~ Unknown ~I watched Nikolai storm out of the apartment building; his men with him.He looked furious. I wondered why. More importantly, I wondered what he was doing in a place like this.The great Nikolai Reese at a rundown apartment building downtown? Who would have guessed.I raised my camera and snapped a few pictures of him. In the next one, I made sure to get his men in the frame; Ahmad and Boulin...He got into his car immediately and they took off. I waited for a few seconds before I peeled out of the shadows to leave.Just then, I saw movement from the corner of my eyes. Someone else was coming out of the same building.I stepped back into the shadows and watched a woman step out and look around.I recognized her immediately. It was the female lawyer, the one handling Nikolai's case. They seemed to be spending a lot of time together for a lawyer and client. Very interesting!She seemed to be looking for something. Probably Nikolai. Did he abandon her? He'd driven off in a
~ Nikolai ~The second I heard that slight ruffle, I knew where it was coming from.With a burst of wolf speed, I darted in the direction of the sound faster than the person, whoever they were, could see.I came to a stop in front of them and slammed my hand into their chest, sending them crashing back into the tree."Who the fuck are you, and why are you following me?" I snarled, my fangs extending out and eyes glowing."N-no sir! I was not following you!" a male voice cried. "I was just enjoying the view here when I heard someone coming so I ran and hid. But when I saw it was you Alpha Nikolai, I panicked!"The voice pierced through my blind fury. It was a child's voice.I realized that my hand holding the person against the tree was lower than it should be laying against their chest."Mathias!" I exclaimed, looking into the face of one of the compound kids. "What the hell are you doing here?"I'd thought this place was completely hidden from everyone."I come here from time to time
~ Bella ~I sat alone in my car, staring at the office building. I couldn't bring myself to go in yet.The events of yesterday with Nikolai continued to play in my head.I felt awful. Like it was my fault that everything happened the way it did.I suppose it wasn't fair that I suddenly turned my back on him because I couldn't control myself.But having seen him like that yesterday... it felt like a different Nikolai.And this version scared the shit out of me. Even worse, I'd have to see him again too.My alarm went off, sending me jumping. I bumped my head into the top of the car."Ouch!" I muttered, rubbing my head. It was time to go in, I couldn't delay it any longer.I walked in slowly. The first thing I noticed when I entered my office was Maggie.She was standing in front of her desk, not sitting. That was already strange in itself.She was looking at something on her desk. Her hand was clasped over her mouth, horror on her face.I was already so tightly strung that my heart imm
"Boss, we didn't know you'll be leaving so soon," Ahmad said when I suddenly returned to the car.He bowed. Boulin, who was standing next to him, bowed too."Change of plans," I said shortly.I'd told them that I'd be spending most of the day at Bella's office.After my conversation with Mathias last night, I'd realized that I may have overreacted so I'd wanted to spend time today making up for that.All chances for that were thrown out the window now that she considered me a murder suspect."Get in. We need to go," I ordered. "Bella will be coming with us.""Yes, boss," Ahmad said but gave me a quizzical look. I ignored him and got in.He held the door open and let Bella get in beside me then he got into the driver's seat. Boulin got into the passenger seat."Where to?" Ahmad asked."The compound," I said.There was no more talking in the car after that.Everyone could feel the weight of my mood and not even Ahmad dared to strike up a conversation.I saw him glancing at me in the rev
~ Bella ~I could see the unspoken question in Nikolai's eyes. 'Do you now believe?' he seemed to be asking with his eyes.I swallowed. I was starting to see the truth while my brain scrambled to put together the pieces of the puzzle.According to Ahamd, after they'd left Tony's apartment, they dropped Nikolai off at the compound gate.If that was true, then truly was no way that Nikolai returned to the apartment unnoticed to kill Tony.I'd carefully taken note of the path to the compound.It was set so far into the woods that he would have needed a car to get back to town.Of course, that applied if and only if Ahmad was telling the truth.Like I pointed out earlier, Nikolai's men would gladly lie for him if the need arose. I could only take their words with a pinch of salt.But hearing this kid's testimony... I couldn't bring myself to believe that a kid like this would lie so cleverly.More so, would Nikolai really ask a child to lie on his behalf?And to what end? Why go to all t
~ Bella~A thrill of happiness washed over my spine."This isn't right," I whispered brokenly. I shouldn't be doing this at all."This is what is right," he countered. He placed my palm against his. "You and I are what is right. Can't you feel it?"Standing like this, facing him, palms touching, it really did feel amazing.I wouldn't have been surprised to find that we were surrounded by a halo.I sighed and dropped my hand. "Nikolai, I'm not going to lie and say that I don't feel the most intoxicating feelings for you..."He smiled and nodded."But I am married. I don't know what that means to werewolves. I don't understand much about this mate thing. But I love Parker, and I married him. For us humans, that is forever."His smile dropped."A marriage cannot beat the mate bond, Bella," he said."I don't know about that. All I know is that I intend to be faithful to my husband for as long as I can," I countered."You know what? There's no point arguing," he said. "No matter how much y
~ Bella ~I turned slowly in the direction of the intimidating voice that sent the kids scrambling like that.I cringed, expecting to see someone like Boulin walk around the corner.Instead, a woman suddenly appeared around the corner and began waking towards us.I was shocked. She was a small woman, even smaller then me.She was dressed in a frilly pink dress and pretty white shoes.Her gleaming red hair revealed that she was most likely the mother of little girl who'd complimented me. I'd noticed a few more red-heads among the children. Probably all hers.I couldn't believe my eyes. This tiny woman had sounded like that?She stopped in front of us and bowed. "Alpha Nikolai," she said."Leia, you sent the kids away,. I was enjoying our time together" he said. "They were getting to know Bella."I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right! More like they were putting me in a difficult position, asking me difficult question, and he was enjoying that.He saw me roll my eyes and smiled. "I'm not sur
~ Bella ~"What are we going to do now?" I asked, panicking."There's no need to panic," he said. "Let's just take it one step at a time, okay?" He turned to Ahmad. "What's the situation?" "They've got an APB out on both of you," he said. "They want you to bring you in for questioning."I gave Nikolai a questioning look. "How does he know that? Do you listen in to their radio chatter or something?"I'd asked it half in jest, a desperate attempt to make light of a very scary situation. But then he gave me an odd look in response."Really? You do?" I spat in shock. "How do you want us to approach this?" Ahmad asked, pulling his attention back."Bella is involved. We have to take the legal route," he said.I couldn't say a word. All I could do was look back and forth between them, wondering what the other method would involve."It's best we go in ourselves before they find us," he continued. "But we'll need a lawyer. Sadly, my lawyer is going to be in jail with me," he said with a smi
~ Bella ~"In the case of the Shelbys and Hamilton against the Deca General Hospital, this is the order of this court: that the defendants be liable to pay the sum of $1 million dollars to the plaintiffs for the emotional distress, mental torture and general irresponsibility they displayed in handling this matter! "Thank you, your Honor!" I said, beaming. I turned to my Dylan and gave him a hug. I hugged his wife next."Thank you! Thank you!" she whispered in my ears repeatedly.It'd been a long battle that had spanned over the last three months.The hospital put up a good fight but in the end, we managed to prove that not only were they negligent, but that they also tried to cover it up.The result? Dylan and his wife and the Hamilton's were richer had their rightful babies and were each now half a million dollars richer."Make sure you use that money to take good care of your girl," I said."You can bet we will!" Dylan cried.I waved goodbye to them and packed up my belongings.I m
~ Bella ~At Nikolai's words, Nicholas whirled around, dragging me with him.My eyes widened in shock to see a fox, an actual full grown red fox, flying through the air towards us.This wasn't a normal kind of fox. It was huge! Just as big as me.It's teeth were barred and claws outstretched towards us.I screamed in fear at the frightening sight. I tried to duck down but I couldn't because of Nicholas' ironclad hold on my neck.My life flashed before my eyes for the umpteenth time.But the fox jumped clear over my head, grabbed the back of Nichola's shirt in it's teeth and dragged me away from me.In the next breath, there was a ripping sound and Nicholas transformed into a wolf too. His wolf was even bigger than the one that first attacked.Alone for the first time in hours, I was suddenly a loss as to what to do with myself.For a second, I stupidly stood blinking at the wolves.But teeth were snapping just a few feet in front of me. One snap came too close to taking my arm off.I
~ Bella ~The door crashed open.I whirled towards it. Nikolai! His familiar face filled the doorway.My heart soared with happiness. I jumped up and started to take a step towards him.I stopped immediately and took a step back. No! That wasn't Nikolai.These were the cold, dark eyes from earlier. It was Nicholas.He stormed towards me and grabbed me by the forearm."Shut the fuck up!" he snapped.I winced as the part of my arm where he was holding flushed with pain.That meant he'd heard me singing. Maybe Nikolai would have heard too?"You're coming with me," he snarled and dragged me out.We circled to the back of the barn room he'd put me in. He began to drag me towards the woods.Fear gripped me as we got closer and closer to the dark woods.Oh, gods. I'd just been raising my hopes that Nikolai would find me thanks to the singing.Would he be able to find me in the woods? What did Nicholas plan to do to me in the woods?"You don't have to do this," I said, my voice shaking slight
~ Nikolai ~War!During my father's lifetime, war was a common thing.Clashes between different packs and factions tore at our pack time and time again.Our kind were hot-headed and extremely prideful. Those weren't great combinations when it came to co-existing peacefully.But ever since I took over the pack, the number of wars we fought have drastically reduced.In fact, we hardly interacted with other packs and factions at all.The pack was as self-sufficient as they come and I loved it like that.But even then I'd always known this day would come.This problem had been brewing long before my father even died. When one day, a young man suddenly showed up on our doorstep, claiming to be a Reese, I knew immediately that one day I would have to fight to protect my birthright and my people.Well, that day was today and he had the perfect ace in his hands, my mate.I couldn't afford to get distracted or I would mess things up and she'd end up dead.We had to move with precision. Thank
~ Bella ~"It was you! You're the one who killed Parker," I spat."Right again!" he shot back with a grin.It was like a dam within me broke. I just found my husband brutally murdered barely two hours ago.I'd not even had time to process the horrific situation or mourn his death like he deserved.So his snide retort and self-pleased smile didn't sit well with me at all.I heard a loud sound and was shocked to discover that it'd come from me.The next thing I knew was that I was flying towards him in blind rage, hands raised and poised to hit him.But I didn't even get close enough to hurt him.With a backhanded slap, he sent me flying backwards into the wall.My head snapped against the wall and I crashed to the ground again for the second time.I yelped like a dog in pain. He stood looking down at me and tsked."Stupid girl," he said. "You really thought you could hit me? Don't you know who you're dealing with?I didn't bother answering and he didn't bother waiting for a response."
~ Bella ~I blinked in confusion, momentarily too stunned to even feel scared.'Nikolai? Why was he here? Was this some kind of sick joke?'Was it Nikolai who'd abducted me? Why though? And that fight put up by Boulin? Was it just acting?"Hello, Bella," he said, grinning at me as if everything was perfect in the world. As if I wasn't just shoved into a dark room after being yanked around and dragged along by kidnappers.When he spoke again, I realized why his voice had set off alarms in my head.It was because I knew the voice well. "What the hell, Nikolai!" I snapped. "What the hell is going on?"He was walking towards me slowly but he paused now. A thoughtful expression crossed his face. "Nikolai..." he mused. "Oh, I just realized that I have forgotten to introduce myself."My frown deepened. What the hell was he saying now? He sounded like a lunatic?"Sweet Bella, I am not your darling Nikolai. I am Nicholas Reese," he stated."What?" I spat, still confused."I don't know if I
~ Bella ~My abductors bundled me into a plain white bus exactly like your expect from the movies.I screamed and kicked the entire way, trying to get back to Boulin.I couldn't stand the fact that I didn't know if he was dead or alive.Oh my gosh, if he was dead... if he'd died because of me... I didn't know what I would do.No! He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be! He was as strong as ten men! He was the strongest man I knew! Well, maybe except Nikolai.So he couldn't just die like that, right? I had to believe that he couldn't be dead.Nikolai would come looking for us. I had no doubt.He would save Boulin and then come to save me."You should let me go if you know what's good for you," I piped up.My voice shook embarrassingly. I swallowed the knot in my throat.None of the men even spared me a glance."If you knew who was coming for me, you would let me out right now!"Again, no visible response. "Nikolai Reese!" I exclaimed. "Nikolai Reese will come for me. He won't spare any o
~ Nikolai ~After saying my goodbyes to Nick, I headed out.I headed for my car, which I remembered now that I'd left haphazardly on the road.I got into the car. It was then and only then that I allowed myself to pull the yellow scrap of paper I'd recovered from Parker's body.I unwrapped it and spread it out against the steering wall.Just as I thought, there was a note written on it. Also, the note was for me.Even with no name there, I know it was addressed to me.I know the murder of Parker Smith had everything to do with me.I'd left Parker alive and well and then someone had gone in and killed him, making it look like I did.I knew it was only a matter of time before the police found out about my visit here last night.They would come to me with questions. I fully intended to have answers before then.But apparently I didn't have to look too far, the note was an invitation to me by the perpetrator.It read: Knock KnockWho's there?ShoulderShoulder who?Shoulder kept an eye o
~ Bella ~We were surrounded on every side by menacing, growling werewolves. Boulin was constantly turning, trying to keep everyone in his line of sight at the same time.I turned with him inch by inch, keeping to his back.Without turning around, he reached back and grabbed my hand in his giant palm. He raised my hand and placed it on his shoulder.His message was clear, "Stay close!" 'Sir, yes sir! What was I, stupid?' I didn't plan on going anywhere.I saw the attack before it came. It was like an invisible signal that rung through the group and suddenly one of them jumped at us with a roar.Boulin stepped forward to meet him halfway. He swiped a claw at him, catching him midriff.With one swipe, he took out his entire belly. Blood gushed everywhere.The next second, he whirled around and pushed me behind me. I hadn't realized it but the one behind me had come up behind me.Boulin grabbed him by the neck, shook him and tossed him away like a rag doll.I kept my hand on his shoul