Willow For the second time in what seemed like forever, I gently peeled my eyes open. Unlike the last time, this one didn't hurt. If there was anything that felt weird, it was how heavy my eyelids were. The more I tried to keep it up, the more the weight seemed to want to press my eyes shut. A wave of panic washed over me immediately. Why? Why did I always have to wake up in the worst possible ways? If I wasn't trying desperately to feel my bones, I would be trying to keep my eyes open. This was only the second time, but I was fed up. I muttered a quick prayer to the moon goddess, and she must have heard, because I felt slightly better after a couple of minutes. I still felt groggy, but at least I had my eyesight now. After blinking a couple of times, another wave of panic rushed in my veins. From a quick glance at my surroundings, it was obvious I was no longer in my room.Despite how groggy I felt, I managed to get up, and only when my hands had come down on the sofa's armre
Carter. I knew I shouldn't feel bad, that was the only possible outcome after I had spiked her drink. If I was being honest, I knew that was going to happen. What I didn't expect, was me feeling bad after seeing Willow passing out again for the second time. It was different this time though. Why? Because I was the sole cause of her slipping into an unconscious state this time around. I knew it wasn't right. If you wanted, one could even say it was a cruel thing to do, but in my opinion it was a necessity. It was mandatory even. After I had watched Willow's body topple onto my bed, I roughly counted up to five. I needed to make sure she was no longer conscious for me to be able to do what I had planned. After a full blown five seconds and some extra minutes, I tiptoed towards Willow. When I got to her, I brushed her hair away from her face as I let out a small sigh. If only she had agreed willingly but she didn’t. And Willow’s abstinence forced my hand. She made me do this. I told my
Willow I felt heavy and I could not move as I slowly opened my eyes. A dull ache spread through my head as I tried to push past the confusion and weakness so as to remember where I was. Everything around me felt far away and it felt like I was underwater as I tried to remember, the water pulling me back down. The air smelled of incense and flowers and my mind instantly clicked. Carter had given me something to drink and then I passed out. Did he drug me? I asked myself. And then I heard his voice. “Willow?” The sound snapped me out of the fog, and my awareness came rushing back in a wave so sharp it left me breathless. My body tensed, panic taking hold as I forced my eyes fully open. I was sat in a chair beside me, I wasn’t tied up but something about the whole situation felt wrong. Very wrong. He was looking at me stunned and like I had grown a second head. “What the..” I managed to say but my voice was cracking. I tried to push myself up from the chair but the room around
Willow The priest was about to say something but before he could, we heard a voice. “Enough.” The rain was still pouring down heavily and it was blurring my vision and I was feeling so cold, but none of it mattered. Not the cold, not the wet clothes clinging to my skin, and definitely not the ache in my limbs from whatever drug Carter had used on me earlier. All I could see was him- standing there, looking infuriatingly calm as if he hadn’t just flipped my entire world upside down. I instantly felt my anger rise again as I curled my hands into fists by my side. My heart was pounding wildly against my chest and my blood boiled with anger. Seeing him only made everything worse. “You,” I hissed, taking a step forward, my voice low but sharp enough to cut through the rain. Carter met my gaze without flinching, his expression unreadable. He gave a quick nod toward the priest, a silent dismissal. The man bowed once, then disappeared back and walked back to the temple without a word, a
Carter's Pov It was still pouring outside, when we stepped out of the motel. Willow and I were soaked within seconds. I welcomed the rain. I relished the icy cold as it seeped past my dress shirt. I looked at Willow. She sneezed, inciting a shiver. Uh-oh. “Come on. I’ll have you warmed up in a moment.” I reached out for her hand. Again, she flinched and stepped away from me. No surprise there. A part of me had thought that after our little talk, things would get slightly better. I didn't totally believe it, yet, it didn’t make it any less annoying. “My car is over there.” I pointed ahead of us. My car was parked at least half a yard away from the building and I winced. Why hadn’t I parked the fucking car closer to the building? There was no way I was going to let Willow get wet anymore than she already was. I turned to face her, but before I could ask her to wait underneath the shed of the building, while I went to bring the car around, she broke into a run. She was headed towar
Carter The rain poured relentlessly, the thick glass windows muting out the sounds of droplets hitting the roof. I sat in a baby blue, thick leather chair facing an even thicker oak desk. It wasn't comfortable, not even in the slightest. Mother liked to make her visitors squirm. And squirm I did. I tapped my foot restlessly on the plush carpeting and my fingers drummed on the solid armrest. I busied myself by looking around even though I'd been in this office countless times. I remembered jumping from the high oak table to the floor, trying to tuck and roll as I did. God, I was so little then. What was I? Maybe four? The office had looked like its own mini kingdom and the desk had been so enormous in my eyes. It was still imposing, the office still the grandest in the house. I still admired everything about it but I wasn't four anymore. I looked straight at my mother. Her head was down as she alternated between writing away on a notepad and typing on the keyboard of her computer
Willow The wind whipped my hair into a frenzy. I could feel the chill in the air, it was going to rain soon. I ran my hands along my arms, hugging myself for comfort. The chill I felt wasn't just from the weather. I felt cold deep inside, like parts of me had gone numb with shock at the events of the past few days. My mind was jumbled up in twisted knots. It seemed everything was happening too fast for me to keep track. All of a sudden, I was a married woman. Bound to another by no will of my own. And it seemed like there was nothing I could do about it. What the hell was Carter thinking? As soon as Carter's mother had walked out of the office earlier, I'd followed suit. I raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time till I reached the balcony. I needed to be alone. No one ever really came up here. It was usually empty except for a few times Carter's father had hosted a few guests up here. Asher had once described it as a lonely space, which was perfect for me. Asher. My cha
Willow's Pov Carter's room was enormous. I'd never been in it before. The bed alone took up nearly half the space which was perfect, even if we did sleep on the same bed, we wouldn't be too close to each other. The creamy white sheets felt soft and comfortable,I had to hold myself back from jumping into them. Just as Carter had said, my things had been transferred to his room. My bathrobe was hung beside his in the bathroom and my fluffy white slip ons were placed just underneath my side of the bed. My makeup kit and skin care products were neatly arranged on a bigger and more beautiful dressing table. I had stared at it in awe when I first entered. The ornate wood was intricately carved with beautiful images of birds and flowers and the wood curved out into two swans perched atop the big mirror. It even had lights affixed to the edges. It looked like something out of a movie star's dressing room. It was obviously new, as were a lot of things in the room. There was
The night was dark, with only the gentle light from the moon shedding and casting its warm glow over the earth. Stars littered the night sky, and against the pitch black backdrop of it all, the scene above looked nothing short of a beautiful painting. The sound of leaves crunching underneath someone's feet cut straight through my thoughts. Immediately, I turned to the side, and standing a couple of feet away from me, was a black wolf, tall and mighty with its beady eyes staring down at me. A couple of moments passed as we both stared at each other, none of us daring to move. Something swirled in the pit of my stomach and before I could make sense of all that was happening, I found myself transforming back into my human form. My fear heightened when I realized whoever it was, was still in its wolf form. I didn't have to think too much because I'd barely mumbled the rest of the questions, before the wolf morphed into his human form, and the moment he did, a huge smile made its wa
I gently pushed the door to my bedroom shut. When a small click reached my ears, I heaved a sigh of relief. I had no idea why I'd just done that. Mum was probably halfway to slumber town now, so why was I so worried that I would have woken her?I sighed again, before gently clasping my hands together. A slight tremble rocked my fingers, but I kept them together, going they would stop soon.Luckily for me, it didn't last long. The moment I witnessed the last of it, I headed to my study desk in the corner of the room and pulled out my books. I had a test in the morning, and AP Chemistry, isn't something you just waltz through with an empty brain. I knew there was trouble the moment I read the first line and was unable to grasp anything. After trying for the second and third time, and still nothing had changed, I just knew I was cooked. There was no way I could focus on studying, not when there was something on my mind. No, not something. Someone.Zayn.No matter how many times I t
Silence filled the air, except for the tip of my fingertips drumming against the steel table in front of me. I had no idea why this man, Shadow, had gone with steel tables. Did he not have any class? I understood that he ran an underground business and was trying to keep things tough and scary, but who said the affairs of the underworld couldn't be spiced up with some class?Take for example. I was a perfect fit Or perhaps the steel table wasn't such a bad idea. Now that I thought about it, it wasn't exactly useless. Let's say Shadow's warehouse happened to get raided by a rival group right now, this steel table could actually come in handy. Just by flipping it over, it could actually give Shadow ample time to bring out his gun and attack. “Why don't you take a picture?” I let out suddenly, causing Shadow to flinch. I watched as he blinked back a couple of times, obviously trying to readjust his eyes to his surroundings again. A sly grin made its way to my face immediately a
I stood rooted in my spot, my blood boiling. I didn't even bat an eyelid when the sound of Alessandro's car driving out of the compound reached my ears. My mind whirled with a million questions and a thousand more thoughts. How dare he? How could he even do such a thing?I'd always perceived Alessandro to be a heartless and ruthless monster, but the last thing I expected was him bringing a little boy into the equation. Leo was still a little child for fucks sake!I pressed my eyes shut, and the moment the darkness engulfed me, I regretted it immediately. Leo's bruised back and face filled my vision, his wounds taunting me. I shook my head as I imagined his wails and sobs.Leo was a delicate boy, the best kid in the whole world. He didn't deserve any of that and that wasn't even the worst part. The part that made my blood boil and crack at the same time was the fact that it wasn't his fault in any way. I'd brought this up on him. Me, I did that. Strip. Alessandro's authorita
My heart leapt to my throat as the sound of something scurrying along the floorboards reached my ears. I sucked in a deep breath as I sunk deeper to the edge of the wall, my back coming in contact with the bed's fluffy headboard. As I hugged my knees, I rocked back and forth, hoping the little gesture would calm my thumping heart and calm me down a bit, even if it was in the tiniest of ways.It didn't work. It wasn't working. Not at all. Not yet. I sucked in a deep breath as I allowed my heartbeat to return to its steady pacing. I heaved a sigh when it finally stabilized. I was tired, tired of living like this. But did I have any other choice? I wasn't sure. I didn't think so. It'd been two days since I walked out on Alessandro. Tao days since I'd locked myself in my room and refused to come out, and even as time ticked by, I still wasn't sure if I regretted my decision. A frown appeared on my face at the thought of a sour memory. No matter how hard I'd tried to forget a
Fear raked through my body as my heart steadily picked up its pace. Cold chills raced up and down my spine as I stared wide eyed at the scene in front of me. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if I was cursed or something. Cursed to always find myself in situations like these. But that wasn't the part that bothered me. A little curse here and there never hurt anybody. Hell, maybe I'd even cursed myself. I did have a knack for messing around with Ouija boards and all when I was little. The part that bothered me was how I always managed to find myself in situations like these, no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. After Dagger had dropped the bombshell and given me an ultimatum, I was stumped. I went blank. He couldn't get my attention until he poked me with something. I didn't think much of it, but now that I did, I couldn't shake off the feeling he'd done something. Ejected a tracking device or chip into my body maybe, or perhaps he'd even poisoned me. The ideas were end
I watched as the blue flames lit the tip of the cigar that was tucked in between my fingers. As I pushed the flames closer to where I wanted it to be, something caught my eye. How the hell I was able to notice it was strange to me, but now that I'd seen it, I just couldn't ignore it. Just in between my fingers where the cigar sat, Red hue tainted my skin. I wasn't exactly sensitive and I barely bruised, so this was definitely a discovery. A sly smirk made its way to my lips. I didn't even have to think hard to figure out why the skin in between my fingers was pink, or better still, turning red. For the past hour, or more, I'd been replacing rolls and rolls of cigars the moment I exhausted the last one. At some point I'd lost count of how many of the smoke machines I'd inhaled, but I knew they were a lot. I was pushing myself and maybe if I didn't hold back, I would finally know my limit. If I actually had one, that is. I exhaled a huge puff of smoke, after inhaling for a coup
My mind reeled with a million and one things all ar once and I swear if I didn't find a way to stop it, I just might run mad on the spot. I'd just told them I knew Alessandro. Shit. If I was being honest, I had no clue if I'd done the right thing or not. I suspected foul play the moment I realized I wasn't Alessandro’s captive. Who else knew of my existence? Papa had taken a wide step back from indulging in businesses that were a norm in mafia families, so there was no way I could be in someone's radar. But the moment he knew I recognized Alessandro, I just knew I was in deep shit. I hated Alessandro, literally everyone did, even Antonio. But as I stared at the murderous glare my captor wore as he arranged an array of weapons I didn't recognize, I quickly came to the conclusion that there were more people that hated the man. Even more than I did. And it shocked me to the bones.Who the hell was he? Was he working alone? What was his relationship with Alessandro? And what
Chapter 82Destiny's POV I was anxious, and literally nothing I did was calming me down. Instead, the more I tried, the more I failed woefully at it too. There wasn't any technique I hadn't tried. I had tried counting to ten and back again, and even making a conscious effort at trying to regulate my breathing, but it just wasn't working. It was a surprise how Carter hadn't noticed how fidgety I was. Or maybe he had, he has just decided that he wasn't going to comment on it, and even that didn't sit right with me.My stomach churned, pulling me out of my quick monologue. Before it could let out another sound, I folded my fingers in front of my belly. I wasn't exactly sure it was going to do anything, but it was too late to try to take back what I'd just done. So instead, I fixed my gaze as I tried to remove the invisible dirt that had found their way underneath my nails. The car was silent, save for the gentle hum from the engine. The civilization that whooshed by also seemed to