~Well…~I scoff.Otsana makes a sound in my head that translates into a whiny complaint and I retort back.“We’d be falling for his trap!I’m sure Caelum ordered him to tell us that. They just want to make fun of me.”I can hear myself and I know it is the paranoid me speaking but I can't help it.I am not just any woman. I am a Luna. Luna Sophia.I am strong. I am disciplined. I am not some wimp who’ll go chasing after a man because he’s her mate and he’s in a club. He can spend the night there for all I care.That itch comes again and this time I scratch it.Mercilessly, almost screaming even as I let out low animalistic grunts but the itch doesn’t dissipate.It feels like something’s on my insides.Something’s in my heart that’s itching and yelling at me furiously to scratch it.Otsana is silent.I’m left to my own devices and for the whole of thirty minutes, I do the most spontaneous things I have done in a while now.I take a walk to a closed-off park. Opening hours are from 7
Caelum’s pov.Few things can satisfy me.Among that list of things isn’t a night wasted.I’m discontent and this city reeks.I chortle at that because no wonder Ulric’s been here for so long. The bastard’s probably contributed to the stink for as long as he could, and he might be one of the major contributors.Ragnar’s response in my mind is a dry ~ha ha ha~, I shoot him a mental side glare, mainly because he’s been composed tonight at least. For one thing he’s stopped trying to order me around.His insistence that I go back to Sophia has faded, maybe all we needed was a ride. I couldn’t enjoy myself the way I planned to though. The clubs in this city, they reek.The bell above me chimes as I open the door and walk into the bar. It’s empty, and in its emptiness, I find peace.Only Seb’s here, currently backing me, always working.I sit on a stool and something in me squirms, in a single definitive wiggle.I try to ignore it but it moves again, setting some warmth behind my eyes and in
Hi lovely readers. This is the author here. Updates begin promptly on the first of next month, and will be updated at least thrice a week with three or four chapters on each update. I hope you stick around for it because it's going to be intense😍 I'm already in love with the light banter between Caelum and Sophia and the apparent pull that's between them. Can't wait to go on this journey with you.Don't forget to like, leave your comments because I'll definitely read them, and vote with gems. There's going to be a lot to unfold, fingers crossed. Love you all.
Sophia’s pov.There’s a certain kind of lucidity that comes with the mornings. I feel the sun on my cheek and the soft silk of fabric on my back. The sunlight is filtering into the room in a shower of lazy golden rays.My head is pounding. That is the first thing I notice. There’s a certain kind of bang a hangover brings that this one doesn’t carry. This isn’t the kind of pounding a hangover brings to me. This is different.I feel clear-headed, I even feel like this is the clearest my head has been in days, but there’s a fuzziness in my head too.A pounding.My head is pounding, but it’s beating a steady recalcitrant beat. The sound of a low grow beside me makes me freeze.Memories from yesterday come rushing back and I feel every bone in my body go rigid as my eyes widen.I came to the club.I came to the club yesterday, to look for him, Caelum. A harsh swear leaves my lips at the realization of that because what the hell.I thought I said I wouldn't stoop that low. I actually came
Ulric’s pov.“Where is she right now?”The scowl that lines my face has me feeling like I'll burst a blood vessel. My apprehension is high.My anxiety is through the roof.I wouldn’t have cared much what the hell she’s doing with herself if it isn’t affecting me so damn much!Almost like he’s set to annoy me even more today, the doofus on the other end of the phone asks,“Are we talking about Mrs Sophia, Alpha Ulric? Or Mistress Violet?”I grit my teeth at the sound of that and wish I could reach over into the phone and grab this idiot, slam him into the nearest wall, and take his life.“Of course I'm asking about Sophia you fool! Have I ever asked you to keep an eye on Violet for me?”I have the worst set of people working for me.How could he think I was asking about Violet?Is it Violet who has pictures of her plastered all over the internet blogs? Pictures that show her dancing with someone else, at a shitty club downtown?“I’m… I'm sorry for the mistake Alpha. Keeping an eye on M
Sophia’s pov.“She’s not angry anymore?”I shoot Caelum’s smirking friend a glare and I walk past him and down the hallway.My insides are quivering, so I head to Alora’s room and shut the door behind me, collapsing instead into the bean bag there.Shit.A multitude of emotions roll around inside me and I can barely process them because of how conflicted I feel.This morning is………. weird.Everything about last night, leading all the way up to this morning, everything about it was weird. Now that my head is clearer, I can remember I had no intention of visiting that club last night.Caelum wasn’t even there. Or Maybe he was and he’s just lying that he arrived after me.~Now why would he lie about something like that?~I let out a sound. A very disgruntled sound because I've just about had it with her always defending him.~I felt him arrive Sophia.I have a memory of my own too, and though it isn’t as long as yours I can certainly remember what happened last night. Raganar’s presence
It feels like my head is burning.I look at the post again, fully taking Alora’s phone from her and glancing more at the screen because what?Alora’s voice comes out timid and rattled when she speaks.“He… he posted that last night, after the pictures came out. He’s gotten more than seven thousand likes on it. A lot of comments, and in all those comments, there are people pushing forward the narrative of you being an unfaithful woman.A… a dumb woman.Being a whore.”A cold feeling envelopes me and I let it go all the way to my toes, because no way. An unbelieving chuckle slips out of my mouth because there is no way.There’s no way Ulric did something like this. I go to the comments section and it’s just like Alora said. People are bashing me all around.Most of their profiles lead to blank profile pages, no content or posts about them, they’re literally blank entities on the internet, but they’ve decided they have a say in my life.Other people, werewolves, werecats, were leopards
“Well, are you going to tell her?”I pause outside the door to my room and I hold my breath. Caelum’s low growl is what comes next and I can sense his displeasure before he even says it.“I said I would tell her when the time was right.”I barge in immediately and I cock an eyebrow at both of them as their heads snap to me, I ask,“You’d tell me what when the time is right?”Caleum’s gaze feels hot on me and it lingers for a while, it lingers for a long second, until he scoffs and looks away.“Bold of you to assume you were the one being spoken of.”I feel my anger peak immediately and I grit my teeth as I respond,“So there’s someone else in your life at the moment you spent the whole night with?”I don’t know why I say that, I just know it slips out of my mouth and it’s stupid the minute it does, I know it’s stupid and I wait for the jab, the snide retort that should come from Caelum at my half-wit statement,Instead, I see something else happen.Something strange.Caelum stares at
Kellen isn’t in the room anymore when I enter so I go out into the garden to look for him. I can already see the presence of him in my mind, can already feel the residue he left there, and once again I meet him lying on the bench and staring at the clouds overhead. It’s almost noon now so the sky is a patchwork of colors, a gentle artist’s creation as he drags his paintbrush across the canvas. I ask in a deadpan tone, “Am I to assume you left that nagging at the back of my mind so I could find you or were you waiting for someone already?” I ask because, from the look on his face, I get the feeling that he already knew I would be making my way down here. His response is sullen, “Who would the blind grown male possibly be waiting for?” Again, he sounds moody, and this time I do not let it bother me as much as it would have this afternoon because I have something bothering me too. Something he’s caused to bother me, and which he’s now responsible for explaining. “What did you mean b
Sophia’s pov.For some reason, Caelum is concerned about the smear campaign going on about me online, and it takes me a moment to come to terms with it.Because it isn’t so bad to me. It’s Violet making her first move and that’s okay. She can’t hurt me directly anymore. The only thing she can do is hold onto Ulric and do his bidding, and I am way past the point where I consider that to be something valuable, or where I consider it to be something she’s taken from me.Right now, I feel nothing about it.I want to feel sorry for her, and I do, but not enough to care. She can fund a million more articles calling me every name imaginable, I wouldn't bat an eyelid to any of them.Yet Caelum though….“I’ll get it pulled down first.”His voice sounds calm and resigned as he begins, “Then block every other avenue they will have to put more out there.”That sounds like a simple statement. It sounds like an exceedingly simple statement, except I know how much it would take to get half the new
Caelum’s pov.I watch the look on Sophia’s face.I watch how it morphs and changes from a look of blank neutrality, to one of light worry, and then back to her blank neutrality.The emotions her’s elicits in me are cool and calm for now, but I can feel the annoyance the worry she feels brings out in me. I can feel myself waiting for her to just show me an inkling of how much this hurts her, and give me the excuse to do what I've wanted to do for a while now.Murder my half-brother with my bare hands.“I can see Violet’s handiwork all over this.”Sophia’s response isn’t the one I’d been hoping for, and I chuckle internally at that while I feel a smile line my lips, because trust her to always surprise me. I ask more silently, like we’re the only people in the room,“Do you want to see what the public response is?”She saddles closer to me and nods, and suddenly I want to do nothing more than have her in my arms, her laps straddling me, my hands on her hips, and my mouth on hers, bringi
Everyone goes back in when they’re dirty and soiled enough, and soon it’s only me and my garden. I’d always wanted to grow a garden. I just didn’t have the chance to really do that in Ulric’s mansion, but now that I can, I want to do it here.I’m halfway through rearranging and reconstructing the mounds of soil my little gardeners did when I feel a presence at the entrance to the backyard.I dart my eyes over to see who it is, because it’s not Caelum, I'd have felt it if it was him, and I'm right.It isn’t him.It’s Sebastian instead.I really can’t help the memory flash that comes, and I let it because he’s essentially the first person I knew from this world.He was the bartender who saw me at my worst. Who saw me smiling through alcohol and pain, who saw me whistling along to the sound of my favorite band coming from the speakers in the bar, and who I blatantly told I wouldn't stop drinking, not even if he forced me.I haven’t gone near another bottle of alcohol since then, and that
Alora is snickering by the side of the wall and Ophelia is drawing with a light smile on her face, while I watch Dimitri… wreck the gardening mounds as he heaves and throws and just…“You could always ask him to stop y’know.”Kellen’s voice floats over from the bench he’s lain on, back against the stone, eyes to the skies, and voice oddly unfeeling as he makes that comment,He sounds calm, and he’s right, I could always ask Dimitri to stop, But so far, he’s the only one who’s offered to help me and he doesn’t seem to care that the others are saying he’s terrible at it, he’s doing what he’s doing regardless.I really want to ask him who taught him how to garden, but then I remember where they both were just a few days ago, and I keep my mouth shut.If Dimitri wants to ruin my garden to process his emotions, then he can. I’ll do my best to salvage what I can later.He seems really interested in actually doing the gardening, he’s doggedly adamant about planting the seeds, and playing wit
Caelum chuckles, and it’s a laughing kind of chuckle because I enjoy it. I hear his laughter, I hear the sound of it and I enjoy its raspy timbre. I enjoy how he sounds like he just can’t believe his ears. And I enjoy how his eyes seem to gleam a bit, whether with remorse or happiness - I don't know - as he asks, “How is my reason for killing more noble than yours?”Caelum asks a simple question, but it strikes me as hard because I would have to be honest with him on this, and I don't think I have been honest with anyone about this in a long time now.I don’t think anyone really cared to know, so I've never told them. Not Violet, or Ulric, or any of the people I considered family.I feel comfortable when I tell Caelum, “My reason for killing him was anger.”Something primal gleams behind Caelum’s eyes and I suddenly feel so small when he places his gaze on me.Like he could swallow me up with the intensity of that gaze, and I'd let him. Light goosebumps trail up my skin as I clear my
I do not ask Caelum for permission to go out anymore.My mind has already brought up another way of getting what I need to do, done, and though it wouldn’t be the most conventional way, I still accept it as a way because it is… and asking for permission to go out, would mean I’d have to go out if he agrees, and i don’t want to because that would entail me leaving his side,And I don't want to.I realized it as soon as Caelum started speaking to me and I started seeing him smile from some of the responses I gave him. His voice is filled with light wonder as he peers down at me from where he’s seated and asks,“You’re really the daughter of an Alpha?”I nod, not feeling offended at the fact that he’s making that statement, or that he seems to find the need to ask that question. Not many people know I am the daughter of an Alpha, but it seems like an important thing for my mate to know, and he did say he wanted to understand me.To understand me, he has to understand my background, and h
“You know half the city is looking for you right now, right?”I only catch a sliver of Sebastien’s statement before I leave the room, yet I can already tell what he’s speaking about, who he’s speaking of, and what the implications of his words are. A short thrill of fear shoots up my spine because though Caelum acts all cool and composed, I can tell what the implications of that video will be now that we’ve decided to keep it up.Caelum showed off weapons with the ability to level the greatest mansion in the history of the past ten years, along with that, he killed the aged leaders of a prestigious pack. No one would believe that would have happened if you told them, yet it did, and all the world will care to know is that those weapons are still in his care and they should not be.They’ll try to attack Caelum from all sides. They’ll try to come at him with lawsuits for lack of a license to handle such weapons, try to label him a national enemy, of course, the real consequences of Ca
Caelum’s face is scrunched in a light frown when he watches the video, but I notice there’s nothing foul about the frown.He looks conflicted, like he’s trying to decide on something and he can’t, so he’s keeping quiet about it. Mulling over it again and again in his thoughts.I feel a surge of worry and concern go through me and I speak without thinking about it any longer, “If you’re worried about the weapons and your identity, I'm sure we can find a way to get the video pulled down.I can.I can find a way to help with that. This video is only up because you came to save me, and I don't want that to affect you.” I realize how sappy I sound and some rebellious spirit in me lets out a barf sound, nope, it’s Alora. I shoot her a glare, and she looks away as she chuckles, but I feel Caelum’s gaze accurately on me. I feel the intensity of it, the moment it alights on me, and I feel the emotion that courses through it, his gaze bathes me in a subtle heat, like sunlight.And through it,