ANNABELLE Axel remained with me until the maids left after scolding Dani and taking the lighter from him. Thankfully, they did not catch the whiff of the smell of burnt flesh because they had been too worried about the kids and cleaning things up.Dani knocked on the bathroom door where Axel and I were sitting on the floor.“You can come out now. They’ve gone,”I rose up and dragged Axel up with me before we both stepped out.“Thank you. You did very good,”“Really?” Dani asked, beaming at me, his eyes shining brightly at the praise.“Yes. You saved me,”The smile vanished from his face and his brows furrowed in a frown. “No, we should be thanking you instead. Axel and I would be dead by now if not for you. That man was sent to kill us, was he not?”The kids were smarter than anybody would give them credit for, especially Dani. I was trying to protect them from seeing the man but it was too late. They not only saw the man that was sent to kill them, they saw me kill and burn him dow
ANNABELLE My body moved faster than my brain. I grabbed the kids hands in mine and rushed out of the room before the fire alarm would start blaring again like that night. I was not going to take chances because this was not just any regular person we’ve set on fire, this was Carden, Ezra’s Beta.I made them follow the back door out of the house to the second garage there. It was usually quiet with nobody roaming around there like the main house and garage. “Get in the car,” I made them sit at the backseat of the car Ezra gave me to make moving around easy, and buckled their seatbelts then I got in the driver’s side and drove off.Five minutes on the road, Dani broke the silence. He sat up on his seat as if trying to stare out through the windscreen, “Where are you going to?”“I…” I picked my lips as I glanced at them through the rear view mirror, “I don’t know.”“Okay,” he accepted and sat back with a blank expression.My head was blank too as I was still trying to articulate and wr
ANNABELLE The twins who were standing outside of the car squirmed uncomfortably in my arms for a while before they finally settled but they did not hug me back. I pulled away from them and saw the confusion on their little handsome faces.They did not know I was their mother. The woman who sacrificed a lot to have them and carried them for nine months in her stomach despite the hard situation I was in. Ezra was the reason. Because of him my kids did not know that I was their mother.I came down from the car and shut the door. I did not bother to check if the car had received any damage from the way it swerved off the road. I was more focused on the twins who were staring up at me with different emotions. “Anna. You are creeping us out. Are you okay?” Dani reached out a hand as if to touch my face, causing me to lean down, but dropped it before it made contact, “Your eyes are red and you are behaving strangely,”“Is it because you know we have powers like you? Do you not like us any
ANNABELLE I drove around the pack for a little white. I could feel dark emotions crawling deep in my heart as I watched people move around, living freely and happily while my own people were in the ground, worms and maggots feasting on their bones and what would be their remains if they were even buried properly after we died in that fire.They all deserved to perish. They should all suffer like my people did. They also needed a taste of the suffering my people and I endured in the hands of their alpha. I would make sure they lived in constant fear. In torment and with diseases plaguing them, unsure and scared of who would drop dead next. My hands that were holding the steering wheel tightened, nearly snapping the thing in two if I hadn’t released it when I did.I would kill the twins just to torment their father and make him wish he was dead. What he fought so hard for, he destroyed my coven and so many others, would be lost but they were my children too. My blood. The children w
“What’s going on?” I finally asked—feigning ignorance—drawing the attention of the elders to myself. They all turned to me and I could see the disdain on some faces while the others looked as if they were relieved to see that I was alive. “Why is everywhere crowded and why are the guards running around?”“Everything is wrong!” Elder Lazarus growled, turning his ire on me. “Where have you been? We’ve been trying to reach you! Are you with the twins? Where are they?” He looked over my shoulders as if the twins would magically appear behind me.“I’m not with the twins. Selene here tells me that the twins are missing, is that true?” My voice was shaking with fear.“If you are not with them then they are really missing!” Another elder said.“Why aren’t you with them? Of what good are you to this pack if you cannot take care of the alpha’s children? Is that not why he agreed to the alliance between your pack and ours? So that you will be a mother to them!” Alpha Lazarus was gesticulating wi
ANNABELLE It’s been two days since everything changed. Two days since I killed Carden and regained my memories as Melucia. Two days since I took the kids and made sure they remained hidden.Ezra returned the night after the news broke, and after a thorough examination, Carden’s ashes were claimed by his family. Good riddance to rubbish.The pack was in chaos. Word had spread fast— their Beta was dead, and the Alpha’s children were missing. A reward of ten million dollars was offered to anyone who could provide information. A tempting sum, and one I could definitely use to set myself up once I got out of this mess. I was still working out how to play my cards right, to claim the reward without giving up the kids.“Fuck!”I had to fight the grin that threatened to split my face as I watched Ezra pace the throne room of the pack house like a caged lion. In just two days, he looked like he had aged twenty years.His hair hung in wild disarray around his face, and he hadn’t shaved since h
ANNABELLE“L-Let go,” I managed to wheeze, my voice barely a whisper as I clawed at the hand clamped tightly around my neck. My lungs burned from lack of air, and tears blurred my vision.Ezra looked deranged, his eyes wild with fury. Instead of releasing me, his grip tightened.“My children are missing, and you’re still breathing. What use are you now?” he growled.“Al-Alpha… if you don’t release her, she’ll die,” one of the elders stepped forward, his voice trembling. I could smell the fear rolling off him.For a moment, I thought Ezra would ignore the plea and finish me off. But then, with a snarl, he released my neck and shoved me aside before stalking back to collapse into his throne.Air rushed back into my lungs, and I gasped desperately, my hands flying to my throat as I tried to soothe the ache and clear my airway.As soon as air filled my lungs again, laughter bubbled up in my chest—wild and uncontrollable. Before I could stop myself, it burst out of me, spilling from my lip
ANNABELLE Ezra finally lost the last vestige of control. A feral roar tore from his throat as he lunged at me, no doubt intent on ending me. But just before his hands could close around me, I blinked out of the throne room and reappeared on the roof of his mansion. A loud cackle escaped me as I imagined Ezra’s reaction to my sudden disappearance. I was certain he would be seething with rage. His response when he realized I was in possession of Annabelle’s body had been the most disturbing. So, he cared about her, huh? He really believed it was sweet, innocent Annabelle occupying her body after the accident. Well, he was in for a brutal awakening when he discovered it had been me all along. “Hahaha!” I doubled over, laughing uncontrollably at the thought of Ezra realizing he’d been playing house with me, not his pathetic little Annabelle. I sat on the roof, my legs dangling over the edge, palms pressed against the surface as I leaned back and tilted my head toward the sun blazing
EZRA“Alpha, we need to do something about what’s happening in the pack.”I lifted my head slowly, my body heavy with exhaustion.“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, my voice coming out as weak as I felt, “I’ve tried to speak to the witch, all to an avail. She’s been playing with me, toying with us all,” The witch treated all of this like a game. The elders said they’d seen her watching my people suffer, laughing—no, cackling—as if their pain were entertainment. If only I could have strangled her when she came to me the other day then all of this would have been over but I couldn’t do it. Not when she had my kids with her. I shook my head, refusing to let the thoughts of my missing children cloud my mind. I needed to be level headed if I were to find a solution.“Then we find another way. Contact another witch and…” Elder Matthew stopped abruptly when elder Lazarus shot him a sharp, warning look. He looked away after that but what he said has gotten my attention already and elder L
QuinnEven after I’d emptied the contents of my stomach, again, I still felt nauseous. My body trembled, my skin clammy and cold, but it wasn’t the sickness that had me this way. It was fear. Dread.Everyone knew Alpha Ezra was ruthless. Cold. Capable of things most alphas wouldn’t even consider. But if someone had told me he’d been involved in the war between the werewolves and the witches, I wouldn’t have believed it. No way. Not him. Not back then.That war happened over ten years ago. If what Madonna had said was true, he would’ve been nothing more than a teenager when it all went down. Eighteen, maybe nineteen. Still practically a boy. What the hell was he doing in a war between witches and werewolves?I rubbed at my arms, trying to shake the chill that had settled deep in my bones.Yes, I knew the bloodline he came from. His ancestors loathed witches, and his father—gods, his father was a madman in every sense of the word. But Ezra wasn’t his father. At least… I thought he wasn’
QuinnThere was only one chair in my garden. One I use to sit when I needed to rest. I asked Madonna to sit in it but she refused and said if there was anyone who needed to bed seated, it was me. It made me suspect that whatever made her come to me after all these years apart, my mind would be blown.“I don’t know if you’ve heard anything. I cannot be too sure but BlackClaw pack has been taken under control by a vengeful witch,”“I’ve heard about it,” I released a deep sigh, “I was planning on contacting you because of it,”“You were?” She asked.“Yeah, I was going to do it yesterday but something came up. I was just thinking about it again when you appeared. It was almost as if thinking too much about you summoned you,”Madonna nodded as she began to pace in front of me. My sister was deeply troubled. Seems like what was going on in Ezra’s pack is more than what we’ve heard. My heart began to thud hard and fast against my rib cage as fear threatened to overwhelm me at the thought of
SAMANTHA For a moment, my world seemed to turn upside down. My calm demeanor and composed nature was shattered into a thousand agonizing pieces. My breath hitched in my throat, a strangled sob trying hard to escape. I couldn't believe my eyes. My fiance, the man I had come to love even though it started off as an arranged marriage, was in bed with my best friend. Zach had Clarence bent on all fours as he thrust hard into him and Clarence begged him to go harder. What was I witnessing? My legs went weak as tears streamed down my cheeks. How long have they been cheating behind my back? Their betrayal seared through me like a wildfire. “Zach…” I called out, my voice barely audible. My heart beat came faster and in pants and I could barely breathe but I couldn't break down completely in front of them. I won’t do it. Zachariah’s eyes, usually a warm shade of amber, were wide with shock as his face gradually turned pale. My teary eyes and his guilt-ridden eyes met.
Quinn “Nepthar is back.” The words kept echoing in my mind like a drumbeat, relentless and surreal. Knight and I had barely registered what our Beta had said before we were flying out of our room, down the hallway, our feet barely touching the ground. My heart pounded in my chest, part hope, part disbelief. And there she was. Our daughter. Standing in the center of the living room, flesh, blood, and everything in between. Her presence was radiant, her aura undeniable. She looked older than the last time I saw her. She looked stronger, changed, but unmistakably her. Nepthar. “Mom. Dad.” She beamed, her smile wide, eyes sparkling with something between excitement and nervous anticipation. Knight and I froze at the foot of the stairs, speechless. We couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. She looked like a ghost, too good, too whole to be true. Maybe she was. Maybe we were dreaming. The smile on Nepthar’s face faltered and her chin wobbled, “Aren’t you happy to see me?” Her voice,
Quinn I could no longer sit back. Knight was scared that something has happened to Annabelle, but he was also scared that something would happen to me if I were to go after her because there was no way I would let him come with me. I would be going alone. It was a good thing that Mimi returned with us after the mating ball at Alpha Ezra’s pack, so I did not have to worry about two people. Knight and I have been trying to reach our daughter since news got to our pack about the evil that has befallen Ezra’s house pack, but we’ve not received any response from her. From phone calls to messages, all have been ignored. With how the news described it, I knew this had to be the work of a witch—not just any witch, but a powerful priestess. Only someone like her could bring a pack as large as Ezra’s to its knees and unleash a plague that left no one untouched. Annabelle was part witch. She got it from me but still, I was scared that something would happen to her because her power was locke
ANNABELLE He was nowhere to be found. I stopped dead in my tracks, looking around the room I was so sure I saw elder Lazarus enter but he was not here and there was no door inside this room that he could have passed through to go out. There was no window either. Was there a secret door or what? The room was empty and dusty. There was no furniture or any property. I walked back slowly and shut the door behind me and rested my back against it, my mind running a mile per minute as I tried to get an understanding of what was happening. I slowly began to move around the room, feeling the wall to see if I could find any secret door but after going around the room I saw nothing. There was no visible latch to open any hidden door either. I left the room and went to sit among the people, waiting to see if elder Lazarus would return but he didn’t and while I was among them, I listened to what they were talking about. Elder Lazarus and three other elders and their families were hale and hea
ANNABELLE It took a whole lot of time but in the end, I was able to locate a hospital and get a doctor who was down with a powerful migraine. The hospital was crowded with people who had rushed there to seek medical attention but since everyone was inflicted with one disease or the other, there was no doctor to help. I casted a spell the doctor and the migraine left him but only long enough for him to treat Dani. When the doctor recognized the kids and me, he tried to reach for his phone, to call who, I was unsure but I stopped him and threatened to kill him off if he tried any more stupid tricks. He finally settled down and treated Dani’s broken hand and wrapped it in a sling. I sat on a chair in the hospital room and tried my best to ignore the twins who were giving me death stares. I don’t know if we would ever be able to go back to how things used to be before I got my memories back but I’ll try my best. Even with the pain of his twisted hand, Dani refused to let me help him. A
ANNABELLEThe anger that’s gone down immediately sprang back up and I was tempted to lash out at them for picking their father over me once again but this time, I was levelheaded and was able to control myself better. I shut my eyes tight, willing myself to calm down so I don’t do anything I’d regret. I’ve done things I’m regretting already, it would be foolish to add more.“Your father is not coming to save you,”“Liar!” The both of them screamed at the same time.I inhaled a deep breath and released it after some time.“Okay, let me rephrase that. Your father don’t know where you are so he cannot save you,”“And how did that happen? Is it not because of you he does not know where we are?”“Yes and now, he’s preoccupied with other things, he does not have free time to look for the both of you so you have to let me take care of you,” Shit, that was a bad way to put it. Talking about their father like that won’t earn me any points. In fact, it would make me lose points if I still had