Eva By the time I was ready, as odd as that sounds, I felt more like myself. If I’d put my guilt aside and just put on my old clothes, I would have felt a lot better. I felt no need in this dress—not significantly anyway—and when I closed my eyes, I felt this rush of…goodness flow through me. It felt like the goddess had forgiven me for what I’d done. I left with Marcia. It was only the two of us in the back of the car. According to her, everyone was already there, and Cyrus had been the first to leave the house. The sound of his name made me shudder, and I asked her not to talk about him. She nodded respectfully and didn’t bring him up again. The sky was darkening quickly. The moon would be full today, and I promised myself that I would take this opportunity to try to do better. I was tired of being needy and desperate for a man’s touch. It was a never-ending madness and only made me realize how much I appreciated being touched by the light of the goddess instead. Our destinati
CyrusSomething was wrong. Terribly fucking wrong. Why could I smell Eva all the way from here?At first, I thought that it was my nose playing tricks on me. I spent a few peaceful hours away from the house where I couldn’t smell her anywhere near me, and now my body was probably playing tricks on my mind in order to drive me crazy. The longer I spent convincing myself that it was something else I was smelling, the stronger her scent got. It was impossible that she would be here, though, because I hadn’t reminded her of the event, and anyway, why would she be here? How would she even come here?“Right?” Alpha John was asking. The others laughed. I’d missed the joke completely. “I mean, if we all had to convert, then what would be of our poor wives?”“It’s not for everyone,” Alpha Gasper said. “Only those of exceptionally strong faith are able to resist temptation and follow the righteous path. I believe those people should be awarded for their efforts; for being better than the rest
EvaKissing Cyrus felt heavenly, and I hadn’t regretted the act until now. I didn’t think I could. Being close to him made it hurt less. The ‘heat’ or whatever else it could be called didn’t like being ignored. My defiance made it violent, and for the last hour or so, I’d been in excruciating pain. My body was punishing me for disobeying it and not giving it what it demanded. And then, Cyrus came along, and I felt like the goddess herself had sent him in order to spare me from experiencing so much pain. He’s above me now, grinding against me in a way that makes me moan into his mouth, gratitude flooding me. We’re moving wildly together, like two animals. That we are, but in this human form, we’re more tamed. This felt like shifting. Like making love in wolf form. “Eva,” Cyrus said against my lips, his voice a whisper. “Eva, Eva.”“Do it now,” I begged, my eyes closed at the intensity of the emotions attacking me. “Please. Do it now, Cyrus. Do it now.”I felt his hand on my outer
Cyrus I sat down beside Eva, feeling my vision getting blurry. It took a few moments for me to return to normal, but even so, this normalcy was not the same as before. From this day onward, I would never again experience ‘normal’ as I did before. Because now, my ‘normal’ included Eva. A chuckle left my lips. My mind was racing, and my heart was thumping against my chest mercilessly. I glanced at her unconscious form and felt my beating heart swell with the kind of love I’d never experienced before. I reached into the pockets of the blazer I was still wearing and removed my pack of cigarettes. I lit one and sat smoking it. It didn’t help remove the cloudiness from my head. If anything, the cigarette added to it. I couldn’t believe that Eva and I had consummated our bond. Yes, we weren’t exactly mated to each other, but we were halfway there. We were bound to each other now, and the only thing left for us to do to make it official would be accepting each other as mates. After that
Eva I came to my senses slowly, and even so, I couldn’t find the necessary strength to open my eyes fully. I groaned and tried to turn on my side. I found that I could. Switching positions made me feel sleepier, but I told myself that I wanted to have at least one look around before drifting off to sleep again. So, I cracked an eye open, and looked around. I was shocked to discover that I was in a very dark place, and when this concerned me so much that I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I stretched my arms above my head and yawned. The feeling was so great. I felt better than I had in a long time. But where was I?I looked around a few times, feeling utterly lost. I tried moving but felt a sharp pain between my legs. I suddenly vividly recalled what Cyrus and I had done, and blushed deeply, my face becoming hot all of a sudden. He’d cured me of that feeling. I didn’t feel it anymore. I now knew that it was gone. Would it come again? I wasn’t sure. But for some reason, I wasn’t worrie
Eva When I woke up, it was to the sound of the van doors opening. Sunlight streamed into the dark space, and I had to screw my eyes shut because of the glare. I put a hand on my face and blinked slowly until my eyes adjusted. Two men were standing outside, watching me. “Rise and shine, sweetie pie,” the man who was with me in the van said. He was older than I expected—seemed to be around fifty, maybe more. He was wearing a gray jacket and jeans. The man standing next to him was relatively younger, and his hair was cropped and he had a marking on his face. Was that a tattoo? I wasn’t sure. “We have to go,” the older man said. “We’re behind schedule.”What choice did I have? I got out of the van, holding the tattered front of my dress, and climbed out of the van. I underestimated how shaky my legs would be, and ended up falling. The two men picked me up, one holding each arm. The front of my dress was open, my breasts almost fully exposed. When they released me, I covered up again,
Eva Once inside the apartment, I looked around and saw as much filth as there was outside. The scarred man practically pushed me into a bedroom with a single bed and a single chair propped against the wall. He stood at the door to block the exit and said, “You wait here. Do so quietly because I’m not very patient.”“Why am I here?” I asked in a small voice. I couldn’t find it in me to yell. I was so scared that I could barely find my voice. Also, there was the fear that I’d let go of the front of my dress and expose my breasts. It was a truly awful situation. “What do you want from me?”“You’ll be told everything in due time. He’s coming in a few minutes. Sit down and wait. Don’t make any noise. It’ll only make me gag you, and you don’t want that.”The door was closed abruptly in my face. I looked around the room and despair hit me like a punch to the throat. The room had no window, so I couldn’t peer out of one to take a look at my surroundings. This room was perhaps the cleanest p
CyrusEva had been missing for two days. Two whole days. Nobody saw her. Nobody had any idea where she could have gone. At this point, I was starting to feel like she was only a figment of my imagination. It felt like I was going insane. How could she have vanished in the space of ten minutes?That was how long I had been gone. Perhaps a few minutes longer. Guilt was the one thing that I couldn’t shake off. If I had never left her by herself, then she wouldn’t have disappeared. I was starting to think now that perhaps she didn’t go willingly, that maybe she was taken. Then again, it was impossible to tell because she never wanted to consummate the bond. She’d begged me to when she was in a very desperate state, but perhaps after doing that, she felt so guilty and repulsed that she had to leave?I had no clue and no way of answering this question. People had their own ideas of what might have happened. I paid attention to none and didn’t judge any of them because they didn’t know
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