Chapter 22: Chapter 22

~ ROWAN

When Nyssa was being wheeled into the palace, she looked like a corpse.

For a minute, I was transported back to many years ago. I was plagued with a familiar sight—an older looking woman with the same features as Nyssa. It was like staring in a fucking mirror.

I couldn’t bring myself to see her, not when she was lying that way. I waited in my office, trying to tell myself that I wasn’t bothered by the fact that she hooked up to a bunch of wires was a few rooms down.

I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter because she was still alive. I could feel that much.

When I first found out she was hurt, I nearly ran the entire way to her pack. however, I’d barely made it out of the palace when my lycan stopped me, his voice clear as day in my head.

“Do you really think she wants to see you?” he’d asked me. “What will you tell her? That you didn’t want her at first but you changed your mind?”

His words were like acid down my throat but I knew he was right. I’d turned away at the last minute and ran into the woods, shifting as I did. I ran for hours, until my legs physically couldn’t move anymore.

By the time I stopped, it was nearly nighttime and Aria had already left for the pack.

She did what I couldn’t.

I’d already made my choice, and after seeing her like that, I knew it was the right one. I was fucking curse, and as long as she stayed around me, she would be too.

What were the odds that she’d get stabbed for the first time a few days after meeting me?

I did my best to stay away from her.

I got updates from Aria and the doctors, but I had to see her, even if it was for a second. It was my fucking luck that she happened to wake up at that exact moment.

“You can’t avoid her forever,” Aria said softly, her voice cutting through the cold night.

She walked over to me, leaning against the railing. She didn’t glance at me, instead, she kept her eyes fixed on the night sky in front of us.

The moon was high and bright, and stars littered all over the black canvas. It was fucking beautiful, and it reminded me of the days I’d spend sitting on this same balcony with my mother.

“I am not avoiding her.”

She snorted. “You could have fooled me when you practically ran out of the room when she stirred.” She turned to me. “Why did you let me bring her here?”

“You were gone by the time I calmed down.”

It was a cop-out and she knew it.

If I really didn’t want Nyssa here, I would have stopped her. There was enough time for it. The truth was that I was a cruel bastard. I couldn’t have her, I knew that much, but that didn’t stop me from being selfish enough to keep her around.

“Let her heal. We have the best doctors-”

“And then what?” Aria snapped, finally turning to me. “You’re just going to keep her around for two weeks or are you going to send her away? She’s risking the ire of her pack to be here. They already hate us, don’t make them hate her too.”

I couldn’t bring myself to look at her.

If I did, she’d see that I had no intentions of heeding her words. Nyssa was my mate, and her pack would know better than to do anything to her.

“You’re an ass, Rowan,” Aria muttered before storming off. “I hope she chooses Henry.”

Hearing that from Aria stung, and it wasn’t because of what she said, but because she was the one who said it. if there was anyone who hated Henry more than me… it was her.

“She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” my lycan argued. “She’s being dramatic.”

Unfortunately, not even he could convince me of that.

I stayed on the balcony for what felt like hours, just staring out into the darkness and thinking.

By the time I finally began heading to my room, it was almost midnight.

The palace was already asleep. Servants had retired to their quarters, and the only people still around where the guards who patrolled the halls. They bowed to me, careful not to lock eyes with me.

I ignored them for the most part, eager to return to my room.

I’d made my way past the second floor corridor when I heard noise, kind of like the shuffling of feet. I paused for a minute, glancing down the deserted hallway.

No one ever used this portion of the palace. I’d banned it right after my mother died. It was her favorite place in the entire palace.

I heard the noise again and followed it, my ire rising at the thought of someone desecrating the one place in this fucked up building that my mother actually loved.

I hadn’t moved a single thing since her death. Every painting, every speck of dust perfectly reflected the way she lived her life. If anyone had touched anything… I shook my head, not wanting to think about what I’d do.

The noise grew clearer as I got to my mother’s painting area.

A figure was hunched over her easel, the very last one she’d ever touched… her final uncompleted work. Rage as rough as an ocean crashed over me, clouding my vision until all I could see was black.

With a low growl, I stormed towards the figure, grabbing their wrist in a tight grip before they could ruin her painting. I tossed the person to the side harshly, standing protectively in front of the easel.

“Have you gone mad?” I growled low. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I didn’t… I just-”

The anger ebbed slowly as the soft and scared voice slowly bypassed my mental blocks. I blinked through the red haze, locking eyes with the cowering female in front of me and cursed low.

Nyssa.

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