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KAEL. I played the video I got from the jewelry shop on my TV and watched it repeatedly, trying to make sense of her actions. She received a small amount of money. I could tell by the number of bills she had received. Was she stupid enough to believe the ring had no value?I also noticed she was trembling when she entered the shop. It was not a clear video, but I could tell by the way she hugged herself and shook her hands. Her demeanor was too different from that of confident Adessa, who had signed our divorce papers. She looked lost in that video. As if she was afraid of something or someone. “Fuck!” My hands rose to my head, and I gripped my hair tightly. I shouldn’t worry about her and just focus on getting the ring back.Right. She was moving on. I must do the same. I shut off the TV and threw the remote control on the couch nearby before turning off the bedlamp.I forced myself to sleep, but sleep seemed to be impossible at the moment because of the many thoughts running th
KAEL. I woke up early today, ready to drive to Bayson Bay to meet up with the buyer of Adessa’s ring. I hope he wouldn’t make it hard for me, as I am willing to pay a hefty sum of money to get it back.After that, I also planned to drive around the area to check if she was there. Not for anything but to make sure she was safe and okay. The entire week, I made time to watch all the videos on my phone and read all the notes that I found inside my wallet. They were small pieces of paper that were tucked in between my cards. They all came from her, and I kept them. Nothing much was written there but just her wishing me a good day or telling me that she was excited and looking forward to our date nights.But there was no I love you, or I miss you—a clear indication that what we had was not born out of love. But I could feel her excitement.And we do have date nights. The Adessa I could picture while reading the notes and the Adessa that giggles in every video I took of her was too differ
ADESSA.I’d been staring at the clock the whole morning, and by lunchtime, I finally decided I couldn’t just sit still and wait for Corrine to come home. I wanted to see Kael, even if only for a moment and from a distance.I put on black jeans and a black hoodie before leaving the apartment and walking toward the commercial area. Corrine’s home was just three blocks away, so I didn’t need to take a bus or a cab to get there.It should be an easy walk, but I had to keep my guard up all the time. I didn’t want him or any of Alpha Draco’s men to see me if they were looking for me. I honestly have no idea if Kael knew I was sold to Alpha Draco. If I based it on what Corrine told me last night that Kael was looking for me, it seemed he didn’t know. But then a part of me thought that maybe he was just faking his statement so he could buy the ring back.I still remember the way he treated me after he woke up and how he dismissed my feelings by letting Desiree crawl all over him while I was
KAEL.When we arrived at the shop, the ring was still on display. I expected them to tell me to wait until the buyer showed himself, which I hated. I was never the one with the patience to wait, but I had no choice. But then, waiting never happened. The store manager was there; I was sure she was the female in the video with Adessa. “Alpha Kael…” she greeted me as she approached. The man I spoke with, Philip, just told me the buyer hadn’t shown up yet.“You know me,” I told her.“Of course,” she smiled as she bowed her head at me, and I returned her nod. “Everyone around here knows you.”I just shrugged my shoulders. We used to own the building in this block and the other side before Dad sold them because Miranda insisted it was too far to manage. “My name is Corrine. I’m the manager here. I was told that you’re interested in that ring, " she said, pointing to the display case on the other side. I nodded my head. “I am.” “Oh, it’s a good choice. It’s beautiful.” She smiled broadl
KAEL.“Do you want to see Adessa, Alpha Kael?” Corrine’s question made me stop walking forward.“Yes,” I answered a little too fast, and I could see Landon suppressing a chuckle to come out of his throat. I scowled at him, then turned around to face the woman at the counter. “Do you know where she is?”“I took her home with me because she didn’t have a place to stay. Give me thirty minutes, and I will just leave instructions to Philip, then we can go home. But, Alpha, only if you promise not to force her to come home with you if she doesn’t want to.”I raised my palms up and nodded my head. “You have my word. My Delta will stay outside the house, so you won’t feel like we’re overpowering you and Adessa. I just want to speak with her.”She smiled, and we agreed to go with it. Thirty minutes wasn’t that long, but it felt like it was. I was eager to see her again.Landon and I went outside the shop to wait for Corrine. My Delta pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and asked if I minded
KAEL.I didn’t have the energy to object anymore. So I just let my Delta drive us to the Knight’s Stone Pack while my mind flew to whatever I could remember of Adessa. She was beautiful, no doubt about that, so it didn’t surprise me that Draco took a fancy to her. Plus, Draco and I had been rivals since our youth.Our packs were in the same county, with only three human cities separating us. In short, our werewolf communities were closest to each other, but we never got along well. The rivalry had begun with our forefathers and had carried on to the generations after them. But in all honesty, I was not bothered by them. My pack had been thriving well without any help or disturbance from them. Draco was another case. He would show superiority whenever he could, and I would usually ignore him. Adessa was not the first female he tried to take away from me. There were some while we were studying at Alpha University. I thought he had grown out of that habit, as he had not made any attem
KAEL.“Who gave Adessa to you as a gift?” I asked.I didn’t want to believe that anyone around me could have done this. But at this point, I knew everything was possible—even friends could be enemies in the shadow. Was she abducted by someone from my pack and handed to Draco’s brother? Or was she taken by them the moment she stepped out of my border?“Answer me!” My patience was running thin. Instead of answering, Draco let out a sarcastic chuckle and shook his head. “Are we friends?”I already knew what would come after this, and I was right. He would never tell me more. “Why would I tell you? I’m not going to help you weed out the snakes in your prairie, Kael. Go figure it out yourself.”I was so close to throwing another curse on his face, but I stopped myself. I didn’t want to add more to the arrogance in him. I would not let him laugh at me any more. “Then, I guess my time is up here.” I patted my Delta’s back and turned around, heading toward the car. “Are you not going to s
KAEL.“Was she sad when I was in a coma?”“She was miserable.” Landon glanced at me and gave me a weak smile before turning his attention back to the road. “Her eyes were always puffy by morning, so I knew she was crying herself to sleep. But she would still do her duties, running the household and making decisions for the pack. She lost weight. The colors in her eyes were gone. She would smile, but not the same smile she carried before. She kept her agony to herself, but she made sure the surroundings looked happy. She added more flowers around the house and your room so when you wake up, the house wouldn’t look dull.”The flowers that Miranda said were Desiree’s doing. This was, of course, a lie, as since Adessa left, the house had never had any fresh flowers around. “And you know what’s funny? She would dress up every day in blue because that’s your favorite color. She wanted to look pleasant in your eyes once you wake up.”“And I told her to fuck off when I did,” I mumbled under m
ADESSA.“I’m not complaining. It was a good one year.” I told him, still smiling, and this time I nodded my head to convince him more.He took my hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “The best is yet to come. I promise…”He lowered our hands but kept holding mine as we continued to drive in silence. Despite losing his memory, Kael was still the same Kael I knew. He was always calculated and never seemed fazed by uncertainties or danger, but something about him changed. He became more expressive.Before his accident, he would always kiss me or hug me, which frequently ended up with us having sex. But lately, he would do the same but never push more. He was content to simply hold my hand or give me a hug. And I liked it.If I were being honest, I had no idea if I should be grateful for all the things happening in my life at the moment because Kael was being extra protective and attentive to me like he had never been before.“We’re here.” His voice snapped back to the p
KAEL. Adessa’s eyes fluttered open. She was looking straight ahead, still lost in her thoughts, and I just let her be. We were already threading a narrow, rough road through the deep part of the forest. The canopies of the trees filtered the sun, casting shadows across the path and making the area darker and gloomy, even if it was already midmorning. The road was barely wide enough for a car, but it only meant I was in the right direction. It had been almost a decade since I’d been here, but it looked and felt the same. “Where are we heading?” she finally asked, breaking the silence between us. “We need a place to stay for at least a day so you can rest, and I can make some adjustments on our way to the north.”“This seems to be too far from civilization already.”“Are you scared of where I would take you?” I teased her. She turned her head to me, and a smile slowly curled on her red lips. “You can tell me we’re on the road to hell, and I will still come with you. Hell with you s
KAEL. Adessa’s screams were drawn by the explosion behind us as we made it to the next exit.I shifted my eyes from the side mirror to the rearview and caught sight of her looking through the back window. I could only see the back of her head, but I could tell she was shaking. I wanted to check on her, but I needed to be far away from here before any of their backup came, or worse, the police officers.I reached the end of the bridge and found myself at a roundabout. I had no idea where the road I chose would lead us, but I kept driving. Anywhere would be fine, as long as we ended far away from the scene. It didn’t take long for the siren’s sound to reverberate through the air, but it quickly faded as my car accelerated away.“Adessa…” I was finally able to utter a word, and it snapped her from looking at the back window. It had already been a long time since the explosion was no longer visible, yet she remained staring. She moved swiftly, crawling back to the front seat just in ti
KAEL.The moment Brooke entered the shop, I knew she was trouble. I had no idea if she was among the ones sent by Draco to find us, but I wasn’t taking chances. She belonged to his pack and was part of his Delta’s Shield—the top security squad of a pack. Brooke also attended the Alpha Academy as she belonged to an affluent family. I was sure Draco had been ignoring her existence until she hooked up with me, and the next thing I knew, he was fucking her too. So, I cut off all ties with her, and he eventually moved on from her as well. It only went to show that Draco had an obsession with taking females from my arms—whether I was serious with them or not. I knew this was the reason he was after Adessa.I discreetly removed my ring, not wanting Brooke to associate me with my wife in case she was sent to track us. Like I believed it would happen, she showed interest in me, whether ordered by Draco or she was simply flirting.I heard the door to the restroom open, and my heart stopped.
ADESSA.“Anyway, would you like to grab a coffee?” The woman asked him.My eyes rolled, and I was about to head to the counter to pay for my chips when I remembered Kael had the credit card we could use. So I put everything in my arms and walked out of the shop without looking back at them.“So, where are you heading?” It was the last thing I heard before the door closed. “So, where are you heading?” I mimicked how she spoke while rolling my eyes again as I walked toward the car. I wanted to scream. The last time I felt jealous like this was when Desiree was sitting on his lap. And while we were married, it was always Desiree but no one else.In the one year we were together, Kael never made me feel invisible around other women.I was almost near the car when it beeped, startling me, only for me to realize it was Kael who opened the door with his key. He surely saw me going out. I sat inside and tried to steady my heavy breathing.I wanted to think rationally. Maybe since the female
ADESSA.“I think we can stop here, but we need to make it fast,” Kael spoke, and I nodded in agreement.After two hours of driving from the Bellouf Theme Park, we finally stopped so he could tank up, and I could go to the toilet. I was about to unbuckle my seatbelt when he stopped me. I turned my head to look at him, and he immediately grabbed my chin before pulling me toward him. He then leaned forward, capturing my lips and began kissing me passionately. “Kael…” I mumbled against his kisses. I wanted to tell him that we needed to leave, but instead, my arms moved on their own, wrapping around his neck, and my lips started kissing him back.He pushed me back onto my seat, his upper body leaning on me as he kissed me harder and deeper, his grip tightening around my chin.He then pulled away from kissing me, leaving inches between our lips. I gasped for air as he spoke. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for many hours now.”“Then stop talking,” I told him before pulling him closer again
KAEL.“He couldn’t walk, so I carried him out. When I was about to go back, I couldn’t anymore. The fire had already consumed the whole cabin.” I continued speaking. “They said a candle caused it, and she might not have sensed the fire until it was too late. It was almost winter, so all the windows were closed. She was trapped in her room.”“I’m sorry…”“They found my mother in the ensuite bathroom. It was probably the only place she was able to escape to. She was naked. She shifted into her wolf but probably couldn’t get out.” My voice broke. Adessa took my hand and cupped it with both her hands, squeezing it gently.“For many years, I struggled to accept the reality that I could have saved her, but I was not able to do so. While Rasmus spent many years trying to save me from everything, proving that he was worth costing my mother’s life.”Silence befell us before I decided to say more. “I don’t know what I felt when I found him with Desiree, but it must have been painful, not only b
KAEL.We’d been driving for almost two hours, and Adessa had fallen asleep. She was tired from all the running and hiding she’d been doing these past few weeks, so I let her sleep while I did my best to keep myself awake. I could take my sleep once we were on our way to the north. For now, I needed to get us as far away from here as possible. I was almost at the Bellouf Theme Park when my phone rang. It startled Adessa. Adessa’s hands flew out in the air as she gasped for breath. My hand went to her thigh, tapping it twice before rubbing it gently.“I’m here…” I mumbled loudly enough for her to hear while the phone continued to ring.She turned her head in my direction, and when she saw me, it was only then that her shoulders relaxed, and she sank back into her seat.I smiled at her before I spoke. “Rasmus is calling. You can go back to sleep.”She shook her head before she leaned her head to the window, crossing her arms across her chest, her eyes focusing on the dark road in fron
KAEL.“You need to leave. Now!” Rasmus said, and I could hear the urgency in his voice. “Shit! It’s fucking midnight!” I brushed my hand over my hair while the other was on my hips.I turned around to look at Adessa. She was sitting, the blanket covering up to her waist. The color had gone out of her face. “You need to go. In approximately forty minutes, they’ll reach the packhouse,” Rasmus said.“Put your clothes on. We’re leaving,” I told Adessa in a much calmer voice. She nodded, and I stepped out of the room and closed the door. “I’ll prepare something that you can take with you on the road,” Aunt Aria said as she walked away from us. I thanked her, but I was not sure if she heard me because she was walking too fast. “How the fuck they ended up here? And at midnight?” I asked, still in disbelief.“I have no answer for that, but it didn’t matter at this point. Here…” He handed me a pouch, and I opened it. “Good thing they gave me this after dinner. Or tomorrow would be too late.