Chapter 9.
Conflicted.
Lilian.
"You're what?" The disbelief was evident in my voice as I stared at her.
"Daemon's girlfriend and soon to be fiancée." She repeated herself. "I'm here to advise you to actually reject him. If he rejects you, you will not survive it. Seeing your..." She eyed my little figure up and down. "Less than a scrawny appearance."
I opened my mouth to retort, but nothing came out and I shut up.
"You better not say anything, Lilly." She sneered as she mocked me with the nickname. "I wonder why he even bothers to protect you when you're almost dead." She spat out bitterly.
"Now, that's enough." Wilder said as he turned away from Oliver. "We have orders to follow." He carefully picked me up from the floor and held me in his arms.
"Wait!" I suddenly exclaimed. "What about my friend? What about Hailey?" I looked towards Hailey who was still passed out cold on the ground.
Wilder glanced at Hailey's figure. "She will be fine, Lilian. The entire packs in the world are not after Hailey, they are after you. If you want to protect her, you forget about her because she will be used against you."
"Just like you're beginning to be used against Daemon." Oliver murmured under her breath as she glanced away from me.
"But..." I didn't get to complete my statement as I felt a pressure two inches below my ears and I blacked out immediately.
*
"And the sleeping beauty finally awakens." I heard a voice in my groggy state as I struggled to open my eyes.
The morning sunlight almost blinded my eyes as I struggled to sit up on the comfy bed I laid on. When was the last time I slept on a bed? Four years? I couldn't remember.
A large face suddenly popped into view as my eyes tried to focus on the face.
"Sit up! You need to have something to eat." I heard the singsong voice of a woman, and every moment of the previous hours came crashing down my mind.
Oliver sat on the edge of my bed with a tray of food in hand. "Here, have this." She smiled at me genuinely as she stretched the tray into my hand.
"How are you feeling now?"
Was I hallucinating about last night's event? Why was Oliver being so kind and nice as opposed to yesterday?
I eyed the palatable dishes in front of me warily. Did she poison my meal?
"Did you?" I stared at her, then at my food.
She understood and let out a laugh. "Oh, don't be silly, Lily. Your food is perfectly safe."
It was when I felt the delicious vibrations in my body that I knew what was going on.
Daemon was here.
I pushed the food away, struggling to get up and get a glimpse of my mate.
"Don't worry, he just left a few minutes before you woke up. I doubt he wants to have anything to do with you." The sneer on her face was back as she stood up from the bed.
"Where is Hailey? What about Wilder? Why are you here?" I had so many questions to ask as my mind had suddenly become clouded with countless thoughts. "What about Daemon? Why did he leave?"
Oliver had an expression of pity on her face as she took casual steps towards a door I had not noticed earlier.
Come to think of it, where was I? This wasn't my house.
"Hello, Lilian." A cheery voice met my ears and I saw Wilder Hayes come to view again. "You're awake."
"Why are..."
"Shhhhh...." He placed a slender finger on my mouth. "You need to eat to regain your strength, I'm sure you have a lot of questions to ask."
"Where is Daemon?"
"The same Daemon you rejected? Why would he want to have anything to do with you again?"
I felt a numbing pain in my chest when he mentioned that. "I can explain everything to him."
"Can you?"
"Your pack members say they want to offer their apologies to you later in the day."
A small frown formed on my face. "Apology for what?"
"The way they treated you, I suppose."
"They can keep it to themselves." I snapped in irritation as the thoughts of how badly I was treated filtered through my mind. "I want to know something else."
I caught eyes with Wilder, whose eyes were surprisingly vibrant green in colour.
"What?" He eyed me curiously as he bent forward to take the tray of unknown food from me. Stabbing a fork into the scrambled eggs, his eyes held a mischievous glint as he spoke. "You want to know about Daemon? I have known him since he was in diapers, so I can tell you anything you want to know about him."
Yes, I was curious about the life of my mate, but that wasn't on my mind at the moment. I needed to know more about my family. A family I spent days toiling in the hopes that they would be set free.
I had a lot of questions to ask. What about my siblings? What did they do? Why were they killed alongside our parents? What were they doing close to the Alpha's quarters in the first place?
"It's about my family." I gave him a forlorn look. "I want to know what really happened to them."
"You'll just have to find out for yourself, Lilian." He replied with a mouthful as he kept shoveling my food into his mouth. "This is really good." He nodded towards the food.
He was a glutton!
"I need to speak to those involved. I want to hear it from their mouths."
Wilder paused in the chomping of his food. "Those involved would be the Alpha King, your Alpha, Daemon, Me, and Oliver." He replied offhandedly.
"Why did my family take the fall for everything you all did?"
Wilder shrugged in response. "Wrong place, wrong time. " He paused to swallow the food before he continued. "You know what? I think you should forget about this whole thing. I know you dedicated your life for your family, but they are all gone and you should focus on your future and not even your past."
"What's my future without my past?" I mumbled to myself as I shrugged the duvet covers off my body.
"You aren't even going to ask about your mate?" Wilder's voice sounded incredulous, even as his mouth was filled with more food.
"I don't want half-baked stories from unwanted parties. If I have questions, I'll talk to him myself."
"How many times have you spoken to him?" I heard Oliver ask. She was returning from the adjacent room, this time with a silver necklace in hand.
"Daemon asked that you have this..." She said as she assessed the beautiful little thing.
I could see the jealousy in her eyes as she stared at it like it was the most precious thing in the world.
"Tell him to give it to me himself." I replied, drawing my eyes away from her and towards Wilder. I wanted to avoid her the best I could until I spoke with Daemon.
"Are you still not aware that you were adopted? What is all this loyalty for?" Wilder asked curiously as he stared at the bland expression on my face. "Isn't that supposed to help you connect the dots on why your family is dead? Even after your memories were wiped when
you were sixteen, I thought you'd have regained them by now since your wolf could help you out."
"I'm adopted?"