Marina's POV These previous several weeks have seen a lot of events. It was challenging for me to do tasks because of my large baby belly, but I managed. My welcome ceremony was able to be completed, and it came to a successful conclusion. We concluded by charging across the woods in wolf shape. Seeing the entire group gallop beside me was a breathtaking sight. Things were beginning to improve. I just wanted to avoid receiving any more unpleasant surprises. However, it appears that I spoke too soon because I felt water starting to stream down my legs at that precise moment. Really!? "Why couldn't you hold off till I finished my ice cream?" I grimaced. I started to walk, but a contraction stopped me in my tracks. As I tightened my grip on the countertop and screamed in agony, the marble cracked under my firm pressure. I moved forward by taking a small step while breathing heavily. After the pain lessened, I let go of the counter and attempted to take another step, but I slipped o
I gave a headshake. I was unable to complete it. I was worn out to the bone. Ryan said, "Sweetheart, you have to" as he appeared to be in anguish. I said, shaking my head and crying. "You can, yes. Since you're the toughest person I know, Marina, you'll be the one to succeed. Besides, I'm impatient for our son to see you." He gave a supportive smile. I answered, "It's a girl." Well, until he arrives, I won't be able to refute your claim. He smiled as he gently squeezed my hand and leaned over to kiss my wet forehead. "Ok. I'm all set." I gave Ryan one last push while looking at him, my face scrunching in agony. The moment our infant started crying, I turned to look at the doctor who was holding our child. "It is a boy." She declared. The infant was coated in bodily fluids, including blood. He was given to the nurse by the doctor so she could clean him up. Ryan said with a big smile, "You did it." It was unusual to see him so joyful. His gaze was downward. I was showered wit
She experienced periods of extreme depression, to the point where she refused to eat. She was once unable to care for both herself and our son. Yet no matter what occurred, I remained by her side the entire time. I kept trying to help Marina. I was able to get her back on her feet and healthy. Even if she didn't think she was beautiful, I would tell her every day that she was. Even now, I continue to tell her how lovely she was until she started believing in herself once more. She was able to shed the pregnancy weight after months of rigorous gym sessions. A year later, she became pregnant once more. But this pregnancy was different since she worked out virtually daily and felt good about her body when she gave birth to our baby daughter. Three years later, we find ourselves in the same situation. I was waiting for my bride while standing at the altar. Since Jackson's conception, a lot has occurred. He turned revealed to be an angel like Marina, which was exceedingly unusual given
Somewhere in another land, a pack unknown and hidden for many years, revealed an elderly woman and a young girl. "You are the only surviving Luna of our pack and you are our only savior," an elderly woman spoke. "What do you mean grandmother?" a young girl of about eighteen years asked. "When you were still five years old, our pack was attacked by some men. They began to kill our members. We tried to fight them but our strength did not match theirs. Your father was the alpha as of then, so the other wolves looked up to him. Because of his great role, he fought our attackers until his last breath," the woman explained. Amaya, her grand daughter gulped down her saliva, there was this unexplainable expression she had on her face. "But grandma, you are the same person that told me that my parents had died a natural death, so why are you telling me a different and weird story?" Grandma Elmore shut her eyes tight, she was trying to hold back the tears that desperately wanted to fall o
Amaya’s POV As I closed my eyes to sleep, I fell into a deep slumber and soon drifted into a dream. In my dream, I saw a king named Actaeon who ruled the land of Arcadia and commanded thousands of followers. His palace was a treasure trove of riches, fine foods, and exquisite artwork, yet he lacked one thing – love. One day, while King Actaeon was out hunting, he came across a small lake in the forest. As he approached, he saw a lady sitting at the edge of the lake, singing a soulful song. Her song was full of longing, and drawn in by her words, King Actaeon dismounted from his horse and approached her. When the woman turned to face him, her stunning beauty took his breath away. “Fair maiden, your song is both haunting and beautiful. Give me the honor of learning your name and how I may serve you. But first, what shall I call you, my angel?” “You may call me Adrastea, your majesty. I'm distressed because I fear I'll never find true love. My father is too strict, and he won't allow
Amaya’s POV I wake up to the sound of birds chirping outside my window. As I sit up in my bed, I am reminded of the terrible nightmare I had last night. I had dreamt of a dark forest where I could hear strange noises and feel the cold breath of a monster on the back of my neck. I decide to call my grandma who is known for her wisdom and spiritual guidance. We've always been close, even after I discovered I was a wolf. I tell her about my nightmare, and she listens attentively, nodding along as I recount the details. “I had a dream where I saw a great king named Actaeon, who ruled the land of Arcadia and had many followers. He had everything one could ask for, except for love. One day, while on a hunt in the forest, he came across a beautiful lady named Adrastea singing by a lake. He was instantly smitten by her beauty and vowed to make her his wife, but Zeus, her father, had to approve of the match. Actaeon went to great lengths to impress Zeus, but he failed miserably. In a fit of
Amaya’s POV I decided to stay with grandma for a while. She loved telling me stories of her younger years, but today she didn't tell me her stories but gave me some insights in the humans and wolf hunters. I have never been in contact with a human, so if I am going to get my revenge on the wolf hunters then I will need to know their strength and potential. The one thing I learnt in all my years with my grandma, is never to underestimate your opponents no matter how weak they appear to be. An example is an Elephant, As huge as it may appear to be, a needle could make it shed tears. In the evening, I set out to find a new prey. I wanted to challenge myself, I could get us dinner and prepare myself to fight against the humans. I ran speedily into the woods in my wolf form not wanting to waste time and worry my grandma. I kept still in the woods for a while, sniffling the air for any prey's around, I couldn't find any. "Seems I'll have to go farther into the woods." I thought to mys
The sun kisssed my face good morning, dragging me out of my dreadful dream or rather a nightmare. I found myself in the woods once more but this time I was alone, watching the humans torture my grandma. I felt helpless and not in control of my own limbs. It's a bright morning but I felt glum, that dream was definitely a kind of warning. I had to be weary of the humans and prepare harder so I don't end up in that unfortunate situation. "Miss breakfast is ready." I heard the maid call and freshened up, I went to the wardrobe to find anything to wear and couldn't find any feminine wears. With no other choice, I ended up wearing some pants and an oversized pink shirt because it looked the most girly. I walked out the room and my lips parted in shock and amusement, the house was sooo big and beautiful. The hall way was way too long and the decor was superb. I wasn't able to really check out the house last night because I had to put up an act in front of Aiden and his maids that am used t
AMAYA'S POVWeeks had passed after the little scenerio that played at the De Lucci mansion and the little family kept living live the way it was supposed to be cleary Amaya was trying her best to overcome her emotional barrier. On a beautiful Monday morning after Aiden had left for work Amaya was staring off into space with nothing to do so many things crossed her mind like calling Lisa and Phumsile over for a girl's day after going back and forth on whether to call she finally picked up the telephone line and dialed Lisa number.“What up Cuz?”“Hey Lisa how are you let me get straight to the point…… I was wondering if you wanted to come over for lunch together with Phumsile?” “Of course, Seeing as you called me you must be really bored I even wanted to come over to get the full gist of what happened at the lunch with your in-laws” Lisa snickered.“No problem, come over and we'll talk till you feel satisfied” I smiled as she cut the line to go on and prepare for the little lunch par
On their way to his house Aiden could feel the anxiety oozing out of Amaya as she tried not to show it in her expression. He was well aware of the pressure cause he was experiencing it himself all he could do was hold onto her hand with an expression saying I'm here with you. On getting to his house, she was lost for words it wasn't like she hadn't seen his house before which was through the television and pictures but seeing it physically was just breathtaking. The distance from the gate to the actual house was a a suit a a mile.The scenery of the house was just amazing. “We are here…” Aiden said bringing her out of her reverie. The minute she got down with Lily it seemed like her anxiety never happened even Aiden noticed her confidence on stepping out of the car. “Are you ready?” “As ready as I'll ever be!” Amaya said as she and Aiden began to move towards the large door in front of them with sleeping Lily in Cara's hands. As they got close the door opened wide and in front was
Amaya was overjoyed, she made sure that she did not give it away from her face expression. She was wondering if she she should also reciprocate the her feelings back to him but she was scared, in between his family members not wanting her and he liking that lady. She felt like she would later be an outcast and the thought was not appealing to her at all. She did not like it, she loved Sandro with everything that she had. She had always loved him but she was scared to let him know how she felt cause of heartbreak. She remembered how she bared herself to him when they first got married. She was such a fool, because anytime she was in love she always fell in love with everything she had, with her mind body and soul and she was happy that he reciprocated how he was feeling to her but what if he changes his mind. She did not want her daughter to be raised in a family where there was no love, she had experienced it and it was what affected her till now. In between her mother dying and h
Amaya woke up some time during the early hours of the morning when she felt Aiden leave the bed. She blinked in confusion, not sure how she'd gotten to bed. She was stark naked and she didn't remember getting undressed, or even coming upstairs for that matter. She could hear Lily fretting through the baby monitor and was about to get out of bed when she heard Aiden's gentle voice crooning to the baby. Lily calmed down a little and Amaya smiled as she listened to him sing to the baby, his sleep-roughened voice slightly off-key. His voice faded and she sat up, switching on the bedside lamp and adjusting the pillows behind her back when she realised that Aiden was probably bringing Lily into the bedroom for her feed. He appeared moments later, looking completely rumpled and wearing nothing but white boxer shorts. He smiled when he saw her sitting up in bed."Your daughter's hungry," he nodded down at the fussing baby and Amaya reached up for her and he transferred the wriggling bundle ge
Right, the knee-length silk slip dress was a little too low and made her swollen breasts look slightly too voluptuous for her liking. She felt a little uncomfortable in it but Lisa had chosen it, saying that the ice green colour did wonderful things for her hair and eyes."I mean, did you guys even think to make reservations?""Amaya, with your dad and husband being who they are, do you really think getting into any restaurant you want is ever going to be a problem?" Lisa scoffed and Amaya wrinkled her nose, conceding the point. Lisa flounced through the door and Rick stood aside to let Theresa in.The maitre'd smiled and led her through without question. Surprised, she followed him with a little frown on her face. He led her through double glass doors. The place was packed with people and for some reason no-one was sitting down. She squirmed uncomfortably when everyone turned to stare at her, not quite sure what on earth was going on."Surprise!" She nearly jumped out of her skin at
"Ours was just the biggest news because of your father's involvement. It made a bad time for the family even worse. I was so busy doing damage control after the news of Rosalie's pregnancy and subsequent abortion that when the story of our marriage first hit, I wasn't even aware of it, until my mother brought it to my attention. I dropped everything and flew home to you. I couldn't stand the thought that you'd think it was true... that you'd think I valued our marriage so little that I would file for a divorce without even talking to you about it." "What happened to the friend?" "She sold our secrets for a pittance but the status she had in our society has diminished to nothing. She is no longer welcome in the circles she once ruled. Trust me, there's no greater punishment for someone like her. Gabriella has learned a valuable lesson in discretion... and a few Italian publications are currently being sued for libel when they completely fabricated a lot of the so-called 'facts' to ba
Amaya headed down to the kitchen for breakfast three weeks later and found her husband already seated at the table, newspaper in hand. He'd already dressed Lily and had her little baby carrier placed on the table in front of him. Lily was asleep and Aiden was so absorbed in his paper that he didn't notice her at first. It was Phumsile's usual day off, so he'd fixed himself a bowl of cereal, toast and some coffee. She smiled at the sight of them, her heart overflowing with love for both of them."Good morning," she greeted cheerily, as she headed over to the breakfast nook. She dropped a kiss on the baby's cheek and then, after the briefest of hesitations, one on her husband's lean cheek. While Aiden was a lot more affectionate these days, she still felt a certain reserve around him, not sure if she could touch and kiss him as freely as he did her. She knew she was being silly but she seemed unable to overcome her emotional barriers. He told her he loved her every day but she still cou
"You were hoping for a girl?""Yes. Very much," he staggered her by confirming, his eyes remaining steady so she was in no doubt as to his sincerity."I don't understand..." she shook her head slightly. "Why?" He didn't respond, dropping his eyes to the suckling infant at her breast."Aiden?" She prompted and he raised his eyes to hers once more. He smiled cryptically before shrugging."This is neither the time nor place to be having that particular conversation, Amaya'," he frustrated her by saying."But...""We'll discuss it soon but right now I think Lily is ready to be burped," he pointed to the infant whose tiny mouth had slackened. She awkwardly dragged her bodice back up and then clumsily repositioned Lily until the baby was draped over her shoulder."Could you get the nurse?" She asked Aiden, putting his previous comment from her mind for now. "I'm not sure how to do this.""Rub your hand on her back in a circular motion," he noted the surprise in her eyes before shrugging. "T
She awoke to the sound of angry, hushed voices and blinked groggily as she tried to get her bearings."I don't want you anywhere near her," she heard Aiden hiss furiously and tried to concentrate on the drama unfolding in her doorway where she could see two large men silhouetted. One was unmistakably Aiden and the other; she narrowed her eyes slightly, trying to focus a bit better. It looked like her father."She's my daughter and I'll damned well see her when I want to," the other man blustered, confirming that he was, indeed, Jackson Noble III."So that you can damage her more than you already have?" Aiden asked, almost shaking with rage. "I won't let you get close enough to hurt her like that again. And you can forget about getting that grandson you want anytime soon. I refuse to give you the pleasure.""Well then stay married to her until you do, or give up the vineyard," her father sneered."The vineyard never meant as much to me as it did my father. You can have the damned place