And so, Kiyan explained the origin of his hatred. Kiyan had always hated being cooped in and so he always managed to find a way to get out during the day. Ophelia so happened to need eggs from the store that day, and so Kiyan was eager to venture out and buy some for her. Kiyan took his time wandering the aisles, until he stumbled across the eggs on the shelf. He reached up and retrieved a carton, and as he did, one of the staff members came crashing into him, knocking the eggs out of his hands and spilling their contents on the floor. That’s when the lycan owner appeared, completely set on beating both Kiyan and the employee who’d bumped into him. But, as Kiyan explained, he was left untouched once the owner recognised him as ‘Ophelia’s boy’. Kiyan recalled the shame he felt as he watched the human employee being hit by his lycan master. And that was how his hatred developed. He didn’t want to be some human favoured because a lycan had taken him in and he couldn’t take another day in

Daniel had left soon after he’d confided in me regarding his mother. But the cruel experiences of Portia Knight stayed with me. Part of me could not believe what Daniel had said, and the other part felt bad for denying what had happened to his mother. I’d never known Nicholas to be cruel or vindictive. Then again, he’d lived for centuries, and I’d arrived here a few months ago. What I knew about him was only a drop in the ocean of who he was. And as I walked to his room, I’d resigned myself to approach this in a very logical and very open-minded way.“How dare you, you cruel bastard!”Or not.“Excuse me?” Nicholas muttered, his eyes were wide in shock, and I could see confusion slowly creeping into his grey irises.There was a moment of hesitation on my side. I was fuelled up on anger and I knew that everything I would say now would stem from that anger.“What have I done Ariya? Why do you look so disgusted?”But I couldn’t keep in the information I’d now learned.“Portia Knight… you

I fell asleep in the warmth and comfort of Nicholas’ arms, but my sleep was a restless one. Something had begun to worry me. It rang over and over in my head, nudging me with extreme caution. It was the words that Daniel had said earlier on today, “You wouldn’t by any chance need a bandage, would you? I always keep some on me, in case anyone has bruised knuckles…” And along with these words came a memory of the first night a spent here. It was a memory of Dante who had bandaged up my bruised knuckles. And although some part of me wanted to pass it off as some kind of strange coincidence, my instincts were telling me differently. Although they were twins, Daniel was too much like Dante. And so, a glaringly obvious deduction began to swirl around in my mind. And as outrageous as it sounded, it was the only one clear thought I’d had these past few weeks.Suddenly I was awoken by the loud sound of tapping on the windowsill, coming from outside and the harsh whispers of “Ariya! Ariya!”I ga