Chapter 172

She shook it out around his shoulders and wrapped him in it.

“Sit down before you pass out or shift,” she said gently, steering him to sit down. “You’ll end up in a coma, if you don’t.”

I growled at her, trying to push her away.

“Hedy, stop—”

“It’s okay,” she said, stepping back and gesturing to the stone nearby. “Could you get him to sit?”

I wanted to push him away from her, toward a jeep on the other side of the clearing, but Candido swayed towards the stones. I followed, keeping myself between the two of them. He sank onto the stone, leaning forward and shivering a bit.

I turned towards her as she approached, digging through her bag. I growled at her, ready to fight her if she came any closer.

Candido grabbed me by my arm and yanked me to sit beside him. I landed hard and cried out.

“Sit down,” he growled, that weight of his alpha power pressed down on me again, but it felt weaker, more faint as if the command wasn’t of great importance to him.

I looked up and glared at her as Candido swayed in his seat. She grimaced and stopped rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a wad of cloth and pressed it against her bleeding wound.

Then, she turned. “Quail? Could you come over here and look him over?”

She turned to look down at me, then at Candido. “I’d rather not stir the pot, and you can’t take any more stress. No more alpha commands. No more magic. No more shifting until you get a decent meal and a full night’s rest.”

Candido looked like he wanted to protest, but he shut his mouth and nodded. She reached out but withdrew her hand before it was close enough to touch him, close enough for me to swat it away.

“It’s almost like we’ve never been apart,” she said. “Still pushing yourself to the brink, leaving me to drag you up the hill…”

Candido chuckled at that. I wanted to claw her face off. She didn’t glance at me. It was almost like Sibyl without her extra arrogance, which only upset me more. She walked away, headed towards someone else to check her wounds, and Candido stared after her, seeming lost and confused. I hated that look on his face. I hated that he just kept looking at her and had barely spared me a glance.

Quail came over, ran a crystal over him, and gave him a potion. He glanced at me, narrowed his eyes then packed up his things and walked away.

“You’re not going to check me over?” I hissed. “What if I was hurt?”

“You seemed ready to fight a moment ago. I figure you’re fine.”

“Hedy,” Candido said, his voice drowsy. “Please, just… sit there and wait until we can leave. Be upset. I don’t care, but we really don’t have the time for another tantrum.”

“I’m not throwing a tantrum,” I hissed. “You hugged her. You were seconds away from kissing her!”

Candido leaned forward and sighed. He stood up and looked down at me.

“Where are you going?”

“I can’t talk to you like this. When you want to have a conversation like an adult, we can have it. For now, just try not to do anything to put yourself in danger.”

“You—”

Then, he was gone, walking away from me towards a jeep and opening it. I saw him getting dressed and trying to stand. Julia walked toward Van and kneeled, passing a hand over his fur. Vanessa seemed to hiss at her, wanting her to stay away, but Julia didn’t move. She said something that stopped Vanessa and made her go pale. Then, Julia stood and walked towards me.

I glared up at her as she walked and stood just in front of me. She looked down at me with a cold stare.

“What? You have something to say?” I growled. “Something else about how—”

Pain exploded across my face. My ears rang. My face throbbed and I tasted blood. I looked back at her, shocked. She looked like she wanted to punch me again.

“Gilgamesh….” She paused. “Van didn’t deserve this. And yes, I have a lot to say about what the fuck happened tonight. You’re a fucking child who thinks the world revolves around her because she had a bad childhood—”

“I—”

“Grow up!” She shrieked. “Bad shit happens to all sorts of people, but it takes a special kind of a brat, a special kind of empty, selfish bitch, to become something like you.”

“Don’t call me a—”

“Estella saved his life!” She shrieked. “She and her team are saving other werewolves’ lives and all you fucking care about is that Candido hugged her? You were ready to fight her over a fucking hug?”

“You don’t have a mate,” I said. “So, you wouldn’t understand.”

She shook her head. “It gives me great pleasure to tell you something that no one else seems to want to say. You are unworthy to be luna.”

My heart lurched.

“And you will never be worthy of being luna and queen. You’re selfish, spoiled, naïve, and willfully ignorant. All you can think about is yourself and what you want. All you care about is being mates with Candido. Let me tell you, you’re in for a rude awakening.” Her eyes narrowed. “But I think you already know that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Everyone saw Estella’s moon marks…. Everyone has seen Candido’s—”

“Stop it! You’re wrong. It’s just a trick!”

“And everyone knows that you’re already twenty. Whether you like it or not, mates are just a story, a fantasy, a myth that’s been used to keep werewolf society functioning to the benefit of the person who designed it. It’s more of a curse at this point.”

“You’re wrong. Mates are a gift from the Moon Goddess. Everyone is fated to meet their mates. Everyone’s fated mate is supposed to love them forever!”

“Yeah?” Julia nodded back to Van. “I want you to tell him that if he wakes up and sees what he thinks about it.”

I clenched my jaw. “You’re wrong.”

“Moon marks aren’t signs from theGoddess saying you’ll be together forever. It’s just a sign of compatibility.” She scoffed. “You’re just biologically compatible with Candido, nothing more.”

“You’re lying.”

“And don’t bring theGoddess into it. It’s a curse from the first werewolf who got us kicked out of Lunae. It means you’ll be able to have powerful children together.”

“I don’t want to hear anything you have to say!” I yelled. “What do you know?”

“I know it’s propaganda,” Julia said. “I know that it’s a lie passed down and protected from generation to generation so that one day we could try and take over Lunae.”

My jaw trembled. I wanted to tell her she was lying, but everything she was saying sounded… right. I didn’t believe a word of it, but everything that they’d been saying about the war…

I shook my head. “That’s just what vampires want us to believe so we’ll be as miserable as them! I don’t believe anything you have to say, Julia.”

“I want you to think about everyone who died tonight because you wanted to have a fucking tantrum,” Julia said. “I hope it keeps you awake, drives you insane, or at least helps you grow the fuck up.”

She turned and paused. “I meant what I said before. I’m not going to die because of your childishness or his need to indulge his own fantasy.”

“Traitor,” I bit out as she left, but she didn’t even look back at me. My face still throbbed.

Blood trickled out of my nose, and my gaze drifted, looking for Candido. I was so certain he would come back after Julia had punched me. I was so sure that he’d come to deal with her, but he wasn’t nearby. He was seated on a truck bed in a pair of jeans with the blanket from Estella draped over his shoulders.

Estella was setting something up in the truckbed beside him. Crystals glittered and glowed. I didn’t know what she was doing, but Candido laughed at something she said. I wanted to go over there, to push them apart and argue, but Artemis’ words rattled around in my head.

The moon mark on his shoulder glowed so brightly. Hers was glowing even through the bandage on her shoulder.

Mine… wasn’t even complete.

More than that, just watching them made my heart ache with helplessness. They looked so comfortable together. He looked relaxed. He was still pale, but his smile was real.

I hated it, but I knew if I went over there Candido would get more upset with me. The thought of fighting with him in front of her just made me more upset. My eyes burned with tears and before I realized it, I was running away from the scene sobbing.