Cyrus Pure chaos followed Eva’s kidnapping and the destruction of my property, and I was more than happy to participate in it. I’d caught the man who planted the explosive and tried to drown Eva. Goddess, I couldn’t describe what it was like to see her in that way, her head under the water and those man’s hands pushing her down by her shoulders. It was one of the worst things I’d ever experienced, and for a moment, it almost felt like I was the one who was drowning in that stream. The Luna of that rogue pack unfortunately got away along with everyone else. Some of the Alphas including myself sent Gammas after them, and we hoped we could catch them and make them pay for what they’d done. In the meantime, we burned their pack house to the ground. Because they were a small pack, they only had one house like the rest of us, who had neighborhoods of pack mates. Part of modernizing came with having your own privacy, so we stopped living in pack houses a while ago. It was better to live
Eva I woke up in a bright room, so bright that I had to keep my eyes closed for a few moments so they could adjust.I only needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts and recall what happened to me. What I didn’t know was where I was, or how long it had been since that terrible occurrence. My primary guess was that I was at a hospital of some kind because of how clinical everything looked. I’d been to a hospital once before when one of the priestesses got sick. It wasn’t as chic as this one, but the resemblance existed. I looked around for the patient call and rang for the doctor. A middle-aged man appeared almost instantly, and he was bearing a smile on his face. “Good morning, Eva. How are you feeling? I’m Doctor Steyne, and you’ve been under my observation for a full day.” “A day?” I asked, mildly surprised. He nodded. “You seem to be on the way of a steady recovery. I’m not majorly concerned. I’ll put you on some antibiotics and you’ll be good to go, just to be on the safe sid
Cyrus I watched Eva climb up the stairs, and all the while, my instincts were yelling at me to go up there after her. I now knew that it wasn’t wise to listen to them all, mostly because they’d only put me farther up her hate list. I was probably in first place as it was. I made my way to my office instead, her scent all around me. I couldn’t get her face out of the forefront of my mind, with her cheeks that grew rosy whenever she showed a hint of emotion. I sat on my chair and stared up at the ceiling. Would I ever stop thinking about how her lips would taste of how her body would feel against mine? This was a dangerous thought process, mostly because I had no assurance that such things would even happen between us. For now, they were only dreams, and that could be all they’d ever be. But a man could dream. I was almost undressing her in my mind when the phone rang. I sighed before answering it, and heard Alpha August. “Alpha Cyrus, I hope I’m not calling at an inopportune time
Eva The next few days were calmer than usual, and we entered a new week.I still hadn’t established myself in this place, but I was slowly trying to leave my bedroom so as to not feel too constricted. Walking around the garden in the back next to the huge swimming pool was my favorite way of passing the time, even though I was still paranoid about rogues placing an explosive there. It was a very peaceful place, and I felt very much connected to the goddess, even though I’d been feeling like I wasn’t much of a priestess anymore. Guilt was the main reason behind this. I didn’t have my veil anymore, and I still couldn’t touch my prayer book because of Alpha Cyrus’ scent. Such things made me hate him more than I already did, and it didn’t matter that I was supposed to forgive him. I hated him still. I’d always hate him. For the most part, he’d been leaving me alone, though. He hadn’t come up to my room since our talk about the rogues and forgiveness, and I suspected that it was becaus
EvaWhen Marcia knocked on my door to ask for permission to bring all of the clothes in, I was speechless at the countless bags that were packed into the room. “Right here, this closet will do,” she told the uniformed man who was carrying about ten bags in each hand. She directed them while I stared stupidly, wondering if I’d perhaps missed the fact that Alpha Cyrus was out of his mind. All these clothes were unnecessary and were a waste, unless he intended to give them to someone else after I left. If that was the case, then we’d have no problems. Otherwise, I would keep my word. I didn’t plan on taking anything he gifted me back to the Convent. I had no need for ‘normal clothes’ there. I had my dresses, veils, and scarves, and that was enough. Once the delivery men left the room, she said to me, “Alpha Cyrus wants you to accompany him to dinner tonight.”I bit my lip. He didn’t intend on wasting any time. I thought I would have until tomorrow to wrap my head around all of this.
Eva We sat beside each other in the car, and I was reminded of the first time I was inside one with him. Goddess, I felt so miserable that day. Being taken away from my home after the chapel burned was not a memory I’d forget anytime soon. I didn’t look at him. Even so, I could easily tell whenever he looked at me, and how long his gaze lingered. I was glad that my dress was so modest, mostly because I was comfortable in it. I knew he wouldn’t be looking at…certain parts of my body. I was convinced that it would make me feel worse. He could stare at my face without the veil—that, I could take—but he couldn’t stare at my body. We left the house behind, and were driving through a lone road. The forest surrounded the area around us entirely, and I couldn’t see anything apart from trees, which made me wonder where we were going. I figured that his pack couldn’t be the few people who lived in the house; there had to be more people. Was that where we were going now? “You don’t have t
EvaNeide plus another woman brought over the food that Cyrus had ordered. It felt strange calling him by his first name in my mind, but I reminded myself that this was yet another stupid thing I had to comply with in order to be freed, and anyway, why did I have to call him Alpha all the time? Perhaps it was better this way. I’d feel more his equal, or at least like he wasn’t better than me. Cyrus looked over at me as they put the food on the table between us. I had to fight the urge to shake my head at the unnecessary quantity of it. There was no way that we’d both be able to finish the food, which meant what, that it would all go to waste?Although I was never hungry before in my life, I certainly didn’t have a variety of food for me to choose from. We were thankful for what we had, though, and would definitely be grateful if we had what he has so effortlessly. Yet he let it all go to waste. “Is something on this table not pleasing you?” he asked, sitting back. “You’re staring
CyrusI looked around for Eva but couldn’t find her anywhere. It was only then that panic seized me. I should have never taken my eyes off her. I assumed she would have followed me but it seemed I’d overestimated my ability to make her do as I said. I never thought she would have disappeared. I wasn’t even sure if she left through the front door. I went there, and found the two security guards standing there, still granting people admission into the club. A few people greeted me as I walked past them, but I ignored them all. I wasn’t up to playing the polite Alpha today. “The woman I was with,” I said to them as soon as I was close enough, “did you see if she went outside?”“No, Alpha,” they replied. “We didn’t see anyone leave yet.”I turned back around, feeling like a fool for having to look for her. This shouldn’t be happening; she was supposed to be right behind me. With that came this feeling of despair mixed with rage. Neide was standing close to the bar, tablet in hand, an
EvaThe sound of Jace calling me interrupted my train of thoughts. I looked over my shoulder and saw him running toward me, holding something. It appeared to me like his toy superhero was broken again, and he sounded like he was going to cry. “Mommy, look!”I took the toy from him and offered him a gentle smile. “When Daddy comes home, he’s going to fix it, okay? I don’t know how to.”My son looked at his toes and made a disheartened noise in the back of his throat. I knelt in front of him, grabbed him by the arms, and said, “Hell be back soon. He just went to get something.”He huffed an, “Okay.”“Why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring you something to drink,” I said. “What do you want? Some juice? Soda?”“Juice!”Just like that, he was cheerful again, the broken toy completely forgotten. I lured him some juice and snacks, and then he sat down and amused himself with eating. I watched him from the kitchen, happy beyond reasoning. The last few years weren’t easy for any of us—but the
CyrusI stopped in front of the door to the shitty apartment. I knew somebody had to be inside because the baby was crying. I could hear it. They didn’t leave him alone, though. They never would have. By now, Kolton was dead. When Brock stopped me from making the biggest mistake of my life, I’d backed away but not without giving it much thought. He guaranteed me that he would kill Kolton as he should have years ago—the way he said it was a confirmation of everything. Our whole story. The reason why Nox left. Why things turned out the way they did. Nox had been right. It was all Brock’s fault. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that for a while. Now, I was sure that I didn’t hold it against him. It happened a long time ago, and maybe I was too grateful for everything he did for me to judge him for something he clearly regretted doing. Maybe I always knew that Nox was right. Deep down, I’d suspected it. But Brock had always been a solid figure in my life, even more than my parents we
NoxAll around us, there was chaos. I could positively say that neither of us expected an ambush from Kolton. He’d taken everything from me, so what else did he want? He wasn’t here; only his men were. The one thing that saved us was that we still had a few weapons left or we would’ve been screwed. Also, Vivian’s people joined us right on time. I could tell by the way they were fighting that they had been thirsty for Redwood blood for a long time. Men. Women. Kolton didn’t discriminate. He had every able-bodied person in his pack fighting us. The only person that wasn’t here was him. Coward. What else did I expect? He loved to watch shit burn from afar. He always had other people doing his dirty work. “Where are you Kolton!?” one of the guys who had been with Vivian asked out loud as he slammed someone’s knees in with a baseball bat. “Where are you hiding!? Come and face us, you fucking rat!”Could I say we were winning the fight? I wasn’t sure. Many of the people here were strang
Eva I cracked an eye open and saw that the sun had risen. I didn’t move for a very long time. I was so tired. Tired of feeling pain. Tired of having to wake up with horrible memories of the night before. It was then that I prayed to the goddess for strength. I couldn’t do this anymore. There was only so much one could take and I’d reached my limit. For a moment, I lied on the hard rocks of the mountain and wished for death. I’d never done it before because all my life, I was raised to believe life was a gift, but my body was tired of fighting. I wasn’t sure how much time passed. I was fully conscious of everything going on around and within me. The sun was high in the sky but it was a bitterly cold day. I knew that my only solution would be to shift and I had to do it quickly or I’d die of hypothermia. However, I couldn’t find the strength to even roll to my side. Then, something incredible happened. I thought about the baby that had been inside of me—the baby I’d been carrying f
Nox Time was going very slowly in this house of horrors. Someone must have injected me with poison and left me sitting on this bench to die because how else could this burning be explained? No, I remembered now why I felt this way. It was when Vic told me that Eva had been taken that I became paralyzed with shock and fear. Despite all our attempts to make sure she wasn’t recognized and found by Kolton, we lost. The baby hadn’t been taken, and Vic was organizing to have him taken home. He was a healthy boy, so why not? The doctor didn’t have any protests. What it sounded to me was that Kolton wasn’t interested in the baby. If he were, he would’ve been gone too. As for the doctor, I could’ve crushed his skull in with my cane and wasted time interrogating him, but there was just no guarantee that he was the one who even placed the call. Maybe it wasn’t him. In fact, there was a very high likelihood that it wasn’t him but someone else on his team. Maybe one of the nurses. He knew wha
CyrusI couldn’t believe my fucking eyes. Did…did this man just push Eva off a cliff?I looked at him slowly, shock rooting me to the spot. I felt like I was losing my fucking mind here. There was no way that I just witnessed this. I looked back at Leonora and saw that she was walking toward us. I watched her stride past me and peer over the edge of the cliff. She looked around and then nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Good. Now, we can get going.”Something about the way she said those words—maybe it was how casually she said them—made me break away from my trance and race toward her. The man noticed this and immediately rushed to intercede me. Leonora peered back at me with unbothered eyes. Once the man touched me, I made a fist and punched him directly on the face. He staggered backward, getting closer to the edge. It was then that the malignant thought to push him crossed my mind, and I felt every muscle in my body force me to do it. I lunged at him and shoved him as hard as I cou
EvaOpening my eyes was a painfully slow process. I had such a hard time figuring out where I was. Every time my eyelids parted just a little I was being blinded by bright lights. I tried to put a hand over my face but found that I couldn’t move. Why was this so familiar to me?I also had this feeling like I was moving even though my feet weren’t touching the ground. It was so strange that I felt a sense of urgency that helped me insist on opening my eyes despite the brightness. I looked to my left and saw someone grabbing the side of the bed I was on while looking straight ahead. This person was wearing a dark denim jacket and a beanie. I didn’t recognize this person. Then, I looked to my right and saw shoulder-length hair and a familiar build. Cyrus?The fear I felt was enough to make me open my eyes wide and realize that I had to get away from him. I tried to turn on my side and felt a lot pins and needles all over my body. I felt no pain, so that was the good thing. However,
Nox Fear was a living, breathing thing inside of me. I couldn’t focus on anything else other than getting Eva to the hospital safely. At first, it hadn’t been an option. We all knew how Kolton was well connected to the hospitals in this city. It was the one place where he had the chance to catch his enemies in a vulnerable state. However, Eva hadn’t regained her consciousness and she was still bleeding. It was enough blood to stain her clothes but at least it wasn’t like she was hemorrhaging. Even so, we didn’t know what was wrong with her and Kyra didn’t know how to help us. I wasn’t going to risk her life. When it came to keeping her safe and healthy, I was ready to face anything. Besides, there was a chance that Kolton wouldn’t know about this. “Hurry up, Vic!” I said, agitated. He was in the wheel and I was behind with Eva. Ursula was in the front seat. Only one car filled with our people was following us. It was crazy how our numbers had been reduced so drastically. Sweat w
EvaA few hours earlier...Nox had been getting better and better with time. In the first week, he could only stand, now, three weeks later, he'd been taking several steps without falling. He claimed that he was now feeling sensations in his legs, which meant that he was finally healing. This was a miracle. I was so busy helping him that I barely noticed the time flying. Every day was an accomplishment and I was so proud of him. My heart swelled with pride. Nox wasn't a quitter; every time he fell, he'd get back up. It was so inspiring, watching him achieve this. It brought tears to my eyes every time I thought about it. Everyone was happy for him and supported him in any way they could. It was great to see everyone working as a team. It was clear that they respected him very much. All his fears concerning people looking down on him because of his condition disappeared and I hoped he understood that he was wrong. We never talked about it, though. It was better to leave those fears