LUCIEN"It's unfortunate that I'm stuck with you." Skylar scrubbed a hand down her face. "I can't even tell Bethel because who knows what hoe he'll blab it to after getting high." She hissed, falling into a seat."Do you have a plan, or did you call me out to nag at me?" I eyed her, propping my elbows against my thighs as I leaned forward in my seat."Their Mating Ceremony can't happen, so we're going to disrupt it.""How do we go about doing that?" She looked at me with disgust shining in her eyes. It wasn't my fault I wasn't an evil mastermind like her. I'd grown up with love and care so I had no reason to be such a schemer. Unlike her."We need something against Aysel.""Why her? Why not Valens?" Again, she gave me a disgusted look. "Stop looking at me like that." I fingered the neck of my shirt."You are idiotic. I knew you didn't have a lot of sense but I'm surprised I'm only now seeing how daft you are." She stood again, pacing the room. "Because he can leave her. She can't leav
"I am Luna Levana of the White Moon pack." The woman standing before me introduced herself. She had a soft demeanour and a kind smile that immediately put me at ease. She was tall and slender and wore loose jeans with a classy top."Hello," I gave a small wave."White Moon pack is the second pack the Alpha Prince conquered." Another woman stepped forward. She looked older than Levana but carried an innate fire and vibrancy that made her seem younger"I am Avalon Von Stein, the Royal Historian," she introduced herself."It's a pleasure to meet you." I smiled at her. Her inner vibrance gave off a nice warmth that made me comfortable with her."The pleasure is all ours, Luna Aysel. You have liberated us from bondage and to you, we owe a huge debt." Both women lowered their eyes and bared their necks in a coordinated gesture that made my eyes smart."Luna Levana will coach you on the duties of a Luna while I have been instructed to teach you the history of the royals from the first king t
When we got back to the penthouse, I flopped into bed with tired legs. I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep immediately.The bed dipped beside me and I felt Valens' warmth against my left side. I wondered if he felt as sated as I did then. He turned and I felt his stubble graze my cheek. We'd had fun today and I'd discovered a side of Valens that I didn't know existed. The playful side. I'd seen his stern side, his domineering side, his sexual side but today I saw him smile more times than ever and he made me laugh often."Tired, huh?" He stroked my arm but I didn't want to admit to being tired so I shook my head. Unfortunately, I let out a yawn right after."Woah there, don't swallow me," he teased. I covered my arms with my palms to hide my darkened cheeks. "Listening to a lie is funny when you already know the truth.""Stop." I laughed underneath my palms."Look at you ordering me about." I took my hands off my face to look at him and my breath caught. He was leaning into me,
Something tickled my nose and my eyes opened slowly as if in a trance. It took me a good ten minutes to figure out where I was. I was in bed in the basement of the pack house where I once stayed but I had no recollection of how I got here.I cast my mind back to try to remember if I came here to get anything but the only thing I could remember was the text I received from Celeste. I groaned at the pain that exploded in my mind when I tried to force myself to remember. There was a mental barrier that no matter how much I pushed, I could not get through.'Artemis?' I called my wolf but she still seemed to be asleep.I was tired and groggy when I came out of the pack house basement. A man greeted me as I passed but my head felt as if someone was banging drums inside. My feet were shaky and my vision blurry but I managed to get into the elevator and move to the penthouse.My legs carried me to the bathroom because for some reason, my skin crawled. I felt dirty as if I fell into a gutter.
I heard movement at the entrance and quickly scrambled up. I didn't know what to do or how to proceed. My first instinct was to hide. To hide from Valens. To hide from the world. To hide from the reality setting in. I wanted to somehow hide from myself too. I wanted to hide from the disgust crawling on my skin. I wanted to hide from the anger consuming me. I just wanted to disappear.I also wanted to sleep. I wanted to close my eyes and open them to see none of this actually happened. I wanted to sleep and wake up to see all of this had been a terrible nightmare and not the reality I was about to face.Who would I tell? How would I bring it up?I didn't even have the complete details. I could not say for certain how it happened or why it happened but it happened. Those pictures were proof of the violation. Proof of the lack of empathy, the wickedness, with which I'd been treated."Sagira?" I heard Valens' footstep approach and suddenly I was scared.I wasn't properly dressed. I didn't
VALENSI slept on the couch that night. She was so stiff when I touched her and she reacted so violently that I feared she was having a panic attack. I knew how terrible those could be because I experienced them during the early days of my curse so I didn't want to aggravate her."Aysel, will you at least tell me goodbye? I'm off to work," I asked my mate who had the covers over her head.Normally, I would leave silently because she was always asleep when I went to work, but I knew she was awake today. The few times she was ever awake when I left for work, she always saw me off to the door and gave me a kiss. I didn't know how much I treasured that simple gesture until I lost it.I went through everything that happened between us recently and I couldn't find any reason for her to start acting like this. She even threw her phone into the toilet. I would admit that I was pissed when I saw the phone in the toilet because we just got it and it cost me a lot of money. Money didn't matter b
I prepared myself to bare it all. I stood in front of a mirror and I prepared what I would say to Valens and how I would say it. All the time I looked in the mirror, all I could see was Lucien's hand all over my body and all I felt was a thousand bugs crawling all over my skin."I have no idea what happened but I woke up and I was in the basement and then –" I wiped the tears from my cheeks as I forced myself to look into the mirror. "And then there were pictures and I know I didn't – I didn't consent to them." My hands went through the mirror and it came down in a cascade of broken glass that dug into my fist."You son of a bitch!" I screamed, feeling numb all over as I gripped my head. My wolf still slept and I could only imagine how much wolf's bane I had ingested.I wanted to kill Lucien. I never felt such a violent urge before, never wanted anything as much as I wanted to see his lifeless body then. The minute the thought entered my head, my mind seized on it flashing countless p
"I need to know exactly what happened," Jabari said, fully entering the room. Celeste's eyes whipped from Jabari to me as she tried to follow the conversation."I – I don't know. He must have gotten the pictures." I wrung my fingers together."What pictures?" Celeste asked.I imagined the first person I would ever tell about the pictures would be my mate but it turned out he'd fled the pack. I'd expected him to be angry. I expected him to feel betrayed, to be murderous. What I hadn't factored in was the possibility of him hating me so much that he couldn't stand to be in the same room as me long enough for a confrontation."How do I get in touch with him?" I asked Jabari, dodging Celeste's question. "There has been a terrible misunderstanding and I need to clear things up fast.""I have a link with him as his Beta but he has shut me out." Jabari pursed his lips, hands on his hips. He didn't look the least bit pleased. "He also asked me to cancel the Mating Ceremony before he left.""O