ATLAS“I want to tell you to calm down but I don’t want to risk my head.” Andrew said from the far side of the room.After walking around the entire place, I found myself back here again. Although it took a lot of urging from Dalton go get me to come back inside. The man looked close to having a break down and though I wouldn’t care if it was in any other situation, I couldn’t exactly say no right now. He was worried about my safety and I was outside.“Alpha, I won’t be able to focus on finding her if I’m worried about your safety.”“I can take care of myself.” I finished with a growl, seconds from throwing him away so he could get out of my sight.“He is right, man. He just wants to do his job, which is to lee you Sade.” They both teamed up against me but I did give up and came inside. And I still haven’t gotten word from either Dalton or the rest of his team. And it is almost time for me to go back to the pack and we haven’t found her.I even had that pretty boy questioned. Damien a
JADEI cold’t sleep, so I ended up calling Jaiya. She os mostly a night owl and I wasn’t surprised when she picked immediately.Ray was sleeping and even if she was wide awake, I doubt I’ll be able to talk about what is on my mind with her.“Oh, Jade, I’m so glad you’re okay.” Jaiya said the moment she picked. She did sound so relieved and the feeling of love that washed over me is one simple words couldn’t explain. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”s“I—no.” I cleared my throat. Not even sure what I wanted to say. I knew what I wanted to ask her before I decided to call but now that I was hearing her voice. It felt kind of insignificant. And trust me, Jaiya is the last person to judge so I wasn’t eve worried about that.It just didn’t make sense to say. ‘Antonio sounded off. Do you think he hates me?’ I don’t know about you but that sounded insane to me.“Talk to me, Jade. What’s wrong?” Her voice softened to that calming timbre that always made me want to open up. It was no surpr
JADEOn my way out, I ended up in my dad’s office. Now, you’ll ask, did I go there because I had something to tell him, or was I delaying the inevitable? It was the latter. At leats, I was honest with myself about that.Last night when I spoke with Jaiya, I was fairly confident about what I wanted to do. Because it was just that, words. Now that I was seeing the brand daylight and the possibility of it being more than words being thrown in my lap. I was a nervous wreck.It was a surprise no one mentioned it at breakfast. More like, dad and Aiden didn’t. Ray made sure to grill me. If I didn’t know that girl loved me, I would have said she hated me and loved seeing my discomfort.Though, I can’t really rule that out. She likes seeing me squirm.“You look well.” Dad said as I walked into his office. I quirked a questioning brow which made him chuckle a little. “I was worried you’ll shut down after last night.”Trust this man to not give you room for a soft landing. He just goes straight
JADERay was watching me, looking like she had something to say. Which was surprising, the fact that she hadn’t said it. She is not one to hold back.“What’s up?” I asked, after I finished checking my lipgloss in the mirror.I mean, it is still the best I could do when it comes to makeup. But I like it. I always feel so proud when I’m putting it on. Maybe I’ll take Jaiya’s advice one of these days and actually learn makeup. I do have the time.“Well, if you don’t come back as a girlfriend tonight, Antonio and I are going to have a talk.” She looked so serious that I wanted to laugh but I second guessed it and instead nodded.I pressed my lips into a thin line because it was just too hard not to smile. And well, mentioning Antonio’s name always makes me smile like a schoolgirl getting the attention of her first crush.“Yeah, dad. That sounds great.” I said with sarcasm and she got up and came to stand behind me.“I’m being serious. This is like yore tenth date so why are you not offici
JADEThe drive to the place, not that I actually knew where we were going because Antonio. Has been really tight lipped, was award after what happened. Or what almost happened.Ray dramatically covered her eyes, almost tripping twice because she refused to look at where she is going. We just watched her with unveiled amusement until she got into the elevator and then it was just us again. We couldn’t exactly go back to what almost happened and it became awkward. We were both obviously thinking of it.Well, I’m sure Antonio was a lot calmer than me because I wanted to scream. I didn’t though. Looking like a crazy person is not in the list of things I want to try out.Not knowing what to do because I’m still thinking of the almost kiss, I chose to text Jaiya. She would know what to do about this. Or at least, she’ll tae my mind off it.I don’t want anything to ruin the easy relationship I have with Antonio. Not liken official relationship. He is the closest thing I have to that, funny e
JADE“But how do you know so much about them?” I was the one reading the book, but Antonio sounds like he memorised the entire thing.The way he spoke about it didn’t seem like he learnt it in school or something like that. He genuinely loves it and I have to find out why.Could he just be anymore perfect? I’m so scared to reach out and touch him only to find out he isn’t real and this is just a sweet dream I am having. That all the days we have spent together, the messages we shared, were all a figment of my imagination and not the real thing.“Because my mother is a descendant.” He said with a sly smile, sure that I could be shocked. And I was. I couldn’t cover my mouth.“Shut up. You’re kidding!” When I finally gained control of my mouth, I said that and he just shook his head, laughing a little.“No, actually I’m not.” He replied. “Though it would have been nice if I was just saying that to impress you.”“The fact that it is real impresses me even more.” He nodded to himself and s
ATLASI’ve been pulling late nights for the past week. I wish I could say it was as a mean to avoid staying at home which will be filled with thoughts of Jade. But I have been so completely swamped with work that if I don’t stay late, nothing will get done.I have three secretaries and about five assistants. They are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities but it just seems like it is not enough. Nothing is enough.The worst part of it all is I still can’t get her thoughts of my mind. The few seconds I’m not buried in buried, I’m lost in thoughts of Jade.it’s almost one in the morning and I’m only just getting home. This is considered early in my new life. So, I guess I should happy. Except, I’m too fucking tired to even think of anything other than getting into bed and sleeping for three hours rest of the night. If I am able to.Another ting I’ve developed is insomnia. I usually didn’t sleep, but that was mostly a choice. I could sleep I wanted to. I just choose not to, most
JADEI think I’m starting to understand why people act crazy in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. The thrilling feeling. Heightened emotions. It is incomparable and just so full. But it isn’t too much. I don’t know if that makes sense. It is just crazy how you find yourself always thinking of the same person. Even if you spend the whole day with them, it does’t seem like enough and want more. More of them. More of everything.I’m starting to think I’ve lost my mind. When I told Jaiya, she only laughed and told me it is because I’m in love. I don’t actually think I’m in love. I do know I like Antonio a lot. More than I ahem ever liked anyone.Don’t get me wrong. I said like. It sounds horrible but I don’t think I’ve ever liked Atlas. Or maybe, I used to like him when I was younger. When I admired everything he did. It makes me wonder if things would have been different if we never got married.But that is not the point I’m trying to make. Atlas is more like a fleeting thought
JADE“i needed to come see him.”“Why?” He collected the baby from me “I told you that there's no need to. Why do you feel the need to come here even after I told you not to?!”“Because it's not just your victory! It's not just your life that he was after! It's mine too! And it's Ray's too! So yes, I needed to come down here to get closure.”He needed to understand that this meant something to me too, just as it did him.“Closure? Is that why you put the baby at risk? How much more closure do you need?”What on earth was he talking about?“Risk? Incase you didn't notice, I was there with him! I was at risk too! I needed him to look me in the eye and tell me why he did what he did to my family.”“Or maybe it's because you're too hung up on the past and you just can't let go. Incase you havent noticed, you're so stuck in the past and you are obsessing over it. Move on!”Well, I'm glad he finally got to say what he wanted to. Now I know how he feels about me trying to find answers. I w
JADEI didn't think it was worth it at first. Going to see the man that had made me grow up without parents and without the concept of what a true family felt like.But after much thought, he needed to know that all his plans failed and I was going to rub it in his face..I'd gotten all three pieces of the stone together and wore it around my locket.It would hurt him so bad to see that in the end, I won.Iniko decided that that was the right moment to start crying and everytime I dropped him back in his cot, he cried even louder.“Young man, what is it that you want? You've been fed and burped and I just changed your diaper so there's no way you could have soiled it again -”I stopped and remembered what happened yesterday so I took a peak for myself. There was nothing im his diaper.“So what exactly do you want?”I wish babies could talk.I guess I didn't have any other choice than to take him with me then. Atlas would blow a fuse if he found out that I took his son to see Ford.Whe
ATLAS“By wasting any more time, we are not doing ourselves any good! Sixth Circle pack is vacant. We have their leader in our custody and I've taken down every opposition in our way, do you think it would be long before we get more interests?”Sometimes, having a cabinet infuriates me so much. It was like I was speaking to brick walls. I didn't see any reason why they couldn't just agree to me taking over the Sixth Circle.It would even be better for us because it would improve our army base, it would make our pack bigger and in general, it would be a plus for us.But they weren't seeing it that way. All they were seeing was the fact that Ford had committed something against the pack and they weren't going to take it.I mean, what better way to teach him a lesson by taking over his pack?“Alpha, we're not disputing the fact that you've gone a long way-”“But you're diminishing my efforts. What's the whole point of defeating him and taking him into custody when I can't even go ahead a
JADERay and I weren't speaking for now.How could she hide something like that from me?“Where is she?”“I have no idea. All I know is that she ran away when we were little. She knew that he would come after her and she didn't want to put you in danger. So she ran away and left your nanny to take care of you. I don't know where she is.”How could she do this?“Before I lost my memory, did I know?”“No, you never knew.”I couldn't believe this. I lost my appetite for the rest of that day and I just stayed in Iniko's room because I couldn't even speak to anyone right now.I'd spent my life thinking my mother was dead only to hear that she was alive and she ran away because of that beast.“It’s not her fault, you know. Your mother ran away to protect you and Ray didn't tell you because she wanted to keep you safe. You have to forgive her.”I didn't blame her. It wasn't her fault things turned out like this. I was just hurt that I didn't know.Later that day, I took Iniko on a walk so h
JADEI was just realizing that this baby has Atlas's eyes and hair and everything!“This baby is rigged.”He turned around in shock.“What are you talking about?”“You did something to make the baby look like you.”He laughed and shook his head.“No, I didn't. It's just a coincidence.”“Coincidence? Look at this baby and look at you. It seems like I didn't even have anything to do with his birth.”“Don’t worry, you can have the second baby.”I scoffed.“You think I'm going to let you have another chance to have photocopies? Big joke.”Iniko was so small and he seemed so fragile.Ray brought my food and she took him while I ate.“I wish my grandmother was here to see him.”She gave me a sad smile.“Me too. She would be so proud of you.I'm proud of you.”I'm so happy my sister was here with me. She was the one who had been by my side throughout and if the child had been a girl, I would have named her after Raya.“Thank you for everything you did. If not for you, I don't know how I would
JADE“I'm going to need your blood as well. Atlas, I promise it won't hurt her. Just a little nick.”He nodded and she dragged the knife across my finger.“Place your finger over the stone and let the blood cover it entirely. Do not take your hand away from the fire.”It was a simple instruction but it seemed so intense.It was almost over. My legs were beginning to feel well and it was getting harder to quiet my screams.“What do we have here?”That voice. He was here.“What are you doing here?”All I had to do was keep my hand over the fire until the stone bled.Ray helped me stand up straight while Atlas and Andrew faced my uncle.“So this was why I came here. How did you do that? How did you call the other stones?”I eventually removed my hand from the fire since we had found them.“I always knew it was with one of you. That stupid old hag told me she couldn't find the other piece but I guess she gave it to you. “Why were all the worst things happening tonight?I was in labor and
JADEAtlas returned later that evening.I was right with what I'd thought.“What have you been up to?”I knew he knew I'd been eating because of the smirk on his face.“You know you don't have to hide from me when you eat right?”Oh, I did.“If you see how much I eat and the way I eat, I don't think you'd want to be married to me anymore.”He burst out laughing.“What makes you think I care about the way you eat? As long as you're healthy and our baby is fine, I don't care.”“But then, what if I get fat? I'll be so big that I won't be able to eat. I don't know why I eat so much.”This was actually a worry of mine. Normally, I ate but my appetite was not this big.“Blame it on the baby. I figure when you give birth, the cravings will stop and even though you do get fat, you're still my wife. It doesn't change anything.”I was really married to the best man ever, wasn't I?“You’re the best.”“I know. Ray says that we have to get there before midnight so that she can prepare everything.
JADEAt this point, I was realizing that the earlier we did things, the better.“I’ll arrange for the sacrifice to happen tomorrow. We need to move as fast as we can before he gets Intel that were here.”I didn't want to have to run with this big belly of mine.“What are you going to need?”“Don’t worry, I'll take care of it. Just bring the stone.”We went to bed that night because we were all completely exhausted.“Hey, are you okay?” Atlas asked when we were in bed.“Yes, I am. Why do you ask?”“You didn't cry when you found out that he killed your father. You didn't cry when you found out that she was not your grandmother. I'm worried.”Now that I think about it, it's true. But it was because I didn't feel like crying.“I don't know. Maybe my body just hasn't proceses it yet. Maybe its because I hate him so I'm not bothered that he's not my father and I never really knew my father so i can't cry for him. I've already mourned for my grandmother.”I just didn't feel the need to cry b
JADE“Jade, step away from that.”I walked back towards them and stared at the pile.“What kind of animal would do this?”I had no idea but I think I was beginning to understand why she wanted us to find this place.This place held secrets.I went back to the wall to look at the drawings and try to understand them.I used my fingers to trace them again and this time around, I heard the voice clearer.“Look at the bigger picture.”I stepped away from the wall so I could see the entire thing. There were more drawings to the side and when I walked up, I noticed that there was a sign at the bottom of it.That sign…looked all too familiar but I couldn't just place my finger.“Ray, come see this. I've seen this before but I don't know where it's from.”She crouched beside me and stared at it for a moment.“I know it's familiar but I don't know where it's from, either.”Andrew and Atlas joined us and just within seconds, they knew.“We know.”They shared a look and it made me scared.“Jade,