JEOPARDY: The Cursed Soldier.

42. Verina

Kayla patted her stuffed rucksack.

The small bag was all she could leave with if she didn't want to raise any suspicion.

Inside were two sets of uniforms, three vials of her scent perfume, toiletries, a dagger, and a gun. She'd need more. But if she knew anything about Ivan, it was that he'd take her shopping as soon as they could.

He always took care of her.

"Don't you think it's kinda dumb to trust someone you met two months ago?" A familiar feminine voice pierced through Kayla's room.

Kayla reached for the dagger on her hip and whirled to find the source of the voice. But there was no one in her room.

Knife at ready, Kayla listened for a heartbeat anywhere near her room. But there was none.

"Seriously? You still don't know who I am?" The voice started Kayla again. But this time, Kayla placed that mocking tone.

It was the voice from her dream.

"Who are you?" Kayla whispered, but kept looking through the room as if the voice would suddenly morph into a physical form if she kept searching.

"Any guesses? I'll give you 3 tries."

Kayla frowned.

She had no guesses but wanted to win the voice's favor. The voice seemed to know so much. Maybe it would make her feel better about abandoning her pack.

She remembered the dream where the voice had led her to Arielle, knowing what was going on when she didn't. Could it be—

"You're one of the dead Lunarheart Alphas?"

"Close. But nope!"

"One of my ancestors?" Kayla tried again, still wondering what to focus on as she talked to someone invisible.

She is totally a ghost. Whose ghost is what she couldn't figure out? Just like she couldn't figure out why the voice sounded so familiar and close.

"Almost! You were closer with your first guess, though."

Kayla didn't have any more guesses. If the voice didn't belong to one of the Alphas whose powers resided in her, and it wasn't the ghost of her ancestor either, then who was it?

Wait a minute.

What if she couldn't see the voice because the voice was in her? In her head—Oh gods!

"You're my wolf? I'm right, aren't I? It's why I know your voice, but I can't place it or see you?"

"Bingo! See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?" The voice—her wolf mocked in that same infuriating tone.

"Why are you talking to me? I refused to shift and chose to leave the pack. How come I can hear you now?"

Her wolf huffed.

Kayla felt it and wondered how she hadn't guessed right from the start.

'Just so you know, I think you're making a terrible mistake. You were destined to shift today. You and I could finally be one. But you turned that down, for what? A smelly human boy who is two-timing you with the spineless cub?'

Her wolf had taken after their mama then. Good to know.

"What's your name?" Kayla asked, sitting down beside her rucksack on the bed.

'Verina. It means Truth. I am the most powerful Alpha to ever lead the Lunarheart pack.'

"When I said that, you rejected my answer."