Chapter 143

"I don't believe you?"

He was lying, she repeated to herself over and over again, even though she was already believing it.

He was lying.

By the Moon, it was George's wolf!

The only thing George's wolf has ever wanted to do to her was hurt her.

"Then ask him yourself."

The red eyes were gone and now all she could see was George. He blinked, panic filling his eyes.

"My love---"

"Is it true?"

She couldn't even believe that she was asking this.

Darkness shadowed his eyes. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded quiet, foreign, and wild.

So unlike George, so much like his wolf but it was still George, of that she was sure.

"You were not supposed to know."

He rushed towards her with intent and pressed his thumb against her forehead. Immediately, her memories started to fade away.

Adrenaline rushed in, and her hands yanked him away from her with an unrestrained force.

"How. Dare. You?!" Rage laced her words, the pain of betrayal sent her heart thundering.

George stood up, his hands trembling by his sides as he covered the distance between them in quick, mad strides, confusion and desperation tussling in his eyes.

"I'm sorry." The words slipped out of his mouth quicker than his trembling lips moved. "I don't know what to do. I can't---- I---" his words were running over one another, his breathing was loud and laboured. He stopped when she took a step back, pain settling in the pit of his stomach when he realized for that split moment that she considered him a source of danger.

Him and not his wolf.

"George?"

He stretched his hands forward, his palms flat, as if that would make the whole world stand still so that he could think.

"I'msorry---I.shouldn't.have-- forgive me. Please, my love!" He shouted when the hope of eventual forgiveness didn't seep into her eyes as it always would after his wolf's usual attack on her.

He ran his hands over his head, swearing sharply beneath his breath.

"I just don't know what to do! I can't lose you!"

Zezi frowned, her lips pressed tightly. Many things raged in her mind, the secret and George's attempt to wipe her memory clean because of it.

She had seen George use his power on many before - many times it had been to protect her, it had been for her - never on her.

The betrayal made her sick to her gut.

He was probably hanging onto her as the last connection he had to his mate. He wanted her to remain in oblivion, he wanted both of them to continue living a lie.

By the Moon, she had a step-sister!

One that was dead.

Her father cheated.

Her dead stepsister was George's mate.

It all made sense now, perfect sense.

"I need a drink. We'll talk later. We need to discuss the Capital's situation and what we must do next." The words slipped past her lips mindlessly as she headed for the door, not allowing George's desperate words to get to her, or the heart-wrenching cry that ripped through his throat and followed her into the hallway, until the door was sealed shut.

"Enjoy the party."

This time around, her voice trembled so much more than she thought it would.

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Vampires drank a different type of wine, one that was too strong for werewolves to handle.

Zezi had only had a glass to wash down her misery, when it had all begun.

It had started with clickings, sharp and distant sounds. They banished the music, as their dread washed over the instrumentalists and everyone.

The air was eerily cold as the clickings drew closer quicker than it was normal.

It was as if it was produced by something unimaginably fast.

So fast that seconds felt like hours.

Fear formed a lump in Zezi's throat, her heart thundered in her chest and tension swallowed the hall, as everyone exchanged petrified looks.

Flashes raced in her mind. Blood and death.

She could feel it in her veins.

It was suddenly that night of the attack all over again.

"Volakys," the air carried the distant whisper into Zezi's ears. The doors suddenly bolted open, the splintered pieces flying into the hall, the clickings now closer than ever.

The Volakys were horrifying pale creatures, with long, dangling tongues that dripped of blood and green venom, long fangs that dripped of the same, and two holes on their massive forehead that seemed to smell it all, every other space on their heads was covered with multiple small eyes. Glistering scaly green skin that somehow carried with it a whiff of rotten flesh, claws as long and sharp looking as blades, and the clickings they made from the flapping of the two ear-like things attached to either side of the base of their necks.

Zezi sucked in a breath.

Now this was a monster.

Five of them crowded the hall's doorway. That was more than enough to kill them all.

She must leave here at once to protect her family.

"Valerick...." Her mind whispered.

Out of nowhere, the glass in Zezi's hand disappeared and a cold hand went around her wrist tightly.

This was the first since she had known Nicholas that she had been overjoyed to see him.

The crowd became a blur, and time ticked by normally again.

He was about to pull her into a secret passage in the wall, as a fight erupted in the hall between the vampires and the Volakys, when Zezi had seen something petrifying.

Her daughter was within the chaos.

Sleepwalking towards a table of bottled blood, while a Volaky's head turned towards her unsuspecting Mira.

Not one second of thinking did Zezi allow before she broke free from Nicholas and charged into danger to save her child, not thinking about the Volaky that charged behind her as it swatted Nicholas away like an annoying fly.

Zezi never made it to her daughter.

Volakys were fast, very fast and it didn't help the situation that a very wild Valerick had burst into the hall and yanked her away from the scene, Mira's scream following after her.

"No! My daughter!"

All Zezi saw before her environment faded into a complete blur was Delice ripping out the regenerating head of the Volaky that had planned Mira as its prey, the poisonous fangs dug into her arm, and that madness in Delice's eyes.

George was there too, his massive wolf on a rampage, fur matter with blood - his blood.

But Mira?

She couldn't find Mira, but she had seen the shredded pieces of her blue nightgown on the floor stained with blood.

"Save my daughter! Save Mira!" Her voice was lost with the speed, falling on Valerick's deaf ears, whose only priority was to save that to save that one who was his.

No one else... but his Zezi.