Chapter 189
Chapter 189
Then everything was noise – shouting, snarling, the nanny’s cries my vision went dark. I must have passed out.
I didn’t know how much time had passed. It was probably only seconds. When I opened my eyes again, there was no one near me. I could still hear the sounds of struggle. It made my heart race with pure panic.
I’d stumbled to my feet, blood warm on my neck, heart pounding. I’d run without direction, driven by fear, until the trees thinned and the river appeared bright, cold, endless.
Something about it was magnetic. I don’t know if it was the comforting white noise of the rushing water or the promise of something cool to calm my flushed skin.
My legs had given out at the edge. I’d tried to call for Cassian, but no sound came. Then everything went black.
I gasped, clutching the edge of the table as the memory faded. The teacup slipped from my fingers and shattered on the floor.
The sound jolted me back into the room, my breath coming fast.
“Ellie?” one of the nurses called from the doorway, startled. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly, crouching to gather the pieces. My hands trembled. “Just… slipped.”
But I wasn’t fine. My pulse was racing, my mind spinning. The memory was so clear it felt like it had just happened.
The road. The rogues. Cassian’s voice screaming my name.
I pressed a hand to my temple, right where the dull ache had started – just below my ear. The same spot where I’d been struck.
It all made sense now: the scar that was still faintly visible there, the amnesia after the accident, the dreams that had haunted me ever since.
I hadn’t just lost my family. I’d been taken from them.
Was it an accident, a random attack?
It was hard to believe that it was, considering how many times I’d been targeted by rogues now. Then again, all I could remember was the rogues trying to steal my jewelry. That wasn’t exactly a compelling reason to attack an alpha’s children.
When I’d finally been found, the doctors said I’d been delirious, too injured to remember much besides my name.
By the time I’d recovered, no one came for me, because they hadn’t known where to look. The orphanage had been near the rogue zone. Too far from Moonstone. Too far for anyone to imagine that a lost child from a powerful pack would have ended up there.
My throat tightened. I remembered the woman who’d found me a kind stranger who’d wrapped me in a blanket and carried me to safety.
That moment had saved my life.
But it had cost me everything else.
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Chapter 189
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By the time my shift ended, the rain had started.
I walked out of the hospital in a daze, the world around me soft and blurred through the drizzle. I lifted my face to the sky, the cool drops mingling with the tears I didn’t bother to hide.
All this time, I’d thought my lost childhood was gone forever. That my memories had drowned somewhere she couldn’t reach.
I felt warmth from Cassian and Alaric, a familial warmth that I trusted on an instinctual level, but the memories had been so spotty.
This was one that I never expected to get back. The incident that caused me to be separated from them. The reason I was raised in a rogue orphanage instead of the Moonstone packhouse.
The flood of emotions was too much for me not to cry.
I felt like I needed answers. I needed to understand what else had happened that day. I had been lost, but I knew that Alaric and Cassian had looked for me, so why hadn’t they found me? There had to be an explanation, and there were only two people who could give it to me.
I had lost my family because of that day. Not even my memories of them had remained.
But the goddess had given them back
-piece by piece, dream by dream.
My mother’s voice echoed again in my mind: The goddess doesn’t make mistakes.
Maybe this was the reason for the visions. The connection. Moonstone.
Maybe it was never about prophecy or destiny. Maybe it was about remembering who I was and where I came from.
Maybe the answers for where I needed to go next would be found somewhere in my past.
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