He watched her through her window, with an evil grin splitting across his pale features. Muddy brown eyes glimmered with glee as he continued his observations with the object of his obsession completely unaware as she had been for so many years. He still felt the underlying resentment and anger that had festered like an infected wound in his black soul for the past three years.
He smirked at his victory having finally found her after she had the gall to move with her family. If his brother had not been following one of the girl’s family members as he had instructed, he was certain she would have been lost for years to come. The thought made his smirk fall from his face, his eyes darkening with his rage, fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned white.
He would punish her for her audacity, and then he would punish those she called family for taking her from him all this time. They had come between him and what he desired most, and he would not let that stand. He felt no pain as his nails dug into the skin of his palms, his heart sang with joy at the thoughts of their agonized screams.
Ever since her fourteenth birthday which she shared with that moronic twin of hers, he had been irrevocably entranced. She had smiled at him and had taken his hand when he had fallen over. It was that moment when he decided that she would be his and his alone. He knew he had to have her as the green-eyed monster that was his jealously raged within him when he had watched her let go of his hand and run to another.
He would have had her then had it not been for that infuriating watchdog that was her father. The man had caught him so many times over the next year of his life as he watched her waiting for his chance to strike. The barbarian had threatened him to stay away from what he now claimed was his. He did not know how the man kept finding him whenever he would watch, but he knew it was bothersome to have such an obstacle in his path, so he took care of it.
The last time he had been run off by the larger male he had broken his wrist in a warning. It was a warning he would not heed and a warning he did not care for. How dare that man try to warn him off and injure his person? How dare that oaf stand in the way of him claiming what was rightfully his? Well, that fool had lit a rage inside his heart that would only be quenched with his blood, and that was exactly what he got.
The next time that neanderthal had seen him it had been his last. He reveled at the fact that his grinning face had been the last one that the barbarian had seen as he ended his pathetic existence. He had relished in the man’s dying screams as the only thought that had run through his mind was how he had looked the dead man in the eyes, his dull blue eyes, and told him that now he would go and get what was his and no one would stand in his way.
Just the thought of how he had run the burly man’s truck off the road filled him with glee. The exhilaration at the memory of standing over his body, having drugged him with a paralytic he had stolen from his mother. The euphoria that coursed through his veins as he had beaten the man till his last breath still sang through them now.
Of course, it had not lasted long as the night he attempted to retrieve his prize he had been thwarted once more by the girl’s disgusting family. They had whisked her away in the middle of the night far from his sight and he had raged. Oh, how he had raged, he tore that house apart brick by brick and incinerated what remained, his knuckles still flaunted the scars from that night and man did he wear them with pride.
He vowed to find her and destroy those who would dare keep her from him, but no matter how hard he searched it was as if she had fallen off the face of the earth and that just fed his anger and resentment. He took pleasure in punishing girls who looked like her, but he was never satisfied as they were mere pale imitations, and he desired the real thing.
It was an act of genius on his part when he learned of the cousin the girl had. The dim-witted daughter to that loathsome woman’s sister, he growled at the thought. It had been his luck that he was able to persuade his brother and manipulate him into taking a liking to the cousin. With his brother as obsessed as he was it was only a matter of time before that witless wench led him back to what was his.
For three years he had waited and for three years he had stewed in his contempt and his wrath, and now finally on this revoltingly sunny day, she is finally within his grasp once more. And this time he would ensure she would not slip through his fingers again and that no one would stand in his way.
She would finally be his and that thought sent a perverse chuckle through his entire body allowing that sinister grin to return across his pale face. Soon he will collect what is his but until then he will give her this day to be free and spend with her family. He would give her this day to enjoy and then she would be all his. This day is his gift to her.
“Happy Birthday my love, soon we will be together and no one else will have you,” he growled ominously, with a final chuckle he slipped into the darkness of the forest that surrounded her home. Only the echoes of his evil laughter drifting in the wind was the only proof that he was ever there…
Aiden stalked across the forest floor as stealthily as he was able, amber irises sharp in their mission for which they were highly skilled and thoroughly trained. On the lookout with his honed visual prowess, he allowed another sense to join in his intense surveillance of the surrounding woods. His pointed ears twitched as he listened for his stalker, flickering in each direction as he waited for a sign. He rounded the bark of a frost-covered oak tree and made his way deeper into the condensed woodland, hackles on his back and neck raised in anticipation. Aiden knew he was being followed and it set him on edge as he made his way through the darkness that was his home, but the lack of light did not bother him in the slightest. With his special abilities came night vision which made him a skilled hunter, which is what made what was stalking him a skilled hunter too, and it sent a tingle of thrill down his spine. His heart beating wildly against his thoracic cage like a drummer on a pai
At the same time in a quaint brick house just beyond the borders of that very same forest, home to all kinds of species including the supernatural kind, a girl and her cousin were bonding after a long separation. “I have missed you so much Jay, I can’t tell you how much I wished to see you these past two years.” Alexa expressed. “Me too, my dear cousin. I regret that I didn’t come to visit, I wish I had.” Jayden replied. They had not seen each other since the day they had to say goodbye, due to Alexa and her family moving to a small town in South Dakota. They had lived together when Alexa’s family had taken Jayden in after an accident stole her family, this was the farthest and longest that they had been apart and still, they were closer than ever before. “Look at you, you look great for someone your age,” Alexa teased her cousin halfheartedly as she walked back across the room, her feet brushing along her silver plush carpet, to where she had dropped her hairbrush. “You make me s
“So, what’s a fun thing to do around here?” The brunette asked her cousin, as she placed a photo of herself and Alexa on her nightstand. “Well, there are tons of places we could go to, we could go anywhere, except shopping,” Alexa stated as she laid down on her stomach on her cousin’s queen-sized bed. “You never could stand the mall; you know you’re not normal right?” “Yup.” Alexa stated happily, making a popping noise on the ‘p’. “Not that it would help anyhow, we don’t have a mall here in Black Pines,” she stated smugly. “No mall?! How could there be no mall?! Just what kind of backward town did I move to?” She exclaimed with exaggerated horror, face twisting in emphasis. Alexa giggled which caused the twisted expression to fall from the older woman’s face as she smiled and shrugged. “Oh well, guess there has to be something else to do here. Hey, how about you take me on a tour of the town, and maybe pop into a bookstore while we’re there?” Jayden asked as she placed the last of
Slender fingers brushed across the spines of the books like a long-lost lover as she passed them, picking out the ones that she found interesting and skipping over books that weren’t. But all good things must come to an end and after what felt like mere minutes of being lost in the world of books, Alexa finally left the fictional world to find her equally book-loving cousin so that they could pick up Gabriella from her dance class. She had to almost literally pull Jayden away from the shelves so engrossed by the magic of the words. The old lady who owned and ran the bookstore was not behind the desk as she normally was, so Alexa had to ring the cute silver bell that sat on the desk. “I’ll be with you in a minute dear,” she called from somewhere in the back, and if you listened carefully enough you could hear her humming a soft melody. Eventually, she popped her head out to look at her two awaiting customers, she smiled warmly, her wrinkled face scrunched up due to her smile, showing
The two girls looked at each other mirroring the confusion on their faces before Jayden just shrugged, what a strange little town her aunt had moved them to. Alexa shook her head and walked back to her car, quick to open the convertible’s trunk and place their packages inside. Suddenly she shivered as if a ghost had walked right through her setting her internal alarms off. Alexa whipped her head around as she scanned the area but found no wrong upon her sweep. She couldn’t place her finger on it but she was certain that someone had been looking at her, the back of her neck still tingling at the feel of the sinister gaze. Shaking it off when she spotted no one out of the ordinary she quickly joined her cousin, who had gotten into the car whilst Alexa had put their things away. The eighteen-year-old then pulled out of the parking spot and made her way toward the dance school, where her sister was just beginning to finish her lesson. Dull brown eyes shrunk back into the darkness of a t
Her heart jumped into her throat, and her insides twisted in fear as the world seemed to spin out of control swerving the convertible from their lane to the other in an attempt to avoid colliding with the oncoming vehicle, Alexa was almost sure her car would flip putting not only her life but the lives of her passengers at stake. The screeching tires woke the sleeping driver who jumped in his seat and jerked the steering wheel until he was once again back in his own lane. He hadn’t even slowed down as he sped away from the convertible, sitting awkwardly on the shoulder of the road facing the wrong direction. Alexa sighed in relief as she watched the car disappear in the horizon, her muscles finally relaxing as the adrenaline wore off. She twisted in her seat to look back at the frazzled six-year-old just to make sure she was okay. “Everyone Okay?” The redhead asked, and after receiving a nod from the little girl turned back to face the road. “Yeah.” Jayden shakily confirmed, her ow
Morning came much too soon for those who went to bed far too late. And it wasn’t long before the Winters family were piled into the maroon SUV and were off on a three-day journey to attend a carnival in the next town over. And just as they were leaving after a fun-filled time, in that very town someone else was arriving. Aiden who had spent a lot of time wandering from place to place, traveling the world stepped into the human town set on completing the orders given to him. There had once been a time in his youth many, many years ago when he had ventured out to broaden his horizons, against the wishes of his father, a rebellious son as all those who had come of age before him had been. He had stayed away for ten years learning to cope with the disappearance of his mother before finding his way home and back amongst his pack mates, now he just ran errands for his father. This was one of those times when he found himself in the neighboring town to attend a meeting with another pack.
Two weeks had passed since Alexa and Isaac’s birthday. The new year had come and gone with a bang, quite literally, as Isaac had accidentally set a tree on fire with a failed attempt to set off his own fireworks. Poor Jean had to explain to her friend the Sheriff and the small fire brigade that manned the town. But the family had enjoyed every minute of it. The small family had gone and had enjoyed the carnival. It had been their last day at the carnival and Alexa had somehow gotten tricked into volunteering for the dunking station, and it was surprisingly Gabriella who had landed the lucky shot, soaking the teen from head to toe. Alexa was now helping her mother pack for their camping trip. The gear had already been packed into the maroon SUV. The family was saying goodbye to electricity, proper beds, cell phones, or in Isaac’s case his sound and gaming systems. Ever since their birthday Alexa noticed how different Isaac was acting. He had distanced himself even more from her and