ALPHA: Heir Of The Four

Chapter Fourteen | Part I

Chapter Notes: Ava-Rain's POV

* * * *

- 'And as you showed me your scars, I only held you closer.' -

* * *

I was startled awake and my eyes forced open when the uninvited images taking up residency inside of my head proved too much for my mind to handle. Images that had been painfully implanted inside of my head the night Declan and I were attacked—when my hand came into contact with the wolf that had targeted me.

Even if I wanted to make sense of the images, I couldn't. Even if I harboured the ability to decipher their meaning, I don't think I harboured the equal talent to understand them. As far as I was concerned, they were just a bunch of images, scenes or memories that did not belong to me but could not be slowed down enough for me to determine who they belonged to.

     For a couple of seconds, I allowed myself to just lay there, basking in the warmth supplied from the much too comfortable bed. Its owner, I already knew, wasn't around to bid me good morning nor was his special brand of warmth and comfort. Caleb was gone. And as my heart beat slowly returned to its normal pace and my breathing began to even out, I made a half-hearted promise to myself to not allow the third day of his absence ruin my mood.

     The morning after Caleb told me about Emmy Grace, he had stuck around until I woke before offering a rushed goodbye. He and his pack—minus Rickon and Declan, my personal babysitters—had gone off in search of, I kid you not, Angelie. I, of course, was a bit skeptical of their plans; I knew Caleb well enough to assume that the pure bloods had earned his undivided attention and focus. But when Caleb read the obvious doubt and worry written all over my face, he assured me that he wasn't going after them.

     At least not yet.

     He even surprised me a step further by actually telling me that they needed to find Angelie because they believed that she might be able to provide a lead on locating the pure bloods that had attacked Declan and I. I assumed it all traced back to the night of her unexpected visit and the fact that she knew what I was to Caleb. She knew that I was his mate and now the pure bloods knew it as well, which gave both her and the pure bloods information that connected them. The question now was when would The Council find out. But if Caleb's rushed hunt for Angelie was any indication, then the answer to that question we all hoped would be never.

     So there I laid in his big empty bed. Alone. I had not missed the look in his eyes as he explained his plans, nor the look that conveyed that he didn't want to leave my side. Not after everything that had transpired between us. Not while our relationship was stuck in limbo and the exit out of that dark and gloomy realm was no where in sight. But there was no other choice than the one he had to make, and I understood and accepted that better than I thought I would have. When you loved somebody, that person's well being took full and complete precedence over your own.

     Caleb was doing what he had to in order to protect his pack and to keep me safe. I couldn't fault him for that. So I wasn't going to whine and sulk all over the place because he walked out after dumping the biggest load of baggage to ever grace our relationship on me. Not just because I had no right to complain due to the role I had played in jeopardizing Caleb and the pack by exposing them to the pure bloods.

I wasn't going to act like a brat, cry foul play and project blame out onto the world because, in all honestly, that wouldn't have solved anything. It would have been a big waste of time. And if there was one for sure thing that I've learned during my time with Caleb, it was the notion that time was not on our side. So, in most cases, it had to be spent wisely.