KAYLA.The second I snapped my eyes open, my face was met with the cold railings of the cell. My first instinct wasn’t to scream but to try to stand to my feet but my body was in so much pain. I had a sour headache, I realized and my joints ached like I’d run a marathon earlier.Where was I?Looking around, it looked like a prison. Like a dungeon but somewhere I’d never been before. I wasn’t sure I was still in Black Mountain but the last thing I remembered was being carried by this uniformed group of men. I was probably sedated later on because my whole memory was a hazy mess and that would explain the pain radiating through my body.My hands fell to the pockets and I felt a lump. I reached out to the piece of paper clumped in my side and saw it was the test result from the clinic. “So it wasn’t a dream” I whispered but the dark empty room returned a hoarse echo of my voice.I looked around and then back at the paper and wasn’t sure why tears filled my eyes that moment. I knew what

CHRISTINA.The raging noises through the wall was what brought me to a halt. The person yelling sounded a lot like Rafael and his voice was followed by the slamming of a door that shook the entire building."What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled at the top of his voice, throwing what sounded like a punch. I made my way around the corridor and came to a halt right in front of the door which had somehow bounced open, leaving a partition from where I could see him.It was a vengeful altercation between him and his brother. Although I knew neither of them, I wasn't a stranger to the news and the gossips that spread around the pack about them. Rafael was the first to grasp Lucien by his collar, throwing across the wall and into a pillar. He seemed so furious like he wanted to kill Lucien in that moment.His anger was evident in his eyes."What do you want with Kayla?" Rafael yelled and Lucien raised his head, struggling to stand to his feet but the king didn't allow him so much time

KAYLA.It was in the earliest hours of the morning that I heard the door click open. My eyes snapped almost as fast as my feet rose to the ground because I knew it was him even before I saw him. His gentle scent serenading the room and it was sickening how hard I tried to be mad.To stay mad at him.“Kayla” He finally appeared with his hands in front of him and I fell quiet, not even sobbing because there was only so much tears that could fall from my eyes. Both our own locked into each other with the pain and the overbearing emotions that built up from the last few days.And it was an intense few seconds before I finally turned away.“Can we just talk, Kayla?” Rafael whispered, desperately trying for it not to end in another argument but by the look across my face, I made sure he knew that I was done. “Leave” I muttered, forcing the words out of my mouth but he went against them, inching closer instead and his hands clawed around the bars that separated us. I wondered if he could ju

RAFAEL. Then came a few years later while I was hunting with Gerald, I saw her again but this time from the foot of the hill that held up her packhouse. She looked so much older now, tendering to the flowers in her garden and I took a picture. From one picture, to two and to three. Each time I was around there, I would search for her and wouldn’t leave until I saw her—until I was sure she was safe. But then came a night that I happened to be close to her and saw for myself, the treacherous ways they treated her like she was worse than an animal.There was a man who pushed her to the ground and struck her sides with the heel of his shoe. It took everything to restrain myself from saving her, even as I saw her struggling to breathe. I could hear her cries and I could feel it even inside of me. It was like an unexplainable bond which ignited my need to save her from them.I knew with the way she was treated, it wouldn’t take her long to try to kill herself again and what if I wasn’t ar

KAYLA.“You should walk faster if we’re going to get somewhere before morning” Lucien threw a look over his shoulders back at me and I diverted my eyes from the pictures in my hands. We walked through Manila forest in the dead of the night and he was just a few meters ahead of me.Although, he paused in that second to snatch what was in my hands.“What are you looking at?” His eyes fell on the photographs before rolling them to the back of his head. “Give me that!” I fought back as he burst into a soft chuckle a second later. “I’m sorry but this one is just plain hilarious—“ He stretched out one of them and I got a hold of it.“This is an interesting angle too, I’ll give him that” I brushed his shoulders and his laughter died down. Lucien trailed behind and I could foresee how insufferable this journey was about to be with him here. Although I never saw more than a smirk across his lips, it was harder to believe that the sound of his chuckles were even more infuriating.“Where are we