And There Were Wolves

twenty seven | bad blood

"Ryker Cromwell," said Adelina, the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement. "It has been ten long years."

"Indeed it has," replied Ryker in a rather tight tone. I realized then that since I was proven to be alive, he'd decided that Adelina might be a fraud. He still blamed himself for stirring issues with his family and hurting Alana as well, and whether he wanted to admit it or not, a part of him blamed Adelina too.

"And here I thought that the great Alpha Cromwell, the wild Alpha who banned his entire family from the pack just to be with the woman he chose to be, will never step inside this humble abode of mine." Adeline gave a smile that was way too sweet, almost as if she was mocking him.

"I didn't ban my family from the pack," he corrected begrudgingly.

"Oh, of course, your family chose to leave you," said Adelina, her tone making it feel like she was talking to a 5 years old child. "What's driven them to do that is forever a mystery, is it not? Just like the death of your brother."

Ryker curled his hand into a ball of fists and when he uncurled them, I saw his nails lengthening and furs starting to grow on his forearm. I quickly held his hand. "Calm down," I told him. I knew Adelina had said some horrible things, but if he turned into a giant wolf and somehow injured — or worse, killed her — then we wouldn't get any answer.

"You. You're his mate." Adelina focused her eyes on me. Shock and dismay were written all over her face. "You're not supposed to be alive."

"Yet here I am," I said as I moved toward her. "And that's actually what I want to ask you. Why did you think I was dead? I mean, I know I'm obviously breathing, but when you told Ryker that I was dead, what did you actually envision in your cards, or crystal ball or um, tea leaves, or whatever." I didn't actually know how she would read the future and just rolled with whatever I had read online.

"I had a vision, my child," surprisingly her voice was soft when she was speaking to me, "His lover came to me one day and when I held her hand, I had what looked like a dream. I saw an eight-year-old you being drained, life was being sucked out of you and then there was nothing."

"That's not what you told me," said Ryker, frowning.

"I may have made it easier for you and your lover, you impatient horny wolves," she threw a chastised look at Ryker before looking back at me again. "What I said may have been true the time I said it, it is one of the possibilities in the future but there are many things that could change it, that could rewrite the future. This is why sometimes future tellers can't really tell you exactly what will happen because telling you itself might cause the future to be altered. Nothing is definite when it comes to the future, my child. No one can one hundred percent know for sure."

"Something must have happened," she said again. "An unpredictable variable. Whatever it was, you escaped your death."

I swallowed hard. This time, it was my turn to tell her what had actually happened and I knew it wouldn't be easy. "But someone did die, Madame." I continued to hold her gaze. "My mother did."

To my surprise, Adelina frowned. A few lines started forming on her forehead and her eyebrows were furrowed. "Your mother?"

"Yes. My mom died ten years ago." I cleared my throat, suddenly it felt hard to speak. "Is it possible that what you've seen then was my mother? Or perhaps—" I briefly closed my eyes. This was it. This was what would make or break me. This was the hardest question out of all. "Did my mother sacrifice herself to save me?"

Adelina opened her palm up and it took me a second to understand that she was asking me to lend her my palm. I placed my hand on hers then she clasped her free hand on top of mine and hummed some words which sounded like Latin or French — I wasn't sure. My hand felt warm, there was this tingling feeling too like something was rubbing my hand and I knew it couldn't possibly be Adelina considering her hands were just holding me. I continued to stare at Adelina who had her eyes closed and wondered what she might see.

Then all of a sudden, her eyes fluttered open and there was anger mixed with something violent. "You're Gaia's child. You brought death to your family, to everyone you know, and you'll bring death here too." She jerked her hands away as if my hand had just scalded her. "Get out! Get out of here! Out! I won't let you take mine either!"

Distracted or not, Ryker was on Adelina in a flash, using his strength to restrain the woman's hands. "Calm down," he warned her, reiterating the exact word I'd said to him earlier. Who would have thought that the sorceress would be the one who went violent and not him?

"Look, I don't know what you saw in there but I am not trying to harm you or anyone else. I just want to know. I need to know what happened," I pleaded, trying to reason with her and hoping that my intention was genuine.

"Out. Both of you," said Adeline again. She said something in Latin again and the next thing I heard was Ryker hissing in pain.

"Please," I tried one more time. "What did I do? Did I cause my mother's death?"

Adelina spared one warning look at Ryker before looking at me directly. "You caused every death in your family. I could feel it in your hand. Leave now before I make you."

I grabbed Ryker's arm and gave it a little tug. "Thank you, Adelina." Even though there was nothing to be thankful for to know that I was the one who had done it. I was the one who killed my mom. But she had just confirmed my suspicion all along and for that I was grateful.

Ryker glanced at me as we walked back toward the car. "Hey, don't believe anything she said, okay? She's just a crazy old lady who doesn't know when to stop lying and making shite up."

I shook my head dejectedly then looked down to stare at my hands. Adelina had said that she could feel my family's deaths in my hands. She said 'deaths' — not singular but plural. It wasn't just my mother. I'd caused other family members' deaths too and perhaps that was the real reason my dad had left. It wasn't to save me, perhaps he'd left to save himself from me.

Two big hands covered mine and I looked up to meet Ryker's silver eyes. "What she said is nothing but a lie. You didn't cause anyone's death, Xyrra."

"How would you know?" I asked him angrily. "You weren't there ten years ago. Do you know what Eros told me? He said that I'd been there when my mother died. My dad passed out but I was conscious. Everyone thought that I'd been a witness but what if I was the culprit, Ry? What if I was the one who murdered my own mother?"

"You can't know that for sure," he said, ever so patiently. "You were only eight years old. How would you kill your mother, hmm? Even if you're a werewolf, you can't turn at that age."

I gave his words a moment of thought and realized that he was right. I was too focused on thinking about the 'who' and 'when' that I forgot about the 'how'. Ryker was right. How would an eight-year-old girl kill her mother? Furthermore with her father's presence.

Ryker seemingly noticed the change in my expression and squeezed my hands before tugging me and pulling me into his warm embrace. His hands let go of mine. One of them went to wrap his arm around my back while the other caressed the back of my head. "You couldn't possibly do it, Xy. The sorceress lied."

"But she did tell me something though," I pulled away slightly to lock eyes with him. "She mentioned her name. Gaia." I tasted the word on my tongue. Gaia and Thanos. I wondered how the person who made their wedding invitations had reacted to knowing the uncommon names of the couple. Then I recalled something I'd seen when cleaning my mother's stuff. In one of her drawers, I recalled seeing a key with the letter 'G. A.' at first I hadn't thought much about it but now that the sorceress had told me that my mother's name was Gaia and not Sarah, that key could mean something. "Gaia Ashcroft."

I took a step back and Ryker who noticed my action gave our bodies a distance. "What is it?" he asked.

Looking up to meet his silver eyes, call me crazy but I knew that he would do anything for me. "We need to go to my parents' house."

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