Chapter 83

~Eliana~

Alistair’s hand was wrapped around my neck, and he was about to choke me to death, with his other hand fixed tightly around my hair, as he lifted me so that I now hung in the air. My legs were dangling in the air, and I kept on pleading with him, as tears fell from my eyes, but he seemed to have lost his mind and didn’t seem to have any trace of humanity left in him.

He had turned into a monster, who would do anything to destroy whatever was in his path. He growled angrily and was aiming to scratch my neck, in order for my to die, but I kept on pleading with him, but all my pleas fell on deaf ears.

He was no longer the Alistair I once knew, the same Alistair who was Ian’s father, the one who had given my life a meaning, the one that had showed me what truly love was, and the one I had fallen head over heels in love with.

The meeting room had turned into a mad house because of the death of Aunt Salome’s girlfriend, the witch, Katherine. No one was even looking at us, and it was glaring that no one was ever going to come to my rescue. I was going to die just like that in the hands of the very man I loved, and he was never going to know that I still felt the same way about him even after all these years. Forever, he was going to live with the guilt of killing me, and he was never going to forgive himself. If Ian found out about it, he wasn’t going to forgive him either.

Ian... No! I couldn’t give up now. Ian needed both of his parents, and I couldn’t just let myself die like that. If I did die, Ian was going to grow up to be a broken man, and Alistair would lose his mind as well. I had to live for both of their sakes. I didn’t want Alistair to spend the rest of his life blaming himself for my death, and I didn’t want Ian to turn out bad. He deserved a better life than the one I had had, and I had to ensure that by staying alive.

“Alistair,” I managed to say, as he was already snuffing the life out of me.

He didn’t calm down, or even care at all. Instead, he grew more furious, and growled even louder, as the grip he had on my neck tightened.

As I gasped for air, the only thought on my mind was that I had suffered more than enough for my story to still end tragically. If I could go back in time, I’d try to rewrite my life’s story in more than one way, but time never waited for anyone and it couldn’t be changed. However, we had the ability to decide our present, and I decided to take my own destiny into my hands. I wasn’t going to wait for luck; I was going to help myself out before time slipped away.

Immediately he reached out to give me a scratch on my neck till I bled to death, I kicked him in his groin with every ounce of energy I possessed, which caused him to stagger backwards and lose his balance, which in turn, made me crash to the floor with a thud, as he had let go of me when he had lost his balance.

I tried to rise to my feet, ignoring the fact that I felt pain in every part of my body. He was faster than me, and bent before me, while I still lay on the floor, knowing now that there was probably no way I could escape from his wrath again.

With a vicious growl, he brought forward his hand, and was about to place it on my neck, when I grabbed him by the hand, making him much more enraged than he already was.

Before he could decide to just end my life once and for all, I pulled his head closer to mine, deciding not to risk any more chances. His red glowing eyes met my brown eyes, and with a deep sigh, I pressed my lips against his.

At first, I was scared, but when I saw that his growling was reducing, I felt much more comfortable with him, and closed my eyes slowly. He was stiff for a moment, but slowly, he began to kiss me back, passionately.

I had really missed being kissed by him, and I sincerely missed what we has with each other. Having been given this opportunity to experience this feeling with him again, I never wanted to let him go again. My stomach churned as he dived his tongue into my mouth, and wrapped his hands around my waist, then slowly began to slide it down my ass.

I held on to him tightly, without putting up any form of resistance, even though I could tell from his behaviour that he was back to being normal again. I had been wrong to jump into the conclusion that he was now normal, because just as he groped my ass, making me wet as hell, his claws sunk deep into them, reminding me of the first kiss I had shared with him.

My eyes immediately flew open, and as soon as I did that, his eyes opened as well. His eyes had stopped glowing, and were back to their normal shade of blue.

My heart fluttered as we stared at each other, without saying a word. He looked quite embarrassed, probably because he had injured me while we were sharing a perfect moment together, but I also felt a little bit embarrassed, because not only had I initiated our first kiss after six years, I realised that even though I had thought I hated him all these years, my feelings for him had never changed even for one day.

“I’m sorry,” He said, finally breaking the awkward silence.

“It’s fine. You can heal my butt anyway,” I said, avoiding his gaze.

“Oh, no. Not about that. I mean, I am sorry about that, but what I’m more sorry for is the fact that I almost killed you,” He apologised.

“It’s not your fault,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter. I feel sick because I can remember exactly what had happened, and if I had truly killed you, I would never have been able to forgive myself,” He said, looking really remorseful.

“Listen, it’s all good. What’s important is the fact that you didn’t. I can understand why you did what you did, and I am not going to blame you because of it,” I said.

“Thank you, Eliana. I’m so sorry you had to see me like that. The last time I had been like that was the day I saw my biological parents get killed,” He explained.

I nodded my head, understanding the whole situation. “I guess you get really mad when your loved one is in danger, and that’s why this happened. From now on, we’ll make sure no one ever hurts anyone dear to your heart again, so that you’ll never ever have to feel this way again,” I said, giving him a warm smile.

“Thank you so much. I’m grateful for your understanding, and I’m sorry that you had to kiss me just so you could bring me back to my senses,” He said.

Why was he apologising? Didn’t he enjoy it? I wasn’t sorry about kissing him at all. In fact, I was happy that I had gotten a chance to do that once again.

“That’s enough, Romeo and Juliet. We need to lock these bodies up,” Aunt Salome said.

“I hope we don’t end up like Romeo and Juliet,” Alistair said, with a chuckle, as he assisted in making me stand on my feet.

“Same here. I don’t think I want to die yet,” I said.

“Hold on,” He said, as I attempted to leave.

“What?” I asked.

He pulled me into an embrace, which was breathtaking. My head rested on his chest, as his hands found their way to my ass. I began to wonder if he was about to finish what he had earlier started, when it occurred to me when I felt the pain leave me that he was only healing me. He did the same thing to my hands and legs, till I felt perfectly fine.

He released me from the embrace, and gave me a warm smile. I returned his smile, and decided to ask him a question which had been bothering me for some time.

“When werewolves take away your pain, where does it go?” I asked.

Alistair wore a crooked smile. “I thought you’d never ask. We take the pain or sickness into our own body. Since we have the ability to heal, it is not a big deal,” I explained.

“I see. Thank you,” I said, understanding why Ian had almost fainted when he had taken Audrey’s pain. He had taken it into his own body, and it had probably been too much for him to handle.

“I’ll see you around. Thanks for your help today,” He said, walking away.

“You’re welcome,” I said.

He began to assist in taking my relatives bodies away. I had forgotten to tell them not to hurt Denzel, but it was all good. They weren’t dead, and were only transitioning into werewolves. A single bite from a werewolf was sufficient to make a human being a werewolf. I had supported Alistair in his decision to make them like his people. There was no better punishment than them becoming the very things they hated with their every breath.

They could choose to die if they didn’t want to live as werewolves, or they could decide to live, hating themselves for who they were. I was sure that Denzel was going to be okay with being a werewolf, and tried not to blame myself for what was happening to my relatives.

They deserved what they had gotten, because if they hadn’t been stopped, they’d have tried to keep on killing people who had never done anything wrong to them. They didn’t feel sorry for all those they had wrongly killed, and they should have died as well, but at least, they had a shot at repentance now that they had been given a second chance at life, even though it was as a werewolf.

I spotted Aunt Salome sitting by the side of Katherine’s body, just staring longingly at it. She wasn’t shedding tears, as she was a very strong woman, who could suppress her feelings and hide her emotions. I felt really bad that poor Katherine had to die, and I knew that life was never going to remain the same for her again.

Slowly, I walked to where she sat, and as soon as I stopped right by her side, she looked up, and forced a small smile at me immediately she saw my face.

“El, you should go home to your son. You look so stressed,” She said.

“I would, but then again, I’m afraid I can’t. I’ll stay with you, and I’ll have Carrie look after Ian,” I said, giving her a small smile.

“I’m fine, and I am surrounded by a lot of people who can look after me. You don’t have to stay here, but I do appreciate the offer,” Aunt Salome said.

I shot her a sympathetic look. “I wish I could have done something to prevent what happened, Aunt Salome. I’m so...”

“Please, don’t say that you’re sorry,” She said, interrupting my apology. “You don’t have to apologise for anything. It’s not your fault. You are not to be blamed for what happened, and you don’t have to say you’re sorry. You should go home,” She said.

“I can’t. I’m too worried about you to just go home and act like everything is okay,” I said.

She chuckled. “It’s not me you should be worried about, El,” She said.

“Sorry?”

She made a gesture, using her neck, and when I looked towards that direction, I saw Alistair, who was busy giving orders to some werewolves about what to do with my family when they awoke from their slumber, and realised that they were now werewolves.

“He acts like he’s fine, but deep down, he is not. You know, when you were gone, he almost lost his mind, and had to undergo therapy. He loves you, El, and his feelings for you have never changed. He may seem cool with the fact that he can get to see his son, but he still wants you back. In fact, he needs you in his life,” Aunt Salome said.

I heaved a deep and thoughtful sigh. “I don’t know about that. I mean, why would he need me in his life? I never did anything for him,” I said.

“You made his life whole. He was a broken man, but you fixed him. You didn’t have to do anything; your love, kindness, innocence and practically everything about you, was enough to give him a reason to keep on living. When you were gone, he held on to life because he wanted to be able to apologise to you someday, and now that you’re back, he’s holding on because he hopes that you guys can come back together someday.

“He never used to care about anyone in the past, but because of you, he saved us all from the Beast of Vengeance, saved your former friend from being a werewolf and he didn’t even know him, he fought for our people against the Mystic moon pack despite all they had done to us, started coaching young werewolves, began to stop spending carelessly. Honestly, El, you’ve given him hope, strength, made him a man he can be proud of whenever he looks into the mirror, and with you, he can have the family he has always dreamt of...the family he never had,” Aunt Salome said.

A drop of tear slid down my face, as I realised that all she said was the truth. I had been so pissed and angry with him that I had failed to see how perfect we had been for each other.

“He made a better person, too. I was hurt, crazy, and hated everyone. He showed me that there’s more to life, and made me know that I am worthy of love, and capable of being loved. He stood up for me when my parents called me names, advised my sister to be a better version of herself, took great care of me, and believed in me. Because of him, I’m a stronger and better version of myself, and I’ll never be able to thank him enough. I also wish to have a family someday, and seeing that he is the only one who has ever truly understood me, I want that family to be with him. I never stopped loving him, never,” I stated.

“And he never stopped loving you,” Aunt Salome said.

“What would you have me do now?” I asked, with an aching heart.

She smiled. “As you can see, Kat’s death really hurt me, but I’m not crying anymore, because I have no regrets. I showed her how much I loved her, and we lived every moment fulfilling each other’s dreams. What I’m telling you now is that you do that which wouldn’t make you have regrets tomorrow. Instead of regretting why you hadn’t said this and that, go ahead and tell him now,” She explained.

I looked over where Alistair had been a second ago, but he was no longer there. When I looked back at Aunt Salome, she gave me a reassuring smile, and I heaved a sigh, deciding to do exactly as she had told me to, since she was making a whole lot of sense.

Tomorrow wasn’t promised, and I didn’t want to ever wish there was a way I could turn back the hand of time to change something, which I could do right now. Whatever I had to do had to be done now before it was too late.

It was now or never.