“I manage,” Leila replies, her heart sinking to her stomach and she gives Carmela a sullen look but Carmela keeps a straight face like losing your wolf wasn’t such a shameful thing.“I’m sure you do. Now, how about we go make some cold drinks and let the man work?” Carmela’s straight face lights up with a beaming smile as she replies, glancing at Tatum but Leila is too uncomfortable.What else does Carmela know? Is her secret still safe? What if she tells it to the other pack members? The consequences will be too dire for her. The pack members will blame her for Tatum’s actions just like they did when Carmela disappeared.Fear, worry and anxiety all flood her heart at the same time and she stands up abruptly, feeling too self conscious and shameful in front of Carmela.“I um- I have to go, I have somewhere else to be.”“But you only just got here, I was hoping to get more stories about your reign as Luna,” Carmela replies with a subtle coyness in her tone.Leila gulps, becoming more wo
Kelvin’s brow creases with worry for her. A deep frown contorts his face and he walks over, taking the seat next to her. He gently takes her hands in his, squeezing it gently, making Leila’s sad eyes meet his affectionate ones. “What happened? Is he treating you poorly?” he asks in a soft and worry laden voice. Is Tatum treating her poorly? Does sleeping in another woman’s bed and spilling their deepest secrets to her count as being treated poorly? “No….” Leila shakes her head, feeling a tug of pain in her heart. “Carmela is back, Kev, you know what that means.” Kelvin scoffs softly, raising a brow at Leila, looking a bit relieved to know she wasn’t suffering at the hands of the Alpha. “You disappoint me Leila, you’re just going to throw away your marriage and position because of that bitch?” Kelvin asks in a curt tone. His dislike towards Carmela is well known to Leila and Kelvin is not one to mince words or hide his feelings, except the ones he has for Leila. Telling Kelvin
She smiles bitterly at him, holding his gaze, letting the pain in her heart take full control of it. Her legs move with a slow tremor under the table and she bites back her tears, hoping her pain is not so evident in her voice.“If I am STILL your Luna, when do I stop being her, Alpha?”“What do you even mean by that?” Tatum looks at her weird.“I mean, your true mate has returned, obviously my days are numbered,” Leila manages to keep her voice from trembling as she speaks.Something that looks like guilt fills Tatum’s eyes and he shifts his gaze back to his laptop screen.“What I choose to do with her shouldn’t concern you,” Tatum replies passively with an aloofness to his demeanour.The tiny sliver of hope that Tatum may yet keep her flicks through Leila’s mind but she quickly pushes it away. He only said not to concern herself with it, he never said it won’t happen.“I’m just asking because-”“Leila, drop it,” Tatum snaps his laptop shut, his tone becoming stern. “Trying to change
A nervous pit settles in Leila’s stomach as she reads through the divorce papers, shaking her feet under the table. She stuffs it back into her bag, frowning at the other item in there, the test result of her pregnancy. One of them will be in the Alpha’s hands tonight. She picks up the cold glass of freshly squeezed orange juice from the gold plated table of the restaurant's VIP section where she is sitting and as she sips, her eyes scan the space and she can see the eyes leering at her. In a VIP section with ten tables that can sit up to forty guests, she is the only one sitting there. Tatum either booked the whole place out for their surprise date night or the pack members who can afford it are just avoiding her as usual. Tatum has barely said two words to her since their argument about Kelvin, in fact, she barely sees him. He leaves the house very early in the morning and returns far into the night, heavily reeking of Carmela’s smell but Leila doesn’t dare to complain, she is qu
Leila looks away from his eyes. How dare she endear him when it brings pain to her heart knowing it only gives her a hope she shouldn’t have. Afterall, the names were only to amplify their act to everyone and now the gig is up.“Leila…that day when I married you, I meant every word, every promise,” Tatum says in a calm voice, his eyes carrying an emotion Leila can’t quite describe.He promised a lot that day. He promised to always be there for her, to help and to protect, even though...they are not mates.They aren't. Tatum knew that, and lied to the pack for her.She once thought it might be the result of somewhat a small but real affection in his heart for her, but now...she realises it's only because her life was saved by his Luna. She is just a symbol of Carmela in his eyes. Nothing more.None of them thought Carmela would come back. Only he did, only he kept searching for her.The signs are there since Carmela returned, she cannot allow herself to hope, he will break his promise f
“Good evening Alpha,” The three chorus, smiling from ear to ear when Tatum breaks the hug.“I didn’t hear you greet the Luna.” Tatum’s voice is cold and with a command, his eyes flashing red, a sign his wolf is also agitated.“Good evening Luna.”The three quickly bare their necks to Leila, feeling terrified by their Alpha’s dominating aura.“Evening ladies,” Leila replies passively, grabbing her glass of juice and looking mindlessly away, knowing Tatum’s full attention will be turned to Carmela. She may just as well pretend to be a ghost at the table.“Can we sit with you Alpha?” Tracy eagerly says, smiling down at Tatum.A deep growl from inside Tatum’s throat is the response she gets and Carmela quickly pulls her back, smiling at Tatum.“Forgive her Alpha, we’ll take another table,” she says, leading her group to the table behind Leila and Tatum.“The Alpha was going to allow us to sit with him, you shouldn’t have pulled us away,” Philomena says the moment they sit down, frowning
Tatum didn’t return for the rest of that night.Leila stares outside the car window as she makes her way to Tatum’s father’s house, seeing a bunch of kids engaged in a fierce water gun fight and she smiles as a distant memory comes to her mind of her and Tatum always being a team at this sport when they were younger.Sometimes, she wishes Carmela never got the phoenix mark because that is when everything changed, when Tatum’s attention shifted from her as a friend to Carmela as his future Luna, only for her to discover as puberty hit her that those fun moments as kids had sown a deep seed of affection for him in her little heart.She hardly sees Tatum now, he doesn’t even come home some nights and it hurts because she knows exactly where he is and why and tomorrow, Carmela will move in permanently with them so whatever they get up to will be right under her nose.Carmela’s panic attacks have gotten worse instead of better and the Alpha of the Blood Oak Pack is the only one that can cal
Cheers, jokes, smiles, laughter, everyone seems happy, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, enjoying this lunch but not Leila, she is just stabbing her food, occasionally giving comments when she has to and keeping that placid yet fake smile on her face.She used to be the centre of attention whenever she visited Alpha Darren, his questions and riddles to test people’s wit used to be directed at her but now, it’s like he doesn’t even see her, no one sees her, not him, not his wife, not even her own husband.“Saving Leila’s life came as an instinct to me. I always thought I was going to be Luna since I was ten and I thought of it as my duty to save the life of a subject,” Carmela replies to a question from Alpha Darren and the room goes silent, all eyes falling on Leila.Leila keeps her head down, avoiding the many eyes leering at her, knowing Carmela just put her on the spot.“But of course, Leila wasn’t just any subject, she was also my best friend. I’m glad she’s the one Tatum
Outside the hall, one of Kelvin’s men holds the door to the back of the car open for Leila to enter when Kelvin shakes his head. “I’m riding with her in mine,” he says in a cold tone, glancing at Leila, “the rest of you, take the other cars.”The man shuts the door and nods. Leila’s heart races as she locks eyes with Kelvin. Perhaps the Kelvin she knows is still in there and he couldn’t just be himself around her in front of Antonio’s other men which is why he wants her to ride alone with him.Kelvin walks over to his car with Leila in tow and then he walks back to his men, giving them further instructions before he walks back to Leila. He stands close to her at the passenger side of the car and scoffs before he walks over to the driver’s side.“What are you waiting for to get in? Gone are the days when I always opened the car door for you, Luna,” Kelvin says in a sarcastic and cold tone, getting into the car.Leila bites her lower lip, feeling like a boatload of stingers were just d
Leila shoots to her feet, her teary eyes locking with Kelvin’s in the distance. He is looking directly at her but there is no warmth in his eyes and his gaze isn’t cold either, it just ... .is— void, without any emotion.“Uncle Kev!” A teenager in the crowd yells and runs towards Kelvin with her arms wide open to hug him but the royal guards with him block the girl off and Kelvin doesn’t even look at her, he just keeps sauntering forward, his unreadable but eerie gaze focused on Leila.A sore feeling wraps around Leila’s heart and she remembers what Tatiana said Antonio had done to Kelvin, that he was different. The girl his men just shoved aside that he showed no concern for is one of his young nieces in the pack.How far gone is he?“It’s quite a scene you’ve made here,” Kelvin says in a sarcastic yet cold tone, staring from Trent’s headless body to his bodiless head, a cold smirk forming on his lips.Leila’s heart thuds slowly as she climbs down from the podium to meet him. The ha
“Luna, please don’t do this, we were only following the orders of our Alpha. Surely you cannot punish us for doing our duty,” One of Trent’s men who had been apprehended alongside him wails as the warriors drag them to the front of the crowd.It is the d-day for Trent’s execution but before him, a few of his most loyal men who perpetrated crimes against the pack in his name have also been brought before the pack to dance to the tone of their music.Leila frowns at the man who spoke, sitting atop of the podium, on the central seat reserved for the Alpha. She raises her hands up and the crowd goes silent. She stands up and walks over to where the accused are sitting on the floor, her cold eyes fixated on the one pleading for mercy.“Luna, Luna, Please, have some leniency,” he pleads again, trying to grab a hold of her feet but she moves away from his hold and the guards immediately restrain him.“You plead for mercy, claiming you were only doing the deeds of your Alpha. He may have forc
Trent scoffs, “I am not afraid of death. We all will die someday and from how I see it, things worked out quite well for Carmela in the end because of my actions. She is the queen of the kingdom. That is power that you can never taste and there’s nothing you can do to bring her down from there,” he chuckles sinisterly. “You’re so pathetic and deluded you don’t even see that she is living in a bubble that can burst at any moment. She has a noose hanging around her neck, ready to be yanked up at any moment and with such a lie hanging over her head, I’m sure she can’t even sleep peacefully at night, why would I want to stop my enemy from an eternal life of fear and suffering,” Leila scoffs nonchalantly, “by all means, she should continue living her life of misery in the palace.” “Bullshit! Like you didn’t want the king for yourself at some point. Admit it Leila, you’re jealous that she is living a life of luxury far beyond your reach.” Trent’s words hit a spot and Leila frowns. She is
“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