Thank you all for the birthday wishes. You are the best! Also, another chapter will be uploaded soon. Stay tuned. Love always, Kiki
HAYLEE~~“I can’t believe this,” Kaylee gasped, her eyes wide with shock as I finished explaining how we discovered Leo’s real body and clarified that the man she saw today was even more dangerous than Allison. “This sounds like something straight out of a fantasy novel. How can he be dead when I saw him just a few hours ago?”Muttering, I responded, “It’s crazy, I know, and I have been struggling with this truth all day. My best friend was killed, and even though Xalen has a plan in place, we still haven’t caught the imposter.”Almost as if a switch was flicked in our minds, Kaylee and I looked at each other and uttered at the same time:“But you saw him today. You can help us get him.”“But I saw him today. I can be of help.”Unbelievable. Kaylee and I are working together?I mean, we didn’t do that even when we were supposed to be twins.The excitement gushing through me in that moment faded when I realized that Kaylee wouldn’t be able to help unless she found a way to make fake
HAYLEE~~After Xalen left me in the bedroom, I curled into the bed, breathing in the lingering scent of him, trying to hold onto the faint smile that still tugged at my lips. I closed my eyes, amusing myself with the idea that sleep might come, even as my face betrayed none of my thoughts.But then a soft tap on the door shattered the silence. My eyes snapped open. I hesitated, then cautiously walked up to the door and pulled it open.Standing there was Flavia’s cousin, Atlas—the warrior who usually slipped messages from Kaylee to me. His shoulders were tense, and his gaze was fixed on the ground, as if he were submitting to me.“What brings you here at this hour, Atlas?” I asked, voice steady, though my mind raced.He bowed his head slightly, his voice barely above a whisper. “I couldn’t find Flavia to inform her. I thought it best to come to you, since your sister is waiting for you in the Healers’ building.”My brows lifted in surprise. Why is Kaylee waiting so late? The night w
HAYLEE~~After lying in bed all day, I have concluded that I was a bad friend to Leo, a bad daughter to my Alfred, a terrible sister to Kaylee, and would be a disappointment to Aradia.Not to forget the pack.How could I accept a crown tomorrow after all that had happened? After that back-and-forth that had led to nothing? No solution! Just chaos!Goddess!I was losing my shit. Clearly.Liya, who would have helped me recover, was also grieving, and even though Favia tried, she couldn't lift my mood. However, Xalen’s return made a difference. My mate gently encouraged me to dine with the family and show myself to the servants to avoid rumors that might ruin the trap he believed he had laid for Alpha Richard.“We couldn’t link fake Jose to anyone today, but I believe we will find him before the wedding, and if we don’t, we will find him after the coronation,” Xalen said to me after he summarized how he spent his day.He still believed we would win while I had fallen into this depress
ALPHA KING XALEN~~Hell!Why did all of this have to happen after I promised Haylee that she would never have any reason to cry on my watch? I gave her a ring that was meant to put an end to her sadness and crying, but it did the opposite.I did the opposite.After my mate cried all through yesterday and whimpered all through the night, even though she was in my arms, I realized that I shouldn’t have told her about the body. I should have kept her in the dark and saved her from this grief.However, if I had done that, we wouldn’t have the lead Haylee helped us discover through the handmade bracelet.“I would have traded the lead for her smile,” Theo blurted within me.And I couldn’t agree more. Mostly because I was getting jealous of the love Leo got from my mate.I felt bad that he was dead, but she fucking made him a bracelet from scratch. That was a token of love, and the Alpha in me just didn’t like that. It felt like he experienced and had a version of Haylee that I would neve
HAYLEE~~Uncontrollable.That was the perfect word to describe my loss of control over my emotions and the outpouring of tears that soon followed as I gazed at the familiar bracelet that Gladys was holding.I knew that bracelet. There was no way I was mistaken.It was the third and last friendship bracelet that I made for him. For Leo. He had the habit of losing each gift I made for him. The first was a necklace, and somehow, the clasp broke. The second was a ring, but once again, he lost it.And then the third was this bracelet—a sturdy, dark leather band intertwined with subtle silver beads with black dots. I had used Alfred’s old wristwatch’s leather to craft it with care, knowing it would be a symbol of the bond Leo and I had when we were younger.“I vow to you, Haylee,” Leo’s familiar voice rushed into my mind as tears trickled down my face. “I won’t lose this one. You will never have to make another one because I will hold on to it, even if I have to walk through the lake of
HAYLEE~~I promised my mate that I would always tell him everything, ever since the last time I tried to keep the truth from him about the whole poison drama with Benita and Allison. But who would have thought I couldn’t tell him about Allison’s new schemes?It was two days before our wedding, for goddess’ sake.Even as Xalen told me about the burnt body that was found last night after a day of shopping, I was pretending like I wasn’t waiting anxiously for Kaylee to call on me and tell me what she had found out about Allison’s plans.While still doubting her loyalty.Kaylee had never been loyal to anyone but herself. There was no doubt that she would stab Allison in the back, but there was also no trust that she wouldn’t do the same to me and maybe take my crown for herself.Yeah, my twin sister was that crazy… and I was that paranoid.“What are you saying now, Gladys?” My mate asked the older woman standing before us, his voice cutting through my thick thoughts.We were both in th
ALPHA KING XALEN~~“My King. My Prince.”Wyatt called out to Roy and me before we could go our separate ways. His breath was short and his heart was thumping loudly. “Is there a problem?” I queried, immediately switching from the annoying cousin to the Alpha King that Wyatt had come to seek. Roy switched as well, despite his desire to start searching for Flavia’s wedding gift and he breathed, “Please, no bad news right now.”However, Wyatt went ahead to say, “It’s bad. It’s terrible, in fact.” “Cut to the chase, Wyatt.” I uttered with a deep frown, creating lines on my forehead. My Gamma asked Roy and me to enter my car with him so we could have some privacy. As soon as we were settled in the car, Wyatt chimed, “We found a dead body while clearing the site you chose for the field that will be used for the howling ritual after the Queen has been crowned.”My brows furrowed as my eyes cut from Wyatt to run and then back to Wyatt again, tension knotting in my chest. The site for
ALPHA KING XALEN~~In the next three days, I would be married and completely mated to the woman who would also become my Mate, Luna, and Queen.Saying I was happy would be an understatement. I was overjoyed, even though I knew we still had so many obstacles to overcome. I was eagerly waiting for the day to come, but somehow, I felt sad.That sadness was mixed with anxiety, and it felt so raw. I couldn’t explain it, even though I had been trying since it hit me yesterday.“It feels like Haylee’s feelings,” Theo said to me while I sat outside the changing room where Roy was trying on suits for the wedding.Before Theo made it known, I already suspected that those were Haylee’s feelings, but it was strange. I mean, she has been happy lately. She smiles more and has been hanging out with Flavia as always.The duo had been preparing for our big day just like Roy and I, and since they couldn’t get their dresses yesterday, they also went dress shopping. I was certain they would be in one
HAYLEE~~Gladys took her time before she started giving a detailed explanation about the Crimson Curse. I thought reading was all I needed to understand the curse and red wolves. But I was so wrong.“When the curse was uttered, it separated families in the sense that even though red wolves can’t birth red wolves, they remain family,” Gladys began, but of course, Flavia and I were still confused.Fortunately, Gladys asked us to sit. In that moment, I couldn’t think about returning to the palace to eat with the kids and Xalen, and I didn’t see Flavia considering returning to Roy either. We were both locked in this very moment.“Every time a female red wolf gets pregnant or a male red wolf impregnates another female, whether red or not, another female wolf somewhere also gets pregnant,” Gladys voiced. “In reality, the genes that are meant to be passed to the newly created red wolf baby in the womb will be passed to the baby of the random female wolf who also conceived around the same