CHAPTER 20


    Weeks has gone by, 3 weeks and 2 days to be precise. Nothing has changed much, as the 3 of them


    had hoped. Selena didn’t attend her graduation, she took the certificate from Dean Pete and continued


    working at Wildlife Research Centre. Her mood doesn’t seem to change much. Every day, she will go


    to work,e back home, eat and sleep, living a robotic life despite her friends effort to cheer her up.


    The career that she loved once doesn’t give her joy anymore. It looks like the moment Grandpa Kai


    asked her the promise, the same moment her life fell apart and a dark curse engulfed her.


    It wasn’t any better at Mountain Manuka. Zaden and Orion rarely talked and Make became the


    second beta to substitute her big brother during his absence. Zaden kept himself locked up in second


    floor room most of the time, no one is allowed into the room, even cleaning is not allowed. Most of his


    essential belongings have slowly shifted to this room. He keeps minimal contact to anyone including his


    mother. Hees out to run his business, attend to vigers need and then goes back into the room.


    He didn’t shift to his wolf in these past weeks, making him grow weaker and weaker. Grandpa Kai and


    his mother Ruth often get together to basically sigh, thinking about their alpha.


    Orion, on the contrary, never shifted to his human form and roamed the Mountain, following wherever


    his feet brought him to, hunting small animals when he is hungry and sleeping by the waterfall where


    he firstid his eye on Selena. Xavier and Sitka wille looking for him once in a while, try talking


    some sense to him but all they get is silence.


    One rainy afternoon, Selena was sitting in the porch swing alone, wrapped in a nket, staring nkly


    at the spot where the 2 jeep drove awayst time. Leonardo came with 2 cups of hot chocte. She


    refused at first but Leonardo insists. They worked sip by sip through the cup


    “I don’t like you like this” he started a conversation. Selena looked at him in confusion


    “Selena, you aren’t happy anymore. Something is taken away from you, isn’t it?” Selena remained


    silentTêxt ? N?velDrama.Org.


    “Go back to the Mountains, baby Bambi” Selena stiffened her back


    “What?” Leonardo nodded


    “Zaden said I won’t be happy there…” she said low


    “And I didn’t like Marine Biology. That didn’t stop you, did it? I didn’t like you hiking unknown mountain,


    did it stop you? I didn’t think it was safe for you to go to gun shooting ground, that didn’t bother you, did


    it? “ he made Selena think


    “Baby, you are the one that should decide what makes you happy, not me or Aaron or Zaden. You can


    be happy scooping cow dung as long as you like and decide to do it” Leonardo


    “But I want you 2 to be with me” Selena


    “This house is thest memory of your mother. But if I’m ever ready, I wille there, be with you.


    Plus, we don’t know if you would want to stay there forever now, do we? Just solve one issue at a time


    and we will see where it leads you to” Selena eyes dropped to floor, thinking every word her father said.


    He stood and sighed


    “A bird’s nature is to fly. You don’t expect it to do so, sitting in a cage. You know what a wolf is? It is


    nothing but a grown puppy let to run free. Its time to set you free” He pinched Selena’s nose making


    her smile. She took the whole night to think and got ready the next morning. Aaron was rebelling the


    idea but Leonardo made him understand.


    She arrived at the Mountain Manuka foot about 10 am and started to climb, alone, through the forest.


    It was 6pm when Zaden was sitting by the window looking out at the garden where a the dinner is


    being served when he noticed a figure walking fast behind the tall tree hedging. He narrowed his eye, a


    glimpse of ck curly locks caught his wolf eye as it widened noticeably. He ran out of the room, down


    the staircase and to the front door where he saw the now boiling Selena and Make trying to calm her


    down


    “What sort of wolfs are you? You didn’t notice a woman walking through your territory?” she threw a


    sharp re at Zaden and walked pass him.


    “What’s wrong?” Xavier just came to stand next to Make while Sitka already ran to get Orion.


    Make just opened her mouth before she got cut off


    “What’s wrong? I’ll tell you what’s wrong. I am a non-member of your pack and your guards out there


    didn’t notice me passing through your territory.” She walked to the ground floor room where she stayed


    last time, as if she owns the entire ce.


    “Is that a bad thing?” Xavier who followed her, questioned. She mmed her bag to the single bed and


    clutched her waist


    “It is when I got lost in the mountain, walking in circle for 3 hours, I mean, 3 fucking long hours, before I


    realized that I have been walking in a circle. It could have been avoided if only your guards did their


    ‘JOB’ properly. Do you guys have an SOP, standard operation procedure?” she is still fuming while


    Make and Xavier turned slowly to look, cocked their eyebrows at Zaden.


    “What did I do?” he asked them


    “You gave out order to never mention Selena, Alpha Zaden! That’s why the patrol team didn’t inform


    her arrival” Make said while she crossed her hand over her chest.


    “Shit. What if she got attacked by a bear?” Xavier isn’t helping at all.


    “So, it was you!!!” Selena crossed her hands across her chest and pouted her lips with anger.


    Thankfully, storming footsteps diverted her attention. Sitka and Orion came to stop in front of her door,


    panting for breath. Orion looked so dirty with mud on his body and wearing nothing but a loose shorts,


    as he just shifted to human.


    “And where have you been?” Selena questioned him with the same fume. Before he could answer, she


    took over


    “Let me guess, having fun with some bitch on forest floor?” holly shit, she shouldn’t have said that.


    Zaden crossed his hand over his chest and leaned on the door frame with a devilish smirk


    “Lock her up” Deja-vu


    “With pleasure” Orion cracked knuckles on his hand as he walked over, carried her over his shoulder


    and walked out of the room. Selena punched and kicked him with all her might


    “Let me down!!! I don’t like to be manhandled. This is against human rights and god, when did youst


    took a shower?” She shouted making Zaden smile, after weeks.


    “Za…den… I am hungry!!!” she manage to say it out loud before Orion took the first step on the


    staircase. He froze and turned around, showing Selena’s butt to the group. His eyebrow cocked as if


    questioning Zaden.


    “Put her down…”Zaden said with a smile and Orion obliged. She neatened her shirt, chin up and


    stumped her feet towards the buffet table. Orion wanted to follow when Make stopped him


    “Go get a bath Orion, you smell like wet dog!!!” They all got together at the same rocky corner they


    used to gather, only Jeffry,Jewel, Oliver and Noah are missing. After weeks, Zaden and Orion is almost


    back to normal in eating and speaking that made the whole pack back to normal. Selena was the magic


    that they needed, only this magic could also be a curse between the alpha and his beta.


    Sheter went to the room on second floor. Although Zaden tried to force her to morefortable room


    at third floor, she insisted. She noticed the room was a bit different with man’s clothing and toiletries.


    She slowly turned to re at Zaden


    “So that’s why you didn’t want me in this room” she stated the obvious. Zaden rubbed his palm over his


    neck.


    “Sorry, I will get it cleaned up” Selena gave him a fake smile, chasing him away from the spot.


    She then took a bath and came out with wet dripping hair and a towel around her chest when she


    heard a knock on the door


    “One minute, please” she quickly got dressed and opened the door a little and peeped out as her eye


    landed on Orion


    “Hey” he said


    “Hey…” she opened the doorpletely, letting him in. He looked nervous while Selena casually found


    a small towel and started rubbing it to her hair. She sat on her bed, crossed leg, still busy drying her


    hair


    “Sit…” she pointed at a chair, further in front of her and he did. He thrust his hands into his jacket


    pocket and pulled out a bar of chocte. He stretched his hands to Selena and she did the same to


    hold the chocte


    “What is this for?” she is unwrapping the chocte


    “One, because I didn’t get to say a proper goodbye…and two, I missed you…soooo much…” he said in


    low husky voice


    “But I am here. Your number one reason doesn’t fit” she took a bite of the chocte. The moon light


    made a drop of water on her neck glimmer like crystal and caught his eye


    “Still, I hate how we said goodbye…All because of Alpha Zaden, we couldn’t disobey him, werewolf


    thing, you know” he shrugged. She nodded


    “Thanks” she said. He wanted so much to ask about the kiss between Zaden and her but the possible


    answer strike terror within him. It was just a kiss and he still had a chance to win her, he thought. But if


    she realize that she likes Zaden after his questioned, that could take the worse turn. She is a virgin and


    any good kisser can shut her down. It doesn’t necessarily mean she fell in love with him.


    ‘This is just an attraction, Selena. I will win your heart and we will be together for the rest of our life. I


    promise you that, my love’. Orion thought to himself


    They were talking about random stuffs after that until Selena asked for a favor.


    “Orion, can you teach me how to shift?” Orion thought for a minute, does he know HOW to shift? It


    came naturally and he never paid attention on step by step of how to shift.


    “Hmm…sure, we will try tomorrow” he said with hesitation. He left to his room on third floor in the next


    15 minutes. Selena was too tired and she fell asleep within seconds. At the middle of night, about 3


    am, another knock woke her up. She shuffled to the door and opened it. Zaden with a clear, sober face


    was standing there, running his fingers through his hair while Selena could barely open her eyes,


    messy hair and a loose t-shirt with shorts. She had only 1 eye barely opened.


    “Can I sleep here?” Zaden straight to the point. Selena shook her head NO and he sighed low


    “Selena, I couldn’t…I couldn’t fall asleep in my bed.” He said with a hint of frustration.


    “Where is your room?” with that, they switched bed. She was sleeping in Zaden’s king size bed, only


    utilizing ? of the space while he slept in her bed, covering most of the surface area avable. It’s not


    like they never slept together before but after the good bye kiss, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to


    sleep together.