Chapter 17
1234 Words
CASSIE’S POV
For a moment, I wondered where the voice came from.
It came from inside my chest - from the warm place where Amara lived, curled against my ribs.
“They're cute” Amara teased.
I felt heat climb up my neck so fast it was almost painful.
“Amara” I thought back “You've been awake for five minutes”
“Long enough. Look at them”
“I'm not going to-”
“The tall one especially” She paused. I could feel her practically purring. “All three of them, actually. I'm not picky”
“You are absolutely not helping right now.”
“You're blushing.”
“I am not-"
"How are you feeling?"
The question came from the outside world and pulled me back into reality. Castien was the one who had spoken. He was leaning slightly against the car door, watching me intensely.
I cleared my throat. "I'm fine, much better. I found my wolf."
"We know," Bastian said.
"Her name is Amara," I said, and just saying it out loud made something in my chest go warm. I smiled. "Which is - it's my mother's name, which means she must have known somehow. My mom, I mean. Maybe she sensed it." I felt the smile widen at the thought of it. "She's going to be so happy when I tell her. She always said-"
I stopped.
It happened quickly. One moment I was reaching for the thought of my mother's face and the next moment the thought sort of... felt wrong.
I knew my mother. I knew her face, her voice, the way she always smelled like the palace's cleaning soap when she came home. But something about where she was right now wasn't coming to me. It wasn't there the way it should have been.
What I had instead was an image of her face. In my mind, she was smiling as she mouthed “goodbye.
"She got out," I said, mostly to myself. "When the men came, she got out. She's somewhere safe right now." I looked up at the brothers. "That's right, isn't it? She escaped?"
None of them answered immediately.
"She's somewhere good," Darren finally spoke
I nodded. That lined up with what I felt. "She's always been stronger than she looks. Everyone at the palace underestimated her. She's okay. I know she is."
A single tear slid down my face.
I shook my head. "Sorry. I don't know why I keep doing that." I chuckled. "Happy tears. It's been a strange night."
Darren crouched down so he was level with me. He was closer than I expected and the pull I had felt before intensified immediately. His eyes were dark and direct and when they were on me it was difficult to think about anything other than the fact that they were on me.
My breath hitched as I looked at him.
He reached out and placed his hand over mine where it rested on my knee.
My heart rate got even faster. It felt like every nerve in my body was on fire. I could feel the hairs on my arms rise.
“Amara” I thought in panic.
“Shh” she said peacefully.
“What are you doing?”
“What you won't” she said, and I could feel her satisfaction like sunshine on my back.
"Come with us," Darren said "You don't know where your mom is right now, and you can't stay here alone. Come back to the house. We'll figure the rest out in the morning."
I looked at his hand over mine, then I looked at his face. I looked past him at Bastian and Castien standing just behind him.
I thought about his offer while trying very hard to apply basic logic to the situation.
These were the Leviathan brothers. They were Lycan princes. They were the most famous rock band in the world, which meant their faces existed on billboards in countries I’d never been to and their music had been played at every school dance I had ever avoided attending.
They were powerful, wealthy and extraordinary in approximately every measurable way.
I was Cassie. I was the wolfless girl from the small house. I was the one Kenny locked in lockers, poured paint on and made say humiliating things into intercoms. I was a nobody by every standard this pack used to measure such things. And even now, even with Amara in my chest for the first time, I was still an omega without a rank or a family name or a single thing that would make me interesting to people like them.
So why were they being kind to me?
People like this didn't just decide to be kind to people like me. There was always a reason. There was always a catch that came later. I had learned that lesson young.
“You're overthinking”, Amara said.
“One of us has to”
“Look at them properly” she said. She wasn’t teasing now. Her voice was serious “Look at their faces and tell me what you see”
I looked at them.
Darren was crouched in front of me with his hand over mine. Bastian looked at me with so much concern that it made my heart race. Castien, leaned on the car door, not saying anything.
“They're real”, Amara said simply. “I can feel it. I'm a wolf, Cassie. I know the difference”.
I chewed the inside of my cheek.
“They could still have an angle” I thought back.
“They could. You could also spend the rest of tonight alone in this house. That seems much worse.”
“You've been awake for ten minutes and you're already insufferable”
“You've been alone for seventeen years and you're terrible at accepting help. I think we balance each other out.”
Despite everything - the strangeness of the night, the things I couldn't quite reach in my own memory, the tear I still didn't fully understand - I laughed internally.
Amara purred.
I looked back at Darren. His expression hadn't changed while I had been having an entire internal debate with my wolf. He had just waited. That alone said something.
"Okay," I said.
He raised an eyebrow slightly. "Okay?"
"I'll come." I straightened up, adjusting the blanket that had fallen from my shoulders. "But I'm not - I'm just staying until I figure out where my mom is and what's happening. I'm not agreeing to anything else yet."
"That's fine," Castien said from behind Darren "You don't have to agree to anything tonight."
Bastian smiled. "We have a guest room."
"Four, actually," Darren said with a smile.
“Five”, Amara corrected from inside my chest, meaning herself, and I bit my cheek to keep my expression straight.
I looked at the house, at the front door still standing slightly open. I thought about my mother's face in that image - that peaceful goodbye smile. I thought about the yellow flower in the cracked vase. I thought about the handprints on the wall that she had loved enough to keep.
“She's okay” I told myself. “She got out. She's somewhere good”
"Alright," I said, pulling the blanket around my shoulders “Let's go."
- Writer
