LOGINXander’s POVAs soon as my mother went away, there was silence in my inner room – as if a curtain had fallen on a scene at the end of a play. My eyes were glued to the shut door long after her footsteps, as if the harder I looked, the more things would stay the same. I didn’t move. Didn’t think in any structured way. I was, just here, and the memories churned through the hours, in a dark, steady turn, as if lives had been lost, and the elder had spoken to me with his measured voice, as if his duty was all I needed, to sew everything back together.Underneath, sharper than anything else…Bella.Once her name came from my lips my wolf moved inside me with all the intensity, no, with just one immovable certainty, that’s all.That was an order that resounded through my brain like a pulse that could not be damped. My hands gripped the edge of the desk and my jaw clenched so tightly I grew in pain. My wolf had been like this for days—relentless, persistent, refusing to let her go.Suddenly
Xander's POVXander stood in the foyer long after Ivy's footfalls in the distance. The mansion, which was normally so full of movement, order and noise, was now strangely bereft of both order and sound. It didn't become quiet like it did a lot of times it did in the months. It felt clear.It was now discovered what is the truth about Bella, covering layers of deception he had never seen. But now, for the first time, it ought to have been easy to foresee where things were going.Slowly his fingers gripped his phone like it could give him guidance, his mind already working on where to start his search.Then it rang. Quiet as the blade, the sound went through.When his eyes fell upon the caller ID number, a weight dropped into him, a sensation that weighed more than he had anticipated.Nightmare Pack.He knew that he had a bad feeling in his chest and responded immediately as though he has a lot and a lot to do.So what the hell happened? he demanded, his voice tight and aware.From the
Xander's POVTwo long, miserable months had passed since Bella walked out of my life.I woke before sunrise, just as I had every day recently. I had almost forgotten what sleep was like. When I was exhausted I never got peace. Every dream ended the same way, with Bella.Sometimes she was crying. In some instances, he was strolling away. At times she stood in front of me with those hurt eyes and stared at me like I'd broken something in her which could not be mended.Every morning I awoke with the weight of guilt.I sat up slowly and rubbed both hands over my face. On a hot summer morning, the room was chilly. My chest was heavy and the usual restlessness came back.My phone suddenly vibrated on the nightstand..The sharp sound broke the silence, I grabbed it and glanced at the screen.One of my project managers. The moment I answered, the man's tense voice filled my ear."Alpha," he wheeled abruptly, appeared breathless. "There's been an incident."My gut instantly clenched up."What h
Xander’s POVThe sound of the glass crumbling never left my head, humming a cruel loop in my mind well after Bella had left. As the house fell silent, it wasn't quiet....just empty, as though some part of it had been torn from its interior and left to reverberate.My feet were stuck in one place, gazing at the empty door she left behind. My eyes didn’t move, even when they should have. Because if they did, I might have to admit what kept clawing at the edges of my mind.....the look on her face when she left.Sudden and strong Hurt that she hadn’t even tried to hide. Disappointment more deeper than anger was ever. It all remained, a brand upon my eyelids, that I was unable to overlook.My jaw made it just the way it clutched until it hurt.I refused it. I refused the guilt trying to creep in under my skin.Not after everything.Not after Andrew confessed to me, not after these photographs, not after the many lies they had given me to the point where I could no longer recognize the real
Bella's POVThe moment Justin said Xander's name, my entire body froze.My heartbeat immediately started beating against my ribs.Hope briefly flared inside me for one silly second.Maybe Xander was looking for me. Perhaps he had come to his senses at last. Perhaps he wanted to talk.I broke down thoughts before they were able to blossom. Hope had already come on hard for me.Justin glanced at me briefly before answering the call.His face grew peaceful in no time at all.The type of peacefulness that people possessed when they were hiding secrets."Xander." He sounded just like normal.Just as if nothing was amiss.As though I wasn't sitting three feet away from him after signing a marriage contract.I lowered my eyes, suddenly feeling sick. Justin pressed a button to turn the phone to speaker mode and forgot.Or perhaps he simply wasn't paying attention. Either way, I heard Xander's voice clearly."Where are you?"I swallowed at the sound of it but my chest tightened promptly.Moon
Bella's POV I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, and then I broke.The tears were fierce and uncontrolled, ungarrisoned. Sobs tore through my chest as though my heart had been ripped from my body, leaving behind nothing but agony and emptiness. Maybe it had. Perhaps the man I'd been was going to pass away on the floor of my bedroom.There was no longer the slightest notion of time. Minutes passed. Perhaps hours. I couldn't tell anymore. This world I lived in was a haze of grief and broken dreams. The crying finally ended, though not due to the pain itself, but because I was too tired. There were simply no tears left to give.I sat there, lost in my own empty world, my mind drifting back over memories I tried hard to forget. I thought of all the moments, all the promises, all the smiles and all the touches. But as I remembered and hurt, I slowly accepted my own truth.I couldn't keep living like this. I couldn't keep begging someone to believe me. I couldn't keep humiliating my
Alpha Lucian's POVI was in my study alone. There was silence in the room, and it stretched on like a vacuum. The silence that could hear things that a man didn't want to hear.I glanced at the stack of papers littering my desk but couldn't remember a single word. For the hundredth time that day, m
BellaEverything around me suddenly felt too loud, this is becoming crazy. My hands gripped the edge of a desk so white and cold my knuckles went white.Mr. Desmond said quietly, "I told you it was a command from the top of the table.A request from Alpha Xander Marco. What does this imply? Is it t
Xander's POV I was frozen in place the second she advanced closer.Without waiting for me to step in properly, she walked toward me as it seemed she was meant to be there.Slow. Deliberate. Making an effort to appear confident.The smile split her face and her heels tapped softly against the groun
Xander's POV I stared at the screen of the laptop in front of me but couldn't understand anything.Reports. Numbers. Contracts and Documents waiting for my approval.But my mind couldn't stay in one place. It continued to go back and forth. Back to her.Bella.I exhaled slowly and leaned back in m







