EDENAs much as I didn't want to see him, I had to. Henry was still out there and I didn't know where he was. Alicia was losing her mind with worry.I made my way downstairs that evening, being the first time I'd come out from my room since I arrived. Belle and Ethan slept with me since Roman's son had taken over their room.I didn't want to see him. Was Elena here too? I didn't have the strength to deal with all that so I just stayed away.The fact that I wasn't seeing anything concerning Henry wasn't helping matters. I wasn't sure what was wrong but I really needed something. Anything that will give Alicia hope.There was someone sitting on the couch and it wasn't him.”Quinn” I called her name lightly because I was still wondering whether I actually wanted to speak to herI wasn't mad at her, it won't make sense to be mad at her for something out of her control. It wasn't her fault and I'd feel bad if Roman was mad at her.She turned to look at me, dropping the magazine and coming
ROMAN“So you're saying Henry is missing?”She nodded, folding her hands on her belly and breathing deeply, the fatigue on he face very evident.“Yes, we've been trying to reach him but nothing is working. It's been over a month since he left. He'd never just cut of communication with his family like that. I know something is wrong."I nodded, trying to make sense of the situation.“So what do you need me to do?"”I need you to help track his flight? You can do that right? We don't even know where he went so we can start looking for him there. All he said was that he had international business.”Hmmm, was he hiding something? That's the only condition for him to not tell Alicia where he was going. That's okay. I'll do what I can to find him.“So, is that the only reason you came back? To find Henry?”Her expression changed and she looked away from me, like she had something to hide.“No, I came back because the kids needed to see their dad too. Belle was beginning to ask questions an
ROMAN“How much of that did you hear?” He closed the door behind him, walking like he'd just heard something he shouldn't have. “Maybe all of it. I was right in the room.”Why didn't I remember that he was there?He sat like that for a couple of moments, staring at nothing with his mouth open. “She likes me.” “No, she's in love with you.” He scoffed, almost not believing it. I didn't believe it either myself but oh well, it is what it is. “So, what do you think?” He looked at me. “About what?" “About… I don't know. Do you like her?" He looked away, running his hands through his hair and I started hating myself for having to be the one to tell her that he didn't like her. “She's the Beta, I'm just the Gamma. She won't regard me.”“Are you kidding? Are you sure you heard anything she said? She's scared that you won't want to be with her because of her position. Does it really matter? It's just a position.”Frankly, I didn't see the technicality of this situation. If they both
ROMANIT seemed like today was the day for bad news.I woke up this morning to news that shook me. Alicia had gone to bed and she wasn't waking up.I rushed to her room in my night wear to see Eden and Quinn gathered around her.”Have you called the doctor?”Eden was already in the last stage of panic and I was sure that she wasn't hearing a thing I was saying.“Yes, I have already called a guard.” Quinn answered me.I touched her neck to make sure that she was dtill breathing. She was.“Did anything happen to her? Did she fall or something?”Quinn didn't know the answer to that so we looked at Eden who was frozen.I went over to the other side and held her shoulders.“Eden, baby. Look at me. Hey, are you okay?"Her eyes were filled with tears and she slowly lifted her eyes to mine.“Snap out of it, okay? What is the matter?"“Is she dead? Is Alicia dead?”“No, no she's not. I just checked and she's still breathing okay? She's just knocked out cold, probably from the stress. The docto
ROMANI'd heard that Alicia had woken up. After I finished my work at the office, I went to see her.“Sorry I caused such a big fuss today.””Are you kidding? You fainted, that's not your fault. The doctor said your blood pressure was too high. You know I'm working very hard on finding him, right?"She looked at me, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.”Have you found anything?”I hated lying so much. It didn't fit my personality.“No, but we're starting with the flight he took. Once we have that, it'll be easier to find him from there."She nodded.“That’s okay.”“We will find him, Alicia. It's just a matter of time. Just give me time, okay? In the meantime, you have to care for yourself. Nothing bad has happened to Henry, I want you to know that. You need to take care of yourself so that you can care for the baby too and Isabelle too."She smiled at me a bit.“Thank you for everything, Roman. I really can't repay you.”“You don't have to. All you have to do is be good, take care and bring
CAGEI sat back on my throne and watched everything that is managed to achieve.In my kingdom, there was no Beta. I was the only one in charge. I wasnt as stupid that bastard who trusted me. First thing I started with was putting all those foolish elders in jail. All those men who had taken the decision to banish me from the pack had paid for it.The ones I hadn't put in jail, I'd killed. Then I started with my redevelopment. The pack now looked like a wasteland and not up to twenty people stayed there anymore.I laughed at the oddity of things. Tim should have just let me take over back then but no, he was just too selfish. He was already an old bastard and none of those bitches he had as daughters were fit enough for the seat.But I'd been disgraced and chased out of the kingdom. Now, it was all mine again.I wish he hadn't died yet. I would have made him pay for what he had done. I'd earned that seat, I'd been by his side for years, protecting him and his damn family and when I ask
THIRD PERSON POV“Good, just hold on for now. He has more than enough issues at home to handle. I want him to lose it, thinking about when you'll attack."With Henry missing and Elena and Rowan in his house, he'll feel too overwhelmed. He was clearly a man who liked having things go according to plan so when Cage doesn't attack, it'll put him at the edge of his seat and that was exactly what I wanted.I dropped my phone on the table and walked out of the room. There was somewhere important that I had to be today.But first, a quick stop to the dungeons. It had been a while since I saw this very important person.A lot of people had to go away for my plans to work.Henry was paying for something that he knew nothing about because he'd been going his way when I took him.This next person however, was paying the price for not shutting her mouth and minding her business.I stood in front of her self, taking in her shrunken figure. It has been almost four months since she'd been in here an
QUINNMy door flung open when I'd just begun falling asleep. I'd had a long night last night, staying up to do some work and it had run pretty late.My head was banging and I was very hungry but I still had to come into the office today and work. Roman needed help putting things together and I couldn't just dump that on Lucian.Speaking of Lucian, he was the one who walked through the door, looking handsome as usual with his hair pushed back away from his face and his thick black mustache sitting firmly in the middle of his face.The way he stared at me as he walked in, made me wonder if I had drooled a bit. I sat up right as he dropped the file on my table.“What is this?” I patted my hair down Incase I had bed hair. Gosh, this was so embarrassing.“It’s a list of the men I was able to gather for the army. Their names, ages and packs.”This should be enough for what Roman wanted to do. This would be more than enough. This Cage issue had him on the edge and then, there was the Henry i
THIRD PERSON POVWhile everyone back home was looking for Roman, he was on the other side of the town, looking through his pockets and swearing that he carried his phone.The minister noticed that he was distracted.“Is there anything you need? Are you looking for something?”Roman looked up.“Yes, I'm sure that I carried my phone but now, I can't find it.”Roman knew that he would have gotten so many calls. He'd left the house very early and no one knew where he was.He didn't take any guard with him either.“Maybe it fell on the way."Of course, it did. With all those bullets raining on his head, why won't it fall out?It had been pure luck that he had escaped. He was almost at the minister's house when he noticed a car that he was sure he'd seen when he got off the highway.He'd rolled his eyes, not wanting to be involved in any of this today.“Can we do this in a week? I have something to do today.”What should he do now? He knew he couldn't avoid them.To make sure that he was ri
EDENIT was already seven pm and I still couldn't find him. I was ready and so was everyone else but he was nowhere to be found.I'd called him and so had Quinn but he wasn't picking up his calls at all.“Edem, are you sure he didn't tell you where he was going?”I thought back to last night and scrolled through our conversation.“No, I don't remember him saying anything about going anywhere. After I told him about the officiating minister, that was where the conversation ended. Nothing more happened.”Quinn came back.“His phone is switched off.”Wonderful, just great. Roman was missing on no other day than our wedding day.Where could he be? Even if he was stuck in traffic, he could at least pick up his phone.Or maybe he truly wasn't interested in getting married to me.But then he would have just said it then when I brought it up. Why didn't he say anything? He had the choice to reject me last night but he didn't.”Eden, don't worry. We'll find him in time for the wedding.”Alicia
EDENI woke up early that morning.Well, we didn't sleep after that.. we stayed up the entire night talking about everything we'd been through and it touched me.Eventually, I fell asleep on his shoulder and I didn't even know. I was sitting in his lap and I woke up on the bed.Alicia was standing above me .“Hey, wake up. Let's get you ready. Roman left the house really early this morning and I have to go back home to get a dress for myself. I mean, I can't wear this.”She had eye bags and her face was very dim. She has started crying again sometime during the night.”Alicia, sit down. We need to talk.”She was avoiding my eyes.“Eden, there's a lot to be done today. I mean, you don't even have a makeup artist or a hairstylist either. Your dress isn't here yet and the food isn't ready. There's a lot to be done.”I knew that all that wasn't truly her concern. She was just trying to avoid talking about me.“Alicia, please -”“Eden, there's no time. We need to get ready."I had to get
EDENWhen I finally got into the house later that night, I couldn't sleep so I just stared out the window at the stary night.Alicia had fallen asleep while feeding the kids so I would break the news to her tomorrow.I'd had to tell Quinn what had happened.“Really?! Was that why you were staring into the dark?””Yes, she was standing there. I'm not going to die, Quinn. I'm going to be here with my kids.”She pulled me in for a hug and held me tightly.“I'm so happy, Eden. You don't know how terrible I felt when you told me that. How can you die without watching your kids grow up?"I was just happy that I hadn't rushed to tell Roman anything that was going on.He was clearly exhausted because he didn't even wake up when I entered the room and when I got in the bed. I was equally so tired because I had spent a lot of time getting things ready today.My body was tired but my mind was still awake and buzzing.I was going to get married tomorrow. I should have told Quinn that we should ju
EDENWe got back home late that night.Mostly because we needed to pull ourselves so that we won't show that we've been crying.Everytime we finally stopped crying, Alicia started again and we started another whole process of consoling each other.“Please stop crying. I don't know what I'm going to do if you're like this.”She finally pulled herself together and we got into the car and drove back home.“Are you really not going to tell Roman?"“I don't have a plan to. I'm sorry, I just can't bring myself to tell him. He will be shattered, Alicia.”She still wasn't fine with it but she didn't say anything else until we got home.Alicia went into the house to check in on Roman and the kids while I went to the back of the house to check in on what Quinn was doing.She was actually on a chair and table with her legs up while eating everything she brought from the restaurant.“You seem to be enjoying yourself.”My voice frightened her.“Sorry about that.”“You guys surely took your time..
EDENWe'd ended up at a restaurant because the bar we wanted to go to was closed.Roman had already called me four times to ask Alicia questions about the twins and he sounded like he was about to lose it.“Let’s eat so much that we won't be able to walk again.”And that's what we did. I think we ordered everything in the menu and we basically had the chef at our call to make anything that we wanted.That was the first time I would be eating so much food in one day and it felt so good.“I don't think I can eat anymore. I'm so full.”Quinn had been the one to bring us here and now she was already full. Alicia's mood had changed and she wasn't speaking anymore.Quinn's phone rang and she stood up to answer it.“Alicia-”“What’s going on, Eden? And don't even tell me not to ask questions. Because you can't keep doing this. I'm your best friend. You have to be truthful.”What was sj to do at this point? I had no other choice than to tell her the truth.She deserved that much.“Balari came
EDENAlicia did come over that evening.And we stayed in the room throughout.“It’s fine. I'll take care of the kids. You guys just do what girls do. Whatever it is that you do.”Roman took the twins and left us.“What in the world happened? Why did you faint?"I acted like I had no idea what was going on.“I mean, I don't know. I just felt weak and tired and next thing I know, I'm waking up in a hospital.”“Woah, that is crazy.. but you're fine right? I mean, yorie okay?"“Yes, I'm fine.”I needed to change the topic.“Hey, about Henry, I've spoken to Roman about it and he had no idea that Henry wasn't home. He said he was going to help track him down.”I actually hadn't spoken to Roman about it but I just needed to say something that would make her forget about the previous topic.“Thank you. I just hope we won't have to go through everything we went through back then. He'll surely come back.”Surely, he will. He's probably just busy.Speaking of Roman doing things, I still needed t
EDENI'd come home the day after that. The doctor said that I was free and healthy to leave but I didn't feel free.“Why the long face? Aren't you happy to come home?”I turned to Roman who was driving.”Oh no, it's nothing like that. I'm just tired."What was the point of being happy when I knew what was coming? And I couldn't tell him. I didn't want him to feel responsible for it.Roman is very quick to blame himself and I didn't want him to. I should just die peacefully so that he would have the guts to move on from me.If I told him that it was because of him I was going to die, then I would mess things up.I recalled my last conversation with Balari.“Are you sure it's what you want, Eden? Men are not worth it. You can live with your kids and raise them in your own way. You don't have to do this.”But it seemed like the more we spoke about it, the more determined I was to do it.“I do, actually. I love Roman, I can't let him die for something he has no hand in.”“And you have a
EDENWhen I woke up, it was dark.Why was it dark and where was I? I knew this wasn't my room, and it surely didn't smell like this.I tried to move my hand and when I saw the IV line shake, I sighed. The hospital.How did I end up here and why didn't I remember anything?Me being here meant that something had happened to me but for the life of me, I couldn't bring myself to. I felt so weak so I just relaxed in my bed.I didn't even have the strength to call for help and eventually, I slept.The next time I woke up, the sun was out thankfully and my eyes didn't feel as heavy as a boulder.My stomach was hurting badly, partly the fact that I hadn't eaten in a day and half. I needed food or else I might actually die this time around..I sat up in my bed, clutching my stomach tightly. I also needed to pee. I've never been to the hospital before.Roman was born in the pack and Belle?Well, Belle was born at home because I had no idea I was in labor and since Alicia and I had never been mo