The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn

The Unwanted Bride Of Atticus Fawn Chapter 29

~ATTICUS~

I wish I hadn’t made such ridiculous promises to Anya. I should have been upfront with her from the

start. But she wasn’t the problem currently; getting Autumn to open this door was more important to

me. I knock once, then twice.

“Autumn!” I shout loud enough for her to hear me. “Open the door. Please!”

I try again but she shouted for me to leave her alone. Hearing her say those words to me bothered me

more than it should. It was almost like her feelings affected mine. Like we were connected. But that

couldn’t be possible. I was connected to Anya, not to her. My mate bond was with Anya, not Autumn.

So then why did this hurt me just as much as it did her?

“Why are you wasting your time with her?” Anya demands. “She doesn’t wish to speak to you. I’m the

one that’s trying my best to make things better between us. I’m the one that’s fighting for you. Can’t you

see that Autumn doesn’t care for you at all?”

“She’s only ignoring me because of you.” I remind her. “Are you purposefully trying to cause problems

between us Anya?”

She narrows her eyes and folds her arms stubbornly.

“Are you out of your mind Atticus?” She inquired. “It’s not my fault that Autumn doesn’t trust you. I was

never like that when we were together. I knew you loved me, and I didn’t have to worry about any other

woman in your life. I know you still love me. That’s why I can never let go of you. It’s why I plan on

fighting till the end for you.”

I was right. Anya wasn’t going to let our past go. She was determined to keep fighting for us.

I hear footsteps, and I see my brother walking up the stairs toward us. His eyes find us, and he looks

surprised to see us alone together.

“What’s going on?” He asks as he joins us. “Everyone is waiting for you, Atticus. I didn’t expect to see

you with Anya. Did something happen between the both of you?”

Was Damon also about to misunderstand the situation? He should know that I would never disrespect

my wife like that.

“Let’s start the search,” I say without answering his question about Anya. It was useless trying to get

Autumn to talk to me now, and I had already promised her to bring her friend back safely. The longer

we waited, the harder it would become to keep my promise to her. Maybe if I found her friend, then she

would forgive me. That is if she remembers anything from tonight when she wakes up.

Did I want her to remember this? I didn’t think so. The look on her face even though she was drunk told

me that she wouldn’t forgive me easily for this incident.

It was even more useless trying to speak with Anya about her behavior. She never likes when I ignore

her, but when I try to be friendly and not hurt her, she does things like this which makes it difficult for

me to be there for her.

“Are there any leads so far?” I ask him as I walk past Anya towards the stairs. Damon looks at her

before following after me. He knows something has to have happened; he wasn’t stupid. But lucky for

me, he didn’t try to ask any other questions.

“No, none except that Griffin confessed to provoking Kane before they went missing.” He informs me.

“How did he provoke him?” I ask. Griffin was always looking for trouble. This wasn’t news to me.

“This is where it gets interesting,” Damon says. “Kane is supposed to be mates with Maya, Austin’s

sister who they’ve recently been reunited with. It turns out Kane had something going on with the girl

he went missing with. Griffin was trying to get him jealous by flirting with her. Apparently, Griffin

promised to help her make him jealous. It worked.”

“Are you telling me that it’s possible they both ran away to be together?” I ask.

He shrugs his shoulder, “there is really no telling what happened until we find them. The way I see it,

this is the least of our problems. When Austin discovers what Kane has been doing behind his sister’s

back, he might kill him if he isn’t already dead.”

“This doesn’t make any sense. If they’re mates, why is he cheating on her?” I ask.

That was a question I shouldn’t be asking. Anya was my mate, but it didn’t stop me from desiring

Autumn. It’s not supposed to be that way; mates didn’t desire anyone else but their partner.

Damon looks at me, and there is a guilty look on his face, almost like he understands Kane. Did he also

desire someone other than Anya? We never spoke about feelings; we did in the past, but after Anya

came into our lives, we’d drifted apart. It didn’t feel right to explain what we each felt about her; it was

awkward since we would be talking about the same woman. Now here we are, knowing very little about

each of our feelings.

Damon looks tensed as Clarissa joins us, “how does my outfit look for the search?” She asks.

Damon and I look at her as though she’d lost her damn mind. “Where do you think you’re going?” He

asks her.

“To help you with the search.” She answers him. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Damon grabs her wrist and pulls her to his side, “you’re not going on this search with us. When do we

ever involve you in things like this? Stay here with the guests and keep out of trouble.”

“Keep out of trouble?” She asks. “I am not a child Damon. I’m all grown up; this is not the body of a

child, in case you haven’t noticed.”

What the f**k?

“Clarissa.” I hiss. “Are you feeling okay? What the hell is wrong with you all of a sudden?”

I’m surprised that Damon didn’t respond to her little comment, and I’m even more shocked when I turn

to him and see that his cheeks are bright red.

“I’m perfectly fine.” She assures me. “I hate that everyone treats me like I’m a kid. It’s frustrating. I want

to help. Why can’t you let me?”

Was this really happening tonight? First, I had to keep Autumn from joining us, and now I also had to

deal with Clarissa. We were wasting precious time.

“If it means that much to you. Fine. Join us.” I tell her.

Her face brightens with a smile, and Damon looks at me like I’ve lost my mind.

“She can’t come with us. We’re not sure how long we will be out there. It’s safer for her here.” He

complains.

“Well, then you try and talk her out of this because I don’t have time to convince her not to come with

us.” I point out.

I knew Damon was even more protective over her than I was, but I couldn’t stay here trying to convince

her not to go when I had to find Autumn’s friend. I was still pissed over what had just occurred. I was

desperate to find a way to get Autumn to forgive me.

Clarissa grabs a bag and walks in front of us, “what do you even have in that bag?”

“Just girl stuff!” She shouts as she runs to the jeep.

Dante joins us and quirks a brow when she opens the back door and jumps in the vehicle.

“Clarissa is joining us?” He asks.

“You can thank f*****g Atticus for that,” Damon growls as he joins her in the backseat.

“You’re welcome!” I respond sarcastically.

“Do we have everything?” I ask as I start the jeep.

Dante nods, “should we have asked Anya to join us as well? She’s probably going to be pissed that I

told her no, but allowed Clarissa to join us.”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel, and before they can agree on bringing her, I’m already moving

the jeep into the pathway to the front of us. I wasn’t giving them a chance to get her involved in this

search. I was already in deep s**t with Autumn; I didn’t want to worsen things. Besides, I couldn’t trust

myself around Anya; she would find some way to get us alone.

“Honestly, Atticus, I’ve never been more proud of you.” Clarissa cheers in the back. “Not having Anya

with us is the best thing that has happened to me all day. It’s tiring being around her. I’m honestly not

sure how you can stand being around her for more than a minute.”

“No, the best thing would have been if you had stayed your butt home.” Dante retorts. “How did you

convince Damon to let you come with us?”

“Damon isn’t the boss of me.” She snaps.

“I am right here,” Damon says in a dry tone. “You’re speaking about me like I’m the one that stayed

back.”

Was this what it would be like for the entire search? With these three constantly bickering and giving

me a bloody headache?

“Are there any new updates?” I ask Dante. He’s the one that’s been in contact with Arthur about the

search. “And where is Griffin? He should be in the center of the search since he’s partly to blame for

trying to get Kane jealous.”

“There are no new leads,” he informs me. “And Griffin, he’s leading one of the searches, but it’s in a

completely different direction. We’re trying to spread out as far as possible since we don’t know where

they might be.”

That would make sense; we wouldn’t stop until we covered the entire island. I had to find them. I had to

for Autumn.

“Griffin loves to cause trouble,” Damon says, “name one event we’ve ever had that he didn’t cause an

uproar.”

Now that Damon had mentioned it, I realized that he was speaking the truth. I couldn’t find a single

event where Griffin hadn’t caused trouble for the rest of us. This was only his most recent incident.

“The trail ends here,” I say as the jeep abruptly stops. “We’re going to have to walk from this point

onwards.”

Damon turns to Clarissa, “are you sure you’re up for this?” he asks her. “You can still take the jeep

back; we can shift and return to the beach house in no time when we’re done with the search.”

“I didn’t come all this way to be of no help.” She says.

She’s the first to step out of the vehicle, she attempts to grab her bag, but Damon takes it from her. “I’ll

carry it. Just focus on walking.”

She practically beams up at him, and this is the relationship I’m accustomed to seeing between them—

Clarissa in complete awe of Damon.

Dante looks at me, and I shake my head. We’re used to this. It wasn’t anything new for us. Though,

their bickering has for some reason increased recently.

“I still can’t get over the fact that Kane is cheating on Maya. I’ve heard their story. Didn’t he go insane

trying to find her when she went missing? How could he betray her like that in the end? You don’t just

cheat on your mate. It’s not normal behavior.” Dante says.

“Well, maybe she’s the wrong person for him,” Clarissa says. “Look at Atticus, for example, Autumn is

the better option for him than Anya, and she isn’t his mate. She agrees with him, and he’s so much

happier with her than he ever was with Anya. Maybe you and Damon can experience that happiness if

you give someone else a chance.”

“Here we go again,” Dante growls. “Just another reminder why we should have left you home.”

“I’m allowed to give my opinion Dante.” She snaps at him.

“Do you smell that?” I ask.

Damon looks at me, and his body goes on high alert, “witchcraft.”

“Did we invite any witches on this trip with us?” I inquire.

“I can’t say for sure,” Dante answers me. “It’s not something I paid attention to.”

“Even if we did, no one came here to perform any weird ritual or whatever the f**k this is,” I say as I

look down at the burning circle in the dirt.

“Do you know what spell this is?” Dante asks me.

I couldn’t say for sure. We’ve studied witches and their spells at the academy, but I can’t say I paid

attention.

“It seems like a teleporting spell,” Clarissa says as she goes closer. “Someone used it to get out of the

island.”

We all stare at her, completely stunned.

She looks up at us and quirks her brow, “what? Have none of you ever paid attention in class? I’m in a

lower level but somehow, know more than you?”

Damon sighs and kneels next to her, “it looks like there was more than one person here judging by the

size of these footprints.”

“Do you think it was Kane and the girl?” I ask.

“They’re not witches,” Damon points out. “If it was them, a witch must have taken them.”

“This just gets weirder and weirder,” Dante says.

“I’ll give Griffin the update,” Damon says as he takes out his phone. “He can inform the others of what

we’ve just found out. I don’t know how we will explain this, though.”

“So witches are involved in their disappearance?” Dante asks. “Is that the conclusion we’ve come up

with?”

“We still can’t say for sure,” I respond as I scan the area. “We can’t jump to any conclusions, but what

we could do is keep looking and hope to find some more clues.”

Witches. I never liked when they were involved. They were tricky and could never be trusted. I’ve

barely met honest witches; most of them were always looking for ways to trick you and benefit in

whatever way they could. Their spells always freaked me out. Knowing that there were people out

there that could make you fall in love with them through magic alone didn’t sit right with me. They had

the power to control and make you do things you wouldn’t normally do, and there wasn’t much you

could do about it. If you didn’t know that you were under a spell, how could you break free from it?

“Let’s keep looking,” Damon says.

My eyes widen as Clarissa almost walks straight into the fire. Damon grabs her by her waist and pulls

her to him.

“Oopsie!” she whispers as she hides her face against his chest.

“This is why I didn’t want you here with us,” Damon growls. “You could have seriously burnt yourself,

and that’s not even normal fire.”

“I’m sorry.” she apologizes. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“I think it’s time I take you back to the jeep,” Damon tells her. “We can wait there until they return.”

“I told you that I could do this.” She complains. Damon looks frustrated, but he doesn’t try to convince

her again.

We searched the area more than once, hoping to find other clues, but we didn’t see anything that could

help us find them.

“Let’s head back to the jeep; we can check another area,” I say.

They nod, and it doesn’t take us long to get back to the vehicle. Even though I wanted to find Autumn’s

friend, I was still distracted because of what had happened earlier. She was constantly on my mind. I

couldn’t get over the look on her face when she thought that I’d lied to her.

“Stop the jeep!” Dante shouts suddenly. His words broke me out of my thoughts just before I could hit a

tree.

“Where the hell is your mind at, Atticus?” He demands.

“We have Clarissa with us; you can’t be so f*****g careless,” Damon warned.

“Sorry.” I apologize. “I have a lot on my mind.”

“You still didn’t tell us what happened with Anya.” Damon reminds me. “It looked like you were in an

argument when I interrupted you.”

Anya was the last person I wanted to speak to anyone about.

“Have you noticed recently that her behavior has drastically changed?” I ask them.

“She just watched her mate marry her best friend. I think she’s allowed to react the way that she’s

behaving. You’re the one that doesn’t have any sympathy toward her pain.” Dante says with a hint of

irritation in his voice.

This is why I couldn’t discuss anything with my brothers; they would instantly take her side.

“Or, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, maybe you’re finally able to see her for what she truly

is. Her true nature is finally showing, and you’re finally opening your eyes.” Clarissa cuts in.

“We’re straying from what we came here to do,” Damon says. “Let’s continue with the search.”

“You’re right.” I agree.