Here's another chapter!
When Cinnia's eyes fluttered open for the third time in a row, she was met with the sight of beauty. The full moon shone down at her as if inviting her into its embrace. For a moment, she was at peace as she gazed up at it. She made to sit up, to admire it fully but to her consternation, she was unable to move. Her body was tied down by heavy chains which were a bit loose around her baby bump. Her breathing quickened as she turned her head from side to side, trying to get her bearings and figure out where exactly she was. Cinnia caught sight of the stack of wood beneath her. An altar of some sort. She was in an open space but there were walls all around her so that meant she wasn't outside. Suddenly, she remembered. The guilty look on Sophie's face. The proud smirk on Esther's lips. They were responsible for this. "Sophie..." Cinnia's voice cracked. A wave of sadness washed over her. She had trusted Sophie with her life. 'Why must everyone I trust betray me? First him...and
"Sophie, give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now?" Maverick asked, his face an emotionless mask as he tightened his hold around Sophie's slender neck. "I'm...s-sorry..." Sophie gurgled, her eyes bulging from their sockets as she clawed at his hand but his grip didn't loosen for a second. Mya held Esther against the altar after binding her hands with the special chains used to cut off a witch's flow of magic as she waited for Denzel to return once he had dropped off Cinnia in their car and sent her home with the trusted driver and two competent gammas. "Maverick, let her go. You can't kill her before Denzel gets here. He's the one to decide, remember? Him being the Alpha and all?" Mya reminded Maverick when she noticed how blue Sophie's face had become. Maverick scowled and with a grunt, he released Sophie who instantly doubled over and began coughing and fetching before slouching on the other side of the altar. "Don't count yourself lucky. If I don't get th
Cinnia regained consciousness two days later with a massive headache and an incessant ringing in her ears. The sunlight hurt her eyes and the constant hovering and murmurs of people going in and out of her room caused her to wince and hold her head in her hands. Eventually, she managed to push herself into a sitting position and that was the moment the memories her brain had fought to suppress to allow her to sleep and recover, rose to the surface. Denzel's lies and corresponding betrayal. Sophie's treachery. Esther's attempts to kill her and her child so she can curse the werewolves. The memories tore through her. Slicing and cutting deep till she thought it would leave her in a stringy mess of meat and blood. She pulled her knees up as far as they would go without her belly getting in the way and bowed her head. Cinnia didn't notice the tears rolling down her cheeks at first. After all, crying was out of the question for her. She had done so much of it in such a short time an
"You are a funny man, Lycan King Denzel Montgomery. You have made a mockery of my emotions and my intelligence for far too long. All because you saw that I have fallen in love with you even without the influence of the mate bond. You are only sorry that I found out about it," Cinnia said with a cool smile on her lips. "Please—" Cinnia held up a hand before Denzel could complete his sentence. "Let me finish. You know, I understand Maverick not telling me. He tolerated me mostly because he realized I was here to stay. I don't know if he even likes me but that's by the way. I expected radio silence from him but you? My so-called fated mate? You've been lying to my face for months, Denzel. How could you?" Cinnia couldn't withhold her voice from breaking. "He's my father. I couldn't bring myself to kill him, Cinnia. Listen to me, the Kaiv Machia was the best option I could think of. Exile was much less painful than his death," Denzel tried to make her understand. "Much less painful
The next day, Cinnia was gone before the crack of dawn using her cloaking spell to leave unnoticed. She had almost considered changing her mind when she saw Denzel sleeping on the floor outside her room but her goal ate at her. Cinnia couldn't risk him waking up before she could even escape so she cast a silencing charm to make him deaf to any sounds she might make at least till she left. "I'm sorry but I have to do this for me and them. If I could change fate, I would," She had said to his sleeping form before slipping into the cool darkness of the early morning. At the airport, her gaze ran across the many seats in the departure hall till it landed on a certain blonde. "What took you so long? You were thinking of backing out?" Sophie asked with a straight face when Cinnia sat beside her on the cold, hard airport seat. "No... I was a bit distracted by—" Cinnia started to clarify. "If you're going to mention any of them, please just don't. Unless you want to find another
Cinnia narrowed her eyes when she noticed him taking surreptitious steps back and inching toward something in the shadows. She stretched out her hand and concentrated on lifting him off the floor with her mind just as she had been practicing. A smirk graced her lips at the panic in Jerome's eyes when he found himself floating against his will. "Surprise, father-in-law," She said, sarcasm dripping from her words. "What madness is this? Let me down this instant and speak to me like a mature adult!" Cinnia scoffed. "Like father like son." She shifted her hand to the side and threw him on his couch. He landed with a grunt but fluidly rose to his feet anyway. She had to give it to him, the man was still agile. "To answer your question, I'm here for your life." Cinnia gave a hand signal to Sophie to go out and put up a barrier around the apartment so that no one could get in or out. When Jerome raised both eyebrows and folded his arms across his chest, Cinnia could have sworn t
"Denzel, can you please talk to me? This silence between us is killing me." Cinnia knocked on the door of Denzel's office for the seventh time in two days. The rainy season rolled in close to a month after Cinnia finally avenged her parents. The weather perfectly matched the turmoil raging within her. Yet what she didn't know was that the harsh pounding of the storms was equivalent to the torment Denzel had been going through. Two days after the events in Paris, Cinnia realized how difficult it must have been for Denzel to watch her kill his father. She wasn't regretful of what she had done but it would be insensitive of her to not admit that she must have deeply hurt the one person that she was closest to in the entire world. However, in the days following the burial of Jerome which she didn't attend for obvious reasons, Denzel seemed to be avoiding her. He was always at his office, training with the pack members, poring over documents in his study, meditating in the solarium, sw
Maverick needed an escape from the tension that hung over the pack house like a dark cloud. That was why he was seated at a bar in L'Oréal letting the noise and bustle distract him from the problems he was sure to face back in his pack's territory. The whole Denzel-Cinnia situation was sucking the barely-there joy out of him. As much as he wanted to hate Cinnia—which he rightfully should since she committed one of the worst crimes imaginable—he sort of understood why she did what she did. He knew Denzel understood as well but it was too difficult to look past. Still too fresh in their minds. Maverick took another sip of his drink and was considering getting another when a scent hit his nostrils. "Please Goddess, no," He mumbled as he touched his forehead against the cool glass in his hand. "Not her of all people." Sophie craved a getaway. Ever since she was named Elder after Esther's death despite how young she was, it seemed like the fate of the world and the Darah Haven wit