KADE’S POV“Which would you prefer, a spring, summer, fall, or winter wedding?” Natasha asked, scrolling through her phone.I rolled my eyes, shoving a huge piece of steak in my mouth so I didn’t have to answer her question. She’d been asking me the same question for five years. I don’t know why she thought now that my grandfather, the entire catalyst for this relationship, was out of the way, I’d suddenly decide I was ready to marry her.She was lucky I didn’t call off the engagement right there and then.As I chewed and ignored Natasha, my eyes roamed around the restaurant we were in. It had a warm, upscale vibe with soft lighting, elegant table settings, and a cozy, family-friendly section that seamlessly fit into the romantic ambiance.In addition to couples out on dates, there were families with little kids of various ages.Natasha chose the restaurant, and I think she did that intentionally to plant the notion of children in my head. Little did she know the storm my mind was in
ANDREA’S POVI just wanted a nice, quiet dinner out with my babies.Why the fuck was Kade Nightshade everywhere I turned? As if that wasn’t enough, now his intolerable fiancée was thrown into the mix, too.“What the hell is going on here?” Natasha repeated.I rolled my eyes, unwilling to get into anything with her.I tightened my grip on Matteo and Luca. “Come on, boys.”I started to move, but Natasha moved, too, blocking our exit.Her eyes looked down, taking in my children, and they widened. She looked from the twins to Kade, and my heart rate sped up.Did she see the resemblance? All Matteo and Luca took from me were my eyes—all their other features were Kade’s, and anyone perceptive enough could see that. It seemed that Natasha, for all her shallow, vapidness, had a working brain between her ears.I moved, blocking my children from her view. “Would you like to move out of the way, or would you prefer I threw you out of the way?” I asked, forcing my voice to be calm.Natasha looked
ANDREA’S POVBefore I headed to check the person I'd hit, I opened the back door and inspected Matteo and Luca closely, making sure they were completely fine.“Does it hurt anywhere?” I asked, unhooking their seatbelt in case the pressure was too much.“We're fine, mommy,” they said.“Are you sure?”They looked like they were coming down from the shock, which was good. They nodded, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. They were my entire world; if anything happened to them, I would lose my mind.“Stay here,” I instructed before closing the door.I headed over to the person. As I moved closer, I saw that it was a man. He was still on all fours, and his head was bowed.All I could see was a head of blond hair, and I felt a sense of foreboding.“I'm so sorry I didn't see you in time,” I said carefully, even though he was the one who had run out into the street suddenly.The road was still busy. Cars swerved past us, honking in irritation.I heard him curse, and my hear
ANDREA'S POVSafe to say, after the disturbing events, I didn't sleep well last night.I kept tossing and turning, and I lost track of how often I got up to check up on the twins.I had the irrational fear that Kade would swoop in in the middle of the night and take them away.I was glad when morning came. Luca and Matteo didn't seem to have any lingering trauma from the night before.They chattered excitedly as I fixed them some cereal.“Can we go exploring?” Luca asked excitedly.I thought of all the less-than-ideal things that had happened to the twins every time we stepped out of the hotel room and winced.“How about we stay in today?” I said. “We could watch movies all day and stuff our faces with candy and ice cream.”Their eyes widened. “Really?”I nodded. “Really!”Just then, there was a knock on the door.“Ooh, that must be Zayne here to play,” I said as I stood up from the small dining space we were at.I headed to the suite door and opened it.My eyes widened when I beheld
ANDREA’S POVIt took me exactly one minute to run from the Starbucks back to the hotel and up four flights of the emergency stairs to my suite. It was the longest one minute of my life.I stopped at the door, panting harshly. My heart was racing a hundred miles a minute, and it wasn’t because of the physical exertion.My babies were missing.Zayne was on the phone when I burst the door open.“Andrea—”“Matteo!” I roared, heading straight for their room. The door was open, and the room was exactly as we’d left it when they tumbled out of bed this morning.“Luca!”I rushed to my own room. The door was open, too, and I heard Zayne say, “I’ve searched the suite from top to bottom, Andrea.”I ignored him, unable to think clearly. I searched the bathroom, the balcony, the dining, I even opened the tiny mini fridge on the off chance that my children had shrunk, instead of disappeared.“Where are they?” I asked, Zayne, panting harshly. “Where are my babies?!”Zayne shook his head, his face tw
ANDREA’S POVI never thought the day would come when I would so desperately ask Kade Nightshade for help.But my babies were missing, so all bets were off.He looked slightly shocked that I had actually asked him for help, but he schooled his face into a serious expression.He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll need detailed descriptions of both of them. I have contacts all over New York. We’ll find them in no time.”“No!” I grabbed his hand, stopping his movements.Kade raised an eyebrow in question, and I shook my head. “I can’t have their details exposed. It’ll draw too much attention to them; it’s not safe.”He scoffed. “Right, as opposed to right now when they’re safe and sound.”I growled at him. “Does now seem like a good fucking time for sarcasm?”“Fine,” he huffed. “If you don’t want me to use my resources, how do you suggest we find them?”I ran my hands through my wild mane, groaning in frustration.Sighing, Kade shoved his phone back in his pocket. He grabbed my arm
BECK’S POV“No!” Luca screamed, kicking his little feet. He made contact with the bowl of cereal and sent it clattering to the floor. “I don’t want Lucky Charms, I want my mommy!”I rolled my eyes and stood to my feet. “Yeah, you little shit. I want your mommy, too.”The little bastard and his twin glared at me, and I rolled my eyes again. Neither one of them had shed a single tear since I’d taken them from their hotel suite six hours ago.It had been ridiculously easy to take them, too. All I needed was a signal jammer to mess with the security cameras. Stealing the room key from the front desk had only been a little tricky.Silly Katie was lucky the cameras had been down, or she would’ve been fired when it was discovered that the key was stolen on her watch.Getting them out was a combination of chloroform spray and an unattended cleaning cart.It was after they woke up in an abandoned cabin in the woods that things got frustrating. I’d found the cabin a long time ago when I was run
KADE’S POVI raced through the woods, straining to detect something—anything that could lead me to the twins.I knew New York was a huge place, and they could’ve been anywhere, but I could also feel in my gut that they were close—somewhere in the interconnected backwoods.Andrea clung tightly to me as we bounded through the woods. I could feel her heart beat furiously against my back. The proximity was driving Jaxon crazy, and it was an effort to focus on the task at hand.The sun was going down, and I hadn’t picked up a viable trail. I wouldn’t stop, though; I would find those kids, no matter what.I could feel Andrea’s panic with every minute that passed without finding them, and it agitated Jaxon. They were not my pups; I shouldn’t have felt so personally invested.But, I did, and—Jaxon skidded to a halt, straining to feel what we’d just felt.“What?” Andrea panted. “Did you feel something?”I lay down, pressing my paws to the ground, tensing. I felt…something. Like a tug on my in
KADE’S POVMy leg was shaking with pent-up energy as I sat at my desk. My arms were crossed in front of me as I stared at the documents I was supposed to go over, not really seeing anything.The events of the morning still had me agitated, especially the argument with Nora.I argued with my little sister all the time, but this time had been different. Where did she come off defending Andrea when she didn’t know the whole story?I bet Andrea hadn’t told my sister how she killed our child and then turned around and had twins for another man.I had always been reluctant to use it, but now, I was glad I’d used my Alpha aura to trap Nora in the house so she couldn’t go running back to her new friend and get her head filled with lies about me.Another thing that was really pissing me off was the fact that, for the second time in two days, I’d been prevented from cumming. First, Andrea had pushed me off her right in the middle of sex, and Nora had burst in just as I was about to explode in N
MATTEO’S POV“Aunty Nora?”Luca and I peeked into Aunty Nora’s room when she didn’t answer the door. Her bed was a little rough but empty.“Maybe she’s in the bathroom?” Luca suggested, and I shrugged. We entered the room, headed to the bathroom, and knocked on the door. “Aunty Nora?” There was no answer.“Where did she go?”Every morning since she came to live with us, Aunty Nora woke us up with a smile and a hug. She always played with us as she got us ready for the day and then she made us delicious breakfast.Of course, she could never replace Mommy, but we really liked her, and now that she was nowhere to be found, we were worried.“Maybe she just went for a walk?” Luca said. But I could see that my twin didn’t believe that, and neither did I.We both felt connected to Aunty Nora and right now, we felt worried.“Should we wake mommy?” I asked.Luca shook his head. “Mommy has worried too much lately; we shouldn’t stress her.”He was right. Nobody told us anything because they thou
NORA’S POVI wish I could have taken a picture of the guards’ faces when I walked up to the door of my—and the pack’s house. They looked shocked and confused, and I couldn’t blame them.They’d known I was ‘missing’ for days and suddenly, I appeared casually like nothing was wrong.I raised a brow when they didn’t move from the door. “I believe your jobs are to keep me in—which you already failed to do, by the way—not keep me out.”They had the good grace to look ashamed as they stepped aside, letting me into the mansion.This early in the morning, there weren’t any wolves around, and I was glad for it. I wasn’t in the mood for anyone to stare and point at the prodigal sister returning home, especially since I wasn’t planning on staying.I had one goal and one goal only—talk some sense into my brother’s thick skull.I had barely been able to sleep after Andrea confided in me. I wondered how my brother could treat such an amazing woman like he’d treated her.The part that pissed me off
NATASHA’S POV“Wait.”I raised a brow, eyeing my dad. “Wait?”He nodded. “Wait.”I scoffed. “You heard Mason; Kade hates her right now. I have to move.”My dad scoffed. “Like your movements so far have yielded any returns.”His words cut deep but I didn’t show a reaction. “That was because he was still obsessed with her.” I stood from the seat in my father’s office, the very one Mason Holland had just vacated.It was lucky that I came downstairs just as he was leaving my father’s office, or I probably would have been kept in the dark about the situation.I’d spent most of the time since Kade called off our engagement in my room, licking my wounds and plotting how to get him back. I was glad he’d agreed not to announce our breakup for another month, which gave me enough time to plan something.I’d been going out of my mind trying to figure something out, and Mason had brought the answer straight to my doorstep. My biggest problem was Andrea fucking Carter, and now that she seemed out o
ANDREA’S POVI was vibrating with anger and indignation as I drove.‘Still want to stay mated to a scumbag like him?’ I asked Emrae.My wolf was silent. Whether she was just as angry as me or it was shame, I didn’t know.Of all the times I’d clashed with Kade Nightshade, I didn’t think I’d been as high-strung as I was right now.In truth, I was a little exhausted from the rush of emotions, and that only served to piss me off more.First, I’d been upset and hurt by his insults in my room, but now? I was furious with a capital F.Kade’s response to the challenge I’d issued rang in my head, and I scoffed. “Suck your dick,” I muttered. “How about I bite it off and wipe that smug fucking smirk off your face.”Instead of apologizing for his awful behavior, he continued pushing and antagonizing me, going so far as to attack my business.Whatever power move Kade thought he was making, all he succeeded in doing was strengthening my resolve. I would never get on my knees for him. I was going to
MASON’S POVKade was going to kill me.As I groaned, feeling the blinding pain of my arm being pulled out of my socket, I had one thought: What the fuck?I’d sparred with Kade more times than I could remember. He always won.But never like this. He always pulled his punches, his ‘killing blows’ were a mock. Sparring was an exercise, a way to blow off steam.This wasn’t that.Groaning, I pulled out my other hand from beneath me and tapped it against the floor. A sign that I was tapping out—surrendering.Kade didn’t move, leaning his weight heavier on me. I bit back a scream as his knee dug into my spine.I tapped against the floor again, more frantically. “Kade! I fucking surrender!”He leaned forward and growled in my ear. “I should tear out your arm and beat you to death with it.”My eyes widened. This wasn’t Kade. His voice for one, was nothing like my friend of almost thirty years. It was deep, rough, sinister. And the bloodlust in it would have made me shiver if I could move.“Alp
KADE’S POV“I want absolutely nothing more to do with you.”A stab of anger shot through me.‘Interesting,’ the strange new voice in my head—Fenrath—said.‘Interesting?’‘She doesn’t back down easily. I like a challenge.’ I felt him appraise Andrea—her battle stance, the defiant look in her eyes. A lesser being would be cowering; a lesser being wouldn’t have the guts to be here after what happened in her room.But Andrea Carter was no lesser being.I folded my arms. “You don’t want to do this, Carter.”She bared her teeth at me. “You’re the one who shouldn’t be messing with me, Nightshade.”I chuckled. “Fine. You want a challenge? I accept.”She started to smile, but I continued smoothly. “But when I win, not only will you withdraw from the market,”—I smirked as Fenrath whispered in my ears—“I’ll have you on your knees—sucking my dick.”Andrea’s mouth dropped open, and instantly, the image of shoving my cock between those plump, sexy lips flashed through my mind, and Fenrath purred in
ANDREA’S POVI moved towards Mason, ready to go toe to toe with Kade’s Beta.“I don’t know who you think you are or what right you have to give me orders about my business,” I growled in his face. “But if you think I’ll lie on my back and take this utter bullshit, you have another thing coming.”Mason scoffed, not looking the least bit affected by my anger. “You would have experience lying on your back.”My eyes widened. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”He raised a brow. “Was my innuendo lost on you? Let me break it down for you.” And then his voice became slow and unnecessarily loud like he was talking to a near-deaf child. “I mean you lay on your back all day, spreading your legs for whoever looks your way. Maybe that’s why your potion turned to shit under your nose.”I heard a snicker behind me, and I turned. The security guard cowered under the venomous glare I fixed on him, and he rushed back into his guardhouse.I turned that look on Mason, but he didn’t even flinch.“Typ
ANDREA’S POVPathetic.The word rang in my ears as I stared at the door long after it had slammed, rattling the frame.I blinked, and the tears I had been desperately fighting back rolled down my cheeks.Furious with myself, I angrily wiped my cheeks, my other hand gripping the blanket covering me tightly.I couldn’t get the look on Kade’s face, the venom in his voice out of my head, and it made more tears fall.I leaned against the headboard, cursing myself for letting his words hit me so hard. I shouldn’t have been surprised; this was Kade Nightshade, for fuck’s sake.But at the same time, it hadn’t felt like Kade. There was something…dark in his gaze, and despite the number of times we’d exchanged scathing insults, his words had never been as harsh, as cutting as they’d been just then.“Aftereffects,” I whispered to myself. “Probably an aftereffect of his sickness.” I had to force myself to believe those words. The alternative was a reality where Kade Nightshade’s words sunk into m