A Kiss For Your Freedom
Chapter 77

POV Eléa

When I get up and like every day, my first instinct is to look at my cell phone. Seeing that I have a message, my heart is racing, hopefully it will be a good day. "I have the address, I still have several days left."

A smile appears on my lips, they may not be dead yet but at least now we know where they are and that's already a good point. When I think that I hired private detectives without any of them being able to give me even the location where they live. I should have called on this Wolf a long time ago. I should have ended this story years ago by now.

I head into the kitchen to make myself a good coffee. When I think that if she had married this man, as I had asked her, my life would be totally different today. I would be rich and I could live anywhere. I would no longer need to ask myself the slightest question about what will happen tomorrow, or in a week, or even in a month.

I blow on my cup before bringing it to my lips, I have lost everything. All. Only because she wasn't capable of thinking about anything other than herself, only because she never understood to what extent I sacrificed everything for her, my youth, my life. I deserved this revenge, deserved to move on and that can only happen once I'm sure that she and those Wolves are all dead.

When I think that she is my sister, that we have the same blood even though we are so different. I would never have left leaving everything behind. I would never have drawn a line under our family's heritage. But she is selfish, she only cares about herself and her own pleasure and it may even be that since her departure, she has given birth to children who must also disappear.

I would remain the only survivor of our family, the one and only and finally I could start living for myself. Only a few days left, just a few days and it will all be over. I can already smell the sweet scent of freedom. This perfume that intoxicates me and makes me smile.

POV Yohan

I've been on the road for almost a day now and the more I go, the more I understand why no one has managed to replace them. I still have many kilometers to go but already the path is strewn with pitfalls. I regularly have to abandon my Wolf form so as not to reveal my presence to humans.

If they live in a huge forest, the road to get there is dotted with small villages, roads that wind, adapting to the shapes of the landscape. At this rate, I won't be there for a long time which makes me ask a question, how do we get there with a human. I know that they took a vehicle to leave the pack after their convalescence, but they obviously had to have another one to get there.

They had to take things with them, prepare for this isolation, no one with any sense would have left to isolate themselves without anything, neither warm clothes, nor food to start this new life.

I'm going to have to do it differently. I have to replace another solution to move faster. I continue walking, letting myself be guided by my scent. I have to go to the next village which is a little further away. Only there would I replace this gift I need. Jason's POV

I've been at this for hours and hours. I tirelessly retrace my steps to make sure nothing is visible, to make sure he won't be able to see the traps I've set everywhere. The children are confined to the house and don't really understand why they aren't allowed to go out, but the traps are too close to the house, we can't take the risk that one of them gets hurt.

I sigh after checking everything one last time. Our splendid property is gradually being transformed into an entrenched camp and that is not what we wanted, that is not what we had imagined for us.

We won't be able to keep the children locked up for very long, even if Dorian and Emma do everything to keep them busy, they need to stretch their legs, they need fresh air. They are Wolves in the making and no Wolf should live locked up. I know it's only been two days, but already they're starting to go around in circles, they're starting to be more impatient, irritable. They cannot deny their heritage which comes from us. They cannot live as if they were mere humans.

They're still too young for us to explain to them what's going on, I'm not even sure they would understand. All this is much more complicated than last time, much more difficult to manage now that we are no longer alone.

Emma is becoming more and more nervous, she jumps at the slightest noise, almost expecting to be attacked at any moment and the more time passes, the less we manage to calm her down. The prospect of ending her sister's life disturbs her, which I can understand of course. Although she knows we no longer have a choice.

I retrace my steps, getting closer to the house. The smoke from the chimney rises, making us more visible than we should without being able to do anything about it. A flock of birds flies away, making me look up. Winter is here, here we are. The animals are fleeing the freezing cold as the first snowflakes fell last night. For the moment, it is still light but within a few days, a heavy white coat will cover the entire area.

I take a deep breath one last time to make sure there is no one lurking around and once reassured, I decide to go back. As soon as I walk through the door, Julien rushes at me. It must be said that I spend almost all my time outside and that I mostly let Emma and Dorian take care of them. I feel guilty about abandoning them like this but I have no choice, I must protect them, I must do everything so that this bounty hunter cannot lay a single finger on them.

A good smell wafts through the house and before I ask any questions, Melissa comes running to inform me that they made a cake together.

- I can't wait to taste it, I said, lifting them both up to take them in my arms.

As I move forward, I see that Emma is preparing the meal in the kitchen while Dorian falls into the armchair, visibly exhausted by his day in the company of these two little monsters full of energy. - If one day we get the idea of having another child, remind me of the state in which you just found me, he said, smiling.

"No problem," I said, laughing.

The little ones climb out of my arms to start a chase through the house as Dorian pulls me against him to kiss me more fervently.

"We miss you," he said softly as he left my lips.

- I should stay away longer in view of your welcome, I said, sliding my hand through his hair to press him closer to me.

- Out of the question. I don't guarantee that I will survive long with the little ones. I never thought they could have as much energy as that. They are inexhaustible you know, he adds with a laugh. - I see that, indeed.

He rests his head on my shoulder, sighing deeply.

"Emma isn't well," he said softly. I feel it and yet I can do nothing, do nothing at all.

- We are both powerless in the face of his suffering. All we can do is support her, listen to her, be there for her. We all have a past, you know it as much as I do and even if she chose to live here with us, she can't forget all those years she spent with her sister. - We should have killed her at the time, he continues a little lower.

- Part of me agrees with you but on the other hand, I tell myself that at that time, Emma wouldn't have supported it. Everything was too new for her and too complicated for her to bear the weight of this responsibility.

- Do you think it's different now? Do you think she will be more accepting of the situation?

- She became a mother, even if she is not a Wolf, I have no doubt that if her sister were to touch one of our children, she could be more cruel than our Wolves, more ferocious and that she would be able to kill her without even asking the slightest question.

- Sure, but will she be able to recover from it? Will she be able to turn the page after this? Will she be able to resume the course of her life, of our lives?

- I hope so, I said, breathing. She's not that different from us. Even if at the moment she feels a little lost. When the time comes, I'm sure she'll cope, I'm sure she'll be more than up to the task.

I hold him a little tighter against me, it's going to be time to put an end to all this. This story impacts us all, too much for it to last any longer.

-You should go see her. She needs you.

- I rather think that she needs both of us, even four of us. She needs to know that we are there for her. That we love him more than anything and that no matter what happens, it will never change that.

He smiled as he looked into mine before placing his hand on my cheek.

"That's why we love you so much," he said. You know that I hope.

- I think I have an idea, I said, returning his smile.

- Come on, go see her and I'll try to get our little monsters to bathe.

I kiss her quickly before getting up to join her.

- What good love are you preparing for us, I said softly in his ear.

- A chicken in the pot. It's the return of winter dishes.

- I have nothing against it. I love it when you prepare good meals for us.

- You say that because like our children, you have a stomach on legs, she adds, laughing.

- I have no idea what you're talking about, but if you need a dripper, I'm willing, I said, kissing his cheek.

She turns around and hands me a small piece of meat covered in sauce which I hasten to devour. She tries to act like everything is okay, but those eyes don't lie, that glimmer of sadness that I see is there to remind me.