Tatum squints his eyes at Leila, surprised by what she just did. “You did that on purpose! Tatum can you see? Did you see what she just did? She hates me,” Carmela cries out, tugging on Tatum’s sleeve. “Calm down Carmi, I’m sure it was just a mistake,” Tatum replies, even if he knows the truth. Leila dropped the cake on purpose and she wasn’t really trying to hide it, even though she’s acting like she’s shocked. What has gotten into her? He has never seen her this….he doesn’t want to call her crafty but that is exactly how she is right now. “I swear….it was a mistake,” Leila pouts, her eyes flushing with pity. “Why would I drop the cake you baked for me out of your pure love? I’m sure you put so much effort into it.” Leila puts her hands to her chest. “I’m really sorry Carmi….I know I was mean to you but I was just bitter, you are right, let’s put it all behind us. Let’s bake another cake, we can even bake it together.” Carmela instantly looks puzzled by Leila’s reaction, her
“What is she doing here? Doesn’t she have any shame?” “A truly despicable woman, I’m sure she’s just here to make trouble.” “I heard the Alpha even had to chase her out of the house for the phoenix Luna.” “Serves her right, she was never meant to be Luna anyway.” The negative whispers and cold stares hit Leila the moment they drop from her car but she ignores all of it despite the bitterness in her heart. After tonight, everything will be over. She may not be the phoenix Luna but like a phoenix, she will rise from the ashes and reinvent herself. She will learn to live again, to make her happiness something only she can determine. It won’t be because of the way a man treats her, never again. She will never give anyone that much power over her again. The red carpet is teeming with pack members looking their very best like tonight is the blood moon festival, smiles on all their faces. The lights are glittering, the design ethereal, the colour scheme and mix for the decorations a
Leila gasps, dropping the glass in her hand, her heart pounding hard against her rib cage. Carmela turns around, staring at the video that is on a loop, playing over and over again. “Who did this?! Who is trying to sabotage the Luna of this pack? Turn it off, somebody turn it off,” Carmela shrieks. “You don’t have a wolf?” Someone beside Leila says to her . “A wolfless mutt has been our Luna? Outrageous,” another one adds. “Whoever released that video must be targeting the Luna with such lies, there’s no way she rules this pack without a wolf, it is a lie, that video has to be fake,” Carmela continues. Leila stays frozen to the spot, unable to figure what to do, what to say, how to say it. Her only wish is that the ground should give way and swallow her. Carmela knows she has no wolf but she just said it is a lie. If it were before, Leila would trust that her friend was defending her but after recent events, she’s not so sure of Carmela’s intention anymore. Suddenly, everyone’s
Kelvin gets to Leila before he can and despite the situation, Tatum feels that jealous feeling rise inside of him again. “I’ll take her,” he says in a low and cold tone to Kelvin, taking Leila from his hands. “Did she just pretend to faint to get the Alpha’s sympathy?” “What a pathetic woman.” “That’s enough,” Tatum’s voice is curt. “Whoever disrespects the Luna disrespects the Alpha, now get back to the party, all of you.” Carmela steps forward, her eyes flushed with tears, holding a deep sombre look in her eyes. “Is she going to be okay? Even though she lied against me, I still care about her well-being.” “Carmela is so kind, goddess bless her soul,” Tracy says in a soft tone, full of awe. “She is an angel, even to the devil that tries to sabotage her,” Edna adds. Kelvin seethes at them, seeing their hypocrisy clearly for what it is. Carmela may have been away in these two years but her minions were around and those videos were clearly taken pre planned. “Someone invaded
“Leila…..”Leila hears her name and her eyes snap open.Where is she? At a beach? She can feel the wet sand below her, she can feel the waves rushing against her feet, the smell of the salty sea.“Leila….Leila! Help me…..”She suddenly sees her younger self running along the pack borders, giggling and skipping along the column of trees and shrubs of the thick forest, seemingly full of joy and glee but when she turns and looks at Leila, her face is full of sadness and her eyes are pitch black and sombre.“Help me Leila,” Her little self says, dashing into the forest.Leila’s heart pounds and she rushes after her, feeling a great sense of fear and worry but the forest clears into an opening, endless white clouds for miles and that’s when Leila sees it, her wolf.“Ama
“So she still won’t talk to you?” Theo asks, taking out a cigarette from the pack on Tatum’s table.“Nope, not a word. Literally deaf and dumb when I’m in the room,” Tatum replies with a frown, swirling the whiskey in his glass and staring at it like it has the solutions to all his problems.It’s been a week since Leila woke up but the shoulders she gave him are more than just cold, they are freezing.She desperately wants to leave but he can’t let her out of the house, not now. It’s still too dangerous for her, his house is the only place some angry pack member is not going to try and attack her.He wants to be there for her, to explain himself to her but she won’t even let him talk or talk to him and it’s all because he banished Kelvin.Why does she care about that dude more than him?
“Rise and shine!”Leila feels someone throwing her duvet off her body before she hears the shrill voice that follows, Carmela’s voice.She immediately sits up and wears a cold look. She has been wondering when Carmela would show up to torment her.At last the day is finally here.“What do you want, Carmi?” Leila asks in a straight tone.Carmela places her index finger on her lip, squinting her eyes and smiling coyly down at Leila with a pout on her lips.“Hmmmm, what do I want? Well, none of that matters, the Alpha has instructed me to take utmost care of you while he’s away and I’m going to give it my all,” Carmela replies in a cheerful tone.“Away?” Leila retorts, her heartbeat suddenly increasing. “What do you mean ‘away’? Where is Tatum?&rd
“What is going on here?”Carmela’s face is wrath with annoyance when she enters the kitchen and sees Leila cooking.She particularly instructed the guards not to let Leila out of the room, she has to remain confined until she says otherwise.Tatum left her in charge even though Leila is still the Luna and Tatum promised to engage her when he returns.Nothing gives her greater pleasure.“What does it look like? I’m cooking,” Leila replies in a monotonous voice, not even turning to acknowledge Carmela’s presence and it stings Carmela.She ignores Leila and turns to the bodyguard standing with her inside the kitchen. One of the men stationed at the door of Leila’s room.“Do you want to explain what the Luna is doing out of her room?” She asks the guard, her scowl vividly showi
“Meet me at our cave tonight, make sure no one follows you.”Tatum’s words from his mindlink to Leila earlier keep replaying in her head as she gets closer to the cave, her heart pounding hard in her chest.Why did Tatum ask her to come here of all places?This was where she first confirmed that Tatum had feelings for her when they were still kids and it was where he confessed his love for her years later before the unfortunate incident of her arrest and departure from the pack.What does he want to tell her that he has to bring her here?She sees the lamps hanging along the walls of the cave and she can smell Tatum heavily, her wolf’s excitement as well is going off the roof.Even if technically, she cannot say that Tatum and are as back as fated mates, bearing each other’s mark means there is a bond between them and she is dying to see him, just like a little girl excited to go on a first date with her crush.Even if the bulk of the feelings are her wolf’s because of the mark, there
“What is this?” Antonio sneers at an envelope that an omega drops on the stool beside him where he is sitting with Carmela on his legs. “The Beta of Alpha Tatum brought it,” the omega bows, speaking cautiously. Carmela stares at the envelope, doing her best to keep her heart from racing but her heart sinks to her gut knowing fully well what the envelope contains. She adjusts herself on Antonio’s leg and picks up the envelope, rips it open and skins through it before tossing it back absentmindedly. “The pack wants to throw us an engagement party. Since the Lycan king found his mate in this pack, they see it as an honour and would love to do this for us,” she says, watching Antonio’s eyes carefully. “Engagement party? A day after Tatum comes here? What did he say to you in the garden? I know of your little tête-à-tête,” Antonio says in a cold and suspicious voice, squinting slightly. “Don’t tell me the Almighty Lycan king is jealous of a common alpha,” Carmela replies sharply with
“Make it quick,” Carmela sneers, sitting on one of the concrete benches in the back garden of the house, away from earshot while Tatum stands in front of her, his back turned to her. Every cell in his body burns with anger and a livid hatred for Carmela and nothing would give him greater satisfaction than snapping her neck or ripping her heart out but she is the literal queen in this game of chess that he is playing and he needs her to make a crucial move. He knows Antonio isn’t done with Leila yet. From his discussions with Tatiana, he knows that her brother doesn’t like to lose or take no for an answer and that must be why he rejected Leila to punish her but ordered her not to accept so he could still have some claim on her. In the long run, Antonio will figure out something is wrong. He can only be deceived for so long but before that happens, he needs to bait Carmela into helping him. “My request is simple,” Tatum turns to face Carmela with a serious look on his face, his eyes
“There’s someone here to see you my lady,” An omega bows and says to Carmela in her room in Antonio’s place. Carmela turns her head away from the mirror where she is working on her makeup and looks at the omega before looking back at herself in the mirror and a wide smile splays her lips. She’s not even been officially announced as the Lycan Queen yet and people are already coming to seek her favour. “Who is it?” She replies in a stoic voice, hiding her excitement from the omega. “It’s— It’s Alpha Tatum, he says it’s urgent,” the omega bows again. A mix of anger, bitterness and fear immediately clouds Carmela’s mind and her heart races. What the hell does Tatum want? Why is that loser here to see her? What could be so important that he would come into Antonio’s lair knowing fully well the history between the two of them and how Antonio may feel about his woman being visited in his house by a mate she rejected. Is Tatum trying to ruin things for her? Her brows furrow and she c
Leila wakes up the next morning feeling lighter and better than she has felt in months. She eagerly jumps out of bed, saunters towards the drapes over the windows and she opens it. She jerks her head backwards, makes a surprised face as the flowers in the garden outside have all bloomed, even those that are out of season. She shrugs and turns and that is when she sees the mark on her neck in the mirror and her heart skips and memories of yesterday barrage into her mind. She gasps, rushing over to the vanity to check the mark up close, touching her neck and she looks at her bed, remembering that she fainted during the marking process yesterday and that is all she can remember. It turns out the mark of the phoenix was only hers to carry because it was Tatum’s to give, a mark of their bond. Tatum. Where is he? Did he leave last night? She rushes out of her room then halts halfway. Tatum was about to say something yesterday before he marked her but she did not want to hear it. She
Tatum looks down at her, his eyes skimming past her pale yet pretty face to her lush boobs half hidden in the water and he gulps, his heart racing hard. It is hard enough to control himself from out here, sitting with her in the tub will be too much for him and yet it is exactly as much as he needs, he is more than deprived of her touch, the contact of her skin, the warmth of her body. He misses her, every little thing about her. Not a day has gone by that he has not craved for her, for a moment where they can just put everything behind them and enjoy the comfort of each other’s company. He can feel the urge of his wolf to be with her, even if there is no bond between them which is even more strange yet he is happy about it, that his wolf wants the woman that he wants, mate bond or not. Leila lets him go, sensing his reluctance and she dips her hand in the water, closes her eyes and throws her head back, feeling the water or whatever is inside it, slowly sucking away her pain. Sh
The moment Tatum sweeps Leila off the floor into his arms, Leila feels a yearning deep inside her, rising above the terrible pain that she is currently in, she snuggles closer to Tatum as if the warmth emanating from her is not enough and she needs more of his. She looks into his eyes as he takes her upstairs to her room and there is nothing but worry and concern in his eyes. More tears spill out of her eyes, her heart wobbling in pain, reminded of the fact that their story ended when Antonio put her in his bondage. If only she did not harbour such hatred in her heart towards him, if only her anger didn’t burn through her like a fiery furnace when she first returned but how was she to know? How was she to know that behind Tatum’s cold and seemingly ruthless behaviour towards her, he always cared and never stopped caring, how on earth was it possible for her to know that beneath her pain, her hatred and anger lingered a desire for him. She fought hard not to give in to it when s
“Come on, it’s late, you shouldn’t be up by now, let’s put you to bed,” Leila says to Amara in the living room of their house, frowning at the little girl. After the ritual, Amara seems to have gained more control of her powers and she can now keep her Lycan aura down whenever she is around people. It was that inability that first sparked Antonio’s interest in her when he saw her, he could feel the strong aura emanating from such a young child. “It’s the last episode mama, please,” Amara pleads with puppy eyes, clasping her hands together and she looks to Amanda for support. Amanda came a day after the ritual to be with them incase medical help was needed. “Nope, you’re— ah!” Leila suddenly screams, clutching her chest and her wolf wails in her head, pain dragging through her already weakened body from the one sided rejection. “Mama!” Amara yells as Leila falls face first to the floor and Amanda also rushes to her, her eyes wide in fear. “Leila, are you okay? What is wrong?” Le
Frantic and scared inside, Carmela retains her poise outside, docile as a lamb before Antonio but she schemes like a fox in her head, thinking about her next best possible line of action to avoid certain death. She remembers what Lithoha told her about bearing Antonio’s mark and him bearing hers. It would mean that she would share a portion of his powers and he will be bound for her to life, unable to feel attraction for or comfort with anyone but her. She knows what she has to do. She will mark Antonio before he marks her. That way, even if she is exposed, he will think twice and hard before killing her because if he does, he will be killing a part of himself too. “I see you took my advice to be naughty literally,” Antonio says as Carmela massages his cock from his trousers while simultaneously sucking on his thumb. “Your wish is my command,” Carmela replies, batting her eyelashes at him, her voice coquettish to the max. “Good girl,” Antonio rubs her head, unbuckling his belt to