RILEY:
"You're kidding, right?" I ask, apparently expecting the man named Xavier to say he is. But he doesn't say anything.
I shake my head. A part of me wants to believe he's telling the truth but another is pointing out the fact that he could be playing games with me. Even Damien too.
"How can you all be wolves? I mean, take a look at you," I point a hand in his direction, withdrawing it almost as soon as I do so. "You look as human as you can be. Hell, you look like every human out there."
"This is the form we make use of to blend among your kind. No one knows of our true identity except us. And we intend to keep it that way."
I give him a side-eye. "But you've just told me what you are."
"That's because it seems you'll be here with us for a while. Since that's the case, why not get to know about us?"
He confirms my fear. Damien doesn't want me out of here. He wants me rot in here for the rest of my life and he's going to find a means to make that happen.
How could someone I just met two days ago suddenly take total control of my life?
"Damien said I can leave after saying the correct words that will make me free from him. Do me a favor and tell me what those words are. I know deep down that you don't want me here and neither do I want to be here any longer than this. When I leave, I promise not to tell anyone what you are or even mention anything about this place."
Those were the words I could say to plead to Xavier. Those were the words I hoped would help me get through him so he could help me out here. I don't want to be here with these strange people longer than this.
"I'm sorry but I can't," he straight-up refuses.
"Why?"
"I am not permitted to be personal with you, Riley, is it?"
"You can't be personal with me but you can know my name? How does that make sense?"
He shrugs. "I guess you'll just have to accept whatever comes with this. Besides I know you don't believe me yet. You don't believe I'm not human and neither do you believe Damien is. Right now you're looking at me like I'm crazy and I understand."
"What did you mean by me being the future Luna?"
"You're Damien's mate. And since you're his mate, it means you're going to be his Luna. I believe you're going to make the pack stronger than it is."
These terms… I just won't understand.
"So you mean everyone here isn't human?"
A wry smile makes its way to Xavier's lips. "None of those you'll meet here are."
"Not even the maids?"
"Not even the maids."
I find myself this close to having a panic attack. And from the way I am feeling, it leads me to throw various questions at him.
"Where is this place? Where am I? Will I be locked up in here until I get the stupid right to walk out of here freely? Am I going to be used as a sort of sacrifice for a ritual?"
"Calm down, Riley—"
"Don't tell me to calm down!" I'm up on my feet. "Don't tell me to fucking calm down! I'm in a bloody shithole and you just want me to sit and relax like everything's fine?"
"I never said I—"
"No, just tell me what you mean!"
"Let me answer your questions!" he kind of snaps back. But it wasn't a snap enough to make me cower in fear. It was a snap to get me to shut up.
He then begins to speak, looking apologetic as he does so, "First, I can tell you for sure that this is a house as everyone else calls it. And where are you? It's a room that was assigned to you. Will you be locked in here until you gain the right to walk free? No, you won't. Starting today, you're free to roam around the premises and even beyond the gates."
He pauses, looking me straight in the eyes for a few seconds as if to check if I was following him. Well, I was.
"And last, the only rituals we do here are for new mates. It doesn't even involve anything like a human sacrifice. Just the mates sealing the bonds with each other."
"I can see you found a way to navigate out of answering my first two questions the right way," I say, pointing out the obvious. "You can't even let me know where I'm being locked up. Whether it's out of the country. Or whether it's somewhere close to home."
"You're closer to home than you'll ever be. My kind doesn't reside in a spiritual realm or something. We reside among yours."
"That didn't make me feel better. Instead it only made me scared for the others out there that don't even know of your existence."
I can't begin to imagine what others would think when they find out that all along, they've been living among beings that are not ordinary. The thought alone is kind of scary.
"So, making out in public like no one else is there is what you mean by sealing the bonds?"
"It's a lot more than that. In time you'll get to understand it."
"I don't want to."
"Hmph," he hums in response.
"What is this 'mate' thing anyway?"
"It's complex," he says. "But first will you do me the honor of walking out of here with me?"
My mind is suddenly filled with the possible fear of him hurting me once I'm out of here. Damien said it himself that his people want to hurt me because of what I did. Now I don't think it will be ideal to leave this place with someone I'm not even sure about.
"Don't worry I'm comfortable in here,"
He gives me a weird look. "But you sounded like you were eager to leave this place about a minute ago."
"Yeah. But I've changed my mind," I tell him.
He seems to catch on to my words. "You're scared of me, aren't you?"
"Shouldn't I? You're not ordinary just like you said. Which means you might be dangerous."
"If I wanted to harm you, Riley, wouldn't I have done that the moment I got in here?"
"That's what they always say before they end up killing their victims."
"Who?"
"Serial killers."
His expression makes it seem like I've said the most adorable thing ever. "Just come with me. It will do you a lot of good to get some fresh air," he urges me.
"You mean getting a chance to breathe the same air with monsters?"
"When you get to find out more about us, you'll know we're not what you think we are. I can promise you that."
After those words, he turned and then started heading toward the door to leave the room. I don't follow him because I'm still thinking whether or not it's okay to do that. I don't trust him. And I sure do not trust the process of taking a walk with him.
"Are you coming?"
He was by the now-open door and the sight of it was tempting. It was giving me a change of thought about how good an opportunity it would be to leave this room. And maybe even better to find a way out of this place for good.
That thought alone gave me a glimmer of hope but I decided to mask it. I won't want Xavier seeing through my intentions. Instead I comport myself and begin to head toward the doorway where I'll possibly be getting a chance to escape from this place eventually.
Once I step out of the room with Xavier leading the way, I first realize there were two guards guarding the entrance into the room. Now that's some real confinement I was in.
Not just there, guards seemed to flock around the more we walked through the building that seemed like a mansion. It is a mansion because we had to walk down a flight of stairs just to get to the lower ground that would later lead us out of the building.
Once Xavier opens the main door that takes us out of the room, I knew this was my chance to make a run for it. And that chance is what I'll take.
RILEY:There was absolutely no way out of this place. Guards upon guards flocked around the main compound and I could see that thick bushes surrounded the premises. Not just that, there were other buildings around making up the compound. It would take a miracle for me to make a clean escape out of here."This is the premises of the Alpha quarters. Mostly anyone you'll find here belongs to the Alpha's family or has sworn allegiance to the Alpha," Xavier explains, giving me a foresight of what this place entails.I couldn't help but ask, "Do you live here too?""I don't. I might be Damien's second-in-command but I am not a part of his family. Neither am I one of the guards or the maids. I have my residence outside this premises just like every other pack member and that is beyond those gates you can see from afar."I had to strain my eyes just to catch the sight of the gates he was talking about. They were far off from where we stood."Let's take a walk, shall we?" Xavier offers and I d
RILEY:Yesterday, I can't say the number of places Xavier took me to. It was a lot and it looked like the pack or whatever it was called was run like any other town or city around.Nothing looked odd except for the fact that it was just their kind that stayed here together. And according to him, other beings like them had their own pack to themselves in other locations.To be honest, it was I who instigated the whole process of him taking me to a lot of places. It was my way of taking a mental scan that would help me navigate through the pack easily. It looked like it was a successful idea but my legs suffered for it by the end of the tour around.Today, as early as 7:00am, he came to my room, stating he had something interesting to show me. And here I was, standing and watching bare chested men fighting against each other in what seemed like a training. At least that's what Xavier called it."Do they do this everyday?" I couldn't help but ask Xavier. This was after I witnessed one of
DAMIEN:Whatever Carmella was doing, it looked like she didn't want to be disturbed. A closer look at her made me realize she was actually bonding her hair in a way and this gave me the cue that I could actually move close to her."Can we talk?" I ask in an attempt to grab her attention even though I know that she was aware of my presence.She nodded but didn't stop what she's doing for my sake. And with a deep breath which was the only way for me to relax my nerves, I began to speak."I know you're not comfortable with everything going on," I start with that. "But I want you to be open with me. I want to know how you really feel because I feel I owe you a lot of explanation."She says nothing but keeps bonding her hair with her eyes fixated on her reflection in the mirror. The fact is that I'm actually surprised to see her do this herself when she usually calls for her personal maids to get it done for her or sometimes her Gamma.Eventually, her hands are off her hair. And while stil
RILEY:A bang erupted in the air and it affected me so much that I fell to the ground. Meanwhile I was sitting when that happened.I couldn't fathom what was going on except that I could see members of the pack running around like something was chasing them. And when I see Xavier approaching me swiftly with a worried look etched on his face, it made me realize something was wrong.Another bang erupted in the air just when he got to me and helped me up to my feet."What's going on?" I had to ask, my mind trying to draw out the possibilities of what could have gone wrong around."We are under attack!" he hurriedly says as he holds my hand in an attempt to drag me away from there."By who?""Rogues!"That was a word I didn't understand. However I'll come to understand the levity of the situation we're in when we had to stop all of a sudden. Our path has been suddenly blocked by two men dressed in clothings that didn't seem to match what I've seen around here.The Dark Moon pack had a uni
RILEY:I wasn't sure what to be worried about. Maybe it was the fact that I happened to be attacked or that I witnessed the transformation of a real wolf into a man that turned out to be Damien.I was going insane. And I was sure that in no time, I'm going to be crazy from knowing how stressful everything seems to be."Stay put, Riley. Let the doctor clean that up," Damien says as I withdraw my arm from the supposed doctor who was about to add something to the scratch I have on it. This probably resulted from the aggressive push to the ground in Xavier's bid to protect me."It hurts!" I snap."It has to. And it will only get worse if you don't let him clean it up now. So just stay put and let him finish his job or I'll be forced to hold you down myself."I glare at him. "Don't you dare come any closer to me. I'll rip your eyes out!" I threaten.The little distraction gives the doctor the chance to actually apply the ointment on to my arm and I almost yelp at the sting I felt from it.
RILEY:I was let back into the room after protests that were enough to tire anyone out.I couldn't stand being inside a clinic or whatever it is that I was placed. I feel better now and would rather complete the later of my healing inside where I would count as the most comfortable for me in all of the places located in this pack.However it looks like I have no privacy even inside the room because what was up with Damien, Xavier and the maids coming in without even knocking. Only this time it wasn't any of them.I got up from the bed upon realizing it was Xavier's woman or what else would I even call her. His Luna, I guess. She walks in with the same lady that I saw her walk with the first time I met her and it made me uncomfortable knowing the hate she seemed to harbor for me."They weren't lying when they said you're still hurt," the Luna starts to say. "One would expect that you would have healed by now but I keep forgetting how much of a human you are."The snarky remark from her
RILEY:I didn't bother to knock after Xavier told me we had arrived where Damien was in. Instead I barged into the room and the look of surprise etched on Damien's face didn't elude my eyes.He was seated right behind a desk with some documents atop the desk. From the look of things he was busy because he had a pen in hand. I guess this must be his personal study judging from the variety of books stockpiled inside the shelfs."We need to talk!" I announce, my impatience exuding from my tone.For a brief moment he says nothing while just staring at me with narrowed eyes. Eventually he looks up at Xavier behind me and says, "Leave us."Xavier was out of the room in no time. And I knew that when I heard the sound of the door closing."Have a seat," Damien offers."I prefer to stand," I decline."Suit yourself," he states as he drops the pen to sit upright. "So why are you here? What's so important that you had to barge into my personal space?""Please, like you didn't already barge into
DAMIEN:"I don't know what to do with her," I lament, reeling in on the experience that occured here in my study with Riley. "She has rejected me twice. Twice, Xavier. At this point she's convinced that I'm shit. I'm sure that's the way she looks at me now."I'm tired. And thinking about everything was even more tiring. From being worried about her yesterday to now having to worry about her leaving me. It was too much."I need a drink," I state and then stand up from my seat to fetch a bottle of whiskey and wine glass which I left atop the shelf.Xavier speaks just after I pour myself a shot."That means one thing you know," he says.I sip from the glass. "What is that?""I'll have to be honest with you, Damien. You have to let her go. I don't think she deserves any of this happening to her."I scoff, taking another sip before setting the glass aside. "And then what happens after I do that? I just carry on with the burden of knowing I let my mate walk away from my life without so much