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
I do not take them.Caleum leaves the house and goes out to handle his business. I know it’s none of my business what his business is. I still don’t know what he does, I do want to know - because the playfield has shifted quite a bit now. The variables aren’t the same anymore, things aren’t as simple as they once were.At least for me. I don’t know what’s making me act this way. It’s weird, it’s all weird,But I know I can't leave anything to chance now.There’s a bond between us, and I need to run background checks. I didn’t run background checks with Ulric and look how that turned out. Though I am older now and in a different situation, with a totally different man, I know I can't repeat the same mistakes I made.I need to do this right, for all our sakes.I can’t ask about him in his home, he’s asked me not to. I’ll respect his wishes on that.But I can ask about him outside it.“What are you doing?”I jump as a hand pulls me out of the way of an incoming body. It takes me a seco
I don’t take the pills the next day too.This time I'm careful when I leave the house to trail after a maid.I need to catch them alone.And since my particular activity isn’t being carried out on the grounds of the Maximoff villa, that would mean I have a free license to ask as many questions as I'd like regardless of how they might seem to Caelum or not.We had breakfast again this morning, and it was pleasant again - this morning.Caleum was sober yesterday. Today, he was a bit more cheery. We haven’t talked about what happened two days ago. I suppose he’s taking his inhibitors, yet I think we both know the inhibitors aren’t the final solution.They’re more of a temporary answer. He’s using his, but for how long?I stop as the traffic light goes to green and the cars start zooming past. The maid from Caleum’s mansion is on the other side of the road, and I curse under my breath though I have every intention to still make the crossing and follow her.The question I try to ignore r
I sit on a chair and open the laptop in front of me, unable to deny that I am surprised, and a bit ashamed of myself, because I'd totally been avoiding a talk with Ravenna. I’m not scared of talking to her. I’m not scared she’ll not want to speak to me. I’m just scared of losing her. Lying to her does not come to me as easily as it comes to Ulric, and I always feel like one look at me, and my baby would see right through all I've been putting up. The call comes through, and I watch it ring for a while - Caelum’s gaze a hot thing on me. I cannot ignore it, and the fact that he’s sitting right there, unwilling to go out makes me feel something cold in my body I pick up the call and Ravenna’s face comes onto the screen. Immediately I feel my heart melt. My daughter is right there. The picture seems better on this laptop, clearer, her features are so well-defined. And the small smile on her face makes her watery purple eyes crinkle and twinkle in that fantastical way. “Hi, Mummy
Caelum’s pov. Sophia cares about her daughter. It was clear in the way her face lit up when they spoke, in the way her eyes seemed to twinkle as she stared into the screen of the laptop and the way she gazed at the little human beyond that screen with an almost crazed fondness. Sophia looks at her child... Like she’s all that matters in the world. And she’s a good mother. That much is clear. But she’s also hiding something from her daughter. I stare at the spot she was just seated on and my body mourns the loss of her presence. The loss of her scent. The loss of the warmth that was radiating off her so softly. She looked…tasty in the outfit she wore today. I love seeing her in trousers. They package her backside quite alluringly. “Drooling on the mental image of a business deal, are you?” I look up to see Alora just in the doorway, and her expression is still closed off. Her tone is still cold. I sigh because she’s also an issue I have to deal with, and despite the fact tha
Sophia’s pov. I hear my door creak and Alora walks in on me changing. I yelp because I wasn't expecting her. She chortles as she settles onto my bed, totally uninvited, and as calm as a snake about to pick off its next prey. I don’t know what to make of her entrance, or her attitude But there’s something in the air about her today. Something so unlike Alora that I can’t help but ask, “What is it? There’s something different about you today.” She shrugs and I take a look at her dress. It’s a summer flower motif dress, and it’s beautiful, it makes her beautiful. Caleum must have gotten it for her, or Seb. “Are you going to leave me in silence, Alora?” She groans and makes a tired little sound before turning to me, “You’re very insistent sometimes y’know.” I nod because I know, but that isn’t the point here. I wait for a response, and when I get none I deflect to another aspect. “Are you at least going to tell me what you’re here for?” “Mr. Caleum sent me.” The first thing my m
“Aren’t you going to be concerned about that?”I glance at my phone and ignore it again for the fifth time in the past thirty minutes.“It’s not important. What’s important right now,”“Is getting revenge on the shithead Alpha who cheated on you with that violet-eyed lady.”I cut Alora a glare and she chuckles like a child before looking out the window, eyes sparkling with a closed-off type of glee.While I would have loved for that to be my aim, it isn’t. Not now.Revenge against Ulric isn’t something I haven't thought of. I have. I have thought of making him pay for all he did to me. But I know if anyone’s meant to pay for anything, I will be in the position of the one doing most of the paying.I am not innocent or excluded from the things Ulric has done. I was the one who carried them out.Him betraying me is simply karma.I was never meant to be loved.It was my fault for thinking I could.But what’s done is done, and giving myself to war isn’t what I'm inclined to do right now. T