Ariah’s POV I didn’t know where I was. There was a terrible ache ravaging through my head and it felt like I had a whole musical band, playing thrash up in my head. I groaned slightly as I forced open my heavy eyelids that had been shut for fuck knows how long. What was going on and where the hell was I? I wondered as I looked around the luxurious room. Some scenes flashed in my head, I remembered killing a man, and then I remembered killing another man, this one more vicious. The next scene that flashed saw me running through a thick forest, panting heavily as I rested on a tree. The next flash, I saw blood, my hands were covered with blood and my clothes were soaked in it too. Then, I remembered my vision becoming blurry and the forest getting darker by the second until it was completely a black abyss. I gasped and tried to sit up from the comfortable bed when I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. I let out a sharp cry as a biting pain shot up my body when I tried to move ag
Ethan’s POV I was relieved that I had Ariah back, but the first two days were miserable for me. Watching her every night after the doctor left with unconvincing news was the worst moment of my life. There was no way I could forgive myself if the fatal injury had cost Ariah’s life. When the doctor said she was getting better and she would be fine, a huge burden was lifted off my heart. I still stayed the night with her, most times dozing off with her hand in mine, I knew a lot of people that habit didn’t sit well with. The most obvious being Layla. “What are you doing, Ethan?” She cornered me outside my bedroom on a hot morning, I was in no mood to speak to her. I sighed and shut my eyes for a while, then looked at her with tired eyes, “What do you want, Layla?” I asked. She scoffed, “What do I want? I’m sitting here while I know we have a fucking ticking time bomb laying in your bedroom and you expect me to be okay with that? You’ve neglected me for days and you feel I will
Layla’s POV It was all a mess now. Everything I’ve worked for, everything I tried to achieve, it was all going down the drain. It had all been in vain, even the people that died and I had to step on their dead bodies just to get here, it had all been in vain! I sighed as I sat in the back of the Rolls Royce heading back to my pack, I was feeling devastated, angry, and betrayed by everyone and everything. Nature had never been on my side, despite all the efforts I had put in. Who cared if those efforts were good or evil? As long as they got me where I wanted to be right? “You fucking idiot!” I berated myself. It was all my fault. I thought everything would fall into place once I became Ethan’s queen, I thought the feelings would just spring up along the way. Even when Ariah was there and he had kept anything concerning feelings out of our union, I still had hope he would fall for me someday. I scoffed. It was all futile now, I had murdered a man that loved me for one that did
Ariah’s POV. I kept thinking about what Leia said, was I going to let Layla get away with what she did to me by keeping quiet? That would still make me a villain in front of everyone in the pack, I was never going to be accepted here if I didn’t let them know who had framed me. But then, would they believe me? If they didn’t believe me the first time, why would they believe me now? “No…” I said to myself. “There’s no use.” “So what would you do then? What’s the way forward?” Leia asked. I hated when she asked questions she knew I didn’t have the answer to, so I didn’t reply. I had been lying on the bed for an hour or so after the maids brought in food and drinks with strict orders from Lowell to make sure I was overfed. I crawled out of bed, groaning slightly as I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen, and walked to the window, it was nighttime already. I looked down at the beautiful pack, I wondered if I would be able to face them again after all they had done to me. It was even
Ethan’s POV I slammed the door as I walked into my study.You didn’t say the right things…You’ve ruined the night already… Ariah’s words reverberated in my head as I sat on my chair with my fists clenched. How didn’t I think of that? Why did the right things to say elude my mind at that point? Fuck! Her words were stuck in my head and there was a particular thing she said that recurred more than once or twice. …to be sure that I didn’t just go through hell to escape for a man… Where the hell had she been all this while and why did she refer to it as hell? Could it be the forest? Or had she been trapped somewhere? I sat upright and my eyes widened, who was the one that inflicted that injury on her? Or rather what? The cut had been too deep and too large to be that of any normal wild animal, it had to be a Lycan or a werewolf. I was so confused and trying to ponder on who could have been after her life, I couldn’t think of anyone that would try to harm her so badly…except Layla. T
Ethan’s POV I couldn’t get Layla off me in time to stop Ariah from walking away.She huffed when our eyes met and for about three seconds, I turned cold. It was the worst possible scene to occur at this time and I felt so dumb and helpless as I just stood there with Layla in my arms. Ariah didn’t even look like someone who was planning to give me a chance to say anything, she turned and walked up the stairs. My fists clenched tightly as I watched her walk away, there was a painful lump in my throat and my heart sank. This was going to be way harder than I thought and I hadn’t even started dealing with the pack itself and the elders. Fuck me. I sighed and carried Layla to one of the couches in the living room. It was awkward for a crying woman to come back so emotionally around this time of the night. I even thought she was drunk at first, but that wasn’t the case. Her eyes were red and partially swollen, she had been crying right from wherever she came from, I had never seen Layl
Ariah's POV Seeing Ethan and Layla together was the last sight I wanted my eyes to behold.She didn’t even see me while she was busy crying like a child, quite awkward to say but it was a very satisfying sight.Just the same way she loved seeing me in pain and tears, I loved it when it happened to her too, but what could have made such a person cry in the first place? I didn’t care though, all I knew was that I was pissed at Ethan and that infuriated me more. I found it difficult to sleep, but I eventually did after I played the encounter with Ethan in the garden over and over again.As usual, the maids came in, set a bath for me, and served breakfast. Watching the maids made me remember that particular maid at the Blue Moon pack, I owed her a lot. The morning was chilly, the sky was a plain stretch of blue, and the sun was nowhere to be found. The moment the door closed behind the maids, I heard a shuffling of feet outside the door and it opened the next second. I expected to se
Layla’s POV The bitch! I bit my lower lip hard as I stared at them kissing. My entire body was burning with anger and jealousy and what was worse was that I knew she had done it on purpose. Our eyes had met before the kiss. It was all her plan to get Ethan back on her side fully. I was pretty shaken by the confrontation I had with Ariah earlier. No one talked back at me like that, especially not a fucking slave from a werewolf pack! It got me so agitated and furious, but her words also stuck in my head. What gave her such confidence and why did her words carry so much weight and power? Ariah was starting to become a figure to contend with here, what had the wild done to her? I backed away slowly, the kiss didn’t seem to end and walked away silently. My fists were clenched tightly and my chest felt heavy. I wanted to smack the shit out of her and I was determined to make her life more of a living hell than I had the first time, but then I had my problems to handle. First, there wa