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:I raced through the woods, my heart pounding in fear. I'd shifted in the course of my escape, and my senses were terribly heightened now. It was as though I was one with the woods. Every scent, every twig crack, every noise…I could perceive them all. I could especially perceive the wolves that were currently bounding after me. The sound of their snarls echoed in the woods behind me, causing stabs of fear to run through my heart. I almost couldn’t breathe.The cold air slashed through my lungs as I ran, my paws slamming against the damp earth, scattering leaves and dirt in every direction. My heart thundered in my chest, a deafening rhythm that drowned out everything- save for the snarls behind me. They were getting closer to me, each one louder and more closer than the last. The forest around me blurred, a dizzying smear of bark, shadow, and moonlight. Twigs snapped under my foot, branches tore through my fur.Somewhere, somehow, in the middle of my desperate run for s
Roman POV:The air that left my lungs at her statement slowly returned, but that still didn't stop the shock from flowing off me in waves. “What-” I paused at my choked voice, coughed, then started again. “What do you mean by that?”She gave me a sad look. “Roman, if I can't find Audrey right now, then it means she's in danger. Whether it is that she's unconscious- for someone could have knocked her out- or that she's…well…”“She's not dead.”No. It couldn't happen. She'd only just walked into my life. I couldn't lose her just like that. Audrey was a light, a beacon of hope that I could find love, even in this bleak world where I was surrounded by so much hate and betrayal. Mother shook her head. “Obviously, I don't wish for her to be. She's such a sweetheart. What I'm trying to say is-” “Audrey's not dead!” I snarled despite myself. She bit her lower lip and turned away. “No, Mother. She cannot be dead. For crying out loud, it hasn't even been up to a year since she stepped into m
Roman POV:“You did quite well,” Julian said to me while I watched Jacob supervise the cleaning of the conference room. It'd been about fifteen minutes since the meeting ended, and a part of me had reveled in the fear the elders had in their eyes whenever they crossed the body of their dead comrade. “You really didn't have to kill anyone though.”“They are infuriating,” I said emotionlessly as the cleaners began their job. “It was high time they learned that I wasn't just the old Alpha's son. I am the Alpha.” My best friend gave me a look. “I hope that doesn't mean you plan to resort to the harsh ways of your father.”“Never,” I grunted. “But I'll have to place some respect in these elders’ hearts. They need to be reminded of their position before me.” My Beta merely passed a breath through his mouth. “If you say so, Roman. I just really hope you're not using your anger with your mate's disappearance to cloud your greater sense of judgment.” “Audrey's disappearance has nothing to
Audrey POV:I gawked as Sam opened a portal the moment I accepted his hand. He grinned at me while the magic door pulsated with energy, and placed a leg into it. “Come on, young lady.”I hesitated, suddenly feeling very unsure and stupid. The moment he extended his hand, I'd snatched it without thinking. As soon as he opened the portal, it hit me. Just who exactly was I about to follow through a portal that only he knew that location it led to? Sure, he'd claimed to have known my father, but almost everyone knew my father then. Not only did I not know his true intentions, but he'd been part of the men that watched my humiliation. He cocked his head to the side when he saw my hesitation. “What's the matter?” “I don't know you. You might want to kill me,” I blurted, turning red when he began to laugh. “That's what you’re bothered about, darling?” he chuckled. “I just saved you from getting raped and potentially mauled by that piece of scum.” He stepped forward. “You really think you
Roman POV:“This is preposterous!” I glared at the elder who'd just spoken, and he wisely kept his mouth shut immediately. Lucky for him. I would have slit his throat if he made one more sound. I wasn't supposed to be here. I was supposed to be out saving Audrey. I was supposed to have gotten her into my arms, and rescued her from whatever hellhole Edward Kim had put her in. “I apologize for speaking out of turn, Alpha,” the elder who'd just interrupted my speech said, fear shining in his eyes. “I was just…I'm laden with emotion at how much torment this pack has fallen into.”I schooled my features into blankness. “Thank you so much for your concern, Logan, but you haven't even been around to know how much torment we are in right now.” He reddened and turned away, knowing what I'd said was true. Just like Diane Hill, he'd disappeared for a while, but he'd returned a bit earlier than she had. A nasty thought about him dying just like Kennedy and Hill crossed my mind, but i waved it
Audrey POV:I was returned to the dark room when the men had had enough of me. The visiting Brothers were not returning to their homes, so I was to be a spectacle for them again the following day. In the meantime, Derek wanted me to ‘rest’, which essentially meant he didn't want me to die yet. Normally I would have willingly killed myself to escape his torture, but I had people’s lives tied to mine. I had no idea what Edward Kim would do if I committed suicide. That would be against the deal we made, right? So I kept quiet and let Derek do whatever he wanted till he finally ended my life. My body was bruised all over again from the beatings Derek had given me, and every time I laid against the cold wall or put too much pressure on the side of my body that rested on the hard ground, I cried out in pain. I wanted to curl into a ball and cry, but I knew the would cause unimaginable agony. And Derek's words at the beginning about him wanting to hear me cry out in pain haunted me, so I f
Audrey POV:“I still don't know what exactly to do for her sendforth into the great beyond,” my holding master laughed as I coughed out blood, feeling the life slowly draining out of me. I'd been presented on a makeshift stage before some of the ‘Brothers’ that Derek had invited to watch my torture spectacle. They were surrounded by lots of food, and they chuckled at Derek's jokes while I writhed in pain. “Perhaps you should save her the torment of a prolonged death,” one of them said. “Just one swipe across her throat and you'll be done with it.”Derek seemed to consider the idea. “The issue now is, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be done with it so easily. She's still alive. Her eyes haven't lost their spark.” He bared his teeth playfully at me. “I need that spark to disappear first. Then I'll kill her.” Fear gripped me, and if my wrists weren't bound and my body hurting, I'd have attempted to slide away. “Any news from Kim?” another of the Brothers asked, spearing a pi
Tanya POV:“You did good,” Marvin said, placing a hand on my shoulder. “They didn't suspect a thing. I'm proud of you.” I didn't say a word, merely staring ahead, like I expected my mother to appear before me. The moment I heard the explosion, I'd sunk to my knees, crying out loud. Marvin had immediately gagged me again and held me close, being both good and evil at the same time. I'd leaned against him, too tired to decide what was right or fair and what wasn't. The following morning, I woke up cuffed to a chair, and he laid beside me, his eyes closed. However, the moment I shuffled, his eyes opened wide, and his gaze bored into mine. It was then I knew I wasn't going anywhere, no matter what he did to me. Not because I was afraid of him, but because I’d given myself to him. Mind, body and soul. For better, for worse, right? “Jacob is coming soon, so you'd better dress up.” His hand pressed on my shoulder. “And look very presentable.”I gave an almost imperceptible nod. Jacob had
Roman POV:“Hold on,” Julian said while I absentmindedly kicked a small rock along the road. “Your mother is…Ruby? Ruby is your mother? I don't understand.” It'd confused me too, but after I returned to my room, I found Ruby staring wide eyed at me. It hit me that she probably wasn't completely aware of what was happening with her. We were on our way to Marvin's apartment to pay a courtesy visit to Tanya regarding the destruction of the Hill residence. According to Julian, Diane Hill's body had still not been found, but the probability of her being burnt to ashes was much higher than the probability of her crawling out of the inferno. I didn't like the woman at all, but that didn't completely mean I wanted her gone. She was Tanya's backbone, from what I noticed when we together, and finding out about her mother's death must have been very hard for her. That's why I asked Julian to accompany me. “It really doesn't make any sense,” Julian was mumbling. “Did your mother go back in ti