And then there is Hannah. She had always been cunning, yes…but never had guessed she would be this much cunning. How she laughed so coldly and without mercy while disclosing such a deep lie still echoes in my ears.Hannah had not just betrayed me—she had destroyed the very foundation of trust that Landen had built with her. And she had done it all for the sake of her own twisted desires.“She’ll never love you the way you love her,” Gerald had told me with a smirk, referring to Hannah. “Her loyalty was never to you, Anna. It was always to herself. Everything she’s done, everything we’ve done, was for one purpose: to take what should have been ours.”I had thought Hannah wanted Landen, wanted to be his Luna, but now I see the truth. She didn’t want Landen at all. She wanted his title, his power, and most importantly, she wanted her son to be the heir. Owen was just collateral damage, an obstacle that needed to be removed.But it hadn’t ended there. The true depths of their deception
“You were never supposed to have a child, Anna,” she had said, her voice full of malice. “Not then, not ever. I made sure of that. And it worked, didn’t it? You lost that baby, and now Owen is the only thing standing in my way. But don’t worry. That won’t last long.”The cruelty in her voice had been like a slap to the face, and I had cursed her then, letting all of the anger and pain I had been holding back spill out.“You killed my child!” I had screamed, tears streaming down my face. “You made me believe it was my fault!”And then she had slapped me. Hard. The stinging sensation felt on my skin reminds me of how far she was ready to go to get what she wanted. It was the first time I swear that I saw such hatred in a person and not even in Hannah’s eyes.She was ruthless, and all the time seemed to have transformed into someone quite different from the woman she used to be.But the most awful thing—indeed the part I think about at night and which replays like a video in my mind—I do
The room feels colder to me now, but maybe that's because I feel colder than the walls around me due to treachery. The sensation is like to a stone pressing against my chest, making breathing nearly impossible.In spite of my efforts, I can draw no further away than feel the sensation, the reverberation of their betrayal, and the years it spanned. For all that time, Gerald and Hannah had schemed, spun the web of deceit, and what had I been but the incapable fool to realize it?How could I not have seen it? I think through the incidents repeatedly in my mind and try to find out what aspects of the drama I missed. Gerald had been like a brother to Landen his Beta his right-hand man.And Hannah… she had been my friend, or rather I thought she was a friend. Now, looking back, I am able to identify what were obvious signs of them liking each other behind the scenes – the holes in their masks, the quick diagonal looks they exchanged when they thought no one was looking, the signs that shou
Chapter 83For the past few days, even as the truth has been clear in her heart, Elena has been fighting herself as to whether speaking it out loud comes with consequences, and what these consequences are.She can live with no other feeling, and it hurts. Just thinking of Owen and Anna made her chest clutch. Navian had been looking for them persistently, which only made her secret that much harder to bear.They better be alright or she will not forgive herself. It was late in the evening, Navian having been gone for hours, that Elena started weeping quietly, her frail form shaking in rapture at the fuller embrace of her own sins.She allowed her envy and timidity to dim her sight. The idea that Anna and Owen were in trouble, plagued her mind. How can she be honest with Navian? And how does she say that without losing the relationship they have built?“Now what do I do?” Elena asked with a strangled voice, clutching her pillow even tighter.“How do I tell Navian this without risking e
Navian drove through the empty streets that night with anger, regret, and fear dancing around in his mind. Those words with which, a few moments ago, he heard Elena speak pressed his chest and twisted. He had to get out of that house; he could not look at her, listen to her lame apologies, or hear her begging him to come back.Every word that she had uttered appeared to prick him to the heart with an ice-cold blade.She had worked with Hannah. She had played a part in endangering Anna and Owen’s lives.It was something that instantly made his blood boil. He clenched the wheel with the force of his fingertips whitening. How could she? The woman whom he was to marry—the woman he had trusted so much—had been part of the people who kidnapped them.If anything had happened to Anna or Owen, he wasn’t sure that he could forgive her for that. He did not know if he could ever forgive himself for not realizing the reality much earlier.He brought the car right in front of Mikel’s house and skid
I couldn’t remember how long it had been since they brought us to this place, but time seemed to stretch endlessly. Days? Weeks? I had lost count. Without windows, there was no natural light to indicate the passing of time.My own breathing, the occasional scuffle of rodents, and the voices of our captors reverberating through the corridors were all that were audible to me.Those voices were louder and more furious tonight. Hannah's booming voice was like a razor, slicing through the quiet.“What do you mean, Gerald? Why have you decided to keep them alive until now? We’re being traced, and you can see that! We’ll get in trouble the longer that bitch stays alive!” she shouted, her voice full of frustration and panic.I flinched at her words, clutching Owen tighter to my chest. My son stirred but didn’t wake. I could only hope he’d stay asleep through this. He didn’t need to hear any more of their poisonous words.Gerald’s reply came, calm and unyielding. “I have my own reasons.”“Rea
LANDEN’S POVI snapped my eyes open as a loud noise echoed through the halls of the packhouse. I was out of bed in an instant, every muscle tense, my wolf on high alert.My sharp gaze swept the dimly lit room, ears straining to catch any sound that would explain the disturbance. Footsteps pounded outside my door—hurried and frantic.“Alpha!” A young warrior burst into the room without knocking, his face flushed with panic.“There’s trouble—down by the southern border!”My mind immediately went into overdrive. The southern border? That wasn’t an area where we usually had problems.Something wasn’t right. Throwing on my jacket, I strode forward, every inch the powerful Alpha. I would get to the bottom of this, whatever it was.“Who’s leading the response?” I demanded, already heading for the door.“Beta Gerald, sir,” the warrior stammered, keeping pace with me. “He left with a small unit. Said he’d handle it.”Of course, he did. I frowned, my thoughts turning dark. Gerald had always bee
Anna's PovI could feel the chill of the wall against my back. The sensation of darkness and moisture engulfed the room, and one thin ray of light made its way through a tiny hole in the ceiling.I looked down at Owen beside me - he was curled up in a ball, however, I could see rather than hear that his body was shivering, even in sleep. My heart ached angrily and fearfully.If I didn’t find a clean way out for us shortly, we were as good as dead.The skin of my wrists burned like a fire from the ropes that had been lacerating my skin for a better part of the week. They normally restrained us with their trapping hands.There was only Sufficient food which was enough to keep me going. I rested my eyes on the broken shard of a mirror in my palm. It was not very sharp but it was the only thing I got.I had come across it cut in a mound wrapped in some heap of clothes before. Since then, I’ve done that whenever there’s a chance, gnawing on the ropes.I remember my hands were cold, very col