Chapter 24 - Lies and Deception

Adalyn stood outside the front of the door of her home. She had been standing there for 10 minutes just trying to think of what she was going to tell Mya and Gabriel. She hated the idea of lying to them but she promised Kai that she'd keep everything a secret for now. If it meant helping to protect, then she'd have no choice.

Before she could gather her thoughts, the door flew open and Mya came flying out encircling her in a bear hug. She had scented her from behind the door.

"Auntie...?" Adalyn whimpered. She didn’t realise how much she had missed her in such a short time. Mya's hug was tight and desperate. Adalyn could feel all her pent-up emotions and relief emptying in to her.

"Where have you been Ady?!" Mya weeped in to her shoulder. " I thought something terrible had happened to you. Are you okay?"

Mya pulled back from her hug but held on firm to her shoulders. Her touch just reaffirming in Mya's mind that Adalyn was real and standing in front of her. Mya searched Adalyn’s face for answers.

Adalyn could already feel her resolve starting to break seeing her aunt's face looking desperately for answers. She knew that she was going to have to put on the performance of a lifetime to get past her aunt's scrutinizing gaze.

"It was my wolf, she needed to break free and run." Adalyn knew that Mya was already of her battles with her wolf and something in relation to her wolf forcing her to shift would sound pretty plausible.

"I wasn't able to shift back for a few days and I ended up back in Eclipse Fang pack lands. Once I was able to shift back, I stayed there for a while, to clear my head." Adalyn made eyes with her aunt to gauge her reaction. Her eyes were full of concern.

"Why didn't you call me the second you shifted back? I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere!"

Adalyn gulped, she seemed to be buying it. "My phone broke, so I didn't have a way of getting in touch. I could only remember Leona's number so I called her, but I wanted to just stay there for a while and clear my head. I'm sorry."

Mya drew her back in to her arms. "I don't understand why Leona didn't say anything! I would have come and gotten you."

"It's not her fault, I told her not to say anything." Adalyn was having to improvise fast on her feet to the questions she was getting. She'd have to remember to call Leona ASAP so that they could sync on a cover story.

"I'm just glad your safe," Mya sniffed trying to hold back sobs. "Gabriel has been out searching for you the last two days. I'll have to call him." Mya pulled back again and ran a hand across her face. Adalyn was everything to her, her only blood family left. “Come inside,” she sighed as she pulled her in the house.


--——

Adalyn laid down on her bed. She felt emotionally exhausted having to come up with such an elaborate lie on the spot. Seeing her aunt so upset had her wracked with guilt.

Mya had just grounded her for a week. She wasn't happy that she didn't get Leona to pass a message back to them to let them know that she was alright. At 18, Mya felt it was a bit over the top at her age, but it felt like a small price to play for her ruse.

Mya had rung Gabriel to let him know that she was back home. Adalyn knew that she'd have to repeat her tale for him when she got back and he'd be even harder to convince. He was always very preceptive when it came to her. She was already dreading it.

She pulled down her top to see the bite mark that Kai left on her chest. As she thumbed the small indentation, she reminded herself that she had to keep this lie up to protect her family. "Remember what you're doing this for?" she muttered to herself. With her resolve reaffirmed, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

---

It was the dead of night and Adalyn tossed and turned in bed. She had an unsettling feeling in her stomach. As she opened her eyes, she could feel the presence of somebody in her room. She scanned the room and caught a shadowy looking figure in the corner of the room. Fumbling around the side of her bed, she reached around and flicked on the switch to her bedside light. As light flooded the room, familiar brown eyes stared back at her.

Adalyn jolted upright in a panic. "Fuck! Gabe! What are you doing?! You scared the shit out of me!” Her heart was beating a mile a minute.

Gabriel stood there in silence with his arms folded. With the light now on, Adalyn got a good look at his face. He looked different. His eyes were cold and tired like he hadn't slept in days and his demeanor radiated anger and agitation.

"Gabe?" Adalyn spoke again, his silence was frightening. This was not the happy-go-lucky Gabriel that she was familiar with. This man was more like the small boy that her aunt had first brought back home, broken and wild.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" he spoke indifferently. "It's not like you going missing couldn't have evoked the same feelings in Mya and me."

Adalyn sat up. Her heart had migrated back from her throat back to her chest. "I told Mya what happened. I'm sorry that you worried you both." Adalyn replied earnestly.

"Oh Mya told me what you told her.” Gabriel gritted his teeth as he tried to suppress his anger. He’d always been overprotective of Adalyn and her disappearance had him really unsettled. He’d spent the last two days roaming around Galas trying to find her with no luck, then she just strolled back in through the door almost as if nothing had happened. He wasn’t impressed. “The only issue there is that it’s not the truth is it Ady?"

"Yes, it is. You know better than most how my wolf can be." Adalyn said adamantly.

"Where were you?" Gabriel asked, ignoring her previous comment.

"In Eclipse Fang, like I told Mya." Adalyn was determined not to break in front of him.

"You're lying Ady.” Gabriel twitched.

"I'm not!" she roared.

"You are! I've been at Eclipse Fang looking for you. I would have definitely caught your scent if you were there in wolf form!" he snapped.

"Well... I don’t know what to tell you, we must have just missed each other then." Adalyn averted her eyes. This was an instant tell to Gabriel that she was lying.

"Why are you lying? You know you're not good at it!"

"I told you I'm not!" she growled surprising both herself and Gabriel. Her wolf had surfaced for just a moment after feeling Adalyn starting to get cornered. Her voice was getting louder as she started getting defensive. This was another tell for him.

As Adalyn sat up more in the bed, something caught Gabriel's eyes and he shifted on his feet uncomfortably before suddenly homing in her chest. His eyes dilated as he took in what he saw. Adalyn looked down to see where he was staring. Her top had slipped down, partially revealing the bite mark left by Kai. She quickly pulled it up to cover it.

"What is that?" Gabriel asked. His voice was almost like a deadly whisper.

"I... I slipped and caught myself there and..." Before Adalyn could finish her lie, she actually heard the sound of Gabriel’s patience snapping.

"Oh, fuck me Ady! Do I look like an idiot to you?! That’s a fucking bite mark. Were you with a guy this whole time?"

Adalyn was caught off guard with this one. His rapid-fire questions was making it next to impossible for her to come up with a plausible counter response in time. She turned away feeling caught out. Whatever she said, she couldn't say the truth.

"It’s none of your business Gabriel."

"None of my business?" Gabriel walked over to her. He was going to wear her down and get the answers that he wanted. "Are you seeing someone?" His voice broke a little as he said it. She never mentioned any guys before and she'd never kept anything from him before either.

"Even if I was it doesn’t matter. It was just a fling." Her lies were going from bad to worse in Gabriel's eyes.

"A fling? You? You blush watching Sleeping Beauty getting woken up by Prince Charming and you expect me to believe that you’re just casually sleeping around now."

"So what if I was? I can be with whoever I want. I’m not a child anymore."

Gabriel looked her up and down before tightening his lips. She definitely wasn’t a child anymore and he was increasingly becoming aware of it. She was constantly getting leering looks from males and whilst it often went over her head Gabriel had borne witness to it on numerous occasions, much to his annoyance.

Gabriel sat down on the end of her bed. His anger was fading and was slowly being replaced by actual hurt and disappointment at her attempts to hide her actions from him. "Why can’t you tell me where you’ve been and who you’ve been with?” His brown eyes softened.

"Like I said I was at Eclipse Fang. I spoke with Leona, she can tell you." Adalyn was trying desperately to keep the loose threads of her lie together.

The lengths that she was going to conceal her actions had Gabriel worried. "When did we start keeping secrets from each other? This isn’t like you. Are you in some kind of trouble? If somebody's hurt you, you need to tell me!"

"Please Gabe, I’m exhausted. Let it go." Tears started to threaten her eyes.

Gabe stood up. He could see in her face that she was done. “This conversation isn’t over Ady.” He stalked back towards her bedroom door then left.

Something was wrong, seriously wrong and he wasn’t going to let this go. Not by a long shot.