CHAPTER 76
Roberta's POV I walked into the courtroom arm in arm with Declan. The guards outside bowed their heads slightly as he walked in, ignoring me completely. I recognized them as some of the newcomers from when I was last in the palace. They had gotten better, good enough to be trusted with the security at Manuel's wedding. They looked straight ahead as I walked past them, paying me no mind at all. I did not blame them for it. My attire was very bulky, and there was even a long veil covering my face as I entered. It served to make sure that nobody saw my face or even knew who I was. As far as everyone in the room was concerned, I was long dead and forgotten. If Declan and I stood any chance of accomplishing what we were there to do, then I had to remain dead to everyone. That was why even though my clothes and mCHAPTER 77 Roberta's POV I watched with envy and bitterness in my eyes as Natalie and Manuel smiled sheepishly at each other, exchanging unspoken assurances with their eyes. They might have thought they had fooled everyone, thinking that they were in love but the truth was, they were the fools for not seeing just how deeply they had fallen in love with each other. They smiled all the way as they recited their vows to each other, holding hands and maintaining an ungodly amount of eye contact with each other. I saw a look on Manuel's face that seemed so familiar to me and he smiled at Natalie. It was small, just a twinkle in his eyes, but I knew that I had seen it somewhere before. It was a weakness. It was the exact look that Vincenzo and I were castigated for having on our faces around each other. That look was the whole reason that I had to lose everything I had ever loved. I should have been happy that the times seemed to have changed, and that the new dispensation wa
CHAPTER 78 Declan’s POV I nearly fell asleep whilst listening to Manuel and whatever redhead he was marrying talk about how much they loved each other. I rolled my eyes at every single sentence that left their mouths as they said their vows. I knew for a fact that they had rehearsed those vows, and even their reactions to them. They were trying so hard to get the rest of the colony to believe their love story, it made me want to spare them all of the suffering. They would die before they got to reap the fruit of all their hideous lies. I was more than excited for the little interlude of drama that seemed to be stirring up when the happy couple were kissing. Roberta seemed to know the mysterious girl who stood at the centre of the room, drawing everyone's attention away from Manuel and his corpse bride. If everything was normal, I would have thought it was a huge coincidence that she just had to show up to cause all that commotion on their wedding day. However, ever
CHAPTER 79Declan’s POV I watched with a wicked smile on my face as my ninjas continued to kill the guards that surrounded the hall, and the dumb civilians who thought it was reasonable to get in their way.Some smart people managed to find their way out of the room to avoid being caught in the crossfires. At least they understood that it was nothing personal. I wanted a particular result and I was going to get it, no matter how much blood I had to shed.I wanted just one result, and I didn't care who had to die for it.I walked away from Roberta’s unconscious body, trying to find Manuel among the living soldiers who were trying to no avail to fend off my men, or better still, thrown carelessly around like any other corpse that littered the courtroom. I had gotten halfway around the place, and my suspicion was beginning to grow as I searched for Manuel's corpse. I even saw his stupid wife lying down dead on the platform where they were joined, with her heart ripped out of her body.
CHAPTER 80Charlotte's POV I paced anxiously outside Declan’s courtroom with my fingernails in my mouth. The day seemed dull and grim, like nothing good was to be expected of it and it irritated me to no small amount.It was only two days after the huge slaughter that Declan had performed in the capital where Manuel and Natalie were supposed to jace gotten married.Declan had called a council meeting to talk to the councillors about all the principles and processes surrounding his ascension to the throne. There was very little that he could say to get them on his side, but ultimately he only needed one person's approval before he could rightly say that the colony was his.Unfortunately for him, I feared that Councillor Calhoun would not be very open to siding with him after the way her hand his men butcher through the audience at Manuel's wedding. Calhoun was certainly not going to side with Declan, especially since he was running a whooping thirty minutes late to a meeting that he
CHAPTER 81Charlotte's POV I walked steadily on the stony pathway that led into the garden, my heels clicking on the floor with each step. The sweet scent of the flowers planted on each side of me caressed my nostrils softly.As I walked further down, I saw a masculine figure with his back turned to me.His jet black hair was tied up and wrapped into a man bun as he carefully trimmed a plant with the shears in his hands.“Declan, you know that the council members are waiting, right?”, I said softly.I was still walking on eggshells around him since it had only been two days since Councillor Calhoun totally embarrassed him in front of all the other councillors. His head turned to the side slightly, like he was trying to look at me without having to turn his entire body.I saw a small smirk form on his face before he turned back to snipping the leaves off his plant.“Charlotte, dear. Ever so punctual”, he scorned before turning around and taking off the gardening gloves that he wore o
CHAPTER 82Collin's POV I walked into my room and saw my smoking pipe burning away aimlessly. The smoke from it twirled around the room, creating beautiful patterns with the light that peeked in through the window.I sighed and smirked, knowing that someone was already inside my room.“Meredith, darling”, I called slowly, walking towards the bed.I saw her figure jerk up from the bed as she turned to me with a bright smile on her face.“There you are, my brilliant boy”, she beamed, stretching her hands out to receive me.I hurried to her and embraced her closely, taking in as much of the warmth her body had to offer as I could. Her scent was tantalizing and it let off fireworks in my brain.“I have missed you deeply”, I said. My words were muffled into her flesh, but it did not make them any less honest.I felt her hands tracing patterns on my back.After a few long seconds, we released each other from our hug. I looked at her and smiled, feeling overjoyed that she was even there in
CHAPTER 83Elijah's POV I took a deep breath of the fresh air that lightly perched on my face as I walked beside the lake outside Collin’s palace.It was one of my favourite things about staying in his pack, besides his seven hot sisters who all wanted a taste of me.I smiled as the scent of fresh water crept into my nostrils. It reminded me of a little pond my father used to take me to when I was little. I had wanted to go back there with him one day, before Vincenzo’s ambassadors murdered him in cold blood.I took in a deep breath with my eyes closed, trying to etch the picture of the scenery in my memory.I let out my breath and opened my eyes. It was the most beautiful thing about living in Collin's pack, but I had to get back to the palace before he would start looking for me.I took one last, long look at the lake and the calm aura around it before turning around to head back to that hell hole of a palace. When I got back to my room, I saw Collin waiting outside it for me. Th
CHAPTER 84Charlotte's POV I walked into the garden where Declan was just standing around and staring at the flowers.His back was turned to me, but from the way he seemed to tense his muscles when I walked in, I knew that he could tell that he was no longer alone in the garden.The clicking of my heels against the gravel that lined the path was not exactly discreet either.I took a deep breath as I made my way to where he was and took my stance behind him.“You know, she always talked about this garden. She said the flowers were the prettiest ones she'd ever seen. She talked about how they smelt and everything”, he said, turning to me.“The way she spoke about them, she made you feel like you had to fuck the damn flowers”, he scoffed, shaking his head.I smirked lightly and looked up at him.“Well, Roberta was quite dramatic about a lot of things. It's what made her weak”, I said.He smirked at me and sighed, shrugging with his eyebrows.“She was fun to have around, though. Too bad
CHAPTER 112Charlotte's POV I stirred awake as was immediately greeted by the harsh, dusty wind that found its way into my lungs as I took a deep breath. I immediately rolled over and coughed loudly, at the same time realizing that my soft and comfortable bed had been replaced by the coarse and hard sand which I found myself lying upon.I gasped and sat up speedily, only to realize that I was sitting in front of a huge expanse of land. As far as the water covered the ocean, that was as far as I saw nothing but sand.“You finally woke up”, I heard someone announce behind me.I turned back swiftly to meet Roberta standing behind me. She had an unreadable expression on her face and I felt the panic rise within me as soon as I realized that my hands and legs were bound by strong ropes.“What's going on? Where am I?”, I asked, struggling with the ropes that were on my hand.She sighed and looked around us.“We're in the wastelands”, she said, smiling down at me. I frowned at her, not unde
CHAPTER 111Hazel's POV As I walked back into the dining room, I felt a tear threaten to crawl its way out of my eyes, but I hurriedly blinked it back before it got the chance.Hearing Charlotte whine about Vincenzo not running into her lovely, open arms was the reality check I needed to realise that whoever I thought about when I pictured Charlotte, she was entirely different. She helped me to realize that she was not a victimized child who struggled to survive, she was an entitled brat and she felt like her difficult childhood gave her a free pass to the things that belonged to other people.Her character was clear from her attitude. The fact that she was daring enough to demand courtesy from a man she had stolen everything from showed me that she did not think twice about a person's misfortunes after she had caused them.I knew for a fact that she did not remember the names of my father and brother whom she dragged to an untimely, poorly dug mass grave.Unfortunately for me, some
CHAPTER 110Charlotte's POV I sat up right at the head of the dining table, waiting patiently for Vincenzo to walk in. He and Hazel had arrived at the palace together just a few minutes prior to dinner time, and they went straight to their assigned rooms to get dressed.As much as I hated to admit it, I had missed Hazel, but the idea of having Vincenzo on my side while I fulfilled everything I wanted for myself was a little more thrilling than I expected. I could not bring myself to focus on anything else.My breath hitched in my throat as I heard the doors to the dining crack open and Vincenzo walked in, looking as dashingly handsome as he always did.He looked different, though. He had shed a few pounds of his bulk and traded them in to be taller. His lean, tall figure caused my mouth to water as he walked confidently towards me.My eyes diverted from him shortly as I noticed Hazel also slip in through the door and walk towards us. She smiled as soon as her eyes met mine and again
CHAPTER 109Charlotte's POV I smiled widely as I read Hazel's letter aloud to Roberta.“Hopefully one of these days, I will come back to you with Vincenzo. Yours truly, H”, I read aloud, beaming like a child.Roberta sat down on the floor with her hands crossed in front of her as she looked up, frowning at the darkness above her.“It seems that Vincenzo will agree to join me as my partner. He's even willing to put behind that nastiness of me killing you and the kids”, I scoffed.She let out a small sigh and closed her eyes.“I told you, Roberta. Men are easy to win over. There is no love in this world. Love means equality, whereas there are only those who lead and those who follow”, I said.He opened her eyes back and looked down to me.“You're wrong. There is love, and you only keep thirsting after power because you know that you'll never be good enough for love”, she said weakly.I felt my anger bubbling up as I looked at her. “Look at that. You should have just let me know that y
CHAPTER 108Hazel's POVI wiped the tear that crawled its way out of my eye as soon as I crossed the door to Alpha Vincenzo’s room.I sniffed lowly and blinked rapidly as I walked away, trying to make my whimpers as discreet as I possibly could.As soon as I reached the servant's quarters, my pace sped up and before long, I ran into my room and crashed my face on my bed.I sobbed softly as the recollection of all I lost surfaced to me.My father was one of the members of Alpha Elijah's council. When Elijah supposedly died at the hands of Vincenzo, Charlotte came back like the most mournful bride anyone had ever seen.She rallied around for the support of the common folk and the councillors in the pack, but my father saw right through her. He knew that the new policies she promised would not stand the test of time and that the pack, like her, would end up becoming lawless.When she was trying to become the Luna of the pack, the rest of the councillors showed her support, but my father
CHAPTER 107 Vincenzo’s POV“Tyler is not in this palace, and you know why. If you want to keep your round little head on your neck for much longer, you are going to start talking”, I said angrily.She kept up the innocent girl facade until she realized that I was not buying it, then she sighed and rolled her eyes at me.“Fine. I'll tell you where he is. I don't even care anyway”, she said, gently nudging the knife away from her neck.I moved back a little and watched as she snatched the bottle away and filled the cup with it. Without looking away from me, she downed the entire cup of wine and dropped the cup.“He somehow thought it was a good idea to go to Charlotte's territory”, she said, rolling her eyes as she slammed the cup in the tray.I frowned and stared at her intently with confusion on my face. Even though Tyler and I were in the middle of our conversation about Charlotte's letter, we never said anything about going to her territory just yet.“Why would he go over there?”,
CHAPTER 106Vincenzo’s POV I slowly strolled past the entrance to the dining room for the hundredth time in the past thirty minutes. I peeked in and sighed in frustrated resignation when I realized that Tyler was still not inside.The delicious aroma of the steak served on the table did very much to water my mouth and lure me in, but I did not want to sit through another breakfast without figuring out where Tyler had gone.“Are you alright, Alpha?”, I heard a voice behind me.I startled in shock at the proximity of the voice to my ear, since I had not noticed anyone walking towards me.At once, my head snapped back to see Hazel standing behind me and blinking her eyes innocently at me. I let out a small breath when my eyes came into contact with her familiar face.“I didn't mean to scare you, sorry”, she said, looking sincerely apologetic. I scoffed and rolled my eyes at her.“Don't bother. I'm just slightly on edge”, I said, turning around to survey the dining room once more, as if
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,