"July?" Lise called out her name. "Are you okay?" she looked at her with concern in her eyes.
"Lise, it has been a long time since I have not heard anything from you!" July cried happily and took a step forward to give her a warmest hug.
Lise chuckled and hugged her back, she felt safe with her and knew that they were on the same side in this chaotic situation. "I am sorry I didn't contact you often."
"You didn't contact me at all," July protested, despite Sol's feeling toward Lise and how many times he begged her to let him knew where she was, July didn't give any useful information for her youngest brother.
Because mostly July didn't have any idea where Lise was and probably because of the same reason that July didn't contact her so often.
"Where is the little girl?" The last time July met River, she was sure that the little girl was only two years old and had the same featured like her father.
They were in the parking lot and Anne was inside the car with River. July's first focus was on Anne, therefore she missed the little girl, who was sleeping soundly on her laps.
"Come here," Lise said, she hooked her arm around July's and took her closer to her car, where Anne was trying to put down River's head on the pillow and tried to get out of the car without waking her up to meet July.
July's stomach churned when she saw Anne and her eerie thought came back again in full force.
"July, it has been a while," Anne greeted her and hugged her.
There was a bitter smile on the corner of July's lips, but she tried to act as normal as she could, trying to not let that thought ruined this meeting.
"How are you Anne?" she asked, kissing her soft cheek.
"Old and tired," Anne replied in soft and hoarse voice. It sounded like a joke, but that was the fact.
"Ready to take some rest in my place?" July released herself from her and gave her the brightest smile that she could muster.
The word sounded light, but by the meaning of 'rest' it meant Anne would be under July's care that she wouldn't be able to see Lise and River so often, or probably she wouldn't see the two of them at all, giving how many time Lise and River visited July, it was none during these six years and she didn't know whether she would survive another years again.
The world was so cruel when the hard decision had to take, though it looked like the best decision at this time, but it didn't feel right…
"Yes, I am ready to rest in peace…" Anne looked at Lise, who was trying to hold back her tears.
"I am sorry," Lise whispered to her, as she hugged her a little bit longer. "I am sorry."
"I know, you don't need to be sorry," Anne said, she understood. Her life had been full with understanding, or else, she wouldn't be here at all and meet with them.
But then, there was nothing to be regretted when what's waiting for you was only the end of it…
Tonight would be the mating ceremony that had been waiting for the rest of the pack, some people looked very into it, but some of them looked restless.
And Blue didn't feel those feeling at all. She looked at the bright full moon, where she would be marked right in front of the rest of the pack by Emmet, under the moonlight, because that was how the ritual of mating ceremony in this pack would happen.
Blue was in her white dress, waiting for Liam to pick her up from her room to take her to the sacred river, where she would bath there with Emmet.
As clueless as she was, Blue just knew about this when Liam told her about the detail of the mating ceremony in his pack and she had never been so grateful to choose to go with Mateo's plan.
She would go out of this fucking pack this evening and Meredith also Mateo would help her with this simple plan.
Because Blue didn't show any aggressive rejection since the very beginning and responded it passively, Alpha Xerxes didn't think the need for him to take any precaution against her, thus the plan to sneak her out of the territory was quite simple, since all the people would be packed in one place, except for the guards, who were watching the territory.
One or two guards would be an easy fight for Blue, thus all they needed now was to take her out of the pack house without anyone noticing it.
"Are you ready?" Liam asked, when he appeared at Blue's bedroom door.
"No."
"I know," Liam said in desperation. "But, you need to face this."
Blue looked at Liam for a little while longer before she spoke. "I will rather have you as my mate than him."
Liam lowered his head, as his cheeks blushed, he murmured something incoherently that Blue couldn't understand, but she didn't need to hear it.
"Let's go," she said, standing up from the chair and walked toward Liam. She hooked her arm around his and the two of them walked toward, where the ceremony was held.
"Happy birthday," Liam told her when they walked in the corridor, there were not many people here.
"Thank you," Blue said in low voice, as they passed the first guard and walked across the field, which the end of it was where those people gathered together to enjoy the ceremony. "But, I am sorry."
"Hm?" Liam couldn't understand why she was sorry for, but then when he turned his head, he got a punch on his face and Blue literally tackled him down to the ground. Her arm locked on his neck.