It took me a whole week to start standing on my own without any support.

I was still very much weak and couldn't run and prance around. I couldn't talk to the voices inside my head - they were dormant. I had already stopped hearing Celeste's voice - it was like she had become one with me and if she had some opinions different than mine, she just struggled to take over my body. As I had grown closer with Cynthia, the same had started happening with her, and it was like three different pieces of my soul were becoming one. No matter how wonderful it had been, I had been missing the feeling of talking to someone about my problems.

It wasn't just about talking, though. I couldn't feel them inside me, too, which made it more difficult for me to cope with the situation.

I didn't want to talk to Aiden - in fact, I was avoiding him as much as I could while living under the same roof as him. I didn't know at all how to behave around him.

I wasn't even helping him with the chores, and he was doing everything for me. He helped me bathe everyday and it was embarrassing every time to see him tending to my needs - it included taking me to the bathroom and waiting till I finished.

I felt extremely useless, because I was not doing anything - not even something for myself. I couldn't even escape or at least get myself to call out for help. All I could do was slowly get used to the routine I was currently in, where I was solely dependent on Aiden to feed me, bath me and take me to the damn fucking toilet.

All I could do was sleep, sleep, mope a little and sleep some more.

I couldn't even bring myself to feel frustrated about it - I was so tired all of the time that I was forced to let my guard down and not care about if he poisoned me in my sleep or if he sunk his fangs in me and sucked out all of my blood.

"How do you feel today?" Aiden's voice came through the doors. "Feeling any better?"

I shook my head, "No," now on talking terms with him, "I don't feel much better than yesterday, but much stronger than how I was feeling when we came here first."

At this, there was no concern in his voice - he simply didn't care if I was feeling stronger or not. In fact, he just wanted to make sure that I was so weak that I won't escape.

"It's alright, love." Aiden kissed my forehead and hugged me, "I'm here for you till you need me and I'll never tire of you. You'll definitely get better soon."

Liar.

I nodded into his chest, wrapping my arms around him. He was my only source of comfort at the moment, and I selfishly wanted to use everything he was giving. If I was not going to be able to ever get out of here, I could at least remain positive about my situation, or get the best out of it.

What was surprising; he didn't force himself on me, neither had he talked about the mating rituals ever since we came here. I also threw tantrums many times, just so he could get mad at me and send me away but he never raised his voice against me. It was like his patience had no limit when it came to me.

Reluctantly, I was starting to grow softer towards my handsome mate. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome.

I wished desperately that I wasn't so weak. I had no control when it came to Adrian and now I had no control when it came to Aiden. I didn't understand why - even though both the men didn't do a thing to be deserving of my attention in this way. Adrian only kept seducing and disrespecting me while keeping Delia with him and Aiden had lied to me all the time when he had my parents in the dungeon and was draining them of their energy and blood.

"When, Aiden?" I asked him, "It's been a week. My body has not recuperated yet. There's no significant progress. I just thought it would take two or three days. This looks like this is going to take an entire fucking year!"

"Calm down, Cynthia."He tried to be reassuring, "Even though what you did still makes me mad, I have to agree that you were very brave and selfless there - healing everyone while still maintaining your energy and fighting those off against you. I was watching you the entire time during that battle and I was in awe of you, Cynthia. You were very strong and fierce, and I have to admit, you would have been an amazing Luna Queen." His voice grew quieter towards the end.

I sighed, "I don't want to talk about that right now, Aiden." I said to him, "If you really want to do something for me, please let me go and meet my parents."

"I can't do that, Cynthia." He pulled away from me and took my hands in his, "I do love you very much, but I'm selfish, too. I told you, love, that I have only you left now, in this entire world - only you. I cannot let you go so easily - if you go now, I know you'll go straight in the arms of your other mate, and that's not something I can just sit and watch. Once I'm sure that you will never leave me, I'll get your parents here to meet you."

And that was how it started - me trying to lull him into a false sense of security. I wanted to show him that I was slowly getting used to life with him and was falling in love with him again. I didn't bring the change in me abruptly - I let him feel as if I was slowly warming up to him and let my guard down.

Whenever he went out to get food for the both of us, I took the support of the walls of the house and went outside, till the front porch, only to find our surroundings devoid of any vampires or werewolves. I only faintly smelt the presence of a water body nearby but that was it. I had no other clue as to where I was.

Sometimes I just sat on the couch in the living room and looked around the house - when I had first come here, I had never noticed that this house was fully furnished as if someone was living here, or the arrangements were made in this place beforehand for someone to live in case of emergency. There was everything here, even a working television and a fridge where only water and milk was stored.

Every time Aiden went out, he always returned with blood spattered on his clothes and food for me in his hands. I had soon grown accustomed to this because I needed the energy to get out of here faster.

Food was the only way I knew.

I didn't know what I would do with Aiden if I ever managed to escape. I knew there was one way to escape easily and that was to kill him in his sleep - but I could never bring myself to really do it.

Stupid mate bond.

I knew he was making full use of my dilemma at his advantage and that was why he blindly trusted me when it came to these things. He, just like Adrian, used the mate bond in favor - the only difference was that Adrian used it to bring me to the Kingdom so that he could keep me safe and Aiden was using it so that I didn't harm him and escape from this situation.

There were times I just sat and summoned my energy into trying to call out to those who could get me out of here. I didn't even know if anyone was trying to find me, I was just assuming that my parents were all healed now and were out to find their daughter to save her.

To remain positive throughout the entire situation, I conjured up images in my brain, about meeting my parents, settling things with both my mates before silently walking out of their lives. Then I would take my parents to the human world, get a job again, relive my entire childhood with them, tell them stories about me and my grandma and listen to their stories of their childhood.

I imagined cuddling up with my mother while sleeping, and fighting with dad over the smallest things. Then we would visit my grandma's grave together and tell her about everything that happened. I would thank her for protecting me from the world when I was so vulnerable, then I would tell her how much I loved her and would always love her.

************************

The second week came along and my body made some more progress in terms of energy. I was still not capable of running away - in literal as well as metaphorical sense. I could walk around on my own, and Aiden no longer had to help me around everywhere. He wasn't very much happy about me getting independent, but this was huge for me.

I was a step closer to freedom and that was all I wanted. I just wanted my wolf and my PureBlood to speak out for me, so that I could get a clue about when I was at my best.

Aiden was a strong, 'tainted' vampire. To escape from him, I would need to be at my strongest and quickest. I didn't know my way around here and only my inner voices and instincts would help me get out of here. If I wasn't able to get Celeste and Cynthia's voices back, there was no chance I would get out of here.

"Aiden," I whined, "I've been in the house for so long. I want to get out of here. Let's just get some fresh air somewhere."

He didn't miss a beat as he shot me down, "No Cynthia, you're not strong enough at the moment. If you really want the fresh air that bad, I'll take you to the lake behind the house and we can take something to eat there."

"That's all I want, Aiden." I grinned at him, which was completely fake. I felt a slight tingle of anticipation in my chest, hoping that I would get some sort of clue about my location. The Vampire Kingdom had high-risers, and even a glimpse of one of them could give me an idea about the right direction. This house had been surrounded by tall trees all around and it was impossible to spot anything from here.

We did go to the lake but it was a very disappointing experience. Aiden still kept doting on me as if everything was right with our lives and I still wasn't able to spot anything around me. There was no clue about where I was - no scents, no high-risers,

The third week since the war came around and I was horrified and disappointed to feel human. I could do everything - I no longer felt exhausted, could go around anywhere, but I was human.

I couldn't feel the presence of the supernatural entities in me and it horrified me to my core.

When the realisation had dawned on me about their complete absence, I had cried the entire night, with Aiden softly rocking me while murmuring and assuring me at the same time that everything would be fine, with or without them. He seemed to be sure that as long as I had him, I didn't need anyone else with me - not even the most important parts of my soul.

That night I had cried for one more reason - my shattered hope. I couldn't escape Aiden without them; it was impossible because no matter where I ran, I knew he would catch up to me. I was extremely vulnerable and weak and there was no way I could contact my parents without them.

The only upside to it was that Aiden couldn't mate with me in this form - it would kill me and that was the last thing that he wanted.

I spent my days in despair, engaging myself in the household chores. I didn't want to give up so soon, but I wasn't stupid and I knew that there was no way out of here.

All I could do was mourn the loss of my soul.

**************

I was doing my dishes, staring at nothing in particular when I felt a weird tingle in my chest. I ignored it at first so that I wouldn't get my hopes up about it. We had the dishwasher, but I kept myself busy in chores so that I had at least something to do when Aiden went out for food.

The tingle transformed into something stronger and I felt scared.

I frowned, anxious as to what I was exactly feeling. I knew I wasn't scared, and it was neither my PureBlood nor my Wolf because I knew they never felt scared.

I turned away from the sink and looked around the house, suddenly getting a feeling that there was someone here, someone other than me and some who was not Aiden.

"Who's there?" I called out, taking a bold step forward and moving out of the kitchen. I could feel this presence and the tingle was now growing stronger - so much that my chest was aching.

What was happening?

My mind felt jumbled with chaos, when out of nowhere a huge man stopped to stand in front of me.

My eyes were level with his chest, so I slowly raised my eyes so that I could look at his face.

But then, I didn't really need to look at him to know who he was.

I let out a loud sigh of relief.

My father.

"Papa..." My voice trailed off as I stared at him gaping for some time.

I didn't realise it before, but my father was a huge man. When I first saw him, the last time, he was a frail, weak man, and mom had carried him to the Kingdom. I never guessed he was this large, and I supposed this was how PureBloods were, large in stature.

He was taller than me by at least two feet.

He looked so healthy, in all his prime and glory, and not like the weak man in the cell looking at whom had brought tears to my eyes. The love I felt for this man crashed into me like a large wave and I jumped into his arms suddenly, taking him by surprise.

"I'm here, my darling girl, I'm here. We'll go back home and everything will be alright. I won't let anything happen to you anymore. Your mom's here, waiting outside - we have to get out of here soon, okay?"

I nodded in his chest.

I was crying like a baby, my arms still wrapped around my father and my legs hanging in the air because of how tall he was. He chuckled softly when he realised that I wasn't releasing him anytime soon. Just like that, he effortlessly picked me and in another second, I could feel the soft fur of my mother under me.

"My poor girl," my father looked at me sadly, "Look at what he's done to you; I'm so sorry we took so long to find you, Cynthia. We couldn't reach out to you at all."

My arms were wrapped around my mother's wolf and my cheek was pressed against the back of her head.

"How did you find me?" I asked him, "This place is so..."

"Your friend Kia was with the Wiccan Chief - Josh - and both of them were passing this area on their way to the Vampire Kingdom when Kia felt your presence here. She immediately alerted everyone. This happened just yesterday, and we came as soon as we knew he'd be away from you." He told me, his voice all gruff, warm and fatherly, making me love him so much more.

My eyes widened when I realised what he had just said, "We have to get out of here before he comes back!"

I didn't want him to come near my parents anytime soon, not when I was still not sure how much I trusted him around them.

"He's not coming here anytime soon, Cynthia. Don't be worried, we'll all handle everything just fine. We won't let anything happen to you." My father kissed my forehead.

I was not worried about myself, but I was not going to point that out to him, not when I was so worried about Aiden showing up out of nowhere and then capturing us all.

I sunk deeper into my mother's fur, feeling her comforting me with her energy. It was weird how she could do that since she wasn't a Luna.

But then, she was Queen to the PureBlood Kingdom, being mates with my father. I didn't want to think much about her abilities anymore; I just hoped we were successful in getting out of here.

A very small part of me sunk at the thought of going away from Aiden, but I crushed the feeling down. I deserved to be free of him - I deserved a life with my parents.

A larger part of me was hopeful again, of being able to lead the life I dreamed of. My heartbeat quickened slightly, excitement filling me at the thought that everything was going to be alright, finally. I dared to believe that all my dreams of escaping this Kingdom and living with my parents were coming true.

A sudden feeling of fear gripped me, and it made me frown. I took in a deep breath, hoping that the feeling faded away but it only intensified with time. My heart was thudding, not from excitement this time, but fear.

It all felt weird and I tried to find out why I was feeling this foreboding sense, this fear, that something was going to go wrong very soon.

My mother still comforted me every now and then, sensing what I was feeling, but no one said a word as my parents started out slowly, and then ran with full speed, letting me get used to the speed with which they were moving.

I was gripping mom so tightly that I was afraid I would strangle her with how tightly I had held her out of fear of falling off and the fear that overtook me.

The fear was now accompanied by many emotions, and I couldn't make out anything anymore. I was lost trying to figure out what was happening to me, where I was and what I was doing. I wanted to clear my head but this was not going away. I felt worse with each passing moment and I was nauseous now.

My mom skidded to a halt and my eyes opened wide, just in time to see what was making me feel...

"Don't bring her here! Take her away from here!"

But it was already too late, and I had already seen Aiden's head being ripped away from his body.

I screamed.

*************************************

Hey guys,

This book will go through hardcore editing. I'm seriously disappointed with all the plotholes, the confused narratives and those half-ass scenes. I haven't done justice to a single character of the story and me reading it all over again makes me want to rewrite everything.

The plotline will remain the same, the characters will become better and I might change the names of the male character. Josh? Jason? Ace? I want bulkier names for them, so I'll just warn before I do such changes.

This story might have spin-offs.

Love,

M