closer to the truth
brave you must be
the truth is not for the weak
and it is her you must seek

M A D D I E ♛

'You will be fine Dynami. You don't have to be scared.' the familiar voice said.

I felt like crying again, but I killed the sentiments that made me feel so.

But then memories filled my head.

Of a warrior named Dynami, of the wars she waged and won. Of her strength and her valour. She was the strongest out of her peers, although she was reckless, she had a very loyal heart.

She was clothed with the best armours and although they were heavy, she still moved with agility and speed.

And then I heard a lullaby. A familiar and haunting lullaby.

It started ringing in my head, I couldn't bear listening to it.

Who is singing?

I tried to move my head from left to right to get rid of the song. To get rid of the memories, everything is crazy right now. All of this is absurd.

Me, a warrior?

Everything went wrong since I stepped inside this pack.

Suddenly, my eyes opened and I gasped, desperately breathing for air.

I sat up the bed I was lying down in and started coughing.

"You're awake!" I hear a lady say and although I couldn't see her, I could hear her steps coming nearer and as she was about to lay a hand on me, I was quick to show my claws and stopped her hand.

I shew my wolf as I turned and growled at her. I was feeling so angry, so very angry right now.

But then I saw Lucy, Chase's mom. Her eyes were wide with shock, but she remained still. Next thing that I knew, Kasen and Owen were already in the room.

Seeing the scene, Kasen shew his wolf and lunged at me, making me let go of his mom. I was going to jump and attack him when I felt a familiar electrocuting touch hold me back firmly.

I turned behind me and was shocked when I saw Chase was the one holding me back.

Seeing him, my chest felt so heavy. All the emotions came coming back and then I hear his question from the other night ring in my head.

"You're scared aren't you?"

I wanted to tell him that I wasn't, I never will be, I can't be.

My heart was literally aching. I was going to explode, an unfamiliar feeling, I could feel my eyes start to water. Tears, again.

Under Chase's hold and staring into his eyes, I was starting to get defenceless.

Maybe, just maybe. I could be lower my guards around him? They say that he's my mate, I can... I can trust him right?

"Leave us. Make sure mom is alright." Chase said with a stern voice.

I yearned for the playful and cheerfulness in his voice, but it was gone. I searched for the adoring look he had whenever he looked at me, I found nothing.

He hates me now, doesn't he?

That thought made me feel even worse, I felt nauseous, I couldn't breathe.

Holding back the emotions in me was like holding water back with a broken dam.

One tear fell and then another, followed by another until I was actually... sobbing. My heart felt so hurt, I felt so helpless.

I started gasping for air, black spots appeared in my vision, threatening to take my consciousness away again. I fought to stay awake, but then I remembered the way Chase looked at me and that extinguished my fire to fight. I started to succumb to the darkness.

"Maddie, wake up. Maddie, damn it. Wake up!" Chase's voice rang in my ears, almost pleading as he put his arms around me, lightly shaking me. He called my name a few more times, telling me to stay awake. "Breathe, Maddie, breathe. Slowly." I followed his voice and started to ease myself and started to breathe in deeply and then out.

"That's it, just keep breathing. You're fine, you're fine." hearing him say it, I felt like I was truly going to be fine.

However, it didn't work. My eyelids felt heavy and I could feel them closing slowly, but before I was fully unconscious, I held onto Chase's shirt, a desperate act to keep him close.

♛

When I woke up, I was surprised to find that Chase was sleeping right beside me. To say that I was surprised was understatement, I was ready to push him off, scream at him and fight him for daring to even touch me.

But then I remembered what happened before I passed out and I decided not to fight the man.

He had his arm wrapped around me in a way that I was lying down on it, it must've been uncomfortable, but he didn't let go of his hold. His other arm was rested on body, keeping me close to him. We were both sleeping on our sides, pretty reasonable since the bed was supposed to be for only one person.

Being in such a close proximity to him was making me feel all sort of things that I didn't understand. I can't explain it, but all I can say is that it's not so bad.

I breathed his scent in. It was heavenly, it calmed me down, it shushed my worries with the mere assurance that he was beside me.

I remained still so I won't wake him up.

And then I remembered what I did to his mom and the look of hate that he gave me at trying to hurt his mom. Needles pinned my heart at the remembrance of the memory.

'Well, it was always too good to be true.' I whispered to my wolf.

'Mate does not hate us.' my wolf stated. I sighed, she usually didn't go against me, but that became different when we met our mate.

I didn't answer her and thought of the other things.

'Dynami, huh...' I tell my wolf again.

'I always knew we were different, but the moon goddess took our memories away in our human form. Thank goodness Chari made us remember or else we could have been in danger.' she answered.

I sighed, everything was still hard to understand.

'Strays, huh.'

My wolf was silent for a second. I recalled one of the memories I saw. It was a man. It was only his back, but I could almost be sure that I recognized him.

'The person behind the Strays... It can't be him right?' I ask my wolf.

'We can't really be sure, but... If it were him, then everything would make sense.' she answered. I flinched.

No, no, it can't be him.

I felt Chase stirring up beside me causing me to look up to him. My movement must have awakened him because when he opened his eyes, he immediately looked down on me.

Seeing that I was awake, Chase was quick to remove his arms around me and got up. He slowly got off the bed.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up." I said and sat up.

He messed up his already messy hair. "You should've woken me up earlier." he said, his tone still a cold one. When I didn't answer, he turned away and grabbed his jacket that he must've put on the chair beside my bed.

"Well, it seems like you're fine now. I'll come back tomorrow." he said again and put his jacket on.

Seeing him walk away, my chest tightened and felt the pins and needles again.

"I-I'm sorry for what I did to your mom... I just--" I was going to explain what happened, how shocked I was and everything else, but then he stopped me by turning to me, his eyes were icy and stern and that stopped me.

"You may be my mate, but I can't tolerate you hurting people dear to me." was all that Chase said before he walked through the door, leaving me alone in this rather cold and empty room.

♛

After Chase left last night, I barely slept. It bothered me that Chase was upset at me and to be honest, it was completely understandable. I was reckless and almost hurt his mom.

When morning came and Kasen visited in my care room, I could see that he was also hostile towards me.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it." I told Kasen.

Although he still had the same serious look as his brother, he sighed and shook his head slightly.

"I understand you Maddie, but you can't solve everything by fighting." he said. I nodded.

"Is it possible to talk to your mom? I want to apologize to her." I said, rather dejected. I'm not sure he would agree with me due to the hurt I almost caused his mom.

He thought for a while and smiled at me and that made me feel relieved.

"Sure thing. She is actually on her way, she is still worried about you. Just wait for her here." Kasen said.

Worried?

She was worried about me? Why?

I kept the question inside me and I nodded at Kasen. After that, he left saying that he still had things to do.

As I was waiting for Lucy, I wondered how Chase was doing. I wondered what time he was going to come and if he was still going to look at me with the same hateful look or not. Would he finally let me go? Would he finally give up on us being mates?

So many questions entered my head and I had no answers for them. I was startled by the knock on the door.

Lucy came in wearing a sunshine smile. She was carrying a basket and smelling the food inside, my stomach rumbled. I remembered that I hadn't eaten yet.

"Shall we go for a picnic? The weather's great outside." she said with a chirpy tone.

Isn't she angry? Doesn't she want to take revenge?

I almost killed her.

Is this a trap?

Despite the thoughts in my head, I found myself nodding and following her outside. We started walking further away from the pack clinic and she had been telling me of the food that she made for me.

We arrived at place near a lake and when we found a spot, she gave me a blanket and instructed me to spread it over the ground.

It was weird to me, but I followed. After I finished, she opened the basket and starting lay the food on the blanket.

I stared at her as she did this, the smile never left her face.

When she was done, she smiled at me and told me to sit. Although the dynamics were still weird for me, I slowly took place on the blanket, my back facing the body of water.

I was waiting for her to attack me or something, but it never came. Instead, she put food in a plate and passed the plate to me.

"You need to eat a lot, dear. You were asleep for a good week, you have no idea how worried we were." she said. There she is again saying she was worried about me.

"Uhm... I'm so sorry for what happened yesterday. I also didn't know what took over me, I just..." I wanted to explain to her what happened, but there were no right words to say. Bottomline was that I still tried to hurt her.

"It's alright dear. I know you must've been shocked. I heard from my son, that you are Dynami. You must've been shocked, weren't you." she said.

I was surprised that she... knew?

"Y-yes. Lately, everything that's been happening feels so absurd and crazy, I haven't been taking it well." I say, surprised that I was being honest with her.

Hearing that, Lucy smiled at that and put her hand over mine, an attempt to comfort me, and it seemed to work.

"I understand, Maddie. But I appreciate if you learn to hold yourself back next time, alright?" she says. I felt like a burden was rolled off my chest and for the first time in a while, I smiled.

Lucy looked surprised, but then chuckled.

"You look much more beautiful when you smile like that, dear. I'm sure Chase will like it if you smiled like that more." she started.

I remembered Chase again and my smile immediately dropped.

"Oh, why the sudden sullen look? Did something happen between you and my son?" she asked, worried.

"W-well, he is angry at me for what I did yesterday to you." I explained. Lucy chuckled again as if she found it adorable while here I was, literally breaking from the thought that Chase hated me.

"Okay, okay. I will help you with Chase, he's not hard to please." she says. There was an underlying tone in her voice, as if almost mischievous.

"N-no. Please, you don't have to do that." I shook my head vehemently.

Lucy chuckled softly again. She picked up a sandwich and started to munch on it. I did the same.

There was silence and somehow it soothed me.

She reminded me of Ashley's mom, the softness in their eyes, the gentleness they touched you with, it was naturally comforting.

My thoughts drifted again. I wonder if my own mother would've cared for me like this.

But then I shook it off.

No, stop.

Lucy started asking how I was adjusting to being in a pack and telling me how hard the changes must've been. I was going to answer her when I smelled a familiar scent.

Automatically, I lifted my head looking for him.

And then I saw Chase jogging towards us. Arriving in front of us, he switched careful looks between me and his mother. That made me feel uncomfortable so I looked away, choosing to turn to the scenery of the lake.

"Chase! Good morning, son. Have you eaten yet?" she asks and motions him to sit beside her which was directly in front of me.

I took a bite of my sandwich as he did so. I heard him give his mom a kiss on her cheeks, I felt his eyes on me, but I didn't dare meet them. I didn't know what to say or how to even react.

"I was asking how Maddie had been adjusting during this whole time." she chirps.

Chase coughed almost intentionally, but I disregarded it. The mother and son were chatting for a bit, but Chase's answers were curt and one worded.

After a while, Lucy suddenly stood up. I looked at her, alarmed. Where is she going?

"Oh my, it seems your dad is calling me. I must go to him now. Now, Chase, I trust you will take care of your lovely mate won't you? No more hard feelings, alright." she says, dusting her skirt and left.

And now I was left with Chase... alone.

----------------------

hello you all!

i know this is the first time i put an author's note in this story because i usually post them in The Alpha Broke the Omega. but here is a very lengthy chapter, quite eventful at that.

i hope you guys still enjoyed it though!

do tell me how you are liking this story, any feedbacks is always welcome <3

anyways, stay safe! i will try to update as much as i can.

much love,

skyy💕