Chasing Kiarra: The Finale
Autorzy
N. K. Corbett
Lektury
2,5M
Rozdziały
45
In a world where love's power is matched only by the shadows of deceit, Kiarra and Aidan's bond faces its ultimate test. Crafted in secrecy, their plan to expose hidden truths turns into a dangerous game of trust and betrayal. As Kiarra embarks on a journey to discover her roots and confront her destiny, their love is the only beacon in a maze of manipulation. Can love thrive in the midst of deception, or will the truth tear them apart forever? Will Kiarra's quest lead her to salvation or to a trap that could shatter their bond beyond repair?
Confronting the Past
Kiarra
“Why the hell are they here?” My voice was shaking as I paced back and forth on the grounds behind our house.
“I don’t know.” Aidan was standing with his arms crossed, leaning up against a tree, watching me with a frown.
How the hell did this happen? I was at a complete loss for words. My thought process was one big jumble with no cohesion, and it was frustrating as hell.
My parents had shown up. My parents. The people who had abandoned me on the steps of a firehouse when I was two years old, who I knew absolutely nothing about, nothing except for the things Ares had told me.
The events of the past few months flashed before my eyes.
I had arrived in Lunar Valley with no intention of staying longer than two or three months, yet I had gotten close to so many people.
Angela and Jack. Sean and Sam. People who I knew and had come to love in such a short amount of time.
Ares had caught up to me and I had gone running again—this time not because of fear, but because I had something to protect.
I had, against my nature and every instinct in my body, gotten involved with this town and its people. With Aidan. I had made a family here. For the first time in my life, I had found a home.
I gave up on all that the moment Ares had threatened them. I had put on my fucking running shoes and run away from my family in order to protect them.
It hadn’t exactly gone according to plan, what with Ares capturing me and the pack having to come save me, but I had done it with the best intentions.
Ares had captured me. It wasn’t exactly a great experience, with his insanity and crazy claims of me being his mate.
He might have been insane because of the loss of his real mate, and he might be dead now, but just the thought of him made my stomach turn.
I thought we had escaped all of that crap, all of that craziness, and were finally able to enjoy our lives, and then this shit happens.
They appeared out of nowhere.
How did they even know? I hadn’t told a soul about them. I had been too disgusted with anything that had to do with Ares to even want to think about them.
So how the fuck they knew about me was a case for Sherlock Holmes or some shit.
I kept pacing back and forth, not stopping for a moment as my thoughts kept jumping back and forth between the events that had led us here.
Aidan just kept looking at me, his expression not giving away anything, but I knew his mind was racing with questions.
Whose mind wouldn’t after having his mate’s parents show up, parents he didn’t know fucking shit about? I didn’t even know where to begin my explanation to him.
Hey, babe, remember when Ares held me captive, and I almost died?
Well, he kindly let me know that my parents were this crazy Alpha couple obsessed with pure bloodlines and that I was his betrothed before they tossed me away!
Yeah, that conversation would go over well right now.
I looked away from Aidan again, trying my best to come up with an explanation for this mess, but my head wasn’t really that keen on problem-solving just then.
It kept going back to the moment I found out about them, about my parents.
Ares had held me in that disgusting basement cell and let me know exactly what kind of people they were. Maybe I shouldn’t trust that lunatic’s words as much as I did, but it was just too complicated not to believe.
“Pureblooded werewolves, darling. We only bring up werewolves. We only mate werewolves. We only give birth to werewolves.
“If someone in the pack is mated to a human, the human is killed so the wolf can move on and find a suitable mate instead.”
That’s where I came from. I came from a pack that didn’t want me because I wasn’t a werewolf, because I didn’t shift when I was two.
Was that why they were back now? I hadn’t shifted again since the whole thing with Ares, not even once. There was more than one reason for it.
I had realized when I heard they were coming here that one of the reasons for it was because of what that would mean in relation to my birth parents.
If I became a werewolf, would I still be me? Would I still be able to distance myself from the unpleasant memories of Ares that my parents were now connected to?
I could still see his creepy smile as he told me about my past. We were betrothed, even before I was born, which was just gross in a world that was supposed to be all about their soulmates, not chosen mates.
I felt myself visibly shiver in disgust as I remembered him, and I tried to shake it off.
Everything was so confusing.
If someone was to look into my brain at that very moment their head would explode, trying to keep up with my thoughts jumping back and forth, into the past, back to the future.
Conversation bits and actions that had all had some sort of relation to the mess we were in.
It was confusing and frustrating, and it didn’t help me sort any of my feelings out. On the contrary, it just seemed to make my head spin even more.
“Hello, daughter.”
I could feel my face scrunch up in disgust and irritation as I recalled those two people, stepping out of that slick black car.
“Are you okay?”
Aidan finally spoke up and I looked toward him.
He hadn’t changed his stance and was still leaning up against the tree with his arms crossed, his face a serious frown, eyebrows knitted together, and his lips drawn into a thin line.
I wasn’t sure what the expression meant. I honestly couldn’t focus on trying to decipher it. It could be concern, anger, or frustration. I had no fucking clue.
He waited for me to answer but didn’t move closer to my pacing figure. Probably trying to give me some space.
“Oh, I’m peachy. Fucking fantastic.”
I rolled my eyes and threw my arms in the air in exasperation. I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on him, but seriously, what a fucking stupid question.
I heard a dissatisfied growl coming from his direction, but other than that he didn’t comment on my reply.
“Jack put them in a house near the western border until we can figure out the truth.”
My head had started to hurt the more I thought about everything, and the pacing wasn’t helping me anymore, so I stopped and looked back at Aidan again.
“We will find out the truth, Kitten. Right now, we don’t know if there is any truth to what they said, but we will figure it out. They might not be your parents. They could have been wrong or lied.”
I shook my head and sighed, brushing a hand through my hair.
“It’s true, Aidan.” I looked away as I continued. “That woman. She looks exactly like she does in the picture.”
I had almost thought I was hallucinating when she had stepped out of the car. She looked just like she did in the only photo I had. The one that was in my locket. I didn’t even need to double-check it.
I might have hidden away the locket since coming here, and I hadn’t looked at it for a long time.
But before I arrived in Lunar Valley, I had looked at that picture every day, just wondering who she was and why she gave me up.
I had spent hours, days, months, even years picturing this woman coming back for me and telling me she loved me. I knew it wasn’t a lie. It was them.
Aidan stayed silent for a moment, squinting his eyes slightly as he took in the information.
“Well then, that changes everything.”
He looked back at me again, clearly thinking hard.
“We need to figure out what we are going to do, then. How we are going to make this work.
“If they are your parents, then we need to discuss treaties with them and whether there needs to be a merger or not and—”
Aidan started listing off things in a matter-of-fact way as if that was it. As if everything would be sorted out in a neat and orderly fashion and life would go on.
I looked at him, dumbfounded, as he continued his list of things that needed to happen. I didn’t find my words until I heard him say:
“We can sit down with them tomorrow, and you can get to know them more. I’m sure they’ll want to stick around for a bit if possible an—”
“Whoa, hold on!” I cut him off and put my hands up to stop him. “I don’t want to see them! Just send them away!”
Aidan looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a confused expression.
“I know this is hard for you, Kitten, but you finally have a chance to meet your parents and talk to them.
“I know I shouldn’t have told you they were crazy, but that was before I knew who they were. They might have some fucked-up ideals, but we can deal with that so that you can get to know them.”
“No!” I was almost shouting as I interrupted him again. “I don’t care what you said, Aidan. Just forget it! Throw them out, now!”
Aidan’s confused look quickly turned into a scowl, and I felt the growl rather than heard it.
“You don’t get to fucking decide that on your own. This is my pack and my world you are in now, Kiarra. Things work differently here.”
I felt an overwhelming need to strangle him for a moment at that comment, and I could feel my own irritation growing the more he spoke.
Why couldn’t he just fucking listen? I didn’t want to see them, and I didn’t want to hear what they had to say.
All I could think about was what Ares had told me about them, about their pack and their ideals. They were one and the same. Ares and them. One and the fucking same.
“I don’t want them here, Aidan! I don’t trust them!” I was hardly the type of person to be out of words, but it seemed as if my brain was only focusing on one thing: get them as far away from me as possible.
“I can’t just fucking send them back like that, Kiarra! There are customs and procedures that we have to stick to!”
Aidan was growing as frustrated as I was, and his answers didn’t help. It just fueled my annoyance, and I was digging my heels even further into the ground.
“I don’t care! Get them out of here, I don’t want to see them! I don’t want them anywhere near me! They are insane. Batshit crazy and mad.”
“You don’t know that. You are angry and confused, but you don’t know anything about them, Kiarra.”
He might have meant well with that comment, but I snapped.
“Oh, so I don’t know how I feel? I don’t know what I want and how to make decisions on my own, is that it?
“Should I just forget about everything I feel and follow you around like a fucking puppy, without a mind of my own?”
I didn’t even care if it made any sense anymore. I was angry and irrational, and I just wanted him to fucking support me.
“That is not what I said!” Aidan let out another low growl and took a step closer to me.
“You can’t just say ‘screw everything’ and do as you fucking please without taking everything into consideration.
“You don’t know what could happen if we throw them out, and you don’t fucking know what will happen if we talk to them!”
“I couldn’t fucking care less about what will happen if we throw them to the curb! I don’t want them here! They are toxic! I don’t want anyone near me that was fucking besties with Ares!” I yelled back at him.
The moment I said it, I knew I had taken it a step too far. I slapped a hand across my mouth as if it would stop the words that had already been spoken from leaving it.
Aidan stopped cold in his steps, and I could see his eyes darken the moment I mentioned Ares’s name.
“What did you just say?” His voice had gone chillingly calm, and I unconsciously took a step back as I tried to figure out what to say.
No words came out. I had no clue how the fuck I was supposed to explain this.
I knew I had to tell him about the fact that I knew of my parents, but I wasn’t exactly planning to do it right now. Not in the middle of a fucking fight.
“What do you mean ‘besties with Ares?’”
I was speechless, at a complete loss for words.
Aidan didn’t know that I technically knew about my heritage, at least a little bit. He didn’t know that I had talked to Ares, who had informed me about the greatest parents in the world.
How the fuck was I supposed to explain to him that I had kept that fact from him?
“I…he…what?” I was at a complete loss for words, and it probably wasn’t the best time to have nothing to say.
Aidan walked slowly up to me, anger radiating off him in waves as he looked at me, his eyes swirling with black and blue.
“Kiarra. You need to explain right fucking now.”
His voice was way too calm. It was almost eerie, and even though I knew he didn’t want to hurt me, it was scary as fuck.
“Aidan, I—look, I had no idea. I didn’t think it was—I never thought in a million years that…”
I couldn’t finish my train of thought and just kept speaking in complete gibberish as he towered over me, clearly trying to control his anger.
“Kiarra!”
Aidan let out a low growl, and that combined with the stern tone of voice finally opened some sort of rational thought process.
“When I was being held by Ares in that disgusting warehouse, he was kind enough to share a little bit of his own history, which included me.
“He told me about my parents and their crazy-ass pack and their whole idea of having a pureblooded werewolf pack, and that when they found out I didn’t have the werewolf gene, they abandoned me because of it.”
“They didn’t leave me because they had to, but because they believed me to be weak and not good enough for them.”
I believe Angela would have been proud of my speed-talking abilities. Everything just poured out and I felt myself tear up as I continued, the emotions of everything finally hitting me.
“They didn’t want me because I wasn’t a werewolf. They had planned out my whole life. They even had me betrothed to that lunatic the moment I was born.
“But as soon as they knew I wasn’t a werewolf, I wasn’t good enough anymore.
“They didn’t give a shit about me and just needed to get rid of me before everyone found out I was the biggest embarrassment to ever happen to them.”
I angrily wiped away the tears that had started to fall as I spoke.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to believe Ares, and I didn’t want it to be true.
“So I ignored it. I tried to forget I ever heard it, and I hoped it would all just go away and I would never have to think about it or them ever again.”
The anger I had been feeling before was still very much there, but it had gone from boiling to simmering in the background, allowing my insecurities and vulnerabilities to sink their teeth into my body.
I couldn’t look at Aidan and see the anger and disappointment I was sure would be there.
I just kept angrily wiping away the tears that had stubbornly decided to keep rolling down my cheeks while I looked at the forest ground.
I’m not sure how I was expecting him to react, and I don’t think he knew how to either. Aidan let out another irritated and angry growl, but at the same time, I was engulfed in his arms in a tight embrace.
The comforting feeling sent me over the edge and the tears that had been flowing steadily suddenly had a whole new power to them.
I started hiccuping hysterically as I wrapped my arms around him, clinging to him as much as I could.
Aidan held onto me and let me fall apart in his arms without saying anything else.
I knew he was still angry, and I knew our fight had only just begun, but while I cried my eyes out, he held me and comforted me the best he could.
“I’m still fucking furious at you,” he said as my downright sobbing finally turned into sniffles.
“You kept this from me! You had plenty of fucking opportunities to let me know what had happened, but you didn’t.”
He kept holding me in his arms as his gruff voice carried out the angry words.
“I know.”
“You have no idea what this could fucking mean! You don’t know anything about our world yet, and instead of talking to me, instead of fucking telling me what you are thinking, you just keep it to yourself.
“We are supposed to be fucking partners, but you just won’t let me in! You keep doing things on your own.”
Aidan slowly let go of me and took a few steps back, frustration written all over his face.
“I know. I just—”
“And you keep making decisions all on your own, no matter what or who it might hurt. Are you so fucking incapable of just letting people in?”
His eyes focused on me as he shouted, and I could once again see the battle of man versus wolf in his eyes.
I knew I had been in the wrong. I should have told him about everything earlier, but no matter how much I deserved his anger, his words hurt, and my fucking snarky ass couldn’t let it pass.
“Oh, pot calling the fucking kettle black!” I yelled right back at him, feeling a new burst of energy.
“What?” It was more of an angry sound than an actual question.
“I make decisions on my own? You are the fucking king of making decisions on my behalf!” I threw my arms in the air, my newfound irritation giving me a second wind.
“Like what?” Aidan took a step closer to me again, staring at me challengingly.
“Oh, jeez, I don’t know. How about when you decided I was moving into the house without my fucking say-so?
“Or what about the time you decided to mark me?
“Oh—oh! What about when you decided to push me away because I was human, all on your fucking own?”
I took the last step closer to him as I listed things off, placing us only inches apart, showing him I wasn’t backing down.
I saw the flicker of hurt crossing his face for about half a millisecond when I brought up the unfortunate start of our relationship, but I tried not to let it affect me.
It might not have been completely fair, but neither were his responses about my decisions.
“That’s not the same thing!” he growled, squinting his eyes lightly as he stared back at me. “You know very well why I fucking did that. How long are you going to hold that over me?”
“How long are you going to hold this over me?” I growled back, breathing heavily as I looked straight back into his pitch-dark eyes.
“And I don’t just mean this bullshit right now.” I waved my hands around frantically.
“You still fucking blame me for running last time. I was trying to protect everyone. I thought I was doing the right thing to protect the pack, to protect you, asshole!”
I was getting frustrated, and the more I talked, the louder it came out. I was screaming in his face at the end, my chest moving up and down at a rapid pace.
Aidan’s jaw tightened, clearly pissed off, as he looked down at me. His eyes were dark, and his voice came out rough as he spoke through his teeth.
“Calm the fuck down. Right now.”
I matched his stare, and I could only imagine my own eyes were as dark and angry as his, though my anger was mixed a bit with a different emotion, which was just frustrating.
How the fuck did this man growl and huff and yell and manage to piss me off beyond belief, but at the same time somehow look like a fucking sex god?
How was he so fucking good-looking?
How did something like his clenched jaw and the fury in his eyes that usually meant tread lightly or you will get killed, somehow in my twisted mind turn into take my fucking clothes off?
I tried to keep my mind on the right track, the angry rip-his-head-off track, but my sassy ass had the worst fucking timing.
“Calm down or what?”
