Captured

“Yes, it is!” Calvin snapped, the first crack in his control showing. “Their family and ours are enemies, Olivia. Enemies. Do you even understand the implications of what you’re doing?”

Then, without waiting for a response, he turned and walked away again.

The room felt colder all of a sudden.

Olivia’s POV

I blinked. “What? Who?”

Nora swallowed hard but shook her head. “No… what is there to hide?”

My mind was spinning… “How did Anita’s father use a dark spell on the triplets?”

My breath hitched.

My eyes shifted slowly to Nora, who leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.

My mind reeled. “How? Why? I thought—”

Nora nodded.

I sat up straighter. “Wait–Anita? As in the Anita?”

I sat in stunned silence, every part of me trying to absorb what I’d just heard.

“But what if I’m just being weak and stupid?” I asked.

He turned and walked toward the door, but before leaving, he paused, his back still to me.

My silence must have said enough.

I stared at her. “What… did you say to him?”

“We’re not directly related,” I said firmly. “You know that, Calvin.”

Tears burned at the back of my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I stood my ground.

Lolita raised a suspicious brow at her. “Is there something you are not telling us?”

Nora shifted beside me, then turned toward the door. “I’ll be back,” she said suddenly.

Nora looked away, clearly uncomfortable. Lolita bit her bottom lip, like she was dying to say something but knew better.

I was stunned… All of this had happened… and I hadn’t known?

“I haven’t forgotten,” I whispered. “But I’m trying to heal. And they’re trying too.”

I frowned. “Where are you going?”

“No.” He cut me off, his eyes blazing with anger. “No excuses, Olivia. This is disgraceful. Sleeping in the bed of the same people who ripped your heart apart? Whose family has done nothing but torment ours?”

Lolita stepped closer as she sat beside me.

I narrowed my eyes but let it slide–for now. My head was still spinning from Calvin’s outburst and his unexpected apology.

I sank slowly onto the edge of my bed, my arms folding around myself. My chest ached from the tension, from Calvin’s words, from the ugly truth of it all.

Just then, the door creaked open.

Lolita and I exchanged skeptical glances at Nora’s too-quick answer. Obviously, we don’t believe her.

Calvin stepped back inside, his face unreadable. And right behind him… was Nora.

I tried to stay calm. “It’s not that simple.”

“Don’t you know?” Lolita cut in, her voice more serious, “She lost the last pregnancy.”

“Whatever you think you’re doing,” he said through gritted teeth, “you need to stop. Now.”

Calvin stared at me like I’d just confessed to committing treason.

He scoffed, stepping forward. “And what about the fact that we’re related?”

Her words sat heavy in my chest.

He glanced at the window, then back at me. “I still don’t accept them. I don’t know if I ever fully will. But I shouldn’t have said what I said like that. That was… wrong of me.”

I sat frozen, my heart still racing.

Nora cleared her throat and changed the subject, almost too quickly. “Anyway… guess who’s in your brother’s dungeon.”

She shifted on her feet, her arms still folded, but I could see her throat bob as she swallowed hard.

Was I doing the right thing?

And then she walked out too–leaving me with Lolita.

“There’s nothing to hide,” she repeated, a little too calmly.

She gave me a look that said she didn’t believe that for a second.

I hesitated before nodding. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.”

I swallowed hard, then turned to her. “Lolita… do you think Calvin’s right? That I’m making a mistake?”

Calvin shook his head slowly, his eyes filled with disappointment. “Our parents would be ashamed of you.”

I looked up at her, my eyes burning. “Then why can’t Calvin?”

My breath caught.

Then he walked out.

She simply gave me a small frown. “I’m coming.”

Lolita leaned in slightly, her tone low. “Anita.”

I lifted my chin, already bracing for the inevitable wave of judgment. “Calvin-”

Nora shrugged. “We have no idea… you’ll have to ask them yourself.”

She shrugged. “Nothing much.”

I turned.

“It got worse,” Lolita went on. “We don’t know all the details, but from what we’ve heard, her father used a dark spell on the triplets… we don’t know how.”

“You might think this is love,” he said, voice colder now, “but this is just obsession.”

His jaw was clenched so tightly I thought it might crack. His hands fisted at his sides, and I could practically feel the rage radiating off him. But to his credit, he didn’t yell. Not yet. His voice, when it came, was low… controlled.

She tilted her head, letting the question settle before answering. “I think… love doesn’t come with a right or wrong, Olivia. It just is.”

Calvin cleared his throat, his gaze lowering briefly to the floor before finding mine again. “I… I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “If my words earlier hurt you, that wasn’t my intention.”

Lolita sighed. “Because they haven’t shown him. Not yet. He’s still stuck in the version of them who hurt you. That’s all he knows. But you… you’ve seen a different side. You’ve seen them fight for you, cry for you. He hasn’t. So I understand where he’s coming from too.”

That hit deeper than I wanted to admit.

“He said I’m letting them off too easily,” I whispered. “That I’m forgetting what they did.”

I looked down at my hands.

“I do,” I said quietly, folding my arms. “But that doesn’t make what I feel any less real.”

“And now,” Lolita said, looking at me with concern, “she’s here. We don’t know how, but somehow, Alpha Calvin sent his men after her. She’s locked in the dungeon.”

“You’re not weak or stupid,” she said firmly. “You’re strong enough to let yourself feel. That’s more than most people can do.” She touched my arm, comforting me. “The triplets… they love you. I see it, clear as day.”

Calvin’s expression shifted. His voice dropped, softer now. “You’re going to forget how they rejected you? Humiliated you? Tore you apart? Is that it?”

“She miscarried?” I asked, stunned.

“That doesn’t make it right,” he fired back. “So what? You’re just going to forget everything they did to you?”

I blinked.

“She did,” Lolita confirmed. “And after that, everything crumbled. The triplets–especially Lennox–banished her and her mother from the pack.”

Lolita was still processing when Nora added, “Her mother couldn’t take the disgrace. She killed herself not long after.”

“You’re not forgetting,” Lolita said gently. “You’re choosing to forgive. There’s a difference.”

I stiffened. “What?”

Too controlled.

That one… that one shattered something inside me.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

“Alpha Lennox ordered his execution,” she said. “He was crucified, as a warning to any pack members who tried to use dark magic.”

“Oh my goddess…” I whispered.