Desert Heat (Complete)

{Maya’s P.O.V.}

f**k my life. It feels like I was hit in the head with a frying pan ten times over. When I finally woke up, I was hoping that my having been caught was just a bad dream, but it wasn’t. I woke up in a dark room with no light. My wrists and ankles were burning, and I realized I was chain downed with silver. Wherever this was, I didn’t like it. I tried to break the chains but to no avail. The silver was weakening my immune system, and my wolf Josephine was nowhere to be found. I tried to tap into her to see if shifting would help, but nothing. She wasn’t answering me.

I sat in darkness while continuously trying to break the chains for the goddess only knows how many hours.

“IS ANYONE OUT THERE!?” I shouted to see if anyone could hear me. But all I got was dead silence in return. “SOMEONE! PLEASE! GET ME OUT OF HERE!” I shouted again, but still silence. “Ugh! Where the f**k am I!?” I shouted into the empty darkness around me. All this work, all this planning down the drain all because Brian hired the wrong bounty hunter. He hired the Gamma without knowing. How the hell could the Gamma be a ruthless bounty hunter? That didn’t make any sense. I grew up in this pack, and I never knew that he was a bounty hunter, I just thought he worked with them closely at the Alpha’s firm. As I about to scream out again, I heard the door opening, I looked up, and immediately, I knew it was the Alpha.

“Time to wake up, Maya,” he said.

“I am awake,” I growl. Now that I was considered a rogue, I didn’t have to be respectful, but that didn’t mean I was any less scared of the guy. I mean, seriously, he’s a f*****g giant.

“I would watch that tone if I were you, b***h,” I heard the Luna’s voice. I snap my head up and see her glaring at me.

“Come here to gloat that I got caught?”

“No, I came here to get some answers out of you, and depending on how you answer will determine whether or not I disfigure your face, and pop those implants,”

“f**k y…” before I could even finish, I felt a fist to the face. The inside of my cheek was bleeding

“How about we try this again? I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to answer me truthfully, if I even sense that you’re lying, which I will, I’m going to hit you. Understand?” I didn’t say anything, then felt a slap across the cheek that she just punched. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?”

“Yes, Luna,”

“Good. Brandon, Lucas, strap her to the chair,” The Beta and Lucas came into the cell and pulled on the chains to get me to stand. They walked me over to the chair in the middle of the cell that I didn’t even know was there. The only light that was coming into the cell was because the cell door was open. “Now, Maya, we already know that you beat up Lacie, and sent her to the hospital the week before Christmas. That same night, her home caught on fire, and the pack fire inspector has already determined it was arson. So, tell me, did you set their house on fire,”

“I don’t know…” I was interrupted with a punch to the nose. I heard it crack, b***d was instantly running down my face.

“Try again,” she says with a smug look.

“Yes, I set their house on fire,”

“Why?”

“Because that home should have been mine! I should have been the one sharing that home with Aries, not that little Omega slut!”

“So, you burned it down?! Do you realize that the fire was so bad that it spilled over to two other townhomes next to it? You’re lucky that those homes were vacant! Given the time that it happened, you could have killed innocent pack members!” she shouted.

“Collateral da…” I was met with a punch to the gut taking the wind out of me. As I was heaving for oxygen, the Luna hit me once more.

“The fact that you were about to say collateral damage is why I hit you twice, one for each additional home you burnt down. Now, let’s move on to the fact that you tried to poison the men at the club the night of New Year’s Eve,” I snapped my eyes up at her.

“How do you…”

“How do I know? We all know,” she said pointing to the men in the cellar. “You and Heather were both caught on camera!” s**t, I knew that the club had cameras, but I thought were in a blind spot. “Tell me, Maya, whose idea was it?”

“Heather’s,”

“Where did you get the poison?”

“A witch in the marshlands in Florida,”

“How did you and Heather meet?”

“I have a friend in Tampa, and I went to stay with her. She got into me stripping so I could make money, and that’s how I met Heather, we worked at the same club,”

“Why? Why try and poison all the men at the club?”

“Initially we weren’t going to, our target was you and Lacie,” When I said that, the Alpha let out a fierce growl and grabbed me by the throat.

“Dorian, stop!” the Luna said trying to stop him from killing me. “Babe, let her go!” After a few seconds of not being able to breathe, the Alpha let go of me. I started to cough for air. “Babe, calm down,” she pushed him back and calmed him down before coming back to me. “Why were you targeting me and Lacie?”

“Heather wanted to get back at you for manipulating her mate to reject her, and Lacie is obvious,”

“How did you know that we would all be at the club?”

“We didn’t. Our initial plan was to give Esther the poison and slip it into your food or drinks. But when Heather called the club to get us the VIP lounge, and the club manager said that the owner was reserving it for himself, she told me. I knew then all of you would be the club, at least, all of the ranked members would be. So, Heather wanted to get you at the club that night, but then lucky for us, all of you, including Lacie and Heather’s ex-mate, showed up. We were already waiting in line when we saw you guys exit the limo,”

“So, you guys changed your plans to target the men?”

“No, we planned to still try to get you and Lacie, but when we saw the lap dance happen, Heather lost it, and honestly, so did I,”

“How did the bartender fit into all of this?”

“We saw him trying to flirt with the girl with the pink hair, and how she kept turning him down. When she went and gave Deacon the lap dance, we could see how pissed off he was, so we recruited him,”

“That’s when you all decided to go after the men instead,”

“Yes,”

“Andre was right, jealousy and revenge,” Brandon said.

“What’s more ironic is that Allie and Lacie ended up poisoned anyway,” Lucas said. I looked at him and then back at the Luna.

“Yes, that’s right, somehow fate had its way, and Lacie and I spent six weeks in a coma because we were exposed to the poison in the drinks. The men survived because of Leah,”

“But, how did you two survive!? The witch said it has a high mortality rate!” I was livid, was I lied to?

“It does,” Lucas says. “The poison has no cure, and the mortality rate is over 85%; however, thankfully, the Luna and Lacie were strong enough to fight it off, and they fell into the 15% of survivors,”

“Lacie!? How!? She’s a lower level Omega! How could she be strong enough to fight it off!?” This didn’t make any sense.

“Maya, did Heather tell you her pedigree?” the Luna asked.

“Yes, she said she’s the daughter of an Alpha,” I replied.

“Okay, did she tell you her relationship with Lacie?”

“What relationship? She said that she didn’t know Lacie,”

“Oh wow, looks like both of you are conniving liars,” she said. I furrowed my brows while sniffling the b***d in my nose. “Heather and Lacie are sisters,”

“WHAT!?” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, they are full b***d-related sisters. So, you know what that means right? Lacie is also the daughter of an Alpha,”

“That lying slut! I’m going to f*****g kill her!” I started to struggle against the chains and screamed at the top of my lungs. I couldn’t believe that Heather would go as far as to allow someone to poison her own flesh and b***d.

“What’s worse is that right now, you’re taking the fall for everything that has happened,” the Luna said.

“WHY!? I gave you all the answers you wanted!” I shouted.

“Well, because we can’t touch Heather, the last we checked, she went to a non-extradition country, and so, she’s in the clear, for now,” I was seething in rage. “I have another thing I want to ask,”

“What?”

“Why Brian?” I looked at her.

“How do you know Brian?”

“We were classmates at UNLV. We are friends,”

“He didn’t say anything about knowing you!”

“Well duh, you made him believe that Dorian and I were horrible leaders, and you manipulated him into putting out a bounty for your own personal vendetta against Lacie. So, I ask again, why him?”

“Because he was an Alpha, and he was young. He was an easy mark,”

“I figured that was the reason, I just needed you to confess it. Brian now knows the truth, and the entire truth,”

“Well, I know the truth too! That the Gamma is the bounty hunter Razor!”

“Yeah, we already know that you know, but it doesn’t matter, because you won’t be alive long enough to tell anyone,”

“What does that mean!?”

“Maya, the elders have signed your execution papers,” the Alpha says. “You attempted to poison ranked members of two packs, two of which are Alphas, and almost succeeded in killing in your own Luna, those crimes on top of attacking Lacie, and then burning down their home is more than sufficient to warrant your death,”

“AHHH!!! WHY IS LIFE SO UNFAIR! I DID EVERYTHING FOR ARIES! I REJECTED MY MATE SO I COULD BE WITH HIM!!”

“You what!?” they all exclaimed

“You rejected your own mate because you wanted to be with Aries? That doesn’t make any sense Maya!!” the Luna shouted.

“That’s easy for you to say!” I spat at her. “You were blessed with the Alpha when you were still human! You, Sin, and Leah! All three of you were the lowest of the low! Two humans and a hybrid mated to the ranked members! Not only that, but all three of you were also hand-chosen by the moon goddess! Blessed wolves! I was born a wolf! I was born here! I deserved to have a mate that was ranked or at least a high level! But no! The moon goddess mated me to an unattractive low-level Omega!”

“Could you be any more shallow!?!”

“That’s rich coming from you!” I spat again. “By the time I met my mate, Aries and I had already started sleeping together. I fell in love with Aries, I figured that if I rejected my mate, the moon goddess would make Aries my second chance mate, but she didn’t!! Aries dumped me the same day!! The same f*****g day!! He never called, he never texted, and he put up a block so I couldn’t mind link him! I saw him taking some new girl into his townhouse a few weeks later, but she never left!! She kept going in and out whenever she pleased! So, I went to go confront him, then she answered the door! That’s when I smelled it. Aries’ scent was all over her! Then she told me she was his girlfriend and his mate! Can you f*****g believe that!? I reject my mate for him, but instead of the moon goddess giving me a second chance with him, she gives him Lacie! And he accepted her and marked her! His mark should have been on my neck! Mine! Not Lacie’s!”

“Maya, do you realize how selfish you sound?” Brandon said to me. I snarled at him. “You broke some guy’s heart because he wasn’t attractive, and you expected the moon goddess to bless you with a second chance? You rejected the mate she gave you for your own personal greed and expected to her reward you?”

“I did it for Aries! How is that selfish? I did it for love! How is that selfish!?”

“You did for yourself!” Lucas shouted at me. “You hurt, used, lied to, and manipulated other people to fulfill your own happiness! That’s what makes it selfish! You didn’t want Aries to be happy, you only wanted yourself to be happy!”

“I could have made him happy! But he didn’t give me the chance! Once he was tired of me that was it! He threw me away like I was nothing to him! Then out of nowhere Lacie shows up and wham bam, I have a mate, f**k you, Maya!”

“Lacie didn’t just show up on out of nowhere,” the Luna said to me. “Believe it or not, Lacie and her friend Cianna, ended up at our pack because of Heather,”

“What?”

“Yeah, actually, Heather, Lacie, Cianna, and a couple of their other friends were in Las Vegas the week of Thanksgiving. The Friday after, the same day Aries and Lacie found each other, Lacie and Heather got into a huge fight over the whole Deacon thing, so Heather kicked Lacie and Cianna out of their hotel room, and with nowhere else to go, Lacie asked if she and Cianna could stay with us just until they left, but instead of leaving, they found their respective mates. So, in hindsight, all this happened because of Heather,” hearing all of this made me lose my mind.

“NO!!! AHHH!!!! NO!!! WHY!?!?! AHHH!!!” I thrashed and screamed and pulled on the chains. Heather that f*****g b***h! I knew joining forces with her was a bad idea, but she promised that she would help me get Aries back. “I WANT TO TALK TO ARIES!!”

“Why? He doesn’t want to see you,” Brandon said.

“He owes me an explanation at the very least! I need to know why he didn’t love me back!!”

“If that’s your final request, then I will grant it,” the Luna says. She turns to face the door, and Aries walks in. But instead of him being happy to see me, his eyes are filled with rage and disgust. That’s not what sent me over the edge though, she walked in behind him. Lacie.

“WHY ARE YOU ALIVE!?!?!” I scream at her. “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!!!”

“Wow, you really are stupid,” Brandon said. “You said it yourself you knew that Mikey was Razor, so, did you honestly think that he would go through killing Lacie? A friend?” he just shook his head and made fun of me.

“AHHH!!!!” I stomped my feet and thrashed my body against the chair. “WHY!? WHY!? WHY!?”

“Quit your whining and listen to me carefully, Maya,” Aries said in the most hatred filled voice ever. “I told you from the very beginning that what you and I had was purely s****l, and that was it. I found you attractive enough to f**k you, and that was all. I had no intention of dating you, let alone marking you. I was given the chance to find a mate when the Alpha graciously offered me membership into the pack. When you started to become clingy and start talking about pups and marking each other, that’s why I broke it off. You became obsessed and started to show up at my house unannounced, you even broke in several times, but I let it all go because I knew you were just trying to get attention. But the moment you put your hands on my mate, that was it for me. I hated you with a passion, and I wanted you out of my life. So, I reported you, but then you had the nerve to set my home on fire, thinking you could get back at me,”

“I loved you! Why wasn’t that enough!?”

“Because I didn’t love you! And I was never going to!” his words were filled with so much hate and honesty. This hurt more than when I rejected my mate and when he accepted it. I looked back at him, my eyes black with anger, then at Lacie, the b***h that took everything from me. That’s when I saw it, the piece of shiny jewelry on her left ring finger.

“YOU’RE ENGAGED!?!?” I snarled at her. “IT WASN’T ENOUGH THAT YOU TOOK ARIES FROM ME, THAT YOU’RE GOING TO MARRY HIM!!!” I screamed at her.

“We’re not just engaged, Maya,” Aries said to me. He went over and put his arms around Lacie. “Lacie and I are expecting,”

“AHHHH!!! YOU b***h!! YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME!!!” I screamed at her. I needed my wolf, I needed to shift to kill her. That pup should be mine and only mine. As I was screaming, I felt someone grab the back of my hair, and then I was hit across the face several times. When I looked up, I saw Lacie in front of me. Her eyes black as night. I watched as her fist made contact with my face again, and then she hit my abdomen.

“That’s for slamming my head into the floor!” she punched me to the right. “That’s for burning down my house!” she punched me to the left. “That’s for trying to kill Aries!” she punched my abdomen, “That’s for almost killing me!” she punched my abdomen again, “and that’s for putting a bounty on me!” Finally, she head-butted me, “That’s for almost killing Allie,”

“Precious, that’s enough,” Aries said to her. He had a pet name for her.

“You two are dismissed, have Dani shimmer you back to your room,” Dorian said to them.

“Say hi to your parents for us,” Lacie said with a cocky tone. What did she mean by that?

“Damn, she looks like s**t,” Brandon said lifting my head.

“Doesn’t matter, she’s going to die anyway,” the Luna said.

“I thought Aries wanted to do it,” Dorian said. Aries wants to kill me?

“He does, he wants to use the rifle Lacie got him for Christmas. Said something about it symbolizing both of them killing her essentially,” Lucas said. “Which, I’m still waiting on those rifles boss,”

“Calm down Lucas, Lacie’s friend at MI6 finally came through. We should get the shipment in another month or so,”

“Please,” I muster up enough to speak after being beaten. “Let me say goodbye to my parents,”

“Yeah, that’s not going to be possible,” the Luna said. I lifted my head, tears streaming down my half bloodied face. “Your parents are waiting for you in hell,”

“What!?”

“I’m sure you saw the news story about three pack members being executed for trying to traffic the Alpha twins, right?” Brandon asked. I looked at him

“No,” I said in disbelief.

“Yeah, it was your parents and your friend Esther. So, they’re already dead,” he replied.

“Don’t worry, Maya,” the Luna said lifting my chin. “You’re going to see them real soon,”

“Knock her out,”

“Yes, Alpha!” I felt a sudden blow to the head before I was consumed by darkness.

{Aries’ P.O.V.}

After Dani shimmered us back to our room, Lacie immediately fell to her knees and she was shaking uncontrollably.

“Precious, it’s okay, I got you,”

“Oh my god, is she okay?” Dani asked.

“Yeah, she will be. Go, I’ll this,” I tell her. She nods her head and shimmers out.

“I can’t believe I did that; I don’t know what came over me,” Lacie whispered.

“You were angry, it’s understandable,” I reply.

“I couldn’t stop, Aries. I couldn’t stop hitting her. Even with her face all bloodied, and her spitting up b***d from me hitting her in the stomach, I just couldn’t stop myself,” Lacie was starting to panic.

“Hey, come here,” I put her face into my neck. “Take a deep breath and try to calm your breathing,”

“I didn’t think I could be capable of that. What if I’m turning into an evil b***h like her,”

“You’re not. You’re the furthest thing from evil. Your actions and reactions are normal and to be expected. She hurt you multiple times, she tried to hurt me, she hurt the people we care about, and still she never once apologized for her actions. How you acted is how many normal people would react. If you didn’t react that way, I’d be more worried. And the fact that you’re now feeling remorseful about it already proves you’re not evil,” I rubbed her back and let her cry it out. Lacie and I have been through so much in the last six months that I’m honestly surprised that she’s still with me. Most women would have run for the hills by now, but not her. She’s so strong and courageous. I thank the moon goddess every day for giving her to me.

After a few minutes, Lacie finally calmed down, so I put her to bed. I laid down with her and just held her close to me. While we were laying down, there was a knock on the door. I carefully removed myself from the bed and opened it. It was Dorian and Lucas. I opened the door for them to come in.

“How is she?” Dorian asked.

“She’s resting now. Everything that happened down in the cellar freaked her out. She can’t believe she did that to Maya,”

“Well, her reaction is normal, if it were Sam, I wouldn’t have even stopped her,” Lucas says.

“Plus, Maya was pretty badly beaten up by Allie already, so Lacie didn’t do all the damage,” Dorian replies. I nod. “So, how did you want to do to this? Lucas says you want to use the rifle Lacie gave you,” I nodded.

“Yeah, I want to be the first time I ever use it to be on Maya, she deserves to die alone in the desert,”

“Lucas is still whining that you haven’t shared yet,”

“I thought Lacie’s friend at MI6 came through,”

“He did, but Lucas is just being a whiny little b***h,”

“Hey, I’m the best marksman in the pack, that’s why I am a team lead, I deserve to have the best toys in the business,”

“Which is why I’m getting them for you and your team, just be patient,” Dorian said to him. I just smirked. “When did you want to do this?”

“Sunset,”

“I’ll get it set up, you just be ready,” I nodded my head. They both left my room, and I laid back down with Lacie. After tonight, Maya will officially be out of our lives for good. I only hoped that we could catch Heather too.

{Heather’s P.O.V}

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Yes! f**k me!” I shouted as I was being f****d in the a*s by a hotel guest. After getting to Abu Dhabi in the UAE under a false identity, I found work at a hotel that catered primarily to tourists. I made money being a massage therapist and used my looks and sexy body to do a little more than massage male guests.

“Mmm… So, f*****g tight,” he m****d. “Argh, I’m going to c*m,”

“Yes, c*m for me!” I shouted. He m****d and g*****d, and then I felt him pull out and c*m all over my back and down my a*s crack.

“Fuuccckkkk…” he huffed and puffed. When he was done, he slapped my a*s and cleaned me off. He laid down on the bed and tossed me a few hundred dollar bills as a tip.

“I hope your massage was satisfactory,” I say to him.

“Very much, thank you,” I smiled and got dressed. I packed up my supplies and headed back down to the employee locker room. I didn’t have any massages lined up for another couple of hours, so I decided to take a break. I pulled out a tablet and decided to browse Instagram.

When I opened the home page, I saw that had over two dozen direct messages from people,

Heather, I’m so sorry for your loss. Let me know if you need anything.

Heather, I heard what happen. My condolences,

I can’t believe that this happened. Give your family my regards.

Girl, so sorry to hear about your sister. I hope you’re doing okay.

I kept scrolling through the messages, and they were all same. What happened to Lacie? None of these messages made any sense. I started scrolling through other’s people’s posts when I passed up one that caught my attention. I scrolled back up and saw that it was posted by Cianna. It was a picture of her and Lacie together. The caption read,

Lacie, I can’t even begin to say how much I’m going to miss you. This honestly cannot be happening. You were just getting to your life and finding happiness with Aries, and now this. What am I going to do without you? This is just too much to bear. I love you so much, Lace. RIP.

Lacie was dead? I saw a second picture on the post and slid over to it. It was a memorial announcement for this coming Wednesday at my parents’ house.

“So, Maya finally went through with it and got you. That’s what you get for being a little slut baby sister,” I say out loud while staring at the post. As much I think Lacie deserved everything that happened to her, I still couldn’t pass up the fact that I had an opening to go home. Since there was a death in the family, I could use bereavement to get out of work for a week. I went to my supervisor and told her about it, while fake crying. She gave me a week off, and I booked a flight home.