Chapter 21 - Rissa
“Are you sure you wanna continue charging the traps?” Yvonne asks with a skeptical frown. “We’ve been at it all day.”
I nod eagerly, a genuine smile of reassurance on my lips.
For days, we’ve been working hard to charge up more traps since the one we used was successful.
Determined to do everything in my power to help take out the threat for good, I’ve been working overtime to ensure that all the traps are ready for use.
“I’m sure,” I assure Yvonne, the memory in the back of my mind fueling my determination.
How could I forget Brooks’s joy and pride when they killed the demon with the help of the trap the other night?
Somehow, we’d gotten even closer, and there’s this innate need to keep proving myself to him if it yields the reward of the freedom and liberation I tasted when we sprinted through the woods, only to come back home and have him make love to me as if he worshipped my body and even the ground I walked on.
Riding that high seems to be firing up my powers, and I’m able to give my all to harnessing those powers and charging up the traps.
Yvonne giggles, shaking her head as if the untold secret is no secret at all. “This is because of Brooks, isn’t it?”
Blushing profusely, I sigh and admit, “I can’t hide it anymore, can I?”
“Of course not. I’ve never seen that man happier than he is with you. Actually, I’ve never seen him smile at all before you entered his life.”
“Yeah…he was pretty grumpy,” I concede with a nervous giggle. “But so was I, when it came to him.”
Yvonne places a hand on my shoulder. “That’s the beauty of finding your fated mate. It changes everything. I would know.”
“So you knew he was my fated mate?” I ask with a skeptically raised brow. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Yvonne sighs. “It would have taken away the experience of feeling it and discovering it for yourself. I’d been through it with Dawson, so I know that I wouldn’t have believed it if anyone told me, unless I felt it for myself.
And that’s how I realized I was in love with him. Always was, always will be.”
“Love…?” I mull over the word with a frown as my mind wanders into consideration of her statement. “Hm…”
“That’s what you feel for him, isn’t it? That’s why you’re working so hard to do all of this.”
“No,” I dismiss with a nervous chuckle. “I’m only doing this for the pack’s safety.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Yvonne snorts. “Don’t work too hard, though. Gio’s been asking for you.”
“I’ll come visit soon,” I say, thankful for the change of subject.
But when Yvonne leaves the meadow, I’m left with my thoughts again, wondering if it is love I feel for Brooks.
Just a few weeks ago, it was hatred I felt for the alpha.
Now that the hatred has gone, has love replaced the emotion? Is it even possible to love the man who once abused me simply because of my rank in the pack?
He already apologized for it, and we’ve since forged a friendship that’s slowly growing into an unnamed bond that allows our mate bond to thrive.
My heart skips a beat as if it’s trying to tell me something, but I ignore it to focus on the task at hand. Rubbing my hands together to warm them up to charge the trap, I’m just about to let the wielding of my magic distract me from my thoughts when I hear footsteps on the grass behind me.
Turning around as if I’m expecting to see Brooks, even though he’s out patrolling the perimeter tonight, the smile is wiped off my face when I see Laura instead. Groaning internally, my eyes flicker to my surroundings, wondering how on Earth she found me out here.
“Rissa Rudolph,” Laura calls my name bitterly as she stalks forward as if she’s a model making the catwalk. “I thought I’d find you out here.”
“I’m busy, Laura. What do you want?”
Laura’s lips curl into a sadistic smile. “You think just ‘cause you’re a witch, you’re deserving of Brooks,” she scoffs. “You’re still an omega, Rissa Rudolph. The only one fit to be Brooks’s mate is me.”
“Get over yourself, Laura,” I shake my head in disbelief, turning back to my task. “Brooks already told you to leave me alone. I don’t have time for this.”
Laura snickers behind me. “You see, that’s the thing that makes you weak. You need Brooks to protect you. Without him, you’re nothing.”
I roll my eyes in irritation, my palms tingling with the need to release my magic. Expecting that ignoring her will send the message that she needs to go, I’m startled when I’m suddenly pushed over.
The force is so strong that I fall onto my face, activating the trap when my hand triggers it. My eyes widen in horror as I realize that the trap was just activated, and it will inevitably signal the demon to Girdwood.
“What have you done, Laura!” I exclaim as I flip myself over and glare at her.
“Just teaching you a lesson, bitch!” she spits as she leans over and guffaws in my face, sending shockwaves of red, hot anger surging through me. “You shouldn’t have messed with me!”
“And you shouldn’t have pushed me!” I roar as an uncontrollable surge runs through me, and without thinking, I lift my hands and strike Laura with my magic.
She spins through the air and falls into a pathetic pile in a fit of dramatic cries and wails.
“Help me! Somebody help me!” she cries just as an anguished wolf howl rings out from the edge of the woods.
Oh, no!
Something must have happened out there.
Quickly pulling myself together, I try to turn off the trap using my magic, but my hands are trembling too much. I can hear the sounds of howling and whimpering cries from the patrol wolves at the edge of the forest, while Laura squeals behind me.
“She attacked me! The witch attacked me!” she wails, and my heart is pounding when I turn around, only to find that a group of Snehvolk wolves follow the finger Laura has pointed at me, glaring at me accusingly.
“She pushed me first!” I defend, but it’s pointless, because this looks really bad.
It’s even worse when the patrol guards come racing toward the commotion, emerging from the depths of the woods where something terrible must have happened.
I can sense it in the hostility in their beady eyes that keep me pinned in place.
What’s worse is that amongst them, there’s a pair of silver eyes that come toward me.
Brooks shifts into human form as he marches forward, taking note of the activated trap before grabbing the cord that powers it and ripping it from the device.
“What the fuck happened?!” Brooks bellows as he stares down at me.
“She used her magic to hurt me!” Laura cries out from where the other pack members are helping her to her feet.
“Shut up!” Brooks roars at Laura while he glares at me. “I’m asking you what happened.”
Brooks’s gravelly tone as he grinds out the question through gritted teeth has my pulse racing, and a shiver of fear skitters down my spine.
“Sh-she pushed me, and it activated the trap,” I mumble shamefully, hanging my head when it becomes impossible to look into his furious eyes. “I retaliated by pushing her back. Using my—my magic.”
I hear Brooks’s furious intake of breath as he slowly turns toward the chaotic group where Laura stands.
“A member of our pack died at the hands of the demon near the river.”
My breath catches, and I look up in shock.
“The demon was lured here because of this trap,” he fumes as he points to the device on the ground. “It took advantage of a fellow Snehvolk wolf because this thing was activated.”
Brooks’s anger is evident in the furious glint in his eyes, and I reach out instinctively for his shoulder. “Brooks, I’m—”
He cuts me off by shrugging away from my touch, turning to me with a dark, menacing glare.
“Go home, Rissa. I will take care of this mess myself,” he commands flatly, his eyes full of disappointment.
It’s that disappointment that leads me to rush back home without protest, my heart pounding with the fear that I’ve committed a terrible crime against the pack I’ve committed to help.
I can’t forget the way Brooks glared at me, or that someone died because of what happened with Laura.
It’s all my fault, even if I wasn’t the one who activated the trap in the first place. But no matter how hard I try to console myself, nothing seems to be working after Brooks looked at me like I was the biggest disappointment in his life.
After waiting in the kitchen all night for him, he finally returns at the stroke of midnight. I want to apologize for my part in this mess, but he passes the kitchen as if he’s avoiding it.
“Brooks…” I catch him in the hallway on his way to the staircase.
“Not now, Rissa,” he says without turning, his voice emotionless. “It’s been a long night.”
His inability to turn to face me has my heart breaking into a million pieces in a matter of seconds when he takes the stairs and leaves me at the bottom.
That’s when I realized that I was waiting for him to defend me out there, instead of sending me home as if I were the guilty one. Now that the guilt threatens to strangle me because of his coldness toward me, my heart is crushed.
This is exactly why I couldn’t allow myself to feel anything for Brooks except the resentment I held on to for many years. Feeling anything else opens me up to this kind of heartbreak, and as I crumple to my knees with tears staining my eyes, I feel worse than I did when he bullied me.
His coldness is much worse than his horrible words.