Fated To Three, And I Broke Them All

Verity:

Freaked out, I somehow snapped myself back to reality and started recording everything.

The photos, the projector, everything.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the footage.

I just knew I needed evidence that he’d been stalking me.

But I wasn’t even sure how much it would help.

Why would it? He still had plenty of things he could use against me.

Practically, I wasn’t safe.

Still recording, I stepped farther into his walk-in closet.

As I did, something on one of the shelves caught my attention.

It was tucked inside a plastic bag.

I reached for it with my phone still recording and immediately gasped.

There was blood on the blade of the pocketknife.

And it wasn’t just any pocketknife.

It was mine.

The one my brother had given me to protect myself.

The exact one I’d recently lost after stabbing it into the back of the lycan’s hand.

Now it was here, right in front of me, inside my boyfriend’s condo, carefully sealed in a plastic bag.

I picked up the bag, my breathing turning rapid.

”I’m in Dr. Roman’s condo, and this is the pocketknife I found,” I said into the camera. ”It’s the one I lost after I stabbed it into the lycan’s hand.”

I paused several times, struggling to catch my breath.

Then I panned the camera around the closet before abruptly stopping the recording.

Something told me I was in danger.

When I lifted my head, I spotted a small camera discreetly tucked into one of the shelves.

My stomach dropped.

There was nothing I could do about it.

Once Roman came home and checked the footage, he’d know I’d been in here.

And if I destroyed the camera, he’d still know someone had tampered with it.

Either way, he would know.

And once he came home, he’d make sure to silence me.

I had to get out.

As I hurried from the closet, I sent the video to the first person who came to mind.

Somehow, that person was O.

I sent him the video without any explanation. Just the footage.

He knew what to do while I go back home and tell the Alpha King brothers about Roman.

Then I quickly left the walk-in closet, shut off the projector, and walked out of the bedroom, sweating as I locked the door behind me.

I stared at the keys in my hand before my gaze shifted toward the exit.

No. I couldn’t stay here.

There was no way I could go through with tonight anymore.

How was I supposed to let him touch me now?

Now that I knew what he was capable of, making him angry could get me killed.

I was the girlfriend of a lycan who had been stalking me.

No wonder he’d known the exact road and time when I was traveling with Ragnar.

No wonder he’d attacked us that night.

I immediately rushed into the guest room and grabbed my bag.

Wheeling it behind me, I unlocked the front door from the inside and tossed Roman’s keys into the hallway, making sure they landed near his door so it might look as though he’d dropped them there himself.

There was no way I could keep lying to him anymore.

I just needed to buy myself enough time to get away.

The moment I was outside, I booked it.

With trembling hands, I requested a cab, and thankfully, there was a driver not too far away.

Once in the cab, I began running my hands over my face. I didn’t know where else I could hide.

A hotel or anywhere else didn’t feel safe. I didn’t know what I was thinking anymore.

All I could focus on was getting as far away from here as possible.

Halfway through the ride, my phone started ringing.

Roman.

He was calling me.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm my nerves before bringing the phone to my ear.

”Baby, I’m really sorry. I know you’re upset with me, but my boss called. There’s an important, urgent file that I forgot to give him, and, well, you know him. He got so angry. He threatened to fire me,” I rambled.

I heard Roman grunt on the other end.

”And you couldn’t wait two minutes for me to come back home?”

His voice sent goosebumps across my skin.

There was no way I could fool him. He wasn’t asking that question genuinely.

He sounded angry. So angry that I could practically hear his jaw clenching.

”I know. I’m so sorry. Please don’t be angry with me. You know how much you mean to me, and when you get upset with me—”

I didn’t even know what I was doing anymore. I just kept talking, making my voice overly sweet.

”Come back home. I’ll speak with Alpha King Ragnar and tell him you’ll give him the file in the morning,” he ordered.

He wasn’t requesting it, making a suggestion, or offering to help. He was simply pissed off and ordering me to return home.

I cleared my throat and placed a hand over my chest.

”I’m sorry. I can’t come,” I replied. ”He wouldn’t listen, and you know this job is important to me.”

I bit my bottom lip as fear gnawed at me.

”Well, Verity. You are making me very angry.”

He enunciated each word with such eerie calmness that I immediately sucked in a breath.

”I know, and I don’t like making you angry.”

I tried to sound considerate and sweet, but he grunted again.

”Well then, come home, because I’m fucking waiting for you,” he snapped, his voice turning harsher. ”Are you coming or not?”

My hands started shaking.

No. I couldn’t keep lying. I couldn’t pretend anymore.

He was a fucking liar and the scariest man I’d ever encountered. He was a monster.

If I went back, he was going to kill me.

I was almost certain he’d already seen the surveillance footage. He knew I’d been in his room.

”I’m not coming. Not tonight.”

I still tried to sound convincing, but I knew I’d given myself away.

He knew the truth, too.

I hung up and immediately started hyperventilating.