14 Chapter FOURTEEN

There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone processed what was confessed.

"Um, what?" Amelia said, her voice showing she did not buy Olivia's words. In fact, she looked disgusted.

"I suspected he started ever since the year began. I thought it was just a flux, but it happened that morning. A couple of months ago... I don't remember exactly when. Owen and I both saw it. We saw him looking at you differently the moment your hands touched that morning. Even when he went ahead to hit you, it was too late. We already saw when he hesitated."

"Wait. He hit you?" Charlotte asked, much to Amelia's annoyance.

"And things started changing from that point," Olivia continued, getting a faraway look as she was lost in her memories. "He started changing. He stopped being the Declan we knew. He stopped coming after you and told us to do the same. He started avoiding us, choosing to be by himself. He even got more serious with his studies and refused sex from me. Me, his freaking girlfriend! All for you!"

Amelia raised an eyebrow at Olivia's words.

"I'll be damned if I ever let a human be the Luna of the pack," she confessed. "People like you are below us, and should always be. That is not supposed to change."

"I agree," Owen said. "Especially now that we know you're actually a witch."

Things clicked that instant. Amelia could not believe the raw rage emanating from the two people who were standing in front of her. She thought they were just bullies, known to project their desires for things they lacked in their lives; apparently, those two knew what they were doing all along, and they were not sorry for it.

"You sick assholes," Mia commented as she looked at them. She glanced at Amelia momentarily, wondering what the girl had gone through because of the werewolves. The witch ignored her, not really wanting to talk about, and also hating the fact that a part of her past was being revealed for all to hear.

"We did what we had to do to survive," Owen commented.

"I don't get why you decided to kill your future alpha," Axel said.

"We didn't at first," Owen replied. "We planned to get rid of her before the summer holidays began," he pointed at Amelia, "but things went the other way. We couldn't risk coming after her without being punished for it."

"How I wish we could have killed her sooner," Olivia sighed in regret. "We would have done everyone we lost a huge favour, and they could still be here with us now."

Amelia could see the hurt in the werewolf girl, but she looked on, unfazed.

"But Declan was the bigger idiot," Owen said, and Olivia nodded in agreement. "The guy was a fucking idiot."

"That attack of his on you," Olivia said as she stared at Mia. "That was not our plan. We were not involved with this."

Amelia believed Olivia in spite of the past they shared.

"He was still in grief from what had happened to his parents," Owen eyed Amelia when he said that. "He felt betrayed, by the way. He was going to ask you out on a date…"

Amelia fake-gagged, revolted by the notion of the person who tormented her actually liking her.

"…but that changed when he found out you were a witch. The dude was going crazy with rage, and he wanted revenge for what you did to his family. He wanted revenge for what you did to our kind."

"So, what happened?" Emmett sighed. "After he attacked Mia, what happened?"

"He told us about what he had done," Owen said. "We were all pissed, to say the least."

"For one, we are still grieving for the people we lost. He wasn't the only person who lost someone they cared about," Olivia spat. "The bastard went ahead with his plan without telling us! Also, what kind of idiot makes a plan like that without thinking about the repercussions?"

"He forgot that werewolves are not the leading power anymore," Owen mentioned with a faraway look. "The vampires… as much as it hurts me to say, they are more than us. They've got the upper hand this time. We are far from home, and our population is like a drop of water in a desert. That is how few we are. It's even a miracle we are even here."

"But you killed Declan!" Amelia yelled at them. The vampires in the room looked at her as if she was crazy, wondering why she was acting like that.

"It had to be done," Olivia said. "Everyone figured out that this was not the way to go. Declan would lead us to a path of destruction and loss, and we have already endured enough of that, no thanks to you."

Amelia tensed at Olivia's words.

"So we all decided to get rid of him," she concluded. "We dumped his body on top of Mia's to make it look like you two got into a fight and ended up killing each other. Just something to cover up that we had a hand in this."

Mia laid back on her seat, feeling some kind of headache approaching.

"I cannot believe this," Emmett said, staring at Owen and Olivia.

"If it's worth anything," Olivia offered, "we are sorry for what we did. I know we don't belong here, and we plan to get ourselves out of this island the moment the planes return."

No one said a word after Olivia's statement. She and Owen slowly turned and left the office.

"What a mess," Charlotte commented seconds later. "I can't believe they did that."

"I do," Amelia said, and everyone turned to face her. Charlotte stared at her, seeing no emotion on her face. She looked still… too still.

"Now that we've gotten our answers, I'm going now. I have some stuff to do…" she trailed off, not saying more as she walked out of the office. It was when she was approaching the exit of the school that she teleported herself to her home.

She found privacy there. There were only sounds of birds chirping and other woodland animals outside the structure.

She collapsed on the ground, and soon, sobs wracked her form. The emotions confused her. Maybe the spell didn't work as well as she had hoped, but she pushed that away, continuing to weep for Declan.

****************** ******************** *********************** *****************

The day came to an end. Amelia was at war with herself, specifically with how the vampires reacted to the spell she had cast all over the island. Ryker and the rest were right when they told her that casting the spell was not good. She knew they were right, but she concluded not to remove the bliss spell, seeing it was better for everyone to continue on with their lives that way. She even thought that it was good for them to be distracted from all that was happening in the outside world.

Also, with what had happened on the previous day, she did not want to be attacked by everyone at once.

Owen, Olivia, and the remaining werewolf kids had decided to meet up early that morning at the beach. The sky was still dark, and the waves were softly crashing against the sand. The only source of light was from the bonfire they had started to illuminate their surroundings.

"Okay, guys. This is what we are going to do," Owen stated, using a stick to draw a map of the island on the ground. "We need to find Amelia's house. The sooner we find her, the sooner--"

"Oh, you guys!" a cheery male voice cut him off. Every werewolf stiffened as they turned to face the person.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Olivia asked with a growl in her voice. She shivered a little, but it was not because of the cold wind. The person was not alone as he had two guys behind him.

"I saw a bonfire at the beach and I thought I would join the party," Axel said with an evil grin.

"There is no party here," Owen said. Axel moved toward them, making his way to the diagram they had drawn on the sand.

"Oh, nice. You should be an artist," Axel mocked. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is a pretty nice strategy drawing."

He stared at the drawing, quickly confirming that the werewolves were up to something.

"You planning to attack the witch?" he asked point-blank. Owen tensed.

"It's none of your business," Owen stated.

"I don't mind," Axel said. "In fact, I want to join you guys."

"You do?" Olivia asked him with a puzzled look.

"Of course. I want that witch as dead as anyone else," he grinned.

Owen and Olivia shared looks of relief. The other werewolves looked on with uncertainty in their eyes. They still did not trust Axel and his group.

"However, I have a couple of things I need to check off first," Axel said, quickly pulling out his dagger and stabbing it in Owen's neck.

Olivia screamed as Owen stared back at her in horror. Blood spilled from his mouth, splatting onto his chest and onto the ground before he went to his knees and fell flat on his front.

Axel went to pull out the dagger in Owen's throat. The other werewolves watched, waiting for him to get up, but nothing happened. He lay there, eyes wide in horror as his soul left his body.

"Owen!" Olivia bent to shake the werewolf's form, hoping he would get back up. But he did not.

"Did I fail to mention this dagger has hints of silver in it?"

Olivia looked up at Axel, fear in her eyes. She slowly backed away, seeing the predatory glint in his eyes.

"Hey, guys," Axel told the two vampires behind him, still staring at Olivia. "I believe the witch told me to get on her level if I ever want to fight her. So before I do that, how about we get this party started?"