“I am sorry, Suzy. I wanted to tell you before doing anything. I even looked for you everywhere but you
didn’t tell me you went out. I needed to go to the basement immediately and when everyone was busy,
that was the perfect time to do that. I didn’t want to lose that opportunity.” Athena quickly explained
herself to Suzanne as Patricia sat there silently. She didn’t want to come between two best friends
though she knew she belonged to that group as well now.
“I am letting it slide for the last time but I have two conditions.” Suzanne spoke up in a serious tone.
Patricia and Athena shared a look before looking back at her with a frown..
“What are they?” She asked in confusion, thinking of the things Suzanne might demand for.
“First, you are going to tell us everything. Why did you go there, what you found out till now, what you
have been doing. Everything. And secondly, you are going to tell us everything you do from now on.
Include us i n everything. We are friends and we want to be beside you in your hard time. Because you
need to understand that you can’t solve everything on your own.” Suzanne said in a strict tone and
Patricia immediately nodded after her. Because her words made a lot of sense which Athena needed.
Athena let out a sigh after hearing her. She could understand what Suzanne was trying to say. But can
she actually abide by it word by word?
“Listen to me, girls. First of all, I am very grateful to have you guys in my life. Secondly, you should
know b y now that my life is more fucked up than anyone can imagine. Every stage of my life holds
nothing but danger, in every step. So, at the end, what I am trying to say is, I promise to share
everything with you unless it’s something dangerous for you. I will never do anything which can put you
both or anyone close to me in danger. I don’t want to hear any argument about that. Now, you decide if
you are into it or not.” Athena said in a serious tone and gave them some time to think and decide.
Suzanne and Patricia shared a small look and they immediately knew their answers. They had a look
of determination in their eyes as they looked back at her.
“We are in it. Because we are friends.” Suzanne said in a serious tone.
“And what kind of friends we would be if we leave everything on you to share. We promise to be careful
enough to notice things which you won’t be able to share with us.” Patricia added after Suzanne and
they both nodded at her. Athena looked at them with a smile and her eyes got teary in gratefulness.
“So, let’s make a promise today.” Athena said with a big smile before forwarding her hand toward
them.” Let’s make a promise to our friendship that we will never let it break. No matter what.” She said
and they immediately kept their hands above hers.
“That’s a promise!”
“That’s a promise!”
They both exclaimed out loudly at the same time. They three ended up hugging each other after that.
They pulled back after a few seconds and sat on the bed into silence.
“Okay, so let’s start now. Tell us everything. From the beginning.” Suzanne demanded, suddenly getting
serious, Patricia also got serious as she gave her attention to Athena. Athena closed her eyes and let
out a sigh. She gave herself a moment before looking back at them.
“The person I went to meet in the basement is my father.” She said mistakenly, out of habit but before
they could react out loud. She quickly realised what she did.
“Foster father! Foster father, I mean. Not my real father.” She quickly corrected herself.
“Gosh! You gave me a heart attack there for a second.” Patricia let out a sigh of relief and Suzanne
seemed to be in the same state as her.
“Sorry, I said that out of habit. So, what I was saying is. He is someone who brought me up after finding
m e by the end of the forest when I was hardly two or three years old.” She said while looking down, as
the realisation started to hit back again.
“Oh my!”
“I am so sorry, sweetie!”
They both exclaimed in sadness and held her hand tightly to provide her support.
“His name is Robert. He is a filthy and sneaky rogue who lives by stealing things from people. He is a
very big pocket picker. And I grew up with him, so you can imagine how I was growing up.” She let out
a sigh and gave them some time to get things inside their head.
“So… SO… Please don’t take my word offensively but you…. Were you a pocket picker?” Patricia
asked in astonishment with widened eyes. Athena chuckled hearing her.
“Not any normal pocket picker, I was given the title ‘the queen of pocket picking’ for my excellent
performance.” Athena joked and they both looked at her in shock.
“Whoa! Really?!”
“That’s so cool!”
They both exclaimed at the same time.
“I know right! It was actually really cool and no one could beat me in my job. I was the best at that. I
think I really stood up for the meaning of my name in that case.” She joked with a small chuckle.
“What’s the meaning of your name?” Patricia asked.
“Athena means goddess of wisdom. But Athy, you are not only smart in that but everything.” Suzanne
spoke up with a serious look on her face. Athena smiled hearing her.
“Thanks, Suzy.”
“Is that why Dominic called you a thief?” Patricia spoke up with a frown as he remembered him calling
her a thief in her initial days here. Though it changed a lot now and Dominic sobered up a lot as well
but she clearly remembers him calling Athena that.
Athena frowned hearing the question as well. Because she wondered the same. She didn’t have the
answer to that question. Dominic was always accused of stealing something from her but she never got
to know what.
“Well, Patricia, trust me. You are not the only one who is looking for that answer. I am equally confused.
I don’t know why he calls me that. But let’s not bring that up now.” Athena said with a frown and they
both nodded at her.
“Yeah, so I spent most of my life doing what I was taught to do while knowing that Robert was my
father. But a few years back, I slowly started to figure out that it wasn’t the truth. He wasn’t my father.
But I still stayed with him, pretending to know nothing while looking for the truth until…. Until I met
Dominic and people and things got so messed up and even before I could understand anything, I found
myself in the basement or shadow eclipse pack, Robert sold me to Derrick.” She fumed in anger as she
told them about the disgusting thing and they both were equally angry.
“That piece of shit!”
“I would kill him!”
They both exclaimed at the same time yet again.
“Well, trust me, I am equally angry with him and that’s the reason I got him stuck there. So that I can go
to him whenever I need any answer without taking the trouble to look for him. At the same time as he
was stuck there, he didn’t have any options other than answering me.” She said with a smirk, proud of
her plan.
“You stuck him there? How?” Patricia asked in confusion. Athena smirked again hearing that. Then she
told them about her ‘master plan’ on how she trapped him and they were shocked would be an
understatement.
“Oh my, Athy! You are so smart! Damn!” Patricia laughed out loud while praising Athena.
“That was actually brilliant but I still couldn’t understand why you endured so much in that shit hole
called shadow eclipse pack for all those years? I always tell you to get out of that damn thing but you
never listen!” Suzanne snapped with a frown.
“Well, it’s not important at all. I was just too tired at that time to fight anymore at that time and I couldn’t
have managed to go too far with Ace but whatever. That’s not important.” She said with a sigh and
Suzanne nodded at her, understanding what she was talking about..!
“Okay, but why did you go to meet Robert today?” Patricia asked with a frown.
“That’s because I wanted to make sense of a few things that I got from the box that he gave me that
night. ” Athena said with a sigh as the mystery was killing her.
“What are the things? Show us. Maybe we can help?” Suzanne offered and Patricia nodded, agreeing
with her.
“Wait a second.” Athena said before opening the button of her shirt and the things fell out.
She was hiding the things underneath her shirt which was tucked inside her jeans. She was wearing
just a bra inside. She obviously didn’t open up like this in front of Robert but she didn’t mind now as it
was just girls and the matter was too serious to worry about.
“What are these?” Patricia asked in confusion while picking up the small crown and looking at it in
astonishment because it was really beautiful with red ruby stones all over. It looked like a fire burning. It
was beautiful.
“I don’t know but he said these were with me when he found me. The crown, this locket, this symbol,
and these papers with all these things written on it. I don’t know what it means.” She said in confusion.
“Is that all?” Suzanne asked while picking up the symbol and looking at it with a frown, trying to
understand what that could mean.”
“No, I have got another thing.” She said with a frown.
“What is it?”
“The ‘S’ sign tattooed on my left waist with a crown on it and the colour is again, fire red.” Athena said
while showing them the tattoo by raising her shirt. They both looked at it in astonishment for the nth
time that day,
“My goodness! That’s so beautiful!”
“That looks so royal!”
They both gushed as they looked at it without blinking their eyes. Athena looked at them with a sigh
and a tired sigh left her mouth. She left the shirt just the way it was, without noticing how it got riled up,
exposing her milky white waist.
“Snap out of it, girls! Focus!” She snapped at them and they immediately came out of it and looked at
her with widened eyes. They seem to be still in daze.
“So, what should we do now? Because it’s clear as daylight that if we manage to solve it, we will get
our destination. But they are all so confusing. What to do?” Suzanne asked her with a frown.
‘‘I know they seem to be confusing at first glance but I think they all point at one thing if we manage to
solve them.” Athena said with a thoughtful look on her face.
“I have an idea.” Patricia spoke up after a long silence as she was lost in thinking of what they can do
in this situation. Athena and Suzanne looked at her with widened eyes. What is it?”
“What is it?”
They both exclaimed at the same time.
“How about we divide the things between us and each of us takes the responsibility of finding what the
things possibly means? And then we come again and compare all the possibilities and select the best?”
She proposed and the girls looked at her with big smiles.
“That’s smart, Patricia! Let’s divide up the things! But you have to take great care of them. I don’t want
anything happening to them.” Athena warned them in a serious tone and they nodded at her with the
same level of seriousness.
“You can put trust in us regarding them.” Suzanne assured and Patricia nodded immediately.
“Okay, so I already have the tattoo. I am keeping the locket with me. Patricia, as you know the library
better than any of us. You take the sign and symbol and look for them in the library to see if you find
anything there. And Suzanne, you take this crown and see if you can get any knowledge on the design
and find anything about the rubies. They seem to be special to me.” Athena said while handing them
the things.
They all took them with a lot of care but before any of them could say anything, they suddenly heard
the door opening. Suzanne and Patricia quickly hid the things underneath their dress without even
looking at who it was.
“He fell asleep while pla-…” Dominic stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, seeing the girls
present in the room as well. “Oh, you girls are here.” He acknowledged them with a small nod and they
bowed a little at him out of respect.
“Hello, alpha.”
“Good afternoon, alpha.”
They both greeted him while standing up quickly while hiding the things skillfully. Just when they moved
away from the bed, Athena became visible to him and as soon as he saw her, his breath hitched.
Athena was sitting there, oblivious of what was happening. She sat there while looking at him
innocently and casually. Her hair was open and was flying in the air because of the wind coming from
the window. Her front side was opened wide in front of him and the only barrier was the bra. Her shirt
hangs by her shoulders, desperate to leave her body and find a place into some corner of the room.
Dominic felt his body getting hotter every second he looked at her. His breathing was getting ragged as
his wolf was fighting for dominance to get control. It wanted to pounce on her and mark her as his then
and there. It was suddenly getting so hard to breathe that he was feeling as if someone had put his
whole body in fire
Was it a sudden heat rising up?!
“A…alpha? Are you okay?” Patricia asked in confusion, seeing him sweating so badly while getting so
red all of a sudden.
“I… I… take him and put him to sleep in a room with you guys and leave the room fast.” He ordered in
a rough voice, making them shocked.
But his tone was hard enough to make them follow it without any second question. Patricia quickly took
a sleeping Ace from his arm and they both ran out of the door.
“Close the door behind you!” He ordered while looking at a confused Athena before they could leave
and they immediately followed it. And now it was only them in the room and Athena was still confused
about what was wrong with him suddenly “A…are y…you okay?”
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