Chapter 22: My Mate Returns

I turn from left to right, focusing my senses to see where Elias may be.

Surely, he couldn't, no, wouldn't have come here.

'Abigail.' Again, his voice rings, and in an instant, I know where it is coming from.

I look down at the totem, and I discover it glowing.

The glow is like a sheen refracting the sun off of metal, but, there is nothing here to cast such brilliant light, and once more.

Despite it glowing so bright, its light affects nothing around it, not even the shadow my body casts.

As I keep scrutinizing the totem, I become rapt by it, to a degree that I feel myself being pulled in by it.

The glow becomes brighter, and brighter, till I can no longer bear it, so I shut my eyes.

When I feel the glow die down beyond my eyelids, I open them, and what I find, no, who I find standing before me, is...Elias.

"Elias!" I accidentally yell, then I cover my mouth with my hands, and then frantically analyze our surroundings.

But there is nothing save for darkness.

I turn to meet him again, feeling as though this is some sort of illusion or dream.

But, I can see him as clear as day, and I can feel his presence.

"Yes, it is me Abigail." He gets closer to me, but I shift back.

"Ho...how is this possible?" I stutter, still trying to process what is going on.

He scratches the back of his neck, then he points to my right hand.

I trace his aim to my fingers, and I find the totem being tightly gripped by them.

"Wait, wait." I raise the totem to him. "This, this is making...this," I can't find the right words as of now. "Possible?"

He raises his hand to me, and I find another totem in his hand.

"Yup, pretty much." He smiles.

"Incredible." I inch closer to him, and as I do, I feel and smell his breath.

I raise my free hand to his chest, and when I touch him, I gasp.

As I feel the warmth of his skin, and beating of his heart, the rush of his blood.

It all feels, real.

"This is incredible." I say as I can feel my being pulled towards him.

I don't know what this totem is, but it is making it feel as though he is right next to me.

I want to kiss him, but...but I can't.

I turn away, squeezing the totem too tightly.

"What is the matter?" He asks me.

"What I did. What I did was a mistake." I say, squeezing ever tighter on the totem.

"A mistake? I do..."

"I should never have left Darius' fortress to see you." I inch further away from him. "Because of that, the one I hold most dear to me is in danger."

"Abigail."

"I can't see you again, I can't..." The memory of that day floods my head, which almost makes me lose my footing. I shake my head and force myself to continue. "I can't seek the past." Those words bite into my tongue and throat.

"I have to let it all go."

"Abigail. You can't do that."

"Why is that?"

"Because..." He pauses, which somehow makes me feel frightened and anxious. "Because, Darius is the one who killed them."

*SHATTER* explodes within me, and I find myself turning numb, and all of a sudden, this place becomes very cold.

"...what did you just say?" My voice barely registers in my own ears, but I pray Elias heard it because every strength within me has been sapped away, to a degree that I couldn't repeat myself even if I wanted to.

"I...I shouldn't have said it that way."

"what other way were you expecting to say that?" I turn to meet his eyes, pain, anger, fury, and hurt consuming me.

"I just..."

"why?" I find myself still unable to raise the volume of my voice, whatever strength I have in me right now is just to remain standing.

"I...well..." Elias stutters his words, I can see in his eyes, right before he avoids mine, that he didn't mean to hurt me, but, he had to.

"please Elias, tell me why?" I try to control myself, but the pain resonating in my heart starts to grow and become me.

My throat turns horse, and my eyes sting.

But I don't want to cry, I won't cry.

Elias finally meets my gaze, then he raises his hand and places his index finger on my chest.

"It's because of who you are, who they were."

"I don't understand." I say in all honesty.

"I mean," He finds it hard to speak. "Your bloodline, your pack."

What he says makes no sense to me.

"My bloodline, my pack? What does that have to do with anything?" I ask, as the pain and hurt in my soul transform into pure anger.

"Your pack Abigail, the pack from your mother's side. The Charon wolves."

Hearing that name sends a shiver up my spine.

No one, no one should know about our pack's name, our real name.

But yet, this is the second time I'm hearing it.

"Why, why would Darius want to harm us? We have no Instinct, we are the weakest pack in the world."

"That's what you were told?" Elias asks me, and I feel something very amiss.

"Of course it's what I was told. We have no Instinct, we were hunted down for sport, what else is there to it?"

"Abigail, the Charon wolves are one of the most powerful wolves in existence." He says with absolute certainty in his eyes, which somehow frightens me.

"That's impossible, how can a pack with no Instinct be..."

"Did you remember what you did to your friend?" He asks, and this question bores a hole into me.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Your friend was dead Abigail, but you, you brought her back."

As he speaks, I fall into that moment, and the chill in my bones leaves me numb.