Rael's POVFuck. I cursed in my head.Fuck it all.I hated this. Hated myself for what I was doing. Hater the fact that I couldn't tell her why…The mission - the logical part of me still supplied, but then again, fuck the mission.After she told me everything, I held her without hesitation. She felt fragile in my arms, as though she was on the verge of breaking down. And now hearing everything she had to say made me pull her even tighter.I had lost my parents early in circumstances that were out of our control, but she lost hers whilst she still had them. I was surrounded by my pack. By both Adian and Kayden as my brothers, but she had nobody with her.She wasn't the fragile person I once believed I could brush off. She was stronger in ways even I wasn't sure of.I thought back to the pictures I had seen months ago, after investigating her. The reminder of the older woman whom she gained her red hair from.Had she not been her mother, I would have rended her to pieces. Found a way t
Rael’s POVI slipped down onto the cold grass. The atmosphere did nothing to stifle my heat or thoughts.Kayden was already waiting there, drinks in hand. To my surprise, Adian zoomed in, waving right before he sat down.“He decided to tag along,” Kayden shrugged, unsurprised.Of course, he would. I scoffed, laying fully on the grass beside them in silence.We were deep in the forest, in an area we were used to meeting when we needed to talk. I could barely remember the last time we had done this. A year? No, more than that. Far before the dankehs were ever a problem.After this night though, I was tired of holding things back. Especially to the only ones who truly knew the extent of my secrets. The stakes which I had foolishly put myself under.Once, we were just boys, sitting outside this forest to play. Long after my parent’s death, we had met up here, even after Kayden’s mating. Now, with the weights we had on our shoulders, we drank beer that couldn't affect us under the moonless
Rael’s POVOnly the sound of flesh slapping against flesh filled the air. All the other screams had died down to nothing.The man, the dankeh, who once stood confident, now quivered in his chains. His face was bloodied up and bruised, matching my hands.My right hand stung with every blow - unfortunately he had tried resisting at first by biting my hand. His resistance hadn’t lasted but I kept on going. “Please.” He cried out, blood streamed down his face.He had stood confident after I came in, spouting out facts he knew of me. I could tell then that he wasn’t just one of the lackeys.This man knew something, and I was going to get it out of him.It wasn’t even the way that he resisted all the questions that pushed me to this point. No, it was something much simpler. It was her.“She was so trusting, you know.” He had the audacity to laugh right after. "If you gave me a few seconds more, I would have ripped out her throat then and there. How would you have liked that, Rael Allston?”
Rose's POVIt had taken me three days.Three days of trying to pretend like everything was normal. Three days of contemplation. Three days of barely seeing Rael.Three days since I had heard my mother's voice after a long time.I had almost faced death with Rael so near and for how long this Dankehs would come after me, I may face it tomorrow and the days to come. Even though most of the time Rael was always with me, what about on the occasions where he wasn't there? What if he wasn't present during the next attack?What if next time, I didn't even have the chance to forgive her? What if I regretted it? What if she was waiting for me to respond, hoping, only to see the news of my death on a television screen?The thoughts glowed through my mind like an unending fountain. Morbid thoughts that gave me paranoia.Three days of deep thinking, I had finally made my decision.If she wanted to talk, and wanted to reconcile with me, I had to give her a chance. For myself. I deserved that at le
Rose's POVThe first person I noted was a man I didn't know. Wouldn't recognize. He was an older man, donning black hair with streaks of gray. No doubt it was her husband.But the second person wasn't too hard to figure out.I turned to face her. She looked nothing like me, with her blonde hair and green eyes. When I was younger, I was told that I gained my appearance from my father's side, but that was something I could never confirm. Whoever my relatives were, were absent throughout my life, and neither of my parents stuck around for me to find out anyways.That blonde hair looked more bleached, stringy curls I inherited from her were short. There were wrinkles on her face, eyeballs that I couldn't recall seeing. She even looked slightly thinner.My mother wasn't the same. She was older and frailer. I could see that from the shock written in her face.My mother….I shook from the rage.She contacted me, only tried to 'reconcile' with me for money.I stepped into the place, only to s
Rael's POV“She's not okay,” Adian told me.His face was grim and narrowed, trying to hold back his anxiety.I had to look away, my stomach curling into the same worry I tried quelling down.“She hasn't been eating properly, stays in her room. I found from Kayla that she rarely contacts them, and even then doesn't broach any subject. Neither of them are aware of the incident and she isn't eager to tell them.”He sighed despondently. “She also hadn't been doing anything. She tries going to the pack school to help, but every pack member there can see she's not okay. What happened with her mother…. she hasn't recovered from it.”Almost a week had passed since I found her tear streaked face in her bedroom. Since I made her a promise that filled me with guilt.I had expected this to happen, though not to this degree. After facing life threatening situations, at times she seemed invincible.But she wasn't. And this incident with her mother had broken her.Despite my wishes to stay with her,
Raels POVBreathe in. Breathe out.Sitting on the floor of my cabin deep in the forest, I could be at peace. Most of all, try to relax for what was coming next.‘Everything will be alright.’In spite of my calming effort, my legs thumped in a rhythm reflecting my heartbeat. I was impatient for this to all end. Grandes, it would certainly have been difficult to tell all Alphas of different cities and packs to come together. I understood that, but I remained looking at the time.I couldn't wait for their arrival. It would spell the end of these problems. Rose would no longer have to live isolated in fear. It would also spell the end of the thing between us.The crunch of footsteps stopped me short. Looking up, I eyed him carefully.“I thought I'd find you here,” he said.I remained silent as he sat down beside me.“You always come here to meditate when you're really bothered about something..” Kayden sighed out, as a way of conversation.I remained silent, focusing on my breathing even
Unknown POVI stumbled across the forest, racing until I reached the asphalt streets.‘Shit.’ Blood flowed down, blocking my vision. Without thinking, I wiped it off only for the burning scratched in my face to reignite again.Rael Allston was a right bastard.Fuck! “Damn him,” I cursed out. Of all the freaking things. I blinked against the pain ebbing from my forehead down to my cheek. It was a miracle that he hadn't picked my eye.I growled in anger at that thought. I shouldn't be grateful for anything, much less that Alpha. The assassination mission had failed and those two idiots were dead.Fuck. We were so well prepared, sneaking into the pack house was the hardest thing so far, especially with the tight security. It'd taken us almost a month to finally get our chance in, and slip in without any notice.It was my fault for not riding her of her life sooner. The moment she fainted in my arms, we could have killed her then and there. But the sleazy idiot Kane had stopped me.“Loo