Chapter 5: Confrontations
[Dove]
I remembered it was this way.
The further I moved from the mansion, the blinder I became. If it wasn’t for the moonlight, I’d be lost; I’d rather be dead than be found wandering like a lost sheep.
Something cracked under my foot and my heart froze. A part of me knew I should turn back - the last thing I wanted was for Cole to find out that I had been snooping around.
The other part of me insisted that it was ‘necessary’. I mentally slapped myself. Stop repeating his words, Dove! What the hell is wrong with you? That ox-brain of a werewolf was still missing in action.
If he wanted to be non-existent, so be it. That arrogant asshole.
My hand shot up to cover my lips. Dove! When did you learn to cuss like that? I scolded silently. Shocked and ashamed, I quickly closed my palms in front of my face as my mind apologized to the Moon Goddess.
The path finally came to the familiar opening. This was the place we stopped and turned around. Owin had panicked, half-pushing and half-nudging me to move away from this spot. Once the spot was out of sight, I casually brought up my suspicions:
“Why did you push me away from that place earlier?”
“It’s out of bounds for everyone, including the leader.”
I couldn’t hide my surprise. “Even for Cole? Why?”
The Gamma suddenly lost his usual smile. ‘I don’t know, Dove. It’s probably dangerous even for Cole. The elders said that this place is poisoned so we better go. I shouldn’t have brought you here. I don’t know what happened to me. It wasn’t even in my planned route.’
He started apologizing over and over so I let it rest.
That was three days ago. Any suspicions from my little outing with Owin would have worn off by now.
I stood before the sky-high hedge, wondering what could be behind it. If there was really poison, this place would have been buried. Somehow I had a strange feeling that this could be the place I was searching for.
With a cautious push of the engulfing branches and leaves, a careful step, and a slow slithering of my body, I stepped into what seemed to be...
A very large cave.
It was as tall as a lighthouse and as wide as a football field. The air suddenly turned chilly and was stale and damp. I breathed carefully, afraid that the slightest sound would turn into the loudest echo and attract an unnecessary audience.
With each cautious step I made, the moonlight grew dimmer until it was completely black, and I couldn’t move further. It was then I smelled the rotten wood, decaying moss and gunpowder. My hand immediately clamped over my nose, and my ears sprung alive to pick out the faintest sound. Thankfully, there was none.
I relaxed and caught the outline of a column - or a fraction of it. Instinctively, I leaned closer and stretched out a hand. Cold slippery stone kissed my fingertips. I flattened the hand on the stone and it glided along smoothly and then suddenly dipped.
I pulled away as if scalded, my breathing becoming shallow. I inhaled deeply once and boldly grazed the surface once more, this time feeling as much as my arm could reach to the right, and then to the left. As expected, there were more engravings on the stone:
OON GOD
My eyes widened in excitement. Oh my Goddess! This has to be it! The house of the Moon Goddess! I knew there’d be one around here!
Cautiously, I stepped back into the moonlight, raised my chin high, rotated my stretched neck, and spotted another similar column two arm lengths from me. Slowly and carefully, I tip-toed over, felt its surface with my palm, and found more engravings:
OUR GRA
Heat flooded the back of my eyes as my mind filled up with images of this place, once majestic and alive with warm orange-yellow flames and singing voices of devoted worshippers of the Moon Goddess.
What could’ve happened for an entire pack to suddenly abandon this place and throw their faith away?
A strange acidic smell then crept into my nose, and I was suddenly worried about the poison that Owin was rattling on about. I hastily left through the same route.
Walking away from the sky-high hedge, my mind was all about the engravings. I have to return in the day to see more.
“Had fun?”
The lights suddenly came up and there he was - my so-called husband - a colossal statue in the middle of the kitchen.
Maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder. I was transfixed, standing there, drinking in his appearance. His long leaned body tensed against the counter, those thick arms across his chest, and the same menacing blue eyes.
Then I noticed his scowl and finally registered the sarcasm in his question.
A sudden wave of anger and resentment came over me and I dashed over. “Fun?” I jabbed a finger into his hard chest. “What makes you think I am having fun?” I was shouting and I couldn’t stop.
He grabbed my wrist and growled. “You’re supposed to be--.”
“In the house!” I continued screaming, releasing two weeks of pent up frustration. “Of course, I should be in the house! Why wouldn’t I?” I tried to strike him with my free hand but he quickly grabbed that too.
“Stop whining like a princess,” he warned and pushed me from him. In his cold arrogance, he said, “Rules are rules. It’s your duty to follow them. Don’t make another werewolf suffer under your incompetence.”
A vision of Owin’s look of panic flickered across my mind and I almost stopped breathing. “What did you do to Owin?” I whispered in fear.
He slanted his eyes at me. “Since when were you two this close?”
Grabbing a fist, I snarled back at him. “What did you do to him?” That wonderful smell of fresh mint and rain exploded around me, and the familiar strange sense of heat splashed across my back. It annoyed the hell out of me.
“What I do,” His face darkened and his voice was calm as the sea before a tsunami. “Is none of your damn business.”
A glint of rage sprinted across his piercing blue eyes and then his lips crashed onto mine.