XADENI stood behind her door, hearing her loud sobs and whisperings to our baby. So this was what failure felt like, after putting in a whole lot of effort and time. Who was I kidding? Two years was an awfully long time to be alone. With a kid. Every night as I lay in bed, I continuously wished for something different. A second chance. I would sacrifice being the Alpha just to be with her. I wanted my destiny changed overnight. I prayed to the moon goddess for help. Nothing happened.I sat down on the stairs, holding my hand to my chest in a bid to ease the pain. I had not just been stabbed by anyone. She had the greatest influence over me and she was using it well. I mean, I was the Alpha, and a few words from her had me struggling with movement. Even after Celeste had gotten what she deserved, she'd played her part to the end. I was ruined. Soraya hated me. No, she loathed me. And everything was my fault. I never wanted to be the cause of her pain. I just wanted a happy home and
XADENAnd yet, here he was. He arched a brow. "You're not the only one who can handle a tracker. I've been following you. You're not doing too well, Xaden."I took the shot in one go and pushed the cup towards the bartender. I felt tipsy now and I was happy I was almost at my limit. I smiled. "If you didn't come here to help then why are you here?""What do you need help with?" James asked still on his first cup. What a slow ass. How can one sip a shot? You were supposed to drink it all. "Tell me how to fix the mistake that is my life." "Why would you think your life is a mistake?" He gulped down his own drink and I smiled again, almost laughing. The James I knew was not much of a gentle man, I learnt drinking from him. "Because it is. It's either that or I have been cursed in some way." I placed my head on the counter and drew little circles around the cup I had been drinking from. "Is this about the rumours that have been going around? We both know that Celeste was a monster. W
SORAYAI broke him. I pushed the door open behind him, refusing to look into his eyes, as I didn't want to break myself. Xaden looked like he'd been drained of life with my last statement. My wolf tumbled from being so close to him but I ignored her completely. I didn't have a choice but to set myself free. He was intoxicating me. His constant decisions, made for mostly only his benefit, were hard to adapt to. He caused all this mess in the first place. How do you propose when you don't even have a relationship? What prompted him to take that step? I wish I could find out. Voices in my head were getting louder. "You're a bad mum," They said. "You don't love yourself, You think this is the best for Kaylee?" I wanted to scream again but then Xaden would be convinced I was going crazy. The look in his eyes didn't make anything better. I felt worse. Every goddamn time. I wasn't fast enough. I didn't want him to meet me like this. I wasn't ready for a full discussion with him. No matter
SORAYAI sincerely hoped Jeremy wasn't planning anything funny. Now I'd seen Xaden all soft and sad, but it didn't wipe out the memory that I had of him. He was the fucking goddamn Alpha! What was Jeremy thinking saying things carelessly like that? What if Xaden saw the text on my phone? The last time they met, the threat in his eyes was not so welcoming. I didn't want any harm to come to Jeremy. Xaden was dangerous and he had the influence to support it. I had a thought to text Jeremy back but I brushed it off. Text him back? Communication was the biggest risk I could take right now. Things were just getting good, I couldn't sacrifice that because I had to save someone.As much as I longed to see Jeremy again I really hoped these were empty threats that he was making. I looked at the text on my phone again and deleted it. It was better if I didn't know anything about it. I looked outside the window and sniffed in the cool evening air. We'd been riding for a few hours now and it was
SORAYAXaden was now laughing at my sudden change of expression. Tch. I didn't blame him. It was funny. I smiled back, a little embarassed that he'd figured out what I was doing. "What's so funny?" Now we were having a conversation. Way to protect yourself girl!"You, Trying to stay mad at me." He was close to me now, looking down and pointing at my nose. I felt a little poke behind my dress. Oh Soraya! How could you forget you have a kid? "Mama. Mama." Kaylee was poking me and pointing at a particular door that had decorations in front of it. What was that about? "What is it, Kay?" I bent down to hear her properly. "Mama." She pointed to that door and I noticed the decorations were a bit attractive. I tapped who was busy on his phone. "What's in there? Kaylee wants to go in there." "Oh about that. I was just about to tell you. It's like a kids section." Xaden picked Kaylee up and she giggled calling him Dada. They were so cute together. "A kids section?" I was a bit confused. W
SORAYA"I remember... you mentioned him to me before. But not the details..." Xaden sipped his coffee looking rather chill. I had completely forgotten that on our first meeting after that night, I told him about.I nodded, biting my lip unsure of where to start. His expression wasn't helping either. But he wanted to talk about this. He wanted to know didn't he?"Well uhm. I found out Liam was my mate in highschool..." I started, the memories of that phase of my life hit me. "I thought we were good together," I took another bite and watched as Xaden listened keenly. He was actually interested in what I had to say. "Go on..." He pressed, his voice strained. I didn't feel pain concerning Liam anymore. Infact, it was a little embarrassing to talk about it. But I did anyway. I felt myself warming up to Xaden more than I thought possible, given our past. I had agreed to give him a chance. I'd have to open my heart so I could trust him again. "He got accepted in Elite and he left. I applie
XADENI followed closely behind her, looking sideways searching through with my eyes. It could not be what I was thinking. Kaylee couldn't just disappear. There was no one here to take her right? I walked faster now, catching up to Soraya as she muttered things I couldn't understand, looking everywhere and pointing at almost everything. She was losing her mind. I had to be stronger for her. But how could this be? I left her with Kaylee. There was no one else here except for the workers I hired. That was unless, one of them was responsible for this. Had Kaylee been kidnapped? A million thoughts ran through my mind as I walked with Soraya looking everywhere possible. She kept muttering things but my hearing was blocked out. I had to focus with all my senses or I could lose them too. My daughter is missing for fuck's sake.After walking around for about twenty minutes, I held Soraya by the shoulder. She stopped walking and turned to me, her eyes were already reddened from too much cryi
XADENMy eyes fell to the floor. I wasn't expecting such harshness, but then again I had said too much. Soraya was right. What was I thinking? For all I knew, this could be Celeste's handwork or her bastard father, Malcolm. I should have killed them myself on sight. “We'll, find her, I promise.” Dead or alive, we will find her. Hopefully alive.Dax arrived almost an hour later and he walked towards me. "How did you get here so fast?" "We flew here, boss. Time is not on our side and we're not familiar with this area. You're going to have to come with us." I looked at him and back at the door. There was no way I'd just leave. I approached the door one more time. I needed this woman to know that I wasn't going to let her go. "Soraya, baby, Dax is here. And I would have to go with him to look for her. I need you to stay here, while I get our baby girl back. Okay?" My chest ached from reminding her of the unfortunate situation we were in. I wished she would talk to me. I waited for a fe
SORAYA ONE YEAR LATERSo this was what bliss felt like. It was everything I had heard it would. A mate whom I had gone through hell and back with, a daughter we both would give our lives for without hesitation and a happiness that knew no bounds.Xaden was the mate he had promised me he was going to be. “Earth to Soraya…” I heard him whisper in my ear. His hands held firmly against my waist. I didn’t realize when he got so close to me. “What’s wrong, love?”Nothing is.I turned around to face him and met his gaze. “Sometimes, I still feel like she's going to show up.” I answered. I knew she was gone, there was no way she could have survived the poison but still, at the back of my mind, there was once in a while this nagging feeling. Xaden sighed and shook his head, cupping my face as he did so. “Have I given you any reason to feel so?” I shook my head. “Nothing, and absolutely no one is going to come between us again. I love you, Kaylee and our little boy…” he said as he dropped on
XADEN“Of course not. I loved you Evan and I really wanted to be with you. Killing you was completely Malcolm’s idea. He wanted the connections that came with being married to Xaden so he forced me to go along with all of it. I felt like I had no choice, you really have to be believe me Evan.”I couldn’t help but chuckle at the load of bullshit she was spewing all in a bid to save her worthless life. Hopefully this Evan guy saw right through it.“You loved me?” He asked and I felt my blood boil at what a stupid question it was.“What the hell are you doing Evan? You can’t possibly believe that Celeste ever loved you!”“Let her speak!” He bellowed. “Come here Celeste. You really wanted to spend your life with me?”I could only watch in anger as Celeste made her way to him, holding him in a warm embrace as she spewed more lies.“I’ve spent every minute of everyday thinking about you since Malcolm had forced me into that heinous act. I’m really sorry I wasn’t bold enough back then to spe
XADEN I thought to myself as I tiptoed slowly to get a good idea of whom it was, she was fighting with. The fella seemed to really be in quite the sour mood but I was still unable to make out the voice clearly. I decided that there was no point sneaking around, I hastened my steps and headed straight for the living room.Upon opening the door, I was greeted with the sight of the kind of vermin I never thought I’d ever have the displeasure of seeing again.“What the fuck are you doing in my house?! You sacrilegious sack of shit!” I yelled as I found Jeremy in my living room, about to pounce on Celeste.“Xaden!” She screamed. “Be careful, he’s gone completely crazy! He keeps saying...”“Shut up Celeste!” I snarled. “You did this! How could you let this unrefined buffoon into my house?”“What did you just call me?!” He turned to face me and I finally got a good look at him. He looked dastardly, almost inhuman as he was beginning to appear like some unholy alchemy of man and beast.I kn
XADEN It had been almost three days since I’d heard last from Soraya and I could feel the fear, slowly creeping in. It was unlike her to stay radio silent and even on the days she didn’t feel like talking, she would always try to send a message at least.I looked at my watch and saw that it was past 7am already. Three days and not a peep, it definitely wasn’t looking good. I went for a quick run, in the hopes of clearing my head. I didn’t want to entertain the wild thoughts that were beginning to plague my mind.When I got back to the house, Celeste was already waiting in the kitchen. I had been hellbent on avoiding her all week and she was almost never awake this early in the morning. I winced, knowing I’d inadvertently walked into a well calculated trap. “Good to see you can still show your face.” She spat out derisively. “I thought you finally decided to run after Soraya like the lovesick puppy you’ve proven to be.”I steadied myself, choosing to remain calm and silent as I too
EVAN“I honestly can’t believe this. Celeste actually tried to have you murdered because she wanted to be with Xaden?”“To her, I was simply an obstacle. A mere nuisance that she had to get rid off so she could enjoy the splendor and lifestyle that came with being married to a man like Xaden. She poisoned me while I was asleep and thinking I was dead, her father bundled me into his car and they drove deep into the woods to bury me. When I came to, I tried to beg Celeste for help. That was my biggest mistake. They pummeled me with their shovels till they thought I’d stopped breathing and buried me in a shallow grave.”I took a deep breath and looked up at her. She seemed completely lost for words. “You shouldn’t look so surprised. I mean, she poisoned your two year old daughter. Such a person is capable of doing anything.”“I know Celeste can be ruthless but I always thought she became this way over the years. This incident happened more than ten years ago. I’m just surprised that she’
EVAN“That’s what the nurse said but I doubt there’s much you would be able to do for her.” She said in her tone that was completely crippled by fear and resignation.“Well, this is an hospital ma’am. Why are you so certain that we would be unable to get her the help the needs?” I asked, doing my very best to sound as genuinely oblivious as I could. I was fishing for information and I didn’t want to spook her just yet.“I know you won’t be able to save her because this has happened before and the doctors who attended to her then were just as clueless. All they did was stabilize her but it was only a half measure. Without the antidote, she wouldn’t be alive for long.” As she spoke, I could feel the weight behind every word, the immense gravity behind each statement and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for all the pain she had to be going through in that moment.“Well, I’ll advise you don’t give up hope just yet. Things like this always have a way of working out in the end.”“I don’t need
EVANEven as I held on to the hospital file, I still found it hard to believe what I was reading. The file had the biodata as well as the personal information of a two year girl who was rushed in on account of a terrible high fever and loss of consciousness of a one day duration but it was the name of the patient I found most intriguing.Could it really be possible? I looked through the name again as bewilderment washed over me, Kaylee Sinclair. I flipped to the page that had the information on the parents and primary care givers.The father was a Xaden Sinclair and the mother, Soraya Summers. I couldn’t help but feel a bit jittery as a wave of excitement surged through my entire body, filling me with an immeasurable sense of glee.If this turns out to be accurate, then my opportunity had finally come.As I leaned against the counter of the nurses’ station, I went through the previous bloodwork of the patient, trying my best to make sense of what I was reading but I still couldn’t get
CELESTE “He fooled you, Celeste. I, on the other hand was a fool for ever thinking you were competent enough to get anything done.”“There’s no way I could have known. How can you possibly blame me for this?”“I don’t give a fuck how you get information from Xaden but the least you can do is verify and make sure it’s at least authentic before sending me on a wild goose chase.”“What’s done is done Jeremy. The blame game isn’t going to do anyone any good. She could be anywhere, so I suggest you had better forget about her and best move on.”“What’s done is done? Is that what you just fucking said to me?” He asked in a much tamer and colder tone. It was more unnerving whenever he spoke like this compared to the yelling and shouting.“There’s nothing that can be done. Xaden isn’t going to give up the information. They could be anywhere in the country. Even if they were still in the city, which I highly doubt, it would still be almost impossible to find them. So what can you do?”He rema
CELESTE “Your intel was complete horse shit! Are you trying to fuck me over Celeste? We had a deal!” Jeremy’s voice rang out angrily as I switched the call to hands-free and tossed it on the bed.“What the hell are you yapping about? It’s fucking 8am in the morning Jeremy. Who even calls someone this early in the morning?” I asked sleepily as I tried to find my morning voice.“Well, unlike you, some of us have to work for everything we own. We don’t just get rich through blackmail and manipulation.”“Watch your fucking mouth Jeremy! You don’t speak to me that way. Instead of being this much of an insufferable prick, why don’t you tell me what’s gotten your pants in such a twist?”“Wow! Look at the millionaire growing wings all of a sudden. You’re now telling me how and how not to speak to you? Insane!”“Please why did you wake me up so early? I need to get back to sleep!”“I guess it’s easy for you to sleep when you’ve got everything you ever wanted. So you feel you can now screw me