Leila turns to look at the big wall clock hanging at the entrance of the courtroom with her heart racing. It’s the day of the trial and the opening statements have already been made by both parties. They are supposed to call Tatum on the stands now to give his testimony but he hasn’t returned yet from wherever he went to search for Kelvin. They spoke last night on the phone and he promised to be here early but she cannot even reach him now, not even through the mindlink. “Your honour, if the prosecution does not have a witness to present as they claim, you should save us all the trouble. Their accusation was baseless from the start, a waste of time. I implore the court to kick this case out,” Donald stands up and says with a confident smirk on his face. “If your witness is not here in the next ten minutes, you will leave me no choice, Barrister Bass,” Judge Ruth says calmly but her words create a storm of horror in Leila. She shakes her leg in trepidation, fiddling with her finger
Leila patiently waits at home for hours, hoping to hear something from Tatum concerning Kelvin’s whereabouts or to just hear anything from him at all. She did not know that he was also close to Tatiana, they certainly seemed close from the way he had his hands over her shoulders, their bodies close together from the time they left the courtroom to Tatum’s car outside, he even held the car door open for her. She scoffs internally. She’s not jealous, it’s just that Kelvin loves Tatiana deeply and it would crush his heart if Tatiana is somehow playing games with him and why did it never even occur to her to ask Tatiana of Kelvin’s whereabouts? She just assumed they would be together but apparently they are not, Tatiana is with another man. She should pay Tatiana a visit and find out what she knows about Kelvin’s whereabouts if that is the case. Tatum’s smell hangs heavy in the air as Leila walks through the corridor of doors to find Tatiana’s apartment from the address Bass gave to
Why the sudden change in attitude? It’s like Tatum doesn’t even care about her anymore. The last time she saw him this cold and nonchalant towards her was that day on the cliff? Is the monster back? Since she returned, all he has spoken about is earning her forgiveness, getting a second chance and for them to get back together but he openly flirts with another woman in front of her and acts this cold? She can’t deny it feels weird to be treated this way by him again. She thought she was completely over him or is she not? She can no longer find the raging and bitter anger she has been holding onto against him. Why? Could it be because she believes that he never truly meant to hurt her and that he was only protecting her? Before this very moment, his words have been consistent with his actions so far, perhaps that is why she finds this interaction too off putting and upsetting. He did not interfere with her mother’s case as he promised, he did not intervene to save Carmela’s f
Leila’s heart pounds slowly with nervous jitters with Antonio’s hands around her waist as he leads her into the private room of a high end restaurant within the Blood moon pack. She had no reason to say no to his request to take her on a date, he is her second chance mate. Another chance that the goddess has given her to enjoy what was denied her. Tatum has clearly moved on, she should as well and Antonio, though not having that rugged handsomeness of Tatum that she admires very much, is a looker, the waitresses at the restaurant are practically eating him up with their looks. Antonio pulls back a chair for her to sit before taking a seat opposite her. “I have seen pretty women in my day Leila, quite a lot of them too but it would be heresy to compare any of them to you, blasphemy I should say, because you, love, are a goddess and all I want to do is worship you,” Antonio says in a coquettish voice, his grin splitting from ear to ear. Leila's cheeks turn red and she smiles shyly.
Antonio can feel Leila’s apprehension and fear whenever she is around him and he normally wants people to fear him, it is why he has built the reputation that he has, because his magic feeds off the fear of people, allowing him to take control of their minds and bend their thoughts to his will but for this kitten, it is different, for some reason, he doesn’t want her to fear him. He tries to take that fear away when they are together and he reins in his true dark aura to the minimum so she can be more comfortable in his presence. Strange it is to him and intriguing still. It is not the matebond, he knows because he did not feel this way about his original mate. He sees her hesitation when he asks to have tea with her to wrap up the night they have and he eagerly waits for her to answer, maybe he can get a taste of the kitten just before he disposes of her. “Sorry but uh…I’m not used to this, it’s new to me, maybe some other time,” Leila replies calmly with her ethereal smile. Is
“Call me when you get home and take care of you,” Leila says to Amanda, squeezing her in a tight hug. Despite everything going on, she is grateful to still have Amanda by her side but Amanda has to return to work and since Liana is free, she will be babysitting Amara whenever she needs to be out. “Don’t miss me too much,” Amanda replies with a slight chuckle before pulling away from Leila and she picks Amara up. “My sweet munchkin, make sure you remain a good girl, okay?” “I’m always a good girl,” Amara replies sharply with a pout on her lips. “That’s my girl,” Amanda hugs her and then hugs Liana before getting into the car and it drives off. Leila stares at the car Amanda is in as it drives into the distance, praying silently in her heart that Amanda remains safe. She already lost Kelvin and the circumstances of his absence makes her scared. It is not out of his character to just disappear from everyone and handle his feelings on his own but with the court hearing so close, j
“Kitten, what are you doing here? These are dangerous parts, I saw your car leaving your house and decided to follow you,” Antonio says, walking over and circling her, taking a protective stance in front of the cabin. Leila squints at him, wondering if she can trust him with the truth. If he saw her leave the house, he should have caught up with her on his power bike and she would have noticed a bike following her, especially on the tiny bush path. “I was told about this property, wanted to come see if I could buy it, to get some quiet away from the bustling city sometimes,” Leila replies, forcing a smile, a strong unease grating at her heart. “Well, since I’m the king and technically everything is mine, you can have the Cabin,” Antonio replies with a small smile, “come back some other time with a construction team to decide how you want a new cabin built, this old contraption is falling apart.” “Thank you,” Leila replies, “but if I can just see what it looks like inside right now.
Leila’s heart thuds nervously as her car pulls up to the entrance of the Long Canine restaurant, one of the busiest places in the heart of the pack. It is the sort of place she least expected Tatum to set up a meeting with her but that is the least of her concerns right now. She cannot get rid of the fear and worry that has her heart in a frenzy, she feels like she is being watched and there’s this sense of foreboding that has refused to leave her mind, like a sixth sense telling her something really bad is about to happen. She cannot put a finger on when or to whom but Amara is her greatest priority and she must keep her safe at all costs. She heaves a deep sigh as she steps out the car, wondering how Tatum would react when she breaks the news to him. Will he be mad at her? Happy about it or really upset? And now that he has moved on from trying to get back with her, will he still want to be a part of Amara’s life? A part of her life? Or does she just abandon this whole thing and
“Luna,” the guard guarding Trent in prison, bows to Leila as he opens the cell door for her. “Thank you,” Leila replies, peeking into the dark cell before turning back to the guard, “leave us.” The guard bows and makes his exit and Leila steps into the cell and flicks the light on to see Trent clearly. He is hanging from two adjustable rods welded into the ceiling with the silver cuffs around his wrist fastened to the rods to suspend him from the floor. The rods are adjusted in such a way that he is not suspended too far from the floor and his toes can graze the floor below if he stretches downwards to get some respite from hanging but that will only tighten the hold of the silver around his wrist causing him even more pain and below him is not the concrete floor but a large basin of wolfsbane so whether he continues to hang or tries to drop, torture awaits him. “Ahh…I was wondering when you would come to gloat,” Trent says with his head bent down, unable to lift it up to look a
Later that evening, after deciding on the date and time to execute Trent, Leila goes to visit her mother and is surprised to see an even larger crowd than the one that gathered at the packhouse outside her mother’s house. She steps out of her car and immediately she is approached by a group. “What’s going on?” She asks, scanning the crowd and seeing her mother in the middle with tears falling from her eyes. Leila’s heart immediately races, fearing the worst. She dashes towards the crowd, not waiting for a reply to her initial question, ignoring the greetings of people until she gets to her mother. “Mom, what’s wrong? What’s going on?” Her mom sweeps her into a tight hug, sobbing hard, “thank you Leila, thank you.” The tension in Leila’s heart deflates but the confusion in it lingers even though she hugs her mom back. “We are so happy that the truth came out Luna. For so long, many believed the lies of that traitor Trent that your mother killed your father, we can’t imagine how ha
Leila’s men drag Trent out of the house, two of them holding him tight. Another one immediately lodges two syringes full of wolfsbane into his neck, both to weaken him and to stop him from mindlinking anyone. The fourth one opens the car door but one of them holding Trent frowns, “we should parade him round the pack before throwing his ass in jail.” “Sounds like a good idea to me,” the other replies, slamming handcuffs on Trent’s hand behind his back before he kicks him down. “You imbeciles, you’ll pay for this,” Trent says, groaning in pain, the wolfsbane having immediate effect on him. “Shut up,” one of the men throws a hard fist at Trent's face and splits his lip open and blood gushes. Another one yanks Trent up by his collar and gives him a cold stare, “if anyone is going to pay for anything, it’s you who will pay for your crimes,” he drives his fist into Trent’s torso making Trent squirm in pain before pushing him forward, leading away from the old Alpha house. A crowd start
“How is this possible?” Trent asks in shock, unwilling to believe what his eyes just witnessed. Adaline has been laying in a pool of her own blood with wounds all over. How is she fucking healed? And Darren has him pinned to the floor. Did he suddenly recover from his illness? He looks sharply at Leila, getting a thought as the blue aura emanating from her slowly starts to dim. Is she the one behind this? Does she have some kind of healing power? “Are you okay, Father?” Leila asks Darren, slowly walking towards him, her heart full of relief and gratitude. She has no idea what happened or why that powerful aura burst forth from her but something tells her that it has something to do with Trent’s recovery. “Never been better,” Darren applies more pressure to keeping Trent in place, “I think whatever happened with you just now healed me, I feel so young and strong.” Leila blinks and tears roll down the corner of her eyes. She immediately mindlinks some of her trusted warriors and fo
“No…” Trent’s voice is filled with terror upon seeing Leila, “you shouldn’t be here, you should be dead.” Leila sneers at him, “you think you’re one step ahead of me with your plotting and scheming to have me sent to the palace so you could get rid of me but the problem with being a step ahead is that you leave steps behind and you never know what’s going on behind you.” “Bullshit!” Trent growls, his eyes red and full of murderous intent as he stares at Leila. “You made a very foolish decision coming back here, your plan should have included you running for your dear life just like your cowardly husband because now I’m going to kill you myself, then I’ll kill this old fool and his wife. Nothing will stop me from my destiny.” Leila grinds her teeth, feeling so much anger inside of her from Trent’s words but she manages to keep the anger away from her eyes and her voice becomes sullen like someone riddled with fear from Trent’s threat. “Why? Why are you doing all of this?” She backs
Trent quickly tries to move out of the way but he’s not fast enough and her claws tear into his cheek, making him yell in pain. She’s been behind the door the whole time listening to the conversation between him and her husband and the more Trent revealed the depth and treachery of his schemes, the more she hated herself. She was Carmela’s number one supporter. All those things she did to Leila, all the many times that she made the poor girl’s life hell, it was because of this man and his evil deeds. “You bastard,” Adaline growls, charging at him again, taking another swipe at his face but this time, Trent blocks her attack and shoves her back. He wipes the speck of blood on his already healing face and rubs it on his finger. “I’d ask your husband to put you under control but seeing as he is not fit to carry out his manly duties, I’ll do it myself.” He throws a punch at Adaline but she ducks underneath it and kicks the back of his leg, making him stagger forward. “You don’t dese
Darren already knows this so it does not come as much of a surprise to him but he never thought Trent would openly admit his atrocity, which makes him gaze at Trent with a bit of surprise in his eyes. Trent scoffs, reading the look on Darren’s face and he smirks. “I’ll admit that I had a little bit of luck with the drunk old witch, finding out what the phoenix mark was going to look like from the prophecy before anyone else. After consulting with my own witch, it wasn’t hard to discover who was most likely to be the real phoenix Luna. Imagine my anger when I found out it could be Henry’s daughter. I was livid. “I wanted to wipe out the entire family that day when I killed him but he wounded my wolf before I could take his life. Leila wasn’t even there and I was too weak to take out his wife but I figured I’d spare them and let his family watch as I stole their destiny, just like he stole mine. All I had to do was put the beautiful mark on my daughter and present her to you all. Oh,
Trent watches from a distance as Leila’s car drives out of the pack and he picks up his phone and dials a number. “She’s enroute, make it look like an accident.” He ends the call and licks his lips, still staring as the car becomes as tiny as a dot in the distance and an evil smirk adorns his lips. It’s time to take what should have belonged to him all these years. “Take me to the old Alpha’s house,” he instructs his driver, cracking his knuckles and his neck like a fighter getting ready for some action. “How art the mighty fallen,” Trent mocks Darren who is lying in bed, shivering and covered with two thick blankets, his eyes pale and as red as blood and he can even barely keep them open. “The once great Alpha Darren the ruthless,” he shakes his head pitifully, “look at how pathetic you have become. This is what you get from deciding to surround yourself with weaklings!” He yanks the top blanket of Darren’s body. “No Trent, stop…” Darren weakly reaches out to grab the blanket b
“Darren told me the king summoned you?” Adaline sobs, wiping her face with the back of her hand. Leila squints at her, confused at why she’s crying. “Yes,I’ll be leaving at dawn. Is everything okay?” “Yeah…” Adaline sniffs, “I just wanted to thank you Leila, for everything. Since you became Luna, even if it’s only been a short while, the pack has prospered.” Leila keeps the look on her face blank. She’s always put her best into being Luna no matter what and made sure things progressed. She can even say she did more back then when everyone treated her terribly than she is doing right now. It only seems like a lot because she is wrestling with an opposing tyrannical power and this time, instead of seeing her as an usurper, the people are seeing her as a Saviour. “We all have duties we have to carry out, you don’t have to thank me for doing what I have to do,” Leila replies, glancing through the mess of things she has scattered on her bed. Her mind is continually hassled by what th