ALEXAKIS "Fuck!" I yelled again. This time, I heard squirrels and other animals running around the forest, thinking that a predator was around. Not that they could hide from me if I decided that I wanted to hunt them."What? He did it for his people?" The more I thought of it, the more my anger rose. "He bloody ruined my life!" I screamed. By now, I was sure I was the only one left in the woods because I scared the animals off. And no, I was not apologetic about it.What if I had perished in the forest? What if the wolves didn't take me in back then? Was that how I would have been the sacrifice for peace to reign in the pack?I felt burning anger rise more and more in me until I couldn't control myself anymore. My hands grew claws and furs, and I slashed at a tree in front of me. The anger did little to calm a bit, so I dug my claws into the tree again. I whimpered within myself, clearly not knowing why I was bestowed with a fate that was worse than death. I said worse than death bec
ALEXAKIS By the time I woke up, the sun that hid its face partially that morning was high in the sky, its light burning through my body, making my throat feel patched. With the temperature, I could tell that it was already high noon. I gulped some saliva to moisturize my throat before I let out a yawn. "Awake?" Claire asked me.I got up from her lap and let out another yawn. She chuckled at me slightly, and I snorted at her. She showed me her tongue, mocking me in a gentle way."How long was I asleep?" I asked her. I got up from the bed and stretched out the tiredness from my body. "More than 3 hours, I supposed." She eyed me wearily. "How do you feel now?" She asked me. With the question she asked and how carefully she asked it, I knew that she was talking about the matter with Luna Lisa. I sighed, not knowing how to begin."You did talk to her, right?" She asked again. I nodded. "Oh. It's okay if you don't want to share what both of you discussed with me." She said.I sat down b
CLAIREBy the time it was early evening, I was ready to leave with Alex. I paced about the length of the room, keen for his return. I know you all think that I should stop him, and ask him to stay with his mother, but it was his choice to make since this was all about him. All I could do was just stand by him while making sure everything was in order in his life. And by order, I meant seeing that smile return to his face just the way it always was before he learned about his relatives.I paused in my pacing and looked out the window to see if I would see any traces of him, but I got nothing. I went to the door and peeped, but still, I got nothing about him. I became tense, seeing as how it was already getting dark a bit, yet he was not here. According to him, we were supposed to leave once it was evening. After pacing for about five minutes more, I got tired of just pacing about and decided to go in search of the man.I left the room I was staying in and went through the long corrido
ALEXAKIS I stood in front of the mirror and watched as my black hair stood out in pikes, and my grey eyes bore deeply into me as if they were accusing me. And if they were, I knew they had every right. After all, I had defiled even my own words... right after I promised to leave the pack. But there was nothing I could do about the whole thing. If I hadn't seen what I saw, then I wouldn't have minded leaving no matter how hard Luna Lisa and her people tried to trap me into staying. But I already saw it and since there was no way I could un-see the whole thing - that is even if there was a word like un-see - then I had no choice but to remain behind until I could figure out everything.And to figure out everything, I had to know about the pack. I had to know about everything and everyone who made up the Morning Dew Pack members. To do that, I needed someone who knew the ins and outs of the pack. Somebody like... Luna Lisa. I shook my head in disagreement. There was no way I would go t
ALEXAKIS After Luna Lisa had ordered the man to take me around as I wished, she left immediately without saying a word anymore. For two days after her verdict, I kept following Kieran about, watching as he moved from one part of the pack to another just to make sure everything was going on smoothly.I looked up just in time to see the man diving for the left, and I quickly followed. If I hadn't looked up when I did, I knew I would have lost him just like I did that first day I started following him about. I didn't know why but I kept feeling like the man was deliberately trying to shake me off his tail. Something in me kept telling me that the man would have bluntly told me off if not that he didn't want to defile the order of his Luna -at least, not directly. He was doing it stylishly though. If the way he kept turning me away from himself was any indicator."Were you going to disappear on me again?" I asked him as I met up with him at the corner that led to the market. The man rasp
ALEXAKIS Seeing the opportunity for Claire to start doing something to earn some cash for herself, seeing as how she lost her earning -or thought that she did since I got all her money back from that traitor friend of hers- and she didn't like sitting still at a place for long, I rushed to her place.From the moment when I dropped her back at the place and told her that we were aborting the mission to leave, I hadn't set my eyes on her anymore. I knew she wasn't petty though. So she wouldn't hold my weird action against me. I should talk to her and let her know what it was that I saw. But that would be putting her in danger and I wanted to avoid that as much as possible. The less she knew, the safer she would be. I got to her place and knocked."Who is there?" She asked. I heard her footsteps approaching the door and I waited for her to open the door. The moment she did and saw that it was me, she closed it back, almost slamming it in my face."Claire," I called out to her. I turned
CLAIRE I could feel his excitement. I found myself smiling at how happy he seemed just because I chose to stay with the pack. If only he knew that staying with him was not the only reason for the influence in my decision. If only he knew that I wanted a haven for myself too, even if it was just for the main time. Moreover, getting a job would help me remain focused, and I would also be able to save up enough cash to spend. It was a win-win situation for me, an all-rounder."Since you are scared of the people in the pack, how about if I accompanied you to the place? It is at the café spot just down at the end of the pack area." He said to me after he was done with all his excitement spam.I shook my head at him. "I think I can find my way there myself," I told him when he looked at me with a questioning look. I figured that since I was going to remain at the pack a bit longer -could go on for months- then it would be wise of me to try and find my way around and also mingle with people
CLAIRE I let out a sigh as I began to scrub the counter free from any form of liquid puddles that was on it. I couldn't believe that I had been working at the café for a week now.A week of surviving among the people I feared. A week of meeting new people and getting to see that they were all not as bad as I thought they would be. None of them treated me like the outcast I expected to be. You know... an outcast in the sense that I wasn't even a werewolf, to begin with. Or an outcast in the sense that the family I came from was their number one core enemy. Instead. They treated me nicely. True. Some of them ignored me plainly, but no one was rude to me or even treated me unjustly. It was more like everyone just decided to mind the reason why they walked into the cafe in the first place."Are you wiping over a spot repeatedly just because you don't want to take a customer's order?" I blinked my eyes. I stopped wiping and looked up to face Isabella -the only rude person I knew of at t
Epilogue. Claire's POV A full year had passed since Alex proposed to me, and I gladly accepted to be his woman. Today, we were taking the final step and getting married.My hand went to my neck where the mating mark was. After I accepted his proposal, he carried me to our room and gave me the mark after a hot, intense sex session. He had wanted the wedding to be carried out two weeks after his proposal, but I told him I wanted to wait. I wanted the pack to accept me as a human. To gain that approval, I learned how to fight with swords and how to shoot arrows, to show them that even if I was a human, I would always be there to fight by their sides if the need ever came. Then, I went ahead to start my own restaurant at the pack.At first, I barely got any customer as they were all weary of me. But little by little, people began to troop in. Now, I had two other branches out in the human world. This helped to show the people that if we ever had the need for cash - which was very unlik
Claire's POV A week passed after the ordeal we had in defeating the man who tried to claim the lives of so many people. I sighed, praying to the God in heaven that Scott's soul would find relief wherever he was now. He deserved that much for all the trouble he went through in his life."What are you doing, Claire? Wheel me well." Luna Lisa complained, drawing me back to the present."Sorry," I apologized. I moved the wheelchair a little bit faster than the pace I was keeping before. We were on our way out of the mansion to get some fresh air in the garden. Luna Lisa had to use the wheelchair as her legs were still healing. The doctor had, however, assured us that she would be fine and it was taking long to heal because it was a demon's bite."Claire." I heard someone call my name and I turned back, only to see Evie standing behind me, her suitcase already packed and with her."Are you going to somewhere?" I asked her. After the incident, we had gotten somehow closer as we had to comf
ALEXAKIS As soon as Kieran told me through the mind-link that my mate and her sister were safely back in the pack, I felt relief wash over me. I turned to look at Scott, her ex-boyfriend, all the anger in my heart targeted at him.He had endangered the life of the woman I loved, and I was going to make sure that he paid for it. No matter what anyone said about it, I was going to make sure that he paid heavily for his action.It was with that anger that I gave him an uppercut on his chin. While he bent over at the shock, I gave him a jab at his side, making sure I went all in to ensure I broke almost all his rib bones, if not all."You..." The man growled at me. He stood upright and gave me an evil smile. I knew he was up to something and that helped me stay alert. He began to morph into something hideous in front of me. Within seconds, there was no longer a man where Scott should have been. Instead, there was a tall dark beast, with two horns on his forehead, red eyes glowing brightl
Claire's POV After waiting for what felt like an eternity, even thinking that the man I was waiting for would no longer come, I was shocked when I saw him finally make an appearance. The tears that stopped flowing before came again, afresh. My heart wrenched within me, and I struggled to breathe well. Why? Why would he come here? Why did he risk his life like that?Our eyes met, and the man smiled at me. I shook my head at him as he started walking to where I was. When he got to me, he sighed."I am here now." He consoled me. It was clear that he thought I was crying because I was happy I saw him. I shook my head at him to show him that he was wrong about his insinuation. Still, he didn't get what I was trying to say."Alex, you need to run!" I finally let out amid my tears. I looked left and right to see if Scott and his men had gotten a whiff about Alex's appearance and were now on their way in here. When I didn't see them rushed in, I sighed, a little bit relieved about that. "L
Claire's POV "Scott, I am begging you," I pleaded again. I didn't care how pathetic my voice was. All I knew was that there was no way I was going to let the man kill Alex just because of a mistake that my father made."Why do you think–" his phone rang, cutting him off. "Really? Good." He said. Then, he cut off the phone. The kind of look he gave me made me cold all of a sudden."What is it?" I asked, feeling scared already."Guess who is coming over soon?" His voice held the malicious excitement he felt. "Alex! He is going to come here soon, and I will have so much fun killing him." He let out.My eyes widened in shock, and my breath became hitched."Do you want to know how he is going to die soon?"I shook my head to stop him. He ignored me and continued anyway."I plan to corner him and hit him when he least expected it." He said with a small evil laughter."You..." My voice trailed off as I realized that the man was gone already, leaving me alone."All of you, leave the building
Claire's POV It felt like forever since I got trapped in this basement where the light was never in and made it hard to tell when it was either night or day. The horror of not knowing how long it had been since I was in this hellhole made my heartbeat pound even faster. There was also the awareness that I no longer have a father to reach out to. Even though the bridge between us was rough, my heart sank now that I was aware that it had been burned forever. What made it worse? Knowing that the man and I were not on good terms before he died. How was I supposed to live on now knowing that my father hated me?I wanted to get angry with Evie over the death of my only family and how she played a part in it, but she lost Becky also, and I knew how much hurt she was going through for that. Besides, she was my family also no matter how hard we fought with each other."Claire, we need to escape." She said to me frantically again. I shook my head at her since the bandage was still covering m
Claire's POV Scott!" There was no doubt in my heart that I was relieved to see a familiar face even if it was that of the jerk who cheated on me with my sister.After I left the car and went in, I was surprised to see the door open. I thought it was so because they - Father, Becky, and Evie - were all home. I stepped inside, but it was empty. I went to Father's study but he was not there. After I searched all the places that I could, I swallowed my nervousness and went to Becky's room to see if she was there, but then she was not in the room either. A quick visit to Evie's room revealed the same ordeal.The house felt bizarre at that point, and I had a bad feeling flushed over me. I ran out of the house to see if I would see them, but nothing of such happened. I was about to move to the woodshed to see if they were there taking care of the games they hunted the night before when I saw Scott standing in front of me."Scott!" I called again. Even though the man and I never exchanged wo
ALEXAKIS I wasn't sure what exactly was making my heart feel like it had been shattered into two. Was it how Claire left me after I thought that she was going to stop and think about the love between us? Or was it because the house now seemed empty without her?I wanted her close to me - that was a fact. If I hadn't stepped into the position of the Alpha already, I would have damned every other thing and asked her to leave with me to a faraway place where we would be happy together, without anyone judging us.But I was already one, and she felt out of place.I knew it was necessary for her to take the break as she truly needed it, but I was against her going over to her parent's house. Still, that was the only safe place I knew would work for now. That didn't make my worry lessen any bit, though.Apart from her family treating her like trash, I was worried that Nathaniel might make a move for her now that she was no longer under my protection."We are here, Alpha."I looked up and sa
Claire's POV After contemplating my decision for a while, I finally came to a conclusion. It would be better for me to leave Alex and the pack, even if it was only for a while. Maybe when I would return, the animosity these people had toward me would be gone."Alex, can I have a word with you?" I asked. We were seated in the living room. He was busy with some files while I had my laptop in front of me, but I couldn't concentrate on anything I was learning on the screen. The man looked up from his work and gave me a gentle smile."I'm all ears, love." He said, the smile still plastered across his face."I want to leave," I let out quickly. I was afraid that if I hesitated, I would never be able to say it to him. I winced as he dropped the files in his hand on the floor and rushed over to where I was, holding my hands."Why? What is it?" He asked in a very gentle tone. "I just... I need a break," I told him."I know. I've been feeling the way you keep pulling away from me recently. I