DAVIDE’S POV: Mackenzie giggles as she explains what kind of a wedding dress she wanna wear for our wedding tomorrow. Her cheeks are flushed, her smile is stretched from ear to ear and her blue eyes are brimmed with excitement and delight. “I want a form-fitting, ivory dress with long illusion-lace sleeves,” she says. “Oh! I have many dresses like those in my shop. How I wish you can be there directly so you can choose the best one,” the designer replies, also with an excited and delighted grin. Mackenzie’s smile withdraws a bit when she glances at me. Needless to ask why, I can sense that she wanna do what the designer has just said. I smile at her, a brittle one. It’s not easy for the both of us to continue hiding in a place where there’s almost no one to talk to and almost the same things to see. So I understand that she wanna get out of here from time to time. But I also hope that she understands why I can’t give her what she wants just yet. I turn to the designer and s
I tuck four pistols in my holsters that are hung around my waist, then I dangle a rifle across my chest and aim it in front of me. Each muscle of mine is tensed up. They’re heated up, producing sweat to smear my skin. My sight is laser focus towards the stairs that lead to the door - the only way in and way out of this basement. Every step I take closer to that stairs makes my heart more ill at ease. But even if my heart bursts in anxiety, I have no other choice but to keep prowling, waiting for my enemies, who were once my associates, to make the fatal move. I stop and stay low beside the stairs. For a good amount of time, there’s nothing so far but the same ceaseless explosions of bullets from somewhere outside my mansion. I’m glad that my mansion’s walls and glasses are bullet-proof, which will make my enemies not only lose patience and precious time, but lose hundreds if not thousands of bullets. By the time they’re here, I’ll have the advantage. I glance at Mackenzie, who’s s
ALESSANDRO’S POV: An ear-splitting boom reverberates when the grenade that one of my men threw explodes. The impact of the explosion hurts my eyes and deafens my ears a little for a short while. Billowing around are coarse, pungent dusts and bright orange, flickering embers and flames. The dust and the smoke make it hard to see and to breathe that my men and I have to move away from the basement’s entrance until the effect of the explosion subdues. I turn to Sebastian, who’s coughing hard as if he’s about to die. Then I anxiously ask, “You’re sure that that basement is large enough that a small grenade won’t be able to fully destroy it, right?” He nods his head with closed eyes and dangled tongue. If that basement is large enough, I hope that Davide and my subject manage to hide somewhere where the explosion won’t reach them. I may be a cruel man, but I’m still a father. And the experiment will be smoother if we get the subject alive. My heart ripples in anxiety as my men and
Pregnant! Pregnant! Pregnant! That one word bothers me so much to the point that sleeping becomes oddly impossible to do. My chest is recklessly pounding while my head is savagely undulating. Fury! Dismay! Regret! These three always unwanted sensations are antagonistically working together to devastate me in every possible way. I’m furious at Davide for possibly impregnating a monster and possibly giving me a future grandchild who’ll also be a monster! I’m dismayed that he doesn’t even consider his actions and decisions - I expect him to be smarter than that! And I’m regretting for allowing them to be too close and inseparable - I thought that their closeness would fetter Mackenzie securely to us, but it backfired! I breathe in and breathe out heavily to pacify the ludicrous distress that’s bolting in me. I then close my eyes, pinch the bridge of my nose with my fingers and dig my elbow on my desk while waiting for Primo to accept my video call request. It takes me about two at
Before my father finds out what I found out, I quickly call on for a secret meeting. Carrying his laptop with me, I invite several Betas of our pack, who are more loyal to me than to him. Then we head towards Mackenzie’s home - the best place to conduct the meeting. Frank and Elaine direct us to the wooden sofas in their living area while they settle themselves on the chairs that they pull out close to us from their dining table. Both their faces and postures discharge apprehension. I haven’t spoken a single word yet, but it’s obvious that they already have a hunch of the reason why I come into their house without prior notice, and they’re right about it - it’s because of their daughter, my mate, Mackenzie. I pull out father’s laptop from the bag I’m carrying and lay it on the wooden center table in front of us. Then I tap my fingertips on the laptop and say, “Everything I wanna say to you is in here - this is where father’s secrets are stored in.” Everyone glances at each other
Growls incessantly clear out of me. But no matter how feral they are, they can’t reduce the searing anger that’s foaming up within me. Father stays calm though. If he thinks he can intimidate me with his indignant stoicness like always, well he’s wrong. The anger in me is much stronger than any kind of intimidation he’s hurling my way. To prove that I really am unbothered by his apathy, I clutch the gates and violently shake them. The ones who are with father start to shift into their lycan forms. They position themselves in a stance of readiness to fight. Despite the bloodshed that’s awaiting me, I keep shaking the gates with the desperate desire to get in. Frank and Elaine also shapeshift into lycans and help me in shaking the gates. It doesn’t take a minute when we successfully destroy the gates. When the gates collapse to the ground, all hell breaks loose. Thudding of bodies and growling of anger fill the scene. Everyone who’s transformed either attacks or retaliates.My first a
DAVIDE’S POV: Mackenzie. She’s the first one I can think of and the only one I wanna see. Where is she? And where am I? I weakly fold my eyelids open. Through their narrow slits, there’s a white suspended ceiling. I angle my eyes to my sides, there’s a mechanical ventilator. By seeing this, I realize that the lower half of my face is covered by a ventilator mask. I then weakly raise my arm. It’s coiled with gauzes while the back of my hand is injected with drips that are attached to another apparatus beside the bed I’m lying on. When I lay my arm down, I notice a plaque hanging on the wall opposite to me. It has a familiar institution’s name called Saint Luke’s Medical Hospital. How long have I been here? I’m sensing that I’m in a horrible state for being stuck here, for wearing a ventilator mask and for being injected with drips. However, I don’t feel any pain. In fact, I feel numb. What the hell has happened? I close my eyes to enable my memory to take me back to the last f
In less than two days after waking up, I regain some of the strength I need to walk without anyone’s assistance. My skin is still covered with gauzes though, but the burnt doesn’t look as terrible as I anticipated it would be. Nothing else has happened aside from me battling my impatience for Vivienne’s confirmation about his men’s arrival and my anxiety of what’s currently happening to Mackenzie and our unborn child. As I’m staring outside the window and clutching my phone inside my pocket, knocks come to the door. Everytime it happens, I’m wishing that it’s Mackenzie who’ll enter. But as always, it’s somebody I’m not interested to see or to talk to - it’s dad, this time. For the first time since I woke up, we finally meet again. No, actually, for the first time since I eloped with Mackenzie, we finally see each other again coz I didn’t see his face when he ambushed us. I only heard his disagreeable voice. “How are you, my son?” he asks with his arms raised sideways while he saun
MACKENZIE’S POV: Three years later… The joyful guffawing and the running footsteps of Davide and Cedric fill our low-fenced front yard as they toss a soft, plastic ball to one another. Cedric looks so much like his daddy, physically. His dark, curly hair drifts against the breeze while his gray eyes moisten and his chubby cheeks redden due to almost non-stop laughing. Both of them have sweat and soil smearing on their faces and clothes, but none of them wanna dare to even take a break to wipe themselves clean. This has been their morning routine ever since Cedric learned how to walk on his own, and Davide is enjoying every minute of it. I, too, enjoy the scene, though I’m not allowed to join them yet. I place a pitcher of freshly squeezed apple juice and two empty glasses on a tray. Then I carry that tray towards the front porch and lay it on the white-painted wooden table. “Boys,” I say to call their attention. Though Davide makes an effort to glance at me, Cedric doesn’t.
MACKENZIE’S POV: One of the greatest relief of my life is when Davide returns to the apartment safe and sound and unscathed. We spent the entire night in the living area with a mug of coffee each, talking about the surprising things he discussed with his brother, Gabrielle. I’m not sure if Gabrielle naturally has a good side in him that he never showed before or he’s just gotten scared to interact with any of the lycans again. Whatever it is that gave him a change of heart, I’m very glad about that. Davide is also very happy, more than happy than I am. How I wish I was able to hear how they talked to each other earlier, coz every time I saw them near each other before, disastrous things followed next. Two weeks have passed and we’ve finally gotten our passports and visas. Our last day in the Philippines gives me mixed emotions - sadness and excitement. I’m sad because I have to live thousands of miles away from my parents again. But I’m also excited coz leaving the country and goi
I roam my eyes around as I cautiously enter the coffee shop where Gabrielle asked me to meet him. The shop is not entirely small, but not entirely big either. There are only a few customers so it’s easier to verify if Gabrielle is among them,... and he’s not. I glance at the wall clock near the counter and it says quarter to four o’clock in the afternoon, which means I’m a little late. Is he also late? Or did he get impatient waiting for me and just leave? I walk towards the left part of the shop that’s hidden from the fixed, glass window that overlooks the parking space. “What can I have for you, sir?” a waitress asks the moment I take a seat. I’ve never been in this shop before, so I’m not really sure what kind of coffee or other menu they serve. “I’m still waiting for someone. You can give me your menu though,” I answer. The waitress nods, then pulls a piece of parchment-like paper from the board she’s clutching on her arm. She slides the paper in front of me and s
DAVIDE’S POV: Mackenzie and I head to the nearest branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs to get our new passports. I have no idea how to do all the processes on my own. Before, I always had one of my men do this stuff for me either in legal or illegal ways. But now, I’m experiencing what ordinary people do: to ride on un-air-conditioned jeepneys, which makes me sweaty and uncomfortable, to show up to obtain several documents from different agencies, follow a very long line and wait for an hour or so to be entertained by the agency’s employees. For all the illegal things I’ve done, I’m glad that none has ever been recorded to the National Bureau of Investigation. Otherwise, I won’t be able to apply for a passport or worse, I’ll be tossed to jail immediately before I can even get the chance to get out of the NBI office. Frankly, it’s quite fulfilling to be able to do the things I wasn't able to do before, especially doing it with my wife. The employee who assists us says that
Vivienne gives Davide and I another special gift aside from everything she already has given us. She pays for a luxury hotel a few kilometers from the Sunrise Inn, where we’re staying. That luxury hotel is where Davide and I will spend our honeymoon. I’m giggling whenever the word ‘honeymoon’ is being mentioned or is crossing my mind, as if Davide and I never made love before. Well, this is the first night that we’ll make love as husband and wife, so this night is gonna be more special than the ones prior. I step into the hotel’s black and gold bathroom, which has floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall fixed glass that overlooks the breathtaking beauty of Iligan City’s skyline. It’s hard to stop appreciating the jagged silhouette of the towering buildings, the popping lights from different angles, the tiny moving cars feets below me and of course, the dark sky that doesn't shy away from flaunting its twinkling stars and silver, arched moon. “So pretty,” I murmur. Standing up here makes
.Alexa is kind enough to put light makeup on my face without putting additional charges on our bills. She also rolls my dark hair into a bun and adorned it with a jeweled barrette across to one side, letting some of my bangs messily, yet beautifully fall. Lastly, she dangles a veil on my head. The very second the veil touches my bare shoulders, a tingling sensation crisscrosses all over me. Oh, this is a deja vu! But this feeling is much better than the previous one I had. To complete the look, Alexa hands me a fake bouquet of assorted, white bridal flowers. “Done!” she says, giggling. Her giggleness transfers to me the moment I turn around and finally see myself in the mirror. My heart jumps in joy while my tears threaten to stream. I take a deep breath, flap my fingers near my eyes, while murmuring, “I can’t cry. I don’t wanna ruin my makeup.” Both Alexa and I chortle afterwards. That actually makes my tears retreat from my eyes. If I assume the prices of my wedding dress
I’m told that, while I was gone and fighting for justice, Vivienne helped Davide book our wedding in a church called San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish Church, which is located a few kilometers away from where we’re staying. They’ve also effortlessly booked a high-end restaurant for the wedding’s reception, even though there’s only five of us who’ll attend the ceremony. Now, our only problem left is to find my wedding dress, Davide’s three-piece, white suit and others’ formal clothes. It’s six in the morning when we start our travel, using the limousines that Vivienne rented, to find boutiques nearby that sell wedding attires and accessories. We’ve combed through the entire Iligan City and been to several high-end boutiques, but all of them can’t entertain us since they require a scheduled appointment first, which we don’t have the luxury of time to do so. Davide and Vivienne even offer to pay the prices of their clothes and dresses in three folds, but still, they get refused. Hours have alre
MACKENZIE’S POV: Alpha Allen turns blue. He can't breathe, let alone move. What he’s feeling is the exact sensation I felt when he rejected me. However, I don’t feel that pain anymore. In fact, right after I accepted his rejection, I feel so much lighter and freer. I feel like heavy manacles that have been wrapping me for so long shatter. Into pieces I assist Alpha Allen onto the sofa. Then I rush towards the kitchen to get a glass from the cabinet and a pitcher of water from the refrigerator. When I rush back to the living area, his natural skin color is finally returning. His breathing is also calming. “Here,” I say while pouring some water into the glass. He takes the glass and empties it with one, swift gulp. “Do you want more?” I ask. “No, thank you,” he says, then he lays the glass on the table in front of him. There’s silence afterwards, a surprisingly ear-splitting silence between us. I wanna break free from it, but I don’t know how. When I attempt to say someth
ALLEN’S POV: While everyone is celebrating and going home after the trial, I stay in the courtroom alone to clear my headspace. The ‘guilty’ verdict of my father’s trial is both a relief and a pain to me. Relief coz Mackenzie and our race get the justice they all deserve, and pain coz he’s my father. And seeing him in jail while awaiting his death sentence isn’t easy to take in. Be that as it may, as the next Main Alpha of the Golden Crest Pack, I have to accept his disastrous fate that he created himself.I consider visiting my father in jail, but since the tension between us is still really high, I postpone that plan and will just do it some other day or when the time is right. Instead of going home, like what others did, I head towards Mackenzie’s house to do something that I should've done before - to apologize to her regarding what I’ve done the other day, no actually, I wanna apologize for everything I’ve done.Frank and Ellaine welcome me to their house and direct me to thei