Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.

Keisha.

Now, let me take a moment to educate you all about the legendary substance known as the Moonveil draught.

It was a very potent elixir that kills werewolves as soon as it is ingested. For Lycans, it takes longer but eventually kills them when taken in large quantities just as it has killed Adam. But for hybrids, it is another case entirely; and while it only weakens Leilani, it is very fatal to me.

And how do I know this?

I know it because one time, after learning that the wench had been forced to ingest it for a very long time— for about a period of ten years, or more— and that she didn’t die, I decided to take my chances with it. I decided to inject only a very small quantity into my bloodstream, and do you know what happened next?

Can you guess?

I guess not! So I’ll tell you anyway.

I almost dined and wined with my ancestors. I almost crossed the boundary between life and death.

Why?

Because I was stupid enough to think that Leilani and I were abominations made of the same stuff. Because I was delirious enough to think that since we were both Lycans, we would have just the same reaction to it. But we didn’t. And that is why... that is why I made sure to remind these idiots not to trust her regardless of how weak or pitiful she may seem.

Anger rushed through my veins in waves so strong it nearly brought me to my knees and with a cry, I tossed Adam’s limp form away from me until his corpse crashed into the wall in front of me.

Enraged, I turned around and stormed out of the makeshift cell, only to stop in my tracks when I found Ian and Matt leaning against a wall and smoking crack.

I growled; "Where were you both when the prisoner escaped?!"

At the sound of my voice, both men turned to look at me, their eyes wide with apprehension and a bit of fear. They charged past me into the building where they must’ve found Adam dead before storming back out.

Matt’s face hardened and his voice was cold as he spat; "Who did that to Adam?"

"Who else?" I hissed back, eyeing him defiantly. "The wench did. Now, what I do not understand is how three of you who were supposed to watch her had your asses played with."

"I didn’t know—" Ian began to say but stopped when I waved in front of him.

"I don’t care what you know of or do not know. Go and look for her!" I barked angrily at him, and with that, I turned and stormed off, whilst hoping to the goddess that she mustn’t have gone far.

But I should have known that the moon goddess was biased. I mean, how could I have forgotten how biased she was, and tell me why I spent the rest of the day looking for Leilani but never found her, even with Moonveil draught and all in her system.

Hell, I had even given her triple of the dose I had given Adam— the same dosage that had killed him. And yet, she was fine.

Gosh, I hate her.

—

Zevran.

It was several hours since I began to feel weird, in the sense that I couldn’t stop worrying about Leilani, several hours since I had noticed Micah watching from behind the shadows.

But even now, the wariness didn’t stop. If anything, it worsened immensely.

And it got even worse when my brothers and I went over to Frostclaw. Inc to see Jarek only to discover that Leilani hasn’t been in contact with him ever since.

Hell, he was even surprised and felt almost... betrayed when he learned that she had been in touch with me for the past couple of days. But after realizing that she may be in danger as we speak, he cast his ill feelings to the side and rose to his feet, following us out of the building to search for her around the city as we had all agreed to at the start.

Now, it has been several hours since we made this decision. Several hours since we’ve been going from pillar to post, looking for a silver-haired girl who for some reason, I couldn’t feel anymore.

Gavin and Maya, who had been stunned to learn that she was alive, had also joined in the search. But still, we were coming up with nothing.

It felt like she had finally disappeared off the surface of the earth without a trace, and thoughts like this made it almost impossible for me to breathe.

My heart raced wildly and my body convulsed as I trekked through the narrow streets of some abandoned estate, and as I went, I couldn’t help but fear for the unknown. I also couldn’t help but worry about her, but just as I arrived at the end of the street, after going back and forth about five times already, my phone soon began to ring.

I froze, stopped, then fished out the nuisance-causing object from my back pocket before stiffly placing it against my ear.

"Hello?" I grunted into the phone, "Zevran here, speak."

"Alpha, it is I, Mason." A sharp voice called out. It belonged to one of the private investigators we had acquired in a moment of desperation.

"Speak Mason," I drawled, "what did you find?"

"A lead." He answered quickly. "I have found a girl with the same descriptions as the one you gave me. But she is dead. She was found dead in a ditch some time this evening." He said, but as soon as I heard those words, my brain immediately cut off.

Nothing else he said was heard by me because at the moment, the only thing I could hear was the sound of my racing heart in my chest.

The only thing I could feel was anguish so deep, it ran straight into the depths of my soul.

My body convulsed as I crashed to the floor and throwing my head back, I let out the most painful, rawest, scream I have ever heard in my entire life.

And it wasn’t until I have finished crying out loud like a banshee that I realized that I could still feel her somewhere in my heart.

She was barely there but there all the same.

She wasn’t dead.

And with this thought, I hissed, dusted the back of my pants and picked up my phone slowly, feeling like the foolish person that I was.

"You idiot!" I yelled at Mason. "That is not Leilani! Now, get the Hell away from there and look for my mate!"