Shadows of Destiny

The Dark Side Of Fate By Karima Sa’ad Usman Chapter 58

58 It Is About David

~Tamia~

Stephanie did not look well. Her eyes were swollen, and her hands were shaking. It was clear that she

had been crying.

I wanted to ignore her, but I couldn’t. I knew Sylvester wouldn’t, so I decided to show some concern.

“Are you alright?” I asked, and she looked at me and shook her head.

“I am not, Tamia. Everything is falling apart. Dominic won’t come out of his

room. He said he feels like a nobody. I

have tried to talk him out of it, but he is too ashamed to let himself mingle,” She said, and I nodded.

“You need to give him time, Stephanie. He had a near-death experience. If Bryce

had not confessed, he might have been dead by now. He will need time to recover from it,” I said, and

she hugged me and began to cry.

I did not know what to tell her. So I

hugged her in return and patted her back.

“You need to take it easy, Stephanie. Crying won’t fix him. You need to find the

things and people that make him happy

and try to surround him with them,” I

said, and she sighed and bowed.

She looked at me and studied me.

“You will be the Lady of the north soon,

Tamia; there are things I need to tell you. Things that I swore to take to my grave but I suspect are part

of why all these are happening to my sons,” She said, and I was surprised that she was willing to

trust me with her secret.

“Are you sure you want to tell me?” I

asked her, and she nodded.

“You will be Luna soon and rule by his side. You’re already doing it, and unlike me, your Alpha loves

you and gives you freedom. You take part in council

discussions and give advice. None of which I was allowed in my time. You give northern women hope,

Tamia.” She said

and sighed.

“There are things I need to tell for the

sake of the Volkov bloodline. You need to

know that you have a Volkov growing inside you. You need to know the truth about Maurice and our

children..” She said, and my mind went to what Jake had

told me.

Was she planning on telling me the truth, or was she planning on deceiving me like she might have

deceived her children?

“Does it have anything to do with what is going on?” I asked, and she paused, looking at me. She was

contemplating

what to tell me. She was sizing me up, and I wasn’t angry at all.

“It might,” she confessed, and I looked at

her.

“I will join you in your room in a few

minutes. I want to check on Avery. The hallway isn’t as safe as we think; we might have spies lurking

about the place,

“I linked her, and she nodded at me.

I still could not shake off Lily’s phone

conversation. I could not shake off the

fact that I knew she wasn’t supposed to have a phone. I couldn’t shake it off. Something was off, and I

planned on figuring it out.

Stephanie walked past me, heading to her room while I headed towards the Beta’s wing to see Avery. I

would have checked on Linda too, but I knew she and Marcel

went on a date. 2

I got to Avery’s door and knocked.

“It’s open,” I heard Avery say, and I gently let myself in. I saw my friend sitting on a couch and working

on an embroidery piece. I looked at the leaf design she was weaving into the fabric and realised that

her skill had improved,

but she was still marring the fabric.

“Tamia, you and Sylvester missed dinner,

ו

She said, and I nodded and sat beside

her.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, and she sighed.

“I feel nervous,” She said, and I wondered why.

“Why?” I asked, and she sighed and put down her supposed artwork, which was more of a cluster and

an honest attempt

at being creative.

“I have wanted babies for as long, but

when Michelle came into our lives, it

became a tall dream. Now I found love

again. Marcel and I started trying before you and Sylvester got together. Then

Linda and Theodore got together,” She

said and bowed her head and began to

weep.

“Yet I am still waiting in line, Tamia. I waited in line with Max, and I believe that was why Michelle got

the best of him, and now here I am with Marcel,” she said,

and I moved close to her and rubbed her

back.

“Do not be afraid, Avery; it will happen for you, too,” I said, rubbing her back.

“But when?” She asked, and I sighed.

“You should see a doctor to know if anything is wrong and if it can be corrected. That is what I would

do,” I

said, and she broke the hug and stared at

1.

“You are right, Tamia,” She said and held

my hand.

“Join me at the hospital tomorrow,

please,” She said, and I remembered my

conversation with Sylvester about

protection and not being on my own.

“I suggest you go with Marcel. It would be best if you handled it together,” I said,

and she shook her head.

“I want you to come with me, Tamia. I do not want Marcel. What if something is wrong with me? He will

know and might change his mind. I love him, Tamia; I can’t lose him,” She said with genuine

fear in her eyes.

“Nothing is the matter with you, Avery. I will speak to Sylvester to let me follow you to the hospital,” I

said to ease her mind, and she thanked me.

I tried to counsel her to the best of my ability and decided to leave because I did not want to keep

Stephanie waiting.

My actions might have seemed a bit stupid. Whatever Stephanie wanted to tell

me must have been serious, so it was wrong to put her on hold, but I knew that whatever she was

going to tell me might leave me shellshocked, and I won’t be

able to check on my friend, so I wanted to

get it out of the way before speaking to

Stephanie.

I walked still barefooted so people could not hear my footsteps. I took a mental

note to do this often. Lily was on my

watch list. I needed to know who gave her a phone and who she was communicating

with.

I got to Stephanie’s door and knocked.

“Please come in, Tamia; I know it is you,’ She said, and I let myself in.

“Lock the door,” She said, and I did as she said and approached her where she

sat on the couch in her room.

I went to sit with her, and she smiled at

I was still wary of her, but I let it be

because she was open to me again. There

were only two possibilities: to misguide

or tell the truth, so I was attentive.

“I am sorry to ask you this question, but I need you to be honest. How did it feel when Leo met his

fated?” She asked, and

I looked at her. I contemplated answering

it, but I knew I had to, or the conversation

won’t make headway.

“Heartwrenching. My life was over. He was the lead alpha of the East; I had nowhere to go, and no one

would want me. I could not leave, so I was there through it all until the north attacked and gave me a

chance to escape,” I said, and she looked at me stunned.

“Yes, I gave myself as a tribute to leave Leo. We would have subdued the people who attacked us, but

I did not want to be

the third wheel in their home anymore. They were going to be a family. There was no place for me,” I

said, and she looked at

me worried, but I smiled at her.

“I am glad,” I said and placed my hand on my belly. “I found love in the north and everything I ever

wanted.” I told her,

and she smiled.

“Do you know if Leo were Sylvester, then truly you would have nowhere to go?

Sylvester is a step up from Leo, but no

one is a step up from the Wolf lord. So, in

that case, you will be stranded forever,

and even if you want to leave him, it

would be impossible. Society won’t allow

it, your family won’t allow it, and your heart and wolf will hold on so tight, and it won’t allow it. There is

something in us that seeks the dominant male,” She said, and I wondered why she was saying such

things.

“I didn’t call you here to discuss your

relationship.” She said and sighed. I called you here to discuss mine.

“Something my sons did not know was that their father had a fated,” she said,

and I exclaimed, pretending not to know

so she could give me her version of the

story.

“Everyone that knew was sworn to secrecy by Maurice. Her name was Alissa Pavlishchev, and she

was from Gad in the

western region. Only the people in the council and older western Alphas knew of

her.” She said.

“Maurice loved me wholeheartedly until

he met her. He never slept with anyone.

Like Sylvester is with you, my husband was that way with me. Maybe not exactly, but you get the

picture,” she said, and her eyes welled up in tears.

“I loved Maurice with all my heart, and I thought our lives would be rosy, but I was

wrong. He met Alissa and took her as his

mistress. My family and the council did

not let him claim her because that would

insult me, so he slept with her and made me endure unimaginable pain. The woman wasn’t a saint,

either. They never

are. It is not by choice but by design. No

fated would want to be a mistress. They

see us as taking their space, so they would do anything to replace us fully and not

share their mate.

She plotted against me and manipulated my husband.

She was the one that made him start the

war frenzy. When my family and part of

the council pushed back, Maurice moved

to eliminate them to make her Lady and

his Luna; I had given up hope. I had

Dominic then, and he wasn’t an Alpha, so

I knew my days with Maurice were numbered. When she got pregnant, I left

the estate and returned home with

Dominic. Maurice did not look for me. He

doted on her and loved her, but he never

claimed her. The woman was so wicked

that her people refused to come and work in the estate to help her. If you think I am lying, you can

investigate. Because of

this, Maurice forced me to return and be

her midwife. I was maltreated and

abused. He would beat me because of her

and her lies, and she never ran out of lies.

I was tired. If it was a lesser Alpha, I could run, but who would challenge the wolf lord for my sake? I

knew I wouldn’t be able to leave until he let me go. 2

The goddess took pity on me and she died giving birth to her son. Maurice lost his mind. First, he said I

poisoned her and

had me locked up in a cell, but it was

proven that she died of a dangerous case of preeclampsia. I was released and asked to care for the

child, but I refused. I told

Maurice I would not touch his bastard

because that was what the boy was.

Maurice felt guilty for locking me up, so

he did not try to force me to care for the

child. Soon he found out all the lies she

told about me. When the boy turned one, Maurice found out he had an Alpha wolf,

so he sent him to Grizlo in the north to be

cared for by a small family. Around that time, I was pregnant with Sylvester, but things weren’t the

same. Although

Maurice loved me; the loss of his mate destroyed him, and he found himself

drawn to women of the west who looked

like her, so he started actively keeping a harem. He conquered the entire west for other reasons but

took their women so he could replace Alissa briefly. I handled it well, had Sylvester, and when Maurice

found that Sylvester was an Alpha, his love for me increased, and Alissa and her son faded away.” She

said and looked at

1.

“That boy’s name is David Pavlishchev. Maurice did not give him his last name

because he was a bastard.” She

concluded, and I was in shock.

“That bastard was why I left here, Tamia.

I went to see if I could find out about his

whereabouts because he was the only one

that would want to kill my sons. He is the only one who will have something to gain from this. Dominic

and Sylvester do not

know of his existence. I told Dominic

yesterday, he didn’t take it well. That is why I am telling you this so you can help me tell Sylvester. We

need to find David

and be sure he isn’t behind all this. I do

not have proof; I am just speculating, but I know you are good with investigations. I will need you to

carry one out for me and figure it out,” She said, but I was too

dumbfounded to respond.