Untouchable by Marii Solaria

Chapter 52 – The Unexpected Truth

“Lies require commitment.“–Veronica Roth

Neron

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After my trip to the pack hospital, I spent the rest of my time scouring through the endless stacks of books in the Zircon Moon Library as Diana sat on top of a bookcase, preening her feathers. Wooden bookcases lined the walls, surrounding the tables, chairs, and couches glowing under the brilliant sunlight. Every open book emitted an earthy aroma wafting into the air. I’ve never cared for reading, but there were a handful of wolves who enjoy the silence and solitude of the library, lost in a world of adventure and words.

Almost every title I’ve come across contained bits and information about werewolf history I never paid attention to; lifespan development, sociology of weres, the works. Grunting with effort, I picked up a large stack of books and settled them on an adjacent table.

Taking my seat, I began the banal task of flipping through pages while Ariel’s request weighed heavy on my mind. Never in my life have I’ve heard of a wolf wishing to part from their human–it was relatively unheard of. She looked so unhappy and it crushed my heart. Our soul bond connects the humans to our wolves until the day we die; losing your woll is like losing half of your spirit.

Flashback

“I cannot remain attached to Odessa any longer, Alpha Neron. She has done shameful things throughout our life together that I’ve let slide for very long, under the pretense that she will change. Now, because of my passivity, I’ve lost my soulmate. You can try to persuade me, but I will not change my mind. I want out.”

Is there any way you can rekindle with her and try to make your relationship work?” Lasked. “This is a very extreme request, Ariel. You’re proposing for a soul separation and whilst I’ve never witnessed such an event, there is no guarantee you’d come out rninjured.”

I’m prepared to take all the risks needed to make this happen.” Ariel cast her eyes down on the ground, biting her lip. “Odessa and I never got along. I’m afraid that I was but a handicap to her. Wolves are the voice of reason to our humans, but I’ve never got the chance to make myself heard around her she always shuts me out. I cared about Odessa, a lot, but what can I do when she doesn’t care about me? What about my feelings? I’ve taken the backseat to her madness for so long and it is now do I understand I cannot change her. It’s too much for me.”

“You said you are prepared to die if it meant parting with your human.”

“I much rather be with our Moon Goddess than confined to this woman. I want…” Ariel’s breathing snagged in her throat; pain interlaced with her gasps. Looking up at me once more, her alive eyes saturated with tears; a couple of them cascading down her cheeks. “I’m not happy, Alpha Neron. I lost my sense of self, and I don’t want to continue in life if my human doesn’t even regret what she’s done!”

“I just wish to be happy again, even if the likelihood of my death are high.”

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Ariel will risk it all for the sake of her own happiness. The pain in her eyes when she spoke to me branded themselves in my mind. Her sorrow. Goddess knows that if I ever lost Onyx, I wouldn’t know what to do -3.10 myself. Hating me is one thing, but losing him forever is another.

“Come on…there has to be something here…” I murmured, flipping through the pages to find an indication of soul splitting, but came up empty. The scarcity of the process reaffirmed my intimal belief that this situation doesn’t happen often, but I cannot get Ariel’s grief out of my mind. As her Alpha, I must honor her request.

I need to help her. She deserves joy, with or without Odessa.

“This book is a complete dud. Since we can’t find anything, what are we supposed to do now?” Onyx quipped as I strode back to a bookshelf.

“We have to keep trying.” I answered, setting the book away. “The sooner we find what we’re seeking, the sooner we can get back to searching for answers about Kiya’s disappearance.

find those answers here? Anthony has yet to

as there is something we’re missing about Osiris.” I expounded, seizing a rolling

like to hear this hunch.” Onyx

a stronger connection there, so why only bother us? He used Odessa as his pawn, but he did it for a reason. He knows something that I don’t,

you find it? Could his reasoning just be from how

think

she wanted without his help. Why would he care so much? Maybe this

floor tile, shattering its corner. “Fantastic… Begrudgingly, I trekked down the stairs and went to nurse the book. It was a history book

dilemmas.

black and dusty. Curiously, I eased the tile away from the hole, coughing at the dust

into the hole like a pirate hunting for buried treasure. But what I pulled out was not a chestnfull of riches. It

hides books under the floor?”

have something to

I

those babies open and let’s see what inside!” He urged. Such an impatient patient my wolf

R

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back to my table, obeying Onyx’s request. Each page had more dust than the last, but the page froze me stiff in shock. Not by

“What the hell?”

I reviewed the other journal and found it belonged to my grandfather, Nathaniel Prince. The words of my predecessors rested on my fingertips, waiting to be read. I’m both eager and apprehensive for what I am about to read, but an inkling in the

are you

about these men. It’s nice to have their own words them versus the grand stories

think so. Neron, this feels strange

some of my

H

but said little else. Regardless of the bubbling worry we both feel, I have to read the contents of the journals. What do I have to lose? Huffing in a heavy breath, I opened my Great–Grandfather’s book and started reading. There was nothing

was wrong. Very wrong.

every encounter to the smallest detail with names I’m unfamiliar with. Flipping from one journal to another,

v can

what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. Those with less power didn’t have the right to resist, merely obey. His journal contradicted the figure of the righteous Alpha Dad taught me about my

about how this man had no penance for his violent destruction. Diana, sensing my discomfort, glided over and cautiously stepped toward me with her talons clicking against the wooden table. All I could do is sit there, gawk at the remarks of a psychopath, frozen. I couldn’t be related to this man, right?

was the notice of his jeweled prize,, bedazzled with power to uphold him and his lineage.

revulsion and nausea became too much. Insanity, fury, delusion–it all slapped me in the face the further

you came from a whole bloodline of crazy men. No surprise

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should scream at you for your tasteless sense of humor,

I see that I should have. Maybe if I didn’t have the attention span of a goldfish and a brattish shriek, I could’ve spared myself this hideous

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