Thalia walked inside the bathroom and took a quick shower. She winced silently as she applied the ointment on her bleeding curse marks and cursed as sharp stabs of pain shot through her skin. It was such a hassle. After she had finished applying the medicine, she lay back down on her bed, but sleep didn't come to her. Every time she closed her eyes, her breathing quickened, and she felt herself struggling like she was drowning.
Frustrated, she sat up and picked up the canvas that Jonathan gave her, then she took out her paintbrushes and oil paints that she always kept in her traveling bag.
As the Grateful song by NEFFEX played on her phone, Thalia picked up her brush and started drawing. Since her mind was restless, she might as well divert the attention to somewhere else; her brush flew across the canvas. By the time Thalia put her brush down to stretch her hand, she couldn't help but wince again. Her hand was starting to go numb after work
Alpha Carter 33"Cute, isn't he?" Said Kim. She furtively shot a look to a guy who smelled of pine, wet forest ground, musk, and wolf that was five feet away from them as they waited for their burgers and French fries. Thalia and Kim had been shopping for quite a while in the mall and were getting tired. They had decided to take a break in the fast-food area and grab something to eat. "Smells pretty good too.""If you like him so much, you can just go and have a chat with him, you know?" said Thalia drumming her fingers on the surface of the white plastic table. She would have fancied the cute guy a little more if he didn't stare at her like she was a fly stuck to a cake. Yes, she did have ugly inscriptions on her body, but there was no need for those disgusted glances he shot in her direction."Not my cup of tea," said Kim. As she muttered a quick thank you when the waitress returned with their orders. "I don't like guy
Adrenaline rushed through Thalia. She wanted to get up, but her mind was disoriented from the pain surging through her. Her vision was clouded from the hazy clouds of smoke. Sheer agony was the only thing that was keeping her conscious. Thalia could feel her rationality slipping as the pain overwhelmed her. She knew she had to stand up and look for Kim.Thalia got onto her hands and knees, gritting her teeth through the pain. She pushed herself up onto her knees to see what was happening around her. The parking lot was burning. Her vision kept lagging like an old television. One moment it was a horrendous sight of the parking lot burning, and the next, all she could see was smoke and haze.Thalia suppressed the nausea surging up her throat as she swallowed the blood filling her mouth due to her injuries. There had to be some internal bleed
"I'm asking you for the last time. Step out of my way Jake," Carter could feel the last string of his patience that was holding on to his rationality starting to snap. He could just barge past Jake to get inside the infirmary and check on Thalia himself, but Jake didn't budge in the slightest. Every time Carter tried to step past him, Jake would intercept him. He felt the overwhelming urge to just punch that pretty face and make it worthy of a mugshot."You cannot go inside, Carter," was all Jake said. Standing in front of the infirmary door like a fucking guard dog. "Alice is checking Thalia, and she isn't a healer. Which means that her treatment involves needles and stitches. Do you really want to see that? Can you handle seeing that?" When Carter opened his mouth, Jake interrupted him, "You know what, I didn't ask. It is better not to answer that. I know what you will say. What I meant to ask is, can you take it? Right now, Thalia's skin is being pierced and
Alex winced when Carter glared at him. He pulled away his hand changed the topic, "I didn't think that Marcus would bomb someone," and neither could Carter. He knew that Marcus would try to do something sooner or later. A shifter who lost his pride wouldn't sit still for long. But he never thought that bombs would be involved in their struggle. A shifter wins his pride by claws and fangs - not by guns and bombs.Using bombs was cowardly.Jake crossed his arms in front of himself and finished smoothing his crumpled clothes. "I thought that he was crazy, but I never thought he was this crazy. It's an outright provocation, trying to harm our packmates. Submissive or not, the two of them belong to our pack. Whether to protect or abandon, we are the ones who make decisions for them.""All because he can't use his own strength to get what he wants, he acts out like a feckless child," sneered Carter with a smile. He was strivin
Silence. Then Kim hesitantly spoke, breaking the awkwardness around the two of them, "She foresaw the explosion. I am fairly sure that she did."Carter, who was staring point blankly at Thalia, finally turned to look at Kim. His demeanor was lazy as always, but it was a sharp contrast to the sharp glint in his eyes a few moments ago. "Foresaw? Wasn't her powers sealed, so how can she see the future?""I don't know. I'm just telling you what I saw. One second, Thalia was fine standing next to me, and then the next, her marks started to bleed. Not like they usually do, the blood was dark, almost black, like poison, and I think it was some sort of backlash because she can't use her powers. Her eyes turned glassy, and she was bleeding so much that she scared the shit out of me. I tried to call her, but she didn't respond and then -" Kim swallowed hard. "and then she turned to look at me like she had seen a ghost or something. Once
Thalia swallowed and looked away. "It was the right thing to do. I knew I could save him. If I left him alone, then it would have weighed on my conscience.""You didn't have to.""Would you have let me go if I didn't," said Thalia with a self-deprecating smile. "He is your head enforcer, and I'm nothing. If I let him die, who knows what you have done to me."Carter felt his lips twitch, and his temple suddenly throbbed. "Do you think of that as being unreasonable, darling? I wouldn't have punished you just because you chose to save yourself instead of someone else. People are selfish. I understand that."Thalia inhaled sharply and glared at him. "Do you have to be such an asshole? I just saved your friend! The least you can do is thank me, there is no need for your sharp jabs.""I'm sorry," said Carter, his eyes gleaming though this time they looked more playful than sadistic. "I
"You-" Thalia was done. She was done being played around like this. One second he was warm like a summer breeze, and the next second he would freeze her until she was chilled to the bone. She raised her hand to slap his hand away but then the door to the infirmary burst open, and the two of them came face to face with a flustered and sheepish-looking Shayne."It looks like I came in at the wrong time?" Muttered Shayne."Shayne," said Carter, not sounding embarrassed at all about being caught. He raised his head and smiled at Shayne, his eyes cold and threatening. "Make sure to run ten laps around the territory, alright?""What! Why?" spluttered Shayne, his eyes widening as he stared at Carter with a look of injustice on his face."For being an ass," said Carter smoothly. "A dominant shifter, because of his prejudices, ignored his Alpha's order. Instead of taking care of his duties skulk
Once they left the infirmary, Kim came running to see Thalia. She was obviously relieved upon seeing her alright. Kim rushed ahead and embraced her in a tight hug. "I'm so glad to see you doing alright! I was so scared when you fainted like that," with a smile, she pulled back to look over Thalia, "You look better already!"Thalia accepted her hug even though it stung against her skin. "I'm glad to see you safe too.""Kim," drawled Carter. He pulled Thalia back behind him as if realizing her discomfort from being touched while her curse marks were healing.Kim waved her hand at Carter and kept her eyes locked on Thalia. "I'm so sorry. I was so worried that I forgot about your curse marks. But can you stop with the growling Alpha, please? She saved my life. I would have literally been burned to a crisp if not for her. As far as I'm concerned, she walks on air like an angel, so stop hogging her like that!"
A loud echo of bullet shot echoed in the clearing as Carter pulled Thalia away but it turned out that his actions were useless because even though Cruz seemed to have aimed for Thalia the bullet didn’t hit her but instead hit him. “ No! Carter!” Thalia shrieked as she held Carter’s body that went limp against hers, as she looked at the painfully twisted face of her mate, Thalia was able to feel the echo of her mate’s pain through their mating bond and that was how she found out that the bullet wasn’t just an ordinary bullet it was specially made for putting down shifters with just one shot. Silver bullet dipped in wolfsbane and moulded with together with the holy water, her stomach churned as she felt the acidic sensation Carter was feeling while shaking her head as she cupped his face and crouched down with his head in her lap. “ No, No … No... No.. she tried to use her blood on his wound but it was of no use, she couldn’t heal him no matter how much blood she poured into the wound.
Thalia waited for Cruz to turn around, once she was sure that he was engrossed with her mother’s corpse and the stupid pentagram thingy, she flicked the pocket knife in her hand. Her gut was burning like someone has doused sulphuric acid on her skin and lit her up on fire, it was a pain like she has never felt before and because Cruz has stabbed her with a silver knife her healing was painfully slow and she was sure that she was going to pass out. He hasn’t just stabbed her for collecting her blood, he has left her to die…blood soaked her hoodie and dripped onto the concrete floor below her. As she moved her hand trying her best to slice the belt off her body, she could feel her wound throbbing with every move until it started to hurt with every breath that she took. Tears filled her eyes but she didn’t stop, it was hurtful but she knew that it will liberate her somehow. One strap down. Two straps down. Once her hand was free, she pulled the straps of the metal table that was tyi
With a great leap, Carter felt his wolf lunge against his surface as he growled, “ Renard!” Before springing and shifting mid-air as he rushed towards the wolves behind whom Renard was hiding. Every bite and slash of his was filled with anger and vigour, he didn’t care about the blood that was matting his fur or the corpses he was leaving behind, his eyes were on the prize and that prize was none other than Renard’s head. While he rushed towards Renard, the latter’s wolves tried their best to slow him down, they bit and clawed greatly affecting his movements but Carter was like an impending doom that was coming after Renard, nothing stopped him. He didn’t care about the bite on his neck, the claw mark on his hank and nor did he care about the blood that was dripping down his muzzle, all he cared about was reaching Thalia as soon as he could. Pain and blood loss was slowing him down but Carter couldn’t care about that, not when his mate was in danger. Especially, not when this f*cker
Carter groaned as he banged his fists on the steering wheel of the car he was driving. He tried to stop the ringing and pounding of blood in his ears but then again no wolf would take any obstruction including the one he was facing when he was in a hurry to get to his mate, he could feel the slow churn in his stomach, the pain pounding in his veins like little hammers drumming down on his head, stomach and every freakin pore of his body and here he was staring at Renard and his wolf as they surrounded him and his pack mates. Jake peered out of the windshield as he counted the wolves that were standing outside. “ One, two, three…damn that f*cker brought at least fifteen wolves to take us on, maybe he wants to bury us in an early grave.” “ Like he will get a chance to do that,” grunted Shayne from behind while looking out of the window as well. “ Fifteen, I think I can take them, we have been in a worse situation before haven’t we?”“ We have been,” rasped Dan as he rubbed the back of
Thalia saw his madness, that crazy glint in his eyes as he fervently drew the pentagram on the floor with her blood that he has collected, an angry flush crept on her face as she glared at him. “ You can stop with that bullshit of yours you see? Disrespecting my mother, causing her life to become a mess because of you and then digging her body out of the grave, none of these actions says that you loved her. You are the reason, she is dead, all right? You rejected her, when she wanted you to claim her, you didn’t do it and yet you didn’t let her go. You framed her for being crazy and a kidnapper who went mad because you refused her, till the end you painted a totally different picture, all because you wanted to hide the hideous things that you have done, so what are you doing all this for?”Cruz’s head snapped up, as he straightened up and twirled the knife in his hands, eyes hard as he predatorily moved towards her. “ You don’t understand, I never wanted her to die you see? I wouldn’
“Did you find her?” asked Carter as he rushed out of his lodge that was at the centre of the pack and rushed to meet with Shayne who shook his head. “ I have checked the kitchen, the pantry, even the small shack where she used to stay, I can’t find her.” “ This is ridiculous, where did he take her?” said Carter as he tugged on the locks of his hair with his hands. “ No one saw him leave the territory, his car is parked in the garage so how can he take her away in such a short period of time?” An hour ago, he did not send Brandon to call for Kim, there was no way he was going to send Brandon to call for Kim leaving Thalia alone with him when he was still suspicious of Brandon, so when Kim came back and told him that it was Brandon who sent her to see him, Carter knew that something was wrong with Thalia at once and he rushed to the lodge to see what was going on but there was nothing as if she wasn’t even there at the first place.“ I can’t find Brandon,” Jake whom Carter sent to see
Thalia’s wolf arched her back as she prepared herself to lunge at Cruz but Thalia knew that it was going to be of no use, so she hurriedly said, “ You killed your brother right? You sacrificed him for my mother?” In her memories, she remembered a brown wolf lunging at her mother to protect Carter when her mother tried to claw Carter’s heart out, if that wolf wasn’t Cruz then surely it was —— Brandon.Cruz jutted his chin out Ashe nodded, “ That’s right, should have kept his nose out of my business. He said he loved Lydia but he crushed her throat right in front of me, he was even going to go after your father and end his misery so that he will not suffer much from the loss of his mate but I got there first, I took care of your father first and then took care of my dear brother, I left him half alive and left another wolf with his face clawed so badly that no one would be able to recognise him. Everyone thought that the body belonged to me and I died while taking care of your father, a
Have you ever tried to stuff your brain until you can no longer stuff anything in it? Well, that was what Thalia was going through right now, she didn’t know whether Cruz was saying the truth or not but she felt her brain sort of freeze as she shuffled back and said, “ This is a joke right? This has to be a joke.” “ You can deny it all you want, sweetie but you know it in your heart that it's the truth,” Cruz smirked as he kicked back on his chair. “ You remember it all but you just don’t want to accept it, I know I get that feeling too… I felt the same way when I found out that my mate mated with a f*cking submissive, she could have done so much better than that gutless submissive wolf but she just had to do something to piss me off.” “ Or maybe she genuinely liked him,” said Thalia before she took another look at the basement, she knew that Cruz would not just capture her for no reason, there must be something more to this, now Thalia hoped that Carter would be able to sense her
Thalia’s eyes snapped open as she took in the surroundings around her. The place wherever she was, it was just sad —— the windows were boarded up and there were also panes of wood that were hanging off the doors and if that wasn’t enough, crude insults were sprayed all over the walls. She didn’t have to think about where she was anymore, with just another glimpse of the surrounding she knew where she was —- she was home. The one where everything went downhill. And she wasn’t in the living room, no she was in that one place she hated with all her core, it was the basement. The exact same one where Carter was locked up by her mother, she sucked in a breath and somehow pushed herself to sit up straight, her feet weren’t chained but they were bounded by something, when she looked down, she realised that it was shifter resistant ropes. She muttered a curse inwardly but her curse stuck in her head mid-way as her gaze fell on something much more hideous that was sitting in the corner. Ori