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"True potential?"
Atropos nodded. "You'll understand what I mean in time. If you're able to uncover the secrets of the gift, you may have a chance to prevent all of this."
I looked around at all the corpses, the lifeless forms of my friends, family, and comrades. My defiance spelled their end, but my gift could be their saving grace. No pressure, right?
"But understand something, Rosalinda," Atropos added with a raised finger. "We're not your enemy. Fate is not as black and white as it seems. We have far less control than you think. We don't decide who lives, who dies, and who is fated to whom. And sometimes Fate loves to contradict itself."
"What does that mean?" I asked, confused by everything she’s telling me.
"I mean that Fate is more unpredictable than it looks."
"And what about my enemy? If you're not who I'm up against, then who is?"
Atropos didn't respond with words, merely pointing past my shoulders. My brow furrowed in confusion until I heard the low growl of a beast behind me. My body tensed as I slowly turned around. The door to the lodge was ripped out of its hinges so it wasn't hard to spot something inside trying to hide in the shadows. The first thing I saw was a pair of turquoise blue eyes glaring at me. The second thing I noticed was the glowing crescent moon shape on its forehead.
The Wolf Moon’s gift, that thing has it. But how?
I couldn't feel a mental connection to it, even though it had the gift inside it. The sharp burning sensation flared on my forehead. I gritted my teeth as I reached up and felt my own mark igniting. I could feel its energy flowing through me, but it was different from when I felt it in my dream that first time. It felt... angry. Was it reacting to the one belonging to that monster? If so, my gift wasn't happy with it.
The monster wasn't done surprising me, because just when I thought it was out of party tricks, it slowly began to raise up until it was standing on its hind legs. My mouth went agape as my eyes widened. What the fuck kind of beast was that? Was this what killed everyone here? Were they overwhelmed by whatever that thing was? White-hot fury replaced my shock as my wolf was ready to take the thing on. The chances of us winning a fight with it were practically zero, but she and I agreed that we didn't care. We wanted this thing to bleed by our claws. We wanted the beast to suffer.
Just as it was about to charge and I was getting ready to swerve to the side to avoid a head-on collision, another flash a white light blinded me, and I found myself face down on the grass. The acrid, metallic stench of blood that flooded my nostrils moments ago were gone, and I was able to inhale a lungful of fresh, crisp air. I blinked several times to gain my vision back and pushed myself up to a sitting position. Taking in my surroundings, I was no longer in front of the Kingsrose lodge. I was naked once again, and the sun was rising. Was I asleep? Did I dream the whole thing? I stood up and looked around, not finding Atropos anywhere. I was alone, but to my relief, my mental connections with the twins and Joaquin's—though his was still faint—were still intact.
I can feel them, which means they're still alive. Thank Mother Moon.
Even though it seemed that everything was back to normal, I couldn't shake what I was shown. The trail of dead bodies, the monstrous beast who seemed to have the gift, Atropos' words. It all felt too real. Desperately needing to see everyone for myself, to make sure they were all okay, I shifted and made a beeline for the campsite, using my bond with Kao and Kai as trail to follow. I must've ran faster than I ever had before. My paws ached, but I didn't care. When I passed through the clearing and saw everyone gathered around the campfire, I skidded to a halt and took the sight in.
Everyone was there.
Everyone was safe.
Kai and Kao were on one side, while Del and her mates huddled on the opposite end. When they heard me approaching, all heads turned to face me. Kai was the first to rise to his feet, grabbing a pile of clothes he had set beside him and jogged over to me. I shifted back, sitting on my knees panting, relief washing over me like cool water.
Kai crouched low in front of me, reaching out a hand and running his fingers through a lock of my hair. His eyes coated with concern as he regarded me. "Rosie, what’s wrong?"
As I looked up at my sweet mate, the vision of his death—his lifeless body lying there with his heart ripped from his chest—flashed in my mind's eye. I squeezed my eyes shut, shaking the image out of my head. I didn't want to see that again. I didn't want to be reminded of the awful future that Atropos showed me.
Come on, Rosie, focus on the here and now. Kai's right here. He's okay. He's okay, and he's alive. So is Kao. So is everyone.
I mentally repeated that while steadying my ragged breathing until I was finally able to calm down. My eyes opened to see Kai still in front of me. Kao must've sensed my distress because he came over and crouched beside his twin. Seeing their handsome, pale features warmed my heart. There was still the lingering sting of Joaquin's absence, but I was more determined than ever to get him back.
"Rosie, are you okay?" Kai pressed a hand to my forehead. "You're not getting sick, are you?"
I shook my head. "I'm okay. It's been a long night is all."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Kao asked.
How could I possibly tell them that I saw their deaths? No, I couldn't do that to them. There were parts that would require discussing, mostly regarding the gift, but I'd leave the future I saw as my own secret. I wouldn't let it come true.
"Maybe later," I finally said.
The twins looked as if they wanted to push the matter further, but instead, they left it alone. Honestly if they truly wanted to, they could use our mental connection to see what I saw, but they didn't. They knew it'd be an invasion of privacy since it was something I didn't want to discuss, and they didn't want to force my hand. The same reason why I never wanted to do that to them. I trust they'd tell me if there was something serious enough to discuss.
Kai handed me the bundle of clothes. It was one of my pairs of shirts and my gray sweatpants. I quickly tugged them on before following them back to the bonfire where everyone else waited. Admittedly it was hard looking them all in the face after what Atropos showed me, but I tried pushing those horrible images to the furthest corner in the back of my mind.
Javier looked up at me with his brow creased. "¿Que pasó, Rosa?"
"Nada," I said back.
