>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
Warning: The contents of this chapter contain mentions of trauma, child abuse, and torture. Reader discretion is advised.]>My instincts are rarely ever wrong. I should've listened to Zoe. I should've been more careful. I need to get out of here.'Or maybe, you should shut up for a second so, at least, one of us can think of a plan!' Spike said sarcastically as he paced around in my head, making me feel dizzier than I already was.I wanted to give him a satisfactory answer but the truth was, being bonded beyond escape brought traumatizing memories for me. It was becoming hard to keep my cool as Mr. Hill showed up with his caring smile followed closely by Jonny who was pushing a trolley full of various surgical instruments, butcher tools, and herbs.I knew well what was coming next.He asked questions, I either stayed silent, asked a question in return, or replied with sarcasm. None of those were appreciated by Mr. Hill. Who soon lost patience and threw his first punch.
[Warning: This chapter mentions extreme torture. Reader discretion is advised.]>"You know you can stop it all, you just have to tell us what you were looking for. Who sent you? We've got nothing else to do. So, either get comfortable or start talking." Lilian said as she handed yet another tool to Mrs. Hill.The metal itself wasn't toxic to me, but the way she peeled my skin and poured vinegar on my exposed muscle, made me scream.My scream was accompanied by Xavier's scream from the adjacent room. The fact that we were so close and getting tortured simultaneously, brought little comfort.I wanted to tell them that nobody sent us, but I was so angry, all that came out was a bloody sneer, "Screw you," That seemed to enrage the women more.Mrs. Hill slapped me hard across the face with a hand covered in silver chains. It slashed my cheek open making me groan. I realized as soon as they had started with me that they expected me to be a werewolf. They were using wolfsbane an
>I was shocked and confused for a second before I realized something was wrong.Lilian stood with a grimace on her face looking at the necklace that had fallen from her hands. Mrs. Hill was still leaning over me with a glare full of hatred and ready to tear my heart out. But they weren't moving. I watched them for a hot minute, "Um, guys, in the middle of torture here?" I tried.Nothing.They looked like they had suddenly turned into statues. I focused my hearing on their hearts and I heard two hearts. They were alive. But they weren't moving. Why weren't they moving?It didn't matter. What mattered was that I had gotten the chance that I was waiting for.I bent down, trying to get to the I.V.s in my wrists. After removing them painfully, I sighed. It was going to take a while to flush out all the poison that they had pumped into me. "Dahlia?" I called out to her since I hadn't heard from her in a while.'I'm here,' She replied. She did not sound well."I need to get o
>Zoe and Xavier walked into the dark hallways that seemed to be endless."I thought that bastard said we were in the Simmons house. Simmons house was not this big." Xavier groaned as he tried not to lean on Zoe too much since she was just as tortured if not more, but he knew if he let go, they'd both be on the floor. They were exhausted and pumped full of poison. Zoe more than Xavier, but that meant they were equally exhausted and needed time and a safe space to heal undisturbed."I see a light," Zoe said as she tried to move faster.They went from one hallway to another. There were blood stains and claw marks on the floors and walls. It made them wonder what the humans had going on there. They saw stairs and Xavier wondered out loud, "I thought Simmons house was one story.""I think we are under the house," Zoe replied and they both stumbled up the stairs groaning with each step as pain coursed through their not-yet-healed wounds."I have never hated stairs more," Xavie
>Zoe and Xavier hid behind the wall as they saw a man and boy change a flat tire. It was going to take them a while. But time was of the essence.So, while the two were busy, Zoe and Xavier dragged each other to the back of the truck and hopped in. They got to the back and hid behind the crates to wait for the tire to be changed and get out of the Goddess-forsaken village before it was too late.Zoe and Xavier walked into the dark hallways that seemed to be endless."I thought that bastard said we were in the Simmons house. Simmons house was not this big." Xavier groaned as he tried not to lean on Zoe too much since she was just as tortured if not more, but he knew if he let go, they'd both be on the floor. They were exhausted and pumped full of poison. Zoe more than Xavier, but that meant they were equally exhausted and needed time and a safe space to heal undisturbed."I see a light," Zoe said as she tried to move faster.They went from one hallway to another. There wer
>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