We stood in front of the Alpha in silence as he glanced between Alexander and I.
"Thank you for waiting, Alexander... Aria," he started. I still couldn't read his face, his expression not giving me any hints to the results.
"The council and I have discussed this at long length and the result was... a tie."
My mouth opened in shock as I stared at Tytus. A tie? What did that even mean for us then?
"It appears we were completely split in half, five to five. And so, Alexander...."
"Yes, Alpha?" my cousin replied, straightening his back as his name was called.
"You may continue with your training for Beta...."
"Yes!" my uncle yelled out, ecstatic with the victory. I almost couldn't believe he had spoken so childishly in front of the entire council.
But my heart sank at Tytus' words. Had I really failed? In my head, I instantly began to think of ways I could overturn the decision and have someone change their deciding vote.
It had Alpha Tytus written all over it.He had 'coincidentally' chosen a night my father was out of town and my mother was shifted to work at the hospital. This meant it would be just me... and Aleric.It seemed I had assumed incorrectly that Tytus was done trying to play matchmaker with us. When I had been accepted as a probationary Beta heir, naturally I had thought the surprise dates would come to an end. Did he think I was going to fail in my endeavour to best Alexander? Or was his idea that I could be persuaded to drop out of the running for the title if I fell for Aleric?Putting all of that aside, I now found myself with less than seven hours to get the entire house ready.To have the Alpha or Alpha heir come for dinner was considered a high enough honour already, but hosting Aleric would just make things more difficult. I'd never found him an easy person to please in my past.I worked tirelessly, from the moment I found out he was coming, t
"Miss?" a voice called out to me.My vision had slowly faded after the shocking realisation of what was happening, and I looked up to see Lucy leaning over me."Aria?" she called again, worried enough to drop the honorifics.I blinked several times, coming back to reality, but I could still feel my entire body shaking.'I was going to kill Aleric.'The thought kept repeating itself in my head and I didn't know what to do. In the past, my visions had shown me things caused by others that I needed to stop. But this time... this time it was me causing harm. How could things become so bad between us... that I ended up wanting to kill him?"Aria?" Lucy called again."Lucy... sorry," was all I could say, letting her know I was fine."Miss, you scared me!"She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. It was nice to know that even after all the hell and extra duties I gave her, she still seemed to care about me.
The conversation with my parents hadn't really ended up being much of a conversation. There wasn't much they could do when the Alpha was personally ordering it. My father did give me a look of concern though, which I reciprocated with a nod of encouragement. I didn't like it either, but I'd told myself I was going to be okay.Within the week, I was packed and waiting outside for when my lift would arrive.I had been told to be ready by six in the morning because it would take all day to arrive at the Golden Blade pack. I wasn't looking forward to the long drive but I was outside waiting in the cold morning nonetheless.Finally, a black car pulled up and I opened the boot, throwing my suitcase in. Normally someone would have come out to do it for me, but it wasn't exactly like Ineededanyone to do it. I was perfectly capable of doing it... it was just odd.I walked over to get in but, when I went to sit in the back seat, suddenly the do
"What do you want?" Aleric yelled out to them.They either didn't hear or had no desire to answer because they approached us slowly without hesitation.It was clear what their intention was."Aleric?" I called out nervously. "What's wrong with them?"I could see from here that something was off.Wrong. Their clothes were dishevelled and they looked like they hadn't seen a proper bath in years. But not just that, they were also giving off some sort of weird vibe. Like they were sick......And dangerous."They look like rogues," Aleric said, moving closer to my side to get into a defensive position. "You need to get out of here.""You're joking, right?" I snapped. "I can handle myself in a fight, Aleric. What do you think I've been doing all these months?"But his explanation made sense given their appearance. Normally, anyone who left a pack could be accepted into another after due process and screening. So, this m
I sat by Aleric's bed in the Golden Blade's hospital, having waited a few hours now for him to wake up.Much to my relief, the doctors said he would make a full recovery despite everything that had happened. They successfully managed to remove the knife and seal him up until his body's natural healing ability could kick in.Any minute now he would be waking up... and that ended up being exactly the case.He opened his eyes slowly, looking around the room with eyelids still heavy, until he finally saw me."Aria...?" he mumbled weakly."I'm here," I replied, moving a bit closer.I guess the nickname was staying and I still wasn't sure how to feel about it."What happened...?"I realised he must have had some drugs left in his system as he sounded a bit out of it all still."It was a silver knife," I explained. "You're lucky to be alive."He just nodded drowsily, settling back into the bed again."You realise
I stared at him in disbelief.I never thought I was going to see him again, and yet here he was."...Cai?" was all I managed to say.And then a flood of different emotions hit me all at once, overwhelming me....But there was one that ended up prevailing above any other.I moved so quickly that I almost didn't even realise I did it… and slapped him across the cheek.Immediately, I stared down at my own hand in astonishment, bewildered at myself as he covered his face."...I probably deserved that," he said, and half laughed the whole thing off. "Wow, you really pack a punch these days, Aria."...Did I actually just hit him?I thought I was happy to see him? That I wanted his forgiveness?But I realised something else, something that had triggered me in the way he spoke."You don't write to me, you don't visit, and you left making me think you hated me," I snapped. "You can't just show up here, talkin
"...What?"I dropped my hands instantly and moved backwards out of his arms."Feelings for me? Like friendship? Because we had always been friends in my mind, Cai. It was you who denied it, remember?"My chest was beating so hard that I felt like I was about to faint.He walked towards me, immediately closing the space I'd just made between us, and cupped my face in his hand to make me look up at him. I felt frozen in place staring up into his eyes that appeared to be completely serious."You know what I meant, Aria," was all he said to clarify.I felt my mind go completely blank as he held my gaze, having been taken completely off-guard by his sudden confession. But finally, after a few moments, reality kicked in.I pushed my way backwards again, confusion slowly registering over everything he'd just said.How could that even be possible? If that was true, then why would he have waited so long to tell me? Why keep it from me f
There she was.Two years I'd been looking for her and yet it was like she had just fallen out of the sky, having been completely untraceable this entire time.And the nagging I'd been feeling inside my head? I should have met Thea months ago. Aleric first introduced us before his coming of age, so they should have already been dating at this point. I remembered that she hadn't been allowed to attend tonight's event however I couldn't recall why exactly.But she hadn't shown herself even once this entire time I'd come back. And, as far as I knew, she hadn't even shown herself to Aleric yet.And yet, here she was... staring right up at me.Like she knew who I was.My body immediately tensed up as I realised she must have found out I'd hired someone to track her down. That would explain how she had been able to avoid being found this entire time.Well, I'd already worked out she had begun orchestrating my death from possibly years