Violet’s pov.Alpha Ulric and I catch a shower together, and the experience is magical. All the while I can't stop thinking of how many times we’ve done this. Of how many times I've become his go-to. He promised me he would give her up for me, and he did. He kept to his promise.He wants me to go up against her.I will.She’s the old while I am the new.She didn’t know how to keep a hold on her man. I know how, and life is a battle of the fittest. I am the fittest.“Ah, Alpha Ulric!”“Moan my name baby.”My thoughts veer off track with the way he handles me, and he groans again, pushing me against the cold glass walls.I notice how this bathroom is also so well suited for this act and I chuckle to myself. Alpha Ulric bites my ear and asks in that husky tone, “Is something funny, Violet?”I can sense a tinge of danger in his tone so I craft my response as carefully as I can.“I was just wondering, does it ever cross your mind, that this bathroom was restructured with the thought of ba
Sophia’s pov.“This is very weird.”The sun is brilliant today. The air from the open windows is borderline rejuvenating, but Alora does not hesitate to say whatever is on her mind and I hate her for it.I glare at her, and while she returns my glare she thankfully leaves me the fuck alone.She turns to Caelum instead,“Why is she blushing? And… is that color on your cheeks, Mr Maximoff?Did you two bang last night?”Caelum’s head snaps up from his book immediately and there’s a very dramatic rise to his nose. He looks like he’d strike her down with thunder from his eyes if he could.Alora scoffs and before I can tell her maybe she’s poked him just enough, she remarks in a biting tone, “The book you’re reading, it’s in French.”Caelum’s response is sharp, “I understand French perfectly.”“And it doesn’t matter that it’s also a collection of fairy tales, does it?”I want to say she has him but again Caelum’s response is just as sharp, “I like a good story where I can find it.”Alora sm
Alora does not trust me. And that's so smart of her.Right as we leave the house, she lets me take control of the wheel even when I tell her I might not be the best at driving. She tells me quite frankly, "I don't believe you", and I chuckled at the time…“Hey watch it, lady!”The man’s angry shout goes right over my head because he was the one not in his lane!"You really don't know how to drive do you?"I shrug and keep a firm hold on the steering wheel so it doesn’t veer off track. I wouldn't want us to get to our destination looking all bloody and in pieces.My plan for today revolves in my mind and I can't say why but it annoys me. It doesn't just annoy me, it makes me feel like this won't work.I thought going to Alvin had been the best choice earlier - thought he would at least look at the fact that he has known me for a far longer time than he did Ulric, but instead, he tried to lay his hands on me.I also thought Alvin would have the common sense to know that siding with me
Alpha Joran and Luna Margery of the SIlvershine pack live in a place that’s the picture of grace and perfection.Every single time.I hear Alora suck in a breath as we break out into the indoor garden and a butterfly flutters near her. She’s fascinated, the same way everyone else is when they come here.I look at this place, these constructions, beautiful, all of them, from mine and Ulric’s home to Ariana and Alvin’s, then now to this, an older werewolf couple who appreciate beauty as much as much as everyone else, even more. I wonder at the vanity of it all.I’m not saying people shouldn’t enjoy nice things. I enjoy nice things myself.I’m just saying there’s an obvious extravagance to the lives we lead, and while the exterior might look pretty, the interior holds a lot of nasty things sometimes.Luna Mar’s eyes meet mine and I walk over to them. No one would think for a second that this woman was older than I was. No one would believe it… and why should they?She only looks younger
~~~~~~~~~~~In the world of shifters, there are certain rules that are not meant to be disobeyed.Certain rules that are meant to keep us in check and balance how we use our powers.It is especially so, when it concerns those in positions of power, and one of those rules is that under no circumstance, under no circumstance should a Luna be taken captive by anyone of another pack. Be it the Alpha.Be it the Beta.Be it a fellow Luna.I direct my gaze to Luna Margery to find a smile on her face, not the kind smile now, this smile is different. It’s the smile of a woman who has dreamt of doing this for a while now. I want to smile back but I can't, because Alora’s here.I don’t want to endanger her more than I have. Luna Mar makes a tsk and shakes her head derisively,“Let me guess, you thought you would waltz in here, get a seat, engage in that little battle of wits with me, and go home.”I try to keep my voice mellow as I respond, “I came to ask to see Malachi. Nothing more than that
c“Luna Sophia!”Alora’s voice is tinged with panic as she exclaims and I can tell that the same thing happening to me is what is happening to her.Rough hands grab me from behind, hoisting me up by the hair painfully before capturing my arms behind me and holding them there. I can already smell the rank sweat of a male thug, I can already feel the heat radiating off his body, and then there’s that light scent that comes into the air.Alpha Joras and Luna Mar sit with smiles on their faces. Only Alora’s struggle can be heard but I know she can’t escape. I can tell her how futile making an effort will be already, because I've been in this situation before.Countless times even. It’s always just a different genre of the same situation.“You and your little minion will be escorted to a room, here, in my mansion. You will stay there, at my mercy, and then when either I or my Alpha decide on what to do with you, we’ll contact Ulric for the go-ahead. It’s obvious he has no further use for y
Caleum’s pov.It’s dawn before Alora returns and she doesn’t come back with the car, or my mate.Sebastien restrains me with an arm on my shoulder, his words echoing through the mind-link I have with him as he tries to speak some reason into my head. He says,~She could just be chasing something of her own.She’s a grown woman, Caleum. She can keep herself safe.She’s probably catching some rest.~I shrug his arm off as my mind says the things he can’t.~Or Maybe she’s with Ulric, and she’s not meant to be with Ulric.~She’s not meant to be chasing something of her own. She’s not meant to be keeping herself safe. She’s not meant to be in a hotel.She’s meant to be my mate!She’s meant to be with me. She’s meant to be by my side. She’s meant to leave me to chase whatever it is she wants to chase.She’s meant to have me keeping her safe. I don’t believe she can’t do it herself, but what am I for?What am I here for?My heart attempts to mock me for those thoughts, but it can’t because
Luna Margery comes to see me the next day.I’m awoken with a bucket of water being spilled on me. It makes me gasp and sputter because the water gets right into my nose. I feel some of that water snake up my airways and go right into my head. By the time I'm done trying to cough most of it out, there’s the force of a stare on me. Her chuckle and scoff come next,“The mighty have truly fallen.You look horrible Sophia.”I want to speak but what comes out is a cough. I let that cough take its toll, trying to get as much as I can of the water that went up my nose out of my mouth. I see when she takes a look around, I see the contempt that lines her face, and when she looks at me, I can see the haughtiness in her eyes. Her comment is simple,“He wasn’t lying after all. Your little friend did escape.”Luna Margery of the Silvershine pack sees when the hate I’m trying to keep under the surface surges forth. She sees how hard I try to keep the disgust I have for her off my face, and she sm
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,