CHAPTER 13
Roberta's POVI stirred from my sleep to see that the room around me was dark. I couldn't believe I slept from the morning until late in the evening. I sat up on the bed and immediately noticed that my foot was done healing. I stood up and looked around for Vincenzo, but I couldn't find him in the room.I saw a lamp lit in the garden and I immediately knew that he was out there. The cold in the air caught up to me and I shivered, wanting to be engulfed in his bulky build.I took the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around myself, heading outside to the garden.As soon as he saw me walking towards him, a smile spread across his face.“You're finally awake”, he said.He stood on a little bridge in the garden that stood over a small, magical stream.When I reached him, he grabbed my waist and pulled me towards himself, pressing my body into his and proCHAPTER 14Vincenzo’s POVI stared at Roberta’s face, stroking her forehead that was folded.After the events at the garden ten days prior, we had been at it in every corner of the house.I could not keep my hands off her, and even if she was still a bit too shy to admit, she could not keep her hands off me either.She cooed like a baby and left her mouth hanging open, causing a warm smile to cut across my face.I felt a flutter in my chest, the same one I hadn’t stopped feeling since our lips first touched. The same one I felt anytime she walked into the room, anytime she looked at me, anytime she touched me. The same flutter I got anytime she…I knew exactly what that flutter was, and I was determined not to run from it.Ever since I marked her in the garden, our mate bond had gotten stronger, and my desire to be with her had become impossible to assuage.“Good morning, Alpha,” Natalie greeted. She stood at my doorstep and looked at me, waiting for me to give her audience.“What is
CHAPTER 15Charlotte's POVWe had been in Alpha Vincenzo’s territory for all of five minutes, and I decided that I liked it. I wanted it to be my lifestyle. Everything about his palace screamed power, and it only hurt my head to picture Roberta sitting by his side and he called all the shots. I deserved to be the one. I stared round the dining room, where Alpha Vincenzo hosted us for dinner. The table was large and seemed to be carved out of marble. The surface glistened so perfectly, I could see my reflection on it clearly. What I could also see clearly, was how dumb Elijah really was. His jaw was nearly on the floor as he ogled Roberta the entire time. He did it so shamelessly, his eyes leaving her for microseconds only.“How are things going for you, Roberta?”, he asked shamelessly. Roberta glanced at him and looked back at her food, not even bothering to answer. Elijah was so stupid, even a lower like Roberta knew it too. His face turned pink after she ignored him and he hurried
CHAPTER 16Natalie's POVThe weeks following Elijah's visit, and ultimately his death, were very scrambled and hectic. Everything happened so fast, I could hardly recover from one before another showed its face.I helped Charlotte find a secret way out of the territory after Elijah was killed. Whatever the magic spell of diplomacy Roberta cast on Vincenzo was, it wore off as soon as he caught Elijah trying to force himself on her. That was surely going to affect his countenance towards Charlotte. I had to help her out.I didn't help her run away because I cared about her or because I felt any basic compassion for her. I did it because we had one thing in common; mutual hatred for Roberta. We both wanted to see her fall and even if Charlotte's intent to hurt her cousin wasn't clear to me, we had to unite against a common enemy.It took Charlotte some time to get on her feet, since she had become a Lu
CHAPTER 17Manuel's POVI couldn't believe what had happened when I woke up to Vincenzo’s voice. Roberta was kidnapped. It sounded funny to me at first, but it was true. I couldn't grasp how a person would be so ballsy as to kidnap the Alpha's mate.Vincenzo was terrified by it, but he masked it well with anger. He reddened and growled around the palace, instilling fear in every body that was unfortunately caught in his path. I knew it was all an act and he was really paranoid and worried for her safety.As soon as he saw the note from Charlotte, he set his mind on going down to her territory to get Roberta back. I understood how helpless he felt, but our pack hadn't gotten its great reputation because our Alpha was making emotional decisions. “Alpha, can we rethink this?”, I asked, walking a safe distance behind him. He took long, quick strides towards the barracks with Natalie and I following and trying to match his pace
CHAPTER 18Roberta's POV The days after losing Lucia to death were not easy, for anyone. I cried most of my life out after I got back to the palace with Vincenzo and Manuel. For days, I remained confined to my room, not stepping out for any purpose. Vincenzo had to bring food in and beg me to eat for the baby.I cried myself into a state of panic and psychosis. I had to spend weeks with a therapist before I could get my mind right. All the while, Vincenzo was very patient and supportive. He was there for me and Manuel throughout our grief period and he never complained about it. While I was struggling to say goodbye to my best friend, my belly was getting rounder and rounder. By the time my due date came, I looked very swollen, like I was ready to burst any time soon.I groaned painfully, squeezing Vincenzo’s hand in mine as I felt as if his child was trying to claw its way out of me.“Ju
CHAPTER 19Vincenzo’s POV I stared into Roberta's crystal eyes as she took in the view of the scene I had prepared for her on the roof of the palace. She looked surprised. It was a simple table setting with heart shaped firefly lamps suspended on the four pillars that surrounded us. I watched her carefully as the reflection of the light made her eyes seem as if they were glowing.“Why are you staring at me like that?”, she said shyly, her eyes meeting mine only briefly before she stared down at the table. She never ceases to amaze me from the day I met her. She had borne two of my children and delivered them in front of me while I held her hand, yet a little eye contact still made her turn pink.“You look beautiful “, I said, reaching out to touch her jaw.She finally found the courage to look up at me. A bright smile was tattooed across her face as her eyes met mine, even thou
CHAPTER 20 Charlotte's POV “Welcome to Char-la-la-land”, I sang mockingly as I walked towards Natalie. She had just arrived at the palace with my mole, Edward, and Roberta’s stupid twins. I asked him to bring her to my courtyard as soon as they dropped the twins off in our spare room. “It's a bit of a dump”, she said. She looked around with pretentious disgust in her eyes as she walked towards me. I chuckled as we both embraced each other warmly. Our hug was so tight, you would think our hearts weren't ice cold. “So, what's our next move?”, she asked as soon as we disengaged from the hug. Her eyes studied me closely, suspicions clouding them. I couldn't have her starting to feel like something was fishy. I still needed her to take the fall for me. “Relax. Edward told you the plan, right? We want to lure Roberta here”, I said. She paced around for a few seconds before turning back to me briskly. “How? What if Vincenzo decides to come instead? He won't let he
CHAPTER 21 Roberta's POV “When did you get this?”, Vincenzo said angrily as he stared daggers at the note I handed him. It was the message I had received from the raven in my room. “Right after you left my room”, I whispered. My heart thumped loudly in my rib cage. My children had been kidnapped, and I was helpless to do anything about it. Vincenzo was right. Not the one that stood in front of me, too enraged to even breathe normally. The Vincenzo I saw in my dream. The one who supposedly strangled me to death. He was right to say that I was useless. My children were with an enemy, whose intent was not made known to us. “What if they kill them?”, I said in a hushed tone. I didn't even want to hear myself say it because then, the possibility of it happening would be real to me. “They would never dare”, Vincenzo said, enraged. I sighed and blinked back the tears that pricked my eyes. He was angry at the moment, so he was in no position to be making promises to me. “Do we know w
CHAPTER 105Tyler's POV I tried to be as quiet as possible as I walked into the hallway that supposedly led to Charlotte's room.I adjusted my pace and marched slowly every time I came across a group of soldiers who were also marching around at a slow pace.I had managed to beat up a soldier and had taken his uniform as a disguise. My problem was with getting into Charlotte's room, since she was Luna and it was practically out of bounds for anyone to be in her room uninvited.I could still recall the conversation that I had held with Hazel the day before, after I outed her as Charlotte's sat.“Now you're going to tell me, is Roberta still alive?”, I asked and looked at her. Her eyes dashed up at me swiftly before darting away like I was a plague they needed to avoid.I felt my heart rate slow down as she nodded her head gently.“Yes, she is”, she said lowly, avoiding my eyes still.I sighed wearily and stepped away from her again. I stared at her with my eyes bare, letting so many of
CHAPTER 104Tyler’s POV I walked confidently into Vincenzo’s room as soon as I heard his voice inside announcing that it was okay for me to enter.As I walked in, I noticed that he was just sitting up on his bed, staring into space. His countenance made it seem like the reality of a new day has yet to dawn on him.As I walked in, his eyes followed me lazily from the door until I gently took my seat on one of the sofas in his room. As soon as I seemed to have settled down, Vincenzo looked away from me and back into the endless abyss that he had been staring into before I interfered.“You don't look so well dude”, I joked, trying to lighten the mood. He completely ignored my efforts as he continued to stare into space with no sign of a thought forming in his head.I sighed and nodded as I turned my face away from his own. As I gently dropped my head in embarrassment, I heard him let out a long, heavy sigh beside me.“Look, Tyler, I'm sorry for acting like a dick. I am not mad at you,
CHAPTER 103Charlotte's POV The crowd remained engulfed in total silence as Stefan's body fell limply to the ground.Declan let out a very loud, eerie yet victorious roar as he looked around the arena where the people sat.He flexed his muscles and yelled non stop, trying to rob his victory into the faces of all those who hoped against it. There was no stunt he did not pull to celebrate the fact that he had beheaded a person with his bare hands, and that he had also managed to put an end to the entire family line.I watched him with irritation on my face as he moved around endlessly. Before Declan even became the Alpha King, he had already begun to clear out entire family trees.I was certain that if he continued to rule steadily for about ten years without having a change of heart, he would singlehandedly orchestrate the end of the werewolf species.Just as the referee was about to walk to the centre and announce that Declan had won the duel, to everyone's excitement, Declan lost hi
CHAPTER 102Charlotte's POV The training arena was packed to its limit with citizens of the colony.They filled the seats and even more, waiting to watch in hopes that their vicious Alpha King gets beaten to death by a vengeful simpleton.I, like them, wanted to be ambitious enough to hope for that, but I knew that it was practically impossible. The duel, like everything else that involved Declan, was just a dumb display.If I was going to get Declan to fall to his knees in defeat, I was going to have to take matters into my own hands, both literally and figuratively. As I stared into space, the crowd suddenly began to roar wildly with women screaming and children jumping and pointing at the centre of the arena.There stood Stefan. He was not exactly the perfect hero. His muscles were severely underdeveloped. He was not lacking in height, but his bowed legs made it easy to tackle him to the ground, and he was definitely lacking in confidence too.However, he had the right motive, he
CHAPTER 101Tyler's POV I sighed and dropped my head on the pile of books open in front of me. I had spent a good portion of my day in the library, studying through all the books on mate bonds.I was looking to find any phenomenon where the mate bond still lasts after one mate had died, but I found none.As I felt the coarse brown paper on my face, I worked up the courage to accept what I already knew a while ago.Roberta was still alive, and Vincenzo had still been feeling her bond. I had a little skepticism about it because according to him, the feeling was shaky. Sometimes he could feel her, and other times he could not.However, in one of the books, I saw that werewolf mates going through some kind of emotional trauma could subconsciously lessen their bond with their partner.I believed that to be true because from my conversations with Darla, she sometimes could not feel anything for her mate, even though she was already marked.I sighed sadly and closed my eyes as Darla's pictu
CHAPTER 100Declan’s POV “I don't appreciate being summoned”, Charlotte called out to me as she walked noisily into my meeting room at the training arena. As I heard the obnoxious clicking of her shoes against the tiles from a mile away, I wondered how she managed to stay as crafty as she was when her shoes kept making all that noise. Her enemies had to hear her coming from a million miles away.“I'm the Alpha King. I can do whatever I want”, I smirked as she closed the door behind her.For the first time since I ascended to my new position, I was truly alone in a room with another person.I watched her glare at me while she walked all the way around the table to stand beside me at its end.“I think we both know now that that is not true”, she said with a hint of satisfaction in her tone.She looked at me with a coy look on her face. Her countenance itself was boastful.
CHAPTER 99I walked around Hazel, making sure that she did not tremble at my presence. I only wanted to prove to myself that whatever she was saying to me was genuine.“Good, good. He has to kill Elijah, you know. If he doesn't, then this was all for nothing and we will all die if Elijah gets back. You know that, right?”, I said, walking towards my closet.“Of course, Luna. We're not going to mess it up”, she said after me.I smiled slightly and nodded.I turned around and noticed that she was still in the bedroom. She had not followed me into the closet.“Come on in here”, I called out to her.She did not respond, but immediately the words left my mouth, I could hear her walking towards the closet gently.She reached the door and just stood there quietly, looking at me.I carefully took off the robe that I wore, leaving my bare, naked body out for her to see. I sighed as
CHAPTER 98Charlotte's POV I yawned and stretched lightly on the bed as I could feel the last surviving bit of sleep vanish from my eyes.I stretched tiredly on the bed, I felt my hand press against a hard body. I startled awake and opened my eyes to see Elijah smirking down at me. I gasped lightly at the proximity between our faces, but then relaxed when my mind began to take note of my environment.“Elijah”, I called wearily, fluttering my eyelashes at him. He moved closer and planted a soft kiss on my lips. I stayed still, enduring the way his horrible morning breath grazed across my nostrils.“How was your sleep?”, he asked sweetly, brushing my hair away from my face gently with the tips of his fingers.I nodded lightly, pursing my lips as I stared at his face.His fingers trailed down to my cheeks and without warning, he pressed them painfully, causing me to wince in pai
CHAPTER 97I looked on curiously at the man in front of me as he returned my gaze with a great vendetta brewing in his eyes.I was used to getting hateful glances. Everyone I came across usually had one to spare before they moved to kiss my ass. However, he looked at me differently. He stared at me like I had wronged him in the deepest, darkest parts of his soul.“Do I know you from somewhere?”, I asked, tilting my head at him and squinting my eyes, trying to find out if I had ever seen his face before and where.He looked even further annoyed by my question as he clenched his hands into fists beside himself and gritted his teeth, while obviously seething.“You don't even know who I am”, he scoffed, looking back at the crowd of followers beside him.Even though they felt slightly empowered by his display of strength and bravery, the people behind him were too afraid to even shake their heads in his support.I chuckled lightly as I looked at him. I sat upright once again, studying his