Back to work POV: Maddison The moment I stepped into the building, I knew that something was wrong. I was happy and refreshed from the week long break and I was ready to get back to work, pumped for the day. Olivia was waving me over at the front desk excitedly and she got out of her desk and pulled me into a tight, bone crushing hug. "It's so good to see you, B!" She squealed, hugging me tighter. "How're you? How've you been?! It's good to have you back! Have lunch with me this afternoon. Bill's on me of course." I was grinning wildly and holding on to her hand as we laughed and chatted together for a few minutes. Two fellow employees walked into the building, chatting and laughing, but the moment they saw me, their gazes turned cold and hard and frosty and they rolled their eyes and eyed me scornfully before walking away. My heart seized. "What was that about?" I asked Olivia. "Oh..." She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "That..." I swallowed in anticipation,
All night The boss' assistant POV: Maddie Working as Mr Winston's assistant was a breeze. It was my job to keep him informed and organized through out the week. All week, he had been having meetings outside the buildings with investors and partners willing to work with him. We had dinners and luncheons amd gala and charity events and it was actually fun meeting new people and going to different places. He kept me at his side always, taking notes, keeping track of his schedules and reorganizing meetings that he couldn't keep up with. Today however was different. He asked me to leave his side and give them some privacy as he chatted with investors from Milan. We had been invited to a convention in downtown Manhattan and Mr Winston was focusing on evolving his brand and getting into other aspects of consumer purchases. Lately, he had invested heavily in an upcoming make up brand that wasn't doing well at the moment but showed huge promise in doing better and sky–rocketing above its
Wrong POV: Mr Winston I felt like shit. I felt like the biggest pile of dog shit. I felt horrible the way I had rudely dismissed Maddie yesterday all because of my petty jealousy. She had asked what she did wrong and I had given her a bullshit answer. The truth was that I was mad with jealousy. She was talking, laughing... SMILING with him and I had lost it. God, gatekeeping her was going to be harder than I thought. I wanted her to save those conversations for me. To fadhion a smile and preserve it for me alone. To save her laughs for me. Was it too much to fucking ask for? But I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. I shouldn't have spoken to her like that yesterday. I shouldn't have treated her like that yesterday. She deserved to be treated like a queen, especially by me... But I was the one that kept fucking up with her. She was only try to help... Infact, she had helped immensely yesterday. I really needed that invite and if everything went smoothly in that party, the Vande
Dinners and dates POV: Winston It was quiet in the car all the way to Demure fashion house. The silence was stifling and suffocating and I almost exhaled in relief when the car rolled to a stop in front of the towering building. We were ushered past the waiting hall and into the judging room where we met with Donatella herself. I was almost certain she was a witch and she was almost certain I was a wolf creature and we had done business for decades without any of us looking a day older to the point that we were sure that the other wasn't a normal human being either. We never said a thing to each other, though, but we seemed to have unconsciously agreed on the fact that we would never question exactly who or what the other person was. And she had respected that subtle agreement. That was why I liked and respected Donatella Chere Di Santa and why I had done business with her all these years. "Dio mio! I miei occhi mi ingannano? do my eyes deceive me? Is that Winston?!" I heard her
Stood Up POV: Winston Later that evening, I sat at the backseat of my limo with Donatella, talking animatedly to me. "And then, I told her no no! We do not do it like that here. We take the bull by the horn, I said and... Winston?" She stopped, hesitating. "You're not listening to me. Why are you not listening to me?" I sighed in my seat, rubbing my forehead tiredly. "It's nothing, Dona. I'm just stressed out a bit. Today was a hard day." "Oh, my friend. I am so sorry. I shouldn't have insisted on dinner." "No no," i was quick to stop her from beating herself up, "you didn't force me to do anything. I wanted it to." "Well," she smiled at me, "i had a lovely evening, Winston." "Likewise," I smiled back at her. The limo came to a stop in front of her villa. She opened the door and stepped out, paused, changed her mind and got back in. "You know... You should tell that lovely model assistant of yours to go out with you sometime..." "What?!" I spluttered, self righteously. "Dona,
Semblance of a man Pov: Winston "Maddie!" A male voice shot through my thoughts and I looked upto see a man approaching us with messy brown hair and apologeticblue eyes. Except, those apologetic eyes turned to furious ones when he saw that she wasn't alone. Piece of shit. It was almost ten in the night and he had the audacity to show up and still get pissed at her and– I froze... Was that?.. I sniffed harder and sure enough I caught the scent, heavy now... The very heavy scent of another woman all over him. Oh God. My nerves were paralyzed with shock. It never occurred to me... That this asshole could be seeing another woman behind Maddie's back. I glowered at him, more pissed at him than usual now. "Are you going to introduce me to your friend?" He asked coldly but with a warm smile on his face, all passive–aggressive like. Either Maddie honestly didn't catch his cold tone or she chose to ignore it. "Don't be silly, Will." She laughed, standing up to hug her husband. Th
No tears left to cry Pov: Maddison "Are you going to tell me what THAT was about?! Huh?!" My lips trembled, I blinked back my tears and rushed to my kitchen, digging into my drawer for an emergency stash of Advil i kept lying around in easy places to remember. I found the packet and swallowed two tablets, chasing it down with some water and waiting for the drug to do its job. "Maddison I'm talking to you!" He was still screaming at me. I held my head in my hands as it throbbed in pain. I was having a head splitting headache. "Maddison!" He walked into the kitchen, his eyes furious. I sat at the bar stool, cradling my head in my hands. "What?" I asked. "For goodness sake, what is the problem, Will?" It was midnight and throughout the entire dinner, he had been making snide remarks and passive aggressive statements about me, mr Winston and the fact that I was working as a whole. "No, Maddie, don't give me that attitude, you KNOW what you did wrong!" I sighed, exasperated. "No
Hello Seattle Pov: Maddison It was my first time being in the air and I couldn't stop looking at everything with wide curious eyes. I had never been in an airplane before... Talk more of a private jet. Me and a bunch of other employees that were handpicked by me and approved by Mr Winston had piled into the jet and by the time the plane was about to take off, it became painfully obvious that this was my first time flying. I sat in my seat, my hands clutching the arm rest in a tight grip. "Your first time?" Mr Winston asked, beside me, smiling gently at me just as the jet started to take off. I swallowed and nodded stiffly, terror attacking my nerves, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. He looked at me, his eyebrows furrowing in concern and then, he clasped his hand over my balled fist, stroking gently. My knees stopped bouncing against each other, my breathing calmed, I began to feel slightly better. The flight was shorter than I expected and through it all, Mr Winston
It was a blur from then on.They whipped me with whips laced in silver, fed me Aurum and argentum and made me inhale wolfesbane, the grounded petals of a flower that attacked our cardio vascular system. They flogged me with silver studded sticks and kicked me with silver soled shoes and stabbed at me and poked fun at me and laughed at me.Maddie was struggling so hard in her seat, crying and begging in mumbles for them to stop.I was weak. My eyes were closing. I could have died any second...And then, i heard a growl so gutteral, so beast like, from the other side of the room, in the direction where Maddie was.At first, I thought that it was all in my head, because no no no... It cannot be.But the others fell silent and stopped their assault on me.Maddie was growling, deep in her throat, her eyes were flashing yellow with beast like slits as pupils. Fur sprouted out of her skin. She seemed to grow bigger and bigger on the seat and stood on her feet, still tied to the chair, and ke
daysPov: WinstonIt took me a while to rouse to consciousness. Gwyn had been the first one to wake and porge the sleeping pills out of her system, because she had the lightest weight and then, she made a disgustingly smelling potion and held it up at each of our noses, to wake us up too.And so, that was how I woke up to a pungent, egg smelling potion bomb, exploding in my nose.I looked up at the grim faces of my best friends, together with Cerulean and Lapis' worried gazes and wondered what the fuck their problems were.Why were they in my room, looking at me like that? I turned to my side to ask Maddie if she was seeing what I was seeing... And had the shock of my life.Maddie's side of the bed was empty. "Where is she?!" I had growled desperately."We don't know," Gwyn had whispered, "but from the looks of it, she had drugged us and ran away.""What?!" A tremor shook my spine. I was up and out of the bed immediately, tugging on a shirt and pants and grabbing my car keys, a mill
The ghost of a smile stayed on my lips but as I continued the story, my smile dropped and fell from my face. "I stayed with Mr Winston for a while, but one day, I decided to go back home to get the rest of my things and really leave for the last time... Or at least, the last time before I start the divorce process... My husband. He was a raging angry drunk that night. There was a party playing in the apartment and I had already packed my things but he cornered me and... And he..." my voice shook.Olivia looked at me worriedly, her beautiful face twisted into a concerned scowl.I took a deep breath. "He beat me up, Olivia."A shocked gasp escaped her lungs."Yeahhh... Winston kind of... Saved me that night, and took me away to one of his islands while I got healed up. He took care of me, Liv.""Like he should," she beamed at me. She suddenly froze,her eyes going wide. She snapped her fingers. "THAT'S why the two of you have not been at work lately!" She exclaimed, her eyes softening. "
AmbushPov: MaddisonIt was an entire month and half before I hatched my failproof plan. Before I got the motivation at all.I was able to sneak out of the Grand Mansion without Winston noticing that morning.It actually helped that I had taken charge of dinner and I may or may not have drugged everyone's food.I left the conservation at five in the morning, when Winston was still sleeping peacefully beside me, his arms around my waist, pulling me close and tugging him to his torso.I had made the call last night and the recipient was probably eagerly awaiting my return, back in the city... But I needed to do this right, and I didn't want any distracrions.I hadn't slept a wink last night, and we had talked and laughed and even made love and I swallowed a sigh of relief when the drugs began to take effect and his speech started slurring and he was mumbling and falling over his words.My eyes were wide open, i slid his arm away from my waist, slowly, quietly, just incase I had not give
see for yourself Pov: Winston "Drive me back to my mother's home," Maddie said, weak and exhausted as I held her quietly in the car. "But we just got back from there," i said confused. Nonetheless, I extracted myself from her body and strapped myself to the seat. She was quiet as I inputed the address information into the gps all over again and I understood why she would be so rattled. She had just lost her best friend. What I didn't understand was why she had suddenly stopped consoling Olivia, the moment she saw that thing on her phone. I was dying to know what it was. I was dying to let her let me in. But her end of the telepathic bond I shared with her had gone depressingly silent and cold. It took a while. Hours and hours and more frustrating hours on the road, but we finally got to her house. She stepped out of the car and looked at the stately brick house surrounded by a green lawn in front and green fields at the back. The front door had been smashed in, thanks to me,
The SetupPov: MaddisonSomething is wrong.Something is wrong.Something is terribly wrong.That was the sound track playing in my head when I roused from my sleep that night and checked my phone.It was almost eight o'clock.It was almost eight o'clock and I was still asleep.Any moment now, Ethan would knock on the door to inquire about why I wasn't down in the courtyard for the early morning jog.I never sleep this late in the mornings... Because, since the assault from William went down my mother always calls me up at seven in the mornings.But today, I didn't see her phone call."Winston!" I cried alarmed. "Winston, wake up," I begged, already sliding out of bed.He sat up, awake and alert immediately, searching my face frantically. "What happened, Maddie? Did anything happen to you?""Yes. I need you to drive me back to the city. I need to see my mother," I explained hurriedly as I slipped out of my nightdress and shimmied into a pair of jeans and tugged on a tank top.Winston
Heart to HeartPov: MaddisonAfter the study and books aspect was out of the way, I found out that I actually looked forward to Gwyn's lessons the most.I was currently sitting cross-legged, high up on a cliff, eyes closed, facing the setting sun.I felt her presence all around me, her voice was soft and delicate as she explained to me the basics of the technique she had used on Nathan that time."Chakra is a Sanskrit word and it means “disk” or “wheel” and it represents the various energy centers in your body. These wheels or disks of spinning energy each correspond to certain nerve bundles and major organs. To function at their best, your chakras need to stay open, or balanced. If they get blocked, you may experience physical or emotional symptoms related to a particular chakra."There are seven main chakras that run along your spine. They start at the base, of your spine and extend to the crown of your head. But these are only your main chakra points where energy is gathered in the
fighting stancePov: MaddisonEthan was a brutal taskmaster. Cold and calculating and belting out orders, pushing me to my max.I had changed my diet to contain more protein and carb contents as per Nathan's instructions and I had jogged and worked out and pushed my body to the extreme under Ethan's tutelage and Gwyn helped with my meditation and tutored me in basic human anatomy.The first day of my training with Ethan, I was a sweating, sobbing, puking, breathless mess on the floor of the sparring courtyard in the big house that was really the grandest mansion I had ever seen.On the fourth day, I wasn't doing much better, but at least, I had learned to throw a punch without causing much damage to myself, and I wasn't as breathless and winded after each early morning jog."You're punching all wrong," he told me in my first day. "When you hit your target, you want to strike with the first two knuckles, not that flat front part of your fist or the smaller knuckles on your ring or pink
Favourite fixPov: WinstonMy entire body freezed mid strike as I felt another presence join me in my private sparring room."I thought I would find you here," the very familiar voice said aptly.I exhaled the breath I had been holding and completed the punch–kick sequence I had been been doing on the sparring dummy, before I turned to him, grabbing my bottle of water and draining the contents thirstily."Who invited you in?" I asked my best friend now, raising an amused brow.He looked at me, shocked at first, and then he caught on to the fact that I was actually smiling at him, and his lips stretched into a conniving grin that was so Nate... That grin that made him look like you two were in on a private joke or something. Even if he had no idea what you were talking about, his goofy grins made you think he did."Thanks, man," he said now, his voice turning serious as he went to perch on the raised steps to the boxing ring. "I... I was actually going to leave today, immediately afte