Dawn’s POV:I watched Cassidy as she made her way through the crowd of people ever so gracefully, like a queen. It was shocking seeing how she could manage to have her ego untainted even though Ryan had made sure to bruise it.And he did it so badly.Today, we were hosting a party. Scratch that, Alpha Xavier was hosting a party to welcome some ‘Lord’ who wanted to stay a while with us to the pack. And somehow, for some reason best known to Ryan, he had put her in charge of the servants… the waitresses and the ‘meals’ and when I say meals, I mean the humans, the humans who now served as refreshments to the bloodthirsty vampires. Cassidy, clad in nothing but the soft cotton skirt and blouse that was the signature uniform of the ‘slaves’- that was part of the embarrassment that Ryan had put her through- stopped when she saw me. There was a dark look in her eyes, one which managed to send chills down my spine because of how malicious it looked. And then she smiled.“There you are!” She e
Dawn’s POV:I could hear the hushed mumblings among the crowd as they turned in the direction of the noise- me, but at this point, I didn’t care. I didn’t even care that Ryan was standing beside me, grabbing onto my arm like his life depended on it and muttering something to me, something that I couldn’t quite catch at the moment.All I cared about was the shattered glass on the floor and the fact that I could swear that Cassidy had served me orange juice, but now the liquid painting the beautiful porcelain floor wasn’t orange, it was crimson. I gasped.“Is that… blood?” I asked Ryan who in turn shook his head. “That’s red wine.” He answered softly. He looked almost… stoic and his expression was unreadable. “That’s a wine but you know you can tell me anything right?” He asked and all I could do was give a simple nod of approval.“Why did you let it fall? I know it didn’t slip… you intentionally wanted it to fall.”As I watched him talk, I couldn’t help but think about a thousand thou
Dawn’s POV:“Did you find something?” I asked Xavier for the hundredth time today and in turn, he rolled his eyes at me for the hundredth time too before picking up the piece of paper once discarded on his desk.“You know, it’s not that easy to find answers to cases like this. It could take days… weeks even. Moreover, what if you had imagined it all? What if you’d been given wine but you thought it was orange juice?” He snapped back.Something about his words made me insanely pissed but knowing that I couldn’t act on it, I rolled my eyes and snorted as I plopped into the chair beside me. My eyes were fixed on him as I hissed; “Are you saying that you think I was hallucinating?”“Oh yes, I think so!” He snapped back without even doing as much as sparing me a glance. “Because that was obviously red wine.”His words hurt. So much. But I’ll be damned if I said anything about what that young servant had said to me that day. It was our little secret, our little something and in return, I ha
Dawn’s POV:As soon as my hands connected with Reagan’s face, his eyes flashed. He snarled as he threw his head back and to my horror, his fangs elongated. However, before he could sink it into my throat, I felt something like wind blow past me. It was so fast and so sudden that it had me stumbling back. What surprised me even more was the fact that by the time I regained my composure, I was standing face to face with Zade whose arms were wrapped around Reagan’s neck as he tried to subdue the obviously lesser vampire.“Zade…” I breathed out in relief. “Thank you.”For a minute, I could swear that Zade didn’t hear me. Or if he did, he pretended not to. He ignored me as he looked down at the vampire who was still clutched under his hold and snarled; “Why are you bothering the girl?”“Isn’t she just a human girl, Zade?” Reagan spat back angrily. “I was only prepping her up before I devoured her because as you may know, she’s nothing but food.”Something about his words irritated me to
Dawn’s POV:“By the time I am done with you, you’d wish you never asked for it!” Zade snarled and with that, he pushed me off of him with a force that had me stumbling backward. Before I could ask what he meant by that, or why he had pushed me off so aggressively, he fisted one of his hands into my hair, and the other, he used to tug off my towel so forcefully that I had a friction cut from it.“Zade!” I cried, in both shock and pain and I saw his eyes flash again with an emotion, an emotion that I suspected was regret before he moved away from me to pick up my discarded towel.“I’m sorry,” he sighed as he pushed the towel into my hands and stepped away from me, whilst ignoring my eyes and me altogether.I was confused. I didn’t know exactly what he was sorry for... well, besides the fact that he had nearly ripped off a part of my skin. But still, it wasn’t his intention and I wanted it… I asked for this, and if there was anyone to be blamed, then it was supposed to be me. He tried
Xavier’s POV:Never in my life did I know that there would come a day when I would feel jealousy.Jealousy.It was a foreign word. One that I had only heard people often use but had never felt… and never thought I could, until now.My heart raced as Dawn’s soft moans filtered through the air, and it hurt. It hurt more because all I could do was listen. And I wasn’t the one making her moan so sweetly. It was Zade. I had the option to shut my door tight. I knew I could block out the sound but I didn’t want to. I couldn’t bring myself to. For some reason, I wanted to listen, I wanted to hurt myself and I wanted to know what it felt like to have to share the attention and affection of one’s mate with other people; and now that I have, I have come to decide that it is the worst feeling to ever exist. I squeezed hard on the wine glass in my hand, and when it broke, shattering into a million pieces, I didn’t care. Nothing mattered to me anymore, not even the trail of blood on my injured han
Dawn’s POV:I woke up with a start; to the sound of sirens blaring in the distance and when I went to the window, I was surprised when I saw a small crowd gathered outside, just near the gate.Xavier was a few feet away from the crowd and on his face was the most stoic expression I had ever seen on anyone. His sharp jawline- due to how deeply he was frowning- appeared even sharper and his attention was fully at the open gates, where an ambulance had just driven out of.It was then that I noticed Ryan standing beside Xavier the whole time. Like his shadow, he clung to Xavier whilst whispering something into his ear. I watched them quietly as they talked for a while and just when they were about to turn away, Xavier looked up, catching me off guard as I struggled to appear like I hadn’t been watching them this whole time.Deciding to shrug off whatever was happening out of my mind, I went to have a warm shower, and after changing into a comfortable pair of jeans that had been bright her
Dawn’s POV:Throughout that morning, I forgot all about breakfast as I couldn’t stop sobbing. My heart felt heavy and I wasn’t sure why.I knew that I was embarrassed and felt foolish after the events that happened earlier in the morning, and I also couldn’t shake out the way that Ryan who once only looked at me in admiration watched me with contempt.Wiping my eyes with the back of my sleeve, I pushed myself off the floor and stepped out of my room. I had been in my room, locked up in there for so long that I was surprised when I stepped out and realized that it had become late in the evening and that most of the slaves had retired to their quarters. The house wasn’t as busy as it had been the last time I was out and whilst ignoring the pointed stares from the remaining palace staff left around the house, I strode into the kitchen to help myself to a small bowl of grapes.I was just about to step out when I heard not-so-loud voices coming from the other side linking to the sitting ro
Dawn’s POV:The room broke into chaos.One minute, I was screaming, hoping that something in my voice would end this madness, but it didn’t, and the next minute, Xavier was pushing Xander off his Beta while he landed a fatal blow to the back of his neck.Xander growled in annoyance as he struggled to his feet with his hands clutching the back of his neck, and with eyes full with disdain, he snarled at Xavier; “Brother! You dare hit me?!”I rolled my eyes and so did Ryan. The room was too tense, so tense that one could cut the thickness in the atmosphere with a bread knife. My eyes widened when I noticed how Xander pushed toward Xavier but before he could lay a hand on him, Ryan inched closer, his nose bleeding.“Stay back,” he growled, eliciting an amused snicker from Xander.“And if I do not?” He snapped back threateningly but Ryan didn’t flinch even though it was obvious that the other man was stronger by the way he towered over him. “What will you do?”“I have no idea,” Ryan mutter
Dawn’s POV:“Go to your room!” Xavier barked at me and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t argue. I didn’t even need to be told twice as I dashed out of the dining area and ran up the stairs leading to Xavier’s chamber.When I arrived at my room, I slammed the door shut, fastened the locks into its place- so as not to take any chances- and crouched behind the bed. For some reason, I was scared… terrified even and I do not know why. For all I knew, Xander couldn’t be as bad as everyone was making him out to be, but whenever I remembered Autumn's words, and Ryan’s… and the way Xavier’s face had fallen at the news of his presence, I couldn’t help but think otherwise.My hands shook as I wrapped them around my knees and I even began to shake even more when I began to hear the sudden noises coming from downstairs. The shouts and the screams… and then the silence; The eerily intense silence that made my heart hammer against my chest as I couldn’t help but wonder why he was here… wh
Dawn’s POV:Ever since that incident with Cassidy the other night, my room was changed again, and this time, I was made to live in one of the rooms in Xavier’s private chamber. It was peaceful here… and beautiful too, but sometimes I couldn’t help but think that maybe now, I was trapped. Maybe there was no escaping him anymore. I knew that it was for my safety but I still felt weird thinking about it, especially whenever I remembered the way he had gone off on Cassidy that day.“Dawn… your food.” A deep rich masculine voice snapped me out of my train of thoughts and in shock, I lifted my head and blinked, surprised as I was met with two pairs of beautiful eyes… beautiful eyes that were all mine-‘if you think of it that way.I cleared my throat and sat up, and while I did, I never took my eyes off Xavier, not even for a second. You see, I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to ask him about my parents, about Cassidy’s situation, and I wanted to ask him who ‘Xander’ was, and in order to ena
Zade’s POV:It was silent… and cold, just the way I liked it whenever I wanted to think.As I lazed away in my indoor lounge with my favorite drink in hand- which was a sachet of blood type AB- I couldn’t help but think about what had happened earlier today. My people were going too far. I understood their anger at the fact that I had given Reagan away but retaliating by going after Dawn? That was too much! And I would make them pay for going after my mate!Sometimes, I couldn’t help but think about the possibilities of what would’ve been if Xavier, Ryan, and I hadn’t arrived there when we did. I couldn’t shake out the images that plagued my mind. Images of ‘what would haves’ that I struggled to shake off, and the more I thought about it, the angrier I became.Do you even know what is worse? The fact that I couldn’t talk to anyone about it… yet. I didn’t trust anyone here about issues relating to Dawn. Not my mother, and definitely not my friend, Micah. They hated humans with a passio
Dawn’s POV:As I laid in bed that night, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Ryan had said to me. It wasn’t a lot to process, but still, it had been shocking. I still wasn’t sure if the ‘murderer’ that plagued Autumn’s dreams was Xavier or his estranged brother, Xander, and at this point, I was sure that I ought to talk to Xavier about it in order to know the truth.Deciding that I would do just that when next I met him, I closed my eyes and snuggled into my duvet. It was night, I was tired and today had been an excruciatingly long day so it was only normal that I retired to bed.However just when I had slowly begun to doze off, a creaking noise by my door had me peeling my eyes wide open. It was so dark in here, as dark as a crow in a night’s sky, so I was certain that whoever must’ve come in could not see me. I took a sniff of the air, hoping to smell any one of my mates but to my surprise, the smell was foreign. It was feminine… and what stood out the most was the aura it gave off.
Dawn’s POV:I didn’t stop wailing as I packed up my suitcase and got into one of Xavier’s waiting cars, that is after explaining to my parents what was happening, and I still didn’t stop crying even as the car drove out of the dirt road leading out of the woods and into the city.I could remember their frightened faces. It was the only thing latched into my memory as I climbed into the car, and when Xavier promised to take them to a different bunker at a more secure location, they chickened out. They didn’t trust him, and that was understandable… but they trusted me and I couldn’t afford to bring them down.My tears continued to stream down my face and I didn’t notice until I felt something warm against my left cheek, brushing away the stray tear that had streaked that spot, and when I turned to the person to see that it was Ryan, I barely smiled. I only nodded.The ride continued in silence and when Ryan probably could no longer stand how quiet it was, he turned to me. His voice was
Dawn’s POV:I waited for the commotion outside to die down before I climbed up the ladder and unfastened the several locks to the bunker’s door. When I pushed the door open, I was suddenly hit with the metallic smell of blood and that wasn’t all. There were bodies scattered everywhere. And now, I know I may sound like I was exaggerating but more than ten corpses were lying on the floor, and while some were decapitated, the rest were just… dead.Another thing that I couldn’t shake out was the pungent smell of rotten flesh. It smelled disgusting and it emanated from the bodies on the floor, and now that I thought about it, it was the same as those I had smelled on those men back at Xavier’s pack, and in disgust, I scrunched up my nose.“Hey, Dawn! Good to see you.” Ryan greeted me with a sweet smile, and for a minute, I almost forgot about the corpses scattered around until I smelled them again. I smiled back; “Hi Ryan, good to see you too!”Silence…“What happened here?” I resorted to
Dawn’s POV: Autumn’s words wouldn’t stop playing in my head and the more I tried to shake it off, the more it plagued my mind. She wasn’t making it up. It didn’t look like she was. Even now, I could still feel the fear that radiated off her, could still see the way her body shook violently and how she had almost hyperventilated. I could still see the sweat… smell them too and none of those actions, none of those body languages showed that she was lying in any way. So it was true. I tossed and turned in bed that night, unable to sleep. I also knew that I needed to take a walk outside, or a run, but I couldn’t. It was late at night and knowing that everyone was fast asleep by now, and that there was no one to fasten the locks on the bunker’s door into place after I’ve left, I didn’t leave. Leaving meant putting them in danger and I would hate myself so much if I accidentally exposed them to more dangers than I have already at this point. I shook my head and sat up. Glancin
Dawn’s POV:My heart pounded in my chest as I slowly walked up to him and while I did, I couldn’t bring myself to look at him… to look at his beautiful eyes… so I watched the floor instead.The hammering of my heart turned into full palpitations when I arrived at where he stood with the wrapped gift and I was just about to beam a smile up at him when I remembered that he could hear my heartbeat. He had a sharp sense of hearing, one that was even sharper than mine, and this thought made me bow my head in embarrassment.“Hello to you too, Dawn.” He greeted teasingly, “How have you been?”His demeanor, his words… His actions made me very confused. I was so certain that he was mad at me and I could’ve sworn that he was only here to punish me for sending Alan back alone the time he came for me, so it was surprising that he was being playful right now. Hell, he’d even come with a present!“Dawn…?” His rich drawl snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked up at him slowly. I wasn’t sure what