1. Entrapped

[Carys Elffire]

‘... please Kian, don’t do this. You said we’d find a way together. If you do this today, you will lose me forever. I will never be yours again and I… I will never, ever forgive you.’

Once again, my mate had entrapped me with his soulful, light brown eyes. But this time, his gaze lacked all emotions as his bloodshot eyes pierced me like daggers. His stoic face and pale complexion confirmed my fears. 

Tears welled in my eyes, blurring my vision. I felt as if I was being crushed beneath the gravity of his prickling scrutiny. His gaze held mine and my tears betrayed me, streaming down my cheeks.

I shook my head slightly.

‘Please Kian, don’t do this to us… I love you.’

His impassiveness flickered with something that I dared to believe was love. It was for such a fragile second, but I felt paralyzed. My legs trembled and I could barely stand before him as he said those words. 

‘I, Kian Nyx Abner… reject you, Carys Elffire, as my fated mate…’

*****

My eyes snapped open as I gasped through clenched teeth. The pain that I thought I had buried long ago surged through my body again. Panting slowly, I took deep breaths to conceal the pain.

I didn’t understand why those memories resurfaced at a time like this. But I’d realize it pretty soon.

Perhaps because… the pain I was about to go through was exactly what I felt when my fated mate rejected me.

After my rejection, I was shattered. But in that dark time, Joshua found me and sheltered me from my pain. He gathered my broken pieces, stayed by my side, and showed me that being rejected by my fated mate wasn’t the end of the world.

Joshua taught me that even broken hearts could fall in love again. And it was the shattered souls that loved most passionately.

Ever since, I never looked back. I buried my past and walked towards my future with Joshua by my side.

I stood by his side and loved him with all my broken pieces, and he healed me and caressed my heart with his love.

We trained together and as time passed; we fell deeply in love. I believed our love to be the purest and most unconditional. Maybe that was something only I believed.

He ascended as the alpha of the Nightfall Autumn pack and I became his devoted beta. 

Being born as the only daughter of beta Logan Elffire, the former beta of the Autumn pack, I was trained and brought up to become Joshua’s beta. 

Working as his beta by his side, staying beside him day and night. There was nothing more I could have asked.

Though Joshua wasn’t my second chance mate, his love was no less. With him, I gave love a second chance.

Together, we worked for our pack and were unbreakable as a team.

“Trust me, Carys. For you, I’d even reject my fated mate.”

That’s what Joshua used to say every time we made love. Testament of his commitment.

Although I wonder now if our love was as unbreakable as it seemed to me, or was it unbreakable only for me?

The same fear I felt before my rejection had engulfed me again.

My heart had been restless ever since we set off for this journey to the Percy Spring pack. Former alpha and Joshua’s father, Maximus Nightfall and former luna and Joshua’s mother, Valentina Nightfall, had arranged his marriage with the princess of the Percy Spring pack, Edith Percy.

And I knew nothing about it until I reached the Spring pack with Joshua and his parents. Until now, I thought we were going to the Spring pack for a political meeting. Joshua said that the urgent meeting was called to discuss the mysterious disappearance and deaths that haunted the three pure werewolf packs.

Our car entered the precinct of the Spring palace. 

“Carys, I didn’t mean to hide it from you. Everything happened so fast that I just didn’t have the time to tell you.” Joshua sat beside me in the back seat of the car.

I kept looking outside the window at the long stretch of beautiful, vividly enchanting flowers. No wonder the Spring pack was known as the paradise on earth. The garden probably had all the colors that existed in this world. But I could feel colors from my life fading as we neared the palace.

“We’ll find some way,” Joshua said in a low but defeated tone.

We had kept our relationship a secret for all these years.

I didn’t know what to say to him anymore. 

He placed his hand beside mine as his little finger slid over mine. I placed my hand on my lap. Pursing my lips tightly, I suppressed my tears that threatened to reveal themselves.

Everything about our relationship was complicated, but the thing that made it most complex was him being the alpha and I the beta.

I no longer trusted those words ‘we’ll find some way.’ If you can’t see a way in front of you to make things work, there is no way and there never will be a way. This was a cruel lesson my ex-mate had taught me.

*****

The private evening party was on a full swing, with top ranks from the three biggest pure werewolf packs. The Nightfall Autumn pack. The Percy Spring pack and the Helios Summer pack.

I wore a navy blue off shoulder satin dress pairing it with a diamond choker and silver heels. My long hair hung loose, cascading my partially revealed back. 

Anxiety churned in my stomach as I skimmed my eyes across the hall with modern furnishing, intricate lighting, and standard royal marble flooring. I didn’t want to attend the party, but it was my duty. I need to fulfill my duty as a beta.

“Beta Carys, long time no see,” Jax greeted me with a kiss on my cheek. Jax was the beta of the Spring pack. “Every time I see you, you turn more intoxicatingly alluring than before.”

He offered me a glass of red wine. Jax was thirty-three years old, five years older than me. I had recently turned twenty-eight. 

“I should say the same about you. You are getting too hot for the Spring pack. Why don’t you join the Summer pack instead?” I chuckled.

He sneered, “oh, come on, you know those bastards. The way they keep all their internal affairs a secret, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were doing some crazy experiments on people in their pack.”

“Indeed, it was a surprise when I heard they were attending this meeting cum party—”

“Cum party?” Jax teased.

“Oh, gross, Jax. You and your dirty mind.”

“It’s sexy mind, love. Sexy mind, nothing’s dirty about my billion dollar mind, you know.”

We laughed while sitting near the bar counter.

“When did princess Edith return to the Spring pack?” I asked Jax. Edith had gone abroad to complete her studies. She rarely visited the Spring pack.

“A week ago, after completing her graduation. Alpha always had such a hard time convincing her to come back to the pack. But this time, Princess Edith came back on her own for the party. Maybe it was her fate calling, don’t you think so?”

I gaped at him, perplexed.

Jax followed my gaze when I looked around. Everyone was at the party except Joshua and Edith. The alpha and luna of the Spring pack were having a hearty conversation with Joshua’s parents in the royal lounge.

The butlers dressed in black butler’s uniforms served the guests. They were all well built. While the Summer pack sat aloof from everyone else in the party.

“Hey, Carys. Want me to tell you something about Princess Edith?”

“What?”

“She is very stubborn. Once she wants something, she always gets it. And if someone comes in the way, she destroys them. So if you are looking for alpha Joshua. It’s time you stop looking for him.” Jax said, gulping down the wine in his glass and placing it on the counter for a refill.

The goblet in my hand shook as I got to my feet. 

“What do you mean? He is my alpha. How can I stop looking for him? It’s my duty to ensure his safety.”

Jax chuckled.

“Of course, as a beta you can, but I am pretty sure right now your eyes aren’t looking for the alpha you serve, but the alpha you love,” he said.

A strange stifling feeling enveloped my heart. I always tried to hide our relationship, but today, I wanted everyone to find out that Joshua and I were in love. I didn’t want to lose him. If being discovered could stop this marriage, I was willing to risk it.

“So what? What if I am looking for the man I love?” I said, spinning the wine in my goblet.

Jax smiled, taking a deep breath, “you finally confessed.” His expressions turned grim. He looked into my eyes. “Wrong timing, Carys.”

“Why?” I asked, gulping hard.

Jax looked into my eyes. “This meeting is not what you think it is. All I can say is… be careful.”

My body tensed at the weight of his words.

“Sorry, but… I don’t understand, Jax. What do you mean?”

“Finding your fated mate in an arranged marriage. Then arranging a party to announce the marriage, but the party actually has a political agenda. What a pleasant coincidence. Or is it a coincidence? Things have changed, Carys.” He chuckled, looking upstairs.

The restlessness grew in my chest at his words. He patted my shoulder. “You are intelligent. I am sure you can take the hint.”

My heart caught an erratic rhythm.

He smiled and walked past me, greeting a guest with a warm laughter.

What the hell is going on? Was there more to the uneasiness I had been feeling in my guts ever since I entered the Spring pack? I had to find out what was going on.

With heavy steps, I trudged upstairs. 

Following Joshua’s scent through the hallways, I stopped in front of a room.

My heart thudded at the suppressed noises that came through the slightly ajar door.

There was another scent mingled with Joshua’s scent. I reached out to the doorknob, but my hands stopped and curled into a fist…

“Ah! Uh! Joshua! God Joshua, I fucking missed you so much, ungh! I missed doing this with you so much… fuck… oh yes…” Edith moaned as if she was—

I slapped my hands on my mouth and stepped back from the door.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. No. It can’t be. It can’t be him.

Steeling my heart, I peeped through the ajar door.

My world came crumbling down. For a second, I couldn’t believe my eyes. But it was true, and this was happening. Joshua was having sex with Edith against the floor to ceiling glass window. 

My heart pounded in my chest, each beat pumped poison into my veins. My hands trembled, and my throat tightened, making it difficult to breathe. Rage, confusion, betrayal. I don’t know what I felt at that moment. I was too paralyzed to feel anything as the storm of emotions crashed upon me. 

Edith’s slim, fair legs were wrapped around his waist as he rammed into her. Both of them were naked, their clothes scattered on the bed and the floor.

They were doing this. No, they have done this before as well. When? Where? For how long?

“I missed you too, Edith. I fucking missed you…” he clenched his jaws and thrusted into her. “... so fucking bad.”

Edith opened her eyes, and that’s when our eyes met. I was about to avert my eyes when she smirked at me.

What? What the hell!

I wanted to look away, but I was paralyzed, rooted to the reality that unfurled before my eyes.

“I am your mate, but you don’t love me, Joshua…”

“Who said that, Edith? I fucking love you. A love, a rush, I have never had for anyone else.”

“Then show me you love me. Fuck me like you own me.”

Joshua chuckled in his deep, seductive voice that once used to melt into me. 

“What’s gotten into you today?” Joshua turned her around, pressing her hands against the glass as he took her from behind.

I wanted to enter the room, stop him, question him, scream at him. But I was frozen and numb under the gravity of my emotions.

“Because this time, I am going to make you mine… I will remove all your doubts about our marriage forever…” Edith said.

Stumbling backwards, I broke into sobs, covering my mouth with my hands. Tears streamed down my eyes incessantly. 

Joshua looked towards the door with a jerk and widened his eyes when our gaze collided.

Hitting my chest and suppressing my tears, I dashed through the hallways towards the dark, isolated back stairs down to the pool area. 

Evening transitioned into night, and I kept running deeper and deeper into the dark woods, trying to control myself and strengthen myself. I still had the meeting to attend, but my heart was ripping apart and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

Their voices echoed in my head again and again.

And my foolish mind still hoped that Joshua would come looking for me. I needed answers, explanations. But I didn’t want to hear a word from his mouth.

I had switched off my phone and blocked all the mind-links. Joshua had tried contacting me several times, but I blocked him off.

“Oh, goddess…” I ran my fingers through my hair. 

I looked at the sky through the dense canopy.

“Why? Why? Just why?”

Twice. I had failed twice in this battle of love. It made me wonder if I was the problem. It’s all my fault. Maybe I did something wrong. Maybe I am not good enough.

“Fuck! What am I even thinking?”

My mind wasn’t working, my body was cold, and I had never felt as lonely as I felt at that moment. 

The leaves rustled and through the parting and uniting canopy I looked at the full moon in its complete glory.

I wiped my tears off my cheeks and tried to concentrate on regulating my emotions. But before my thoughts could reach any conclusion, I felt someone’s presence in the shadows of the trees.

I pulled out the gun that was strapped around my thighs and slowly backed away.

Twigs cracked, and the dry leaves crushed beneath my heels. 

Whoever lurked in the darkness had hidden their scent and presence. I knew I was surrounded by a group, but I couldn’t tell if they were werewolves or… lycans…

Black-robed men with long hoods hiding their faces emerged from behind the screen of the trees. 

Could this be an attack?

I looked towards the Spring palace. Joshua. I knew I had to mind-link him and alert him, but I hesitated.

The men slowly came closer to me. I pointed my gun at them.

“Stop coming closer and identify yourselves!” I glared at them.

An ambush? Did Jax warn me about this?

The one in the middle lifted his hands to his shoulders, gesturing he meant no harm.

All of them bowed slightly.

I lowered my gun.

“What do you want—”

Sound of flashes and clicks caught my attention as if someone was clicking pictures.

I lifted my gun at the central man, but before I could say or do something, all of them vanished in the darkness of the woods again.

I instantly removed my block of the mind-links.

‘Carys, where the fuck are you?’ I could feel the panic in Jax’s words. ‘If you aren’t in the palace, then run away. Run far away—’

His mind-link was cut off abruptly.