RAFAEL.The sound of the trotting horses came to a halt by the edge of the cliff and both Gerald and I alighted. Lucien was a close third, stopping at a distance from us. It was better that way as I couldn’t even bear to look at him without the urge of sticking my fist in his face. On this side of the forest, it was just the three of us while the many scores of security guards trailed the other side of town. It had already been hours into the search for Kayla and still, she was nowhere to be found. My heart stomped as I looked around the perimeter to pick up even if it was just a scent but nothing.“Kayla!” I yelled over the skies returned an echo.“You realize she won’t be able to hear you right?” Lucien scoffed from behind and at the sound of his grating voice, my hands folded into a tight fist. “Lucien” Gerald tried to caution him but he loosely shrugged his shoulders.“What? I’m the only one being realistic here, I mean if she was close, we would have been able to pick up her sce
APRIL.“We must find a way to kill the child” Veronica paced around the room and from where I was seated by the windows, I threw a look back at her. “And what are you thinking?” I asked.“Thanine” She pressed her lips together and I batted my lashes to make sure I heard correctly. “Isn’t that too drastic—I mean it could harm Kayla as well” I said and this wasn’t me sticking up for her. It was just that Thanine was a poison used against us during the first war.Not the war with the Lycans but an ancient pack called Marseilles. I was too young to remember anything but Rose had told us of the time we were fooled into a truce declaration. The night that followed was a great feast to celebrate the end of the war.But the Marseilles had other plans.They’d slipped Thanine into our drinks and many of our pack members lost their lives that night. It was centuries ago and now, Thanine was banned across the lands which was the reason I hadn’t heard of it in a very long time until now. “We can
RAFAEL.“Help!” The guard leaned closer, placing Gerald’s phone in his hands next to the floor while I ached to even move an inch. There was evil in his eyes and terror in the voices rang screamed over the phone.“Help, we’re being attacked!” I recognized Sebastien’s voice first but as loud as they shouted, there was nothing I could do. “What…” I tried to speak before falling unto my back and then I faced the ceilings through eyes that grew hazy by the second. “The…the air” Gerald gasped for breath through his choking lips and his hands clutched his chest. “There’s something in the air” Lucien added and when I looked over to him, he was the first to be knocked unconscious. I breathed both heavily and painfully as I succumbed to the blackout and when he reached for the phone to end the call, all I could echo was—“Attack”However, that wasn’t the last thing I heard, it was her voice. “Rafael!”“Rafael!” Kayla screamed. “What are you doing to him?!”When I opened my eyes, it seemed as
“It was my home, even when you left me for dead there. I stayed there, I healed there and I was accustomed to my second chance fate there, the very reason I opened my eyes again and that was to make you pay. To avenge my people and my husband and my children” Rose looked behind and it was only April’s eyes that she met.Christina turned back and was sobbing in her hands.“You took my world from me and I’m going to take yours” Rose said and then brought her eyes to rest on Kayla. “Don’t do it” My heart lumped in the back of my throat and the words were laced with unease. “Kayla is your people too. She’s one of you, not of me. I take full responsibility for everything that happened that day including burning the house down but every decision that I took was never for me, I knew what it meant but I will also do anything to protect my people, like you would”“But Rose, Kayla is a member of Blood Moon. If you kill her today, that goes against everything you stand for. Is it really worth i
RAFAEL. The car sped across Oakland highway and I impatiently looked to the clock for the nth time in the last few seconds and we were still an hour away from the pack house. “Come on, come on” I muttered beneath my breath as I looked down at Kayla in my hands.She didn’t have up to one hour—her heart was slowly threading meaning the poison from the syringe was hastily flowing through her veins and the moment it did sting her heart, it was over. It was a battle against time but now, we’d gotten rid of the guards and Lucien had filled her stomach.We were all in the vehicle, including Veronica who stole glances from across the front seat whenever she heard my voice, knowing it was Kayla I was talking to but for the first time, I didn’t care.I didn’t care that she knew about us, I was tired of hiding—of living a lie and most of all, I was tired of hurting Kayla, over and over again even if it was never what I wanted to do. I should’ve never locked her in that cage because all of this
KAYLA.I used to hate looking into the mirror, at the scars and bruises carved into my skin that made me, me. I used to hate looking at myself because it was a treacherous reminder of what I wanted most to forget. But in this moment, the mirror was all I wanted to look into.I wanted to look at myself because as awful as it sounded, it seemed like I had forgotten. Ever since I opened my eyes, I felt different. I didn’t feel like Kayla and there was this awful feeling that tied my stomach in a knot. My hands fell to enclasp my bump as I stared at my reflection. It wasn’t entirely a bad thing to forget who I was before, maybe only then will I be able to let go of my past. But each time I remembered the child I was carrying, I prayed amidst everything that had happened, he was unharmed. I remembered it all, Rose standing above me and even as far as when Lucien was shot and he fell to the ground.I remember the feeling of a bag over my face and my lungs closing in on air. I remember the
KAYLA.I should be searching for books about the necklace or many similar amulets, I know. But it was a lot harder than you thought especially amongst the thousand books around us. So most of the time, something else caught my attention—either the book of the history of Lycans or the one about their never ending rules and principles.I rolled my eyes, but the truth was I used to love reading books like these growing up and I even remember stealing ones that belonged to my step siblings and then sneaking off to the garden to digest the pages. It was a weird but comforting hobby—reading.My hands wrapped around one particular book lined with red and silver and across the top was a boldened calligraphy of the word, Lineage. But as I flipped through the pages to start reading, someone appeared behind me. “You know you shouldn’t be reading that” As you would have guessed, it was none other than Lucien.I closed the book immediately, a little startled and when I turned back at him, he chuck
KAYLA.ONE WEEK LATER.My heart has never known this kind of pain—the kind of heartbreak that tears you down and renders time meaningless. You feel numb, even after days watching everything pass while you’re barely holding on. The kind of heartbreak that aches your soul and fills you with a million unanswered questions and it’s all you ever think about.The what ifs, and the what could have been.The kind of heartbreak that stems from your worst fear and leaves you uncertain whether or not you want to carry on. I would never wish that kind of pain on my own enemy—the pain I was going through right now.The pain of losing an unborn child.As I sat across my bed with my arms folded, it didn’t hit me that I haven’t left this place in a while. All I did was lie down here with my fece turned to the ceilings, drowning in my own tears. People had come by but they could only do so much especially as that wasn’t what I wanted.I don’t even know what I wanted and what I didn’t.All I had were w
KAYLA.SIX MONTHS LATER. The sweet scent of the morning tickled up my nostrils as I opened my eyes slowly. His arms that wrapped around my waist clinched me closer to him into a tight cuddle and Rafael decorated the lines of neck with soft, delicate kisses. His heated breathes nourished my skin and I chuckled.He was used to that, kissing the part of my neck he’d marked a few months ago. He didn’t miss that each morning and now, it served as the best erogenous zone in my body.“Good morning beautiful” He whispered, biting the tender lobes of my ears while slipping his hands through my nightwear and I clinched my head to him, a soft chuckle escaping my lips. And it took everything within to withdraw my whole body from him.“Come on, Rafael” My eyes fell to the clock before they widened. “We can’t” I shook my head and he pouted his lips. “Shit we can’t be late to our own wedding” Both of us chuckled and before I grasped the silky nightwear, I leaned into him.His hands framed the corn
KAYLA.My heart jackhammered inside of my chest as I arose, standing still for a moment. The wind was in the trees and even though the moon was out, the trees shielded me from it, leaving me in utter darkness. Immediately I opened my eyes, it was as though I was in the nightmare which had taunted me for months.Only it was no longer a nightmare. “It’s real,” I muttered to myself. “This is real.”The whistling clusters of the leaves overshadowed my voice as I took the first step forward, throwing my head over my shoulders. I could almost sense her, Veronica like she was close and my body tensed. Immediately I heard a thud from a distance, I picked up my pace.It all happened so fast, the dash and myself speeding into the forest. My hair danced across my shoulders as I took to my heels, straddling along a dark path. The only path. When all of a sudden the earth began to quake like it all was about to fall apart in the next second. I closed my eyes, whimpering beneath my breath but I d
KAYLA. There was some red between dark clouds and a pungent scent of smoke that filled the air. My hands rested against my chest and I could feel it pounding, as it'd done all through the day. But finally the time was nigh.It was now.As everyone chanted for the two brothers to walk through those doors and into the fields, it dawned on me that everything had led up to this very moment. My hands grasped the amulet and I heaved a deep breath."Are you okay?" I didn't even have to look to recognize Brenda's voice. My eyes remained fixated to the fields, hoping for one of them to come and maybe say they changed their mind or that there wasn't any battle.A million possibilities filled my head but might I add, unlikely possibilities.Something that Gerald had said stuck with me in moments like these, about how deep rootedly, being a Lycan was being a beast. And I didn't have to understand every little thing but if this was the prophecy, how long would we spend trying to avoid it.My bigge
It wasn’t until hours had passed that the doors opened to Rafael and by that time, I was sitting by the edge of the bed, already waiting for him. “Rafael” I called his name and the moment his eyes locked into mine, the silence that fell between us was almost deafening but his eyes—those stormy grey eyes which was so full with emotion spoke a thousand words.“Rafael, I’m sorry” I whispered.“My brother?” Was all he said and I couldn’t have felt more worse in that moment. “It just happened—“ I stopped myself, cowering my head knowing full well that there simply was no excuse. Not the fact we weren’t speaking or that he was away and Lucien was there for me in such a tough and complicated time.Not that.Because then it would make it seem as though I just used Lucien selfishly for myself. But it wasn’t the case, the case it was however didn’t slip out of my lips even as it fell wide open. And so we both just stood there with tears brimming at surface of our eyes and I whispered for the
KAYLA. I saw Lucien from a distance and my heart dropped into my chest.I took a step forward and then came to a halt because of how afraid I was to face him after everything but I knew I had to do this—I knew this was one my chance to tell him the truth. “Lucien” Even before his name escaped my lips, he turned around and there was a slight exhaustion that washed across his face. “What do you want?” He rolled his eyes to the back of his head.“I want to talk to you.”“Well I don’t want to talk to you” He tried brushing past my shoulders but I instinctively held him back. He stopped in his tracks, slightly taken aback by my words.“Well I want to talk to you!” I yelled. “Lucien you can’t go through with the fight” I muttered, only when he met my eyes and then he turned around. “I’m serious!” I made my way around him as well, halting in front of him.“Do you know what will happen? I’ve figured out the prophecy after so long and that is one of you must kill the other for the crown and
RAFAEL.My hands clinched around the railings of the balcony as I looked over the castle gates. The winds that gushed into my face was fresh but cold. By this time every other year, winter would come and there would have been so much snow that it would hard to see any ground surface.But alas, that was the one of the many things that had changed around here. Heaving a deep breath, I had come to accept that Black Mountain isn’t what it used to be and this year would be our first time without a Mountain Ball. It should have been today but with everything that had happened, it wasn’t really feasible.Not that the decision was up to me since I was one leg in and another out with the whole Alpha title. There were still so many questions but there was no way we could have the ball knowing Veronica was out there.She had already hurt one of us which means she was still waiting somewhere, for perhaps the right time to strike. And it was so difficult knowing some part of me was to blame for th
GERALD.I staggered out of bed that fateful day, taking a moment to heave a deep breath. Fateful, it sounded like a bespoke understatement. Today was a gruesome reminder of the accident that took Lydia’s life. Or as some people would call it—an anniversary.It had been nine years now, but somedays it feels like it was yesterday. It feels like I’d only started grieving and the hurt would hit more on those days. I could never see it as an anniversary because whilst everyone else was preparing for Christmas or the Mountain Ball, I was reminded of my need to mourn.But this year, it was different. It was also worse. “Can you do it?” Rafael stood at the door as I tried to stand amidst the bandage across my healing chest. He helped me up but asked again. “Are you sure you can oversee the execution?” He added.And her face was all I saw behind my eyes—April. It was today, her execution was today. I knew Rafael didn’t remember what today was and honestly I’d like to keep it that way. I could
KAYLA.In the dead of the night, I jerked from my bed, sweaty and gasping for breath. My vision was clouded and my entire premise, disoriented—I had just awoken from yet another nightmare.Reaching to my nightstand, I grasped the necklace in my hands before clicking it around my neck. Of course I knew that without wearing it, I’d once again be whisked the bad dream. I didn’t forget it, it was intentional.It’s what happens when you’re backed against the wall.I was between trying to feel something other these overwhelming emotions that stemmed from Lucien and trying to find out more so I’d be able to prevent it if it truly was the future. But neither had worked, not only was there not a new development but waking up, I felt just as miserable with everything that happened clinging to my memory like a troubled past. I knew it would take more than just sleeping it off but I’d give anything to feel a little better.By the next second, my face was palmed in my hands and though it was just
KAYLA.“What exactly happened out there?” Pushing through the doors, the first person my eyes landed on was Gerald and he was laying almost unconscious across the clinic bed. Rafael was right beside him, a finger stroking his jaw and it didn’t take me a second to notice the tense air. “Oh my God what happened to him?”“He was shot” Christina found her way next to me before folding her arms. She was trying to hide her nervousness but her glassy eyes gave her away. “Shot?” I echoed in shock.“Has the search party been called off?” Rafael asked and it was Sebastien who stepped forward this time. “Everyone is back and the doors are closed per your order” He took a bow and this was usually Gerald’s line but seeing him across the bed, he was barely conscious.“Rafael what happened?” I urged and he pushed a hard lump down his throat. “It’s Veronica—Gerald thinks he saw her in a flash by of a second he was shot. “She was the one who pulled the trigger so that doesn’t just mean that she kne