Chapter 3 - Game Of Destiny (Amie & Finlay) Novel Free Online

“I was hoping to sit with her for a while. To see if I can’t be of some help or comfort,” Luna Joy said.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Armeria needs her family at the moment.”

“Melissa,” the Luna gasped. “I would like to think of myself as family. We have always been close since we mated Mark and Ron.”

“I would have said the same yesterday. But after what Ja…” There was a pause, as if my mother needed time to compose herself. “After what your son did to my baby, I think we need to rethink certain things. I need to protect Armeria and put her first. We both know how this will affect her. The pack won’t give her the same protection they would give someone rejected by a wolf who isn’t the future Alpha. The least I can do is make sure she is around the right people.”

“I love her like a daughter,” Luna objected.

“But not enough to fight for her right to become your daughter by mating. Joy, you are my Luna and I will respect and obey you in all but this. My daughter is out of bounds for anyone in your family from this day,” my mother said and the door to my room closed. I felt the bed dip as my mother sat down and continued to stroke my hair. In the middle of all my pain, I felt the love from my parents and it soothed some of it. At least two people in this world loved me. But it also made me sad. Because of me, they were now at odds with their closest friends, their Alpha pair. This wouldn’t just affect our two families. If the Alpha and Beta couple were in conflict, that would have an impact on the whole pack. And even though my brother had chosen James, I wanted to pretend he had struggled with the decision before making it. It seemed like I was making everyone’s lives more complicated. As I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t want my mother to think I was awake, I spent the rest of the night thinking. By the time my brother arrived back home after the sun had risen, I had reached a decision. During the early morning hours, I relaxed a little and let go of my knees. I heard my brother get home, walk upstairs and open the door to my room. My knees drew up to my chest again.

“How is she?” Elder asked our mother.

“Enduring. Your father needs to speak with you. We need to find a way to protect your sister,” she said.

“I’ll go and talk to him. After I can sit with her so you can rest,” he offered. I didn’t want him to sit with me. I knew my brother’s betrayal wasn’t big in the grand scheme of things. But at the moment my heart and soul were raw, like they both had got a sunburn that meant even a tiny speck of sand felt like agony when rubbing against it.

“I’m fine. I will stay with her until she wakes up,” mom said. I was eternally grateful to her. I heard my brother go downstairs, and I heard enough of his conversation with our father to know they were discussing if sending me away to another pack would be a good solution. After a while, I stopped listening. The conversation only confirmed what I already knew. I was causing problems for my family. I didn’t have a wolf and therefore I had become a burden. It was up to me to solve all the problems I had created. I turned around and looked at my mother. She smiled down at me and let her hand caress my cheek. I didn’t have it in me to smile back, but I turned into her hand.

“My brave and strong daughter, we will get you through this and you will dazzle the world,” she told me, and kissed my forehead. If I could have smiled, I would have. My mother was amazing and my insides burned with the guilt that I was causing so much problems for her. I just nodded. “Are you hungry?” she asked, but I shook my head. Instead, I reached out my arms towards her, like I had done when I was little. She gave me a sad smile and drew me into a long hug. Then I lay back down, this time facing the door. My mother continued to sit with me. It didn’t take long for the door to open and my father to come inside. He looked so tired it almost made me cry all over again.

“Hey, pumpkin, your mom told me you were up. Want me to make you some of my famous spaghetti?” he asked as he kneeled by my bed so he could look me in the eyes. My father’s famous spaghetti was just boiled noodles with cut up hotdogs and lots of ketchup. My dad couldn’t cook to save his life, but on days my mom needed a break from cooking or was away, he made us his spaghetti. Both me and Elder loved it as it was something my mother would never let us eat. It became our comfort food in a way. I just shook my head. “Okay, baby girl. It will all be okay. I will make it okay,” he said and kissed me on my head. A single tear ran down my cheek. I knew he meant it. He would stop at nothing to make sure I was happy again. It was up to me to make sure he didn’t have to. Elder came into my room as well. The look he gave me told me how sorry he was for me.

“I can sit with her for a while,” he offered again. I saw my mother start to object, but I put my hand on hers and nodded.

“Are you sure? I don’t mind staying,” she said. I just nodded.

“Okay, pumpkin. I will make sure your mom gets some rest. But we will be back in two hours and we will bring food. I’m expecting you to eat. Okay?” my father asked. I nodded. “Good girl.” I got a kiss from both of them on my head before they left. Elder took my mother’s place on the bed.

“I don’t know what to do,” he said. I looked up at him and saw the swirl of emotions in his eyes. He must feel so torn and like being pulled in all directions. His love for me, his loyalty to family, his best friend, the future he had envisaged and trained for, the loyalty to the pack and to his alpha. They were all tugging at him. I took his hand and squeezed it. Tears ran down his face. “Look at me, here I am supposed to comfort you and I’m the one bawling my eyes out and you are the one comforting me,” he sniffed. I sat up and kissed his cheek. He was a good brother, even if he had his flaws. “I wish I could change his mind, that I could make him see what an idiot he is. The Gods know I have tried, but it’s like he is obsessed with strength. I can’t even get him to see there are different kinds. That you possess so many of them, even if you don’t possess the physical kind,” he told me. I understood then where he had been all night. He hadn’t forsaken me for James. It was the first time since the rejection I felt a small piece of warmth. I hugged him and we sat like that until I noticed the subtle change in his body and looked at him. He was mindlinking with someone and I could guess who. When they were done I nudged him to get up. “No, Amie, I’m staying,” he objected. I just shook my head and pushed him harder. “Okay, okay. I’ll go. I’ll just wake Dad,” he said.

‘No. Let him sleep, he is tired. I’m just going to go back to sleep anyway. I’ll be fine,’ I mindlinked him.

‘Are you sure?’ he answered me.

‘I am. Thank you for staying with me.’ He gave me a hug and then left. As soon as I heard his footsteps leave the garden, I listened to make sure my parents were asleep. I got up and took out a backpack. I filled it with some clothes, some things that were most precious to me, and sneaked down into the kitchen to ransack the pantry, stuffing it into a separate bag. I put the two bags into my car and went back to the house, trying to be as quiet as I could. Even without a wolf, I was good at sneaking around. I took the blanket my mother had knitted me and sat down to write a note. I stared at the blank page forever. There was so much I wanted to write, things that should be said in person and not written down on paper. But I knew if I waited for my parents to wake, they would never let me leave.

Dear mom, dad and Elder.I love you all so much and I know you love me. That is why I need to leave. I can’t let you destroy your friendships and standing in the pack for me. Know that I see how much you love me by your actions and know that I will always carry that knowledge in my heart and honour it. Please don’t be angry with the Alpha family, please don’t destroy something that is so important to all of you. I will leave so I can find a new life and so you can live yours as it was intended. Please don’t try to find me, you have raised me well and I will be fine. I love you always.

With Love A

I left the note on my bed with my set of house keys. Then I made my way downstairs and took a storm kitchen and a tent out of our storage. Making sure everything I needed was in the glove compartment in the car, I took a last look at the house that had been my home for eighteen years and I drove off.

Amie

I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw how exhausted and sad I looked. I tried to brighten up as I got close to the pack border. The wolves manning the booth knew my car by sight and just gave me a little wave as I drove by. No doubt they had seen or heard what had happened, I thought. Usually when I left the pack territory I got a feeling of longing. It was a physical reaction that let you know you were leaving your pack. This time, I felt lighter as the miles between me and the pack steadily increased. I headed into the closest town that had everything I needed. First stop was the bank. I was eighteen now and I withdrew all my savings I had earned from working in the pack’s sawmill, all the birthday money I had saved over the years and, with a heavy heart, the savings account my parents had started when I was born. All in all, it was enough money to let me stay on the road for as long as I had planned and still have some over for a clean start somewhere else. The next stop was the car dealership. The car I had was a gift from my parents when I got my driver licence. It was a little over a year old and had rarely been driven. But it was an electric car, not ideal for long, cross country road trips. I traded it in for a Volvo that was a little older, but looked to be in good condition. I transferred all my belongings into my new car and got back on the road. I wasn’t trying to hide, or to disappear, but on the other hand I wasn’t going to announce to the world where I was going either. That could be because I had no clue. My plan was to get as far away from Virginia as I could.

I had been driving for most of the day and I felt the exhaustion in my bones. I hadn’t slept since the previous night and I knew I would soon be a danger to myself and others on the road. I found a small gravel road leading into a dead end in the middle of a dense forest. I stopped there, warmed a can of soup and forced myself to eat it even though I had no appetite. I then shut myself in the car, made myself as comfortable as I possibly could with my blanket wrapped around me. My family would have found the note hours ago, and I wondered what they were doing. I cried myself to sleep.

The days were all the same. I drove as far as I could. I stopped to get gas, food and use the bathroom. Once in a while, I slept in cheap motels so I could shower. But most of the time, I slept in my car or outside under the stars. The only thing changing in my routine was the landscape outside the car. From lush forests to grasslands, to deserts and finally I found myself on the other side of the country. I parked my car by the side of the road and stepped out, ending up in the middle of a grass field of flowers. On the other end of the field there was a dense forest, and far in the distance tall mountains stretched up towards a summer blue sky. I drew in a deep breath and some of the tension I had carried with me for almost two weeks left me. After driving for almost a week without anywhere in mind, just trying to get away from my life, I had come up with a goal: Oregon. There was only one pack in the state and they had their territory on the border to Nevada. If I stayed in the northern parts of the state, I would most likely never run into a werewolf. I was going lone wolf. It was the best thing for someone like me, I had decided. Since I didn’t have a wolf, I could blend into the human society without too much trouble. That would also minimise the risk of running into other wolves. They tended to keep away from humans if at all possible. I needed to find a job and some place to live, preferably before winter. But that gave me at least two months. I could do it. It would get my mind off the throbbing ache in my chest. It wasn’t as sharp of a pain as it had been the first couple of days, but it didn’t go away. It was just a constant reminder of what I had lost and why I now needed to prepare for a life as a lone wolf. A lone wolf was not the same as a rogue. The werewolf society had shunned a rogue. Often because of a crime they had committed. A rogue could be killed by anyone, anytime. A lone wolf was a werewolf who had decided not to live in a pack. They still lived by the laws of the werewolf world and if they came across other wolves, they respected the built-in hierarchy. It was just as bad to kill a lone wolf without cause as a member of a pack. But finding someone who cared enough to call someone out for doing it, on the other hand, would be difficult. A lone wolf could also re-enter the pack life without permission from anyone other than the pack that accepted them in. A rogue could only become a member of a pack if they had the permission from the council or from the pack that made them rogue. I took out my new phone, I had sent my old phone back to my parents as it was on their plan. Now I had a new, cheaper one with a prepaid SIM-card. I pulled up a map of the state and started scrolling over it. I decided to head north-west and see where it would take me.

Two days later it took me into a sleepy little town. It looked to be the backdrop for one of those Hallmark-movies my mother loved. The main street was lined with two-story buildings with shops on the bottom floor. The town was located where the plains met the forest and had the towering mountains in the background. The air was clear and the town seemed filled with happiness and joy. This was a place where I could heal, I thought. As if faith and the gods agreed with me, I saw a sign for help wanted in the window of the local diner. I walked inside and could smell the mouthwatering combination of the different traditional diner meals.

“Hey miss, can I get you something?” an older lady asked me as I got close to the counter.

“Hi, yes, I saw the sign in the window and wondered if you are still looking for someone?” I asked. The woman stopped what she was doing and looked at me.

“Are you over eighteen?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Run away from home?”

<< Previous Chapter

Next Chapter >>