MasukIt was that of a woman, with slithering bleak eyes, a long pointed nose that looked too sharp, a scarred right chin, a beak for mouth, and arms that were half human and half claws. Same with the legs. She had long silver hair that reached her waist as she laid on a bloodied bed.
"She booked me for the night," Mav went on, looking at me swiftly before turning away. Yet, I couldn't help the sharp pain, the constant prickle of something stabbing at my chest. I didn't like this. I can'tMAVERICK."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
SHERNEIL. It's been hours. Long, gruelling hours of waiting. Waiting for a sign. Waiting for my mate to wake up. Waiting. Just waiting. There is a saying that you never know what you truly want until you are about to lose it. Okay, maybe it doesn't really apply to this case, but at the same time
I started to dial her number before I caught myself and quickly ended it. Then I pulled up the message tab and typed a text to her. 'Hey. Hope you had a wonderful night's rest. Would you like to have dinner with me at Mama's house?' I pressed send before I could stop myself. I didn't know what ca
#FLASHBACK#I swallowed hard as I stared at Baba's looming figure over me. He always does this. Makes me feel like the loser I have always been. Like the freaking unwanted bastard he constantly reminded me that I am. I was kneeling before him, the moon shining above us. The pounding in my head was
My first impulse was to say no. But that would automatically show him that I cared what he did with his life, or that his actions had hurt me. It all confuses me. So, instead of doing any of that, I did the one thing that I was good at.Masking. Mirroring what I have seen around me."I have only th







