SCARLETTHis smile was blinding, heart melting too.“Hey beautiful,” his boyish grin remained as he crossed the cafe to meet me by the door, enveloping me in a warm hug that instantly dissolved the anger I’d been carrying earlier, “you’re here!”“I’d have come here the very second you sent me that picture,” I whispered hotly into his ear before pulling away from the embrace.Immediately, the excitement in his eyes was replaced with a familiar burning desire that I was no stranger to.Like he couldn’t help himself, he leaned forward, dipping his head like he was going in for a kiss and I had to quickly avert my face and playfully spin him around to remind him that we had an audience.Customers and employees alike, the latter being aware that we were step siblings.“My bad,” he mumbled, stifling laughter as it registered that he’d lost himself for a moment.“Come on, lover boy,” I teased, walking ahead of him and leading the way to his office while being fully aware that his eyes were g
BLAKEAs soon as I shut the door behind us, I pushed her against the window harshly, my eyes narrowing at her.Wathoni was never one to listen, her defiance was her only flaw, and one of these days, it’d mark her end at my hands. I was only counting the strikes until her cup filled up and overflowed.“I already warned you not to show up around Scarlett again, yet this is the third fucking time you’ve turned up at the cafe, lurking around her like an undertaker,” I gripped her the collar of her coat, taking in her ridiculous all black ensemble.She regarded me with a sultry smile, as though my anger somehow turned her on. But it wouldn’t be the first time, after all the angry, violent sex we’d engaged in, I knew this was her thing.“Easy, big boy, I didn’t mean to cause any trouble in your new found paradise,” she held her hands in surrender, her usual playful tone making my seriousness seem like an overreaction.“It’s about you fucking this up when we’re finally close to getting what
ALEXEver since Logan’s false allegations, I’ve been trying my hardest to put some much-needed distance between myself and Scarlett. The only reason I approached her was in a bid to help her wiggle free of Logan’s self-centred employment, and nothing else.And since she didn’t give me the time of day, it was a ridiculously easy task to maintain my distance.Yet, each time I caught sight of her, I couldn’t help but wonder if the insane magnetic force that pulled me towards her qualified as love. I didn’t want to admit that any possibility existed that I was in love with her as Logan pointed out, but the emotions she stirred in me were so foreign and overwhelming.What did any of that signify? An obsessive feeling of attraction and lust, maybe, but not love. I knew for a fact that I was incapable of falling in love, I was simply driven by my insatiable hormones.My wolf didn’t care that I was working through those emotions and trying to stay away from her until they were resolved. He wa
SCARLETTAlex’s behavior shook me to my very core.The vulnerability and desperation that he oozed of was unlike him, but somehow it didn’t make me think less of him. If any other man who I’d known to possess a domineering and commanding energy has fallen to his knees before me that way, I’d have lost every ounce of respect for him in an instant.But something somewhere forced my initial impression of Alex to remain untainted. As much as he wasn’t a gentleman or a friend in any capacity to me, I had an odd amount of respect for him because of his affiliation with a talent company I’d dreamt of working at for countless years.Still, after the sex scandal, I started to hate him, so, I put up impenetrable walls against him, but his pleas had almost torn them down.My wolf had been clawing at my insides and forcing me to defy logic and let him touch me, at least to pleasure me as proof that he was now a better man that cared to cater to my sexual satisfaction above his.However, I fought
LOGANUnlike other businessmen, I never accepted defeat no matter how impossible a goal seemed.That’s why I employed private investigators and fixers to get me into the inner circles of the billionaires I targeted to invest in my countless projects. I always made it seem like our meeting was fated and then, I swooped in and bagged them.This time, the big fish I was planning to score was a bloody rich woman who came from old money and had never worked a day in her life, yet her source of income never ran dry.She was hard to bump into, so the second I got word from a private investigator that he got me entry into a charity event under her foundation, I dropped everything and got ready to leave. I checked Ashley’s office first to see if she was available to accompany me but she was out on business so I was stuck with Scarlett’s overbearing ass.When I informed her that we’d be attending a charity event for disabled and underprivileged children, I was strangely taken aback that she qui
SCARLETTI’m sitting across a man who holds my entire heart in his palms, decidedly so.He’s somehow pulling off a light blue suit, looking like the best thing to have ever happened since the marvelous invention of chocolates.We’ve just finished having the best dinner date I’ve ever been on and now he's feeding me dessert while going on about how the interview process for a new employee at the cafe was the funniest task he's ever been saddled with.Instead of being invested in the conversation, I’m too distracted by the two tickets sitting in my purse to the all white party Ashley invited me to. The moment she suggested that I bring a date, Blake was the first person that came to mind.However, I knew that bringing him as my date would only raise suspicions and I couldn't risk ruining the beautiful thing we had blossomed into.“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered to him, my eyes sending a message that he couldn't possibly miss.“Shit, yeah,” he chuckled, smiling like a teenage boy th
SCARLETTMy hands were ruffling through my tangled curls and struggling to pull them into a bun for work when I heard my phone ping with a notification.Thinking that it was a text about the package I’d been waiting on for a week, I hurried to grab my phone off my bed. Only for my smile to fall when I saw that the text was from the worst person possible.Logan.Couldn't he wait a few more minutes until I was at work to ruin my day? I murmured to myself as I unlocked my phone.Logan: take the day off to get ready for the all-white party tonight. I’ll work from home.I blinked thrice. Then four more times before reading the text a second and third time to be sure I hadn't imagined the words. When I confirmed that they were real, I grabbed my pillow and screamed excitedly into it.I didn't dare question it, only the gods knew why Logan’s behavior was as questionable and unpredictable as it was, but I wasn't about to bug myself with the specifics when it was finally working in my favor.I
LOGANI could hear my heartbeat drumming in my ears as it tripled.Something alerted me that Ashley could probably hear it too because she kept glancing away from the host she was just cornering into a deal to sneak frowns in my direction. I held her gaze and reminded myself of her beauty each time, just to convince myself that my picking heart rate was as a result of the endless love I had for her.But my wolf kept snickering at me like that couldn't be further from the truth.And then seconds later, I realized why he’d done that. A force that nearly crippled my entire being made me look towards the door and I dragged in a sharp breath that I nearly tripped on nothing. The startling after effect caused my champagne glass to slip and shatter at my feet.Scarlett in white was the most magnificent view I’d ever laid eyes on.As soon as I saw her walk into the hall, my heart rate skyrocketed and my senses dulled to every sight that wasn’t her and any sound that wasn't from her.Her slend
SCARLETT “How many minutes apart are your contractions?” “Can you feel the pups crowning already?” “Should I get the midwives?” My husbands circled around me like vultures readying their prey, asking me a million and one questions like I was not as clueless about childbirth as they were. They’d read a library worth of childbirth and parenting books from the moment I found out I was pregnant and yet they were as nervous as a completely ignorant parent would be. “Stop hovering over her, please,” Hyacinth sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked into the birthing room, “the birthing process will begin any moment and I’ll need you all to either be quiet and or absent so I can get to work.” They all murmured amongst each other before finally falling quiet. “I’m going to give you a mild anesthetic so you don’t feel a thing and sleep through it, alright?” she turned to me with a kind smile and I nodded. I felt nerves already wrecking my body upon hearing that, I was reminded of the c
LOGANThree long yet amazing months went by and the D-day finally arrived. I couldn’t believe that I was about to be married to Scarlett and it seemed that neither Blake nor Alex could believe it seeing how nervous they were while getting dressed for the ceremony. We’d watched her become the best version of herself in the last three months and judging from all the power and potential she radiated, even three Vaughn men might not be enough of a match for her. Still, I was beyond elated to see what a marriage as unique as ours had in store for us in the coming years. And for the rest of our lives. “I still can’t figure this shit out!” Blake whined as he wrongly knotted his tie for the hundredth time and Alex and I laughed at him. “If you’re too nervous to knot your tie, maybe you should just sit out the wedding ceremony,” Alex teased him. “Yeah, it’s a small wedding anyways. We’ll just add your name to the marriage certificate and crop you into the pictures for the wedding album,” I
SCARLETTWe did it? “Yeah, we fucking did it,” Logan’s excited response made me realize that I’d asked that question out loud instead of in my head as I’d assumed. “And that’s only because you had the balls to put yourself on the line when we weren’t willing to take that risk,” Alex added, flipping a pancake effortlessly with a slight tilt of the pan. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes at his stellar skills, wondering how he was able to pull that off when I couldn’t even do it while carefully using a frying spoon. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’re no longer focused on our victory over the Shahato and you’re now hating on everyone that can make a proper pancake unlike you,” Blake said through a chuckle. I narrowed my eyes at him, picking a grape off my plate and throwing it at his head for teasing me. “Ow!” he exclaimed when it hit his forehead. “Serves you right,” I grinned before taking a generous bite of my sandwich. That led to back and forth banter, and as much a
SCARLETTAgain, they’d come to my rescue at the perfect moment.Unlike the last time, I refused to lose faith in them, so seeing them was more than an answered prayer, it was the confirmation of a truth I’d been steadfastly holding unto.I felt relief course through my entire body as the army pounced on the Shahato warriors, shifting to their wolf form and ripping our enemies apart before they had the chance to rejoice over my burnt corpse.Suddenly, the regret I felt when I was thrown into the portal that brought me here washed away and I was pleased with myself for following through with the baiting plan that brought us this far. I had a feeling that after this battle, we’d finally know peace and harmony instead of the chaos and despair we’d had to endure for months now.I was so lost in imagining a time of calm and quiet that I even forgot that fire was slowly creeping towards me as the altar behind me burnt away. It was when I smelt thick fumes suffocating me that I looked behind
LOGANI still felt shitty and stupid for how immature I’d acted when Scarlett disappeared behind that godforsaken portal.Blake didn’t deserve to be choked so heartlessly when all he did was keep me from breaking my foot to pieces—because believe me, that was my intention when I started kicking that rock. Yet, he’d stopped me from hurting myself foolishly and I repaid him like an absolute asshole.I knew I’d apologized, but it didn’t seem enough so I made a mental note in the back of my mind to make it up to him somehow after we rescued Scarlett.“Guys! Over here! Quickly!” Hyacinth called out to me and my brothers and we rushed to where she was bent over on the floor and holding a glass shard.“What did you find? Please give us some good news,” Alex practically begged as he crouched beside her.“Their sorcerer must’ve mistakenly dropped this while closing the portal in a hurry, and now I know exactly where those bastards took her,” she jumped to her feet and Alex followed suit.“Wher
ALEXFan–fucking–tastic!This bloody plan blew up in our faces just like I’d predicted it would. Those cunning bastards just zapped our mate through a portal and I couldn’t feel her through the bond from the moment they disappeared into it.I guessed that neither Blake nor Logan could feel her either because they equally seemed like they were going mad.“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck this!” Logan yelled on the top of his voice while kicking a rock repeatedly until I heard a toe snap and blood started to ooze from his boot.That didn’t stop him though, he kept spitting profanities and angrily kicking the rock until Blake ran towards him and dragged him away from the rock and set him on the floor.“What the hell is wrong with you, Logan? How the hell does that fix shit!?” Blake leaned forward, placing his hands on both knees while screaming right into Logan’s face.Instead od answering, Logan reached out and gripped Blake’s neck and started to twist it with rage burning in his eyes. I immediat
SCARLETTThe morning of the full moon had finally arrived, and just like everyone else, I hoped that things went according to plans.None of us could handle any surprises because the chances of the plan going smoothly hinged on us being in complete control. To ensure that nothing went wrong, Hyacinth got a team of sorcerers to cast truth spells on the army in a bid to uncover any hidden spies from the Shahatos.Once we confirmed that every warrior was loyal to us, we finally let them in on the plan for the first time since we’d hatched it.Afterwards, Blake and Alex guided them through morning drills and helped them memorize the parts of the plan they were instrumental to, Logan and I kept Hyacinth company while she and her group of sorcerers did a location spell.Unlike the former location spells they’d casted to locate me when I was captured, this was much more likely to work because she’d used the blood of the prisoners that were recently executed. She assured us that with a team o
SCARLETTOnce again, Hyacinth had to come to our aid.We rushed Alex home and called her to come by the house as soon as possible. After ten minutes that felt like an eternity, she finally arrived and got to work on speeding up his healing. She explained that he invested wolfsbane and that’s why he wasn’t healing even after Blake and Logan cleaned and bandaged his wounds properly as soon as we got home.Hyacinth fed him some potions, but when they didn’t work, she told us that the wolfsbane had been in his system for far too long so she would need a powerful spell to magically detox him of it so his wolf could heal.While she convened with the powers that be on the required spell for such a crucial procedure, I paced the entire room worriedly while saying prayers to the moon goddess and ignoring the words of comfort being thrown my way from Logan and Blake.For some reason, I still felt fractions of the fear and pain I felt when I thought he was going to take his life just to prove a
SCARLETTAn hour passed and I immediately rallied Logan and Blake into the car to go in search of Alex. The longer we went without being able to contact or find him, the more I regretted listening to Logan and Blake instead of my wolf.And now because of my negligence, we were all worried out of our minds for Alex.It was almost nightfall and neither of us could reach or find him still. And believe me, we’d tried everything we could possibly think of. Logan tried to track his phone but his men found it dumped in a roadside bin and had no other means of tracing where he went from there because the traffic cams in that area were all busted.After that dead end, we’d all gone around the city in search of him but we couldn’t pick up his scent talk less of find his car.Normally, we’d have assumed that he was just somewhere blowing off steam and stayed home to wait on him. But ever since the marking ritual, we had a much stronger bond and could feel each other’s emotions and a while ago we