"I don't think you understand what you did. And don't downplay it by thinking that whatever is happening is because you might be mates." It was Maya who spoke now, and Ryan joined in too.
"They're right. You have an effect on him, and it's not just about a mating bond. Your heritage may seem like a burden, but it is also a gift. Embrace it, and trust in yourself. You have the power to change the course of our pack's destiny."
For the first time in weeks, Marisol felt a glimmer of optimism, their words almost bringing tears to her eyes.
"You are stronger than you realize, Marisol," Lily assured her firmly. "You may not have unlocked your full potential yet, but I do not doubt that you will rise to the occasion when the time comes."
"Thank you, guys," Marisol said sincerely, a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips. "I needed to hear that."
"Anytime," they all said in a chorus, laughter erupting among them at the suddenness of it.
Marisol spends some time with them before wandering off on her own. She needed time to absorb their words.
She took a walk into the depths of the forest, loving the sound and feel of nature around her.
'Yeah. They are right.' She nodded to herself. 'I can do this. I can rise to whatever.'
She repeated, thankful for the involvement of Lily and the others as it'd helped lift her spirits even in the slightest.
However, she longed to hear her father and mother's advice. She missed them so much.
As she continued to venture into the woods, Marisol suddenly paused, her wolf beginning to itch with a sense of foreboding. She spun around several times, trying to find the cause of her wolf's apprehension, but there was nothing. She would have liked to stroll for a bit more, but her wolf was starting to get restless, so she decided to save it for another day, starting to find her way back.
Just then, Marisol heard a twig snap to her left, her heart jumped as her head snapped in the direction of the sound, and at that moment, Marisol felt her heart drop as several figures began to emerge from the shadows. Rogues.
Marisol did not need anyone to tell her that she was in danger. She had walked right into a trap.
Cedric knew that he was lying to himself and pretending, but he deemed it necessary to sever his connection with Marisol.
He convinced himself that he was doing it for her. Ever since Marisol had arrived at Redwood, she'd had every and all of her decisions made for her and Cedric did not want to be a part of that any more than he already was.
He'd heard the longing and desperation in her voice when she told him that she wanted to go home more than anything. He couldn't be so selfish as to take the possibility of that away from her entirely. If they mated, Marisol would have to remain in Redwood with him. She would set him free but remain trapped. He couldn't do that to her.
So far, he had lost everything he loved to Guinevere, and he couldn't stand to lose Marisol too. Deep inside, he was scared that the moment he claimed her, he would lose her too.
Despite knowing all this, and being convinced that he was doing a good job keeping her away, Cedric was going crazy without her. When she stopped coming to the hidden castle, Cedric almost felt the last threads of his sanity snap and, on impulse, he'd demanded that Caleb ready the room next to hers for him, saying that would guarantee her better security, seeing as Caleb hadn't done anything right and couldn't be trusted with Marisol's safety.
He tried to tell himself that he was doing it because Marisol was an instrument in breaking his curse and deserved to be protected.
Cedric is ashamed to admit the fact that he began following her everywhere, trailing behind her despite having told her just a while ago that he wouldn't deprive her of her privacy and freedom. Fortunately, she spent most of her time indoors, sulking, if her sour scent was anything to go by, so he didn't have to worry about her safety much.
However, that afternoon, he'd returned from a meeting with the council to find Marisol missing. He hadn't noticed it immediately because he'd been worn out from hours of arguing with the council members. They were increasingly dogged in their bid to reinstate him as Alpha, cemented in their ridiculous belief that he'd been set free from the curse because he'd been in human form for a while now. They deemed him stable enough.
What they didn't know and refused to believe was that anytime he was away from Marisol for too long, he could hear the darkness calling to him. Marisol was like the light to his darkness. An anchor that kept him grounded, and without it, chaos and destruction was all he knew.
So, when he lay on the bed after a long relaxing shower and took a deep whiff of the air, hoping to find solace in the hints of her scent in the air, he found it odd that it felt fleeting.... Out of reach.
Startled, Cedric sprang to his feet and walked to the wall that separated their rooms, taking a sniff there too. When he found it to be the same, his heart rate spiked. Not wanting to panic immediately, a part of Cedric told him that she might've been asleep, causing her scent to dull, but the other argued that she wasn't there at all.
He pondered going to her room to ensure that she was there but realized that if she was truly there and had just been napping, he would expose himself, but after a few more minutes of pacing aimlessly around the room with Marisol's scent thin in the air, Cedric decided that he did not care anymore.