Chapter 607
OTTO’S POV
As I worked with Jasmine on translating and deciphering the map, I noticed she was quiet.
I looked from where I was seated, drawing out the maps while continuing with the translations.
Unlike the other times she had come visiting, she had been excited and all chatty.
She had wanted to know everything, and it had taken the will of my wolf not to explode.
And yet today, she was quiet.
Refused to say a word and seemed to be solely focused on her work.
I should be happy she wasn’t disturbing my work, yet I couldn’t work.
After all, I needed peace to work.
But I knew something was wrong.
It should be none of my business if something had happened, and yet I had this sickening feeling.
This guilt to know if she was okay.
I went back to work and tried to focus on my quill.
I was so burdened by the overwhelming guilt that I snapped and noisily set the quill down on the table.
“Alright. That’s it.” I said, turning to face her.
She jumped instantly.
“What happened p>
She blinked at me. Her emerald eyes lost. “What do you mean p>
“I mean, what happened?” I said, my fingers intertwined as I pressed for information. “You are usually a noisy chatterbox while I am the one who begs you to keep shut, but now all of a sudden you’re quiet p>
“Isn’t that what you want?” She asked me with a frown on her face.
“Yes, it is silly, girl.” I rolled my eyes in annoyance. “And I should mind my business, but the goddess isn’t on my side today, and I don’t want to feel bad. So better speak right now.” I told her.
She paused from her work and looked at her hands.
“I don’t think I want to talk about it.” She said.
This was my cue to mind my business.
So I turned back to the piece of paper, continued drawing the constellation, and resumed my work.
There was a strained silence for a minute, and I snapped back.
“You’re ruining the mood of the work!” I said in frustration. “You either tell me what has happened, or I will not be helping you find your family p>
She repeated nothing until I heard a heavy sigh.
“I was left behind.” She explained. “I thought I was going back to the crescent pack, but they had other plans for me p>
Alpha Xaden.
When she had come to see me, I had done a little digging and didn’t take me long to know she was under his roof.
I got the confirmed story.
It was sad, but I had heard more than enough tragic stories in my lifetime.
“I thought you wanted to know who your mother’s family was?” I asked her.
“Yes, I do.” She said, covering her face and sighing.
“And then if you do.” I continued. “Why are you worried about him leaving you p>
“Because that was the only home I had!” She said in agony.
She shook her head unhappily.
“That was the only home I had come to love p>
She explained. “He didn’t give me a choice. Just like he never has, and now I’m here alone p>
I was pretty unsure of what to say.
After a while, I said. “Well, if it’s any consolation, home is anywhere you want it to be p>
I was stunned that something as intelligent as that had come out of my lips.
She seemed surprised to.
I turned back to the paper and quickly continued my work.
For some reason, I felt light and quietly smiled to myself.
Hours later, we were still deciphering the map.
We seemed to have made a route, but the following translation was difficult!
What if this was just a dead end!
I needed to prove to everyone that I was right.
That I had always been right.
I groaned to myself as I raked my hair.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, getting up from the floor.
“We’re stuck,” I explained. “We’ve gone past a series of landmarks p>
“This is the dark forest.” I pointed out on the drawing, and from the den of the Wigna, it just seems to come to a halt p>
“What is a Wigna?” She asked me.
“A beast that you never want to meet,” I said. “From there it’s a dead end. The other routes lead back to the wolf world. And the next translation doesn’t make any sense p>
“What does it say?” She asked me.
“Do you think if I couldn’t know, you would?” I scoffed in disbelief.
“Can I just try?” She asked me.
I sighed and pushed the book to her.
She collected it before examining it closely.
I rolled my eyes because I sure as hell knew there was no way I had missed anything.
She tried to examine it.
After a few minutes of watching closely, she resigned with a heavy sigh.
“I told you you weren’t going to find anything,” I said, annoyed. “I’ve looked through everything. There is nothing p>
We heard the bells ring.
“You should go.” I waved her off. “It’s getting dark p>
She didn’t protest as she usually would.
She slowly got up to her feet.
I felt terrible for her; she looked sad and drained.
“Here,” I said, handing her the journal. “Maybe some reading would do you good p>
She looked at me and at first seemed uninterested in collecting it, but eventually did.
As she turned to leave, I realized her hair was now back to being red
“What happened to your hair?” I said, blinking at her fire-red hair.
I had been baffled as to why she had changed her hair from red to black, but I didn’t ask.
Didn’t see it as necessary, and now I’m seeing it as black.
She shrugged.
“I don’t know. It just happened last night when I got into the hall.” She said.
That piqued my interest. “Your hair went back to red on its own p>
She nodded. “Yes p>
In my entire life, I had never heard of anything like this.
Before I could ask any more questions, she whispered very quietly. “Goodnight p>
And she was gone.
I had been so fixated on finding the other side. It didn’t tell me that I had never met someone like Jasmine.
This girl, despite being an unshifted wolf, had red hair.
Red hair that only belonged in the royal family bloodline.
I had never once heard of anything unshifted having red hair.
What’s more, she had dyed her hair black, and yet the hair had magically gone red on its own.
It was either that she was a terrible liar or that she took me for an absolute fool.
Or
There was something else about her.
Then I looked up at my windows and saw the shattered glass from last night.
The candles had gone out, too.
Was this all a coincidence?
My head began to spin as theories raced through it.
This Jasmine girl.
What in the name of all wolves was she p>
I answered by abandoning the maps and looking through all my research on unshifted wolves and anything that could explain her kind.
JASMINE’S POV
I smiled as I ran through the forest, my red hair bouncing up and down.
“You can never run as fast as I can!” I said in excitement.
I could feel my pulse quickening.
My wolf was elated as I ran, fighting to be free and to shift.
The beautiful trees in the forest gave me protection from the sun and helped me race across the path.
I could hear his voice from behind, but I was too far ahead.
I jumped on a rock and sprinted to a tree, where I climbed expertly, as I had since I was a child.
I looked down at the ground once I was seated at the top of the tree branch.
“Still a little too slow?” I mocked.
All of a sudden, I felt a change of energy, and I knew he was shifting.
He climbed the tree until he got close to me.
I still couldn’t see him, just his blond head.
“You’re cheating!” I said, pointing at his shifted claws. “I didn’t shift, so you should have p>
I knew he was smiling, and just as he was about to climb to my own branch, the moment I expected to see his handsome face.
GASP p>
I jolted up in bed and sat upright immediately.
I looked around, confused about where I was.
Hildegard was by my side, snoring so loudly I knew she hadn’t heard me wake up.
I held the bedsheets and swallowed.
What was that?
Didn’t feel like a dream.
Like De ja vu.
Felt like a memory.
A memory I had never had.
The last time something like this happened was when I saw the girl with red hair.
Felt exactly the same.
I told myself it was just a dream and turned back to sleep.
I felt something in my hand.
I opened my palm and discovered that I had a golden brown leaf in my hand.
The leaf of the tree I had climbed in the dream