Chapter 174
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I opened the door wider and stepped aside. “Come in, Liam,” I said softly.
Liam walked into my living room. He didn’t sit down on the comfortable sofa. He didn’t take off his jacket.
Instead, he started pacing back and forth on the rug. He looked like a caged animal. He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up. He looked stressed and very
tired.
“What’s going on, Liam?” I asked. “You look like you have seen a ghost.”
He stopped pacing and turned to look at me. His eyes were dark with worry.
“Faith, I have been noticing things,” he began. His voice was low. “Ever since I started coming back to the Eternal Pack to visit, things have felt… wrong. Strange.”
He took a deep breath.
“At first, I couldn’t figure it out,” he explained. “I was traveling back and forth between two packs so much so I thought maybe I was just tired.
I thought maybe I was imagining things because I was exhausted from the travel. But this is the reason I decided to stay longer this time. I needed to see if I was crazy, or if something was really happening.”
“And?” I pushed him. “What did you find?”
He walked closer to me. He looked around the room as if he thought someone might be listening in the shadows.
“I have noticed a big change in Alpha Astor,” Liam said.
The way he said Astor’s name sent a shiver down my spine.
“What kind of change?” I asked. “Is he sick?”
“No, it’s not sickness,” Liam said, shaking his head. “It is something worse. Faith, he looks like a cold man walking, he shows no emotions,” Liam said. He used his hands to explain. “He doesn’t get angry. He doesn’t get happy. He doesn’t smile. He just walks around with a blank face. His eyes… they look empty. There is just something very strange and unnatural about him.” Everything was just starting to make sense in my head because I thought I was losing it too.
“And that’s not the only thing,” Liam continued. “The strangest thing is that the one making
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most of the decisions these days is Luna–mother Ovelia. She sits in the meetings. She gives the orders. Astor just sits there and nods his head. He does whatever she says without a fight. It is like she is the Alpha, and he is just a puppet.”
My stomach turned but I didn’t say anything because I’m also just trying to digest everything he’s telling me.
“There is more,” Liam said. He looked angry now. “The Alpha King.”
“What about him?” I asked.
“He comes and leaves whenever he wants,” Liam said, clenching his fists. “He walks through the pack lands like he owns the place. He treats the Eternal Pack like it is his own backyard. He doesn’t ask for permission. He just takes what he wants. He acts like he owns the pack now.”
I walked over to the window and looked out.
“I felt it,” I admitted quietly. “Even though I’ve only been here for one day, I noticed it too. There’s a strange energy in the Pack. It feels heavy.”
Liam moved to stand beside me.
“Exactly,” he said. “But Faith, there is one more thing. And this is the part that worries me the
most.”
I looked up at him. “Tell me.”
“For some reason, everybody is obsessed with Annabella,” he said.
My eyes widened. “Obsessed?”
“Yes,” Liam said. Everyone likes her. They smile at her. They listen to her. It is almost like she has them under a spell.”
He paused and looked at me with sad eyes.
“Faith, it almost looks like she has been trying to fill your place,” he said gently. “She is acting like the Luna. And the pack… the pack is letting her do it.”
I felt a flash of hot anger in my chest. So, my suspicions in the kitchen were right. Annabella wasn’t just visiting. She was replacing me. She was taking my home, my kitchen, and my people.
My mind started working very fast. If Annabella was here, and if everyone was acting strangely, it meant something big was about to happen.
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“Liam,” I said, my voice sharp and commanding. “You need to leave.”
He looked surprised. “What? Leave the house?”
“No,” I said. “You need to leave the Eternal Pack. Right now. Tonight.”
I turned to face him fully.
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“You need to go to the Shadow Moon Pack immediately,” I ordered. “You need to start investigating Annabelle and that pack. We need to know why she is really here. We need to know what she was doing before she came here.”
Liam nodded slowly, understanding my plan.
“Now that I’m back that would mean that whatever plans our enemies have, they are moving fast. They are quickening their timeline. We are running out of time.”
“I will leave immediately,” Liam said without hesitating. But then he stopped. He looked at me with worry all over his face. He reached out and touched my arm gently.
“But Faith,” he said, his voice trembling a little. “I can’t just leave you here alone. Not with all these strange things happening. Not when the alpha is almost like a zombie.”
“I will be fine,” I said.
“You need to have somebody over here that you can trust. If I go, you are alone. Everybody seems is loyal to Annabelle and Luna–mother, even Astor himself. If things go wrong, who will watch your back? Who will help you?”
“I don’t need anybody because I’m quite capable of protecting myself Liam and for now the only thing you should worry about is protecting the Eternal pack and whoever is coming for us because I won’t spare anybody.”
I really hope that I can stop all of this before it it’s too late and I think I should have come earlier when I noticed that there was something different about Astor because my mate needed me and I wasn’t there.
