AKIRA'S POV I sighed as I looked out the window, my fingers lightly scratching the fur on Skittle's little body. I looked back down at my feet and the cold bread crumbs stared back at me. Skittles and I have been sharing my little portion of food ever since the fight with Serena, after which Ares locked me in the cell. She was a tiny white little thing. And after I had caught her chewing on the edge of my skirt, I decided to keep her. It was difficult keeping an animal, especially a mouse, in a fucking mansion. But I had exceptionally taken a liking to her. And she learned to never leave my little sack until I was done cleaning and I came for her. I smiled when I found out that she was already asleep. While I sat thinking about my miserable life. Shame crawled up my throat as I remembered what happened two nights ago. How Ares had made me feel like everything before making me feel like nothing. He was a real mastermind. A mastermind I was insanely attracted to. I looked beside

AKIRA'S POV Ares was a grown man. He was thousands of years old and I knew he had lived long enough to know his rights and wrongs. He had the wrong way of portraying his feelings. And an even wronger way of fixing things. And his act because jealousy had successfully broken me. I picked up the butcher knife in my hands and I stared back at the girl in its reflection. I looked like a shadow of myself. I looked like the man who broke me. Cold and numb. My cheekbones were staring right back at me and my collarbone was protruding proudly. I looked back at my reflection and the blue eyes staring back at me didn't look like mine. They had lost their warmth and they were numb, tired and sunken from my continuous cries, with heavy eyebags from numerous nights of not being able to sleep. I looked like a walking corpse. I couldn't sleep, not when I repeatedly kept seeing skittles, Nana and Ama in my dreams. They were disappointed in me. They wanted me to keep fighting. But I couldn't. No

And have her way she did. Sera had her way and she somehow convinced her mate, Enzo, to let her keep the baby. As the weeks went by, her health had begun to deteriorate and things got worse. She was losing a lot of blood and she was getting thinner by the day. She felt like she was losing her soul as the day got by. But still, her faith didn't lessen. Instead, the barriers replenished her strength. It gave her courage. Then the day finally came. The day Ares Aragorn was born. He was born mid-day but the cloud had immediately dampened and the air turned dark and sinister. His arrival was strictly out of a horror movie. Seat gripping and soul snatching. Rain pattered harshly on the roof of the mansion as Sera screamed in agony. Enzo stood beside his wife, throughout her tears– he was her rock comfort, even when she screamed and cried from the feeling of being torn apart by the baby trying to make its way out. He stood by her and he loathed every moment of her pain– every moment

My heart stopped working. It fucking stopped and my stomach bottomed out. The gasp I was about to let out got stuck in my throat and my lips trembled against his. Against his cold but soft lips. My eyes stung from the tears and my heart felt full. I didn't dare open my eyes. Fearful that this moment would stop. Fearful that he would pull away from me. I didn't dare breathe. And when those soft luscious lips brushed softly against mine, once then twice. I shattered. I lost it. I shakily brought my hands up and placed them on his shoulders. I tilted my head until it bumped against the shelf behind me, letting his lips lock better with mine. I parted my lips. He captured my bottom lip. Sucking on it lightly, trying to ingrain the shape into his head. Before brushing his lips against mine all over again. The tremors of my lips were evident as I let my tears slip out freely. His mouth pressed against mine more firmly. The scruff around his lips chafed against my cheek and I

AKIRA'S POV When Ares said I had clothes, I expected a few clothes. Maybe jeans and some tops from one of his old whores. But as I dried myself with the huge white towels I found in his bathroom, I walked into his room to find clothes sprawled all over his bed. Female clothes. They included designer gowns, tops, jeans, different sets of lingerie, stockings, garter belts and so much more. And they were all my sizes. My gaze fleeted to the boxes on the floor beside his bed. My brows jumped when I opened one to reveal a pair of heels. Louis Vuitton. I swallowed. I wasn't going to open the rest of the boxes. I knew my poor heart wouldn't be able to take their contents. I sighed, suddenly wishing Ama was here. Or Eve. They were both fashion freaks/gurus. They would flip at the number of clothes in front of me. A midnight black dress called out to me. It was thin-strapped and low-backed, with a tulle skirt and a deep v-neck that showed just the right amount of cleavage. It didn't r