[continued]
My heart forcibly raced, thrumming a heavy beat against my chest deeper and faster. Nerves in my entire body spiralled with thorn-veiled desperation and prayer-earned determination as my feet worked to cover the distance between Brady and me. He was much further and flanked by an army of the Delta soldiers and armed best friends that hated me.
Still, I moved away from what could be my salvation with Jenna towards the uncertainty of Brady's chance on me.
"Malik!"
I slowed but didn't stop.
"This is a one-time offer." Her voice was tough with poisonous demand. "Take one more step away from me and it expires."
I hesitated, slowing down even more to feel and consider the moment with bitter hate. Tears burned my eyes, my heart felt torn and sore. With no conclusion contemplated yet, I shook my head, watching Brady's retreating form as it became smaller and smaller. Far and further away from me.
"Your pride is the only thing that's left of you and you want to give it away?" As if she was teetering on her own misery and projecting, she doubled down on her threat. This time with concern reflected in her voice, soft enough to sway me back. "Men like my nephew never change. He will invite himself to your bed. He may even be kind to you, but he will never love you. There was a time you understood that."
There was.
"What happened?"
My teeth dug into my bottom lip, hands grabbing fistfuls of my own hair, my eyes closed short enough for me to make a decision.
"Malik. No! Come here." Her voice was limpid with fiery fear and her hand shook with dark impatience.
I shook my head and turned to run after him.
Around me, the crowd was a worse noise than Jenna's threats of objection behind me were. Growls and howls from werewolves around me were worse with shaming insults than the coven girls shaking their heads at me from the front row. From all corners, they were whispering about me behind hands with sneering pity, evinced in the shallow but mild drop of their jaws and expressive eyes. But I didn't even care or feel any of the humiliation or doubt I should have.
"The phuck you running after." Someone in the loud crowd of werewolves screamed.
Someone else agreed, "Fuckin' disgrace tsk."
"Brady," My only concern was reaching the figure that was seconds from disappearing from my view forever. "Brady!"
Everyone could tell he'd discounted me. It was so distressing and well warranted. Tears heated their way down my face, and I gave another attempt when he herded the last corner. "Brady!" My throat was barren, as though laminated by sandpaper
"Brady! Please," tears sprang and ran free from my eyes. Hair sprouted on my arms and I could feel my ears ringing as loud as I could hear the blood in my veins rushing. My core turned heavy, hot like lava and rose with something I couldn't spare a second to note in full. All I know is whatever was going on inside my body felt a lot like the pains before my first shift when I was a pup. I was in pain but watching Brady ignore me felt like I had death's grip on my windpipe. So panic overrode the pain my body was under and had me begging with the short thread of life I still had left. "Brady! Please."
He was literally seconds away from leaving my line of vision.
The commotion from the crowd was disgusted with me but eager to see me embarrassed further. It got rowdier the cheers inciting Tyler to look back. Through the fog of tears, I met gazes with him and I tried to point at Brady but guard soldiers took hold of my flailing arms and gripped me from the chest tightly.
I fell to the ground, feeling completely useless and it was then I registered the dying noise from the crowd. Everything and everyone became silent. Anguish filled my veins until it merged itself to become one with my heartbeat. Emotions flooded my senses. One emotion bled into the next further extending to open up the deeper lines of my other senses. Sight, smell, hearing, taste, and feeling. All my senses opened up with a vengeance I didn't understand and my heart slowed but heavily thrummed against my chest unnaturally.
"Get up!" Brady commanded.
I looked up.
Icy blue eyes fixed were on me with no emotion whatsoever.
My heart raced only to slow again with desperate anguish. The bottom of my stomach tensed for a second at the compelling Alpha tone in his voice. And something in my head received that tone intensely as was expected now that I didn't have a wolf.
"Get up!" He commanded again. "Get up and leave."
I didn't.
The soldiers gasped.
That's when the shocking realization dawned on me. I was disobeying a direct order from a werewolf, an Alpha no less. It should not have been possible for me as a wolf-stripped human to resist an Alpha order. His authority should've had an effect on me as it did on humans as. But I wasn't moved...it was odd...or maybe I was odd. Tears sprang from my eyes, there was nothing more I wanted than to get up, face him and beg him to take me. Instead, my body chose to submit to the physical pain I was under instead of submitting to his commands.
"What's happening?" Tyler was the one to direct this question to the Oracle. "Is he broken?"
The Oracle didn't answer, I could hear her feet shuffle closer though.
"Try again," Tyler urged his friend.
"I said get up."
I couldn't.
They all looked astonished, and it was Evan that spoke this time. "His eyes." He said this as they all came up close to walk around me. Studying me closely.
"Marvelous, aren't they." The Oracle sang in awe for what I couldn't witness myself.
The ground became an extension of me as I fell into a heap on it. I clutched hands around my stomach, eyes on the three of them. All I could see was muscle. Tyler, Evan and Greg weren't just his most trusted brawn and brains, they were also his best friends. They hated me for hurting him. They were prowling, scowling and probably just waiting and probably praying on the order to crash me with harm.
The Oracle advised Brady to lower himself to my crouching position. "Now softly tell him to look you in the eye." she guided.
"Why?"
"He is your responsibility."
The entire room filled with objections and Tyler was not above voicing his. "How so, when he's no longer mated to Brady?" Evan added, "...human too and cast out the pack?"
Pain lashed at my neck and my insides bubbled with something hot, rigid and unforgiving. More tears sprang from my eyes from pain and awareness that my body was doing the spadework for turning into a wolf despite the impossibility.
"My Alpha," she lowered her voice but pointed a hand at me, "This is happening because you chose to bed and mark him after you gave consent for the unwanted bond to be severed. Now kindly urge him to look you in the eye or else."
"Or else what?"
"The ghost of his wolf rises to twist into him for revenge until he dies." she folded her hands. "But then again, if that is what you desire then so be it."
Blood ran from my nail beds, my stomach fell within itself with unimaginable pain. I couldn't help but cry out my mysterious anguish until Brady's voice pled with me.
I lifted my gaze to him, and the pain immediately ceased. Then something else happened, a gust of wind travelled through the arena wrapping him and me in its cocoon. From his facial expression, I knew right then, that he felt its serene too. The world went still around us, all of a sudden my left ear rang with sharp deafness, and my eyes went momentarily blind. I felt more than saw him lift a hand as if wanting to caress my cheek before he thought better of it and put it down.
"Hold him," the Oracle's voice penetrated through the cocoon.
"Please."
Warmth covered my cheek, the touch slow but firm. It made me recover all the senses I'd lost. A thick familiar scent wafted up my nostrils and settled in my brain and heart. It helped lower my pain significantly and I was grateful for it but also flooded with regret and that same familiar feeling where I was the devil no one understood. I got up to my feet, he rose too. "Brady," I'd started to say.
"What do you want?" despite the startling question, his tone was anything but mean-spirited.
"You." I needed him to believe me.
He sighed and rubbed at his eyes "I'm human too, don't you think I've had enough?"
"I mean it."
"This is because you're afraid of losing your family and best friend. I will not..."
I grabbed fistfuls of his shirt and tilted my head upwards to draw his lips into a kiss. They were relieving my physical pain even more but they also felt. I carried on, allowing him time to respond. He didn't and it pushed me to the edge where there was zero hope. When I was just about to pull away I felt his cold hand on the back of my neck drawing me back for an even deeper kiss. His other hand rested itself possessively on my waist.
I exhaled with relief into his warm mouth, the kiss was slow, round, and reciprocated, it couldn't be more perfect. My jittery hands grabbed his shirt and they found themselves wrapped around his broad shoulders. Desperation encouraged tears to streak down my face. Looking back I'd never cried so much in my life than on that day. Brady lifted one of his hands from where they had dropped on my waist to wipe them away.
I stood on my toes, head buried in the crook of his neck before I pulled away to face him. "I know we broke the bond and everything. And I know you could find someone else, someone better than me by yesterday but if you could please give me another chance. You don't even have to claim me...just, please...I'm sorry and I love you."
"I went and I'm still at war with myself for you." he declared with such palpable emotion.
"If you're under war for me. Then what I'm under is a tragedy for you." I promised, "For us."
"That's what makes this hurt." He exhaled, "My heart yearns for you Malik, my mind is filled with thoughts of you wanting me as much as I want you. Every time I think of you my heart fills with even more yearning, and love but also apprehension. Apprehension because while I may not understand how you could spit on the gods the way you did. I think I get it, you not wanting to be with me. I get it. I love you but in good conscience, I can't..."
"In good conscience, you have to also acknowledge that I'm under no duress as I stand here before you and witnesses. Telling you that I love you and begging you to forgive me or at least talk to me so you may take me back. Please don't leave me." Tears rolled from my eyes. "What I did to the gods, you, the pack, my family and my best friend its unforgivable but I don't regret it all. I mean I regret it but..."
"I get it. Your methods hurt me but they were not void of plausible reason or provocation. I'm not proud of the person I was back then so you don't have to regret anything."
I sniffed, "Do you also get that my feelings for you have changed? I'm simply human with nothing else to offer you but my heart and soul, even if the soul is not mine to give. Its yours, I'm all your Brady. Please, just one chance?"
The shield of the wind cacoon dropped with a thud before he could answer. It had just dropped in time for us to hear Jenna's protest towards the Oracle. We both turned to face the Oracle who seemed to have been ignoring Jenna. Her focus was on us in a state of surprised marvel. "Marvelous." She sang in awe.
Jenna seemed to have a tirade of fire vibrating within her flesh. "The bond cannot be restored."
The Oracle dismissed her statement. "You know as well as I do that after the marking. It is possible the bond made an imprint on his core." Then she faced the crowd and began to preach. "Contrary to what some of you may think. The gods aren't fools, they connect souls for a reason. I hope this lives to serve a lesson."
Jenna's voice streamed with scream gravel like hot mortar. A fire bolt was already in the air towards Brady's heart. He was much taller than I but still, I jumped in front of him to take the hit. Except the hit didn't make an impact on me. It made an impact on Tyler's right shoulder. Brady's Beta who'd jumped in front of the two of us faster than their other friends to take the hit.
The crowd gasped in shock, the council remained stood from their seats and the Oracle just watched unmoved.
Jenna slithered up the ramp until she was in front of her nephew and his men. "You planned this, that's why you marked him."
Brady shook his head, "Coincidence. Though I have to confess, I'm not disappointed."
She breathed through her nose, eyes now on Tyler's hurt shoulder. "What a lovely scent, I know your blood. My son will deal with you."
Tyler signalled for the guard line, "Escort her out right now."
Then they left.
Worry hugged me because I hadn't received an answer yet and I feared I would be next. To be escorted out as soon as they all recovered from the shock of Jenna's bloody outburst.
Brady's father tilted his head to the left a neutral expression sitting on his face. He turned away from his wife's sister and gazed behind me at his son. "You need to make a final decision Son — and before you do keep in mind. Your decision impact your future and the pack's future once you get coronated on the next full moon."
I didn't feel too good; obviously many would agree I wasn't good for Brady. All the events over the years and past months rippled through my vision shutting my view from reality. I dared to lift my eyes to meet with Brady's through the hazy scene. A haunting icicle cut into my gut to further make my blood run cold. It was the pack versus me.
I didn't stand a chance in hell.
The Alpha repeated his question this time louder with rumbling force. "Son make a choice. Now! Before your blood and your subjects."
This was it, my absolute defeat. I knew any good Alpha would never put the love of a reluctant mate before his greatest responsibility. Grateful for the punishment of having my memories taken away to dwell in regret for the rest of my miserable life.
"Malik!" It was Alpha Victrolli's voice. "Where are you going?"
"I...I..." I stuttered pointing towards the exit sign.
"You will stand there and have him make his own choice." He said to me then to his heir. "Shall we have tea made for us as you make your final choice, your Highness? Or should your mother flag for a pedicure as we await your decision, your Highness?"
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