His to protect, theirs to sacrifice

"Hmmm ohhh… baby." A female voice floated through my apartment door before I even got my key in the lock. "You are so good…. Yeah right there." I stood in the hallway with my keys in my hand and my work bag on my shoulder and did not move. "You like that," a voice that sounded exactly like Marcus said, with a tone I had never once heard from him in two years. I told myself my ears were playing tricks. I told myself a lot of things in the three seconds I stood there before I pushed the door open. The apartment was dim. I had not left it that way. I always leave the kitchen light on because Marcus insisted I left it off, said it helped with the electric bill, but I still did it anyway because I hated coming home to dark rooms. Everything was off. I pushed the bedroom door and it swung open too easily, like even the door wanted me to see. Marcus. It was really him. Two years of being with Marcus. His birthday coming up next month, I already bought the watch. But here he was, on our

I was already arranging my things in my suitcase when the door opened. Priya didn't knock. She just came in and closed the door behind her and stood there for a second like she was deciding something. Then she crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed and turned on the small lamp on the nightstand and looked at me. "What are you doing? Why are you arranging your things back in your suitcase?" she asked, looking at me like she knew what was going on in my head. "My manager called last night, and there are some issues that require my attention, and I can't do it from here," I told her, not wanting to tell her I overheard her and her mom. She already knew I had heard. I could see it on her face. "How much?" she said, not beating around the bush. "Enough." She nodded slowly. She looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with the hour. "Okay," she said. "Okay, I'm going to tell you everything, and I need you to just let me get through it before you say anything." I didn't

A blonde girl came through the passage into the clearing wearing a sundress and a mask, and the crowd lost their minds. The cheering hit so loud I actually flinched. Girls around me were standing on their toes trying to get a better look, some of them had their hands pressed to their chests like they were watching something sacred. "hmmph, bitch," Priya said under her breath, her lips barely moving, her eyes fixed on the stage with an expression that could strip paint off a wall. I turned to look at her. "you don't seem to like his choice of Luna, or are you jealous," I said nudging her shoulder with mine, genuinely entertained by the look on her face. "Ewwww never, that guy is so disgusting and she is worse, they are a match made in heaven," she said, her nose wrinkling like the thought alone had a smell. "I thought you were his fan girl, you were excited to see him when we got here, what happened your mood just nose dived," I said watching her face curiously, trying to figure

Five days. Five days since the mating ceremony and that conversation in the forest and I was still turning over those last four words like a coin I could not stop flipping. I was waiting for you. And then he vanished into the dark like he had not just dropped something like that on me with zero explanation. I had not left this room since. The reasons were not simple. There were werewolves outside who could snap my neck without really trying, Bella was somewhere in this town which was already enough reason to stay horizontal indefinitely, and then there was Caius who had appeared out of nowhere twice now and whose dark blue eyes I kept seeing every time I looked at the window at night. So no. I was staying in this bed. "Can I come in," Priya said from behind the door. "Yessss," I said, pulling the duvet tighter around my neck. She pushed the door open with a book tucked under her arm and dropped it on the drawer without asking. That is how the past five days had gone, she brought

"What are you doing outside with your suitcase Zara," Riya asked. I turned around slowly. The whole family was there, standing in a loose group by the door, all of them looking at me with varying degrees of suspicion. Riya's father's eyes were the sharpest. "I emmm…." Think Zara. Do not give them any idea that you know the truth. "Were you planning on leaving?" Riya's mom stepped forward, her arms folded loosely across her chest. "Thank goodness Seraphina came to cast the spell earlier." "Spell, what spell," I asked, letting confusion sit on my face. "We called someone to cast a barrier spell so you can't leave," Riya said, something moving across her expression that I could not quite name. "Who would have thought that in just a few hours you would already be trying to go." "I wasn't leaving," I said, keeping my voice even. "I was thinking of going for a stroll." "Going for a stroll with your suitcase." Riya's brother Mike tilted his head, his eyes flat and unconvinced. "