Moana
The relief I felt when the doctor said that Edrick would be okay couldn’t even possibly be put into words. “Well, I think you’ll be okay now,” the doctor said as Edrick got up to his feet with no trouble. “Rest today and you’ll be fine by tomorrow.” Edrick nodded. Both of us watched as Selina and the doctor walked out of the room, leaving Edrick and I alone once more. Instantly, I turned toward him with a frown. “Don’t scare me like that,” I said in a scolding, yet quiet voice. Before Edrick could answer, I ushered him over to the bed and forced him to lie down, just as the doctor ordered. “Geez,” Edrick said, lying down. “I get it. You don’t need to worry about me now, though.” I shook my head and frowned even more. There was so much I wanted to say; I wanted to tell him that he was a bloody fool for pushing me away. I wanted to ask him if he realized now that he needed me after all, and that it wasMoanaThe rest of the weekend went by too quickly. I spent all of Sunday with Ella to make up for not seeing her on Saturday, and soon enough Monday morning came around.However, I noticed something over the weekend as well as the first few days of the week: Mina’s sleepiness wasn’t getting any better. In fact, it only seemed to be getting worse, and it was making me nervous. At first, I thought it was just the pregnancy, but now I was beginning to think otherwise.And in fact, there was something especially odd about it.Mina seemed to get better at nighttime. She still had very little energy during that time, but it was an obvious improvement nonetheless. This slightly heightened energy would go on through the night and the early morning, but then she would get extremely sleepy again whenever I drank my morning coffee.By Thursday, I was beginning to get suspicious. I decided then to try an experiment; on Thursday mo
MoanaAs I held Olivia’s business card in my shaking hand, I wondered if I should call her.I needed to know if she, too, had experienced these sort of strange occurrences. Although I couldn’t imagine why Edrick would ever want to give me something that would make my wolf sick, if someone really was intentionally poisoning me, then I needed to get out and get my baby to safety. However, I still had no way of knowing for sure, and I was afraid to ask Edrick or Selina about my wolf’s symptoms in case either of them were in on it and got suspicious of me.But I still couldn’t be sure. Not only was I unsure of the situation with my wolf, but I was also still unsure of Olivia. I still couldn’t help but wonder if she really was an actress hired by Michael or someone else to get between Edrick and I, and so with a sigh I slipped the business card back into my purse and decided not to call her yet.After all, Edrick had never really
MoanaA little while later, after walking a few blocks through the city, I arrived at the coffee shop where Olivia and I planned to meet. It was a small, nondescript coffee shop that didn’t appear to be well known, which would be helpful in keeping our meeting secret.When I stepped into the little coffee shop, I looked around and didn’t see Olivia yet.“Can I get you anything?” the barista behind the counter, a bored-looking teenage girl, asked.“U-Um, just an iced latte,” I replied, fishing through my purse for my wallet. The barista lazily made my drink and handed it to me, and I gave her the money before sitting down. I made sure to sit away from the window, just in case anyone would see me with Olivia.A few minutes passed, and finally the bell on the door rang as someone came in. It was Olivia. She shot me a stiff smile and ordered her own coffee before sitting down across from me. Although we had planned to act
Moana“That’s not all,” Olivia said, looking at me with a sickening combination of sadness and concern on her face that only filled me with dread.I had already just read that a woman — who was likely Ethan’s mother, judging from the information in the newspaper article — had died under mysterious circumstances around the Morgan family. Not only that, but I had discovered that it was very likely that Edrick had taken my wolf tooth and a lock of my hair to a witch, and he was now putting some sort of potion in my morning coffee. I couldn’t fathom why he would want to do that, but now that I had read the newspaper article about Ethan’s mother, I was beginning to wonder if that poor woman had met a fate that I was bound to meet if I continued being poisoned.And now, before I could even process all of this, Olivia was saying that she had something else to reveal to me, as though there was even possibly anything else that could add another layer to
MoanaOnce I saw Olivia leave through the coffee shop window, I waited five minutes before leaving myself and walking in the opposite direction. We had planned to leave separately like this just in case anyone was waiting for me outside; at the very least, I could make up a convincing story that Olivia and I didn’t recognize each other at all, and it was likely that no one would ask too many questions.As I walked, I couldn’t stop thinking about everything she had just told me. It felt as though the entire world that I had come to know over the past few months had been completely turned upside down, and I didn’t know what to do. If it was true that I was the Golden Wolf, then that meant that I was already in enough danger of being hunted as it was. Not only that, but if Edrick already knew that I was the Golden Wolf, then he was deliberately keeping it from me. And, judging from everything that I had learned recently, I knew why he was keeping it from me.
EdrickWhen Moana told me that she was going out to have coffee with a friend, I was happy for her. In fact, so long as she stayed safe, I encouraged it. I knew how much stress she had been under over the past few months, so it would have been good for her to see a friend for a couple of hours.However, when my driver called me and asked what was taking Moana so long to come down, I started to feel confused.“What do you mean?” I asked. “She left half an hour ago.”“I haven’t seen her,” the driver replied. “I’ve been sitting right out front the whole time.”I furrowed my brow and stood. Before I jumped to any conclusions, I decided to check both bedrooms to see if she wasn’t feeling well and decided not to leave, and maybe I just didn’t notice her coming back in. However, she wasn’t there.By then, I was pretty certain that I knew what she had done. She had gone without the driver.Cursing und
MoanaI went to work the next morning with my meeting with Olivia still plaguing my mind. Between all of the evidence I had gathered so far, what Olivia said, and how Edrick reacted when he discovered that I hadn’t taken the driver, I was seriously beginning to doubt my own safety at home.That morning, I sneakily dumped my morning coffee again. By the time I got to work, my wolf’s energy was back to normal and she was able to offer me some insight on the situation.“I am almost entirely certain that Edrick is indeed our mate,” Mina said during my lunch break, while I paced back and forth in my empty classroom and chewed nervously on my fingernails.“But that doesn’t mean that his intentions are entirely pure, does it?” I asked.Mina was silent for a few moments before responding. “No. It doesn’t.”I cursed under my breath, thinking hard. I didn’t know much about the inner world of werewolves, but I
MoanaAfter I saw the video of Edrick putting something in my coffee, I knew that I needed to get out.It both broke my heart and made me sick to think about leaving. I had been falling deeply in love with Edrick, and yet this entire time it turned out that he was secretly plotting something against me; I didn’t know what it was exactly that he was planning, but whatever it was certainly wasn’t good. I needed to get myself and my baby out of there, and I planned on returning Ella to her rightful mother, too. Even though I knew that taking Ella and returning her to her mother could land me in prison, I was willing to take that risk for the sake of getting little Ella out of a household with a father who was dangerous and up to no good.That afternoon, during my lunch break, I made my escape plan. I called Olivia as soon as I could and explained everything.“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath after I had told her all about the vid