Wolverton Falls

25. She Will Soon Know

TENSION ROLLED FROM Luka's tall, looming figure.

With dark and stormy eyes, Luka slunk his body lower and positioned himself closer toward Maggie with a watchful step. Her eyes widened with alarm when she caught on to the predatory stalking. She realised the lethal lycanthrope had taken her words and stance as a challenge.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Katya angle her body forward. She faced her brother whose intense eyes hadn't left the human. Katya slowly lifted her hands toward Luka as she registered his threatening body language.

"Brother," Katya warned low in her throat.

He didn't verbally respond nor physically react. His eyes trained only on Maggie who merely stood a couple of feet away from him.

Maggie wasn't sure where her sudden defiance had come from, but she didn't care. She would drink in the unfamiliar power she felt from it and remain standing straight. She could feel the slight tremor in her cold hands and hear the thumping of her racing heart. Despite her body cowering at the superior inhuman, Maggie held her resolve.

"Don't!" Maggie snapped at the man who dared to take another step toward her. He froze at the abrupt command, eyes flickering with deep gold slivers. "You had no right to do that to me, Luka."

She felt the contained frustration and fiery temper within her bubble right up to the surface. In that moment, she was done with being submissive and silent. It had not been up to Luka to even attempt to take away her memories. She was finally going to get answers from the infuriatingly mysterious man.

"I cannot believe that you knocked me out and proceeded to give me amnesia!" She huffed with exasperation, her mind still reeling from the action. "After everything that's happened, what you have seen, I don't understand your process for doing this too me."

Luka puffed out his chest with indignation at her words before grumbling lowly, "It was a decision that I saw fit."

"But it's not your choice to make –" She began to debate rashly before being cut off.

"Yet it is my responsibility," He snarled at her, his pointed a finger harshly at his chest. Maggie could see what was left of his minimal patience – it was finally beginning to slip. "It is protocol for my team to follow those steps as soon as any human is recovered. This is what is always done." He gravely finished with pure finality.

"Then why didn't you do it in the first place?" She retaliated with a soft tilt of her head, frowning with perplexity. "Why go through all the trouble of dragging me along, tell me secrets about the supernatural world – but help me? Why reveal everything about yourselves..." She trailed off breathlessly, searching for answers from the man. "I simply don't understand."

"It was me."

Luka and Maggie immediately snapped their fierce gazes to Katya. She had remained quiet through the entirety of their very heated argument. She had stayed silent, letting them clear the thick tension that had been there since they met.

"Luka wanted to wait – we were scheduled to infiltrate the cabin the day after we actually rescued you. I got my brother to agree to go sooner because I knew you would not make it," She explained her side of the story with a gentleness. "I could see just how terrified you were. I was not sure if you would still have been alive the next day." She ended truthfully.

Maggie blinked away the watery tears that lingered as her heart softened toward the woman. Katya had easily known how endangered Maggie was in that haunting cabin with Emmett. For that, Maggie couldn't be more thankful of the caring, selfless lycan. However, lingering seeds of doubts still flittered within her mind and slipped past her lips.