Chapter 4

Angelica’s POV

                Last night, it felt like it had taken forever for Selena to examine each guest, and in the end, she found nothing, leaving my parents feeling helpless to find my attacker. I, on the other hand, felt a fire coming to life inside of me, and I would be damned if I allowed anyone, especially him, to violate me like that again.

                His words still echoed in my head, as a reminder of his existence, but it fueled a fire inside of me that I couldn’t explain. His claim to me being his held no validation, as I belonged to no one, but myself. I wasn’t used to being the prey, and I hated the way it was making me feel, giving me a new determination, not to allow this to happen to me again.

                Finding myself unable to sleep, as the sun began to slowly rise, I headed outside to the training area, while only the night’s patrol was awake, and everyone else was fast asleep in their beds. Now that the guests were long gone, I was free to be myself, and I found the need to blow off some much-needed pent up anger inside of me, allowing my powers to flow freely.

                As I stared at the training target in front of me, I let a blast of my power surge from within me towards it, hitting it dead center, just like I had practiced doing my whole life, but it didn’t feel like enough. Once again, I let another surge of power come from within me, hitting it in the same exact spot, followed by another, and then another, as the target in front of me ingulfed into a flame of fire, but it still didn’t make me feel any better. If anything, it fueled the fire even more inside of me, making me move on to the next target.

                My power now flowed freely from the tips of my fingers, like bolts of lightning, as it felt like it was waking something that had been locked up deep inside of me for far too long. One by one, the targets in front of me joined the first target in a blaze of fire, as his words once again echoed in my head, making tears of anger began to seep from the corners of my eyes, before they slowly slid down my cheeks. A scream now came from deep within me, as I let it flow freely from my lips, letting out all my frustration for allowing him to violate me so easily.

                Now with my eyes completely blurred by my tears, and his words continuing to taunt me by echoing in my head, I could feel the power within me grow at the center of my core, and I held onto that power until I couldn’t hold on no more. Letting out another scream, I released an immense surge of power straight ahead, like a horrendous tsunami from deep within me, as my body fell to my knees, and I looked up to the heavens above.

                The clouds at that moment parted, and a ray from the sun beamed directly down on me, making me close my eyes, as I took in its warmth, acting as a blanket of comfort, while it felt like it was mending my soul that felt broken at this moment. But that invisible blanket now turned into a physical one, as one was being draped over my shoulders.

                Opening my eyes, I saw Selena standing over me, with her hand extended to me, and I took it getting to my feet, before she pulled me into an embrace, as she says to me, “I can feel your pain my child, as if it was my own.”

                More tears began to fall from my eyes, as I held on tightly to her, knowing that she knew me better than anyone else, while she softly caressed my hair, and she added, “Let it all out. I have you.” But the thing was, did she really? Did she know how I could protect myself, and not allow this to happen again?”

                Pulling from the embrace, I wiped my tears away, before I look her straight in the eyes, wanting to know the truth, as I asked her, “Do you know how I can stop this, from ever happening to me again?”

                Selena looked away from me, telling me she didn’t hold the answers to what I sought, but I could feel that she knew what was going on. “Selena, why do I feel like you aren’t telling me something.” I now say to her, as her hands fall from the embrace and she takes a step back from me, looking into the distance, as if she was trying to find the right words to say to me.

                Finally, her eyes moved back to mine, and I could tell she was at war with what she was about to say to me, but I silently pleaded with her through my eyes to tell me. Selena reached, taking my hands into hers, and I knew whatever she was about to tell me wasn’t good. “On your birthday, I felt a shift, and I warned your parents about it, but they begged me not to say a word to you, in the hope that you would find your fated mate at your party. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and in the light of what happened last night, it is clear that this shift I felt is targeting you, in such a way that I am not sure that I have the ability to protect you, nor do I believe that finding your mate would be the solution to it either.”

                By the fear that was now clearly present in Selena’s eyes, I knew what had happened to me last night was far worse than I could have imagined. I was now becoming worried not only about myself, but about my family’s safety too, knowing that my father and my mother would do anything to protect me, including dying for me.

                Pleading with Selena, I say to her, “There has to be a way for me to protect myself from whatever this is, and there must be something I can do to stop them so that my family doesn’t get hurt trying to protect me.”

                Selena lets go of my hands, as she turns away from me, telling me once again that she knows something, but that she is reluctant to say, because I know that by doing so, she is going against my parents’ wishes. But I needed her to tell me, because if there was anything out there that could help me stop whatever this was, she had to know that I was strong enough to stop it, if I was just given the right tools to do so.

                Placing my hand gently on Selena’s shoulder, wanting her to hear me out, I say to her, “Selena, you know what I am capable of, you personally trained me yourself. I can’t allow something to happen to my family because of me, and you know that they would do everything in their power to protect me, just like they had done before, almost costing them all their lives. Unlike my parents, I know you have faith in me, and I am begging you to help me, so that I can defeat whatever this is, as it is my turn now to protect them.”

                Selena remained with her back to me, as she shook her head, but I knew her all too well, and I knew that I needed to give her a moment to think about what I had just said to her. I knew that she cared dearly for not only my mother, but also my grandmother, and if there was a way that she could protect them both, she would do everything in her own power to help them.

                With her back still to me, she finally says, “Angelica, you have no clue what you are up against, but I do have faith in you. You are far powerful than any other being I have ever met, but what is coming for you I fear your Moon Goddess herself couldn’t save you from it, as it is full of a darkness, that I can’t explain.”

                To say her words didn’t instill fear in me would be a lie, but I couldn’t allow that fear to win, knowing that if this darkness was coming for me, then it was also coming for those that I loved, because they were going to be standing in its way. Even if my father locked down the estate, and had all his men guarding me, something told me that wasn’t going to be enough to protect me.

These walls that my father deemed safe to me were no longer, and instead I now felt like I was being fenced in for the taking, for whatever it was that was coming for me. It was now clear to me that I had to leave the estate, not only for myself, but also to protect my family and the pack, regardless of whether Selena was going to help me or not.