I was almost arriving at the podium when I felt someone grab my wrist, stopping me from moving any further. “What are you doing?” Linda asked in a hushed tone, looking down at my claws. I jerked my hands away from her slightly strong grip, shaking them to make the claws go away. “Nothing, I just-” I looked back to the podium and my eyes met Lavender’s, staring directly at me, even as she stood beside Damien who was still speaking. “I just need some breathing space, I’ll be right back.” I said before walking past her, out of the hall. I did not want to believe I almost thought of walking up to that podium and sending those sharp claws into Lavender’s chest. I see, a little bit of control is changing my thinking. I ran up the stairs, to head up to my room where I can have a little bit of quiet time and talk to myself before I do something I might regret, but unfortunately bumped into someone. “Sorry-” I wanted to apologize as usual but stopped when I looked up to see no one else but Ma
After getting dressed I headed downstairs, to the kitchen and grabbed a tray, walking into the hall, filled with lots and lots of people. I took a deep breath before walking around to serve the drinks in my head. Honestly, I wish I wouldn't be here. The stares I got from the people already, made me just want to disappear. They already knew who I am, the shackle around my neck gave me away. I stopped when a woman in a black glittery dress turned to me, raising her hands to grab a glass. "You," She spoke, staring at me disdainfully. "You're the stealer." I only stared at her plainly , not saying a word at all."When I speak, you reply." She spoke, showing off so much elegance that she could. "I see, you have no idea when you're speaking to a Luna huh?" Now I know why she acted so bitchy, she must be a mate to one of these alphas. I still don't care though, I'm here to just do my job and leave the place as soon as possible."Excuse me." The look of shock on her face was quite evident,
We returned back to our spot after a few hours of playing around in the woods."Omg, that was soooo fun." She screamed, sitting on a lot of wood. I froze when I heard footsteps walking into the woods, still quite far away though. But I could hear it closely, probably because I was still in my wolf form."Shit, you have to shift back in your human form." She must've heard it too, because she immediately stood up, already alert.Shit! How do I shift back?! This is my first time doing this and I have no idea how any of this works out. Thankfully, after a few deep breaths to calm myself down I finally did it, standing on the ground completely bare. To make things faster, Linda grabbed my clothes and pushed them to me. In less than a minute I was already dressed, brushing my fingers through my messy hair, trying to make it straight. Surprisingly, Noah showed up right where we were, like he was here searching for us. "There's a ceremony going on." He began speaking as soon as he was stand
*The Next day*I wasn't spared today, Nina made sure to come wake me up herself very early this morning. I'm not complaining though, I'm pretty used to all the works already, but everything today was quite different. I received lot of cussed from Nina due to how slow I was today. Well, anyone in my shoes would be the same after what happened last night. I have never seen him so vulnerable.I heaved out a deep sigh for the umpteenth time, leaning against the wall of the store room. What if he is not so cruel like I thought and was just pretending to be one heartless alpha just got reputation? He isn't as scary as everyone thinks he is? The way I saw him yesterday totally changed my thinking about. Who the hell is Serena? She must've someone very important to him maybe, romantically important though, cause there'll be no way he'd kiss me if they weren't that close. I guess if I need answers to my numerous questions I better ask Linda, she must definitely know who it is?I walked out o
“Are you sure about this?” I asked as soon as we were seated in the car, I didn't really like the idea of leaving the pack. What if we get into trouble over there? Or even trouble with Damien?“You worry too much Bella, no one would find out, only if we don’t tell anyone, no one at all.” She spoke and without a second thought, ignited the car engine and drove away, heading outside the pack.Minutes later we were already past the pack, driving through the streets of the big human city. “You sure you know where you’re going?” I asked in concern, noticing she has been driving through a particular street over and over again.“Yes, I just wanted to be sure about something, well here we are.” She muttered as she stopped in front of a library, staring outside the window. “This is definitely it, so much changes to confuse me, come on let’s go in.”“Okay,” I unstrapped the seat beat around me, ready to leave the car when she suddenly yelled.“Wait!”“What is it?” She did not give a reply yet a
“Huh? What are they?” I asked, now most confused.“Huh? You don’t know about them?” Linda asked in surprise, glancing at me before focusing back on the road.“Hey, don’t look at me like that; you know how I grew up.”“They are wolf hunters Bella, they hunt wolves, they hunt us!” “Oh, that’s pretty bad; we better get back to the pack on time.”“And that is one thing we can’t do, we can’t lead them to the pack, or else we’ll be putting everyone’s lives in danger.” She was practically yelling as she kept driving round and round.“So what do we do?”“I don’t know, we just have to lose them, or else everybody dies.” The way she said it made me regret agreeing with her to come here in the first place, if I knew there was something called that, I would never agree to come here.“Can you call for backup from the pack? We definitely need help here.”“Huh, we can’t do that! You know how much trouble we would be in if Damien finds out we left the pack, and we would have no choice than to tell h
Bella's POVSoon we arrived back at the pack, making sure to find out way back to Linda's house without getting seen by anybody. I plopped down on the sofa, letting out several pants and closed my eyes, trying to catch my breaths."Are you okay?" Linda asked in concern as she sat beside me. I could feel her boring into my skin, but I didnnot reply at first, waiting till I was quite calm."No, I'm not! There's no way I'd be." I replied after a few minutes, placing my hands on my chest. There were blood stains on the coat I was wearing, making me realize how much I was bleeding. "It's fine Bella, we lost them and thankfully, we're safe now." "What?! Lost them?! Or killed them?!!" I flared up in anger, placing both of my palms on the side of my head. My hands were trembling, I was hell scared of what I did, this would be the first time I'd ever kill anyone by myself and not be controlled by the stealer wolf. And it's the worst moment of my life! Why did I even speak in the first place?
Okay, what the hell just happened?I was very sure this wasn't a dream or hallucinations due to how hard Lavender was glaring at me. But I was more confused on why he'd do that? He hates me, though there's some kind of doubt now that he might be pretending but I never expected him to do that. At least not to Lavender, she was his Luna and should probably have that right just like him, but I think things were different than I thought.Lavender turned to me, glaring hard at me, obviously embarrassed at what just happened before storming away. Looks like Linda has a lot to hear now. Seeing the maids now put all focus on me, I grabbed my equipment, walking out of the gardens.Damien's POV"Alpha Zane already gave feedback he received the package, he said he'd like to do more business with us." I rubbed my fingers against my temple as Lucas gave reports of all our deals with other packs."Okay okay, I'll talk to you later." I said dismissively, waiting for him to leave. I just need a litt
Eleven years laterMarilee's POVOnce again, I'm woken by the aggressive sound of my alarm ringing, I blindly reach to grab it and threw it across the room. The satisfied sound of it smashing against the wall makes me lie on the bed again, taking a deep breath."Marilee, what the hell was that?" I heard dad say as he walked into the room. "Marilee, that's the eighth alarm in just two weeks!" I don't reply to him but bury my face into the pillow, trying to fall asleep again. "Marilee!" Dad yelled again, pulling the duvet off my body. "That's it! Get up, you're going to be late for school!""Can I get just ten more minutes?" I mumbled, curling myself into a ball."No, get up now." He held my arm, pulling me from the bed. "Geez, you'll be sixteen in a few weeks do I have to keep doing this?""If only you'd let me make a choice here," I grumbled, frowning as he placed me on my feet."I hate school, yeah say that again. Marilee, you would be a future leader, you need to make the other kids
Bella's POVIt's been exactly eight weeks since that ugly incident happened. Eight weeks of reconstructing the whole pack, we moved them from the woods where they had been hiding back to the pack. Most parts of the pack were destroyed, especially the packhouse, but it was a chance to change a few of the settings of the packhouse.We laid the dead to rest, using a few weeks to mourn them. It wasn't easy for Damien to get over the guilt of killing his best friend. Taylor was doing quite well now that she had her father, Helen was right. She would be the same if she were with me, she just needed someone very close to her. Heather was back with her parents Zoe and Tobias who were survivors of such long captivity. Damien has been very close to Marilee who seemed to enjoy his company more than mine. It wasn't so hard to convince her that he was her father, she could feel the bond and gave in quickly, besides she had been waiting so long for her 'daddy'. They've grown closer more than I was
I froze, feeling shivers run down my spine when he said those words. I managed to stand up, staring at Damien in shock. Those words rang in my head over and over again.What could it mean?“The stupid symbiosis experiment went wrong on them and now they aren’t what we think,” Freya answered my question and I shook my head trying not to believe it. I did not want to feel hopeless, not after coming this far.“ But there could be something, to save him right? Like an antidote?” I asked, rubbing my palm on my pants.“You really think those scientists make an antidote for all of their mistakes? Do you think they ever fix them? Snap out of this Bella, we have to find a way to bring him back ourselves.” I pressed my lips tight, trying to shove back the cry threatening to escape my lips."Okay." I sniffed, taking in several deep breaths. From the corner of my eyes, I saw the others take several steps back after sighting Damien. He stopped in front of the cell, looked to the side to stare at t
I lunged at the guard closest to me, grabbed him by his neck, and twisted in the wrong direction; I heard a snap and his body went limp. Weak humans! I used his body as a shield for a few seconds as the other guards opened fire and as shooting wildly at me. Knowing it wasn’t going to last and dropped him and moved with speed to dodge those bullets, but I was shocked the most when it seemed the whole world stopped, I could see the bullets in the air, moving very slowly while I just stood watching. What the hell is happening? I looked down at my body to see those magical flames around me; it was on every part of my body, looking so soft. I guess this was what Helen meant by being gifted by the goddess with special powers. I felt really strong and it was like my fingertips were filled with electricity. Well, let’s put this to good use. I held the bullets and the air and threw them back to the men, then everything turned back to normal and they fell to the ground dead. They must’ve called
I tried to push all nervousness and doubts aside as I stood before the huge abandoned-looking laboratory. I see they did a pretty good job hiding from the authorities and the government. I walked around the building, tucking my hands into my coat's pockets. I was dressed in black shirt, black pants and brown coat with white sneakers, comfortable enough for me to run when I sighted the camera. I stopped, immediately I saw the first camera, moving closer to stare up at it. My lips curved into a smile when I saw the red tiny light and without waiting another second, I turned around, walking away in hurried footsteps. As soon as I was out of sight, I took to my heels, hidiny between tall buildings in the area."I'm done." I said, speaking through the mind link to Noah. "We're watching the cameras, just stay where you are till we see the results." "Okay," This was our plan, quite crazy though. Noah suggested we let the hunters come for us, that way we'd be better prepared. They would def
Returning to the Library, Helen insisted I take some rest and continue with the plan later. Knowing she was right and I was feeling quite weak already, I did as she said, retiring to bed since it was late evening already. She gave me a room that consisted of just a middle-sized bed and a small table at the corner of the room and a wardrobe of course; thankfully it had a bathroom in it. So I took a shower, changed into my nightwear, and decided to take some rest. I clenched my fists, biting back a growl when I heard a knock on the door. Shit! I was just a few seconds away from drifting into sleep. Pushing the door I did not expect to see Jane standing outside, clutching a pillow to her chest. “Can I sleep with you tonight?” She asked in a timid voice, pressing her lips innocently. “Just for tonight.” She added, rushing her words. “Jane?” I tried to hide the smile forming on my lips, turning my face to the side. “I’m fucking thirty, not a fourteen, sixteen years old kid.” I rolled my
Few minutes later we walked out of the room after trying off our tears with a profound determination, my brows raised in confusion when we sighted the rest of the workers including Helen all laughing as Marilee stood before them.“Mom.” She ran towards me immediately after she noticed my presence.“What is going on?”“Mom, I was telling uncle Alexei that my name was marry me.” She spoke, staring up at me with an innocent smile.“What?” I chuckled in amusement, moving to sit at the table where they all sat.“Yes, I told him marry me!” She repeated, rolling her eyes.“You know that’s not your name, don’t you?”“I actually wasn’t telling him my name,” She crossed her arms behind her, stretching her lips into a plain smile. “I was telling him to marry me, he just didn’t get it.”“Whattt?” Alexei shrieked, bursting into another fit of laughter.“Okay, that’s enough Mari, you don’t go around telling people to marry you,” I spoke, pushing all playfulness away.“Oh, and you did not also get t
I looked back at Helen with shock all over my face, completely awed at the revealed. "How could you? I mean all this while?""I thought you might've felt it," Helen replied with a shrug of her shoulders."I always felt it, but I ignored it, I thought it was just you." Helen chuckled as I kept glancing between her and the workers. "You know the first thing you should learn now is not to ignore every weird sign you see or feel. It's could mean a lot more." I nodded, understanding her point. If I'm going into a big fight now, even the littlest details or suspicion mean a lot."So, do you guys have a secret pack here also?""No, no. They're just...""We're rogues." The first guy spoke, cutting Helen off. "I'm Alexei." He stretched out his hands for a shake which I accepted immediately. "Bella," I said with a smile on my face."We all know your name already." They all burst out laughing, making me feel hysterically stupid."Silly me." I chuckled, scratching my head in embarrassment."Let
I closed my eyes and leaned back into the seat when the announcement of the preparation for the landing boomed from the speaker. Five years and I'm back in Russia, only this time around, I feel like a coward for running in the first place. The kids were quite excited for different reasons though, Marilee was happy she was going on a plane for the first time, and Taylor was happy she was away from school for a while. Heather showed no form of excitement, just staring outside the window before she asked the question that made my heart clench. "Are we going back to the pack now?" Her small tiny innocent voice came through. "No, baby. Not yet." I replied, hiding my emotions with a smile on my face. "I do not like Australia." She heaved out a tired sigh, shaking her head. I knew right from the start she never liked it, but chose not to complain about it. "We'd talk about that later baby." I planted a small kiss on her forehead, wrapping my right arm around her shoulders, and pulling her