CHAPTER 43

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
It was a dark and stormy night, and Avyanna was huddled inside a cozy cabin, trying to stay warm and dry. Suddenly, she heard a loud knock at the door. "Who could that be at this hour?" she thought to herself.
She hesitantly made her way to the door and cautiously opened it. Standing on her doorstep was a large, menacing figure, covered in fur and with sharp teeth and claws. Avyanna’s heart raced as she felt the energy emitting from the silhouetted figure before her. It reminded her of the dark apparition in the form of a wolf that she saw on her ephemeral divine journey from her past life to the present.
The gigantic figure growled and lunged at her, but she was quick on her feet and managed to dodge out of the way. She ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her chest.
Avyanna knew she had to find a way to defeat the unknown enemy, but how? She remembered a story her father had told her about how bravery and courage was the only thing that could kill the greatest enemy. She searched frantically for something to defend herself with, and finally, while trying to remember the last thing that happened to her before she woke up in the cabin, she found a spear made of rubies in the corner of the kitchen.
Gripping the spear tightly in her hand, Avyanna turned to face the apparition. It snarled and charged at her again, but this time, she was ready. She thrust the spear at the creature with all her might, and to her surprise, it disappeared; dispersing into nothingness like it had all been happening in her head the whole time.
Avyanna stood there, panting and shaking, but relieved that the danger had passed. She had managed to dispel the creature, but was she safe?
The feeling of insecurity, and bits of jealousy remained attached to her, even as she woke up from the threatening dream, that seemed like a warning. She felt a greater danger was looming but she passed it off immediately from her mind and focused on the fact that she had not heard from Baron in a while.
It had been seven hours since Avyanna had last seen Baron. The last time she saw him, he was concealing a secret that when she found out made her devastated, even though she denied it.
But as much as Avyanna hated Baron in that moment, she found herself missing him more and more as the seconds went by. She didn’t have much to miss about him; she just missed the way he looked into her eyes when he spoke, and the way he spoke with authority and hidden care for her. She even missed the way he held her tenderly the night before and made her sleep softly.
Avyanna tried to push these thoughts out of her head and focus on the present, but no matter what she did, she couldn't shake the feeling of slight longing for Baron. She tried to remind herself of why she should hate him, and it worked gradually.
She decided to lay in bed for sometime to get over the heart-pounding dream that she just woke up from. Avyanna wondered what it meant, and again pushed the thoughts away because she preferred to think of Amanda. She wondered what Amanda looked like and what kind of history Baron had with Amanda, and the jealousy that she denied resurfaced. She tried to imagine the context of the love that Baron shared with Amanda and why she was left in the dark about it especially how she comfortably told him about her own soon-to-be ex; Ericson.
The more she reminisced her conversation with Gina, the night before, it ate her up from within until she decided to nut up and go meet Baron in his room. She needed answers and she was going to get it.
“Baron!” She called out as she walked to his room, but found it empty and deserted. The bed was still arranged, making it obvious that he had not even returned to his room that night. She tried to restrain herself from snooping around his room but she found herself looking at the pictures on his drawers.
She gazed upon the swinging bed at the center of the room and walked further into the room. She moved to his closet and just as she was about to open it, she heard a voice call out; “What are you doing there?”
She turned around and saw Steve, “I seek the Alpha’s audience.” She said, walking prudently out of the large room.
“Well, he obviously is not here.” Steve was already suspicious of Avyanna, and seeing her snooping around in the Alpha’s room was not helping matters.
“Point me in his direction.” She asked politely.
“No one knows where he is.” Steve looked away, “I suggest you leave here. You may not like how he will react if he sees you here, especially after last night.”
“What happened last night?” She asked immediately, almost cutting him off.
“When you find him, ask him.” Steve walked away ignoring her enthusiasm in finding Baron.
Avyanna decided to try and find Baron searching through the nook and crannies at the territory that seemed like places he liked. She searched for him at his office, then the territory main hall, she also searched for him at the training grounds. At the training ground she met the same dudes that flexed their muscles at her the previous night but she ignored them with a fake smile and resumed her search for Baron. She scouted the territory some more but she couldn't find any information.
Feeling frustrated, Avyanna decided to settle at a desolated pub and clear her head, besides a bit of alcohol wouldn’t have hurt her.
“Whiskey.” She hailed the bartender as she sat on the long stool in the bar.
She hadn’t observed her environment; the musty dark pub, whose drab ambience made it difficult for her to make out the faces of the three men at the bar. They sat very far away from each other, and wore cloaks, except one.
“I pegged you as more of a Wolf’s glory kind of girl.” A raspy deep voice resonated through the tiny pub, coming from the distance of the man that didn’t wear a cloak. She stared at the silhouette, trying to figure out who it was and why he was trying to dictate her choice of alcohol. She hated Wolf’s glory because it was like a drug that heightened a wolf’s senses only to bring it all down. Wolves who drank wolf’s glory were addicts, and it made Avyanna what would beg that kind of assumption.
“Excuse me?” She squinted her eyes to no avail, “Why would you think that?”
The man got up and walked towards her, towards the part of the pub where a ray of sunlight peeked through. “Because, you might as well be a wolf who wastes people’s life, and hers as well.”
After several hours of searching, Avyanna was finally able to see Baron; seems her persistence paid off. He was drunk and wasted, reeking of Wolf’s glory and dry gin. He was almost staggering as he walked slowly but not quite. His shirt’s buttons were loose, revealing his broad chest but his sexy physique was not enticing because of how badly he reeked and how rude he sounded.
Avyanna was torn. Part of her wanted to leave the bar and not speak to Baron, but another part of her couldn't resist the temptation to speak to him, hear his side of the story and vent out her thoughts and feelings.
“Have I done anything to make you assume that? Or are you that drunk?” she was vexed and the vexation was gradually increasing.
“Have I done anything to make you … Please.” Baron mocked, “You think you haven’t done anything wrong but you have no idea how … How …” Baron was drunk and he was having difficulty composing himself. He was still devastated about Amanda’s death and he blamed it on Avyanna for some reason.
“No idea how what?” Avyanna asked, her heart breaking gradually.
“You are to blame for her death. If only I wasn’t so distracted and …”
"Why are you blaming me for her death?"
"It's all your fault. Nothing good happens when you're around, just like how you lost your husband and now I have lost Amanda."
"I can't believe you did not tell me about her." Avyanna burst out angrily. She was already hurting from his words but did not show it.
“Why would I tell you? If I told you maybe I would have been there to save her from death.”
“What?” She couldn’t understand Baron anymore. Beyond the feeling of embarrassment, she also felt a deep feeling of betrayal that was similar to the one that Ericson made her feel.
“You are part of the reason she is dead!” He roared in the quiet pub.
The bartender was gone in the wind when the conversation had started getting heated and the other drunks in the bar were so high on Wolf’s Glory, they didn’t comprehend what was happening before their eyes.
“I…” her lips vibrated as she tried to find her next words but it was fruitless. Tears just flowed from her eyes and her throat went dry. She never wanted to feel that way and Baron, who seemed to be her safe place, was making her feel that way.
The last straw was when Baron said, “I should have stayed away from you.”
She left the pub feeling very hurt and walked away from it, away from the territory, into the woods.
Deeper. Deeper, until she had no idea where she was.
Feeling lost, she called out in a strained whisper, “Hello.”
The woods echoed her words back to her, making her feel more alone. The woods were lifeless. In her fear, she recalled her past life and linked it to the present day that she was in.
In her past life, that day was a week away from the day she would die at the hands of Nancy.
“I am running out of time.” She whispered to herself as she slowly walked around the woods, assessing her environment and being very alert.
Despite the woods’ lifelessness, she could sense a dangerous aura emitting from the corners. She knew that danger lurked, when she heard a twig snap in the distance.
“Who is there?” She asked but received no response from the dead woods.
“Baron?” She called out again, in hopes that he had followed her from the bar to console her but her hopes were dashed when she didn’t get any reply.
Immediately she turned around to walk away, a spade landed on her face with full force.
The only thing Avyanna could hear was the distorted voice of a man saying, “Get her to our Kingdom. She is the Luna we were sent to capture.”