Leila sniffs back her tears and wipes the few drops that escape as she blinks with the back of her hand before she shuts the door slowly and drags her heavy feet towards Adaline.“Come, sit beside me,” Adaline pats the space beside her on the bed.Leila sits, watching Adaline’s soulful expression closely, her heart thuds gently and Leila surprisingly feels calm when Adaline rests her hands on her thigh to stop Leila from shaking her legs.“Tell me the truth Leila, do you love Tatum?”Leila freezes, not expecting that line of questioning from Adaline but the woman asks in such a calm and gentle tone, bereft of any hostility and even if Leila thinks it is the wrong decision, she replies.“Yes, I’ve always loved him.”Adaline smiles broadly, heightening Leila’s confusion. “I know, it is quite obvious. Now tell me, what do you think of me, an evil mother in law? A vindictive bitch?”Leila looks away from Adaline’s peering eyes. If they are having a heart to heart, it is better to tell he
“As you can imagine, I hated Darren, with every breath that I took, with every cell inside of me. I couldn’t stand him but I quickly discovered that the mate bond isn’t something you can fight, the goddess made us for each other for a reason. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t resist him and he tried to win my heart, not relying on the mate bond alone but the irony is, the mate bond is still the reason he thought to do so.“I watched Darren turn from a ruthless, vicious and desperate leader to the most kind, sweet and loving Alpha, the version you all see today and it is all because I was put in his life to temper his anger, to guide his rage and to nurture his ego. That is what the mate bond does, it searches for the deepest, most innate good in our mates and helps us bring it out and I want my son to experience the same.“Leila, if you love Tatum, if you really love him, you will let him go,” Adaline concludes and as she stands up, she runs her hand down Leila’s hair twice, givi
“I thought we were past this,” Amanda says in a clearly irritated tone, scowling at the way Carmela has her arm wrapped around Tatum’s elbow and the two are beaming with smiles.An important part of the werewolf games is the charity donation day. An initiative that was developed to help the less priviledged and needy of the various packs. Every pack and their Alpha were to pick another pack and donate to that pack’s less priviledged and needy.While Leila is busy handing out supplies and supervising the affairs of things, carrying out her duty as Luna, Carmela is perched at Tatum’s side and he lets her.Leila smiles bitterly at them before she replies to Amanda. “They share a bond my love cannot compete with, I cannot stop Tatum from being with her.”“Don’t give me that crap,” Amanda sneers at Leila. “Even if Tatum’s hands are tied because of some prophecy or bond or whatever, you of all people know Carmela is an evil psychotic bitch who should not be allowed anywhere near the Alpha.”
“What are you doing here Carmela?” Leila asks in a firm tone, her anger palpable in her voice.Her and a few other Lunas from the council scheduled a meeting right after the charity donation ended.The reason for the meeting is to discuss the banquet preparations at the end of the whole event. There are six Lunas currently present, including Leila and a seventh impostor, her one time best friend and her now arch enemy, Carmela.Her presence doesn’t sit well with Leila and this time Leila doesn’t hide it or hold back.“Carmela is here as a special advisor to me,” Margaux, the head of the Luna council answers with a condescending sneer on her face. “Anyone who has a problem with it can leave.”“Have you gone nuts Margaux?” Leila fires at her coldly. “Where did you think this is, your pack? If she is your advisor, then fine, she can advise you after the meeting, not during. She- needs to leave.”The other Lunas look at Leila with palpable shock. She rarely talks back to anyone in the pas
Some of the Lunas scream, others growl, ready to shift when the assassin suddenly blows a powdery substance into the air and they choke on it, clutching their throats and yelling in pain, unable to morph into wolf form.Leila’s fear triples as she is the only one not affected by whatever he blows in the air, whatever it is, it seems to be affecting their wolves.She turns her gaze to Carmela and Carmela is sitting on the floor unaffected, a coy sinister smile on her lips.She flicks her brows at Leila and slides her index finger across her throat and Leila’s attention immediately returns to the man who is only a breadth away from her.She quickly grabs a bottle of wine on the table in fear and desperation to defend herself but to her utmost surprise, the assassin walks past her, giving her a cold stare that keeps her frozen to a spot and he grabs Margaux and slams her on the table.Margaux lets out an agonising and painful scream. “Please…what did I do to you,” she mutters in pain.T
“For the last time, I have no idea how it got into his hands, I left it right here this morning,” Leila taps on her dresser, glaring at Tatum.He just let Carmela go, no investigation, no nothing. Despite how much she tried to make him see the truth, he refused to listen to her and demanded they return home while his warriors took care of everything.Does he believe she really would hire an assassin? “I believe you Leila,” Tatum replies, sitting on the bed and massaging his temples, the wrinkles of stress shaping the lines of his forehead.“But you don’t believe Carmela did it right?” Leila places her hands akimbo, a bitter smile on her lips followed by a soft scoff of disbelief as she stares down at her husband.“No Leila, I don’t,” Tatum replies coldly. “I know you don’t like Carmela but you can’t just accuse her of something as evil as this. You are the Luna, your words carry weight, you can’t just condemn people you don’t like.”Tatum’s cold words breeze pain all over Leila’s he
“Tatum I–”Tatum shakes his head.“I don’t care why you do it, I really do not want to know.”He cares, he cares all too much, he cares and it hurts beyonds words to see the only woman he has ever loved, his wife, his Luna, sneak out behind him and remain in touch with the one man he has repeatedly told her he doesn’t want her to have anything with.She even forced him to go and save that man’s life. A searing pain burns Tatum’s heart and he smiles bitterly at Leila but he doesn’t say anything and they both just stare at each other.Eyes holding mixed and powerful emotions.Ironically, the other man in his marriage happens to be his wife’s fated mate and he is out there, right now, brewing the cure for her, so he can have legal grounds to take Leila away from him and there is nothing that he can do but fold his hand and watch.The pain he feels is nothing an entire library of encyclopaedias can explain, all the words in all the languages of the world can barely scratch the scratch of
“The Luna is here,” One of Clayton’s men says to him, bowing slightly.“Let her in,” Clayton grunts as a deep frown etches on his face.Tatum has already mindlinked him of Leila’s intention to join him in the investigations. Left to him, he would rather not do it with her but it is her right as Luna and a direct order from his Alpha, he cannot disobey it.“Whatever plans you have to sabotage the process of this investigation will not work. You should know that,” Clayton says coldly to Leila the moment she steps into his office.“I assure you head warrior, I have no plans to sabotage anything, I myself want nothing but the truth to be revealed,” Leila replies in a soft tone and gives Clayton her signature polite smile before she takes her seat.Tatum observes her calculatingly as she sits down, her aura is calm yet reeks of authority. She looks nothing like the woman who came to his office a few weeks ago.There is something very different about her demeanour that puts him off but he k
“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
“Leila! I can’t find the vegetables, are you sure we got everything down from the car?” Liana says from inside the pantry as she puts stuff they bought from the market away. “I’ll check,” Leila replies, ruffling Amara’s hair. “Nice Drawing baby,” she smiles at the drawing of a face that is half completed which makes it hard for her to know exactly who the child is drawing. With Antonio no longer in the pack, Selina has returned back to her coven with the promise to come back periodically for Amara’s training and with the uncertainty of unforeseen events, they also decided it was best to suspend the active training for now. It’s almost been a full month since Tatiana went missing and no one has heard a word from her. Tatum even risked a bold step, sending word to Antonio of her disappearance before he found out and has an excuse to do something sinister but he never got any response, as if Antonio is completely done with them and the pack for good. Sometimes it feels like a relief t