Ashly's POVThe dread that filled my veins at the sight of Kiara had yet to leave me. It consumed me from the inside out and I didn't know which way was up or down. She was back. She was back to snatch my happiness. To kill my joy. No. I wouldn't let her. Not now that everything was finally going well for me. I wouldn't let her take what I had worked hard for. "Take her to the dungeons." I ordered the guards and her jaw dropped. What else was she expecting when she came back here? That I would welcome her with open arms. She could continue dreaming. The guards seized her by her arms and that was when she came to her senses realizing what was about to happen to her. "Ashly. Ashly, what's going on? I–"I ignored her. "What are you waiting for?" I questioned the guards. "Get her out of my sight!"They bundled her away amidst her protests and pleas that I listen to her. I kicked the servant on the ground away from me feeling unnerved."Get out of here you worthless creature."She bo
Damien's POVKiara missed her check-in call. I called her again and again before I finally deduced that there were two options. Either she wasn't with her phone or she didn't want to talk to me.Both options drove me to distraction. We had been fine before she left. Better than fine in fact. I was still angry that she had left without waking me up first. Perhaps she had known that I would never have let her leave. I had already started contemplating going to Dorian's to bring her home more than just once now and I was tilting towards that direction. The vision could go to hell for all that I cared. I would keep Kiara here with me by any method necessary.I know the only reason she has been bothered going there after how much we had connected was because she felt bound to the promise that she had made to Dorian. No matter, I would break that promise. I stepped into my room only to see Keturah on my bed with nothing on. Goddess, it was too soon for this could I not get even a moment o
Kiara's POVI don't know how I couldn't put two and two together until she asked the men to arrest me. My childhood friend was Dorian's mate. The one who had drugged him with whiteshade. The one pregnant with another wolf's child that had made it his in order to take the throne. The one that made her maids and anyone else that she felt was a threat to her and Dorisn disappear. That mate was supposed to be Ashly? Ashly who had celebrated with me when Dorian had chosen me. Ashly who I told about my first kiss and we laughed about how his life almost covered my nose as well. Ashley who always knew what just to say to make my mood lighten up. How could they be the same person? How? Had she always been this person that I didn't know? What did that say about me that I had not noticed that she had two distinct attitudes and behavioural tendencies like that?The door creaked open and with each downward step I was certain it was her. Then she stepped into full view with her brown hair pul
Kiara's POVI struggled against the men that held me dragging me out of Dorian's pack house. They were fully outfitted in their own pack and black and wire nose masks to preserve their identities. "Let me go. I said let me go!" I struggled moving from side to side. I couldn't calm down not when Ashly had told me on no certain grounds that I was going to die.I finally closed my hands around the cell phone I had seen one of them slip into his pockets as I swayed yelling at me to set me free and when I moved away, the phone was finally in the sleeve of the jacket that had been placed on me to mask the presence of the cuffs in front of me. One of the guards grabbed me by the back and my hair tangled around his finger yanking me up before giving me a tight slap that made my ears ring and my vision blur. I let my body hang limp in their grasp but I maintained a strong grip on the phone and one of my abductors tossed me over his shoulder and then into the boot of their vehicle. The mom
Kiara's POVWe were in bed the following morning when Damien began to question me about what had happened. I knew that I would eventually have to tell him about it but I was dreading it because Damien was very good at overreacting. And now that he had a good reason to do so I worried for anyone even remotely involved. "Tell me." He demanded, his eyes on mine. I licked my lips and looked away slightly before looking back at him. "Do I have to?"His features sharpened. "My mate's life was at risk. Yes. I need the details."My body tingled at the sound of him calling me his mate. His. I liked it. I liked being called that so much that I wasn't sure if I wanted to entertain the thought of being with someone else much less actually being with them when he was an option. I had to pick the right mate to live longer than my birthday but what was the use of a long life in it wasn't going to be with him? Unaware of how far my mind had travelled, Damien continued speaking, trying his best
Dorian's POVI had checked every possible place she cod have been but there was no use.She was gone. Kiara was gone. Normally I would have assumed that maybe she had left because of Damien but she hadn't taken anything when she left and I knew Kiara. At least I felt I knew her to an extent after staying with her for a time. If she wanted to leave me she wouldn't sneak off, she would leave with a hell of a scene especially since I had made her stay in the servants' quarters. It had been two days. This was something else. "Shaun, I can't believe she just up and disappeared without a trace. I hope something bad hasn't happened to her."If something did, I would never forgive myself. Shaun paced Dad's office. Now my office. All this was so fucked up. "The maids saw nothing?" He asked. I resisted the urge to yell at him. Did he think I had been playing all this while? Who would I have asked for her whereabouts if not the maids?"You don't think I have questioned them already?"My v
Dorian's POV"Dorian." Damien replied after an extended silence that put me on edge no doubt as he wanted. And while his tone was jovial, friendly even, there was an undercurrent that immediately put me on edge. "This is a surprise," I said, borrowing Ashly's earlier words. "Why did you call?"Damien chuckled darkly. "Are you telling me that you don't know why I am calling you?""If I did, I wouldn't be asking you." I said pointedly trying to deflect his attention from what we were saying. There was a slight chance that he already knew that I was looking for Kiara and he was messing with me but if he didn't I wouldn't just out myself."Dorian," This time when he spoke all levity was gone from his voice. "Don't you have something to tell me? Something about Kiara?"He knew. A chill spread across my skin and I wondered how he could have found out so quickly.I rushed to apologise, to assure him. "Damien, I will find her, I–"I heard static from across the line and a slap as though so
Kiara's POV"I forbid you from going."What had I expected from Damien? Because being objective wasn't even in the books. It had been three days with no word from Dorian. Three days after he told us that he would be confronting his psychopath of a mate and my former best friend Ashly who it turned out that I had never known. When he told me of his plan, I felt a chill go up my spine. It was something that needed to be done but if she could try to kill me, her childhood friend, who she had grown up with and shared her life experiences with then she had no limits.Damien had dismissed my concerns. She was just one pregnant wolf who couldn't even shift, he said, Dorian would be fine. And if he wasn't then perhaps he wasn't supposed to be the Alpha of the Black wolf pack. It had been three days. Three days of no news of the arrest of Ashly, no news of Dorian's disappearance. It was just radio silence with our calls to the Alpha's office being ignored. "Damien." I said, my mind was ma
Kiara's POVYEARS LATER"You need to let me up." I told my mate that was looking way too comfortable pinning me down. With the training I had now and my Lycan strength, I could easily flip him and keep him that way but he didn't seem bothered. In fact, he seemed amused. "Do I?"I wriggled beneath him but his legs were stable beside me and I feared that he was enjoying this position too much to remember we had an event to get to. An important one. "We need to get going. We can't be late."Damien ignored me of course as he pushed his fingers up my dressing robe leaving me sucking in a harsh breath.Sensing my reluctance to stop things before they got too far, he spread my legs wide exposing me to him. Fuck. How was this so hot? Any thought that I had of going anywhere evaporated as my thoughts condensed to Damien and his unbelievably erotic touch. He pressed his fingers against my slick arousal making me to shiver. I was so turned.I could hear the smirk in his voice as he respo
Kiara's POVI hoped that I was just freaking out prematurely.I hoped that whatever he had to say wouldn't be something that could break us. Hule seemed almost as hesitant to speak as I was to hear what had to say. "I am used to being the smartest, strongest and most important person in the room. I forgot that I am not presiding over a set of people but in a relationship where I can't just make decisions for you."Oh Goddess, was I hearing wrong or was Damien actually apologising? Today was trully full of unending surprises. "Damien."He held my hands in his much larger ones and traced distracting circles across my skin with his thumb."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have agreed to change you without your permission. I'm sorry about that, sorry for hurting you, sorry for waiting this long to come for you.My heart was a gooey mess at this point and I didn't know what he said as tears of happiness traced down my face as he kissed the back of my hands. But he wasn't nearly done turning my h
Kiara's POVThe moment that she pulled me to herself and I met Damien's eyes, I knew that I wasn't going to be the reason she got away this time. That I wasnt going to get kidnapped this time and force Damien to make an impossible agreement to get me out of a situation that I put myself in. I moved and the knife sunk into me like my skin was butter and a scream escaped me as I went down. The pain was complete and it held me trussed up tight until I couldn't tell where was up and where was down. I clutched my belly putting pressure on the wound but the knife had gotten too deep and all I could do was feel my blood seep through staining my hand. Dorian was at my side in seconds while I watched Damien go after Ashly with a heavy heart. I would have preferred him next to me but with my blood pouring out of me and the she pain cutting through me, I could gave cared less who was saving me. Dorian lifted me as delicate as he could but it still sent pain tearing through me and as he sa
Damien's POVI was angry but then these days, I was angry all the time. I was angry at the fact that a werewolf that I should have had killed had me by the balls literally and that it had been one of my people that had spearheaded this. It was so fucking annoying that it pissed me off.My anger had almost blinded in me in those early days that I was grateful for Dorian being around. Despite him being the pain in the ass that I had considered him to be, he had a surprising amount of insights to give as regards how to properly manage my affairs. That first day, I had wanted nothing more than to go charging in to rescue Kiara but Dorian stayed my hand. He warned me that no matter how much stronger lycans were compared to wolves, one thing remained the same, a man couldn't go off to fight his enemies when his own home was in disarray. I was glad I took his advice because shortly after, some Lycan communities began wearing with each other when the information that Keturah had been be
Kiara's POVThe more time that passed the least likely it seemed that this was all an elaborate hoax by Damien to get Ashly distracted. I noticed the buzz in the pack and I had no idea the lie Ashly had spun to make the pack members okay with the fact that she was cheating on their Alpha but it must have been a really good one because they seemed completely fine with it. It wasn't until I overheard two of the guards' conversation about how brave she was for agreeing to get mated to Damien to make up for their Alpha that had absconded from a death duel. So that was how she had spun it. Despite the fact that it was because if her that he had been unable to get to the fuel, she was using it to her advantage. Days were counting down to Ashly's mating with Damien but it was as though I was in some cocoon that was outside of time. I was losing my mind. There was no actual news that could interest me apart from knowing the truth if what was going on. I didn't know what day it was only
Kiara's POVI was more than surprised when Kiara summoned me to her office. Surprised and disturbed. The last time I had seen her was three days ago when she killed Keturah and hunted me down as I ran away. I had no doubts that whatever this meeting was for, it wasn't for anything good. The guard escorting me stayed outside while I entered the office and Ashly looked surprisingly calmer than the last time I had seen her. I didn't know if it was just in my head though. She looked at me from head to toe and looked satisfied with what she saw. "How do you feel now?"How did I feel about my injury that had just finished reading on it's own without any attention from the healer which could have led to silver poisoning?Wonderful. I was feeling absolutely wonderful. But I didn't say that of course. I wasn't half as strong as Keturah had been and I rather liked my head where it was. Ashly's friendly tone died a quick death. "I understand that you are nervous. You should be," Her ruth
Kiara's POVShaun was dead and I didn't know a thing I could have done to prevent it. Keturah had come for me and I was ashamed to admit that I had been scared. Scared after she smiled at me maliciously and had me held down while she took my blood and a section of my hair was noticeably smaller than the rest if it. She wanted to use me to bait Damien but I.saw that she had gotten way too much satisfaction from what she did.She would hurt me just for the fun of it. She wanted to hurt me just for the fun of it if I would but give her the excuse. Hearing her approaching footsteps along side a shuffling one awoke fear inside me and told me that it was possible she was back for more.She unlocked the door gesturing for me to come out of the cell with that same mocking smile that said she was just waiting for me to resist her so that she would break me. I stepped out unwilling to give her that chance only for me to see Shaun barely on his feet as he bled from what had to be at least a
Keturah's POVI was suspicious. Before recruiting Ashly, I knew of her predilection to be a traitor and it didn't bother me not when I planned to use her and dispose of her as soon as possible. But now that she had gone out of her way to help me when I was.certain she was like me only counting the hours until our alliance fell apart. Leaving the dungeons after acquiring the blood and lock of hair that had somehow quelled my blog odlust with regards to Kiara, I had gotten a whiff of Ashly. I had felt doubly suspicious. I was certain that she would go into the dungeons to sabotage me in some way so I left and doubled back after dropping off my possessions. That was when I overheard her telling that wolf that always hung around Dorian to warn Damien.. Smart. So that was what she planned. Selling me out to Damien to keep her hide. It was a good idea. If I had not gotten to overhear this it might have even worked. But now…I heard the wolf speak again, his voice intense with a quie
Ashly's POVMy chest hurt. Maybe it was because Shaun had betrayed me. It maybe it was because I knew I was deserving of such a betrayal since I had betrayed him first. The guards hauled him away and I turned to leave only for Kiara's sharp judgemental voice to pull me to a stop. "What are you doing, Ashly?"What did she think I was doing? Playing? Kiara always asked the wrong and dumbest questions.I continued walking and she raised her voice so high that the guards escorting Shaun away would no doubt catch a hint of her hefty words on the air. "You care about him yet you would do this?"Do what? I found to face her as she finally hit me where it hurt. Where I had already been sensitive about to begin with. She was no one to judge me. She had grown up surrounded by the best of everything. She got chosen to be the most of Dorian out of all the other eligible she wolves because of the incidence of her birth. The only unlucky stint she had was when Dorian had rejected her and once