🌙𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐡
A painful current of electricity shot through the stitches again as I leaned in to open my door. I gritted my teeth, fighting the instinct to double over from the agony.
I couldn’t let Caesar see like this. He would bla himself, like he always did. I closed my eyes, trying to ground myself against the sensation, my hand braced against the doorfra as I waited for the pain to ebb.
I knew skipping my post-donation checkups after giving away my kidney a year ago had been reckless, but I told myself I’d push through—like I always did. I didn’t have the ti to rest, nor the money to spend on extra care. My body would adapt to living with one kidney, and I’d be fine. Or so I thought.
I was wrong.
A year later, the pain and discomfort had beco unbearable. With the championship around the corner, I needed to be at the top of my ga. Instead, the hospital handed bad—but well-deserved—news. My minor infection had turned into fluid accumulating at the surgery site. Thank God it wasn’t an abscess, but it still hurt like hell. All I needed was for the fluid to be drained, but the antibiotics in my bag were a reminder that the fight wasn’t over.
In a few hours, they’d knock out like a light.
Caesar was probably asleep. He hadn’t picked up my calls to co get from the hospital. I figured he was tired.
The faint imprint of the promise ring on my finger eased so of the ache, and I found myself looking forward to an afternoon with him.
I mustered my strength and plastered on a smile that I hoped didn’t look like a grimace, then turned the knob.
My smile faded in an instant, my nose wrinkling as a scent hit —a sll that made my stomach turn.
Black smoke billowed out of a pot on my stove.
Shit... sothing was burning.
I dropped my bag and raced for the kitchen.
I quickly turned off the fire, grabbed the pot without thinking, and ran for the sink—which wasn’t far. I sighed deeply, taking in a breath of smoke. Tears pricked my eyes, my throat coated with ash. It was only when I turned on the water for the blackened pot that I realized I had picked it up with my bare hands.
I examined my palms, watching as the red blisters that should have hurt like hell faded... That was odd. First the strange tattoo, then the heightened senses, the glowing crimson eyes, and now this?
If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was—
My ears twitched, catching the sound of a voice carrying from my room. If Caesar was awake, how co he didn’t realize sothing had been burning?
Dread pooled in my gut as I made my way toward the only other room in my apartnt.
I found myself creeping, inching closer. I pressed my ear to the door.
"Harder, Caesar," a moan.
My heart was in my throat even before it registered that I knew that voice.
Dread iced over my spine. I turned the doorknob, begging whichever god existed that I was wrong. The promise ring on my finger suddenly seed to restrict blood flow.
The door creaked open, and my world imploded—my mind going blank, my hand slack on the knob as it slowly swung open completely.
My eyes were glued to the two figures tangled on my bed.
Caesar’s back was to , muscles tense and flexing with every movent. Straddling him, her head thrown back, hair spilling over my pillow, was Charlotte.
My sister.
The room seed to tilt around , the edges blurring. The pounding in my ears drowned out everything but the sound of my own breath—shallow, uneven, ragged.
Caesar froze mid-motion. Maybe he’d felt my stare, or maybe the sudden dead silence behind him was too loud to ignore. Slowly, he turned his head over his shoulder.
When our eyes t and he rolled his eyes—annoyed—sothing in cracked. Not a fracture that could be patched, but the kind that splits jagged and utterly permanent.
The first words out of his mouth were bitter and irritated, twisting the dagger between my ribs. "Why are you ho so early?" His tone was acidic.
He rose, unashad, while in my periphery Charlotte scrambled to cover herself.
I didn’t answer his question. I simply stared, words evading . Who was this stranger? Who was this man?
I turned to leave, but the stitches at my side pulled viciously, a sharp sting burrowing deep into my skin. My breath hitched, and before I could steady myself, a hand shot out and clamped around my wrist.
"Answer my question," Caesar demanded, his voice low and edged with sothing ugly—sothing I didn’t recognize. Had this been who he was all along? Had I been so stupid?
I stared at him, the audacity hitting harder than the pain. "You’re seriously asking that?" I yanked my hand free with more force than I thought I had, startling him enough to make him take a step back.
"You cheat on —in my own damn bed with my own sister—and you have the gall to demand answers from ?" My voice rose, the words sharp enough to cut skin. "Let make this crystal clear for you, Caesar. We are done. After this? You and are over."
He laughed—a bitter, humorless sound—and shook his head. "You ungrateful bitch. I stood by you when your own fucking family despises you. If you had half a brain, you’d realize no one will ever care for you the way I have."
"I owe you nothing," I snapped, my voice trembling with rage that filled every vein. "And if you want to talk about what you’ve done for , then give back my kidney."
The color drained from his face. "What?" He dared to look as if I’d slapped him.
"You heard ." I stepped toward him, glaring even though all I wanted to do was break down. "Give it back. On second thought, don’t. I don’t want it. You’re a pig, and I don’t want that shit back in my body."
The shock in his eyes hardened into sothing darker. In a blink, he closed the space between us, his hand shooting up to wrap around my throat. My back slamd into the wall, the air in my lungs snatched away as his grip tightened.
Charlotte had the decency to jump off the bed. She ran to us, trying to rip him off .
"You don’t get to call disgusting," he hissed, his face inches from mine. I could see the freckles I had once counted not too long ago. "Because deep down, you know your family’s hatred for you is justified."
The words pierced deeper than his grip, but he wasn’t done. I was breathless, but it had nothing to do with his tightening hold on my neck.
"You’re nothing but a living reminder," he said, each word slow, deliberate, poisonous. "A cri with a heartbeat. A reminder of your mother’s assault. That’s all you are. Nothing more—and you still dare to have his face."
His face...
My father’s face...
The borders of my vision darkened until the black swallowed everything.
My father’s face...
The Lycan’s face...
I opened my eyes, sitting up, a migraine lancing through my skull. I gripped my head—and then stopped.
Last I rembered, my bed had the softness of hardened cent... This was not mine.
I rose, springing off the bed, my heart lurching in my chest. I whipped my head around, taking in my bizarre surroundings. Confusion whirled in my already jumbled mind. The hell...
My head snapped up—confusion morphing quickly into utter bewildernt.
Who the hell installs a chandelier in their bedroom in this economy?
I took it all in: the bedding could have been spun from pink-tinted clouds, the queen-sized bed carved with such intricate detail I wouldn’t have been surprised if angels had wept as they crafted it. The sa could be said for every other piece of furniture in the room, which was the size of my entire apartnt.
Where the hell was I?
I ran up to the window, fought the thick curtains to let through, and slid open the glass.
Frigid air hit my face like a punch, making reel back. I tripped over the vengeful curtains and slamd the back of my head against the tiles. I could have sworn my brain self-destructed.
I got up, nursing the swelling as I looked out the window.
Snow...
But it was July.
Then it clicked, more like it all ca back like roundhouse kick to my already throbbing head.
My sale. The auction. The portal over the cliff. The new world. My... father.
The pulsing spread to the base of my skull as I gritted my teeth.
The disgusting, gutterbred pig—
Confusion and disorientation were snuffed out in an instant, replaced by vitriol that filled my veins, corroding and coating them with venom. It didn’t rush, no, it fucking stewed. It settled into my bones.
Suddenly, a growl invaded the silence.
Reviews
All reviews (0)