LOGINScar. Hotel Somber. Blue Lake Town. Two days later… Night. I checked into this hotel two days ago, after my altercation with Emerald. I didn’t wait one bit for her to say one more word to me. I left the combat center, went back to the mansion, and grabbed everything I now owned. My notes. My copies of the pack books. And that damned hemal injector. I left. Searched online for the nearest and most discreet hotel, and I picked this one. Now I sit in here and watch the camera views of the pack borders through my phone. I linked the cameras to my phone at the same time they were linked to the control room. At least I will still be able to infiltrate the pack when I’m ready to. All I need to do is gather Mum’s troops and we attack. Everything should just be as easy as this. I have seen their weaknesses. Their strengths. I have sparred with them in combat. I can take them down now. Yet, all that gives me no satisfaction. Rather, all I feel is this hollow and aching feeling gnawing
Emerald. My chest aches with so much pain inside me. My wolf wants to keen. But as stubborn as she is, she stands strong. Pins Scar’s neck to the wall. Scar struggles for air, but I don’t give him a chance. “Alpha! Alpha!” I hear someone calling loudly and urgently behind me. My hold on Scar's neck loosens just a bit, my focus distracted by the screams and calls behind me. And that gives Scar an opening. He musters all his vampire strength and speed, pushing himself off the wall, maneuvering around my arm, until he’s hanging above my head. My head trapped between his hands. He’s got me pinned so tight and I’m growling. My strength weakening from the hold. Weakening from the scent of him all over me. Weakened by the emotions I started developing just from being in his presence. Weakened by how betrayed I feel right now by him. “Are you gonna listen to me?!” Scar growls low against my ear as he increases the pressure on his hold. “No!” I snarl, summoning strength and flingin
Asher. Friday. 26th February. Next day. Morning. I park my truck at the front of the station, right where Emerald asked us to meet this morning when she called me earlier. I had just returned from patrol when she called. She sounded urgent. “Make sure no one knows what we’re going to do,” she had said over the phone. Now I’m walking to where she stands by her car. Her back is to me when I reach her. She doesn’t even realize I’m beside her until I touch her. “Asher…” She gasps, pressing her hand to her chest. “You scared me.” I look at her, concerned. She looks worried. Like she’s barely slept. If anything, Emerald is never scared. “What’s got you all spooked?” I ask, lowering my voice. A couple walk past us without paying us any heed. Emerald glances around and inhales shakily. “Nothing. I’m not spooked. I was just lost in my thoughts, that’s all,” she says quietly. I try to read her thoughts. But as usual, I never get anything from her mind. Only mumbo jumbo. Static. Noi
Emerald. “Scar. Open up. I’ve got popcorn.” I announce playfully, turning the knob again. It still doesn’t give. I know I should have called him first to ask if he was disposed to see anyone, but I just wanted to surprise him. Just the two of us sitting together with some movies and a bowl of popcorn. After the day I’ve had, I would be grateful for even a moment of peace. I turn the knob again, already feeling disappointed that he hasn’t come to open it yet. I press my ear closer to the door and hear movements. Rustling. Something being shoved. A sharp bang. It’s all so fast. Then the key rattles from the inside and the door flies open abruptly, sending me stumbling forward into the room. Scar’s hands catch me before I land face down on the floor. The popcorn isn’t so lucky. My eyes drop to the scattered pieces spilling from the bowl onto the floor. “Sorry about the mess.” I mutter quietly. My gaze lifts as I take in the state of his room. Neat. Orderly. Not even a drawer o
Emerald. Thursday, 25th February. Two days later. Ford Mansion. Night. I miss the days the leaves used to rustle. These days, because of winter, the trees are only covered in snow. It snowed again last night. And slightly this morning too, while I was on my shift at the hospital. I inhale a shaky breath as I finally push my gaze to the girl seated in front of me, who just narrated her story. “So, Tabitha, you are saying that your father doesn’t want you to marry the man you have chosen?” I echo her words. Well, not exactly her words. Just a summary of everything she has complained about. Being an Alpha is hard. Now I see what Dad suffered all those years as leader of the pack. Memory surges inside me of earlier today with Dawn after our shift. “Sorry, Dawn. Let’s have that lunch tomorrow.” I told her when our shift ended. She looked at me, disappointed. “Pack issues, huh?” She stepped forward and gave me a hug. I nodded, letting the embrace ground me for a moment. Then
Erianna. Tuesday, 23rd February. Next day. Night. I pace the living room of my home, anger fueling inside me at Scar’s audacity. Because of course that is Scar. A vampire. In Silvaton Ridge. Who else would be Scar, a vampire who just so happens to be in Silvaton Ridge around the same time Gerald just died? “Aghh!” I groan loudly, tossing the glass cup in my hand straight into the fire. “How could you do this to me, Scar?” I sink to the ground with rage just as the glass explodes inside the fire. How could he? I gave him life. I made him the most powerful being. A supreme vampire. And now, he betrays me. Hot tears stream down my face. The same tears that have burned me since the night Arthur revealed Scar’s whereabouts. The memory of that night claws back to me now, like rotten fish. I barely held my emotions together after Arthur gave that information. He didn’t even know that his revelation about Scar serving as Emerald’s protector affected me so deeply. He had no idea. B
Emerald. Meanwhile. I reach inside my old room upstairs and halt. “Shit. I forgot my phone on my swing.” I groan out loud, already turning, already heading straight back for the door. I’m halfway down the stairs when I freeze. A voice reaches me. Arthur? No. That’s not possible. What the he
Emerald. Friday, 29th January. Next day. Morning. I park the car in front of the Denvers’ home. A white blanket of snow covers the entire ground like a second skin. It must have snowed sometime in the night. Dad’s voice from yesterday about the weather forecast, filters into my memory. “The for
Emerald. Wednesday, 27th January. Days later... Noon. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound cuts through the hospital’s central alarm system, tearing my eyes away from the report I’d been writing moments ago. Every nerve in my body sharpens instantly. “Emergency, Doctor Ford! Cold Blue in cubi
Gerald Ford. Thursday, 28th January Next day. Ford Mansion, Silvaton Ridge. Late noon. I stand in the doorway, staring at my little girl as she sits on her favorite swing chair in the living room, watching the snow fall outside. Memories flood me of when we had her, how small she was. How







