Chapter 12
Eden
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It’s been a week since my mother was brutally murdered in front of the entire pack. Elvira’s mother insisted I stay with them. after it happened, and I did, curled up on their couch while staring into nothingness. I didn’t sleep the first night. I couldn’t. I actually still can’t get a good night’s sleep.
Every time I close my eyes and try to relax, I see my mother’s mangled body in the snow and hear her screams as Marcus tears into her flesh. I imagine her screaming my name, cursing me for not saving her, and sometimes, reality is so warped in my nightmares that I can imagine Marcus‘ teeth clamping down on my own body parts.
Mangling my fingers.
Tearing through the flesh of my stomach.
Ripping out my intestines.
Eating my heart out.
My blood coloring his white fur red.
And then there is Azriel Rhysander, the man who can seize a person’s movements with sheer will and lift them into the air like his personal marionette.
Is that how I’m going to die? I’ve already figured out his sister is going to eat me to get stronger. I’m not stupid and realize that part, but how will it happen?
Will Azriel control my movements so that I cut up myself? In the tales I’ve heard, fairies are more violent and bloodthirsty than werewolves.
Violence, guts, and vore are things they are good at, and there’s a horror tale of an omega werewolf who picked up a knife and danced and danced in front of a fairy queen while she cut herself into pieces.
Until there was nothing left.
I shudder at the thought and sit down by the kitchen table. Elvira’s brothers exchange glances while her mother shoots me a sympathetic look from where she is preparing her husband’s lunch box.
“You should eat something,” she says, and then I hear her open the kitchen cabinet, take out a planet, and voilà, an entire plate of pancakes is in front of me.
The jam makes my stomach turn. It looks like blood, just like the blood my mother bled.
Just like the blood I will bleed.
“Thank you,” I mumble, not touching the food. “But I’m not hungry.”
Jens, one of Elvira’s brothers, reaches for my plate with one of his big hands. “Then you won’t mind if I eat them, right?”
“Jens!” Elvira’s mother lightly taps her son on the head, a growl coming up her throat. “Behave! The poor girl has lost her mother, and the last thing she needs is you stealing her breakfast!”
“Sorry, Mom,” Jens mumbles, pulling his hand back. Stina Fagerlöf might be tiny, but all her children respect her, even a giant like Jens. “Just trying to lighten the mood.”
Elvira walks in with her blonde hair still damp from her morning shower. She takes one look at me and frowns. “You’re not eating again.”
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10:22 Mon, 23 Jun
Chapter 12
I shrug. “I’ll eat later.”
She doesn’t believe me. Neither do 1. Food has lost all appeal since that night.
“We have to leave for school in twenty minutes,” Elvira reminds me gently. “First day back…”
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My stomach twists. School. Where Azriel will be, pretending to be a student while secretly plotting my death. Where Logan will be, the new Alpha who traded my life for his future with Paris. Where everyone will whisper about the omega girl whose mother was killed and who’s now marked like a lamb to the slaughter.
“I can’t,” I whisper.
“You can,” Elvira’s mother says firmly but kindly. “Hiding won’t change anything, Eden. And you need something normal right now.”
Normal. As if anything about my life could ever be normal again.
“Besides,” Elvira adds, lowering her voice, “I have a plan on how to save you. You just have to be patient.”
“Patient?” I ask.
“For your birthday to come so that you can find your mate before the blood moon because a pairing of two-
“Counts as a pack, and that means I can leave the Valentine pack without turning into a feral rogue!” I finish Elvira’s sentence, feeling a tiny spark of hope for the first time in days. “But finding my mate before my birthday is a long shot. It’s only weeks away.”
“But not impossible,” Elvira says. “Plenty of werewolves find their mates right at eighteen. It’s like the universe waits for the perfect moment.”
Her mother takes a seat by the table with her own plate of pancakes. “My sister found her mate on her eighteenth birthday,” she forks a pancake piece, wiggling it back and forth at me while chewing, “Walked right into him at the grocery store.”
“That sounds….romantic, but even if I found my mate, there’s no telling if they would accept and be willing to leave the Valentine pack with me. Accepting me as their mate would force my mate and me to become outcasts since the pack has promised me to the fae.”
“I believe love conquers everything,” Ronja, Elvira’s little sister, says and offers me a toothy smile. “You just got to believe in the moon goddess. She will save you by matching you to the right man.”
The moon goddess. The same one Logan prayed to for help, which resulted in Azriel showing up at our school. I’m not sure I trust her to save me, but I don’t say that to Ronja. Her innocent belief is too pure to shatter with my cynicism.
“Maybe,” I say instead, forcing a small smile for her benefit.
“Come on,” Elvira nudges me. “Let’s get ready. I’ll be with you the whole day.”
We finish getting ready in silence. I feel like a ghost drifting through someone else’s life, especially since I’m wearing Elvira’s clothes and living in her house with her big family. I don’t hate it, though. I could never go back to my own house after what happened.
Elvira’s mother hugs me tightly before we leave. “Be brave,” she whispers. “And remember, you always have a home with us.”
Her kindness is almost enough to make me cry again, but I’ve shed so many tears this week that I feel hollowed out.
We leave the house, and Elvira chats. “It’ll be okay. No one will dare say anything with me-”
Her words die in her throat, and I follow her frozen gaze to the curb.
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Mon,
Chapter 12
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There, leaning against his BMW, is Azriel.
His raven–black hair catches the morning light and the clothes he is wearing do nothing to hide his well–trained body. He looks good, even better than before now that his violet eyes aren’t hiding behind glamour. They lock onto mine with an intensity that steals my next heartbeat.
Why are the villains always hot?
“Good morning, Eden,” Azriel calls. “I thought I’d drive you to school.”
Elvira grips my arm, her fingers digging into my skin. Probably more to calm herself than to protect me. “We don’t need a ride,” her voice is sharp, though her voice wavers since we both know Azriel is dangerous.
He knows it, too, judging by how his lips curl into that half–smile I once found attractive. Now it just terrifies me. “I wasn’t offering to drive you both,” he says, his eyes never leaving mine. “Just Eden.”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Elvira says, stepping in front of me as if that would somehow prevent what must be a high fae from approaching me.
It doesn’t frighten Azriel one bit.
He straightens, unfolding his tall, muscular frame. “I’m not going to harm her. Not yet, anyway.” His smile widens. “The blood moon isn’t for weeks.”
My throat constricts. “Why are you here?”
“To make sure you don’t run. Consider me your own personal driver from now on.”
Amusement dances in his violet eyes when a tiny, frightened gasp leaves my lips. He is enjoying seeing my fear, I realize. Maybe even liking the scent of it.
“I won’t run,” I whisper, finding a sliver of courage from somewhere deep inside. “Where would I even go?”
“Smart girl,” Azriel says, clicking his fingers so that the passenger door opens all on its own. “Shall we?”
I look at Elvira, whose eyes are the size of dinner plates. “Don’t go with him,” she whispers. “Please.”
But what choice do I have? Refusing might anger him, and I’ve seen what he can do when angered.
“I’ll be fine,” I whisper back to my bestie, though we both know it’s a lie. “I’ll see you at school.”
…if I make it that far.
I lift my eyes to Azriel’s smiling face and shiver for all the wrong reasons. His kind draws strength from eating my kind. This will be like the bunny dating the wolf. But in this case, I’m not the wolf. He is.
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