"Well, there's broken silenceBy thunder crashing in the dark." Lips syncing to the song playing in the small device Bree gave me, I took a sip from the dark bottle. At first it burned my throat and everything within, but after a few gulps, this became heaven. I felt afloat, like I was on cloud nine, or perhaps way over it. Into the space among the stars. "And this broken recordSpin endless circles in the bar."Another sip, and I began to spin, a giggle resounding off the walls in our room. In his room. In their room now probably. I was more like the outsider. The used one. Probably even the slave. But he never used me. I never let him. Was that why he sought resort to another? Someone who actually had the potential to give him what he wanted? Even more so. Experience, obedience and happiness.A sob replaced the endless giggles in my throat, and as though to match the ache raising havoc in my soul, the next lyrics of the song came on. "This world can hurt youIt cuts you deep
"Where is the Alpha?" "Alpha Hades would never abandon us." "What happened to the Alpha?" "Is he sick?" "What are you hiding from us?" "It's the hunter's daughter. She must've done something to our Alpha.""He shouldn't have trusted her in the first place." "Enough!" Garett roared, though not as thunderously as Hades did, but that still struck the pack members silent. After all, he was the beta, the second in command. He glared at the two men who suggested I did something horrible to my own mate. "If you respect your Alpha, then you must respect your Luna. Think if the Alpha finds out how y'all have been treating his other half while he was away, what he might do. He will gut you all out." Fear flashed through every single pair of eyes, and some even looked at me like they wanted to scream and run away. But that wasn't how I wanted them to feel about me. So I stepped forward on the porch of the packhouse."I'm not the enemy here. I'm just as distressed and worried as you are. H
I woke up from the ting on my phone in the middle of the night, indicating I received a message. My heartbeat flared the moment my conscious cleared of the drowsiness. I shot to the bedside table, grabbing my phone and turning it on. The bright light hit my eyes, hurting and making me squint. But the colors drained from my face when my eyes scanned over the text. 'Ela, help me.'Hades? As if my mind was on a reel, I scrambled out of the bed and ran out. But then I stopped, something else registering. This couldn't be Hades. He never called me Ela, and this wasn't even his number. Then who else it could be? Papa? But he was free now. Nola? Wyett? Bree even? Was Gordon punishing someone else in his sick traditional way? My head swirled. Typing in the number, I called. It rang and rang and rang. Then stopped. No one answered. Oh God... What was happening? How was I supposed to know who was in trouble? Feeling a wave of protectiveness surging through my veins, I ran back to Hades' o
It was a fortress, no doubt. A huge victorian fortress with tall, thick stone walls. But that wasn't what had my gut in a twist. It was the name... Dreaden. The same name the lady from the candle shop uttered before she got a seizure. But I had heard it way before than that, though I couldn't remember when or where. They had all been warnings that I so foolishly disregarded. Now I was paying the price. I didn't get to mourn over my stupidity for long because yelps from the girls snatched my attention. Two of them were being dragged by a man forcefully. Something snapped inside me, and I shot to them, pulling them off his clutch. "They can walk by themselves." I glared at him. "You-" He took a threatening step towards me when another of them stopped him. "Let them, Doyle." He looked like he had an entirely different thing planned in his head for me, nonetheless, he didn't protest. I turned to the girls huddling around me, and my chest tightened to see the affrighted looks on t
I gathered the plates and uneaten food, proceeding to wipe the table set with fresh flowers and scented candles in the middle of a rose garden. It wouldn't hurt if the man having the date wasn't my own mate. But it was. I could say it from the distant hint of pine and woods lingering in the air, in the seat where he sat, in the handkerchief he used. But I refused to cry. I refused to believe his feelings for me would evaporate just like that in the span of three days. Then there was the mate bond as Nola stated which wouldn't let a werewolf forget about his other half even if he tried like humans did. They felt it harder than us. He must feel it harder than me. Then why was he...? The frightful incident from moments ago resurfaced in my mind, causing goosebumps rise all over me. I couldn't blame it to the cold anymore because they gave me a new set of clothes aka a maid dress which consisted of six layers; seven if I considered the ruffled headpiece. It was the ghastly appearance
Three days. Three days were all I had left till I'd lose the love of my life. Lose the girls who had put their faith on me. And lose the chance at a life I had yearned forever. If I analyzed what Iris said, then that'd only mean Hades was under the witch's influence. She was controlling him somehow. Controlling his actions. But how? The incident before Hades disappeared dawned upon me, and I gasped. That rogue Alpha with his forbidden black magic. He struck Hades before getting caught, resulting in an obstacle to his healing abilities. Could he have been a pawn to her sick game? Could she have spread her poisonous tendrils on him through that? Or why else would Hades come here in the first place? I stilled, my chest clearing off a weight I had been carrying the past nights. That only meant, those hurtful words he spoke didn't actually come from him, but they belonged to her. She made him do that. That bitch. My hand clutched the cleaning cloth in a fist. How dare she touch what w
Dozens of predatorial eyes watched me as I backed further into the stone wall, the cold seeping through my thick maid dress and stinging my skin. When Hades said dungeon, I wasn't expecting to be casted into a confined space with several of rugged rebel men. The only thing separating them from me were the metal bars and the six feet wide hallway in the middle. I guess they were the people in the underground Merida was talking about. I had been looking for ways to meet them, yet when fate brought me right into their region I couldn't get a word out except for pleas of mercy. The dark look each of them held, and the scars that blemished their appearances into scary and wild, it plunged me into a dark memoryland of the night with the Alphas. And it wasn't like walls or bars ever stopped them. Then there was the fact that Hades wasn't here to save me anymore. One of them with a scar under his right eye slowly stalked towards the bars of his cell, tall and ripped like he crushed windpi
I watched heavy-breathed as Aeneas casted a spell, and one by one the men started getting sucked into the bushes around the walls. Some were badly injured from Doyle and his force, and what was worst was that they weren't healing as fast as they were supposed to. Years of prison did this to them or the witch's evil witchcraft I couldn't tell.I wanted to help them. I needed to. The moon was getting darker little by little, and my desperation plummeted. Blood, gashes and growls, everything made me want to run. But the only way I'd go now was ahead, but with Aeneas guarding the entrance like the gates of hell I couldn't get through. My feet moved when Doyle advanced towards me. An Invisible barrier seemed to have appeared, because I stumbled over it and fell. Two black boots stepped on either side of my waist, making me whirl around and drag myself away from him. Doyle watched me, a cruel, very cruel smirk splitting his face. I scrambled further until my back hit a barrier behind, my