Anger must be evident on my face. I was heaving exhalations slowly, snarling at Luna Mira for hurting my mate. Artemis stood by my side like my soldier. I glared at my mother for a long time before settling Natasha on a leather couch near me. The rug we were standing on got stained by our blood. “Apollo…,” my mother breathed out as she rushed towards me as her face blanched. She looked at one of the servants and ordered him to get the family doctor. When I placed Natasha on the couch, she was semi-conscious. Her eyes were fluttering shut and open. Artemis took his jacket out and gave it to me. I covered her with it and in a soft voice whispered, “Stay with me, love.” Panic gripped me in a tight vise-like fist. Luna Mira came to stand next to me, her expressions pale. “What happened to the two of you?” she asked. Furious that she was acting ignorant, I spun towards her and growled, “Isn't it your doing?” I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t know that my mother would be so vicious and th
I could no longer sit at Apollo’s home. I asked Artemis to take me back to my home. Apollo wanted to come after me, but I couldn’t even look at him. Artemis picked me up and got me home. Their family doctor came to see me at my place. An elderly man with silvery hair on the temple, he had kind light blue eyes. He cleared my wounds, applied bandages and then gave me medicine to eat. “She is under a lot of shock,” he said to Artemis, who was standing by me all the time. He had called Nicole who was sitting by side. “The injuries are not deep, but she would need time to recover.” “What about her fever?” Nicole asked, as she squeezed my hand. “It will come down soon. It’s mostly because of the shock,” the doctor informed. “But don’t forget to give her medicine on time. I have given her a sedative. So, let her sleep.” “Thank you,” Nicole said and the doctor nodded. He packed up his things and left. I think I slept for the entire night and the day without any intrusion of nightmar
Artemis took me to their hunting lodge—a place where Apollo had brought me after Nicole’s wedding. Memories of the day assailed me. High up on the peak, the log cabin stood shrouded in the rolling clouds. It was dark and the aspens around it gently susurrated. “No one is going to find you here,” he said as he stepped ahead of me with my bag on his shoulder. I dragged myself after him. “But I can't say that about Apollo?” he added. “Because of the mate bond?” “Yes. Because he will hunt you down even if you go to the end of earth.” He kept walking ahead of me. “I am sorry with the way it came out, Natasha, but Apollo has his reasons.” “What are you all hiding from me?” Artemis didn’t answer my question and I didn’t feel like asking for more. We reached the door of the lodge and he unlocked it. I entered it and a familiar smell of damp wood hit me. “This is a place my father built for himself and mom, but later we took over it,” Artemis chuckled. “I seldom party with my friend
I continued to pour the contents of the can in a wok and then added water. I heard fabric rustling against the wood of the chair. Without turning to look at him, I waited. I held the edges of the counter and leaned forward with a baited breath. The silence in the room was thick, interrupted by his heavy exhalations. He understood that he had to tell me everything if he wanted me back. He started, “Your father, Ivan, and mother were rogues who had formed a mafia. It was so strong a mafia that every pack was afraid of them. My father was a progressive man and it wasn’t until Ivan interfered in his projects that my father got angered. Whatever my father did was wrecked by Ivan. He wanted to build roads. They were destroyed by his pack, which consisted of only rogues. When my father couldn’t take it anymore, he called upon a meeting with all the Alphas. In that meeting it was decided that Ivan had to be taken out. Sitting from a remote place in Russia, he was carrying out his operation
Apollo POVNatasha looked so broken at the moment that I wanted to hold her and hold her tight. But I didn’t want to push myself on her and at the same time didn’t know how long I would stay in control. She was trying her best not to break under all the truth and it was killing me to see how she was putting up. She turned away from me and gasped. She was so brave. Always had been. My wolf wanted to protect his mate and was clamoring me from the inside. “My aunt always says that I look like my mom, especially my eyes. It’s as if you are looking at my mother,” she said as she held the ladle and started stirring the soup again. After a long silence she switched off the hot plate and turned to face me. Tears were running down her face. When her beautiful blue eyes met my gray ones, she said, “That was why you always looked away from me?” Oh, she had sensed it? Panic gripped my chest when the images of her mother’s torture flashed in my mind all over again. “When you saw me first, you
My breath hitched when Natasha turned her head to the side, allowing me to see the skin where I want to mark her. Every little strength left in me vanished. My mouth crushed on her fiercely as I groaned. I grazed her lips with my fangs and when I delved my tongue inside, she whimpered. I growled as my kiss deepened. When I pulled away, I was breathless just like her. We were both so desperate that it hurt. I guess we wanted to discover each other all over again through a new perspective. I wanted to show her that she was Natasha for me and that I didn’t see her mom when I saw her. She wanted to make up for all the lost times and I wanted to give it all to her. “There is no coming back from here, Natasha,” I said to her, my forehead resting on hers. “I will go wherever you take me, Apollo,” she replied in a soft voice as she cupped my face. My sweet little mate. I lowered my mouth once again to hers and kissed her. She moaned into mine. In between kisses, I said, “I am not going to
Natasha POV At night, Apollo just let me sleep. I must have dreamt that he was watching me, sitting on a chair across the bed. I must have thought that he was staring at me, unblinking, with those intense gray eyes. I was sure it was all a part of my imagination until I woke up. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was glinting on the top of the palm forest that surrounded the mansion. I could see the palm leaves fluttering in the warm sea breeze. I wondered how rich Apollo was. I mean owning an island of this size was a different level. And he had a mansion built on it? We had arrived in his private airplane. I didn’t know that the de Vries’ also owned a fleet of planes. When Apollo brought dinner for us, he mentioned that his housekeeper had made it for us for the next few days and stashed it all in the fridge. I was thankful to God that at least one more person lived here, but when he said that she came here only when needed, and went back using her boat, I was… flabbergasted.
As and as the evening approached, I could feel how impatient Apollo was getting. He would glance outside and then pace the room. He had gone to his study where he said that he would spend a few hours to be distracted, but he came out only minutes later. Some of his anxiety rubbed on me. No, a lot of it rubbed on me, adding to my own. Towards the evening, he presented me with a two-string diamond necklace. “Oh, my God!” I said, astonished at the beauty of it. “That’s a lot.” The diamonds shimmered on my skin. He clasped it behind me as he watched my reflection in the mirror in front of which we were standing. “Nothing is too much, when it comes to you.” He pressed a kiss on my shoulder. Then he dropped to his knees and made me wear matching diamond anklets. “Apollo, this is a lot for me!” I rasped. “No, love. I want to see you like this. Always.” As if that wasn’t enough, he produced a gold chain from his pocket. “What is this?” I asked, bewildered. His lips curled up as h