I couldn't deny the truth. “I'm so sorry, Tanya. I didn't mean for it to happen-” “It’s my fault.” There were tears in her eyes now. “I should never have told Mother to ask her to come back home. Then we would have gotten married, and I'd have been yours. You would have been mine. It's my fault.”“Tanya-” “I hate her so much.” The solemn way she dropped that statement made me pause. “...what?”Her tear-stained eyes looked directly at me, and I saw a storm blooming in them. “I said,” she sniffed. “That I hate her. I hate her so much.”Then she turned and fled.Julian came out not long after that with on unconscious Diane. “Had to put her out,” he grimaced, opening the door of a car I hadn't noticed before. “She was calling me a child.” I didn't know how to reply to that.He waved me over after he'd got into the driver's seat. “Get in. You need to give that official statement of yours, and soon. Diane's goons are still there.” I did as he'd said, and soon after, I'd dropped Audrey
If I could describe it, I'd call it electric. Just like the time our eyes met.“Can I-” he paused, seeming surprised that his voice had dropped by an octave, then chuckled embarrassedly. “No. It's too soon.”“What is?” I whispered, not wanting to distort the mood that had been created.I didn't miss the way his gaze dropped my lips and slowly traveled back up to my eyes, and my wolf protested when he stepped back from me. “It's nothing. I'll be back soon.” “But Alpha-”“Oh, and,” he said with a slight frown. “You should stop calling me Alpha. Call me Roman.” Immediately, I shook my head. “That would make it seem like I'm competing with Tanya for your heart. I won't…I can't do that. Not to her.”Hearing my stepsister's name, his eyes dimmed, and he looked away. “It doesn't matter anymore.”I was pretty sure I had a confused expression at that moment. “What do you mean? You two are engaged to be married in a few hours. How can you say it doesn't matter…” I trailed off, a random though
“I need space, Mother.” A sob raked its way out of Tanya's throat. “And I'd prefer if you just-”“Come on, Tanya.” Diane felt desperate now. This had gone on for long enough. “Please. Let me help out, at least.”Silence greeted her statement, and then she heard a loud sigh. Seconds later, a puffy-eyed and bedraggle haired Tanya stared at her. “You can help out by staying out, Mother. But since you just wouldn't give up, come in.”Seeing that look on her daughter's face almost broke Diane, but she kept her emotions in check.Tanya flopped on the clustered bed, and her mother, momentarily forgetting her mission, examined the situation with concerned eyes. “Don't you try to say something derogatory against me,” the younger woman suddenly said, startling her mother. “I’m grieving, Mother.”“I was not going to,” Diane replied, clearing an area with her hand and sitting there. “I was just…it's a mess.”“I'm a mess. It's just a reflection of how I feel right now.” Subconsciously, Tanya's h
Marcus hummed again, his other hand running lines up and down her upper body, occasionally brushing her clit. “That won't be easy, Diane. I hate him as much as you do, but the Crimson Wolves apparently have laid a mark on him. He's their target now. What I can do, however, is help you kill him slowly.”Her initial disappointment gave way to curiosity. “How?” “Poisoning, of course.” He grinned. “But you'll only get it at a price.”Oh, she was completely aware. She agreed to his terms immediately, and jerked him off as a bonus signature. When he was sound asleep, she took her things and shimmied into her clothes, calmly opening the door and walking back to her room like nothing had happened, only to pause when she noticed Donald standing in front of her room, about to knock. They stared at each other for a while, before the young man chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck. “My shift just ended, so I thought-”She laughed lightly and told him to wait, then pulled out th
The DNA sequence didn't match the normal human’s, he'd discovered. It'd taken a while for him to adjust to it, and while he didn't tell my secret to anyone, it'd been odd for him to accept my existence. But he'd stuck close since then, and had offered his services in case I ever needed them. I needed his skills more than ever in that moment. He grinned at me when he opened the door and invited me in, then whistled softly when he saw my face. “I hate to break it to you, boy, but you look like shit.” “I'm aware,” I retorted drily. “I can't do anything about it, however.” He looked me over with a frown on his face and offered me a seat which I politely accepted, then waited till I was settled in before he attacked me with questions. One disadvantage of being friends with a scientist was that every moment was a cause for questioning. Even breaking up a wedding on the wedding day. “There's a much more important thing at stake here,” I interjected when I'd had enough. He po
I lifted my gaze to my friend's face. “Huh? What was that?”“He said that you two…” Jacob gritted his teeth. “He said that you two are fated to each other. Is that true, Audrey?” I took in a deep breath, then let it out, and nodded. “We are. I'm as surprised as you are, but it's the truth.”“Is that why you ran away the other time? While we were walking?” He was so terribly observant at times that I didn't know whether to love or hate him for it. “No, it…it was related to him, but I didn't know we were mates then. It was more of the fact that we'd met somewhere before, and I didn't want him to see or recognize me.”“That didn't work out in the end, huh?”I blew a raspberry. “Nope. Not one bit.”He chuckled and passed a hand through his hair. “Does he…hurt you in any way? Like, say any insulting words? Or physically? You can always reject him as your mate if he's doing that, and obviously that is abuse, so you can also-”“If anything, he's terribly remorseful and is trying to make me
“W-what?” I asked, momentarily confused and slightly frightened as he lifted me off the bed and sat me down again. “I- you…dear Luna.” He got up from the bed and took a few steps back. My heart sunk into my stomach when I saw the disgusted look on his face. “R-Roman?”“I touched you,” he muttered, staring at his hands. “I can't believe I fucking touched you.”For a second I thought I hadn't heard him well. “Well, what's so bad about that? We're mates, aren't we?” He looked up from his hands to my face, and I was tempted to recoil at the haunted look on his face. “No, Audrey. I'm not worthy of that title. Not yet. A lot is going on, at the moment.” This again. “But Roman, I told you that I forgive you. You're perfectly fine now-” “I'm not worthy of you yet, Audrey.” His voice was resolute. “I caused you to feel so much pain in the little time I got to know you all because I couldn't handle my feelings and didn't know the necessary steps to take at the time.”I stared at him, in
Roman POV:She stared at me for a moment before shrugging and nodding her head. “One random guy from high school. Christoph. I found out during graduation, and rejected him immediately.”The emotion that bubbled up in my heart could not be properly described, but it was a mixture of surprise and horror. I'd been opportune to attend her high school graduation since my father was the guest of honor, and recalled having to stop a boy named Christoph from ingesting a bottle of pills when I wandered to the back of the school.But I hadn't succeeded in stopping his death, because two days later, news went around that he'd drowned in a lake. Only I knew it most likely wasn't an accident. He'd attempted to take his own life again.Now, years later, I found out that he'd been rejected that very day. It was a stretch to say that the rejection was the cause of his suicide, but I'd heard enough stories to know that the feeling of being rejected was like that of being stabbed with a hundred knives
Audrey POV:Paul tensed beside me when he saw the look as well, but I knew it was a defense mechanism, not because he wanted to fight Jacob. As Gamma, Jacob was leader of the Guard, and there was no way Paul would strike him unless Jacob attempted to hit me first. Which, from the look in his eyes, seemed very much likely. However, I was sure he wouldn't do that. Right from time, Jake preferred to talk things over than use his fists. That knowledge gave me the courage to continue approaching him as he sat on a stone watching his soldiers train. “Jake.”He glared at me, then turned back to his trainees. “What are you doing here?” We were attracting a bit of attention. I almost panicked. “I need to talk to you. Please.” He didn't look at me, and I saw the slight tense in his shoulders before he spoke. “Where's your mate?” The bitter tone of his voice indicated he wasn't asking out of excitement, but out of anger. I was taken aback. Why was he asking about Roman? “I-” I paused, cleari
“He's dangerous,” she said, her voice wavering. “How the hell did you get roped with him?”She knew him. Great Luna. They knew each other. I was about to speak when Marvin pulled me closer to him, and briefly sighted a grin on his face. “Well, there was a bit of back and forth in the beginning, Diane. But the most important information is that we're mates now.” He pecked the side of my head, and I hated the butterflies that erupted in my stomach as a result of his action. “Meaning we’re in-laws. Isn't that wonderful?”My mother's response to his question was to collapse. ♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎Audrey POV:Roman was suspicious. I knew that much from the expression he'd given me three nights before when I returned from the bathroom. It'd been on his face for just a second, but I'd seen it clearly, and it'd registered in my mind before he switched to a neutral look. And ever since the following morning, we hadn't slept in the same bed, nor had he come looking for me. It was obvious he had his rese
Tanya POV:Marvin hadn't called yet. I stared at my phone, wondering when he would. After he smacked Audrey into unconsciousness, he told me to stay put and not do anything till he returned to visit or called me. I'd obeyed, of course, but it was noon, and I hadn't seen either hide or tail of him. It wasn't like I was worried for him. I just didn't want him to find himself in trouble because that would put a major damp on his plans. And his plans included me, so I would be suffering by association. I didn't want that. Especially now that I was the town's joke. I sighed, placing my phone screen down beside me and staring up at my ceiling. It hadn't been up to four months since Audrey arrived, yet she'd turned so many things upside down. I'd gone from being the most envied to the most joked about, from the most beautiful to the most idiotic, and from the beloved Tanya Hill to the Hill brat. Mother had started ignoring me, too, going for long days without exactly saying where she was
Roman POV:Marvin’s forehead was wrinkled when I finished describing the events Julian and I had gone through, and his lips were pursed together. When they were finally separated, it was to let out a breath. “Well, that sucks.”It did suck. Apart from the incident where we’d found that Gertrude was in cahoots with some Crimson Wolves’ worker, Margrave wanting me to give up Audrey for a shaky alliance had continually echoed in my mind, and I was beyond annoyed about it, even if a part of me had begun to doubt my mate's credibility. I adored her with all of me, but who was to say she wasn't- ‘No, Roman,’ I told myself, stalling the buildup of such thoughts in my mind. I had to hold off on my assumptions. ‘Stop that. Audrey wouldn’t do that to you.’ Or would she? “Well, I have the perfect solution to end at least half of the problems.”I looked at my stepbrother, who had a mischievous smile on his face. I didn’t need to think twice to know that whatever he'd cooked up was something cri
Roman POV:I stared at my mate while she struggled to explain. A similar occurrence happened when we first met, and she'd begged for innocence. I'd been on edge during that period, and I was not in the mood to accept whatever she had to say. Thus, I'd been very eager to toss her into prison, though that wasn't the best move at that moment. My brow furrowed as I realized the case was never really solved. We'd seen a note with her, I'd had her arrested…but that was it. I hadn't investigated further into the situation after her brush with death. I'd been too afraid to lose her. As I watched her stutter and fall over her words, I wondered if that hadn't been a mistake. What if she actually was in liaise with the Crimson Wolves? Or the rogues, at least? She carried the Gatrix-Hill blood, after all; there was nothing stopping her from being in cahoots with her father's networks. Her father's networks. My eyebrow twitched. But Audrey obviously didn't see that action, because she kept
Audrey POV:The guards stood at attention the moment they saw their Alpha emerge, and I felt so much relief at the presence of my mate that I didn't hesitate to go into his arms, not even when his brooding Beta came out of the car as well. Roman squeezed me so tight it seemed as though he never wanted to let me go, and I reveled in the feeling of his arms around me, wanting to freeze time at that moment. But there were more important things. “What happened here?” the Beta asked, his brows furrowed. “Why is this woman outside?”I tried to step out of Roman's arms, but his arms tightened around me. “Don't go,” he whispered. I resisted the urge to chuckle and obeyed. “Well?” my mate said out loud, his eyes dark as he looked at the pack guards. “Talk. Anyone of you. Why is my mate outside?” The guards seemed to remember themselves and flew to open the gates, before baring their neck in obeisance. “Alpha.”Roman scowled. “I didn't ask for a greeting. I asked for a goddamn explanation.
Roman POV:It was in the middle of the night. Julian and I had found it difficult to sleep, and we'd stayed awake for a long time discussing the next course of action as regards the revelation about Gertrude and her Crimson Wolves lover. An hour before we heard the scratching sounds, we'd finally drawn a plan up. Thus we’d retired to bed, but my eyes opened when I heard the sounds. A second later, Julian had sat up. “Do you hear that?” he mouthed to me, and I nodded, my eyes trained on the door. Someone was trying to get in, but not by kicking the door open. The person wanted to come in quietly. I heard whispers and narrowed my eyes. Not a person. Persons. That meant a group of people wanted to sneak into the room. In such a situation, especially in a place like Roguemania, it meant they didn't have good intent. They wanted to cause us harm. Most likely kill us. Julian looked at me with a questioning glance, asking if he should go ahead and kill them immediately. But I shook my h
Audrey POV:I shivered from the coolness of the place I’d been caged in, completely unaware about the goings on of the outside world. Jacob and Derek hadn't replied my other fear-filled questions when I'd awoken, and at a point Jacob had snapped at me to shut up, with certain backstories on when his hatred for me began. I almost could not believe it. Jacob, my close friend, had kidnapped and regarded me as some annoying fly he'd had to put up with. I was finding it hard to accept that he and Tanya had planned the entire ruse. How could he have done that to me? He'd been brazen enough to destroy my trust in him without a trace of remorse. We'd grown up together, for crying out loud. He was my best friend! He'd changed so much, that I knew when I returned. He'd become the Gamma, and though he tried to be normal with me, I could feel it. He was different. Perhaps I'd changed too, but that hadn't stopped me from being his genuine friend. I loved him just as I'd loved him before I fled
Roman POV:The last time I’d seen Gertrude was about two weeks ago, when she'd been brought to my office from her place of temporary confinement so we could discuss the terms of co-parenting, after which the guards had returned her to the quarters.And now she'd appeared in a place I'd never have dreamed of seeing her in. Julian had a frown on his face. “What's she doing here?” I had the very same question. But we knew we would not get our answer by standing in the street, so we followed her quietly, ensuring she would not be able to see us. Due to the training we'd received as spies, this was terribly easy, also considering the fact that she was an amateur at sneaking about. Finally she turned into the back of a rundown bar, and I frowned when I sighted another figure behind the said bar. Another look confirmed that it was a male, and when she threw her arms around him, my eyes narrowed. Well, she'd drugged me to sleep with me and get pregnant. Had I really expected that I'd be