KAYLA.The rituals were commenced by a deafening howl shot through the skies.The sound pierced through the walls and summoned everyone's attention, including mine. It was time, I realized as I made my way down the stairs. I had grudgingly thrown on a leather jacket on a pair of combat pants with the necklace Rafael had given me hanging loosely around my neck.I couldn't explain it but there was a strange feeling of safety whenever I had it on and besides, it tied the whole look together as well. I figured if I put all my attention in my clothes, I might forget what was really happening that night and that if I wore so much makeup, it would be harder for me to cry.I was still in denial, all through the day and I forced myself to act like my heart wasn't breaking with each step I took until I came out of the castle. There was a crowd of both packs merged into one, facing the northside of the field where there was a large bonfire. The winds swayed my hair and I crossed my arms over m
KAYLA.The forest was shaken by my voice and as I breathed heavily from my lips, I was finally relieved. When I settled right beside the tree I used to mark where Sarah was killed, I was now completely shifted into my wolf form. It was the second time ever, though the first was vague in my memory but Rafael explained it all to me.It felt strange being alone out here like this. And as the winds blew against my fur, they danced back in response. I was a white wolf to the extent which I could see but there was a brownish spot running along the nape of my neck. My tail wagged and there was this freeing feeling that came upon me.I appreciated the quiet and the sounds of nature as I crouched low to the earth, burying my snout into my forelimbs. I felt different in that moment maybe it was because I was different. I didn't feel like Kayla neither did I look like her.This was Isla and she seemed so goddamn powerful. She wasn't a slave, neither did she have the million scars from years of
KAYLA.I cowered my head into the toilet to throw up.This time, there was a migraine that pierced through my head as I vomited everything I’d tried to eat since last night. A callous, breath of relief escaped my lips as I lifted my head out. My knees dug into the floor and my back was against the wall—I felt so miserable and sick and I had no idea why. I’d only ever fallen ill like three times in my whole life that wasn’t as a result of the abuse or assault. But over the years, my body had accustomed itself to pain and torture.But just when I thought I was immune, today struck.Beads of sweat trickled down my skin but my whole body was hot. It didn’t help every time I thought about Lucien and what happened the last night—or perhaps, what almost happened. Because then my stomach would tighten again and it would send a shooting pain through my body.Nausea would strike and the next second, I would have my head buried into the toilet again. I breathed heavily from my lips as I sat wit
RAFAEL.There wasn't a single moment that passed that I didn't think about Kayla.I knew she was angry and she had every right to be but what she didn't know was that every second that I was away from her, it hurt me just as much as it hurt her. Veronica, just like everything else would pass and I really wanted to tell her that day.I've wanted to tell her ever since but most of all, I’ve wanted her to trust me. After the ceremony, I did go after her but Kayla had disappeared to only God knew where. I could only imagine what went through her head as she watched both Veronica and I. I'd succeeded in doing to her the last thing I ever wanted to which was hurt her. And I've found it hard to forgive myself ever since.As I sat behind the desk with my arms folded, all I could think about was her and finally making everything right. My mind was unsettled, roaming around with a million thoughts. I needed to speak to Kayla, if only she was willing to even look at me.But then suddenly, there
KAYLA.“So how are you feeling now?” Christina fell to her knees, checking my pulse with her two fingers pressing into the side of my neck. I sat up on the clinic bed, heaving a deep breath and both our eyes met. There was still a little sleep in mine but that was the only reason I felt a lot better.“You were right. Maybe taking a nap was all I needed” I yawned and she chuckled softly. “I told you” With a stethoscope around her neck, Christina stood to walk to the table. She took a piece of paper in her hands and wrote something down.“What is that?” I asked, arching my brows.“What are you writing down?” My step sister threw a look over her shoulders back to me before taking her seat. “Your temperature has gone down but we’re yet to see the results from the blood test. I’m going to diagnose off the top of my head and say you just needed some rest—““That or you ate something that didn’t really sit well with your stomach. That would explain the nausea” She added and I let out a scoff
KAYLA.The second I snapped my eyes open, my face was met with the cold railings of the cell. My first instinct wasn’t to scream but to try to stand to my feet but my body was in so much pain. I had a sour headache, I realized and my joints ached like I’d run a marathon earlier.Where was I?Looking around, it looked like a prison. Like a dungeon but somewhere I’d never been before. I wasn’t sure I was still in Black Mountain but the last thing I remembered was being carried by this uniformed group of men. I was probably sedated later on because my whole memory was a hazy mess and that would explain the pain radiating through my body.My hands fell to the pockets and I felt a lump. I reached out to the piece of paper clumped in my side and saw it was the test result from the clinic. “So it wasn’t a dream” I whispered but the dark empty room returned a hoarse echo of my voice.I looked around and then back at the paper and wasn’t sure why tears filled my eyes that moment. I knew what
KAYLA.The truth hit me like a shockwave that even hours after Lucien had left, I was still curled up in the corner with his words echoing in my ears. I had no idea what to make of the fact that I was here because of Rafael.A man that I trusted with my whole heart was the one to ultimately betray me. He knew of the trauma and the scars that came from being caged through my entire childhood, only for him to now do the exact same thing. I was gutted and to be honest, I’d cried so much that it wasn’t physically possible for any more tears to come from my eyes. It wasn’t until more than five hours had passed and night had fallen that Rafael finally came. I scented him even before he walked through the doors and my heart started to pound in my chest.“Kayla” His voice thundered the walls, only to be followed by sheer silence. I cupped my chin, trying to hold back the tears in my eyes. As much as I wanted to yell at him, I couldn’t bring myself to say a single word yet, even about the f
CHRISTINA.The raging noises through the wall was what brought me to a halt. The person yelling sounded a lot like Rafael and his voice was followed by the slamming of a door that shook the entire building."What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled at the top of his voice, throwing what sounded like a punch. I made my way around the corridor and came to a halt right in front of the door which had somehow bounced open, leaving a partition from where I could see him.It was a vengeful altercation between him and his brother. Although I knew neither of them, I wasn't a stranger to the news and the gossips that spread around the pack about them. Rafael was the first to grasp Lucien by his collar, throwing across the wall and into a pillar. He seemed so furious like he wanted to kill Lucien in that moment.His anger was evident in his eyes."What do you want with Kayla?" Rafael yelled and Lucien raised his head, struggling to stand to his feet but the king didn't allow him so much time
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