AntiopeI am up since dawn and I am sitting outside on the balcony. The view is so beautiful, so calming, so peaceful it makes me want to cry. I’ve been wanting to cry ever since Magnus dragged me down the Alpha King’s platform. If I could, I would sit here all my life, away from my problems.That’s when I hear the slide door open at the other side of the vast veranda and Magnus walks out. My serenity is shattered by his presence but he still doesn’t know I am here. He is wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else.“Great Mother, that is a fine male,” Maximo purrs excited.Max is not wrong. I have seen males while training but no one even came close to what Magnus offered. Every inch of his body was sculpted not to make him look good. To make him look lethal. And he is. When he turns I see on his back, a long thick scar. If that rumor is true, I am fairly certain that all the others will be too.“Don’t ogle him,” I chastise Max and I get up to get away from him.“Antiope,” his thic

MagnusI am looking at the clock. I never do that while I work. If their weren’t for the regular food brought in, I wouldn’t know how time passes by. But now I do. And it seems to pass painfully slow. Why isn’t it 7 already?I thought of finding an excuse and go back to the residence but I fought against it. Why would I want to see the most infuriating woman in existence? I am fine here, in my office, doing...“Damn it!”I close the file I am working on and get up. It’s still early but it’s my home and I will come and go as I please.I go down the stairs and cross the bridge in a hurry. The moment I step in I am greeted by absolute silence. I sniff. She is still here. I go up the stairs and stop in front of her door.“Antiope?”Nothing. I listen and hear her breathing, light and even. She is sleeping. For a while, I just stand there. And then I act. I grab the doorknob and try it. Unlocked. I am relieved in a way. She doesn’t think I’ll harm her anymore. Or she knows a flimsy door wou

AntiopeA week has passed since that last disaster of a dinner and we barely talk to each other. I am still obliged to have breakfast and dinner with him at the appointed time but the interaction between us is non existent. Last night Magnus brought some paperwork and read through it while we ate. Which was supposed to be a win but it eerily irritated me.I still haven’t seen Celia and he is not even looking at me each of the thousand times I have asked about her. My greatest fear is that he has taken his anger out on her, punish her for my mistakes. He can’t hurt his Luna, not so close to the Luna Championship but Celia is his prisoner.“The fights are tomorrow,” his husky voice fills the kitchen and makes me jump up.I look across the breakfast island only to see him focused on the same papers he was looking the night before, his eyebrows frowning and his jaw tense.“Am I required to attend?” I answer.This was what I was waiting for the whole week. My presence at the fights is pret

AntiopeI look at the dress that is hanging on the door of my closet and I rub my hands together awkwardly. It is a simple, long blood red dress, with long flowing sleeves adorned with colorful designs at the hem, the same ones it has around the elegant neckline. Per my request, I got a pair of red ballerinas to match. I need to be ready and meet Magnus downstairs in half an hour.To say that last night dinner and today’s breakfast were awkward would be the understatement of the century. I didn’t even dare look at him but I could feel that he had no problem looking at me all the time.I thought I was all logic and mind, my wolf with me on this path. No extravagant emotions, no passionate stupidity, just a goal-driven Beta. But with Magnus... it is getting hard to listen to my logic. And mind you, my logic has a strong case. He is the asshole that forced me here, has my sister captive and is treating all this as a game. Still, my body has an opinion of its own and it’s that of protesti

AntiopeAfter this morning’s encounter, I am fuming. The first order of business is to avoid going out that damn balcony on early mornings. The second is dispel in some way the effect he has on me. Yes, I know, it is ridiculous to be a virgin at my age and that my own fingers are less and less satisfying even for me, let alone for Maximo. But that doesn’t mean that I have to kneel and salivate before the first male that dared come in my personal space."But he is not any male,” Maximo whines. ”He is our mate and he is freaking hot! Please, Antiope?”"Shut up, Max! It’s all your fault.”“Yeah, like you find him hideous,” my own wolf is mocking me now.I don’t find him hideous, that’s a given. A blind female would find him... But he is holding me and my sister here against our will. And one way to overcome this Stockholm Syndrome is to see my sister, to set a clear path of freeing both of us. My sister’s sight tortured in silver chains is enough to make him a monster in my eyes.I get u