Francesca's POVDominic's words kept reverberating in my head but before I could spiral down a rabbit hole, my mum and Alpha Ian joined us in the dining room. I got up from the chair I was sitting and moved back to my original place, opposite the Beta. Dominic had gone back to looking like his perpetual relaxed self. If you didn't look at him closely and notice his red-rimmed eyes, you wouldn't have been none the wiser that he had been sobbing some minutes ago. It made me think that over the years, he's probably gotten very good at hiding his breakdowns over Damien. The thought made something twist in my chest. It was unfortunate what he was doing to himself and his fated mate. Jessica Reginald didn't look surprised to see me at the dinner table. I was right in assuming Alpha Ian had probably told him about the change in status quo. It occurred to me then that I didn't even tell Dominic why I had decided to attend dinner tonight. Well, he hadn't ask either. My mother made her way ov
Francesca’s POVAs the weeks progressed, everyone in the household got used to me attending family dinner, including the maids and chefs and they didn’t hesitate to express how happy it made them that their food was being enjoyed by us all as a family. It should be the norm. It made them sad that I always ate my food separately, most times in the privacy of my bedroom. This also made me consider one important thing about presenting a united front. Even the house staff were constantly watching. They needed to see us as a family that deeply loved and respected each other.A family that had no weak links our enemies could explore.There were times when family dinner wasn’t just the four of us. There were times when I invited Bianca and Patrick over. Those days were the most chaotic. Bianca and I were hard-pressed to keep our hands off each other. I would always endeavor to push my chair as close to hers as possible. All of this so our thighs can brush against each other. I could randomly
Francesca’s POVOn certain nights after dinner, we moved to Alpha Ian’s Study for a nightcap. This also meant spending at least a couple of hours talking about everything and nothing. Tonight for family dinner, we’d been joined by the Alpha twins, Michael and Gabriel. I’d mentioned in the past that they’d been our primary trainers when we were growing up in our pack, and this made them practically family to my mother and me. Denise had also joined us. She was our other trainer, and we referred to her as Dominic’s evil partner in crime. Denise might have the coolest shoulder-length purple hair but she was also a sadist who always put us through hell during training. She never went easy on us. Not even when Dominic and the twins wanted to slow things down.The words that always fell from her lips were, “Did we think the rogues were taking it easy?”Right after dinner tonight, my mother decided to retire to bed. She claimed she had a headache and was in no mood to listen to Michael, Gabr
Alpha Ian’s POVAs I closed my eyes, I was immediately transported back to when I was but a mere toddler. I never moved as a unit. Wherever I went, there was a shadow serving as my companion. I never had to wonder what it was like to do anything by myself even though as young as I was, I wasn’t responsible for taking care of myself. My ability to make friends was determined by the company my parents kept. There were a few wolves around my age that I met regularly because our parents would bring us together. Among these kids, there was one who always stuck to me. The one I’m currently referring to as my shadow.It was none other than Ezekiel Aitken.We were cradle brothers. Growing up, almost all the important milestones I experienced were with Ezekiel by my side. And vice versa. As early as when we were both four, our parents always struggled to separate us when it was time to put us to bed. Ezekiel and I would burst into tears, clinging to each other for dear life. Many a time, our p
Alpha Ian’s POV “Well,” I prompted. “Tell me, what did you discover in that book?”Ezekiel continued to play with the ground at our feet, sly grin still in place. He was dragging this out because he knew my interest has been peaked. He was that kind of boy. I didn’t know where he got that from. His parents were the kindest people I knew, but Ezekiel was happiest when he was torturing some poor creature. There was this glimmer of excitement in his eyes when someone was under his mercy or he was withholding something you wanted.This went for everything from our favorite toy to the girls we had crushes on. Everyone was well aware of Ezekiel’s mean streak.“Do you know what the humans in the past used to do to us?” Ezekiel asked, cocking his head to the side, gaze intense on me.“You’re referring to our ancestors?” I said.Ezekiel nodded.“How far back?”“As far back as medieval Europe,” Ezekiel answered.I knew a little about that period thanks to our history lessons. We had an amazing
Alpha Ian POV’s“So at age ten, Ezekiel was already developing radical ideas?” Francesca said, pulling me back to the present.Back in my Study, every gaze was on me. I knew they’d all been engrossed by the tale I was narrating. I wasn’t exactly known for being someone who talked about Ezekiel easily. So this probably came as a surprise to everyone. “I was too young to decipher everything that was going on with him, but yeah, pretty much,” I said. “He was always an incredibly intense child, he hated losing and he was quick to retaliate or inflict hurt without mercy.”“But he was never like that with you,” Dominic said, as Francesca burrowed deeper into his side. The bond they shared pleased me to no end. I shook my head, confirming his words. “No, he wasn’t. I was the exception to his cruelty and impatience. I think that was one of the reasons I was blinded to it for so long. He was protective of me and he never failed to sing my praises.”“Yeah, that fucker had it in his head that
Alpha Ian’s POVTravelling back to memories of my childhood with Ezekiel wasn’t something I was especially fond of. The reasons should be very obvious. Our relationship crashed and burned, right alongside him growing into the monster he was always going to be. There were many nights after Ezekiel left when I laid in bed, wondering what I could have done to prevent his banishment. I thought incessantly about how I should have tried harder to make sure he never got to that point, to prevent the innocent murder of that human. I hated myself for scarcely disagreeing with him as we grew up. But more than that, I hated myself even more for never speaking up when I did disagree with him. I never intervened when I felt he did something wrong. Whenever my gut instinct told me Ezekiel had crossed a line, I never did to make him see that.At age sixteen, when my best friend was banished from our pack for a heinous crime, I was devastated, I was heartbroken, but above all, I was filled with sel
Alpha Ian’s POVOnce I got it in my head that I was going to find Ezekiel and bring him home, the idea would not leave me. I thought about it constantly, even in moments when I was surrounded by other people. Sometimes hearing what the entire pack were saying about my former best friend almost served as a deterrence but the desire always returned.As it stood, nobody seemed to want him to return. Nobody had anything good to remember him by. All our age-mates seemed relieved that he was gone. During our training sessions, it was all they talked about. It made me dizzy. I keep overhearing conversations and people saying he made them uncomfortable, even when he was supposedly on his best behavior. Some said he made them angry unprovoked, but the majority of the young wolves seemed to have feared Ezekiel. This wasn’t exactly new to me. I knew that as much as our trainers admired him for the amazing warrior that he was, his personality made them wary of the type of Alpha werewolf he would