Darius let Jasmine know about the latest news of what had happened in Lucinda city, to the organization that her father built with the government to create elite soldiers that would be called the Hound and the Delta.
However, there was an attack on the organization base, which caused the death of her father, Archie Williams. He died in that attack along with a few other soldiers.
At first, Jasmine thought this news would never affect her.
She didn’t hate her father when he chose against sending anyone to her rescue, but it would be a lie if she said she wasn’t disappointed.
After all this time, she still felt like she was not enough for him. Even after all she had done for the organization, her father only thought highly of Sol just because he was a man. His son. She hated that.
Jasmine hated herself for letting something like that bother her because she knew her worth and what she could do. She could do far better than Sol.
However, her father had never acknowledged that. That part of her life sucked.
Her plan was; to return to the organization on her own and prove to her father that she could make it without him, she could survive and find her own way to escape from the wolf den, to see his expression when she did it.
But, that would never happen, because he died. He died and Jasmine was still hung up on the thought that she could make her father see her worth.
.....
Anger and disappointment and all sorts of negative feelings washed over her at the same time, and like a broken dam, she started to cry.
If it was not for Darius, who held her together, so she wouldn’t break into pieces, Jasmine was sure she wouldn’t even be able to stand on her own feet.
But right now, she had a shoulder to cry on and a pair of strong arms that wrapped around her body to prevent her from crumbling even further.
She had Darius by her side and that was the only thing that could keep her sane.
He whispered sweet nothings in her ears and hugged her tightly, because that was all he could do and what Jasmine needed the most at a time like this.
“It’s okay...” Darius whispered to her. “Everything will be okay.”
Nothing would be okay for Jasmine, she knew that, but she still clung to those few words and let herself be vulnerable in front of Darius, something that she had never done even with Liam.
When she had been with Liam, there was nothing to cry over and everything was great, up until their separation when the supernatural creatures wreaked havoc in the capital city.
But, with Darius, she cried harder and showed her ugly side to him and yet, he was here to hold her world that started to fall apart.
The concerning thing was; Jasmine started this because she wanted to use him as a shield for her, in case Liam didn’t make it in the East Draghar, she could ask for him to help her run away.
But now... she fell too deep without her knowing.
This became a serious thing.
=======================
“Prove yourself that you are worthy of this chance,” Zach said, as he set a strange gun in his hand, it didn’t look like a gun with a bullet, this weapon looked more like a gun that you could use to pierce holes into your body.
“I will,” Nikolai said grimly, his whole body was in extreme pain, but he needed to act as if it was nothing.
Who would be in their right mind to send someone, who had just been beaten so badly, to a battlefield and fight with a dragon?!
No, Zach didn’t want to help Nikolai to prove his worth and his loyalty because his sister had turned out to be a traitor, he simply wanted to kill him, but before that, he wanted to use him, squeeze him to the last drop of his blood.
Needless to say, Nikolai was an outstanding soldier from the first generation of the Delta and no one in his year or the years after his training period could surpass him. Whether in tactics, leadership and physical strength. Therefore, Zach and the organization didn’t want to waste this talent and kill him.
They would rather send him on this suicide mission instead, with wounds all over his body and not even give him necessary treatment before it.
“I will put this chip in you, to monitor your movements,” Zach said, as he walked toward Nikolai and pressed the tool that looked like a gun in his hand to Nikolai’s neck. “This will let us know where you are.” And he shot him with that.
Nikolai flinched when he felt there was something piercing his skin, but then he continued to put on his shirt and gear, he knew that he would be closely monitored.
“Now, you can go and save the day.” Zach patted Nikolai on his shoulder and then walked out of the room, leaving Nikolai to put on his gear.
Only when he was alone did Nikolai let out a grunt. And when he moved his body, the pain almost knocked him unconscious.
Damn this organization!
But at the same time, he needed to know what his sister was up to until she didn’t hesitate to go against it.
======================
There was this one beach in Lucinda city that Gael intended to take his little family and Vanesha to, because he had promised Lise to have this small family trip that they never had before.
Fortunately, the raging dragon in the East Draghar had been proved to be a handful for the organization and the security in this city was slightly loosened up.
From what information that Gael had gathered, the organization was still looking for River and him, but they had a lot on their plate to deal with him instead right now. Therefore, before they could tame the dragon, it was the right time to have a family outing, right?
Gael was happy to arrange this with his daughter.
In the past few days, he learned a lot about his daughter, what she liked or disliked, he even taught her a lot of things that she had never seen or even known existed.
Just like this morning, Gael was helping Lise to sit down for having breakfast together. She insisted that she didn’t want to spend her whole time inside her bedroom and at the very least, she wanted to enjoy the sunlight on her face, while having a family breakfast with Gael, River and Vanesha.
It felt like they were a normal family with Vanesha as their oldest daughter and knowing how chaotic the situation out there, this kind of simple breakfast together was akin to a bliss.
“River, what are you doing? Come here quickly, I am hungry!” Vanesha shouted at River, who had spent almost fifteen minutes inside the bathroom, while she prepared all the food alone, since Gael had to tend to Lise.
It took another minute before River finally came out of the bathroom, her brows scrunched up as she bit her lips, like she was in trouble.
“What happened?” Lise asked, she was worried to see her daughter’s expression.
Gael stopped what he was doing and paid more attention to her, waiting for River to answer her mother’s question.
River bit her lips, fiddled with her fingers, before she finally answered, “I think I am going to die,” she said softly.
“What?” Lise didn’t hear that, but Gael and Vanesha did.
“What do you mean?” Gael asked, he stood up and approached River, but the girl took a step back, not wanting to be touched by him.
“What is it?” Vanesha came closer to her as well. She was mortified whether the organization had done something to harm River without her knowing about it, but as far as she knew, she was healthy and there were no complications after all the experiments that they had conducted on her.
But, maybe she missed something...
“I think I am going to die,” River mumbled the same thing again, she looked down and furrowed deeply.
“What makes you think that way?” Gael felt his heart jump to his throat. He knew that he would lose Lise eventually, due to her illness, but if he had to lose his daughter as well, he didn’t know what would happen to him...
“Because I am bleeding.” River raised her head and looked at Vanesha, before briefly glancing at Gael.
“What do you mean you are bleeding?” Vanesha reached out to River and checked on her, but she couldn’t find any wounds or even any scratch on her arms, neck or legs. “Where are you bleeding?” she asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, Gael felt his body stiffen, he tried to check on River, but she didn’t want to be touched by him, thus he could only impatiently wait for Vanesha’s quick inspection.
“I’m bleeding down there, I can’t stop it.” River looked down to her abdomen and this only made Gael more confused, but her admittance immediately made something click in Vanesha’s mind.
Vanesha sighed deeply, she looked relieved. “You are not going to die, River. It’s normal.” She tousled her hair.
“What happened?” Gael still did not understand what was actually going on. He still looked so worried about his daughter.
“She is bleeding, so do I at some point in every month.” Vanesha waved her hand lightly. “She got her first period.”
Hearing that, Gael turned speechless. “Oh... okay...” he stuttered.