books.

“Abbie, you don’t want to know the answers to these questions. They will do more harm than good,” he warns me.

“How can they? I don’t feel sorry for her; I barely knew her. I just need to know,” I tell him.

“Why?” he asks.

“To make sure that isn’t the only reason you want mebecause you couldn’t have her. Because I look like her.”

“You are nothing like Sia. Not even close. You have the same hair and eyes, that is it.”

“Then tell me.”

Gannon sighs again, dropping his head onto my knees.

“When I met Sia, I was visiting her pack. I had to take a message to the council for the King. I stopped over at her pack and met her at the tavern,” he tells me.

His brows furrow together as if he’s trying hard to remember some detail, but my eyes are trained on his chest...the deep crevices that marred his skin...skin torn apart by his own claws when he tried to rip out his own heart.

“Anyway, Sia and her mother were being kicked out of their pack for something your grandmother did.”

“She informed me that the council had located another place for them in a pack closer to here. I lent a hand with her move on the weekends, but she kept pushing for me to change her. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something about her persistence irked me.

She also expressed a desire to meet Claire and work at the castle - another thing that didn’t sit well with me. ”

“Why does she want you to change her so desperately?”

“Because your grandmother was dying, that’s why,” Gannon replies.

“So you never changed her?”

“No, she kept mentioning it and I lost my temper. At that point, I still hadn’t informed the King.

Once mates are typically discovered, especially when you’re part of the King’s guard, the King conducts background checks and most of the time, unless he knows them personally, you need his permission to change them.

I hadn’t told the King about her or anyone else for that matter.

Something felt off about her, and I feared the King might have refused if I asked or uncovered something suspicious about her.

So, I told her ‘no’ and we had an argument. She then rejected me.”

“What did you suspect her of?”

“Collaborating with hunters,” Gannon admits.

“That’s why you didn’t want to inform the King because he would have killed her?”

“Yes, and Abbie, you mustn’t disclose this to the King either - not the real reason at least. You’ve seen what he did to Azalea when he thought she was a hunter’s daughter.”

“So where does Liam fit into all this?” I question him, trying to piece it together.

He exhales deeply before answering: “Liam isn’t aware of Sia’s existence; however, he frequently visits the town she relocated to. He met her there and they started dating. What I wasn’t aware of was that Liam actually knew her before I did.”

“Liam knew your mate before you did?” Gannon nods affirmatively.

“Yes, because your grandmother is human, her mate was a werewolf who fortunately passed the werewolf gene onto his children. He then left her for his own mate but since she had children, she was permitted to stay within the pack. She was a witch and also the very same witch Liam would visit to get location spells done when we had trouble finding people the King would send us after,” Gannon informs me.

“So she was cheating on you with Liam?” I question him, causing him to stand up abruptly. I slide over making room for him and he collapses onto the couch next to me.

“Yes, we were clueless about each other’s involvement with her.

I never accompanied him when he went to see your grandmother.

Long story short, after two years of enduring her infidelity, I’d had enough and confronted her.

To sever the bond from my end, I knew I had to kill her.

But when I called her up, she confessed that she wanted to be with me.

Little did I know that she’d told Liam that I was an abusive ex-boyfriend who’d been harassing her and he intended to kill me in response. ”

“And he just stood by idly while you killed someone he loved too?”

“At first, yes - he was shocked but a year prior, he suspected that I must have found my mate because of my suicide attempt.” He pats his chest where scars are visible: “Liam found me and stopped me from ripping out my own heart in grief over losing the bond. He spent all night feeding me his blood so that my healing process could speed up. Even though it remained unsaid between us, he knew – as well as myself – that I’d found my mate. ”

I chew on my lip; my aunt was a monster to inflict so much pain.

“Anyway, when Liam stepped out of the car and saw me, he put two and two together. He was disgusted with her and she started screaming for him to kill me. But instead, he stepped aside and told me, ‘I’ll start digging a hole to bury the bitch in’, which is exactly what he did.

I killed her and he assisted in covering it up. ”

“You’re nothing like her, Abbie. Yes, you share some similarities. At first, that might have been why I was drawn to you but you’re nothing like her - absolutely nothing like Sia. Despite my bond with Sia, I never loved her the way I love you,” Gannon assures me.