The Quarterback’s Obsession

VESPER’S POV

“Vesper, darling. Give in to your desires. I know you want it,” the seductive voice I had come to abhor slurred in my ears, and I could do nothing about it because I was bound. Imprisoned by unknown forces, I used to think I had control over it.

“No,” I groaned in response as I fell to my knees, fighting what threatened to break out from within me.

I could feel her aura take a step back, before a low, dark chuckle escaped her lips. Then she grabbed my jaw roughly and made me look into her eyes. Her glowing silver eyes flecked with ember dust.

“You’re taking my niceness for granted, sweetheart,” she said, her voice taking on a sharper edge. “No one is coming to save you, but I can. Just–“

“She is… coming,” I cut in sharply, still trying to subdue the pain that erupted in my insides. From what I was becoming.

Her lips stretched into a loop-sided smile. If she wasn’t such a monster, her beauty would have been breathtaking.

“You have been saying that for the past six years, Vesper. Yet, where is she? Nowhere, and do you know why?” she asked, her voice now venomous. “Because she doesn’t exist.”

Her words stung sharper than any sword could. She has to exist, she’s out there, somewhere.

“You’ll come to accept that soon enough, in three months time, to be exact. When the next Onyx moon rises and this parallel, as you know, it comes to an end,” she whispered before letting go of my face.

“Till then, Vesper darling,” she waved as she turned her back on me and began to walk away, her floor-length silver hair swinging side to side.

The hunger that pierced my insides quadrupled the farther she went. I reached out to her, to grab her and make her put an end to this suffering– even though I hated her, but I couldn’t. She vanished, leaving me alone in my misery.

It got to the peak where I felt the energy pulsate through every pore on my skin and I screamed at the top of my voice as I felt myself implode.

I woke up with a start, beads of sweat lining my face. Rubbing my hand over my eyes, I sat up and looked around, trying to recognize where I was. I wasn’t in the underground chamber, riddled with chains; I was in a room, my room.

A hand snuck up my chest, drawing my memories back from before I fell asleep.

“Vesper. Are you okay?” Ciara asked, pulling her body closer to mine.

Filled with a sudden sense of repulsion, I pulled back the sheets and got off the bed swiftly.

“Out. I don’t want to see you here when I get back,” I ordered without even sparing her a glance.

I grabbed a towel off the hanger, tossed it over my shoulder and walked unashamedly naked into the restroom.

Ciara whispered my name, her voice sounding heartbroken, but I couldn’t care less. She knew what she was getting into when she agreed to be my side piece. I don’t have relationships or emotions, but for some reason, that’s what they all always want after a while. If she wasn’t so good at what she does, I’d have tossed her away alongside the others.

I poured some water over my face to break myself from the subtle daze the dream had put me in. From the daze Hera had put me in. She haunted my dreams every night from the moment I turned eighteen. Most times she’d force me to do despicable things, telling me I was her husband and at her awakening, we’d mate under the onyx moon.

My reflection stared back at me, making me wonder what I’d become, or worse, what I was becoming. I’ve been to sages across continents, consulted witch queens, nothing. All that I had gotten was that it’d end when I find her, and I have absolutely no idea who the ‘her’ is.

The dreams were constantly reminding me of what I was, a monster only barely contained. An evil the world was yet to witness.

No one knew about it, about my dreams, except my mum. She was more connected and was able to find me a serum which I took at intervals to suppress my berserk wolf. Even though it’s been working, I can feel my wolf growing even more resistant to it each full moon.

Exasperated, I quickly had my bath and returned to the room. Ciara had left already, leaving behind a trail of her scent. It smelled weak and it irritated me.

I dressed up quickly and placed a call to my beta in training.

“Julian, get the car ready.”

It was that time of the month, the time when I risked releasing my wolf in the safety of the woods– away from human eyes.

Julian leaned against the car, typing away on his phone, but as soon as he sensed my presence, he looked up at me with a smirk.

“Caught Ciara crying again,” he stated as we both got into the car.

“That’s her business. I don’t do girlfriends, she knows it. She’s just a plus one, for now, till I mate Elara.”

Elara was my dad’s choice for mate for me. The only daughter of wild muts pack, she had been training to be a Luna her whole life. She had the wits, the strength and the carriage of a woman fit to mother a pack. She was perfect, or at least, that’s what my dad kept on saying.

“Then quit leading her on by inviting her to bed whenever you feel like it,” he reprimanded, trying to keep his tone level. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought he liked the omega.

“I’d do as I please,” I responded with an air of authority which was strong enough to convey that I had ended the discussion. He got the message, and we continued silently on the road, past the buildings and into the woods.

We drove for hours until I couldn’t take it anymore, my bones were itching to transform.

“Stop here,” I ordered, and Julian hit the brake to a stop.

He turned to look at me. “Are you sure? This isn’t the place we usually stop at.”

I ignored him and got down from the car. “Then go wait for me there,” I instructed, pulling the bottle of serum from my back pocket and downing it in a gulp.

My wolf surfaced with a roar and, for the first time in weeks, I let him. He pounced out, morphing through my human body and began running through the forest, scouting for its next prey. When it found one, it pounced on it and devoured the creature mercilessly.

Just as he was done with its meal, it picked up another scent, a distant one. It smelled like forest flowers, with a hint of something raw, like blood. A new sense of hunger sprang up, making my wolf grow restless to find what it was.

I knew if I didn’t tame it now, I might lose control, so I forced Vixor back under a leash and shifted into my human form, but the hunger remained and so did the scent. Maybe finding what smelled this divine would calm my nerves a bit.

I returned back to where I knew Julian was waiting after washing up in the local stream.

“Done so fast?” he asked me with a raised brow.

“No. Get me some clothes.”

Though the look on his face revealed he had questions, he obeyed, and as soon as I was done dressing up, I turned and walked away.

“Don’t follow me, I’ll be back soon.”

“But Vesper—“ I cut him off by turning to face him sharply, and bringing him to submission with my Alpha aura.

“I said I’d be back soon,” I repeated and continued walking away, towards the scent that lured me like a siren’s call.

It was coming from a small town beyond the woods. I’d never been there, but the scent was my guide.

I continued through the buildings till I stopped in a certain neighborhood where the scent was strongest. I continued into a dark alley. Even though it was dark, I could see every detail perfectly.

Suddenly, the hair on my arm rose; I could sense a presence, no, three.

“Well, well. If it wasn’t the star quarterback, Vesper. Decided to come hunting again today?” an unfamiliar voice echoed.

I turned to face the men, all dressed in leather. That they knew I was here came off as quite a surprise. I knew rival packs might know my movements, but these men smelled human. How did they know I coming hunting? More importantly, who were they?

“And you are?” I asked, keeping my tone low, yet dangerous.

Vixor was threatening to surface again, but I kept him still. The codex had warned us never to attack humans in wolf form and risk exposing our existence, so I had to play careful.

“Not important. But we know who you are, and we want you to show us.”

What?

Before I could take another step, one of them shot me square in the chest. I had to pretend like I was normal and fall to the ground, then he shot me again and again.

Strangely, I noticed I had suddenly become weaker; I was losing strength, which meant one thing– the bullets were poisoned. But how? They’re humans, they know nothing of this stuff… except…

My head fell back as I struggled to fight the poison off my system. Normally, the effect of poison wore off in seconds, but this one took longer. I couldn’t even mind link Julian.

Then, out of nowhere, the scent that dragged me here hit my nostrils again and this time, it was closer, stronger. It was here.

The next thing I heard was the sound of bodies dropping, and then I felt an extra presence, a feminine one. She was the bearer of the scent and up close, she smelled– human? I kept still until she came close to me. When her hand grazed my skin, a jolt of electricity dazzled through me and Vixor howled a word I had been hoping to hear all my life.

‘Mate.’

However, when I opened my eyes, the face I met sent waves of fear rippling through my system.

Kneeling beside me was no other person than the woman who had been haunting my dreams for years.

Hera.