Chapter 41

• HAERA
• As dejected and as overwhelmed as I was the next day, I still woke up and went to do what I loved doing in the kitchen and maybe because it was required of me to be there. I knew today will be more hectic as it was the last day of the ritual. The one I failed to stop and the one which will end tonight with the mates marking each other. I've thought it over all through the night and I still couldn't stop thinking about it. Yet I was helpless with nothing to do about it. I tried. I really tried but I still failed. Alpha Zachary didn't believe me and he called me a low class maid who was trying to seduce him even if I could see the attraction for in his eyes. I felt it in the way we both rocked on the bed the night before and the way he sniffed around me. Why was he fighting it? Why can't he just see the truth and believe that I am the true owner of that scent and it was stolen from me just as he was stolen from me? He couldn't read through the lines and there nothing more I could do about it. I didn't know what else to do after crying myself to sleep last night. Tonight, I was just going to watch my mate mark another and claim her as his mate and Luna forever. "Chef?" I wiped the lone tear that was already rolling down my cheek as a result of my thoughts and then turned to the maid who needed my attention. I raised a brow to urge her to say whatever she had to say. "Should we take the snacks over to the arena now?" We were already done making the snacks and it was already late in the afternoon, a few hours before the real ritual begins. I nodded my in approval and the Young maid turned to the rest of her colleagues as they did what they had to do. I took off my apron and hung it on the wall knowing that I was done for the day and just have to go for the ritual that was compulsory for everyone of us. As I made to step out of the kitchen, someone walked in and I recognized the person as Alan. He shut the door behind him and turned the locks. "What are you doing here?" I asked surprised to see him waltz into the kitchen when he's never even been in the kitchen before. "What happened yesterday?" He countered with a question of his own and looked away from him to nothing in particular in the room. "Aren't you going to talk? I didn't lie to my Alpha today for me to see him prepare himself for that ritual." "It isn't my fault that he doesn't believe me." I snapped at Alan. Suddenly feeling angry at myself, him and everything that's just driving me crazy. "You weren't able to convince him?" I rolled my eyes at him. "If I was able to, do you think I'll be here right now? He didn't believe me and he sent me out of his room." "Shit..." Alan muttered and ran his hand through his hair. "Why does it bother you anyway? I'm sure you don't care about me." I scoffed out. "You're damn right I don't." Well that wasn't how blunt I expected him to be. "It's him I care about. He has suffered all his life and doesn't deserve to be with someone who isn't his." "Well...I tried okay...I tried and it's not like he's the only one who's going to suffer for this. I might become weak or worse wolf less. I'm the one with the most at stake and I don't Know how else to go about it." Alan pushed forward to grab me on the shoulders and made me look into his brown eyes that was with all seriousness. "You have to stop the ritual. You can't...you can't give up like this." I shrugged his hands off my shoulders and they fell to his sides. "I'm sorry...I can't. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do to convince him. Believe me I've thought of ways to sabotage that ritual but none of those plans end well. I can't..." With that, I left him in the kitchen and made my way outside of it. As I headed back to my room to collect myself before I see the scene of my mate marking another, met Gennora on the way and my insides twisted with how much hatred I had for her. I couldn't help but have that one thought at the back of my mind. She had something to do with Balfour's death and that was what I was going to focus on now since my second plan of action failed. I will focus on finding who murdered Balfour and bring them to justice. "It's unlike you Haera... to give up without a fight." She said with a smirk gracing her already annoying features. She doesn't have to know how far I've gone into fighting. I just lost...and I was tired of fighting. "I guess we all get tired of fighting at some point." I didn't wait for her answer and just went into my room where I laid to rest for the most of the afternoon until it was night time and the moon casted it glow into my room. I dragged myself lazily to the Arena which outside of the gates of the Palace. The arena was just outside the gates and it was a large clearing where festivities like this are held. I wasn't at the arena for the first six days but it was compulsory to be at the last one. Music was playing and a large bonfire was set in the middle of the Arena. It was rounded with people while some danced around the bonfire with their partners. The Alpha and his family were seated at the far end, ruling over the ceremony and watching the people. A few other diginatries and important Wolves from different packs flanked the sides of the Alpha's family. And in front of them, seated on the bare ground were the most important people of the day; Alpha Zachary and Princess Ilvira. I watched them closely as I trudged along to the arena and sat down somewhere in the middle of the crowd that was close to the front. The princess was saying something and Alpha Zachary was listening while looking into her eyes like she was the most perfect woman in the world. Once I sat I noticed Alpha Zachary's eyes leave the the princess and search around the crowd. I could tell he felt my presence but I was too far away from his side. He could feel my presence just by me showing up there and he couldn't even see me yet he doesn't believe that something was wrong. When his eyes danced all around and he couldn't find me, the princess drew his attention to her again and he turned to her with a full-blown smile. It was like a sucker punch to my guts to see him smile so brightly at her. My insides twisted and I wanted to run out of here to go puke somewhere. Was I really going to sit and watch my mate mark another? Did I really have the courage to do so? Was I really going to give up this way? The Alpha's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. It was the Alpha of our pack,the moonstone pack and I could tell that the ritual was about to start. I was really going to sit through it. "Everyone! It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the last and most important day of this week long ritual. " The crowd erupted in cheers. They were all cheering at something fake and deceitful but of course, I was the only one who knows that and then Gennora and the sneaky princess. "I'm glad that we have all come go bear witness to a Union approved by the moon goddess. And a union that will further solidify the two packs and take the woodlands to a higher level. I'm glad we all came to witness the beginning of this great start." It was then that Dezra began to thaw at me. "Do something." "Go away Dezra." I didn't have time for any of her troubles. I knew I was probably going to lose her and she might become weak as well but I was past caring. The Alpha has by now called Alpha Zachary and the princess to their feet. Alpha's Zachary's eyes still roamed the crowd. "Do something." I did nothing and just stared as the Alpha made signs of reverence to the moon goddess. I've seen this a few times and know everything that happens before the real thing begins. "Do something." Both of them were now holding hands while the Alpha was reciting something and watching them with so much Joy in his eyes. "Do something." They shifted close to each other and sniffed each other out. I watched Alpha Zachary do the sensual licking and caressing of the spot on the neck that he would bite into. My stomach tightened as I remembered he did the same thing to me the night before and even more. "Do something." I watched his molars elongate as he tilted her neck for the perfect entry of his teeth into her. I watched it all. "Do something." And when he I finally sank his teeth into her and the princess tore out a sharp cry, I was still in that spot... watching. I didn't know how but as he sank his teeth into he, his eyes finally found me in the crowd and his gaze locked on me. I stared back. Hard. As he drank from her and made her blood his to run in his veins, his eyes was on me. As he dug his teeth out of her and the blood dripped down his lips, he kept his eyes on me. And even as he licked his lips of the blood, he didn't stop looking at me. And finally when he brought his lips to hers for her to taste her blood in his mouth in a hungry kiss, he looked at me for the last time. And I sat there...and did nothing. I did nothing to stop my mate from marking another.