Filed To Story: Destined Bond with My Forbidden Alpha Novel (Alpha Alexander & Selene)
Selene looked back at her mother with furrowed brows.
“Why did you bring it?” she asked.
“I wasn’t sure you had another, and even if you did… I didn’t think you would be ready to return to the places you shared with him yet.”
Selene swallowed and looked down.
“You knew I’d come?” she asked.
“Of course,” Corrine replied without hesitation.
“How?” Selene asked. “I told Fiona I would come, but I wasn’t sure I would until I crossed the gate.”
Corrine took a deep breath.
“You were always going to come here tonight, Selene,” she sighed.
“How do you know?” Selene asked, clenching her jaw. The heat rushed to her face, and that pressure was in her chest again.
“You already said it yourself,” Corrine replied. “It’s what you think he would have wanted.”
Selene took short breaths through her nose and wiped away the tears that streaked down her cheeks.
“It is what he would want!” she shouted.
Corrine sighed and took a step toward her daughter.
“He would want to be with you,” she said.
Selene clenched her jaw angrily.
“Why do you keep saying those things!” she shouted. “You were the first to try and make me give up on him! So why are you trying to act like you believe he is still out there when I am finally willing to accept he is gone!”
“I never said I believed he was gone, Selene,” Corrine replied.
“You told me our connection was cut off!” Selene shouted.
Corrine took a deep breath.
“I said that while he was inside the ley line, it was cut off,” she said, clenching her jaw tightly as she tried to keep her calm.
“You tried to stop me from finding him!” Selene cried out, her tears flowing heavily as her chest burned. “You wouldn’t let me leave!”
“I didn’t want you to kill yourself trying to find him!” Corrine shouted.
Selene was silent. She furrowed her brows and stared back at her mother as she took quick breaths.
Corrine took a deep breath and licked her lips.
“Your fingers,” she whispered, looking down at her hands, “were broken… covered in blood and rock. You scratched at the mountain, over and over, until you were finally pulled away and wrestled to the ground.”
Corrine paused, clenching her hands into fists and closing her eyes.
“When you were a child… you stayed out in that blizzard. You didn’t even consider calling for help. You had to prove your strength. As always, you had to do it alone, no matter how much it hurt you.”
She swallowed and then opened her eyes and looked at Selene.
“The value that you have placed on your life is so low… that it scares me,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes. “I won’t apologize for trying to keep you alive, Selene.”
The anger that had come to life inside of Selene fell away. Leaving behind a heaviness that had her feeling exhausted.
Selene swallowed and lowered her head.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Corrine took a deep breath and cleared her throat.
“I don’t need your apologies,” she said.
She stepped forward and reached up, wiping Selene’s tears. Then she lifted Selene’s chin to look at her.
“But if you really want to stay true to what Alexander would have wanted,” she said, “then you need to treat yourself a hell of a lot better.”
She wore the long grey dress, and her hair was pulled back in a simple braid. Selene walked down the hallways, following closely after her mother with her eyes cast down.
She saw no one. She heard no one. They were all outside, gathered to share the stories of their Alpha.
Selene took a slow breath and swallowed the lump in her throat as she felt the breeze drifting down the long corridor and heard the soft murmuring of voices in the distance. They were getting closer to the vigil.
Her heart began to race. Soon she would be forced to see them all. The people that had accepted his death. Forced to hear the stories of his life as though it was already over.
Yet, she didn’t feel angry. She was scared.
Scared that she would see and hear it all and find herself giving up. Scared that this was the moment when she, too, would have to accept that Alexander would never come home.
“Breathe,” Corrine’s voice whispered beside her, and a warm hand settled on her back. “Breathe, Selene.”
Only then did Selene feel the burning in her lungs as they screamed for air. How long ago had she stopped breathing? When had she placed her hand against the wall to steady herself?
She took a slow and shaky breath. After a few more, the pain in her lungs eased, but her chest still felt tight, and her stomach was tied in knots. Her knees felt weak. She wasn’t sure if she could even take another step.
Corrine moved to stand in front of her. Selene naturally looked up into her emerald eyes.
Her mother was a warrior and a Luna. She was intimidating, powerful, and magnificent. She always had been. But she was also warm, kind, and fiercely loving.
At this moment, the eyes that looked back at her were filled with warmth and understanding that Selene could not have anticipated.
Corrine put one hand on Selene’s shoulder and the other on her cheek. She gave her a warm but sad smile.
“That’s it,” she whispered, “nice and slow, take a few more breaths.”
Selene nodded, doing as her mother instructed until she could stand straight again.
“Listen to me,” Corrine whispered, tilting her head and looking affectionately at Selene. “This vigil is for his people.”
Selene furrowed her brows.
“I know,” she replied softly.
Corrine shook her head.
“You don’t understand,” she smiled.
Corrine gently stroked Selene’s cheek with her thumb.
“What I am saying,” she continued, “is that today is about their grief, their loss, their needs.”
She licked her lips and smiled again at Selene. She removed the hand on her shoulder and moved it to Selene’s other cheek, holding her face between her hands.
“This is not for or about you,” she said.
Selene swallowed, lowering her eyes and clenching her jaw as she felt the anger growing inside her again.
“Don’t misunderstand me,” Corrine said firmly, lifting Selene’s chin to look at her again. “Whatever happens tonight, whatever you hear or see, no matter what anyone else feels or believes… it does not belong to you.”
Selene furrowed her brow, the anger fading as she listened to her mother’s words.
“Only you can decide how you feel, Selene,” Corrine smiled. “Only you can decide how you will grieve.”
Corrine took a deep breath.
“Grief is not reserved just for the dead,” she continued. “And just because you grieve his absence does not mean you give up on finding him one day.”
Selene swallowed and chewed her bottom lip as she looked away.
“Do you really think….” Selene whispered. She paused and took a deep breath before looking back into Corrine’s eyes. “Do you really think I will find him?”
Corrine tilted her head. She stroked Selene’s cheek with her thumb tenderly and smiled.
“I think there is no reason to believe you won’t,” she whispered. “And if anyone in this world can, it is you.”
Selene’s jaw shook, her eyes filled with tears, and her heart was in her throat.
Corrine let go of Selene’s face and pulled her into a warm embrace. Selene did not hesitate to wrap her arms around her mother as her tears fell.
After moments of silent tears and her mother rubbing her back, Selene pulled back slowly and looked at Corrine.
“Why couldn’t you tell me that before?” she asked. “I have been so angry at you for months because I thought you wanted me to move on and accept that Alexander was gone forever.”
Corrine took a breath and pursed her lips. She swallowed before speaking.
“Because you are my child, Selene,” she said. “As much as I care for Alexander. As much as I hope you find him, and I truly do… my concern was with you.”
Corrine reached up to Selene’s hair, smoothing it and smiling before looking at her again.
“I couldn’t encourage you to throw yourself into dangerous situations in the hope that you might find something, not when you were so desperate,” she said.
Selene swallowed.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?