KRISTINA'S POVMy mind spun around in circles, trying to avoid what I already knew lay in wait for me. I knew that if I went to bed now, I would wake up tomorrow and realize that it had all been a dream. And I could do nothing to stop it. But if I didn't try, I wasn't going to feel any different. I was going to continue living this miserable existence, wondering what was going to happen next, always expecting the worst. I wasn't going to be able to live like this. I wasn't going to be able to continue to pretend that everything was going to be okay, when it really wasn't. I wasn't going to continue to put on a brave front, knowing that everything that I was doing was wrong. I sighed heavily, dropping my hands from my face to rest them in my lap. The room was bathed in darkness now, save for the small window in the far corner of the room. From where I sat, I was able to see a sliver of moonlight creeping in through the small crack. Moonlight. I wondered what time it actually was, b
KRISTINA'S POVNathan didn't give up. He seemed to understand. Of course he did. This was how he dealt with all the things that bothered him. All the things that made him question everything he thought he knew. The more he understood, the more he wanted to help people. Nathan always believed in helping everyone, no matter who they might be or what they may have done. And that meant he would fight until he found the truth. Because, well... that is what he believed in. But Nathan didn't just believe. He acted. And sometimes, people needed saving. And that was exactly why I was here. Why I was now sitting opposite two of the most important people in my life. What could possibly justify such a drastic act? I sighed. How should I answer this? "Well, the thing is–" "What kind of thing is that, Kristina?"Nathan jumped forward in his seat, startling me into silence as I tried to find the right words to explain my decision. How was I supposed to tell the story of my actions without making
KRISTINA'S POVOh yeah. The best friends are the ones who stay calm during emotional moments, right? No one ever wants their girlfriend or husband stressed out while having feelings for them, right? But it's okay to feel things sometimes. So then why was it so hard for me to decide on a course of action? Why was it so hard to accept that someone else had the best intentions? That they cared enough about us to offer to help when we needed them to? Because I knew I couldn't ask anyone else to do it for me. They were my family, after all, and I loved all of them equally. Which meant that, even if I told Nathan to go home, he'd probably insist on staying here, too. Just as stubborn as me. So there was no way I could ask him to leave, which meant that my only option was either letting him stay here indefinitely, or accepting this help for myself. There really wasn't anything else left for me to do, was there? No, there isn't. Nathan's words echoed in my head. My eyes widened as my mind
KRISTINA'S POV"Not yet," I replied, smiling faintly. His face fell for a moment, before he sighed, rolling off of me and lying flat beside me, his head on one hand, the other propped up next to him. I smiled as I stared up at the ceiling, trying not to notice how attractive he looked lying there looking tired and disheveled. "But we'll have to hurry. We only got until the sun went down." Nathan frowned. "What do you mean by that?" "You heard me." I leaned over, pressing a kiss to his shoulder. "It's tradition to light your fire when it gets dark." "Oh." Nathan ran a hand through his hair, pushing some of the messy curls out of his face. "Well, if that's what we have to do, then I suppose that's fine." And with that, he flipped over, crawling across the floor towards the fireplace. I laughed. It wasn't long before the two of us were surrounded by the warm orange glow of the flames. We sat side by side, watching the dancing heat rise up from the grate as we relaxed together. It
KRISTINA'S POVHis eyes met mine, and a small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes sparkled as though he was about to burst into song. "And being afraid that, in order to keep what we have now, it will hurt or destroy those chances that we've built over time– those chances are so fragile that you have to tread lightly." He reached out and took my hand on his own. I could feel him shaking, although whether from emotion or nerves, I couldn't tell. "If you can't get married before your time comes, then you have to be willing to give everything up to ensure that you both enjoy what life has to offer. That is, if you agree to spend every night together for as long as possible, no matter how little time we have left." I smiled shyly back at Nathan, feeling a rush of joy flow through me as I squeezed his hand in reassurance. Then suddenly, Jorel turned away for a moment, staring down at our hands. "I'm sorry that I put this on you. We both know that you and Nathan have
KRISTINA'S POVHe probably thought he was being funny; but it did work in giving me some confidence. I couldn't afford to faint, not after the last attempt. I nodded at him to show that I understood and we walked towards the elevator silently. The whole thing had felt like one huge blur to me. Like I was walking through cotton wool. I tried hard to remember every detail of the day. It was important for me to do that. For Nathan, too. But I just couldn't. As we entered the elevator, I could feel myself becoming weaker, like my body was giving up on itself and letting my imagination take control, leaving nothing but an illusion. It happened a lot during this transition period. I had no idea what was going on, where I was, what had happened before, or what was going on now. I simply existed in a state of limbo between reality and fantasy. The only solid thing was Nathan, his presence. That was enough. As we arrived at the ground floor, we exited the elevator and stood in the doorway,
KRISTINA'S POVThen, I sat down on the floor next to where he had been sitting. My gaze shifted from the clothes lying in front of me across the living room, past the coffee table, through the window to the view beyond it. I could feel myself relaxing when I saw that Nathan was still watching TV, but that relaxation was short lived. "Aren't you going to get dressed?" Nathan asked me. "No need. It's only going to take us a minute. And besides, why do we need to get ready? The party won't start until ten." "It's always good to look presentable, especially when our guest arrives, if you know what I mean." This is where I would have said something like, "What friend are you talking about?" or, "Oh, you're not serious. You expect me to wear this? Why can't we just let them come in their normal clothes?" But I didn't say any of those things because, well… It's true. "So," Nathan continued, "are you going to sit there with your feet crossed all night long?" "Sure," I replied, without t
KRISTINA'S POV"Wait! I want you to tell a story about you and Alpha Laurence first. I want to know everything about the man you loved when you were young.""W-why are you suddenly interested in what happened to me and Laurence?""Nothing! Is it bad to know the truth? Or in your past?""I am an orphan who grew up in Wysteria Hope Orphanage, together with my childhood friend, the same man who I loved for years.""O-okay. Is it Laurence? And Wysteria Hope? W-whaa...?""Yes, he is. The Wysteria Hope is the place where I grew up after I was abandoned by my parents. It's an orphanage that welcomes everyone equally on the outside, but treats all orphans as tools inside.""I didn't know they treated children like that!"I was placed in the Wysteria Hope Orphanage under the watchful eyes of two other orphans, who also had their parents die within the same year. That's awful. Is something anyone should be happy knowing. And since then, every child there has been treated like garbage. We don't
KRISTINA'S POVThe next morning, Laurence came up with an idea to make this transition easier, and said it would be much better if we had someone take over some of the responsibility. I agreed right away. The others thought I was being unreasonable. I wasn't. As long as they were safe, I cared less where our lives took us. I am willing to sacrifice everything for them. Even though I didn't tell them how much of a hard time I'd had when we decided to have another child, I could see in their faces that they already knew, even though I hadn't said anything. Laurence made them understand that it wasn't about what we wanted, it was about what was best for everyone. Now, after the war against the Black Fangs Pack ended, I was finally able to relax. Even though we had lost most of our land during the war, the pack remained. We built a new settlement in the far northern region of the land, which is very near my old territory. A lot of people are happy to rebuild their homes. In fact, they
KRISTINA'S POVMonths later, I returned to the Crimson Snow Pack. Laurence discovered that I was actually his second chance mate through the moon goddess' intel. Laurence and I finally accepted each other, but our joyous moments together didn't last as I never got healed even after Nathan desperately tried to save me. His healing process wasn't enough, or so they thought.Alliyah was the main cause why I never felt better, she poisoned me after she figured out that Laurence was the one responsible for trapping her father. She sought for vengeance, and the only thing she could think of that would make Laurence suffer was to harm me.Laurence had no other choice left, he couldn't be mad at Nathan as he did his best, which he witnessed. He could only provide me and my triplets the happiness that they deserve for the remaining lifespan that I had, like fulfilling their wishes.They finally got blessed by the moon goddess. Laurence accepted my tainted body and chose to make love with me, r
KRISTINA'S POVNathan didn't notice the wounds on my body, maybe I got them from running hard while I was in wolf form. After a while I felt delirious. I was constantly moaning and writhing in extreme pain. With the strength of my growl I got Nathan's attention. When Nathan saw my wound, he immediately cleaned it and bandaged it. I just calmed down when I felt Nathan's firm grip on my hands. I was unconscious until the next day and night. Nathan changed my bandage again until he saw that my wound was slowly healing. On the second day, I woke up a little, but still seemed out of my mind. Nathan forced me to eat. Even though I didn't want to eat at first and kept moaning and whining in extreme pain, I eventually had to give in. He also gave me some medicine so I could get better and I did, but my appetite was still gone. After two days in bed I felt better and finally started eating again. On the third day I managed to eat some food. After that Nathan left for work and I was alone in
KRISTINA'S POVI was not comfortable with the ride so I called Nathan and talked to him. I took off my clothes and retreated into a corner. "Kristina, what are you doing?" Nathan shouted. "We need to run fast using my wolf form. I don't want my clothes to get ruined when I transform into a wolf. I can now run fast without my clothes getting caught on the trees."I quickly made Nathan follow what I said. He was startled when I grabbed him and pulled him up. Then, he wrapped his arms around my neck and closed his eyes tightly. "Kristina–"But the wind swallowed his voice as I shot off to the forest. Nathan gasped and clung to me very tightly. He wanted to say that their run was romantic. But the f*ck it wasn't. There was nothing romantic about the frigid and harsh wind slapping his face, nothing sweet about his ears popping from pressure. And especially not romantic about how fast we were running in his state of mind. So, there was no romance between us and neither was there any pa
KRISTINA'S POVThen, without warning, he leaned down to pull something up from behind me and wrapped a blanket around me. "Don't worry about that." He smiled gently, wrapping his hand around mine before leading me to sit by the edge of the ledge. I glanced down at our intertwined fingers briefly before turning my gaze back towards the view. "We'll have a nice picnic when we make it to the mainland. I'm sure we'll find a nice spot for that as well." "I don't suppose you happen to know where we are right now?" "No." I said, looking at the horizon again, watching as the sun slowly set behind it, "But I do know that it's almost sunrise, so that means it should be safe to leave soon." Nathan nodded and turned back to look at the sky. The sun finally broke free above the water and started its journey towards the west, leaving trails of golden light in its wake, lighting the way to our destination. We sat together quietly, enjoying the view, but Nathan seemed much more at ease than ear
KRISTINA'S POVMy voice cracked as another sob escaped me. "All three of us…" It felt good to admit how much I had missed him. The silence was deafening this time. A cold hand clasped itself around my arm. "That's not happening, Kristina," he said firmly. "There's no way we can escape. And besides, you have no chance of getting past that thing."He sighed and shook his head. "This is all my fault." "Nathan–" "You don't understand!" He exclaimed, suddenly enraged, "We're locked up in the damn prison for our entire lives. You can't blame me for this. I did nothing wrong! You did everything wrong!" His voice rose into hysteria. "You're supposed to care about me! Why are you acting so stupid? You're never going to forgive yourself, aren't you?" "N–Nathan…" "Stop acting like an idiot! How many times do I have to tell you that this is my fault! Don't give me that crap about how you tried to help me! All you did was drive the wolves away! Just like you always do!" I winced as he screa
KRISTINA'S POVMy eyes frantically scanned the area surrounding us in search of an escape route. But all I found were empty hallways. No windows, no doors. Just a plain white door that I had just walked into. It was locked from the outside. I spun around to face Nick's direction and screamed out his name once more. Nothing. I tried to break the door down, even though I knew there would be no point. It didn't budge. So I did the only thing that came to mind and grabbed hold of the handle. The door wouldn't budge either, so I threw it against the wall as hard as I could and stepped back. There, I saw what I had been looking for. A thin sliver of light peeking out from underneath the door. I pushed the door open slightly, revealing a small stairwell that led down to the first floor. I quickly ran down, stopping on the ground floor where an old-fashioned elevator sat at the end of the corridor. A single button illuminated the small display board beside the buttons. 'Lunar Control'. I p
KRISTINA'S POVI could see him trying not to grin, but failing miserably. "Well… yes," I admitted. Nathan gave me a pointed look, and continued in an unimpressed tone of voice. "But if I didn't get to spend time with you now and then, I'd be all alone. So… you do want to do it?" He smirked. I rolled my eyes, "It isn't like we have much else to do anyway–" "Oooh, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun. The way they talk so sweetly. Like, 'Hello, how may I help you?' and stuff." "I'm not planning on doing any more dating than a friend, okay? Just hanging out and stuff." I scowled. Nathan just laughed. Then he suddenly froze, looking over at me. His mouth formed a wide O as he looked back at the book that he had been studying. A few seconds passed before his expression changed completely. A small smile spread across his face as he started laughing loudly. I stared blankly at him. Nathan finally took notice of me again, and his expression switched from one of hilarity to one of concern.
KRISTINA'S POV"And what makes you think I was ever in love with that idiot?" This time he turned to look directly into my eyes. There was such hurt and confusion in his face that I couldn't help myself. I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him into an embrace. "You don't have to be jealous or upset if you love me, Nathan." He held me tight for a few seconds, then pulled away and walked off down the sidewalk, not making eye contact with me once. Once he got to the end of the block, he glanced over his shoulder. I didn't dare follow after him to make sure he got home safe. Instead, I watched him leave. His blond curls bouncing around behind him. The light breeze ruffled through them. Nathan was so cute. I wished I was more like him and not like… well, me. The sound of someone knocking on my bedroom door snapped me out of my reverie. "Who is it?" "It's me, Jasmin." "Come in." My daughter, Jasmin, entered my room. I sat up in bed, propping myself up with a pillow. My bedhead was