Chapter 19
Ignatius-
When I ha
first set out on that frosty garden path with Dorothy, I had no intention of pilling my deepest burdens in the dark. I had merely an inkling of an idea. I recalled a mall clearing in the forest nearby that I had discovered on one of many quiet walks hrough the slow mornings.
thought it would be perfect for someone who had undergone so much tragedy and haos over just two days. The cool air and stillness of the clearing had always calmed ne. I hoped it would do the same for her.
The sudden music was a perfect touch that I, unfortunately, could take no credit for. That was all thanks to Mrs. Weatherdowne, the owner of the blue villa itself. She lived just down the road and had chosen that specific moment to crank up the old record. player and bless us with Tchaikovsky.
Waltzing in the woods with Dorothy in my arms, I felt something inside of me – something that had lay dead for a long time suddenly spark back to life. It was a small flame and it was a weak one. But it was there.
Tor sensed the magnitude of the situation, the importance of the scene playing out, and graced me with his respectful silence as we danced.
I don’t know why I broke down in the dark afterward, with Dorothy still perched on my back. It felt as if, along with the new life that was blooming inside my chest, came a tidal wave of emotions that I had never fully put to rest. Carrying her then, shivering in my arms, I realized that I wanted to.
I wanted to be better, to do better. Both for her and my entire future pack. I would never truly forgive myself for what I did to Claire. Her death would weigh heavy on my chest for the rest of my life.
But the least I could do was use that grief to fuel me. To push me to be a better leader, better lover, and better friend. No amount of atonement would ever bring her back. But Dorothy was here. She was alive and breathing. I vowed to never again sacrifice another life for the sake of my own personal growth. I would not make the same mistake twice.
It was this vow, this promise to myself that allowed me to keep my cool when waiting in the kitchen. Dorothy had opened her mind to me and I could hear the conversation between her and Johan with perfect clarity.
I wanted to rage, to lurch at him with all of my strength, and knock him to the floor. A part of me thought him weak, the kind of weak that begged for sympathy. But I didn’t feel sympathetic. Johan had chosen his fate when he rejected Dorothy. To go back on
54%
151 Thu Jun
Chapter 19
his word now, after causing so much pain, was pathetic.
Then again, I thought to myself as I cleared my head and breathed deeply, how could we have expected anything else? Mavis had a hold over Johan before the two of us had even become friends.
When you have spent so much of your short life living around someone else, are you even your own person anymore? Are you anyone at all without the partner you’ve molded yourself around?
I had seen the hollow space in his eyes, the empty cavity in his chest that Mavis used to occupy. Without her. Johan was lost, listless. And I couldn’t blame him for that. Mavis had possessed him, b*dy, mind, and soul.
And now she had abandoned her husk of a partner for someone else. Someone who wanted her because of the intense pull of the mating call. Johan had wanted her even without that instinctual drive.
With this understanding in mind, I continued to listen to them speak, still fearing slightly for Dorothy’s safety in the presence of a man who had lost everything. The kettle sat, long since abandoned on the kitchen counter. The water was slowly turning cold once more.
I had settled myself.
the breakfast nook in the corner when I heard Johan’s tone change. He was pleading with Dorothy, begging like a madman. He was all over the place, coming undone before her eyes and I could feel it. I stood up and put my hand on the doorknob, pausing when Dorothy asked me to wait.
I wanted to trust that she could handle this. I ‘did’ trust her. It was Johan I was skeptical of at that moment. People are capable of anything when they think they have nothing left to lose. It was only when his voice rose that I probed Dorothy’s mind again, insisting that I intervene. Johan was shouting at her, at the world.
His final comment had pushed too far. I men tally apologized to Dorothy for not being able to take it any longer and kicked open the door, fully ready to knock Johan off his feet. I wasn’t prepared, however, for the sudden appearance of Mavis at exactly the same time.
I saw her eyes scan the room, switching from Johan, to me, to Dorothy in the blink of an eye. Her expression soured when her eyes fell on Dorothy and I thought that maybe I’d have tw
rogue werewolves on my hands by the time this was over.
Mavis was the first to speak, breaking the sudden silence that had descended upon our little unintentional gathering.
“You ba st ard.”
20
1:25 THÙ, Là làn
Chapter 19
Her scathing words were directed at Johan, who stared at her like a deer caught in headlights. “You came running straight back to her. I knew you wanted her. You disgust
me.”
She swiveled her head to look at Dorothy, poised like a cobra waiting to strike. “And you. You just can’t help yourself. Picking at my scraps because you can’t get anyone else.”
Dorothy stepped away from Johan and towards me. “What are you doing here, Mavis? And who’s your friend?”
I cast my eyes to the tall man who had entered behind Mavis. His hair was wilder than mine and Johan’s combined, and he was looking around the room in bewilderment.
“Plato,” he said, unsure of what exactly the situation was that he’d found himself in. “I’m Mavis’s ma-”
“He’s my mate,” Mavis interrupted him. I could see that she took pleasure in how the words made Johan wince. “As I was so kindly explaining to Johan before he bolted off my porch like a wounded animal.”
She glared at Johan. “I knew you’d come here. Even after Ignatius has stolen your darling little Dorothy, you still come running for your friend.”
Johan seemed frozen on the spot, his claws still sharped and ready to tear.
“Mavis,” Dorothy warned her, edging away from Johan and sl*pping her hand in mine. “Leave him alone.”
Mavis continued like she hadn’t heard Dorothy, approaching Johan like a parent scolding a child, “I was going to choose you. But you just had to run away, didn’t you? Back to Dorothy. Because all this time you wanted her instead of me. You blew chance, Johan. This is all your fault.”
I knew she was lying. I could smell her scent all over
your
said; Mavis had already made her choice. This was her revenge, her coverup. She was
her b*dy. It was like Johan has
pinning it on Johan to case her own guilt..
bod behind her. I could smell his scent ravaged all ward-looking stranger who
Dorothy caught this too. “Get out Mavis, If you’re done with Johan you have no reason to stay any longer.”
The stranger placed a tentative hand on Mavis’s shoulder. “Maybe we should leave…”
I could see this only riled Johan up more. It was one thing knowing that your partner had chosen another, it was another thing to see the exchange in person.
9% 54%
Chapter 19
The stranger – Plato – could sense the tension in the air. He wasn’t oblivious to Johan’s eyes fixed on him the source, Johan seemed to think, of all his problems.
Mavis wrenched herself away from the gentle hand and stepped close to Johan, grabbing his shirt. “Say something. Say something, you pathetic waste of potential.”
“Enough, Mavis!” My voice boomed around the tiny living room. Dorothy started beside me and moved her hand to grip my arm. I bared my teeth at Mavis. “I think it’s time for you two to leave.”
Plato seemed like he didn’t want any trouble. He threw an apologetic glance in my direction as he tugged at Mavis, coaxing her away from Johan. “Mavis, love. Come on, let’s go.”
But Mavis would not go. She was angry and determined to squeeze every ounce of life out of Johan before she left. She didn’t want him. But she wanted him completely incapacitated without her.
Johan was a statue, a stone wall. He wasn’t defending himself. This was an opportunity Mavis could not allow herself to miss.
Suddenly, Mavis’s earlier remarks seemed to register in Plato’s mind. He kept his grip on her arm. “You were going to choose him?”
0 22
Mavis paused and turned to look at him and then swept her gaze back to Johan. “What? No, I just – ”
She knew she’d been caught out. To admit that she’d been lying would be to let Johan off the h ook, to deny it would mean she’d lied to her so-called true mate. For the first time ever, I watched Mavis with her sharp tongue and quick wit, falter.
Plato stepped back, looking at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. “Back there, you told me that you wanted me. That you’d been waiting for me. You said you and Johan were over for good.”
“I – Plato, I just-”
“You lied.”
Plato rubbed his eyes like he was struggling to make sense of it. “You lied. Why? To get me to sleep with you? You said you’d ended things with this guy.”
He gestured to Johan before taking a few more steps back towards the door.
I knew I should intervene. Dorothy was pric king at my mind, urging me to step in before another altercation broke out. But I was watching the downfall of Mavis. The fall from grace that had been a long time coming.
54%
Chapter 19
I knew Dorothy, despite her need to put a stop to things, was just as curious to watch the implosion going down before our eyes. I peeped into her mind. She was enjoying it.
Mavis was looking back and forth between her lovers like a caged animal. She needed a vice, someone to lay the blame on. Anyone but herself. Her eyes settled on Dorothy.
“Everything was fine until you stepped into the picture,” she seethed, her shoulders. hunched forwards like she was going to shift. “You ruined everything.”
Dorothy shook her head. “No, Mavis I don’t think I did. I shouldn’t have stopped Johan from rejecting me. That was wrong and for that I am sorry.”
She directed those last words at Johan before continuing. “But Johan did what you asked him to Mavis. He rejected me for you. You are the one who failed him. You were unfaithful. This is on you.”
I watched the hackles rise on Mavis’s shoulders as her face contorted into a vicious snarl. “Lana was right. Right from the beginning. I should have just let them kill you when they had the chance.”
Without realizing it, Mavis had revealed her true nature to her mate, and Plato, who had been so passive until then, was appalled.
“Who are you?” he asked her, but from the tone of his voice, he already had his answer. He saw the snare trap he had begun to enter and chose to escape before it was too late. Before he ended up just like Johan.
“I don’t think I want this, Mavis.”
She turned to him, still in the limbo between forms – neither wolf nor girl.
“What did
you say?”
I put my arms around Dorothy at the deep, ferocious tone of Mavis’s scratchy voice. Plato took another step back. He seemed nervous and out of his depth but his voice was firm. “I don’t want this, Mavis. I don’t want you.”
He looked me dead in the eye and a glimmer of understanding and mutual respect passed between us. “I’m sorry,” he said directly to me and then looked at Johan. “I’m so sorry.”
He understood Johan’s pain, his anger. His apology ran deeper than just making up for what he’d done with Mavis. He was apologizing for the wreckage that his true mate had
left in her wake.
With that, he cast one last look of remorse at Mavis and left.
54
Chapter 19
Mavis followed after him without another word to any of us. She was clearly shaken at Plato’s sudden change of heart. I don’t think it had ever occurred to her that she could replace herself at the receiving end of a devastating rejection.
She left the door wide open behind her and the cold winter air chilled us all. Johan seemed to awake from his hypnosis and took one lumbering step forward and then another.
“Mavis…” I had never heard his voice so small, so broken. “Mavis, come back.”
I left Dorothy’s side and put a hand to his chest. “She’s gone, Johan. You have to let her go. I think “The sigh that escaped me was one of remorse and sympathy for my old friend. “I think this is for the best.”
Johan looked past me, towards Dorothy.
“There’s nothing left. I have nothing.”
He pushed past me and walked out of the door. His final words, spoken over his shoulder made me understand that this may be the last time I would ever see my dear friend. It made me realize that Johan was no longer my friend at all.
“You won.”
色
SEND GIFT
0
COMMENT
Chapter 20
-Ignatius-
Both Dorothy and I stood motionless, r
If you replace any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.
Report