CLAIRE VON SINCLAIRI WOKE UP slightly when the door opened and Alek came in. But he was not alone. A young servant girl came in too, carrying a food tray."You can drop it there," he said, pointing at the table.The girl nodded and placed the tray on the table. She bowed at me before she left the room."I did not mean to wake you up," He said, kicking off his shoes and sitting on the bed. "I noticed you didn't come for lunch or dinner. Darius told me you were sleeping." He opened the tray. "I figured if you didn't come to dinner, I would bring dinner to you."I rubbed my eyes and looked at him with a new perspective."Here," He handed me a glass of water which I took. Our fingers brushed and I felt a slight tingling.I drank and handed it back to him."I know what you heard today is not light news," he said, pulling me closer. "Are you strong enough to eat?" He asked.I nodded softly."I don't think so," he muttered in a low growl. He pulled me closer and raised a spoonful of food. "
ALEKSANDER VON SINCLAIRALEK WATCHED CLAIRE sleep all through the night. He enjoyed the way her body mounded perfectly against his. He enjoyed her soft breaths fanning his skin. He enjoyed her little cute snort and the small mumbling sounds that she made.He felt strangely complete. Like all his life, he had been standing, and in this moment with her, he was finally sitting down. She was troubled, and he was doing his best to understand. He did not understand how a mother would hate her own daughter to the extent of sending her in harm's way and trying to kill her.Unless... her mother was not her actual mother.But Claire would definitely know if she was adopted, he said to himself. He snorted when he remembered that she had not even known that her supposed best friend was her sister who was sleeping with her fiance.Claire was more innocently oblivious than she knew.He was filled with a strong desire to get to the root of the matter. He gritted his teeth, wishing he could just sna
ALEKSANDER VON SINCLAIRHE CARRIED HER gently out of the bathroom pike. She weighed nothing, and he dropped her on the passed carpet. "I will have Joram ring the hospital to prepare Elizabeth for release before we get there," he said. "Clean and dress up. You can go and have your breakfast before I am ready.""You wouldn't be long?" Claire asked as she dried herself.He shook his head. "Just a few minutes."A few minutes later, Claire was dressed in an immaculately fashioned gown that screamed of royalty and wealth. Alek took one glance at her and he could barely catch his breath. "You look stunning," he grunted. He walked up to her and placed his hand on her bare shoulder. "We should get you a pair of diamond jewelry to match.""There is no need," she started to say but was silenced."We will get you a matching set." He said in a low voice."You... you don't look so bad yourself," Claire said.Alek chuckled and shook his head. He was in only trousers. "You don't have to lie to me."
CLAIRE VON SINCLAIRI KEPT LINCOLN entertained during the drive to the hospital, even though I often caught him sneaking a peek and glance at Alek. He was intrigued and I knew it. We got to the hospital without any incident. Alek got out first and looked around before extending a hand into the car. He helped Lincoln out and then helped me out. "This is too dangerous for a child," He muttered as I came out. "Anything can happen. It is not even safe for you.""You worry too much," I replied."For you, yes.""We will be in and out in a few minutes," I kissed his cheek. "Don't worry.""You don't want me to come in with you?" He asked."I don't want you to scare her," I said.He chuckled dryly. "Ah, yes. I am the big bad monster. She might relapse if she sees me and then get admitted again."I chuckled and shook my head before I took Lincoln's hand.He raised his hand to signal to the guards to mount positions all over the hospital."Come," I said to Lincoln. "Your sister should be waitin
ALEKSANDER VON SINCLAIR ALEK WAS FUMING and angry, but he managed to control his anger. He had wanted to tear the smug smile from the face of the rogue, but he knew this was Claire's fight that was why he had remained silent. He decided that he was going to let her take control, and would only step in if things were spiraling out. He was impressed with the way she handled herself. Although she had not managed to talk the rogue down, she had managed to talk their way out of there. "You did good," He took her hand. She swallowed and nodded. He could feel her hand trembling softly in his. "You did good," he repeated. "For now," she said. "Once we get to the territory, you will all be safe," he said, looking at Elizabeth and Lincoln. "You too," He massaged Claire's palm. "Do you remember when I said I would die before I let any harm come to you?" She nodded. "Then you don't have anything to worry about." He said, kissing the back of her hand. He sighed and looked out t
CLAIRE FISCHERTHE FEELING OF dread filled my body as I was being dragged through the woods."Why are you doing this?!" I cried. "You are a rogue. What does this have to do with you?"He chuckled and said. "You don't know anything. Drag her faster, I want to do this quickly and head back to base."The men pulling me hastened their steps, making me tumble to the floor."Don't do this, Bastian," I pleaded."There is nothing you can tell me that will change my mind," he snarled. "I am doing it for love.""Love?" I asked. "Love for who?""Love for your mother." He stopped and turned to me. "It's enough here, no one will find you here.""So how are you going to do it?" I asked. I was feeling defiant, now that I knew I had nothing to lose. "A gun? Like a human? Or a knife." I spat. "Or would you shift into your wolf and kill me like an alpha."He looked indecisive."Go on," I urged. "Shift into your wolf and kill me. That would make you an alpha too. Isn't that what you want? To become an a
LOGAN MILLER LOGAN WAS CONFLICTED on whether he should confront Fiona and Bruce. He connected the dots and realized how much of a fool they had played him for, and how blind he had actually been. He had avoided Fiona as much as he could. He did not even care about the nights she did not sleep in their room; he did not want to think of where she might be and what she might have been doing with Bruce on those nights. As for his relationship with Bruce... there was no Alpha without a Beta. And he could not just banish Bruce without telling the pack what was going on. He was not ready for that, so he put up a fake font of smiling and laughing when Bruce was around as he planned on what to do about everything going on in the pack. He woke up the following day after seeing Claire and her husband, the human billionaire, and he was feeling somewhat apprehensive about the whole day. As usual, Fiona's side of the bed was empty, but he did not care. He brushed his teeth and went to the kitch
LOGAN MILLERLOGAN FROZE. HE could feel his blood run cold as he came to realize what he was seeing. Claire was married to a lycan. And she must have known. Getting married to a lycan meant she agreed to the curse and was prepared to share the weight of the curse with the race.Throughout their childhood, the curse of lycan had remained a myth. Even the whole idea of lycans - humans that were like the brutal cousins of werewolves, but they did not have wolf spirits. They had beasts that were savage. They did not shift into wolves like werewolves did, instead, they usually remained on two legs like men but had the features of a wolf, like claws and improved strength and agility. They were very much bigger and stronger than werewolves.Logan retraced his steps. He ran away without attracting attention to himself. He ran to the spot where he had stashed his clothes and shifted back to human before hurriedly putting on the clothes and heading back to the pack.The sun was coming up as he
CLAIRE VON SINCLAIRWHAT LOGAN TOLD made me wish that I had taken his advice and sat down. I grasped onto the edge of the table, trying to keep myself from falling as my knees went weak."Claire," Alek yelled. He bound over to me and held me up with my waist. He snatched the phone from me with his free hand and put it to his ear. "What is it?" He asked."My Beta dug up the body of Bastian," I heard Logan say. "He must have called the number, pretending to be me, and Claire told him."Alek released a deep sigh. "So what now?""I have to report it to the werewolf council," Logan said. "That is what the pack wants.""The werewolf council?" Alek asked with a chuckle. "Is that not a bunch of old men that pretend to be rulers of the werewolf packs around the world?"Logan gasped. "Such disrespect.""What you should be thinking about now, Alpha Logan, is what you are going to do about a Beta that is not on your side," Alek said.I took the phone from Alek and took a shaky step away. "Logan."
CLAIRE VON SINCLAIRI DID NOT see Joram for the rest of the day after his outburst in the dining room. "I can't find Joram," I said to Alek in his office. He waved me in. As I walked in, I realized that I had never really been inside this man cave. It always felt off-limits, and I did not have many things that would need me to be here.It was a large, white oval room, dimly lit. It was like an entire apartment on its own, with couches, a large mahogany desk at a corner with his leather chair behind.I counted two tables with bottles of whiskey and Scotch. There was also a mini bar at the far end of the room."You look surprised," Aleks's voice drew me from my reverie."I have never been in here," I replied.He chuckled and stood up. "You are welcome here anytime." He said. "In fact, we should build an office for you too. You will be handling the affairs of your people there.""My people," I scoffed. "Like they are not also your people.""I would like the office to be close to mine,"
LOGAN MILLER HE WAS STUNNED beyond words. As he left Ruth's house, he heard her last sentence ringing in his head. She said she knew things. Was this one of those things? Knowing that he wanted to protect Claire and hide Bastian's body further away. But how had she known? Was it even possible to stay a step ahead of them? These questions flooded Logan's head. He could feel a migraine start as he walked through the woods. Well, the situation could still be salvaged, he muttered to himself. He could just try and avert it. If only he and Bruce and maybe a few other men knew, he could just shrug it off. He got to the strong stream and crossed it without any issues. They had gone out of the territory now. How had the men even found the body? What made them come this far in their search? It could not be that they followed a scent. He shook his head. Every scent was washed away by the current and air updraft of the stream. So what gave them the idea? As he came upon the scene,
BRUCE AND HIS man walked for almost half an hour without seeing anything. Bruce was starting to feel this plan slip through his fingers every minute they walked without finding the spot."That bitch could have been more specific," he snarled under his breath, flopping onto a rock. "We might start to head north now. We will walk at an angle, so we will meet with the others in the middle, then we will search the area together again."The man nodded and sat down. They were close to the stream. Bruce sighed and looked around. He was tired, and could not imagine the energy required to carry the rogue all the way out here, and then bury him, and go back without anyone seeing or noticing anything."Beta...""Yeah?" Bruce looked at his companion who was dipping a foot in the fast flowing stream."You know that if your plan works, Claire would be hurt too," He said.Bruce cocked his head and noted that his companion was the youngest out of the three. "Yes. I am aware of that." He replied."I t
BRUCE HURRIED AWAY from the pack. He crept behind a thick tree and watched as Logan went into Ruth's house. They had agreed to stalk Logan for as long as possible so he would not suspect where Bruce had gone.When Bruce was sure that Logan had gone in and was being occupied by Ruth, he continued his journey farther away into the woods, heading west. After almost half an hour was brisk walking, he came across the Tibet stream. It was a fast-flowing stream that was quite wide. As he looked at it and tested the current, he wondered how the Lycan had carried the body across.Using a stick, he tested how deep the water was, and luckily, it was not deep as it was only a couple of feet deep and would reach up to his knee, but even with the shallowness, the current of the water was able to sweep him off his feet."Beta?" Bruce turned to see 3 men of average build coming towards him. "Luna Ruth sent us, she told us to do as we were told without asking questions."Bruce nodded. "What we are go
BRUCE KNEW THAT something was up, and to his dismay, It seemed like Logan was starting to catch up on everything that was going on behind him. It had come as a terrible surprise when Fiona found out that she was pregnant, and it was very obvious that he was responsible, not Logan.Their plan had been to just manipulate Logan and make him fuck Fiona without condoms or pulling out, so they could easily blame the pregnancy on him. But the plan did not work out perfectly and Logan did not bite. It was like he saw through their plan and refused to sleep with Fiona.Bruce was going to try and convince Fiona to try and abort the baby. It sounded bad, but it would be worse if Fiona suddenly gave birth and the child looked nothing like the alpha.He walked into the pack house. He knew Logan had been on a call with someone. He suspected that it was Claire, and there was something he was keeping secret.He peeked out the window to make sure he was not followed. Then he put the earpiece to his e
LOGAN MILLERLOGAN AND BRUCE walked out. By now, the news that Bastian was missing had gone around the pack. Some people were glad that the rogue responsible for attacks on them months ago was gone, while some were worried. They wondered how the veteran warrior like Bastian could just disappear, and how safe they were. Some of them shared the same views as Bruce and were already suspecting that it was the Lycan clan that visited that was responsible for the abduction."How are his people holding up?" Logan asked."As they should," Bruce answered. "They are worried, some are scared. They have recorded a large amount of deaths in the past few months. Their male population has been reduced to a very few.""Those are not our faults," Logan muttered. He wanted to say it was Ruth's fault for sending them against Claire, and the Lycans. In fact, everything that happened was Ruth's fault.First, she manipulated him into dumping Claire, and then making the whole pack share in her hatred for Cl
LOGAN MILLERLOGAN FINGERED THE card that Claire had given to him. He enjoyed the texture and read the address to himself. He knew the place, it was a secluded expanse of woods uphill. So that was where the Lycan and his clan were residing.The door to his office opened and he turned around to look at Bruce. "Any news?" He asked. They had been looking for Bastian for hours, but it seemed like the rogue just disappeared into thin air. Bruce shook his head and sat down on the couch. "Ruth is going nuts." He said, looking at Logan. "Is there something I should know that I don't?"Logan chuckled and shook his head. He was constantly amazed at how tricky and deceptive Bruce was turning out to be. If he didn't know better, he would think that Bruce was also ignorant of everything. But he knew better. He knew that Bruce knew about the affair between Ruth and Bastian."Earth to Logan..." Bruce snapped his fingers.Logan shook his head. "Sorry. What did you say?""I was only just wondering wh
CLAIRE VON SINCLAIRI HAD BEEN about to leave the table to go and speak with Joram about how he was feeling before Lucia showed up at the door. She looked at Alek briefly before looking at me and saying, "I have not had breakfast. Can I join the table?"I paused chewing, wondering if I had heard properly. I felt Alek stiffen beside me too. Lucia raised an eyebrow at me and I heard Alek's voice float into my head, telling me that it was my decision to make.What could go wrong? I asked myself. "Of course, Lucia," I said. "You can join us for breakfast."I could feel Aleks's disagreement. But he had said it was my decision, and I made it."Are you sure that is a good idea?" He asked me.I did not take my eyes away from her as Lucia came towards the table and took a seat close beside Alek.The nerve of the woman, I gritted inwardly while I kept my face emotionless."Thank you, Luna Claire," she said and I did not miss the mocking sarcasm laced in her words. "I know exactly what Alek is t