When Marisol finally runs back into her room, the door slams shut behind her before she collapses against it, her heart pounding against her chest as a whirlwind of emotions threatens to engulf her.
She takes several deep breaths in a quest to stabilize the erratic organ with a hand over her chest, but it does nothing to soothe the violent arrhythmic thuds against her ribcage. Her eyes are tightly shut as she prays and hopes, for once in her life, she wants this not to be the reality, needing so desperately for this to be an extension of her nightmares taking on a more twisted form because there is no way her already puzzling life would take on such a drastic, terribly unfunny turn.
This has to be some kind of joke. There is no way that man… that beast is her mate. Caleb said something about a spell, the one he’d used himself to lure her into Redwood. He has to have been playing that trick again. That has to have been it. At this point, Marisol feels herself trembling, down to the tip of her fingers. Anxiety mixed with bewilderment infiltrates every pore of her body.
Suddenly, like the pieces of a whole puzzle falling into place, it all begins to make sense to her. Cedric is what Redwood needed to be saved from. She’s been brought and is now being forcibly held in Redwood to supposedly tame the beast — Caleb’s brother, Redwood’s own true Alpha, Cedric, who is responsible for the destruction and unrest within the pack.
Just thinking about the true form of that beast and the fact that she is going to be made to confront it causes anger to course through her veins, hot like lava, enough to overpower her initial fear as she is suddenly getting on her feet, determined to tackle Caleb himself.
As she strides through the pack house purposefully, she is met with Sophia, who is also heading to find Marisol in her room. On seeing her, Sophia goes to block her path, but it is an overused trick now, one that Marisol is nowhere in the mood to entertain.
“Hey! Where are you going? What are you doing?” Sophia splutters as she is suddenly shoved aside with a burst of strength from Marisol.
A loud, overly exaggerated shriek leaves her lips as she collides with the nearest wall, shocked and thrown off by the unexpected action, but Marisol ignores it in favor of pressing on, her focus unwavering. They have successfully backed her against the wall, and she is done playing nice.