Chapter 180
The Guard was carrying Angus’s body over his shoulder- showing no mercy or remorse. It was a job, and he did it and something tells me he was happy about it. Werewolves and humans don’t co-exist. We don’t help each other or like each other- we don’t even tolerate each other. At least that was the rule. Darian stood still staring at me when the Guard passed him.
“Why did you say no?”
I don’t know. The word slipped from my lips like it was an exhale, two letters could do a lot of damage but I don’t even know why I said it.
Angus’s arms hung limply down the guard’s back and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
“Hazel,” he grabbed my chin and turned my head til I averted my eyes and locked them with his.
“I don’t know,” my voice was a hushed tone, I could barely hear it myself so I cleared my throat and swallowed.
“I don’t know,” I repeated louder and more confident.
Darian searched my face, his lips parted like there were words on the tip of his tongue but when his features contorted I asked myself if maybe he was holding back. instead of yelling, threatening, or questioning me further, Darian closed his mouth, turned around, and left. His shoulders were raised and his finger coiled and stretched two times on his way back.
A man, hell-bent on overthrowing Darian, desperately asking for my help to do so was killed and it wasn’t I who had done it. I talked to him. I even thanked him.
And then I objected to his death.
I raked a hand through my hair and looked at the patch of blood on the ground where Angus’s body had rolled before the Guard broke his neck.
I screwed up.
This one was on me.
My lungs filled with the chilly air and rushed to my head in an oxygen high. It felt like my ribs were pressing in towards my heart and my hands were shaking but not from the cold. I felt bad, Darian must think I valued Angus’s life over his. That’s what I would think if I heard him defending someone who
was out to ruin me.
“Busy mind,” a deep, dark voice chimed in.
My breath hitched and my eyes hooded. The black fog shifted around me and I turned to face Zade. I had to lean my head back when I saw how close he stood. His cobalt blue eyes were mesmerizing as always, staring into my soul and reading every thought in my mind. Read my mind, I don’t care, I’m too tired to care about that.
I wasn’t prepared for him to reach out, he carefully grabbed a lock of my hair and dragged it between his fingers. His features were rough and his eyes flickered over my lips as he gently tipped his head to the side.
“I still remember how you taste,” he said hoarsely.
His thumb graced the surface of my lips and I held my breath, forced it back into my lungs, and stiffened.
The blag fog swirled from his black shirt and the inked snake on his arm was still, like an actual tattoo. It didn’t make any sense why the fog would still seep around us, he was here, he stood in front of me and the fog only appeared when he left or arrived.
It was as though he stood in limbo but why?
He made sure to appear after Darian left and he was inside right now, I should be with him.
“Do you want to know a secret?” Zade asked.
Tiny bumps grew on my skin when he leaned in and I felt his warm breaths against my ear. I heard someone behind me, running across the ground and I
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Chapter 180
felt a strong, powerful presence but it wasn’t Darian.
Zade’s fingers circled around my arm and my chest pushed against him when I inhaled deeply. The whisper of his words sent each hair into an upright position down my body and my shoulders froze.
“The King was never the key,”
The pressure of an arm pushing me aside had me down on the ground and I watched as Gabe lunged at Zade. But where there should be two there were only one. Gabe sat on his knees in the middle of a black cloud, the fog that seeped away from between his fingers and melted into the wind. Eventually, it was just him, he hung his head and his hands were relaxed at his sides.
That’s what the limbo was, it made sense, Zade knew he might need a quick getaway. Not that he was without it when all of him was present in one place.
I looked back at the palace, Darian must be going crazy, and then I looked back at Gabe looking more defeated than I had ever seen. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him defeated before.
I sighed and walked over to him. We hadn’t talked for a while, ever since his comment regarding my good-for-nothing proactive skills.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do for those girls, he should have known that.
“Gabe?”
He shook his head without looking up at me.
He was tired. We were all tired. It was impossible to do this right because nobody had a clue about what this was. The bits and pieces that we did have kept changing around with each new clue and it felt like we’d never see the whole picture of the puzzle.
“Hey, look at me,” I put my hand on his shoulder. Gabe got up on one knee and pushed himself up to his feet in a hurry. My hand fell from him as he walked past me but after a few steps, he stopped. He lifted his head and his body melted from a single exhale that he had been holding for quite some time.
“I had no right to say those things,” he said. Why wasn’t he looking at me?
“Forget it, I plan to,” I smirked.
He turned swiftly with a tortured gaze and his hair fell in front of his face.
“I can’t! The look on your face when I said those things- how I felt after I had said them, I can’t forget about it. After everything you’ve been put through since coming into our lives… the last thing I should have done was make it harder for you,” he gestured with his hands when he spoke and his red eyes were pleadingly desperate.
“But I did,” his hands lowered along with his voice. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,”
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The Alpha’s Hunt
