MARKED | COMPLETED

Chapter 25

We've nearly reached the end of the week, and not once have I spoken to Aisling. I barely ate; I barely slept. Now that Oirthir new Aisling's decision, it seemed my world turned into shambles. People I once respected and assumed felt the same now looked at me with lost hope. Everyone had placed so much hope that I would be the one—that I would become the Luna to help them rise again—and somehow I'd failed them.

I felt as though I failed myself.

I worked so hard to reach this point where I felt proud of what I've become. Barely a month ago, I turned eighteen. At that point in my life, all I wanted to do was survive my Shifting—I wanted to become something more than one of the shiftless. Now, I'd become so much more than that. I became Luna... I became something that everyone had long abandoned hope for.

I was raised in a pack that believed that they would never see a Luna born again—and for the longest time I believed that to be true, only to learn that not only did Oirthir have a Luna again, but that I was the Luna. I managed to bring hope back to a hopeless pack.

Then, in an instant, it was taken from us.

In a week Alpha Sorley would return to our territory and take Aisling for her own.

Even though I agreed that, for the sake of our pack, it was best that he go through with what Alpha Sorley wanted. Because I felt that if he should lose anything, it was better that he lost just one person than everyone. But this isn't as it should be.

None of this was.

It wasn't normal to be on the brink of war. It wasn't normal to force someone into companionship when it was clear they didn't harbor any feelings for you.

Alpha Sorley didn't like Aisling, not like I did. In her eyes, he could be anything but the remarkable man I know. In her eyes, she sees him as a pawn, the alpha to a weak pack. That's it. Whatever true reason for breaking us apart—before we even began—it wasn't normal, and it never would be. I'd have to watch that for the rest of Aisling's life as he referred to Alpha Sorley as his companion.

How could I be proud of myself, now?

#

I was among the few who chose to eat in the mess hall that night. The others remained in their homes, spending what they considered their last few nights of freedom as Oirthirians before Alpha Sorley ultimately stole that from them. A part of me wanted to do the same, to be close with my family, but I found myself far too numb to do much of anything.

Pike kept me company tonight. Because Reece had chosen guardianship, he had to be with the rest of the soldiers, going over details for when Alpha Sorley arrived. So far, she appeared to be doing a good job. She was far more alert than he was when dinner was involved, her eyes darting back and forth through the scarce crowd in case someone decided that tonight would be the night to yell at me.

"How could you let this happen?" They usually accused.

In short, because I thought it was the right thing to do—it didn't mean that I agreed with it. It filled me with dread to think that tomorrow when she came, I truly had no other choice but to accept that she would be in our lives forever.

Pike was the first to speak.

"They shattered the windows in the Alpha's cabin," she mentioned under her breath. "They're furious at you."

I heard the uproar earlier that afternoon; the shouts were all too familiar to me. Growing up in a territory that waited with bated breath for the end of days, riots and outrage were almost done out of habit. Of course, they never reached that large of a scale before, to attack a home where your leader resided in... it caused my skin to crawl.