A U D R E Y
Since I left the pack I have felt strange, I thought it would be because of the time that I have been separated from my destiny since I was not used to it... But I have a suspicion that it is not due to that, it's something else, something different.
No, I'm probably just sick and paranoid from everything I've been through this last week. Sickness and severe dizziness; It must be just a fever or something.
It is for that reason that today I will go to visit my best friend for the first time after a year, whom I left aside because I was so stupid. I think why I left her is clear: Ethan didn't like her because she was trying to remove the blindfold that covered my eyes. It is now that I regret everything I did, what I left behind and also what I didn't dare to do.
Chloe Wilson, a witch of my same age, is my best friend since I was named Alpha when I was only 16 years old and she was always there whenever I needed her, even if others said that our friendship was strange because of the enmity of the wolves with witches but we didn't care one bit... Those are the people who are worth it, the ones I didn't know how to appreciate, the ones I hope now, a year later, accept my sincere apologies for being an idiot in love. I need Chloe in my life to go back to being the Audrey of before, the real one, the happy one.
When I was right in front of her door I froze, I didn't know what to do, I had not planned what to say when I saw her again. It had been so long, surely she will have forgotten me because the last time I saw her we had a strong argument in which Ethan was the protagonist: Chloe was telling me the truth, I defended him. To this day I regret having turned a deaf ear to the truth.
Finally, after letting out a sigh, I knocked three times on the wooden door, passing nervous saliva at the moment that soft footsteps were heard and a "Who is it?" On her part.
"Chloe." A whisper came out of my mouth as soon as she was in front of me, completely surprised to see me.
I expected anything from her, a scream, a curse, slam the door in my face or even a bang. What I received was the opposite: a hug so strong it made me want to cry like a little girl in his warm arms. How is he accepting me after the damage I did to our lifelong friendship?
"I missed you so much, Audrey." She admitted in a whisper, her voice cracking and on the point of crying. I shook my head, hugging her even tighter.
"You were so right, Chloe... The fairy tale ended, the bubble burst, and I fell into reality. Ethan hurt me." I murmured sobbing, so she kissed my forehead.
"I swear I hate being right at this point. Come in, let's talk about everything."
She broke away to stand aside and allow me to enter her house. We sat on the living room couch and I shook my head looking at a fixed point on the floor. I wasn't going to cry, not for him or for anyone. I can't do it, I don't want to.
"Do you want to ... talk about what happened?" She asked kindly but also somewhat insecure, probably thinking that she would burst into tears as I did before when I missed my parents. Of course that won't happen.
"I'll put it in the simplest way possible... Ethan set me a trap that I innocently fell into with two words of love." I replied, sighing and throwing my head back on the back. "I must have been a little smarter to figure it out."
"It was not your fault. Do you know how many wolves I have treated who come crying because their alpha broke their hearts? So many that I couldn't count them on all my fingers. After a long time you decided for the first time to open your heart to someone other than your brother, the pack or me. It wasn't your fault what happened."
Chloe is a kind of "witch doctor" who checks and heals wolves who arrive wounded from some war against the rouges; that makes it free since she likes to help the herds, which gladly accept her. For what he does charge is to erase memories or heal broken hearts.
"Glad to be with you again," I admitted with a small smile, which she reciprocated.
"Same here, Thompson. We finally got back together and I won't let another idiot tear us apart." She murmured hugging me.
"No more love for me." I declared, sighing heavily.
Then the urge to vomit was present, but with a lot of effort I held it and stroked my belly with a grimace, which was beginning to hurt a little. The brunette looked at me with concern, so I gave her a forced smile to tell her that I was fine.
"Lie down on that stretcher, I'm going to check on you." Chloe ordered bluntly and pointed to an old metal gurney on which he tended to his customers on the other side of the dining room.
Knowing that I would not get rid of that revision, I obeyed by lying there and Chloe began to say some words in Latin that I didn't understand, she put her hands on my belly until in a moment she looked at the ceiling with her eyes open but they were white while she said more words that I understood not by chance.
"You are pregnant." She whispered under her breath when he returned to normal. However, I managed to hear her so my eyes widened.
"I'm pregnant?" I questioned incredulously, shaking my head repeatedly.
"Congratulations, Audrey." Chloe said completely happy and hugged me. I still couldn't react to this news.
Witches don't lie, they're not like pregnancy tests sometimes. I'm going to be a mom, right now there is a life growing inside me... something that I never had much illusion about because my condition was supposed to not allow it.
"When I had just been born, a enemy of my parents put a strong curse on me, so they took me to some witches who couldn't reverse it due to how strong that spell was. A wolf can have children with whoever he wants, be it his alpha or not, but I couldn't with anyone other than my destined mate. Even when they tried to locate her, they failed... So from a very young age I had the idea that I could never have a partner or a baby." I counted, looking down and playing with my hands. "It turned out that Ethan a few months younger than me, that's why they couldn't find him. He hadn't been born yet and they didn't take me back to the witches to find out if there was anything they could do for fear that I would get hurt as a result."
It was when I started to sob but without shedding a tear. I caressed my belly gently, looking at him with a smile and then looking back at my best friend, who was just quiet paying attention to me.
"Now I'll have the beautiful baby I've always wanted, but I don't have my partner. Isn't it ironic?" I asked with a graceless laugh.
She just shook her head crossing her arms.
She didn't know what to answer, I realized. Who would know what to say in this situation? Absolutely nobody. Although something was very clear to me despite being a mess of emotions: this baby is going to be in my arms in a couple of months. It will be my baby, my precious or precious, my miracle.
"Chloe, can I ask you a favor?" I looked at her with some doubt and she nodded in response. "Please don't tell anyone."
"Audrey Savannah Thompson, we've known each other since we listened to Queen together and you know that I would never betray you, even if I had to die to protect you. Also, it is my nephew or niece that we are talking about."
"Thank you very much Chloe... for everything." I thanked him, smiling sincerely.
"I will always be there for you. Now tell me... Are you planning to tell Ethan?" She demanded to know, so I buffet.
I had completely forgotten that fifty percent of my little one is his. I slightly hated that part, him really, but never what we did together. Ethan, even if I will never admit it out loud, helped me fulfill one of my dreams and had a right to know about our miracle.
"I'm going to have to tell him. Not now because if I get to see him I will want to kill him, but maybe when the baby is born because he has the right to know. I want you to have both parents in your life like I had the opportunity to have mine for a while." I confessed playing with my hands on my belly.
"Audrey, you know that I will support you in what you decide and if this is what you want, I will help you with it as moral support when you decide to tell him the news. Through the good times, the bad and the worst, remember? "I smiled, nodding my head and a slightly crazy idea occurred to me.
"Like any good marriage. I still remember our promise... Friend, I want you to come live with me, as we always wanted as teenagers." I blurted out suddenly, making her eyes widen in surprise.
"What? No! I cannot suddenly leave this place. I would have to prepare things, things and more things." She said starting to shake her head.
"Chloe, you won't need anything. I still have that old apartment in town and Cameron living there. Trust me, you won't be missing anything, but please come with me. You don't want to do it for me, do it for your nephew." I asked her and made a pout putting my hands together as I pray.
"Why do you want to leave?" She questioned, sitting next to me on the stretcher.
"If I'm still here, the Crescent Moon omegas chasing me relentlessly as they already are, especially if they find out about my pregnancy... I'm not going to be Ethan's Moon again.
"It's ok, you win." She declared sighing in exhaustion. I, on the other hand, screamed with excitement like a little girl and hugged her.
"Thank you very much, friend. You're the best!"
"I've known that for a long time, Savannah." Chloe said making a chill run through my body.
Memories of him calling me that just to piss me off and "fighting" —jokingly at first because in the end it was hideously real— came to mind.
"Better pick up your things and let's go, it will be a long trip from the forest to the city. Plus all the things you told me you want to pack." I explained, lowering my gaze a bit.
Apparently the brunette did not realize it since she almost ran to her room, I suppose to pack everything she considers necessary.
"I love you, Savannah." Those words were repeated in my mind, torturing me when I heard his voice again. I shook my head and covered my ears. << All his love was a lie >> I reminded myself.
"The only good thing Ethan did for me was you, miracle. For now, you will be my little secret." I whispered to my still flat stomach smiling.
After a while Chloe came back with three very large suitcases, so I laughed lightly. That was her "all you need".
"Shall we go?" She asked somewhat excitedly and I nodded, keeping a slight smile.
After being like half an hour fighting because she wouldn't let me help her with her bags since "I couldn't carry heavy things," we finally got into her car and she was driving.
I watched how little by little the forest disappeared and the road was present in my field of vision, while I said goodbye to what was my home for twenty-five years.
<< Goodbye for a while... I'm going back, that's for sure, but I need time to reason and think about how my life will be from now on. Because it's not just me anymore, it's also this life that depends on me >> was the last thing I thought before slowly my eyes closed and I fell asleep.