XADENI spent almost the whole day with Kaylee, and everything had gone well enough— pleasantly even. We played with her toys, went for a walk, and even shared some snacks and she remained her cheerful, playful self all through— but the longer the day wore on, the more I felt something was off. Soraya hadn’t come home. At first, I told myself she might just be caught up with something at school, but as the hours passed, worry settled in. Soraya wasn’t the type of mother to abandon her child— not for an entire day, and certainly not without a word.I fed Kaylee as Soraya had instructed through the maid I’d hired and who'd resumed just that morning, but my thoughts were elsewhere— my mind distracted by the unease of Soraya's absence. Something didn't sit right. The more I paced the length of the living room, the more I was convinced. I checked my phone every few minutes. There were no messages from her, no missed calls— not even to check up on Kaylee. It was odd.My instincts kept scr
XADENThe woman was still talking, but I didn’t bother responding to her judgment. I didn’t care. I marched to my car, rage boiling beneath the surface. The drive to the home I used to share with Celeste was a blur of red— anger clouding my thoughts, rage building with every second that passed.The second I stepped through the front door and saw Celeste standing in the hallway, my patience and all my restraint snapped. I stormed toward her, grabbing her arm roughly, my nails digging into her skin. She didn’t even flinch— just looked at me with that smug, satisfied expression.“You did this,” I growled. No one else knew about Soraya. “This could’ve ended peacefully, but you just had to open your big fucking mouth and ruin everything.”“I see you've gotten my little… surprise,” she purred, no ounce of remorse evident. But of course. She was the devil herself.She turned around and walked into the living area, heading for the bar. I followed her.“For fuck’s sake, Celeste! What is wrong
SORAYAI was holding on to hope. Xaden was my hope. But only if he cares enough to look for me.Looking around the dark room made me feel nauseous. Was I going to die? No, Soraya get that thought out of your head. Remember who you are. You're Alpha Xaden's mate, and you know how powerful he is. I was desperate, scraping at positive thoughts to calm myself. "You have no idea who you're dealing with." I managed to speak, even if the lump in my throat made me feel like I couldn't. "Xaden would have your head for this." Maybe if I scare him....First, it was a simple cackle. Then it developed into an obvious laughter of mockery. I was irritated, and my fear was increasing by the minute. Where was Xaden? Get it together, Soraya. I kept trying to strengthen myself with the words in my head, but my body had betrayed me. I was shaking all over. "Am I supposed to be afraid of you?" He came closer to me and pointed his finger towards my eye. He stank of wet grass and mud, and a hint of sewag
SORAYA"Please don't hurt me. What do you want from me?" I was sobbing uncontrollably. I pushed myself backward till I hit the wall, and I realized that it would take a miracle for me to escape. I looked at the middle-aged man with tears in my eyes, and I couldn't still place where I had seen him in my head. "Stop trying to look for a way out. You're stuck with me." His voice was the kind that promised death. Slow and painful, like with a poison. He had that anger behind his eyes, but he masked it perfectly with a no-emotion look. His voice made me feel cold within, and I could swear goosebumps were appearing all over. He was going to hurt me, in a way I won't forget. He won't stop looking at me too, his eyes following my breathing and every movement. "Please." I could only beg him at that point. I was completely powerless. I had given up on reaching Xaden and decided that agreeing with my captor might be the only solution. He walked towards me slowly and his demeanor had changed t
XADENI couldn't think straight. My hands were trembling and I was boiling all over with rage. I looked at Kaylee sleeping soundly in her bed and I felt heat come up into my chest even more. She had cried a little asking for her mother and somehow I managed to put her to sleep. Celeste.So this was what having an arch-enemy felt like. I wanted to tear her into pieces and burn every piece till it was dust. I never imagined she'd go this far for a lie. She was just an obsessed freak and a sadist. I hated myself for not realizing it sooner. I couldn't get Soraya's voice out of my head. If Celeste had hurt her, then the council meeting wouldn't be necessary. I was going to kill her myself. I put a call through to one of my workers and asked her to watch Kaylee. I had to bring her mother back. Celeste was so desperate and stupid. I should have known this was going to get out of hand. My mind kept racing with thoughts on what I overheard on the phone. My grip tightened on the steering wh
XADENThe day was finally here. I had been waiting for most of my life for this. This assurance that I'm going to be with the right person. This safety and comfort of true love, granted to us by the moon goddess. This joy of finding one's forever partner and choosing to honor what one had been given. The day I defend the love of my life.A part of me wished she was here to see it. For three years I had searched for her and for two years I was starved because of her. I regretted ever having anything to do with Celeste. Soraya and I clicked at once and we had a child! A child! And yet I didn't know anything about it. All because of this stupid marriage pact.I watched as my father-in-law was dragged into the room. I gave Dax a warning look to treat him kindly now because these elders could misread things. There shall be no mistakes today. The divorce was happening, and that was final. I glanced at Celeste and I noticed she was shocked. It was obvious she didn't have a clue as to what I
XADEN"Thank you." I walked up to the council head after the trial and shook his hand. I was really grateful. The war was finally over. "Alpha Xaden, I should thank you for enduring this for so long. I'm glad it's over now. How's the kid?" He had a warm smile which reminded me of my father. "She's great. I'll bring her over sometime." I smiled back. It felt good to be free of Celeste. Better than I had expected. Dax walked up to me. "Hey boss. Congratulations. What are we gonna do with him?" He pointed to a well beaten up Malcolm. Looking at him brought back memories of seeing Soraya struggling for her life and I frowned again. "Keep him there." There was a special place where only Dax and I were aware of. Killing him was not a problem for me, I just needed my space and freedom today. He nodded and walked off immediately. It was time to break the good news. It was too good for a phone call. It was time to go home. Soraya. Thinking of her made my stomach flutter with excitement,
XADEN"The divorce is being finalized. It's over. Celeste won't bother us anymore." I stretched out my hands to her but she looked away quickly, pretending not to see them. I had a lot of work to do here. "Congratulations, then." She kept cutting the carrots. I felt my heart drop to the floor. I had just fought for us. What if I was fighting for myself all this time? I had no idea if Soraya wanted to fix this. I think she's just still upset with me."You don't seem happy about it." "What's there to be happy about? You being separated from your wife who tried to murder me? I don't see how any of it concerns me." Her words were as sharp as a knife, stabbing me in the chest. And it took the whole of me not to stumble over."It's not like that." I replied, taking a step towards her, unsure of how to explain. But seeing her take another away from me got my feet to stop."It is like that. But it doesn't matter, I'm not here for you or to be with you. I'm here because of Kaylee. She deserv
SORAYA It was almost a week since Celeste had been very much ceremoniously and violently evicted from Xaden’s house but the memories of her presence here still lingered on in my mind. I had simply been unable to get over how and why Xaden had been able to fall victim to her obvious schemes and manipulation but I knew that no matter how angry I was, it was nothing compared to how angry he was at himself. He hated himself for being a pawn in her silly game and he hated himself even much more for how he had treated me. He never missed a moment to show me how sorry he was and how he wished he had handled things much differently. It was almost like falling in love again for the first time but while you played hard to get, the other person simply kept going overboard with everything they did, all in a bid to get your attention. The constant adulation, the corny romantic gestures, the pining and obsession over every little need of mine. If I was being completely sincere, I really apprecia
JEREMY “The better question should be what the fuck hasn’t happened Jeremy?” She asked, glaring viciously at me.“What are you talking about? You aren’t making much sense to me right now.”“I need a stiff drink first of all. Then we can talk.”I moved over to a hanging cabinet before pulling on the handle to reveal to mini sized bar.“Help yourself.” I said and watched as she picked the most expensive looking scotch before chugging it directly from the bottle.She had gulped about a third of its content before setting it on the table as she took a seat on one of the couches.“So,” I began. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?” I asked, taking a seat beside her.“Sure Jeremy, I’ll tell you all about it. When you picked the Cafe for our meeting, didn’t you assure me that you had your men watching the entire place like hawks and it would be safe to talk freely?” “It was safe to talk freely. What the hell are you talking about?”“Safe? Did you just say safe? If it was so sa
JEREMY In no time, she would be mine. Soon, Soraya would be back in my arms again. I thought to myself as I sat expectantly in the chair of my home office, staring at the phone and waiting on Celeste’s call. First, I was going to take his land and then I would take his mate. Xaden would never know what had hit him and by the time he finally realized that I had taken him for a fool, it would be far too late.His devastation would be the manifestation of my much needed revenge, if only Celeste would just get off her ass and get me what I wanted. It had been almost four days since our last meeting and she already confirmed having knowledge of the location of the deeds, including the combination to the safe.Honestly, I would have been lying if I said I wasn’t incredibly surprised she was able to get it so quickly. Xaden was definitely slipping and he was slipping bad. The Alpha I had known all those years ago would have never been so easily manipulated.But why then is she taking so d
XADEN I had stood on the pavement of the balcony and watched with contempt as Celeste was bundled into the car and carted off. She hadn’t stopped begging and pleading for forgiveness, even as I dragged her out by the hair. I was genuinely intrigued by what she thought she could have achieved by pleading with me and I simply concluded that she must have been extremely deluded if she ever thought there was a world I would have forgiven her for everything she had done. I had given George the express instruction of simply locating the nearest bus station he could find to drop her off. Frankly, I felt giving her a ride at all was a kindness she definitely did not deserve but I needed to be sure that she was off my property for good.I had been so furious with her that I didn’t even afford her the dignity of packing her belongings or taking any of the bags she came with. If my anger was sated sometime in the future, I might have them sent to her but if not, I would make sure to burn every
SORAYA I psyched myself, taking in a deep breath as I prepared for what I was about to do. Xaden had returned home from work a little while back and of course, he had already settled in the living room with Celeste. I felt nothing as they giggled and laughed, enjoying each other’s company. The more he had chosen to avoid me and push me away like some sort of plague, the more I felt nothing when it came to him. I was completely indifferent to how he lived or what he did, all I wanted was to win against Celeste. I just couldn’t give her the satisfaction of thinking she had me beaten and bloodied. As I pushed open the door and entered the living room, I still felt nothing when the laughter died and the look on Xaden’s face completely turned into a deep frown.“What are you doing in here?!” He called out before I’d even made my way over to them.I said nothing, I just kept on walking till I stood directly in front of them.“Have you suddenly gone deaf? I said what are doing...”“Can I p
SORAYA It was like taking candy from a baby, except it was almost as if this particular baby didn’t even care for candy at all. I was completely surprised at how easy and well that had worked. Melissa however, was still very much frightened and feared for her job, maybe even for her life.The poor thing. I thought as I strained a bowl of brown rice that I had soaked for the better part of the morning. She probably had never done anything quite so treacherous before and simply could not control the guilt that had begun to eat her up. Despite the fact that Celeste had been nothing but insufferable to her since she had moved back in, she still felt it was a grave sin to go against one’s boss. And to go as far as to drug their food, that was simply unforgivable. I could relate to the crisis of loyalty she must have been feeling. I’d had the same feeling and I couldn’t possibly remember the exact moment I had lost my sense of self righteousness but I knew that desperate times called for a
SORAYAThe days that followed Xaden’s outburst were incredibly strange to say the least. From being the lady of the house, I had been completely relegated to the sidelines and had no choice but to play the role of a supporting character in my own home. I couldn’t tell the difference between my situation and that of a prisoner who simply had a few liberties with no right of objection. The only spark in my otherwise dull and monotonous daily routine was the presence of Kaylee in my life. I held tightly to that singular ray of hope as I schemed and put the wheels of my revenge into motion.I definitely wasn’t going to take such a defeat lying down and the thing with supporting characters was that nobody ever noticed them but they noticed everything. Xaden didn’t mince words when he made his instructions clear and I wasn’t to take one step out of line. I was certain that Celeste thought that would be enough to limit how much I could do but what she didn’t anticipate was the unlikely ally
XADEN “You got that right. He muscled them into fearful submission and a good number of them even offered to give us the land for free as long as they could just get their children back. The ones who chose to fight back, simply disappeared and were never heard from again. I was surprised when a lot of the slots started opening up, so I investigated a little and to my utmost shock, I found out what he had been doing. I was livid! The contract had been attached to my name and for everything he did, the landlords thought I gave permission for it.”“You must have felt really bad that a lot of good people got hurt and most of them thought it was your fault.”“I was beyond furious and when I confronted him about it, he simply mocked my meekness and told me to my face that I didn’t have what it took to get things done and make the investors happy. Like I said, a scoundrel would do anything just to add a few zeroes to his bank account. I preferred not to handle business that way and fired hi
XADEN“It happened maybe about eleven or twelve years ago.” I began after maybe what was a few minutes of consideration. “I can’t remember the exact timeline of events but you can bet that the event itself has been permanently etched in my memory.” I watched as Celeste listened with a rapt attention and I couldn’t help but feel vulnerable at the information I was letting slip. I had never told anyone about this before, I just couldn’t and anytime it ever came up, it was almost like I was opening up a can of worms. A can of worms that I would rather have buried deep, very deep.But with Celeste, it seemed different. I felt a peculiar kinship to her at that moment more than ever before, even more than when we were together. I felt as though I could tell her anything and she would always have my back and hold me down. I mean, if it wasn’t for her, I would have remained oblivious to the escapades of Soraya and would never have known exactly what she had been up to. It only felt natural to