ROWAN
“Why are you still crying?” I ask in exasperation as I wipe my daughter’s face. “I haven’t even scolded you yet.”
Her face is red and blotchy, her eyes are more vibrant with the pools of tears in her eyes and her nose hasn’t stopped running.
Yes, my daughter is a messy crier.
“You told Louis to go away!” She cries out. ” you sent him away. I thought you liked him,” she continues.
“I did but then he lied to me. I-”
“I lie to you too, will you tell me to leave too,” she hiccups.
“What?! Now!” I answer in despair. “You are my baby and I love you. I could never kick you out.”
“But you kicked Louis out. And he is your mate. You are supposed to love your mate too.”
“Jhnelle…”
“You are also supposed to forgive them when they offend you. And he even said he was sorry. Why don’t you want to forgive him?”
“It is complicated, sweetie. I-”
“Everything is always complicated with you. Go away!” She screams as she turns away from me. “I don’t want to talk to you anymore!”
I stare at her in shock before leaning down to peck her but she evades me.
“Go away!”
She drags the blanket higher and hides underneath determined to wait me out.
I could argue.
Force her to listen but I don’t.
I don’t want to say the wrong thing and hurt her feelings anymore than it already is.
Not when I am still this sore.
And mad.
“Good night, sweetie,” I say before heading out of her room.
She doesn’t answer and I gently close the door.
Hopefully, by tomorrow she will have calmed down.
I head back to the study and I have just taken my seat when a knock sounds in the door.
“Come in,” I call out with a sigh and watch as Alden walks in.
“Alden? What is it?”
“Louis showed up,” he answers.
Of course, he did.
I honestly didn’t expect him to just give in like that.
He has always been stubborn.
“I hope you didn’t let him in?” I ask
“Of course, not. And he didn’t force it either.”
“I see. What did he want?”
“To see you. I told him that it won’t be possible.”
“And? How did he take it?”
“I think… he kind of expected it. He didn’t want to fight.”
“Hmm.”
“He left a message,” he continues into the silence. “For you.”
“Okay?”
“He said he was sorry.”
He is sorry.
Well, if sorry could fix things, the world wouldn’t be like this now would it?
“I am sure he is,” I mutter. “Is that all?”
“Yes. Um, actually…”
“Yes, Alden.”
“I wanted to ask, what happened? Why did you… ban him? I thought you trusted him.”
“I did. But then I found out he was a liar.”
“A lie?”
“Louis, doesn’t exist.”
“Ah… then who is he?”
“The man that has been spending time with us is named Viktor Thorn, Alpha of the Vale pack.”
“Alpha?!”
“Yeah. The winter wolf coalition has been housing one the most dreaded Alphas in existence.”
“Oh… that… that is not good,” he says.
“No,” I concur. “It is not.”
“What if he uses what he has learnt of us against us?”
“Which is why we need to be ready. I don’t know if he has been feeding information back to his pack but we should assume that. How quickly can you change the schedules, training and all of our protocols?”
“It… it could take many months, Guia. We worked hard on those.”
“Yes, I know. You know what, try and do the most you can now, while we will all work together to change things. We have enemies surrounding us now, we can’t afford to let our guards down.”
“And we still don’t know who the spy is.”
“Hmm. Continue as I told you to do before, keep their information fragmented and on a need to know basis. We just need to get through this storm.”
“Got it. Good night, Guia.”
“Good night.”
It is not up to ten minutes after he left that the door pushes open and both Lisa and Rina walk in.
“We just heard,” Rina says as she hurries towards me.”Louis is banned from the settlement?
“Why?” Lisa demands.
“Because he is a liar,” I answer as I close my eyes, completely exhausted.
“Liar?” Rina asks.
“His memory loss, was it a lie?” Lisa asks
“Yeah. As well as his name.”
“What is his name then?”
“Viktor. Viktor Thorn,” I answer.
“Thorn? Of the Vale pack?!” Lisa exclaims.
“Yes.”
“Wait, the same pack that your parents died fighting in?”
“The very one.”
“Damn. That… that is just messed up. how did you find out?” Lisa wonders.
“I heard a wolf call him alpha,” I answer and go on to give her a run down version of everything that happened after.
“What.. what did he say to that? Did he give any explanation?” Rina asks as she collapses in the chair in front of me.
“Does it matter?” I reply.
“Yes, Rowan it does. I saw the man, I saw the way he looked at you. He loves you and I don’t think he wanted to deceive you.”
“And yet, that’s what he did.”
“Not everything is black and white. You of all people should know that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I am saying don’t judge him. Look at us, before we became rogues ourselves, we all probably believed what we heard about rogues and now we know different. He must have a good reason to have done this.”
“Of course, he did,” Lisa says. “He woke up and found himself in enemy’s territory, he had to protect himself. I don’t blame him.”
“Oh, that is great. You are all saints.”
“Rowan…”
“Leave me. Both of you. The last thing I need is to be told how wrong I am.”
“Rowan!”
“Leave!”