Chapter 39

Valen POV

I couldn’t sleep; all night I tossed and turned, knowing they were both over there and so close yet out of reach. It gave me a little comfort knowing Tatum was there with them, yet everything screamed I should be the one protecting them. How I had failed. No wonder she hated me. I would hate me too if our roles were reversed.

Now a few past incidents made sense, why I could never hold a relationship to save my life, why I had trouble with my s*x life, the sudden bouts of depression seeping into me. Now it made me wonder if I knew all along on a subconscious level, and it was my body trying to stop me from making the idiotic decisions I sometimes did.

She felt it, felt it all, and didn’t say anything. When she k!ssed Marcus, the pain that she caused was brief yet painful all the same. How did she endure years of my infidelity? I may not have known about her but she certainly knew of me, which made me groan at how stupid I was. The countless brothels, the woman and she endured that pain over and over for countless long years.

Five years, for some reason, that number kept popping up in my head as I tried to dredge up any memory that would lead me to her. Why was that number so significant? Besides the obvious, of course. Yet something nagged at me, tugged as it should matter to me. Five years, five years I muttered under my breath when I felt my breath leave me altogether, and I gasped, nearly choking on my own spit as I lurched upright.

The Alpha meeting, the fairy girl, the girl who snuck out on me the following day. Could that have been her? I was pissed off that she left before I even woke, something told me it was Everly, yet I never saw her face, and Marcus woke me the following day, and she was gone. He said he passed the girl and I remembered it irritated me because I was angry he didn’t stop her.

That girl has remained in my thoughts for 5 years already and was one of the many things that got me through each night. Finding myself often thinking of the girl dressed as a fairy, yet I could never explain why she would randomly pop into my thoughts. Marcus had told me to look for her, yet when I checked the registry, I could never find her name, which now made sense; she was underage. She wasn’t supposed to be on that side of the hotel, which was for only adults and …. and future Alphas. She shouldn’t have been where I was, and I always thought it odd when I went over the registry of attendees. I could never find anyone who even resembled her. No ID had me jumping the way Everly did.