And Then There Were 4 Novels & Stories

Mom slapped her hand away, causing it to turn red instantly. My sister froze. Mom also looked stunned. She looked at her hand, then at the egg, and suddenly ran into the kitchen, covering her face. Her shoulders shook violently, and she kept muttering the same phrase. I leaned in to listen. "It's for Brandon… It's for Brandon…" I sighed. Three months passed. My family had finally managed to put aside a bit of their remorse to resume living normal lives. But things started going wrong. First, it was Dad's job.

The memories of my previous life flooded into my mind like a burst dam, crashing in with brutal force. I saw myself pressing the system panel's confirmation button without hesitation, giving up the billion-dollar reward. I saw Victoria standing up from her wheelchair and hugging me tightly as she cried with joy. I heard Noah's sweet, provocative voice through the phone. I saw the cold dinner on our seventh anniversary, and Victoria's back as she left without hesitation. And finally, I saw the countdown reaching zero, the black blood I vomited in mouthfuls, and the extreme agony of my soul being torn from my body.

About forty three became a number that represented everything we still were rather than everything we had lost. My phone moved.Aurelia.I answered."Are you awake." She said."Yes." I said."Jin finished the batch." She said. "Drake has it.""He's here." I said. "We're dosing everyone now."A brief silence on her end that had a quality to it."All forty three." I said."Good." She said. Her voice was even but underneath it something was doing the thing it occasionally did, opening slightly, the way a door opened not all the way but enough.

Thank God Zion steps in again, smoothing out the tension like it’s nothing. “Sorry if I came off rude earlier, Hayden,” Mom says with a thin smile. “I just want Phoebe to take things seriously… especially since she doesn’t even have a mate yet.” Mate. The word drops into my stomach like a stone. If this is her reaction over something this small, what happens when she finds out the truth? That I have four mates. ** We said our goodbyes not long after. Zion handled everything—Finley left with Adonis on his bike, while Hayden and I rode back with Zion. Honestly, I just wanted to vanish, but of course, that’s not an option.

she agreed. We spent the rest of the morning talking about our futures. We talked about moving in together, getting married, having children, etc. I told her I couldn't imagine my life without her. She said she could never imagine living her life without me either. We made love one more time that day, after we ate lunch together. ***

And for the first time in my life, I realized that I was… Whole. “Our mates are here,” a feminine voice, both young and ageless all at once, whispered in my mind. It reverberated through my skull like a bell, and yet it soothed me unlike anything before. “There are four total, but three are here tonight…” Before I could react, three familiar voices rang out all at once. “Mate!”

The audio on the tablet kept playing. It clearly captured Susan ordering Ms. Thompson to feed Lucas “poisoned milk powder”. “Don’t let him live too long. After some time has passed, when no one’s asking, just say he got an infection and died. The manager stood on the side, fumbling to end the livestream. But she was stopped by Sam. “Ms. Thompson, don't rush to turn off the livestream. Let everyone see it. Let others see how you and Susan swap out Lucas and plan to kill him.”

The figure turns to another monitor showing Ava and Liam’s faces and whispers “Welcome to Phase Four.”

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He scratched behind his ear; his long greasy brown hair hanging over his hand. “Why not?” “They still had eggs in them. The first nest he tried to remove, the mother bird pecked at his head and wouldn’t leave Wesley alone.” Jeffrey shrugged. “So that one took more time than the others.” Groaning, Barry rubbed his forehead. “Anything else?”