I stared into Asher's gray cold eyes in shock. He was the last person I wanted to see.
“I asked you a question, Hazel. Why are you with him?" He questioned as he tightened his hold on my hand and I glared at him while holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. Why? Why did he have to have the face of the man I had been in love with? Why did he have to have his smell? As soon as his smell invaded my nostrils, the urge to cry grew stronger as the familiarity slapped me in the face, reminding me of how insignificant I had been to him whereas he had been my world. “Let go of me" I struggled against his hold as I tried staring at anything and everything so I won't have to look at his face. “Hello? Hazel!? What's wrong?" Rose's voice suddenly sounded from the phone. “If Tristan sees us this way…" I began. “I don't ever want to hear another man's name on your lips" Asher interjected as he tightened his fingers painfully around my wrist. “I don't care what you want, Mr Stone but I need to get back to Tristan" I uttered and he glared down at me coldly. “What? Are you doing this to make me jealous?" He uttered and I scoffed in his face. “You mean nothing to me, Mr Stone, so why should I try to make you jealous? Shouldn't you be with your date and stop worrying yourself over trash like me? I mean, that's what I am to you, isn't it?" I uttered just at the same time Rose yelled that she was calling the police and Tristan. Asher stared into my eyes for a while then grabbed onto the phone, switching it off before sticking it into his back pocket. “Give me my phone! What's wrong with you?" I questioned as I tried reaching out for it but he just grabbed onto my hand. “Hazel…" “What do you want from me?! Haven't you done enough?! Haven't you taken enough?! What more do you want?!" I choked as tears rolled down my cheeks Asher's face softened as he let go of my hand and I wiped away the hot tears that were flowing down my cheeks while glaring at him. “I want nothing from you, Hazel because you have nothing to offer" He suddenly uttered coldly and I clenched my fist as every dash of familiarity I had been feeling, vanished. “Good then. Stay away from me and we won't have to interact with one another. Good day, Mr Stone" I uttered before quickly walking away. “Why are you fucking crying?" I questioned myself as I kept wiping away the tears from my vision. Why was I crying? I thought I was past that. I thought his words couldn't hurt me anymore so why? Why was I fucking crying?! My body suddenly collided with someone and without looking up, I knew who it was because he instantly wrapped his arms around me. “Hazel, what's wrong? Who hurt you?" Tristan questioned as he caressed my back gently. I shook my head as I took a deep breath. “I just want to go home, Tristan. Please" I murmured and he stayed quiet for a while. “Okay love. I'll take you home" He murmured and I shook my head as I stared up at him. “You don't have to come with me. I can order a cab or…" “I came with you and I'll go with you, okay?" He murmured softly and I sighed, knowing he wasn't going to listen no matter what I said. “What about the treaty?" I questioned and he sighed. “It will be postponed. Let's get you home first" Tristan uttered then placed his arm on my shoulder as he led me back to our table. As soon as we got there, I reached into my bag to bring out my phone and at the same time, Tristan's right hand man, Jason walked up to him. “Alpha Asher is leaving, King Tristan. I've already arranged a room for him at the mansion" Jason uttered and I gasped as my hand flew to my mouth. Asher was with my phone! “Where is he?" I questioned as I walked up to Jason and he stared down at me with wide eyes. “Erm… he just left and…" Before they could stop me, I ran as fast as I could towards the ending but because of my heels, I couldn't run as fast as I wanted. “Hazel, what's wrong?" Tristan questioned as he ran behind me but I couldn't reply because my heart was pounding harshly in my chest. If he turned on my phone, he would see my picture with Jaden on the screen and there's no way he wouldn't know that's his child because Jaden was a copy of him. “Goddess please help me" I cried out as soon as I got out of the ballroom. I scanned around and at that moment, Asher was about to climb into the car. “Asher!" I screamed as loudly as I could and he turned to me almost immediately. I took off my shoes as I ran towards him while he stared at me with wide eyes but just before I could get to him, Claire appeared in front of me and pushed me roughly to the ground. I instantly heard a ripping sound as my body collided with the ground. “You slut, stay away from my man" Claire muttered bitterly and I turned to her with a glare. “Are you insane?" Tristan uttered as soon as he got to me. He helped me up from the ground as soon as Asher appeared on the scene. “Claire, have you gone mad?" Asher questioned as he grabbed onto Claire's hand roughly with his eyes wild. “She should stay away from you or I'll do so much worse. She's a fucking whore" Before I knew what was happening, Tristan had disappeared from my side and has his fingers wrapped around Claire's throat. “You insignificant being. How dare you come to my turf and disrespect my own?" Tristan uttered so coldly that I felt a shiver run through my spine. “She is not your kind, she's a wolf" Claire managed to choke out as she struggled against his hold. “She's mine and no one is allowed to disrespect her. The only reason I'm not killing you is out of respect for Alpha Asher. Get your bimbo in check and get her out of my turf because if I lay my eyes on her again, I'll tear her to shreds"...“I just want my phone back!” I winced as the pain sliced through my body and I slowly stood up. Refusing to look him in the eye, I quickly took my phone out of his hands as he stretched it forward and I looked him in the eyes letting him know just how much I really hate him and want nothing to be around him right now. And I turned to take my leave refusing to utter any word to him. “Please take me home Tristan” I muttered refusing to show my pain in front of Asher and Claire. The ride back home was as quiet and calm as the Dead Sea. “I just need to hold my baby in my hands” I thought to myself as I tried to fight the pains flooding through me. “Why was your phone with him? Are you okay and did he hurt you?” Tristan finally lets out. I could feel that he had lots of questions to ask but there’s no way I’m going back into that puddle anymore. “I’m fine” I responded in a hurry. I hate to be like this in front of anyone but I needed him to know that it’s best I’m left alone f
~Hazel~ It was another day to shove that man’s name behind me and move on. I stand up to get ready as light peered in from the window. ‘I just need to occupy myself in the shop’ I thought as I got myself and Jaden ready to go open the shop. “Mama, can I have more chocolates?” His sweet tiny voice echoed through the shop grabbing my attention. Jaden is the best thing that has happened to me and I’ll do everything to keep him safe, no matter what it takes. It was a relief that he didn’t have to go to school, I know I needed him closer to me today, “No baby, that’s a lot already. Why don’t you come help mama here in the kitchen “ “Good morning aunty rose!” He immediately walks over to Rose who walks over lazily, she was never an early riser. “What is it Jaden?” She asks, leaning forward. “My mama needs help in the kitchen, please can you help” he asks in the most cute way giving Rose the puppy eyes. It’s so funny how she never sees this coming and always falls pr
~Hazel~ “What’s the problem Hazel, what are you not telling me?” He asked, towering over me as he gazed into my eyes to search for his answers. With the way Rose zoomed outside upon hearing his voice, I know there was no way to ask her to get me out of this. Standing upright to look up at him “it’s nothing, I just didn’t know what to say to you after ruining your night” I said, telling half the truth. He doesn’t need to know anything and definitely not about Asher. “You didn’t ruin anything, my night would have been shit if you didn’t go with me in the first place.” He adds revealing a small smile which showed too much emotions in it for a lycan king. I stand there barely reaching his chest as I wonder what he really expects from a single mom who is just a lone wolf in his kingdom. “Why did she call you a slut? I swear I wanted to split her throat” he muttered with a fierce look and the bloodshot eyes he has on whenever he was to spill some blood comes upfront. I
~Hazel~ “What’s the problem?” He said immediately into his phone as his face changed. I don’t know if anything is wrong or if anything happened but I’m glad the call came in. Whoever is the reason for the call is such a lifesaver. What exactly would I have told him? That my child’s father hurt me?! I couldn’t tell him the truth on why I ran away and it’ll remain like that. I couldn’t lose the peace I’ve found now and Jaden is safer here. “Bring him here, I totally forgot we had a meeting.” He mutters through the phone. “Who’s coming over? Do you need me to prepare anything?” I asked, wanting nothing but to return to our old conversation. “No, it's fine. It should be a quick one,it’s Alpha Asher and it’s just to go over some propositions” he uttered saying nothing else as he stared at me knowing fully well that I avoided his question about Jaden’s father. I take my words back, that man is no life saver but a destroyer. “Don’t you think you need to go to the head h
~Asher~ After seeing his proposal I just couldn’t back down, I needed to come see for myself. He wanted to do business with us and was granting free access to his kingdoms and was asking the same from mine. There are a thousand things I could gain from this but I wanted to know if there’s another motive. Everyone always wants to be on the winning side so why do I seem to gain more from this proposal if I agree to it? On getting to the head house with my beta and enforcers, I saw just how functional and big his kingdom was. And when I heard that we would have the meeting somewhere else, my defences were up but agreed. I need to know if it’s a trap. “Aunty Rose!” I heard a faint voice call out. Then the scent hit me, I looked back in a hurry looking at my beta and enforcers. They looked all too normal with their defences up, having no single idea what I smelled. I turned to look back again to where I smelled the wolf and was backed by a lycan who was definitely talking to so
~Hazel~ What does he really want from me?! He doesn’t even know what happened and he called me easy? I couldn’t stop it as the tears roll down freely from my cheeks. Can’t he just let me be! He tried destroying me once and still wants to do it again?! I won’t let him get to me, I whispered to myself with teary eyes. I know Tristan made him leave as I heard little murmuring, then came a loud bang from the entrance door. I don’t want to see either of them, and I couldn’t face Tristan right now. I don’t want to ever appear weak in front of any man ever again. It happened once and I won’t let it happen again. Putting all your trust on one person has taught me my biggest lesson and to be sincere I don’t think I can ever trust a man by letting my defences down ever again. I’ve been sent out and rejected once and I’ll never put myself through that ever again. The tears run freely as I let out the muffled cry I’ve been holding in as I heard another bang of the front door.
~Hazel~ It’s been days after the incident with Asher at the bakery and I’ve tried my very best to let go of everything. The insults and pain tried to make it harder to let go but I focused my mind on what’s more important, and that’s my life here, my best friend and the safety of my son. That’s all there should be as I prepare to start business for the day. I rarely had customers as most of them only come in for coffee. I only get busy when it’s a little lycan’s birthday and I’ll have to bake cakes and all the fun things that they love. I haven’t spoken or seen Tristan since his meeting with Asher on my turf and he hasn’t come in using the excuse of coffee and doughnuts as he always does when I don’t show up and wants to see me. He’s definitely been talking to Rose, her eyes gave her away that she’s keeping something. It’s either he had her promise to not tell me or she feels it’s better I don’t worry about it. ‘What really will it take to completely move on?’ I thoug
~Hazel~ “What’s going on?” I asked, stopping Jason who was walking in a hurry. It wasn’t any news that Jason assisted Tristan in almost all the matters concerning their kingdom. Everyone seemed so busy as they tried to put one and two together, making everywhere stand out. “The blood moon pack will be coming very soon.” He said quickly before moving past me. “Wait, what do you mean coming over?!” I asked expecting no answer in return as Jason was already out of sight. Everyone knew Jason was a man of few words and rarely spoke unless when necessary. He always looked lethal and fierce unlike Marcus who walked around with a smile. I calmed my nerves down as I’ve gotten used to being around lycans with their huge physique always towering over me. I must have heard wrongly, I reasoned within myself. Why would they be coming here? The wolves and lycans never really conversed or got together at any time but recently they’ve been trying to build some sort of relationshi
~Lily~ “Did you have a nice sleep or are you still busy with my mom?” His voice swept in like he’d been waiting for ages. I didn’t reply immediately as his voice was the first thing I heard after sleeping for only god knows how long. And the mention of how he personalised his mom strangely sounded not so annoying like it always used to be. “Should go on helping her again soon enough.” My reply came like it wasn’t an issue talking to him in my head. Like I never used to have issues with him hanging in there in my head without permission. “Ohh really? You mind telling me all about this help that only you can offer, or can Kade come lend a helping hand?” He sounded so aware of everything being a complete facade. And with the sound of things, he just wanted to flow along. I took a second to really wrap my head around it as the fact that it was me having a conversation with Jaden through the mindlink and there have been no shouting and disagreement. “
~Lily~ I didn’t let the reminder that it's soon going to be my birthday get to me for long in my head as it drove different signals to me. I was supposed to be up and ready to leave according to what i had planned with Raya. Nothing was eventually stopping me and this was entirely what I was looking forward to but suddenly the urge to run away was slowly fading away. Like I could literally feel it and I’ll be deceiving myself if I said that was exactly what I wanted right now. Hate? Yes I still hate him and I also still wanted to find out why I could feel his sincerity through those words he uttered to me. You can pretend and fake sincerity but you can never fake it so badly that the other person listening doesn’t feel it to know if you are lying or not. “Oh my, thank goodness you are fine.” Her voice brought me completely out of it as I stared into complete emptiness. I must have stayed still for so long, thinking and drowning myself that I didn’t real
~Lily~ “Are you okay baby?” My mom didn’t waste time and went all out with examining my body and her eyes showing too much concern right now like she just saved me from the lion's den. “I’m fine mom, why are you so worked up?” I found myself asking after removing the hand I placed aimlessly on my forehead, that depicted my lack of understanding what was going on. I wanted to go on and ask all the questions in my head but I held back and swallowed all the words at the tip of my tongue, knowing I should be grateful right now that I got out. “Definitely not what I heard so I have to double check.” She didn’t agree with me and still continued. She changed tactics this time around, making it seem all funny and held back my laughter, trying to link one and two together. “Molly got to you?” I asked the question without even thinking twice about it. I already even concluded that it got to be that or nothing else. And while her actions were funny to me, holding back was gettin
~Kade~ “I just need to speak to him for a minute, it’s very important.” She kept on begging and pleading with her eyes as she didn’t dare go all touchy with me. “He’s busy. If it’s so important you can relate it to me and then I’ll surely let him know.” I faced with all seriousness so she could back off. I didn’t need a soothsayer to tell me anything before knowing that she was outright lying to my face and making up excuses just to meet Jaden. I guess keen eyes can be awarded to me after walking in the shadow of Jaden and watching his back. I knew everyone that had potentials of being a pest and had to keep details and tabs on them just in case. “I can’t tell it to you, I need to pass this on myself.” She said still speaking so softly that it was irritating to listen to her speak. I’m not sure it was her voice that was making me lose my patience. It had to be the very fact that I still remembered clearly what she had done to my future Luna. Yes
~Lily~ This was all looking extremely far from all the tricks we went round with or used to go round with. Now it was looking so scary and trying to put up a face or pretend my way through this wasn’t what I wanted to do. It was meant to be the end point as I opened my mouth and spilled all that I should, securing myself from whatever he had planned. He went calm, his eyes lowered, staring and holding mine in place. It wasn’t too surprising anymore since it had become a norm for days now. The words he spoke next also kept me quiet as I listened with utmost interest since it all revolved around me. He explained himself, saying things I thought I’ll never hear him ever say. ‘The almighty Jaden was apologising to us?’ I asked Raya as we found it so unbelievable but that thing in the depth of us could witness with him that he was being sincere. You could sense and see it with the way his eyes moved and looked so soft and gentle even they gazed directly at
~Jaden~ “Do you need anything?” I asked her, watching closely as I managed to make her sit on my bed with my different sets of portraits pushed to one side of the room. I didn’t really think about what to do aside from sticking my hands all over her body and places where she’ll definitely not be in support of. “Anything that’ll keep me alive would be fine.” She uttered with so much anger in her voice that I held back the urge to laugh at how cute she looked even when she tried to frown. I pretty much was blind and too carried away by pain and past events that I let it cloud my emotions and even my person. It was going to be hard to actually prove anything to her but I’ll try my best to make it quicker as I want her always with me. “Got that. Anything else you’ll need or you want to try to be a more specific lollipop?” I tried my luck one more time with her. “Yeah, how about your head on a platter and you stop calling me that.” She snapped with her head bringing out
~Lily~ “So I also don’t get to choose where to stay? I know you know nothing about fun, but when a free day is mentioned, it’s most likely related with anything that’s not working.” I run my lips, hating to be quiet today. If he’s going to play this his way and keep me here then I’ll also talk and if possible cause great harm to his eardrums that he’ll send me out himself. “Fun is whatever we say is fun, lollipop. And the pictures I have up here are every bit of fun but what we don’t know is, if it’s fun to you yet.” He muttered pointing to his head as he made it sound like he could see right through me and afterwards made close eye contact with me after my very best efforts at avoiding it. I held my breath for a second, trying my best to hold his gaze too as I long avoided looking his way since I came in. I never ever took notes and I feel like punishing myself for taking notes now as I stood still, the words hooked on my throat with his mention of the pictur
~Lily~ “Lee, are you okay? Did he do anything to you?” Her eyes followed my every move, waiting patiently till I entered my room. Of course I knew with that public show of the one alpha we both hated, carrying me on his back and talking strangely like he didn’t want to push a spike through my heart, would definitely arouse suspicions and lord of questioning from Molly. I did the best I could and went straight to my room not knowing what I was going to say to her. I didn’t tell her anything the last time and clearly hawk wasn’t bothered about others having their own different thoughts. “I’m fine, he was just filling in for Kade.” I said to her putting on a smile so she wouldn’t suspect anything. She stood there for a minute, watching me closely like if she stayed longer I would break. “I’m guessing you have a lot to tell me because they couldn’t be all.” She finally concluded, opening my door and stepped in first. “Okay I’m all ears, let’s go.” Sh
~Lily~ “What?! Who gives such absurd benefits? It’s no longer a reward then, this is outright punishment.” I screamed at the top of my lungs as I stood facing him in his office. I didn’t even want to talk about how I got to his office in the first place. I was too pissed off right now to be concerned about my earlier disagreement on coming here alone with him. “Was this the original plan?” I averted my gaze to face Kade who was sitting down at the corner of the room acting like he wasn’t there in the first place. I only agreed to come here to take the so-called “reward” if someone was there. I suggested Molly but ended up with Kade. “Absolutely.” He said without thinking about it with a quick nod and went back to being invisible. “They are definitely not absurd, you don’t think everyone would love to spend their free day with me?” He had the weirdest smirk on, with his hands inside his pockets, giving a cool vibe even when all I wanted to do to him was to ca