It was a fortress, no doubt. A huge victorian fortress with tall, thick stone walls. But that wasn't what had my gut in a twist. It was the name... Dreaden. The same name the lady from the candle shop uttered before she got a seizure. But I had heard it way before than that, though I couldn't remember when or where. They had all been warnings that I so foolishly disregarded. Now I was paying the price. I didn't get to mourn over my stupidity for long because yelps from the girls snatched my attention. Two of them were being dragged by a man forcefully. Something snapped inside me, and I shot to them, pulling them off his clutch. "They can walk by themselves." I glared at him. "You-" He took a threatening step towards me when another of them stopped him. "Let them, Doyle." He looked like he had an entirely different thing planned in his head for me, nonetheless, he didn't protest. I turned to the girls huddling around me, and my chest tightened to see the affrighted looks on t
I gathered the plates and uneaten food, proceeding to wipe the table set with fresh flowers and scented candles in the middle of a rose garden. It wouldn't hurt if the man having the date wasn't my own mate. But it was. I could say it from the distant hint of pine and woods lingering in the air, in the seat where he sat, in the handkerchief he used. But I refused to cry. I refused to believe his feelings for me would evaporate just like that in the span of three days. Then there was the mate bond as Nola stated which wouldn't let a werewolf forget about his other half even if he tried like humans did. They felt it harder than us. He must feel it harder than me. Then why was he...? The frightful incident from moments ago resurfaced in my mind, causing goosebumps rise all over me. I couldn't blame it to the cold anymore because they gave me a new set of clothes aka a maid dress which consisted of six layers; seven if I considered the ruffled headpiece. It was the ghastly appearance
Three days. Three days were all I had left till I'd lose the love of my life. Lose the girls who had put their faith on me. And lose the chance at a life I had yearned forever. If I analyzed what Iris said, then that'd only mean Hades was under the witch's influence. She was controlling him somehow. Controlling his actions. But how? The incident before Hades disappeared dawned upon me, and I gasped. That rogue Alpha with his forbidden black magic. He struck Hades before getting caught, resulting in an obstacle to his healing abilities. Could he have been a pawn to her sick game? Could she have spread her poisonous tendrils on him through that? Or why else would Hades come here in the first place? I stilled, my chest clearing off a weight I had been carrying the past nights. That only meant, those hurtful words he spoke didn't actually come from him, but they belonged to her. She made him do that. That bitch. My hand clutched the cleaning cloth in a fist. How dare she touch what w
Dozens of predatorial eyes watched me as I backed further into the stone wall, the cold seeping through my thick maid dress and stinging my skin. When Hades said dungeon, I wasn't expecting to be casted into a confined space with several of rugged rebel men. The only thing separating them from me were the metal bars and the six feet wide hallway in the middle. I guess they were the people in the underground Merida was talking about. I had been looking for ways to meet them, yet when fate brought me right into their region I couldn't get a word out except for pleas of mercy. The dark look each of them held, and the scars that blemished their appearances into scary and wild, it plunged me into a dark memoryland of the night with the Alphas. And it wasn't like walls or bars ever stopped them. Then there was the fact that Hades wasn't here to save me anymore. One of them with a scar under his right eye slowly stalked towards the bars of his cell, tall and ripped like he crushed windpi
I watched heavy-breathed as Aeneas casted a spell, and one by one the men started getting sucked into the bushes around the walls. Some were badly injured from Doyle and his force, and what was worst was that they weren't healing as fast as they were supposed to. Years of prison did this to them or the witch's evil witchcraft I couldn't tell.I wanted to help them. I needed to. The moon was getting darker little by little, and my desperation plummeted. Blood, gashes and growls, everything made me want to run. But the only way I'd go now was ahead, but with Aeneas guarding the entrance like the gates of hell I couldn't get through. My feet moved when Doyle advanced towards me. An Invisible barrier seemed to have appeared, because I stumbled over it and fell. Two black boots stepped on either side of my waist, making me whirl around and drag myself away from him. Doyle watched me, a cruel, very cruel smirk splitting his face. I scrambled further until my back hit a barrier behind, my
Hades' POV~ "Gisele!" I shot to her direction, feeling a sharp, piercing pain shooting through a dozen places on my back. She opened her eyes, those electric blue eyes that drove me insane, and peered up at me. Her pupils dilated at my sight before the rest of her eyes followed. She gasped, finally grasping the situation, fear replacing the brief mirth in her face. I hated it, but the fact that all her emotions circled around me made me feel a strange kind of satisfaction."Hades!" She cried, trying to peek at my back, but I kept a firm grip on her arms, stopping her from seeing it. "What did you do?""I'm fine," I said, my tone strained. "No. No, let me see-" "Stop." I restrained her, palming her beautiful face. "Look at me. Say those words again." "What words..." She ran her frantic gaze all over me, tears staining her unblemished cheeks, her breaths coming out in short pants. She looked lost like she was on the verge of having a panic attack. But then she stopped, really look
Gisella's POV~ The dark time was over. Hades was back to me, safe and sound. So were the girls, sent back to the pack with the warriors. I didn't know how they found us, or who was that stranger brought the dagger of death to Hades at the end moment. But I was glad to all of them. From the deepest core of my heart. What was even better was that the prisoners were sent back to their respective packs and families as I had promised myself. With Dreaden gone, the place started to gain its colors back. The fog lifted, and the dark aura of wickedness cleared. I supposed this was the reason I felt so violent at times, felt like my thoughts weren't really mine. They were being corrupted by the curses she forged between the walls of her territory. Seemed like the guards and other sorcerers had been victims of it as well, because they immediately surrendered and apologized. Except two...Aeneas and Carla stood there cuffed, glaring at the council guards and the men. They refused to bow d
As though something snapped inside him, Hades' arm around me tightened, and he suddenly backed away the car. The GPS flashing to show he was taking entirely the wrong turn. "Wh-What are you doing? The airport is the other way." "The airport can wait. I can't." On cue, I felt his stiffness tracing me in all the right places, making me shudder and fall back in the same line with him. I nodded, dazed and held his shoulders for support."Fuck," he cursed, his voice strained, and it made me burn, from between my thighs to my face, a sinful sound threatening to slip my lips. I buried my face into the crook of his neck to hide the effect he had on me only to get drunker on his masculine smell. He wasn't pleased with my decision though. His hand rose from the gear and his fist wrapped around my hair, tugging my head up, not painfully but with just the right pressure. "Don't ever hide yourself from me." "D-Don't crash and kill us," I gasped, out of breath when the car picked up a speed I