Chapter 77
Gannon had told me that Damian was back, and we would have two new additions to the castle. Looking out of our window, I could see the cars. Beta Damian stepped out and was arguing with someone, yet the angle I was at was blocking my view of them.
“Bloody hell, woman! How many times do I gotta tell you I am the King’s beta! I live here! What do you think? I would bring you here if I didn’t?” Damian snaps when I hear a child start crying.
“Great! Now you woke him,” Damian says, standing upright, and I notice the toddler in his arms.
“Give him here! Give me my son!”
“No! Do you want him? Then get out of the damn car!”
“Man, they have done nothing but bitch and fight the entire way back,” Liam groans.
“Fine! But if your King abuses me for trespassing, you can bet your damn ass I will whoop his!” the feisty woman snaps.
“Good! Whoop his ass! He is right behind you. Let’s see what you got, short stuff!” Damian shouts. “I would love to see it!” Damian snaps at her. The woman turned around so fast I heard Azalea gasp and rocked back on my heels.
“What is going on?” The King growls. Damian scrubs a hand down his face, looking exhausted, probably more defeated. I wasn’t sure.
“Kyson, this Tandi. Tandi, his royal highness King Kyson, you know the one you want to beat?” Damian mocks. Yet Azalea’s eyes were pinned to the woman, and her eyes were also on Azalea, her mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“Taylor?” she choked.
“Ivy?” Taylor stammers, looking just as shocked to see her. I thought she was dead; I could never have imagined seeing her again. Though I had always hoped she was alright I just believed that was wishful thinking,
AS
“Taylor?” Damian says, taken aback, but my feet were already moving as I raced to her.
“Taylor?” No, I couldn’t have possibly heard that right. The Taylor we knew was dead, killed by Alpha Brock and Alpha Dean for being a rogue. We were forbidden from going with her and received lashes that day.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s really you!” Azalea shrieked, throwing her arms around her.
“What are you doing here?” Taylor cries, clutching Azzy. She started crying, and I couldn’t contain my tears either.
“Wait! What about Abbie?” she says, holding her at arm’s length, and I bounce on my heels, wanting to rush down to see if it truly was her. Maybe I was having one of my moments. I had them before, and I knew if I could just touch and feel her, I would be certain. I wondered if I was dreaming. I sometimes suffered from differentiating between fantasy and reality, though I truly hoped I wasn’t having some psychotic break.
“She is here I can’t believe you’re alive!” I cried, clutching her face in my hands.
“Hang on, what is going on? Who is Taylor?” Damian says, and Azalea looks at Taylor.
Before I even realized what I was doing. I was on autopilot, looking for my shoes. Gannon asked me what was wrong several times before I even registered his voice speaking to me. “Abbie, what’s going on?”
“Taylor is alive!” I gush, needing to see for myself
“Whose Taylor?” Gannon asks me,
Gannon stared at me in confusion as I stared at him. What did he mean? Who was Taylor? I had no time to explain; I just needed to get to her, touch her to make sure she was real and not a figment of my imagination. But I knew he wasn’t going to let me run down until I gave even a brief explanation.
“Taylor was one of the rogue girls we were with at the orphanage. Ms. Daley hated how close we were and constantly tried to separate us. She said we were plotting against her anyway. Mrs. Daley’s friend broke a vase and blamed us, rogues. Taylor stood up for us, and it got her beat and kicked out. One day Azalea and I woke up to her gone. We looked everywhere surrounding that hell hole before we had gotten up the courage to ask Ms. Daley. She whipped us good for even asking.”
Gannon furrowed his brow, “We never saw any other girls close to your age in the documents we had taken from the Silver Shadow pack. This is just more confirmation of what we already suspected.”
I had no time for semantics; I needed to get down there; I took the stairs two at a time in my rush and rushed out the front doors. Just as I all but bolted through the door, I nearly knocked Trey over.
“Hello, can someone tell me what the fuck is going on? Did you give me your whore name?” I heard Damian demand, and I gasped at what he called her. Yet Taylor snarled, spinning on her heel to glare
at him.
“It’s a long story and Abbie?” Azzy glanced over her shoulder at me moments before my hurried footsteps caught everyone’s attention. The moment Taylor turned to look at me, I stopped in my tracks before I stumbled out of the door and down the steps. In a state of shock, Trey gripped my arm to keep me steady as my mouth opened and closed in shock. As I look at Azalea with the same shock that she clearly felt upon seeing Taylor, I find myself looking at Azalea, needing that confirmation from her.
Several steps behind me, Gannon and Tyson emerge from the castle. My bottom lip quivered when Azzy nodded to me, telling me what I was seeing was real before my feet were moving quickly, and I collided with Taylor. There was barely enough time for Taylor to catch me as my legs and arms wrapped around her.
“Azalea, Queen Azalea Landeena, I knew I heard that name,” she exclaimed.
“Have you heard of the Landeena’s?” Azzy asked her, shocked because I knew she couldn’t read like us unless she had since learned, maybe she had.
“Yes, of course,” Tandi says. When the King speaks, “Everyone has. It is in every history book, love. You and Abbie were the only ones oblivious to who they were, who you are,” he purrs at Azzy when Tandi speaks up while shaking her head, answering one of the many questions I had for her.
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