First

Chapter 88.

“Walk ahead,” Leila says to Carmela, squinting at her as they trudge up the small hill.

There is no need to hide it, she doesn’t trust Carmela at all, this is a woman that had her locked up, tirelessly tried to poison her and eventually tried to kill her, there is no way she can walk with her back turned to Carmela.

Adaline may be here and so Carmela may not try anything but she cannot take that risk. The fact that Carmela knew the assassin that attacked her on two occasions still baffles Leila’s mind.

What she cannot make sense of is why Carmela would stage an attack, fake her own kidnap and then return now to try and kill her so she can become Luna when she could have just stayed and married Tatum naturally.

Even if Carmela saw as a threat back then, the logical thing for Carmela to do is to kill her and get her out of the way, not fake her own kidnap.

She is missing something, there is an agenda to Carmela’s actions, they are not random and right now every thread she pulls just leads her right to another loose thread.

“You know, I always thought I would be the one you make the trip up the Aragine with, mother, turns out that life had other plans,” Carmela says to Adaline, catching up to her and Leila sees how Adaline stops abruptly but she doesn’t turn.

“Sometimes a little patience is all that is required for our wishes to come+ and you must remember, delay is delay, it is not denial,” Adaline replies, now glancing at Leila with complex emotions in her eyes before she continues upwards.

Leila perfectly understands what Adaline means..

Carmela only needs to have patience till she gives birth to her child. Till they have an heir and then they will discard her and give Carmela what they believe is rightfully hers.

The only person who can ask her to leave and she will is Tatum but he chose her, she has to remember that,

Even if Leila has doubts about Carmela being fated to Tatum, the popular opinion is that she is and yet Tatum chose to be with her, not Carmela.

That is her first victory and she will capitalise on it to expose Carmela for who she really is.

She’s sure that once Carmela’s mask comes off, she will not be so favoured anymore.

“Wait,” Adaline suddenly halts, raising her hand up to stop the other

women.

She sniffs the air and scans the area, squinting her eyes as it around the hill slowly.

“I smell another wolf, be on your guard, we are not alone,” she says in a warning tone and worry strolls past Leia’s heart with heavy footsteps.

“Oh mother, you’re too paranoid. I’m sure it’s some other Luna who is probably here for the same reason as we are,” Carmela quickly brushes her off in a light hearted manner.

“No, this is different, it smells like-

Adaline is cut by a roar before Leila sees the huge figure jump out from behind one of the boulders, littering the ascension of the hill.

A wolf, huge with thick black furs and baring its canines, saliva staining its jaws and it snarls at them

Lella stays rooted to the spot, fear creeps upon her and she squints at Carmela who suddenly rushes towards the wolf, shifting mid way.

The wolf easily knocks Carmela’s wolf to the ground, sending her into one of the boulders and Carmela shifts back, blood gushing down the side of her forehead.

Leila frowns at the wounded Carmela as her assailant growls over her. She has seen this script before. Carmela, rushing into danger because that is exactly what she intended to do.

Her assailant may be in wolf form but Leila canno shake the feeling that this attack is the work of Carmela but why hurt herself for real this time?

A light bulb goes off in her head. If the wolf turns on her and kills her while Carmela is wounded, Adaline will bear witness that Carmela tried to fight the wolf but in the end it was Leila who was killed.

No one would stand in Carmela’s way then.

Her heart jumps in her chest, fear creeping upon her, she slowly runs her hand over her stomach and she turns on her heels, ready to run as fast as she can when she hears Adaline scream, her body falling to the ground with a thud.

The wolf had attacked her as well.

Leila gasps. Would Carmela hurt Adaline too?

She has doubts but she must make an immediate choice, try her best to run to their car at the bottom of the hill and escape or join forces with them to take out the assassin?

She doesn’t have the time to give herself the answer as the next second, the assassin knocks her down and shifts back to his human form, pinning her to the ground.

© 125 BOHUS

Lo and behold, the face Leila sees is the face of the man at the summit and as he raises his hand to extract his claws, the tattoo of the viper is

there.

“Goodbye Luna,” he whispers, aiming his claws at her throat to rip it out.