Chapter Twenty-Eight
Elle's POV
Everything seemed slower, the days creeping by. The only semblance of time was our meals which were brought in routinely—dried oats in the morning and leftover scraps for lunch and dinner. Not even the alpha's son got anything more appetising.
Kendra and I stayed together, avoiding Lachlan. We thought of ways to escape, ignoring him as the voice of reason, we discussed our fears of dying, and we held onto the fact that our meals kept coming, but mostly we talked about Tim's excuse for holding us captive. Kendra was just as in the dark as I was, and neither of us felt like asking Lachlan.
Kendra and I spent almost all of our time together, but when either of us used the bathroom, we were left alone with our thoughts. On the third day of joint captivity, I couldn't stand the ideas that settled in my mind like a dark fog, and I hesitated in the doorway of Lachlan's room.
He hadn't moved. His meals were brought to his bed, and the sheets reeked of urine. He was not getting any better, but he hadn't gotten any worse either, dangling perpetually close to death's edge, unwilling to succumb to the torture.
The question burned my tongue as it rested inside my mouth until I couldn't hold it anymore. 'Why did you do it?'
He jolted, coughing as surprise left him winded. He turned over, staring up at me with half-lidded eyes. 'I didn't mean to hurt you.'
It felt like a lie, but I didn't have the fight in me to counter his words. He knew his barb-filled defences had cut like knives, leaving scars everyone could see.
'I met her before I met you in the summer.' His eyes fluttered, softly closing as a wistful smile lifted away some of the pain sketched on his face. 'You don't look anything like her, but you're strong-willed, just like she is.' He winced, swallowing painfully. 'Her name is Priya. It didn't take me long to figure out who she was. I only needed a moment to realise she was my soulmate. She was only meant to be in town for a week—she was on a family road trip—I don't know how we did it, but we convinced her dad to let her stay until the end of the holidays, and it was though my life had finally begun.'
He looked up and then across at me as though he was only just realising where he was. 'I heard Kaden admitted you were his soulmate. It was about time.' He shifted onto his back, staring at the ceiling. 'I had suspicions when we were dating but never had any proof. He used to glare at me when he thought no one was watching. He doesn't hide his anger much anymore. I deserve it, though.'
My mouth had dried, and words seemed foreign, but I forced them out onto my sandpaper tongue. 'If you met Priya before me, why did you date me?'
He didn't answer, staring thoughtfully at the ceiling. 'She has a smile for the gods. It makes my heart sing whenever I see it, and she is smart,' he sighed longingly, 'so smart. She is smarter than me. We spent every day of our summer vacation exploring the woods. Her laughter repeats in my thoughts like an endless echo, playing over and over, but when I try to recall the beauty of her voice, it is always just out of reach. I cannot remember the shade of her hair, but I can remember that her skin is as soft as silk, the colour of honey, and her eyes are a shade of blue like forget-me-nots.' He faltered, and the stars shone in his eyes. Sighing, 'forget-me-not.'
I tried asking him again, but he stared wordlessly at the ceiling with a broken smile.
Time passed, and colour returned to Lachlan's skin as we discussed Priya. Our conversations brought him hope. He filled the silence left by Kendra when she went to the bathroom, and as time passed, the hatred I had for him melted away, leaving nothing but the memory of our past and pity.
'She always gets a fright when her phone goes off. I'm never sure if she scares easily or is surprised that someone is texting her. But one day, we were down at the lake just off Booker Road, sitting on the jetty, when her phone went off. She was showing me this magazine when it buzzed, which I wasn't interested in, but I let her because her smile was so bright when she talked about the people on the pages. I remember that we both froze, watching as she knocked it into the lake and then made me go in after it.' Nostalgia glazed his eyes with the old memory. 'It's still in the bag of rice she made me buy because we got her a new phone the next day.'
The next day he told me that she would cheat at go-fish, telling me she would pretend to be overcome with so much love that she had to kiss him, and then she would glance at his cards. He admitted that it had taken him a while to catch on, but when he did, he hadn't called her out because he liked her goofy victory dance.
The day after that, he explained that she wore her hair in a thick plait more than she wore it out and that he preferred it when she had it down, but the plaits made her hair kink in a way that would catch the light when she let it down, and he liked that even more. That day he remembered that her hair was a shade of strawberry blonde that turned red in the sunlight.
On the fifth day of stories, he told me she would read their horoscopes each morning, and I asked him again why he had lied to me.
'I need you to explain it to me. Why, if you have already found your soulmate, did you let me believe your lies?'
'I never deserved her. I'm not like Pryia. I'm not pure. My father raised me in a particular way. The pack comes first, no matter the costs. She had to go back home, and it felt like every second she was away from me was another second closer to death. That's what Kaden will feel with you gone. It was torture, having her for those weeks and then having to give her up.
'I used you, and for that, I am sorry. I know it won't help, but I did love you. That love I felt for you was the closest I ever came to the love I feel for her, but it wasn't the same.'
'Did you cheat on her?'
He shook his head.
No.
A lump caught in my throat, and I swallowed it, wringing my hands together. 'What happened?'
Trembling with a silent whimper, he blinked quickly, his face pinching. 'Soulmates must meet at least once in their lifetime, even if that time is only short.'
My heart dropped, bleeding from the pain that he held so close.
Kendra stepped out of the bathroom. She looked at Lachlan's face, glistening with tears, and furrowed her brow at him. 'I still don't like you.'
Later Kedra admitted that she always sat by the door, listening as we spoke, but just then, as her words said one thing, she walked across the room and picked the blanket from the floor, readjusting his pillow before smoothing back his hair.
'Why lie to Carmon?'
She was at least fifteen years older than us.
'That was Tim's idea. You refused to talk to me and made it impossible for me to approach you with the restraining order, but we knew Carmon was close with you and that you would trust her.'
He turned away, signalling the end of our conversation. I didn't know whether it was because he didn't want to talk in front of Kendra or because he was ashamed of his actions, but it was clear our words would reach deaf ears.
Kendra caught my arm, a look of frustration in her eyes. 'Just remember what he did, Elle. He was the one who broke you.'
'I know,' I sighed, grimacing as I tried reassuring her. 'But maybe I wasn't the only one who was broken. I can't let this anger continue to fest-'
A loud siren cut me off, the kind used during air raids in World War II. Long shrieking cries, like guttural wind tearing through the trees, burst through the corridors, each cry lasting longer than the first. Only twelve or so deafening cries sounded, and then the compound fell into an unsettling silence.
'They've found us.'
Kendra grinned, bouncing on the balls of her feet, but I wasn't so sure. Tim had been adamant that they would never find us, and I'd started to believe him, and then I remembered where we were. Lachlan trembled, terror collapsing over his face as he crawled from his bed towards the door.
I clutched Kendra's hand, unwilling to let go as Lachlan stumbled across the room.
'Move the bed, put it in front of the door!' he cried, falling, his lungs giving out on him, spluttering coughs wrecking his body as he clutched viciously at his chest. 'It's not who you think it is. It's not him!'