The Alpha's Only Choice

16. The Unexpected Visitor

Fifteen months.

That's how long it took for one of them to walk out of the shadows and stand in front of Kiara. If she had to be honest, it was the last person she expected to be there.

She was no longer under any delusion. The moment they drove out of Bluewood, she knew they were being followed, watched. She knew because this is what she has been feeling most of her life. The only time she didn't feel the shadows move around her was when she was in Bluewood. That was because, there, the shadows took human form and stood proudly in front of her.

It all made sense now. All the ways that her life was different from her peers. The sleepless nights when she tried to make sense of the strangeness around her. The realization that maybe she needed to see a psychiatrist. Maybe it was all in her head. There had to be something wrong with her head, there was no other logical explanation.

Logical. Huh. How was she supposed to know?

Maybe if her uncle had taken the trouble of informing her that the glowing eyes she was seeing in the dark wasn't her mind going crazy but his family dictating her life. Instead, his husband had comforted her 'You know Kia, I practically lived with my parents too until I met Jas. It's not strange to live with your family. They will protect you'.

Lies. Lies. And more lies. All to fulfill a fantasy.

The first thing she did after returning from that place was moving out of her parents' attic. Now that she knew what hid in those shadows, she wasn't scared anymore. It was the opposite actually. She left the door to her new apartment wide open one day before leaving for work. She returned to a shut door but with not a spoon missing from the place. See? She managed to find a positive outcome from this disastrous arrangement she was forced into.

Her new place was perfect. A two bedroom apartment in the middle of the city with such a cheap lease? Who would have thought? It was halfway between her new office and her parents' home. She still visited them every weekend, spent time with Scott inside the house, away from the windows. She couldn't take him with her. That will be taking a piece of his victory with her. It was good for her parents to have Scott around too. With Misha off to college and Kiara moving out at the same time, Scott made them less lonely.

The first time someone at her new workplace asked her out, she told him to come back the next morning. If he still felt the same, she would go out with him. He didn't.

She learned the new boundaries. She was allowed her own place, but she wasn't allowed to share it with anyone.

She wanted to know if this interest he has in her would fade with time or if it was something written in stone. Keith's story gave her hope. Maybe she only had to wait a couple of years. Everyone gives up eventually. She wished she still had Hazel to talk to but her number was the second one she blocked after Jasper's. She had tricked Kiara into a friendship for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on her. This was one relationship that was built on deception from the beginning. There was never a friendship between them to begin with.

Misha called her often. It was funny how the only good thing that came out of that disaster was how close the sisters got. Kiara always loved her baby sister no matter how obnoxious she found her, but in the past year, they became something more, they became friends.

It was one of those Tuesday evenings after work, she was listening to Misha going on and on about how she couldn't wait to get rid of her latest boyfriend of two months but was scared because he was an emotional hunk and would probably cry when she told him it was over. She jumped at the ring of the doorbell. She wasn't expecting anyone. Thinking it was probably her neighbor, Mrs. Hill, whose ginger cat feels the need to inspect Kiara's living room every other day because she loves the good scratch that Kiara's carpet provides, she opened the door, asking Misha to call her back later.