Chapter 5: No More Secrets
1318 Words
-Valerio-
“Okay, so let me see if I get this,” Garrett said.
Garrett, Lily, Octavia, Ethan, and I were all gathered in one of the living rooms on the ground floor, discussing what had happened the previous night. We were the only ones up this early in the morning.
Lily had fetched Garrett after Octavia explained to her that Kate was not coming back.
“Kate has left because she thinks she can bring Chris back, and now Octavia is Ethan’s guardian, and is… what? Supposed to raise him?” Garrett asked.
“I know I am a poor choice!” Octavia exclaimed.
Garrett shook his head. “No, of course not,” he said. “I just don’t get why he didn’t choose me!”
Garrett winked at Octavia, who just shook her head and crossed her arms, but we all knew Garrett thought she was a poor choice. I couldn’t really say what Chris was thinking.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they had been tortured together. Maybe Chris just believed that Octavia would never have to raise his son. Or perhaps he just believed more in her than we thought.
“Take him then!” Octavia said.
“O!” I interjected.
Octavia looked at me with a questioning expression, and I just shook my head.
“You’re his guardian.”
“But I can’t raise him!” she protested. “I am completely unqualified.”
“We will help,” Lily chimed in, holding Ethan on her lap. “You don’t have to do any of this alone.”
Garrett nodded. “Yeah, we will all help. We will look after the little kid until Kate comes back.”
We all looked down as Garrett echoed the same sentiment as Octavia, but that was because we knew Kate wasn’t coming back, and neither was Chris.
“What do we tell the others?” Lily asked.
“The truth,” I said.
“That we lost yet another one of us?”
I nodded. “There is no reason to keep it a secret anymore,” I said.
“Does that mean we tell James the truth now too?” Garrett asked.
I sighed, uncertain of what to say.
“I just don’t like how long we have dragged this out,” Garrett continued.
“I know…” I admitted. “I don’t like it either.”
“We were supposed to be done with Connor by now and telling James the truth. Now we don’t know how long we will have to wait.”
“James will be distracted,” I reasoned.
“But he needs to know, and the longer we wait, the more he is going to hate us,” Garrett insisted.
I nodded. “F*ck,” I whispered.
“It sucks, but we need to be honest about it all. No more secrets. We can’t allow it.”
I glanced at Octavia, who nodded in agreement, and then turned to Garrett.
“Very well,” I said. “We tell them all the truth.”
We all nodded in agreement, and silence gradually enveloped us as we sat there, feeling the weight of everything that had happened.
“What do we do with Connor?” Lily asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“We kill him,” Garrett said.
“Yes, but how do we get him out of hiding?”
Garrett and I looked at each other, neither of us really sure how we were going to draw out Connor. He had vanished entirely, yet we had become aware of a larger scheme at work, a plan he had shared with my mate.
He wanted to reveal us to the humans, and apparently, wolves around the world agreed, or at least some did. It was hard to say whose arm he had twisted to make them agree.
“We will make a plan,” I stated.
“And then we kill the f*cker. For Chris,” Garrett declared.
“For Chris,” we all echoed.
“But until we figure out how to draw him out, we’ve got some things to clean up,” I added.
“What?” Octavia inquired.
“I need to take care of all the alphas who have betrayed me.”
“No mercy?” Garrett inquired, sounding almost excited.
I had told him we no longer had to hold back when we burned Chris, and I had meant it.
“No mercy,” I reiterated.
Garrett smiled, and I saw his eyes shine a little.
“We aren’t the monsters!” Lily asserted, looking at us sternly.
“Beautiful, we need to get this over with,” Garrett said. “Once and for all. It wasn’t pretty the last time we punished the people who had betrayed Valerio, and it won’t be pretty now.”
“I don’t want my mate to be a murderer!” Lily exclaimed. “Octavia!”
Lily looked at Octavia, clearly seeking support, but Octavia just looked at all of us for a moment before glancing at Ethan in Lily’s arms.
“He needs a safe world,” Octavia remarked.
“And killing people is the way to get that?” Lily queried.
“These people betrayed us.”
“But we need to be better.”
“It is not really how it is done in our world,” Octavia stated. “It mostly comes down to power.”
“But isn’t that what we wanted to change?” Lily questioned, looking at all of us, and we found it harder to meet her gaze.
She had always been tough, and she was not afraid to speak her mind.
“Did we not want to bring in a new era? Is this really how we will start it?” she inquired.
“Fine!” I exclaimed, surprising Garrett with my decision. “We will have a trial.”
Garrett sighed but didn’t seem that disappointed because he knew what the trial would end with.
“Fine, a trial,” Garrett acknowledged.
Lily nodded, satisfied.
“We can’t forget who we are,” she said. “Or Connor will truly have won.”
“But Connor will get no trial!” Garrett declared, looking at me.
“Hell no!” I agreed, and my friend smiled.
“Good. Then I will get the others and tell them we are having a meeting.”
I nodded and stood up as well.
“Are you two joining us?” I inquired as Garrett left the room.
Lily looked at Octavia, who was still watching Ethan. Was my little mate already becoming protective of him? I smiled at the thought because, even though Octavia might not be very good with kids, I realized at this moment why Chris had chosen her.
There would be no one who could keep Ethan safer than Octavia. She would do anything to ensure the little boy had a long life. Chris must have known. He must have known Octavia would never forsake her duty.
“I think we will see you later,” Lily remarked.
I nodded. She knew that Octavia probably needed someone to talk to, and I was glad to see that Lily was ready to be there for her. Octavia needed her friend, and they already knew what we were going to discuss.
“Very well,” I said, leaning down to kiss Octavia on top of her head. “Don’t let this get to you.”
She looked up at me, almost a little shocked, because even though I couldn’t literally read Octavia’s mind, I always knew what she was thinking. I just knew her that well.
“It will all be okay,” I promised.
She gave me a small smile and nodded before I left the room, ready to go have this meeting.
- Writer
