I reached for my phone that I left earlier in the morning and began playing random games to take my mind off of things. Even then, I still couldn’t. Pushing my parents’ arrival to the farthest part of my mind, I began to think over some things. At first, I had thought what bothered me was the fact that I felt totally useless—just shopping and hanging around with Hannah—when I could and probably should be doing more. Soon, I came up with a plan to get Zaliver to give me something helpful to do. I then began to wonder what sort of job Zaliver had. I mean being the Lupus Deus was certainly different from being an alpha, especially when you had to run alphas who ran packs. How did that man manage to spend time with me?I felt him coming before I heard him. The thread that connected us became shorter and shorter until it was gone and the normal bond feeling came back. His lighting speed made light sounds on the ground with each step. When I moved to stand up, he was already behind me insid

I took a deep breath once I was on the lowest step, hoping my parents would just think the redness on my face was just heat. I hurriedly made my way to the door, excitement flooding my body. I was going to finally see my parents after such a long time! Before the door was even half-open, I had arms around me. My sobbing mother was in my arms while Dad hugged us both. I didn’t waste a second and hugged them both back, wrapping one arm around my mom and the other to my dad.My mom pulled back. Her brown eyes were red and filled with so much emotions. She looked at me. I gave her a small smile as tears welled up in my eyes, which just made her hug me again and slightly sob again. I looked at Mom and Dad who were both sniffing.“Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. Long time no see, huh?” I said softly.They both pulled off me slowly and stepped back. My dad kept his arm around my mom’s shoulder. Looking at them, I felt memories of my childhood flood my mind, making me love the people in front of me a lot

Zaliver took his hands out of his pocket and reached for my hand that my father had grabbed. He took it gently from his hands and looked at it over with alert eyes. My father didn’t grab it rough enough to leave a mark on my skin. I looked at Zaliver. His blue eyes flashed black and his top lip lifted up as if to snarl but he didn’t. Spinning around quickly, he startled my parents with a large unjustified grin. I stood frozen on the spot, watching him, not sure what to do or how to even move.“Hello. I’m Vivian’s mate, Zaliver Azrala. But then that wouldn’t matter, would it, Mr. Grey? I mean, you’ve made your opinion of me very clearly. You don’t approve, do you? Hmmm.” Zaliver walked towards them slowly with both hands behind his back, speaking casually. My parents began walking backwards towards the door. My mother looked at me. She was trying to send me a message through her eyes, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I couldn’t understand. My heart pounded in my chest. My hands and knee

Through our bond, conflicting emotions were raging through him. For a moment, I thought I sensed anxiousness, maybe even regret, coming from him before they were all suddenly cut off as if his emotions had never even been there in the first place. When he opened his eyes, they were cold and unsympathetic. My breath hitched.“Because I don’t care what has to be done or who I have to destroy as long as at the end of the day, I get what I want.” He stepped out of my hands and looked down at me with a raised brow. My hands dropped slowly as I looked at him, feeling as if something in me broke at his answer.“My mistake, Vivian, was not showing you who I’m known to be. My mistake was trying to be someone who you’d be happy to spend the rest of your life with. I’ve been playing in pretense while dealing with danger on the sidelines. I’ve let you walk on the blind side, showing you the kind and caring Zaliver. But the truth is, once a monster, always a monster. I’m like a loaded gun made for

Zaliver AzralaI rubbed my eyes, not caring about how my small amount of sleep was making me more and more dangerous for others to be around due to my slight shift of control. It was not like I wouldn’t be able to heal anything I tore apart . . . except maybe death. I didn’t need much sleep before, but ever since I was with her, I started to crave for rest.Having my mind split into so many different tasks while functioning on little food and sleep and no mate’s comfort was suddenly taking its toll on me. I wasn’t one to struggle with mental tasks, but mind linking different members, going through their minds for anything that stuck out, keeping track on loose rogues around the world, listening in on alpha conversations, having wolves use my excessive energy for missions, sending out directions at every direction, and dealing with heightened senses, not to mention having my own thoughts to deal with as well as struggling not to use the only link I really wanted to use were struggles t