MasukMAVERICK."Abstaining from eating isn't going to bring her back," Khalil grumbled for the umpteenth time, shoving an apple towards me. "Stop acting like a whiny bitch and eat!""I am not hungry," I replied, the slurring in my voice still evident as I shoved the apple away and stood up. "And I need you all to stop treating me like I need to be saved." The world seemed to spin as soon as I stood up, and I held onto the nearest tree quickly due to the pounding in my head, and the dizzying rush that enveloped me.Damn! Can't I just have a single day healthy? "You are only going to slow us down if you keep being stubborn," Abeel murmured from the side. "We've already wasted half a day here waiting for you to come around, so do us all a favor and think clearly by eating and making sane decisions!"Easy for them to say. Easy for them to handle because it wasn't their mate that was stolen right under their nose. I could still hear the
I awoke with a loud gasp. Sweating profusely. My whole body ached. The gnawing empty feeling was still suckling at me."Oh, thank goodness you are awake! Thank you for fighting through that!" a voice hovering above me said. I sat up, the movement causing a sharp pain to pierce through me as I winced. I was still in the heated cell, my whole body aching. A throbbing headache. Fresh looking scars that were still oozing blood."Here, take this," the voice said again, before a water pitcher was pressed to my mouth. I gulped it down greedily, welcoming the wetness in my perched dried throat."Easy there. We don't want you choking yourself." the voice added, and with the sudden clarity the water had given me, I was able to make out the person hovering over me.The Keeper.I moved back, afraid she had someone waiting behind her with a whip."Don't be scared. I am only here to help. Mav has been making me do all those things to
SHERNEIL."Have you ever heard the stories about omegas who lost their sanity after being rejected by their mates?" Amara, as she had introduced herself to me a few days ago, said. We were sitting outside, under thick oak trees that were clustered in a small clearing. The moon hung above brightly, the stars shimmering up above while we both munched on the fruits laid before us."What stories?" I asked quietly, as I took a bite of the sour strawberry. "They are sad stories," Amara, my friend and also the fae queen, answered. "Most of them ended up losing their minds to nothingness. I say that if a man rejects you, simply reject him back and end the pain."Something pricked at my chest as she said that. Something odd. Something quiet. But it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared."Just like you should, now that you've finally found your real mate and have reached the right age."A mate. A partner. Half the part of me. One tha
Just like yesterday, we rode our horses quietly, until Lisa trudged her horse up to my side and broke the silence. "Asha says Hi," she mumbled, keeping her gaze up ahead. "Asha..." oh, her lycan. Damn, I completely forgot. To be honest, the only permanent thought in my mind was Sherneil's. "Uh, thanks?" I replied. Lisa chuckled, nudging me on the side with her leg. "She asks when she gets to meet your lycan." I sighed. "Not anytime soon, Lisa." She said nothing, and I went ahead to explain. "My lycan was injured a few years ago, which makes it impossible to shift at will. We did manage to get back a little of the power to do that when we had our mate. But right now, there's... nothing. Just... vast numbing emptiness." Wow! I sound like a broken record. But who cares? I am broken. On so many levels. "We will find her, Chuto. And we will save her. She is okay." I ho
MAVERICK."What are you doing here?" I hissed, crinkling my eyes as I looked over at Lisa, who was pulling a horse behind her, dressed in black leather pants and a top."Going with you, of course," was her simple reply."Says who? You are staying back, Lisa.""No, I'm not," she snapped, stopping before me and snatching the saddle I had been struggling to put on the brown horse. "I know my realm better than you do, and I know the Keeper and Mathilda even more. If you want to succeed on this mission, then you have to take me along.""It's not like you can protect us, so what is the point?" Khalil asked from behind me.Lisa ignored him, finished saddling the horse, then moved back. "I am coming with you, Chuto." Her voice was firm and hard. Her face expressionless under the golden light of dawn striking from behind the tall trees. "We are going to save her together. And you are going to be okay."I stared at her for a few m
SHERNEIL.Darkness had become my friend. A companion. A partner. I tried so hard to stay awake, to wait for a sound, for a sign that anything stayed close by. But none came. I had no idea how long it had been since I was locked in here. I had no way of counting the minutes, or hours, or even days. I hadn't eaten, nor drank anything since the last time I did before the attack.At some point, I dozed off. Probably due to the pain from the wounds inflicted on me by the Keeper's whip, or from exhaustion, or from the heat, which despite the stone Mathilda gave me, still burned through my tattered dress.But the sleep didn't last long, nor did it help. I was hungry. Thirsty. Sick. Yet, when I tried to pull at my emotions, to feel something moderately close to reminding me that my sanity remains, nothing worked. I was still empty.Without Robyn. Without Mav. Without Amadi.So I did the only thing I could. I counted and counted and coun
I had thought it would hurt, being lied to by someone I thought connected with me. That I'd feel some sort of emotions as I stood before Tabitha. But I was shocking myself with how fine I was. Everything was perfectly, perversely, anticlimactically fine. I wasn't sad or mad or depressed. Or maybe
I got home in a daze. Everything was... quiet, except for the hum of the electricity. I couldn't make out any other sounds, or anything happening around me. Normally, I have my thoughts compartmentalized. Today, however, they were all over the place. I dropped the folders in my hands. The electric
A snarl tore from his throat before he gripped my hand and pulled me flush to his chest. His breathing had returned to being rushed, and I couldn't help but make out the distinct scent of his chocolate scent all around. "The hell you are!""Yours to toss around? Or yours to sim
"Good day, everyone. This is sitting 0.21 of the investigative case for missing female wolves and humans," I began, as I squared my shoulders even more and continued. "I've done extensive research, as ordered by his majesty, and with the help of the CSI headquarters in the human kingdom, I was able







