> Zoe was stunned as the cave if the mouth closed like a mountain as if there was never a cave opening to begin with.Even though Xavier knew what he was doing, he hadn't seen the artifact in action. So, he was equally surprised and impressed that it had worked to perfection."Where did Maisie get that?" Zoe asked in dibelief still staring the magic that had happened before her eyes."She didn't. She made it." Xavier said and turned around.He quickly erased as many car tracks as he could or covered those he couldn't before returning to Zoe,"We shouldn't waste anymore time, I'll shift and you hold on tight, alright?" He could've made a suggestive joke about it but he seemed too alert and suddenly in a hurry."Alright," Zoe replied before asking cautiously, "Xavier, is everything okay?""I'm not sure yet, " He looked around suspiciously, "Whatever it is, it's too far for now," Then he turned to her seriously, "Let's not wait for it to reach us."With that, he was already on
>We started walking in the direction opposite Silver Moon."Oh, come on!" Xavier yelled behind another van that did not stop for us, making me smile."Maybe they are intimidated by you," I said, trying to hide how amused I was at his behavior. The great Alpha Shaw getting frustrated because a vehicle didn't stop for him."If it's so funny to you, why don't you try it?" He frowned. I guess I wasn't as great at hiding my amusement as I thought I was. Or maybe I didn't really want to."Sure," I took the challenge, "Stay out of sight if you can," I said while making him walk near the ditch on the side of the road, as I sinched up the waist of my dress tighter and pushed up my breasts to show some cleavage."What are you doing?" Xavier asked, sounding jealous and protective."Using what Moon Goddess gave me," I smirked. I had been waiting for the opportunity to get back at him for walking around naked in front of me. Of course, I wasn't going to take off my dress, but this was
>It took me a few minutes until a vine design caught my eye. It expressed my twisted life and my state of mind perfectly."This one, on the shaved side of my head," I told Judy.She took a look at the table, "This one will take five hours, at least. Possibly more." She looked at me, "Have you ever had a tattoo before?" I shook my head."I'd recommend a small quote on a wrist to see if you can handle it for the first time, instead of going straight to the scalp. It's a sensitive area." Judy advised."I can handle. Pain is a kind of a bestie now." I couldn't tell her that being with Dahlia had heightened my pain tolerance and once you break all bones of your body to turn into a werewolf-Lycan hybrid, nothing else can hurt as much."One last question," Judy placed her hands on her hips sassily, "With everything you just told me that you've lost. How will you pay for the tattoo? As sorry as I feel for you, this ain't no charity here, sweetheart.""We'll pay through this," Xa
>The couple felt like they had stepped through a portal and traveled back into a nineteenth-century rural landscape. The cobblestone paths with old-fashioned cottages looked straight out of a fairytale. The low windows with flower pots were showing off the early spring blooms. The women wore classic cottage-core dresses with aprons while the men looked like they never even knew what jeans were. A delicious aroma wafted from a bakery window to their right. They had seen a bunch of giant windmills as they had entered the village along with many fields of crops glowing in the setting sun."Why did Aunt Julie never talk about this place?" Zoe mused wonderstruck at the simple yet lovely lifestyle in front of her."We can ask the locals. Let's find a place to sleep and some dinner first, yeah?" Xavier offered.They walked ahead but the locals seemed to look at them suspiciously until a well-dressed, young man ran over to them with a huge welcoming smile, "Hello countrymen, welc
>"This is your room. I hope you enjoy your stay here. If you need anything, you can come downstairs and ask me, Grand-Papa, or Grandma. Whoever is available will help you." Lilian handed us a quaint little key to our room and told, "I hope you understood all the house rules. If need to revise, there is a parchment on the side table to remind you. Have a lovely stay!" She bowed a little, raising her skirt on both sides like Cinderella, and walked away.Xavier turned the key and walked in, I followed him.It was only when I closed the door behind me that I realized that there was one room and two of us."Hold on, why did she give us only one key?" I asked with a frown."You wanted her to give us keys to all the rooms? Let's ask for a key to the kitchen while we're at it. Y'know for a midnight snack." Xavier said sarcastically and opened the backpack to pull out a smaller bag, probably his toiletries."You know what I mean," I said. Looking at his relaxed demeanor something
>As Zoe came out of the shower, she saw a gorgeous yellow sundress with clouds and sunflowers painted on it, lying on the bed with a note on it.Xavier was nowhere in sight so, she walked over in her towel and read the note, 'I called Jonny to do some shopping for us since we had to leave most of the things in the car. Jonny says the dress is hand-crafted from scratch. I am going downstairs to use Mr. Hill's bathroom on his offer. See you at breakfast.'Subconsciously smiling to herself, Zoe brushed her hair and wore the dress. She looked at her reflection, it felt like wearing an early morning sky. Her tattoo had nearly healed. She thanked her supernatural healing because it would've been hard to keep a bandage for weeks. The vines looked great. Jumbled up, like her life.She walked downstairs to see, Xavier sitting at the breakfast table beside Mr. and Mrs. Hill, and Jonny. There was a space right next to him and a space next to Jonny. Lilian was serving over fresh brea
>Zoe and Xavier walked towards the front of the house and were surprised at its condition.Apart from the fact that it was locked with a big, rusty padlock, it looked uninhabited, nothing short of a haunted house. It seemed like no one had stepped foot on the property in decades."Alright, what do we do now?" Xavier thought out loud. This was their major lead and now they were at a dead end. Aunt Julie was probably the last owner of the house and without her, who were they going to find who could let them in?"We could climb the wall," Zoe shrugged looking at the average height walls."I hope you are seriously not suggesting we trespass on a locked property." Xavier raised a brow."Don't judge me. And don't tell me you've never trespassed into someone else's property," She raised a finger playfully, "And before you say that you haven't, remember who did a ritual to enter a certain night club with me, uninvited."Xavier closed his mouth that he had opened to answer her in r
>My head was pounding as if I had a hangover. I did not remember drinking enough to have a hangover since MJ's twentieth birthday party. I groggily opened my eyes. I tried to bring my hand up to my face to rub my eyes and focus but I couldn't move my hands."Xavier?" I called out trying not to panic just yet.I remembered going to Riverwoods and staying with the old couple that I thought were weird for some reason but Xavier didn't. I remembered ditching the tour guide Jonny to investigate Aunt Julie's old home. And then, I had opened a door and fainted because there was something else mixed with dust. "Xavier?!" I called out again, my voice conveying the panic I was trying to control because everything was too dark to see anything to know where we were. I only knew that I was sitting in a chair and my hands and feet were tied too tight for even my super strength."Zoe?!" I heard him."Xavier!" I called back."Zoe, Goddess, are you okay?" He asked.He was worried about
>I had only been to the cabin with Xavier once. So, without the GPS that Jacob had set up, I'd be entirely lost.I tried to stay calm as the evening turned to the night. The cabin was a couple of hours away from the tunnel opening. I didn't know who built the cabin or of they knew about the tunnels. But, they had chosen the safest location in all of the pack, for a secluded, secret place. No wonder Xavier loved to go there to relax.I parked the car in the cabin garage that was also a storage room. Using the keys from the glove box of the car, I got inside the cabin and was instantly hit by the memories of amazing, passionate time that Xavier and I had spent there. At that time, the worst problem in my life was saving my Dad and not falling for the Alpha the thought of whole sent delcious shivers down my spine.The place was just as I remembered it. The paintings, the empty canvases, the easel and random splashes of color here and there, and the hammock where I had spent
>Lady Shaw knew her son, just as well as Xavier knew his father. Elder Shaw stood with his hands in his pockets like this was midday and not a strange middle-of-the-night, random visit that he had never done in his life before. He knew how he looked, he didn't care."Mother, step aside, let's have some late-night tea," He spoke with authority that he did not have over his mother who, according to him, was still the acting Alpha of the pack."It is late, son," Lady Shaw frowned, "Either say what you came to say or leave.""You do not look like you just got out of the bed to open the door, Mother," He smirked."Neither do you," Lady Shaw retorted."Well, I never said that I was in bed." "Neither did I,""In that case, you wouldn't mind a cup of tea with your only son, would you?""As a matter of fact, I would." Lady Shaw was losing patience, "I don't drink tea. Never have. And neither do you. So, skip the antics.""Fine, you got me," He sighed, not even pretending like he
>"Lady Shaw, the visitor is very persistent," Mrs. Hass spoke softly."Well, why didn't you ask the visitor's identity? Who do they think they are? To show up at the door of an old woman and demand an audience?" While Lady Shaw felt inconvenienced, she quickly got up. Because she knew that if somebody had the audacity to come to her door without an appointment and demand a meeting asap, it must mean that person either had everything at stake or nothing to lose. Either way, being the acting Alpha in the absence of her grandson meant that she had more responsibility for the people of her pack than she ever did before and she had been trying her best to keep things as smooth as she could."Call them in," Lady Shaw said to Mrs. Hass."I'm afraid they are already in, Ma'am." Mrs. Hass gave her best apologetic expression."Oh, Goddess. Now, that is going a step too far," Lady Shaw walked out of her bedroom where she had retired to rest for the night.Her feet stilled before her
>Xavier and Zoe rode the public transport to get as close as they could without getting spotted. They had memorized the route they were going to take to get to his cabin in the woods. It was of the places that did not have any underground tunnels leading to it.They had used the map of Blood Crescent's underground tunnels to get as far in the pack and as close to the cabin as they could. These were the same tunnels Luca's handler had used to smuggle him in the pack for his first mission.As soon as they resurfaced in the pack territory, Jacob was there with a car. Xavier had sent him an encrypted message through a secure line that they had been using to communicate over the past few months that Xavier was away.Xavier had updated Jacob about his brother and his long-awaited return to the pack while Jacob had kept him updated about Claire and the rest of the major happenings in the pack. Apparently, his father had kept his head down while Xavier was away but they knew that
>Zoe and Xavier spent the rest of the rest of the day discussing the contents of the flash drive with Luca. There was a lot of information there, but at the same time, a lot of critical information was still missing. For example, there were no proper coordinates of the bases, no real names were used, and there was no information about how long everything had been going on or who was funding it all.The only thing they concluded from the information was that the ones running these projects were sadistic bastards and worse were the people funding these who clearly had some dark ulterior motives. Zoe thought the worst was what each project's samples had to go through during the experiments. No one deserved to be put through such trauma-inducing horrors. But, for Xavier, the worst was not knowing who to trust anymore. He had no idea who was directly involved in these horrendous projects like his father and Claire. Luca briefed them about everything he had come to know so fa
>After telling them his story and revealing that he had been spying on the Military facility to the North, Luca brought out his laptop and the flash drive he was given."This thing has played a major role in me remembering myself as much as I have. I still have huge empty patches but at least I know who I am." Luca said and clicked on a folder that was locked. He added the password making Xavier ask, "How did you know that?" "Neil added a file in here among my files that had all the passwords and decryption codes required." Luca answered and turned the laptop to Xavier, "All yours, Alpha."Zoe leaned in as Xavier started scrolling through the many folders with names like Project Winter, Project Obsidian, and Project Twilight. His eyes caught a familiar name and he stilled."Do you know this one?" Zoe asked as Xavier clicked on the folder named, Project Blackwater.Xavier took a deep breath before answering, "Claire worked on this project during the five years that she was
>I was training through simulation one day when suddenly the feed got cut off.I took off the VR goggles and looked around. Everything was dark. The facility was well-protected and well-equipped. We couldn't just have a random blackout. Something was wrong.I walked into the lobby. My trainer was nowhere to be found. He never left me alone. I wandered the hallways confused having no idea what was happening. I tried a few doors through the hallway, but they were locked or had no one in them.The power returned in around fifteen minutes but no one returned. Getting bored and being a good soldier, I returned to my training. Only when I turned on the VR to resume my simulation, all I saw were pictures of Jacob, Mom, Xavier, and all my friends and fellows from Blood Crescent. I still have no idea who hijacked that place and how, but I am grateful to them. Because without them, there was no way I could've broken out of there. They didn't just override my VR to show me my real
>"I'll get some firewood," Luca told and left Xavier and Zoe to read the report.Xavier didn't turn the title page even after Luca had gone so, Zoe placed a hand on his arm, "You don't have to if you don't want to. What matters is that Luca is here and alive. We found him and he remembers you."Xavier sighed, "I know. But I have to. If my own father can stoop so low as to put the safety of his people in jeopardy for personal gains, there is no telling how far he is willing to go for them," He glanced at Zoe and Zoe could see the pain in his eyes from his father's betrayal. No matter how awful a parent is, the child always keeps hope for the better. Xavier had realized in that moment, that there was no hope for his father. He was just as awful as the people Xavier had spent his time fighting to protect his people from. He just never realized that the real threat was living in the Shaw mansion.He looked back at the file and flipped the page to begin reading from the top,~
>Everything felt weird but I did not have the time to focus on that. The Sun, the oxygen, the wind, and the scent of early spring.It felt like an old memory that eluded me. But then, I had no memories so technically, all memories eluded me. My therapist told me that I had no siblings or parents. I was lucky that they had found me nearly dead and saved me. I owed them my existence. If it wasn't for their benevolent help, I would be dead. But now, I got to use my life for a better cause.I was in constant contact with my handler, Mr. Croft, as I was sent into the field. The world felt like a strange new place that I knew but had forgotten. But as a soldier, I was trained not to get distracted. So, I got on the first train to Blood Crescent.>Xavier and Zoe exchanged glances. "Wait, you went back? When? Why would they send you there? How am I only finding out about this now? I asked Jacob about you every time I could." Xavier felt his heart get heavier. One of