Chapter 173
We were in one of the many malls browsing the stores and filling up on doughnuts and ice cream. Kiera was gawking at an assortment of stuffed animals and I told her to get anything she wanted. The girl walked over and picked a bunny, a grey one, and her eyes flickered around like she was ashamed to give
it to me.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything else?” I asked her. Kiera looked up at me with the biggest eyes I’d ever seen and shook her little head.
It was like she was constantly living in fear of something, wanting to take as little place as possible and preferably just not be seen at all.
“Let’s pay for it,” I reached out my hand to take the bunny and head to the cashier but as I held it for her to put the bunny in, she instead placed her little hand in mine and folded her fingers.
She looked over at the line of people paying for their toys and waited for me to move but I seemed to be stuck and my heart was pounding in my chest while the tears teased my blurry eyes.
Eventually, she looked up at me like she was asking’ Are you gonna move?’ And I smiled, gave her hand a light squeeze and we started walking. It wasn’t easy, I wanted to freeze that moment for a while.
Kiera hadn’t been very close to me since she got to the palace, with good reason, I was a complete stranger who had taken part in her losing her mother.
I threw a quick glance at Nora who’s jaw was on the floor and tears were building in her eyes when she watched us. She pinched her lips shut in a pout and shook her head.
We must’ve been into every kid store and book store, not even getting a glimpse in the clothing stores because Nora and I were the only ones interested in that and I didn’t want the kids to get bored.
But you know when you see that one piece of clothing and you know you need it? That’s what happened when I looked at Selma’s, a beautiful brand that designed glorious dresses and in the window hung a minidress in the most perfect shade of glimmering green.
Suddenly I was imagining me and Nora at a club, dancing our asses off and me wearing that.
“Just a quick peek?” I said carefully and Nora was nodding her head frantically but the other two didn’t seem too thrilled. But you know what? We have bought toys and books, food and dessert, they are happy and well-fed so I can take ten minutes to try on and definitely buy that dress.
Kiera followed without a sound and Mathilda only whined for a moment but I hurried and took my size and headed into the dressing room.
Nora helped me with the zip while sipping on champagne out of a flute. I spun around and almost cried at the beauty I saw, not me- the dress.
The awing and o’ing from Nora enchanted the experience in a delightfully ridiculous way and I laughed til my stomach hurt and spun around until the mirror made me want to vomit. Okay, It’s good but I needed two more votes of approval so I threw up the divider and struck a pose with my hand in the air and my toes pointed out.
All that, only for my heart to drop into my stomach when I noticed that Mathilda and Kiera weren’t there on the red ottoman where they’d sat like statues not ten minutes ago.
Where the hell did they go? I ran out and looked around the store. Nora pulled open every divider and looked in the dressing rooms but all I heard were people shouting at her to get away,
“Mathilda?!”
“Kiera?!”
We shouted throughout the store and I rushed to one of the saleswomen.
“The two young girls that were with us have you seen them?” I put my hands on the counter and the girl looked at my chest, she could probably see my heart beating out of it. Or maybe she heard it, it was beating louder than the music!
“I haven’t, I’m sorry,”
“Fuck!”
1/3
Chapter 173
We ran out of the store and the alarm went off while the women ran to the front to stop us.
Their eyes glowed as their wolves stepped up but if I had to go through them I would, so they better stand back.
“Kiera! Mathilda! Answer me damit!”
I tried to look everywhere all at once and sniff them out but I couldn’t see shit and the panic was rising rapidly. It happened just like in the bedroom with Darian, my panic attacks were far more frequent and they started after Darian’s continuous torture. But I couldn’t faint right now, not now. I had to find
them.
“Mathilda?!”
“Oh my god,” I cried and I clasped at my chest.
“We’ll find them,” Nora started but I snapped.
“How the fuck are we going to find them here? Where could they even be?!”
I looked around but everyone was in the way.
“EVERYONE STOP FUCKING MOVING!” I growled and the entire mall froze like person-shaped cubes of ice.
Please, please, please…come on, show me something.
“Trixy, anything?”
“Nothing.” She snarled.
“I’m gonna die,” I breathed and tried to control my faltering vision but FUCK that was hard.
If anything happened to them it would literally kill me. It’s been too much already, we were supposed to breathe now. But I couldn’t, I couldn’t breathe.
A loud echoing chirp rippled through my mind and I held my breath.
‘Get home. Now’
‘No I can’t, something happened. Kiera and Mathilda, we can’t find them and-‘
‘They’re here. Get back’
Darian ordered coldly and shut off the mind link. I heaved a breath and held it in my lungs, not knowing if I could let it or not. It felt like I was falling apart, my heart was still in the dressing room at Selma’s and I felt the first tear leave a cold trace on my cheek.
“Hazel?” Nora stressed out.
“They’re home,” I said breathlessly.
“What, how?”
I looked at her and shook my head.
They couldn’t have gotten home that fast. At least not on their own.
We hurried out of the mall and found the driver outside, so he hadn’t driven them. Then how the fuck did they get home?
2/3
The Alpha’s Hunt
