CHAPTER 605: GODDESS GIVE HER MERCY

XADEN’S POV

The moment I stepped into my bedroom, I felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

My bedroom looked the same.

The room was clean and didn’t look like I had been away for almost two weeks.

The beautiful dark curtains, the wall paintings.

The bed, the mattress, the beautiful antiques on the dress —everything.

It was the same, and yet it felt different.

I couldn’t shake this overbearing feeling of loneliness.

I took in an intense breath and took off my shirt.

I picked up one of the hangers and hung it.

The moment I stepped away from the dresses, I perceived her.

She hadn’t been here for a while, and yet it felt like she had spent every day with me.

I looked at the bed and flashes of watching her sleep the night before I left the Royal pack came flashing to me.

The door was opened without invitation.

None other than Erik stepped into the room.

"Xaden," Erik said, marching up to where I stood. "What the hell happened?"

I sat down on my bed and took off my boots one by one.

"Did you know that Anna lied about how she was raised in the moonlight pack?" I asked him.

Erik stopped and stiffened.

I knew that face.

And more so, I knew what it meant.

"Sweet Goddess," I said, exasperated. "You knew? You didn’t think to tell me?!"

"I didn’t exactly know for sure," Erik said. "I mean, I knew. But I didn’t have proof."

"Goddess," I swore.

I couldn’t believe it.

This entire time, Erik had known and kept it from me.

Kept me, his best friend and Alpha, hidden in the dark from the truth?

"My sister has been living a lie from the moment she walked through that door. You knew and you don’t think to tell me?" I spat in rage as I rose to my feet.

"Don’t put this on me, Xaden," Erik warned.

I blinked, taken aback.

Did everyone now have a knack for gaslighting me?

Did they now all see me as a fool to lie to?

"Are you being fucking serious right now?" I asked.

"Yes! Xaden! Ugh!" Erik pressed his fingers to his temple angrily and walked away from me.

He paced the room before speaking angrily. "Have you seen yourself lately? Your decisions lately? The moment someone goes against you, they become your enemy. I could tell you, but you would never have believed me. All you have ever done is take Anna’s side. Things were obvious to you, but your hate for Bale blinded you. Deep down, you had questions too, but you chose to ignore them, and now you’re suddenly surprised."

I clenched my fists, angry at Erik’s words.

Mainly because I hated to admit he was right.

Whenever I considered any of Anna’s lies, I shut them down.

My refusal to see my innocent sister as anything but a cunning she-wolf had led me to make so many mistakes.

"This is your mistake, Xaden." Erik spat as his chest was now heaving heavily. "The sooner you realize it and OWN up to it? The better for everyone else."

There was now a sharp and suffocating silence in the air.

It stiffened me, and I knew Erik could feel it as well.

I said nothing and sat back on my bed.

"How did you know?" Erik asked me.

"Won’t tell me, but now you’re interested?" I asked dryly as I lay on my bed and set my hands behind my head on the pillow.

I looked up at the ceiling and stared blankly into space.

"I had sent out word long before we left. Completely forgot about it until it came to the royal pack. Found out she was raised as their daughter, while Jasmine, for being his bastard, was raised like a slave." I said.

The guilt burned within the depths of my soul

She had been treated poorly and yet still came to my own pack as a sacrificial lamb.

She had been met with a much worse fate than what she had been used to.

Every minute I thought about it, I shivered in disgust.

I didn’t even deserve to be called an Alpha, not after everything I had done to her.

"I’ll be going to the moonlight pack tomorrow," I said as I turned in my bed to avoid facing Erik.

I was too proud to let him see the guilt in my face.

"Why?" I heard Erik ask from behind.

"Because I want to confirm everything personally," I said. "I don’t want to get information from anyone else. I also want to know if she had a hand in..."

I stiffened.

"In what happened to Jasmine," I mumbled

I didn’t want to believe that Anna could set Jasmine up in such a way.

I prayed to the goddess, but it wasn’t true.

And I never prayed.

But the revelation that she had lied about her upbringing had now prompted me to seek out more lies.

The loophole in Jasmine’s affair with Hunter.

And if she had, then that means she had been the one to set up Jasmine.

Frame her with the diamonds.

"And Jasmine?" Erik asked. "Why did you send her away?"

"She is safer there. Moreover, she intends to find her mother’s family. I’ve been a hindrance to the life she deserves long enough." I explained. "She is free now. Doesn’t need to be attached to this pack anymore."

I heard Erik sigh heavily.

"Are you sure that was the right decision?" Erik asked me. "Jasmine had come to love people here. Loren, Fiona, Marro, Kire, Nanny Nia, and the servants. She was finally getting happy. Did you ask her if it was what she wanted, or you didn’t want her around because you couldn’t forgive yourself for what you had done?"

I felt the guilt burning within my wolf.

It ached so deeply I felt intense pain.

I said nothing about what he said.

Eventually, a loud, exhausted sigh was heard, and Erik began to walk to the door.

He stopped short and said.

"What happens if you find out Anna was the one Xaden?"

"Then may the goddess give her mercy, because I wouldn’t," I swore.