Listen to the above song for a better feel of the second part of this chapter!
I laughed at Willow. Loud and proud, I laughed at her. Before I knew it, I was clutching to my belly and falling forward. My insides were tearing themselves to shreds and my abdominal muscles pulsated.
When I stood up after my bout of laughter, the girl was anything but amused. She frowned at me.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, making my tone as confused as I could muster. Yes, I wanted Enzo but right now, I did not trust a two-sided scornful adopted family member to help me get the job done. The moon knew I was not only not that stupid but I was also not that desperate much less gullible. "First of all, I am not interested in your cousin or brother or Alpha or whatever he is to you, Willow and I am deeply offended that you would even suggest such a thing!"
I frowned deeply, acting offended when I settled my eyes against hers. Willow folded her arms across her chest. "You are lying to me!"
"Why would I lie to you of all people Willow!" I let out a tired huff. Honestly, this girl was tiring. She curled her lips in deep thought. "Alpha Enzo has been kind to me. He is helping me find my family. He is my good friend and-"
Willow tries to interrupt me but I stop her.
"And that night you found me coming out of his room was an accident. If you have the nerve then go ask him yourself! I was searching for Tinley then ended up there," this time, I was the one who crossed my arms over my chest. Willow jutted her chin forward.
"You like Enzo, Aoife. You can't convince me otherwise,"
I threw my hands up in the air then took a dominating step forward. Willow flinched ever so slightly.
"Let's say that yes, I do like your cousin-brother or whatever. How can I be sure that you weren't sent by your good ol' godmother into baiting me by gaining my trust and then humiliating me?" I raised a brow at Willow and her mouth slacked. It opened as if she wanted to say something but didn't. "Why would I trust the outcasted family member who would, logically speaking do anything to get back into the good graces of her family?"
"I was not sent by anyone!" She scoffed angrily, throwing her hands up in the air too. "I just want to help you!"
"Why?" I questioned, my voice echoing loudly in the room, bouncing off the four dusty walls. "There has to be a catch. Because frankly speaking, I don't see what you could possibly be gaining by helping me when I didn't even ask you for it because I don't need it,"
Willow clenched her fists tightly and then exclaimed with a low pitched scream. Her hair jumped frantically like it was desperately trying to get away from her. She was a volatile girl, to say the least.
"Okay fine I'll be honest," she pushes her hands through her hair which has dampened with sweat and then she takes a step back. "I want to help you so that when you get your memory back and finally leave, you'll take me with you back to your real pack,"
I couldn't stop my mouth from hanging open.
"I hate it here! I want to live in a place where I can cut my hair like you and not be afraid of the beating that awaits me from my godmother when I return home! Or a place where I can tell the seamstress I want clothes that show my legs and hug my body so tightly I can't breathe! Clothes where the sleeves don't have to stop solely at my wrists for the sake of decency," I tugged on my own long sleeves at that. "I want to be able to talk to boys and laugh with them, dance with them without having to worry about the rumours reaching my godmother!"
The more she spoke, the more she sounded like she wanted to escape but my only question was what was it she really wanted to escape from? Her dominating and strict pack or her godmother? Because they were two different things.
Yet, I understood her. Coming from a pack where I had all the freedom in the world to a place where I can't even get a push-up bra, I'm so thankful the moon wasn't so cruel to me as to put me in this place from the start.
"Aoife sorry to be so bold but I need to ask you a question!"
I didn't respond but she continued.
"Has your lips ever been kissed before?" My fingers found my lips instantly as her brown eyes once again looked at me with sincere curiosity, a true deer in headlights.
"Not that I remember, Willow," I replied with a lie. Sweetie, my lips have been more than kissed. I could write a book for you. "And most definitely not by your cousin brother, Enzo if you're thinking that!"
Willow shook her head instantly as if the mere thought disgusted her. "Of course not! Enzo would never do that!"
The strength of that statement bugged me deeply. Enzo was not a tree! He could be swayed! He could be moved! He could be broken! He had to be, my fucking freedom depended on it!
"Well, I have been kissed! Once, under a peach tree and it was the most beautiful thing I ever felt!" She suddenly grabbed her shawl and squeezed it her large eyes now moving from mine and focusing on the shawl. "It was electrifying and I want that feeling again,"
Then find your mate, sweetie. It's not that hard. Especially where you're from, apparently.
"But you know what happened to me after that boy kissed me under the tree?" Suddenly, her eyes snapped up to mine, a rawness haunting the very edges of her irises as her pupils constricted. "I came home and Enzo's father saw me. The minute he did, he smelt the boy on me and knew that I'd been kissing," she shut her eyes and I watched her shiver. "I learnt the hard way that breaking the rules in this pack was equivalent to begging for death. We should wait for our mates or wait for the Elders to match us with a chosen mate but taking matters into our own hands is not a privilege I could ever afford not only because I'm from here but because this darn family adopted me and I need to uphold their honour!"
Willow's tears began to flow again but she wiped them as quickly as they ran down her chubby cheeks. I couldn't bring myself to ask her what Enzo's father had done to her. How he had punished her. The look of her made me understand that the girl was traumatised by whatever had happened.
"I don't want to find my mate, Aoife. I pray to the moon that if he's from this pack then he should never find me because I want to leave this pack and the last thing I need is to be forced to stay because of a mate," Her eyes squinted with newfound determination. "I want to help you because you're the only hope I have of ever leaving here alive,"
"I...I-" This time, I was the one who stammered because by the way Willow looked straight into my eyes, the firmness of them showed no hint of a lie and neither did the body language.
"I know you don't trust me and I understand why but you should,"
I didn't respond. Instead, I just watched the girl. She was once again clutching to that shawl. I wanted to pull it off of her.
"Why should I?" I finally asked after a long drawn out silence.
"Because I know you like Enzo and no one else would ever help you get to him. I can and I'll offer you some information to show my loyalty to you," I raised an eyebrow in response. "There are many secrets to this pack. There's also a mind link and language that's the essence of who we are but what if I told you that it was possible for you to temporarily block anyone from using the link, thereby leaving them defenceless for at least a few hours?"
My head tilted to the side and Willow smiled. Her smile was so victorious. At that moment, the brunette realised that she had gotten me. She had piqued my interest. My eyes now held a newfound hunger.
"I have to go now but if and when you change your mind and realise how beneficial we could both be to each other than you know exactly where to find me, Aoife,"
Willow walked away and closed the door behind her before I had the chance to say anything.
Well, that was something!
I stood and thought for a long time, unsure about what I just heard but I don't know. The Assassin in me knew not to trust dear little Willow who switched personalities every two seconds. She came too easily to me, so ready to betray her family. Even if she wasn't related to them by blood, she was raised alongside them so the fact that she so easily wants to go against them with my help just doesn't sit well with me.
I understood everything she said but I just didn't think I could trust her.
That's all I contemplated on as I walked out of the room. I walked down to the hall, wanting to explore the other parts of the mansion which I had never lingered too far into. I needed to get that stone but this home was so big. If it was here, which I didn't even know for a fact whether it was or not, it would take a long time to get to it. Recently, I had started to make a plan of the house.
I tried to draw from my memory the complete mansion plan and I hid my drawings behind the same small cupboard that protected my second dagger. The basic outline and house plan that I had drawn was good but lacked the rooms which I had never seen. I needed to survey everything. The sooner I had a more precise mansion plan, the sooner I could narrow down possible places to search. The more I thought about it, the more I feared that this job would take a fucking long time.
The best bet was to seduce that ever holy Alpha Enzo but even that, I had to admit wasn't so easy. Enzo always made me feel like we had special, perhaps even intimate moments and then he would just act stoic the next day. He would act unfamiliar, like nothing happened. It was confusing. Was I meant to acknowledge that we shared something and play on it or ignore it too and wait for him to get interested in my lack of interest?
That's why my backup plan could work.
Plan A: Seduce Enzo and get him to tell me.
Plan B: Rob the place after somehow knocking everyone unconscious?
Okay, I admit, plan B is a bit elaborate but my time is sort of running out here and I will admit, I'm getting fucking desperate. If Nessa pays me another visit then by the moon, I don't even know what I'll do because she's right. I'm slow, even by my own standards.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of music. It was soft yet sorrowful. It left goosebumps over every inch of my skin and I followed the sound. It became louder as I walked, drawing me to a part of the house where sunlight from the large windows didn't reach it. There were a few doors and one large wooden one. My shadow stretched and for a moment, I thought it was twilight. Obviously, it wasn't. It was the middle of the day.
I stood behind the door, hearing the melody created by the instrument I recognised as a piano. The song became more and more gloomy, more and more sorrowful and it made me feel pure undiluted despair.
I opened the door.
The room was dimly lit by candles and I was left to wonder why there was no sign of sunlight when it was the middle of the day. When I looked around, there seemed to be no window. I inhaled and shut the door behind me. The music continued to play, with more ferocity this time. The person who played was gifted. Extremely so at that.
There were large bookshelves everywhere. Shelves that looked at least three times my height. . They even had ladders to get up to them and it was so many. That's when I realised that this was a library. I looked up in awe but what stood at the centre was what had me weak in the knees, almost collapsing to the floor from how beautiful it sounded.
Enzo sat at the centre playing the piano with so much emotion that he didn't seem to even notice that I stood there, before him, watching him, admiring him.
His music captured my senses, completely captivated it and every single part of me tensed and untensed as I watched this beautiful man, the respected Alpha as he played a song that not only broke my heart but seemed to be wrecking through every inch of him as his fingers hammered away at the keys. They hammered constantly, endlessly and with ultimate intensity.
Enzo's hair jumped everywhere, his curls a frantic masterpiece as they bobbed up and down with each movement of his on the piano and I felt as if I were at a concert, watching the best in our world play. I couldn't move. I felt every note, tone, melody. Everything sliced and rippled through me and brought memories flooding back to my mind that had my throat feeling scratchy all of a sudden. It had tears in my eyes. I was moved beyond belief.
I felt like Enzo's music told my story.
Before I knew it, more tears welled up in my eyes and I was struggling to keep a hold of it. I was struggling to keep a hold on myself. I was coming undone.
In a way, I felt like I had invaded Enzo's privacy. The more I watched him, the more I felt like I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't be witnessing something so raw, so private. Yet, I couldn't will my feet to take any steps forward or backwards. I was trapped by the music, trapped by Enzo's movements as he refused to acknowledge me and devoured that piano so immensely.
Then, out of nowhere, the music stopped.
Enzo's harsh breathing filled the air instead. He was gasping for air. It sounded like he was begging for it as his head remained turned downwards while his now frizzy looking hair poked out everywhere. When his eyes snapped up to finally acknowledge me, they were golden. His eyes had a wildness in them. A wildness which I had never seen before. Something so primal that a shiver crept up my spine.
I couldn't stop myself when I asked, "What broke you, Enzo?"
~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~🖤~
Did you listen to the song? Maybe listen to the instrumental too for an even better feel?
What do you think about this chapter?! What do you think about Enzo and Willow?
Thanks for reading! And I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Unfortunately, I have exams qt the moment so updates are slow but I'm still trying my best!🖤❤️ Please remember to support me by voting, commenting, sharing and following! I really love to read your comments!
~Эмма✌🏻💞