Rejected His Miracle Luna (Dorothy and Ignatius)
Chapter 82

Chapter 82 -Ignatius-

"We're not going to make it there in time, Carly protested and 1 bashed my knuckle against my head.

"We have to try. We need to move now."

Everyone was ready to leave, but Carly was right.

My team was worn down and exhausted from the fight in the woods. We had lost two young members to the Tally that Plato had led into the camp and their deaths would be on my conscience forever. There was no time for sentiment yet though. Johan was moving into Bielke territory as we spoke and we were running out of time.

The forest behind us was still ablaze and the smoke curled up into the darkeing sky, blocking out the stars and looming over us like a bad omen. My b*dy was still healing from the wound my mother had gifted me before her death.

Every rough movement I made tore it open again. I was in no shape to run the distance back to Bjelke territory. But by G d I was ready to try. Dorothy was alone out there and Johan was on the prowl. I had to get back to my mate, no question.

"There might be an easier way."

Imed to look at Plato who had his brow furrowed and he chewed on his knuckles in thought.

He looked up at me with a spark in his eye. "The van. The one they brought me here with. It might still be there"

you dinner

I grabbed his shoulders and bashed my forehead against his, "If we survive this, I owe y

I pushed him back again and pulled on the jacket that had been handed to me. I wore nothing but a tattered pair of jeans swiped from the flames and the cold air soothed my hot bare skin. "Let's go."

I set off in the direction of where we had last seen the van and my team followed along behind me, Plato blushing as we

well

At first I thought that it must have been taken already, swiped by some Tally shifters escaping the fires, but we jogged a little further and suddenly there it was Plato who oped in delight and we ran for the dingy rusted van that stood a little way from the smoking trees.

The fire hadn't reached that part of the woods yet, but it was spreading fast and it would be directly upon us and the van both if we didn't act quickly. And it was hot, so very hot. Heat licked across my skin as it radiated from the forest, soothed only by the occasional breeze that blew through and quickened the flames accent across the trees.

I ripped open the drivers door and was surprised to replace it unlocked. Peering inside I was even more suprised to replace that the keys were still in the ignition.

"Alright, everyb*dy get in

Carly threw open the back doors and everyone gagged at the putrid stench of dried blood and other fluids that wafted from the bark. No one was happy with the gruesome ride hut at least there were no bodies in the back this time. The van was haunting, but it was also our one way ticket home.

I turned to Will who was the only our who seemed to be coping with the rancid scent well enough. "Will, you drive. I need to let my b*dy heal in time to fight"

He nodded and climbed into the drivers seat, probably eager to avoid sitting amongst the muck that lined the back of the van. We were all paling into the lack when a single figure stumbled out of the smokey woods. I pauses my helping of another team member into the back of the an and squinted at the figure

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Chapter 82

He stumbled closer, shaking his head and coughing as he walked, until I could get a beter look at him. "Of course, you made it out"

4

up at me

me from where he stood. I stood my ground and folded my arms as

I had said it under my breath but the man looked up Elliot approached.

"Ignatius!" he called and lifted a hand to wave. He glimpsed the blood, my mother's blood, that stained his fingers and immediately shoved his hands back into the pockets of his burned jeans.

He sauntered all the way up to the van and I stepped out to meet him, blocking him from getting any closer. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Come now," he growled at my hostility. "We're both on the same side. We want to protect our people. Surely I've just proven that to you?"

"All you have proven to me is your insatiable need for violence and bloodshed." I spoke coldly. "Moirah didn't need to die."

His expression darkened and he straightened his back. For most of my life, Elliot had been taller than me, towering over me like a cruel g od. Only 1 had grown some in the past year or two and now our eyes were aligned perfectly as I held my ground against my father.

I kept my arms folded loosely at my chest while Elliot flexed his blo ody knuckles.

"Someone had to take care of her," he said darkly, and I noticed the gray hairs in the overgrown stubble on his jaw for the first time. "She was a loose end. She was a threat to my people, you can't deny that." "Your people?" I raised an eyebrow. I didn't have time to argue with my father. I had a pack to protect, I had a mate waiting for me. Elliot himself was the loose end who absolutely refused to stay tied. "The Bielke are not your people anymore."

I turned to follow the others into the van, motioning for Will to get the engine running as the fire crept closer and closer. That turned out to be a mistake, however, as Elliot gripped my shoulder.

Enraged, he threw me to the floor, inches away from where a burning log had fallen and peals of fire were creeping along the staggered patches of grass.

"You will never be Alpha so long as I am breathing!" he roared and I pulled myself to my feet. I didn't have time for a fight. and in my condition I wouldn't win one if I tried.

"Look at yourself," I yelled to my father over the roar of the fire. People's lives are at stake. Johan is marching on our territory as we speak and you want to waste time with a needless brawl. You don't care about your people." I stormed towards him and gripped his blackened shirt, leering into his face as I hissed, "You don't deserve to be the Alpha."

Elliot's look of fury mirrored my own. "You're nothing without me," he spat

"There is nothing you can teach me about being a good leader, 1 spoke loudly, my voice building to a roar as I confronted my father. "There is nothing you can teach me about being a good mate. And there is absolutly nothing you can teach me about being a good father."

Moirah's blood on his hands had me seeing red, but I would not stoop to his level,

"Because I

I know what a good father is meant to be. And I know that that's not what you are. Fathers raise their children with kindness, not brute force. Fathers protect their families, not tear them apart from the inside. I was raised by my closest friends. I was saved by my mate. They are my family, the Bielke fire my people. And you are not welcome there."

With all of my strength, I pushed him backward and Elliot sta ggered a few steps, staring at me with an incredulous look. My words were wasted on him. He would not hear what he didn't want to.

I turned once again to leave and climb into the van which was now shuddering to a start. Behind me. Elliot released a loud cry of fury and launched himself at me. I had been ready for his attack

I hadn't wanted it to come to this, but I had been ready all the same. I turned on the spot and lifted the large, spearlike hunk.

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Chapter 82

of wood that I had spotted in the dirt earlier and drove it into Elliot's heart.

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My father's eyes widened in disbelief and he stood frozen in place, choking slightly as he clutched at the long piece of timber that was buried in his chest. My grip on the end of the hunk of wood was tight and I was breathing heavily, staring my father in the eye as he regarded me in a new light.

Elliot smiled, and a trickle of blood started from his hips as he caughed. Blood stained his teeth red and flecks of the crimson liquid spattered onto my face. I stood, unflinching as my father laughed out loud. "Now you're the Alpha, Ignatius, You've killed me"

"I didn't kill you," 1 hissed. "You did that all on your own. I merely helped you along. I take no credit for bringing down the voracious Elliot Amount"

His smile faded. Ellot looked at me as if he was finally seeing his son for who he really was

His expression softened slightly as he gazed at me, blood trickling from his lips. He clutched at the spear that was buried in his chest. His hand came back blo ody and he looked at it incredulously like he couldn't understand where the red had come

1 telt in useless to tell him that it had been there all his life. Elliot had chosen a path of violence. Countless individuals had played a part in staining that hand red. Including my own mother. With that same hand, he gripped my shoulder, leaving a red brand of blood on my skin

Elliot's eyes searched my face as it desperately seeking the son he used to know, Or, more accurately, the son he didn't know at all until that very moment. A small thicker of understanding flashed in Elliot's wide eyes. It had come far too late, however.

so late, in fact, that I wished I hadn't seen it at all. I wished I hadn't seen the tiniest inkling of humanity, of love in my father's eyes, so that I could be able to lay him to rest with absolutely no regrets. It was like a final punishment. Elliot's final weapon to wield against me was his own love. Withheld until there was no other option left. It made me sick to my stomach watched his pupils dilate as my father died in my arms.

Elliot breathed one final breath, his last words were a question that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

"When did you grow up?" His hand slipped from my shoulder and drew a line of red across my chest. "When did you grow up: 1 mussed it.T

The life left his eyes and Elliot by cold and dead in the dirt beneath me.

I stared down at Elliot for one final moment and then turned and took Plato's hand. He hoisted me up into the back of the van and rapped a knuckle on the metal framework to let Will know it was time to get moving.

The van rattled away and 1 watched the dancing flames inch towards my father's b*dy, enveloping him in a fiery red cocoon One final glimpse as the smoke billowed up into the heavens, carrying Elliot to some place where maybe he might finally be

prace. And then the doors of the van swung closed and we were shrouded in darkness.

I closed the lid on that final memory of my father, filed it away as the final chapter in that particular book.

Carly tended to the burns across my shoulders as well as the wound left by my mother as the van jostled and bounced over the dirt road.

I turned my mind to the thing that mattered most

"Dorothy. I'm on my way Just hold on a little longer"