William didn’t expect what Anna said to him, and so it took him some time to process it before he ended up replying.“What did you expect? That I would let you just leave the pack without saying anything? You didn’t even bother to say goodbye, much less tell me what happened to you,” William sounded really bitter. “I had to find out from Ethan of all fucking people what happened. Did you ever think telling me might be the right thing to do?”“I’m sorry,” she murmured quietly.“There’s nothing more to say now, Anna. Just, end this. Come home with me and I’ll protect you,” He extended his hand to her, wanting her to take it. “Trust me, Anna.”“I do. But I can’t,” Anna said. All traces of pain and regret and guilt were gone from her eyes now. She was holding back tears and her hands trembled, just a little bit. She tried to hide it by tightening them into fists, but it only made her feel even weaker.It was Damon who had told her to do this - to tell William that it was over between them
The sound of Anna’s whimpering was the only thing that was heard in the large bedroom. Despite the luxurious looking surroundings, nothing appealed to the redhead that moment. All she wanted to do was go back to that point in time when she spoke to William and choose differently. She wished the past two weeks had not happened, and she hadn’t ever come into contact with the Eriksons.Less than thirty minutes ago, she practically bade goodbye to the man she was in love with.There was no going back now. And that hurt the most.As Anna sobbed in the bedroom, the full pain in her chest deepened. Her entire body felt like it was out of strength, and all the energy she could have ever had was sucked out of her.Her life had become a dark, gloomy path she couldn’t find her way out of, no matter what. And she was trapped in this damn building and apartment with the Devil himself, Damon fucking Erikson.The thought made her want to bash her head into the wall and just end it then and there for
He parked the car in the garage numbly and exited it after taking a deep breath. He was barely holding himself together.William’s return to the pack wasn’t a glorious one, like he had expected. Instead, all he could feel was anguish, so deep that it threatened to drown him.Anna was no longer with him. She had abandoned him and their children. Although he had an idea that there was a lot to the story - Damon’s involvement was certainly suspect to the theory that his mate wasn’t doing this of her own accord - there wasn’t a lot of hope in the Alpha that he would make any headway towards discovering what that was.As soon as he stepped into the mansion, he could hear voices approaching him. He didn’t have the urge to pay attention to them. All he wanted was for them to stay the fuck away from him.“William,” he raised his head at his mother’s voice calling his name. She didn’t look happy, and neither did anyone else.William took in the presence of not only his mother, but Ethan, Alpha
Lily wasn’t one to be so impulsive but she also wouldn’t just look a gift horse in the mouth and let it be. No, she was an opportunist, and what she wanted was to be ploughed into by someone. Anyone would do.But Ethan WAS a perfect choice for her to take out her frustrations.Her eyes gleamed and she looked around to make sure no maids nor the former Luna would happen upon them and then promptly lose their shit. Then she walked up to Ethan, placing her hand on his clothed, toned chest and leaning in.“Your brother is a bastard,” she seethed in a low whisper, as she longed to kiss the lips of her fiance’s brother.Ethan could hear the desperation in her voice and he found it amusing. How easily she had managed to lose her will and cunning in the face of pressure. The invitation from her was reckless to say the least.Aware they were alone but not out of danger of being caught, Ethan pressed his lips to her ear and murmured, “Then you suit him quite well, considering you act like a bit
Silence filled the air and Lily paused to relax from the brief surprise she felt.He was seated in the living room, which had no lights on, so perhaps that was why she didn’t notice his presence when she rushed in.“No words to say?” Alpha Drake’s tone of voice was light, as though he was in a far better mood than she knew her uncle definitely was in.“I… i went out for a walk,” she managed to say.The Alpha of the Eclipse Pack chuckled and she waited for his laughter to fade.“There’s no need to think up an excuse, Lily. I can already tell you’re lying,” he finished the whiskey in his glass with a toss, and swallowed.“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Uncle,” was what she responded with, though she stilled, gazing at him with curious eyes. What exactly did he know now?“Oh?” He tutted like a mother that just caught a child lying. “I hoped you would buckle up and not let yourself be driven by impulses again but it seems like my hopes were for nothing. I was wrong. After all, yo
That night, around a couple minutes past 1am, William tossed and turned in his bed. His mind was still stuck on Anna, and his encounter with his mother earlier that evening.Finally he gave up on the prospects of sleep and grunted.“Fuck,” he whispered into the air, staring up at the ceiling, his back pressed against the soft Egyptian cotton sheets.As though it was a sigh, his phone began to vibrate and William reached for it on his bedside table without looking.The lack of a caller ID made his brows furrow; who could it be that was calling him at this time of the night?“Yes?” He answered the call expectantly.“Is this Alpha William?” A strange male voice was in the other end, a mix of British and French accent which made William more alert. Who was this person.“Who’s asking?” He replied with shortly.“This is Victor Erikson,” came next, and hearing that damned last name of a prominent Hunter family made him sit up at last, growling into the receiver.“What the hell do you want?”
There was a knowing look in her eyes as she leaned back into the chair and began to tap her long fingernails on the linoleum covered table.“I have heard a little from my contacts in the city about the woman you wish to help,” she openly said, referring to Anna more clearly. “Though, I’m afraid that despite your desires to have her be back to normal again, there is no cure. All she can do is learn to control it, just like Damon, and just like me. It’s not a disease,” she explained. “It changes everything in us, down to the smallest genome. She can’t ever be a normal human again. I’m sure she must already know that, or she wouldn’t have agreed to stay with my cousin. She must have thought there was no other choice she had.”Those words spurred anger within William, and a deep sense of regret and frustration.“Then,” his voice was rough as he made to stand up from the chair. “We’re done here. If you can’t give me what I want, Aléa Erikson, what’s the fucking point?”“You can choose to l
“Why did you agree to the destruction of Virax?” Victor finally asked, sitting on the chair where William had occupied previously. Aléa gazed at him, her eyes piercing his as he clasped his hands atop the table. “You know what it took for it to be created.”“Decades of work,” she answered with a nod. “Many lives of our Hunters were sacrificed in the process of testing it. I know that very well, Victor. But I don’t think Virax had ever been a good idea to begin with. It took me until I was 16 to agree to take it for a good reason.”“Why?” He asked. “And do you think the Elders and the rest of the organization will agree to such a thing.”“They will have to. It serves us no purpose to be stubborn about this. It has no use in over 98% of our men, either way. It’s practically useless to us. And there is the side effect I didn’t inform Alpha William about,” she gave him a pointed look and he let out a sigh and looked away.He couldn’t argue with her reasoning.“I imagine if you told him th