GERALD JACOBS.MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO.“I met a girl!” I stormed through the chamber doors, eyes wide and my face bright with a smile. My most trusted Beta, Phil turned to me. He was the only one I trusted to ever come close to me and he had been my best friend for as long as I could remember. So of course only he could understand the next words I said.“I met my mate!” My wolf growled free at my attestation and Phil’s jaw dropped open. “Your mate?” He echoed with disbelief. As I took off my jacket, I turned to him. My hands fell to grip his shoulders, out of excitement.“It’s a very funny story.”“I was walking in the forest, on my break when something struck my feet. It was an arrow—“ “An arrow?” Phil asked. “From a hunter. Behold the culprit was her. Susannah, she said” I smiled, recounting that single moment that changed my life.“And she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen” I said softly.“But she’s a hunter?” Phil was just as perplexed as I was earlier. “That’s not even th
GERALD JACOBS. MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO.“So she was mated before?” Phil asked as I sat there, damp by the edge of my windowsill. I looked out through the fog at nothing in particular. It was raining that evening when I got back. And I crossed my arms over my chest as I wallowed in my thoughts—where I had been for the past few hours and where I would remain for even days to come. Her words kept echoing in my ears, over and over again. The thought of being a second chance mate was something that never crossed my mind but it was my reality now.And the mate bond between Susannah and I was undeniably strong. It was palpable, that even each second that passed that she wasn’t here, I was torturing my mind—my wolf. Because it was no longer that I didn’t know. It was that I did and I was only just hesitant.Which meant my Wolf had already scented her, tasted her and wanted more so each second that I stayed away, I was only hurting my wolf which in turn was hurting myself. That’s how being ma
GERALD JACOBS.MORE THAN 30 YEARS AGO. I sprinted into the forest with halting labored breaths escaping my lips. I threw looks over my shoulder as I stood there, right where we first met. I halted, desperation etched across my face as I looked at the trees.Shafts of the morning sunlight filtered through them and I had to narrow my eyes because my vision dimmed. Suddenly, I couldn’t see so clearly but you see, the moment that I scented her again. The perfect Vanilla cologne with a stint of woodsy mint. She spelled like nature herself, like blooming flowers and a crystal clear sky and then my eyes cleared. It was fate, no one could tell me otherwise because I wasn’t even sure I would see her again. But there she was, standing in a small clearing, bathed in a soft, ethereal light. Our eyes locked into each other and time seemed to pause for a moment. I lifted my feet to walk towards her and Susannah did the same. Tears stung the back of my eyes as I fell into her embrace, holding her
ELIANA.I stood at the apex of the hills, winds running through my hair as I looked at my Dad. All he'd done was tell me the story about how he met my mother but he left out one part—the most important part and the reason I was here in the first place."Where is he?" I blurted out of my lips, realizing a child named Boy was a lot harder to find. "Where is my Brother?" I raised my voice, tears stinging the back of my eyes and a hard lump went down my Dad's throat. It was clear he was somehow replaying a core memory in his head.And whatever it was, it was strong enough to let the tears flow down his cheeks. He was disheveled once our eyes met again. "I don't know" He muttered."What do you you don't know?" I asked him. "You knew of the child even though you've kept him a secret all this time, from me and everyone else. You knew him because Mom told you. How can you stand there and then lie that you don't know where he is right now.""I told you about the Curse, finding Boy could be t
ELIANA. "Who took Boy that day?" My father pressed his lips together and he shook his head."There wasn't anything we didn't think about, any option we didn't consider but it came down to one thing. Who was so heartless enough to just rip a child from his mother without a care in the world? Oakland changed after that day, more so after the news had spread" He replied."We just couldn't think of anyone.""That was until she told me" My Dad's voice went deep. "That she was a Hybrid?" I pieced it together. He nodded. "She told me everything. From the Witch's Curse to the fact that they'd been tailingher for so long. It wasn't a life she wanted. Susannah hated it.""All she wanted was to be normal. She didn't want to have a bounty placed on her head so she never felt safe. She hated that life and if there was one thing I was certain she wanted, it was to find a way to completely make her Witch side recessive. To be only Werewolf again.""If only there was such a way." He heaved. "Beca
DENVER.As I charged my eyes open to the utter darkness, I felt soaked with the beads of sweat and blood that clung to my skin. The air was thick with the stench of decay and the chains around my wrists and ankles rattled with every slight movement. I sucked in air through my lips, refreshing my lungs. It felt like I’d only just awoken from a state of trance. No idea how I got here. My wrists were bound, each link echoing the oppressive silence of the dungeon. Panic surged through me like a torrential wave, and my breath quickened with each turn I looked over my shoulders. “Where am I?” I blurted out and there was a crack in my voice. “Eliana” Her name was the first to come to my mind as I remembered one thing.I was on my way to see her when—“The accident” I muttered. Slowly, I began to piece together the shreds that had become of my memory. I was driving. I remember driving, my hands groping the steering wheel and the sound of her voice echoing from the phone. I remember her anxi
DENVER. “Hello Denver” Aurora’s eyes fell on me and I pushed a hard lump down my throat. I got up now that the sharp ringing had stopped and so had the storm but I froze in my tracks.Disbelief and astonishment etched across my face. It had been minutes but I still couldn’t believe she, Aurora, in flesh and blood was standing opposite me. Her presence weaved a surreal tapestry of emotions that swept through me. I looked at Blake, he was having a harder time taking it all in. This was someone he’d loved for the most of the last century. Someone he was willing to resurrect from the dead only for them to be together. I’m sure, the emotions were a lot more for him. “What are you doing here?” He still scowled and a soft chuckle escaped her lips. “What am I doing here?” She inched closer but Blake stepped in between us. Aurora came to a halt, barely meters from his face and she sucked in a deep breath through her lips.Her hands reached into his hair and she slowly swept her fingers thr
ELIANA. I found myself in the center of the evergreen grasses. Swaying my feet through the tender earth, I plummeted forward with my arms stretched out. The air was a gentle caress in the fields, carrying the sweet fragrance of blossoming flowers.The sun emerged on that beautiful day, casting a warm glow upon the meadow, and the grass beneath my feet danced in response. Butterflies painted the air with delicate strokes of color and even the sky above was a canvas of pastel hues.I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and lips as I approached the banks of a crystal blue river. There, I came to a halt. The winds flustered my face and blew right through my hair. I laid amidst the grasses and my heart resonated with the gentle breeze. Time had lost its grip in this world, and everything else seemed suspended. My arms fell wide to embrace the earth beneath and then I closed my eyes. It was only when I did, that I was whisked back to my reality. My soul and body plunged through the r
ELIANA."The baby's coming now""The baby's coming now, Denver" I screamed through my teeth, reaching to grasp his hands from the wheeling bed. "I have to go call Thelma to tell the nurses to prepare the birthing room" He replied. Tears welled up in my eyes as I gasped. "Don't leave, Denver." "I'll be right back. I'll be right back, Eliana. I promise." He scrambled through the doors as fast as he could and I heard the echoes of his footsteps draw further away. But just after him, the door opened."Nora" I lifted my eyes to face her. "What's going on? I heard screaming—" She walked into the room before letting out a gasp. "No, Eliana!" Shock filled her eyes as her lips parted with a smile. I reached for her hands and I nodded. "Yes" I muttered, biting into my lips to try and curtail the pain. But really, it was so searing that my eyes rolled to the back of my head. "Ahh!" I yelled as yet another contraction rippled through me. Nora was panicking as I jolted back and forth the bed b
ELIANA.FOUR MONTHS LATER."I'm the luckiest man alive to be here a second time. Those were the first words that he said the last time he was standing here” Cory looked up from the paper in his hands. Though in a wheelchair, his road to recovery was beyond impressive.That he was even here, among us on this special day meant a lot—especially to Denver. I could tell by the way his eyes looked around the adorned hall. He stood there in his stormy grey suit, just as it was the day we got married. It fit him so perfectly that I was jealous. Today, we decided to renew our vows, something to remember the day that really changed everything. The day that we sealed the deal forever and I first called Denver my husband. I looked to Cory at that moment and the tears stung the back of my eyes. Oh how I wanted the day to be perfect, and by perfect, I meant exactly how it was months ago. But in that moment, I realized that wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be like that anymore.For starters, I could
ELIANA.A knock on the door drifted my attention. As I sat in front of the mirror, I couldn't pretend that my heart didn't drop at that moment. I turned around and then Thelma walked in. There was an unsettling look across her face when our eyes that I suddenly stood, Denver beside me. "Alpha Eliana," She pursed her lips. "Someone is here to see you."Silence immediately pierced the air with the thought of Aurora dashing across my mind but then she cleared her throat. "It's—" Thelma paused, darting her eyes between Denver and me. "It's Nathaniel.". She muttered. And at that moment, I swallowed a hard lump down my throat. Denver reached to squeeze my hands. "Nathaniel" I mumbled in disbelief. "He said he really wants to see you" My eyes met Denver's in a lock as I slowly nodded. "It's okay" I whispered. "I'll see him. I'll see him.""You sure?" Denver asked. I forced a smile to my lips."He's my brother, after everything, he still is" My eyes fell from his hands as Denver cleared h
ELIANA.To my Eliana.From Nana. Those words would echo for so long to come. I remember the moment I first held the letter in my hands. My chapped dirt-filled fingernails clinging to the piece of paper with almost as much curiosity as devastation.The grief still hit, like a storm against my face, a sour taste in the back of my throat. The grief was there. But in that moment, I remembered Denver’s words. In this moment too.As I walked towards her coffin which laid open in the center of the fire. The air was gloomy with ash and the warm golden hue illuminated the tears that filled the eyes of everyone that had gathered here—for her funeral. Nana. Just like my Mum, just like Adam—it was a rite.Whenever one of us died, they were to be buried the next day. And my Nana had found a place right next to my Mum. I halted right next to her coffin even though earlier, I had no idea I would be able to do this.I threw a look back at Denver who had paused some meters behind. To allow me a mome
ELIANA. My knees grazed the ground upon where my Grandmother laid and the crown of my head rested upon her chest. Frail, still and quiet. It was the kind of silence that was deafening, that evoked the river of tears streaming down my face. The kind that echoed over and over that my whole world had crumbled, right in front of me—right in my hands. And I held onto Nana's garment, as if maybe I could grasp tightly enough, I may be able to bring her back. But my powers had never felt further from me. Each spell that escaped from my lips was like an echo from an empty vessel. The words didn't form, the winds didn't move. I was no longer a Witch, no longer a Hybrid.Now, those words would've meant the world to me at any moment besides this but right now, right now it was just too much. I cried, right on top of her, I cried until my chest started to ache and my throat was sore and my eyes could no longer bring any more tears.I cried because I had lost the one person that I had—that I thou
ELIANA.The full moon rose that night.At about 3 AM, it had hit its apex. The winds coursed through my hair as I gripped my Grandma’s hands. I could still hear her, even with my eyes closed. Her incantations, her magic.For that moment though, I was taken by the night, bathed in ghostly light. The shadows of Denver and my father, and Ivan, all waiting for things to go south so that they stepped in. I had assured them I had the spell under control but of course they wouldn’t believe me.This was the most powerful type of magic there was, one that I had never done before. One that had never been successful before. But I stood there, beneath the silvery moonlight, clinching onto hope and the enchantment that flowed from my Nana’s lips.I could do it, I reassured myself. I could be something. I could be different and that was the one thing that kept echoing in my head.The fact that I could actually be happy, happy with Denver and my two kids. No one after us, just peace. Don’t we all de
NANA ABIGAIL.For the most of my life, I think I’ve been a horrible person.The mere fact that I was born a witch proved exactly that. I was a traitor, a manipulator, a liar. A liar.A liar.But I wasn’t always like this. We weren’t always like this. Cursed. I was also once a little girl with an older sister she looked up to like a god. A mother that was the best there could have been. I had a family who loved and would do anything for each other.We were Witches. For the longest time, we journeyed across the earth to find ourselves a home. Then we found the haven in Oakland. The people were happy, everyone was happy with my father. He had led us to safety, he had cared for us, all the Witches.We were the happiest we could have ever been. But then the Werewolves came, they too had found a home in Oakland. The town itself, wasn’t always like this. Nestled in the hills and forest, it was a town away from mortal eyes. Its cobblestone streets were laced with enchantment. We had made thi
ELIANA. "Tonight is the night of the full moon."Denver’s voice hit my ears softly as I rolled onto him. I fluttered my eyes open to the little sunlight that poured in through the curtained windows. I couldn’t help but groan tiredly even after the nap I had just taken.It had been the busiest morning, from helping Denver’s entire Pack settle in to preparing for the spell tonight, fyi I didn’t need a reminder because only then did I feel the tension weave through me. And I was barely even awake. My hands wrapped around Denver as I laid on his chest.There was this comfort that came from hearing his heartbeat and being that close to his skin. Perhaps, he knew which was why he stayed still. I felt his hands wrap around my waist too.A deep sigh escaped my lips.I ended up lifting my gaze to him and I caught him already staring down at me. “Ugh please don’t remind me” I groaned softly. “It’s almost like I should just stay here forever” I whispered. Denver’s palms weaved into my clothing
ELIANA.“I regret to inform you that Cory suffered a fall inside the building, and on top of that was almost crushed by some of the debris that had fallen” The doctor explained with a piece of paper in his hands. His eyes fell to Thelma especially whose hands held up her chin in a tragic manner.The remnant of all the tears she had cried clung desperately to her lashes and at that moment, a hard lump slipped down her throat.“With a fall like that and everything that happened, it’s not uncommon to be presented with some signs of head trauma which would explain his partial loss of memory and inability to do the things he was once doing.”I folded my arms across my chest, dashing a glare at Denver. His face was filled with unease and an emotion I couldn’t quite decipher. Like every word that came out of the doctor’s mouth was a thorn poking him in his chest. I saw the way he looked at Cory laying there.That was his best friend. His person. His brother when Blake wasn’t. And he was jus