IVY I stared at the score on the top-right corner of the script, willing the scores to change but it didn't. The 98 remained there while my stomach churned. I looked through the script, searching for a mistake from the teacher. There was a mistake quite alright but it wasn't from the teacher. It was from me and that stupid miscalculation had caused me two whole marks! "Careful Ivy," the voice that always annoys me and makes my skin crawl said. I didn't need to look up at him to see the taunt in his eyes. "Glaring at your scores won't make it change," he leaned over to peer at my script. "98. Not bad. From there to 70 to 40 and finally, the zero that you deserve so you'll be forced to withdraw. Who knows, I might be kind enough to employ you as a cleaner here." I looked up at him. If it was another person, I'd have been shocked at the intensity of the hatred in their eyes. But this was Brandon Castle. He hated me more than anything. And I hated him thrice as much.
IVYI was frozen throughout dinner. Mom and her husband, my new stepfather, and also Brandon's father chattered all through it while my sense of doom increased by the minute.Brandon and I were now stepsiblings?I refused to believe it. But he was sitting right beside me and his father across from me. I've never seen Mom laugh as much as she did in the 30 minutes he has spent here.She was happy, free, and light. She was all of the things Dad stole from her. But how? How could she possibly find all of that in Brandon's father?How could Brandon be my stepbrother out of the blues?No no no. No way!"Evelyn!" Mom's loud voice jolted me out of my reverie. They were both staring at me."Sorry. What?""I've been calling your name for the past 2 minutes. Are you okay?""Yeah," I faked a chuckle, "I was just lost in thoughts. I can't believe the Alpha King is now my stepfather.""Ohh," Alpha Castle chuckled, "I can't believe you're my stepdaughter too. I mean, I've been observing your progre
IVYMom was pregnant. That was the recurring thoughts in my head as I dressed up for the date with Demi. She has apologized profusely for keeping it away from me. I've accepted her apology but I couldn't help but feel a little betrayed.She was pregnant. She was expecting another baby. I guess I should be happy for her.Because of the crowd that came to protest, we were all advised to stay back at home so I couldn't make it to the date with Demi. I texted him, then switched my phone off because I didn't want to receive his cars. I spent the morning in my room, setting things up and feeling a slight gratitude that I now had a bigger lunch. After lunch, Alpha Castle suggested that Brandon show me around the castle. I tried turning it down but Brandon surprisingly agreed. Now, I'm stuck with him. He led me far away from the main building. Barely showing anything to me. It was only after the main house was almost out of view that I started feeling a creeping sense of dread. "Where are
BRANDONI hate Ivy with every fibre of my being. I hate that lousy human being with everything in me. She should be nothing more than a slave, a servant at my beck and call. Humans shouldn't be more than that. Their kind was just inferior but Ivy? No one has caused me greater headache than her. My academic prowess has never been challenged until her. Most humans cower when I speak to them but Ivy always speak back. No one has disrespected me more as an Alpha Prince. No one has made me that infuriated. No one has spent that much time in my head. No one... My movements grew more frantic. I could feel my body spasming. My breathing was ragged and my up and down movement of my hand was so fast it was uncontrollable. In my mind, she was on her knees, hands tied behind her, my dick pumping in and out of her mouth. In my mind, she was talking back to me. She was just on her knees, eyes dripping with tears from the intensity at which I was fucking her mouth. Now, her mom was married to
IVY.The school’s library has been my only source of solace these days. In between adjusting to my new life in the palace, Bran making good on his promise of making my life a living hell if I didn't make my mom leave, and avoiding Demi, the library was the only place where I could lose myself in a book and be okay.The library was just a few steps away when a hand grabbed me and before I could process what was going on, I was being yanked into a semi-dark empty classroom and shoved forcefully to the floor. Pain spread through every single part of my body at the force at which I hit the floor. It was so intense that I couldn't help but wince in pain. I tried to stand. “Stay down,” a cold, familiar voice ordered.I froze, my heart slamming against my ribs as I slowly looked up. My stomach dropped.Demi.Of course, it was Demi. No one else would do this to me in school, not even Brandon. His dark eyes bore down on me, glinting with a sharp, cruel edge. His lips curled into a smirk, bu
IVY.The ride to school was suffocating.I sat stiffly in the back seat of the sleek black car, arms crossed, fingers digging into my skin as I stared out the window. The morning sky was overcast, and gray clouds stretched endlessly, mirroring the burden in my chest.I had barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, Demi’s voice echoed in my head.Five thousand dollars. By the end of the week.I had no idea how I was supposed to come up with that kind of money. My savings barely scratched a thousand dollars, and there was no way I could ask my mom for such a ridiculous amount without a believable reason.And then there was Brandon.Sitting beside me, radiating his usual quiet arrogance, his presence was an iron weight pressing against my ribs. He hadn't said a word to me all morning, but he didn’t have to. His threats from the past week were more than enough.He had been dropping threats of having a repeat of what happened with the hounds if I didn't find a way to get my mum out of the
IVYThere was no way out of this. No loophole, no clever excuse that would get me out of Demi’s grip. I had to go through with it. I inhaled sharply, gripping my tray as I got up from the table and made my way to Brandon's table.The second we neared the table, Brandon's gaze snapped up, and his sharp golden-brown eyes locked onto me, narrowing instantly, and his expression twisting into something downright hostile. His lips curled, just slightly, like the mere sight of me had soured his entire meal.Well, fantastic.I briefly considered turning around and going back to my table. But I couldn’t.So, with every ounce of forced calmness I could muster, I slid into the empty seat across from Brandon, setting my tray down like I belonged there.Demi, on the other hand, plopped down beside me without a care in the world, stretching his arms out like this was the highlight of his day.Ass.“Hi,” I said quickly, zeroing in on the only person at this table who wasn’t looking at me like I was
8BRANDONI had been told what the mate bond was supposed to feel like.Over the years, I’d heard the stories—how it was instant, undeniable. How it would settle deep in my bones, consuming me with a need so intense it would be impossible to ignore.But that wasn’t how it felt with Amari.Sure, she was stunning, confident, and graceful. Exactly the kind of girl an Alpha Prince was expected to be with. And when I looked at her, there was attraction, definitely. But there was also something missing.Something I couldn’t quite place. Something that made what I felt for her quite shallow. I had brought it up with my father once, and he dismissed it immediately, saying I was overthinking it, and that the connection would deepen with time. That I just had to give it a chance.Even now, with Amari pressed against me in the empty locker room, her lips moving insistently against mine, something inside me just wasn’t clicking.The kiss was undeniably hot, all teeth and tongue. Amari was one of
Brandon’s POV The longest, most arduous five years of my life.Every second of it, I had to play dumb. I had to act broken, let them see what they wanted to see, a shattered shell of an Alpha who had nothing left to fight for. I played stupid. I played drunk. I let them think they had crushed me, chained me, molded me into their puppet. Let them think they had won.But now?Now, it was finally over.And it was worth it. Every minute. Every second of swallowing my pride, and being humiliated.I found out all their plans, thanks to Amari. And killed Helga, the only sorceress that could do the black ritual.And now, the army Liam and I had been gathering in secret, hunted down the Beta and his loyalists like prey, and dragged them down into the underground cells, stripped of their power, rotting in the dark where no magic, and no one could save them.For those five long years, I had been searching secretly for the sorceress who could undo the black bond forced onto me.Until we finally
Amari's POVI panted softly, trying to catch my breath as Brandon rolled off me, his arm flopping down beside mine on the bed. The sheets were tangled around our legs, sticking to our damp skin. This was the first time after the last time we had sex, but all I felt was a strange, hollow feeling amidst the pleasure.It felt like I wasn’t fully there. Like I was watching myself from somewhere outside of my body, detached and floating. The whole thing had felt so distant, as if my body was going through the motions without my heart being anywhere in it.Still, I clung to the tiny thread of hope inside me.It didn’t matter how it felt. What mattered was that it happened. After all these years of chasing him, begging for scraps of his attention, humiliating myself again and again just to get a fraction of what he used to give her, this meant something more now.He was finally starting to see me.Brandon’s breathing was steady against the back of my neck, his arm thrown lazily over my wais
Amari's POVArlena kept begging.Her voice was raw from too many screams, too many desperate cries. She clawed at the filthy floor with shaking hands, her tears leaving streaks across her hollow cheeks.“Please,” she sobbed, her whole body trembling, “please. Not them. Please, not them.”She sounded broken. Shattered into pieces so small she couldn’t even gather herself anymore.But my father stood there, unmoved. His arms folded neatly across his chest. His face didn’t so much as twitch at her cries.“Do it,” he said again, his voice sharp enough to cut through steel. “Now.”There was no emotion in it. Just a cold, demanding order.Arlena shook so hard I thought she might collapse again. But somehow, she forced herself to move. She wiped the back of her shaking hand across her face, smearing dirt and tears across her skin, and pushed herself up onto her knees.Her mouth opened, and a low, broken chant spilled out.The very air around us shifted. The walls seemed to pulse in rhythm wi
Amari's POVI wasn’t even sure when things started to change between us. It had been slow and gradual. But it was there now, clear as day. He treated me differently. He spoke to me not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He listened, and I mean really listened. He laughed when I told a joke and even remembered little things I said, things I didn’t think he cared about. And it was all starting to make me feel something I didn’t expect.Hope.I stood by the window, arms folded lightly over my chest, eyes fixed on Brandon down in the courtyard. He was practicing archery again. His stance was solid and his movements were smooth.Every arrow he shot sliced through the air and each one landed dead center which made him look ten times more attractive than he already was.I think I was starting to get lucky.“Are you falling in love with him now?”I turned sharply at the voice, and all the warmth drained out of me in an instant.My father stood in the doorway. Arms crossed, jaw tig
Amari's POVDays passed, and little by little, I started to notice a change in Brandon. It wasn’t anything dramatic or obvious, not at first. But it was there, subtle, and almost easy to miss if you weren’t looking closely. But I was. I always was.I saw it in how he started being with Bella.It used to be that he barely acknowledged her, only offering her the occasional distracted nod or completely ignored her. But now? He actually paid attention. He went out into the garden with her in the mornings, letting her chatter endlessly about the bugs she’d found or how high she could jump. He started teaching her archery. At first, he just showed her how to hold the bow properly, but then I saw him actually crouch beside her, correcting her stance gently, patiently.Bella adored him. She always had, but now it was like she was getting the version of him she’d always deserved. And he was trying. For her. For once, it looked like he was actually trying to be a father.Even at dinner, he di
Amari's POVI screamed.It came from somewhere deep and full of everything I’d been holding in for far too long. I didn’t even think before I grabbed the vase and hurled it across the room. It hit the wall with a hard, cracking sound, exploding into pieces that rained down like glass rain, sharp and glittering.I didn’t stop there.The table next to me, decorated just this morning with fresh flowers, went flying too. I kicked it hard, sending it crashing to the floor, the wood cracking with a split that echoed around the room.The lamp followed, my hand curling around the base before I smashed it down onto the floor with enough force to make it shatter.Then the photo frame.That one made me pause for a split second, just long enough to see the smiling faces frozen behind the glass. Me, Brandon and Bella. I didn’t care. I threw it with even more force than the others. It hit the wall and shattered, glass and photo separating mid-air, falling in different directions.Six years.Six f
Amari's POVThe grand dining hall shimmered under the soft, golden glow of the chandeliers. The light bounced gently off polished surfaces, crystal glasses, silver cutlery, and the golden designs along the edges of the table.The scent of roasted meat, herbs, and wine filled the air, settling over everything like a blanket meant to comfort and impress.I sat next to Brandon who was seated at head of the table, dressed in midnight-blue silk. My hair was pinned up, and I wore the same polite, polished smile I’d been holding since the first Alpha arrived.Beside me, Brandon looked composed enough. His suit was neat, though his tie had taken some convincing earlier. His expression was blank, his eyes dull, but he was sitting upright, eating slowly. I considered that a win.My father sat at the other side of Brandon, directly in front of me, like he always did, confident and regal.Seated with us were three visiting Alphas from smaller packs. They looked a bit overwhelmed by the size of th
Amari's POVBella giggled as she stabbed at her fruit slices with her tiny fork, completely focused on chasing a grape around her plate. Her face was a mess, syrup smeared around her mouth, a little on her chin, some even caught in her curls. I smiled and reached over with a napkin, wiping her face gently. She squirmed and giggled harder, but didn’t pull away.“Sit still,” I murmured, laughing softly as I cleaned the last of the stickiness from her cheek.She gave me a look, and then went right back to her fruit. I leaned back slightly and took a bite of my toast, chewing slowly as I watched her.Mornings like this almost felt real. Something normal families had. It was nice to pretend like I wasn’t neck-deep in secrets and schemes, tangled up in power plays I hadn’t asked to be part of. For a few quiet minutes, it was just me and Bella, a simple breakfast, and the illusion that everything was fine.Then the doors slammed open, the force of it echoed through the hall, and we both fl
Amari's POV6 years later.“Mummy!”The sound of Bella’s voice echoed down the hallway, breaking through the quiet afternoon and pulling my attention away from the book I’d been reading. I looked up just in time to see her tiny figure racing toward me, curls bouncing wildly with every determined little step.She came barreling in like a force of nature, bare feet, messy dress, cheeks flushed with excitement, and launched herself straight into my arms. I caught her with a soft laugh, lifting her up and holding her close.“There’s my sweet girl,” I said softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. She smelled faintly of flour and sugar, and her small arms looped around my neck like she never wanted to let go.She giggled, wriggling excitedly, the kind of energy that made it clear no nap was happening anytime soon. But just as I opened my mouth to ask what she had been doing, the front door opened and Brandon stumbled in. The scent of alcohol hit before he did, clinging to the air l