JASMINES POVI struggled against the grip around my neck, gasping for air as I was dragged into the cold night. My feet and knees scraped against the rocks, my mind racing to make sense of what was happening. “Let go of me!” I tried to scream, clawing at the arm that was holding me. When we stopped, I was slammed into a tree, a sharp stinging pain coursing through my back as I tried to get myself up. My captor finally stepped into the dim light of the moon and my breath hitched. “Bryan?” I spat his name, massaging my throat as I fought myself up. “You think you could humiliate me before everyone and get away with it?” He sneered, reaching for his pocket. Before I could speak, his hands were on my neck again, pressing me hard against the tree. “What do you want, Bryan?” I asked, forcing my voice to sound braver than I felt. A smirk curled his lips, his hand traveling to my forehead with the knife as he leaned in. “You, Jas. I want you to remember who’s in control here. Who’s alwa
JASMINES POV “Stay close to me,” Caine said, his voice low and urgent. My legs trembled at the sight of the lifeless bodies scattered like broken dolls on the floor. The cold suddenly seeped into my skin, making my blood freeze and almost making me halt. Caine’s hand found mine and squeezed it into his, and I could feel the temperature of his body rising with every step we took further. “What happened here?” I muttered, scanning the bodies by the left. My mind was blurred with questions. Could Bryan have done this? No…one person couldn’t wreak such havoc. So what or who was it then? “This is no wild animal,” Caine said like he was answering my thoughts. Something about the scene was off. I could smell it, and I bet Caine could too given the way he was sniffing the air. “This isn’t just blood or death…it’s something unnatural. Something new, dangerous,” he said. “Which means we should leave and probably report it to your dad,” I suggested, beginning to feel the dread of the m
CAINES POV “Tomorrow, don’t be late,” I almost choked on my pretense the moment I heard my girlfriend's voice. “Lucy,” I called her, shifting my gaze from Jasmine with what I hoped was a neutral expression. She was standing at the end of the corridor, hands colder with a brow corked. “I’m sorry, am I interrupting something?” “Lucy,” Jasmine chirped in before I could give a response. She hurried past me and pulled her into a hug. “You got us worried. Are you feeling good now?” She asked, pulling away and scanning Lucy’s body. The smile that played around Lucy’s lip looked fake, forced. But dge managed to maintain it until she was done talking with Jasmine. “You look exhausted. Has Caine been stressing you,” she glanced at me. “No, Caine and I only had a hectic day. We urm.,,we saw…” “Jasmine,” I had to cut her short. We weren’t supposed to talk about it until we were sure of what we were dealing with. “Head to your room, I’ll like a word with Lucy,” I ordered, forcing the me
JASMINES POV That was one step up. Putting Bryan at the center would certainly bring him out of his hiding, and I’ll get my revenge on him. His act last night still lived fresh in my memory, taunting every part of my body. Caine drove me silently back to town. He went down the lane leading to Mrs. Maria’s diner, where I was supposed to work. “Are you sure nothing happened between you and Bryan last night that i should know about?” Caine snapped me out of thoughts as he parked in front of the diner. “Nothing happened. He just happened not to be at the scene when it happened. So there’s every that he’s behind it,” “And you…what were you doing in the woods that late?” He asked. I sighed, turning to look at him. “You can’t know everything, Caine,” “But I want to know if I can trust you,” he said. I hesitated, staring into his eyes and realizing how genuine he was. That wasn’t enough to make me share the events of the previous night. “Trust is earned, not negotiated,” I re
CAINES POV “What script?” Jasmine asked. My heart sank into my stomach, my mind racing with thoughts of what answer I should give. I have never been in a situation where I had to cook up some lie to save my ass. With Jasmine’s gaze, it only got more difficult. “It’s nothing,” I said after much difficulty, forcing a smile. “They’re just trying to stir a drama. Don’t give them that,” I whispered. But Jasmine wasn’t buying that shit. Her narrowed eyes and crossed arms told me she wasn’t letting it slide any time soon. “Drama?” She blurted. I rolled my eyes and pulled her away from the table after taking their orders. I didn’t stop until we were behind the counter. “What happened to revenge?” “What happened to the script you’re supposed to play?” She fired. I exchanged glances with my friends who were sitting at the table, watching us. “Are they in on something involving us?” “You’re overthinking this. Have you suddenly forgotten the people you are dealing with?” I tried to shift t
JASMINES POV The barrel of the gun aimed at me felt grander than it looked. My heart pounded in my chest, but I forced myself to meet the gaze of the brown-haired lady. “Listen…you’ve got the wrong people,” I started, my voice calm despite the storm brewing in me. “We are just workers at the diner…” “Quit the lies or I’ll blow your eyes off,” she fired, her fingers twitching on the trigger. My hands returned to the air, trembling as my mind raced to figure out what else to say, “Save those lies,” she snapped, taking careful steps forward. “You think it’s my first time dealing with wolves? I know what you are I know what you do! The fake lives. The lies, the masks you wear to blend in,” she paused, her eyes flicking from me to Caine, then back to me. Caine shifted to my front, holding my other hand behind him. “You don’t want to do this,” he said, his voice low but firm. “Killing the wrong people won’t bring those you’ve lost,” “But it will give me peace!” She snapped, and I sa
JASMINES POV “What do you mean, lied?” I asked, finding it difficult to process the words my dad just said. “Dad,” “Sweetie…I’ve been trying to wrap my head around it all this while. It just doesn’t make any sense to me,” he added. But that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. My mother, not human? How were they expecting me to believe that a woman who raised me and whom I lived with for years wasn’t human? “Alpha?” “Your dad and I are still doing research, Jasmine. However, I have a question for you,” he said, sitting up in his chair. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and stole a glance at Caine who was standing outside the door. “Where were you the night of the massacre?” He asked. He interrupted my attempt to speak. “Now before you fill me in on how you were with my son all day, we all know that part of the story. What I want to know now, is where you were in the night of the massacre,” he added. I furrowed my brows, trying to get a hold of my thoughts which were
JASMINES POV “Get off me!” I yelled, struggling with the hands that were trying to hold me down. She was too strong for a lady of her size. I kicked several times, throwing failed jabs at her as she held me to the bed. “Tell me!” She growled, placing the gun on my head. But I guess that wasn’t enough to keep me still. To my surprise, even with the nose of a gun placed on my forehead, I didn’t back down. “Let me go! You’re going to get arrested for this!” I growled, yelling in her palm which covered my mouth. She dragged me by the hair and threw me to the floor. Without giving me a chance to get myself, she kicked my torso and dragged my legs. “One last chance, girl!” She growled, pointing the gun at me. My heart was in a race, my sweat mixed with my tears and they streamed down my face. “I’m…I’m the wrong person. You have the…the wrong person,” I said amid my rugged breath, clutching my stomach which hit the iron frame of my bed. My blood dripped from my nose, sending an alar
JASMINES POVThe sound of Lucy’s car pulling up at the curb was a type of relief I hadn’t felt in some time. Brendon and I crept out of our hiding, racing to the black sedan that came to a halt. The door flung open, revealing Lucy who was sitting in the driver's seat. “Get in!” She hissed. I dragged Brendon along as we darted into the car. She didn’t wait a second for us, hitting the accelerator as the car sped off. The force closed the door, trapping us in. The car was silent for a few minutes, Lucy and I stealing gazes at each other from her mirror. She made a turn at a familiar road and hit the break.“Where have you been?” Her voice thundered with a mix of concern and anger. “I…” I opened my mouth to explain, but my words went missing, letting out only a sigh. “Where the hell have you been, Jasmine? Everyone in the pack was worried. Alpha Morgan couldn’t leave again because you went missing…”“I didn’t go missing,” I chirped in, lifting my face from where it was buried in dis
JASMINES POVThe wolves snarled, their teeth bared and glowing under the morning light. I scrambled to my feet, pulling Brendon to my side. He was strongly rooted to the ground, his eyes fixed on both beasts like he was analyzing them. “Brendon, it’s them. We must leave now!” I urged, pulling his arm.“Wait,” he whispered, his knees taking a slow bend as he assumed a defensive stance. His claws snapped out, and he started moving closer. The wolves that were once charged with ferocity started moving backward.I stood behind him, trying to understand what was happening. Were they scared of him? Or was there something he was doing to them that I couldn’t see?“Brendon, what’s going on?” I whispered.“Stay close,” he returned, keeping up with his pace. I tugged behind him, holding the dagger in my left hand, with the right grabbing his shirt. “What’s going on?” I asked, watching as the positions reversed. The first wolf turned immediately and ran into the woods, while the second took it
JASMINES POV “You can’t? Why?” Curiosity grew in me after he gave his unexpected answer. He shook his head, adjusting on the log of wood where he was resting. “You just bumped into me, how sure are you that…” “I can trust you?” I interrupted him. I sighed, moving away from where I was sitting and taking up a space beside him. “I never said I trust you, Brendon. All I said was…you saved me, and might as well help me save my friend. Instead of staying in the middle of nowhere, you could meet new people,” I corrected him. That still didn’t give him the satisfaction I’d expected. His eyes still bore some kind of doubt that lingered as I stared into them. He shook his head, turning away from me. “What if I don’t want to leave?” I didn’t respond to him immediately. I let his decision sink and settle at the base of my head before I shrugged. “Fine then, I’m used to surviving on my own. I’ll go alone,” I said, not waiting to hear what he had to say before I returned to his tent.
JASMINES POV“You can’t? Why?” Curiosity grew in me after he gave his unexpected answer. He shook his head, adjusting on the log of wood where he was resting. “You just bumped into me, how sure are you that…”“I can trust you?” I interrupted him. I sighed, moving away from where I was sitting and taking up a space beside him. “I never said I trust you, Brendon. All I said was…you saved me, and might as well help me save my friend. Instead of staying in the middle of nowhere, you could meet new people,” I corrected him. That still didn’t give him the satisfaction I’d expected. His eyes still bore some kind of doubt that lingered as I stared into them. He shook his head, turning away from me. “What if I don’t want to leave?”I didn’t respond to him immediately. I let his decision sink and settle at the base of my head before I shrugged. “Fine then, I’m used to surviving on my own. I’ll go alone,” I said, not waiting to hear what he had to say before I returned to his tent. It was l
JASMINES POVMy blood ran cold at the sound of her voice. I felt cold beads of sweat trickling down my neck, sending chills across my body. My wolf stirred in me, sensing the impending danger. I backed away from the window, careful not to make a sound as I retraced my steps. “What do we do, we can’t fight them,” I heard my wolf in my head. “What else is there to be done?” I mumbled as my eyes followed the movements in the room. Daria was still dishing out information to Natalia and the other Seeker wolves, and from my view, it looked like Natalia was arguing with her. “Run,” my wolf jolted the fear out of my mind. I turned around, sprinting down the track. My heart pounded like a drum, each beat matching the sound of my boots matching the stony floor. “Faster,” my roof urged. I glanced behind me and found them trooping out of the room. They whispered into the ears of some other wolves who were walking by, and they pointed in my direction. My legs pushed against my will, propel
JASMINES POV“Stealing faces?” My ears still couldn’t believe what they just heard. I sat silently, trying to process and imagine what Natalia said, but none of it still made any sense to me. I turned to her, hesitating on the question I wanted to ask. “Stealing faces?” I asked again. She extended her palm, and I glanced at it with doubt, then at her face. “I’ll show you,” she said. With a heavy breath, I placed my palm in hers and shut my eyes. Her grip tightened, and soon I found myself in a familiar place. The sea we were sitting across. But it was littered with the corpse of wolves, floating on the surface of the water. The flesh on their faces was skinned off, exposing their tissues to the sun. The vultures in the air cawed as they hovered around them. Their flight seemed more aligned when I looked up, and I discovered they were heading towards me, flapping their wings and propelling themselves faster. That was when I saw him.Eric, again. “What are you doing here?”“Jas
JASMINES POVPain surged through my body as Rachel’s energy collided with mine, prying open the deepest part of my mind. I felt like nothing I’d ever felt before—as though she was ripping apart the barriers I didn’t even know existed. I screamed, pulling against Harland’s grip the moment I got myself, but his hold was unyielding. “Stop resisting, you’ll only hurt yourself the more,” Rachel hissed through gritted teeth. But the pain was too much to take in, and my wolf fought against it. She clawed her way through her space, fighting off Rachel’s wolf. “She’s difficult,” Rachel said, not giving up. “Go harder,” I heard Daria snap. “It might kill her if she doesn’t stop fighting it,” “Do it!” Daria pushed. I felt her hand tighten on my head, her energy creating some kind of new path through my body and mind. It circled the rest of my body that I had in control, snatching that hold from me. My body went still like I was dipped in ice, and I felt Rachel inside my head. She tore th
JASMINE’S POVNatalia’s words hung in the air like a sharp sword waiting to be dropped. Why did they sound so familiar? My thoughts reeled back to the missing book Alpha Morgan has asked us to find. He never said the actual name, but with the way he asked about it, and wanted us to find it, it just had to be it. The bone marrows. The most evident part of the missing puzzle lies before my eyes. Lucy’s parents. The thoughts were still patching up in my head, and I found it difficult to concentrate on what was going on before me. “Did you hear what I just said?” Natalia snapped me out of my thoughts. “Yea…yes…you were urm…” I stuttered, my words hanging in my throat after I couldn’t get a hint of what she just said. She inched closer to me, placing a hand on my shoulder and pulling me in. “You look troubled,” “I’m fine,”“We’re werewolves, Jasmine. I can tell when you’re lying,” she reminded me. I sighed, trying to take everything in. All she revealed to me had me not just ques
JASMINES POV The cold atmosphere seemed deeper into my skin as Natalia and I made our way out of the room. She went towards the direction where the distance drilling of water was coming from, and I tugged behind, ensuring not to miss a thing. “A vampire?” I repeated, breaking the silence that stretched amidst us. “Why?” “He’s hybrid…not entirely a vampire. But he was once a vampire,” she answered. Her first two statements returned my thoughts to Adrian. But the last countered it because Adrian was a werewolf before turning into what he was. “I believe you’ve come in counter with one,” she stopped and turned to me. Her eyes narrowed into mine, and I felt the truth that lay at the bottom of my chest erupt from my mouth like I had no control over myself. “Yes,” I blurted. A smile played at the edge of her lips, then she turned and continued. “We think there’s something wrong, or someone is doing something which he or she shouldn’t be,” Heavy racing footsteps made us halt, an