Ivory

Epilogue

Epilogue:

Brooke

My gaze was steady on the landscape that lay outside my window. The familiar trees and plants mocked me as I could only stare helplessly out, with dreams that I could be out there. But no, I was under house arrest. Apparently being kidnapped and going on a suicide mission was the last straw for John.

We came back to the Ivory Sun pack after they saved Natalia and me from that zoo. Or that was what I had been told. I was in a coma for a week while my body healed from the abuse it went through. All the injections of wolfsbane and the silver still attached to my wrist and the fact that I had hardly ate anything led to me being under twenty-four-seven watch.

It wasn't as though I was upset that I was home, I loved it here and everyone that came with it. But I missed my family back there. Kieran, Austin, Mum, Dad, Natalia, even Leon.

Since she was pregnant, Natalia decided that it was time for her to move in with Austin. He was over the moon, obviously. Josh was a little reluctant at first, he loved his sister and wanted to be there for her, but he also understood why he couldn't. He was finishing school here and she decided that she was going to take the rest of her school education online.

Apparently Brettly had run away after they kidnapped me, leaving his pack to Austin. I was told that he went completely rogue without telling a single soul as to why. It didn’t feel right for me to simply assume that I was the reason why he left. I knew there was another reason, it couldn’t just be me. How could it?

Kieran had told me about what the rogue, Vlad I assumed from his description, had said when they were escaping. It was… disturbing. This mysterious he was ruining my life. Kieran had been sitting in his room since he explained to me what happened while I had been out of it. He seemed guilty, so that told me that he wasn’t telling me something. I didn’t feel like pestering him about it, since his guilt would eventually eat him alive and he would come clean as soon as that happened.

“…when he wants something, he will go to any length to get it.” Those words had been echoing in my head since I was told them. It reminded me that no one was safe, not as long as I was around them. Even if they thought that they could handle it, I couldn’t put them in that situation, not for anything.

So that was how I made up my decision. How I was going to leave, to keep them safe.

There was a nagging feeling in my gut that told me it was wrong, but I didn’t care anymore. Being kidnapped just showed me how much of a danger I was to the people I loved.

So I packed my duffle bag with my simplest clothes and toiletries. The things that I held dearest I left, they wouldn’t be safe anywhere near me. So that meant I was leaving the necklace that Gran gave me, the pictures I had taken while I was here.

Quickly I wrote a letter and placed it on my bed. Tears were escaping from my eyes, but they weren’t going to change my mind. I was doing this.

I jumped out the window and ran into the trees, the all too familiar déjà vu feeling making my guilt building. I was running away from my problems from the second time in my life. I should really stop doing that.

My nerves skyrockets as I got the boarder, doubts beginning to cloud my mind. Was this really what I wanted? Leaving them while we were on the verge of war with the rogues?

I guess we’ll just have to see, I thought as I stepped over the line between safety and the great unknown.

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Kieran

I watched as she ran into the shade of the trees with the duffle bag tossed over her shoulder. She couldn’t shift, so I knew that I could catch up with her if I wanted to. But I couldn’t.

My noble baby sister was running to keep everyone safe. She couldn’t see past the fact that she could only be making it worse for us since her leaving. They were looking for her and they wouldn’t stop until they knew. If we didn’t know where she was, they could think we were hiding it from them and kill us all.

She had no way of protecting herself as long as she wore those cuffs. She was a sitting duck out there on her own, and no one could save her. Except, if by some miracle, Brettly found her and decided that he wanted to protect her, which probably wouldn’t happen.

The last time I saw him he was… angry, to say the least. He didn’t want her to reject him again so he took it out on anyone who tried to comfort him. Unfortunately that person was Margaret, or Chloe, which was what she had told everyone before… this happened. To say she needed medical help would be an understatement.

It was after that he ran away. No one questioned him once, since most of them were terrified of the guy at that point.

I crept out if my room and wandered up to hers. It was something that could have seen her living in, with all its colours, posters, group pictures and knick-knacks. The bed was made as though no one had slept in it with a large handmade quilt on it that our gran had given on her tenth birthday.

On the blanket was a piece of paper resting against the pillow.

I opened it and the pang that went through my chest made whatever I felt four years ago seem almost... soft.

Sorry.

That was all that was written on the front of the paper and when I turned it around there was another single word.

Goodbye.

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