LOGINKaela “I can assure you that your mother is nowhere near, Kaela,” Lynch's muffled voice came from the door. “You have to trust me.” I was standing now, still contemplating whether this was a trick by Lynch and my mother to get me to open the door. But he had been there for too long and assured me that it was him. “I just want to talk,” Lynch added. I moved. It was either Lynch was being sincere, or they were really good at the game they were playing, and there was only one way to find out. I moved another step. If I realized that all of them were there, I’d run. I crossed the room and pulled the door open. Lynch stood on the other side, hand folded to land another knock. There was no one with him. I abandoned the door and returned to my bed. He slipped in, closed the door quietly, and crashed on my couch. An uncomfortable silence took over the room, stretching. I picked up my tablet and turned on the backlight. “I wasn’t happy with my mother, either, growing up,” Lynch broke
Kaela As the car cruised to a stop before the fleet of cars in the garage, I pulled the door open, pushing it wider and jumping out. “Kaela?” Mom called, but I ignored her. “Kaela!” she yelled my name. I kept walking without turning. Inside the sitting room, my fathers were all waiting. Keller walked towards me, worry written over his face. “Sweetheart,” he called. “Are you okay?” I stopped when he approached. He squatted, cradling my chin. “We were looking all over for you.” I knew dad cared, but I was sure he had other things that preoccupied his time. Sometimes, I think he loves the pack more than me. I heard echoing footsteps behind me, and then a familiar voice. Mom “Kaela, I said I’m sorry,” Mom said. I refused to turn around. “What’s going on?” Dad glanced above my shoulder. “I… I kind of misjudged the situation,” mother replied. I suppressed the urge to scoff. “Baby, you’ve got to forgive your mom, you know that, right?” Dad asked. I pulled away from his
TeresaTo say that Kaela’s excitement didn’t scare me was an understatement. She was unusually excited, and I’ve never seen her so excited for school before. I thought it was suspicious, but a part of me brushed it off as the effect of a mother-daughter bonding moment. But even as I tried to put it off as that, my mind told me that something was definitely off about it. I finally found a way to convince myself that the mother-daughter bonding moment I’d started working on months ago, after I stopped Clara from fixing her up and doing the job myself.But by late afternoon, when Mark called me and told me that Kaela was nowhere to be found, that argument could no longer hold water.I recalled the way Kaela’s eyes twinkled with mischief when I dropped her off, as she giggled and walked off. Everything now made sense. It was no mother-daughter bonding bullshit.Kaela was up to her mischief again.I stumbled through my office door, careful not to break the crystal glass doors and wall
Kaela “What do you want?” I turned to Flynn, making sure he could see the anger on my face. He didn’t respond. He just stops and stares at me at a respectable distance. I looked this way and that way, distress threatening to get the better of me, before I added. “Look, I don’t know what you want, Flynn, but you have to get back to school.” “Or what?” He huffed. I blinked. Was he really going to walk with me? No, this isn’t happening. I have to find a way to make him go back. I blurted out the first logical reason that got into my head. “You’ll land us both in trouble,” I cried. “Trouble?” He snorted. “If you didn’t want trouble, you shouldn’t have left the school in the first place.” “Well, I left,” I snapped. “Now, the school should be big enough to accommodate you and your… goons.” I turned around and stormed off. A pair of feet followed me. I walked on, expecting the approaching feet to retreat or get closer and fight me, but he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he keeps w
KaelaThe weekend ended yesterday, so I looked forward to school this morning. Before Mom came around, I was already up and getting ready for school. When she arrived, I’d was already in my school uniform, struggling to wear my socks. The door flipped open, and Mom poked her head in. I glanced at her briefly.“Good morning, Mom,” I said.She joined me with a reply, and in a moment, she was already helping me with my socks.“You were up early today, hmm?”“Yes, mom,” I replied. “I’m just excited to go to school.”Mom didn’t reply, and I felt that she was concerned. I wondered if it was because of the other day when I ran off.I knew mom cared, but curiosity was dealing with me. I wanted to find out more about the isolated people. I wanted to see magic. I thought magic was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I was excited to explore more of it.“Is there a problem, Mom?” I stopped and held her hand.She smiled. The kind that she does when she didn’t want me to worry about an
Teresa I flipped my eyes open, taking in my room. The alarm on my bedside table rang incesantly on the bedside table, and I slapped it to keep it quiet. It obeyed, and I was going to pull the covers around me tighter, and then I remembered Kaela. With a lot of effort, I got out of bed and headed to Kaela’s room. If she were asleep, I’d watch her sleep until she woke up. But if not, I’d want to have some time alone with her. Getting busy with the pack stripped me of that time with her, and when Clara took over, it was the beginning of sorrows. Apparently, the girl wanted time with her mother, not some chief of the maidens of the entire pack. When I pushed her door open, she was still asleep. I slipped in and closed the door. When I turned from the door to her bed, her eyes were open, and she was looking at me. As I approached her bed, she sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Good morning, Mom,” she mumbled. I joined her, sitting on her bed. “How are you holding up, sweetheart?” “I…
TeresaWhen the sun gave up on the sky, my legs grew weak. Using the secret spot that Keller and Bennett suggested went a long way. There was no cause to run into bandits, and I didn’t encounter any ferals. But my body was screaming for rest. I’d not arrived, and I’ll need to recharge if I’m goin
TeresaThe warmth from Keller’s hand travelled into my skin as the car continued down the rocky path, rocking us gently in our seats. For a moment, the silence in the car was almost deafening before Bennett spoke.“I know we didn’t agree to this, Teresa,” Bennett started. “But we’re going to take
TeresaWhen the Luna asked her husband to let me work, for a moment, I thought that was going to be another round of hell, but the whole thing turned out to be what I didn’t expect at all. At first, she gave me a good tour of the Alpha house that evening, chatting and laughing all the way. I wond
Teresa The men dragged me into a room of brick, forcing me to my knees. The air around me was stale and reeked of wet earth and ancient. A small, dim light illuminated the room, and I could barely make out the faces o







