The whole town was filled with unfamiliar faces, guests from other packs were all here for Constantine. News often did spread fast to neighboring packs, and those who knew about him were interested.
The unknown menace was finally captured, and now he is nothing but a puppet controlled by the three men who did.
Cassie had heard about it personally from her previous alpha, Chris, who was never too fond of secrets. It was just a passing remark that he made about how the Hawthornes now have someone they can unleash on anyone they didn't like. Someone who followed the alpha like an obedient pet acting as a body guard. She witnessed it herself.
She caught sight of Constantine following the alphas somewhere obligingly. No restraints, no precautions. It was like they had an invisible leash on him and she knew for a fact that they were using Ari.
That's why she decided to make one last visit before she left this town, fearing for her safety.
Luna Anna had kindly told here where Ari was kept, and she led her to his room herself and Cassie couldn't help but notice that the room was locked from the outside.
"It's for his own safety." Luna Anna told her noticing the way Cassie's eyes lingered on the lock, but she only smiled and nodded her head as she walked inside.
And there he was looking out of a window that caged him with its metal bars. There was nothing much to look at outside, but he was clearly in a world of his own if his wistful look was anything to go by. The room was very luxurious, had every comfort, filled every need, but she knew that he didn't want to be staying here.
His eyes were wet.
He didn't want to be kept prisoner because that's what he was, this is what he always had been. This cage was just more comfortable, prettier.
The Hawthornes were generous with their wealth.
Cassie didn't say anything when she approached him, but instead she placed a hand on his shoulder making him turn his head to look at her. He didn't say anything and she knew that it was because a sob threatened to come out.
In more ways than one, this complex situation broke her heart.
"Aurelius," She held his face in her hands shaking her head at him and at the chain connected to his ankle. He was trapped here, there was nothing subtle about it. The Hawthornes didn't bother to keep it subtle, but at least they did it gently. "You've been through so much, but it is your own fault."
He bit his lip and looked away from her making her sigh.
"Are you upset about Constantine?" She asked him retracting her hand away to sit by him. He was still not looking at her, like he felt like no words could express just how guilty he was about this whole ordeal. "Don't blame yourself for what's happening to him. He never was a good person."
But she was wrong.
"It's not that." He finally spoke still refusing to look her way as he stared out of the window again. Cassie thought she might get a glimpse of what's on his mind when she looked out of it, too, but there was nothing that clued her in. "I am just so tired."
"Tired?"
There was a perfectly comfortable bed right there, but it was clear that this wasn't tiredness born from lack of rest. What Ari wanted wasn't sleep, it was something else.
"I just want to go home. I just want this all to end." He told her sounding both frustrated and in despair, but the despair in his voice overpowered the frustration despite it being so dim in his voice. It showed clearly on how he moved, how his hair had a hand run through it so many times it was now sticking up, and how his leg refused to stop moving and shifting as if he just wanted to run away.
All he wanted was to run back home.
"Then you're going about it the wrong way, love." She sighed grabbing his attention by taking his hand in hers and squeezing it, and it succeeded making him look down at the touch. "Correct me if I am wrong, but you lied to Eli to hurt him. And it also hurt Alec."
Ari breathed in an intake of air in his surprise, but he didn't say anything as he attempted to pull his hand away looking like a child who was caught doing something he shouldn't have.
She only tightened her hold on it refusing to let it go.
"You also lied about all of this. The mark, Constantine, and whatever else I don't know about." Her tone was firm, yet gentle, it was admonishing, but there was no malice or anger behind it. It just made him sink further in his seat as she continued. "Your friends think you're a victim in all this. Did you think about how all of this would make them feel?"
Ari had, and he thought he didn't care.
But when he remembered Rowan, he did care.
"Aurelius, you've been hurt all your life. There's nothing right about what happened to you, and all I wanted from the beginning was to see you happy. Even if it is with Constantine." There was sincerity in her voice that made her words mean something, and he just sat there silently ashamed because of her disapproval at his actions. "Do you know what you did wrong?"
Ari nodded his head slowly at her looking sorry, genuinely so. "I lied."
"No." Cassie said shaking her head. "You lashed out."
And Ari looked down once more because he knew it was true. He did lash out, and he did hurt a lot of people, and he did many things that he would probably erase if he could. "I deserve all this then."
With her whole demeanor softening, Cassie shook her head in denial at that. "Nobody deserves this. I think it is wrong that you're unable to leave. It's never right for anyone to keep you here. I do want you to leave."
"I want that, too." This time he did cry. "I wish I just left. I should never have hurt anyone."
"I don't think it is in your nature to hurt anyone." She told him giving his hand a few absent-minded strokes as she thought about everything. "But you're also very good at making people believe what you tell them."
That made him frown as he looked at her, but his frown was cause by his confusion. Whatever she had meant by that statement had escaped him, but she was smiling fondly at him as she made an observation of her own. Cassie had always been good at understanding people, and he wondered just what she had seen to make her say that.
Seeing how confused he was, she finally decided to elaborate.
"There are a select few you care about. You are not sorry that you hurt others, you're sorry about who you hurt."
Sometimes it was terrifying to meet people like Cassie, but sometimes they help make others understand themselves.
And Ari did find himself agreeing when he realized he never cared about how he hurt Eli and Alec.
"But you also don't go out of your way to cause harm." Cassie continued making him nod his head.
"No, I don't." He confirmed because her pervious words were true. It just wasn't in his nature to hurt, he just didn't care when he did.
Everyone might have treated him unjustly, and he was hurt by their actions, but he still wasn't any better because he returned that hurt – and he knew exactly what he was doing, too. He wasn't unaware like Alec and Rowan, and he wasn't naïve like Eli.
It was all done intentionally.
But Ari wasn't inherently bad, he was just reacting to a world that was unfair to him. That didn't mean that he was entirely innocent, it didn't excuse what he had done, but it also meant that he would have never done it if his circumstances were different.
Cassie understood that about him.
"You remind me of Constantine." He told her suddenly and it made her frown.
The two of them could never be any more different, but Cassie decided to humor him even when she wasn't so happy with the comparison. "How so?"
"He understands me, too."
Despite her not being too fond of Constantine, she still smiled and cupped his cheeks, giggling at how his beautiful face looked sillier. It was as if all the heavy despair that filled the room had vanished with that one silly thing she did.
"That is a great thing, and I hope you leave this place, soon." She told him letting go of his face to pull him into a hug. "Just don't hurt anyone... And I am still not happy about you and Constantine."
Ari smiled. "He does like to make things messy."
"You deserve someone better, honestly." She sighed wishing it was actually someone else, even when she knew that there won't ever be.
He might have not said anything when he hugged her back, but she knew that he disagreed with her words. There was nobody better, there was always only one person. It was frustrating how feelings work, how they latch on to the wrong people.
But sometimes those wrong people are right where it matters. Sometimes they're what is needed. Cassie really hoped this was the case.
She loved Ari too much to watch him be hurt again.
And she wanted to see him taken away from this horrible place.