My heart thudded in the memory of the moments leading to Jonathan’s death.
“I will find Celeste and Nuria, whether or not you tell me.” He hissed. “I will have my family
again, so either you willingly stand by my side, like a dutiful son should, or…”
Something cold and sharp pressed against my neck, too close to my carotid artery.
“I’ll snuff your bitch’s life out faster than you can blink.”
I held my breath.
Neron squeezed my hand so tight that it might break.
Silence deafened the air.
Until the magnificent roar from the furious alpha shook the ground.
My world was exposed to light once the weight pressing down my back was removed, or rather, thrown off me. Pushing myself off the ground, my eyes traveled from the pulsating veins, practically jumping off Neron’s muscles and neck, to his face donning the mask of fury. His canines were out, and gold flashed across his blues.
Onyx was here, too.
Their beast was out.
“You will not touch her!” Neron and Onyx shouted in unison before surging forward, tackling Jonathan to the ground like a football player.
Survival instincts fluttered in my veins, forcing my body to its feet as Neron pummeled his dad’s face. I turned around just in time to see someone launching toward me with a blade held high in her hands. My hand reached out and grappled at the weapon-bound wrist and the other, now pushing against the force she delivered.
I noticed the gross amalgamation of dead tissue and dried blood encircling her neck like a choker. It made me sick.
I needed to fight.
I needed to protect those who I love.
But someone beat me too it.
Because he wanted to protect me.
A wall of heat jumped in front of me and yanked me into its arms. The touch alone let me know it was Neron, even though I couldn’t see his face. Through the distortion of colors and sounds, there was one thing I could see clear as day.
A flash of vivid red.
You know how there were particular sounds that people hate? That they wish they would never hear again? There wasn’t a sound I could place in that category, but the strangled noise that escaped Neron’s lips was “that” sound.
When his arms slipped off me, my vision snapped clear. Neron slumped to the ground on his back, grunting and writhing in absolute pain. The hem of his shirt rid upward, revealing some of his torso.
Black crawled under his flesh like the legs of a spider.
Artemis screamed. I screamed.
*No! *No, no, no!
“Neron!” I scrambled to my knees and pulled his body as close as I could to me. Pain continued to radiate throughout my head, but that didn’t compare to seeing Neron so hurt and vulnerable. He lifted a trembling hand, and I grasped it as hard as I could, using my other one to caress his hair. “Neron…”
“Help is coming, K-Kiya.” Neron whispered, his eyes unfocused. “Love, save yourself, please.”
“No, I’m not leaving you!” I whispered, my own eyes blurring with tears. “W-why did you…”
“Save. Yourself.” He insisted, squeezing my hand tighter. “R-run. Don’t let…Dad touch you.
I wish Neron understood the odds against us. I wish he understood that choice was never given to me.
Because two pairs of hands tore me from him, and he was too weak to pull me back into him.
A sharp thrust impaling me from the back through my belly cut my screaming and begging for him short. Artemis’ pained wails echoed in my head as pain brushed violently against every nerve in my body. Sandwiched between two bodies, I lifted my head upward to find a pair of menacing purples and equally menacing fangs.
*Familiar menacing purples.
“Scared, little white mutt?” The violet-eyed woman asked, showing off her sharp smile. Odessa was behind me, breathing down my neck, but my focus wasn’t on her.
For the first time in years, my heart shattered from the hammer of betrayal.
“P-Phoebe?”
‘Phoebe’ grabbed my neck and hoisted me up from the ground, grinning maniacally. “Finish the job, pixie.”
My back became the victim of a rapid succession of stabs. By the third one, blood was painting my long skirt red. Once again, I allowed myself to be weak because Jonathan, the gigantic monster, threatened to kill my girls, my sister, and my nieces and nephews.
He used my family against me, and I’m paying the consequences.
Toss out the garbage.” I heard Jonathan say. “We have bigger fish to fry, and I need to hold my wife again.”
Neron’s screams for me were the last thing I heard before I was tossed callously into the river. The chill of the water shocked my body, rendering my limbs boneless. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, and the water muffled my hearing.
Yet, Neron’s screams blitz through the waves until falling into utter silence.
And my world faded into black.
*Neron*…
“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” – Virginia Woolf
***Nuria***
Something didn’t feel right.
Was it because of my weird-ass psychic abilities? Maybe. But I know some shit isn’t sitting right with me.
I sat on Phoebe’s couch with my elbow propped on the spine and my head on my fist. My foot was shaking nonstop for the past five minutes. An irritating headache tap-danced across and inside my skull to the point I wanted to rip my hair out. My mate wasn’t home at the moment, for she went with Aunt Lyra to buy groceries, but I didn’t know if her absence made things. worse for me.
My phone rested in my lap as I waited for the buzz of a text message from my brotherly beanstalk. Neron normally answers my texts within the first minute of receiving them, if not faster. In order to avoid an incomplete reading experience, visit J ob n ib . com.Yet, it’s been ten minutes and counting. Either he must be busy with his alpha duties or daydreaming about fucking my best friend, but I needed to talk to him.
Sighing. I picked up my phone, selected his contact labeled Godzilla with a wolf emoji, and typed away.
**ME”: “Hey Sasquatch*. *No pressure, but I really need to talk to you*. “Call me as soon as you can*.
Tossing my phone on the table, I dragged my legs up on the couch cushions and rested my head against a pillow, folding my hands on my belly. I exhaled sharply through my nose. The silence of the house should calm me, but it only made my thoughts ring louder in my cranium.
*Morfar* said that intense emotions could trigger my visions, but once the ball rolls, it collects more shit I couldn’t ignore.
I’ve been getting one vision after another since Neron sent me away. Garnet Moon has been more than welcoming to me, but the new atmosphere couldn’t calm my anxiety from the horrors I’ve seen in the past few days.
Phoebe was at the epicenter of all my recent visions. It’s her, but somehow, I knew it **wasn’t** her. My Starlight wasn’t a vicious killing machine. Her smiles were never filled with malice. Surrounded by roaring flames licking her frame, the precipice of my fear was when she surged forward and attacked me.
**Don’t trust everything you see, wildflower*.”
The psychic vision cut off before she snatched my soul from my body, but it didn’t leave me with any relief.
Why am I seeing this? Are they legitimate warnings or stress-induced illusions?
The worst part about it is that my heart was wavering. Fear and doubt blended together like watercolors in my heart, affecting my thought process about my mate. We haven’t been together for very long, but I knew that the Phoebe I sleep next to every night and kiss every morning was my true Phoebe.
So, what were the winds of fate trying to show me by shattering my dreams and morphing those pieces into my nightmares?
Groaning, I scrubbed my face with my hands, lifting my head from the pillow. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to tell me I couldn’t keep this to myself for much longer. However, how the bloody fuck am I supposed to start this conversation with Phoebe?
*Hey, love*. *I’ve been getting visions about you killing me with fire*. *Care to explain why?”
I checked my phone again. Neron still hasn’t responded. He’s getting a shampoo bottle full of hair remover when I get back home.
So, my only and most painful option was….
“I’m back!” Phoebe called out from the door, lugging in two bags of groceries with a lollipop dangling from her mouth.
…to tell her. I sucked in a deep breath and rose from the couch, walking toward my golden- haired mate. My stomach constricted. Why did I feel like bringing the visions up will cause more trouble than what it’s worth?
“Welcome home, little star.” I pulled the green-apple lollipop out of her mouth and captured her lips in a kiss, tasting the sweetness of the candy with her natural taste. Phoebe’s giggles went straight to my crotch as I wrapped my arms around her waist, drinking her in. The grocery bags bumped against my legs when she closed our distance.
*Fuck, I wanted to unwrap her myself and eat her whole*.
When we separated, I was met with concerned purples and arched blond eyebrows. “Are you alright, Nuria?”
“Um…” I gulped, running my tongue over my teeth. “…there’s something that we need to talk about.”
“Okay.” She ambled into her kitchen, settling her bags on the table with a ‘plop’. I watched her skirt flutter with her movements, enthralled by the sway of her pretty hips and the bounce of her firm ass. “Does it have to do with your visions?”
“How did you know?”