Chapter 13 | Whatever it Takes
"Sometimes you turn back. Sometimes, you walk away. And sometimes, you find the place you're meant to be, and you stay there. You find a way to make it work. Whatever it takes."
-Megan Hart
Maverick stands there looking at me with passive gaze.
Shit! How much has he heard? Although I tense up my tears seem to be never ending.
He turns back and shuts the door, locking it quietly while both, me and Adele stare at him.
He moves to face me. "Rick, what're you doing here?
I'm sure Blythe- um... Our Luna didn't call you? " asked Adele.
"It's not what you're thinking Rick. We were just getting to know each other and she was telling me this hilarious- um sad story. It was so sad that we had ended up crying. Nothing much."
Even after Adele finishes, he stares into oblivion. She begins again. "Hey um... Alpha why don't you leave. I think that would be bett-" Rick fixes her with a pointed look, which shuts her up and kneels in front of me.
Bringing his hands up to face, he lays his palms against my cheeks and brushes my tears off by his thumbs. I blink away my tears and look into his eyes. They don't hold pity instead hold adoration, love and promise. What the...? What's going on?
And then I noticed.
His eyes.
They were black in colour signaling his wolf in control.
Suddenly he engulfed me in a bone crushing hug. I wince at the sudden attack but tense up not knowing how I should react. He draws soothing circles on my back murmuring sweet incoherent words. I break down completely.
I try to pull back but he crashes me against his chest. My tears dampen his linen shirt. I hear the bedroom door open and close. Adele must have left. I don't know how long we stay like that. Minutes? Hours?
He pulls back slowly and looks into my eyes as I into his. We sink in. Green to blue. His eyes move down to my lips. I notice that my tears have ceased.
One of his palms on my cheek, the other on my shoulder massaging in a relaxing way. He slides his arms around me as he sweeps me up in bridal style and carries me to the bed. Placing me down, he kisses my forehead, mumbles, "I'll be back in a minute," and leaves, not closing the door
I meddle with my fingers as I think on where I had put down my phone. I touch my cheeks to see no tears.
I push open the door with my shoulder as I enter in with the tray. Her eyes widen as she sees my hands.
I put down the tray on the bedside table and pull it closer plopping myself on the bed opposite her.
I take the plate of spaghetti onto my hand and fork it.
She shakes her head in denial. I narrow my eyes at her.
"You need to eat Blythe. You haven't eaten since yesterday midnight.
You didn't have anything before or after trials.
All these trials, hospitals and crying must've worn you out. Please eat." I almost plead her.
As I bring the fork to her, she opens her mouth and accepts the food. She continues a few more mouths and shakes her head again. I sigh in frustration and hand her a glass of almond milk, knowing that it will soothe her mind and help her sleep.
She downs the glass and places it on the tray. I look at her confusedly as she tries to get up. A quick glance towards the bathroom provides me the explanation and I move away to give her room. As I hear water running in the tap, I pick the tray, moving downstairs to clear it up.
I place the clean plate and glass on their shelves in record timing and return to her bedroom, to see her still in the bathroom. I sit myself down on one of the armchairs, to hear the bathroom door open.
Her droopy eyes foretell a deep slumber awaiting her. She acknowledges me as she sits down on the bed. I know she wants me to ask about what I heard. Her past and everything. But I know now is not the time.
"Blythe, get a good night's sleep and rest well.
Tomorrow at around nine, be ready for your logical phase.
It won't be much just some sort of an interview by the elders.
I'll be present. I'll have Chris escort you down there.
We can conduct the acceptation ceremony in the evening, I guess. We'll talk later. Kay?"
She nods her head, I hear a faint yes. She lies down on the bed and a couple of inappropriate thoughts run through my mind. All thanks to my wolf.
Not to mention, all I myself want is to join her on bed. Hug her while she drifts off to sleep. Place a gentle kiss on her shoulder blade. Snuggle with her. I shake off those with a shrug.
Picking up my courage I walk to her, pull the covers up to her neck and gently kiss her forehead. The creases on her forehead relax instantly. I walk to the door and switch off the lights and close the door quietly.
I wake up, to the ringing of my phone. Mentally cursing the caller, I climb out of the bed to the cabinets and unplug my phone from the charger almost yanking off the socket in frustration.
It's Aaron.
"BLYTHE, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" He almost yells into my ears.
"Yeah... I'm completely fine Aaron. Why the hell did you have to call me at this infernal hour of the night?" My voice all sleepy and lazy. I could sense him rolling his eyes as he replied, "I wanted to check in on my sister, of course!" That surely lifted the corners of my lips.
Before I could speak, he began yelling again.
"What the hell do you think you are doing, by the way?
You were supposed to attend the party at the Browns and return here with Tessa.
She calls me around midnight saying that you have vanished into thin air.
You had told her that you were coming but had never turned up and so it seems. After I almost pull my hair out of the scalp, combing the location for your presence by sending out groups, your voicemail turns up.
Goddess, Blee I had a mini vacation to the hell and back. "
"I'm so sorry, Ron. It all happened in a flow. I had no control. Sorry..." I mumble back.
"Your voicemail mentioned that you met your mate again, was that true? What happened? Where were you? Where is he? Did he hurt you? Do you want me to snap his neck?" He asks in a dead serious tone.
I roll my eyes and update him on all the matters, including attacking the poor girl during trial on second thought. I also inform him of Rick hearing goddess-knows-what from my speech.
He thinks for a while and speaks again.
"I doubt he heard everything. If he did he would've asked. But Blythe I think you should check on that girl, your opponent. You know your wolf's powers. You know the prophecy. And also what are you exactly intending to do?"
"What do you mean, Ron?"
"Nah, I mean just, are you going to stay there for a long time?" He says testing each word.
"I'm not sure, Ronnie. I'm surely never going to leave him again for good. But something tells me we'll work it out. He's my mate after all. I think it's going to be a fresh, new start. Just give me some time," I mumble back.
"Yeah sure, I need your signature for a couple of deals but, I guess it can wait. Me and Tessa we'll handle it. Ah! And one more thing. I hope you didn't forget about tomorrow night."
I scrunch my forehead in confusion. What the hell was special about tomorrow night? Sighing again at my lack of memory, he himself says it.
"Tomorrow night is full moon."
I wake up around six thirty and could not seem to find sleep afterwards.
I decide to go out for a jog. I pull on a pair of jogger pants and a grey hoodie over my sports bra.
Slipping into some sports shoes, I take the ear buds from my party clutch and plug them in.
Rummaging my phone for the perfect song, I close the door after me.
I begin jogging to the pack grounds through the path Jake had showed me the day before.
Today night's full moon. That means heat.
Heat is not easy, especially for an Alpha's mate, not to mention the King.
Each she-wolf that had found or met her mate has to go through this process.
This meant on the full moon day of each lunar cycle an excruciating pain with heightened hormones production was imposed.
It was considered a blessing by the goddess to quicken the mating process of the couple.
There are two phases in the mating process of werewolves. First one was claiming each other by biting at the base of the other's neck and marking. The second was physical intimacy. The completion of the first phase is more than enough to withstand heat's agony.
Every month, ever since I had seen Rick I've been going through that piece of hell.
It's been hard. It might've stopped if Rick had accepted my rejection or rather had claimed me.
So it never stopped. Had I been a regular she-wolf, not a Silverette nor an Alpha's daughter I would've been dead by now.
It's that strong. My scent which is otherwise not reachable to any other person becomes strong and alluring.
Tessa and Aaron usually take the day off to stay with me. Aaron more like guards our home on that day. Kicking out all unmated he-wolves who had been allured in by my scent. Not to mention an awful lot of wolves turn up.
Not only is the scent strong. The pain is agonizing and torturous. It increases day by day. Whenever I take in sedatives, the next time becomes more crucial. But tonight being near Rick himself is going to be damn fierce, intense, painful and severe.
Oh Goddess help me... I jog into the pack grounds to see some warriors already at training and some other pack members at their regular exercise. Unable to find any familiar face, I jog ahead as I hear some stop and whisper to each other. Obviously not about me. Pun intended.
I jog past many others as they glance at me. Some with a fixed glare, some with a frightened look and some a friendly smile. I smile back at those who smiled at me.
My thoughts wander away back to Rick.
I personally think Aaron was wrong. I think that Rick did hear everything. Or else his utterly cold demeanor wouldn't have changed in a day. I asked for a second chance from him. The Moon Goddess has granted me one. I'm not going to let it go.
Even if he had heard my whole pathetic story, he had a lot of ways and chances to let me rot away. He had ways to walk away from me. But he chose to stay.
He chose to hold me in his arms and assure me of a future. He chose to let me dampen his shirt with my tears. He chose to feed me and make sure I went to sleep on time. He chose to plant a gentle, sweet kiss on my forehead as a promise to love and cherish me.
I will work up to it. I will make it all worth. I will prove the dark that it was wrong all the way.
I will never ever let him go. Again.
Whatever it takes.
I pull my thick, chestnut hair into a high ponytail and smoothen my plain onyx shirt.
Slipping into my shoes, I looked into the floor-length mirror.
Washed blue jeans paired with a plain onyx shirt and white vans.
Cool. As I finish tying up my shoes, I hear three impatient knocks on the doors. That must be Chris.
I secure my phone in my back packet and head to the mahogany doors, opening them wide. Damn, they're heavy.
I open to a very handsome and regal looking Maverick.
He assesses me top to bottom and his gaze lingers at my lips. I clear my throat with raised eyebrows but a small part of me loves his attention. His gaze returns to my face.
"I was expecting Chris," I say as he moves backward giving me some space. He shrugs nervously and replies back, "I finished my work a bit earlier, I thought I'd escort you. I have to be present there after all."
I nod briefly and he motions me to follow him, which I gladly do. "Breakfast?" He asks. "Too early for that. I'm not exactly hungry. By the way, how long will this phase take?" Nodding his head he replies," About half an hour to one hour, I guess."
"I'll breakfast later then," I shrug back.
We walk in perfect silence through the corridors. So many corridors, I'm sure I would get lost. I glance at Rick, he seems to look carefree and more boyish now. Deciding to break the tension and stimulate the conversation I've been looking forward to, I speak up. But he beats me to it.
"Blythe, we need to talk."
If I was right, his eyes had flashed black when he had said my name. My wolf seems to be wagging her tail gleefully at the sound of our name rolling off our mate's tongue.
"I know, about yesterday night. Yeah, but I thought we would talk after this interview thing," I reply. "I just don't want to push my luck,' I add mentally.
"I thought we could do it now. If I'm right we still have about thirty minutes for this phase right? What do you think?"
Not a bad idea. Besides we can get this over with right? "Yeah, sure, why not?"
He leads me to his office and I take my seat on a chair across his table.
"So," he begins. "Yesterday evening, I thought of checking on you after I returned from work.
I had seen Adele's car parked out and one of the maids also informed me that she was with you.
As I had walked to your room, I heard a ferocious growl.
At that instant I thought it was Adele growling because I knew you bore no wolf.
But then again, I had heard her wolf before.
This was nothing like it. That growl held so much power and authority.
Even my wolf almost submitted. As I was weighing out the possibilities I heard you telling her to look up.
So yeah, the story followed soon after. When you told about those voices in your head, it took all of my might to not break the door off its hinges.
After the rejection part you began whimpering and crying, my wolf couldn't take it anymore.
We all know what happened after it," he ends with a flourish.
I nod my head trying to take in that he knows everything. "Never reveal thyself to any, even if the matter is regarding life-or-death." My mother's words ring in my ears.
'Holy hell! You let it all out to an unknown stranger girl who seemed to have some sort of a past with your mate but you can't accept it to your mate!' My wolf retorts.
Well said Ms. Wolf...
"Rick, as to why I rejected you, you know the reasons. But as to why I never revealed it, I was advised not to by my mom before she was killed. My mom had already known about the prophecy that was why she asked me not to reveal my identity to anyone. I'm sorry regarding it. And about us...."
"I know Blythe. You asked for a chance and I'm asking for trust. Trust me.
I know it's not easy to give your trust to a random guy but I promise, I promise to protect you and cherish you for the rest of my life.
I'll assure you of safety and confidentiality within my pack.
And about us... We'll take it slowly. Baby steps, you call it.
Both of us have pasts. As I could see, both of us are tormented by it.
So baby steps, I guess," he replies and scratches his back neck awkwardly.
Damn, is he nervous?
"Yeah, you're right. Baby steps, it is," I assure him.
He glances at me and nods, saying, "Well about that, I may or may not have taken the first step. I mean, may or may not have decided to take the first step." My eyes narrow down at him and he continues.
"I thought after the phase, I had asked Jake arrange for your acceptation ceremony to be held in the evening. I thought maybe after accepting you in, I could announce you as the Luna of the pack." My eyes must have been wide as saucers.
"What happened to baby steps?" I ask him, trying keep the shock and surprise out of my voice.
He grins cheekily before responding. "It's just the acceptation ceremony and announcement as the Luna.
Declaration as the Queen would have to be more extravagant, I guess.
We'll need to hold a ball sort of party inviting the Alphas all over the world.
Trust me, it will be a day of celebration to all the werewolves.
Besides before I declare you as the Queen, I'd have to claim you of course. At least mark you."
As I sit there looking like a human sized tomato hearing his last to statements, he continues.
"Tonight will be more of a simple occasion.
Just the pack wolves. The acceptation rituals and a party afterwards.
It'll be a children-friendly part for your information.
By its means, all pack wolves will be present.
There'll be food sharing, music and fun stuff, I guess.
It'll be over before midnight." He shrugs.
"I don't engage in those stuff. We can return before the party, if you want. What do you think?"
I'm too stunned to react but I manage to nod in approval.
"Then that's it, I guess. It's time, shall we get going?" He asks getting up from his seat. "Sure, why not? Rick, I just wanted to ask something." He halts, turning to me. "I was wondering whether I could check on that girl. My last opponent for the trials..."
He looks taken aback for a moment but composes himself quickly.
"Do you mean Mia? Sure... Why not? Maybe after this thing's over.
You don't need to ask me, Blythe. It's your pack too.
You're its Luna. But just make sure you control your wolf.
Last time wasn't exactly magical and she's not making any progress either. " I nod understandingly.
"And Blythe I won't be able to accompany I have some work to attend to. So..."
"Yeah sure no problem," I reply.
He leads me out soon after and we get into his car to go to the pack house. That's where the meeting was going to be held. I wonder what they'll ask me.
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