JASMINE’S POV The journey back to the pack house was filled with silence, only the heavy breaths of Lucy as she leaned in Caine. When we arrived, my father and the alpha were waiting outside the gates. “Dad,” I ran to him the moment Harper packed the car. His gaze was fixed on the girl who was being led by the twins. “Isha, the last of their circle,” I told my dad. “By circle, you mean family?” My dad asked and I nodded. His face still had doubt written all over it. “But she’s not human,” he said. I shrugged, leaning closer to him. “I believe there’s a story behind that. I’m just glad you’re okay,” I gave his arm a gentle squeeze and rested my head on it. “What happened when we left?” “The seeker?” He asked. “Come see for yourself”. He led me to the same room where I was locked a day ago. The lady was sitting in the glass box, playing with her hair. She looked sad when we walked in, but after seeing us, she had some kind of mood swing, her smile growing wild as she stood up
JASMINES POV The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself in the brightly lit room. My chest felt like a heavy weight was lifted off it as my consciousness slowly kicked in. My body was sore, and my head was pounding as I tried to recall what happened. Distant voices pulled my attention towards the other end of the room, and once again, I recognized the voice. It was my dad's. He was talking with Alpha Morgan again, but this time, there was a feminine voice in their midst. “You’re awake,” Caines’ voice drifted my attention from the conversation being held at the door. I tried to sit up but my head fell back to the bed after I felt a sharp stinging pain in it. Caine rushed to where I was and assisted me. I hesitated for a while finally giving in. “Hi,” I muttered, leaning against the wall. He sat in the chair opposite me and pushed a table containing a steaming cup of tea. “Hi,” he returned, eyes away from me. “This would give you some energy,” he passed the cup to me. W
JASMINES POV “Where do we start from?” I asked Natalia, slowly walking to the glass while I maintained eye contact with her. “Trust,” she blurted, standing up and walking to the edge of the glass. I halted in front of her, a smile crawling up my lips. “Trust is the last thing you could ask for from me,” I replied, holding the gaze until he nodded with her hands going up in the air. “I’d understand. I mean who would want to trust me after going through that betrayal from her mother,” “She did it to keep me safe,” I defended my mom despite how it hurt me to know about all this. But I guess Natalia could see beneath my words of defense like she knew I was broken. “Did she? I mean…look at the damage she has caused you. She’s made you look weak…you’ve become a mockery…so much for someone who falls under…” “Answers,” I interrupted, holding back the tears in my eyes. The lock of the door clicked from outside, and I quickly took a glance at the key hanging in my trousers. Someone el
JASMINES POVThoughts. More thoughts. Extra thoughts. All night, that was all running through my mind. A brother? I scoffed, turning to the other side of the bed. That was when I realized the sun was out. I’d spent all night pondering on Natalia’s words. I wanted to come down from my bed and feed my thirst, but my body isn't encouraging. I needed rest, even if it was for an hour or two. I shut my eyes, hoping to sleep this time. And just when I thought I was drifting into sleep, a knock came on my door. My eyes snapped open, and I sat up on the bed. The door opened, it was Caine. “Long night?” He asked, walking into my room. I sighed, collapsing on my bed. “How’s Jerry?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. They were beginning to feel heavy with sleep, but with Caine in my room, I knew my day had just begun. “He’s recovering well. Just the…you know…” he said, helping himself to a chair opposite my bed. I sat back up, holding my banging head with both hands. “Cool,” I dragged. “I came t
CAINE’S POV“Get off her!” I raced past Jojo and Imani, almost knocking them down as I made my way to Jasmine and Isha. I pulled Isha off her and flung her to the feet of her brothers. “Keep your eyes on her!” I yelled at them. For a second, I thought I saw the disappointment in their eyes. They helped Isha up, holding her still despite her aggressive kicks to be set free and yolk her into the living room. “Are you okay?” I extended my hand to help her up. “Yeah,” she coughed, almost falling back on my shoulder. Lucy stepped in between us. “I’ll take her from here,” she said, pulling Jasmine away from me. We all went into the living room but were divided. Jojo and Lucy were with Jasmine, while Harper, Spencer, and Imani were with Isha. I could already sense trouble coming hard at us. “She killed them,” Isha cried, sobbing in the arms of her brothers. “We’ll deal with that later, Isha,” I tried to keep her calm, but that made her angrier. Her blood-red eyes shot angrily at me, sn
JASMINES POVI pressed my hand against my chest, leaning on the side of the wall as my mind spiraled out of control. Thoughts flew in like my mind was a passageway for them, causing my breath to come out ragged. A lot had happened in just what?—three days? And yet there was still someone downstairs calling me a murderer. How was I supposed to face all these while trying to focus on what wolf I would train? Not to speak of my father's deal with Natalia. I heaved a sigh, halted before my mirror, and ran my hands down my hair. The echoes of laughter and muffled sounds of music traveled into my room, it was a room party which I was informed about but declined. But I couldn’t stay in my room, not with all these thoughts running into my head. I needed a distraction, and the room party just seemed like it.With a little touch on my face and hair, I made my way to the room. Room 27. I knocked twice and the door flung open almost immediately, revealing an unfamiliar face. “I know you,” he
JASMINES POVI was too wasted to act. I just sat there, letting the chaos around me do its thing. My head fell to the chair, watching as the ceiling traveled in circles. I thought I saw some runes on them, calling into me with its blue glowing light. They looked pretty, and I extended my hands, wishing I could float in the air and know what they felt like. But the music in the room died down, cutting my solemn moment short.“Let’s go, Jasmine,” I heard Caines voice. He sounded muffled, and I couldn’t see his face. “You’re drunk, how much did you have to drink?” He asked, throwing my hand around his shoulder and grabbing me from the waist. I knew what was happening around me, but at the same time, I didn’t. For a second I thought I was levitating, but then whenever I looked at Caine, that hope was gone. I didn’t feel sad or anything, just…empty. For once., nothing bothered me. Caine led me out of the room, and to stop my eyes from hurting, I closed them and rested my head on his sh
CAINES POV“You shouldn’t have moved the bodies,” Sheriff Sherwood returned to us, pocketing his gun.“We’re sorry, we just couldn’t stand and do nothing,” I replied. He gestured with his head for us to walk with him, and we didn’t stop until we were out of the crime scene, standing amid police vans and ambulances. I knew what he wanted to say just by looking at him. “Look, I’m sorry uncle, I just had to call in this favor. I understand you’ve helped us a lot of times, and my dad probably owes you for the countless favors you have rendered…”“Kid…”“Just…please. This is more like an outbreak than a crime scene. It’s…” I paused, staring at the bodies that were being moved. “It’s dark,” I completed. Uncle Sherwood, my father's younger brother, was the family’s stray child. He started by not meeting his wolf when he was younger, by hanging out in the human world, and always sneaking out of the house. According to my father, he got into more trouble than we could count. Especially with
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