5: FOUND YOU CIRCE NOLA

EVE

The banquet hall was magnificent when the guests began to arrive.

We arranged tables, spoons, and drinks, while the room buzzed with conversations.

But my heart was still restless. The environment felt cold and heavy with tension.

Madam Bella held me back as I was about to enter the hall for the first serving. "Are you fine?"

I nodded hurriedly. My scars are gone, and I could talk, so they shouldn't know what else might be happening to me now. Not even when I couldn't identify it yet.

I moved into the room and served drinks at first, followed by the appetizers.

All the while, I was trying to ignore the strange pull in my heart.

It felt like a string was trying to pull me to someone.

The guests whispered as I passed, and I know it was because of my looks.

At the far end of the hall was someone whose face I couldn't see clearly because I was still in the midst of other guests.

But I felt him.

I don't know who he was, but he felt familiar.

What is happening to me?

"Eve." Madam Bella's voice jerked me from my restlessness as I was about to go for the second round of drinks to serve. "You're to serve the Alpha."

My heart lurched. "Huh?

"Go get the drinks and serve, Eve," The woman commanded again.

"Oh..yes. Ye,s" I clumsily ran out to get the second batch, whilst my symptoms grew more obvious.

I entered again, and Madam Bella smiled at me. "Good girl"

I smiled timidly and approached the high table.

The cold wrapped tighter, the pull grew stronger, so much that my hands began to shake.

Calm down, Eve. Calm down, you can't mess up here.

When I finally reached the table, the world seemed to narrow, and the noise seemed to fade, and all I could hear was my own heartbeat.

I knelt to plate the dishes on the table as protocol demanded, keeping my head bowed.

Just finish and leave, Eve. Just finish and...

A hand shot out and locked around my wrist.

The touch sent lightning through my entire body, and my eyes snapped up and froze.

Anber eyes!

When he spoke, his voice was rough, barely controlled. Layered with emotions I couldn't untangle.

"Found you, Circe Nola!"

We both froze like still water after he said this. His eyes glowed, and that familiar scent hit my nose. No one needs to tell me, he was a vampire.

"You say what, Alpha?"

"Circe Nola, here you are again, after all these years," He insisted again, his eyes looking at me like a lost person had been found.

I blinked and came back to myself immediately. "Em, Alpha... I think you got the wrong person and..."

His grip tightened. "Wrong person? Did you think I could ever forget your treacherous face? Your voice? Your scent? He leaned closer. "For seven hundred years... I've waited to make you pay"

As he still held me like this, all my body hormones were reacting to his touch. The pulling and clamping from my heart had stopped, but it had graduated to something bigger something crazier. That I couldn't understand or interpret. What on Earth is happening!!

"What happened, Alpha?" Madam Bella rushed to the scene, all eyes now on us, but his eyes were never leaving mine.

"I will never let you leave me again!" He insisted yet again, making me feel more uncomfortable, his tone very commanding and strict, like something I can never be free of.

I got scared and struggled to pull my hand away. "Alpha you're..."

"Say no more, Circe"

The guests got up, and his guard charged at him, but he raised his hand to stop his guard. "The great Circe deserves a beautiful welcome"

I was confused. "Alpha what are you saying?"

"Did she offend you?" Madam Bella asked, also confused, but this man wasn't letting go of my hand, and it began to pain me as he held it tighter as I said something to him.

"Leave us all," he suddenly instructed, making me perk up with panic.

"But Alpha..." His guard was about to say, Adam looked at the fellow sharply, before pulling me up slowly. His voice dropped to being dead serious. "I said, leave us"

The guest became agitated, and their whispers became angry statements. "Alpha Adam what is happening?"

He dragged me out of the table enclosure, his eyes still raging with the kind of fire that seems unquenchable. "The banquet is OVER. Everyone leave and anyone here after ten minutes answers to me directly"

My eyes were trembling, tears dancing at my eyebrows. I looked at the confused Madam Bella, maybe she could do anything, but Adam pulled me closer to him again, and this time, dropped his head to meet my gaze because he was slightly taller. "You're not running time, Circe. I've got you, and never would I let you go"

"I.. I'm not Circe," I cried finally, letting my tears slip out as the guests ushered themselves out reluctantly. "I'm Eve. EVE!"

He laughed bitterly. "Eve, huh?" he reached out and traced the scar trail on my face. "You look ugly when you lie, Circe. Even with this new face, I could see through you"

"Let go of me. You're hurting me." I pulled, struggled with all the energy I had because his grip hurts so much, and those words...

A trace of confusion flashed across his face. "You never cared about pain before. Why pretend now?"

I tried pulling away again, panic flooding my veins. "Because I'm NOT HER! I don't know who the fuck Circe is!!"

Something flickered across his face. Doubt or confusion? I don't know because it disappeared quickly. 'Lies" he growled. "You're always a gifted liar. I wouldn't fall for your lies again"

The last guest fled, and Madam Bella left with the guard without any argument, leaving me in the big hall with the devil.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Whatever this bond is, I don't want to know because my heart and my brain seem to be in a war with each other. My brain kept yelling RUN, and my heart insisted. STAY

Adam turned back to me, and the look in his amber eyes made my knees weak. Not with fear alone, but with something far more dangerous.

"Where are you taking me?"I cried as he began pulling me toward the side exit.

"Somewhere your mask falls. Somewhere you can never escape and where you will finally tell me WHY?"

"Why what? I don't know what you're talking about!"

He stopped abruptly, and I crashed into his chest. His free hand came up to grip my chin, forcing me to meet his blazing gaze.

"Why did you make me fall in love with you?" his voice dropped to something raw and broken, "then broke me and turned me into a monster?"

My breath caught, I was getting very frustrated. Love turned him into a monster?

Before I could process his words fully, he was moving again, this time with me still pressed against his body like we're waltzing, dragging me through corridors then up the stairs, past tapestries and portraits that blurred my panic.

We stopped before massive double doors. He pushed them open and pushed me inside.

The door slammed shut behind us with a finality that made my stomach drop. I stumbled backwards immediately we're inside putting distance between us. But there was nowhere to go.

The room was big enough to run around but never to escape, and I could see his picture hung on the wall. Which means we're in his room.

He closed the door and stalked toward me slowly, deliberatively, and a predator's smile playing at his lips like a lion that had just found its prey.

“700 years ago,” He said, his voice deadly calm. “On our wedding night, on the happiest day of my life…you bit me, poisoned my blood, and left Lucian that should have been my reincarnation or descendant my twin brother”

His fangs extended slightly, and I could see the vampire fangs in a werewolf alpha’s mouth.

An abomination.

“And then you vanished”

“I never…” My back hit the wall. “I swear on my life I don’t know what..”

“Your life!” He was right in front of me now, so close that the heat radiating from his body could cook me up. “Your lie belongs to ME now, either you’re a maid or still the queen, I’ll make you remember everything nd make you PAY!”

His hand pressed against the wall behind my head, caging me in.

“Starting” he whispers, his lips close to mine. “Starting with where we ended our wedding night before the bite”