Bailey finally let me go. She gave me a very long look before she disappeared, leaving just as quickly as she came. I let out a breath of relief.Then the panic set in. She was going to use me to hurt Thane. I couldn't let that happen; I would have to tell him, but then, what had she been referring to when she said she wasn't the first to do something like this?I couldn't sit here and wait for Thane's arrival; I had to go meet him. I rinsed my mouth of the blood before heading to his office. Axel was the only one in there with him; they were going through some documents when I walked in. Two pairs of eyes met mine."I need to speak to you, Thane."Thane stared at the paperwork on his desk before pushing that aside. "What do you want to speak to me about?""Have you used your Alpha aura thingy one on me before?""Damn." Axel muttered. "I should go.""No, you will stay." I said to him, and he settled back on his chair. "Please, Thane, don't lie to me; just tell me the truth; I need to
I ran my hands through my hair over and again, frustrated. They needed to know, but due to Bailey's command, I couldn't tell them. What if I could… improvise?I took out a pen and paper, with shaky hands I wrote; 'Thane. I want you to know something: I killed them. Those soldiers who were dead, I did that; I had been the one who freed Bailey too; she has this control over me, she controls my mind, and I can't even explain it. I didn't want to kill those men, they've done nothing wrong to warrant me doing that, but I did anyway because she asked me to. You can't trust me, Thane; she would use me against you.’I paused writing, staring at the paper where I was almost sure that I had been writing on. There were no words on the papers, just lines; that's all I had been writing; the words had been in my mind, and I thought I was penning them down, but I was only writing down gibberish.I gasped. Taking steps backwards till I came in contact with the wall.I couldn't write it down because
THANE. "I won't say I didn't warn you,” Axel says. "I was only trying to help; I didn't know she would get so upset by it." "No one likes their mind messed with Thane." "The last thing I need now is your lectures, Axel." "Maybe you should go find Riley, you have a lot of pleading to do." "Do you think she would forgive me?" I questioned. "Yes, she would. I mean, she did forgive you for letting her go, what offense would be greater than that?" "I just keep messing things up when it comes to her." "And you will have to find a way to fix it, Alpha." Of course I had to fix it, but there was even the more worrisome question, and that was, how the hell did she find out? "I know what you are thinking." Axel says, "I'm wondering the very same thing too. I mean, it doesn't make sense that she discovered it all of a sudden." "Someone must have told her. No one else was here except you and me." "Bailey would be a suspect," Axel says. "If she was still in the pack, yes
RILEY.I thought beating up Nick would make all the anger I felt disappear, but I was wrong; all the pent-up anger still remained. I was somewhere in the middle of the woods; I should be more careful; I might be encroaching on another pack’s land, yet I couldn't bring myself to care, not even one bit. Dawn came upon me, but I remained here, in the woods. Thane would be worried; he must have discovered I was gone by now. Still, I couldn't bring myself to return just yet. Maybe it was because I knew there was another option, another way I would be of no harm to Thane. If I ran, if I hid well enough that Bailey would never be able to find me, then they would all be safe.But I only got Thane back; how could I lose him again?If I did make this decision, if I did choose to leave, then I would forever be on the run, unable to live my life. I knew Thane would find me, but I could try hard to be one step ahead of him; all I needed to do was to be constantly on the move; never staying in on
I rose early the next morning. I took a very long bath before getting dressed. I had some injuries I needed to cover before Thane awoke.I joined him in the room when I was done."And where are you off too, looking so sexy?" he questioned."I am in a regular gown; how is this sexy?""Well, you have to see yourself in the mirror and decide. You've not answered my question.""Work. I'll be going to work with you today." I say, and a smirk formed on his lips."You are free to come with me, of course, but is there a reason you choose to today?"My answer came a few seconds too late. "I just want to spend more time with you, but don't worry, I'll be on my best behavior; I won't distract you. I could help with the mini-jobs or anything you want me to do." I offered."Getting desperate, are we?""Yes, I am desperate." I agreed with a smile, and he chuckled, amused.Of course there was a reason I chose to go with him to work, one I couldn't tell him. Bailey wouldn't risk revealing herself whe
I stepped back on her request, my body once again acting against my mind. Inside I was raging; I wanted to hurt her so badly, but I felt like I had been caged in the inner parts of my mind; I could only watch what was happening, but I had no control over my own actions.Nothing was as torturous and infuriating as that."Bad bad, Luna. Look what you made me do." She drew out each word as she walked deeper into our room, she pulled open a drawer, taking out Thane's cuff. "Kinky," she said, tossing it to me; it fell at my feet. "Put the cuff on.""You have control over me; you don't have to make me wear that to control me." I said to her,"Oh, I know that. Still I just needed to show you how much in control I am, now be snappy about it." I put the cuff on, just as she had ordered. "Good. Now ask me what I had to do to get you."I inhaled deeply; I hated this feeling of powerlessness."What did you have to do to get to me?" I questioned; those words had come out against my very own will.
"Riley, what is going on?" Thane questioned."Nothing...""No, just don't tell me that; don't lie to me, Riley; something is wrong and you are keeping it from me. What is it?"I remained silent because I had no response to his question."You think I don't notice? The sudden desperation to tag along everywhere I go makes it seem like you are afraid to be left alone, like you are scared of something, and I want to help you, Riley, but I have to know what is wrong to help you; you have to open up to me, Riley.""Just let me be, okay. I am fine.""No, you are not." He said he wasn't going to let this go. "Are you sick?" he questioned, clearly concerned."I am not sick; it's just..." I couldn't say the words. Thane waited, eyes hopeful; he was willing to help, and I wish I could tell him everything, but I couldn't. "I still think about Jake," I lied. "I'm willing to do anything to take my mind off him, but... there is something else I didn't tell you. When I left this pack, I had paid a vi
I didn't know exactly how I got here, but I had been in the pack safehouse when a figure approached me.Bailey. I realized."Why am I here?" I asked, keeping my face bare of emotions."You are here because I wanted you to be." "What do you want from me?" "I did tell you I would be back, didn't I? Well, here I am, and I have a mission for you." She said, passing me a small glass bottle filled with a greenish-yellow substance. "Go on, take it," she urged, and I took the bottle from her hand."What is this?""That, my dear, is wolfsbane extract.""Why are you giving me this?""Don't worry, it isn't for you but for the Alpha King, Thane. You will put this in his drink. The Wolf's bane when in his system would weaken him, and so we could proceed to the next step, but for now, this is all you have to do.""He could die." "That would be a pity, a death too quick, not at all worth all the time I spent plotting. You are right though, with the quantity in that bottle, it can kill regular wol
The dark blue dress would look beautiful on Kaida. That was the first thought on my mind when I saw it in the store. I knew I had to get it for her..Kaida was on the training field, she’d taken up Aric’s position. I believed it was another way to honor his memory. She trained the soldiers just as he had done… before everything went downhill. I had to admit, she was very good at it. Even the soldiers seemed to be enjoying the session with her."Your weight on this leg," she instructed, adjusting the soldier’s stance. I didn’t miss the way his gaze flickered to her ass for a split second before he quickly looked away, likely fearing he’d be caught staring. The possessive part of me wanted to pry out his eyes for even looking, then drag her into our room and fuck her all day long for looking so damn sexy.The longer I watched, the more something dark stirred inside me. She was too damn close to that guy, and those leathers—hell, they were so tight, her ass was practically on display. I
The Rogue leaders had waited. When the two days were over, I invited them into the meeting room.A maid brought over bottles of beer, and Edna was the first to take a deep gulp, the others following soon after. The maid excused herself.“Edna, Skale, Kev, Gal, and of course, Timothy. Welcome to the Nightshade Pack.”“I didn’t remember keeping you waiting this long when you paid us a visit.” Edna said to me."I’d hoped you’d get impatient enough to leave."Edna chuckled; it was silent and humorless. “Unfortunately, we’ve come to speak on an important matter.”“I assumed as much.”"We allowed a peace treaty with you once, and now we’ve come to discuss the terms.""I made you a promise, Edna. I told you that if you couldn’t keep the rogues under control, there would be war. This time, something tells me you were the brains behind the earlier attack.""Yes. I was. Like the rest, we believed you were gone, and we did what anyone would do—we attacked.""But I guess you were wrong.""Sorely.
ALEXANDER’S POVIt was almost unnerving how similar she had looked to Kaida. Her voice sounded so much like hers—I had hesitated, and in that moment of weakness, Cynthia escaped.It all made sense now. I could recall that incident. When Kaida had walked into the room, looking all seductive, I had given in so easily. And then—she ‘d lifted the dagger to my chest. I hadn’t realized it wasn’t her. For a fleeting moment, I had even thought the weapon was just another tease.But then she’d stabbed me, and too late I realized something different about her—something I hadn’t picked up on earlier. Her eyes. They were different, not because they weren’t the same grey I knew, but because it felt like they belonged to a stranger, not the woman I had known and fallen for.Kaida had taken the blame, but of course, she could never have done such a thing. She’d never have gone through with it, and I couldn’t believe I was just realizing that now."It’s not your fault. Cynthia excels at those kinds o
"I know the truth," I said to Julia, finally speaking up.“What truth? Don’t tell me you still fall for his falsehoods—you should have learned your lessons by now.”"He tried to protect me. He kept me safe. That’s more than you’ve ever done?"“Protect you—you really think you are safe here with him?”“Safer than I ever was back in the castle.”“I taught you better than this, Aliya. I taught you about bad people who would want to taint you, but you were always the curious type; I should have known.” She said, I didn’t miss the fact that she addressed me by my name."I remember everything you taught me, Julia. Thanks to you, I know more languages than I’ll ever have the chance to use in my lifetime. You spoke endlessly about good and evil—you painted yourselves as saints, but you all are far from that. I know the truth now. Your plan was to sacrifice me. That encounter—all of it—was a lie. I was nothing but a vessel to you.""And do you think you mean anything to him?" she asked, her g
My thoughts drifted to Ash. Could he have been stupid enough to come back here with Daemon present?Something told me Daemon wouldn’t be pleased about me seeing him behind his back.A small sense of relief washed over me when I realized the footsteps approaching weren’t from a man. There was something feminine, something familiar about them.It was Empress Julia.Of course, I would recognize the sound of her footsteps; I had spent over a decade of my life listening to them.Daemon seemed genuinely surprised. “How did you find this place?” he asked."I can't say. You see, it's a small secret, Trian—I guess that's the name you stole."Daemon’s eyes drifted from her face to the object she held in her hand: the Nexus Amulet. She had somehow gotten it out of the transparent glass container—perhaps that explained the noise that had alerted us we weren’t alone."Give it to me," Daemon all but growled."Tsk, tsk. Not so fast."Daemon looked like he was about to lunge for her."You won’t get t
I shouldn’t be thinking about Ash’s words, but I was. No matter how many times I tried to shove them out of my mind, they always found their way back."Dinner is served. Come eat," Daemon announced. Staring at him, I could almost forget that he was a demon; he just seemed so… human. But when you looked deeper into those dark blue eyes, that’s when you noticed something off—something that screamed predator.“I’m not hungry.”“That’s a lie. Come with me,” he said. I might be hungry, but I was in no mood to eat, yet I followed him. He had already dished out the food for me and, as usual, none for himself.“Thank you.” I muttered, taking a seat. The smoky scent of spiced grilled meat filled the air. On any other day, it would be enough to make my mouth water and my stomach rumble, but this time, I could barely force myself to eat more than a few small pieces.“Aliyah,” Daemon called, and I looked up at him. “I can make something else if you don’t like this.”“It’s not that. I’m just not h
ALIYAH’S POVI stared at the empty room, once occupied by the human girls. Now, the chains that had been used to bind them were the only sign that they had ever been here.After the incident with Tasha, Daemon wasn’t willing to take any chances. He had let the two cousins return to their homes.When Daemon wasn’t home, I had the whole house to myself.I returned to my room to take a quick shower before his return. I peeled off my clothes and walked into the shower. I was done in less than twenty minutes. I was about to step out of the bathroom when my reflection caught my eye. I paused, staring at the figure in the mirror that was mine.My eyes were the only thing alive; every other part of my body seemed to be fading away. My silver hair didn’t look as healthy, and my pale skin was even paler. I spotted the bite marks marring my skin. I didn’t mind them at all; maybe I was getting just as crazy as Tasha, but I liked seeing those marks on my skin; they reminded me of him, and so I ha
I watched as Aric’s casket was lowered into the ground.All the memories were buried along with him. Guilt ate at me, knowing he shouldn’t be down there.Many who knew Aric were also present. He had once been a beta to the Dawn pack, then a commander to the Nightshade Pack. He was loved by many, but the strangest thing about life was how fast people tend to move on.Two hours later, everyone was gone, back to their lives. A few months from now, some would forget him. In a few years, others wouldn’t even remember that a man named Aric had once lived among us. He’d be just another tombstone like the rest. No one was ever truly too important—life always moved on.I stood before Aric's grave, eyes puffy and red, tears rolling down my cheeks, and Alexander stood beside me. His eyes were on me.“You know, he had a sister. I had no clue about her; she was the reason he betrayed me; he wanted to save her.” I paused when I realized who I was talking to. “Sorry, I know you’d always hated him.”
Derek had been taken away from the pack after our fight. A small part of me felt bad for him. In his pack, he had been worshipped, but now… everything was about to change—especially the fact that he would have to rule as an Alpha with only one arm.If his story taught me anything, it was that we often fail to appreciate what we have. He had a pack, people who loved him, but like every other Alpha, he wanted more. He was an honorable man, and for that reason, I had let him go his way—even after his demeaning words about making me his ‘whore’ when he took over the pack.“I have to admit. You did very well with the pack.” Alexander praised, and I couldn’t help the swell of pride I had felt in that instant.We were currently in the bed, none of us wanting to leave the room or each other’s company.“Most of the time, I didn’t even know what I was doing.”“Well, that makes the two of us. You were born a leader, Kaida.”"No, I wasn’t. I might be the daughter of an Alpha, and I might have ha