Chapter 16 - Amelia
“Thanks for coming by, Cassie,” I sigh as I approach the porch of the lakeside cottage with Cassie in tow, carrying the rocker along.
“You know how much I love babysitting Damita,” she smiles, a twinkle in her eyes. “Besides, I think you need some company.”
“Is it that obvious?” I giggle nervously, opening the door and letting Cassie go in before me. She pauses in the kitchen and sighs.
“I mean… When was the last time you used your kitchen?” she asks, to which I grimace as I head to the table. She places the rocker on the table, leaning over and offering high-pitched gurgling sounds as she speaks to my daughter with exaggerated expressions.
“Mama hasn’t been taking care of herself, has she?” Cassie coos as she lifts Damita out of the rocker and nestles her in her arms. “We’re gonna have to do something about that, aren’t we, little munchkin?” She gently strokes Damita’s nose, and my daughter sighs as if reflecting the appreciation I have for my friend. She holds out Damita for me, then waltzes around my kitchen as she takes out a few supplies from my sorry excuse for a pantry cupboard.
I watch in awe as she begins preparing dinner for us while I get to spend some stress-free time with my daughter. After feeding her a bottle of formula, she eventually drifted off into a peaceful sleep, and I put her down in her crib in the bedroom.
When I return to the kitchen, Cassie has the table laid out with the meal she prepared. The air is filled with the heavenly aroma of meat, and my belly rumbles with the hunger pangs I’d been ignoring for days.
It’s not like I can afford meat now that I’m just a waitress. Hiding out here in Altus-Lugert has only allowed me to make enough money to take care of my daughter while being hidden from my brother. I’m grateful for a friend like Cassie, who insisted she bought meat and cooked me the hearty meal I desperately needed.
“You have no idea how thankful I am right now…” I whimper with a pout.
Cassie clicks her tongue and dismissively waves. “Go on! Tuck in!” she insists. “We still have a bottle to pop and a movie to watch.”
I nod, my eyes tearing up as gratitude overflows inside me. I pile up my plate with the hearty meal of steak and mashed potatoes, and I’m about to take my first bite when I’m hit with a bout of recollection.
The memory of a time during my capture with Dorian flashes before my eyes as if I’m sprung back into that cage. It was a moment of peace despite being locked away, when Jackson's henchmen replenished our supplies and left us with some meat after weeks of surviving on bread and tea. Dorian and I had already opened up about our deepest, darkest woes, and I’d decided to prepare a similar meal for the two of us.
It was a demoralizing time for us, but at least we had each other to rely on. As a stray tear rolls down my cheek, Cassie reaches out and places a hand on mine.
“Hey… Are you okay?”
I sniff as I look up, glancing at the bedroom and shaking my head slowly. “Her father…” I murmur with a heavy-hearted sigh. “... She’ll never know him.”
Cassie reassuringly squeezes my hand, remaining silent until my eyes meet the ocean blues of hers. She offers me a thoughtful smile before saying, “She has you, and that’s all that matters, Ams. I don’t know the details, and I still haven’t figured out why your pregnancy was different, but I do know one thing. You’re doing a fantastic job.”
I return a half-smile to thank her for her reassuring words. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you everything,” I sigh. “You’re my best friend, but this is a secret that I’ll take with me to the grave.”
Cassie narrows her eyes at me, her lips toying with a playful smirk. “I’m your only friend right now,” she giggles. “But being your friend means that I won’t question you.”
I mouth a “thank you” to her, then go back to the meal. Despite what Dorian did by pushing me out of the warehouse window without him after he rejected me, I can’t let anyone know about the existence of werewolves. According to him, they’d been keeping their existence a secret from humans for centuries to protect themselves since they were only a minority among us. If humans knew they existed, there would be outbreaks of wars like the one Jackson construed.
Even if I hate Dorian for breaking my heart, I can’t reveal his secret.
“I just have to know, though. Is he still alive?” Cassie asks.
I look up from my plate and sigh. “I don’t know, Cass. I don’t know.”
I’m about to hang my head with a heavy heart weighing me down when there’s a knock on the door. Looking up with a frown, I glance at my friend who’s equally as confused.
“Expecting someone else?” she asks.
I shrug nonchalantly, but warily make my way to my feet. “No,” I reveal, my frown deepening when another set of three raps on the door sounds more urgent this time. “Please check on Damita,” I whisper to Cassie as I head to the door.
“It’s probably someone who doesn’t know there’s a sleeping baby in here,” she huffs irritably as she makes her way to the bedroom.
With a frown set on my face like a permanent fixture, I unlock the door and pull it open, when I freeze.
As if Cassie had been foreshadowing who our unexpected visitor was, my eyes widened as color seeped from my face as if I’m seeing a ghost.
He wouldn’t know that there’s a baby in the cottage…
“Dorian…?” I ask in disbelief, gasping when his name rolls off my tongue. I didn’t think I’d ever say his name out loud again.
Not since I ran from the warehouse without him, with just the harsh words of his rejection echoing in my mind. In a single moment, he’d banished me to someone with no importance in his life. I thought I was special, I thought that what we shared was special. Until it wasn’t, and he crushed my world and the heart I’d allowed to open up to him.
“Amelia…” he whispers with a fragrant, disarming tone that indicates his relief.
As if he was searching for me. As if he can’t believe that he finally found me.
All I can concentrate on is how dashingly handsome he is now that he’s all cleaned up. His beard is groomed, only darkly framing his sharp jawline and bringing attention to his high cheekbones. The hair on his head is shorter too, silky waves of brown appearing lighter as the moon’s light radiates around him like a celestial aura. His eyes twinkle in rich brown, his lips pressed into a line. He stands tall, his broad shoulders straight with a stoic and authoritative stance. He appears stronger than I’d ever seen him before, and I almost feel relieved that he made it out of the warehouse alive.
But his good looks aren’t enough to make me forget what he did when he rejected me and told me that I was nothing but a human and that I was nothing to him.
“Wh-what are you doing here? H-how?” My deep frown narrows my eyes into thin, dubious slits.
Dorian stares at me with his mouth agape, a stupefied expression on his face. He blinks his eyes rapidly as if to snap himself back from whatever daze he’d lost himself in, but his eyes are glassy as if they’re moist.
“I made it out alive, Amelia,” he finally says. “The Alpha Council found me a few weeks ago, and I was rescued.”
I remember that Damita is asleep inside, and quietly pull the door closed behind me as I step onto the porch. Too dumbfounded by my shock, I can barely process a word he speaks when he goes on to explain how he’d been rescued from the warehouse.
All I can do is stare at him as I’m confused with an array of emotions that have my heart and mind at war with one another. On one hand, I’m glad that he’s alive, my heart pounding in my chest with an urge to fling myself forward and wrap my arms around him. On the other hand, my mind refuses to give him the time of day after all the heartbreak I suffered thanks to his brutal rejection.
The only thing I can’t seem to control is the pulsing of his mark on my neck. When he’s done speaking, his gaze flits to my neck and his eyes reflect the golden glow that radiates around my scent gland from where he’d bit me months ago.
“Amelia, I-” His Adam’s apple bobs in his throat with how hard he gulps. He lifts his eyes back to mine while his arms open up at his sides and he takes a step forward.
I gasp, a hand coming up between us instinctively as my guard comes up too.
“I’m glad you’re alive, Dorian, but you have to leave,” I say sternly, fighting the urge to break down into tears when I have to appear strong. The mask of valor I’m wearing now is only to protect myself from him.
If he could reject me before, he can do it again, and I’m not about to risk suffering the consequences of following my heart even if it begs me to throw myself into his open arms.
“Leave?” he asks with a bewildered frown. “I thought—”
“You thought you’d just waltz right into my life and act as if you didn’t reject me?!” I raise my voice, glaring at him incredulously as I steel my spine and curl tiny fists at my sides. “Did you think I’d forget, huh?! Forget that you never cared about me?!”
Dorian is startled, gasping as his arms fall beside him and he raises his brows. “Amelia, I had to—”
Dorian is cut off when a loud wailing cry rings out through the cottage.
Damita!
He stops abruptly, dark, blade-like brows furrowing as his eyes darken while he stares at me.
“What was that?” he asks, just as Damita’s cries escalate inside.
Cassie must have been failing to soothe her after my yelling woke her up.
I wasn’t planning on telling Dorian about her. Even now, as he stares expectantly at me.
“It’s nothing. Just leave, Dorian!” I plead, but it’s too late.
Dorian marches forward, using one hand with a force I’ve never felt before to push me aside before he turns the door handle.
“Wait! Dorian, no!” I try grabbing his arm to stop him from entering the cottage, but he shrugs me off and continues marching inside, following the sound of Damita’s cries.
It’s too late. This is a secret I can’t keep from Dorian.