AlessioMy body reacts before the realization can make a touchdown. I put on a robe and wrap it hastily around myself, then I wrap up the blankets around Chiara’s body before heading outside.Every single thought in my brain is gone. It’s like my mind has been wiped clean. All I can think about is bringing Chiara to Nero as fast as possible, and after what feels like seconds running all over the village, I arrive in front of his cabin.I kick the door down, not even caring about what consequences that can possibly give me much later. I look around the empty living room, my heart racing inside my ears.“Nero!” I scream, my voice cracking. “I need help, please!”My chest heaves up and down, but I force myself to look at Chiara. She’s even paler than before. My robe and my chest are covered in blackened blood. I swallow hard to steady myself, to keep myself calm long enough to find help, but the despair that washes over me nearly sends me to my knees.This is all my fault.I don’t know h
ChiaraThe soft sounds of clinking glass and the sensation of something cold and sticky on my neck are what rouse me from sleep. It’s from the same spot that Alessio bit from last night too. It’s quite strange.Confused, I open my eyes and try to look around, but my eyes get seared by this too-bright overhead light that feels like it came straight out of a surgeon’s operating room. Pure alarm jolts through my body and I immediately sit up, only to be nearly brought back down by the sudden onset of vertigo.I put my hand over my eyes to shield myself from the glaring light, blinking hard and looking at my surroundings.I’m not in Alessio’s cabin anymore. I’m lying down on a metal table with a blanket wrapped over my body, stained with a pungent black liquid. I want to kick it off me, but I’m buck-naked under it.My heart is already beating really fast, but what accelerates even more is when I see where I am. A basement of some sort, the concrete walls barely visible behind the shelves
Alessio“Don’t do this, Nero,” I pant, but I can already hear Lycus in my own voice. His power is coursing through my veins like some sort of a strong drug, and there’s nothing I can do to hold him back. I can only delay the process. “He’s getting angry. Don’t do this. You’ll regret it.”Nero just smirks at me from the other side of the cell door. “I won’t regret seeing results. And if your Wolf Spirit is getting angry . . . do something about it.”“Nero!” I scream after him, the rumble of Lycus’s voice making the whole cell vibrate.But Nero just turns around and leaves. I know he will be watching from a safe distance. Or maybe Chiara’s life is a sacrifice he’s willing to make.Either way, I’m getting angrier and angrier, sharing the rage that Lycus is harboring.I should have seen this coming.I know that Nero is a good man with questionable morals and methods. He is only focused on the results and he doesn’t care about the way he will get them, and that used to be something I respe
AlessioThe sheer power flowing in my veins and permeating in my muscles is . . . astounding. I have become a pure monster that is unlike all the other monsters in my own pack. I am stronger, much more massive, and definitely more lethal than all of them combined.I would have been impressed, I would admit that. Witnessing someone turn into what I am right now would have garnered my respect before. But not now.As I stand there in the middle of the mountain, towering over the trees and almost reaching into the sky, I feel like an anomaly more than ever.This is not normal, even by the standards of Werewolves.And it seems that Nero and the others know that very well, because they keep screaming for my death, firing volley after volley of arrows at me.There’s a very clear thought inside my head telling me to just step on them, kick them all down the mountain. That would be the easiest thing to do given what’s happening to me. Right now, I’m invincible, and there is nothing they can do
AlessioThe weight of Nero’s words hit me like an avalanche, but I don’t say anything. I just keep my head down and wait for him to continue.“I will let you rest for the day and recover completely, because the stunt you pulled last night left you weak and drained,” he explains, but his tone is as cold as ever. “I do not wish you to go on your own path with that disadvantage.”“Thank you,” I say, even though every part of me is breaking into pieces inside.With that, he also takes out a linen sack from behind his desk and hands it over to me. “This contains all the resources you need to survive in the wild for now. You have some basics like medicine for unexpected cuts and infections. You also have some food in there in case game runs dry.”“I appreciate that.” I finally lift my head and look at him. “I want to see Chiara. At least give me a chance to say goodbye.”Nero hesitates. He just drops the sack right by my feet and stares at me. “Alessio . . . what makes you think she wants t
AlessioI blink repeatedly to make sure I’m seeing things correctly, and I am. It really is Giovanni, even though his eyes are both blackened and bruised and his lips are completely busted. There’s also an open wound on his forehead that’s continuously bleeding.I sink to my knees in front of him and hold his face in my hands. “Gio. Gio, can you hear me?”“Help. . . .” he says in a daze, then his dark eyes focus on me. His whole body begins to tremble as he dissolves into tears. “Oh god . . . Master, is that really you?”“Yes.” My chest constricts when I see him weeping. “Why are you here? Who did this to you?”I raise my sword to cut off the ropes and free him from his restraints but he shakes his head and tries to put his hand on my knee. I see that his knuckle bones are showing from under his skin. Seeing it brings a chill down my spine, not because it’s not something I haven’t seen but because it’s Gio, who I have considered my best friend for the longest time.“Gio, please let me
AlessioThe sight of Rafael approaching me is enough to root me to my spot. I swallow hard, watching him walk, remembering the last time I've seen him and what he did to me.Now this is completely unexpected. So much so that I even have this urge to laugh. It's like the worst of my worlds colliding. Evelyn and Rafael, the mafia world and my old pack, my new family and my old family. Both of them united, and it's against me.The irony is unique, and with everything that happened, I just don't know what to say or do.I stare at them both, watching them smile at me as Evelyn presses the muzzle of the gun harder against Nero's temple.“I’m coming with you,” I announce, looking directly at Rafael. “I will not complain. I will not fight. I promise you, I will do whatever you want if you leave all these people alone.”Evelyn scowls. “You have no right to negotiate, as I said--”“Well, that’s definitely interesting,” Rafael cuts her off, pushing past her to get close to me. I see that she giv
AlessioI blink rapidly to see if I'm indeed seeing things correctly, and I am. Evelyn is gone and so is Rafael. I know I should run and find Chiara, as was my original plan, but Nero is in my arms, bleeding out after saving my life.He looks up at me, and it seems that he knows what's going on in my mind. There's sadness in his eyes, but there's a deeper emotion too. Defeat. The knowledge that he would never come first, and the acceptance that he shouldn't."I'm sorry," I whisper, setting him down on the ground and trying hard not to keep my emotions appear. "I'm so sorry. . . .""Don't apologize about anything, you have to go," he says, his voice breaking. "Chiara . . . She's in the basement of my cabin. You need to find her."The sorrow that I initially felt all vanish. I stare down at him, finally realizing his words. "What?"“I was trying to find out who she is . . . what she is.” Nero raises his hand and tries to hold my shoulder but he’s too weak to do it. “Alessio, Chiara is n
ChiaraDays pass. Then weeks. Before I know it, a whole month passes, and when I wake up with this realization, I just feel like a gigantic weight has been lifted off my chest. Life goes on, I realize. No matter how bad the situation is, my life still goes on. And so do the lives of others. The past month proved that. Since the war between Cavaliere Ombra and Arcieri Luminari ended, so many things changed. Not only in the world of the Wolves, but also in the world of humans.Evelyn was the saving grace during the first week, when what we needed to do in the most urgent sense is to make sure that none of the humans are convinced or even remotely suspicious about the existence of humans that turn into monsters. She asked Gio’s family for help, and they were happy to oblige.She had to jump through hoops and use her connections just to get all the news outlets to convince everyone that it was just some kind of bomb exploding in Milan by an armed vigilante group. All the videos that c
ChiaraWhen Alessio tackled Alpha Salvatore all the way down, I felt so helpless that I immediately considered jumping down to his aid.But as I look down from above, I see Dad crawling on the ground, trying to get upright. That strengthens my decision. Instead of going down to the chasm where the two men are, I back away and remain at the edge, kneeling beside my father and touching his face.“Dad!” I say in a shaky voice, feeling his skin getting cold. “Dad, hold onto me.”He turns around and I see that there’s a big bleeding gash on the back of his head too, an injury that he must have acquired somewhere else.To my horror, his body looks ruined. Mangled. The fall that he took crushed him. My eyes well with tears. “Dad, come with me. Let’s get you to safety.”“No.” He tries to shake his head and blood comes out of his parted lips Miraculously, he manages to get to his feet. “No. You help your mate. Help him win. You can lend him your power. I will be right behind you.”I swallow ha
Chiara As quickly as I can, I get to my feet and intercept Alpha Salvatore before his claws can come remotely close to Alessio. I pull him out of the way, flinging him to the side where he cannot be touched, then I turn to Alpha Salvatore and try to deliver the strongest kick I can muster aimed at his chest. He steps back just in time and avoids my blow. That simple motion alone makes me realize how fast he can go. He ends up pressing himself against the wall, smiling at Alessio and me. Alessio positions himself in front of me, determined to put me away from harm as much as possible. This time, Isaac doesn’t seem all that interested in stabbing or wounding us. He’s just observing us from his spot, that smug expression prominent and his growing smile chilling. My skin gets covered in goosebumps. “I suppose I should be proud of you, Alessio,” he suddenly says, his voice a soft croon, the tone someone might use to refer to someone they are especially fond of. “After all, you’re my gr
Time seems to slow down right before my eyes at that very moment. My breath gets stuck in my throat. I can feel my mouth opening and from it comes a high-pitched scream, but it still takes me a while to realize that it’s coming from me.I collapse on the ground, clutching Dad’s body against mine. Alpha Salvatore just watches me, holding his hand up and freezing everyone around me like he did with me earlier.I know I should keep fighting. I know I should strike back. But seeing Dad bleeding and coughing blood against me is pulling me apart. It’s like my heart is being torn out of my chest, and all I can think about is that time when Dad told me about my mother.Now he’s here, his breathing getting more and more erratic as the seconds tick by. I hold him tighter against me, wanting to comfort him but no words come out of my mouth.But he turns to me, struggling to breathe, and when I look into his eyes, the message is clear.“Get him for me.”That’s when it all clicks for me.Without h
ChiaraThe energy in that side of the area seems to have shifted in an instant. Alpha Salvatore slowly advances towards us, and I can see that the women standing in front of me are all staggering to back away from him like his mere presence is causing some kind of disturbance.And I don’t blame them at all. I can feel myself getting compelled to do the same, to hide and avoid this fight at all costs. There’s something about his gaze that feels sinister, like there’s no single ounce of humanity left behind those eyes. There’s only the monster that he felt he should be like, powered by the spirit that he corrupted.Alpha Salvatore smiles at me, showing his sharp fangs. I couldn’t help but notice how much he looks like Alessio but at the same time how different he is.Chills run down my spine as he leisurely gets close, and even though I’m scared to death right now, I come forward, ready to block him from attacking.However, he just raises his hand as a signal.For a second I thought tha
ChiaraThe moment I saw Dad smiling proudly, my urge to slap someone has never been so strong. It’s like a demon possessed me, and before I knew it, I’m already pushing the others away to get to my dad.But instead of slapping him like I originally intended, I end up pulling him for a hug.Then I settle with slapping his arm.“What the hell were you thinking?” I demand, and to my horror, tears start to fall. I bury my face in his shoulder and reluctantly, he hugs me back, rubbing the back of my neck. “I thought something bad happened to you!”“Hey,” he says consolingly, holding me at arm’s length. He smiles at me and wipes my cheeks. “I wasn’t going anywhere, darling. I just thought that hey, maybe I could help. I mean, I’m the only human in this pack, even with your boyfriend losing his wolf and everything.” He looks at Amari. “I’m sorry for causing all of you this trouble, and I hope I didn’t overstep something by inviting everyone here.”For one tense second, it seems that Amari wi
ChiaraWhen I wake up, it’s like everything is submerged in a lazy, peaceful haze. It’s so warm and so good to be safe in Alessio’s arms after a night of making love that I almost forget what situation we’re in and what we’re supposed to face.I lay there with my eyes closed, purposefully forgetting it for a while.But of course, the world is just simply not built to let me have some peace because as soon as I close my eyes, commotion breaks out from outside the bedroom.There are loud screams and crashes, so loud that even Alessio flinches and sits up in alarm. Still in a groggy voice, he turns to me and asks, “What the hell is happening?”“I don’t know,” I mutter, at first feeling annoyed, but then I hear a blood-curdling scream that sounds like Savina. I turn to Alessio, who’s already handing me clothes.He dresses up as quickly as he can as well, basically wriggling into his clothes. We both burst out of the door at the same time, and that’s when we see about a dozen warriors tryi
AlessioI can feel myself zoning out as I slowly process the things that Savina just said. I stand in my spot, feeling sick to my stomach, propping my hand against the back of the chair to keep myself steady.Denial is rising in my throat like bile, and for some reason my brain could come up with a thousand ways to justify everything. I want to argue with Savina and tell her that Cavaliere Ombra couldn’t possibly come up with such a risky plan, with something so big it has a chance of being foolproof.But the more I think about it, the more my justifications seemed stupid.Of course Father would do something like that. Of course he would want to announce to the world that he’s the strongest, and of course he would do that by invading an entire city.And everyone in that city would be food for monsters.Meanwhile, everyone in the dining hall is starting to speak over each other, covering the fact that they are disturbed with attempts of denial. As I start to slowly emerge out of my rev
AlessioI step back, looking at the kneeling woman before me and wondering what the hell happened exactly, what moments led to this. It’s almost a dream, and I’m not entirely sure I can trust myself enough with this.Savina looks up at me and I see that her eyes are filled with tears. But I can’t hold eye contact for more than a couple of seconds. I look at Chiara and Amari, who are walking side by side heading towards me. Their eyes are both pinned on Savina, and I could tell that they are both ready to attack.Meanwhile I just stand there like an idiot, wondering if this is some kind of elaborate trap that I’m too dumb to see.Because everything just happened so fast. One moment, I was fighting with Rafael, who has turned into this monster human hybrid that didn’t seem vulnerable to any attacks. Then just as he was about to finish me off, he vanished into a puff of smoke because Savina stabbed him.I’ve never seen that before. Ever.So the only thing that I manage to ask Savina is,