Chapter 3
I sighed as I turned in the strange bed ten years later. The cushions were too soft, and the mattress was too firm. I could feel it resonating in my bones as I began to awaken; it was a feeling I hadn't experienced in years. Everything felt wrong.
I jumped out of bed as the horror spread throughout my body. My skin was crawling with the power, and I delighted in its impossibility. I looked at the sun that was pelting my new chamber with a ferocious light while my heart was thudding. I must have forgotten to draw the curtains after the ten-hour travel and getting into this bed because I was so exhausted.
But none of it mattered now because I could see small fireworks-like sparks bursting from my fingertips.
I had gone eleven years without using my magic, but now it was back.
Just as quickly as I'd noticed it, the energy that was surging through me had vanished. My euphoria over my lost power was snatched away when the electric force on my fingertips faded. It was pressing back into the seams that had been sewn into me throughout the years and folding back in on itself.
Again, I was overcome with emptiness.
Again, I felt like I was lost.
"Today has a to-do list." Vera walked into my bed just as I was coming to grips with the modest gift of my revived spirit, so I tucked my hands beneath my blankets as my heart started to race.
What did it signify, and why did it just now appear to me?
All the emotions I had pushed into the depths of my memory were now making my heart splutter, and they felt like a dam about to burst.
"Today shouldn't have a to-do list." She merely grinned in response to my groan.
Vera might have been my greatest friend, but I didn't agree with many of her routines, especially how consistently she got up early. Even after years of dealing with my moodiness, it never prevented her from appreciating the positivity of a new day as it should have.
We have a to-do list for today because there are so many things that need to be organized. The deliveries will fall to you, and I'll go grab the keys. I pushed myself back down onto my bed after hearing her squeal.
Although it had nothing to do with moving to a new city, I was feeling overburdened.
I was unable to tell Vera anything about my ancestry because she was unaware of it. After my brother betrayed his promise to me and I was torn away from him, they were the last things I could recall: "My magic was my own, and I had to keep it hidden."
I tried to close my eyes to keep myself grounded, but my history constantly followed me around like a shadow. For all these years, Vera had been the only one who could stop me from collapsing.
She shared my loneliness and my longing for a friend.
We both knew that coming here would be a risk because wolves don't often leave the protection of their packs, but we were both Omegas with huge goals. Vera didn't want to remain in a pack where the wolves barely valued her because she had no parents and no obligations. She had hopes and dreams, and as our relationship developed, they too became mine.
Even though we no longer resided in their pack house, we were no longer required to follow their pack rituals, even if our names were still connected to the Knight-fall pack in New England, and we still had to respond to our Alpha when he called on us.
The least I could have done was to accompany Vera to Atlanta because she was the only one who gave me a sense of value.
Vera had been by my side during one of the worst moments of my life, and I didn't believe I could ever make up for that. When they discovered me on the periphery of her pack all those years ago, I had no idea what it was like to have a friend. After our genuine family let us down, we formed our own family.
I barked when a pillow slammed against my head.
Vera was sure that our business endeavor would succeed. She wanted our new company to succeed in line with all her illogical fantasies. I told her she was crazy when she told me she had opened a storefront in Atlanta, but over time, I had come to appreciate her impulsiveness.
She had sat down with me that evening to discuss her ambitions to build a bakery, and her enthusiasm for life swept me up. This must have been the life my brother gave up for me to live—the life he gave up for me to have.
Before she hurled another pillow at my head, I went behind her to the bathroom. In the mirror that was mounted on the wall over the sink, I took a look at myself. Most of the time, I looked the same, but my feelings had changed.
I sprayed some water on my face before turning to gaze at my hands once more. I thought that if I focused long enough, the magic might return, but no matter how long I stared at it or how strongly I wished for it to, it resisted me.
Kyle had always known so much more about our magic than I did, so I wanted him to be here with me.
This time, I glared at myself in the mirror as I groaned, the rage at my rebellious feelings wrapping around my ribcage. My motivations for following Vera here had been somewhat more self-centered than simply supporting her with her business goals, despite the sorrow I felt for not knowing what had happened to my brother.
The knight-fall pack had proven to be a dead end for the past ten years of my hunt, and I still wanted to find my brother.
Vera was standing in the kitchen, sipping coffee, as I finished using the restroom and dressed. She placed the mug on the counter when she noticed me.
"We'll meet at the bakery in two hours, which should give us both plenty of time to sort out things with our new baby." Her face was awash in enthusiasm, and she was jumping around on her feet. We couldn't be more different. I barely had any energy to begin with, and it had been dwindling ever since I got up.
Since coffee wasn't going to cut it today, I pushed by her and toward the refrigerator. I was welcomed with nothingness rather than food. The sole item in the refrigerator was a dubious carton of milk that gave me the stomach flu. Vera responded to my glare by laughing at the expression on my face.
"Oh, one of us needs to go grocery shopping." She nodded, referring to me as "one of us."
Breakfast was apparently out of the question today, which upset my stomach.
I poured some coffee into a mug and sipped it.