Chapter 23

Talia's POV

 "What do you mean, Isla?" He asks me, looking very shocked. 

I'm sorry I have to do this, but it is totally and utterly necessary. 

 "I do not know you, nor do I know who bears the name you have been calling me by." I say to him in the kindest tone I could summon. 

 "Quit fooling around, Isla. I know it's you. You do not have a twin." He is shaking his head violently as if to shake out the thought of what I had just said to him. "If you want to walk out of my life like you did before, you know you could always do that." He says, looking me in the eye, daring me to take up the challenge. 

 "I wish I was lying to you." His reaction has cut through every morsel of the strength I summoned to open up to him. I know no better but to come out straight. "I'm not her, neither do I know her." I say with as much finality as I could. 

 "Well I find that very hard to believe. Convincing me that we all look alike would not have been so hard if you did not have the same scar as she did on her nose." I touched my nose and I felt what he said. 

 "I have not seen myself since…" I'm suddenly lost for words with which to describe what happened, which I am not even totally sure of. 

Kara has convinced me that it's something called rebirth, but how do I do that to someone who is not one of us?

I'll take my lunch anyways. By a stroke of fortune, he understands what I mean. "I have been reborn. I do not remember much from before, I have glimpses in my memory of how I looked, especially on the day I married my Alpha Vance, beyond that, I do not have any distinct memories." By a stroke of fortune, he understands, or at least looks like he does. 

He falls back into the seat like one who has heard the news of another death. 

He looks despondent, pained and confused. His eyes are staring helplessly at the floor. 

He locks his muscular arms together thinking up things I can but imagine. 

He stays in a position for less than a minute before changing into another uncomfortable one. 

I'm left staring at his reaction to what I just said. I don't know where I went wrong, and I really do not want to go further for fear that I might upset one who is already upset. 

The room is uncomfortably quiet, him staring at the ground in pain and shock, and me looking on at him like a stupid child. 

I want to break him out of his thoughts, it honestly would look like a favor, but I do not know how to approach it. 

I begin by tapping my feet lightly against the floor. It barely makes a sound, but at least, something is moving. He directs his gaze to my feet, focusing on them. 

My approach changes only the direction of his hopeless stare and does nothing to jut him out of his day nightmare. 

 "Hey." I call out to him softly for fear of evoking a serious emotion. Then I remember I still do not know his name, and it was asking for it that led here in the first case. 

How fragile my future is suddenly dawns on me. I really need him to be able to survive, at least for the next few days. 

Going out now would make me a lone wolf, rogue for that matter. And I would need physical strength to combat all that being without a pack would throw my way. 

 "Hey, are you there?" This time, I touched him, although very slightly. 

In a split of a second his brooding eyes leave their former position and stare straight at me. 

I was scared and terrified and for a minute I wondered if life here would truly be better at his realization of this.

 "Does Moonlily strike a bell?" He says, still staring at me. 

 "No, none at all. Moonstone does. I think it's where I'm from." I said to him, 

My memory up till my wedding is a little alright, save for a few missing pieces here and there, but I want to hope I still have the most important things. 

In my case, this rebirth didn't come with my memory. 

 "Moonstone doesn't." He says, looking away a little disappointed. 

He takes his feet against the floor a little while again before looking up at me. "Oak trees?" He asked, in the same vein with which he asked previously, trying to juggle a non-existent memory. 

 "Pine trees. Behind the Alphas house." His asking me somehow makes me remember my pieces too. 

 "Fuck those." He says. The oak trees must mean something to him. I'll keep that for later if there is one. For now, he's trying to piece the puzzle a long way and it is stressing me out. 

 "Ermm… I still do not know your name." I remind him respectfully. Addressing him by his name would make things far more simpler. 

 "It's Kael." He divulges, finally. Looking at me square in the face as if to catch something that would show the name sounded familiar, but it doesn't, so he doesn't. 

 "I'm Talia." I say to him, even though he does not ask and is very much displeased at the idea of me bearing any other name but the one he has been calling. 

 "That also rings no bells." His back concaves in defeat. He looks like he's finally starting to accept the reality of things. 

 "But if you were reborn in Islas body…" He starts. 

 "Does that mean that she is still out there somewhere?" it would only be fair to me to know that I have a clone. More like if I am a clone. 

 "No, she isn't. It means that she's…she's… " He can't seem to complete his sentence. 

 "What are you saying?" I'm a little impatient. 

 "You can't be reborn into someone who is still alive." He says, as a matter of fact. 

I'm shocked and bewildered. It means she is dead and I am just a poor reminder and unwanted imitation of her. 

 "I'm sorry." I say to him on his realization. 

 "It's not your fault." He says blankly, devoid of any emotion. 

Either way, it makes me feel better that even though the circumstances under which he discovered her demise is unfavorable, he is not projecting the anger and frustration at me. 

 "Could I ask who she is?" As the seconds go by, I feel bolder around him. 

 "You don't think that's a little ambitious given that I just discovered someone who meant the whole world to me is gone? And her body is up for grabs for a dud like you?" He asks, plastering a cold and fake smile after his sentence. 

 "I actually do think it is, but it was worth the shot, seeing that you partly answered my question, thank you by the way. And I may not have all the answers, but I am not a dud." I reply to him

Silence falls on us both.