AMELIA’S P.O.V

Marjorie was silent on the other end of the call for a minute and I started to fear the worst. For a second, I thought she had hung up but I could hear her steady breathing and I knew she had just chosen not to respond.


“Just tell me if I’m right or wrong,” I said when she wouldn’t respond. “All of this thinking, all of this tossing and turning is driving me mad. Please, I need to know exactly what I am dealing with here. I need to know whether I am going to lose my mate.”

“Will you stop whining for five seconds?” she cut me off and I froze. “If you are going to ask a question then you better be ready to wait for a response. I was thinking about how to respond. I don’t need your incessant whining in my mind.”

I was stunned. I didn’t know whether to apologize or speak back to her so instead, I stayed silent. She let out a sigh and I could imagine her rolling her eyes at me.


“She isn’t his first mate.” It was a straight forward response but I knew there was more to it. There was something that she was hiding from me but I knew it wouldn’t be so easy to get it out of her. “Everything else is inconsequential. I understand that you want to know what is happening but that should be the least of your concerns.”

“What do you mean by that? I need to know exactly what I am walking into.”


“No, you don’t,” she cut me off. “What you need to focus on is keeping Kaden in the house which I can see that you clearly cannot do. He left the hospital less than three hours ago, are you chasing him out?”

I stilled. “How do you know that he isn’t here? Are you watching me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself sweetheart, I am watching my son. I need to ensure that everything is going the way that it should be and clearly you cannot seem to get a grip on things. I made a huge risk by deciding to trust you on this but it seems like you’re terrible at it. if it were Lucy-”

“Stop!” I yelled and she immediately went silent. “I know you want the best for your son but I will not appreciate you speaking to me that way. I am not the one who caused all of this. If anything, it is you who caused it when you hid the truth from him. You cannot call me to fix your problems and then yell at me for not doing it the way that you want.”

She went silent and for a second, I thought I had gone too far. I wanted to take back the words but there was no going back. They were already out in the world and there was nothing I could do that would change it. Besides, I also didn’t feel bad about saying them. It was something that she needed to hear. It was her guilt that was causing her to act out like this and I wasn’t going to be her punching bag.

“At least you’re growing a backbone, you need to grow some claws if you are going to survive in this world,” I could hear the amusement in her tone. “I will not take the blame for what is happening with Kaden but I will admit that I could have prevented it. Regardless, we need to work together if we are going to fix this. I will be at the house in a few minutes.”

“You’re coming here?” I asked and she let out an exasperated sigh.

“Am I going to have to repeat everything I say? Honestly, Amelia, I know you are a bit slow but this is alarming. I think it would be better if I did all of the talking and you just listened. What do you think?”

My cheeks flushed pink and I made my way over to the curtain to peek through. “When are you going to be here?”

“In about a minute or so.”

I looked around for her car but I couldn’t see it. There were no cars on the street as far as I could see but I could have sworn that I saw a flash come from the woods but when I looked again, I didn’t see anything. I was trying to look deeply but I saw Marjorie’s car pull up so I had to pull my gaze away from it.

I rushed to open the door for her because Marjorie didn’t have a key again. She was standing by the door in her usual couture outfit. She looked down at me with a frown.

“I don’t have a lot of time to be here,” she announced as she made her way into the house. “What is your plan to get Kaden back into the house?” when I stayed silent, she gave me an annoyed look. “Do you mean to tell me that you have no plans at all?”

“I didn’t really think about it.”

“Of course you didn’t, I have to do everything around here myself. At this point, you might as well slap a title on me and call me Alpha,” she walked further into the house and took a seat in the living room. After a beat, she turned to me. “Are you going to make me sit here waiting for you or are you going to come over so that we can get to the end of this.”

I muttered a small prayer under my breath to the goddess because I was going to need it if I was to spend even five minutes with this woman.

AIDEN’S P.O.V

I spent the last few days watching Amelia. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought because she barely left the house. I watched as Kaden drove off and I muttered a sigh of relief. I had not expected him to arrive at the house and I was praying that he would leave because his arrival put a wedge in my plans. As soon as I saw his car retreating from the house I took my phone out of my pocket and dialed the number.

We had been in communication for a while. It was even by accident that we met. I had been scrolling through an online chat room on the dark web when I saw Amelia’s name mentioned. I was curious and I decided to click on it. It led me to a number which I called and the rest was history. I had been supplying whoever was on the other end with information in exchange for something… special at the end.

It was stupid, that much I was aware of. Especially since I had used my personal number to call and they were able to track my identity. I had tried everything possible to find out who I was speaking to but all to no avail and I was too deep in to get out. It wasn’t like I wanted to anyway. They were offering me the opportunity of a lifetime to get rid of two birds with one stone and I would have been a fool not to take it.

“This better be good,” he snarled as soon as the call connected and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“She is alone,” I said and he went silent. “This is the best time to kidnap her. Do you want me to go in and get her? You need to have men on standby because if Kaden realizes that she is missing then we would only have limited time on our hands.” He went silent for a minute longer and I checked the phone to be sure that he hadn’t hung up, “Are you still there?”

“Of course I am, I am just thinking,” he exhaled deeply. “I think you should just go in and kill her. it will make our work a lot easier. If she dies then all our problem die with her.”

“I don’t think that is wise,” I began slowly. “If she dies then Kaden will tear the world apart to find out who did it. I am the one doing the dirty work. You are comfortable in your anonymity. I will be the one to take the fall.”

“I never pegged you as a pussy,” he spat and I bit down on my tongue to stop myself from lashing out verbally. “Go in there and kill her. Do what needs to be done to ensure that she doesn’t live.”

“This wasn’t the initial plan,” I argued. “You said that we were going to kidnap her. I only came with rope and a bag to take her out. I didn’t come prepared. You can’t just spring stuff like this on me. Why the sudden change of heart anyway?”

“My reasons are none of your concern. I need to know if you are serious about this or if you are going to chicken out. I need someone I can trust and judging by the way you responded just now, I am not sure I can trust you. Perhaps we should just call of the deal. It seems like you don’t need-”

“Wait!” I cut him off. “I can do it. I need this and you know it. I can’t do it today though. I need to prepare, I would need to make sure that Kaden is occupied and far away from the house because the moment he feels something is wrong through their bond, he will rush back and if he catches me, he will kill me.”

“I don’t need your explanation. I just need to ensure that you are doing what I requested. Do not fail me, Aiden, or there will be dire consequences.”

I swallowed. “I won’t, but when am I going to know who you are? You know my name and you know everything about me but I don’t even know what your voice sounds like.” He started to speak but I cut him off. “You think I haven’t noticed that you use a voice changer? I’m not stupid.”

He laughed on the other end of the line. “Prove yourself to me, do your job right and maybe, just maybe, I will consider revealing myself to you. Do not call me until you have good news and by good news, I mean Amelia’s death. Remember that you have more to lose than I do.”

Without another word, he hung up. I muttered a curse under my breath and took out my binoculars to check on Amelia once more. The house was completely empty but I could see her looking out the blinds. Thankfully, I knew she couldn’t see me. I could see that she was on the phone talking to someone and I briefly wondered who until I saw a familiar car pull up and aunt Marjorie walked out.

Immediately my interest was piqued. It was no secret that they didn’t like each other, what could they possibly have to talk about?