Cross“Council? Who are these people and what can they do to me? Why do I have to hide from them?” She questioned.“You don’t have to hide from them. You just have to stay safe and out of their way until i---“ I stopped. I didn’t want to tell her more. She might freak out if she finds out what would finally make her safe from the council. It will take about five to six months or the earlier four months for it to happen and just until then, we have to protect her. We have to be with her, especially in public places.“If I don’t need to hide from them then why do you think that I am in danger because of them? And who the fuck are they?” This is why I didn’t want us to tell her about the council. Those fuckers are just a bunch of lunatics with a common goal. Destroy the shifter words. They want us to fade into oblivion. That’s their plan and that’s why they don’t want humans to mate with shifters.They were nothing without the power that the government gave them. Not just that but our
Thalia“You haven’t particularly given me a reason to fucking want to spend my time with you. Cross respects me and if I want to do this then it will be him. You? No way. You remind me too much of my parents. I hate it.” I blurted out. I wasn’t even kidding. He reminds me so much of my parents. Always treating me like I can’t make my own decisions. We never get along and I know if I move in with Lucas, we will never get along. He was just too controlling for me.Cross on the other hand listens to me and lets me speak. I can’t believe that I really agree to move in with Cross. It was obvious that they weren’t lying about me being in danger and Cross said it isn’t forever like Lucas had made me believe.One year, he said. Just one year and my life will be back to normal. I don’t really know yet if I will ever go back to normal. I still have a lot of questions but I can just ask him. I could feel Lucas holding back. I could tell that he was about to say something mean to me again.“That
Thalia“Really? You don’t have to.” Cross let out.“She has to. What do you mean she doesn’t have to?” Lucas counted. I decided that between the two of them, Cross was my favorite. Okay, I might just tell Cross later that I am not dating Steve but Lucas? I am going to make his jealous ass suffer even more since he wants to be a menace.“I have made up my mind, I will move in with you but just so you know, I am not the best housemate. You can ask Emily, she has seen enough.” I warned Cross who only smiled. Fuck. Even his smile got to me more than it should. I swallowed and cleared my throat.“Even if I don’t care about myself, I care about my friend, Mily, I don’t want her to be in danger because of me. I still don’t know why having sex could turn into my life being in danger.” I let out.“We didn’t just have sex, we connected. You are linked to me, body and soul.” Lucas responded. I felt a shiver run through my body. Not again. Will I always respond to him and then like this? Or
Thalia “I am very needy. Can you put up with me?” I asked. They both nodded.“Try me.” “Okay, I will just call my workplace and quit. It’s not like I liked the people I work with, I just work because I need the money.” I told them and made to leave again but something else occurred to me. I turned to them and they both lifted questioning brows.“Are you both really smart or are you so rich that you can get anything you want?” I blurted out and bit my lips after. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked but when I am with them, I tend to lose the ability to control what I say.“Both.” Cross said with a smug smirk. Was he bragging right now?“Which is it? Who is rich and who is smart?” He laughed and so did Lucas. Were they really making fun of me? Wait until they find out that I am pretty smart and from a very rich family too. I wasn’t really proud of my background so I don’t talk about it and work part-time to earn money so as not to depend on my parents. They tend to rob it in my face wh
Thalia “I am glad you agree with me. I think I am being punished too. Why else will my life be in danger just because I had sex?” I let out.“Yeah, it’s pretty bad. I have heard of the council from my aunty. Part of the reason she moved away to be with her mate was because the council was always meddling. I don’t know the full details because I was young then but it was pretty hard for her. I saw her crying and talking with my mom multiple times. She even thought of breaking up with him at one point, but she loved him too much so in the end, she moved away just so they could be together.” Wow, I didn’t know what to say. No wonder Rachael had been so sweet with me earlier.“Is it okay if I steal your aunty and make her mine too? I think I might need her more going forward.” She nodded even before I finished talking. “Of course, you are my best friend, Lia, so my family is your family too. I am just sad that you have to leave.” I smiled and spread my arms out. She moved closer and
Thalia “Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me that. She’s going to break up with him.” “Tish!” I let out, at Lucas’s words. It was because of him that I plan on keeping my relationship with Steve going. I want to see him melt with jealousy since he decided to be a meanie towards me. “Mily, you can’t just keep doing that. Do I need to remind you of the school rule?” I let out. “You are the only one who cares about that rule, honestly. I know a lot of students who have been in intimate relationships with unmarried professors. Some even with the married ones. No one has been sent away because no one has been caught. Plus, we are graduating soon. You have been a good girl, you are allowed to be bad just this one. I mean for these.” She let out, pointing at Cross and Lucas. “For these, I will gladly sin and get caught. Too bad I love my boyfriend and they already belong to you.” She commented and walked away like she didn’t just say what she did. “They don’t belong to me.”
Thalia I froze. Literally froze everywhere except my mouth. My lips couldn't freeze when the heat of his mouth was pressed hungrily on mine. His tongue preyed my mouth until I was forced to open and his tongue drove into my mouth. The kiss went wild pretty fast. He pushed me until the back of my head was touching the car window glass, his mouth exploring mine. The heat from his mouth hot on mine spread through my body. God, how I missed his kisses even though we only shared one night together, it felt like a lot of time because he kissed me so many times that night.He kissed me harder, exploring every contour of my mouth, occasionally taking my tongue in his and sucking, then driving his tongue into my mouth. It went on and on.I finally reacted when my neck started to cramp. I tapped him, trying to break the kiss but he didn’t stop. He just continued kissing me. No, he was practically eating my mouth. As if he lost control and didn’t want to stop. I went from tapping him to wra
ThaliaBy the time we arrived at his house or what I thought it was, I managed to overthink until I couldn’t even look at him anymore. I was so sure now that if I moved too much, he would change his mind and send me away. I don’t even know how I managed to get that thought in my head.I couldn’t even look up or look around, I had both hands in my lap in front of me, staring at them and waiting for the moment it would happen.“Darling? We are home.” His voice shocked me because he didn’t even know he stopped the car, got out, and was now at my side of the car holding the door open for me.“Hey, what’s wrong?”He asked in a soft, kind voice that warmed my heart. I shook my head and tried to get out of the car but he blocked my exit and made me look at him. I couldn’t escape even if I wanted to. It felt like he was staring into my soul.I tried to look away but he didn’t let me.“Lia, you have to tell me what’s wrong for me to fix it. You might think I don’t know you well enough but I c
Cross “Thalia‘a safety is our number one priority.” I said in agreement with what he said. She’s and will always be my number one priority in all of this. I want her to be safe. I want her to have no fear. The thought that she might be scared that what happened to that young girl’s family would happen to hers makes me want to hit something or better yet someone. Van and that traitorous idiot, Gary. Gary used to be my beta. Until ten years ago, he had been someone I trusted and loved dearly but he turned out to be a fucking traitor who not only turned against me and the pack but also went ahead and banded with our enemy. A shifter who betrayed his own for some lousy money and business deals. A shifter who turned against his own just to have some sick power. As my beta, I fucking let him do what he wanted. I never controlled him and even treated him like an equal but he turned around and made a fool of me. I felt so betrayed. The whole pack felt betrayed and it took us years t
Lucas “I am not even surprised! We let that idiot think he has such power and now he thinks he can do whatever he wants!” Cross let out while pacing around. I agree. We let those losers think they are something that they aren’t. We could have stopped them years ago but we were busy being each other’s enemy. The real enemy has been the council all along and we have always known but we never did anything. We never fucking did anything and now we find out that shifters and their family were losing their lives. The anger I felt was unmatched. Even though it should have been done years ago, now was the time to act and put an end to that fucked up organization. Cross and I decided to meet and talk about what happened in person so while Thalia was over at his pack getting close to the girl who lost her family, Cross came over to my pack and we have been talking nonstop for the past two hours and yeah, getting angry with ever new information we found out about the things the fucked up
Thalia “Fine, don’t say anything. I am just glad that she is okay. We came here to help and cheer her up. That’s what we will do.” Emily said as she walked out of the living room carrying one of the brown boxes. I did the same and just like that, we went to work. Calista came back a few minutes later and together, the four of us worked to set up her new apartment. Calista was pretty easy to talk to and get along with. She told us about how she met Promise for the first time. Apparently, he was close with her brother and he often showed up at their house when she was in high school but she lost contact with him after she went away for school. Then two years later, the unfortunate incident happened to her family and she didn’t know how to contact him even though he was the only one she could talk to. Since she was told to run away to avoid being killed, she didn’t know he returned and knew about what happened to her family. Promise on the other hand thought she died and only
Thalia The rest of us just stood rooted to a spot because we didn’t know what else to do. She wasn’t just sobbing lightly but she was fully crying. Like fat tears falling from her eyes. A year's worth of tears. I didn’t know when I started crying too and when I looked at Elena, she too was crying. The only person that didn’t cry was Promise and even he was super sad and close to tears. He walked away and left us four with Emily hugging Calista while Elena and I just stood there and cried in silence. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to cry on you.” Calista croaked after a while. She tried to let go of Emily but she didn’t let her. She held her close and patted her back gently. “Don’t be sorry. We should be sorry for not knowing. You were right next to us all year long and we didn’t even notice.” Emily said in a hoarse emotion-filled voice that brought more tears to my eyes. She was right. “I didn’t let it show. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t know how to. I didn’t have
Thalia “Can we go now? We can help her arrange her stuff and even share a few drinks while we help her discuss how to prepare for her makeup exams.” Elena suggested. “I agree.” Both Emily and I chorused at the same time. Elena drove out of campus and there was a long moment of silence before Emily spoke again. “Does she know we are coming? I haven’t really talked to her a lot in person.” Yeah, I thought of that too that’s why I texted Cross and he said she knew. He already told her that after class ends, we will all go to see her. I explained to Emily. “Then we should talk about things to do. I think you got the schoolwork part covered, right?” I nodded at her question. I might not really be a great teacher but in this case, there will be exceptions. It’s the first favor that Cross has asked of me. “Okay, I hope your guys won’t mind that we might have to go out a lot. What better way to hell the mind than to go out and have fun with people?” Emily suggested. I smi
Thalia “I wish we could, there’s only a little we can do with the government backing them up. Shifters are minorities and with a lot of things against us, we have to always keep our identities secret and if people found out about us, we always have to watch our back.” I could hear the sadness and weariness in Elena’s voice as she explained what it was like to be in the world of shifters. I felt bad for them. They really are not doing anything wrong or harming anyone. They are just like humans. Heck, even better. Shifters were closely knitted. They look out for each other and have each other’s back. I like living among them more than I love living around humans. Being in their world showed me a whole new meaning of living and I don’t want to lose that. “What can we do for Calista?” Emily asked while she wiped tears from her eyes. It was my turn to speak. Cross already told me what he wanted us to do for him and what we needed to do to get Calista back on track academically a
ThaliaI woke up the next morning sad as fuck. I did everything sluggishly. If the class I had wasn’t so important, I would have called to make an excuse and just stayed at home. I also had a presentation due today so there was no staying home for me.Lucas left very early because he had a meeting at his company so he couldn’t drive me to school. I didn’t have the will to drive so I just ordered a ride after I made sure it was okay for a car to come pick me up inside the estate.My ride arrived just as I walked out of the house and I was really thankful for it. Yesterday was a whole lot. Everything I found out still felt surreal. Even on the ride to school, I just kept replaying what Cross had told me over and over again, and each time it got worse.I had to wipe tears from my eyes a handful of times because the tears just refused to stop each time I thought about what Calista had gone through. The driver turned to look at me to make sure I was okay more than twice. He looked at me wi
Thalia “Is she moving into the pack tonight?” I asked. If she was then I wanted to go see her and hug her. “No, tomorrow, tonight, I sent someone from the pack to be with her.” “A guy?” I asked. I really didn’t trust a lot of guys. “Yes, but don’t worry, he isn’t going to hurt her. It’s Elena’s brother.” “The beta?” “No, Elena’s other brother.” Huh? Promise? I thought he wasn’t due back until next year, that’s what Elena told me after I asked her why he wasn’t living in the pack. “He is back?” “Yes, he is the reason I found out. He came to my office earlier today. He saw Calista leaving. He was the one that first told me.” He explained but I didn’t understand. “Wait, you found out after the meeting with the Dean of students ended?” “Yes, he saw her leaving my office and recognized her.” Wow. “So if he didn’t show up at your office, you won’t have known?” Cross nodded. I can’t believe while I was busy being jealous and acting like a bitch, having all
Thalia “What are you talking about, Cross?” I let out. The fact that he wasn’t even talking about what that pervert did. The council? What could they have done that would take Calista’s life without killing her? “Her whole family was captured and burnt alive. The only reason she survived was because she was in school and she bears a different name. She only found out after a month what happened to her family and she has been living with the guilt of being the only one to survive for over a year now.” I didn’t know how to process what he just told me. Where do I even start from? Her whole family? But why? “What do you mean? Why would they do that? Who burns people alive in this day and time?” I asked him, too shocked to process what he just told me. They burnt her family? No one even knew that she lost her whole family. “The council are the most fucked up people in existence. I only found out recently what happened. I didn’t know. I didn’t know they did that.” He looked