Simon's eyes are shocked to the fullest. “Whoa! Rowman! Inc-c-credible!”“I know, right?” Rowan scratches his head with a nervous giggle.“Your missy…” Simon squinted his eyes at me. “May I know your name?”“I'm Naya. Naya Yorke.” I utter body.Elsie, you'll have to pay for this.“Beautiful name! Beautiful face!” Simon showers me with praises.I'm flabbergasted. But the idea of continuing this drama once Elsie gives up control makes me cringe.“Thank you, sir,” I purr.“So, what about the—” Simon is about to ask when Rowan interrupts with a yawn.“Oh, I forgot. The belly must be satisfied before our curious minds,” Simon says. “Come on in. I've prepared assorted dishes, all for you to choose whichever you like from the menu.”“We can have the rest of the conversation while you eat,” he adds.Rowan's brows twist at the idea. “No talking for now Simon. We can save the rest for next time… a better time… maybe when you’re not busy with work.”“You know I'm always busy, right?” He asks.“I
Everything I held back from asking Rowan is caught in my throat as I walk into my office after he had dropped me at the entrance.Almost everyone seems to be full of zest today, their chatters muffling the tacking sound of the machines.I drop my bag on my table and begin to browse my gallery on my desktops. There's a party dress design I should have started two days ago for a client. It will only take me two days to wrap it up. And I still have a week to submit it, but I want to start working on it already.“Aren't you interested in knowing why everyone is a goofball this morning?” Madison asks, flinging her red hair as she walked into my office.She's one of the few designers with a strikingly good sense of fashion. I adore her works but, just like everyone, she calls me the best.“Maddie, my hands are really tied up this morning.”“I noticed,” she chopped in with a wink, “and that's why I came to let you in on the big news.”I lift my eyes from my monitor screen. “What is that?”“Th
Liam's POV Nathan is seated opposite me in my living room. There's a chessboard on the glass table between us and two bottles of beer.He flashes a grin with his open teeth. “Are you going to fold your arms and calculate till eternity? Play already, man.”I press my lips tight. It's frustrating when you're playing a game with an unserious person and still getting whooped. We've played seven rounds already and he has six wins out of them. It feels like I'm just wasting my time, all to get myself annoyed and frustrated. It wasn't always this difficult playing against him. Now, it feels like he's leagues above me in a game I'm sure I introduced him to.But I'm not going to give up, yet. I can still prove that I'm a match for him. We've been playing this game together since I knew him. When did he get this good?I push my bishop two steps forward. I've seen a move that will get me his queen if I play it right.Even though it's shameful that I had to take time and calculate while he cas
Naya's POV It's 5pm and I'm rounding up at the office. Everyone has gone home except the cleaners, the security guards, and Maddie who's waiting for me.The sky is gloomy with dark clouds and raindrops bantering on the office roof.“I feel really bad that you had to quarrel with your best friend today because of me,” Maddie says as she stamds by door.My face doesn't leave the document I'm typing on the computer. “She was being a bitch, Maddie,” I utter brusquely. Maddie is quiet. I heave a sigh and take a break from the computer to look up at her.My shoulders drop when I see a guilty expression on her face.“Hey, look. You have nothing to apologize about. I always put up with her sassy behaviour, but sometimes it's just too much to bear.”“Yeah, but… I can't imagine myself at odds with my BEST friend,” she says.I flash a tight-lipped smile. “We'll figure it out. We always do.”She nods calmly.We leave when I finish with the document. There's a cafeteria by the corner and we rus
Liam's POV I have told Sophie not to visit my house anymore. We can't be too carefree. The last thing I want to imagine is that Naya is the person who broke into my house and took the clothes out in the mud.I've made investigations and found that she was at her family house during the rain, and she had spent the night there because she forgot her key at the office.Given that, then the criminal must be someone else. I have to be extremely careful.The car in front of me finally moves and I heave off a sigh. Traffic jams have never been a characteristic of Sacramento, but lately it has been the most constant topic on the news.I get a call from the boss and I put my phone in my ear and listen after greeting him.“Good news, Liam,” he says and my heart elates.“You see, the blood of the moon goddess’ golden daughter has proven to be a very powerful substance,” he adds. “The physician has been able to make drugs out of it that can be used to maintain my daughter's health.”“Wow! That's
Naya's POVThe aromas of a hot breakfast covers the dining table as Tricia and I come to join Reilly. Her wonderful cooking skills are what she inherited from our late mum.As the elder one, I was a bit too attached with my dad that I barely made time to enter the kitchen. I always told him that he didn't need a son to replace him as I'd train and become strong enough to be the next Alpha.Tricia's is Reilly’s roommate, but their bond has grown beyond that since two years now. They're the best buddies even though Tricia is from a different pack.My phone vibrates on the table and I snatch it, apologizing hastily for the disturbance.There's a message on my phone and I open it to see, “Your application for the Krishna Fashion Design Contest has been approved!”I let out a scream immediately and cup my lips when I realize that I just snapped.Reilly's fingers slip off her spoon. Her eyes are wide with curiosity. “What is it, Naya?”Before I can say a word, she sneaks up behind me and pee
Liam's POV I watch the clock as the long hand finally meets twelve while the short one rests still on eight. I bought drumsticks and coke for dinner.That's my go-to meal whenever I'm indecisive about what to eat.I settle on my dining table and close my eyes.“Thank you for the food,” I mutter in prayer to the moon goddess.Finally taking a break from the hunt for Naya's blood is a big relief. I want the bigger one, though.I take a crunchy bite off one of the drumsticks. Yummy as ever. I might get another bucket when driving past that junk shop tomorrow. There's a soft knock on the door and my mouth stops moving. I swallow a half-chewed load of chicken. “Who is it by this time of the night?” I grumble, dragging my feet lazily to the door.I'm not in the mood to receive guests. I'm the guest of myself tonight, so everyone else should fuck off.I pull the door open and my eyes settle on Sophie's figure. She’s standing under the florescent light of my front door, her two hands holdin
Naya's POVI don't know what led me into telling Rowan about the anonymous group, but I guess it wasn't a mistake. I'm smiling at the text message he sent me.“I knew he'd approve of it,” Elsie says to me. “What a special human he is.”“I know, right. I heard things like this do happen during these competitions,” I say. “If the group is looking to invest in me, then they've found the right place.”I flag a taxi down and settle into the soft cushion of the back seat as he drives me to the office. I'm early today, much more than other days.There's only a few people in the general compartment as I walk through, and none of them is yet to start working on their designs.I unlock the door. Sophie isn't here yet.Well, it will give me more room to focus on doing what is important to me.I have to respond to the anonymous group.It takes roughly quarter an hour crafting a good response. And by the time I'm done, I send it to Reilly to read and make any suggestions. She's a really smart girl
ROWAN Jessica handed the phone over to me with shaking hands. "I....I called him. He told me that he's going to be here soon. Are you happy now?" Jessica asked me. I nodded my head. "Yes. I am very happy. You know ...you really didn't need to do all of this. You should have just left Naya alone!" I told Jessica. "You....you have no idea how much I love you! Despite how many times you trample on the feelings that I have for you, I refuse to care about it. I just want to be with you. And yet you treat me like this! You even dared to kidnap me! Let me just make it clear to you, Rowan. You are never going to get Naya back. You are going to find out that you're making a big mistake. The King will never let you take the only person who can save the life of his daughter!" Jessica told me.I rolled my eyes at her. "Do you really think that I care about whoever you are working for? It's none of my busines, and it would have been great as long as you had left my wife out of it. You only h
NAYA I lay on the bed weakly as I watched my blood being made into an antidote for the so called princess. She had looked weak when she first walked in, but now that she had taken the antidote, she looked a whole lot better. The princess smiled at Liam. "Thank you so much for saving my life, Liam. I really don't know what I would have done without you. If it wasn't for your efforts all of these years, I am sure that I would have died a long time ago. I am really really happy that I have you in my life!" She said.I wanted to throw up when I heard this. I had never felt this disgusted in my life before. Liam had a sweet smile on his face, and he looked like he was happy to be doing this. I was shaking in anger as I watched him. How dare this person?! He was using my blood to appease someone else! I noticed that Liam had never looked at me the way that he was looking at the princess. He had never been nice to me. I was sure that he did not treat even Sophie in this way. Was this
ROWAN"Are you sure that she is in here?" I turned to ask Sophie. We were standing in front of a house that was in the middle of nowhere. It was an old neighborhood and I was sure that they were less than ten people who lived here. The people who lived here were also probably extremely old and so even if anything had been going on, I was sure that they won't have been able to notice. Sophie nodded her head"Yes. Do you think that I am lying? I did what you asked me to do. I followed him and this was where he came to," Sophie said. I glanced at Henry and he walked with me into the house. I was about to walk in when Sophie grabbed my arm. "Hey where do you think you are going? We aren't done talking here. You said that you are going to pay me a hundred thousand dollars as long as I got the information on where she lived for you. I did that. When are you paying me?" Sophie asked me. "We haven't found Naya yet. As soon as we find her, I am going to give you your money!" I told her f
NAYA The door was pushed open and my eyes flew open immediately. "Who is there? Jessica? You are back? Let me out of here. Let me go as soon as possible. You are not going to get away with doing this. You are going to regret ever don't this to me. Let me go if you know what's good for you!" I snapped at her. When she didn't reply me, I continued. "Rowan is going to find you, and he is going to make sure that you pay for doing this to me. Don't think that you can get away with this. Even if you keep me here for the rest of my life or even kill me, he's never going to look at you. He doesn't love you. Why is it so hard for you to understand that? I am the one that he loves! Only me!" I stated. "Oh really? You are the only one that Rowan loves? Are you sure about that? Are you really so confident about his feelings for you?" I heard a familiar voice ask me just then. I would recognize that voice even if I was dead. The voice that had haunted me in both lifetimes..Liam! Liam was he
LIAM"What? You went out to meet with him? Are you stupid?!" I yelled at Jessica over the phone. "Well, Rowan called me and he told me that he wanted to see me. He even booked a table at a restaurant. I thought that he had come back to his senses and he had seen that I was the better choice for him. But when I got there, all he did was talk about Naya. I think he knows that I am the one who kidnapped her, but he doesn't have any proof at all. He even knows that I met with yon. What am I going to do?" Jessica asked me. She sounded like she was panicking. .I just rolled my eyes. I had no idea why I was surrounded by all of these dumb women. I thought that Sophie was the worst that I would have to deal with and that since Jessica worked for the King, she would be smart at least. But once it involved the man that she was interested in, she had no brains. She was just so fucking stupid! "Do you really think that he'd come running back to your arms a day after Naya went missing? You
ROWAN "Are you sure that Jessica is working for the Alpha? If she's the one working for him then...it means that she's the one who has been spying on us. When she came here and said that she wanted to take care of you that time ..it was because she wanted to spy on you," Henry said to me. Sophie was gone now. It didn't take much for me to persuade her to find out where Liam had taken Naya. "Yes. I am sure of it. She's definitely working for that person. She has been working for him for a really long time, I am sure. If Liam is talking to her about him then it means that they both know him," I said."Then what are you going to do now? Are you sure that it's a good idea to meet with her? I don't think that she's going to give anything away if she's really working for him," Henry said. I shook my head. "I have to try. I know that she won't tell me the truth but I have to meet her and ask her and see if she's going to let anything slip. I asked Sophie to find out from Liam where Naya
ROWAN"I don't deny that she was good to me while we were best friends, but how am I supposed to make a living if I don't have any money? I can't take chances, Rowan. I need to survive. You will never know how hard it is for me to survive. I don't want to beat around the bush with you. So are you going to give me the money or not?" She asked me. "Fine. I will give it to you. And don't think about playing tricks with me, Sophie. Because there are many ways I can get this money back from you. And I don't think that you are going to survive what I do to get the money back if you play me," I warned her. "Don't worry about it, Rowan. I may be a terrible person but I am very honest when it comes to doing business. Besides, I don't want to die. I need to be alive to spend the money," she stated. I brought out my bank book and I wrote her a cheque. Sophie snatched it away from me. She gasped when she saw the price that was written on it. They were literally dollar signs falling out of h
ROWANI turned to Henry. "What do you mean you still can't find her? It's not as if she disappeared off the face of the Earth? Why can't you find her?" I yelled at him. A whole day had passed since Naya had not returned home. At first, Henry had said that she was going out to meet a friend, but then she didn't come back yesterday and we still can't find her today. I was really worried now. Had Liam gotten to her? Did he kidnap her all because of her blood? "Did you find out what Liam did yesterday?" I asked Henry. He nodded his head. "Yes. The person that we had watching him said that he didn't leave his house much yesterday. He went out to meet with the Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack but that was just it. He didn't go anywhere else and he came back home immediately. I don't think he has anything to do with this," Henry said. I sneered at him. "Are you stupid?! Even if he didn't do anything, then he must have had someone do it for him! He must have told someone to kidnap her!
SOPHIEI gasped when I heard this. Was Liam saying that they had kidnapped Naya? I had no idea who that Jessica person was but from Liam's words, they had worked together to kidnap Naya. Liam ended the call and he burst out laughing. I quickly shut the door and started to pace around the bedroom, thinking of what to do. I did not want Liam to know that I had heard what he was talking about. I knew that he was an extremely cold man and if he taught that I knew a secret then he was going to do something to hurt me. I didn't want to die in Liam's hands. I just wanted to be able to survive. Just then the door was pushed open and Liam walked in. I turned to face him and we came face to face with each other. There was a menacing look on his face when he saw me and he looked like he wanted to just triangle it to death and be done with it "What the heck are you doing here Sophie? I thought I have told you that I don't want to see you in my house? and how were you even able to get in