Chapter two, revelation: no faith
Lucas lit the bonfire, grinning as the fire spread throughout the wood. He looked so completely happy in that split second that I could’ve burned the islands down just to see them burn in his eyes like the bonfire had.
The music had been playing for a while, but I saw some teenagers messing with the stereo on the beach, I figured they were going to change the songs.
And they did. And they made it louder. The music nearly made me want to dance.
Everyone laughing on the beach seemed so happy. I watched as they danced around the fire, forcing Lucas to join the circle of unavoidable happiness.
“Eustatia definitely know how to party.” Phoenix appeared by side. I nodded, remembering the first time I’d met Phoenix.
“They must’ve learned from the best,” I smirked, turning to him, the alcohol limply in my hands.
He laughed, and it surprised me. I hadn’t seen Phoenix laugh since… well, since Elizabeth had died. And that was a very long time ago.
He laughed even harder at my expression and then took another swig from his bottle. Well, if getting him drunk was the only way to lighten him up, we better take some alcohol with us to Necker.
“Elizabeth hated me for it.” He chuckled, looking out over the beach and his eye landing on Lucas. I followed his stare, and my eyes did the same. He looked like he was being forced to play a drinking game.
He glanced over at me and Phoenix and grimaced. We both laughed quietly. “I know.”
There was a minute of silence between us, and the air became heavier with each second. I was aware we were treading on very dangerous conversations. We hadn’t spoke of Elizabeth together.
We both watched Lucas was grabbed by an old woman, and spun around by her surprisingly strong arms. He seemed to have given up with putting up a fight.
“He,” Phoenix started to say, but then thought about it and closed his mouth. I turned away from the beach and towards him. He drank from his practically empty drink. “He worries about you.”
I frowned, and managed to sip my own drink. I couldn’t drink too much, because god knows what I’d say if I was telling the islands of the queen while I was drunk.
He laughed, placed his bottle down on the table behind us finally and ignored me. “Worries?” I pressed further.
But Phoenix had long but moved on. “He just cares about you a hell of a lot, I guess.” His eyes became restless as they darted around, looking for something. Someone.
I sighed as he began to become stressed.
“Where is she?” He asked, turning to me abruptly. He looked angry, like I’d done something to hurt him.
“Dead.” I said simply, like I had every time he’d asked previously. Lucas told me that Phoenix was getting better, but I didn’t see any recovery signs. He was damaged goods, and we had no superglue.
He stood quietly for a moment, looking at his feet. He looked so deep in thought he could’ve been in a different world. Then, in sudden movements, he spun around, knocked his bottle to the floor and became his wolf.
I stood and watched as the wolf looked around frantically, breathing as if it’d just ran the whole perimeter of the island.
I closed my eyes and listening to the thudding of his paws as he disappeared into the trees behind us.
Lucas had managed to peel the islanders off him and climbed to the platform.
“Are you ok?” He asked, resting his hand on my arm. I tilted my head slightly and looked into the eyes that looked too concerned to belong to Lucas. It reminded me of what Phoenix had said.
“Do you worry about me?” I asked, too overwhelmed to be subtle.
Lucas looked taken aback for a second, and as he searched my face for answers, his hand fell from my arm.
“You have an immortal queen hunting you down, Cathy, of course I do.” He said, as if it were common sense.
“But apart from the immortal queen bit, are you worried about me?” I didn’t quite understand what I was asking, and I didn’t know what I wanted to hear, but the words left my mouth.
“I,” He inhaled, and then looked at the trees behind us, as if he wasn’t sure himself. “Of course I worry about you. Not in the same way I worry about Phoenix, not in the same way I worry about Necker Island. I worry about you because you’re so small but you act so damn strong and sometimes I think that you might explode or cease to exist and that scares me.”
My eyebrows raised at the babbling Lucas. I watched as his eyes began to smile, and then the rest of his face did too. “But of course you don’t need me to worry because you’re Cathy, right? You’re the girl that began a rebellion against the queen.” He laughed, and then rubbed his head as if it were unbelievable, “You have an army, you have people fighting with their lives for you. I don’t need to worry, but I do. Because you’re my mate. And it’s as simple as that.”
As Lucas stood on the spot, half talking to himself and half explaining it to me, I couldn’t describe how angelic he looked. The bonfire on the beach lit up his hair, and he flickered along with the flames.
“And when I first met you, the first thing I thought was how I would have to protect you. And how little and fragile and completely scared you looked. I didn’t know you, but no one did, not really. You didn’t need an alpha to hover over you every second of the day, and you didn’t need the omega status, because you weren’t the weakest. Not at all.” He was still talking, but I listened to every word because it felt like he’d rehearsed them for a while. “And then I thought of how weird it was to feel someone like I had, I could feel it, you know, in my heart. I asked the rogues if this was what it felt like to have a mate and they said yes. And I realised that I liked it. And I wanted it. And I needed it. And I worry about you because if you were to explode or cease to exist then I’d become as lost and as woeful as Phoenix. And that, that is scarier than anything I’ve ever felt. Apart from this, whatever this is.”
He suddenly stopped, and realised he’d been talking for quite a long time. “Sorry.” He blushed and looked at the floor. He looked so vulnerable, and I couldn’t help myself.
I felt like I had to protect him, like he wasn’t safe on his own, in his blushing state. I crashed into him, wrapping my arms around him so tightly that if a tornado or a hurricane were to appear right now I knew that I’d never be separated from him.
I looked up at him, and when he looked down at me he no longer looked vulnerable, he looked strong. He looked like I had felt: strong.
I loosened my arms around him slightly, so he could actually move. And when he did move, he lightly held my chin and drew my lips to his.
It was warm on Eustatia, but the warmth on the island couldn’t compete with the exploding, firework kind of warmth I felt on his lips.
When he pulled away, a little too soon for my liking, he kissed my forehead. “I think you should tell them now.” His lips moved against my skin, and then he turned and walked away.
It always shocked me how sudden everything was. One minute Phoenix was here and we were talking about his dead mate, and the next he was a wolf and lost in the foliage. One minute I was kissing Lucas, and the next he was dancing with the old lady again.
I wasn’t sure if I liked the suddenness of it all.
I stood forward on the platform, waiting patiently for everyone below me to look. A few people noticed, and then the teenagers messing with the music noticed and turned it down, and after a while they turned it completely off.
The muttering died down and suddenly I had hundreds of bright eyes waiting on me.
I didn’t know how to start it. I didn’t know how to tell them that Necker Island was going down.
“I’d appreciate it if none of you were to talk for the next minute.” I said into the eyes, and they nodded. “The queen knows about Necker Island.”
I saw a few of the mouths open, but then they closed them.
“She will attack within the week, we predict.” More mouths forced not to talk. “Once I return to Necker you are to all destroy the contact between the islands. We are looking for volunteers to come and protect the island with us. Only a few, and only those who are willing to leave and lose.”
And then, the bonfire crackling seemed too loud to hear every gasp. And a few hands raised, and after that a few more, and the ripple of hands kept going until everyone able to raise their hands were.
I didn’t know if they were asking questions or volunteering to stay at Necker.
“We’ll go to Necker.” Said the teenagers on the music stand.
“And us,” The alpha’s of most of the packs were stood together, all holding bottles of alcohol. Surely it wouldn’t be fair to take them ion a drunk decision?
“Me.”
“Me.”
“Us too!”
“And me!”
“I’ll go!”
“Not without me,”
“I’ll protect my Island!”
The shouts became too loud and constant to distinct.
“Enough,” I said, loud enough to be heard, but quiet enough not to strain my voice. The shouts were hushed, and the mouths were forced closed once again.
“I will choose myself who will stay then.” I sighed, knowing it’d be one of the hardest decisions. Choosing who to take from their families to send into their deaths. “No children, or people over the age of 70 will be going. If you think you are willing enough, come to the helicopter pad once the party is finished.” A few arguments, but they soon died down.
“With that said, have a nice evening.” I stood away from the spotlight and managed to hide myself into the trees. The music didn’t start at first, but as soon as I started walking through the forest, I heard its faint pounding.
“Breaking news obviously isn’t your strong point.” Vinny appeared behind me, and I wondered if he’d followed me this far into the woods.
“No, not quite.” I sighed, kicking the dust and jumping over twigs as I walked. He managed to catch up and pace himself so he was beside me.
“You never fail to surprise me.” He stated as we weaved through the ktrunks of trees taller than most of our buildings, even on Necker.
“That’s not a good thing.” I replied.
“But it is, for me. If I had to be brutally honest I didn’t expect you to be a very good alpha.” He chuckled, “And that’s putting it nicely.
It surprised me to hear Vinny say that, because he was one of the nicest people I’d even known. I guess he never failed to surprise me either.
“Let me guess, was it the small, fragile and scared girl you saw too?” I referenced to something Lucas had said earlier, and Vinny didn’t look at all confused.
“No, actually.” He surprised me again, “It was the determination and a glint in your eye that told me you wanted revenge. I thought you’d become obsessed and aggressive.”
“You know, Vinny, you never fail to surprise me.”
He laughed a little, “And why would that be?”
“Because you’re smart. And cleverness is always something that surprises me.” I tilted my head and made a dumb looking expression. “It confuses me a lot too.”
“I doubt that,” He chuckled, managed to keep up with me and keep his impossibly straight posture at the same time.
Here in the dark, I could hardly see anything apart from the moon overhanging and peeping through the trees.
“Cathy, I know this war may look impossible to win at the moment, but you have to have faith. The people are beginning to sense you’ve already given up. They don’t want to fight, especially if their alpha doesn’t.” He slowed down a little and I felt inclined to also.
“Have faith in what?” I sighed, stopping completely. He stopped a few steps after me and then turned around to face me.
“Anything. Pasta. Lucas. Me.” He smiled, and I’d only just noticed his smile was crooked, “Yourself would be a good start too.”
And then he started to walk back to where we’d came from, to join the party that no doubt had an desperate feel to it now.
I turned and watched as he walked away. I could hardly see his silhouette, and he walked so stealthily that I couldn’t hear him at all. After a second, I doubted he was even there at all. Or that he’d even been there in the first place.
But I did have faith in myself.
Well, I thought I had.
Maybe I didn’t.
In that case, then, I need to get some.
And fast.
{ a/n: thanks for reading! No really, thank you. <3 Share your thoughts on the story and how it's going so far in the comments { please I'm begging you } anywho next chapter next saterday! ahha, i'm going to the midnight release of catching fire, who's excited? { I AMMM } sorry about that i just... anyway, thank you and goodnight or goodmorning or good afternoon! [ oh, also, is anyone else having problems with putting a youtube video on the side of the story or is that just me? }