JADEI kept thinking what atlas said, long after he left. My mind was still on it. He didn’t say where he was going but he kept getting calls and he assured me he would be back. I don’t know why I nodded and smiled. Totally forgetting I was supposed to be angry at him for everything. The butterflies on my stomach made me forget anything like that.Ray has been with me and she’s trying her hardest to distract me from everything. She thinks I’m distraught. And I don’t know how to hell her I can’t even tell what I’m feeling. But sad and confused definitely isn’t one of them. Maybe I needed to be beat housings something is clearly wrong with me mentally.“You’re sure you’re not feeling type of pain?” The doctor asked, a kind smile gracing her lips.“Yes, I’m good.” I repliedI was a bit lost seeing how the pain completely disappeared. If I didn’t know better, I would say my body liked being in the hospital. But overall, I thought the whole thing was weird. She didn’t prescribe any pill
ATLASJade didn’t look too happy about that. Not to mention her younger sister who was shooting daggers my way. Yes, their father didn’t know we were heading here and I would rather it remains that way for a while.“Atlas, you can’t just decide to ship me off to a different place without notifying me beforehand.” She had a frown on her face and though it gutted me, I knew why I was doing this.I would much rather she has that smile I kept seeing all through this morning. I know as soon as he knows what is actually going on, she wouldn’t mind.“I’m sorry about that.” I said earnestly, walking up to her and taking her hand. I make sure she is looking at me before I speak. “There was no time to tell you and…” I paused, letting a small knowing smile lift one side of my lips in a half smile. “i knew you would argue.”“So you intentionally didn’t tell me?” She deadpanned.“Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” I replied and she sighed, looking like she was tired of my antics but a
JADERay fell asleep an hour into the flight. I think she has been in the hospital for a while, since I was sleeping because I didn’t see her until dad left.Donald picked her up and took her to the bedroom on the plane. When he came back, he went to the farther part of the jet, his attention solely on his iPad. He had a serious expression on his face all through.Atlas came to sit next to me after that. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even try to have a conversation. Just like he was completely satisfied with just sitting beside me. Me on the other hand, I couldn’t get my heart to calm down.I was so sure he could hear the erratic loud beating. Must be why he reached for my hand and have it a squeeze. As if telling me I wold be fine. Not knowing he is the reason I‘m so nervous.Somehow, I rested my head on his shoulder and we sat that way for the rest of the flight. Ray woke up when we were about to land. She’d glared at Atlas when she saw him sitting beside me. Before she dejectedly
ATLASI don’t know what reaction I expected from Jade, but it definitely wasn’t much. Did I hope for it to be much? Yes. Though, I was honest with myself enough to know there was a high chance it wouldn’t be that way.Still, I was very disappointed when she didn’t say anything. She just swallowed, looked down, refusing to meet my eyes and asked where her room was. Claiming she was tired from the flight and needed to lie down.I tried to not show how she gutted my heart. So, I forced a smile and told her to come along.Although, Ray had given me a look. It wasn’t much of a compliment but it didn’t hold as much contempt as her other looks usually did.“Your clothes are here.” I informed her after taking them to the luna’s room.Jade isn’t staying anywhere but there. Where is rightfully hers. Jade thanked me, still making sure to look at anything else but me. And after standing awkwardly for a few seconds, I turned and left. I was supposed to meet with Andrew anyway.I headed down to the
JADERay jumped on the bed the moment Atlas walks out of the room, she exiled a heavy breath and smiled up at me.“This bed feels like heaven.” I hummed in response, looking around the room. It was much bigger than the one in the pack house. And seeing as it was on the highest Lebel of the house. I’m guessing it is the luna’s room. I didn’t read too much into what that meant. Or I didn’t want to but I couldn’t help myself.Atlas was obviously sending a message. With the wedding portraits and now this. There was a part of me, the same one that contributed to the burning in my chest most of the time when I remember Annie and her presence in his life. She wanted to ask if Annie was okay with him hanging that picture in the house she probably lived in. I have to keep reminding myself to keep my mouth shut because that was not needed right now.“I’m taking a shower.” I told Ray, who was happily scrolling on her [hone. She nodded without even glancing at me.I was feeling too hot and the cl
ATLASI cursed myself for not figuring out what Ford was up to the moment we left. But I was distracted. Bt the thoughts of having Jade, I never thought it would be anything. And now this little issues he was bringing up, we could handle.There was already tension between the sixth circle and the council. Maybe it is time we finally end the relationship we had with them. They never respected the terms of the treaties that were put in place.It is why the next day, as early as four in the morning, I started getting ready to head to the impromptu meeting they had called. Andrew said they didn’t specify what they wanted to talk about, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Among the three topics at hand. It had to be one of them, or two, or it could even be all.I haven’t seen Jade since when we arrived and I took her to her room. And I did everything I could to not head there instead being focused on the things I should be worried about. It as too early for her to be awake but I still took the ch
JADEI woke up in the early hours of the morning. I didn’t know what woke e up but as soon as my eyes opened, I couldn’t bring myself to go back to sleep.I turned and saw Ray sleeping with her phone clapped tightly in her fist. She met have fallen asleep while on it. I recalled the last time she was watching some videos, seemingly ore relaxed than I have seen her in a while. I chuckled to myself.Myst have something to do with the extremely soft bed.She did mention how much she loved it.I laid on my back, staring at the ceiling while my hand caressed my bump. As expected, my mind drifted off to Atlas. I heard when he came back, and his room must be on this floor. He stopped by the door, like he was considering knocking and coming in. But then I heard him walk away.I was a little disappointed though I couldn’t tell the reason for the life of me. I wondered if he was in bed. What he was thinking about. Will he think of me? Does he think of me?I tried to shut the thoughts off when i
ATLASLoud incessant banging is what woke me up. At first, I was lost, still not used to being back home. And then I felt a warm body next to me. Not just a random body, but Jade. And I was sure this was a dream. So, like every sensible person in the world’s. Finding themself living on elf their best fantasies, I closed my eyes and hugged her tighter, not wanting the moment to end just yet. If it is a dream, you can be damn sure I wound’t want to wake up.But… her body felt too real. And so does my hard on. And the fucking knocking. I opened my eyed again and looked down at her sleeping form and everything made sense just then. Especially the loud banging at the door.I looked toward the window, the streaks of sunlight streaming through the lighter parts of the blinds made me groan a little under my breath.I’m so fucked. I immediately knew who was at the door. Against my very being, I pulled my body away from Jade’s, putting a pillow in my place which she immediately snuggled. Then I
JADE“i needed to come see him.”“Why?” He collected the baby from me “I told you that there's no need to. Why do you feel the need to come here even after I told you not to?!”“Because it's not just your victory! It's not just your life that he was after! It's mine too! And it's Ray's too! So yes, I needed to come down here to get closure.”He needed to understand that this meant something to me too, just as it did him.“Closure? Is that why you put the baby at risk? How much more closure do you need?”What on earth was he talking about?“Risk? Incase you didn't notice, I was there with him! I was at risk too! I needed him to look me in the eye and tell me why he did what he did to my family.”“Or maybe it's because you're too hung up on the past and you just can't let go. Incase you havent noticed, you're so stuck in the past and you are obsessing over it. Move on!”Well, I'm glad he finally got to say what he wanted to. Now I know how he feels about me trying to find answers. I w
JADEI didn't think it was worth it at first. Going to see the man that had made me grow up without parents and without the concept of what a true family felt like.But after much thought, he needed to know that all his plans failed and I was going to rub it in his face..I'd gotten all three pieces of the stone together and wore it around my locket.It would hurt him so bad to see that in the end, I won.Iniko decided that that was the right moment to start crying and everytime I dropped him back in his cot, he cried even louder.“Young man, what is it that you want? You've been fed and burped and I just changed your diaper so there's no way you could have soiled it again -”I stopped and remembered what happened yesterday so I took a peak for myself. There was nothing im his diaper.“So what exactly do you want?”I wish babies could talk.I guess I didn't have any other choice than to take him with me then. Atlas would blow a fuse if he found out that I took his son to see Ford.Whe
ATLAS“By wasting any more time, we are not doing ourselves any good! Sixth Circle pack is vacant. We have their leader in our custody and I've taken down every opposition in our way, do you think it would be long before we get more interests?”Sometimes, having a cabinet infuriates me so much. It was like I was speaking to brick walls. I didn't see any reason why they couldn't just agree to me taking over the Sixth Circle.It would even be better for us because it would improve our army base, it would make our pack bigger and in general, it would be a plus for us.But they weren't seeing it that way. All they were seeing was the fact that Ford had committed something against the pack and they weren't going to take it.I mean, what better way to teach him a lesson by taking over his pack?“Alpha, we're not disputing the fact that you've gone a long way-”“But you're diminishing my efforts. What's the whole point of defeating him and taking him into custody when I can't even go ahead a
JADERay and I weren't speaking for now.How could she hide something like that from me?“Where is she?”“I have no idea. All I know is that she ran away when we were little. She knew that he would come after her and she didn't want to put you in danger. So she ran away and left your nanny to take care of you. I don't know where she is.”How could she do this?“Before I lost my memory, did I know?”“No, you never knew.”I couldn't believe this. I lost my appetite for the rest of that day and I just stayed in Iniko's room because I couldn't even speak to anyone right now.I'd spent my life thinking my mother was dead only to hear that she was alive and she ran away because of that beast.“It’s not her fault, you know. Your mother ran away to protect you and Ray didn't tell you because she wanted to keep you safe. You have to forgive her.”I didn't blame her. It wasn't her fault things turned out like this. I was just hurt that I didn't know.Later that day, I took Iniko on a walk so h
JADEI was just realizing that this baby has Atlas's eyes and hair and everything!“This baby is rigged.”He turned around in shock.“What are you talking about?”“You did something to make the baby look like you.”He laughed and shook his head.“No, I didn't. It's just a coincidence.”“Coincidence? Look at this baby and look at you. It seems like I didn't even have anything to do with his birth.”“Don’t worry, you can have the second baby.”I scoffed.“You think I'm going to let you have another chance to have photocopies? Big joke.”Iniko was so small and he seemed so fragile.Ray brought my food and she took him while I ate.“I wish my grandmother was here to see him.”She gave me a sad smile.“Me too. She would be so proud of you.I'm proud of you.”I'm so happy my sister was here with me. She was the one who had been by my side throughout and if the child had been a girl, I would have named her after Raya.“Thank you for everything you did. If not for you, I don't know how I would
JADE“I'm going to need your blood as well. Atlas, I promise it won't hurt her. Just a little nick.”He nodded and she dragged the knife across my finger.“Place your finger over the stone and let the blood cover it entirely. Do not take your hand away from the fire.”It was a simple instruction but it seemed so intense.It was almost over. My legs were beginning to feel well and it was getting harder to quiet my screams.“What do we have here?”That voice. He was here.“What are you doing here?”All I had to do was keep my hand over the fire until the stone bled.Ray helped me stand up straight while Atlas and Andrew faced my uncle.“So this was why I came here. How did you do that? How did you call the other stones?”I eventually removed my hand from the fire since we had found them.“I always knew it was with one of you. That stupid old hag told me she couldn't find the other piece but I guess she gave it to you. “Why were all the worst things happening tonight?I was in labor and
JADEAtlas returned later that evening.I was right with what I'd thought.“What have you been up to?”I knew he knew I'd been eating because of the smirk on his face.“You know you don't have to hide from me when you eat right?”Oh, I did.“If you see how much I eat and the way I eat, I don't think you'd want to be married to me anymore.”He burst out laughing.“What makes you think I care about the way you eat? As long as you're healthy and our baby is fine, I don't care.”“But then, what if I get fat? I'll be so big that I won't be able to eat. I don't know why I eat so much.”This was actually a worry of mine. Normally, I ate but my appetite was not this big.“Blame it on the baby. I figure when you give birth, the cravings will stop and even though you do get fat, you're still my wife. It doesn't change anything.”I was really married to the best man ever, wasn't I?“You’re the best.”“I know. Ray says that we have to get there before midnight so that she can prepare everything.
JADEAt this point, I was realizing that the earlier we did things, the better.“I’ll arrange for the sacrifice to happen tomorrow. We need to move as fast as we can before he gets Intel that were here.”I didn't want to have to run with this big belly of mine.“What are you going to need?”“Don’t worry, I'll take care of it. Just bring the stone.”We went to bed that night because we were all completely exhausted.“Hey, are you okay?” Atlas asked when we were in bed.“Yes, I am. Why do you ask?”“You didn't cry when you found out that he killed your father. You didn't cry when you found out that she was not your grandmother. I'm worried.”Now that I think about it, it's true. But it was because I didn't feel like crying.“I don't know. Maybe my body just hasn't proceses it yet. Maybe its because I hate him so I'm not bothered that he's not my father and I never really knew my father so i can't cry for him. I've already mourned for my grandmother.”I just didn't feel the need to cry b
JADE“Jade, step away from that.”I walked back towards them and stared at the pile.“What kind of animal would do this?”I had no idea but I think I was beginning to understand why she wanted us to find this place.This place held secrets.I went back to the wall to look at the drawings and try to understand them.I used my fingers to trace them again and this time around, I heard the voice clearer.“Look at the bigger picture.”I stepped away from the wall so I could see the entire thing. There were more drawings to the side and when I walked up, I noticed that there was a sign at the bottom of it.That sign…looked all too familiar but I couldn't just place my finger.“Ray, come see this. I've seen this before but I don't know where it's from.”She crouched beside me and stared at it for a moment.“I know it's familiar but I don't know where it's from, either.”Andrew and Atlas joined us and just within seconds, they knew.“We know.”They shared a look and it made me scared.“Jade,