Chapter 30 I Have Nothing to Do with You


    Charles POV


    Aubrey reached out; she lightly wrapped her arms around me. I was startled and pressed back tightly against the driver’s seat.


    My face grew even redder; it felt like my brain had shut downpletely. All I could think was at this distance… was she trying to….


    Then I heard a faint click- Aubrey had unlocked the car door.


    As soon as the lock clicked, she abruptly pulled away. The flirtatious look on her face vanished, reced by a cold indifference.


    “Don’t call me your cousin again. We’re not rted by blood, and we will never be friends. Stop following


    me.”


    With that, Aubrey got out of the car. I wanted to stop her; my hand reached out instinctively, but in the end. 1 let it fall helplessly.


    –


    I hadn’t realized that things between Aubrey and Aunt had gotten this bad so bad that the entire Lynn family had turned against her.


    For some reason, it left me feeling heavy inside.


    Frustrated, I shifted into wolf form and ran deep into the forest to clear my head. I couldn’t figure it out hadn’t done anything to Aubrey. Why did she resent me so much? Just because of a few biased words I’d said earlier?


    –


    Aubrey’s POV


    After getting out of the car, I went straight to a sportswear store on the street and bought a change of clothes; then I found a small motel and checked in. My status was tooplicated – only ces like this wouldn’t ask questions.


    Werewolves here were far removed from the power centers; most wouldn’t recognize me as Alpha Henry’s former fiancée.


    After showering and changing into dry clothes, I finallyy on the bed and felt a sense of relief.


    The room smelled faintly musty; I didn’t mind at all. I’d slept in far worse ces – this was already an improvement.


    After ten minutes, I got up again. I still had something to do.


    No matter how tired I was, as long as I hadn’t been captured or crippled, I never skipped the training my grandfather had taught me.


    –


    In my past life, I had lived to thirty–one; I hade to fully appreciate the value of this training. I even suspected that part of the reason/I hadn’t died from the Lupine Virus and had instead be atent carrier – was thanks to my ancient werewolf bloodline, this training, and the medicinal baths I had taken regrly.


    So I couldn’t afford to neglect it.


    The moment wereplex and demanding. I’d waited training when I was hist ots gears old, but in wen’t um 1 wat ten than I could truly sense the form of energy within me


    The Merswill merlilion relepe I’d learned depended entirely on that energy every nezille reflect on it


    the


    I had to keep my crength and focus sharp at all times.


    After a while, I was drenched in sweat. Subdenly, a loud crash erupted by my ear.


    Startled, I turned my head – arge ck wolf had smashed through the wooden window and leapt inside. It hit the Bloor with a thud, then shifted back into human form, lying motionless on the floor.


    What the heck? My body aching, I cautiously approached. I knew these small motels weren’t exactly safe. but this? I hadn’t expected things to be this bad.


    Before I could get too close, the man stirred, he frowned and lifted his head.


    “So disgusting. Get away from me.”


    As he spoke, his eyes had already turned red; his fangs bared as he snarled at me. The threat was clear–<i>if</i>! dared to scream, he’d rip me apart.


    I did instinctively take half a step back–not because he was intimidating, but because of <i>the </i><i>face </i>I now saw in the dim light.


    Pale as cold moonlight, the face was almost unnervingly handsome. His long, narrow eyes nted slightly upward: thickshes cast sharp shadows beneath them. His irises were a rare dark gold, like poisoned cornflowers. Across the bridge of his nose ran an old scar- not disfiguring, but adding a dangerous wildness to an otherwise perfect face.


    Wet ck hair clung to his forehead; droplets slid along his sharp jawline before vanishing beneath the open cor of his ck shirt.


    Even now, curled on the floor in a sorry state, an oppressive aura radiated from him- elegant, but deadly. like a predator lurking in the midnight forest.


    Most striking of all was the obsidian earring in his left ear; in the dim light, it gleamed with a ghostly blue- like a wolf’s eye glowing in the dark.


    Mateo. It was him… What kind of luck was this? I had only gone out for one night, and I had already run into Bailey’s future benefactor- the very executioner who would one day send me to hell.


    Suddenly, he lifted his gaze; his violet pupils narrowed to slits – the telltale sign that a werewolf was ready to strike.


    “Keep staring and I’ll gouge your eyes out.” His voice was low and rough, like sandpaper dragging over silk.


    I almostughed. Such familiar words. In my past life, he had said the same thing to me – “Scream again and I’ll cut out your tongue.”


    And now, the man who would one day shove me into the abyss was bleeding out on the floor of my cheap motel room.


    A sudden knock at the door.


    “Security check!” a rough male voice called, apanied by pounding. “Someone reported a fugitive!”


    Mateo narrowed his eyes; blood was seeping from a gruesome wound on his abdomen. Yet even now, he bared his fangs and threatened me.


    “Send them away, or I’ll kill you.”


    30


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