“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
Leila sees Tatum leaning against his car as she approaches their house, he is wearing a pair of grey jean shorts and a white short sleeve shirt, his daredevil handsome face radiating in the evening sun as he puffs on his cigarette.Her driver rolls down in front of Tatum and he throws his cigar to the floor, crushing it under his white leather sandals and he opens the door for Leila.“Welcome back, Luna detective Leila,” Tatum says in a coy, polite manner, bowing slightly to Leila as she steps out of the car.Leila jerks her head back, squinting at him in surprise and it takes all her willpower not to chuckle at being called a detective.“An Alpha shouldn’t bow to his subjects,” She rolls her eyes and walks straight for the door, not sparing him another glance but a feeling of warmth spreads through her as she does enjoy being waited upon by him.“Well that’s too bad because this Alpha is subject to you,” Tatum replies in a coquettish tone and shuts the car door. He rushes up to her,
“Tatum, where is this?” Leila asks when Tatum takes off her blindfold and her vision is welcomed by a dimly lit cave with candle lamps hanging from the walls, a small red clothed table with two glasses and a bottle of wine on top of it, as well as an array of covered dishes. Red rose petals cover every expanse of the floor, including where she is standing and she turns to look at Tatum, confusion and curiosity clear in her eyes. She guessed right, this is a date but why a cave of all places? “What do you think of our crime scene detective?” Tatum asks with a small smile, watching her reaction as she takes in the scenery. “Well it’s quite aesthetic I should say, our culprit put in a lot of thought. Favourite flowers, nice ambience, favourite wine, I’m sure I can smell the sweet savoury dishes covered as well, perfect to lure our victim to–” she pauses, “what happened to the victim?” “That’s why I brought you here detective, to figure out what happened but I’ll tell you the story
“Right from the very day we drew this, up until this very moment, my love for you has never waned. I love you, Leila.”Tears peel out of Leila’s eyes and she just stares at Tatum, stunned by the words that just came out of his lips. Whether her heart stopped beating or cannot stop beating is a matter of irrelevance to her.She has dreamt of this day, fantasised an unholy amount of times about it, lived it in her head for so long but never did she believe the day would come.Her heart explodes with so much joy, it can only be expressed in shock and the tears coming out of her eyes. She opens her mouth to reply but her lips just quiver and she cannot find the words.Tatum kneels and holds her arms, gently pulling it against his pounding heart, his grey eyes completely sullen yet full of passion as they reflect the warm light hanging above them.“I should never have married you. I should never have made you lie that we were second chance mates but I saw a chance to keep you by my side an
“You insolent little twat! Do you have any idea of the sacrifices that were made to put you in this position?” Trent, Carmela’s father, barks at her. “I thought you said Tatum loves you, that it will be enough for you to take his side as Luna.”Carmela keeps her eyes on the floor, her body vibrating with a soft tremor as she kneels, taking in the bearting words of her father.Trent leans forward from his chair and places the burning edge of his cigar on her shoulder but Carmela does not dare to move despite the searing of her skin as her cloth melts against it, she does not want to incur his wrath past a verbal extent.“Forgive me sir, I can still fix this,” Carmela replies in a monotonous tone. Her father does not care about emotions, only about results and as far as he is concerned, Carmela is failing him.“Do not be deceived by this tattoo on your neck,” Trent replies, yanking her dress from the shoulder down to reveal the mark of the phoenix on the joint of her neck and shoulder.
After that night at the secret cave, Tatum has been nothing but sweet to Leila. Not a day has passed since then that she has not received some sort of gift from him. She goes to bed with foot rubs and back massages and this morning, she woke up to breakfast in bed, prepared by him but she suspects Adaline must have been there to coach him because the food was really delicious. Right now, she is heading to meet Clayton. He called her and said that he may have some news about Bobby Lister, Carmela’s hit man. Surprisingly, Clayton has been open about the whole process and isn’t hiding anything from her as she first suspected he would. The usual scowl on his face when he sees her is gradually becoming a full smile and he even took her out to lunch on one occasion, called it partner bonding as they are now partners working on a case together. Leila opens the door to his office, somewhere she now enters without permission and the first person she sees is Carmela. Leila immediately feel
Leila watches as Clayton’s eyes glow repeatedly as they wade through the sea of green trees, making their way to one of Bobby's hideouts, a wood in the cabins.They had gotten an anonymous tip from a man about the place who happened to have escaped from Bobby’s kidnapping attempt during the course of the investigation.“Who was that?” Leila asks Clayton when his eyes stop glowing.“None of your business,” Clayton sneers at her in a playful manner. Leila punches his arm and grabs his sleeve. “Hey! We agreed no secrets between us right? I know you were talking about the case, you had that distant warrior look in your eyes.”Clayton smiles at her. “Good instinct, we may yet make a full fledged warrior out of you. I was talking about a case, just not this one.”He was talking about their particular investigation, he was mindlinking Tatum on the progress of things. He is under orders from his Alpha to update him every thirty minutes whenever he is with Leila.He also got a severe warning
“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