ALEXAKIS.Her boyfriend irked me. He came out of the smaller room, bumping into my girl's sister. He looked up, feigning shock at seeing Claire standing in front of him. He pulled away from my girl's sister and the first word that came out of his mouth was one that I suddenly didn't want him to ever speak again. "Claire?" He breathed.I hated the effect it had on my girl, Claire. I was suddenly so pissed because I had wanted to learn of her name from her. He had no right uttering her name with such emotion, after betraying her trust the way he did and I suddenly wanted him gone. Claire wrapped her arms around her middle, probably wanting to sink into the floor and get away from the situation. A red haze covered my vision and I could feel my bones burning with the urge to shift into my wolf. The feeling of rage and jealousy confused me so much and that confusion seemed to ground me, halting my shift before it had even begun. I focused more on Claire and what was happening, how her si
CLAIRE.We were walking to the den in silence and although Alex is a comfortable company when I'm not scared of the punches he lands, and I was grateful that he was the one with me, if at all anyone should've been privy to my emotional breakdown. I didn't look up at him as we walked, still too bruised emotionally to share those feelings with someone. I could tell that he wanted to be of comfort to me though, otherwise we wouldn't be walking to the den for me to punch out my angst. I tripped on a stone and Alex's hands stretched to support me but I raised mine up, telling him that I wanted to stand myself. I had a burning urge to fix myself and if it would start with standing on my own, I'd be okay with that. We got to the den and it was busy, a fight taking place. Two burly figures took swings at each other in the ring, their blows amping up the crowd's cheers. I saw Alex's boss shouting at the men from a corner, looking like he would love nothing more than to get into the ring himse
ClaireEvery punch I gave released a massive weight of betrayal and anger off my chest. I could hear my heart pounding in my chest. I had not felt sick rage in a while and somehow, I didn't know why I was disappointed in Scott. I should have seen it coming. The filthy thing just enjoyed having his fun with me and I guess I enjoyed having someone to give me a moment where I didn't have to think about home or any issue I was going through. Sad. I focused all my energy on the punch, I needed to release all the pain - I knew it wouldn't give me a clean slate but it gave me relief; relief I could never have found if I had gone to that house of mine.Alex gave me a sequence to fight with;"Punch, punch, dodge, punch, punch, dodge." I let out of my mouth as I boxed, panting hard, every bone in my body making cracking sounds as if they had never been this worked, vigorously. The air conditioning was not enough to stop the heat that came shortly. I was filled with sweat, running down from my
ClaireGoing home effortlessly that evening wasn't easy. Becky and dad were in the living room. Their voices were so loud that I heard them from the driveway. I had hoped I'd get better guardians but I had to settle with these. I must have not done something right. The living room was just adjacent to the doorway, but I figured out a way to bypass it. I entered the house and quickly ran into the kitchen, following the other back door to come out. The door led me straight to the stairs. I quickly ran up to them and entered my room, shutting the door behind me"Phew! That was close!" I said to myself, walking to my bed and collapsing on it, arms spread. It was a very cool evening, one to sit and talk with loved ones, make memories and whatnot.I stretched on my bed and turned to the side, folding my hands in between my laps and my head on my improvised pillow, wallowing in this shallow pain that refused to go. I was never in love with him, I just liked the feeling of having Scott aroun
ClaireI sat on my bed, replaying what had just happened. Had Becky just let me go scott free after what I said to them? Or had they tired of abusing me? I tried to put my thoughts together in my head to come to an understanding conclusion but none of it was making sense. Maybe they realized that they had in truth been selfish and my saying it to them had only brought the truth to their faces. I waited for someone to storm into my room and lecture me on how to speak to my stepmom and sis as that was dad's way and the only time he realized that he has a child. I also waited for their brain to boot and realized I just called them out on their bullshit and came to give me the beating I didn't deserve, but nothing still happened.I stayed in my room the whole morning. I wasn't called to do the dishes or chores of any sort. I was left alone. I wished I had done this sooner, I would have had more alone days... Or not. Staying in my thoughts, I realized they didn't think I could amount to
These past few days have been pretty silent. I didn't have a college I was going to like Evie and so, I was always stuck at home. I needed something to fill the void I felt now and then. I didn't want to prove to them right that I was up to no good and worthless. I needed to make something out of myself. My thoughts went on and on about what to do, what interested me and what I had a passion for. I thought about catering but that was all I always did at home. I catered for everyone's needs not because I cared but because I had no other choice. It wasn't my passion, so I scrapped it. There was the option of fashion designing but what did I know about fashion? I wore anything I saw on a norm and didn't even care if I looked good or not. How would I style another person?Finally, I thought about event planning. It seemed like I had strength there. My room was always coordinated and I liked planning my time. Planning events would come easy to me, I would feed off people's satisfied expr
CLAIRE.I spent the whole week studying anything I could from the internet. I knew that Becky was irritated that I spent my time doing nothing but sitting in front of my laptop. Father had a lot of hunting calls this week and he barely spent the time at home at all. Becky, on the other hand, hated seeing me content with life now that I finally started learning something, so she plied me with odd house chores, working me till when she thought I would be too tired to read up on more topics from my online courses. She was wrong, because I always spent the night catching up, making sure that I was not behind. Becky had friends over now and that was a reprieve for me because I could read as much before her friends went back. She had only sent for me once when she needed someone other than herself to share the snacks I had prepared between her friends. They barely said anything to me as I passed the snacks around and one had only inquired as to when I would bring out the wine; I wasn't the
CLAIRE. It felt weird waiting for news that I thought was going to come soon, but didn't. Evie had been at college for a year now and I had expected for Becky's cruelty to increase with the absence of her daughter, but she had been moody for the better part of the year. Father had been obsessed with hunting to pay back his debt and we had soon been on stable ground -I had heard him discuss this with Malkholm as they prepared for their recent hunting trip. I had also heard him talking about who the next lead hunter would be, but he had yet to do anything about it. I was sorting through the laundry in the laundry room when a cough came from behind me, startling me and causing me to drop the clean clothes I had just folded on the floor. I turned, schooling my features first before I did so because only Becky was in the house with me. I was surprised to see Scott standing there, his lips lifting in a smile as he took in my startled look at seeing him in the house. Not like he hadn't bee
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