Wolverton Falls

26. Two Pasts Intertwined

LUKA'S PURE GOLDEN eyes snapped up, sensing the subtle movement from his sibling. They narrowed sharply before slowly, painfully dragging over toward Maggie.

He could likely hear the blood pulsating through her veins as her heart thundered wickedly fast. The rushing, pounding sounds drowned her own ears but never wavered her focus. Her wide, terrified gaze never tore away from the silent supernatural man who stayed low to the ground.

His expression morphed into something indescribable. His face dropped for a second – with disbelief – before his sharp features hardened. She watched wordlessly as his intense eyes moved from her face and snap to the exposed skin of her stomach.

A deep frown pulled at Maggie's face as she followed his penetrating gaze.

She lost her breath for a moment.

Her skin marred with childhood scars.

She hastily pulled the fabric of her shirt back down. Her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as her expression fell into a pained wince.

The damn scars always raised questions.

"Those marks on your stomach..." Luka's deep, strained voice startled her as he trailed off. His body became impossibly still, only the muscles in his cheek twitched. His jaw clenched tightly until he managed to ground out the deafening words; "How did you get them?"

Maggie's heart stuttered. The inhuman voice sent a cold shiver down her spine causing small goosebumps to rise.

"Was it Emmett?" Katya raised her sharp-toned voice from the room, body still tense but with sympathetic eyes.

"N – No – I," She stammered, breathless as tears pricked at her eyes.

"Words, Maggie." He managed to growl out, back still plastered against the wall with curled fists by his side.

"I was child when I got them." She managed to whisper, her eyes cast downward and stared blankly at threadbare carpet. "When my – my parents were still alive, we were out visiting – it might have been a town over from here actually –" She paused in thought, further frowning. "I remember the sign – Eden's Creek," Taking a deep breath, she rushed through the story. "I was attacked by a wild wolf when I stupidly ventured out into the forest line by myself. It was around dusk; the sun had nearly set. I naively thought it was a dog and reached out to it. Naturally, as a wild animal, it might have saw that as a threat. It mauled me," Her fingers stoked the outside of her shirt absentmindedly. "Before it could finish, my father came out –"

"And shot the wolf,"

Luka's thickly accented murmur interrupted Maggie causing her to turn her attention back to him.

"On his right shoulder." She finished breathlessly.

Luka's large hand had come up to the taut flesh between his collarbone and shoulder. His trembling fingers brushed against his own shirt, hovering above the familiar scar. His eyes widened with realisation. His breath began to quicken again as his body flushed hotly and head began to pound like a thunderous tropical storm. His bright golden irises began to flicker in colour and darken considerably. The shock of discovery was beginning to evoke animalistic changes in him that he had not felt for more than a decade.

Of all the chances...

This human standing in front of him now was the little, helpless girl he maliciously attacked all those years ago. He felt the familiar disgust and self-loathing for himself settle deep in his gut. The very sinful act led his life to take a dark, radical turn. He thought the awful memory had left his mind; locked away with the other poisonous points of his past.