The mate of his nanny final

Chapter 235: All Alone on the Cliff

Moana

"The baby's strength has proven to be incredible before," I finally said, clenching my fists tightly next to my sides. "Try it now." After a moment of waiting, I felt my wolf's power surge ever so slightly as she released a large amount of her scent.

"There," she said, sounding somewhat satisfied with herself. "I released a lot of scent. Even more than before, when you were in the Rogue district. If Edrick is anywhere nearby, he'll certainly smell you."

I felt a bit relieved, but not completely. There was still the threat of Michael coming out of that mist, just like in my dreams. And now the rain and the wind were only getting even more intense as time went on.

"Kat?!" I called out into the mist, hoping for a response. "Edrick?!" There was no answer. My quivering, scared voice was almost completely drowned out by the sound of the wind and the rain anyway. I felt so stupid for following Kat into the woods. I should have stayed up at the mansion, where it was safe. If Michael was somehow out there, at least I could be close to Edrick and the other security guards; now, I didn't even know where I was because of the thick mist that was settling around me. And yet, at the same time, all of this almost felt like fate.

Like it was all some sort of grand plan to get me out here where Michael could kill me. Was this my fate as the Golden Wolf? To die at the hands of an evil man? Was this what happened to all of the Golden Wolves that came before me? I shivered, feeling the cold of the rain starting to seep through my clothes.

My hair and my face were soaked, and I protectively rubbed my protruding belly, just hoping that if nothing else bad happened, that this cold wouldn't harm the baby. Tears started to well up in my eyes as I stared at the mist.

Thankfully, not far off to the side, there was a tree standing all alone next to the cliff. I shakily made my way over to it, taking care not to slip or lose my footing, and sat down beneath the tree where the leaves at least kept me somewhat protected from the elements. As I sat there, shivering in the cold and the rain and the wind, I thought back on my vision from the night before with Dr. Rhodes. My vision wasn't particularly any different from the others, but there was something new that I sensed. I sensed someone else in the mist, as though they were working alongside Michael. Was that Kat that I sensed?

All along, was she secretly working with Michael? Was drawing me away from the mansion and lying to me, and thus getting me lost in the woods, all part of her plan? Even just thinking about it made me sick. To think that I had trusted her... And now the last image I had of her flashing through my mind was the eerie smile she gave me before she bolted off into the woods without a trace, leaving me alone and scared. I didn't know exactly how long I waited there beneath the tree, but it felt like a long time. The wind and the rain whipped at my hair and my clothes, and I shivered violently as I pulled my light jacket closer around my shoulders and drew my knees up to my chest.

All the while, I felt as though I couldn't tear my eyes away from the mist. At any moment, I expected one of three people to come out of the mist: Kat, Edrick, or Michael. I hoped that it was Edrick, but if my visions were telling me the truth about what was to happen here, then it would likely be Michael. And I had no way to protect myself, nowhere to go, and no one could hear my screams.

"Can you sense him yet?" I asked my wolf.

"No." She sounded grim. "The rain is dampening my senses too much. It's the perfect storm." My wolf's words made me feel even more sick to my stomach than I already was. The perfect storm...

Kat had to have lured me out here on purpose. This was their plan all along — to get me isolated in a dangerous place with no way to get help or to help myself. And now, I was probably just playing into their plan by releasing my scent so that I could be easily found. I opened my mouth to tell my wolf to retract my scent out of fear that it would draw Michael to me.

"Mina, I think we should—" I began, but my voice faltered as I suddenly saw a dark figure materializing in the mist. My heart practically leaped out of my chest. I scrambled to my feet, holding onto the tree with one hand to steady myself as I strained my eyes to see into the mist. "Edrick...?" I whispered. Oh, how I hoped that it was Edrick. The figure inched a little closer, like they were testing their own footing. As the figure came closer, I could see that it was a man. My spirits raised a little; it had to be Edrick. 

The figure's frame looked too similar to Edrick, and the way that the figure was walking so carefully made me think that it couldn't be Michael. "Edrick!" I shouted, waving my arm.
"Over here!"

"Moana, I don't think that's a good idea..." My wolf started to get agitated, and bristled as the figure continued to approach. The figure froze as my voice carried across the mist. I felt my heart stop, caught in my throat. Time seemed to stand still as my fight or flight kicked in, quickly followed by the feeling of dread caused by knowing that I couldn't fight or flee, and I had just made a grave mistake.

The figure, after standing there for a moment, finally started to approach once again. I saw the figure's body become more solid, and I clapped my hand over my mouth in terror, my eyes widening as I realized that it wasn't Edrick at all. It was Michael.

"Hello, Moana." His voice echoed in my mind, grating against my ears as it rang too loudly in my skull. I felt myself wince, and I started to get dizzy. All I could do was continue to clutch the tree as my eyes scanned the mist behind Michael's figure in the hopes that Edrick would be behind him, waiting to attack him and rescue me. Michael fully stepped out of the mist and stopped just a few yards in front of me. There was that same cold, twisted smile on his face from my nightmares.

The way that his hair clung to his forehead from the rain... The way that his glowing eyes stared at me unblinkingly... It was all exactly like my visions. As my breath shook and my heart pounded out of my chest, my eyes slowly made their way down Michael's arm, down to his hand that hung at his side. And it wasn't empty; something gold glinted in the light, held tightly in his hand. He had the Golden Knife.