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
EvaI hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep until I heard the door open and sat upright as if I'd never dozed off to begin with. It was Nox who walked into my room, and he looked furious. His rage scared me, because now that I was awake and thinking more clearly since the shock passed, I knew I was potentially in a lot of trouble. This man wanted to kill to prove a point to my father. The tools he would use to do that were still inside the suitcase on the floor. I was locked in this apartment with him with no way of escaping or asking for help. Also, I was at his complete mercy. To make matters worse, we were mates. How, I wondered for the hundredth time, was that possible?"Mate," he said coldly before shaking his head. "I don't understand how that's possible. According to the reports I received, you were my brother's mate, correct?"I could only stare at him. "You would do well to answer the question, Eva," he said in a calm voice, though his facial expression suggested any
NoxI didn’t know what I was doing. I ran my hand through my hair as I stood at the filthy kitchen counter. A few hours ago, Vic was following me with his eyes and asking me if something was wrong and whether I needed help with anything. Now, he’d given up. He was reading his report and wasn’t saying anything to me. The truth was that I didn’t know what I was doing and had no idea what to do next. The plan was a simple one: We were going to find her, capture her, and then slaughter her before placing her head on her father’s doorstep. Cruel, yes, but a necessary one. Kolton Longwood was an arrogant bastard, and everyone around him—all his shameless supporters—had to realize that he wasn’t as dangerous or as precise as they thought he was, and that I—the Alpha of a relatively small pack—had managed to find his missing daughter and even kill her. If I could do that, then anyone else could too.I’d been against it initially. Kept delaying the moment. But a few weeks ago, when Kolton
EvaMy eyes sprung open and I found myself staring at Nox’s face. “You’re a thorn on my side,” he said as soon as he realized that I was awake. “I can’t seem to pull you out.”My lips were sealed. The despair I felt was starting to get to me in ways I couldn’t explain. For instance, every time he came into my room to taunt me with words, I felt like throwing myself out of the window. “I can’t seem to figure out what to do with you,” he claimed. In the dim lighting of the room, I couldn’t see his face all that well. His eyes, however, were gleaming. “Sparing you might ruin everything that I’ve worked very hard toward but killing you just doesn’t feel right.”What could I say to this? I was hoping he wouldn’t kill me. I’d complained about my situation before but it had been in vain because at least Cyrus hadn’t been trying to kill me. I wondered if he had a clue of where I was. I wondered if he was looking for me. It felt unlikely that he wasn’t. The moment we shared in the barn had
EvaThe Ghost Moon pack was not what I expected it to be. My knowledge of packs were limited, but when I entered the warehouse, I was stunned by what I saw. It was completely modified; the whole space was compartmentalized, so there was a huge space near the entrance that they'd created for lounging, I assumed, and then there was a narrow corridor made of the same black brick walls they'd used everywhere. It was like a labyrinth.I received glances from a lot of people we passed. Nox was walking ahead, and he told a woman we encountered, "Call everyone down for a pack meeting. Tell them it's urgent."I supposed that the person they would be discussing was me. Goddess, I didn't know what to make of any of this. I still felt like I was in danger and that I had to run as fast as my legs could carry me regardless of what this man said to me. The woman nodded before looking at me and turning her back to us. Nox ran a hand through his air before glancing at me. We made eye contact for a
CyrusKnowing that Eva could be in the clutches of Kolton Longwood made my blood boil and my heart feel like it would stop beating at any moment. That man was notorious for being a bad guy. He was the worst Alpha to ever exist in our country. Most Alphas were afraid of him and the ones who weren’t did everything they could do stay away from him. My concern was that none of this could be a coincidence. If it was, it would be a bizarre one. Those fucking rogues made their way to his pack a few weeks ago, according to information I’d received. I decided to drop the matter because I knew not to start a war with the Redwood pack. It wasn’t worth it. They were all criminals, and I was fighting hard to make something of my pack. I wouldn’t destroy it. Now, Eva was gone, and if I had to think deeply, I’d say that she was taken by people who were now connected to her father. How could that be a coincidence?Even Marcia believed that she was with them.For the last 24 hours, I’d been in angu
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