Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 360: No way in hell.

Leilani.

It was several hours since I left the abandoned house where I had met with Zevran and arrived back at my hotel room, but for some reason, I remained restless for the rest of the night.

I couldn’t sleep... I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing Agnes’ face floating just behind my closed eyelids like a big fat banner.

The thoughts of her haunted me, but do you know what haunted me the most?

The fact that I never gave her all that she deserved.

The fact that she put herself in harm’s way over and over again just to make things easier for me.

I could remember when she’d helped me with the case with my parents retrieving old footage, and then with Chalice’s and Louis’ case. Many times, she’d been selfless and protected me... yet, she’d died in my stead.

It should have been the other way round. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

While on one hand, I was grieving the loss of a friend, on the other hand, my stupid wolf was busy beating herself up over Zevran’s kiss.

She replayed every second of the kiss like it was a movie scene she wanted to keep tattooed into her memory... but at the moment, the only thing I could think about were the words he’d said to me before the kiss.

"What if I am not there? What if my brothers are not there and there is no Alpha Frostclaw as well? Would you just let your enemies beat your ass? Would you let them hurt you despite everything they’ve done so far? Everyone says that you are the legendary all powerful hybrid, yet I do not see it. All I see is a young woman who is hurt by everything she’s been put through. All I see is a girl who has so much potential. But do you know what she would do rather than make use of those said potential?"

"...she would rather whine and cry, and would let everyone else do the job... the job that only she could ever do so perfectly."

Those words however, were the only things I wanted to keep tattooed to the back of my skull. They were the only thing my mind kept on loop, replaying over and over again until I began to feel on top of the world.

The world grew silent, reducing into nothing but white noise at the back of my head. Lines blurred into one another until in place of the kiss, all I could think of were his words... the firmness in his eyes when he said them... the admiration. The sureness.

I balled my hands into fists as I rose slowly to my feet and walked over to the only window my hotel room possessed.

"I need to stop being a whining weakling," I hissed. "I need to do better. I need to avenge Agnes’ death."

As the words slipped out of my mouth, taking form, I felt a sudden strange energy rush through every vein in my body. It zapped from the roots of my hair to the sole of my feet, causing all the hairs on my body to stand on end.

I let out a gasp and fell to my knees when it became too much to handle, but rather than passing out like I always would when things like this happened, I didn’t. Instead I felt stronger. Better. Sharper.

I crawled to my feet and stumbled towards the mirror, and when I looked in, my breath caught in my chest.

Why?

Because standing in front of me wasn’t me. It was a girl who looked exactly like me, alright, but she was more badass. More beautiful even.

The roots of her hair were not like mine and had darkened, and a strange bright light ran through each strand of her hair like a gazillion fairy lights.

I touched my hair tentatively, feeling the tips of my finders thrum with power, then I whispered;

"What the fuck?"

My voice echoed back at me.

—

Darius.

I rolled my eyes at the elders who were all gathered in front of me and watching with eagle eyes as if half expecting me to snap.

Well, I wasn’t here to give them a show.

"It has just reached us that the girl, Alpha Ragnar’s only surviving child is dead... what is her name again—?" Elder Timothy started to say, his eyes darting around the room as if expecting someone to supply him with Leilani’s full name.

And someone did.

Ezekiel chimed in; "Leilani! She calls herself Leilani Sinclair!"

The way he hissed out the name ’Sinclair’, with so much venom, showed just how much he hated it.

"She would be known as a Valemont in life and in death! I curse that stupid surname she created for herself!"

"Would you have her be known as a Blackthorne?" Someone barked at him, and as soon as he heard that, he clamped his lips shut, lowered his head and spat.

Like literally spat out saliva.

"Hell no!"

"Are we here to argue about her name or to talk about what to do next, especially now that she is dead?" Timothy yelled at Ezekiel who immediately looked away.

"No." Ezekiel snarled, and with that, Timothy turned back to look at me, his eyes eagle sharp despite his old age as he snorted;

"As I was saying, she is dead, Alpha Darius, so now you need to take a wife and ascend the throne. You are the next in line!"

His words in a different universe would have made me feel so good. Hell, I would have been so happy if the scenario had been slightly different from this...

But it was not.

So I was unhappy.

I shook my head at him, my time indifferent as I spat; "I will not take a wife." And as soon as I said that, the entire room froze. Everyone turned to look at me like I was mad— which I was. But I didn’t care.

I continued; "Leilani isn’t dead."

"How do you know that?" Someone shouted at me from the back but I didn’t even need to see who it was before answering.

I seethed; "Did you ever meet her?"

"No."

"Good," I spat coldly, "...it is quite obvious that you didn’t, because if you did, then you would know that she is not so easily killed... especially by an accident as stupid as some uncontrolled fire." Then to the others, I added; "We will find her and we will bring her here. And I will only ascend the throne after she’s been brought back here as my wife. Am I clear?"

"But Alpha—"

"Whoever finds her first will get a sum of five million dollars as a gift for a job well done. So instead of wasting time trying to argue with me, I’d advise y’all to go out there and search for MY BRIDE!"