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Chapter 60: The Choices We Make Pt. 2
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2023-09-21 12:30:59“Seven.” I finally answered Valene's question. I knew that she would find it impossibly young.
“Seven what?” her brow rose suspiciously. My expression said it all. Her eyes widened, and suddenly, her expression displayed that of sympathy. “Surely you don’t mean he was so young as seven when he’d taken over the pack! That…that is well below the age that a child should even have their own say! You let him-”
“Ares may have been young, but he has always had his own mind, and when it all boiled down to it, I was not his father.”
“Were there no adults…to look after the boy?”
“There were adults,” I said. “There were pack members, a delta, but none were fit to lead. They became lost
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Valene: Daughter of the Shadow Rogues Chapter 61: The Choices We Make Pt. 3
Valene didn't say anything. She stabbed at her truffle bomb, her silence lingering for so long I was almost concerned. Then, she finally expressed what was on her mind. “The truth,” she simply said. It was at that moment that her eyes began to mist with tears. “A gentle truth,” she shook her head as her words began to waver. “That Tobias died because of me,” she leered. “I wanted to go…follow his pack into the woods to find more of those…wretched things! I had planned to kill as many as I could and-and he insisted that I stay...that it was too dangerous, for me especially. I didn’t want to listen.” “He told you the truth, hoping that it would stop you.” “He only made my conviction to go into those woods even stronger. I wanted to die after he said that. After I realized that…that all of those deaths…were b
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Valene:To wait! I was forced to wait! If I was going to be accompanied by the beast, the least that he could do was be on time. I refused to go back into that Packhouse. I hadn’t been there long, but I was certainly there long enough to have memories. It was hard walking past Harold’s room as Tobias seemed to be his closest friend. He was taking the loss extremely hard. And it was even harder to walk past Tobias’s room. Somehow, losing him- someone whom, while I did have regular dealings with, I did not truly know, was one of the most difficult things that I ever had to deal with.I’d always assumed him to be a superficial human with an arrogance about him that pushed him to believe that he could commit transgressions, transgressions that were usually punishable by severe imprisonment or even death. Only since I moved into the Packhouse did I realize that Tobias was not completely who he was made out to be, but a little more.He died, and I could feel that there was so much more mean
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My knees buckled, and I gripped myself tightly while clenching my heart. It actually ached. This guilt swallowed me whole, and I could not resurface from it. “Those attacks…Tobias is dead!” I whimpered messily. “Harold was nearly killed…my mother was killed! Because of me!” I cried. “What-I don’t-I can’t do this! I just want to leave! Why can’t you just let me leave?!” I lifted my violently shaking hand to wipe away my tears when I felt his large hand against my cheek, wiping them away for me; When I looked up, he was sitting there across from me, his legs folded. For some reason, I was amazed by his casual gesture to just sit across from me as if he were equal to me. As if I was his equal. “Did you ask to be born with such treasure flowing through your veins?” I half-shook my head before dropping
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Alastair:Per usual, he was right. Aziz was right about how I’d been treating Harlyn. It was as if I was exploring new ways to be an even worse father than the day before. I had completely discarded Harlyn’s life in an attempt to avoid positive emotions. Birthdays meant nothing to me anymore; holidays meant even less. Everything that I did after Valene’s death just provoked a feeling of going through the motions.Toran had taken the helm for the greater part of a year and a half. He was understanding as he, himself, realized that he didn’t know what shape he’d be in had he lost Talon. He could hardly stand losing Tobias as he did.“I’m sorry, Az,” I finally said. “I…I have been selfish, and I apologize. Ha
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Alastair: “Another one, Herry,” I said as I sat at the bar on my tenth shot of whiskey. “Sir, are you sure that you should-” Herry started when he saw the freshly annoyed look on my face. I liked Herry and quite enjoyed his company for the most part, especially for a human. Sometimes, however, the guy could easily forget that I was not so prone to inebriation as the rest of his customers. “Herry,” “Yes, sir,” he quipped without another word. He poured me two more shots of whiskey and then continued wiping down glasses. I took a shot as John linked with me. “How are they doing on the mission?” I asked, deciding that I had very little to hide in terms of who I was, so I communicated to my delta aloud. The mental connection to him was just as strong when I was verbal. Training had gone particularly well with the younger pack members, so it was time for their first field mission. A few ferals had been spotted near Shadow Veils city line. This wasn’t something that was considered to
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The seemingly young woman’s expression turned curious. “Daughter? A human?” a dry chortle left her lips as she took yet another shot. “You can understand why that is hard to believe.”“I’m sure,” I agreed. “It wasn’t an easy title to have,” I confessed. “In fact, more often than not, I didn’t display good father characteristics. She’d probably be here now if I had.”At this point, I had begun receding into my own thoughts and regrets concerning my title of father. I couldn’t imagine that Caris would be particularly proud of how everything turned out. She sacrificed herself for nothing.“Caris did not sacrifice herself for nothing!
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The room was dimly lit. It was clear that she was in a cell of some sort. “Hello, my love.” Her voice was calm and soothing, and yet filled with sorrow. Though she wasn’t facing me in real time, I could sense the shame in her demeanor as she could not even look into Tobias’s eyes while relaying her message.“You know that before you were born…your father and I had an affair.” she chuckled bitterly. “Of course…I didn’t know that he was married or mated or whatever the hell they call it!” She snapped and then took a deep breath to seemingly calm down. “But that is neither here nor there. I did end it, baby, I truly did…once I found out that-what…kind of situation I was placed in. That…that wasn’t good enough for her though…so…that’s basically how my life ended that night.”There was so much pain in her voice as she said this. I couldn’t imagine how much it pained her to relive that evening. But she had to. She needed to confess her truth.“When I was brought back…all of my emotions we
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Vale:I stood there, bewildered as our eyes met. Part of me, a less…conflicted part of me was elated to see him standing there. With my father…his father, and his brother.Tobias.I cared about Tobias. Far more than I ever realized. It took him dying and then coming back to see that. But regardless, of how I came to this realization, those feelings were there. And that would never change. I was so glad to seem him alive and relatively well considering the circumstances surrounding…well…us and our current lifestyles.Despite that less conflicted side of me, there was bigger part of me…a blaringly alarmed and untrusting, and even angry…part of me that could only think about one thing; where was my mother?The fact that she was nowhere to be found-even now. It didn’t make sense maybe, but…in my potentially irrational mind, I couldn’t think of a reality where Tobias would even be here and mum not. I just couldn’t shake that feeling….that gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach, as I wat
Valene: Daughter of the Shadow Rogues Chapter 146: It's Not A Social Call
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