HARPER



And from the maniacal look in his eyes, I kind of knew what he’d go for.


“Don’t,” I pleaded, hating how fear and panic were evident in my voice.

“Don’t what?” He grinned and it was a pure sardonic and sinister one.


He took one step closer and I swayed on impulse. I saw it before it happened. I tripped and fell over the railing and my body… a bloodied mess on the ground floor.

Except that it didn’t happen.

Kingsley grabbed me before I tripped but it was a loose grabbing and if he should lessen his hold even a bit, I’d fall.

I looked up at him with wild panicking eyes but he just seemed thrilled.

“Isn’t this the part where you beg me to save your pathetic life?”

I swallowed hard. He couldn’t do it. He wasn’t going to do it. He couldn’t possibly let go of my hand and let me fall.

But he could. He attacked you with a poisonous scorpion.

Still, I put on a fake bravado, “You can’t do anything. Your father will hate for you to…”

His hold slipped and a hollow scream escaped from my mouth as my body swayed even more.

The sadistic glint in his eyes deepened.

“Now, are you going to beg me to save your life?”

He was a psycho. If I hadn’t confirmed it before. Now, I was confirming. He could really hurt me and he’d feel nothing about it.

“Please,” I choked on my plead.

“Please what?” He sounded amused. He was having fun playing games with my life.

“Save me, please. I’m sorry I always… I’m sorry that I always overstep my boundaries and I won’t do that again.”

I felt tears prickle my eyelid. I was that scared.

His eyes darkened for a moment and I thought he was going to let go of my hands but he pulled me up and flung me against the opposite wall.

I exhaled when I confirmed I was safe and I backed up against the wall when Kingsley started stalking towards me.

He bent to my level when he got to me.

“So this is how it’s going to work,” he started, “you’re going to stop your mom from marrying my father. I don’t care what tactics you use but their marriage is not going to happen. What I did today is just a tip of the iceberg if they should marry and you might as well be ready to welcome hell into your life if they should marry.”

And with that, he walked off and left me with a pounding heart.

I finally picked myself up with one thought recurring in my head there was no way I’d become step-siblings with Kingsley Hawthorne.





“He’s a pretty decent man, right?”

Mom started immediately we were on our way back home. She was giddy with excitement, I could tell. The way she blushed when he saw her off with a forehead kiss made something ache in me.

The fact that I was going to use crooked ways to get them to break up was making me feel bad and I cursed the fact that Kingsley was his son. He could have been anybody from school and I’d have been okay with it.

“Hmm, yeah,” I replied distractedly.

“He makes me happy, you know,” she looked away from me to look at a particular spot in the air.

“I’ve given up on love after your father died. You were my sole priority but he just… he persisted. We met properly for the first time during a PTA meeting in your school and he just… he just made me come alive again. He sent me flowers, chocolates, shoes, gifts… things that just made me feel like a girl once again.”

From her tone, I could tell that she wasn’t here with me again, she was reliving every single moment he had made her come alive.

“I never thought I could love again after your father but he changed that.”

She turned to me, reached out and grabbed my hands in hers, “I know this is sudden and you probably never thought I was going to remarry, at least not this soon but I need you to understand that you’ll always be my priority, I’ll always put you first and I’ll do whatever you want me to do.-

So do you think I should marry him? If you think my marriage is going to in any way affect our relationship, then let me know now and I’ll put an end to everything.”

I did want her to put an end to it all. But I realized that’d be for the wrongest reason. My dark relationship with Kingsley paled in comparison to the love she feels for this man.

Mom was right she would always put me first. She had always put me first since Dad died. Even though it took a toll on her to lose the love of her life that early in life, she picked herself up for me.

Mom was a full-time housewife but after Dad died, she started lots of part-time jobs just to make me comfortable. I knew she had missed out on a lot of things just to raise me. I knew she wouldn’t mind missing out on more things just to help me.

But that was selfish and for once, I wanted her to put herself first and be her own person. I wanted her to be happy not because I was happy but because she was genuinely happy by herself.

So I opened my mouth and said the words that’d both make and mar me in the following months.

“Of course Mom, he’s a great man. He seems nice too and I’m sure he’ll make you happy.”

Mom’s smile was bright enough to light up the darkest room and my heart soared as her hold tightened around me.

It was a done deal Mom was going to marry Alpha Hawthorne.

Kingsley was going to become my stepbrother and he’d make my life a living hell.