I was waiting for Giofré to arrive as I watched people walk by in front of me. My completely drunk state from a while ago drained off, but I could still feel the alcohol in my body because of how heavy my head felt. I was continuously yawning and as much as I wanted to daze off, my throbbing hand wouldn’t let me rest. My flesh still burned from the silver and the palm I used to remove the knife out of my hand had red and brown marks on it. This reminded me so much about what the Silver Stag taught us about silvers and werewolves. Werewolves were stuffed with sulfur and silver was fatal to us because our blood tarnished them. And this was the pain I least expected to experience.
When a black car pulled up in front of the bus stop, I bobbed my head and noticed Giofré come out of it. I stood up from the bench and watched as he approached me with a frown on his fac
As I fluttered my eyes open and tried to get up from the bed, my body didn’t budge. I tried to move my hands, my toes, even my head, but I couldn’t feel my body. I felt paralyzed. Like I laid flat on the bed with my eyes open, staring at the ceiling while I couldn’t move anything, even my lips. When my eyes caught a glimpse of someone shifting beside me, despite my numb state, I forced my eyes to stare at it. I saw a man and as he moved closer to me, I started to recognize his face. He was the man who stabbed me in the bar. He sat at the edge of the bed, a mischievous smirk creeping across his face, as he stared at me. I wanted to scream—to call someone for help but I couldn’t. My whimpers were suppressed and I couldn’t say anything. I looked away from him with tears daring to escape from my eyes, fear devouring me, as I anti
“He what?” Agatha asked as if she didn’t hear him. “He killed my fiancé because he retaliated after he stayed in the Silver Stag. He was beyond mad that he ended up blaming all of us for what happened to him. He thought that the only way he could get back at us is by killing two birds in one stone,” he explained as Agatha plastered a confused look. “That’s why he killed Valerie.” “I don’t get it.” She shook her head. “That’s not something Tobias would do. It doesn’t make sense. Why would he kill her instead of you two?” “Because that’s how you take revenge on the people you resented. You hit them straight in the heart which is worse than death. I told you, you don’t know him.” “Why was he even mad, in the first place? I know what he’s suffered in the Silver Stag but
As much as I wanted to run for Giofré and, somehow, give him emotional support, I had to give him some space to sort his feelings out. This time, I couldn’t blame myself for blurting out the truth about Valerie’s death; he had a right to know. This would be tough for him—knowing that he was the one who killed her. But, at the same time, he knew nothing about the consequences. Werewolves had been forbidden to mate with humans and that’s all he was aware of. Surely, there could be something that would prevent this from happening, but it was too late; we couldn’t do anything about it. And I hope by the time he went back into the bayou, whatever waves of emotions that flooded through him after I admitted the truth, he would somehow manage to recollect himself and move on. I went back to the village, seeing everyone scattered around as they did their responsibilitie
I closed my eyes as fire erupted in me. When our lips danced together, his arm laced around my waist, pulling me closer to him as he deepened the kiss. Heat rushed through my body and all I could think of was his soft lips against mine. His hands gripped my waists and when he suddenly lifted me with so much strength, my breath hitched. He placed me on his lap, with my thighs straddling his hips as he grazed his tongue on my bottom lip. Muffling a moan, I wrapped my arms around his neck and raked his tousled hair, pulling his face closer to me to deepen the kiss. He let out a soft moan, caressing my thighs as our tongue met. Portia, stop, a voice in my head whispered. This is wrong. I shouldn’t be making out with him. Valerie just died and we shouldn’t be doin
The pack gathered around Giofré who was standing in the middle of the village. He discussed our situation with Tobias and assigned some of the betas to guard the bayou while we were gone. I stood a few feet away from them with Agatha beside me, babbling with Beatrice who was telling her about how the werewolves work. As I focused my attention on Giofré and his pack, I saw Lucas walking beside me at the side of my eye and crossed his arms above his chest. “So since when did you become part of the pack?” he asked me which, in all honesty, I didn’t anticipate. “Giofré asked me to stay here. I know that my presence bothers you all but, as much as I wanted to stay away, my life’s in danger out there,” I explained and he just shrugged. “They’re coming after you now, huh.”
We stayed outside of the building, near the trees that were perfectly lined up beside the light posts. I was constantly peering in the parking lot, hoping those agents were out of sight, but they were still smoking. They must’ve had enough joints already and their lungs would probably give up first before we could get a chance to find the hidden entrance. Pacing back and forth in front of Giofré, I ran a hand through my hair as the sound of my boots clicking on the cement reverberated in the area. “Stop pacing. We’re gonna get caught because of your noisy shoes,” Giofré scolded. “Agatha hasn’t called. We’re here for almost half an hour and she still hasn’t said anything.” I stopped pacing and placed my hands on my hips. “What if she got caught? What if she fails and we’r
“Shit,” I mumbled, locking the door and immediately followed Giofré downstairs. My heart almost fell out of my chest and my mind was in an uproar as I thought about what was coming next. Beads of sweat began to form on my temples, my knees were wobbling, as the heavy footsteps on the stairs echoed loudly in the hall. When Giofré noticed my sudden disconcertion, he stared at me in confusion once we got to the end of the stairs. “What’s going on?” he asked as we both breathed heavily. I gripped my thighs and slouched my back, trying to catch my breath. My temples throbbed and I felt as though blood started to drain off my face. “Someone saw us here,” I answered with worry filling my tone. “Shit.” He intertwined his fingers
He stopped in the middle of the hall, hands tucked inside the pocket of his jeans, and tugged his lips to a mischievous smirk that I’d seen him plaster the first time we met in the club. He stared at us as if waiting for our next move as soon as he showed up, but all we did was stand, dumbfounded, as Tobias's low moans filled our ears. When one of his knees softened and weakness started to take over his body, he weighed heavier, and I tried my best to keep him from falling. “Saving the poor werewolf, I see,” the guy uttered and scoffed. “I’m surprised he survived.” “What do you want?” I asked, glaring at him. “We’ve done nothing wrong to this organization.” “I’m aware of that. You’ve done nothing wrong to them . . . but to me.” He pulled his hands out of his pock
A few years later I peered through the oven before grabbing the potholder and pulled it open. The smoke and the aroma of the freshly cooked chicken made its way through the kitchen, as I laid it on the counter. I saw someone moved at the side of my eye and when an arm suddenly laced around my lower torso, I giggled and turned my back around to face Giofré. “Hey,” he said in a husky voice before leaning his face to me and placed a kiss on my lips. I curled my lips to a smile and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Hey, hun. Have you already considered my proposal?” “You’re making it sound like we’re dealing a business matter.” Giofré chuckled before pulling away from me. He moved to my side and opened the fridge, getting a glass pitcher before continuing, “I’m still not sure about it.” “Why not?” I shrugged. “I mean, we’re not leaving this town completely. There’s
It had been a few months after that tremendous crisis we had gone through in defeating the dark soul and the other supernatural creatures that dared to destroy our living. We had survived that tribulation and we managed to get back up and rebuild everything that was destroyed, especially our pack. It still hadn’t struck us that the war was over, and the crippling anxiety was still lingering around. But those circumstances taught us the biggest lesson in life: no matter how hard it gets or how unbearable life gets, you get back up and fight. It felt as though we were trained as soldiers—battle through hardships and face the biggest hurdles that came along the way, not knowing if we would survive. But we fought anyway because we had some people to protect—those people we cared about. I once thought that, perhaps, I was supposed to get rid of all the pain in order to find genuine happiness. But I figured,
The veins bulging from Elspeth’s face began to diminish and she fluttered her lids open, gasping for air as she came back to life once the knife was pulled out of her. But when she tried to move from her spot, she failed because her body seemed to froze because of the spell Aunt Odessa cast upon her. With fury building up in her eyes, she stared at Aunt who was chanting under her breath while sprinkling some salt on top of her. She screamed in torment as soon the particles touched her skin, and I could imagine how much it must’ve hurt her. It might’ve felt like there was a burning sensation on her flesh because of the smoke her skin emanated as soon as the salt landed on her. She groaned loudly, too loud that not even the rainstorm could overpower her ear-splitting voice. As Aunt Odessa continuously chanted the Latin words written on the pages, the wind became more aggressive, making me almost lose my balance. The candles were still lit and the wind didn’t swe
Agatha opened the trunk as I dropped Elspeth’s body inside, with the knife still plunged in her back. Her pale skin turned to grey and purplish veins became prominent on her skin, some even bulged in her neck and face. As soon as I got Elspeth inside, I turned to look at my right and spotted Lucas and Weston, running toward the car while Lucas lifted a body on his shoulder. I motioned them to hurry and, once they were already in front of me, Lucas dropped the body beside Elspeth. His face immediately came into my view—eyes shut close, mouth parted, and his skin was almost as pale as Elspeth. My heart clenched at the sight of him and I couldn’t help but cover my mouth in shock. I hadn’t seen him after the incident and it pained me tremendously that this was what happened to him. All of these, defeating the dark soul and the vampire, was for him and the pack. Though his loss caused me to be wretched inside, it brought out the suppressed st
We arrived at the mountain of witches, venturing through the forest with my arms wrapped around the book protectively. All of their attention averted to me as soon as we halted, so I roamed my eyes around and took a deep breath. “Aunt!” I shouted, but my voice was overpowered by the thunder. “Aunt Odessa, we have something for you!” The vigorous wind caused the leaves that had fallen from the trees to fly around us as we scooted closer to one another. And just as I thought that Aunt Odessa wouldn’t appear immediately, I heard her voice from behind me saying, “Portia.” I turned my back to face her and when she noticed the book in my grasp, there was a sudden spark in her eyes. She tugged her thin lips to a half-smile and slowly approached our vicinity. “We got the grimoire you were looking for.” I
Our clothes were soaking wet because of the rainstorm and we had to drop by in Giofré’s house to find some clothes to wear. And since almost all of our stuff were stuck there, we managed to change our clothes so we could head to our destination which was the library. Library of Hillford was the oldest library in this town and was the main library of this city. It was one of the largest libraries in this country, containing the oldest—ancient—books that only the Hillford was authorized to have. I remembered, during high school, I had been there once. It was for a research and when we got the chance to use the computers, we found some skeptical files in there that the librarian was quick to notice. As soon as they thought we were snooping around—like what usual highschoolers do—we were kicked out. That was the only memory I had in that place, never had I thought that the grimoire would lead us to that lib
I approached the voice and, as I got closer to the end of the hall, the light of the torch reflected to the iron bar where I spotted Weston, seated on the ground near the rusted bars. He was staring at me in dismay, his eyes hinted sorrow as if he was about to tear up. He tilted his head down to hide his face, shifting from his seat before he sighed. “Weston,” I mumbled his name, walking closer before crouching down beside him. The muffled groan of the werewolves inside this place was the only thing I could hear aside from our heavy breathing. “I’ll get you out of here.” I gripped my free hand on the bar and immediately flinched as soon as I realized that it was made of silver. Silver tarnishes because of the sulfur substance in the air. “You can’t get me out of here.” His voice was laced with hopelessness. “And I do not know if I can still fight.” “If I can muster enough strength, t
Under the stormy night where darkness engulfed the forest and the trees were soaked up with rain, their branches falling on the ground as their leaves rustled, we ventured through the woods and hid behind a huge rock that stood just in front of the warlock’s tower. We viewed the vampires guarding the place from afar and we kept our noises as inaudible as possible so they wouldn’t sense that there were other creatures around. As we held the wooden stakes, with Agatha holding the crossbow, we all stared at each other to plan for an attack. “There are about twenty of them outside the tower, and some were roaming around inside,” Lucas said, peering through the huge rock as Agatha and I leaned against it. “We already manage to escape kill most of them last time, I’m sure we can do it again. Maybe we have more advantage because of these weapons.” “But what if the warlock suddenly shows up?” Agatha asked and I sighed in frustration. &nb
“We’ve been in the dwarves’ village to find some answers. They told us that only the witches have the ability to resurrect a dead body. But since the nature wouldn’t allow this loophole to maintain the balance, it was near to impossible to find a grimoire containing a complex magic,” I told Aunt Odessa but she shook her head as if disagreeing from what I said. “There’s, indeed, a grimoire containing the spell that could resurrect any creatures.” She pulled away from me, her hands falling to her side as she started pacing back and forth. I glanced at Lucas and Agatha and noticed that they were already shivering from the cold atmosphere, but they chose to stay in my vicinity to watch me intently as I talked to my aunt. Agatha mumbled something under her breath, mouthing what now to me. “You’ve seen the grimoire?” I asked, raising my brows and casually glancing