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I remain in complete darkness for what feels like days. Several times I roll to the slope of the floor to pee and hope beyond hope that it drains somewhere instead of pooling. The smell down here is horrible, like a butcher’s shop, and as the time passes I grow more and more sick to my stomach.
Chapter18
Ruby
When I come to all I can hear is the sound of arguing, it’s so loud it rattles my brain. I force myself to sit up, my hand going to where Killian bit me, only to find dried blood and tender fresh skin. Groaning, I rock to my feet and wobble along the hardwood floors to where my brother and mother are yelling back and forth. I don’t care about their argument, I need to know where Chase is.
“You’re not leading this pack, you never did!” Cole shouts. “I stand by and let you call the shots in respect for my father but it’s time I take the control that’s owed to me!”
“Respect for your father? You’re trying to run this pack like a bloodthirsty hound! Your father wanted peace with Dark Moon, and you’re doing everything in your power to start a war!”
“Where have you been, Mother? We’ve been at war since Raul threw Cassius over that cliff, it never ended! Father was a fool for thinking he could unite the packs! Now their darkness has seeped inside this house!”
“It’s fate, Cole!”
I open the door to the sitting room to see my mother and brother nose to nose, seconds from shifting and fighting for dominance. Cole looks crazed, his eyes so wide I can see whites all around his irises. Mother’s trembling with anger, her fists clenched. This is the first time Cole has ever directly opposed her and she's losing the tenuous grip on her power.
“Where’s Chase?” I whisper, drawing their attention as I fall to my knees on the thick carpet.
Cole grabs a throw blanket off one of the couches and rushes to my side, covering my nakedness. His whole demeanor changes when he touches me, his eyes shifting back to the kind and gentle brother I’ve known my whole life. Before Father disappeared, besides the childish pranks, he was always there for me with a shoulder to cry on. In this moment I can see it again and I hug him tenderly as he helps me to my feet.
“You don’t need to worry about him anymore, Ruby. He’ll be gone soon and you can go back to normal.”
“Normal…” I bite my bottom lip as tears well in my eyes. Mother sits on the couch with her head in her hands, sobbing quietly. “Normal wasn’t really living…normal was prison… Chase set me free. Showed me what life really is. I know he didn’t kill that boy, his scent is in that cave because that’s where we were trapped. Together.”
I look up at my brother and take his hand, laying it over my stomach.
“Where we made our child, sealed our bond. Tell me you don’t see the mark on my chest, tell me you’ve never seen Mother’s? This is fate, Cole. This is meant to be, this is what Father always wanted. Please, stop fighting destiny and embrace our Father’s dream as I have.”
“Stop? Fighting?” Cole laughs, stepping away from me so fast that I grip a side table to keep from tumbling to the carpet. “A beast trespassed, stole your innocence, and I’m supposed to just let him have you? Let him take the future Luna? Just like that?”
“He didn’t steal anything!” I pull myself to my feet and step forward, reaching for him, but Cole shies away and looks at me like I’m a stranger.
“That's even worse…you let him…” he sneers at me, wrinkling his nose in disgust and turning his back on me.
Outside the sun is rising. I can see the orange color of the sky crest the pine trees on the horizon, and Cole seems to study the glow as it grows and lights up the clearing around our house.
He wipes his hand down his face. “I’m sorry…I’m just…trying to protect you. Trying to protect this pack. I feel like a monster for doing what I know is right. When I watched you take that bite, for him, I felt like my world shattered. Now you stand here telling me it’s fate, it’s meant to be. All I see is destruction and danger everywhere I turn. I feel our pack unraveling through my fingers, sifting away like sand.” Cole turns back to me, his eyes heavy as his shoulders slump. He’s carrying the weight of the world, he can’t let go and see this for what it is. “It’s as if Raul has reincarnated and he’s doing everything he can to destroy Silver Dawn.”
“This isn’t the end of our pack, Cole. This is the beginning of the best future we could have ever imagined! If you could only see the way Chase has changed my life for the better, understand the reality of what’s truly coming to pass!” I look at my mother desperately, but she’s deflated. Cole has taken the ropes from her, as we always knew he would, and she mourns not the passing of her power, but the nullification of peace.
“Cole,” Jax says from behind me. He clears his throat as I turn to look at him but his eyes don't meet mine. His shoulders are squared, his jaw tight, as if I’m not standing right beside him. He belongs here, in this room, in this house. He’s the picture of dignity, strong and powerful. I can see him ruling beside my brother, leaning up against the bookcase as Cole lays down his new laws for the pack.
They’re perfect for each other, but not for me. My future is with bikers and babies.
“Dark Moon has gathered and at the foot of the mountain, they’ve come in numbers. Everyone is shifted except Ryder. They’re preparing for war, and I think it’s time we go out and meet them.”
My blood freezes in my veins, we’re on the precipice of all-out war. Mother cries loudly, running to Cole’s side and trying to make him see reason, but Cole’s eyes are focused on Jax, and they both grin darkly. They want this, they’ve waited their whole lives for this. A chance to prove themselves as rightful leaders of the pack, a chance to show they’re just as strong as the wolves in the past. Just as strong as King Cassius.
“I’ll go and prepare the pack for battle. We’ll not go down easily, no matter their numbers.” Cole glances at Jax. “You stay here, make sure my mother and sister cannot leave this room for any reason.”
He walks out of the room, every bit the image of Cassius preparing for a war that he shouldn’t be fighting.
Jax leers at Mother and I, but he closes the door to the sitting room and bars it closed. I can practically feel him gloat in victory on the other side of the heavy doors. Mother sighs heavily and comes to wrap her arms around my shoulders and lead me to a love seat tucked in a corner next to a woodland tapestry.
“In all my life, my wildest dreams for the future, I never saw this coming,” she says, her voice wavering as she wipes tears from her face. “Cole’s heart is in the right place, but his mind is clouded by hundreds of years of hatred. He can’t see past it, your father never got the chance to teach him how.”
I lean my head on her shoulder and cry softly as she strokes my hair.
