Eliana POV
Days passed without any incident, and I almost forgot about the run-in with Wilson and “the guy”.Almost.Wilson hadn't been back, not that he was missed. In fact, all the younger waitresses celebrated his absence. I personally suspected he was hiding out waiting for his face to heal up before he'd return, and there was no way in hell I was going to tell anyone what I had seen. The way he looked at me still made me shiver with repulsion."No use thinking about that waste of flesh," Ayla grumbled, irritated that I was ruining our celebrating mood with thoughts of Wilson.She was right. It was my mom’s fortieth birthday and my twin brother, Elijah, and I had planned to go all out for the surprise party - streamers, balloons, a massive birthday sign and the most delicious cake from the bakery down the road."I'm sorry I can't help you set up for your mom's surprise party, but I promise I'll be there as soon as I can," Sarah sighed, unlocking her car. "I'm secretly hoping Danny's game ends early… or is cancelled. Either one would be great!"I laughed and shook my head at her comment. “You know you’re proud of him for making the team, even though there were only a couple of kids who even went to the tryouts. You’re still a great mom and you’ll probably cheer the loudest when the game starts.”She grinned but ignored my comments, throwing her bag onto the passenger seat. "Are you sure you don't need a ride?""No thanks, Elijah is coming to pick me up," I grinned, happiness bubbling up inside me.With a wave, she drove off and a few moments later Elijah’s beat up car pulled into the parking lot, 80’s music blaring out of the windows while balloons of every colour bobbed up and down in the back seat, as if jamming to the beat.“Woah, woah, woah! Careful the cake!” my idiot brother shouted as I swung open the passenger door. “Had to flirt pretty damned hardcore to get it done in time.”“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Casanova,” I drawled, lifting the cake onto my lap before clicking my seatbelt into place. “Can we go already? We've got a ton of things to get done.”He revved the engine in response, as if he was some sort of Formula One driver… and then pulled carefully out of the carpark emulating an eighty-year-old grandma. Hardcore image, my arse.We took the back road through the forests, like we always did; Elijah’s car wasn’t exactly roadworthy so avoiding cops was a priority. Suddenly the steering wheel started to shudder and there was a weird sound. My brother pulled to the side of the road, swearing under his breath as he walked to the front of the vehicle.“It’s a fucking flat tyre! Just perfect timing,” he grumbled as he opened the trunk and retrieved the spare. “Make yourself useful and put that reflective triangle up before some idiot crashes into us.”With a sigh, I unbuckled the seatbelt and placed the cake carefully on the seat before I found the triangle in question. “How far down the road must I set it up?” I asked, walking backward as I spoke to him.“Put it close to that bend in the road, that way people coming around the corner can see it in time,” he indicated with the tyre iron.My phone beeped so I dug it out of my pocket, reading the email from my varsity as I slowly returned to the car.“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I heard Elijah shout, his voice taking on a sharp edge.“What..” I started to respond in my defence, but the sight that greeted me stopped me dead in my tracks.Four men stood around Elijah, their clothing tattered and torn, their hair matted and their eyes darting from one thing to the next as madness claimed them. The one lifted his head and howled, a sound no human would ever be able to produce.Rogues.“Get out of here!” Elijah screamed at me as the four men converged, shifting into their mangey beasts as they leapt at him. He had no chance – we were lonewolves, not aligned to any pack and not trained in warfare like pack wolves were. The only fighting experience Elijah had included a few bar fights with humans – and even then, he often came out second best. I watched as he shifted into his grey wolf before I lost sight of him amongst the rogues."Run!" Ayla screamed in my mind, fear evident in her voice.Panic slowed my response and it took a few moments before I felt my body respond to what my mind wanted it to do. My retreat was quickly halted, three more rogues emerging from the trees and enclosing in on me.“Well, this was easier than he said it would be,” a rogue with long dreadlocks and a tattoo across his face laughed, reaching out for me.I jumped back, avoiding his grasp but he only laughed harder before he lunged at me. I felt his calloused hand encircle my upper arm and felt bile rise in my throat as terror gripped me. He licked his lips as I struggled against his hold, his yellowed teeth bared in an attempt at a smile.“Come on, baby, I heard you were a fighter. You're disappointing me,” he crooned, pulling my body up against his. “It’s just too bad I’m not allowed to fuck you, that might have brought out a little bit of the fight in you.""Give me a chance, I'll show you a fight," Ayla's growled words echoed in my mind, but I couldn't let her out - she would get us killed for sure.I felt a sharp pain as someone hit me on the back of my head. Stars danced across my vision before everything went black, a cold dampness creeping across my skin as laughter rang in my ears.I can’t say how long I was out; it could have been hours, it could have been days. I awoke to a splitting headache and a strange taste in my mouth which might have been blood. Nope, it was definitely blood. My whole body ached, and in the darkness I could tell that someone had changed my clothes, a satin negligee - which was definitely not mine - now clinging to my curves. The thought of the creepy rogue undressing me sent a shudder down my back and made me feel filthy."Eli? Are you alright?" I called out into the darkness only to be rewarded with silence. No Elijah."Ayla, I can't feel you. Are you there?"My whispered words faded with no response. I tried to shift, but nothing happened. I felt the start of a panic attack coming on, my lungs feeling as if they were being squeezed so that no air could enter them.“Relax, Elie. It will be okay, it’s all a mistake. It’s just a hoax and someone will come in here and say that it’s all a big joke. That’s all.”My little personal pep talk seemed to work slightly as I concentrated on my breathing just as my mom had taught me.“Wakey, wakey, sunshine,” a feminine voice called out to me as the door to the room swung open, a dim light from the passage illuminating the tiny room furnished with only the foam mattress I had lain on. It was dirty, covered with blood and other unmentionable bodily fluids."Good thing you're up. Old Ajax hit you a tad too hard and we were worried you'd be too out of it for the sale tonight," the woman chatted, setting a tray with a chunk of bread and some water down on the floor in front of me. "Now eat up before the event starts.""Event? What do you mean?"Eliana POVMy voice was unsteady, my eyes fixed on the whip which was coiled and secured to her belt. A slow smile spread across her lips and she bent down to take my face in her hands, looking deeply into my eyes. "The auction, of course. And you, my pretty little one, will fetch quite a nice price." Her cackling laugh echoed in the empty room, a sadistic gleam in her eyes. Fuck. I was in for it now.Swallowing the panic attack which threatened to return, I sniffed the bread and smelled something slightly off about it, throwing it into the corner of the room instead of eating it. It was clearly doped with something, and I didn't want to take a chance with it. I could deal with my rumbling stomach for now. About ten minutes later, the rogue with the face tattoo came in and snapped an iron collar around my neck, pulling me to stand by the short chain he held tightly in his fist. "You're just like the little human girls tonight. Wolfsbane has made sure of that, no wolf is goin
Eliana POVAfter the auction, I'd been guided toward a black SUV with tinted windows and told to wait until my master joined me. Master! Someone fucking owned me now! It felt like forever before the door opened again and the guy who had bought me - my mate, my master - joined me, his face blank. He looked me up and down as the car began to move away from the haunted looking house before he nodded and looked away. I felt dirty, worthless, violated. All of a sudden the panic attack which had been teetering on the edge of my consciousness shattered over me and nausea washed over me. I covered my mouth as I gagged, trying to force whatever was in my stomach down so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of him."Stop the car," he instructed the driver. I gratefully clambered out of the car and into the bushes on the side of the road, emptying the contents of my stomach into the foliage. Just what I wanted my mate to witness! He handed me a bottle of water and I rinsed my mouth out be
Luca POVThe more Nina continued her rampage, the more I felt like putting my hands on her shoulders and shaking her until she shut the hell up. She was making the headache which had plagued me from the moment I had joined Eliana in the SUV infinitely worse. “Enough, Nina. I understand your concerns, but this is a business deal, not romantically linked at all,” I told her firmly, slumping down on the plush sofa at the foot of the king sized bed. “But she is your mate, you cannot tell me you won’t get your heart involved and neglect all that we have worked toward,” she threw back as she headed to the sideboard and poured a splash of brandy into a glass with ice before she handed it to me. I gratefully took a sip, savouring the oak notes before I swallowed and pressed the cool glass to my forehead. “Nina, I rejected her for that very reason. If it weren't for the fact that I spent far too much money getting her out of the hands of my enemies - and that she has a skill which we are d
Eliana POV When Enzo suggested a night on the town, I turned him down, hoping to bury my sorrows in the chocolate stashed in the hotel minibar instead. I understood that he was trying to get my head off of my brother and the lies I was going to have to tell my mom, but I didn’t really feel like partying. I knew that Elijah was alive - call it intuition or “twin-telepathy”, I could feel it in my bones that he was somewhere out there, alive. It took all I had in me not to break out of the penthouse suite and hunt him down, but the doors to the elevator were guarded by werewolves who looked like they were related to the Hulk, and abseiling to the ground from the balcony was a definite “no” from me. Enzo kept nagging though, saying it would be good for me to get out. I eventually caved, knowing that Enzo’s team were searching for Eli and that they had the man-power and skill I could never match. I had to believe that it would be alright, I had to trust him - even though it was extremely
Eliana POVThe bartender clawed at Luca’s hands, trying to pry them from his throat without success. He even tried kicking Luca, but this just made the alpha angrier and I could see the fury of his inner wolf flash through his green eyes.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a rather round man dressed in black with a gold chain strung around his neck hurry toward us, his face pale."Mr. Castello! Oh my! Could you please put my employee down so that we can talk about this?" The man practically quivered in his shoes.Luca turned to the owner of the strip club and looked down at him, not releasing the bartender as the man continued to dangle in the air. He was turning a horrible shade of purple, s
Eliana POV “So? Was that so bad?” Enzo teased me as the small private jet eased into its allocated area on the tarmac, a mischievous grin on his face. I unclenched my fingers from where they gripped the armrest of my seat, blood rushing into the appendages. “I still don’t get why we couldn’t have taken a commercial flight. There’s a much less chance of us falling out of the sky in a Boeing 737 than in this tin can.” Enzo chuckled again as the captain of the plane and the female copilot, who was his wife, exited the cockpit to hear my slur against the small plane. The pilot didn’t seem overly impressed that I had compared his ‘baby’ to a tin can, but I was exhausted having not been able to sleep a wink during the almost ten hour flight to London so he was just going to have to excuse the fact that I was just a tad bit grumpy. Enzo, on the other hand, had slept practically the whole way! Memories of that night with Luca kept replaying over and over in my head - his soft lips consu
Eliana POVWith one last look at him, taking in the sadness in his eyes that I hadn’t noticed before that moment, I got out of the car and accepted my bag from the driver. I watched as the car drove off before I entered the apartment building.The foyer had a communal area set up, with an array of sofas and bean bags where the tenants could relax and use the free WiFi that was allocated to the area. It was decorated with potted plants, abstract art on the walls and a small water fountain in the centre of the room, making it seem like a high end establishment and less like the regular student accommodations. The room was empty except for three girls my age, lounging on the sofas and tapping lazily on their cellphones.In most places, there is some indication
Eliana POV “Shit! Sorry!” I burst out as her eyes met mine, heat flooding my face with embarrassment as I backed out of the room and started closing the door behind me. “Hang on a moment. Wait, you’re my new roomy, right?” the girl asked as she hopped off the counter and fixed her skirt. The guy stood up and leant back against the desk, arms crossed and glaring at me as if I had walked in on them on purpose. “I’m Cassandra - or Cassie as everyone calls me,” she smiled broadly, grabbing my hand and pulling me inside. “Sorry about that, I forgot you were meant to be arriving today else I would have put a sock on the doorknob. Oh dear, you’re wet!” “Eliana, and don’t worry. I didn’t see much,” I responded, feeling the blush return to my cheeks. “I had an accident with the fountain downstairs.” Cassie smiled warmly before she turned to the guy, fluttering her long eyelashes at him. “Mark, darling. I need to help get Eliana unpacked and we have to do some girlie bonding. I promis