Rayne's POVKaiden's hug when I got back home was warm and long enough to chase away some of the fatigue eating away at me. I could sense the worry in the tightness of his embrace, and the way he didn't release a breath until he had fully caught hold of me. I had missed him so much, and I didn't know the extent of it until I felt his warmth against me. He still had the same sturdy muscles that got me excited when we were alone together. Whatever the Moon Goddess had been doing when she was making him, was definitely the best decision she couldn have made. My hand landed on his chest and took a little time touching his warm flesh. He pressed me closer to him with a light groan and kissed me, the way he always did when we had been apart for much too long. Our breaths mingled together, and I didn't mind breathing in his air because it made my head feel so light. I held on to him for dear life, drinking him in.At last, we finally came up for hair. When we saw the flushed look on each o
Rayne's POV“Who is it?” I asked. The news brought relief and anxiety at the same time. Relief because at least one of the two people I had in mind would be absolved of suspicion, and anxiety because what did that mean for the other?“Crest.”“What?” I nearly rose to my feet. He wasn't the one I had been expecting, given that he had been so clear about his hatred for werewolves. “But . . . He hates us.”Kaiden shook his head. “I know about what happened to his brother, and of course, he doesn't exactly love us as a race, but he is dedicated to protecting both sides, rather than eradicating one.”“No. No. But he told me himself that we deserved what was happening to us—the murders, everything. Why would he say all that if he was an ally?”He looked at me seriously. “That is strange, but so far, he hasn't given us any reason to doubt him. His sheer will alone led him to us. He's a bloodhound.”“What do you mean?”“We all deal with grief in different ways. For him, dealing with it was by
Rayne's POVAnother day at the Lakeside campus had me rolling my eyes in tiredness. Wednesdays were particularly packed with non-stop classes. And on this day, the lecturers had chosen it as the best for dropping assignments and mini projects.Celine groaned beside me as we finally walked out of the large halls, dragging her feet over the ground like a zombie. She made a show of being unsteady on her feet and bumped into me, but instead of throwing me.off balance and on to the ground, she wrapped an arm around me.“I'm so tired!” she moaned, making fake crying sounds.“I am too. I barely have any strength to keep myself upright. So if you know you don't want to kiss the ground, you'd better stop leaning on me.”“But what use is a friend if not for leaning on, hmm?” She held on even tighter. “You smell like chocolates and you're so delightfully warm.”Luckily for her, I could, as a matter of fact, still carry her weight without falling over. So I kept walking with her practically attac
Rayne's POVMy mouth tasted like ash and sand. It didn't feel good. As I opened my eyes, a sharp throbbing headache started, causing me to squint and groan softly. I touched my head, cradling it gently. The pains continued, making it hard for me to even focus on a single thought.When I looked around my surroundings, I realized one thing very quickly. This wasn't my room. In haste, I rushed to pull myself into a sitting position and realized that my hands were bound together by some kind of leather belt. The harsh material dug into my flesh painfully making the skin there red and sore. I tried to move, but I saw that my feet were suffering from the same treatment as well.A lump formed in my throat as I remembered the last few minutes I had spent awake in my home before waking up in a dingy shack with little ventilation and light. I told myself to not panic, but the more I remained on the squishy foam I sat on, the more annoyed I got about everything. The peeling walls disgusted me,
Rayne's POV“You're insane. And you always have been,” I spat viciously. “You can try as hard as you want to, but you will always remain so; a broken, crazy doll—”She backhanded me across the face so savagely that I almost fell backwards on the bed since I had nothing to support me sitting upright. Her nostrils were flared as she glared at me, and her chest went up and down forcefully with anger.I spat out the blood that pooled in my mouth, but still smiled at her. “Does the truth hurt?”She clutched the sides of her dress with shaking hands. It was obvious that she wanted nothing more than to wrap them around my neck and squeeze my flesh until I could no longer speak or breathe, and turned blue from lack of air.“Were you the one who asked Celine to capture me?” “Celine brought you here because she suspected that you were a werewolf.” She pulled Celine to her by the hand, a gesture too affectionate for someone like Savannah. I had never seen her being so gentle with anyone. “Unlik
Rayne's POVTick. Tock. The clock on the far corner of the wall had been making noises that were certainly meant to drive me insane. The headache from before returned, and I massaged my temples to get rid of the pain. Savannah had left the room as well at some point, muttering something about Celine taking too long to get the things she planned on getting. Which meant that once again, I was alone with nothing but my thoughts.My anxiety had long since vanished, but I still needed my brain working intact so I could at least come up with a plan. This wasn't the way I was going to die, and I wouldn't just sit back and let Savannah get away with all her crimes.I wasn't sure if it was because they underestimated my strength, or thought that I would be killed off quickly, but I realized that the leather binds on my wrists and ankles weren't the best kind of restraints for a werewolf. Sure, they were incredibly tight and thick, but if I was intentional about it, I could get them torn by bi
Rayne's POVThere was a popular saying about what happens to a person when death is close. Something about the person getting to see their entire life flash before their eyes, showing them everything that they had done right—and wrong, up until that very moment that their hearts stopped beating.I didn't like to recall the memory, but that time when I had been close to death because my healing factor was failing, I didn't see anything at all. I couldn't feel, and I couldn't hear. In fact, it was like I was lost in a vacuum, just floating like a lone leaf amidst powerful winds. And when the darkness passed, I was back in the present, but without the child I had been nurturing.I made it to the exit of the building without coming across anyone else, fortunately for them. I managed to pick up one or two things along the way, items that revealed deeper clues as to what Savannah's plan really was. I didn't know if she was hiding, or if she had left the building all together, because she w
Savannah's POVHer life, as they said, had been predestined right from the moment she was formed in her mother's womb. Everything had been in place to receive her once she was brought into the world. Her parents were Gammas, a long-standing generation of werewolves that usually produced advisors to the Alphas of a pack.Indeed, once she was born, everyone knew that she would be trained by the best scholars, until she became one herself. Next, she would be officiated as an Advisor versed in the art of war and peace negotiations, and together with the Alpha, they would bring prosperity upon the pack.Maybe that was why she had been drawn to a certain Alpha right from the moment she met him. Maybe because it was fate that she be tied to an Alpha for most of her lifetime. Maybe it was what was written in the stars for her, and nothing and no one could have changed it, no matter what happened.Unfortunately, on the night of her twelfth birthday, Mysticrock suffered one of the worst rogue a