When Marisol finally runs back into her room, the door slams shut behind her before she collapses against it, her heart pounding against her chest as a whirlwind of emotions threatens to engulf her.
She takes several deep breaths in a quest to stabilize the erratic organ with a hand over her chest, but it does nothing to soothe the violent arrhythmic thuds against her ribcage Her eyes are tightly shut as she prays and hopes, for once in her life, she wanted this not to be the reality, needing so desperately for this to be an extension of her nightmares taking on a more twisted form because there was no way her already puzzling life would take on such a drastic, terribly unfunny turn.
This had to be some kind of joke. There was no way that man..... that beast was her mate. Caleb said something about a spell, the one he'd used himself to lure her into Redwood. He had to have been playing that trick again. That had to have been it. At this point, Marisol feels herself trembling, down to the tip of her fingers. Anxiety mixed with bewilderment infiltrated every pore of her body.
Suddenly, like the pieces of a whole puzzle falling into place, it all begins to make sense to her. Cedric was what Redwood needed to be saved from. She'd been brought and was now being forcibly being held in Redwood to supposedly tame the beast, Caleb's brother, Redwood's own true Alpha, Cedric, who was responsible for the destruction and unrest within the pack.
Just thinking about the true form of that beast and the fact that she was going to be made to confront it causes anger to course through her veins, hot like lava, enough to overpower her initial fear as she was suddenly getting on her feet, determined to tackle Caleb himself.
As she strides through the pack house purposefully, she is met with Sophia, who is also heading to find Marisol in her room. On seeing her, Sophia goes to block her path, but it was an overused trick now, one that Marisol was nowhere in the mood to entertain.
"Hey! Where are you going?" What are you doing?" Sophia splutters as she is suddenly shoved aside with a sudden burst of strength from Marisol.
A loud, overly exaggerated shriek leaves her lips as she collides with the nearest wall, shocked and thrown off by the unexpected action, but Marisol ignores it in favour of pressing on, her focus unwaring. They had successfully backed her against the wall, and she was done playing nice.
Caleb, alerted by the commotion, rushes to the scene, concerned for his mate. Worry and confusion are etched on his features as he finds her on the floor, making to rush to her aid until Marisol intercepts him, blocking his path.
Their eyes lock, and his initial reaction is even further confusion at her ugly frown. "Why?" Marisol demands loudly, her voice sharp with anger and betrayal. "You cruel bastard! Bringing me here, knowing there's a beast on the loose. Are you so inhumane, so evil that you would offer me up to him like feeding a domesticated lion?" Her accusations reverberated through the air, each word carrying the weight of her newfound understanding.
Caleb, taken aback by Marisol's sudden outburst, stutters through what was an unsatisfactory explanation, "Marisol, please, let me-"
But she cut him off, her anger unabated. "Don't you dare 'Marisol, please' me! I can't believe I trusted you, Caleb! You deceived me and made a complete fool of me by continuously playing on my emotions! You are just as sick and twisted as any other messed up opportunists I've had the misfortune of encountering in my short life. No, you're even worse!" Marisol shoots out, her voice trembling with a mix of rage and hurt.
She didn't know it yet, but her wolf was breaching its way to the surface, even angrier than she was at their new findings. Her Hazel blue eyes were slowly taking on a swirl of red and black like her mother's. Dominance wafts out of her strong enough to weaken Caleb's own knees as he continues to struggle with his words, a hand outstretched placatingly.
"Marisol, if you would just listen to me, there's so much you don't understand. Cedric, he-"
Marisol shakes her head, unwilling to hear any more excuses. She cuts his words short. "Save your excuses, Caleb. What kind of an Alpha puts his whole pack at such risk? What kind of a person plays with another person's life like this?"
The small crowd that had begun to form at the outburst, consisting of pack members, exchanged uneasy glances at the last of her words. Sophia, left alone to recover from the shock of her fall, watches the scene unfold. She hated that her mate was being held back by another woman, but the tension in the air was suffocating. Too scared to want to be caught in the middle of that, her wolf is compelled to stay still.
"I won't be a part of your twisted games any longer. You can keep your secrets and your cursed pack to yourselves because I have had enough, and I'm getting out of here!" She all but screams, turning on her heels with those resolute words and storming away.