SCARLETT“You’re lying.”The words tore from my throat filled with rage. I shoved him hard, harder than I thought my tired arms could manage, but desperation gave me strength. He stumbled back a step, and simply stared at me with a dry look. I stood there heaving, my chest rising and falling like a storm-tossed tide.“My father may have been cruel, indifferent, maybe even ashamed of me…” I spat, my voice shaking, “but he was still my father. He would never sell me out to wolves. Never.”His eyes darkened with something unreadable, pain, guilt, or maybe pity, and I hated it. I hated the way he looked at me like I was a child clutching to fairy tales, too stubborn to face the truth.“Scarlett—” he began, but I cut him off with the string feelings of hate. I did not want to believe what he was saying at all. “Don’t. Don’t you dare try to twist this. Do you think I don’t know my own father? Do you think I haven’t lived under the shadow of his disdain all my life? He was cold. He was bitt
CARDANI heard the crack of skull before the splatter of blood reached me. The third attack in one week. The rogue laid dead at my feet, staring blankly at the clear skies. It had jumped out of the woods like a deranged maniac and I had reacted on reflex, crushing him before I could even think.I wiped my hand down the front of my shirt, smearing the stark red further into the fabric. It didn’t matter. The stench of copper already clung to me like a second skin. With a sharp exhale, I stepped over the corpse and headed for the car.The driver’s door creaked as I yanked it open, sliding behind the wheel without sparing the body a second glance. Cassius slipped into the passenger seat, throwing a glance at my stained clothes, then at the smear on my jaw I hadn’t bothered to wipe away.“You could have let me handle it,” he said, voice low but firm. “That’s what I’m here for.”I started the engine, the low growl filling the silence. My grip on the wheel tightened until the leather creak
SCARLETTI stared up him with nothing but pure horror in my eyes. I had envisioned that this was finally the end of my life because everything seemed so orchestrated from the start. I had never thought it possible that one could be kidnapped from their own room. But then there were a lot of things I never expected. I seemed to have forgotten that I was on Lycan territory filled with its unpredictability and danger. I had gotten too comfortable and let down my guard especially since Cardan was guarding me. Or could it be that he was in on this too?I had a lot of thoughts running askew in my mind but I managed to keep a blank expression that did not betray m emotions of fear, confusion, and anger.“You don’t seem surprised to see me.” He continued, undoing the tape from me with a confidence that seemed to tell me that I could do nothing even if I was free. And he was right. We were surrounded by trees and nothing but pure darkness. Only God knows where he had taken me to and what he
ScarlettI didn’t care where, so long as it was far enough from her voice, far enough from Caleb’s silence, far enough from the suffocating weight of it all. My feet carried me down the hallways like a fugitive fleeing execution. The silence was deafening.I pressed my back against the wood of my room door, my body sliding down until I sat on the floor, knees pulled tight to my chest. The tears were endless, soaking through the thin fabric of my dress until I couldn’t tell where the pain ended and the shame began.I stayed there until the night turned into another day, and the day drained into night again. I didn’t leave. I didn’t eat.I didn’t even light the lanterns when the darkness crept in, wrapping me whole.The hunger clawed at me by the next day, sharp pangs tearing through my stomach, but I welcomed it. It was easier to feel the ache of an empty belly than the ache in my chest. Easier to numb myself with nothingness than face the fire Demi had lit inside me.Cardan hadn’t com
ScarlettI should have walked away. I should have turned on my heel and left them to their game of happy family. But something inside me snapped, my sense of reasoning maybe or maybe it was Demi’s mocking voice was as a dare, and I wasn’t about to let her think she’d won.I moved forward. And she chuckled lightly as I slid into the chair across from them. I didn’t look at her or Caleb. I picked up my spoon, filled it, and forced myself to eat. Spoon after spoon, bite after bite, I swallowed it all without tasting a thing. My throat felt raw, my stomach twisted, but I didn’t stop. Demi seemed delighted. Her smirk could be seen from the corner of my vision. Caleb, on the other hand, kept his eyes on his plate, chewing with the calmness of a man untouched by the situation of things. When he was finished, he dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, rose from his seat, and leaned down to press a light kiss to Demi’s temple. Like it was the most natural thing in the world.My jaw clenched so har
ScarlettI stared at her with hatred bleeding through my bones as my body trembled. My breath came in short, broken gasps, and my nails cut into my palms, drawing blood“What are you doing here?” I rasped, my voice shaking with raw emotions. “What do you want from me? Why are you here?”The smirk on her lips only widened. Her head tilted slightly as if she was amused by my desperation.“Woah, woah, Scarlett,” she said, her tone dripping with mockery. “A question at a time, love. You’re spilling over yourself.” Her hand drifted lazily over the swell of her gown where her stomach rested beneath, her fingers curling protectively in a gesture so deliberate it made my blood boil. “First things first. Won’t you congratulate me?”Her grin sharpened. “I’m pregnant. With Caleb’s child. That wouldn’t be nice of you, would it?”Something inside me snapped. My vision blurred with hot, acidic tears of fury. I glared at her with such hatred I thought it might tear me apart from the inside.“Congrat