MasukKaela 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…
Teresa Kaela’s question hit me when I least expected it, and I was going to ignore it when I stopped short. There was no isolated group in the realms. Keller had made sure of that a few days after they took over as Alpha. If Kaela was saying this based on what she heard, then it’s something we need to pay close attention to, not a subject for an eleven-year-old. “You scared the entire house, sweetheart, when your driver came to school and was unable to find you,” I said, hoping I successfully diverted the topic of conversation. Kaela took her gaze away from me to her tablet. I pulled my chair closer to her bed. “I was going to ask about school,” I pressed. “But then, I know your usual answer. But as I said, the offer to get you home-schooled is still on the table.” “Uhmm… I want to think about it, Mom,” Kaela murmured. I did a double-take. Homeschooling was a subject Kaela was going on and on about. If she was suddenly uninterested, that was a great improvement, but at the sa
TERESA"Do you still see me as a monster?" Bennet asked before I even looked up from my hands.I froze at his words and my fingers were still trembling. The wound on my side was gone, the skin was sealed, but the memory of his claws tearing through me refused to leave. My chest tightened and I li
TERESA"Do you ever feel like you are being pulled somewhere, even when your body refuses to move?" I asked myself in particular and I couldn't stop it. My eyes were fixed on the canopy of trees above, though I was not really seeing them. I was lying on my side, trying to rest, but rest didn’t com
BENNETT"So this is her fault now? That’s what you are going with?"I didn’t mean to snap but the words came out before I could stop them. How could he blame Theresa for what happened? How was this in any way her fault?I stood straight with my fists tight at my sides and my eyes locked on my fath
TERESA"What are you doing here?" I was asked and the sharp voice hit me like a slap before I even saw them. I froze, my fingers brushing over the edge of the stone bench in the garden.The peace I was looking for was already slipping away. I turned, and three maids stood there, eyes scanning me l







