AURORA
She smiled. Not like the ones she forced or those that she made to cover her anguish but she genuinely smiled. She was happy.“Oh yes, I remembered that day quite well. The first day I ever stepped in here, the packhouse was on fire.”I peeled my eyes away from the image of the packhouse’s mini-forest that I was sketching. Lizra ‘borrowed’ me—but I’m not going to give it back—a sketchbook for tonight and though it’s been a long time since I drew anything, I delved into it and liked the way it came out.I used to draw a lot as a kid but I could never sit down long enough to finish one drawing. I always got bored and eventually found something better to do.‘Sadly, you don’t have anything better to do now.’I wished I could drag her tail right now. ‘Must you ruin every moment, Ev?’But it was nice outside. We were seated at the entrance of the packhouse, my eyes glided down the stairs we wouldn’t cross today then roADRIAN“You see her as a threat, Alpha?” my Beta asked, with arms folded on one of the seats opposite mine. The one next to him was still empty. That monkey can’t arrive early to save his own life. “He will arrive soon, Alpha,” Roger said, noticing where my eyes had strayed. “He overdrank last night.”‘That must have been like ten bottles,’ Fox scoffed but my attention was far from Dylan’s tardiness and bad drinking habits.I had wanted to be there. I can hear things from miles away but I can also shut them out when I pleased. Their laughing and jokes, her laughing, I couldn’t shut them out. Not when she sounded the happiest she had been since she arrived in the packhouse.Though I wasn’t there, I was watching, listening, and more than all things at the moment, I wanted to grab a chair and join them. See her laugh physically and at least try to smile for her but I couldn’t get off my sorry ass. I couldn’t move from my drunken state on the bed.
KATRINAIt felt like we had been here since the first meeting we had, gathered like this. It felt like we were in the same clothes, the same positions, with the same shocked faces when Hilda told us that Aurora had called.We had the same concerns but now, everyone’s blood pressure was higher and the tautness was so real that no one could sit down for too long. Especially not me. When Alpha Hades dropped a visit yesterday, I was so glad—we were so glad—because it had been months since we set our eyes on the Alpha. He didn’t hide that he was glad to see us too but I wasn’t surprised that his visit just wasn’t casual.The information he passed to us—I don’t know how or where he got it—was very valuable and a few of us didn’t trust it until two Sigmas ran into the conference room that day and notified us that my son had been ambushed on the way to Seattle, then Las Vegas, where the headquarters of the Turner Industries was sited.He escaped and retur
AURORAIt wasn’t until noon before I opened my eyes to the new day and dragged myself to the shower. I had never been so hung over.‘Never do that again! Your headaches aren’t limited to only you, you know!’Listening to Evolet’s whining was the last thing I needed this morning so once I was out of the shower, I dropped on the seat facing my dressing mirror and saw a pill on a sheet of paper, with a covered glass of water beside it.‘For the headaches’… Lizra’s handwriting.I took the pill, working my hands through my towel-dried hair as I stared at myself in the mirror. It was no surprise that I was a mess but… there was this glow about me. A purplish glow and my mark looked brighter this morning.Still smiling, I dressed up. Lessons would probably be postponed today and since I had nothing better to do, I wanted to see someone that had been avoiding me since our sword fight.‘You want to go to HIM? Him? Are you kidding
DASHFrustrated, I removed my headphones and set them on the table, switching my computers off. I closed my eyes and thought of a way around this, a way to still be safe so mom wouldn’t die out of hypertension and I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of my life in here.‘You’re exaggerating,’ Lightning, my wolf, said to me.‘What if Lilith never gets caught? What then?’I got on my feet and pushed the chair away from me, snarling at my confinement as I held the window’s edge, looking out into the dark evening. It was just six pm but the sky was as dark and starless as a blood moon night.I searched for the moon in the sky but couldn’t see it yet. I’ve tried to keep myself busy for the day so I wouldn’t have to relive that moment in Azonos, when we were attacked. It all happened so fast.One second, I was talking to the Sigmas that accompanied me and the forest seemed calmer than usual so our guards weren’t as alert as they
AURORA“Flash question, you must answer in not more than five seconds.”I took a deep breath, bracing myself for the next thing Lizra was preparing to fire at me.It was a new day and I spent yesterday, after our altercation…Evolet coughed. I ignored.…doing everything possible to not think about him. I tried to hammer answers from the Beta but of course, he told me nothing. I also tried tricking the Gamma but he caught my lie and stuck his tongue at my face.I asked Lizra straight up if she knew anything but she either changed the topic or repeated the same words, ‘I know nothing’ which was suspicious enough.During a walk down the hall, I noticed a large wooden door with carvings and designs of book-related images but heard hushed voices inside. No… it was one person, whispering to himself and seeming to pace around the room like a madman. I was certain the doors belonged to the library and before I could even step cl
ADRIAN‘Looks like that went well,’ Fox broke me out of my thoughts. ‘You didn’t break the bathtub and neither did you join her in it.’She has no way forgiven me yet but at least she wasn’t mad at me anymore. Lack of sleep because of what she said to me yesterday was an understatement, and I wished I could deny that her words troubled me but I’d let her enjoy this victory, she won’t win again.The amount of self-control I mustered to keep myself from joining her in there had mentally drained me and I needed a tequila recharge.“How did it go, Alpha?”I looked to my left and saw the Gamma walking out of a room in blue casual wear to join me. Where the fuck was Roger? Dylan wouldn’t survive one minute alone with me if the Beta weren’t here to divide us.He adjusted a silver chain on his neck and slipped his hands into his pocket as he walked down the hall with me.When I didn’t reply him—because I didn’t fucking want to—he asked another question. “Did you tell her why you were there?” F
KATRINAIt took some minutes to get Kane to sit with the rest of us and we had to place him at the farthest seat from Alpha Adrian—us actually. Alpha Hades threw glances from his side to ours and I suddenly understood how he helped us with information about Lilith.It still didn’t explain how the Alpha of Silverclaw knew. I wanted nothing more than for my daughter to be here, safe…‘Who says she isn’t safe with Adrian? If you ask me, I think she’s better off with him.’‘Take that back, Mel!’‘What? I’m saying the truth, Dash was kidnapped in this very packhouse. Do you think…’“I have a theory and recently just discussed it with my fellow Zeta here in your presence, before our hosts arrived,” the Zeta of Silverclaw said as Charlie joined him on his feet.Kane scoffed at the word ‘hosts’ and I side-eyed him to behave himself.Alpha Adrian had gotten his sunglasses on and it was even more disturbing to not know wh
AURORAI wonder where Adrian hid them. Once I was able to slither away from Lizra—thanks to a wolfsbang situation that happened in the kitchen, which I am in no way involved with…‘So it’s also a coincidence that the main bathrooms exploded today?’ Evolet muttered as I rolled my eyes at her.‘It’s crazy that you think it’s me. You’re meant to know if I really did it since you are literally everywhere with me. I wonder what you do all day if you don’t pay attention to me.’ ‘I do when it’s important and correction, I have no choice but to be everywhere with you. It’s torture…’‘And it’s too early for this.’She groaned. ‘This is why you need a watch. It’s one pm!’ she added, trying to raise her voice but it was only a subtle attempt.‘I don’t need a watch if you’re here.’I spent most of yesterday, after the bathroom scenario, with Lizra and even told her all that happened because she said my temper had reduced, the Alpha’s mood had improved—I don’t know how she knows all these—and tra
KATRINAI leaned on the door, checking my surroundings for anyone around because a Luna eavesdropping on her own Alpha was not the kind of news I wanted to be spreading in the packhouse for the jobless busybodies to be gossiping about.Checking to see if his door was unlocked, I opened it by a soundless crack and set my eyes on him, the most handsome man I’ve ever met, sitting with his back faced to me on a chair similar to one from his office, and a table laid in front of him like a gift from the gods. The reading room was not very different from his office, he didn’t have a lot of style—I could confirm that—but there were custom-made shelves of books stacked over each other in this god of a room. The Alpha uses every free time he gets to read, and the only thing that’s hotter than watching Kane reading was staring at him lovingly, when he was over me, with that dark, insane, animalistic look in his eyes as he was about to… When was the last time we even made love? The heartache of
AURORA“Mom went too hard on the code. She was meant to make it impossible for everyone but me! Dang it!”I admired the space we all dropped in when we first came down and thought it had to be the best part of the mansion because it looked like somewhere you would travel to in a good dream. It was a large roomy area that looked like an apartment, the lights were so bright that you would’ve had a problem differentiating day from night, and in this case, it was already pitch dark outside. The cream-tiled floor caught my eye first with interesting and innovative designs that made me think of walking on the ground and the large equally tiled walls of matching grace drive you to reminisce of the sun. If it was a bit cooler in here, I would rethink returning to the surface—it’s not like anything better is happening up there—but I still didn’t understand how this was a mansion. It’s just a… looks like I was wrong because the best and better parts were yet to come.There were MORE floors and
AURORAAdrian wouldn’t stop reading the letter. He’s been devouring it. I needed to know what was in it. I had to because, without me, we may have never even found the golden statue. We didn’t know where we would end up so letters were secured in the mouths of all the Silverclaw emergency mailboxes. They have that on every mountain both in and out of their territory, they are protected under The Dark Alpha's law. I thought it was a smart move, for unfortunate emergencies like this. I wished we were able to leave messages for them too, tell them we were safe but I think the empty mail post is enough proof of that. But making the eagle statues gold wasn't the smartest choice since it attracted the kind of people that they didn't want near it. Is he trying to show off?Adrian loses points for that. If it wasn't him who designed it then, I was sure it would be Dylan. That crook. Gosh, I can't believe I miss him. I missed all of them. I missed the packhouse too and I missed my motherly
ADRIANThose words echoed twice in my head before I mustered the strength needed to pull myself away from the enchantment Aurora’s lips had me in, a trap that I’d happily stepped into and didn’t regret because it had been so long since I had a taste of my mate’s addicting lips. She backed away from me as soon as I let her go, glaring like she’d kill me, before walking out of my sight and heading to whatever thing she’d seen that made her declare we weren’t alone.Those were dangerous words to say on this mountain and whatever she’d seen could not be good.‘She’s going too far away, boss.’Fucking Fox, at least he was saying something meaningful for once. “Aurora,” I warned, turning around to grab her by hand, glad that she had not gone too far away because I wanted her glued to me every second of the day, and held her still…. I couldn’t lose her again. I’ve already taken too many chances.“Let me go, Adrian.”This beautiful, sexy nightmare would be the end of me. “Don’t expect to sur
AURORASnow, snow, snow… in every freaking place. I was sick of it. Why couldn’t we have landed on the better side of the mountain? ‘And what makes you think this isn’t the better mountain?’ Goddess, not Evolet drilling me with questions now.‘Have you seen our luck, Ev? Have you seen how bad things are? I’m a hundred percent sure we’re in the worst place possible on this unbearable hump of snow.’We packed the tent as soon as the night died out and set off for the letter we were meant to find. I had wanted us to go as soon as he brought it up but he said I was tired and needed rest. Like he knew what I wanted! How many times do I have to remind him that he doesn’t own my body and can’t tell me what to do?‘Forever, because it doesn’t look like he’ll ever listen.’I hissed, clutching my frozen fingers. ‘Not another word from you, Ev.’ I couldn’t sound any angrier than that.He made sure I ate but didn’t bother eating himself—what a hypocrite—and when I told him to at least grab one o
So sorry guys for bailing on you. Delaying this for so long was NOT part of the plan and I really missed my way. ಥ_ಥ It will be unfair to keep you amazing people waiting another month so I can gladly say that the break is officially OVER and I'll start publishing chapters as soon as they are done, so be expecting them. We can finally continue Aurora and Adrian's story!Thank you to everyone who hasn't lost hope and is still with us on this journey. I've forgotten how much I've missed writing this book but I'm back ᕦ(ಠ_ಠ)ᕤ Hope we can get back on track! And I saw each of your comments, you guys have every right to be mad at me ⊙﹏⊙ I don't abandon books (that's not in my code) so let's finish what we started...
AURORAMy body and senses shut down as we prepared ourselves for what would be a devastating car crash. I promised myself that if I survived this, I was never entering a car again. The first time I was in one, we almost exploded along with it—you know how the story goes after—and the second time, well… we’re about to fucking crash!I covered my head with my arms and awaited the impact, a scream ready to be torn out of my throat, bones prepared to break, heads set to crack, metal waiting to dismantle, fire about to lit up…Just waiting for all that havoc to wreak on us but… the collision never came. My body jerked out of my nightmare as my eyes popped open, and my breathing escalated when I tried to look around me. There wasn’t much I could see except for the blinding blue sky so I tried to turn my neck but the pain made me feel like the nightmare wasn’t so bad after all.With difficulty, I pulled my heavy right hand up and trie
AURORAAdrian didn’t give two shits about the creature in front of us that was emitting nightmarish screeches because he only made the car move faster and drove us right into it. I screamed when it sent the thing over the car, its screech still scarily audible even with how swiftly we were moving.My body jerked back when Adrian pressed down the accelerator like our lives depended on it—our lives actually depend on it—sending us faster than we were anything should ever be able to move. It felt like my face was going to peel off and I was going to fly out but the seatbelt kept me in check, and Adrian continued rushing us down the dirt path with those... things... behind us.'Since there is a lot of fucking things I don't know, can you please start with... WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!'Seven more of those things were chasing us… and gaining speed. And I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating, but those things appeared organized... like they were p
KATRINA“Ice cream, calm down, you’re not making any sense.”'I can't say I don't agree.''Shut up, Mel.'I had called an impromptu meeting and gathered everyone that mattered here because it turns out that Hilda must have gotten her genius genes from me since I was able to unlock a discovery of my own.I’d spent nights trying to solve it, hoping to find the missing link—that Edward Ryerson couldn’t before he died—in his book, and if the man were alive now, I’d give him a gold medal because he’s given me the solution to everything and as much as it was holding me together, it was also tearing me apart.Everyone here was expecting me to start with the reveal of the blank page of the Book of the Undead—which was extraordinarily useful—but I had to chip this in first... and though I didn’t believe I was saying half of the things I was now, if it was going to help me find my kids, then fuck beliefs and fuck sanity.I growled at Kane and he raised a cautious brow. “Tell me to calm down agai