Sophia’s pov.Caelum is downstairs when I go down, at the breakfast table, and I take the seat farthest from him.I haven’t seen Alora since the day she looked scared at this same table, and Kellen too.I haven’t seen any of them since yesterday. Only him, and only him.“I’d like us to have a fresh start.”Caleum’s words catch me off guard because they’re cool.They’re calm.They’re said in a tone that makes me feel he knows he’s talking to a being individual of himself and his will, and he’s willing to respect that.“I think we got off on the wrong foot, you and I. I’d like for us to mend that.”Almost on instinct, I track the procession of events that have led to this moment in the field of my mind.The events seem short but I can still remember the pain that came with them. I can still feel the insecurity that wraps itself around me now.I know Caelum is waiting for an answer, so I give him one in the form of a non-commitment nod.“What is your proposal?”I know the words are wrong
Caelum’s pov.Sophia walks out and I feel something ring hollow in me.This… This isn’t how that was supposed to go. Fenrir stays silent despite the fact that he’s always been talkative when it comes to any matter concerning his mate, and I find that I don't know what worries me more.My wolf’s silence, or Sophia’s reaction. I clench my jaw at that last part, because that can’t possibly be what’s bothering me. I feel a presence invade the atmosphere but I do not look up, I already know who it is,“I saw Sophia heading out just now.” Sebastian draws the chair opposite me out and sits in it.A sudden urge overcomes me and in my annoyance, I want to growl at him and tell him to get the hell out of there, and go sit in another chair.Sophia sat there. He shouldn’t have sat where she sat.Except again, my heart whispers something else.Sebastian can sit there. He should even. At every breakfast and dinner we’ll ever have.Just so there can be a chance, a slight chance, that Sophia can sit
~~~~~~~~~~~Ulric’s made changes to the mansion.I step inside to see there’s now a layer of gold to everything. I want to wonder whose money is sponsoring this new renovation, but I also realize I don't want to.I do not concern myself with things relating to Ulric now. He can live his life however he wants.I gesture to the cameraman, and he walks in, closing his mouth as he does so.I don’t think the world realizes it as much as they should, but some things are all a front.The pictures I spent hours fawning over on social media, I recreated those pictures, recreated those situations, except now I was the main character.The main liar.To the world, I am the wife of a very successful CEO Alpha. Alpha Ulric Highrise of the Spineridge pack.I am Luna Sophia, and everyone underestimates Luna Sophia because in all the pictures, in all the interviews, in all the little snippets of our life that have been gathered and fed to the world like a well-curated social media app feed, like some
Ulric slings his arm around my shoulder.Ulric touches my elbow.Ulric flashes me a seductive smile, and my my, do his eyes sparkle.Ulric likes these kinds of things. Likes being in the spotlight, as I said before, he’s a cover boy.“Hey loosen up Sophia.”Ulric’s hand lands on mine and I snatch it back immediately. Violently even.Ulric frowns.I sigh and take a deep breath. This isn’t working.My plan was for Florian to take these pictures, from afar, of course, just a few of them. The rest will be taken more directly, but my plan was for him to take these pictures, dozens of them, and on different days, I drop them like easter eggs all over the internet.They’ll look genuine. They’ll look real.I’ll handle it. Except,“Don’t tell me you still have feelings for me, Sophia?”Ulric’s breath on the side of my neck makes my breakfast want to come back up and I shudder. He sees that shudder, knows that I only shudder when I'm disgusted.Knows I am disgusted right now because of himHe s
Caelum isn’t home when I arrive, and I'm grateful for it.I slip into the house, then into the room and I collapse on the bed with my thoughts all muddled up and slight panic rising in my heart, because there’s no way.There’s actually no way my heart would be that stupid.I can be delusional at times, yes. Today and how it has progressed so far has literally proven that, but can I be that delusional?Apparently, I can because the world responds to me with a knock at my door, and my heart lurches.My heart does not lurch.My heart never lurches.It can rise in its steady beating, in its erratic pounding. It can do all these things but it never lurches. The tightening of the mate bond tells me that it’s Caelum.“Sophia?”Something in me warms at the deep, warm, velvet of his tone. That thing warms even more when he calls again,“Sophia?” He releases a low growl that has my mind sparking with lust, “I know you’re in there, Sophia. I thought we agreed on a new start.”My eyebrows crease
Caleum’s pov.What….What the fuck?I look at my reflection in the mirror of the flowing water and heave as I curse under my breath, because what was that?What the hell was that?The flow and gurgle of the water are the only thing I get as a response and I curse under my breath again.I could see her.I could fucking see Sophia, I could see her as she lay on the bed, her cheeks a bright red, eyes flushed and everything… I could see everything.What the hell was that?I take a shower, to wash off and wash away all that has occurred in the past few minutes.I could smell her desire.I could sense it getting stronger with each word she said, each time her eyes met mine.Did she think I wouldn't notice?Or has she forgotten I spent quite a while between her legs? The memory is still fresh.I know her scent, her flowery yet spicy scent, like cinnamon rose, or paprika and daisies.Fuck.I feel blood flowing downwards again and my body threatens to heat up once more. Threatens to make me wa
Sophia’s pov.“Explain to me how this goes again?”I raise my head from the cup of tea I'm nursing to look at Alora. She looks dead serious, and I sigh because I did say I wanted to see her. I AM happy to see her.“Remind me Alora, how old are you again?” She scoffs and directs a glare at me,“Old enough to know what needs to be known. I’m not lily pure. I’ve done… things too. I’d just like to know how this works. This particular situation you’re in.”I sigh again, because I did ask for her. I don’t want to make her feel the way I did last time. I need to build trust with her, so here goes nothing.“When two wolves discover they are mates, usually a male and female, but it can be different, no one can tell how the bonds the moon goddess will forge might manifest… but when two werewolves discover they are mates, their bond drags them to make a decision.It’s not like it’s imperial they make one at that moment. No, that decision can be delayed, and it can be one or the other, accepta
Caelum sits and it’s like everything about him is different today….There’s a shine to his skin. A glow to his eyes. A deeper darker tint to his hair.I squirm in my seat until I remember who I am and stop it. Alora is looking from one of us to the other, and when I see what her eyes land on particularly, I feel something in my throat lock up.Caelum raises his phone in his hand and I hear the sound of it unlocking.“That color looks nice on you.”Caleum is leaning into his seat. His posture, one of a typical worried man, shoulders hunched, a frown trying to line his face. He’s looking at his phone so I guess he’s attending to something on there, but he just complimented me, and his compliment sounds genuine, so making sure I pick my words carefully, I respond,“Thank you.Yours looks… not so bad either.”Alora makes an almost choking sound and I give her a side glare, but from the corner of my eyes, I can see the shadow of a smile tickle Caleum’s lips. Just the lightest quirk of th
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,