JADEI expected Antonio to ask hat Atlas and I spoke about after I came out. But he didn’t. He just looked at me and asked if I was okay, which I think I nodded too, but I couldn’t be sure. My mind was still whirling from all that happened. The weird three sixty that Atlas did in one second. Him going back to his old self and acting like he could and then being surprisingly understanding and gentle. I was confused and worried something happened to him.Maybe aliens took over his over and are forcing him to act nice. Because the man I just spoke with, especially towards the end, was not the Atlas that I knew. And it was so damn confusing.The trip back wasn’t as enjoyable as it had been when we were coming. Even with the anticipation of what was going to happen and how nervous I was. I was more relaxed then than I am now. And I didn’t know what to blame it on.Antonio had wrapped his arm around my waist and I rested my head on his shoulder, falling asleep somewhere along the lines. I w
JADEI haven’t been fair to Antonio. I know that, and yes, I also know that I have been trying to elude myself into believing it isn’t actually that bad. But it is. And I know, if I keep doing that, I’ll end up pushing him away and hurting his feelings. That is the last thing I wanted to do to him.He is amazing and he makes me feel loved and appreciated. The leats I could do was return the sentiment.So, after we unloaded all of that. I promised myself to make it up to him, and I asked Jaiya what she thought I would do. At this point, Ray has joined us and they both went off mentioning different ways I could make it up to him.“Send him flowers.” Ray had said excitedly, fist pumping the air and almost punching me in the process.I dropped hr first and gently put it down, both Jaiya and I given her confused looks.“Men love flowers too. And they don’t get them nearly enough.” I added because that is actually right.But flowers seems mundane for the message I’m trying to send. Jaiya sa
ATLASAndrew was giving me the ch=old shoulder. And in all honesty, I didn’t give a shit. He was doing his focus and stain out of my business, what could be better than that?Then, he decided three days later that he was over the one sided fight and he barrelled into mu office, looking like a wounded animal with a snarl on his face.I ignored him until he spoke, then I asked myself if I wanted to acknowledge him. Deicing to be the bigger person. I hold my hands on top of my desk and fix my gaze on him.“Welcome back, what do you need?” I asked with a half ass sweet smile on my lips. He glared at me, not happy with the way I’m acting. But whatever bright him her was more important than his beef. He didn’t leave.“We need to talk.”“Oh, so now you want to talk?” I may not act like it but I’m petty as fuck. Especially when I’m dealing with him. That’s because he will go low and I’m always willing to go lower. Most importantly, we don’t take it to heart and we’re all cool in the end.“I d
JADERay found a way to get Antonio’s secretary’s contact. I don’t how she did it because when she said she could, I only stared at her blankly for a moment. But not up to five minutes later, she came back with the contact and a proud smile on her lips.“I told you I could do it.” She had replied with when I asked how she did it. “So, now just call and ask.”The secretary, Lloyd at first didn’t believe who I was. But when I said he should ask Antonio and get back to me, he apologised and told me his plans for the day and what time he was getting to work.“He asked to cancel his first meeting which was at eight. He will be here around that time or maybe a few minute later.”I quickly changed into something more appropriate and cute, with the eager help of Jaiya and Ray. My makeup was simple but amazing as I carried my bag and got out of the house. They were also helping e with most of what I was going to do today.Thankfully, I got to the office just a few minutes before he arrived. I
JADEThe unfortunate beginning didn’t set a tone for the rest of the day thankfully. After we had tea, I felt calmer and I apologised to Antonio for making him feel like I wasn’t giving this my all. Then I told him what I had planned for us for the day, it was supposed to be a surprise but well, I nervously blurted all of my plans.It didn’t matter that that too could have ruined the surprise, from a look at Antonio’s leased face, you could tell that he didn’t mind. Nor cared, really.“So, what’s the first the first lane for the day, love?” He had asked, moving back bit on the couch so he could look me in the eye.“We’re supposed to have brunch.” I replied and he got up, taking my hand.“Then let’s get right to it.” His words were spoken with a smile. His eyes were glowing with happiness. Like he couldn’t even hide it. “Spending the day with you sounds so much better than work.”“Oh, you shouldn’t skip work, you know—“ he cut me off with a kiss, I smiled against his lips before he ste
ATLASAfter the one sided conversation with Andrew, which he forced on me a few hours ago, I’ve been in a horrible mood. Not because I think he is right. But, he isn’t completely wrong. And everything he said is not something I haven’t been thinking of on my own. I just didn’t like being called out about things that were already giving me a hard time.I’m in a meeting room with three important figures in the werwolf world. To be fair, I’m just sitting dew watching them exchange words but I have no idea what the fuck they are actually talking about. The pictures I saw of Jade and that fucking Antonio character has ruined my morning and probably the rest of the year fro me and I’m not even being fucking dramatic.What the actual fuck was any of that? Almost every shot of them, they were kissing. It was like they couldn’t fucking stay away from each other and it pissed me the hell off. not just them being together. It was the smile own her face that stuck with me mostly.The light in her
JADEThe newest discovery I have made is you can have a honeymoon phase inside a honeymoon phase. Or maybe, it is just when you finally learn how to be happy and accept positivity in your life that everything gets better.Whatever it may be, I’m feeling it tenfold right now. This past week. Maybe almost an entire month and there is nothing I would do to change any of it.I have never let myself e this happy. There were not enough resources, or at least I told myself that. Whenever, which was very rare, Atlas does something nice for me. I barely even let myself revel in it for more than a few minutes. I’ll be too busy worried and thinking about how he never does that and he’ll never do it again.Being happy is foreign to me. This stress free too. There is a new feeling I’m starting to get used to, and it is hard but I’m doing my best to not let my mind cloud it over with worries of the future. I’m leaning to just live in the present.The present where I wake up and Antonio is here with
JADE Ray left, after she was sure she has fully traumatised me. I spent that time reading the book on the wolf nomads while I had my breakfast. Occasionally checking my phone to see if Antonio has messaged me. I always feel a tinge of disappointment when I receive nothing. Or if I check and see that it is just a notification for something else. I didn’t hear from him until much later in the day. And even then, it was a text saying he was still really busy with the closed door meeting. He was able to send that message because of a break. I don’t know what is going on but apparently dad was gone too. And I’m guessing they are together. I hoped everything was fine as I returned to my book. Another ping from my phone makes me rush to grab it. I didn’t even pause to put a bookmark where I stopped, making me lose my page. Not that I cared, thinking it’ll be worth it if it was Antonio. I sighed in disappointment and a little annoyance when I saw it was just Jaiya asking if I wanted to com
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,