Chapter 50Xavier's POV"D.E group bankrupt?" Read the billboards towering over various parts of the city. Orleans was a flourishing city, one of the few places in the country that preserved the cultural heritage, or at least that was what Nick liked to believe.Nick was a classmate from high school, the sticky type, his parents rednecks whose only achievement must have been the ability to boast of their home city and it's cultural heritage. Their wretched midset rubbed of on Nick with talks of his city being the only real conversation he could hold."Did you know that?" Nick would start, his introduction to one of his many historical lectures on the great city of Orleans we both lived."Did you know that Orleans still practices voodoo?" A random fact that I would not expect a regular teenager to know about but then again it was Nick and it was the only thing he knew."Voodoo is still practiced in Orleans." I had to pretend that I had no interest in the fact like with the rest of the
Chapter 51Alpha Damon's POVLike cockroaches these men have managed to escape my every attempt at capturing them and retrieving what they stole from me.It took hours of fervent searching to realise that they were gone and how they did it eluded me. "I think you need to see this sire," Jose declared. His once eager voice had been reduced to that of a tired child ready to go home. I could not blame him. He did a good job while he could, one of the intruders was dead because of the precision in his aim. Jose wielded the gun like he was trained to, even though he never was. A situation where we would have to defend ourselves with anything other than brute strength was unpredictable. I never thought the day would come when I would be separated from my wolf, even if it was only for a while. "Blood," I said to Jose. The stone pillar that acted as the key to the gateway leading to the human world was splattered with blood. It was fresh, maybe some hours old but it should not have matter
Chapter 52Zara’s POVAwkward smiling faces, warm conversions between people from afar, the orderliness shown by the road users, both cars and pedestrians, without the need for coercion or a monarch to dictate every single action, it was just like I read in books, the peculiarity that separated humans from werewolves. Their democratic system was undoubtedly a shift from the monarchy I grew up knowing. It was beautiful to watch, a little too warm. I could get comfortable here, I thought as I walked down the busy street, across the stores and the restaurants. I stopped in my steps as I instantly felt shame when my eyes caught my reflection in a glass door leading to one of the stores.No wonder it seemed like all eyes were on me while I walked. My hair was a mess, my face was messed up from all my crying the day before. I did a quick check on my breath and oh did that smell terrible. I was a walking mess.I walked away from the door, hoping it was just my eyes. I could not stare at mys
Chapter 53Zara’s POVThe sky stretched out blue and bright. The few clouds to be seen formed odd shapes. One of them reminded me of a big, brown wolf I had come across once."You like it?" Isaac's warm, womanly voice called my wandering mind back to reality, back to him and away from the clouds. But I stared for a reason, I was not interested in a conversation with him in the first place, I only sat out of courtesy and because he did pay for my meal. "I'm sorry. What?" "Your burger? How is it?" He asked between gobbling his donut down. "You should have gotten the burger if you were so interested in it, four eyes," was what I would have said if I was not in complete control of my emotions.I tended to be harsh at times, I knew that so I double checked every time before speaking.I peeked up at him to reply generically, "it's good. Thank you," before turning back to the tasty burger. It was good, the best thing I had eaten in days. The meat was cooked and seasoned in a way I did not
Chapter 54Zara's POVDarkness. I woke up with a banging headache and a bad feeling. Something was terribly wrong but I did not know what it was. My mind felt blank with my head not being able to process anything. It hurt everytime I tried thinking. The cold tiles I was lying on were not helping. I thought only of one thing for a while- how to stop the cold but it was one thing to think and another to be able to actualize your thoughts. Footsteps. Someone was coming and they were walking in fast. A beam of light flashed into my eyes, worsening my already bad headache. "Who?" I tried to speak but I felt weak, too weak to say anything or do anything. The light went out as fast as it came on, plunging the room back into darkness. I didn't think I'd ever think like this but in that moment I preferred the darkness to the light. It seemed like someone had walked into the room where I was. Someone was standing only a few feet away, after walking in through a door. I had no way of confi
Chapter 55Zara's POVOutside the dark room was bright and sunny. I wondered how Isaac got me out of the restaurant without drawing any attention to himself."I'll take you home. You just have to trust me and don't ever leave my sight," Isaac warned before we set out. Trust you? I wanted to believe him because if I did not and he was not who he said he was then all hope really was lost. "Take this, it'll help," he said and I felt strength return to me after he forced some pills into my mouth. The streets of Orleans were packed as usual with people of various cultures roaming freely. "I could run away right now," I said to the mercenary, expecting a reaction but he remained unflinching.Isaac made sure I was at his side at all times even through thick crowds and across busy roads. I felt uncomfortable when he held my hand as we crossed the road. His squishy palm was unbecoming of a man of his status.This man was nothing like the one I met earlier in the restaurant. He did not smil
Chapter 56Zara's POVI opened my eyes to dizzying lights overhead, a familiar scent and an unyusual unawareness of my surroundings. Not again.I closed my eyes to recollect my thoughts. The last thing I remembered was the train station. The lights went out. Isaac."Isaac?" I called out in the strange environment."Your friend is dead, like everyone who was foolish enough to think they could help you escape me. There is no escaping me," a deep voice announced from a distance.I know that voice. An instant dread filled me up as my head was thrown forcefully back into reality and my attention was called to order at once. The man's steps were loud and echoed in the quiet room. With each step, I felt as the deep pit in my belly grew even bigger, making me more and more uneasy. Then it stopped. The loud footsteps came to a halt, plunging the room back into its eerie silence. He was close enough by this time."Did you really think you were going to run away from under my nose?" came that
Chapter 57Xavier's POVWaking up to the sound of young, horny adults is a nightmare. My nightmare was on repeat. "Harder baby, harder!" Became my alarm in the crappy apartment I stayed in. I never imagined Nick to be the nymphomaniac kind of guy. The worst part was that I could not think about complaining, I had nowhere else to go. I was grateful for his offer too.It had been three days since I moved in with Nick and every night since has been filled with awkward, high pitched and disturbing sounds at night.Nick's one bedroom apartment was small and anything but cozy. He had clothes littered over every furniture in his sparsely furnished space. His apartment defined "low budget" with his.small, flat screen TV, a rickety, brown and ugly sofa and his bed at the one end of the room, all squeezed in a tiny space."Make yourself at home," he said, the afternoon I arrived, his emerald green eyes gleaming as he spoke. Nick was always like that, always the first person to offer a helping
Chapter 105Xavier’s POVI watched in fear as Riana left. She said thank you and just left. Her back turned to me, exposing her magnificent body. I knew she knew something, but not enough to conclude or figure out that I was planning an escape.There was something about the way she said thank you, the way she walked in and walked away so quickly. Her eyes had lost their light. They looked like two empty spheres in her wide eye sockets.She didn’t press hard when she asked if I loved her. She didn’t push herself toward me. I found it strange that she never asked for more sex after that day. She became an entirely different person. Changed. I should’ve worried more but I didn’t. I closed my eyes to it because I believed that anything keeping her away from me was a good thing.I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care at all, but I shoved that feeling aside because it was a distraction.That evening, I happened to be outside my room far from it. Thoughts of the wedding suffocated me. How easi
Chapter 104Xavier's POV“She knows!” Lucas burst into my room saying. It was evening when he came. Light was slowly leaving the sky as day transitioned to night. His face held worry in a way that warned onlookers not to look away—not to take his dreadful expression for granted.I was immediately alarmed by this. “What’s wrong?” I asked. The huge man was not much of a talker, I knew from the moment I met him, three days ago. I mean that I really met him three days ago—he had always been around, but we never had any need to speak to each other until we did.His head was balding but he still let it grow out, even though it showed at the trimming edges that formed deep cups that ate into the sides. It was only a matter of years,maybe a year,until all of his hair was gone, or at least most of it.I kept looking at his hair while we spoke, while I told him what I wanted him to do.“I just need you to give these to her. Nothing more,” I said to him. This was three days ago, while he was on
Chapter 103Riana's POVThe shameless look in Brownie’s eyes cleared any doubts I had before. This was her. This whole thing was her plan, her doing. She profited off my squabble with Zara like kings and country rulers profited by selling weapons to warring countries.Did I regret telling her she could have the dress? A slight moment of second guessing, rethinking my hasty decision to trust this scam of a girl with having any reasonable information. Potent weapons are sold by crafty leaders for future patronage, it was a business, just like my interaction with Brownie. She needed to be trusted for future deals, if there would be any, so she would offer only the best, most reliable news to me. This was my reasoning, my consolation as I pondered her trustworthiness.“He slipped a piece of paper between the door and a hand reached out to take it from him. No doubt the girl’s hand,” Brownie said, and I wondered why she referred to Zara that way. “The girl,” she said, and it angered me. I
Chapter 102.Riana’s POV.Two days until the wedding. I have forced myself to remain quiet and imposed sanity on my raging mind.Two weeks feel like forever when you are stuck in your room with thoughts of a man you are to marry and the woman trying to take him from you.Silence, even though my body ached for adventure and my heart longed for the extermination of a certain person. I have never felt such hate, such anger and jealousy because of a person, not even to the man that raped me as a child.My emotions towards him were conflicting to say the least. I do not know how I feel about the man that harassed me, tore my clothes and opened me up to a world I have come to enjoy. Maybe enjoyment is an overstatement because the thrill that comes with not being tied down to a man was exciting but at the same time the pleasure was satiable unfulfilling.I want to be tied down. I want to be loved by someone, by Xavier. Only two days now.Today is like any other day for the last two weeks, ex
Chapter 101Zara's POVThe intruder pushed again and the door shook but it was hinged too tight to be moved too far from its fixed point. I was too afraid to ask who it was so instead I crouched down on the floor and waited for the intruder to tire himself out and leave. I hoped he would leave.The knocking continued and after a minute or two I knew that he would not go away. Could it be that Alpha Damon was back to inflict more pain or he was going to finish me off properly this time?Each time the handle of the door moved, I felt my heart almost leave my chest. Like I was naked, I felt exposed. The only thing that separated me from the intruder was a door, a relatively small, wooden bathroom door."Open up Zara. It's me," the voice behind the door announced. I know that soothing low pitched voice. I'd recognise it anywhere. Its lustre was distinguishable even in the midst of confusion. Xavier's voice was calming.I opened the door, relieved to see him standing before me because part
Chapter 100Zara's POV"Where is it?" Loud footsteps came before the thunderous voice announced itself in the room and the tall, dark man appeared before me. A sense of danger immediately engulfed me. His deep blue eyes were marked with a hint of boiling red rage."Where have you hidden it?" He repeated himself, a rarity for the alpha of the Bloodmoon pack. His rage was apparent but something lay beneath it, masked and well hidden by the anger but I spotted it. It was one thing I knew too well, fear.Underneath the guise of anger was an intensifying fear. Alpha Damon was afraid. I was afraid. This foreign feeling would no doubt bring with it unpredictable actions. I had never seen Alpha Damon like this, I did not know what to expect, not like I did all the other times he burst in with rage but something was different about him this time, more dangerous."You better tell me where you have kept it," he said and started walking closer towards me. My heartbeat immediately quickened as he
Chapter 99Xavier's POVI shed the false bravado as soon as she left. The truth is I was even more whimpering that she was. I hate to admit the truth, which is the fact that I cower before my father, the man who had been raised high and mighty by the exaggerated stories, endless tales that Lady Rose told of him, of their past together.She said, "our past," when she referred to her and my father's shared experiences, like there was something more to it.I felt pretentious. I asked Zara to put her faith in me. I asked for her trust when I was not even sure of my plan. How could I expect to help somebody else when I could not even help myself. All these years living under my father's wing, under his watchful eye, I had never defied him.I should blame aunt Rose for my compliant behaviour. I like to believe that she was the one that kept me in check."He has his reasons," she would say, making excuses for his unfatherly actions or, "give it time. He'll come around." Her words barricaded
Chapter 98Zara's POVA jab, loud shuffling through books, clothes, possessions, hasty movements. I immediately get disturbed by these. Unconsciously, my heartbeat quickens and my body is reminded of fear. My father is rushing towards me with his hands raised, it strikes me. I can never escape that fear.Alpha Damon is back in the room. He does not look happy. I did not expect him to be. I am just happy that I made it back to the room before he got back.More movement. He is searching for something, rummaging endlessly through his belongings. I dare not to ask, I dare not disturb his search so I sat quiet, frozen. My mind drifted to earlier in the day, with Xavier.He whispered his plan to me, as though we were not alone and someone could sneak up behind us as he spoke. I liked the feel of his breath against my ear."That's it?" I asked, unsatisfied by what he had told me. "What next? We can't possibly..."He raised his finger to my lips and stopped me from talking. "I'll tell you whe
Chapter 97Zara's POVTime existed no more. Seconds, maybe hours, had gone by since I came to Xavier's room. I did not care. Everything was perfect.Xavier lay next to me, quiet and motionless for a while. His fingers had been stroking the side of my cheek very softly and slowly."I love you," he whispered in my ear. Our bodies were mingled under his sheets, just like I had imagined him with Riana.His words sent shivers down my spine. I felt as every syllable travelled from my ear to the rest of my body. Love? Too soon? I barely knew Xavier Elord. There was an undeniable connection between us but that was it. It did not change the fact that I met him a few weeks ago. I did not say it back. Awkwardness and silence lingered in the air, until, like a rotten smell, it dissipated.I looked at him to notice that he was not waiting for a reply, he was not even looking at me. He appeared to be sleeping. His face is peaceful and begging to be left alone."I have a plan to get us out of all t