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"What the hell, Delphinium," Rosie shouted. "Don't you think you went a little overboard?"
"No, I don't, because if I went overboard, he would've been dead by now," Del stated matter-of-factly. "This only proved my point that neither of you can face this alpha of yours. If you can't even take care of your enemy, how can you possibly expect to reclaim your pack? Or save your captured mate, or even your grandmother, Rosie? How do you plan to accomplish anything you want to do?"
Rosie's gaze dropped down, feeling just as powerless as I did. I wanted to do something; comfort her, tell her everything was going to be okay, yell at Del to back the fuck off, but considering my body was still battered up, I was unable to do any of those.
Del huffed out a breath, giving her magical weapon a twist at the center which retracted the ends to where it was about the length of a soda bottle. "I'll give you twenty-four hours to decide what you're going to do. If you were smart, you'd come back to the Blue Moon Pack with us. At least there you'll be safe and not constantly on the run. If you won't do it for yourself, then do it for the remaining mates you have left. You’ve already lost one of them, Rosie. How many more are you willing to lose before you realize you’re out of your league?"
With those last words, Del walked off, leaving me and Rosie in defeat. Kai immediately ran over to us and helped me up to a sitting position, using his body to hold mine us. "P'Kao, are you okay?"
Thankfully my wounds were healed enough for me to shake my head, and managed to mutter, "No, I'm not."
ROSIE
The evening was dead silent long after Kao and Del's challenge. Kao stayed away from the campsite, his back to us as he sat staring off into space with his arms wrapped around his legs. Eventually Malcolm and Nash returned, and Raph relayed the events that took place before he and Caleb took over as guards. Kai went to collect more firewood while Del went off somewhere to work out. That left my brother and I, but I didn't bother talking with him. I paced back and forth, Del's words coming back to me over and over. There was no other way, was there? I'd have to go back to the Blue Moon Pack.
If you won't do it for yourself, then at least do it for the remaining mates you have. You already lost one mate, Rosie. How many more are you willing to lose before you realize you’re out of your league?
That last statement left a bitter taste in my mouth. Was it selfish of me to not want to go back to the Blue Moon Pack? Was it really the only option I had? With Pierce holding Joaquin hostage, I was left with very little time to do anything else. Del made it clear in more ways than one that neither I, nor the twins, could handle Pierce the way we were now, and so long as we weren't members of Javier's pack, there was little they could do for us. Del could have more human hunters help, but she already lost over half her troops during our escape.
I wish I knew what to do. I wish I knew what path to take that would avoid that horrible future Atropos showed me. If we rushed back to Kingsrose now, I had a feeling that was what the outcome would look like; everybody dead, and me left standing there facing the monster that awaited us. What was that thing, and why did it have the same marking as the one from my dreams? More and more questions pile on with nothing getting resolved. Any little information we’d collected ultimately lead to more questions. I didn’t know anything.
To keep running, or to rejoin the Blue Moon Pack? Forget about me, what was best for my mates? Kai nearly lost his life to Pierce, and Kao lost to Del, which made his odds against Pierce slim. Kao was cocky, but even I didn't believe he stood a chance. Honestly if there was anyone I believe who could take on Pierce, it would be Joaquin, but now he wasn't here. If we could only rescue him without Pierce or his betas spotting us. Maybe if we could get ahold of Sabina?
I pulled out my cellphone with the attempt to dial Sabina's number but froze before I pushed call. What if Pierce got to the phone first, or if he could overhear the conversation? I didn't want to put her life in jeopardy, moreso than I'm sure it already was since she chose to stay behind. I could only hope she would make sure Joaquin was safe. Well, as safe as he could be as Pierce's prisoner.
Please be okay.
Javier and Malcolm went off to hunt for our dinner and returned with two deer and three rabbits. After cleaning and cooking the meats over the open fire, we evenly distributed it to everyone. Kai used the portable stove to fix up some rice to go with it. Everything turned out great, but the atmosphere was awkward. The only sound that could be heard was the symphony of crickets and the light tumbling of leaves on the ground. Del and her group didn't want to say anything to me and Kai. Kao didn't bother to come eat with us. Instead, he went off for a run. I hated that he was beating himself up, hating that he was isolating himself from us. If he didn't want to talk to me, that was fine, but why would be space himself from Kai?
Once dinner was over, Malcolm and Nash went to do their patrol shift, and Kai went to clean himself in a creek we spotted two miles north of where we were. I just sat there staring into the dancing embers in front of me, relishing in the wave of heat that was blocking the bite of chill of the evening breeze. I huffed out a breath, not for the first time wondering why I was chosen to bare the moon's gift. Why was I stuck with this as my life?
"Rosalinda." My eyes went up to the hood facing Javier who sat across from me. "Are you okay?"
"Do I look okay?" I retorted with a little heat in my words.
"I'm sorry that Del was harsh on you and your mates, but you have to understand where she is coming from."
"I do," I said, and I did. I knew Del cared about us, otherwise she wouldn't have bothered helping in the first place. Del had more battle experience than me or the twins, so she knew what she was talking about when she said we weren't ready to fight Pierce.
"I just don't like the idea of having to go back to being under your thumb again. No offense, hermano," I added.
"Can I ask you something?" Javier asked, leaning back against his arms. "Why do you hate me being your alpha so much? Was I a bad alpha to you?"
"What?" I furrowed my brow in confusion. "No, of course you weren't. Everyone thinks highly of you as an alpha, including me. Yes, you're tough and strict, pero that comes with the territory."
"Entonces, ¿qué paso? ¿Cuál es el problema?"
I didn't like that Javier felt like he was a bad alpha to me. Did he think that was why I moved out of New York? He knew I wanted to be closer to abuelita, but did he think that was merely an excuse to get away from him?
"Javier, me leaving had nothing to do with how you treated me." I wanted to assure him. "I left because I wanted to be on my own. I felt like everybody in the Blue Moon Pack was treating me differently because my big brother was the alpha. Like they had to walk on eggshells around me. The only one who felt like they were real with me was Raphael, and that's because we're closer to him and his brothers."
"Hey, I heard my name being mentioned. You guys better be talking nice about me," Raphael's voice sounded from inside their tent. Rustling sounds followed with the tent unzipping, and Raphael's head popped out, his hair pulled out of his ponytail so half of his face was hidden behind a wall of deep crimson.
Raphael let out a yelp when my ears picked up the sound of a heavy smack on skin.
"Get your ass back in this tent and let them talk in peace." Del's commanding voice from inside the tent left no room for arguments.
Raphael pouted. "But they might be talking bad about me."
