NICK She had to be furious after hearing that confession. Right? Unsure of what to do, I found myself searching for an a explanation to justify why I’d stuck my nose where it didn’t belong without her permission. “I just… I couldn’t watch them treat you so badly and do nothing, I know it wasn’t my place to infringe on your privacy and make that decision, but I had to help somehow,” I rushed out the words, hoping they made sense to her. I couldn’t read April’s emotions even through the mate bond right now.It was just blank, but sometime around when she was questioning me, I’d felt uncertain if hanging in the air around her. Now, there was nothing, almost like her ability to feel had vanished into thin air. “Thanks for your help and your honesty,” she said in a robotic tone and started on her way out of the cinema, not holding my arm like she was before that fool stormed in and ruined a perfect night. Unsure what to make of her reaction, I just followed quietly behind her, and ev
APRIL Each time I thought that Nick couldn’t possibly outdo himself, he proved me wrong. Even after all the amazing ways he’d had my back of late, realizing that he’d paid off my debt was the most flooring realization. I knew that he would go to endless lengths to make me happy, but I never thought anyone could spend thousands of dollars on me and keep quiet about it. He truly did it from a good place because anyone else would have flaunted it and held it over my head. The burden of being indebted to those loan sharks for years and being treated like a literal slave just so they could keep mooching of me was something that kept me up at night and had made me cry several times. The fact that he’d finally relieved me of it was literally the best thing anyone had ever done for me. When he said that he was now my family, he truly meant it, and he’d been proving it at every turn. However, when he admitted to being the one that had paid my debts, I wasn’t sure how to react. I just fel
APRILApril! April! The sound of my name being called from a distance made me shift in my sleep, wondering who dared to disturb me. “Wake the hell up, April! You need to see this!” the alarm in those words made me practically jump out of bed to find an awfully worried and pitiful look on Natalie’s face. “Wha… what’s wrong? Do you need something? What happened?” I rushed out, failing to see the cause for the alarm she’d raised. Natalie’s lips dropped open in horror and then she placed her phone right in my face before hitting a play button that was over a blank video. I frowned in confusion at first, but when the video buffered and began to play, I was shocked at what was staring right back at me. I opened my mouth to speak but it was too heavy and no words came out. My heart was drumming in my chest and I felt sweaty in all the wrong places. “No,” I muttered in disbelief under my breath before pinching my arm, praying to all the gods in existence that this was just a really bad
APRIL I couldn’t believe my ears. It was taking everything in me not to lose my balance while the hateful words abound.Some of those nasty comments were whispers, but most of them were said right in my face as I tried to maneuver through the crowd and each of them was a blow to my reputation that I knew could ever be reversed. But I tried my hardest to soldier on and keep a neutral expression until I was safely in the backseat of Nick’s car. “Baby,” he sighed once he got in and shut the door behind him, “I’m so so sorry my baby,” he sounded like he wished he could turn back the hands of time for me. And frankly, I knew that he would if it was possible. “I… why? I ju… there’s no… I don’t… it’s not…” I tried to speak but I ended up choking on my words and losing my train of thoughts each time. “Come here,” Nick pulled me into his arms and immediately my head made contact with his chest, the floodgates opened and I found myself wailing like a widowed woman who’d just lost the love
APRIL In the blink of an eye, it’d all gone to dust. My reputation had been dragged through the mud so brutally and it didn’t take a soothsayer for me know that the damage that had been done was beyond repair. Everyone had turned against me and I felt like dying each time I saw the influx of hateful and derogatory comments targeted at me on the school’s website. Usually my student profile was filled with people clamoring to be tutored by me, or they were gushing about the several trophies I’d bagged for Enigma college. But now? It was just a complete mess of degradation and heartless taunts. My heart shattered completely when I started to stumble across the provocative edits that were being made using clips from that strip video. The sexual comments from guys were crude and disgusting, while the slut shaming from ladies was harsher than being left to freeze to death on a winter night. The more I looked, the more new edits seemed to be popping out of the blue. It felt like someone
APRILIt was the strength I got from Nick’s encouragement that allowed me freshen up and decide to acknowledge the meeting. He made sure that there was a formal wear laid out smoothly on the bed when I stepped out of the bathroom, and when he noticed how weak and down in the dumps I was while I dressed up, he stepped in and helped me dress up faster so I didn’t get to the meeting late. If I was hoping to appeal to the judges on the disciplinary board, arriving on time wouldn’t hurt my chances of getting a light sentence. Luckily, there was no groping or sexual acts being flaunted on the screen so I hoped that would help my case. I knew how much they frowned on their students being openly sexual, so I thanked my stars that that’s the video that had been chosen. Trust me, with the way men used to go crazy over me at that strip club, there were much worse scenes where they repeatedly groped me or spilled cum on any parts of my body that was in their line of view when they jerked off
BROOKESince the very first moment I met Ace, I’ve always known he hated women. It was in the way he treated every woman around him, he never hid the fact that he didn’t give a fuck about any of them, including me of course. It’s not the best thing learn that about the man you’ll be shackled with for the rest of your life, but I decided somewhere along the line that I could tolerate it. I mean, all I needed to do was tell myself that his hatred for women meant he’d never develop feelings for anyone of them that would jeopardize this engagement that my mom valued more than my life and hers. And for a while, that sufficed and I was never jealous of the women that flocked around because he just used them for sex and never recalled their names, barely ever saw anyone twice. That was I felt like my position was somewhat secure. Well, until…He jerked off and came hard in the shower while repeatedly saying the name “April.” I’d felt so horrible, especially since he was just unable to ge
BROOKE News of April’s suspension reached me even before she was summoned by the school court. It was that easy to get information when your mother had countless school officials on her payroll that reported back to me. I’d also been able to watch the footage of the entire ruling process and I got to see how broken she looked when her punishment was read out, especially when she was told that she’d lost the presidential title. The pain in her eyes was raw, like she’d faced a destruction too much for her to stomach, and I couldn’t help but feel bad for her. After all the horrific and lewd comments I saw under the video I posted, I felt like I took things a notch too far. Ace wasn’t the kind of guy that anyone should suffer for, he was too much of an asshole for that, but I’d still caused her that much pain despite knowing that. And now, I was feeling guilty in all kinds of ways. But all it took for that guilt and pity to fade away was being reminded of the kind of mother I had and
APRILIt’s been exactly twelve days of unimaginable bliss. I’ve been floating on eagle’s wings after being allowed the enjoy the bliss of spending time with Xander and Nick without feeling guilt or shame afterwards. I’d thought that the guys would be hostile with each other because they were openly sharing me, but they were pretty civil each time Xander came to pick me up from Nick’s or Nick came to take me back home from Xander’s. In fact, on a few occasions, we ended up sharing coffee or wine for a few minutes before I went on a date with either of them. Everything about our new dynamic was refreshing and wonderful. But I couldn’t say that I didn’t pick up on a tense energy between them every now and then. In those moments, I felt like there was a clock ticking and waiting to round up our time together. Like one day that clock would go off and the time bomb that has been brewing would finally explode. Each time those thoughts interrupted my time with them, I always told mysel
***The three most powerful Alphas had reconvened for a meeting again, and the focus of the day was April Lawson. She was the woman who held the strings of fate in her hands without even knowing it. Those strings were their precious Alpha Heirs, and if tugged on the strings hard enough, the entire world would come crumbling down as she unleashed irreversible damnation. The Alpha Kings couldn’t sit quietly and watch it happen, so they sat around a round table in their secret meeting place and sought to stop the deadly prophecy’s fulfillment. “She’s still at it, and we all know that this supposed peace at the moment won’t last long,” Alpha Davenport started the conversation. Alpha Bright shifted in his seat, focusing on the whiskey bottle that Alpha Jackson was tipping into a glass cup. He was patiently waiting his turn because he needed some liquor before he could tackle the unending and unnerving trial that April was. Having a conversation about a prophecy that would soon mark th
ACEThen, she wiggled out of my grasp and got on her knees before me, unzipping my pants and bunching them around my ankles before I could even process another thought. “Let’s give this big boy a hand, huh?” she bit her lower lip in a heated way as she pulled my briefs down and wrapped a hand around my cock. “Yeah, sure,” I made a strained noise as she started to pump up and down my softened length. That sound didn’t come from a place of arousal though, it was an attempt to voice my disinterest in any sexual act, but something forced that argument back down my throat before I could even voice it out. Brooke mistook it for encouragement and made her mouth join in by replacing her hands with it. She gave me one of the sloppiest blowjobs I’d ever experienced, but I didn’t still feel any shred of attraction or sexual stimulation. She’d even taken off her shirt so that her boobs were bouncing as she moved her head about while sucking my dick, but the sight wasn’t doing any good as lon
ACE“What do you think about these invites? I had them handcrafted by the best artists so that they would have a homely feel,” my mother grinned. The house staff by her side, Madam Zoe, placed the stack of invites in her hand on the table and my mother shoved them towards me and Brooke. “Oh, they’re wonderful! Absolute perfection!” Brooke gushed as she grabbed a copy of the invitation card from the pile. “I’m glad you love it, you’ve always had an amazing eye for detail and I worked hard to live up to that,” my mother said proudly. I peeked into the invitation card as Brooke held it closer to her face while grinning and I didn’t feel a shred of the excitement she was oozing with.Despite that, I still wanted to marry her because it felt like the only right option, the mere thought of not marrying her seemed like an utterly painful outcome. How could I feel so strongly about her and not be excited about the wedding in the slightest? It was a mystery to me. “You did amazing with t
APRIL I was in disbelief upon hearing Nick’s response. Frankly, I’d expected him to recite his usual bit about not wanting to share me, or hoping that I would come around to only wanting him, so I was completely shocked by his new take on the matter. Selfishly, a part of me was pleased that he was finally open to sharing me with Xander since Ace was now out of the picture. I felt relieved that I would no longer have to tiptoe around him when his friend asked me on dates or dropped in to visit. But one thing still bothered me, and I wanted to make an attempt to squash it even though it would mean losing Nick. Just like Ace, he deserved more than constant hurt and confusion because he was fighting for my affection. I just needed him to know that there was always the option of having a lover that would cherish him enough to want only him. After all he’d done for me, he deserved that courtesy. “Are you sure that’s what you want?” I asked in a solemn tone, holding his gaze as he did
APRIL Brooke was the first to meet my gaze, and that’s only because Ace’s gaze was still pinned on her. From the corner of my eye, I could see her rolling her eyes at me in disgust, but I didn’t care about that because I was too focused on Ace. Something about him seemed off but I couldn’t place a finger on it even if I tried. Still, he had his eyes on Brooke and he was looking at her like he couldn’t bear to look away for a second. It was borh infuriating and confusing because the Ace I knew barely ever looked at Brooke with such reverence. When I was present, I was the only one he was able fo focus on, and now, he wasn’t even willing to acknowledge my presence. He should be looking at me, not her, not anyone else. This couldn’t be the same man who’d driven to me moments after calling off his wedding and took me on one of the loveliest impromptu dates I’d ever been on. That man had his eyes on me and only me, and it was my undoing that that was no longer the case.Ace’s eyes be
APRILEven though I was watching a Barbie marathon to keep my mind off things, I couldn’t stop glancing at my phone every few seconds. Ace should’ve been up from his nap hours ago, it was almost evening now. If he was still passed out sleeping, I’d feel pretty bad that his hangover was so horrible because I was off the rails and he was trying to keep me from suffering the same fate he was now saddled with. However, since he was a werewolf—and an Alpha heir—I was certain that the effects of the hangover would’ve worn off by now. And yet, I had no calls or texts from him and that really bothered me. I strongly suspected that something was off. Besides, he said he would call when he woke up, and I’d been eagerly looking forward to it. On one end, I just wanted to know how he was doing and if his hangover had gotten better, and on the other end, I just really wanted to hear his voice again. “Fuck it,” I threw caution to the wind and searched up his contact before hitting the dail bu
ACEBrooke’s eyes flared open in awe at my response, but she wasted no time pulling me into the house and shutting the door behind me. Pretty soon, she was throwing her arms around me in a hug and something in me was more than eager to reciprocate, so I weaved my hands around her too. “You have no idea how glad I am that you’re here,” she squeezed me tightly.Her surprise seemed a bit far-fetched to me, because this feeling of deep longing for her was now my default mode and I expected her to have known that I’d come for her. On my way here, it was crystal clear that nothing in the world could’ve kept me away from her. “Of course, I’m here. I wanted nothing more than to set eyes on you again and now that I have, it’s the most amazing feeling in the world and I never want to leave your side,” I looked down at her as I spoke.Despite how every force in my body was gravitating towards her and assuring me that I was doing the right thing, something still felt strange about it.I could
ACEAlpha Davenport was a little too pleased to drive me to my parents’, and I could easily guess “why”.He assumed that Xander and I had made some reasonable progress while talking indoors and I was now heading home to make things right with my parents, but that couldn’t be further away from the truth. “Thanks for the ride,” I murmured as the car came to a halt outside my parent’s house. For some reason, Xander sputtered a laugh and his father shot him a confused look. I could guess what he found so amusing, but I didn’t share the same opinion on the matter so I didn’t react. Nothing about the hectic situation I was entangled in seemed amusing. “Anytime,” Alpha Davenport answered before driving off. Moments later, I was storming into the living room and startling my parents who were seated by the bar and sharing an afternoon cap. “Ace,” my mother nearly spat out the whiskey in her mouth, “you didn’t say you were dropping by.” I ignored that and kept walking towards them, my ey