Chapter 335
Night on the Ledge
Third–person POV
73
+8 Pearls
Meanwhile, Alpha Henry doubled the search party and sent more men combing the mountain while he personally led a contingent down to the cliff base.
Barry followed, silently praying to the Moon Goddess that Ms. Mary was safe–if she wasn’t, Alpha might actually snap.
Hundreds of werewolves spread out beneath the cliff, searching in the dark. As Alpha Henry imagined worst–case scenarios, a cold weight settled in his chest.
No. It can’t be. Aubrey can’t just be gone. She has to be up on the mountain somewhere- maybe in a cave, waiting for him. It has to be that way.
Aubrey sat on the ledge, listening to the wind scream by. She knew the ravine wind was fierce because the gap between the peaks was narrow; even if Alpha Henry pinpointed her position, no aircraft would be able to land. For a moment she felt utterly cornered.
If she had died in the fall, it would have been quick. But she hadn’t–now she faced a slow, creeping death, and that filled her with a fierce will to live. She resisted it.
For now, she decided, she would do whatever it took to survive the night.
She shifted slightly to press against the rock, looking for a spot sheltered from the wind, when the stone under her moved–barely perceptible, but it moved.
AÂ scatter of pebbles slipped away with a dry rustle. Aubrey froze, holding her breath. The slab she sat on must be embedded in the cliff face, and now it had come loose.
She tensed and, against the gale, inched along the rock inch by inch. When her back finally rested against the wall, she let out a long breath, curling into herself and hugging her knees.
Darkness. Solitude. Precariousness.
Sitting there, Aubrey felt abandoned by the whole world, as if she were at the edge of the sky or at the end of days.
Tiny stones fell from the seam where the slab met the cliff and tinked as they hit the void below. Like an hourglass, each little fragment falling felt like a clicking countdown.
Her acute hearing, usually a gift, became a curse–she could so clearly hear the sound of time slipping away.
Maybe in a few hours, maybe in a few minutes, she would fall with the slab.
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12:48 Thu, Sep 25
Chapter 335 Night on the Ledge
73Â
+8 Pearls
She didn’t dare shift into her wolf form–the ledge could only bear so much, and her wolf body was large and heavy. If she transformed, the whole thing might collapse.
Ella felt Aubrey’s fear and shut up, offering no thoughts. Nothing spoken would help now.
Aubrey curled tighter, and memories surfaced–warm, bitter, vicious images that came all at
once.
Her grandparents‘ indulgent smiles. Her mother cooking for her. Aurelia and Bailey bullying her. Jax whipping her with a wolf–poisoned lash.
I can’t die. I hate them. I haven’t killed Bailey yet.
The thought of Bailey being taken off by the Fog Pack and probably living comfortably now gave her an extra thorn of determination.
Then Alpha Henry entered her mind–his gentle look, his cold face, the flash of his anger- images forming until, shockingly, she found herself hoping he would come to her rescue.
Almost at once she squeezed her arm hard enough to hurt.
She shoved the thought away. In a past life she had trusted Alpha Henry once and been betrayed. She would not make that mistake again.