Slave to Destiny

Silence.

Everything was so quiet as I laid their completely paralyzed. I could feel the deep ache in my stomach. It hurt so bad. What had happened? Where was I? I willed my eyes to flutter open, but they wouldn’t listen to me. Why did everything hurt so bad? I attempted to twitch my finger. I wanted to move so badly. I wanted to call out.

“Gabby,” a deep husky voice whispered. Who was that? The voice was so familiar. I tried to put the pieces back together. “I love you,” the voice mumbled in my ear as the person stroked my hair lovingly. It irked me that I couldn’t figure out who it was. Than like a ton of bricks it all came crashing back to me. It was Cole.

Now why was I here? My mind searched desperately for the details of my injury. Considering I was a wolf and it hadn’t healed it must have been silver, but I’d never felt any silver hurt this bad. Slowly the details of my attack began to come back. Then in a giant wave I knew everything.

My eyes fluttered open allowing the light to enter, painfully.

Instantly Cole’s face blocked out the light as he hovered over me worry written across every aspect of his face. “Gabby,” he said quickly, “Are you okay?”

A slight groan was emitted from my lips as I snapped my eyes shut. “Where is the fucker?” I asked him quietly. The very thought of Edwardo made my body twist in anger and agony.

Cole’s face became distorted with pain as kissed me again and again all over my face. “Daniel and Henry are taking care of him,” he whispered grasping my tiny frame in his arms. “They say there is a traitor among us. What do you remember?” he asked me.

The words hit me like a smack across the face. A traitor? What did that even mean? Someone wanted me dead. The words were troubling. We’d held our positions for a few days and somehow we were already being attacked for them. How does this even happen? “All I remember is him pulling a pair of scissors out of his jacket and stabbing me. Blaire was the one the recommended him to me, but I hardly think she was the traitor.” Cole’s face hardened as he thought about it. Evidently he wasn’t going to let her off so easily.

It couldn’t be Blaire though, could it? That would be far too easy. No one would make themselves that obvious. They were merely framing her, right?

“I’m going to kill her,” Cole whispered anger lacing his words.

Sighing I reached out and shoved down the blankets suddenly curious by what my injury must look like. I was surprised to see my entire stomach encased in snow white bandages. Ever so slightly it could be seen that blood was seeping through. My stomach curled up in disgust. Cole looked furious beyond belief. “How did this even happen? Did nobody check him when he came in?” perhaps this was less a matter of who hired him and more a matter of poor security.

Cole sighed lightly before responding, “I honestly have no idea what happened, but we will discover the answers. The correct party will be punished…severely.” I sighed. This was just a hot mess.

“So why did it hurt so bad?” I asked wincing slightly as I attempted to turn my torso for a more comfortable position.

It physically hurt Cole to explain, “Apparently the scissors were also coated in silver dust that came off when you were stabbed thereby infecting the wounds. Some of the surrounding flesh had to be removed.” The concept was entirely new to me. Although I’d never thought about killing a werewolf, but come to think of it that would make sense.

Accepting the pain for what it was, I decided to get up out of bed. Cole appeared rather shocked by my actions I rose from the bed and stood up. “I’m not sure if you’re ready for this,” Cole muttered studying my face for ay indication of pain. I kept my lips in a firm strait line. I was stoic. I could take on anything.

“Cole, I have a wedding to plan,” I grumbled slightly annoyed. I was totally going to use Edwardo as my designer but then the asshole just had to go and try to kill me. Did he not think about how much of a downer that was on my day? I seriously thought I was taking a giant leap in this whole wedding planning thing, but now I’m just storming backwards.

Cole grinned at me before responding, “I guess I should be getting out of your hair then. I wouldn’t want to bother you while you plan.”

“Oh hell know,” I snapped at him playfully, “you’re helping me. I just got stabbed planning a wedding. I think I need some protection, don’t you?” The smile dropped from his lips as he nodded his head slightly in understanding.

A few hours later I found myself sprawled out across a couch flipping through magazines upon magazines of wedding oriented things. Cole appeared bored out of his mind sitting next to me absentmindedly spinning one of my curls in his cold, marble fingers. I didn’t bother questioning the twenty something guards that lined the walls outside the door.

Something told me that my castle would never be run the way the others were in the past. There was no room for mistakes when it came to keeping us safe. The thought bothered me more than I wanted to admit. What about Edmund? What about my future children? Would they be at risk? History has shown countless times that people who break the social norm and create a new way of thinking often end up dead.

Forcing my thoughts to think about planning the wedding never felt so good. Anything was better than thinking about the people who I love getting hurt because I exist.