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Mila
It didn’t take long for Alexander to fall asleep. One second, he was cuddling with me and the next, he was snoring softly.
Untangling myself from him, I moved my body a few inches away from his. I heard the sound of his snoring stop for a moment.
Holding my breath, all I heard was the sound of my pounding heart. I needed him to stay asleep. My plan wouldn’t work if he woke up. I laid on the sleeping bag next to him for a few moments until it seemed like he had fallen back asleep again.
Sitting up, I climbed out of the tent in my best attempt at being quiet. I glanced back into the tent. Alexander was still sleeping.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I took a few steps away from the tent as slowly and quietly as possible. Once I was far enough away from him, I broke out into a sprint.
I moved past the bonfire, which had all but burnt out, and then headed in the direction of the woods. As I entered them, I just kept running.
I was about halfway through the woods when my flip-flops slipped on leaves that were slick with moisture. Before I could stop myself, I had fallen onto the ground – and then I just kept sliding down a slope.
As I continued to slide down the hill, I saw it at the very bottom, sparkling beneath the moonlight.
The purple boulder.
I held my breath, not wanting to scream and risk waking any of the others. I tried to figure out what to do. If I continued down the path I was on, then there was no doubt I was going to end up hitting the boulder that would cause me to get stuck in Devil’s Falls forever.
Spotting a vine out of the corner of my eye, I grabbed onto it and then held myself there as I tried to figure out what to do.
I glanced down at the boulder below me and then figured out what I needed to do to get myself out of this situation.
Taking a deep breath, I shifted my body to the left. Once I thought I was far enough away from the boulder’s path, I began to roll down the hill. My body rolled through the leaves and dirt, but as I reached the bottom of the hill, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I was about four feet away from the boulder.
Climbing up off the ground, I brushed off my jeans and then began to continue my way through the woods. I could hear the sound of the waterfalls not too far away. They were so loud that it was almost hard to hear yourself think when you were near them.
I began down that stone path we had taken – the path that had led us to that dead demon girl’s body.
The same path where we would find Jax’s body if he didn’t survive this. I had been trying not to think that way. I had been trying to stay positive, but I wasn’t so sure after today.
Swallowing hard, I tried not to think about it. The more I thought about it, the sadder I became. And I really didn’t need to be sad right now. There was no time for that.
Right now, I needed to be in full-on Nancy Drew mode. I needed to figure out the real reason why Alexander didn’t want me to see his campsite. I had to know what he was keeping from me. I wanted to know more about the guy who I had fallen for.
More than anything, I needed to know what secrets he was keeping from me.
Of course, I knew that it probably wouldn’t change anything, anyway. Alexander clearly had secrets, but so what? That didn’t mean I felt anything less for him. I doubted that his secrets could have been that horrible, considering he lived in Devil’s Falls. There weren’t cell phones, computers, or other wolves here. There weren’t even houses here. What could he have really been keeping from me?
And yet, my weird feeling led me to the edge of the Black River of Death. I didn’t want to be this close to this river, but I knew that his campsite was somewhere past here. I made sure to stay about four to five feet away from the river bank – far enough to make sure that there was no way I could slip into the river.
As I reached the edge of the river, I spotted it off in the distance: another bonfire with three tents, that were spaced a good bit away from one another. There was a line hanging, which I assumed was where Alexander and his pack members hung their clothes to dry.
Nothing looked out of sorts, but I knew that I needed to get a closer look.
I began across the field that led to the tents, knowing that I needed to be quiet. I wasn’t sure if Alexander’s pack members knew that there were other packs in the area at all. Surely, they must have smelled us, but they hadn’t let their presence be known. I couldn’t help but think that the whole thing was just strange, to say the least.
As I approached their camp, I listened. I could hear one of the pack members breathing from the tent that was closest to me, and the other one was snoring loudly from the tent that was further from me. That meant that the tent in the center of the two must have belonged to Alexander.
I just knew that I needed to look inside his tent. Somehow, I doubted that there was anything of significance inside that tent, but I still needed to get a glimpse of his living space.
I tiptoed past the first tent. Once I reached Alexander’s tent, I realized that it was zipped. Holding in a groan, I dragged the zipper as quietly as I could down the length of the tent. Then I paused, to make sure that neither George nor Rodrigo had woken up. I didn’t hear either of them stirring.
As I climbed into the tent, I found a few blankets on the ground. I wondered how Alexander had managed to get them, considering he had been here for the past seventeen years. Raising them to my nose, I hesitated. The blanket didn’t smell bad. I knew that could have just meant that he had washed it in the river, but I also couldn’t help but think that the blanket seemed... new.
Deciding that I was probably just overanalyzing, I continued to go through his belongings. There was a stack of clothes, which smelled just as fresh as the blanket did, along with a pack of unopened razors. I wasn’t sure how he had gotten his paws on those, but it explained why he didn’t have any facial hair for someone who had been away from society for so long. I hadn’t realized how strange it was until then that he was basically living his life like a hermit, even though he didn’t actually look like one.
A thought crossed my mind then, one that I hadn’t really given any thought to before now.
Was it possible that Alexander had been lying to me this whole time? Was it possible that he was physically able to leave Devil’s Falls but that he was simply choosing not to?
I couldn’t think of a good reason that could possibly explain why someone would choose not to leave Devil’s Falls. Unless it was because there was something in the outside world that he was trying to hide from. Was it possible that someone in the real world wanted Alexander dead and he’d figured that no one would ever dare look for him here? I knew that seemed far-fetched, but it was always a possibility.
I tried not to jump to conclusions, though. I supposed that it was always possible that some campers had left their razors behind or maybe he’d even managed to convince them to go buy him some. Just because there were new, modern products in his tent didn’t necessarily mean he was lying.
Besides, there was actual proof that what Alexander had been saying about the rock being cursed was true. I had seen it with my own eyes. Bash had proven that he couldn’t leave Devil’s Falls, that he truly was stuck here.
As I continued to rummage through his things, I felt something burn my hand. Gritting my teeth, I moved my hand down further and found a handle. I picked it up.
Even through the darkness of the tent, I could see it clearly: the shiny gleam of a stainless-steel knife.
Finding the knife hidden, buried beneath his clothes, probably should have freaked me out. A stainless-steel knife was one of the few objects that could kill a werewolf if you pierced our hearts with it. But at the same time, seeing it there just didn’t freak me out. The truth was that we were in Devil’s Falls. I knew now how scary this place was. I knew that merely setting foot in this town was a risk. Of course Alexander wanted whatever protection he could get. Who could blame him?
I carefully set the knife back in the spot where I had found it. I was just about to leave his tent when I spotted something in one corner of the tent. Reaching for it, I found that it was a box.
I shouldn’t have opened it. I knew that nothing good could come from opening it, that doing so was a complete and total invasion of his privacy. And yet, I found myself lifting the top off of the box, so curious to find out what was inside.
As I opened the box, I realized that it was too dark to see its contents from inside the tent.
I put the lid back on the box and then carefully lifted it outside the tent. Then I crawled out of the tent again and opened the lid again.
There was just enough moonlight to make out what was inside the box now. There was a photograph of a girl with long blonde hair on top of everything else. She had high cheekbones, fair skin, and blue eyes that stood out even through the darkness. I wasn’t entirely sure how I knew, but I got the feeling that the face I was staring into belonged to Marybeth.
As I picked up and began to go through the other photos, I found that they were all of that same girl. There was a photo of her with a crown made of flowers, a photo of her dancing in a cornfield, and a few photos of her just smiling at the camera, seemingly caught off-guard that her photo had been taken. There was one photo of her and Alexander together. They were sitting on a front porch step, their arms wrapped around each other and staring into each other’s eyes while someone else took the picture.
I swallowed hard, trying not to get overly emotional. How could I be jealous of these photos? Alexander’s relationship with Marybeth had ended years before he and I had ever even met.
No, deep down, I knew that there was no reason to be jealous of what had happened in his past. So, why did I feel the way I did?
I was pretty sure that I just felt like I couldn’t compete with the girl in the photos. They just looked so... happy, so in love. I was afraid that even if Alexander and I somehow managed to have a relationship with each other – which seemed like a slim chance, given he was stuck in Devil’s Falls – I could never make him as happy as Marybeth apparently had.
I had just gotten to the bottom of the box when I spotted it: a photo that I had somehow managed to miss. As I pulled it out and held it up so that I could get a better look at it, my stomach dropped.
I was staring back at a younger version of myself.
It was a photograph of me, a photo that had been taken about twenty years ago – a photo that I had long forgotten.
So, this was what Alexander had been keeping from me. This was what he hadn’t wanted me to see.
But it didn’t make any sense. What was he even doing with a photo of me? Even if he had managed to get his hands on this photo through Elias, why was he keeping it in this box of what seemed like personal keepsakes when we had never met until now?
And why had he acted like when we saw each other for the first time, it was the first time he had ever laid eyes on me?
This whole situation was completely bizarre and it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Something about this whole entire situation didn’t feel right.
Who was this guy who I had agreed to marry?
“Curiosity is what killed the cat, you know,” a voice said from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to find a guy, who I could only assume was one of Alexander’s pack members, standing behind me. There was a smile on his face. “Did you find whatever it is you were looking for?”
I swallowed hard, completely lost for words.
“Cat got your tongue?” he asked when I didn’t respond.
“I...”
“That’s okay. I’m sure that what you’ve found is a lot for you to process, Mila,” he said, taking a few steps closer to me.
“How do you know my name?” I asked, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable about this situation.
“I’ve seen that picture of you. Alexander talks about you all the time. I’ve also been listening to what’s going on. I’ve overheard the reason why you and the others are here.” He glanced over at me then. “You’re here to play the game. Want a little tip on how to play?”
I nodded. “Yeah, we could use any help we can get.”
“Oh, this tip should help you out. It’s the best advice that you could ever get about this game. What you should do is give up while you still can. You see, there’s something that no one’s told you about the game. If you lose, you die. The entire pack dies. There’s just one problem.” His eyes locked on mine. “No one ever wins the game.”