Rite of Submission - Rite 1

47: Unbearable

It was surreal, to be aware of everything going on around me, but not being able to move, feel or interact in any way. I wanted to tell Blake to go away and leave me alone as he sat in the chair beside the bed that he'd pulled in from the dining table in the other room. He kept running his hands over his face as if I were laying there dying.

"Has she said anything," Sophie's soft voice came from the doorway.

"Not a word," he let out a long heavy sigh. "She hasn't even moved a muscle this whole time and I'm starting to feel like I'm losing it. If we'd done the binding I would at least have some idea what she was going through."

She stood beside him and rested a hand on his shoulder, "You've been sitting here for hours. Why don't you have Nathan or Samuel come up, while you go check in on Kelly and try to get some sleep? I'll stay with her."

He nodded numbly, still staring at me, "Is he really going to send her off?" She gave his shoulder a light squeeze. "He's an idiot," he got up and accepted the hug Sophie offered him. He gave me one last look, squeezing my hand, "I'd like to know if anything changes, please."

"Of course," she promised, walking him out of the room. She came back and sat on the side of the bed, "Lexi?" Sophie brushed my hair off my face with her hand, "Selene? Honey are you alright?"

Like a glass dam shattering, everything came crashing in on me all at once. Strangled sobs erupted from my throat as I tried desperately to catch my breath through the piercing pain in my chest. Sophie threw her arms around me and rubbed my back, "It'll be okay, we're going to figure this entire mess out, I promise." She held me and let me cry until I had nothing left to cry, doing her best to sooth me.

"He's going to send me away, just like that," I couldn't hide the hurt I felt, "I told him I would stay, and he's just going to send me off to a stranger! What about his stupid precious contract?"

She frowned, "It's null and void, signed by people who weren't your parents, for a daughter long since dead."

"What does that make me? Who even am I now?" my voice warbled as the tears threatened to return.

"Well," she chewed on her lip as if she wasn't supposed to say anything, "I can tell you what I've been able to find out if you want to know." I nodded, "Your real name is Selene D'Arcadia. You've been living under your cousin's name, with your aunt and uncle. Your real birthday is in a few days, and then you'll really be 18," she tried to sound cheerful, "It'll be one hell of a party since it falls on Lupercalia, and this year it falls on a full moon."

"Yay me," I sighed, lacking any real enthusiasm. Just this morning I was happy. I'd finally figured out what I wanted just in time to have it snatched away. "Where's Dmitri?"

She wrung her hands in her lap, "He refuses to see you," she frowned, "I think he just needs some time to digest everything right now." She looked really upset, "I've never seen anyone be that violent before, not even when he challenged our father..." her voice trailed off as she tried to push away the memory.

He was refusing to see me? The words ripped another piece of my heart out, leaving me hollow and empty inside. I did my best to swallow some of the water she'd been trying to get me to drink, around the lump that formed in my throat. "What's the big deal about the Vὅlsung pack?"

Her head snapped up, "Where did you hear about them?"

"Dr Martinez told Blake that they were my pack and that I was related to the Alpha."