The Huntress Becomes the Wolf (Complete)

Chapter 45

Chapter 45

~Lucie’s POV~

Casey’s expression scared me. The corners of Casey’s lips were turned downward, his expression a mixture of hopelessness and anxiety. What frightened me most was the picture that laid on his lap. I recognized the picture immediately. I was sitting on the roof of a tower, the sun setting behind me as I unknowingly posed for the picture that Beau had taken off me. In it, I had an expression that had scant been captured on film, at least in regards to me. I had been truly happy that day, one of the few that I could easily call back to memory. It had actually been the first time I had freely spoken about the ZKL to someone other than Beau. That was the day I realized we were truly not oddities in the world. It had been the day that I had met Fane Marandici. His words had inspired me like no others, exciting me to divulge in possibilities I hadn’t dreamed possible until that day. It was a picture that I stuffed in a locket above my bed back home, one that I had yet to unpack from my bag next to our bed.

“You don’t know the story behind the picture, mate,” I spoke the words softly, wrapping my hands around Casey’s. I waited until our eyes met until I spoke.

“The picture has less to do with the name on the back and more to do with what had happened before that picture was taken. That was the day I met the other person who escaped the ZKL’s clutches. That picture was actually taken of me sitting on his roof. He’s a paranoid recluse who lives in the back hills of Romania. The only reason Beau’s name is written on the back of it was because he’s the one that took the picture. Nothing more, nothing less.” Casey had begun smiling halfway through my explanation. By the time I had finished speaking, the smile was nearly impossible to look at. I hadn’t seen Casey ever smile like that before and it caused a feeling to flood through me, one that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Bashfulness.

“No need to hide your face, love,” my cheeks were a deep fire engine red as I blushed, trying my best to let my eyes linger anywhere else in the room but on him. The last thing I needed on my mind right now was Casey, not with the ZKL still standing at our borders.

“What’s being done with them?” I forced my tone to harden, an attempt to sound impassive despite the raging fears surging within me.

“Othello is being lead onto pack lands. We still have them surrounded. A couple of hours ago we shackled and cuffed them. They aren’t attempting to fight us, which most of my men still are suspicious of, even after I had explained the situation to them.”

“How’d you explain it? Even I don’t fully understand why they’re here.”

“I told them they were sent to aid us by someone who truly believed they would help us. It’s a true statement, but that doesn’t mean it’s the entire truth… the men are starting to ask question’s I’m not ready to answer.” Casey let out a sigh, sitting on the bed beside us. I instinctively sat next to him, angling my body towards his.

“There’s an easy way to fix that,” I didn’t even attempt to mask the pain in my voice as I spoke. I had forced my eyes away from Casey’s instead letting them linger on the hem of his plaid shirt.

“Lucie, I don’t think that you’re ready for that yet,” I knew he was right, I wasn’t ready to face them. Fear was still constantly flowing through my veins, even though the ZKL were miles away from my current location. The closer I was to them the harder it was to block out the memories of everything they’d done to me. Every one of my senses were on high alert, my heart being a thousand miles per minute. It was like I was stuck in a perpetual panic attack, the alertness and fear never dwindling no matter space between us. Just knowing they were in the general vicinity of me was enough to set me on edge. Facing them was a nearly incomprehensible notion, one that caused my heart nearly flutter out of my chest in fear. The only reason I could even consider facing them now was because the threat of not knowing, the thought of living a second longer in this torturous state of not knowing... was worse than what I was currently experiencing.