LOGINNICHOLAS' POV “I warned you, boy. Don’t play games with me,” my father growled, his blue eyes narrowing, voice low and dangerous.I squared my shoulders and didn’t flinch. “We’ve been playing games since the very beginning,” I shot back, my tone calm but lethal, every word deliberate.“You little—” He started, rage flashing across his features, and I braced for his usual tirade, the venom he spat like poison.Then a voice cut through the tension like a blade. Sharp, commanding, impossibly controlled.“Watch it,” my mother said. Her tone dripped with authority and fury, leaving no room for argument. “I will not have you insult my son in front of me.”I glanced back at her briefly, taking in her presence. Beautiful, still, despite the years. Aging gracefully, her sharp cheekbones and high forehead only accentuated by the stern line of her mouth. Her grey eyes the same as mine blazed with a fire that demanded respect, and her brown hair was pulled back into a severe, slick bun, emphasi
NICHOLAS' POV “I warned you, boy. Don’t play games with me,” my father growled, his blue eyes narrowing, voice low and dangerous.I squared my shoulders and didn’t flinch. “We’ve been playing games since the very beginning,” I shot back, my tone calm but lethal, every word deliberate.“You little—” He started, rage flashing across his features, and I braced for his usual tirade, the venom he spat like poison.Then a voice cut through the tension like a blade. Sharp, commanding, impossibly controlled.“Watch it,” my mother said. Her tone dripped with authority and fury, leaving no room for argument. “I will not have you insult my son in front of me.”I glanced back at her briefly, taking in her presence. Beautiful, still, despite the years. Aging gracefully, her sharp cheekbones and high forehead only accentuated by the stern line of her mouth. Her grey eyes the same as mine blazed with a fire that demanded respect, and her brown hair was pulled back into a severe, slick bun, emphasi
NICHOLAS' POV “I warned you, boy. Don’t play games with me,” my father growled, his blue eyes narrowing, voice low and dangerous.I squared my shoulders and didn’t flinch. “We’ve been playing games since the very beginning,” I shot back, my tone calm but lethal, every word deliberate.“You little—” He started, rage flashing across his features, and I braced for his usual tirade, the venom he spat like poison.Then a voice cut through the tension like a blade. Sharp, commanding, impossibly controlled.“Watch it,” my mother said. Her tone dripped with authority and fury, leaving no room for argument. “I will not have you insult my son in front of me.”I glanced back at her briefly, taking in her presence. Beautiful, still, despite the years. Aging gracefully, her sharp cheekbones and high forehead only accentuated by the stern line of her mouth. Her grey eyes the same as mine blazed with a fire that demanded respect, and her brown hair was pulled back into a severe, slick bun, emphasi
NICHOLAS' POV “I warned you, boy. Don’t play games with me,” my father growled, his blue eyes narrowing, voice low and dangerous.I squared my shoulders and didn’t flinch. “We’ve been playing games since the very beginning,” I shot back, my tone calm but lethal, every word deliberate.“You little—” He started, rage flashing across his features, and I braced for his usual tirade, the venom he spat like poison.Then a voice cut through the tension like a blade. Sharp, commanding, impossibly controlled.“Watch it,” my mother said. Her tone dripped with authority and fury, leaving no room for argument. “I will not have you insult my son in front of me.”I glanced back at her briefly, taking in her presence. Beautiful, still, despite the years. Aging gracefully, her sharp cheekbones and high forehead only accentuated by the stern line of her mouth. Her grey eyes the same as mine blazed with a fire that demanded respect, and her brown hair was pulled back into a severe, slick bun, emphasi
NICHOLAS' POV Since Anastasia was with her mother and sister, I took the liberty of bringing the car around myself.I told myself I was just trying to save time but the truth was I needed to give her all the space she needed to confront her mother and Amelia without me hovering.Else, I'd be doing something stupid like inserting myself and stealing her stage. It wasn't that I didn't trust her not to handle her heartless mother or demon of a sister, I did. I just loved her too much not to worry about her. Or maybe it was because I was practically irrational over everything that concerned her. I needed space for myself as well. Space to prepare for what I knew was coming next. The mate bond issue might have been done and over with but the game wasn't over just yet.I stood near the curb, hands clasped behind my back, watching the driveway and the fields beyond with a stillness that didn’t reflect the sharp calculations running through my head. That was when my phone vibrated in my po
ANASTASIA'S POV“You must be happy, aren’t you?”Margaret Keaton’s voice sliced into me the second I reached them, sharp and dripping with venom, already coiled for attack. She didn’t even give me time to breathe before she pounced.“You must be BURSTING with joy now that you’ve completely destroyed everything.” I stopped in front of them, my pulse still riding the high of freedom, only for it to slam abruptly into a wall.Destroyed everything.The correction burned on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to tell her she had it wrong, so wrong. I wanted to tell her it wasn’t me. That it was Amelia. That it was Grey. That it had ALWAYS been Amelia and Grey. That I was the one who had been destroyed in another life.But my mother didn’t pause long enough to hear any of it. She continued, her words raining like bullets. “I don’t know how you could just go ahead and announce that your sister helped in bewitching you,” she continued, her sneer deepening. “How you could air out family issues







