Fighting with Fire #2 ✔

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟏 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨

"Aren't we gonna go after her?" I exclaimed as her figure sprinted away on all fours.

"The reason Thea is out in the woods is so that she can track Maia down," Jason explained, "Call it a failsafe."

"Why didn't you tell us that was why Thea was hiding out in the woods?" Abi frowned at him.

Jason shifted uncomfortably. "Because it was Storm that suggested it."

"You listened to the advice of a treacherous bitch?!" Jade screeched at our Alpha, "And you didn't think that it was out of place that she knew something like this—" She flung her hand at the broken window, "—was going to happen? I mean, how else would she know that if she wasn't in league with the hunters and playing us the entire time?"

"Because Storm, regardless of her betrayal, still has supernatural powers. Unlike Ryan, she wasn't a total fake," he explained slowly; he kept his words clear and his tone measured. "Besides, the game was up by then, she knew we knew about her betrayal, and that was the last thing she told me."

Struggling to believe that Jason had actually listened to Storm's advice, I walked out; if he knew something like this would happen to Maia, why didn't he do something to try and stop it or to help her?

Day by day, it was getting harder and harder to believe and trust in my Alpha. Something had shifted, like with the rest of the pack. A thought formed in my mind; what if it is time that we go our separate ways? If I couldn't trust Jason anymore, then surely...? No, no, I won't go there.

I went to the lounge, sat on the sofa and stared at Ember's iron jar.

"Everything's going to shit and I'm sat here staring at a freaking jar," I mumbled.

"We're leaving for school in 15 minutes!" Jason called out.

"We're seriously still going back to that detention camp?" I heard Jade groan in frustration.

"That detention camp is gonna get you a future!" Jason yelled back to her.

I only want a future if it's got Ember in it.

And then I realised that it was all my fault — Ember died because we were captured by the hunters after coming with me to check on those traps — Ember stayed in Coloma with me that night because I was being an asshat and wouldn't leave...

Numerous possibilities flooded my head before it struck me that all those what-ifs were useless; it was too late. Ember was dead.

One particular what-if stuck in my head — what if everything that had happened since Ember arrived here led up to her death? What if she was destined to die, like that on that day? What if she doesn't come back?

What if I was fated to lose her?

Fate is a cruel commander, following out a list of concrete actions determined by the cold and unaltering cosmos of life.

And so there I was, minutes away from going to high school instead of figuring out how to heal the broken pieces of my heart back together again without Ember.