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Leila feels like her heart is being plunged into by a jagged edge spear, hearing the cold, emotionless way Tatum refers to her as a criminal.Does he really believe that she killed the witch?She heard him clearly pronounce death on her from Carmela’s mind link but seeing him so determined, leading the charge to bring her to supposed justice, it hits her with an immense amount of pain.It’s a pain she cannot describe, it’s raw, primal, like it is clawing at her heart and ripping it apart into a million pieces.She gets off Kelvin’s back, barely able to stand on her feet but she manages, her blue sombre eyes coated with tears as they stare straight into Tatum’s cold grey eyes.“A criminal, is that what you really think of me? You think my punishment is death, that I deserve to die?” Leila asks in a sullen tone, her heart racing hard, her chest rising and falling slowly.Tatum sneers at her and replies in a spine chilling tone. “Yes, you ordered for the pack witch to be killed. Death is
“Miss Leila, we really cannot keep tolerating this, if this happens again, we’ll have to suspend or worse, expel your daughter from the school. We have a zero tolerance policy for violence among students,” the principal of the Bayview Pack preparatory school says to Leila in her office.Leila frowns and turns to the innocent looking sweetheart chewing on her pineapple candy absentmindedly, dangling her feet from the chair and humming a song to herself.“We’ll do our best to make her understand that,” she says to the principal before turning to her daughter, Amara. “Apologise to Mrs. Keaton, dear.”“I’m sorry Mrs. Keaton, for beating up my classmates who tried to bully me.”“Good girl,” Leila replies sharply, “and what do we do next time it happens?” “Report to the right authorities,” Amara drawls on her words nonchalantly and Leila chuckles softly, apologising to the principal and takes her out of the office.“I shouldn’t have apologised mama,” Amara kicks an empty can of water as th
“I put Amara to bed, you need anything before I retire?” Kelvin asks Leila later that evening as she fiddles with her laptop in her room.Leila turns to him with a sullen look in her eyes. Ever since she tossed that paper out of the car, all she can feel is rage, five long years gone but her anger is still as palpable as the day she rejected Tatum and jumped off that cliff.She hates him, she hates both of them and she doesn’t wish them well in their so-called marriage.What even took them five years, she expected them to have multiple kids by now.She knows Kelvin anonymously brought it to her attention as a way of asking if she has moved on without them having to talk about it but the bitterness and anger coursing through her is unbearable.Remembering how much she fought to stay by Tatum’s side, only for it to mean nothing in the end breaks her.If she did not have Kelvin by her side, encouraging and helping her, especially in the early months after she left, she would have died f
When Leila opens her eyes, the next morning, she hears the sound of a man’s slow heavy breath behind her in bed, his arms firmly wrapped around her, their body pressed tightly against each other and Leila slightly shifts her butt away from the hard thing pressing against her thigh, feeling embarrassed but she doesn’t wake Kelvin up. She spins slowly in his arms and studies his face while he sleeps, he is handsome and looks almost like an angel in his sleep. He is an angel even when he is awake. Without him, she would not be alive and he has saved her life numerous times on different occasions, putting his life at risk, the hideous scars on his forearm are testament to that. She knows Kelvin is in love with her, it came to her as a brutal shock when he told her that he has always been in love with her about five years ago, two months after they settled into the Bayview pack, thanks to Kelvin’s family business investments in the pack. It was the day she went into premature labour, s
“Aunty Amanda, I will be having a girls sleepover tonight,” Amara says into the iPad standing on the dining table as she has her dinner.After helping Leila and Kelvin escape, Amanda knew she would be the next target and she moved to Kelvin’s uncle pack the following day with the help of Curtis.Luckily for her, a doctor with her versatile skill was just what the pack needed at the time and she quickly secured a job at the hospital.Amanda was with Leila throughout the final days of labour, as gruesome as it was, she never left Leila’s side and she stayed for months after delivery before she returned back.Amanda chuckles. “Is that so cupcake, how many of your friends are coming over?”“None of them, I’m going over to Kate’s—”“Amara!” Leila calls, stepping into the living room.“Kate’s mom is here. Do you have everything you need?” “Yes mama,” Amara replies sharply, jumps down from the chair and runs into her room.She returns with a huge backpack and waves Leila goodbye as she run
He regains himself and takes slow calculated steps towards her, taking glances at the items on the mat. “What’s the occasion and where’s my little dove? She didn’t come out to welcome me.” “Well….I thought maybe you’d like to spend some alone time with your original little dove,” Leila says in a slow coquettish tone, feeling her heart slam against her rib cage. She doesn’t know what she is doing or if she is doing it right but it seems to be working as Kelvin cannot take his eyes off her and she can hear the heavy thudding of his heart. “We could have just eaten out though, you didn’t have to go through the trouble,” Kelvin says, glancing at the array of dishes in front of them as he sits beside her. “I know,” Leila replies, “I just wanted the evening to feel more…intimate.” She stretches her trembling hands and takes Kelvin’s hands in hers, rubbing it against hers softly, feeling like her heart wants to tear out of her chest. Kelvin stays mute, just staring at her like he is hy
“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Leila says in a clearly angered tone, stuffing clothes into a box. “Why now? I mean why after fifteen good years. What’s the point? We are his family, we should be the ones seeking justice. If they cared about him so much, why didn’t they look into it after his death, they’re just going to put my innocent mother through unnecessary trauma. I hate them all.”Kelvin sighs, zipping the box full of Amara’s clothes. “Look on the bright side, we could get evidence to find those rogues who did it.”“I know who did it,” Leila replies sharply, her cold gaze flushed with anger. “It was Carmela’s father, I’m certain of it.”“But without proof, those are just mere accusations. I know you are angry and you want revenge on those who hurt you and your family, believe me, I do too but we have to pick our fights wisely.”Leila groans, dropping on the bed defeatedly, hanging her head before she raises it to look at Kelvin with a sullen look in her eyes.“She should hav
She wipes the corner of her mouth to see Kelvin holding Amara by the car but they are not the only ones looking at her, several pack members passing by have also recognised her and they are not subtle with their stares. Many look genuinely shocked to see her, whispering among themselves, most of them hold nasty glares on their faces as they stare at her but none of them say a word or come close to her as she returns to the car. She was expecting at least one of them to come at her, considering how they took torches to the Alpha’s house, demanding her death and chased her till she jumped off the cliff. As Leila’s car pulls closer to her mother’s house who Tatum has placed under house arrest with several pack warriors guarding her, Leila notices men in construction gear and overall taking measurements on a large parcel of undeveloped land belonging to her family. Is her mom planning to do something with it after all these years, but she would mention it to her if she was. She shrugs
“Stop here,” Leila says to the driver bringing her back to the Blood oak pack territory, her voice low and sullen, her eyes pregnant with tears but she holds it in, determined to stay strong for her, Amara and Tatum.They both needed her and she had to make a choice.Something inside her feels torn that she chose Tatum over Amara, that she chose the father who abandoned them over the child who brought joy back into her life.She remembers how sad she always was when she was pregnant with Amara, how the days spent in the cell being nibbled on by rats while she starved haunted her sleep throughout that period.She was not herself then, often lost in her thoughts thinking, swimming around in her anguish until it drowned her.But Amara was the light that the goddess sent to her darkness. Once she was born, it was as if alongside her, Leila also pushed out her sadness.Amara gave her hope, something to look forward to, something to live for.The tears push heavier against the blanket of he
“Again!” Trent yells at the warriors training with Tatum who Tatum had just put to the ground.Tatum is on his knees, one knee on the floor, the other bent with his elbows resting on it as he pants exhaustedly.His shirtless body is dripping with sweat, mixed with his blood oozing out of the whip marks on his back and the side of his torso.“What are you waiting for?!” Trent yells, trashing the whip and landing it on Tatum’s back. “So you think that rebel, Alpha Leo will give you time? Pathetic,” he spits out with venom.As the silver tip of the whip cuts into Tatum’s back and tears his skin on the way out, it sears him with pain but he barely reacts to it, only looking at Trent with a deadly look in his eyes, his teeth clenched.No matter how much pain he has to endure, he will never break before this ceremonial Alpha.He folds his fists together and smiles maniacally at Trent, blood covering his entire dentition. “You need to hit harder, old man. You’re an Alpha now but you seem to
Leila stares at her phone for the umpteenth time, feeling very worried. She has a lot on her mind but chief of them is that Tatum hasn’t replied to her messages in days and she cannot reach him via phone call.They’ve been at the Northstar pack for over a week now and it was only the first two days that she was able to communicate with him.Tatum mentioned that Trent had given her three days to return or she will be banished and she has been here for days more than that. After the incident at the training for the competition, she couldn’t just leave the next day, Amara needed her but now, she’s worried something might have happened to Tatum because of her absence to show up during the stipulated time window.She sighs and decides to go see Jenny to talk about it. Jenny can look after Amara and also keep her out of trouble. She needs to go and help Tatum no matter what.His position is their only true security.She steps out of the room given to them in the pack house to go to Jenny’
“My daughter!” The sound of the head warrior’s yell as he rushes towards the scene jolts Leila to the harsh reality of what Amara just did. It’s not just that she used her powers in public, breaking a rule that had been given to her but she also used it to hurt someone. Athena flew yards into the air, if anything happens to her, Amara could be in real trouble because of it. “She’s not breathing! Help, somebody do something!” The head warrior yells, clutching Athena to his chest, blood oozing from the corner of the limp girl’s head. Leila rushes towards them as fear of the worst grips her. She ignores Amara who stands there with a blank expression, her face staring at Athena and her father and she tries to hold Athena but the head warrior shoves her away. “Don’t touch my daughter, your child did this, she is evil,” the man spits out with venom, casting a cold look at Amara. “Why?” Leila immediately turns to Amara, holding back the bitter words she wanted to reply to the man with
Leila looks at Amara who is fast asleep beside her in the middle of the night unable to sleep herself. Aside from the fact that she naturally finds it hard to sleep in a new environment for a few days, her heart is heavy. Tatum didn’t argue with her concerning returning to the pack in a few days but her daughter and her have never been separated for more than a day and she will have to leave her, perhaps for weeks or even months, depending on how long it takes for them to get Tatum back his position of Alpha. She runs her hand slowly through Amara’s hair, her eyes welling in tears as she kisses her daughter’s hair, taking a good whiff, a strong sense of anguish filling her for the decision she has to make, even though deep down in her heart she doesn’t want to leave Amara but it’s the only way to keep her safe. Aside from the anonymous letter that they got asking them to protect Amara, she also cannot shake a feeling deep in her heart that Antonio is doing all of this because he wan
“Welcome to the North Star Pack Leila, I am Alpha Caden,” Alpha Caden says to Leila before opening his arms and squeezing her in a hug. “And you must be Amara,” he smiles, breaking the hug and bends to pick Amara up in his arms, tugging her chin as he chuckles. “Thank you for having us,” Leila replies to Caden, hiding her surprise in her tone. Caden is not like anything she imagined or like most Alphas she knew who were either lean with muscle or bulky with the same. He looked very different, tall and robust with a stomach that could pass for a pregnant woman’s bulge but he has a warm aura to him and his sandy blonde hair has been twisted into short locks. “Thank you?” Caden suddenly frowns at Leila, making her wonder if she said something wrong. “Family does not thank one another. I find that offensive, Leila, you must apologize,” his tone softens and his frown morphs into a smirk. Leila smiles back to him, amused by his character. “I’m sorry Alpha Caden.” “Apology not accepted b
“I, Alpha Tatum Cromwell, under the all seeing eye of Selene, witnessed by the elders of the Council, renounce my position as the Alpha of the Blood Oak Pack.” He feels the rage of his wolf blending with his as he locks eyes with Trent who has a smug look on his face. Trent steps forward, joining Tatum in the middle of the circle. “Representing the elders, we witness your renouncement. Who do you name as your successor,” Trent’s face is flushed with a look of mockery that makes Zane boil even further. He should have had Trent sentenced to death instead but then he thought it would be quick mercy, he wanted him to suffer imprisonment for the rest of his life as a lesson for all his evil deeds but it seems that decision has come back to bite him in the ass. Zane frowns. “Not as my successor but as an interim ruler, I name—” he extends the claws of his left hand and slashes the wrist of his right hand. He looks slowly from the thick red liquid dripping from his wrist, making patter
“Alpha Tatum,” a tall bulky man dressed in a grey suit bows slightly to Tatum with two much smaller men dressed in similar styled suits walking behind him. They are at the annual werewolf trade fair. An event organized amongst allied packs to foster unity and commerce. Attending the event is the perfect cover for Leila to get away with Amara just in case Antonio still has any men watching them. Tatum gives his hand a firm handshake. “It’s been ages, Curtis. The years have been kind to you.” “As they have been with you. Our Alpha sends his greetings. The North Star pack will forever be grateful to you for saving our Alpha’s life.” “He would have done the same for me,” Tatum pats the side of Curtis’ arm with a small grin that barely lasts a second before he pulls the big man to the side. Curtis is the Beta of Alpha Caden Miles, the Alpha of the North Star pack. Many years ago, during his Alpha training, that was when he met Caden and saved him from being lynched by a pack of rogues
“That bastard!” Tatum yells, punching a hole through the wall of his office, his heart beating fast, his entire aura swirling in visible rage. “Calm down,” Leila says, not feeling any sort of calmness herself and Tatum can sense it, which only pisses him off more. It’s like they can’t get a fucking break, things just keep going from one crisis to the next and it’s all because of one man who wields too much power, it’s beginning to get to his head. It is completely unheard of for an Alpha to name another person as an acting Alpha when he is still alive and more so, even if that was to happen, Theo, his beta would have been in a better position to receive that honor, not fucking Trent. He hisses, tapping frantically on his table, staring at the warning message they had received concerning Amara. This whole thing has Carmela written all over it and Antonio in his vileness would be more than willing to oblige her. Whoever sent them this warning must have found out something. He nee