CHAPTER 44

CHAPTER FOURTY FOUR
Even when she regained consciousness, her world was still dark and her vision impaired because she had a thick blindfold that smelled of putrid blood over her head. She felt the world around her move steadily as if she was in the back seat of a truck that sped on a rocky terrain, and indeed she was.
The jostling of the car is what made her come to her senses and regain her sense of hearing, and smell.
She heard whispers of the men who abducted her speaking in whispers, but she couldn’t exactly make out their sentences. She could hear her name sometimes, and all the time she heard them regard someone as; “Boss.”
“Who the hell are you people?” she kicked and struggled with the very tight ropes that bound her to no avail, and she was only replied with silence. When she realized that all her attempts were fruitless, she just remained silent and tried to think about who would kidnap her in such way.
“Did Ericson send you! Tell him that I am not having this!” She screamed fruitlessly.
A few minutes after she regained consciousness, she felt the car swerve to a halt and she felt herself get hoisted away from the car, and carried up a flight of stairs.
Avyanna was still unaware of her environment until she was sat down and the blindfold was roughly taken off from her head.
It took a moment for her blurry vision to adjust to the very bright room, and her tortured nose to get accustomed to the room that smelt of lavender and wolf lilies.
Gradually, she was able to make out the person standing before her, a man she never anticipated would ever do such, a man that never even came to mind; Alpha Thomas.
Jaws dropped and eyes widened, Avyanna was incredibly shocked to see Alpha Thomas standing right in front of her. Her captor was her childhood crush, someone she could never have ever suspected.
"Maybe the Moon Goddess was trying to show me these things when He showed up on the night of the Full Moon Feast but I was too distracted to understand." Avyanna thought to herself.
"Hello my ever-beautiful Luna, Welcome to my territory." He smiled as one of his guards offered him a glass of strong wine.
"Thom … Alpha Thomas? What is the meaning of this?" Avyanna asked.
"It is not a new thing if I may say. I just missed your presence.” He smiled flirtatiously. “I apologize for my men’s behavior towards you, they can get over ambitious sometimes."
"You're not serious, is that why you had to kidnap me?" She struggled to free herself from the loose ropes that dangled from the chair upon which she sat.
"Be honest with me, if I were to ask you to follow me, would you?" Thomas approached her and helped her out of the ropes, then he signaled for the men to leave the room.
"Thomas, I don't know what sort of games you’re playing here but there are a lot of things I need to attend to before this week runs out.” Thomas was taken aback by Avyanna’s words so he just calmly grabbed a glass of wine on his stool and stared at her as she spoke, “So, if this is about your secret obsession about me, just bear it in mind that you and I can never work out for whatsoever reason in spite of my problems with Ericson." Avyanna got up angrily and spited.
"Aren't you planning to divorce him soon? At least I still stand a chance." Thomas took a sip of the drink in his hands, and gave the same flirtatious smile.
Avyanna was dumfounded because only Baron knew about her intentions of getting divorce and she had not made it public yet.
"How did you know about the divorce?" Avyanna asked in a lower tone. Thomas had her attention and she couldn’t deny that she was intrigued by the suspense.
"I know a lot of things Avyanna, and a woman who had a loving husband could never be lost in the woods crying all by herself. My men tell me they found you there, it’s funny I was already making plans on how I was going to steal you from the Lycan Territory in the dead of the night." Thomas poured another round of wine into his glass, and took the first sip with a devious smile.
"Cut the crap, I just needed to clear my head. Besides it's good to let it all out at some point." Avyanna felt embarrassed and only if Alpha Thomas knew that it was the Lycan Alpha that hurt her, she would have been more ashamed of herself.
"I'm very aware of that, besides we all do that once in a while." Alpha Thomas said as he mimicked her.
"Thomas what do you want?" She asked, crossing her arms and tapping her feet.
"Now that is a very good question, Luna Avyanna. When do you plan to divorce your selfish husband?" He smirked, putting down his glass.
"That is none of your business and just because I have issues with Ericson, that does not give you the right to insult him the way you want. He is a good man no matter the mistakes he has made." Avyanna could not believe she was the one defending her soon to be ex-husband.
"Wow, that's very generous of you and I'm flattered. But what you should ask yourself is would he protect your image the same way you are protecting his image?" Thomas asked calmly, almost like he was trying to prick her conscience, and saying something that she didn’t know about.
"What do you mean?" Avyanna inquired.
"Avyanna, can you remember the day your parents died?" Thomas relaxed his posture and looked into her eyes.
"What does it have to do with all of this?" She shook her head trying to understand what he was driving at.
"It has a great deal to do with everything, Avyanna." He maintained his eyes on hers.
"I can remember the day my parents died, so what?" Avyanna was losing her patience with the Alpha.
"Do you have any idea about the people that were responsible for his death?" He looked away.
"I don't care about their identity. They were lowlife rogues looking to make a name and I for sure killed them all that day." She squinted her eyes as she replied. Avyanna didn’t know what Thomas was driving at but she for sure couldn’t stop herself from recalling everything that happened that uneventful day.
She recalled the fear she felt when she remained locked in the closet, she recalled the surge of power and the awakening of her wolf, then she remembered how she ripped the rogues to shreds.
"All of them you say, but are you sure about that?" Thomas looked back at her.
"Maybe a few escaped, maybe they didn’t. But I am very much sure that whoever must have escaped my wrath, regretted what they did and never came back." She felt brave in that moment until Thomas asked her a question.
"Would you like to know the identity of the person who murdered your parents?"
Her eyes widened in disbelief. Thomas was never one to tell lies or joke about things of such magnitude.
"Whoa. Whoa. Are you telling me that my parents didn’t die because of some random attack from rogues but someone was behind it?” Avyanna asked, her heart racing and mind searching for clues from years past.
Thomas nodded in reply.
“And you know the person who was responsible for that attack that particular day?"
"Yes." He nodded.
"I have never thought of knowing who the person was anyways. So, tell me, who is it?" She didn’t want to completely believe him anymore because for all she knew, he could have just been messing with her. But why would he mess with her by using something of that nature?
"Are you sure you're ready to know the truth?" He looked into her eyes, with a semi-sad look on his face.
"Well, you can try me." She mirrored the look on his face.
Thomas let a moment of silence build up before he spilled the most shocking, heart-breaking news Avyanna had heard in a long time. "Your husband Ericson is responsible for the death of your parents."
"What! That isn't true. Look I know both of you aren't in good terms with each other but please do not place an accusation you are not sure of." She refused to believe him, even though her mind searched for the truth and almost considered what Thomas said to be true.
"I wish I was lying Avyanna but Ericson is responsible for killing your parents because he knew that it was the only way he could persuade you to join your pack with his, making him Alpha of both packs." Thomas went on.
"You are lying!" Avyanna screamed as tears rolled down from her eyes.
"The search for wealth and power leads you to do many bad things and it's a pity you're just in the middle of all this."
"Give me one reason to believe you Thomas." She wailed.
"Why do you think Ericson hates me? It is because I hold a secret that can destroy everything he has suffered to build. I had made a deal with him to keep his ugly secret only if he pays me half of the money his pack house makes yearly. He had agreed but this year he said he was fed up and I told him I would disclose his secret if he doesn't pay me and he threatened to kill me, so I rather die with a clean heart than be buried with the truth." Thomas bursted in laughter at his own speech. He immediately had a look on his face that made him seem like a sociopath.
Avyanna couldn't think straight, it was like her world was falling apart again!
"Why are you telling me all these things?" She sniffled, her heart broken and searching for some peace she knew would probably never come her way again.
"My dear Avyanna, there are a lot of things in this world that you don't know."
****
Ericson had dialed Avyanna's number a couple of times and she wasn't picking up. He was worried that something must have happened. He had studied Avyanna throughout the time they started living together and no matter how much they fight and argue, Avyanna still had a caring heart.
Heedless of the him sleeping with Nancy, Avyanna would not kill her pride by becoming too embarrassed or feeling hurt to face him. She never ran away from her problems; she wasn't a coward and Ericson knew that for sure.
After the fifth attempt he decided to call the Lycan Alpha. "It isn't such a bad idea, after all my wife is living with him." Eric thought out loud to himself. He really missed Avyanna's presence. The pack house felt empty without her. She was the power point of the pack house; she knew how to make things right and communicate with her subjects properly. The respect Avyanna had was earned not commanded. That was the main reason Ericson didn't want to lose her.
"How did you get my number?" The Lycan Alpha answered the call as soon as his phone rang once. He felt embarrassed about how he let his anger control him. When Avyanna ran out, he assumed she must have gone back to her territory. He had rushed to pick Ericson's call just to ask how the Luna was faring.
"As Alpha, you should know I have my way around things."
"Whatever."
"Please how is my wife doing? I have been trying her line but she isn't picking up."
"I thought she was with you." Baron tried to remain calm. He was at fault and he wasn't ready to argue with Ericson either. He had scolded Avyanna because of the death of his ex and it wasn't worth it neither was it the proper way to handle the situation as a King."
"How I don't get you? Wasn't she staying in your territory for a week? Did she change her mind?"
"She should be in her room then. Give me a few minutes."
"I'm still on the call waiting, please tell her I really want to speak to her."
Baron immediately summoned Rania, Gina and Steve to search for Avyanna.
The trio raised an alarm when they didn’t find her in her room and in no time, half the pack was searching for Avyanna. The guards of the territory who plied the borders reported to Rania that the saw Avyanna running out of the territory that morning in tears and they haven’t heard from her since.
“And you let her go all by herself!” Rania scolded the guards. She then rushed to break the news to a very worried Baron.
Rania's countenance held great sadness within it, it seemed like she was crying already. With a cracked voice, she said to Baron, "Brother, I think Avyanna is missing."


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