~Nyla~
Rachel wasn't thrilled. She wanted to take a lot of silly pictures with me and her dolled-up friends while we rode in her fancy car. We were instead in a black SUV with boring seats and grumpy guard wolves.
The atmosphere was charged. Live music, lots of food, kids running around or taking a dip in the ocean, and adults enjoying their drinks by the beach. It was as if we arrived at some carnival celebration.
I tried to push my poison-filled thoughts to the back about how to end their smiles and laughter right away. The power of the full moon coupled with the latent energy of the stone was making me restless.
"Oh yes! Looks like their boring meeting ended early today!" Rachel said and jumped out of the car when she saw her dad coming out with a few others.
Alpha Caine's eyes locked with me as if I was his next task on his to-do list for the day. He was over six feet tall, just like Kian, but with hazel eyes and copper hair. He walked to
~Kian~ I drove at jet speed to the venue, praying Nyla was unharmed. While most of my wounds from fighting the Skinwalkers were healing already, the deep gash running down my ribcage seemed to need a pack doctor. A thick sense of foreboding lingered in the air as I reached my destination. Driving my car into the dry and deep sand, I slammed on the brakes when I couldn't believe my eyes from afar. All my pack members seemed to be walking into the ocean like mindless zombies. What the hell was happening? I ran towards them in a frenzy and used my alpha command to stop them. It didn't work. A hauntingly sweet melody had seeped through the air, filling my every sense and demanding me to look at the source of the song. Nyla...! Was it really her? Her face was still the same, and so was her upper body, which was now naked. A ripple of anger pulsed through me when I watched her bare herself to everyone. The speci
TWO YEARS LATER ~Nyla~ Déjà vu! It was a beautiful April morning. Maya and I were living the same moment again. We were back in the palace at the Golden Dells. I was pregnant again, and today was the Coronation Ceremony. Dressed in a beautiful purple satin gown, I paced to the bedroom Wyatt and I once occupied. The room was locked and preserved in his memory. Our pictures together hung up on the walls and they tugged at my heart with the same intensity, even after all this time. They say our loved ones never truly leave us. They walk beside us every day, unseen but always near, still missed as much. There are things that death cannot touch. I hoped it was true. I wanted Wyatt to watch my sunny smiles, to know that Ari found the best dad I could ever give her. I wished the new addition to the family to be a boy with Kian's green eyes. Ari was already a daddy's girl. The Moon Goddess gave me a lot more than I deserv
~Alpha Kian~ My mate is the most ridiculous person I have ever met. A human with no prior training or idea about pack wars and warriors. And yet, she thinks she can win a fight against me using her tiny dagger. Me, the strongest alpha that any pack has seen in a century. I was already rocking it much before I took over the Storm Moon Pack from my dad recently. As I lie awake in my bed thinking about my chosen mate, Adalyn, and wondering if I am doing the right thing by ignoring the Moon Goddess's choice, I sense that my mate, Nyla, is somewhere near me. She probably wants to kill me once I fall asleep. I killed everyone Nyla cared about when I attacked the Red Crescent Pack. She was Alpha Wyatt's true soulmate; the Alpha who was going to be coronated the Alpha King, and she was going to be his Luna Queen. How could my dad and I let that happen? Why would we submit to a weaker pack than ours? Maybe if this happened two years back when the Storm Moon Pack was unknown and unheard of
Six Weeks Earlier ~Nyla~ I was the happiest person in the world. Life was treating me really well, and I got everything I wanted. At least that's what I thought. I was too naive at that point to know that life didn't give a hoot about our wants and dreams. What life offered to us was more like fish bait, only to entangle us into a deeper abyss of sorrow and pain. Was I in the mood for such deep thoughts and realizations? Hell no! I was in the la-la land. I was standing on the west balcony of the palace, overlooking the fiery skies and the lush, landscaped gardens. In less than a year, this place had become more home to me than where I spent most of my life. This was Wyatt's home, and now mine and our upcoming pup's. Until I met Wyatt, I thought soulmates were a hoax made up by the elders to push young people into forced marriages. I wasn't a wolf or a human, but I still felt an intense connection to him because of the mate bond w
~Nyla~ By 5 AM the next morning, every dressing room in the palace was cluttered with hair and makeup products. The Omegas were hustling around while Skylar and Maya fussed about spa soaks and wraps in flowers and seaweeds. Maya was like me, not a human or a werewolf. Wyatt found her the same day he found me and agreed to take her in when I asked him to. Having her around was like having a piece of my home with me. To the outsiders, she was a rude, violent woman who wouldn't waste a second snapping their heads off. Wyatt never liked her around me. But she was different with me, she loved me and put me before her own needs or safety. I would do the same for her. "Our soon-to-be Luna Queen will get a full body treatment." She said to the girls who were ready to pamper me. "No scented oils and all, please. I feel nauseous." I told them before closing my eyes. Ever since I woke up, I have been feeling the jitters. Probably I wasn't ready for
~Nyla~ Most of the guests were in the banquet hall already, and breakfast was being served as I walked into the bedroom with Skylar and Maya. The pack doctor was on her way. My heart was hammering against my chest, thinking about Wyatt, dreading the words his mother was speaking. "You will be the first one to know if anything happens to him. If the worst happens, you will feel the bond break, and the pain that comes with it." All four of us paced the room anxiously. This was such a terrible time for the baby to come. Melanie, our pack doctor, told me only this Tuesday that I wasn't due at least until next week. My contractions were getting closer, and she was nowhere to be seen. "Do you think the pack hospital is busy treating our wounded? What's taking Mel so long?" Skylar asked her mother. "No idea what's going on. It's been a while, definitely not a false alarm." "Why can't they just keep their mind links open to let u
~Nyla~ "Where are you going?" Maya asked the midwife in a surprised voice. She stammered, "I-I'm sorry but I have to g-go. I don't want to d-die today." She looked at me with a guilty face and continued, "Your baby is the heir to this kingdom and a potential threat. He will kill the baby the minute he gets here. Trust me when I say that today would have been the proudest day of my life, helping birth the future king, if things were different. But the kingdom has fallen and most people are either dead or taken prisoners. I hope you can forgive me." Maya pulled out a dagger and stopped the midwife from leaving. I asked her to let her go. I told Maya to leave as well, run for her life while there was still time, and not worry about me. "I'll never leave your side, Nyla. I'll protect you until my last breath, even if death is inevitable for us both." The pain took over, and my eyes were soddened with sweat trickling from my forehead.
~Nyla~ "Don't fucking pull these stunts around me." The big bad alpha twisted my arm and seized my dagger. All I managed to do was scratch his wrist in the slightest. It was such a failed attempt that the minor break in his skin was already healing right in front of my eyes. I don't remember being this bad at close combat. Frustrated by my weakness and the effect his proximity had on my heart and stupid legs, which were both trembling, I kneed him hard. *Slap!* I couldn't believe it! This asshole alpha just struck me hard. "What kind of man hits a defenseless woman?" I yelled in his face as he reached to snatch my baby away from me. "Defenseless?" He placed the dagger near my throat as I was going to protest him touching my baby. "You just kneed me, woman!" I did not care about the pressure of the curved metal against my throat. "No, please! Give her back. I haven't even named her yet. Please.