“I know that, and I cannot be sorry enough for that. I can’t stand the thought that I did that to her. Nightmares of her face and every person I killed haven’t left me since. “But Maria…. I need a chance to prove to him that I can be better. I am better.” “That is not something he will understand easily. It’s also because he saw the whole struggle to keep you still and locked in here for the last four weeks. “It’s not something a human mind can handle easily. I had to use wolfsbane webs to bind you and bring you here to this room, and it was difficult for him to see you like that. “And when he thought all was done, and you were getting better. He found that what he had seen you do was just a trailer, Luciano. He saw you in your worst scenario when Erede triggered you. “You know as much as I know what you did next. Can you promise that none of that will happen again? We have spent four weeks back and forth keeping you in control. “You still have a long way to go to accompany us to
LUCIANO’S POV We are all hiding something. Every morning when the sun sets, we all wake up and deep down we have something we are hiding from our partners, our family, or our close friends. And today, just like all the other days. Today, specifically, I have gone against my word, and I have something more dangerous that I am hiding from my only remaining family, Maria, and James. Why not? What’s the penalty? What are the consequences? I am out of our forest house now. Unlike what I promised James and Maria, I am on my way to Casablanca. I will not sit back and see Maria and James walk into my uncle’s trap. Would you stay if it were you in my shoes? I guess you wouldn’t, either. These people mean the world to me. What is the world without James in it for me? Yes… I know I might go through a killing spree and kill innocent people. If I was only human, this thing would save my family. Whatever would happen with time, people would have found it in their hearts to forget and forgive me
Keirah keeps wandering away slowly, with her mouth hanging open. Walking closer to her, something awful has masked all her scents that always hypnotized me. The woman in front of me is nothing like my mate. She has no understanding of where she is. She is so lost that all I see on her face is a dazed expression with her eyelids drooping. “KEIRAH? …… Keirah…” I call out to her, but it is as if she can't hear me calling for her. And she continues to wander around. I am so scared. Looking at her in this state she is in. What the hell is happening to her? What did my uncle do to her? Where is her husband? How long has she been like this? I have so many unanswered questions running through my head. Another closer look at her and I see how thinner she has gotten. She has lost half her weight. Is this a mental issue? Is she suffering from a mental problem? Why is she out here in the streets all alone like this? Why is she not getting the help she needs? Her face is pale. Her eyes are vac
She is standing still, ignoring me as if everything I am telling her now is passing from one ear to another and nothing is registering in her mind about what I am telling her. I try to understand what is going on. Only to see that her full attention is no longer on me, but on something behind us. As I turn around, I see that the guard is holding a small bottle and a syringe, showing it off to her. When I bring back my eyes to Keirah. She is swallowing hard, and she is now completely avoiding eye contact with me. She pushes me away as she speaks at high speed. “I... I don't know. But I need those drugs now!” I reach out to touch her, but she pulls away. I try again, approaching her cautiously, speaking in a very low voice and trying to convince her out of it. This time I speak fighting back tears, “Keirah ... You do not need those drugs. Let’s get you the help you need. You need help.” She pushes me and runs away from me with all her might back into the hands of the guard. And with
*** I rush to the Cannibal Hospital emergency entrance with worries covering me. Holding Keirah in my arms, her head lolling weakly against my chest. There are a lot of people here in a queue to buy the neutrophil biochips and I wonder why they did not take my warning about the biochips to them seriously. I want to cause a scene and chase them all away but as the nurses and doctors rush to my aid, their faces filled with concern for Keirah as they assist me in laying Keirah on a stretcher. All my concerns are now on getting Keirah the help she needs. She has muscle spasms covering her. Cold sweat is covering her face too. “She has a very high fever, and she has been vomiting on me up to here. She has trouble breathing too. Please, she needs immediate help. Do something. ” “Dru....g….Dru…g.” Dr. Fred rushes over to her and my mind is at ease when I see him beginning to attend to her. “She needs help. He has turned her into a druggie.” “I know…” He continues to attend to her, a
THIRD PERSON’S POV While everyone in the room is wearing a worried face. James is filled with excitement as he speaks to Keirah. “Congratulations, Keirah, Oooh my God Luciano. You two are going to be parents. And I am going to be an uncle. “Don’t worry Keirah about anything from now on. You won’t lose the baby. We are all here. We are going to do everything we can to save you, Lana, and the baby in your womb. Momma would be very happy.” “She was very happy. She knew about it. She found out about it from Dr. Fred on the day my sister died. She was the first one to know, even before I knew this myself. “She was happy, just like you are when she gave me the news. You should have seen her face. It’s in these moments that I miss her so much.” James’s face lights up with joy, his eyes brimming with tears as he looks at Luciano. But Luciano is in shock. His shock is giving way to a mixture of emotions on his face. He stammers while trying to speak, “P.. pregnant? Are you sure this is min
“Can we at least try to save the baby? Do you think you can do that? Keirah asked me right before you took her to the ICU to deliver that request on her behalf. That before anything, I should plead with you to try saving her baby.” Maria speaks. “In Keirah’s situation, I do not think that is possible. From her CT scan, her baby is considered extremely premature and has very low chance of survival outside the womb. “At this early stage of her pregnancy’s development, Keirah’s baby's vital organs and systems are not yet fully formed or functioning. Her baby's lungs are not yet developed enough to support breathing outside the womb. “The chances of survival for this baby are minimal, with the likelihood of survival being close to zero. Medical intervention to support such a premature baby's life outside the womb is not possible. If we get her baby outside her womb now. It will need a miracle for this baby to survive outside her womb.” Maria walks to Dr. Fred, holding onto his hands an
“Are you sure? The last time…it took you out. We can’t have you losing control in a hospital full of innocent people.” “Do you have any other solution for me to get in contact with my uncle right now? I am not going to think that far... All I know is that I need to save Keirah and… my unborn child. And unfortunately for me, that needs me to be at my uncle’s mercy …. And that is what I am going to do.” “I have a solution in mind.” Maria interrupts them. Both James and Luciano turn their faces to Maria, listening to her attentively. “I am thinking of a shortcut that might be of help. Why don’t you mark her and complete the mating bond? That is a sure way of saving both of them.” “In her situation? Are you crazy, Maria?” “I am just saying…the bond will help you take some of that pain she is going through.” “I am not doing that without her consent!” “But you were ready to abort her child without her consent.” “I can’t deal with you Maria right now…Please, James, make the call. We d
James quickly stands up. And his eyes travel to the doorway hoping to see his brother and there is no one there.Then his eyes travel to Maria, but Maria has not moved an inch she is lying down in the same place that she was in, and she is still hissing in pain.He runs over to help her off the ground onto a sofa beside Baby Lana’s crib. As he helps her off the floor, she is looking at him with questioning eyes wondering. ”It was not me!”“Then who is it?”“It’s me!” A weak voice from behind them makes them turn around to see Keirah holding Don Mauro’s tablet in her hands.She raises the tablet in the air for Don Mauro to see it. And she is wearing an angry weak smile but a savage one. “I made the biochips. I know a way or two to undo them. A few codes and I have sent enough shock to shut their minds out. Did you think me stupid to show you everything?”She tries to get out of bed, but it becomes hard, and Maria motions for James to help her. James puts down Maria dashing to her side
Don Mauro’s whole body is shaking with fear. That he can’t even hold the tablet in his hand anymore. And the tablet drops off his hands falling back on Keirah’s bed.He quickly takes the baby out of Dr. Patel’s hand. Readying himself to run. “You are coming with me.” He threatens Dr. Patel.As soon as Don Mauro and Dr. Patel start moving. Dr. Fred, who has been for a while standing too close to the monitor, senses something.There is a flicker of movement that appears on the monitor. A faint but unmistakable rhythm emerges on the monitor.And just like Dr. Fred, everyone, including Don Mauro, James , Erede and Dr. Patel turn their concentration and are all looking at the monitor.It then becomes so loud something that everyone, including Maria who had lost consciousness, opens her eyes wide to the monitor.The room is in silent as their eyes widen in disbelief. Keirah’s heart begins to beat once more, and her vital signs start stabilizing.Tears of joy are on Dr. Fred, but they are al
The happy celebratory noise erupts through the tablet from the werewolves at the pack and from Erede beside James. This makes James quickly to bring back his eyes to Don Mauro’s tablet screen and he joins Erede in making the happy noise after observing how happy everyone is from Luciano’s win. To James’s surprises Don Mauro is smiling too. From the look on his face, he wanted Luciano to win. As if remembering something. His face changes into a serious murderous one. As he quickly gulps in his remaining whiskey on his bottle and throws the remaining piece of cigar on the floor putting himself together as he announces to his goons. “Time to go. We are done here. Kill everyone in here....everyone including that sleeping baby in her crib. And that unconscious woman Maria too. “I don’t want anyone in here to walk out alive. And lock the room after you are done. We need to move fast. Our job here is done. “ I need to prepare myself for my coronation speech. I don’t want to have it broa
The sound of Dr. Fred stumbling backward makes Don Mauro turn his full attention to him and by the look on Dr. Fred’s face, everyone in the room can tell.That whatever Dr. Fred is going to say is not going to be good news. There is so much panic surrounding him, and his fingers still holding Keirah’s hand that he just used to check for her pulse and any sign of breathing on her nose are trembling slightly.He swallows hard with fear written all over his face as he tries to speak, “She is dead,” he whispers, his voice barely above a hoarse murmur. “Keirah is dead.”There are painful tears on everyone all over the room except Don Mauro and his goons who all look unbothered. “That is bad. You ....” Don Mauro speaks as he motions for Dr. Patel. “Get Luciano’s dead bastard out. I want to see what the fuck that thing looks like.“It had a fight in it. What a disappointment. I thought we had a future together, I thought it had the Solana genes dominating it. And giving up was not an option.
“Yes…ME! I am going to rule over everyone from now on. Not just humans, but werewolves, too. Imagine being me.” Don Mauro laughs so hard that happy tears threaten his eyes. “See….take a look.” He raises his tablet in his hands and takes it around, showing what he is watching to everyone in the room. He is smiling happily. “I have eyes in the pack. Although I can’t get in physically. I can now see everything and use my army inside the pack. One word and I can flash out the whole pack in a blink.” On the screen of the tablet, that Don Mauro is taking around. There is a live feed of Luciano fighting with another man in a combat fight. Luciano is no longer in his white porcelain skin, and he is back to the human Luciano he has always been. Covered in his original tattoos as he fights another man. Luciano is fighting with all his might and so is the other man. When Don Mauro gets closer to his son, Erede. Erede questions him. “Who is Luciano fighting? Is that the famous Water?” “No...
James struggles to see the horror unfolding in front of him. As the pack leading doctor crumples to the ground, lifeless and betrayed. And the very loud beeping noise continues to make it to all his ears. This was not his plan. The plan was to save her. James’s fight crumbles like a fragile wall battered by an unstoppable storm. He stops moving. He stops fighting. He stops everything and stands like a statue in the goon hold. As the monitors continue beeping urgently. Informing everyone that this is the end road for Keirah. Erede, on the other hand, grips his chest, tears falling out of his eyes. “NO.. KEIRAH …NO.” He watches in disbelief, his mind struggling to comprehend the nightmare before his eyes. The scene puts him in more shock, and he is frozen in place, his senses overwhelming him. But this does not affect his father. With a cold, calculating gaze, Don Mauro surveys the room, scanning one person after the other. As if daring anyone to try him again. In his eyes, everyone
Maria’s mind is already racing. As she steps out of the room, she is in an alert mood and ready for anything coming her way. Her fight instincts from her experiences in the attacks that happened in the pack are full on. By looking at the dead bodies, she has just realized that things have taken a wrong turn and that the fate that awaits her and everyone she loves is not promising. The man that shows up in front of her ready to attack her tells Maria who the culprit behind this is. This person she is fighting is not a new face to her. She knows who he is. She knows him too well. He was once a person she called her people. And his way of fighting is primitive to what she can do. She tries to go easy on him. With full knowledge, he has no control over himself, but it looks like her good heart cannot be applied now. This man and the one now already holding her mate captive. They are not going easy like her. That makes her realize it is war. Kill or get killed. Especially because sh
“I am so sorry Maria...I don't think my father will be of any help in our situation. His obsession with winning is beyond what any of us can do to make him turn a blind eye and be of help. “And he also thinks Luciano is the biggest threat there is to him. And to protect himself from Luciano. He has been doing the impossible to assure himself of that. “And I believe he has succeeded that through Keirah. He knew just like Salvatore and Luciano’s mother, there was no way Luciano would harm him if he had Keirah. “He knows Luciano would put his life online to save her. That’s how he has control. It is not only Luciano, even with me. And I see it is all of you, too. You would all do anything for her. “ By having her in this like this. He has control over us. Keirah is the key to it all. She was also the reason I fell out with him. And the reason he had a better way to control me. “His jealous son was not ready to let Keirah go. After I found out about her relationship with Luciano. I co
“What did Doom want? ”“When Doom reached out to him for the first time, he asked my father if he could help him locate Luciano. My father did not trust Doom. And he refused to help. “He did not refuse only because he did not trust Doom, but because my father also did not know where Luciano was.” “When was that?” “That was when Luciano and all of you had successfully escaped my father from Casablanca.” “That is weird. Doom lied. Everyone in the pack knew where Luciano was. Everyone in the pack had seen through my mind link about his whereabouts because I had followed him. To the forest house. Doom’s only task was to bring Luciano to the pack.” “My father thought he was lying back then, too. He had trust issues with anyone from the pack. You had disappointed him. He thought you were working for Aero. And he thought just like you, Doom was also working for Aero, too.” “Me? ....Working for Aero?” “He thought you were working for Aero because you had bombarded Casablanca. He thought