Chapter 309
Chapter 309
Avery’s POV
I left while Gideon was still fighting Asher on the cliffside.
Guilt and regret consumed me as I heard those snarls echo in the distance. Flames licked at the treetops behind me, the camp’s fires having caught the brush during the fight. Still, I didn’t stop. Not even when every step was agony. Not even when I started to cry, my vision blurring with tears.
I just kept moving.
The forest was dark and unfamiliar, but in wolf form, I managed to find the trail. I followed the stars west, toward Nightwolf territory. Toward my mother.
Had to get to her. I had to get us both out of here before Gideon came looking for me.
Because he would come looking. I knew that much. Not because he loved me, but because I was carrying his heir. His precious bloodline. And he would stop at nothing to ensure he got it.
My chest ached at the thought that the man once loved would see me as nothing more than a broodmare, but I shoved the feeling down. There was no time for heartbreak right now. That could come later once I was safely in the human lands, but now I needed to focus on my mother.
By the time I reached Nightwolf territory, the sun was rising. The estate loomed ahead, exactly as I remembered it.
I approached the gate, and the guards recognized me immediately. Their eyes widened.
“Luna Avery?” one of them stammered.
I didn’t respond. I just pushed past them and headed toward the estate,
My mother’s room was on the second floor, took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the burning in my legs. When I reached her door, I didn’t bother knocking. I just shoved it open.
The room was empty.
“Mom p>
I stepped inside, looking around. The bed was made. Her things were still on the dresser. But she wasn’t here.
1/3
Chapter 309
+25 Bonus
A cold feeling settled over me. Something was wrong. I turned and ran back into the hallway, nearly colliding with a servant.
“Where’s my mother?” I demanded.
The servant’s face went pale. “I… I don’t know, Luna. I haven’t seen her since yesterday p>
“Yesterday?” I took a step forward. “Where was she yesterday p>
“In her room. But then Deirdre p>
Deirdre. I should have known. 1
I searched the entire estate. The kitchen. The library. The garden. My mother wasn’t anywhere, and neither was Deirdre.
Finally, I searched Deirdre’s room. It still smelled like her, the air cloying with her perfume. It was pristine, the bed made, everything hanging in perfect order in the closet. I bit my lip, looking around.
Suddenly, I spotted something near the bed. It was dark and grainy, and when I crouched, running my fingers across it, I realized that it was dirt. Curious, I peeked under the bed, and saw a dark shape. I reached out, barely having enough wingspan to reach it, then pulled it out.
It was a rope. Thin and short, like it had been cut from a longer one. The fibers were caked with mud.
I lifted it to my nose and inhaled.
Rosemary.
There was an abandoned greenhouse at the edge of the property. No one went there anymore since the glass had been shattered during a storm ages ago, before I came here. It was overgrown and remote, and mostly just a place for small critters to call
home now.
It was the perfect place to hide. And if she had my mother, perhaps as some kind of revenge plot…
I ran toward the greenhouse without hesitating. My body burned now, but I didn’t stop. Finally, the greenhouse came into view, its glass walls clouded with dirt and algae. The door was ajar.
I slipped inside.
22/3
Chapter 309
+25 Bonus
The air was thick and humid, heavy with the smell of rotting plants and stagnant water—and old rosemary from the multiple pots of it near the door, which were all overgrown now.
“Mom!” I rushed forward.
My mother was tied to a chair in the center of the room, unconscious and gagged. The same rope I’d found under Deirdre’s bed was binding her to the chair.
And there, in the center of the room, was my mother.
D
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