Two persons pov.

••••

There is no place like home. Cliché I know, but oh so true.

After we teleported through from the muggy daunting Shadow Realm, finally smelling the clean crisp atmospheric air in our own Realm is truly tantalizingly. The aroma of freshly clean cut grass along with the fragrance of blooming flowers wisp around me and throughout the Realm. Fucking beautiful!

Home is here the heart is, yet another sappy cliché that I can purposefully stand behind. Although these days my heart is also happily encumbered with Starla.

I have been slightly on edge about her meeting our family, though it's only with two members of my family that I'm actually dreading for her to finally meet.

One being Nelly, the formidable Princess, with a grand chip on her damn shoulder. The other being one that me and Niko has endlessly argued over every since we have met Starla.

That one is going to be a massive bombshell that I seriously don't think Starla is going to take too well.

He should have told her when we first met her, that's for damn sure, but no amount of me disagreeing with him could change Nikos mind about it unfortunately.

What's the old saying? 'You reap what you sow?' Well Niko definitely fits in that category and we are all about to see the disastrous repercussions from keeping a secret from the person you suppose to love.

I just hope I don't get mixed up in this messy situation but undoubtedly I just I know I will. I regret keeping it from her and I'm pretty damn sure she is going to eventually hate me for it as much as she will hate Niko for it also and I can't stand it.

Guilty by association. Guess I'm going to have to reap what I sow also.

Well here goes everything then. I resign myself to step forward into the castle albeit hesitantly.

Grasping Starla's dainty hand into my own, I give it a tiny squeeze and just hope for the best.

Entering the castle with Starla planted firmly at my side along with Niko and the others behind us. I see my family that's been waiting patiently for arrival, when they finally notice us they turn beaming from ear to ear.

My parents, my sisters, my nephew, and my sisters other half's are all standing in the middle of the living area smiling at our arrival.

My mother rushes forward, still beaming, embracing me and Niko into a enormous hug. She gave both of us a little kiss on our cheeks then turns her attention to the beauty standing beside me.

"Mom, this is Starla." I introduce them gleefully. My mother is such a sweetheart that she embraced Starla into a huge hug immediately.

"So nice to see again you dear." She excitedly tells her.

"You also my Queen." Starla says, she bows slightly out of respect seeing this makes my heart swell in my chest.

My father then approaches us, giving Niko and I a manly hug, while patting us both generously on our backs. He then turns to Starla.

"It is very nice to see you again Starla." He formerly but graciously tells her granting her with one of his rare smiles.

"You as well my King." She respectfully tells him, bowing again slightly.

My sisters instinctively manage to make their way over to us. Terista is holding young master Johnny in her arms with her mate trailing along beside of her.

"Hello I'm Tarista, and this is my son little Johnny." She says, bouncing little Johnny on her hip.

"And this is my mate Johnny." She adds gesturing to her mate.

"It's lovely to meet you all finally." Starla smiles at little Johnny. He shyly puts his head on Teristas chest. Giving Starla a little bashful smile.

"He's so adorable." She coos at Johnny.

My other sister, Nelly just stands beside Johnny with her boyfriend Harris diligently standing beside her, staring unabashedly over at Starla. She doesn't even try to introduce herself, of course.

"Daddy!" A childish yell echos throughout the living room area breaking through the happy reunion.

I gulp.

Tansania, Tanny for short, runs hurriedly through the room with a broad smile on her tiny face.

She jumps ecstatically into her fathers welcoming arms.

Niko embraces Tanny lovingly, hugging her firmly in his arms while Tanny happily wraps her tiny arms around his big broad neck.

I smile at them both ceremonially, until I hear a tiny gasp coming from beside me.

Starla is staring at the two of them, wide eyed with her mouth agape in clear astonishment.

This is the moment I have been dreading since we met her. Fuck! Niko should have told her. Tanny is a love child between him and a one night stand he had with her mother, Lysia, a she-wolf that was pretty much promiscuous.

She didn't want to have anything to do with her one and only child and with the knowledge that Niko would never take her as a chosen mate, she abandoned the child on our doorstep with just a fucking note one night and never once looked back or seemed to regret it. She signed over all of the rights to her over to Niko.

Although she is the first born child of us two she would never be able to take the throne as the Queen regrettably.

Being the bastard child of a King is frowned upon tremendously in our Realm. Our subjects would never be able to accept her because of her questionable parentage unfortunately.

Needless to say to avoid a war amongst our kingdom, we have to have a true royal heir. To me, it just doesn't seem fair for Tanny but to avoid a major catastrophe within our Realm, it just has to be this way.

My parents have been taking care of her every since that night that her mother so carelessly abandoned her. Niko gets her every weekend and whenever we are capable of being home though. He would never neglect his own blood. I was very proud of him for deciding to stand by his daughter.

But now, I'm completely terrified just from seeing the shocked expression on my loving mates face.

Niko, with Tanny still enclosed in his arms, looks over at Starla standing beside me with regret and sadness captured in his eyes.

I hold my breath waiting on someone to say something. When the ensuing silence becomes to much for me to bear I finally speak up.

"Starla." I drawl out her name with worry devouring me to my very core.

She looks apprehensively to me then to Niko and Tanny.

The sadness that swells within her shows clearly on her beautiful face.

Then without ushering a single word she turns on her heels angrily and walks out of the castles entranceway door.

Not even bothering to close the door behind her.

Fuck!

"Why didn't you tell her?" My mother screams at Niko for what roughly feels like the millionth time after Starla's hasty departure.

After she left we have all been sequestered in my office. Along with me and Niko there's also my angry parents, and of course Alis and Demir are in here with us, trying to control their own reasonable anger toward us.

Thank fuck that my sisters and their loved ones deigned to give us some privacy. I honestly couldn't be more relieved over it though. If Nelly had her way she would definitely be in here putting her damn two cents in about it.

Thankfully our father demanded privacy for this outlandish argument developing in my office.

"No. I'm sorry. I just didn't know how." Niko says regrettably.

He is now situated in the chair positioned before my desk. With me behind my desk and my parents standing over him giving him the one two about it.

Alis and Demir are seated precariously on the far side of the office on the leather sofa talking quietly amongst theirselves, ignoring our very presence.

We have no idea where Starla ran off to. She could be anywhere, in either Realm. There is an abundant amount of placeless she could escape to, they are endless and with her stalker still roaming about unbeknownst to any of us who or where he might be I'm more worried about her damn safety than her feelings at the moment.

I just wish I could have convinced him to tell Starla about Tanny before now.

Things would have been so much easier and she will still be by our sides.

                              Starla

I walked smooth the fuck out.

I didn't know how to handle it. To keep a secret from me is one thing but this big of a secret is just way over the top.

He took the cowardly way out and kept it from me! Shit! I should have known something was up by the way he started acting as soon as we entered back into his Realm. All nervous and somewhat fidgety, trying his best to avoid looking at me in my eyes.

A child?

A beautiful one, but still, he has a child and couldn't fucking tell me! What kind of fucking asshole does that?

Im so glad that I didn't bond with him yet, not after this fiasco, I may never will.

Im only twenty two for fuck sake how am I suppose to be a step mother to a child that I just fucking met. Wait? Am I the step mother or is Niko still with her mother? For fuck sakes! He better not be, that would be just one blow too fucking many.

Why couldn't he just tell me?

He willingly let me walked into his castle and dropped the bombshell right on me in front of his entire family. It was mortifyingly embarrassing!

I don't know if I will be able to ever face them again. Ugh! This is so fucked up to highest level!

I didn't know where to go after I left their castle. I eventually ended up back at the Alkine Academy in my little two bedroom cottage just a short walk away from the campus grounds.

It seems like I haven't been back here in so long now. The musty smell invaded my system just as soon as I entered my old dwelling.

I sort of missed this place actually. After Jaci moved out and went back to her mates I had another roommate for awhile after her but that one ended moving out rather quickly because of my horrific screams that echoed throughout the cottage almost continuously in the middle of the night. Thanks to my fucking demon stalker.

Now it feels so desolate and lonely with me being the only occupant living in it. Leaving my other mates behind might not have been the best decision I could have made but I wasn't thinking very clearly at the moment.

Dammit! How could Niko do this to me? We were actually starting to get to good place in our relationship finally and the moron had to go and ruin it like this!

I flop down on my little twin bed and cry the night away.

••••

It's been almost a week since I walked away from all of my mates. I'm starting to feel the desperate pull of our bond heavily tugging on me to go back to them.

But I can't.

I fight it every second that I'm away from them all. My nightmares are starting to become even more frequently than they have before and it's terrifying me.

He's getting bolder with his aggressiveness toward me. Casually touching me in places that no one but my mates should be touching.

His valid threats toward me now are becoming all consuming. I started talking more and more to him in the hopes that I can discover something about him but it's been fruitlessly frustrating because he never drops his guard not even for a damn second.

I'm so damn exhausted from barely getting any sleep now that's it really starting to take its toll on me. My weight keeps dropping unfortunately and my eyelids feel so damn heavy that sometimes I honestly think about prying them open with toothpicks or something.

I don't know how much more I can actually take?

I decided, on the spare of the moment, to finally step away from my cottage and venture out into the world again.

That's why I'm presently here at the petting zoo. Walking around aimlessly, with a bag of oily peanuts in my hand. Needing a break away from my insanity.

I spot my friend Jaci basically at the exact time that she spots me. I run up to her happily. It's been so long since I've seen her. I give her giant hug that's when I notice her four striking mates standing behind her.

She looks a bit better since the last time I seen her though. We walk away from her mates and start talking about what's going on in our lives. Catching up basically. I confess to her about my current predicament with my mates and Niko and all the damn secrets. I begin to cry earnestly right in front of her and the passerby's who are staring at the two of us strangely.

By the end of my tirade she offers me her undying help and friendship whenever I need her. I do the same hugging her again before she gradually leaves me to go back to her impatient mates.

The loneliness engulfs me watching her walk away with them. Ora especially is showing his love for her so openly. Watching them makes me long for my loving mates.

How am I ever going to forgive Niko for this?

••••

Another long week has passed with loads of remorse and an abundance of crying.

I finally bucked up the other day, waking into the Headmaster Griffins office. I prearranged to have my classes switched to them mostly being online now. Except for those that I have to be in attendance for that is. Those I will finish in the final semester thankfully, I just can't bring myself to even care about them at the moment though.

Right now, I'm in my small kitchen cooking me up a decent meal of cheesy pasta and garlic bread. When I hear a faint knock on my front door in the middle of slicing the garlic bread, I halt my slicing, putting the knife down on the cutting board.

I hesitantly walk to the front door, peeking through the peephole before I open it.

I smile when I see the my old friend, Chadwick, standing on my front step bobbing back and forth on his feet.

I unlock the door quickly, opening it up for him I plaster a giant smile on my face. He smiles in return then hugs me ferociously. Lifting me up off of the floor suddenly, he swings me around in giant circle before he places me firmly back onto the floor.

"Damn it's good to see you honey. Where the hell have you been?" He ask in that sexy baritone voice of his.

I've happily known him for years. He's the one that lent me his shoulder when I was devastated over my breakup with Liam. He's a vampire and for a while I wish that I was his beloved one but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Although he still flirts with me constantly he knows that I have been waiting for my true mate so he eventually backed off to allow me to pursue what my heart desired.

"Here and there. What have you been up to?" I ask him as he walks into my cottage with a magnificent strut that shows his backside to me. I can't deny that I find him sincerely attractive.

"Same. Thought I would drop in and see how my honey has been doing. I heard about this stalker of yours from Cameron. What's going on Starla?" He ask while taking a seat on my burgundy plush sofa. I gradually sit down beside him. Crossing my legs I lean back to observe him more clearly.

So fucking handsome. A woman could drool just by looking at him. Yum!

"Cameron talks too damn much!" I finally reply to him.

"He's just worried about you like we all are. Why didn't you tell me honey?" Because I don't want be a fucking burden who continuously whines all the damn time. I think to myself but wouldn't dare utter a single word of my forlorn thoughts to him.

"I'm okay Chad. Besides, you have your own life to live. It doesn't seem that important in the grand scheme of things." I try to push it off nonchalantly.

"It is important honey. You're important to me. This is serious Starla. Whoever this asshole is isn't playing around. We need to find a way to stop him." Chad pleads placing his arm over my shoulder he brings me closer to him for a friendly hug.

But oh how I wish sometimes that it could have been more. I know I shouldn't be thinking this way but after the torment Niko has put me through the feeling of being comforted like this feels awfully damn good right now.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Niko decidedly chooses this exact moment to come crashing through my cottage door with me still wrapped up in Chads embrace.

Well dammit! I don't suppose he will look at this encounter as being anything but innocent. Right?

I slowly disengage myself from Chads arms, staring defiantly at my very pissed off mate.

"You broke my damn door Niko!" I yell when I suddenly notice my damn door splintered throughout the entranceway, hanging off of its hinges.

"I could give a rats ass about your damn door Starla! We have been searching for your ass nonstop since you fucking left and when I finally find you it's the arms of another fucking man?" He screams ferociously at me.

Alrighty then. I know this looks bad but where the hell does he get off yelling at me that way?

"Just who the fuck are you?" Chad grouses standing up from the sofa shooting Niko piercing glares.

And wouldn't you know it. All of my other mates come straggling in behind Niko none of them are looking to happy at the moment at me either.

"I'm her fucking mate! Who the hell are you pretty boy!" Niko is fuming. Fuck! I'm going to have to deescalate this damn dick off competition regardless if I want to or not before it's gets out of hand.

"Stop! Niko why the hell are you here?" I ask him tirelessly, standing up from the sofa edging my way in between the two masculine morons that keep glaring daggers at each other. A dizzy spell hits me suddenly, grabbing my head, I try to stop the dizziness spiraling around me.

Unfortunately, it was too late!

Darkness surrounded me.

••••

"Welcome back love."

Oh hell no!

Waking up slowly darkness still engulfs me. Complete and utter horrific darkness. I shiver.

Hearing the gruesome menacing voice of my stalking monster usually terrifies me to my very core but as of this second it's only managing piss me off.

"You bastard. I am done! Show your fucking face!" Hearing my own voice echoing back at me is the only reply that is forthcoming.

"You're such a pathetic coward! That's why you never show your damn face. You're too cowardly to face me! You get off on tormented others. Well not me. Not anymore. Im sick and damn tired of this bullshit. Leave me the fuck alone!" Twirling around in circles I'm hoping to catch of glimpse of my unknown demented tormentor.

"Language love. It's unbecoming for such a beautiful lady to use such foul language." He tsk.

"I never claimed to be a lady. Show yourself!" I scream.

A shadowy wisp circles around me quickly.

I keep turning in circles hysterically looking for him.

Then a force hits me so hard it knocks me to the cold hard ground unexpectedly. The air swishes out of my lungs from the hard impact. My damn head hits the solid flooring making me nearly see stars floating around.

I feel something slowly crawling up my leg, like tiny little tendrils creeping upwards. That's when I noticed that I'm completely fucking naked. How?

I freak out! Crawling backwards on all fours rapidly until I hit a hard surface against my back, stopping my progression.

The little tendrils reappear slowly making their way up my leg. All I can see is pure nothingness all around.

The tendrils reach the apex between my thighs, slamming roughly into it, so hard it makes me scream!

"Noooo! Stop! Please?" Tears are rapidly falling, my heart rate grows erratic. The tendrils keep pushing inward and outward forcing itself into me repeatedly!

"Stooooop!" I scream.