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Chapter 21
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2024-10-29 19:42:56[Valerie]
Layla left me alone in the room - to rest, she said. But it’d been almost three hours, by my calculation, and sleep never came.It was sometime around three a.m, when the wind that blew outside assisted the spirits in getting to their respective destinations. My mind and body felt exhausted, but the urge to throw up was nagging my insides again, so I tiptoed to the bathroom and waited. Nothing came up, except my own saliva and a fiery feeling in my throat. I washed my face with cold water, and dabbed it dry with a hand towel.The woman who stared back at me looked different somehow. Her brown eyes were lighter, her jaw more prominent, and hair fell in waves instead of curling. I’d always remembered my face being rounder, lips smaller, and eyes blank and forgettable. This woman was different.While I stared at myself in the mirror, I looked down at my belly, my hand moving on its own accord as I tried to feel what Layla had felt. I was alwaysRelated chapters
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 22
[Alexander]I had no idea what I was doing, picking out wall paint in the hardware store during my lunch break. A friendly young man - probably working here only part-time - came to me with a thick leather book, apparently to make the decision easier.Skimming through the pages, I realized there were more shades of the color blue than the ones I ever knew. Baby blue, turquoise, cyan, azure, neon. Lord have mercy!“Do you have anything less bright?”The man took the book back and jumped to the back of the book. “Here. I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for somewhere between those pages.”Except, I had no idea what I was looking for. In each shade of blue, I saw Valerie. In each shade of pink, I saw her lips. And in those earthy tones, I saw her eyes. This was a bad idea.Grey. I decided on what was called ‘porpoise grey’ - dark and gloomy, just the way I was feeling.I packed the paint tin
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 23
[Valerie]I’d been sticking to the medication timetable the doctor gave me as if it was religion. The cramps were easing up substantially, but the nausea remained. I noticed that the moment I so much as sniffed any other food besides red meat, bile rose in my throat and had me rushing to the nearest hole.When Friday came along, I tried again to talk to Chloe, but the mongrel of a woman again chose to ignore my existence. Whatever, I thought, I’d be doing her a favor later that night, because just like me, she had a bone to pick with the Alpha, except I didn’t choose to become bitter about it and make everyone around me miserable. I chose to do something about it.In all honesty, my choice twisted my insides as soon as I arrived at the witches’ den with Layla. I started to believe that the only reason she was being my friend was to keep an eye on me. I didn’t mind much, since I had no reason to betray them. I was finally getting the reven
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 24
[Alexander]Gloom was all around me, as I had just finished painting my living room. Gone was my Dolce & Gabbana suit from this morning’s impromptu meeting with Mr. Gasser’s accountant, and in its place was the oldest denim pants and faded blue t-shirt. Most of the blues I wore was now turned to grey from all the stains, and as the grey walls hugged me, I felt the strong urge to throw whatever was left in the paint tin over my head and just drown in the sorrow.Almost a week had passed since I last saw her. To any normal person, meeting someone in the span of a few days wasn’t enough to feel the way I was feeling. Anyone who knew what I was going through - and made it a concerted effort not to let anyone know - would say I was insane to fall head over heels for a woman I knew nothing about, not even her last name.But that’s how I spent my days; cooped up in my own apartment when I didn’t have anywhere to be, feeling painfully sorry f
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 25
[Valerie]The witches fought hard, and celebrated harder. The feast I had once experienced was nothing compared to the one they had tonight, with two tables spread out in buffet-style. The witches were elated, their eyes sparkling in all their crimson glory, as they danced around the fresh scalp of the Alpha that once led my pack. Garrett.I had little remorse for his death. The abuse I was dealt, both directly and indirectly because of him, made me feel as if I should have watched him suffer a bit more than he did when Zetta sliced the skin off his scalp. But it was done, and I vowed to remember the look on the wolf’s face whenever I stood before the werewolves who would do nothing but bow down before me. I had the witches on my side, and I felt unstoppable.“Why aren’t you drinking?” Layla waltzed her towards me, the smell of liquor on her tongue as she slurred her words a clear indication that she was already drunk.“I can’t
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 26
[Alexander]The pain inside me didn’t stop when I locked eyes with her, the way I thought it would. Something was wrong, I could sense it, and I had no idea why the woman laying on the bed didn’t have the effect on me that she always seemed to have. I moved closer to the bed, with the rails pulled up on either side, tubes criss-crossing all around her and needles turning her skin blue where they sunk into her skin - skin that was already blue and black in patches from the attack she endured.The face of the woman I sought, the woman I loved, was not the face I looked at now. She turned her head when she heard me calling, but when she looked at me, her brows were knit in confusion. Her eyes weren’t as bright as I had remembered, and now that I was closer, I noticed that her brown hair was too dark to belong to the woman I loved. Her face was also leaner, almost sickly so - as if life had been sucked from her cheeks.“Who are you?” Her voic
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 27
[Valerie]** Eight Years Ago **Pleasant Hill High. The bane of my existence. I’d just had to wake up and make my own sandwiches for lunch, as well as my dad’s, and missed the bus to school. So now I walked on reluctant feet, towards the one place I hated the most.As I entered between the large metal gates, Mateo sprung out and startled me. I had to take a moment to collect myself. As if I didn’t already shake with nerves!“Mat! You douchebag!” I yelled at him as we both made our way up the paved pathway.“You should have seen the look on your face! I could have sworn you saw a ghost.”“I guess I’m unlucky like that. It was just you.” I rolled my eyes and shoved him playfully.Mateo was a year older than I was, and he already got his wolf about a month ago. He was also the only one who bothered to speak to me, both in school and amongst the pack.Mateo was very different from the oth
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 28
[Alexander]I caught Valerie’s scent across the border, stalking carefully between the trees so I wouldn’t alert the wolves or the witches of my presence. The furthest I had gone into this part of the woods was that day with Valerie.Her scent was growing stronger, and I had forgotten just how sweet it was.I was nearing the tree where I’d finally caught my mate. I sniffed all around it, and felt the strong urge to cry out to her, but held my tongue so I wouldn’t make a noise.The wolf’s senses were on high-alert, and owed to the fact that I could see the shape of her body, her luscious curves highlighted by the soft glow of the sun. If I closed my eyes, I could feel her smooth skin just as the day I touched it. I inhaled deeply, the faint scent of her I could get, and found myself curling up on the grass where we laid that day. It wasn’t warm enough - not as warm as when she laid her head on my chest, and inside my chest, I fe
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 29
[Valerie]** Eight Years Ago **The rain had finally stopped, but Mateo still held me as the sun came back up and dried off any trace that the rain came down today. I didn’t want to leave, I just wanted the comfort of my best friend’s warm embrace until I knew nothing else.I had no idea that I wasn’t theirs. For fifteen years I walked around thinking that Agnes and Harold were my parents. I thought that Agnes had carried me in her womb, and Harold was the first to carry me in his arms when the doctor handed me to him as a newborn baby. I thought that when my parents saw my brown eyes for the first time, they saw love in them. I thought that when I was born, I forged a deeper connection between Harold and Agnes, and sealed their fate as mates and spouses. I thought, but I was wrong.It all seemed to make sense now, the longer Mateo and I sat in silence and watched the sun consume the clouds. They never did look at me with love in their eyes. Not
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Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 99
[Alexander]** Epilogue **** One Year Later **I didn’t mind that we had had to postpone our wedding. The twins were growing beautifully, and rather normal for babies who had both wolf and witch blood coursing through them. It was Camilla who had explained their rapid growth before birth - Elizabeth, who was afraid of the dark, had closed her little eyes inside her mother’s womb, and had somehow managed to speed up the process of her mother’s pregnancy. Leo, on the other hand, seemed to fear nothing. I could tell by the way he climbed to the very top of the apple tree in the garden to pick some fruit for his sister and him.All those around us, our friends, family, acquaintances, all fell in love with the twins the moment they interacted with them. Leo, with his gift of insight, and Beth with her gift of healing. The girl had a tremendous power to win over hearts, while Leo awed them with his strength and ability to show them what he wanted wit
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 98
[Valerie]If I thought I was full of nerves before, I really had no idea what I was in for the afternoon before my wedding.Everything around me was moving fast, and the women who’d seemingly taken up residence in our small, two-bedroom house were moving faster.“Where are the dresses?!”“Where are Valerie’s shoes?!”“Did anyone call the makeup artist?!”Questions like these were flying around, the air thick with the agitation I was sure everyone was feeling. But all the preparations seemed to overshadow me, and in some ways, I was thankful for that. I didn’t quite like being the center of attention, and with only a few hours left before that became inevitable, I sneaked into my room, quietly locked my door, and laid down on my bed.My belly was huge by now, and if I looked up while laying down, it was as if I was staring at a mountain. Watching my babies grow day by day made me miss my mate eve
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 97
[Alexander]I had promised Adam one last hunt before the wedding. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it, but after all, it was only a few more days until I’d get to wake up next to Valerie every morning for the rest of my life.Over the past couple of days, I’d been packing away some of the clothes I had in my closet, making space for Valerie’s things. The small, abandoned town in Walnut Creek wasn’t exactly ready to be lived in, and I had contracted some builders to redo the dilapidated walls and tile the floors. I’d told them to leave the walls unpainted because it sounded like a good idea to do it myself.I’d been spending most of the day organizing some work files that I was planning to give to Adam while he stood in my place at Young Industries. It was only temporary, while Valerie and I would spend our honeymoon in Greece.Valerie didn’t know about our trip. I’d managed to keep it a secret, and thought
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 96
[Valerie]With less than two weeks to go before the big day, I didn’t have much time left. I’d been putting off going to see Camilla in Oakridge for far too long, and decided that if I didn’t do it today, it would never get done.I wasn’t planning on visiting her alone. I was expecting Layla to accompany me, but she was taking longer than expected to come out of her dorm room. It was only when she finally emerged that I realized what was holding her up.Selena’s cheeks reddened the moment she saw me standing outside. I hadn’t seen her in a while, since I wasn’t allowed to hunt, and was too busy with wedding preparations to meet with her. I was guessing that Layla finally found the courage to speak to her, and it didn’t bother me at all. However, Selena looked like a bear caught in a trap.“Hi, Selena.” I waved from the corridor. “How’s everyone doing?”Selena seemed taken aback by
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 95
[Alexander]I couldn’t wait to get back from work and visit Valerie that evening. It was as if the moment we were given the green light to go ahead and get married; it had become increasingly difficult to stay away from each other.I was just about to pack my things away and leave the office when I saw Adam making his way towards the door. Putting my phone in my pocket, I stood up and picked up my suit jacket from behind my chair.“Hey man!” Adam grinned as he entered the office.The rest of the building had cleared out, with Melissa giving me a curt nod before she left. News about my marriage had spread through the town, and once Melissa heard about it, she’d given in her resignation. For the most part, I was glad. That one very awkward and meaningless kiss we shared on impulse wasn’t exactly a fond memory, and even while I suspected she was leaving because any hope she ever had before had been stripped by the news that I was gettin
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 94
[Valerie]** Two Weeks Later **The day we planned on saying our vows to each other and sealing our souls together into forever was near. I highly doubted that it was nerves for the big day that had me throwing up that morning, or the fact that we were going out shopping for dresses.We’d picked the date - fourth November, the birth of a new moon, as well as the birth of our unification. With just a little less than three weeks to go, planning for the big day was well underway. Everyone seemed to accept that we wanted to do this as quickly as possible, but the only trouble seemed to come from Alexander’s mom, who refused to settle on some private affair. I supposed she had big dreams for her son’s big day - after all, he was the eldest of her children.All the planning didn’t matter much to me. The color of the drapes, the length of the aisle, the style of the dress - seemed insignificant when I was doing the most important thing of all; I
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 93
[Alexander]I didn’t want to leave Valerie alone with my father, but she seemed much braver than I was. In fact, I didn’t know why I felt as afraid as I did when I knew that there was no way he could harm her. Besides, he didn’t know the truth yet, and even if he did, he wouldn’t hurt her here, anyway.I couldn’t hear them speaking behind the thick oak door sealing my father’s office, as much as I strained my ears and tried to listen. I wondered why dad needed to speak to her alone, and I could only hope that they weren’t fighting, or dad wasn’t saying anything to upset her.From the kitchen, mom called out to me and reluctantly, I stopped pacing the hall and went to the kitchen. Amelia was helping mom, while Layla played with my niece in her arms. If you asked me, it was possible for our kind to live in harmony with witches. But as the days passed, Layla was becoming less like a witch, and more like a human. But her tho
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 92
[Valerie]I couldn’t control myself. I ran towards my father and fell at his feet with tears rolling down my cheeks uncontrollably. I had never realized, until this very moment, how much he truly cared for and loved me.I felt like I had failed as a child. I had often looked at them with anger, hurt, thinking that I wasn’t loved the way others were loved by their parents, and when I found out that I wasn’t actually theirs, I was consumed with a disappointment that now held no weight at all.I had been stupid all along. Suddenly, I was being surrounded by the type of love I had always dreamed of, and even then I had shoved those dreams far into the back of my mind, believing that I was never destined for a grand love. But now things were seemingly coming in full-circle, but one problem still remained.Arthur Young.My nemesis - the man who was responsible for stealing my parents away too soon. And the cherry on top? He was my fated mate&rsqu
Beauty & the Alpha Chapter 91
[Alexander]I hadn’t slept a wink last night. I have been doing well over this past week in terms of sleep, work and life in general. But tonight, I was just a nervous wreck.Valerie and I had agreed that I would do things the way any normal couple wanting to get married would; by asking permission from her parents. But that wasn’t exactly something I was looking forward to. And it wasn’t because I wasn’t determined to make her mine forever, with our loved ones as witnesses, but because if I closed my eyes, I was still able to feel my cheek stinging from the punch I’d received from her father.I had to admit, it warmed my heart knowing they cared so much for her. But it worried me that they cared enough that they wouldn’t see me as a fit husband for her. It was as if the fact that I was the father of her kids didn’t matter to them. They knew who I was, who my father was and what he had done to her family, and that made
