CHAPTER 41

JASMINE’S POV

The journey back to the pack house was filled with silence, only the heavy breaths of Lucy as she leaned in Caine. When we arrived, my father and the alpha were waiting outside the gates.

“Dad,” I ran to him the moment Harper packed the car. His gaze was fixed on the girl who was being led by the twins. “Isha, the last of their circle,” I told my dad.

“By circle, you mean family?” My dad asked and I nodded. His face still had doubt written all over it.

“But she’s not human,” he said. I shrugged, leaning closer to him.

“I believe there’s a story behind that. I’m just glad you’re okay,” I gave his arm a gentle squeeze and rested my head on it. “What happened when we left?”

“The seeker?” He asked. “Come see for yourself”.

He led me to the same room where I was locked a day ago. The lady was sitting in the glass box, playing with her hair. She looked sad when we walked in, but after seeing us, she had some kind of mood swing, her smile growing wild as she stood up and walked up to the glass.

“Can she hear us?” I asked my father, cautiously walking up to the glass.

“Of course I can,” she answered me. Her face slowly shifted, transforming into someone else—my father.

“Damn!” I breathed, looking away immediately. “Isn’t there a way to stop her from doing that?” I asked my dad, taking steps away from the glass.

“We’ve tried…”

“That is who we are, Jasmine,” the lady interrupted my father. A sinister smile played around her lips again, her fingers drawing irregular shapes on the glass. “They can’t even if they tried to. It’s so sad your mother kept this away from you. This…gift,” she said, her face shifting again—to my mother’s face.

“Can you stop!” I hissed.

“Jasmine,” my father called, walking up to me. The thoughts of my father keeping all these away from my father and me hunted me as I stood looking at her clone. How on earth was I then supposed to believe every other thing she said to me?

What if this was why my father divorced her? I turned to my dad, holding back the tears in my eyes.

“Did you know?” I asked.

“Jasmine…look,”

“All these while you knew? Is that why you sent her away? Because she kept this away from you?”

“I didn’t know! Okay!” My dad snapped, sending shivers down my spine. He took in a deep breath, holding in his anger, and placed a hand on my shoulder. “All this is new to me as it is to you. If your mother kept this a secret, then she has her reasons,”

“A valid one if I must say,” the lady in the box said, shifting into her actual face…if she had one. “She was banished, stripped of her powers as a seeker wolf. That made her…urm…human,”

“Lies,” I blurted.

“I can show you if you let me,” she said, snickering as she made her way around the box with her hand extended. She was inviting me in. I didn’t care, something in me wanted to confirm every part of her story.

I felt this was something the moon goddess sent my way to make me realize I was stronger than I thought, not just the weak and wolf-less girl I used to think I was. Yes, I might have worked on my confidence, but the stigma of not having a wolf still stayed with me like a mark on my forehead.

With a heavy sigh, I headed for the control box to open the glass room. The entrance door opened and Alpha Morgan walked in, standing between me and the box.

“What do you think you’re doing?” His bass voice echoed.

I glanced at the girl and my father who tried to stop me. “I need answers,” I replied.

“May I remind you that you’re almost similar to her, Jasmine. If she’s a threat, then you are as well. I only let you free because your father made a deal with me, "Alpha Morgan said, making my gaze drift to my dad.

“A deal? What deal?” I asked him.

“Just…go be with your friends Jasmine,” my father excused my question.

“I don’t have any, have you forgotten?”

“Then go to the diner and do some work. Isn’t that where you were assigned to? I’m sure Alyssa must be worried about you. You’ve missed days of training,” my father returned. I swallowed the feeling of betrayal which created a lump in my throat and stormed out.

The first person I burst into was Isha. She was standing by the hallway.

“Looks to me that you were eavesdropping, wolf hunter,” I said to her, basking in courage as I walked up to her. I halted after I saw tears in her eyes.

“Isha!” I heard Harper and Spencer calling, their footsteps echoing as they ran through the hallways searching for her.

“I guess you and I have a lot in common,” Isha said, forcing a small smile before walking away. I made my way out of the alpha's house, heading for the car when Jerry intercepted my path.

“You think we don’t know what you did?” He growled, jamming his elbow on my neck and pushing me to the wall.

“Let me go, Jerry,” I struggled with his grip. He chuckled, grabbed my hair, and started pulling me into a room.

“Let me go, Jerry!” I yelled, kicking and punching. He flung me to a bed and reached for his belt.

Only one thing flashed through my mind—Bryan.

My heart raced as beads of sweat began trailing down my forehead. I tried to warn him, to tell him that he was going to die if he tried it, but I couldn’t find my voice.

I saw him taking off his belts, or at least I thought. With every one of his actions, I kept having glimpses of Bryan, zooming in and out, the energy in me surging through my veins.

It rippled through my pores, made my vision blur, and just when I opened my mouth to scream…my world went blank.

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