Trista’s POVIt was an odd thing to say. Devour me with his eyes?There was something about his tone.I should have bolted for the door. I should have run.But the truth was, I was torn.I was intrigued by this man. Who was he? What did he want from me? He wasn’t human so WHAT was he? Why had he bid on my jewelry and demanded to see me?“Come,” he said again. He was still sitting, in the dimly lit corner. I was strangely drawn to him. Serena acted like he was dangerous. I didn’t feel like that, though. Arrogant? Yes. Bossy? Absolutely. Entitled? You bet.But not dangerous.So, out of curiosity, I moved towards him.It was so damned dark in that room though. I stumbled over a low coffee table and tripped. But instead of hitting the floor, I fell into his arms.He’d caught me with lightning speed. Inhuman speed. If I hadn’t been sure before, I definitely was now.This man was NOT human. He held me, dipped backwards in his arms. He hovered over me. Then he removed one arm from my bac
Trista’s POVI ran out of the VIP room, my dress clutched in my hands. I put it back on as best I could, even though I had to hold it together with my hands. I couldn’t let anyone see me, not like this, so I ran to the stairwell and hid in a corner.Tears spilled from my eyes.What just happened? Who was that man?He looked like Johnson but he couldn’t have been. There was no way! Johnson knew I had poor eyesight. He knew how much I hated dimly lit rooms. Johnson would NEVER try to trick me like that.My breath was coming in ragged gasps. I had to calm myself down.The man’s silver eyes flashed through my mind. Johnson had beautiful blue eyes. And yes, I’d seen them turn a strange sort of uncontrolled red before.But never silver.I wrapped my knees into my chest and rested my cheek on my knee. I was calming down now but I was still very upset.That man had spent a hundred million dollars on my jewelry! Yes, Johnson was rich, but he wasn’t THAT rich. He couldn’t flippantly squander a
Johnson’s POV Fear.That’s what I saw in Trista’s eyes as she pried herself from me. I released her then I watched with narrowed eyes as Trista ran out of the room.“Arggg!” I hollered, plunging my claws into the table. It was all I could do to stop myself from grabbing her. I wanted to run after her but I knew I had to stop myself“What have I done?” I whispered out loud, horrified at myself. My wolf, Silver, growled menacingly. “Get her,” he demanded. “She’s yours!”I shook my head, my claws digging into the table.“No,” I told him.“Yes,” he hissed.“SHUT UP!” I snapped at him.He paced, his fur bristled. “She belongs to you. CLAIM HER!”My hands shook. “I won’t let you hurt her,” I said. “Stop it, you bastard.”Silver stopped pacing. He chuckled, a low, threatening laugh. “Bastard?” he scoffed sarcastically. “A moment ago you were deliberating between fucking her or tearing her to shreds. If I’m a bastard, then so are you. Admit it.”He glared at me, and I saw the gleam
*Warning*: Dear reader, I apologize for the somewhat gory and violent content of these two chapters. It is meant to show that Johnson did go through a dark moment.Johnson’s POVMy mother had called me, out of the blue. I was in the United States, missing Trista. Her words made my blood run cold. “Please come, Johnson,” she pleaded into the phone, her voice barely above a whisper. “Your father’s been shot.”I hung up the receiver and booked a red eye flight to Milan.Shot?My father?But whom?I rushed to their home in the south of France, expecting the worst. I knew by then that my father was involved in some pretty shady business, but I hadn’t known the extent of it until I arrived at their estate.I ran into the lobby of our family home and instantly noticed a strange atmosphere. Instead of being greeted by our butler, the lobby was full of big, burly men in black suits.“Where’s my father?” I demanded, unease settling in. Who were these men? Where was our normal staff?Just then
*Warning*: Dear reader, I apologise for the somewhat gory and violent content of these two chapters. It is meant to show that Johnson did go through a dark moment.Johnson’s POVMy uncle Felix. My cousin Leopold. A dozen bodyguards.All dead.My father?I rushed to his bedside. I lowered my ear to his mouth. Thank god! He was still breathing.Jake walked to the bed and hovered over my Uncle Felix’s body.“Ssshh,” Jake told me, putting a finger up to his mouth. I watched him with wide eyes. Jake was smaller than his twin brother had been, and far less imposing. Yet, watching him there, hovering over his own FATHER, something told me he was FAR more menacing.We listened, and sure enough, Felix was still breathing, although it was raspy.“Oh,” Jake said, covering his heart with his hand. “You didn’t finish him off. You saved him, for me? How sweet.” “I…” But before I could say anything else, Jake whipped out his gun and shot his father square in the back of the head. His skull ex
Johnson’s POVJake suddenly changed directions and walked over to the one-way window. He tapped on it lightly. It seemed he wasn’t going to stop me from leaving after all. So I reached for the door handle.“My oh my,” Jake said, peering out the window. “What have we here?”He smacked his lips and looked at me over his shoulder.“You really ought to come see these ones, Johnson. The one in the gold dress? Mmmmm. She’s delicious.”Wait.Gold dress?Trista was wearing a gold dress. I saw her enter the room with Hazel.“I’d LOVE a taste of her,” Jake said, clutching his dick for effect.Maybe it was a coincidence? There were probably tons of women wearing gold dresses down there on that floor.But then again…What if it wasn’t? My protective instincts kicked in and I went over to the window.“That one…right….there.” Jake pointed at the window and I looked down. Sure enough, he pointed right at Trista. “She’s a tasty one, isn’t she?”My blood boiled.He was leering at Trista and the way he
Johnson’s POVThe men stepped back from the window.“Get me a drink,” Jake told one of them. He nodded and poured himself a whiskey.“You staying?” he asked me as I also walked over to the bar.“Yup,” I said nonchalantly. Even though I didn’t want Trista to have anything to do with me anymore, I couldn’t just abandon her. Not with these men ogling her like that.I’d tried to keep my distance from her. It had damn near killed me though. I missed her so so much. But I was caught up in this whole mess now with the mafia. And I still didn’t know the full truth about my father’s underground business.So I had to cut Trista free.AFTER the auction. First, I had to know she was safe.I poured myself a whiskey and swirled it around in the glass.“You were awfully quiet just now, cousin,” Jake said, eying me suspiciously. “What’s the matter? Don’t you like girls?”I had to keep playing the part. I had to keep convincing these men that I was on their side, that we were in an alliance. At least
Johnson’s POVTrista walked into the room and my heart stopped. It had been a while since I’d seen her this close up. She was radiant in her gold gown. She had a bright smile on her face, and rightfully so! She’d just sold her jewelry for $100 million dollars! Her eyes scanned the room and I saw her smile falter.She didn’t like the sight of these men lounging on the couch, sipping their whiskey. She hadn’t known what she was walking into and now that she was here, she was having doubts. I could read her thoughts on her face.I resisted the urge to rush to her and hold her in my arms, to tell her it was okay, that I was here. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t let her know it was me. I had to pretend I was one of these men so she wouldn’t recognize me. I also couldn’t let her see my face so I skulked into the back corner, into the shadows.I knew she wouldn’t be able to recognize me in the dark shadows, especially since she had such poor eyesight. She thanked the men on the couch, s
Trista’s POVLiam and I arrived in Paris with plenty of time. We had dinner at the airport and waited for our flight to board. They called us for boarding and we both took our seats in first class. Liam offered me the window seat but I insisted that he have it. His wound was bothering him – I could tell – and if he sat by the window, he could sleep more easily with his head against the wall. As we settled in, a strange feeling washed over me. I realized that Liam and I had never travelled together. In all our years of marriage, we never strayed far from our pack, at least not as a couple. I glanced over at him. He was fastening his seatbelt.‘How odd,’ I thought to myself. ‘Here we are, together on a plane. I never, in a million years, could have imagined our first trip together would be like this!’“Champagne?” the stewardess asked, her eyes bright. Champagne was one of the perksof flying first class. Liam wasn’t much of a champagne drinker, though, so I went to shake my head and
Trista’s POVBack upstairs in the small cottage, Dagny rummaged through her cup boards. She produced a small, crystal jar.“This ointment will make Liam well enough to travel back to the United States,” she told us. Darren eyed the small jar and I looked at him for confirmation. He nodded, indicating that the ointment was fine.Dagny walked over to Liam, lifted his shirt, and removed his bandage. I gasped when I saw his wound. It was red and angry-looking, with small black veins spread out over his stomach and chest like a spider web. Dagny scooped up some of the ointment with her fingers and roughly rubbed it on Liam’s stomach. Liam inhaled a sharp breath and winced.“That hurts,” Liam said as Dagny continued to apply the ointment in a belligerent way. I had to admit, she could have been a lot gentler. Dagny didn’t reply to Liam’s comment so Liam put his hand over hers to stop her.“Dagny, do you have some sort of problem with me?” Liam asked. “You’ve been very polite to Trista and D
Johnson’s POV“My father wanted to hand over the family business to me,” I told Jake. “But I wanted to go to New York.”“Because of that bitch?” Jake asked smugly. I nodded.When Trista left to go to the US, I felt a void in my life. I realized how much she meant to me. My feelings for her were complicated since we were such good friends. But I missed her so much it hurt. And the twins too. So I’d asked my dad if I could follow her to New York and set up business there. My father had been very reluctant at first. He wanted me to stay in Italy for the family business. He was preparing me to take over, but he said there were a few loose ends he needed to tie up first. I argued with him. I was a grown man and if I wanted to go to New York, then I could. He disagreed. He said my responsibility was to the family first.But then, one day, he just changed his mind one day.“My father allowed me to go to New York because there was someone he wanted me to find.”My father’s instructions had be
Johnson’s POVThe bullet ripped through my shoulder. A bolt of pain ripped through my shoulder, so intense it made me dizzy. Jake chuckled at my reaction.I expected to die. I expected to bleed out from the bullet wound. So did Jake and his men. But as they held me, something unusual happened. The bullet wound spurted blood at first, thick and warm. Within seconds though, the blood stopped. The pain still radiated through my body, but I could feel it healing, as though my muscle fibers were somehow weaving themselves back together with extraordinary speed.Jack frowned, his eyes narrowing. He could see what I felt, that my wound was healing with remarkable speed. He didn’t like this. Flummoxed, he marched right up to me and grabbed my collar. He tore open my shirt to see the wound for himself. Sure enough, the hole from the bullet was already growing over with fresh skin.“I thought that was a special gun,” one of his men said.“Shut up,” he seethed at the man. Then he turned to me. “
Johnson’s POVI zipped through the streets like a maniac. Jake blew through several red lights and I had no choice but to do the same. I laid on my horn as I went, alerting the few cars on the road this late at night to get the fuck out of the way. My heart raced and my palms were thick with adrenaline-induced sweat.Jake had agreed to let me have Trista and the men she was with, but I didn’t trust Jake. He was a loose cannon and capable of anything. It didn’t take much to make him snap, so even though we had a deal, I had a feeling he’d break it without hesitation. I had no idea what I would do when I got to the Milan checkpoint. The police were crawling with Jake’s informants. I’d seen firsthand that the police were useless when it came to Jake and his men. They’d detained a car at the Milan border FOR Jake. I had no faith that they’d help me out in any way. If we got to the border, and Jake decided to kill Trista and Liam after all, there was no one to stop him. Except me.Jake
I…I loved her, I realized as my breath hitched in my throat. I had to save her from these men. But how?Just then, a phone rang. One of Jake’s men answered it. He nodded and then hung up.“That was the Milan border. The car with the woman and two men are being detained there.”“Looks like we were right in the first place,” Jake said. He kicked the corpse, rolling her onto her stomach. “This bitch here side-tracked us. Come on. Let’s go. The man in the picture must be with her. The hunt has begun. Time to kill the right slut. Am I right?” Jake smiled sardonically at me.“I’ll come with you,” I told Jake, my mind racing.“Good,” Jake replied. “I need to see you kill her yourself.”I shook my head.“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Jake asked, narrowing his eyes. “Cousin, it seems like this woman is very important to you. You've been acting awfully unusual.”“I hate her for what she did on me,” I told Jake, scrambling for an excuse. “You’re right she’s important. The bitch betrayed me. But I ca
Johnson’s POVI rushed out of the auction house, my heart hammering in my chest. I had to get away from these men and to the border before they did. But as I ran down an alley that would lead me to my car, I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks.Jake and his men. They were at the end of the alley, crowded around a figure on the ground. I watched, horrified, as they kicked and beat the woman. And even more horrifying, there were two police men not even five feet away. At first, I was certain that the police would intervene. I mean, it was the POLICE after all. But the police did nothing. They only stood by and watched as Jake and his men kicked the figure on the ground.Cautiously, I took a few steps towards the men and the figure on the ground. It realized it was a woman – a woman who looked an awful lot like Trista!“No!” I hollered, rushing towards them, overcome with fear. Had they found Trista? Had she been here after all? It was possible! Maybe she hadn’t left yet. Or
“Who are you?” I asked the second voice in my head. Silver’s voice was gone. I didn’t understand. Where was this second voice coming from? It was so different than Silver’s. It was soft and gentle. Silver’s voice tore through my head like a whip. This voice rippled and floated. I was instantly drawn to it.“Quill,” the second voice said. “I’m your other wolf.”Other wolf? But how could that be? Did he mean that…Silver was my wolf? My heart dropped. If Silver was my wolf, then that meant – my wolf was a blood-thirsty, evil beast bent on killing everyone and anything in his path?Oh God.But wait. He’d just said ‘other wolf’. So that meant…“I have two wolves?” I asked, confused.“Yes. We’re twins,” the gentle voice confirmed.Twin…..wolves?“We’re nothing alike, Johnson,” the second voice, Quill, continued. “In fact, we’re polar opposites. We argue all the time.”“Why haven’t I heard your voice before?” I asked.“Silver often overpowers me,” Quill explained. “But I’ve found a way to br
Johnson’s POV“Impressive,” Jake smirked, looking at the shattered window. I hoped he bought it. If he knew that I was trying to protect both Liam and Trista, and that I let them go on purpose, it would only pique his interest in both of them, especially Trista. He’d want to find her and have a ‘good time with the bitch.’ I couldn’t let them happen. I had to persuade him that I hated both Liam and Trista. “Yeah well, he deserved it,” I snapped back, lacing my voice with as much venom as I could. “He was a pompous ass.”Jake nodded appreciatively. “And the bitch?” he asked, meaning Trista.“She’s nothing,” I snipped, waving my hand in the air dismissively. “I was nice to her at one point. I mean, come on, she’s a hot piece of ass, after all. I wanted a taste of her. But she chose that scumbag ex of hers over me. So I naturally got pissed and snapped. I wanted some revenge on the woman who hurt me. But she got away before I could.” I chose my words carefully, hoping I could fool Jake.