A SAD GOODBYE

After a few days of taking care of me and treating my wounds, I was well enough. 

She gave me some medicine. 

"You need to take these." She advised. "It will help you feel stronger and eat."

She had helped me even though I was a stranger to her, even though she had known me for a couple of days when I had stayed back home in the pack and no one bothered to help me. 

I swallowed heavily.

"Thank you," I said. "I don't know how to thank you enough."

"You don't need to." She promised me. "That's what people do. Help each other."

All through the days that I had been awake, I hadn't seen Alpha Xaden or any of his men.

I had remained in the room until I had completely healed.

"Those lashes on your back." She told me. 

I kept quiet. 

She knew who I was. 

At least from what she told me, she knew that I was not Jessica. 

I smiled weakly. "I was disrespectful, and I was punished."

"You weren't." She told me. "Even if you were, no one deserves this. Especially not when it's their blood that orders it."

I felt a sudden sense of shame and embarrassment that she knew everything about me.

How could I explain to her that I was a bastard and nothing good could ever come out of me? 

I had killed my own mother when I came back from this world.

"I wish I could tell you, but I can't." She said. "You have a destiny, Jasmine. great one. Keep that in mind."

Me? Have a destiny? All I had done alive was suffer, and that was what I was going to do when I got to Alpha Xaden's pack. 

He had made that as clear as day. 

"I can't stop Xaden from any of the things he wants to do." She said. "He is a man who is fuelled by revenge. I wish I could. And I'm sorry that you are suffering for something you're innocent of."

I bit my lip. 

"You kept my secret safe; you healed me and took care of me." I said. "I have no idea how to pay you back."

"You don't need to." She said. 

Then she frowned and looked at the necklace on my neck. 

"Who gave you that?" she asked. 

"It belonged to my mother. She died after my birth." I replied. 

She stared at it for a while and said nothing. 

"Alpha Xaden hates me." It wasn't a question. 

"Yes," she replied. 

I nodded, and in the new dress she had gotten for me and my red curls made in a single braid, she led me outside the bedroom. 

I took in the entire house because it was the first time I had seen it since I had been unconscious when I came in. 

Outside, the men were all waiting. 

All eyes are on me. 

Xaden was the first I saw; he seemed to look even more handsome.

I looked down at the ground, aware that I was ugly, and he was most likely disgusted by my appearance.

The door to the carriage was opened as if inviting me. 

"You would ride inside. I've spoken to Xaden." Elena said she was surprising me. "You're still weak, and you can't even ride a horse because of what happened."

I felt my face flush with embarrassment and go red. All the men would know what had happened.

She led me into the carriage and helped me in. 

"Thank you for everything." I said it from the bottom of my heart. 

She smiled at me and turned to say something to Xaden in a different wolf turn. 

He nodded and then turned towards the carriage. 

I assumed maybe he would come in. 

But then he simply turned to a horse that stood beside the door. 

He hated me and wanted nothing to do with me. He would rather ride on his horse than with me in the carriage. 

"I'm sorry that I fell sick and made you waste your time." I apologised to him. 

He stiffened and said it without looking at me. "Save your falsehoods and keep your lies to yourself."

And then he got on his horse and led the party on the continued journey.