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Ludo guides us into the castle, feeling the coldness of the walls against my already icy skin. Kassian was beside me and Nella and Mace fell into line behind us, my eyes looking up at the grey brick walls and fire lanterns hanging from the panels.
"So you're the Alpha that took in our Cleo?" Ludo questions Kassian as he turns his head towards him.
Kassian's eyes meet his and he nods firmly. "It wasn't our first choice," he says loudly and I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "But our pack member, Hope. She's been lashed by Pandora's powers. Leaving her to have frequent seizures. So we're here to help so that my pack doesn't lose a close member."
My eyes blink back at Kassian, never have I heard him sound so soft. But at the same time we were in the company of others and it wasn't the time to become irrational and act like we all hated each other. We needed to make a good impression to get the information that we needed, and before Alfie ended up murdering Kassian for not doing more.
Ludo laughs softly. "I hope Cleo didn't cause too much ruckus," he murmurs before looking over at me.
"She's a fighter, that's for sure." Kassian says bluntly, even I couldn't grasp the tone of his voice. If he was trying to offend me or compliment me, but I let it slide for the sake of being in their humble abode.
Ludo guides us through the large hall, down to a room at the end of the castle. He pushes his hand onto the thick door and we follow him inside. Chatter comes to a silence as I glance around the room, my eyes instantly zeroing on my fathers, my jaw clenches and I look over at Ludo who looks away.
"Cleo," my father breathes out.
He looks apprehensive as he pushes himself off the sofa arm and walks towards me slowly, his eyes looking cautious. "How are you?"
I scoff at his words. "How am I?" I respond sourly. "Like you care about me after you left me alone in the woods when I needed help, after everything mum did, after the pain that she put me through. You left me."
The bags under my dad's eyes increase as he looks down, his eyebrow wrinkles creasing as he holds his hands together in front of him. "I'm sorry," he says.
"No you're not," I speak over him harshly. "You're not sorry, you don't leave your own flesh and blood."
"You were about to kill yourself with your talk on going to take down your mother alone, there was no telling you." He tries to explain but my eyes don't soften.
"Because you had no idea how much I was hurting on the inside," I grit out angrily. "You kept telling me that I was better than the curse, to just not let it affect me. But it was tearing me from the inside out dad, you didn't even want to understand how I felt. How much I wished that I could have just died."
The room turns silent at my morbid comment, but it was true. What sort of life is this? Being unhappy and everyone hates you because you're nasty and malicious for no reason.
"Cleo," my father whispers out. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, I was afraid. I know how powerful Pandora's spells are, what they can do to people. Turning loved ones against you, it was a cowardly thing of me to do and I'm sorry."
My arms fold over my chest. "These guys might hate me," I motion to Kassian, Nella and Mace behind me. "But they still took me in and never gave up on me. No matter how much of an ass I really was, they don't even know me. You're my father. What does that say about you?"
"Selfish," Nella whispers to Mace so quietly that only we could hear it.
I wanted to smile at her comment because I knew that she understood me but now was not the time to drop my shield.
His dark eyes close for a moment, his shoulders sinking forward in nothing other than guilt. As he should. You don't give up on your flesh and blood.
Ludo clears his throat and we turn our attention towards him. "Diamond is in her study," he says, trying to change the subject. "Shall we go and see what she has to say about your mother?"
I nod and remove myself from the room before anyone else has the chance, I didn't even want to stand here and look at my father for a second more. Nella runs up behind me and dips her head closer to mine.
"You handled that well," she whispers towards me.
"I know," I say confidently, my eyes look towards her.
Ludo guides us further into the castle before knocking on a door, hearing Diamond's voice from behind the wood. When we enter the place was like a magical shrine, plants of all sizes and dream catchers spread across the room. Light classical music playing in the background, an incense burner at the edge of the window.
Diamond's pale blue eyes find mine and she instantly jumps up at the sight of me. "Cleo!" She says in disbelief as she pushes her chair out of the way and holds her hands onto my shoulders. "Oh my dear, how are you?"
"I'm alright," I nod back at her. "It's good to see you Diamond."
"Likewise," she grins back at me as she pulls back her hands, bangles upon bangles sitting on her wrists. A line of multicoloured rings on her fingers and long pendant necklaces around her slim neck.
"I heard what Pandora did," her pink painted lips frown towards me.
"That's why I'm here," I tell her strongly. "We want to take her down, she doesn't deserve to be living if all she causes is misery."
Diamond looks back at me and nods. "Okay," she says eventually.
"I don't know what you know but we need help in getting to her, her weaknesses. Something that will give us a one up on her," I explain. "I don't want anyone dying for me, so I need to know what we can do that will take her out without it being that much of a bloodbath."
Her mouth scrunches up to one side. "Well let's go find somewhere to sit down so we can discuss this." She nods towards me before pushing her way past Ludo and sliding her arm past his torso and walking us out of her study.
We settle down at a large oak table in an empty room, Nella pulls up a chair beside me and Diamond and Ludo sit opposite us. Kassian and Mace perch around us as they wait patiently for Diamond to speak.
"If there's one thing that I remember about your mother, it's her passion of hatred," Diamond explains. "And I know it's not news to you Cleo, but she has despised you since you were little."
Nella turns to me with an expression of sadness but I don't look at her. I didn't care if my mum hated me, the feeling was severely mutual.
"If you're going to attack her, the best way to get to her is through you." She speaks slowly. I nod back at her. "She is going to be infatuated with the idea of seeing you again after cursing you, she's going to want to know everything. Taunt you."
My elbows lean down onto the table and inch closer. "The best way to get to her is to distract her with the most important person in her life," she breathes out. "Whilst you're distracting her, that is the perfect time to attack. When she least expects it, build up your pack."
My lips hum towards her at her suggestion. "Do you have witches in your pack?" Diamond flicks her eyes between Kassian and then to Nella. "I know that you are my dear."
Nella clears her throat. "I'm not a strong witch though, I can only do a few basic spells and things."
Diamond shakes her head towards her. "You can be as powerful as you wish to be, your witch powers have no limits. You train, you practice and you never give up." She says as she slams her hand down onto the table.
Mace grips onto her little fingers as Nella nods.
"We have a few witches," Kassian confirms as Diamond's eyes zone in on his. "But we don't have a leader as such."
"Then be their leader," Diamond points towards Nella suddenly. "If you all come together and use your powers in harmony, then you can be as powerful as you wish to be. Power from the deepest realms of your heart can be more powerful than any hybrid or superior witch. You just have to practice and believe in one another."
"Okay," Nella nods firmly, Mace's fingers still latched onto hers.
"You see that's why Diamond is so powerful herself," Ludo pitches in. "Because she practices, she believes and she excels. You are the one in control."
"We can practice together," Diamond looks towards Nella. "But once we are well rested."
Ludo nods back at us. "You are all welcome to stay here for the night."
"You guys must be tired," Diamond comments as she looks between the four of us with empathetic eyes. "The drive must have been long."
"Yeah," Nella agrees. "I'm quite tired."
"We can catch up tomorrow, as a new day. I can show you a thing or two to take back to your pack." Diamond smiles towards Nella.
"Thank you," she says gratefully.
"I'll show you to your rooms for the night," Ludo says as he pushes the chair out from underneath him.
We all follow as we grab our bags from the front door and walk up the stairs. "We didn't have much room for you guys but we've managed to find a couple spares, if you guys don't mind being in small rooms."
"I just need sleep," Nella admits and Mace agrees, his eyes heavy from the drive.
Ludo leads Mace and Nella into a room, my eyes glance over at Kassian as I realise that we're the ones who are sharing. Nella definitely wasn't thinking right now, her tiredness had taken over.
"And this will be you guys," Ludo says as he swings open the door, the smallest double bed in the world.
"Are you sure there is no other space?" I question him. "I'm happy to crash on the sofa."
Ludo shakes his head instantly. "Nope, we advise not to leave your rooms at night for safety."
"Why?" I ask.
"Just for precaution." He smiles towards me.
I let out a silent sigh and nod, shuffling into the room with our bags. Ludo glances between us and smiles. "Right, well I'll see you bright and early tomorrow."
Before I even get the chance to say goodnight, he slams the door leaving Kassian and I alone in the room. Slowly my body rotates towards him and we glance at each other for a few moments, neither of us uttering a word.
"I'll take the floor," he says and I let out a sigh of relief.
There is no way I'd be able to handle myself sleeping next to Kassian when I knew how soon my heat was coming up, it was brewing but I didn't need any temptations. Not here, not now.
I lift my bag up onto the bed and dig through for my pyjamas, Kassian turns from me and pulls his t-shirt up and over his head. Watching his back muscles flex before he pushes his way into the en-suite and shutting the door behind him.
My lips mutter out some stupid curse word as I strip my clothes and pull on my comfy bottoms and a slinky cami top.
I glance down at the bed and then the hard wooden floor, which did not look comfortable at all. So to my dismay I grab onto two pillows and drop them on the floor, pulling back one of the blanket covers and folding it in half so that he wouldn't be back to back to the cold floor.
"Best I can do," I mumble to myself before switching on the bedside table lamp and climbing into the bed, looking up at the ceiling.
When Kassian emerges from the bathroom, he turns off the light and looks down at the bed I made him on the floor. For a few moments he doesn't say anything, then he clears his throat and drops the rest of his clothes to the floor.
"Thanks," he tells me bluntly.
Quickly turning off the lamp before I shuffle onto my side so I no longer have to look at his partially naked body, considering his fingers have been deep in my pussy and my lips have been wrapped around his cock. We should not be this awkward with each other.
"No worries," I breathe out harshly.
My eyes stay open as I face the wall, Kassian gets down onto the floor and sighs out. I could tell neither of us were about to sleep any time soon, regardless of the journey that had made us tired.
A few minutes pass and I listen as Kassian shuffles against the floor, grunting into the pillow. He huffs out a frustrated breath once more and I roll back over to face him, but within a few seconds he settles again
"What did your mum do to Diamond?" Kassian asks which startles me.
"What do you mean?" I huff out.
"I can tell something happened between them," he explains simply. "I can sense a severe hatred from her when you speak about your mum."
I lick my bottom lip as I open my mouth. "What didn't she do? That should be your question." I mumble out.
"I didn't realise how much hard work your mother really is," he admits and I nod my head as I look up at the ceiling.
"Yeah she's definitely a spawn of Satan, there is no other explanation." I sigh feeling my anger bubbling up inside me, the curse latching to my throat at the thought of talking about her.
"So what did she do?"
"She was envious of their relationship because they didn't have kids," I say as I rub my eyes to dry and distract myself. "Ludo and Diamond are so in love and it's infectious, but to my mum it was a disease. She was just jealous because my father wouldn't attend to her like Ludo did to Diamond. So she took her anger out on her."
"What happened?" Kassian's voice comes out quietly through the darkness.
"My mum took away her voice and kept her prisoner in the basement whilst everyone tried looking for her." I explain. "Ludo eventually found her and shit hit the fan. You've seen Ludo, he's not a small guy. He showed my mother who was boss and she didn't like it. So they fled and left my father and I alone with her."
"Ouch," Kassian says. "Your family is fucked."
"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," I roll my eyes harshly.
Kassian doesn't reply so I take it on myself to roll over to the other side of the bed and attempt to close my eyes, needing sleep for whatever we had in store for us tomorrow.
. . .
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Ooooooh Pandora is a fucking bitch and she deserves everything that's coming to her
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Kassian and Cleo sharing a room, aye😈 what could possibly go wrong here?
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