Ally avoided Christian for the next few days, and he didn’t know what to say to her, other than begging her to stay. As long as she was still here and hadn’t snuck off, Christian was content to gather his thoughts for their next argument. He secretly hoped that Ally had reconsidered going home, but was scared that bringing it up would push her over the edge. So he kept quiet, and Ally was satisfied not to discuss it any further for the moment.
Ally knew she would have to address it eventually. She owed it to Christian to not just disappear one day without saying goodbye. And yet she was dreading that goodbye more than she dreaded death at Lydia’s hands back in Geneva. Cowardice was not usually her problem, but somehow Christian, with his almost childish determination and outlook on life, made her knees knock with terror at the thought of confronting him. She didn’t know how to explain it to him, when he seemed determined to refuse to understand why she had to leave.
Ally was not only avoiding Christian, but the rest of the pack unit as well. She suspected that they had heard every word of her argument with Christian, and didn’t want to gauge their reaction to her leaving. While she knew they hadn’t disclosed any important information, Ally still winced every time she thought of just how reckless they had been in allowing the argument to take place within earshot of everyone. She didn’t like the prospect of making polite chitchat around the kitchen with Tim or Sara, or god forbid Kate, after they had overheard the fight.
Kate was particularly unhappy, as Ally well understood. She never especially liked Kate, and there was debate on how good an alpha female she would make one day, but Ally had nothing against her. Indeed, she truly did pity Kate and understood why Kate lashed out when she felt threatened. The concept of a man having both a wife and a nat amatra was antiquated, but it was impossible to fathom how it felt to be trapped in such a triangular relationship without experiencing it for oneself. The concept was objectionable, but neither Kate nor Christian nor anyone else in the marriage negotiations could have really understood what they were agreeing to when the idea of Christian having a nat amatra came up. Probably a large component of their agreement was the unlikelihood of finding anyone willing to be a nat amatra in this day and age. Even though she had been the last to be let into the deal, Ally understood what they were getting into better than anyone else. And even she hadn’t anticipated things to turn out quite this way.
Everyone else in the house was busy whispering crazy conjectures to one another, their secrecy managing to blow all pieces of gossip out of proportion.
No one knew why Ally wanted to leave, or needed to leave, although there was wild speculation in the pack unit house. Tim especially devoted great thought to it, but he couldn’t come up with any real explanation for why Ally would leave or for their quarrel.
Ally wanted to avoid the rest of the pack unit while she sorted things out in her mind, but unfortunately her training in information collecting wouldn’t let her give in to those selfish whims. It was imperative that she continue to listen to what was going on in the house and be tuned into what people were saying, even if it was absurd conjecture. Rumors have great power and can easily influence any given situation.
It was a good thing that she forced herself to keep her ears and eyes open, because one afternoon, as Ally walked down the corridor, she nearly stumbled upon Kate speaking on the house phone in hushed tones. Waiting around the corner where she could hear Kate if she strained her ears, Ally listened carefully to Kate’s side of the conversation.
“She wants to leave. Yes, leave, leave for good. I don’t know why,” Kate whispered into the receiver. Her shoulders were huddled, as though to protect her from being discovered.
“Is there anyway we can encourage her? I mean, there must be some way, and it’s really important. Yes it is, Christian – “, she took a deep breath. “Christian’s grown too attached to her, it’s not good for us.”
Kate listened for a while. “Well, be ready, if word gets down to the alpha, to convince him to let her go or get rid of her somehow. I’ll do what I can here, but if we’re lucky we may just have to sit back and wait for her to leave of her own volition. I don’t know why she wants to leave. It’s all very sudden. Two weeks ago Christian began acting weirdly around her and then about a week ago they were holed up in his office for a long time and they’ve been strange ever since. A couple days ago they had a big fight about her leaving.”
Kate listened a while longer and then hung up, looking surreptitiously over her shoulder. Ally decided to turn the corner and show herself while not indicating that she had heard anything. Kate narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her, but didn’t say anything and quickly walked off.
Ally retired to her room and paced the room as she thought about what she had overheard. Kate had always wanted to get rid of her husband’s nat amatra, and the Hawkins family must be feeling particularly threatened now that Lee had been convicted and their power considerably weakened. But Kate had no idea what she was playing with here. Ally was quite sure that her identity had not been found out, or even suspected, but inquiries and mention to the wrong people could raise red flags with the people charged with hunting Ally down.
Spies easily got paranoid and jumpy, which had to be checked, but neither was it good to make oneself wait and become a sitting duck by being overly cautious of blowing one’s cover. At some point something small would happen which would tip the balance and one would know it was time to bail. Ally knew that time had come now. She couldn’t wait another day; it was now or never, and the never contingency would be her sudden and untimely death.
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I'm sorry that it's so short, but it was a question of where to cut the story that would make sense chapter-wise, and it just means that next chapter (the big finale!) will be especially long.
Thank you to everyone who's reading and who has fanned, the votes and comments are incredible! I always look forward to checking Wattpad :)