Well, I finished Lost and about five million other shows and movies on Netflix since I've last written. I won't make any promises that it won't take another two years to finish the next part of this unique story, but I'm hopeful.
I love your comments... or any comments really. From now on, I'll pose a question at the end of the chapter about favorites. Anyone whose favorite thing matches my own or has one similar to mine will get the dedication. Sound fair?
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Felicity
"There's no way you'll be able to pull this off," Garrett grumbled from his position against the far wall. After the first minute, he'd gotten bored and left me to my own devices. I didn't mind too much considering his hovering wasn't helping either of us. Not that he was being much more helpful now. Especially not with his pessimistic attitude and infuriating commentary. "I mean, have you ever picked a lock in your life?"
I sighed, but didn't bother to look up at him. I steadily continued to work my bobby pin in the lock of Garrett's cell. I'd spent that last seven and a half minutes working on this and I wasn't going to give up just because it was taking longer than expected. "No, but I've seen it done," I murmured as I maneuvered the bobby pin.
"Oh yeah? By who?"
This time I glanced up at him from underneath my eyelashes. "Robert De Niro," I mumbled under my breath as I felt the lock shift slightly.
Garrett was quiet for a moment and it made me wonder if he hadn't heard me. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he exclaimed. "You're basing this off a fucking movie? We're never getting out of here." He pushed off the wall and started pacing the inside of his cell. "No way."
"All it takes is patience," I said, without looking at him. Since his last outburst that ended up with him laughing at my unfortunate fate, I was used to his twisted sense of humor.
"We don't have ten years, Felicity."
At that moment, I heard a soft click. With a triumphant smile, I stood up and opened the door to Garrett's cell. "Good thing we don't need ten years," I said rather smugly as I stepped back.
Garrett just rolled his eyes at me as he walked out of the cell. "Okay, now what's your next plan, princess?"
I narrowed my eyes at him. The fact that my mother wanted to match me up with him was revolting. He was arrogant and conceited. Not to mention that I didn't get so much as a "thank you" for getting his ass out of that cell. I'm not saying that Cole is much better, but every time Garrett speaks, I just want to punch him in the face. Luckily, I only needed to be with him for as long as it takes for us to get out of here. Once we're in the clear, he can go back home to be my mother's errand boy and I can find a new place to call home for a while.
"Just follow me but keep a bit of a distance," I ordered. "I'll check to see if we're clear and then you follow me and we run for it. Does that work for you?" I asked sarcastically.
"You're irritating."
"And you're condescending. Now shut up and follow my lead," I growled as I started for the stairs. I took them slowly and made a point to stay to the edge of the staircase. The closer you walked towards the middle, the squeakier the steps were.
As I made it to the top of the stairs, I carefully eased the door leading into the main part of the house open and was surprised to find no one around. Cole must be having most of the men out searching the woods for any more people from my pack. That was both good and bad news. Good because it meant less people in the house. Bad because it meant more wolves in the forest. We were going to have to run like hell.
I motioned for Garrett to follow me as I silently crept down the hallway towards the kitchen and let out a deep breath when I found that there was no one in there. I looked out the window that faced the backyard and saw that Oliver was walking the perimeter of the house. I waited for him to make his way to the front yard before I ushered Garrett out the door.
We took off in a sprint across the lawn to the trees. "Don't phase. It'll be easier for them to catch our scent," I said as we ran through the trees.
"If we don't it'll be easier for them to catch us!" Garrett exclaimed as he dodged a tree to his left, but he stayed on two legs anyway.
We ran for another five minutes until I began to sense a wolf closing in a half a mile to my left. I could hear his paws beating down against the forest floor. In the distance, I heard a low howl and then more paws following the first set. They found us and they were coming.
I started to slow down. I could by Garrett some time so he could get home. If he made it home, he could be safe. Even if I stayed behind, Cole wouldn't let me get hurt. He was my mate and even though after today he might hate me, he wouldn't let me get hurt. Right?
There was only one way to find out.
I slowed to a stop and Garrett stopped short, looking at me with wild eyes. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?" he asked. "They're less than half a mile away!"
"Go," I urged him. "I'll distract them and you run. Get home!"
Garrett shook his head. "I'm not leaving without you," he said, looking around frantically. Despite his words, I could tell he was already regretting staying back to see why I stopped.
"You need to get home, Garrett. Tell my family I'm safe and tell my mother not to start a war over this. I left on my own, remember?" I said as I pushed him towards our borders. "Phase and go."
Garrett backed away slowly. "Your mom won't listen to that and you know it."
I bit out a laugh. "Clarity might not bother to come after me once she finds out her daughter is mated to the biggest threat to her pack. She'll hate me then," I said.
With a sympathetic look, Garrett turned and ran towards the border. I watch him phase into his dusty, brown wolf form a few yards out. Once I was sure he was going to make it, I turned and braced myself for what was to come.
It only took about thirty seconds for a few snarling wolves and couple of angry looking men to emerge from the trees. One man, I vaguely knew him as Christopher was coming right up to me. "You little, lying bitch," he snarled at me and lashed out. I let out a surprised yelp as I stumbled back and tripped backwards one a protruding branch. I fell backwards, landed hard on my bottom, and braced myself back on my hands.
Christopher just continued to growl at me. "You let him go and worst of all, you lied to all of us! You're her daughter. You're fucking Clarity Ordain's daughter!" I didn't know what to say. I just stared up at the man unleashing his wrath on me, very aware of the others around us. "Our leader might be bewitched by you, but I see right through you. Now I'm going to kill you like he should have when you first got here," he sneered as he started towards me.
I scrambled back until I hit a tree. I slowly inched up into standing position using the trunk as support as Christopher stalked towards me. No one else moved. I didn't know if they didn't believe Christopher would actually hurt me or they simply didn't care. Since no one was coming to help me, I guess I knew my answer.
I felt my airway close off as Christopher held me hard against the tree by my throat with his right hand. Instinctively, both my hands started to claw at his to get him to release me as I gasped for breath. My eyes started to water and I could feel myself panicking. I couldn't die. Not like this.
It took me a few moments to start to gather myself. Cole had been training me for situations just like this and seeing that he wasn't coming to my rescue this time, it was time to see how far I'd come in the past couple weeks.
I lifted my right arm and brought my elbow down hard in the crease of his and used my other hand to wrench his right hand from my throat now that his grip had weakened. He hadn't been expecting that. Once I had caught him off guard, I grabbed his shoulder and brought my knee up hard against his groin. He gasped and groaned in pain as I pushed him away. Christopher collapsed in a heap on the ground in front of me.
I quickly jumped out of his way as he lunged at me from the ground and just as I went to get into a defensive crouch, I felt someone else grab my arms and hold me back. I couldn't see who it was and I didn't have a chance to swing my head around to find out. All the sudden I felt a sharp sting across my face as Christopher backhanded me. I inhaled sharply as I tried to concentrate on anything but the searing pain in my face.
"Let her go," Cole ground out in a deathly calm voice. "Now."
My head whipped to the side as I saw him staring at Christopher with a murderous glare. The man restraining me from the back immediately released me and backed away. Cole stalked towards Christopher who started to back away with his hands up.
"You don't understand, man," he said, his voice starting to waiver. "She's been lying to you this whole time! She's Clarity Ordain's daughter. She's been deceiving you this entire time!"
Cole's gaze fell upon me and if he was surprised, I couldn't read it in his eyes. Without moving his eyes from mine, he spoke. "Jack. Dustin. Lock him up," he commanded.
I looked to see Jack and Dustin come out of nowhere and grab hold of Christopher. He protested and struggled in their grips, but wasn't strong enough to break free. I watched as they dragged him through the trees in the direction of the house before turning my attention to Cole who moved towards me.
He gently took hold of my face in his hand and inspected the reddening area where Christopher had struck me. I wrenched my face away from his grip and stepped back. "You lied to me," he said softly.
I shook my head. He had no right to say that to me. "If I didn't, you would have had me killed a long time ago," I said back through clenched teeth.
"No," he said. "I wouldn't have."
I stared at him with disbelief. "Yeah?" I asked sarcastically. "And what would have stopped you?" He didn't answer me so I continued. "You call me out for lying to you, but it's okay for you to lie to me? To everyone else here?" I gestured around me at the men and wolves that still seemed to be gathered around.
Cole seemed to realize that we had an audience and tensed up. "Leave us," he commanded.
They started to obey, but I quickly intervened. "No," I ordered. "Stay. Tell them, Cole," I urged him. "Tell them what you have desperately been trying to keep a secret. Tell them." He just clenched his jaw and look away.
I scoffed and looked up to the trees. "You're a coward," I muttered before turning to the men before me. "So I'm assuming your fearless leader has not mentioned to you that I'm his mate?" I questioned as I watched them turn to Cole in confusion. "It's why he's kept me alive. It's why he's reluctant to let me go," I explained. I turned back to Cole. "I'm not going to be anyone's secret anymore."
Cole seemed to have enough. "Everyone get back to the house," he growled out. When the men hesitated, it only seemed to infuriate him. "Immediately!" he shouted.
Once everyone had gone, Cole stood staring at the ground with his fists clenched and his eyes on the ground. "What are you trying to accomplish?" he asked sternly. "You released my prisoner and are causing chaos among my men."
"Will you stop?" I asked crossing my arms. "Stop acting so cold and cut off. I'm tired of all your lies and secrets, Cole."
He whirled around and stared at me like I was the crazy one. "My lies and secrets?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. "You've know who I was to you from the beginning and you didn't tell me. Better yet, were you ever going to tell me about that note you sent to my family? The one where you demanded money and threatened my life."
Cole shook his head. "I would never hurt you. You know that," he said walking towards me. "Everything that's going on is just...complicated," he finished weakly as he reached for my hand.
I backed away from his reach. "You're making it that way. You're the one who wants to destroy my family."
"Your mother destroyed mine!"
I took a deep breath. "I know she hurt you," I said. "She hurt a lot of people. She hurt me. I'm not justifying her actions and I'm not saying that what she did in her past was right. What I am saying is that you don't have to let her ruin the rest of your life."
"So what?" Cole shouted. "I'm supposed to let her just get away with it? Forget that my brother and my father are dead because of her?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying," I said, closing my eyes. "I just don't want to see you get hurt," I whispered. "What good will it do if you die, too?"
"Nothing will happen to me," Cole said. He was defiant and he didn't see where I was trying to get at with this conversation. It was as good as talking to a brick wall.
"Yeah?" I asked him. "Then what? You kill my mother, tear apart my pack, and take over my land. Then what do you expect me to do? Where do I fit into all of this?" When Cole didn't answer, that when my reality crashed down on me and my heart shattered. "Oh, I get it," I said softly as I turned my back to him.
"Felicity," Cole murmured.
My eyes began to water and I ran my hands through my hair. I turned back to him and could see the distress on his face. Distress that he caused. "The only thing I ever wanted in my entire life was my mate. I thought that once I found him, I'd be happy because he would want me as much as I wanted him. He'd put me before anything else in his life and I'd finally come first to someone instead of always being pushed into the background.
"And then I met you. For the first time, I had hope that someone would see me and want me. You reminded me that I could be happy. That we could be happy together if you would just choose me." I sighed and wiped away tears that threatened to fall. "If you would just let yourself fall in love with me like I fell in love with you."
That was it. I said what I needed to and it still didn't change anything. Cole was speechless and I was finally defeated. I'd been pushed away from my mother, my pack, and now my mate. I don't know why my life turned out like this. I don't know why I was supposed to feel so much pain when I had strived so hard for love. After all, you can't actually make someone love you.
As I looked at Cole through blurry eyes, I could tell that he was conflicted. I believed that he didn't want to hurt me. He wasn't the monster people saw him to be. He was just lost. He'd felt more pain in his life than anyone should and he needed someone to blame. Since his brother and father had been lost in a war against my mother, she was who he could focus his pain and anger on.
Cole never expected to find me. Now that he had, he knew he couldn't have me if he wanted to avenge his family. He had to make a choice. By choosing me, it meant letting go of his family. In doing that, he must have thought that he was betraying them.
What he didn't know was that by honoring them, he was betraying himself. He wouldn't find happiness in destruction. Good has never come from war. War only brought death and blood. Most of all, pain.
"I don't want this, Liss," he murmured.
I gave him a weak smile. "But you don't want me either." It was a simple statement. There was nothing complicated about it.
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Well this is probably the fastest I've written a chapter in a while. And for once, all I want to do is continue to write. It's been so long since I felt that way and I love it.
Anyway, question time! Remember, whoever has an answer closest to mine first will get a dedication to the next chapter.
Question: What is your favorite color?
Thanks!
~OlympusPlayer