Aurora huffed in frustration as she looked all around for any trace of Stephanie, but it seemed like the woman had dropped off the surface of the earth the moment she left the room. It wasn’t like she had spent a long time there after she was gone.Aurora wanted to thank Stephanie for her help since it wouldn’t be possible for them to find Layla and understand the root of her stunt without her. If Layla came later, there was a big chance Zach wouldn’t remember what he was doing on Thursday afternoon vividly. She was about to give up when she felt a faint presence towards the west. She began to trail the sensation until it led her to a big diner, one she was sure served food fancier than its name suggested.Hesitantly, Aurora entered and spotted Stephanie sitting at a table talking to someone. She was about to walk toward her when she saw Anabella approach from the opposite end, coming through a door Aurora hadn’t noticed. It was then that she realized the woman sitting across from Step
“I didn’t know that Alpha Maverick had a private jet at his disposal,” Easton snickered sarcastically, and Alec scoffed.“What do you think we are? Some barbarians who stay in one place?” Alec retorted.“I don’t think you’re too far from that,” Kael commented.“Except for the fact that this pack is the richest in the whole southern area and top five in the whole world, you must be an imbecile to think that they commute on foot,” Layla chimed in, earning glares from both Kael and Easton.“Which pack are you from exactly?” Easton asked, and Layla shrugged.“Why don’t you switch packs and declare yourself a bona fide member of the Moonlight Pack instead of being a backstabber?” Kael shot at her, but Layla just poked her tongue out at him.“I would have done that, but then that means their beta would have to follow me. You can’t function properly without your Beta, and your Beta can’t function at all without me…” Layla trailed off.“Who fed you those delusions?” Kael asked.“Need I remind
“And what exactly do you mean by, ‘You are Maverick Prill, and room 232 is yours?’ What about the second room? My room?” Aurora asks, her voice laced with irritation as she faces the overly-peachy receptionist.“Exactly what you heard,” the woman replies with a smug grin, eyes flicking over Aurora. “Do you have trouble hearing?”Aurora nearly scoffs at the woman's dismissive tone. This was the problem with dealing with humans in a pack-dominated world—no matter how polite they tried to be, their underlying rudeness always slipped through. Aurora could bet anything that if this woman were a werewolf and knew her reputation, she'd be speaking with a lot more respect.“So, are you saying there’s only one room reserved under our name?” Maverick asks, his eyebrow raised. It’s clear he’s having a hard time processing this, especially since he personally made the reservation for two rooms.“Yes, handsome. It appears that way.” The receptionist looks Maverick up and down, twirling her hair and
“Are you sure there was still no room in this damn hotel?” Aurora asked the bitchy receptionist, who was now glaring at her.“I’m going to say this for the last time, ma’am. There was no room available for the rest of the month. We were fully booked.”“There wouldn’t be anything if I offered to pay three times the amount?”“Would you like it if I kicked you out because someone offered to pay threefold, ma’am? Even though I would do that to you without being offered so much,” she asked, but muttered the last part. Aurora scoffed.The only reason the woman wasn’t tearing her hair out was because one of the executives was on the premises, and if a receptionist at a hotel that prided itself on the opinion of clients was found insulting one of them, shit would go down for the employee. There was also the possibility that the press was lurking around somewhere too.“Now, get out of my sight, ma’am. There’s nothing I can do, and why the hell were you so hell-bent on not sharing the room with
“What? No,” he said with a small chuckle and turned to glance at Aurora, who was sleeping peacefully on the bed through the glass. He turned to face the view again.“Of course, I won’t be able to come since fucking rival 1.0 is right there,” she said, and Maverick could picture her doing an eye roll. “Why the hell did you call me?”“Because you’re the only one awake at this time,” he replied.“Of course, that shit ass beta of yours will be on fucking period and will subtract your head from your fucking neck if you wake him up.”“I’m glad you know that.”“How’s the fucking situation?” she asked, and he was silent for a bit, his eyes sweeping over the many small lights in the distance.“We decided to be friends,” he said.“Wait? What? You’ve decided to be friends?! You fucking talked about it?!” she yelled, which made Maverick remove the phone from his ear to protect his eardrums. “You didn’t talk about it?! None of you fucking mentioned the freaking past and just decided to be damn frie
“You seriously couldn’t continue to make me sleep on the couch. That wasn’t done. How about we do it like this? We take turns— you sleep in bed today, I will tomorrow,” Aurora said as they entered the elevator and pressed the ground floor button. She was already sick of staying in the living room until morning.“You were just complaining. I was sure you weren’t feeling any sort of pain,” Maverick replied, his hands buried in his pockets as he stared ahead.Of course, there was no way she would feel sore since most nights, she slept in the bed anyway, and not once had she ever woken up while being carried to and from the bed.Whether it was because she felt safe in the environment or because she just always had to involuntarily let her guard down at night, he would never know.“Yes, I didn’t feel pain, but that didn’t make it any less uncomfortable. Let’s just take turns and be fair,” she insisted.“I didn’t know you played fair. You didn’t seem to consider taking turns when you readily
Isn’t this a coincidence?” Aurora heard behind her, and she turned, staring at Ferix in disbelief.“No, it isn’t. I would like to report you for stalking at this stage,” Aurora replied, crossing her arms over her chest, and Ferix laughed. She wondered what was so funny.“Why would I stalk you? I had some things to do here, and there’s no way I’m supposed to find out where you go and who you see when I just met you four days ago.”“And do I have to remind you that from four days ago until now, there’s been no day that I don’t see you?”“Like I said, it’s just a coincidence,” he said, and Aurora squinted her eyes at him.“I don’t even know why I’m talking to you in the first place,” she said and turned to walk away, but he immediately followed her.“You still haven’t told me your name.”“Why should I?”“It’s only fair. I told you mine.”“Too bad. I don’t play fair, and I never asked for your name. Now fuck off,” she said and hastened her steps. He immediately rushed after her and grabbed
Aurora glanced back subtly without turning her head at all, it was more like a side glance to catch the shadow of the person trailing after her.She smirked when she saw that they were still following her. She had gone out for a jog since the room had become unbearably boring, Maverick was still buried in work the next day, hardly paying any attention to her— not that she needed his attention anyway.But now, two men were following her, trying to keep it subtle, but she noticed them immediately, and since she was up to nothing and in need of some activity, she turned into a quiet street, empty of people, with an alleyway just beyond.“Perfect,” she muttered to herself, continuing to walk. The men grew bolder, no longer bothering to hide that they were creepy stalkers.Aurora turned sharply when they least expected it, her mouth quirking up in a smirk as she stretched, straightening her hand, ready for a fight.“Now, gentlemen, don’t creep on ladies; if you wanted to ask me out, you cou
Ferix had run into the man he had come to this side of the city for, and the man had delayed him with talks that Ferix had paid absolutely no attention to. He just wanted to get away.Telling Aurora how he felt hadn’t been a good idea, and he was aware of that, but he couldn’t help it.At that moment, with her eyes lightened up and the laugh he knew he had caused, he had just blurted it out. Nothing good was going to come from it, because even though they were not particularly lovers, it didn’t excuse the fact that they were still mates.“The look on your face tells me that you’ve done something stupid,” he heard and raised his head to see Carly standing off to the side, almost blending with the shadows.“I haven’t done anything stupid!” he snapped at her, and she scoffed.“You’ve definitely done something stupid, so tell me what it was that you did.”“I didn’t do anything. So what the fuck are you doing here?” Ferix asked, walking to where he had parked his car, and Carly tailed afte
“Then I would contact you later,” Maverick said into the phone before he disconnected the call.“Maverick?!” Someone called his name with a loud shrill, and he was forced to turn in the direction of the person who was screaming so loudly in the hospital.“OMG! It’s really you!” she exclaimed as she moved toward him. Maverick was surprised to see the receptionist from the hotel at Eastwood Pack in his pack, but he hid his surprise quite well.“Hi, Carly,” Maverick said, and her eyes brightened when she discovered that the man recognized her.“It’s so nice to see you again!” she exclaimed, and Maverick was almost forced to tell her to calm down, but he held it down.“What are you doing here?” he asked.“I’m here to visit my cousin and have been here for quite some time, but I didn’t have any hope of seeing you since you’re the Alpha and all, but here you are! In the fucking plain sight!” she continued in her shrill voice, already wrapping her arms around Maverick’s and pushing herself c
“I can take care of it here,” Aurora said, but Maverick didn’t pay any attention to her as he continued walking towards the car, her hand in his as he dragged her along.“Seriously, it’s nothing huge, just a bit of cotton, bandages, and a couple of pain relief pills would help,” Aurora insisted, but he just opened the car and sat her down.“You have to recognize the fact that I’m a werewolf too, I have healing abilities too!” she exclaimed.“Healing abilities that are very slow, you forget that part,” Maverick finally replied as he sat behind the wheel. “Just look at yourself in the mirror. Only heaven knows how many bones you’ve broken, your face is all bruised up, and I’m sure your arm is aching from the amount of shooting you’ve done today.”“It’s not as bad as it looks,”“I believe the decision is up to me,” he said. “Now, you’ll sit still like a good girl and let me drive you to the hospital so that Sadie can check you up. I don’t want to hear what you think.”Aurora glared at hi
“You weren’t nice,” Aurora commented, and the woman smirked.“I thought I told you, you were the one who wasn’t taking me seriously,” she replied nonchalantly, taking pride in Aurora’s busted lips.“Then, pardon me for being rude too,” Aurora replied as the woman moved towards her. This time, both of them were merciless. They hit each other fast and hard, barely giving the other a chance to recover before delivering the next blow, but Aurora seemed to be on the winning side, while the other woman was getting tired.Aurora delivered a blow to her jaw, adding another bruise to her already bruised face. She grabbed the woman, who was still sputtering, and flipped her over her shoulder, throwing her on the floor hard. The sound of bones breaking made some of the werewolves on the field cringe. They watched as Aurora cleaned the blood on her lips and face with the back of her hands before groaning when she remembered that she must have dirtied it more because her knuckles were all bruised
Aurora stared at the numerous werewolves scattered across the part of the field that had been designated as the training ground. Many of them were warming up, while others chatted amongst themselves. The Night Pack members stood apart from the members of the Moonlight Pack, none of them willing to familiarize themselves with the others just yet.The Night Pack wouldn’t make the first move, especially since the members of the other pack didn’t show the standard amount of respect for their leader. While they didn’t openly disrespect Aurora, they also didn’t hold her in high regard. Many of them believed that without her spells, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Her reliance on magic was something the men, whose pride lay in their strength, found hard to respect.“Good morning,” Maverick’s voice rang out across the field, commanding immediate attention. Even Aurora turned to glance at him.His tone was nothing like the one he used when speaking to her. This voice was authoritativ
Aurora walked into the playroom after searching the entire mansion for her assistant and almost groaned when she saw Layla and Zach making out intensely on the couch. They were so lost in each other that neither of them noticed her presence. Tilting her head to the side, she observed them for a moment, shook her head, and then loudly cleared her throat.They finally broke apart. Zach tried to move away from his mate to face Aurora properly, but Layla pinned him down with her body, glaring at Aurora.“Can’t you just go on your way without interrupting us?” Layla snapped.“Can’t you just find somewhere else to do your dirty deeds? Thank god there are no kids here. They’d be blinded by your antics,” Aurora said, sitting on the couch opposite them. Layla’s scowl deepened.“What do you want?” Layla asked begrudgingly. Aurora scoffed at her grumpiness before reaching for the box she had brought. She placed it on the table, opened it, and watched as Layla leaned forward to examine its conten
Aurora halted when she saw Phoebe sitting in front of her, hands draped on her waist. The woman wore a spaghetti strap top and a tight skirt that accentuated her figure.“I have absolutely no idea what the hell you are on about,” Aurora said casually. She was at a restaurant, trying to tail Jerry’s movements. Anabella had informed them during the meeting that a mail had arrived for Jerry two days ago. She had checked it and found only a cryptic note:It will get delivered at Jay Restaurant and Pub at three o’clock, eastside.Aurora had arrived just in time to witness a man—likely a spy from one of the many packs—drop a small container into the trash bin. She retrieved it and discovered shiny, vibrant red rubies inside. Pocketing them, she quickly used her power to create a replica before returning to her table to eat.“Maverick and you are back together, aren’t you? You went on a date,” Phoebe said, interrupting Aurora’s thoughts.Aurora snickered. “So that’s what you’re talking about
Ferix sighed as he placed the glass cup on the counter once again. He pushed the bottle toward the bartender, who refilled it with one of the strong cocktails Ferix had absentmindedly picked when he arrived at the bar.His head was clearly not in the right place, and the lively bar continued on without him as if he weren’t even there. His mind wandered far away, no matter how much he tried to steer his thoughts elsewhere. He always ended up back to the same thing: Aurora. Specifically, the image of Maverick and Aurora sharing a quiet moment on the balcony and the kiss they’d shared in the car later that night.He’d been waiting for Aurora at the pack house, ready to leave when she didn’t show. But just as he was about to head home, the sight of them in the car caught him off guard. They were so lost in each other that neither of them noticed him standing there.He had asked himself countless times why he still liked Aurora despite knowing she had a mate. Back when they weren’t on good
“Why does it always have to be that man ruining our date at the park?” Aurora grumbled, her tone sharp as she crossed her arms. Maverick kept his focus on the road, his hands steady on the steering wheel.“At least now we know why he’s there now and possibly why he was there back then,” Maverick replied, his voice calm but thoughtful.“He came to meet with a member of the Blood Moon Pack eight years ago too?” Aurora asked, raising an eyebrow.“I can’t be certain it was the Blood Moon Pack back then, but I’m sure this park has been his meeting spot for a while. It’s lively, there’s often a crowd. A man his age walking into a trampoline park might seem odd, but not strange enough to attract real attention,” Maverick explained. Aurora nodded in agreement, her mind piecing things together.“That makes a lot of sense,” she admitted, placing a thoughtful hand under her chin.“You don’t seem that concerned about him being alive,” Maverick observed, glancing at her briefly.“I’m not,” she rep