LUCA
"I'm so-orry," Jonah choked out the words. The poor guy had obviously never said those words before in his life but I didn't give a fuck.
Stabbing him with silver did nothing to relieve the anger and tension in my body. It didn't make me feel in the slightest bit better about anything which had happened. And it didn't make me hate him any less than I already did.
The guy had single handedly ruined my life and didn't even bother to stop. All he needed to do was stop and think, he would have been able to see that Charlotte was totally fucking mental and it was a terrible idea to follow through with any of her ideas. He should have known this is where it was always going to end.
He is the reason I feel so god damn empty. He is the reason my wolf is both mourning and pissed. He is the reason my heart has shattered into a million different pieces and I don't know
BLAKE When I walked out of that cell I wanted nothing more than to go back and rip that bitch's throat out but I knew that wouldn't achieve anything. If anything, it would make Ellie hate me and I'm already not in her good books, she blames me for what happened to the twins. She shouted at me and told me that I shouldn't have offered to go to the cells with her and I should have gone back to the twins when I left the hospital and then they would still be with us now. I knew she didn't really blame me and she was only saying what she was because she was hurting. She was their mother and it was her job to keep them safe but she couldn't do that and, just as she blames me for not being there, she also blames herself for not being able to be there to protect them. It hurts knowing how much she hates herself and knowing there is nothing which can be done to help her. I am her mate and I am at a total loss as to
ELLIE The moment I heard their cries, I ran out of the house and was greeted with Jayson and Luca holding one twin each, I didn't stop running until I reached the both of them. Luca handed me Maxwell. I checked him over to make sure that sick bastard hadn't touched my son and, upon finding nothing, I held him close and cried a little as he gurgled and giggled happily in my ear. "I am never letting you out of my sight again," I whispered to my son and kissed him on the side of his head before handing him back to Luca so that I could check Nicole. She was crying in Jayson's arm and she continued to cry as I took her from him - she should have realised that I was her mother and that I wasn't going to hurt her but she was fighting against being in my arms. I noticed the scratch on her cheek and the other one which covered her arm. There was a mark where a needle had
ELLIE I don't know how long I had been here for now. Time seemed infinite when there were no windows to know whether it was day or night and there was no clock for you to be able to tell what the time was. All I could do was embrace the silence and allow my thoughts to consume me. I wondered what Blake what be doing now. I wondered whether he would be looking after the twins or whether he would be pulling his hair out frantically trying to work out where Bradley had taken me or whether he had turned into a recluse who didn't wish to speak to or see anyone. I had heard stories of what happens when you lose your mate. You lose your other half and it feels like your heart has been torn out of your chest. You don't see the point in living because there is nothing for you to live for. To put it simply, when you lose your mate, you want to die and you will do anything to get that wish.
JAYSON "Blake. The twins need you," I sighed for the thousandth time. Ellie had been gone for nine days now and Blake had done nothing besides look hopelessly out of the window. Luca was in charge of the pack running and, being honest, he was doing a damn good job given that he doesn't have any Alpha blood in his system. Jackson had been discharged from the hospital four days ago and was milling about the house as he tried to think of ways to get Ellie back from wherever the hell it was she had been taken to. And I was on babysitting duty since Luca was busy with the pack and Blake was falling apart without his mate for support. I didn't really mind spending time with the kids. I was quickly falling in love with all four of them and I loved spending time with them. Especially Luca's boys - Daniel always wanted to do something new each time he saw me and Michael had stopped hiding behind his book when he was around me and had actu
"Why are you doing this?" I turned my attention back to my mother and growled at her. "Why? Oh son you truly are naïve," my mother rolled her head back in laughter and I was about to answer when I felt Blake's teeth sink into my other shoulder. I could feel the blood rolling down my back and I am almost certain that I heard the sound of my shoulder cracking as he pulled me backwards. His arm was across my throat and my back was against the wall before I could really register what was happening. Mixed with the amount of blood I was losing from both my shoulders and the fact Blake was cutting of the air supply to my body, I could feel that I was close to passing out and then I didn't know what he was going to do to my mother. "Are you a part of this? Is this the reason you came back?" Blake growled. When I refused to give him an answer he applied more pressure to my neck and I could feel my life slowly slipping away as I fought to stay away. "Fucking answer me.
ELLIE I swallowed as he told me her name. The name of the person who had been forcing him to make me suffer and I was in shock. I never thought the person who had once saved me would be the one now making me suffer. I wish I knew what I had to make her hate me so much and then I could work to fix it. But she didn't bother talking to me, she simply went after the people who mean the most to me before going after me personally. I had been trying to contact Blake since I got here but I had been unsuccessful in all attempts but I didn't think there was any harm in trying again. I just wanted him to know what I was alive and I also wanted him to know who was really behind what was happening - it was probably stupid telling him but I knew he would go crazier if I didn't tell him that I was alive. Blake? I called out and hoped that he would answer me. I just wanted to hear his voice again. I wanted to know that he was coping and
JACKSON I don't even know why the hell I thought trying to calm Blake down was a good idea but it needed to be done. He needed to stop before he did some serious damage - and I'm not talking about simply throwing a sofa through the window or putting his fist into a wall. I put my hands on his shoulders and I could feel him physically shaking as he eyed Nicole up and down. Jayson seemed to have done enough damage for now if the smell of blood was anything to go by. "Blake," I pushed him backwards as he made another attempt at Nicole and Jayson. I may not have trusted Jayson but he was still my friend and I knew he would never let anything happen to Ellie. He was the one who saved her and allowed me to speak with her. He was the one who lost his temper with her when she admitted that she didn't want Blake because he didn't like the idea of his best friend hurting. He was the one who came back here and asked for Ellie's help
ELLIE "-But I don't really remember all that much about my mother. She wasn't my father's real mate and he banished her from the pack once she had done her job of raising me," Bradley sighed. He had successfully managed to get out us out of the cellar I was being held in and had spent the last forty-five minutes telling me about his family. He had tried to assure me that his father and sister hadn't always been ruthless and he remembers a time when they both actually loved him. I knew he was kidding himself and that he wanted to remember that side for his own benefit but I wasn't going to tell him that, instead settling for smiling and nodding whenever he spoke. "What about you? Do you remember anything about your family?" Bradley asked curiously. "Not really. I didn't even know I had a twin until she turned up but my brother does make an appearance in my dreams every so often," I smiled as I remembered the
MAXWELL I didn't even realize the room had fallen silent, until I looked across at the stage to see my mother was now standing up there with Uncle Luca one side of her and Jackson the other. Michael was at the back with Shantel standing in front on him, his arms wrapped around her waist, with Aurora on his left and his twin sisters, Kailyn and Trinity who were fourteen and looked exactly like their mother to the point that it would have been difficult to tell who the twins were and who Aurora was if she had aged at the same rate as a werewolf, standing on his left — it's a shame that Daniel wasn't here. I did actually miss him and hope that he would make an appearance, but I guess he was either happy with his mate or he was still searching for her. Uncle Link was off to the side of the stage with his arm wrapped around Aunt Jamie, who actually was in her thirties but still had the face of a teenager, while Uncle Link must have been in his late fifties by now but looked just as good
MAXWELL "Ah, Maxwell, my man, you ready for what's about to happen?" Michael grinned as he threw his arm around my shoulder. I am pretty sure he was more excited about tonight then I was, then again, he was about to become Beta in place of my mum's best friend, so I guess he had good reason to be in the mood that he was. "Don't call me my man, I've told you about that before," I chuckled. Despite there being an eight year age gap between Michael and myself, I actually got on better with him than I did with Daniel, because of the amount of time he had spent looking after me when I was younger; I became quite attached to him when I was six and he started looking after us every Saturday night so my parents could have some time alone. Nicole was close to Abby, but that wasn't surprising given that they were practically the same age, but it got to the point where the two of them were inseparable. You would never find one without the o
"This is Blake, my mate, and these are Maxwell and Nicole. I guess I should formally welcome you to Darkness." I pointed between Blake and the twins in turn, still watching her face in an effort to gage her reaction, but there was nothing and I didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing; I would like to think that it's a good thing and that she knows she's got nothing to worry about. I wasn't going to be a problem for her, not when I had Blake, and I didn't think that she was going to be a problem for me either, not when she had Luca and was going to have fun with three kids by the looks of things. "Hi. I'm Daniel and I like Lego. I am daddy's favourite and he loves me more than he loves Michael, that's Michael by the way, and I'm going to be four next month. Daddy told me that I'm going to be a big boy and-" "Daniel. Calm down." Luca chuckled as he picked his son up and held him on his hip. Daniel wrapped his arms around his father's neck, kissing him on the cheek, wh
ELLIE "How do you think they're going to turn out?" I rocked Maxwell in my arms, Blake had a sleeping Nicole in his own and the boys were having a competition to see who could colour without going outside of the lines; it had been a rather peaceful afternoon and I think that had something to do with the fact Luca wasn't around. As much as I loved him, he was bringing the whole mood down with his constant snapping and unnecessary arguments with either myself or one of the boys, and I knew that's because he was such a stubborn pig who didn't want to get what was rightfully his; he wanted to do the right thing and let her go. But, what was the right thing for her, wasn't the right thing for him and it was beginning to show. I didn't mean to interfere, and I sure as hell didn't expect him to shout at me, but someone needed to point the idiot in the right direction otherwise he never would have done anything about his mate. He would h
LUCA I didn't even need to think about where I was going because my feet seemed to take me there on their own, they knew where we were going and they wanted to get their quicker than I was anticipating; it was almost like they were more excited than I was to get what belonged to us. My wolf hadn't stopped dancing around my head and he continued to let out both howls and yips of happiness in the back of my head. It always made things so much easier knowing that you had the support of your wolf, not that I ever doubted his reappearance once we got to finally meet our mate properly, but he had been unnervingly quiet since I decided that I wasn't going to go after the girl who was made for me.I wasn't even going to lie, I was still shocked that I had been given a second chance, I was even more shocked that it had happened as quickly as this; it had barely been a week since I rejected Charlotte and I was already being given another ch
LUCA "So, let me get this straight, you want to break my mate up with her boyfriend by pretending that you've been sleeping with him?" I asked Ellie. I know that she was only trying to help me but I didn't want her to ruin someone else's relationship just for the sake of my own happiness. She was my best friend and I know that she just wanted the best for me but I refused to let her do something she would live to regret in the end, especially when she came to live in the pack with me and Ellie had to face her every single day knowing what she had done. "You got it," Ellie grinned proudly. "Yeah. That's not going to happen," I told her without breaking eye contact and I noticed Blake nodding in agreement with me from the corner of my eye. I knew that he wasn't happy with the plan from the expression which he had been wearing and the look of murder which was in his eye as she spoke about anothe
I was luckier than same people. I may have lost both sets of my parents but I had a mate who loved me unconditionally and would do absolutely anything for me even if he was a jealous pig at times and overreacted whenever someone got a little too close to me. I had a brother who had always been my rock and had helped me through more things as a child than anyone had done. And I had three others who were practically like brothers anyway, I loved them like they were and I didn't want to lose any of them again because of something as stupid as me not wanting to ask for help. I had my children. I finally understood what it was to love something so much that you would kill anyone who dared to hurt them and I really understood what a mother's love was, I understand how a child could become the centre of someone's universe and how everyone could seem insignificant in comparison to your own child. I would die before I let anyone touch the twins again and I would fight
ELLIE I watched out the corner of my eye as Luca left the room. I don't know why Jamie opened her mouth and thought it was acceptable to comment on his skills as a father but she was in the wrong and she didn't have the right to make a comment. Luca did his best for those boys. He tried to put them before himself and, when Charlotte didn't want anything to do with either of them, he was there to make sure they had the love and the care they deserved. He wasn't the perfect father, I don't think there was a thing such as the perfect father, but he wasn't terrible and he didn't deserve the comments which Jamie made. She didn't know what he had been through. She didn't know the fights he had to endure just to make sure those boys never felt like they weren't wanted. She didn't even understand the pain he was in after finding out that they weren't really his children because his mate got he
LUCA I turned to see Michael staring at me with something in his eyes. He wasn't an idiot so he knew there was more to the story than he was being told, I knew I would have to tell him the truth at some point but it could wait a little longer before I did that. I would have to do it with a clear head and when I could explain it to Michael properly. "Are you sure you're alright dad?" Michael asked. "I'll be fine. And I'm sorry if you think I'm dumping you on people all the time. I don't mean to, I just, I don't know how to deal with all of this," I sighed as I ran my hands through my hair. "You're trying your best and I know that. You've always done the best for both me and Daniel, even when mum gave up with the both of us, you were still there and you have always been there. I love you dad and, when I am older, I want to be the same sort of man you are because you're nothing but selfless," Michael shocked me by wrapping h