Page 3 of What Haunts the Heart
Claire.
"Oakley?" Her voice was hushed, but not at all sleepy. "Are you alright? I heard you cry out in your sleep."
My shoulders sagged in defeat. Of course she had…
"No," I whispered back. "Nothing's alright. Nothing is ever going to be alright again." The truth was glass in my throat, cutting me open from the inside. I closed my eyes for a moment, then gazed longingly up at the crescent moon. It gleamed bright in the inky sky, the clouds a haze all around it. At that moment, I wished I could trade places with it, wished I could dance among the stars. Maybe there, I'd find inner-peace.
Claire didn't say a word; she simply came over and sat beside me. Pulling her robe a little tighter around herself, she rested a gentle hand on my arm. "Do you want to talk about it? Or would you rather we just sit here? I'm here for you, Oak. We're in this together."
"That's the problem," I said bitterly. "We don't belong together and we both know it. I love you, Claire. You're one of my best friends and I would give you the world, if I thought that might make things easier. Except it won't. I don't know if I can do this." I swallowed hard. “I… I don't know if I can go through with it."
She was quiet for a little while, but she patted my arm. "It's okay, you know," she said, sounding far wiser than her twenty-four years. "To tell you the truth, I'm scared too. In fact, a little part of me wants to run away. Just…pack what few belongings matter most, and head out into the world. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I might find my queen and live happily ever after."
When I turned to look at her, though, her smile was sad. Wistful. Like she knew that that would never happen, no matter how much we wished for it.
"I'm sorry," I told her, reaching for her hand. "I wish I had answers."
"Me too." She linked her fingers with mine and gave a little squeeze. "We could always do what your brother did and run away together?"
Her laugh was soft and bell-like. Delicate. It was something I'd always loved about her. At her very core, Claire Cullins was innocent and sweet. She deserved far more than a hasty marriage with a man she couldn't love, just to create blue-blooded pups for their pack. She deserved a kind, strong Alpha who would lift her up and make her the happiest Omega in the world.
I looked down at my toes, chilled from the night air. For several moments, we sat in silence, hand in hand, gazing up at the sky. Her words spun webs inside my head. Run away? Could we get away with that, without Father hunting us down and skinning us alive?
Once upon a time, I would've doubted my own father would resort to bloodshed, but after Kinsley left… Let's just say he gave a whole new meaning to the word fear. If I called this wedding off, Father wouldn't just hurt me—he'd hurt Claire too.
"I wish we could," I murmured.
"Me too." She paused, tilting her head to the side. "Well, maybe we can't run away, but your father can't keep us from taking a little vacation before the big day.”
I raised a brow. I knew that sly look on her face.
She grinned impishly at me. "I know for a fact that there's a certainsomeoneyou've been pining over, and don't you try and tell me you haven't. I've seen that look in your eye whenever you come back from visiting your brother, all dazed out and happy. Why don't we go for a visit? You said Kinsley was having a big Halloween party, right?"
I blinked, surprised she'd remembered. "Yeah. He is, but that'd be cutting it a little close to the wedding, don't you think?"
She crossed both arms over her chest and puffed out her cheeks. "Like either of us really care about that."
"Yeah, but Father…” I grimaced at the thought of pissing him off any further. Some Alpha I was, cowering beneath his father's fist, but he'd always held that power over me. I hated it, hated how weak it made me feel.
I growled, long and low. All of a sudden, Claire's proposition seemed like the best damn idea in the world. My one last "fuck you" to the man who thought he could rule my life. Who thought he owned me, just because of our shared blood.
"What about him?" Claire asked, leaning in close.
"Fuck him," I said, matter-of-fact. "You know what? Fuck it. Fuck this wedding stress. We deserve a vacation, one last hurrah before we tie the knot." Warmth prickled through me at the thought of showing up on Eden's doorstep wearing nothing but a grin on my face. One last chance to hold the man my wolfheart yearned for. One last chance to leave my mark on Vale Valley before our futures were set in stone.
I paused. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Claire wasn't one to break rules. She had always been the meek, dependable little Omega her parents had raised to smile and look pretty. She might've been wealthy, but in her family, women were nothing more than housemaids. They didn't have the rights a man would, and in this case, once they married her off, her money would then become my money. There was a reason Father was pushing so hard for this union, however unhappy it made us.
She bit her lip. "Poppa will be furious, but he'll survive. By the time we drive home, everyone will be too busy with wedding preparations to really scold me. Your father is the one I'm worried about."
“He’ll get over it. You’re right, he can’t deny us this.” I gazed into her luminous blue eyes, starry like the skies above, and took both of her hands in mine. I drew them to my chest. "I love you, Claire. Maybe not the way it's expected of us, but Idolove you. I will do my best to give you a happy, fulfilling life."
"I know, Oakley. You're one of the good ones."
"Who knows? Maybe you'll run into your one true love in Vale Valley? Then we'd both have a reason to leave this place behind." I slowly stood. I pulled Claire to her feet as well, then planted a sweet kiss on her forehead.
She smiled sadly. "It's a nice thought, anyway."
