EBONY’S POV:My friend, Greyson, helped me get a job. It was true. The café Roses and Guns accepted to give me a job. I was a waitress again and it felt nice to have a roof to sleep under. Since I didn’t have my keys and I spent a whole day practising my knife skills, I lost one day.I didn’t have my pills and I was terrified of being in a position of no help.No one would help me.What would happen when I would get one of those heart attacks? Would I be able to survive this time?No one knew about my financial struggles and even if someone did, no one would help me.“Ebony?”I was jolted out of my thoughts. I realised I have been wiping the plate for a while. I turned my head and spotted Rachel. She had a scowl on her face.“I want your head here, not there. After you finish this batch of dishes, return to your post. Rayla is late but she made it; she will take back her position.”Rayla was the one who cleaned the dishes. I had to take her place because no one was willing to do them.
“Hey, wake up!”I opened my eyes, the light blinding me. I squinted. Rachel was standing over my head and my body felt heavy, broken.It wasn’t unexpected. After all, I slept on a chair, my head resting on my forearms.I forgot to wake up early and hide, before Rachel came.“Rachel?”“Yes, it’s Rachel. Why did you stay here? I don’t remember you asking to stay.”I sprang on my feet immediately, like a child caught stealing a candy.“I am sorry,” I lowered my head. I usually woke up early and I relied on that fact. Why didn’t I wake up early? “I didn’t mean to stay. You see… I… yesterday…” I paused and peeked at her. I didn’t want to lose my job.“You didn’t return home. Why?” she asked after checking my clothes.I removed my undergarments last night and washed them. I needed to get to the changing room before she got there first.“My bag was stolen. I lost everything. My cards, my keys. That’s why I asked you to pay me cash at the end of the month. I don’t know when I will get everyth
ADOLPHUS’ POV:Ebony didn’t come home last night.How did I realise that when her scent was still fresh?I realised it because I saw Eleanor come out of her apartment. I thought that she brought her new friends over and was ready to scold her about it, but she didn’t appear.I watched as Eleanor got out, checking left and right before rushing outside. She was alone, unlike how she was used to. She came out in a suspicious way.The second reason why I believed Ebony didn’t come over was that I saw a familiar phone in Frederick’s hands. Usually, I didn’t care about such things. Werewolves all had their phones. However, it was preferable to keep anything technical away from our senses.Still, the phone in Frederick’s hands didn’t look like the one he used. So I knew something was wrong. The only time Ebony left her phone behind was when she was taken abruptly by Greyson.Moreover, she was keeping it close lately, as if waiting for an important call. It wasn’t like I kept an eye on her. S
EBONY’S POV:I asked him what he was doing in my apartment, he told me that they wanted to check something and after a while he left. Well, it was the only thing I truly remembered from what happened the previous day.When I woke up the next day, I felt refreshed. The sun didn’t rise yet and I spent minutes trying to make sense of everything. IT took me hours to remember everything and when I did, I was shocked.I told him that Frederick was the one who made me an addict, not his father.“Are you alright?” Rachel asked.“Yes, I am. Thank you. I will resume my shift. Don’t worry about me. I am fine now. What happened won’t happen again.”She nodded.We both resumed working. I felt refreshed and different. However, what Adolphus did actually reminds me of his future one. He just stood there, watching me, not even a hint to betray his thoughts. It was like in those cells.We sat, opposite each other and he watched me. I could tell that it was a long habit of his.Two men were sitting in
I ran as fast as I could. It was time to return training, only two days left till the test and I needed to be in shape.I promised Rachel to work hard but in the end, she had other plans for me or maybe him, my boss. He wanted me to work part-time and attend school. He said it was Greyson’s condition for me to keep working or Adolphus would fire me. Not many choices to consider…As I was running, I felt free. I missed this feeling. Freedom and the sound of rain.I loved the rain.I used to sit alone and watch it from my office as Frederick fucked Nialliv. It was a speculation I didn’t want to come true back then.I stopped in the rain and looked at the sky, closing my eyes to feel everything around me. It was peaceful and serene. The freedom I lost for years.Everything was minor compared to this.Soak me, rain.Adolphus didn’t know anything. Literally nothing…“Ebony, what are you doing here?”I opened my eyes. Frederick was standing in front of me. After learning that he was the one
I knew what my wolf wanted from me and I knew the decision I had to make was the only one I could make. She was right in everything and yet, I wanted to find another path, another way.I wasn’t free from my future as much as I thought I was.Thinking about it, even when my wolf wasn’t around, there was still that voice in my head that was my opposite. When I used to sit in my office and look at the documents and the work I had to do, there were two voices in my head.The voice, my voice and the dominating one that told me to please Frederick. But there was also another voice telling me to look at everything in its face and confront him for what he was doing to me. In the end, even if I was human, even humans had two voices, which made it hard to live.Now, I was telling my wolf I didn’t want to apologise and she was telling me that we must apologise.‘C’mon! You can’t do this. If I could take control, I would have done it in your stead.’Aren’t you supposed to be me? Aren’t you suppos
ADOLPHUS’ POV:I decided since I saw her with her grandfather to follow one rule: I SHOULDN’T BE ALONE WITH HER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.When I was alone with her, she made me use my brain a lot. The amount of confusing words she said grew by the minute and I couldn’t totally process them, as well as the tattoo on her chest. No matter how many times I searched in my mind, this girl had nothing to do with my father, except for that dream when we were around each other, playing.She didn’t look young. In my eyes, Ebony felt old, someone who was struggling to keep her sense of self. She was a woman no matter how different I tried to look at her.With all the shit she pulled, I needed her on her knees and hands as I took whatever I wanted and however I wanted.Shit.I could feel myself hardening at the thought of her like that. Maybe it was time for me to look for another woman to test if she was my mate.I sighed loudly and folded my arms as I glared ahead, at the approaching figure full
EBONY’S POV:I’m so fucked.I don’t know how to react to this situation.I didn’t expect them both to be behind me.‘It’s funny. You were pretty loud with all the choosing. Now, they’re the ones laughing.’You think they’re laughing.I raised my head slowly, ashamed of what I was caught doing. The book sat on my lap while I rested on a normal chair for once. I got into their apartment and before knowing it, they were sitting around me. I could see that they were fighting their laughter.“So, what made you want to apologise?” Alice asked.Did she have to phrase it like that?It was horrible to admit it.“Don’t forget, sis! She wanted to apologise without saying sorry. Question correctly: what made you want to apologise without saying sorry?”The damn bastard! He was smirking. I was sure about it and he wasn’t even hiding it.I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.“Look! I have my reasons for pushing you. You said yourself that you’d die. I was terrified that all fingers would point a
Rayleigh laughed.“I am being serious here,” I pouted. “Grandpa left me with you because I requested so. I want to talk to you alone. It’s sad that Chronos isn’t around anymore but I think it’s for the better. Now, no one has to take meaningless responsibilities. I guess without them, everything will be peaceful.”“How do you know…?”I cut him off. “C’mon! You’re a smart man. You know there is no way a five years old child will talk like this. I’ve lived through two regressions and I’ve come back again as part of the plan, only this time, this is the final phase. We can’t lose.”“Ah! What happened? Why did Chronos disappear?”“My father was supposed to be the sacrifice. I don’t know why but unlike all the other Chronos sent, I am the only one who got to regress more than a decade. That’s why they left the burden to me. Since my father is still alive, I assume that Chronos took the hardest decision in his life. He chose to die and take the others with him. I don’t know if I should feel
EBONY’S POV:I opened my eyes early in the morning. I drank my milk and sat with my parents having breakfast. They laughed together and nothing reminded me of these moments. I have been waiting for my father’s heart attack for two weeks now and it didn’t happen.I checked my tattoo mark and it was there, just faint and impossible to notice.“Sweetie, do you want more milk? You’ve been sipping on your glass while it’s empty,” my mother said.Mom had long black hair and the palest, bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. They weren’t the normal typical blue. They were lighter and paler, as if they were diluted by white and became as blue as the sky early in the morning when the sun had finally settled in place.“Yes, mom.”And I was five.I couldn’t believe that it worked. My father was sitting there, wearing glasses and reading his early morning newspapers. Our house was small and it was full of magical artifacts. Maybe because I was five, I didn’t remember them. Or maybe because a lot happened af
FREDERICK’S POV:I stood outside, thinking about everything that happened to me, all the regressions, the people we lost. I’ve grown numb to all the deaths. As long as Adolphus was alive, there was always a chance to change the outcome.My final role was to kill him. For the regression to happen, he had to die after her.Now, whether we wanted it or not, things would never be the same. I would go back to the kid I was and Adolphus would go back to his old self too. To be honest, I was always jealous of how he had a choice in remembering or not.He got out of the underground cell built specifically for today.“You certainly put so much into this,” he said.“Of course. But this is where our role stops. No matter how much we want to influence things with our current memories, it won’t ever happen. We won’t remember anything.”“It’s true. But this is the price we have to pay if we want it to work. We only need to someone to warn them. They will do the rest. If it doesn’t work again, then
EBONY’S POV:I was sweating profusely. I would die. I would certainly die. For the second time. I knew this was coming but I didn’t expect it to be this soon. I was trying to make a plan to fix things but it seemed all the effort I spent on that was a waste.“Adolphus, please be gentle.”Adolphus was confused. “Aren’t you mad that I killed your father?”“I’m sure he wanted that. He didn’t play a big role in my life so it doesn’t matter. But can you untie me?”He didn’t untie me because Frederick was ready to shoot me. But thinking about it, didn’t he kill me before too? No, he said that Adolphus must have poisoned me so I was dying anywhere. But I didn’t cough blood, which meant it could be that I wasn’t poisoned.‘Don’t overthink. These jerks planned a lot that they won’t say. Well, since we have no choice, let’s just wait till they settle their score. Maybe they’ll fight.’“Wait a second, you look like shit. Did my father beat you that hard?”Adolphus shot me a glare.“Woah! My fath
ADOLPHUS’ POV:Instead of finding Frederick, I found her father. He was waiting for me in the middle of a clearing, playing with some cards. I shifted back to my human form.“You’re late,” he said. “I expected you to get here faster.”“Where is Ebony?”“With Frederick.”“Alright! I will go find her.”“I am afraid that you can’t do that,” he waved his hand and something shifted in the air. “You have to stay with me here. I want to fight you.”“What are you planning, both of you?” I growled. “She’s your daughter.”“I know.”“And you want to leave her alone.”“Frederick said that every time, you said the same words. That’s why the plan was for you to hate her but you still didn’t do that. He wanted you to hate her, to reject her while she wasn’t aware that you’re her mate. But it didn’t happen. I know why a part of phase 2 failed. When planning, no one thought of how my daughter is a variable.”“You won’t stop me.”I shifted and started running. He didn’t stop me. I thought he was all ta
I woke up in a cell. It was easy to recognize it because I’ve been there multiple times before. It reminded me of the torture I was subject to and how I suffered. I didn’t want to go back. And where was my father?The cell was dark. I couldn’t see anything. I tried to move my hands but they were tied. I was on a chair. I had to wait for a long time. I lost track of counting. Maybe it was the third time I reached one hundred.‘This is getting weird. We were with dad and then everything went black. Any idea?’Yeah, but I don’t wanna say it.‘Ammm… Yeah. Horrible. Dad is a jerk.’After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened. It was behind me and I finally caught sight of a lamp and a desk in front of me. Someone stepped inside. I felt him in my bones. Fucking Frederick.“Did you have to make my father into a jerk?”“He understands the consequences, don’t worry?”Frederick walked around and sat on a chair, not far from me.“How do you feel?”“Seriously? You’re asking me that? I fee
ADOLPHUS’ POV:When I saw a white wolf, I was confused. She was running and she didn’t care about the three that followed her. It intrigued me. And then, I felt my mark on her and knew it was my Ebony.I was stricken by how beautiful she was. She looked so free that it made me sad. She didn’t get to shift before and now, she felt how important it was.I didn’t want to overreact but I wanted her. Seeing her naked had only made me want her more. And then, there was her father. I was shocked. When Frederick said someone was telling her things, I didn’t expect it to be someone who was supposed to be dead.‘We gotta do it.’It’s hard to do it.‘We cannot run from this. We have to send her back and as quickly as possible. If she regresses to a time where everything can change, it will be better for all of us. It will undo everything.’But she will remember.‘It doesn’t look like she is suffering anymore. Look at her. She is happy. If she goes back, she will get what she lost and she’ll have
I was a wolf. I was running as fast as I could in the forest, forgetting everything that happened to me. It was so wholesome that I didn’t have to think about anything else. Nothing mattered but running.I felt freedom. Being one with the wind. For thirty years, I’ve never shifted once and here I was, running like a wolf. Nova was happy too. We were happy, ecstatic even. It was a feeling I’ve never felt before.I kept running and running, the wind over my fur but I didn’t feel cold. On the contrary, I felt complete. I finally had the chance to become what I was, a werewolf. We rolled in the grass, chased a few rabbits but didn’t catch them and howled. For the first time, I felt like a child.I didn’t care about anything else.I only stopped when the moon felt so wholesome. I stared at it for a while before I heard a laugh.When I saw who was laughing, I remembered my father, Brandon Wildknight.“Petra was white like you,” he said. When he stood next to me, I realized I was taller than
EBONY’S POV:I closed my eyes and waited for the blood to ooze from me but nothing happened. There was also the fact that I had to deal with a lot of pain. I laid on the ground and curled into a ball.There were a few more gunshots but I didn’t care. It was too much to handle. I hated pain. I hated everything that made me suffer. If this was how shifting worked, I didn’t want it.I heard a crack on my back and then a series of similar sounds followed, but it was slow. So slow that it put me into agony. I wished to sleep it off. Or maybe give my wolf control.Can you take over?‘I am. Why do you think it hurts? It’s because I am taking complete control. Your body is fighting it because you have Wildknight blood.’I felt a warm hand on my hair. It caressed me and then, I smelled something. It was like a smoke that made the pain fade. Slowly, I lost consciousness.Again, my wolf and I were sitting one next to the other. I was conscious of myself so it didn’t sound like a dream and it did