Surely I had to be dreaming. It felt like my strength had been restored.“Riggs, you can’t be, how are you-“ I couldn’t find the right words to say. He put his index finger over his lips and then pressed his hand against my forehead, at first I felt a sharp pain and then all of it was gone.“I just extracted the poison,” his familiar voice said.I swallowed hard, my chest thumping in its cage. “That’s not the-““You can’t tell anyone about this, Talie.”Hearing his voice like this was something I thought I wouldn’t be able to experience forever. My eyes were instantly filled with tears, and I attempted to pull him into a hug, but he got to his feet.“Meet me here again by tomorrow.”I hurriedly got to my feet as well, “where are you going?!”“I have to go now, no one must know about me.”“You can’t just leave me hanging in the dark, Riggs!” I called but all to no avail, he walked out on me, leaving me in the cave.I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to find my way back, but it felt like
“Get him some help!" I raised my voice, trying to catch the attention of the warriors.They all hurried in to assist, but he raised his hand, pulling the dagger from his side and causing more blood to spill onto the floor. My hands remained plastered over my mouth in shock as he rose to his feet and walked into the pack house, as if it was a casual occurrence. "Great job, everyone. Get some rest and clean up this mess," he said in his usual nonchalant manner.I followed after him immediately, my concern evident in my voice, "What are you doing? You need to get treated.""It will heal up," he stated dismissively. "Yes, but that doesn't mean you can't feel pain." I retorted, trying to look around to see if there was anything I could do to help. "Don't be dramatic about it. What happened?" I could hear the anger in his voice. “You know you should not have left.""Stop worrying about me and focus on yourself." I was on the verge of breaking down. “You can be angry at me later but we nee
This was my chance to tell him the truth, but I decided that until I had it figured out, it would remain a secret."Nowhere." I lied, trying to keep a straight face the entire time. "You know I don't want you to leave this place without being supervised. You saw what happened today, we can only make the security measures higher, we can’t stop the attacks."He got to his feet, "I need you to stay safe for me.""I know that," I said."How is your injury?" I asked him in a soft voice, keeping my gaze fixed on him.He put one hand behind my neck and pulled me closer to him to kiss me gently.He pulled away from the kiss and wrapped me in his arms in a tight hug. "Don't try to pull away," he told me, hugging me even tighter."I will be back. I want to see my mum."“Tell her I’m requesting for her presence because I don't know why she let you on the battlefield, even after I told her to watch you appropriately.""It wasn't her fault," I quickly defended her. "It was one of the attackers fr
Seeing my hesitation, he started to say, "Talie, we're not supposed to keep anything from each other. Spill the truth, what is going on?"No matter how hard I tried, Riggs' words just kept playing in my head about how he had told me to keep this secret.I didn't want to betray him a second time."I cant tell you," i eventually said, deciding that I was not going to lie to him."Does this have anything to do with the person that attacked you and your mum earlier?""I really can't say much," i said in a low voice and quickly added, "but I need you to trust me. Once I figure this out, I promise I'll tell you everything.""I would hope that I would be the number one person you could trust."I closed the distance between us and put my arms around his neck. "And you are, I swear you are, but I just... this is something I need to figure out on my own."I was expecting some pressure, something to force me to talk until I spilled, but surprisingly he didn’t do anything. He put one arm around m
**Kaden**I saw the worry in her eyes, but I immediately brushed it off with a smile. "I promise I'm fine. It's something I'll fix. I'll be back after the meeting with her father. We'll discuss more on it."She couldn't wipe the worry off her face, so I leaned in and kissed her cheek. "I thought you were angry with me you were just acting jealous back there."She pouted, “I need you to be fine. “I took a step back. " I am fine go back there and focus on training. I think everybody can handle things from there. I'll leave for my meeting now. It's almost seven in the morning.""Are they aware you’re coming?" She asked me. “I didn't let them know, they almost tried to kill us. Why do you think they would be so welcoming? I'm going there without warning. If they send my head back, Just know I love you."She widened her eyes in horror."I'm just kidding. Please be safe. I'll do my very best."She frowned, I smiled. I knew she was still worried. I watched her leave to join the rest of the
TalieI was still trying to take time to process how Alpha’s presence when Riggs broke his silence. "You told him about it," he said. " you said you would keep it a secret."I turned to face him immediately, “what no, I didn't.”“Then why is he here?”I turned to face alpha, “I was going to ask him the same thing.”"Talie you what are you doing?" he said in a very soft voice."It's Riggs," I said. "Alpha can't you see he's alive and—"Alpha stretched his hand towards me, trying to pull me to his side, but I didn't take his hands. "Alpha? I don't know why you followed me. I told you to trust me."His face was cold and expressionless as he stared at Riggs, all of this was confusing but I really wanted to know."Talie take my hands," his voice was stern and cold.” I stared at him in confusion, “but why?”“That is clearly not Riggs, anyone would know that,” he said. "What are you talking about?"He dragged me to his side. "That is a shapeshifter Talie. You can tell by the way they smel
I stepped out of the water and put my clothes on. I went after him, “you know this person?”"Yes," he lifted her in his arms, "quickly get the pack doctor, okay?"I stared at him in confusion. We were clearly heading back together. I tried to keep up with him, noticing how fast he was heading back to the pack. He was carrying her in his arms. She looked like she had been beaten and battered. Her face was heavily scarred and swollen. Blood stains were all over her dress. Part of her hair looked like it had been pulled out, and her blue dress was as good as being ragged. I tried to guess she was a rogue, but I couldn't pick up any rogue scent from her. "Alpha, are you sure it's okay to take her to the pack? She looks like someone is coming after her.""They can’t stand a chance against my men regardless of who they are.”I was surprised to see him putting the rest of the pack at risk for just one person. I really wanted to know who she was and why she had washed up at the lake.We go
"What the hell?" I stared blankly at him. He got to his feet to open the door. She stood there, leaning against the doorframe. "I’m so sorry to bother you like this, but I keep having nightmares and feel troubled. It feels like someone would come in to get me, especially my attackers." She said in an almost inaudible voice. "That’s understandable. It’s fine you can sleep in here." "Oh wow." I got to my feet in utter shock. I picked up a pillow and blanket and began to head out of the room. Alpha held my arm and pulled me back, stopping me. "Where are you going?" "Clearly leaving the room to give you two the privacy you need." "What are you talking about?" "You just told her it was fine for her to sleep in here." "Yes, but I wasn’t asking you to leave. I was going to leave so you two could sleep here together." He said his voice was still heavy with sleep. "Oh, I’m pretty sure Savanna doesn’t want to sleep with a stranger like me. She is clearly traumatized and probably believ
Andrea began to walk out of the pack house, and I trailed along behind her, trying my best not to be seen.I watched as She scurried past bushes, and the moment she was getting further away from the pack house, she began to pick up her pace.As if she sensed that someone was following her, so it was hard to keep up with her because it was still a little bit dark. it was barely seven in the morning, and the sun had still not risen. I tried to dodge all the branches, tall grass,as I made my way after her.She stopped in front of a small shack and stepped in. I watched from afar, hidden from any view. Why else would she be in a small shop with my alpha? I swallowed a lump that grew in my throat. It better not be what I was thinking It was.I opened the door slowly. It was dark. "Hello," I called into the darkness. All of a sudden, all the lights flickered on, and I heard a huge confetti sound.I put my hands over my ears, flinching from the fear that came with it. I looked around and saw
I headed back to the pack house all by myself and decided to think nothing of it.I hoped that if Andrea would come back to me and explain the situation, maybe I wouldn't have to be so worried. I stayed in the living room, pacing back and forth and waiting for her to show up. When she began to not, I decided to engage myself in something else, I went back to the office and decided to look through the papers that I wasn't done with. After an hour had passed, I left the office and saw Andrea walking into the pack house."Hey," I said. "I thought You were going to be at Ava's place.""Yeah," i replied. "Turned out that she wasn't home, so I came to the pack almost immediately, and you weren't here. I thought we could have hung out and watched some movies together. Where did you go?""I just had to quickly deal with something." I closed my eyes, started mumbling under my breath, and internally hoped that she should confess and say that she was. But she didn't. I nodded at l her. “Oka
Three months laterAndrea walked into the office where I was busy looking through the paperwork for Alpha so that he wouldn't have to do it so much. I looked up at her and broke into a smile. "If it is not my favorite friend," I said. She smiled back at me, a smile creeping up her lips. She folded her arms across her chest. "What about your dad?”"He's been at your mom's place, like at this point is tiring me out," she chuckled. "Like if you guys want to be together, just say that's something. Why are you wasting our time? Like bro, my younger brothers have been asking me and I have no idea what to tell them.”“Really.” “Yeah.""So I'm going over there to call him back home. I hope he remembers that he has children," I closed the book in front of me. "Well then I'm coming with you because I really want to see my mum too. I have a few things I want to discuss with her.""Okay then, no problem," she said.As we walked to my mom's place, hand in hand, she interlocked her hands with m
I woke up the next morning to snuggly kisses from Alpha. I said in his sleepy voice. “Shouldn't you still be resting after everything that has happened?" He smiled at me. "Why? When I have everything I need here? Get ready. We're going out today." That got me to open my eyes. "Where are we going?"I raised my eyebrow at him. "You just have to find out, my love.”“then you shouldn't have told me. You know how curious I can get." "It's no big deal," he chuckled. "I'm just pulling your leg. I actually just want us to go out and have fun together. Do you know the entire time I was in the middle of the war? The only thing I was thinking about was you. And if you were doing fine, I swear you've taken full control of my mind and body at this point." I couldn't help but laugh at him. "I got my feet all right, I’ll get dressed!"Alpha and I wore matching clothes. I wore a white crop top and jean shorts. He wore a white tank top and jean shorts. He put his hair in a bun, just how I liked
Immediately, he fell forward in my hand. I began to scream, panicking in fear. I tried to balance him on the floor.He was too heavy for me to lift by myself. "Mum," I cried, hoping for whoever was around to come in.My mum immediately ran inside, and surprisingly, Carl tagged along with her. "What's wrong?" "I don't know, he suddenly lost balance.” I cried.My mom immediately tried to check for his pulse. "What's wrong with him? Why is he not breathing?" I asked.She pointed at the floor. "Don't worry, I will fix things. Just get the pack physician," she said. I jerked to my feet, going to do as instructed, immediately wiping my tears with the back of my hand In panic, I was so lost and confused."What happened?!”“I don't understand," I told Andrea as she raced by my side, trying to catch up with me. "Where are you going?""I don't know," I raised my voice after, “I’m clearly as confused as you as you can see, I just want Alpha to be fine." I continued to cry. She didn't say an
We got to Ava's place, and she was happy to see me at the door. She looked confused when she saw Andrea and stared at me, waiting for some sort of explanation."Oh yeah, this is Andrea. She's a new pack member.”“She doesn't smell like she's a part of our pack." She raised an eyebrow."Yeah, that is why I said she's a new pack member.""Ohh, it's nice to see you. What brings you guys here?" Then she realized that the whole thing with Alpha had happened, and then she raised her eyebrows at me. "Oh my goodness, that must be so insensitive of me to ask. I know that Alpha has gone off to war. I can't even imagine how you are dealing with things right now." She tugged my hand and pulled me into the room. "Come on, settle in."Andrea looked around Ava's place. "This is a nice place you've got. And yeah, she did want to come here to get his mind off things because she's been so worried, like Alpha is going to lose the battle or something." Andrea rolled her eyes.I didn't understand why she
I assisted Alpha to pack his things that he would need for the war, and when it was time for him to leave, I found myself sitting on the bed, burying my face in my hands and crying.He hurried to my side and crouched in front of me, he wiped my tears off with the pad of his thumb. In my seated position, I threw my arms around him and wailed against his shoulder."Why are you crying so much?""I don't want anything to happen to you."He pulled away from my embrace. "I just assured you that I'd be fine. Just trust me, okay?"I nodded at his words. Even though I found myself not believing him, it didn't seem like a reality until I saw him and the rest of the warriors with his bag slung over his shoulder as he prepared to leave the pack for war.I held my chest tightly. There is no way anyone could defeat my Alpha. He was the best. I knew it, but I didn't know why I was so scared. Things were finally going fine . The last thing I wanted was for it to be jinxed.I wanted to find my mum alm
At first, I was confused. Then I turned to look at Alpha; he shook his head. 'I'm sorry, I can't do that.'She immediately stepped forward, going on her knees and holding his feet. 'Please, you have to take us in. Look, that's my youngest brother, and he's really sick.' She pointed at the child in her father's hands. 'If we don't find shelter now, I don't think he can make it. Please, I beg you, we will do anything you ask us to do. I can sense that you're the alpha of the pack, please.'Seeing alphas reluctance she added, 'My dad himself was a trained warrior before everything came crashing down. It would be very helpful to the pack's growth. Don't deny us access, and I'm begging you with everything.'she began to shed tears. She was looking like she was about my age, and I felt the pain. When I saw her dad's face, it reminded me of my mum and how desperate she was the first time we left.I turned to Alpha, tugging his shirt. ‘please, just take them in. I feel like there is enough
The next morning, when we woke up, I rolled into Alpha's arms."Hey, did you sleep very well?" I asked him. He nodded. "Yeah, I did. Especially when you are here by my side.” “So, what do you want to have for breakfast? I don't know. I want to have you. It's you." "Stop. Be for real?" I chuckled. I hid my laughter behind my hand."I don't know. I'm not really hungry. I just want us to eat.""Are you ready to leave for the pack house?""Yeah, but we can't go unless we see Shayla first. I need to say my proper goodbye before I disappear. I don't know when I'm going to see her again, so let's not just rush to leave, right?""Okay?" He nodded and kissed my forehead."Goodness, I can't imagine the amount of work that I have to go back home to, but it's fine. We'll just settle in just as quickly as we left." I pursed my lips and nodded at him."Alright, I'll go and find something for us to eat. I should go see Shayla.""I really want to know how she’s settling in. You can hang out with J