Zevran.

I do not know for how long I stood there holding Leilani to my chest like she could break and disappear any moment from now. All I knew was that I liked the way she felt in my arms.

I liked the intoxicating scent— feminine yet rare— that emanated from her and I liked the way her chest slowly rose and fell... rose and fell against my body.

I shuddered when her breath fanned my exposed arm; and for a minute, I swear to the goddess, I hoped that she would remain like this. That she would stay here, tucked safely in my arms, her breath fanning my skin and her heartbeat beating in sync with mine.

But it seems like the entire universe wasn’t in sync with these thoughts because as soon as they came, it quickly disappeared.

How?

Why?

Because my idiotic brother chose that moment to sneeze so loudly, the sound echoed around the vast space. Keisha also tried to take off but was held back by Kael. Darius— the show himself— took a small step back and I couldn’t help but notice now that most of the shock that once resided on his face was long gone and in its place was his usual cockiness.

And Leilani stirred.

She stirred again when I wouldn’t let go and after realizing that I probably wouldn’t let go easily, she glanced up at me, her chin resting on my chest, as she whispered;

"Let go, please."

But I didn’t want to. I wanted her here for a couple more minutes... for an hour perhaps. Heck, a complete day would be fine.

"I can stand just fine, Zevran. Let me go please."

At the sound of her voice— her pleading voice— I took a small step back and let my hands slowly fall from her body. However, as soon as I did that, it suddenly felt as though warmth had been snuffed out of my body. A chill spread through my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake as I watched her limp towards Maya.

"Darius, thank you for holding onto Keisha..." she drawled,

"We had a deal." He snapped back. But she pretended not to hear him say that. So she shrugged, leaned close to Maya and hissed; "Get in the car, love."

"Okay..."

"You will not walk away from me, Leilani." Darius sneered intimidatingly, and to my utmost surprise, she turned then to look at him, flashed him a smile and muttered;

"Yeah."

"Huh."

"I’m not walking away from you," she supplied softly, her voice confident. "I am only going home now because it’s no news that I lost my best friend and I am in mourning..."

"Yeah?"

"So it’s obvious that I feel too drained and that I am not in the right frame of mind to talk to you right now. So we’ll catch up. Whatever you want to talk about, we’ll talk about it tomorrow."

"Are you being for real?" He asked and when she only nodded, he added; "What time tomorrow?"

"Same time tomorrow!" She hissed without looking back at him.

"Am I coming to your new house, wherever it is? Can you send me the address?" He rushed out and in that moment, I couldn’t help but wonder why he sounded so desperate. So strange.

I cocked my eyebrows at him.

Leilani, probably feeling the same way, shook her head before muttering; "No. I’ll communicate with you." And with that, she got into her waiting car with Maya then drove off, leaving us all behind. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Darius was the next to leave,

And just as my brothers and I were about to do that as well, I stopped only for a second to glance at a far distance— but not so far from us.

I do not know why I felt that impossible-to-ignore need to look there, but I did, and when I did, my breath hitched in my chest because standing right there was the silhouette of a man.

I didn’t see who it was due to how dark it was but I could make out his height and he was way taller than I am. Mind you, I am six feet and four inches tall!

His shoulders were sturdy and wide and his face was completely hidden behind a large fashionable hat.

But that wasn’t all.

That wasn’t what caught my attention at all.

What caught my attention was when he shifted as if suddenly noticing that I was staring at him. He tilted his head to the side, watched me with his hooded eyes and then turned away.

But not before I caught a glimpse of his hair peaking out from under his large hat.

It was shiny.

It was silver.

But it wasn’t just silvery. It was glowing in just the same manner that I had seen Leilani’s own do a couple of minutes ago.

However, before I could decide if what I was seeing was right or if I was hallucinating, he turned and walked away, leaving me second guessing and distraught... and wondering if he was the legendary Valemont in town.

"Let’s go!" Caelum hissed, and that I did.

I got into the car so fast you would think that the devil was hot on my tails... and maybe he was.

—

Unknown.

I leaned lazily into my chair, silently replaying the events of the day, most especially that moment where I had experienced a major stare down with a little werewolf.

A werewolf who seemed utterly smitten by Leilani.

And a werewolf who for some reason, I disliked even though I had zero ideas about who he was.

Maybe it was only my fatherly instincts kicking in...

I dragged in a lungful of air and turned to look at my PA who stood with a large folder opened in front of him. When he caught me watching, he cleared his throat, lowered his head and muttered;

"That was Alpha Zevran Stormborn, son of Late Alpha Zach Stormborn, the man who wrongfully accused you of treason and theft and had you killed— beheaded in front of a crowd like it was a show— for a crime he knew you didn’t commit." My PA who I keep forgetting whatever the fuck his name is, said to me from the side, his voice holding anger and disdain and something akin to disgust as he read out the folder containing information about the triplets to me.

I froze upon the mention of those names, and for a minute... a very small moment... my mind drifted just enough for my brain to conjure up the image of a familiar head of auburn hair— soft. Delicate. smooth.

Maurice.

I gulped.

"Those are his sons?"

"Yes."

"The ones he had specifically tasked..."

"If you mean his hitmen, the ones he had asked to kill you... then yes. Those are the boys."

Oh, no wonder I disliked them so first glance !

"How did they pull it off?" I asked the one question that had always bugged me because come to think of it, I still cannot wrap my head around how one minute, I was in chains and being dragged around like a lamb being led to the slaughter and the next minute, I was waking up in a private flight to Bora Bora with a pounding headache, bloody bandages wrapped around my torso and limbs so sore one would think I had trekked through the entire Sahara desert without shoes.

"You returned from the dead." Martins, my previous beta and the father to my current PA had said to me but there was no way I could believe that.

There was no way I could believe that I had survived being beheaded no matter how strong I was believed to be.

I turned to my PA one more time after realizing how quiet he suddenly was and asked; "How did they manage to fail at something so small? Something as small as cutting off my head?"

"Are they slow or something? How could they miss something like that?"

"They didn’t." My PA answered, his voice gruff. "They are not slow and they didn’t miss like you think they did."

I wanted to ignore him but something about the tone of his voice... something about the way he said those words so coldly, so matter-of-factly made me stop. I held my breath, and for some strange reason, a strange knot had suddenly formed somewhere deep inside my stomach.

I hissed; "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that they really killed you, Alpha."

"And I am here, risen from the ashes like a phoenix, right?" I tried to sound sarcastic but the joke was lost on me.

"They killed someone else who they thought was you which kind of translated to killing you."

"Now, that is confusing," I muttered, shaking my head to rid myself of the depressing thoughts now filling it. "There’s no way they could’ve ever made that mistake..."

"There is a way," Mr PA snapped, almost interrupting me.

And for a moment, I didn’t... couldn’t fathom what he was talking about until the realization began to dawn on me.

My heart fell, twisting into some dark forgotten parts of my soul...

"No. No. No!"