APRILAs planned, Nick parked a block away from the Juvenile Detention Center and we walked the rest of the way.Surprisingly—like I said, Nick was full of surprises today—we engaged in harmless small talk and even shared some laughs on the way to the center, I was almost saddened that our arrival meant the end of our rapport, but I reminded myself that he would likely snap out of it soon, this was probably just him being professional because it was a school project.“Hello, we have an appointment slot for the next two hours,” Nick’s words to the police officer at the reception yanked me back to reality.“What name is your appointment under?” she asked him while clicking away on the keyboard before her.“Nick Bright,” he supplied.After a few more clicks on her keyboard, she called a warden to show us to the interrogation room where they assured us that the first teen we were to interview would be waiting. When we walked in, I carefully took in the scrawny teenage boy in blue scrubs a
APRILWe've been stuck in a traffic for more than 30 minutes now. The mood between us hasn't shifted since he lashed out at me earlier at the juvenile center. We haven't said a word to each other and I couldn't wait to get to school and get out of his suffocating presence. But the gods seems to have other plans because an announcement soon came from a megaphone, announcing an accident involving almost 7 cars a couple of miles ahead of us. It was the cause of the traffic and we were going to be here for at least 3 more hours.It was almost 10pm.Nick slammed a fist on the steering wheel after the announcement was done. I could tell that he was angry and he probably didn't want to be in my space for a minute longer than necessary. Well, that makes the two of us. I looked around the area we we were in. It was an economic area and because I haven't had anything to eat since early in the afternoon, I was already hungry. I could find a café, grab some pastries and food and stay there ti
APRILI collapsed against him, panting as if I just ran a marathon. It did feel like a marathon except that this was much more strenuous and pleasure.My breathing was just becoming regulated when the shame started to set in. I've done it again. Slept with Nick in public where we could have easily gotten arrested.I raised myself up slowly, careful not to meet his eyes. I was about to lift myself off him when he held me back and before I could process the reason, he ducked his head and sucked one of my boobs into his mouth.Holy shit!I was clothed but with the strokes of his tongue, it felt like I wasn't. His tongue continued its ministrations while his free hand grabbed my other boob and he squeezed with so much force that a scream-like moan left my mouth.I wanted to take my top off, I wanted to feel his mouth on my skin without any barrier.I attempted to pull my top over my head but he wouldn't let go. It seemed like all he cared about was sucking me."Nick, please... I need to t
APRILA parched throat and cement dry tongue woke me from sleep. It wasn’t a good one anyways, it’s lasted for about ten minutes after I’d struggled hopelessly to find sleep and I knew I might not be able to sleep back afterwards.I turned to my side hoping to find Nick in bed, but all there was were ruffled sheets to show that he'd gotten out of bed at some point. I figured he must've realized how weird it’d be to share the same bed with a woman he had no romantic inclination for and decided to crash in another room. That honestly didn’t bother me because I expected nothing of the sort from him or any of his friends, so I pushed the thought away and got out of bed with a yawn before throwing on a robe and setting out to find water for my desert dry throat.I found the kitchen easily, but what I didn’t expect to find was a shirtless Nick seated opposite the counter and sipping from a steaming cup. Whatever was in that cup was nowhere near as hot as he looked, his chest was a sinfull
BROOKE“Tell me why I shouldn’t start pimping you to other men so you can at least prove your worth?” mom asked like it was completely acceptable dinner conversation. In her painfully misguided defense, that was appropriate dinner conversation to her. It might seem berating and outrightly vulgar, but that was mom’s only way of interacting with me since I was a child. She’d groomed me to do everything in my power to please powerful and influential men in return for favors of various kinds. And after being used as a pawn of her all my life, I didn’t take her words lightly because I knew she could sell me off to as many men as were willing to pay to fuck me if I continued to piss her off. “Maybe if I make a rooster of men to run through you and pay me a substantial amount of money it’d make up for how useless you’ve proven to be, but I doubt any amount of money could compare to the endless privileges we’d be swimming in if you could manage to hold down your engagement,” she carried o
APRILExcitement buzzed through me as I looked through my application one last time.Competitions were my favorite part of schooling, it had always been so since I was a toddler and nothing changed up till now. We didn’t have much competitions at Enigma, but the few we had were always bloody, students would go to any length to win and one couldn’t blame them because the school always put up pretty amazing cash prizes to be won. This time around, we were gearing up for the Jaw Wars, an annual oratory competition where the winner went home with a ten thousand dollar cash prize, an all expense paid summer trip, and free tutoring sessions. While I enjoyed competing, the main reason I was signing up for the Jaw Wars was because the cash prize would help me pay off a huge chunk of my dad’s crippling debt that he’d left behind. For some reason, the loan sharks he owed thought it was wiser to bug his college daughter to pay off his debt rather than his ex wife who was swimming in wealth. U
APRILHow did Natalie manage to rope me into hell over and over again? It was an unsolvable mystery to me. We both knew that I didn’t care for parties. The sweaty bodies, deafening noises, random puking, marijuana filled air, the painful small talks, the provocative gestures from every corner, the parking lot full of random people fucking, the pressure to play beer pong, the irritating catcalling…I could go on and on, it was a fucking tedious experience and I had no idea how Natalie enjoyed them so much that she felt the need to drag me along. “Is it too late turn around and just have a night in with Vampire diaries and pizza?” I proposed a night of actual fun and relaxation. “That ship sailed hours ago, and besides,” Natalie paused and made a dramatic screeching noise as she honked outside a gate I assumed was the venue of the hellish gathering, “we’re here already!” I groaned and sunk into the passenger’s seat as the gates opened, wishing I could freeze time and disappear or so
APRILI’d expected an outburst. Insults raining down from every corner. Accusing fingers being pointed at me. Heels being flung my way. Literally anything but the puppy-looking sad eyes that were regarding me after I’d just been caught red-handed and meted out an apology. Despite apologizing, I still thought that I’d be met with hostility, but Brooke seemed too worn out with the argument to react in any way other than plain sadness. For some reason, that made my heart hurt on her behalf. The fact that she was too overwhelmed with sadness to wield any other emotion spoke volumes about their relationship. It was glaring that it was more of a burden than a relationship and it was slowly wearing the poor girl out. “It’s fine, at least I don’t need to give you much of a backstory to explain how shitty our relationship is, since you’ve seen it firsthand, you understand that it’s a complete shit show and nothing more,” she sunk to the floor, wiping her face with the back of her arm. I f
PROLOGUEAPRIL“Sandy, stop making your brother cry. You promised that you wouldn't do that today, remember?” I groaned as my oldest child terrorized her little brother. She shrugged, laughing, the mischievous glint in her eyes matching that of one of her dads whose character she’d inherited; Ace. “It’s so easy to make him cry, I promise I wasn't even trying. I’m just being myself,” she flipped her dark lush hair over her shoulders, the glossy and stunning sight also resembling that of her fathers. She was such a daddy’s girl that she took every last bit of her being from them; her drop dead gorgeous looks and her fearless, stubborn personality. According to her dads, she got her stubbornness from me and not them, but I refused to believe that. “Sweetheart, putting a worm in your brother’s shoe doesn't count as being yourself,” Nick stifled laughter as he walked into the living room, dressed handsomely in suit that was identical to our son Samuel’s. “I’m a prankster and an anima
APRIL“Well, it’s a good thing I know exactly where that asshole is,” Nick’s mom said, the anger in her voice superseding his.At least Xenia’s trip across the world had proven to be the answer to our problems. But now, we had yet another broken hearted mate to add to the mix, and just like me, the pain sprung from parental issues. However, there was no time to dwell on that. The moon goddess had given us an opportunity to reclaim the peace in our city, so we had to focus our all on that. After the city was secure, we'd find a way to tend to our broken hearts and find the emotional healing we all deserve.But for now, all that mattered was find Nick’s monster of a father and putting and end to his evil attacks. “Are you sure this is the place, mom?” Nick asked as we pulled into the empty driveway of an abandoned factory in the middle of nowhere. “I'm certain. I'll never forget it because I traced his assets all over the city in a bid to uncover proof of his evil agenda, but he cau
APRILWe all followed behind him, running until we stopped outside what seemed to be a prison cell. There was a woman dressed in tattered clothes and covered in dust cowering in a corner and hugging her knees to her chest, and something about her was oddly familiar. My mates also seemed shocked by her presence, but not in the same way that I was. The look in their eyes told me that they knew something about this mystery woman that I didn't know. Before I could even ask about it, Nick grabbed the iron bars and broke them off with a deep growl before running into the cell and wrapping his arms around the woman. That? That was the most confusing thing I’d ever witnessed. And I needed answers right now.I started to stomp towards the cell when Nick said a word that made me freeze in place, understanding washing over me in a thousand waves. “Mom! It’s you!”I blinked repeatedly, awfully confused. “Mom?” Ace and Xander looked away from the emotional reunion unfolding before us and nodd
APRILGlinda was confirmed to have been dead for good, but our hellish experiences still didn't cease after her death. Personally, I was still grieving my mother and the wonderful life I would've enjoyed with my parents if she hadn't swooped in and turned things upside down. My mother’s burial was an emotional moment for me and I broke down completely while delivering the eulogy. The guys even had to come upstage and keep from falling apart some more. The days that followed weren't any greener, especially with the dark void around the city worsening and swallowing us into a vortex while I was still grieving.Of course we were terribly confused as to why the spiritual attacks had carried on even after Glinda’s death, but no one had a reasonable answer to that. It was fucking frustrating having to watch people in pain almost every damn day. It sucked the humanity out of one’s soul and replaced it with nothing but bitterness. The only thing that was clear to me about the pattern of
APRIL“You rotten lads, you couldn’t just mind your damn business? This is your fathers’ karma, why did you have to dig your stupid snotty noses in it?” she hissed angrily, overly displeased that she’d been found out by us.“We should be asking the questions,” I responded, upset that she hadn’t even made an effort to explain herself, “we came here thinking this whole fiasco was orchestrated by Glinda, only to see that it’s you, mom?!” The disappointment in my voice was thick, but she obviously didn’t give a shit about my feelings because she broke into hysterical laughter. “Mom? I’m not your fucking mom you idiotic little whore,” she rolled her eyes, and then she snapped her fingers, causing her face and physical appearance to warp instantly. Suddnely, she was a silver-haired woman with countless ancient tattoos of the moon and a shiv stuck in her heart that told us more than we needed to know. Later on, the Alphas had given us a more detailed tale of the day they finally took dow
APRIL It’s been almost a month of back to back horrors breaking out in the city.We’d successfully chased the rogues out of the city and the sorceres were stationed alongside the armies by the borders, making sure that no more enemies were able to breach our defenses and get in.Heaps of bodies had been buried over the weeks and the entire town was reeking of grief. Loved ones were being mourned in different corners of the city were candles were lit beside framed photos and bouquets of flowers. Each photo of the dead that I saw brought me close to tears, but for children’s photos, my heart literally ached and felt like it was going to explode. Living in a place that was shrouded with pain and darkness was suffocating. Even though the sun came out each day, it felt like there was a dark void enveloping the city because everyone was in a sunken mood. We had to find Glinda and put an end to her attacks before the city was ruined beyond saving. Our search for her so far has proven fu
APRILThe ticking clock in the ICU waiting room was the only audible sound.Xander had been taken in for an emergency operation a while ago and we were still waiting to hear back from the doctors.When we arrived at the hospital, he was barely breathing, and it seemed like they might’ve stopped his heart for the surgery because I couldn’t feel even a shred of his presence through the bond. On our way to the hospital, we’d dropped Natalie at one of the safety bunkers where security and magic borders were keeping people safe. If she was here, she’d have been a great distraction for me. And god, I’d do anything to be distracted from this godawful unending pain. My chest fucking hurt. Every nerve in my body was on literal fire. My head was pounding as though a line up of high school bands were in a competition. All I could think of was the pitiful state we’d found Xander in a while ago. The way he looked helpless and near death’s door. The way his blood was like a second skin masking
APRILThe city was a mess. A bloody one.“Natalie, stop using your fucking phone or you’re going to get us killed,” I whispered to my best friend whose face was a mess of dry tears. She glared at me. “If I’m going to die, I need Hector to know that he was the best sex I ever had and I always wished we became more.” I frowned at her, both disturbed and confused that she’d picked that as the most important thing to put in order in a life and death situation. What a freaking clown.“Nat, I’ve told you a thousand times, you’re not going to die,” I bit out, “Nick asked us to stay hidden here and he’ll come get us, and I know he will.”I reminded her of the instruction we’d gotten almost an hour ago when chaos broke out in the city.Apparently, some rogues breached the city’s gates and began to brutally attack every living thing in sight. They've been killing anything in their way and no one is exempt from their wrath.Not women. Not innocents. Not children. Not animals. It was a battle
XANDER Today, just like every other day for the last two weeks, we’d split up to search for Brooke. April was able to fully recover from the effects of the poison she was heartlessly fed by Brooke after a full day or more. Once we were certain that she was in a perfectly healthy state, we decided to go on a hunt for Brooke to make her pay for hurting our precious mate.No one seemed to know where she was. No one had seen her since she ran off that day. Even the city cameras had no footage of her since that day. It was almost like she’d vanished into thin air after that day, but we refused to give up on our search.We even had the authorities officially interrogate everyone she knew, especially those she worked with at her modeling agency, but no one had any reasonable information to share with us that would narrow her search.Even her personal assistant only heard that she was missing from us, he’d assumed she was taking a mental health break when she didn’t come to the office for