Rio.

She's back. My little moon.

The rush of excitement that whooshed through me when I heard the news was unlike anything I'd felt before.

Six years without seeing Veil, my little stepsister who turned my world around, was torture.

She doesn't know it. No one does, but Veil is my obsession. The only woman who brings forbidden thoughts to my mind.

From the very moment I set my eyes on her in Halesbridge Academy, all petite with wavy chestnut hair and blue eyes that made my blood stir, I just knew she was mine.

I claimed her long before she ever knew it. She lived in my dreams and fantasies, warping everything I once understood about love.

She's all I dreamt of having. All I dreamt of keeping.

Back then in Halesbridge, I dropped subtle hints for her, clipped roses on her seat every morning and in her locker, I sent her love letters, I called her phone every morning with my burner phone without saying a word just to hear the soft sound of her breath.

She was my future.

Everyone in Halesbridge admired her; after all, her mother was a known commander in the Alpha King's army.

She came from wealth, the spoiled daughter of Lady Nightsaw. Boys wanted to be in her class, to draw her attention, including Quin.

He might've thought no one knew of his attraction to Veil back then, but I did. He bullied her in the worst ways possible because, as of then, his mother was already married to Alpha Moon, which made Quin the pack's heir.

I, on the other hand, watched her from the sidelines. I stalked her to the extent that I know her morning routine, but Veil never knew. She was oblivious.

She'd thought the flowers and letters were from that stupid boy she called mate. Ryder.

I let her believe it. Bask in it. I had hopes that one day I would make it known to her.

Well, the hopes crashed the day Alpha Moon announced that he's marrying a new wife, a new Luna.

That new Luna turned out to be Lady Nightsaw, the mother of my little moon.

Hence, Veil became my stepsister, the forbidden fruit.

One would think that'd dim my desires for her, unfortunately, it only flared it.

I had her closer then, watched her discreetly even when she's asleep.

I yearned for her.

Quin's bullying didn't end; it worsened. He made her life hell, but I knew it was his way of showing his obsession with her.

Hunter, on the other hand, was like me...distant. Totally.

I'm certain he isn't among those pining for Veil's attention.

I planned to confess my truest desire for her when she turned twenty. I already prepared the surprise until I heard her telling our late stepfather her willingness to seal her mate bond with Ryder, that useless boy from the Ghostriver pack.

I was thrilled when Alpha Moon and her mother, Lady Nightsaw, disapproved of it.

There was no way a Moonbloom would mate with a Ghostriver.

I thought she'd end it. Well, publicly she did. But we didn't know Veil had other plans.

She eloped the night of Quinn's coronation as the pack's alpha. That was the same night everything changed.

Our rank in the werewolf league dropped.

Our companies crumbled.

People barely shifted.

Our lands became barren.

Those who could shift did so with difficulty, and our healing abilities were lost, including Keon's, my son.

Worst of all, Quin has been stuck in his lycan form.

The pack tagged her a fugitive, believing she ran with the moonstone.

I was forced to believe it too, given the circumstances.

And I began to hunt her, my little moon. But for six years, I never found her until today.

I drop everything I'm doing and run to the town hall, and there she is, looking...broken, gaunt. But she's still the prettiest woman on earth.

My heart somersaults when her feminine scent hits my nose, her light blue eyes holding me captive.

The elders want to kill her, but far be it from me to sit and let that happen; hence, my intervention.

She's to become Quin's slave. I know that's a cruel torture on its own because she hates Quin and, at the moment, he's feral, but I won't let him kill her. I won't let him take her from me.

Now that she's here, I'll never let her leave my sight again.

She's mine to claim, my stepsister.

My status doesn't matter, nor does my position in the pack.

"The pack members are angry, alpha." Pudim, our beta, says as he trails into my office after me, looking exhausted like I am.

I pull at my tie, cracking my neck.

"I expected that. Some pills are bitter to swallow, and this is one of them. If we kill Veil, we won't be able to retrieve the moonstone."

I remove the tie and throw it across to him. Pudim catches it like an expert, scoffing.

"I never expected she's going to show her face here again." He sits across from me, eyes fixated on the picture frame of his sister and me during our wedding, propped up on my desk.

"Well, our prayers have been answered, haven't they?" I arch a brow. "Now, we have to work towards bringing up our pack rank in the werewolf league again."

"You're right, alpha." He looks at his watch and sighs. "I need to go and check on the patrol team..."

"Actually, Pudim, there's something else I want you to do for me," I say curtly, wringing the writing pen between my fingers.

I'm disturbed about Veil's appearance. She looked skinny, with dark circles under her eyes, her hair matted. She looked like a shadow of herself, and I want to know what happened to her.

Wasn't she with Ryder all these years?

"Alpha?"

I snap from my thoughts, instructing. "Find out all you can about Veil. I mean everything about her over the past six years."

"Hmm, curious much?" Pudim teases, but I glare at him. He throws his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. Don't murder me with that glare."

He backs away from the desk to the door. Eyes still pinned on me like he knows what I'm thinking, he reaches a hand behind him to the doorknob and swings it open.

I exhale the instant his shadows disappear, and just as quickly, thoughts about Veil race through my mind.

There's the excitement in my veins, but also the desire to save her tonight from Quin's deadly claws.

The moment the full moon appears, I sneak away from the pack house, heading to the cellar.

I don't know the last time I came here to see Quin.

Even from the woods, I can already smell his rut. It stirs my lycan, making him growl.

He feels challenged by Quin's rut because he's also an alpha. Alphas hate challenges.

I taper him down and block him out completely from surfacing again. Then I descend the stairs to the cellar to save my girl from Quin's wrath.

I step around the corners, my body charged as I face Quin's cell.

But I freeze instantly the moment my eyes fall on them, alarm bells ringing in my mind. My mouth drops open in shock.

This can't be happening!

He can't...!

"No!!" I growl underneath my breath at what's unfolding in front of me.

Quin...

No!

Tbc.

Veil.

Tears rush down my face in a frenzy.

There's nothing gentle about the way he's taking me.

His thrusts are deep, brutal. It severs my grip on control, and I'm left a wailing mess.

Quin's beast is lost in the throes of pleasure. It's evident in the powerful slam of his hips on mine, the lengthening of his phallus with each dip he takes in my pussy.

He's stretching me impossibly wide, the slimy saliva dripping from his mouth drops in the point we're connected, making his thrusts easy but painful nonetheless.

I'm ripped off of any thought except what's currently happening to me, I'm having sex with the man I once hated, no, his beast, which hated me just as much.

He's the last man I'd ever willingly be with.

The boy who showed me hell.

The boy who drove me to the edge of insanity.

Every groan that spills from his beast's mouth is a reminder of his taunting words back in high school.

A reminder of his voice that spat nothing but venom at me.

My nails bite hard into the stone floor. I scrape the ground, feeling the pains I'm inflicting on myself, but I don't care. I just want to get away.

I hate him so much.

I want to get out and run as far away from him as possible, to run as far away from this hell as possible.

Hence, I try to scramble away, but he moves every inch with me, lodging himself inside me with a purr.

Like, disconnecting from me will make him drown.

He's holding onto me like I'm his lifeline.

"I hate you! I hate you so much!!" I cry out, forcing my body to move away.

It's so painful.

At this point, I don't know if the pain is coming from his brutal thrusts or from the memories of our past.

All I know is that I can't stand this. I can't stand him.

Another feline purr comes from him. Louder this time, it shakes my core.

The moment he let out that purr, my belly flips.

There's a strange undertone to it, but I can't seem to decipher it, not while my mind is messed up.

Tears blur my vision even as I still attempt to put some distance between us. I've read about people sleeping with their mates in their beast forms, but I never once thought I'd experience it.

Strangely, I'm not doing it with my mate but with my enemy.

Rio sentenced me to the worst death possible.

The pain worsens as he stretches me wider, dominating my walls and leaving me open.

For the past three years, I've not had sex at all. I never imagined the first sex I'd have would be something this savage.

Our kind is not meant to stay that long away from sexual intercourse, especially women. It closes our walls and pleasure glands, which prevents our rut. Our heat.

Pleasure becomes extinct; it'll no longer be felt. Getting wet becomes impossible.

Right now, I'm so dry. My cunt isn't gushing any fluid.

Ryder gave me no choice, and I lived with my fate.

That's why this is nothing but cruelty to me.

My belly burns when I feel him slam into me again and again.

I weep, chanting the goddess's name like a prayer.

Please, somebody, help me.

I move again.

This time, I managed to get away.

I scramble to the wall and curl in on myself, my hair damp and matted to my forehead.

My body is shaking terribly hard as I look into his amber eyes.

He bares his maw, fangs filling my view. He growls both in pain and frustration. His paw-hand swishes through the air, trying to reach out for me.

"No...please..." I wail, shooting out my hands to block the attack.

My heart is drumming insanely fast against my ribcage. This is horror.

"I can't do this. You're my worst enemy. You can't get what you want from me." Jumbled words rush out of my mouth.

He snarls into my face, his face now at my eye level.

I flinch when he lifts his paw-hand to my face.

Oh, seven seas, he wants to crush me now?

The panic sets in, increasing the rate of the terror I feel. The shake of my body.

I brace myself for death, eyes closed.

A minute passes. Two minutes while the song of death is on repeat in my mind, and yet the pain that comes from being crushed doesn't overwhelm me.

What I feel is a feather-light touch on my cheek, wiping the waters away slowly. Gently.

The tempo of my heart increases instead of reducing.

What's this?

Gentleness?

Quin can never be associated with gentleness. Impulsive, yes. Brutal and savage, even, but never this.

I pop my right eye open when his hand falls from my face and meet the emotionless eyes of the feral beast staring into my face.

My lips part, and I exhale through them, watching him.

He purrs in my face, looking at me.

'Why...did you stop?' My mouth moves, but the question doesn't come out. It's stuck in my throat as I hold his stare.

His hand comes up again, to my hair this time. He grabs some strands and flicks his fingers through them as if he's studying them.

Even though he doesn't need to bring it to his nose to perceive my scent, he does it anyway, inhaling my scent. The sound of his intake of breath breaches the silence of the cellar.

Suddenly, he drops my hair. He looks me in my face, fangs bared as if ready to tear into my flesh right away.

He steps backward, eyes still on me.

I'm still shaking. Confusion marring my features.

Did...he recognize me?

Is that...possible?

His loud roar snaps through my brain, interrupting my thought process. My hands cover my ears.

Something is wrong with him, and I don't know what it is.

But if this is what I think it is, if Quin has recognized me, then this will turn worse than it already is. My death won't be quick. It'll be agonizing. The kind that'll haunt me even on the other side.

I prepare for his next action, waiting for him to stop roaring.

When I notice he's stopped, I remove my hands from my ears and look back up at him.

His dick is still hard and red at the tip, beading with his precum.

It bobs as he whirls around to face me, danger glimmering in his eyes. A silent promise of agony.

My throat tightens when he begins to take a step toward me, his tail's poise lethal.

"No...no..." I whimper, shaking my head as he closes the gap between us. Blood rushing through me, cinching my lungs.

Then I feel it.

Two powerful paw-hands haul me up. The breath in my lungs whooshes out in a sharp rush.

I expect him to throw me against the walls. I'm mentally prepared for it, not physically.

But on the contrary, the beast pulls me into his broad chest, closing his powerful arms around my frame.

His feet thump like boulders on the floor as he carries me through the cell into his inner chamber, a small, dim space with an oblong stone stool that can as well serve as a bed.

He lays me on it nicely, the movement a contrast to the roar he'd let out, the hard gaze he gave me, and the way he'd fucked me.

Of course, my heart is still beating hard, adrenaline racing through my blood.

Confusion, that's what I feel.

What is he doing?

Why did he bring me here? To butcher me?

To make a meal out of me?

I watch him pace like a beast protecting his territory, eyes still on me.

What in seven seas is going on here?

There's this struggle between deciphering his actions and closing my eyes to sleep going on inside me.

I choose to stay awake, watch him pace, and unravel his actions and thoughts.

In the first few minutes, it works.

But the ache I feel in my body, the hard throbbing of my cunt from his earlier torture, draws sleep faster to my eyes.

I try to fight it. I do.

Yet nature wins, dragging me under before I know it.

Even though I'm fast asleep, I can feel the beast's eyes on me.

He's watching, pacing, purring all for a reason I don't know yet, but I know I'm not safe.

Not with Quin, not with his beast.

I can never be safe until...

Tbc

Veil.

The splash of cold, stinky water hit my face, and with a gasp, I rise up from the bed.

Bed?

Realizing it's true that I'm actually on a bed, I dart a frantic look around me.

How in the heavens did I end up here, or is the previous day a dream?

I mean, I clearly remember being in a cellar with Quin.

I remember his rough thrusts into me; the throbbing of my pussy is clear proof.

He didn't kill me. My worst enemy didn't feast on my flesh.

I bite my lip, unsure whether to feel relief or dread.

As if that's not enough magic in one day, I'm suddenly back in my old bedroom in the pack house. The smell of dust wafts into my nostrils.

Was it Quin who brought me here, or did I sleepwalk?

This doesn't make sense.

The barrage of thoughts spinning through my head hinders me from taking in the people in my room until another splash of cold, dirty water plummets on me again.

I perceive the acrid scent of...urine.

Disgust crawls up my throat, and I look up with anger and disbelief in my eyes, only to see them: Ava, Caroline, and Emma, my best friends.

My lips widen in a smile upon realizing it's them, but contempt twists their faces as they look at me, their hands crossed over their chests.

I look down at my drenched clothes as the thick scent of urine burns through my nostrils.

"Wow...what a nasty welcome," I say with a slight humor lacing my voice, wiping my face with the quilt before peering back at them. "Ava? Caroline? Emma?" I call, uncomfortable by their silent treatment and judgmental stare.

It's been years since I last set my eyes on them, but truly, they've not changed a bit. Caroline is still just as slim as she was before, and Ava is still radiant despite being plus-size. The spaghetti dress she's putting on reveals the freckles on her body that earned her the nickname 'frecky' from me.

Well, Emma is the only one looking different, with bright skin and a few pounds of flesh. Her dark hair looks silky.

My eyes catch the wedding band on her finger, which surprises me.

Is Emma married?

Caroline's scoff breaks the silence that envelopes us. She tilts her head, a sneer on her lips as she addresses me.

"Do you want to know what's nasty? It's you showing your goddamn face back in our pack, bitch!"

Her words sting, so icy that they freeze my blood.

Of all people, my best friends are the only ones I was hoping would believe that I'm innocent.

Certainly, they are aware that the night I eloped with Ryder, I left with nothing.

Weren't they the ones who led me to the border where Ryder and I met?

I force myself to breathe past the heavy stench, rising up to my feet.

"Wait, you also believe I stole the moonstone?" I ask in disbelief. "Is that why you poured..." I trail off, looking from my soaked clothes to the bed and back at them. "You just poured urine on me?"

They burst into laughter, their eyes shimmering with mirth.

Emma speaks this time, sounding accusing. "You know...I've always known you to be a pretender, Veil, and goodness, that bored the shit out of me." The blood drained from my face. "But guess what? We both know the truth, Veil, you're a thief..."

"But, you were there the night I left...You helped sneak away from the pack." I softly remind them only to be silenced by Ava's next words.

"It doesn't excuse the fact that you stole from us..." She walks forward, tsking and shaking her head. "You know, it'd have been better for you if you had died last night, because trust me, every minute you spend in this pack will be nothing but hell, Veil. Life wouldn't be as it was years ago, when you were feeling like the queen of the world, using us as your puppets. Now..."

"We'll make you suffer, Veil. You don't know how long we've prayed for things to turn like this, so we'll make you feel what it's like being like us, poor church rats." The threat she spills makes me grit my teeth.

Poor church rats, that's how they always refer to themselves whenever they see me in luxury clothes back in Halesbridge Academy. We'd laugh it off as nothing, and I always made sure they had access to any of my belongings they wanted.

Despite all that, this was what they thought about me all the years we've been friends.

The betrayal stings so hard, I try to fight it. Unfortunately, they don't give me the opportunity.

"Bring her along," Emma says with authority, snapping her fingers at Caroline and Ava, who quickly do her bidding.

They arrest my arms, and they drag me away from the bedroom with force.

Oh, not again! I whimper inside me, the ache I feel resurfacing.

"What are you doing?" I bite out, snapping my gaze at them as they drag me outside, several pairs of eyes watching me, the pack maids, obviously, until we arrive at the pack's public lavatory.

The buzzing of flies grates on my nerves just as the pungent odor wafting from the lavatory twists my intestines.

"What's this? Why did you bring me here?" I bark as they push me to my knees, my bruised hands meeting with the hot sand.

"What else?" Emma sneers. "The lavatory needs to be sparkling, and who better to do that than the..." she air quotes her red-painted fingers "slave?"

The color drains from my face.

I'm not surprised they've reduced me to that.

I flinch as another fly buzzes close to my ear as I watch Ava stab a mop on the ground before me, silently ordering me to take it and get to work.

My hands visibly shake, vomit building in my gut as I reach for the mop, the cool steel barely dousing the fire burning inside me.

Their laughter tears through me, filling me with bitterness.

"Come on, be quick about it. I'll be right back to check how it is once you finish." Emma announces, amusement dancing in her almond eyes.

I watch them whirl on their heels, walking away while I process how my life ended up being worse in my pack.

"Oh, and Veil..." I peer up, locking eyes with Emma when she calls, her wedding band glinting under the sunlight as she waves her hand. "That won't be all. You have hectares of land waiting for you to cultivate them, so chop-chop, there's too much work to do."

I nod slowly, bringing my eyes down at the mop as their footsteps fade away.

Now alone, the buzzing of flies fills the silence, weakness creeping into bones the moment I realize I've about twenty toilets to clean, all brimming with shits.

"Goddess, how did I end up in this mess?" I mutter to myself, tears rimming my eyes as I pick up the bucket and start cleaning.

My body aches all over, the bruises on my fingers hindering me from squeezing out the mop appropriately.

The silence causes thoughts about last night with Quin to flash through my mind again.

Why didn't he kill me? Truthfully, it'd have been the easy way out, even though I abhor the thought.

I don't understand his reason for stopping his brutal assault, only to carry me to what I assume is his bed chamber.

I formulate several theories in my head, trying to solve the puzzle, but I come up blank.

Was it really him who brought me to my old bedroom?

"Oh, shit!!" I hiss, slapping away the fly perched on the tip of my nose.

Goddess, this is so disgusting!

Having my best friends turn on me makes this new life insufferable.

Is this how my life will be now?

Why hasn't my mother come to see me, at least?

I remember our days together in Halesbridge Academy. We were inseparable, united, or so I thought.

Now, I'm nothing more than a slave to them.

Thinking about them reminds me of the ring I saw on Emma's finger.

Is she truly married? To whom?

Finishing with the first three toilets, I move onto the next, but just as I open it, a

My head swims so hard my vision gives way. I try to hold myself up, but I land face-first on the floor, the pain worsening.

Whimpers rip from my mouth as I hear it, a distinct voice calling my name; however, my mind is too frazzled, stuck in a dark web to make sense of the voice.

Tbc.