AURORA My head throbbed as I stirred awake. The room was cold, and the metal cuffs around my wrists bit into my skin. I groaned, trying to move, but the silver burned. I wondered if he had placed them on my hands while I was sleeping so I wouldn’t move. My limbs felt so heavy, and my throat was so dry it hurt to even swallow.The walls were damp and cracked. I shivered, pulling my knees closer to my chest as the realization sank in. I wasn’t going anywhere and this time no one knew that was going to come and help me. Lord knew where Damon was, and Ethan and Evelyn might be dead. I was trapped in here and I did not know where I would go.The door creaked open, disrupting my thoughts, and Ethan strode in, his face smug and filled with triumph. I glared at him, refusing to show how much he had worn me down and affected me. I felt hollow in my body. He had taken everything away from me. Every last thing. “Comfortable?” he asked, a cruel smile spreading across his face.I ignored him. He
AURORA I didn’t know how much longer I could endure this. The air in the room felt heavier every time the witch came near me. It felt like presence was choking the life out of me. My wrists were practically cooked from the silver cuffs, and the burning sensation never dulled. I was exhausted, but I refused to break.The door creaked open, and Ethan strode in. His gaze fell on me, chained and barely sitting upright, and a smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.“Still putting up a fight, Aurora?” he asked, his tone mocking. It felt like slap to my face whenever he spoke. “I thought by now you’d have learned that resistance is pointless.”I lifted my head, glaring at him through the strands of hair plastered to my damp face. “Pointless to you, maybe. To me, it’s survival.” I spat out. Ethan’s jaw twitched, and for a brief moment, his amusement left his face. “Survival? Is that what you think this is about? I brought you here to serve my needs not fucking survive. I don’t care if you a
DAMIANI had tried to look for Aurora for so many days and when I officially realized that she had been missing, my entire life felt like it had been turned upside down. I had tried to look for her everywhere and whenever I could, but it was like she had just disappeared into thin air. The sleepless nights were catching up to me, but stopping wasn’t an option. Aurora was out there somewhere, suffering because I hadn’t protected her. I couldn’t eat. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe properly without wondering if she was okay. I’d been leading search parties daily, scouring the woods with my best trackers, but every lead we followed led to nothing. We wanted to comb through everywhere, to wait for spies to tell me if they had seen Aurora in the house, but they had not reported anything to me yet. I had sent out one of my spies to help Aurora in case she was there before he came to tell me because I knew that was going to be the most important. I was in the middle of reviewing our next
DAMIAN A few hours later, we came together with the strategy and we set on our way at sun down of the next day. The journey to Ethan’s pack felt like an eternity. We could not go with cars because that would make us detectable, because we had to go with a few warriors for backup. They were moving behind us carefully as we followed the shortcut that was going to take us to Ethan’s palace with ease, with no need of killing pack border patrol. “Ethan doesn’t just surround himself with the hybrids he has been turning,” Sera began, breaking the silence. “He has a witch now in the home.”I nodded, already aware of the dangers. “I’ve faced him before,” I said. “I know what he’s capable of. That’s why I brought an army.”Sera glanced back at the warriors following us. “They won’t help you get inside, you know. A hybrid has the strength of two werewolves.”“Good thing I did not decide to rely on brute force alone,” I replied sharply.She gave me a small nod. A few hours later and we finally
DAMIANThe clearing was quiet after Ethan’s ash had been scattered to the wind. I could not believe that I had just done that. There was tension in the air, and my chest felt heavy with exhaustion. I was still trying to process what I had just happened when I heard a strangled cry. I turned sharply. Ethan’s witch was still alive and she was writhing on the floor. Her once-confident expression was now twisted with pain. Sera stood a few feet away as she looked at her with triumph. I didn’t know if she and Sera had met before because the beef looked too real for two people who had just met. “She’s trying to cast a hex,” Sera muttered through gritted teeth. “I need to stop her before she subjects one of us to a painful death.”The witch clawed at the air, mumbling in an ancient tongue that sent shivers down my spine. It sounded different, and it did not take me long to know that she was casting black magic. I tried to steady myself, but my limbs felt heavy, like lead. Sera brought her
DAMIAN It had been half a day, and I was expecting to already get answers at this time but apparently, none of the witches had shown up. It was a total chaos at their wing. They were so desperate to find the culprit that they were going through spells that were going to tell if someone was lying when they said a statement or not. Sybil had come to me and said that it seemed that some of the witches knew what was going to happen. They knew that I was going to call them and ask them to bring themselves out, so they did a counter spell that was going to block the truth spell. She was distraught and begged me to give her a little bit more time, but I could not. I did not want to sit back, knowing that my mate was probably suffering at the hands of my enemies. I could not bear it. Also, I knew that if I put a deadline on them then they would work under pressure and they would bring the results I wanted faster. Kai looked distraught since morning. I thought he was sick, and I asked h
ALINA The trip to the Elantine’s palace was what I called the epitome of royalty. I knew that when we were going to come, he was going to come in style because it was the event for alphas. I just didn't expect that it was going to be this good. I laid my head back on the supple leathered seats of his vintage and extremely expensive car. I didn't know that these kinds of cars existed, but apparently, if you are the alphas then you would have services that are not open even for the richest men in your pack. The car had air conditioning, the seats were perfect and the interior was the most stunning one I have ever seen. My father had a few cars too but none of them matched to this one. It even carried all of our luggage. I was a bit worried that I over-packed for a two-day getaway since I thought we were going to be using a carriage. I was glad that I decided to go over board because there would be room for more even though I wasn’t going to need all of the clothes that I came wit
AURORA I wished I knew the reason why I was pissed, because it was not even his fault. He had arranged to come here but he did not know that there was only going to be one room. Maybe I was the problem. I could go back to the room and lay down far from him and resist all of the urges that came with the room but that would be torture and I wasn’t sure if I was going to sleep well from that. When I left the corridor, I realized that most of the people in the ball were back in their rooms. People were not bustling in again, only a few of the people that were looking at art and speaking to the people by them. I sighed, staring down at my long blue gown before I looked back up at the people and they had suddenly changed. They were not wearing the same attire and even their faces were different. I felt fear course through my veins as I turned away from them and then headed out towards the exit of Elantine’s mansion. I knew it was not wise. Leaving out this place at night was going to
AURORA It was raining. It never rains around here. I heard people whispering about it, saying that the earth knew that someone had just taken a great man, which was why it was weeping. I would not be surprised if they were right, even though I was not the type that believed in superstition. Today was the burial of Damian. I had cried so much for the past three days that I could not even recognize myself when I looked into the mirror. It was like a stranger was looking back at me every single time, and it terrified me to my bones. Damian’s body had been prepared as usual by the elders, and he was about to be cremated in the boat and sent in the ocean, so he could find peace. It was how burials happened apparently, since I have never really been to one. The last time I lost someone, I was not allowed to stay back for either of their funerals. I was shipped off to marry this man. The man that I was cremating now, and sending back to the earth that had brought him to life. I won
AURORA I wished there was a way to leave the fucking pack. Finally, Nancy had gotten me some blood even though it was not one that I would like to drink. It was animal blood, and it tasted low quality but at least it kept me alive. I felt like I had not unlocked all of the potential that I had until I was able to feed on normal blood from a person. I was looking forward to that. I had stayed with my brother mainly because I did not want him to feel alone after all of the months he spent alone. Counting down, it has already been a year since he was captured. Just a few more months to come. I also wanted to ask Damian why the hell hadn’t he brought back Silas to life until I realized that the day had passed. I was in the prison, and I had missed my only chance of getting back my true love. I cried for the entire day, and Logan and Nancy tried to comfort me but there was very little they could say. I couldn’t even say it was Damian’s fault. I was the one that made him do whatever he
DAMIAN I tried to get back into schedule after I waited three hours for Aurora to come and meet me but she did not. I had wanted to go and check if she was alright but that did not sound like a great idea. If she needed space, then perhaps I should grant her that. If she wanted to speak to me, then she would come and meet me. I paced in my room until I couldn’t anymore, so I headed to my bathroom and got ready for the day. I popped some of the hangover pills I had to help with the headache that was still prominent. Then I checked my reflection before I headed outside to my office where I was going to sign some documents for the new houses that are been built in the pack. When Alpha Matthew eventually surrenders, I would like to start building on the land so I was already starting to prepare it now. The birth rate had increased by some percentage, and in a few years to come there would be a shortage of homes people could afford. We needed something on a budget but also good qual
AURORA “Have you seen him?” Nancy burst through my room, startling me until I sat down, leaving my previously lying position. She looked excited, which was odd because there was absolutely nothing to be excited about. My life was in shambles and I was in desperate need to feed. She could not find any place to get blood for me because all of the blood banks in the hospitals around had vervain in them. It seemed like it was not only Damian who took the caution to have all of the subjects take vervain to prevent them from being food to vampires. I wished I could tell him but after what he had done yesterday, I could not bring myself to do it again. Not when the incident of yesterday still haunted me. He obviously did not take me with respect. If not, he wouldn’t have done that. “Who?” I asked her. The first person that came to mind was Damian . Perhaps something had happened to him. “Logan. He is out!” I did not expect to hear that early in the morning. I got off my bed an
DAMIAN I was disappointed in myself. I did not know that I had fucked up so much until when I woke up in the morning on my bed and my head felt like it was spitting into two. I was severely hungover from the other night. The only thing I remembered at first was that I was with Kai and we were celebrating the fact that Aurora knew that I was her mate. I was not sure of it, but I knew that there were high chances of that since I had gotten my own mate bond just a few days ago. I was so excited. The celebration morphed into a party, and then when I realized I was too drunk, Kai told me to stay back until tomorrow because it was a bad idea to go to her room and speak to her in that state. I had agreed with him but as the night passed and he was asleep, my urges got the better of me and then I was on my way to her room. I remembered going there and I remembered kissing her, and she pushed me away. Now that I was sober, my ego felt even more injured than it was but I still felt so fuck
AURORA I had a hard time writing the letter because I was not sure of what he wanted to hear. I did not know if he brought me out on his own accord or because he needed me for something regarding bringing his lost girlfriend back home. Because as time passed, since the two days that I was released, he had not come to see me. It was on the second day that I finally decided to send out of the letter to him. If he released me because he still believed that we were friends, then he was going to come and see me. If not, then it is what it is. I would just forget I ever wrote the letter and bury myself out of shame. Moments after I had sent the letter a few hours ago, I had started to pace in my room out of anxiety when Nancy came back into the room. I gave her a questioning look because it couldn’t have taken her this short period of time to have taken it to the alpha and yet here she was, already back. “Why are you already back?” I asked her. “One of his sisters collected it,”
DAMIAN I had very little time to decide if I wanted her to be in my pack or if I wanted her to take her away. The anti vampire committee had been trying to get someone who would be their sample, but I did not know if I would be able to just give her away because I was selfish. It was something I was not ashamed of admitting. I didn’t want to be away from my mate. She was the closest we could get to getting the work done but I couldn’t do it. Whenever I thought of giving her away, something stopped me from doing it. I had not told Kai yet because I knew what he was going to say. He did not like Aurora that much so of course he was going to tell me to let her go. She was my mate, and this was her secret so I had to protect it. I was going to do everything to make her feel better. It has been two days since I instructed that she was let out of the cage and I have been doing everything in my power to go and meet her because I did not know how the conversation was going to go. Of c
AURORA It almost felt unrealistic as I felt the cold air of the night hit my skin. I have been so starved of this and wanted to experience it again for the entire time that I was in the cell. I hoped that Logan was going to feel that way soon too. The cold, iron bars of the dungeon door clanged shut behind me, it marked the end of a nightmarish chapter. The moon bathed the streets in its ethereal glow as I stepped into the night, my senses acutely aware of every rustle and heartbeat around me. The guards that were holding on to me had let me go and I was free to roam. My legs hurt from being trapped in one place for so long and it took me a while to stop myself from limping as I headed towards the palace. I wished there was somewhere else that I could be, but I didn’t really have a choice. The palace was the only place I could go to. On my way back, I stumbled on so many random things on the way. I hissed. If Damian wanted me to be out then at least he should have sent so
AURORA I sat there in silence, hearing what my brother was telling me about my identity that I had not found out for a long time. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was all adding up, with every word he spoke. It made sense why my parents never really liked me in the first place. I was not their daughter. I was adopted into the family when their real daughter had died, and I was replaced by her. Only the immediate family knew, and it had been kept a secret all till today. I was surprised, but it was fleeting because it all made sense to me. He said that I was a hybrid, which meant that I was a werewolf and a vampire in one body. When I had died at the Elantine’s palace, that was when my vampire side was activated. I had technically been dead since then. My heart was not beating and I would not shift on the full moon because I had the power to do that now. Not even an alpha had the same potential as I did. He was stronger than me, but I could beat him in a combat because o