CelineMy water broke. Pain.It ripped through me so suddenly, knocking away the oxygen in my lungs. A sharp gasp left my lips as I felt the warmth run down my legs, soaking my thin dress.My heart stopped. No. Not now. Not when I was still alone.I let out a shaky breath as I pressed a hand to my belly. The baby shifted as if sensing my fears. I clenched my jaw, blinking away the fresh batch of tears. I couldn’t afford to panic.I couldn't, because I was alone, and no one could help. I had to give birth to this baby, alone.“Okay, Celine. You can do this.” I encouraged myself as I whispered the words into the empty room, my voice trembling as I pressed a shaky hand against my belly. This time, I was unprepared as a contraction tore through me, sharper this time, and my knees buckled underneath me, causing me to fall with a cry.Tears burned my eyes. My body trembled.I was alone.Completely, utterly alone. And it was all my fault. I should have never let Neil sneak me out. But beca
Not now. Not when I was still so weak. Not when my baby had just entered this world.The door rattled again, and I hurriedly searched the whole room for the escape hatch. I can't believe he found me. But as much as I loved him, I couldn't let him take me.I committed treason twice, there was no way they wouldn't take Arienne away from me and I would rather hide for the rest of my life than let my little light go.“Open up this door in the name of the king!” The rattling continued but I hurried my actions as I placed Arienne on the floor beside me as I struggled to open the hatch despite the burning in my limbs.The door was beginning to give out, the locks giving out under the force of their kicks.The latch finally opened and I carried Arienne in my arms and crawled through the dark hole the latch led to. The gravel and sand dug into my knees and elbows as I struggled to crawl with a baby and indescribable pain, but I refused to be caught.But my face paled as I got to the end of the
KaidenThe minute I woke up, the pain was the first thing I felt. Was I not supposed to be healed now? Mirena was clear, after the ritual, I should be healed.But I pushed it away as I remembered. Celine. I had to know if they had found her.A groan left my lips as I tried to sit up, the pain making it almost impossible.“Kaiden.”I heard Sheila’s voice from the corner of the room, and for the first time since I woke, I checked my surroundings.I huffed as she walked towards me, and helped me into an upright position. “Help me up,” I commanded. “I have to see if my men are back.” Sheila hesitated, her lips pressing into a thin line. “You’re in no condition to–”“I don’t care,” I snapped, uninterested in her persistent badgering. “Help me up.”She sighed but reached for my arm, letting me lean on her as I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I held down a groan, my fingers gripping the sheets so tightly as the pain doubled.“You’re too stubborn for your good,” she muttered, adjusti
KaidenMirena stood before me, her eyes white as she cast the spell to confirm.She was taking too long. My patience was wearing thin. My wolf was bloodthirsty, its rage distracting me completely from the cuts on my chest.IIt's been fifteen minutes since Mirena started searching for her ‘Soul in the void’, and I was done waiting.“Fuck it, I am leaving.” I turned on my heel, my body tense, ready to shift if it meant reaching the cliffs faster.“Kaiden be patient, she's almost done-” Sheila started to go after me but a growl from me silenced her.“Do not forget your place, Sheila.” Sheila stiffened, her gaze falling to the floor. I started to leave but a gasp from Mirena had me freezing in my steps.“I cannot sense her, your highness.” Her solemn voice reached my ears, and in a split second, everything was a world away.I turned, my breathing paused, my heart hammering against my ribs. "What did you just say?" Mirena’s glowing eyes faded back to their natural color. "I have searched
Chapter 64SheilaKaiden going rabid was not in my deck of cards, but that was not my worry. I did not even care for that, as I fought to contain my joy.But I couldn't show it right now, not when everyone was here, trying to make sure I was okay and safe.“The king has gone mad with grief.” Lord Vaughn sighed as he ran a hand on his face. “We cannot hide this from the whole kingdom. They already knew Something was going on with the guards rushing to and fro the past few days. They will start to ask questions and–”“Is that all you care about? The King’s reputation? He lost his mate and heir and the first thing you mention is that crap?” Damon interrupted Lord Vaughn, his eyes blazing with anger.Lord Vaughn’s face reddened. “No, not at all, Beta. What I am trying to say is–”“No one gives a shit what you want to say or what you feel you mean. I do not want to hear any reputation shit from you or any other council member until the king is fine. Tell the kingdom whatever you want to te
SheilaI wished I could save the memory of the blood on his face draining so I could watch it on a loop."You’re lying," he ground out, his voice scratchy and filled with hatred. "You always lie."A chuckle left my lips as I watched him desperately try to act like he wasn't scared that I was telling the truth."Oh, but this time, I'm not," I cooed, my fingers lightly trailing over the cold iron bars separating us. "Ask anyone. She’s gone. Kaiden lost his mate and heir in one fell swoop. " I let my smirk widen. "You should know, Neil, I always win."Neil stiffened, his eyes widening as he realized I was not lying. He stood to his feet and rushed towards me, his eyes blazing with anger.“You are lying. No, I mean no one, is that evil!” he yelled, pulling violently on his chain. “You deserve to die!” Mirena stepped forward, stretching out her hand to push me behind her to protect me, and her other hand outstretched.“I could cause you unimaginable pain if you do not step back this insta
[pChapter 66KaidenI didn't know how long I spent at the edge of the cliff, frozen and cold, unsure how to survive after everything I had lost. It was almost pointless to live when everything worth living for was gone. I lost count of the number of hours I spent at the edge, numb and unfeeling, staring into the abyss below, imagining how it must have felt in their final moments.A child born into this world just to be painfully taken away from it. I just knew she did everything to protect him. I wish she didn't run… I wish she didn't back me into a corner with the circumstances of Anya’s death, never fully telling me the truth.I wish she trusted me.No, I would never know what happened to Anya, or why she refused to admit she killed her, or how she killed her without a weapon. I wished I knew why doubted Celine could murder Anya. I wish I was more careful. If I was, my mate wouldn't have been taken from under my very nose. I always let everyone down, and I hated myself for that. I
Celine A gasp left my lips as I jolted awake, scrambling up from the bed I lay on in shock. I took in oxygen greedily, my throat scratchy from the dryness. My heart pounded wildly against my ribs, my body trembling from something I couldn’t yet understand.Where was I? I couldn't recognize the room I lay in. It looked like a room in the palace, but far nicer.My eyes widened as the realization set in that I was in a strange place, the last thing in my memory being the Dark soldier saving us, then opening a porta beneath my feet, and then.. a wild gasp left my lips as I shot up to my feet.My Arienne was no longer in my arms. Panic bloomed wildly in my chest I scored the whole room, my body trembling.“My baby. Someone took my baby!” I cried as I ran to the door, but before I could yank it open, it opened from outside and three women in uniform entered, their eyes wide with shock, and Arienne in one of their arms.“Your Highness! We didn't know you would wake up so early–” I didn't
Charles “What? You want something in return? Hmn?”She asked as she folded her arms across her chest. “Would you just shut up and let me talk?” I barked, my anger already bubbling.“Okay fine,” she replied as she rolled her eyes. “But, what do you want me to do to make you just stop whatever you're doing? What do you want me to do to make you cancel this fight?” she said to me, looking a bit desperate. I looked at her and smiled faintly. “Are you sure you're ready to hear it?” I asked her, and she looked at me, impatiently saying, “Just spit it out already!” Before I could even say anything more, we heard footsteps clearly walking straight to our room, followed by Kaiden's voice calling out Celine's name. I immediately took her and hid in a corner of the room where Kaiden wouldn't see us. He opened the door and scanned the room, but he didn't see us. He closed the door back while Celine and I were too busy hiding in a corner, and we were too close in a very romantic way. I sta
CharlesI felt a strong presence as I sat in the ruined temple, thinking about what to do to fight Kaiden and how to reclaim my mate and make her mine. I looked around, trying to sense where the presence was emanating from, and before long, I saw the priest standing right behind me, looking deeply and intently at me. He bowed and greeted me. “My king, I came to discuss something important with you,” he said to me. I looked at him and asked, “What did you come here to discuss? Why did you just come all of a sudden? Did someone from the pack tell you something? What do you think would happen? You want to get yourself into trouble?” I said to him, but he just looked at me. “Don't worry, my king, nobody is going to see me. Only you can see me,” he reassured me. “So what did you come here to discuss about?” I asked him, and he replied, “It’s about Celine. About how you are going to reclaim her and what we are going to do next. I want to ask you how far your plan has been going and h
Kaiden“How did you find out about all of this? Who told you that? I—I awakened him on purpose. How did you know about this stuff that happened inside the cave? The coffin back there?” She questioned me. But I just stared into space and flashed back to when Charles came to meet me in the throne room. I saw him walk in gracefully, looking heavenly and handsome. He was looking so divine, and I felt inferior to his heavenly grace. But I didn't say anything and wondered why he had come to meet me back there in my throne room. I saw him walk gracefully up to me and say, “Very soon I will take Celine away from you. I will take her away from you completely. Did you even know that she came to meet me and confront me? Even though her mother stopped her from coming here to meet me, she still came. And that was why she awakened me back there at the coffin. Do you think she did it mistakenly? No, it was not a mistake. She did it purposely. She awakened me because she felt she couldn't resist me
Kaiden I opened my eyes and found myself lying in bed with Celine by my side. I looked at her beautiful face and brushed off the air that was covering her face partly as I looked at her intensely with so much love and care. “I wonder what she did to me to make me fall so deeply in love with her as much as this. Don't worry, Celine. I promise you nothing is going to happen to you, and I won't let anybody ever hurt you. No one will ever dare to lay a finger on you as long as I am here, and nobody is going to ever take you away from me as long as I am alive and breathing,” I whispered to her carefully so as not to wake her from her sleep. She looked so peaceful, lying there in my arms. I felt determined to protect this woman as much as I could protect my life because she was like my lifeline, and I wouldn't want anything that would take her out of my arms. “You will never go through any harm. I promise that nothing will ever bother you as long as I'm here. I will share your pain with
Celine“Did Charles really say all that to you?” “Yes, he did. I have been having a lot of nightmares about him. He's always coming into my dreams telling me I'm his mate and no matter what I do, it would make me his. I only went there to confront him and tell him to stay out of my dreams. But he threatened me, and I didn't know what to do. I walked out of his house in annoyance yesterday,” I explained better to Kaiden, and he hugged me and said, “I'm sorry. I didn't know that that was what really happened. Charles twisted the whole thing and lied to me about you coming to his place. He lied. He twisted the whole thing around and lied. I'm sorry. I should have believed you first. I should have asked you what happened before blaming you.” “It's fine. You don't have to apologize. You only acted on impulse. I know how much I mean to you. That's why you acted that way,” I said to him and calmed him down. Then he released me from the hug and said, “Why did you come here in the first pl
Celine When I got to my room, I couldn't stop thinking about what my mom had revealed to me and what Charles had said. A lot of thoughts kept on flooding my head as I remembered how Charles threatened to reveal what I did. How I awakened him and my mom in the coffin that day if I didn't agree to be his mate. I didn't know what to do. And I hoped my mom would devise a plan to stop him from forcing me to be his mate. I hoped. I hoped that he wouldn't disturb me in my dreams tonight and let me sleep well and rest properly. Because I was seriously tired of him being in my dreams and disrupting my sleep. I couldn't rest well for the past few days because of the nightmares he'd been giving me. I just hoped that me confronting him today would make him stop and give me a break. Maybe just for this night because I was really tired, and my head was filled right now with a lot of thoughts. I sat on the bed and kept on thinking about how to convince him to leave me alone and not force me to be
Rose. I just sat there staring into space, helpless. I couldn't bring myself to tell Celine that I couldn't explain to her how she was the opposite of the Moon Goddess. I could remember back then; it came to me as a flashback. Celine was busy playing right outside our house. And then the Moon Goddess…It was almost close to the celebration of the Moon Goddess. The Moon Goddess did something to show her appearance and that she was happy with the pack members. But then Celine got very angry and did something that she wasn't supposed to do. I quickly ran outside and went to her. “Celine, stop. Don't do that ever again. Nobody can ever know that you can do this. Do you understand me? You can't make everybody find out what you just did today. We have to keep it a secret between you and Mom. Okay?” I said to her. And she immediately got scared. I started thinking, what did this girl choose to do? How could she do that to something that the Moon Goddess did? How could she do something li
Celine. I was more than scared of him right now. Yes, I was really scared, and I didn't know what to do anymore. I just stood there, dumbfounded and short of words. I couldn't say anything, and I was shaking already in fear.Hearing this, I realized that there was nothing I could do about this problem right now. I needed to go home and think about it and maybe talk to my mom if she had finally woken up to look for a plan to stop Charles from claiming me as his mate. I didn't utter a word. He started to walk out of his place, but then he said something that made me stop in my tracks. “You, no matter what you do, Celine, you will still be my mate. And I'll make sure that I make you mine. I'll make you my mate. No matter what happens to me, no matter what plan you devise, I'll still make you my mate, and there's nothing that you're going to do about it,” he yelled back at me, and I didn't even turn to look in his direction as I stormed out of his house in frustration. When I got outs
Celine“What do you want to talk about?” “Why have you been coming into my nightmares? I know you have been doing it on purpose. This is not the first time nor the second that I'm seeing you in my dream, and I want you to stop coming into my dream right from this instant.” He laughed sarcastically and looked at me. I scoffed and wondered why he was laughing, and then he stopped and apologized. “I'm sorry for laughing like that, but you just look so funny.” I looked at him with seriousness showing on my face. But then he burst out laughing again, and I immediately felt irritated by his laugh. Everything about him irritated me. I just hated the way he was laughing right now. I needed him to be serious, and here he was laughing, I thought to myself. Then, after a while, he stopped laughing and kept a straight face. “Okay, what made you think that I'm purposely coming into your dreams? Maybe you are just saying things. Maybe it's because you can not just resist me. That's why you ar