Chapter 53
Chapter 53 Oakley
–
Chapter 53 – Oakley
Trainer Sophia and I were waiting in her office at 8:45. Levi and my family were already waiting outside the gates of the
castle. but had not been allowed inside yet. I could see them on the monitors on the wall of Sophia’s office. They all looked pretty da mn haggard.
In the near month that I have been gone, I’ve gotten healthier. My skin glows, as does my hair. I’ve gained weight, though it’s in all the right places, and muscles have formed in places I had never been able to form them before. The entrance of my healthy and fully grown wolf into my life, as well as friends and the training of the Elite 10, has done me a lot of good.
That same amount of time has been enough to strip my family and former mate down. Father looks like skin and bones. A salt and pepper beard has sprouted on his face and grows untamed. James, though still bulky with muscle, has a sallow look to his skin. His face seems to be sunken in and dark circles that I can see from the camera’s angle pool under his eyes. Jack looks haunted. Like he hasn’t been able to sleep since I left and that the only thing that driving him is the search for me. And Levi…. the once rakishly handsome male, the powerful and feared alpha, looks like a child. He just somehow looks small. His confidence is gone, that pride that kept him standing proud and oozing an alpha’s power just seems to have vanished.
“How do you want to do this? Trainer Sophia asks me as I watch the camera.
With a deep sigh, I think back to what Ray and I talked about last night. “I want to talk to my father and Levi separately from my brothers. I’ll talk to Levi first, then my father, and then my brothers together.”
Sophia nods. “I have Levi brought in here and then I’ll situate rooms for the others. Are you ready to do this now?”
Inod. “Yes. Let’s get this over with
I see Sophia mindlink someone, I’m assuming the guards at the gates. That is something that I’ve missed from being out of
a pack. I have been saved from being a rogue by forming a temporary pack here at the castle, but it doesn’t come with all of the
perks of being in a full-fledged pack, Mindlinking is one of the perks that I don’t get.
I watch as they make their way to Sophia’s office, my heart starting to beat faster in my anxiety.
Sophia turns toward me: “You can do this, Oakley. I, for one, feel that you are making the right decision for you.”
“Thank you, Trainer Sophia. I just wish that I could get over the guilt that I’m leaving other low ranking wolves behind,” I
murmur.
“I don’t think that you have to worry about them as much as you think you do.” Sophia says, elaborating when I quirk an eyebrow at her. “The prophecy said that no other LUNA would be able to do what you could have for another hundred years. Do you really think, that after all of this and all of their remorse that your father, your brothers, and your ex-mate will allow your
experience to be repeated?”
A slow smile spreads across my face. I won’t be leaving anyone behind by putting myself first. I just won’t be the one
leading the charge. “Thank you,” I whisper, holding out my hand to my trainer. She surprises me by using that hand to pull me
into a hug.
“You are enough, Oakley. You are more than enough. I’m proud to know you,” she whispers.
We pull back from each other when there is a sharp rap at her door. When it opens, I see my ex-mate standing there. His
eyes seem to burn with so many feelings. Remorse, regret, love, desire, fear, hope, and sadness. He doesn’t know what I’m
going to say, but part of him is already prepared for me to ask for him to complete the rejection, while the rest of him is hoping
that I will come back home with him.
1/3
Chapter 53 – Oakley
Trainer Sophia takes her leave and I wave Levi to a small seating area on one side of the office. We sit across from each other, not saying anything for a few minutes.
I open my mouth to start talking, but Levi raises his hand slightly, indicating that he would like to speak first. I nod and he gives me a small smile.
“Oakley.” he seems to savor my name in his mouth. “There is nothing that I can say that will excuse, redeem, or justify what I’ve done to you. I know that it was part of the Goddess’s process to get you here, but there isn’t anything that would rectify the pain that I put you through, both physically and emotionally. You have every reason to tell me to complete your rejection and my wolf and I will be punishing me for it for the rest of my life. I don’t deserve you.”
Tears stand in his eyes as he looks at me, so much sincerity in his words. This isn’t something that you would be able to act, this painfilled confession.
“All that I can do is beg for your forgiveness. All I can do is grovel at your feet and beg for you to give me a chance to make it up to you. All I can do is tell you how very much I love you and want to spend the rest of my life showing you how very worthy you are of being a luna. I am so deeply and incredibly sorry that I did the things that I did. Im so sorry…”
His voice catches and he has to look away as he composes himself. I’m not a heartless bi tch. I can tell that everything that he is saying is the truth. He does love me. He does want me to come back. And he truly does believe that I will make a good luna.
But it isn’t what I want. Even with as sincere as he’s being and with the prophecy that tells me the future of my life, should I return to his pack, I will be constantly looking over my shoulder. Searching for him and my family to revert back to what they were during that awful time in our lives
As I’m thinking all of this, I don’t notice that Levi moves. He pushes the coffee table that is between us and kneels on the floor in front of me. He moves to take my hands in his, but stops at the last minute, as if he feels that he isn’t worthy of holding my hands.
“I beg you, Oakley. I beg you to come home with us. Our pack will have a good and just luna. Your family will be whole. And you will have people who worship you and hold your life and needs above everything else, not least of all, the alpha who is currently at your feet. I love you I need you in my life. I will do anything, and I mean anything, to make you happy. Please come home with us. Please come home with me.”
I had never known that the big, bad alpha could be so eloquent. And it almost sways me. He is my mate. The pull is still there. And to go home to my pack, to go home and have people treat me as they did when I was a small pup.
ume: make
But how much of that will be real? And how much will be because I’m the luna and my alpha mate will, I presume, their lives a living hell if they don’t?
And I know I can’t.
“Levi
“Yes, my queen. Whatever you ask of me, I will give it to you.” His eyes dance as he hears my name on his l*ps, hope flaring
in them.
I hate that I have to do this. I hate that this situation was forced upon us. But I have to make the right decision for me. And going back to Silver Lake pack isn’t it.
I swallow hard. “I can’t do that. I can’t go back to a pack that despised me. To a family who stood by and allowed me to be beaten and hurt over and over. To a mate who I will forever be wondering when the other shoe will drop and he will treat me on
the first day that we met. I know that the compulsion is no longer there for any of you, but what happened…I still wake up with nightmare about it. Feeling the fated sparks crawl all over my skin as you hold me down and punch me over and over. Feeling nightmarabout
2
6/16
Chapter 53 – Oakley
you be with not one or two, but four other she-wolves for the entire time that I’m supposed to be healing, causing my already weak wolf to abandon me and take even those small amount of healing abilities. I can’t go back and face those memories on a daily basis. Especially when it comes time to giving you an heir. I’m sorry, Levi, but I can’t.”
Tears pour from his eyes and I know that he is grieving for the life that we were supposed to have. The life that would have made all of us happy. But that isn’t something that we can have now.
He nods, accepting that our matebond is over. Levi holds his hand out to me and I place my hand in his. He nuzzles it before turning it over and placing a k*ss on my palm. There is a small flare of sparks where he touches me, but nothing like what I feel when I’m with Ray.
Taking a deep breath, he looks me in the eye. “I, Alpha Levi Silver, accept your rejection and sever our matebond and your role as luna of the Silver Lake pack,”
3/3