Novels by Gracie Mackintosh

Armani’s favourite restaurant was more reminiscent of a small town caff. We walked inside together, still holding hands, and took a seat in a corner opposite one another. Although there was another young woman in a similar dress to mine, he looked completely out of place on his casual suit, the closest outfit being a pair of trousers beneath a polo shirt. After just a couple of minutes looking at the menu, a small figure caught my attention beside the table, and a young man asked for our order. The moment Armani looked up at him to answer, there was a soft gasp followed by fast footsteps rushing toward us. Anxiety rose up inside me as an elderly woman came to a stop with her hand on the waiter’s shoulder. “Cartelli,” she said, eyes wide. “You little shit, you haven’t been here in years!”Armani smiled so completely that I was stunned to silence. “Hi, Gigi.”“You’re so grown, my god!” Pulling the young man away, she stepped in front of him and reached out for Armani. He willingly sto

“I-I thought Bill would take me h-home…” I replied as I twisted in my seat to face him. He was striding through the small kitchen watching me in return. His shoulder raised. “Slight change of plans. Olivia’s information requires some fact-checking and that’s not my role here, so I’m free.” “And you’re choosing to spend that time with Rose?” asked Alyssa, a smile to her voice. I didn’t dare glance back, too focused on maintaining a casual expression. In truth, I was pleased he wasn’t going to be working all day again. As an offering, he held out a hand to me and spoke to Alyssa, saying, “Yes, I am. The rest of you bore me.” His eyes flicked to mine questioningly, and I slid my palm onto his. With a gentle, effortless tug, he pulled me to my feet. “Are you and Danny heading home?” Alyssa sighed. “G’s good with the fact-checking, so I’ll hang around until he’s ready to go. What are you planning?” Armani squeezed my hand, which I realised he was still holding. “That depends on

Olivia had to leave shortly after dropping the bombshell that she’d arranged for the Cartellis to meet up with the Yehudas if they chose to, and suddenly I felt more out of place than I had before. I opted to take up an offer from Alyssa to tour the building, most of which belonged to the family except a restaurant on the ground floor and a couple nice apartments above it. I hadn’t noticed it when we arrived. She walked me through all of the offices and facilities, but since Danny had been very quietly walking alongside us, she didn’t dare enter a room she called the armoury. I doubted it really was that but I didn’t want to find out either. Almost two hours later, we came to a stop in a kitchen on the same floor as the main offices, and sat down opposite one another with mugs of coffee clutched between our hands. I’d barely said a word the entire time, as she’d happily explained everything she could about the family and how it operated. It was so alien to me. “So,” she finally

I could not help myself from flinging into Olivia’s arms as she grinned openly at my shock. She wrapped me up completely, the four inches between us seeming far more than it ever had. Realisation of how much I’d missed her and my other sisters quickly settled in but she pulled away too soon. Her gaze was locked across the table at Giorgio, who she wagged a finger at as she said, “I am not a stray, child.”“To us, you are,” he remarked, high-fiving a none the wiser Danny like they were a couple of high school boys. The actual child just smiled on trying to keep up with the conversation clutching at his mother. Olivia didn’t waste much energy on the interaction, taking my face in both hands to squeeze me with a slightly scrunched nose. “I missed you, Rosie. Is this how it’s going to be now you’re married?”I opened my mouth but slammed it shut again. I didn’t know. So far, it seemed I could spend time with Bill and no one else, as we hadn’t really talked about having other people in t

“For that reason, we’d like to set a couple ground rules with you.” “Nothing major,” Madeline added as she gave her husband a look. “We just want to make sure that both Dante and our family are comfortable with this arrangement. And you, of course.”Leo rolled his shoulders. “Information is best kept quiet unless it’s already been discussed by Armani and Dante directly. Anything you see while you’re here if you choose to visit regularly, will need to be a secret. Depending on how involved you want to be, you’ll know what you can and can’t talk about with your family.”My lips pressed together. I didn’t know anything as a baseline besides what the business itself was, and that it wasn’t exactly legal… at all. I doubted I’d be able to differentiate what was meant to be a secret and what wasn’t, so I resigned myself to accepting if I did visit, I’d have to avoid mentioning it at all to my sisters or family as a whole. Perhaps only Olivia would be an exception, though even then she was i

“Everyone will be here, but if you’re overwhelmed, you can just stay in my office. Whenever you want to go home, Bill will drive you back.” “I-Is he coming up, too?” I whispered. Armani shook his head. “The bodyguards stay downstairs on another floor to the offices. We have plenty of security, it would just get crowded.” I nodded slowly and glanced down at my lap. I wasn’t sure I was ready for this. Despite weeks at this point of getting used to Armani, I didn’t know if so many people I’d only met once would freak me out. After all, I wasn’t like most of my sisters; I could command a room or thrive in conversation. I was always the one they were hiding with their bigger personalities. “Wait here a second,” Armani told me and got out. I didn’t move, still staring at my lap when my door opened and a hand reached in. Recognising the move, I took it, standing up beside a man whose shadow cast over me easily. He shut the door, nodded at Bill across the garage, and led me toward an el

~ Hazel Irwin ~‘This is it,’ I had thought as I’d made my escape; I thought this would be my opportunity to escape for the final time, to be free and never have to look back my mate’s way ever again. But I’d only just made it out the front door, where dozens of pack warriors were, before I was mercilessly picked up like a child and slung over Jari’s shoulder. Everyone was watching me fight to let go, whilst he emotionlessly and silently carried me away from the prying eyes. The embarrassment crept in only when we were alone upstairs, when I abandoned all hope of escaping from his arms and just hung there uncomfortably. Not only had the pack now heard of my escape attempts, but they had seen one be foiled in the most belittling way possible, and this was somethi

~ Jari-Einar Colborn ~A soft gasp drifted into the room from the hallway, and in that moment I knew I had fucked up. My head snapped up, as Omari and Riley nervously turned toward the door themselves. It was still left ajar as it had been when they walked in, but the sound of footsteps could be heard rushing away. “Omari, Riley, get out of here,” I demanded, as I stood up and hurried around my desk. “But Alpha-” I raised a hand to shut Riley up. “Alpha,” Omari continued for him, “what if this is what breaks her? What if she tries to kill you?” “I will deal with it,” I snapped and motioned them away from me. “Right now, our biggest worry is getting

Jari was almost never in bed with me when I woke up - between his alpha work dragging him away constantly and a natural ability to wake up as soon as the sun rose, he was always awake first and never thought to stay behind - so when I woke up and he was actually there on his side, facing me, his arms stretched out in my direction, I couldn’t help the small smile that spread on my face. Being his mate was changing me, despite what I would have liked - that nothing and no one could ever make me change who I was. Long ago, the thought of smiling just because someone was there would have seemed totally ridiculous to me, but now, seeing that my mate was there, it was so much different. And at least I could understand why I felt that way about him. I barely touched on his fingers, brushing across his outstretched hands, and suddenly he reached out in response. He c

Being wrapped up in Jari’s embrace did feel nice, but it became suffocating after a little while, laying there saying nothing to each other. Something wasn’t right about it, and I wanted to move.Despite my ankle, I started to climb out of bed, intending to at least make my way over to the kitchen for the gorgeous view. Though, it felt like things had changed, so a part of me hoped that I would be able to leave through the front door instead, just to step outside for some fresh air at first. Baby steps.But when I tried to stand on my ankle, I almost fell down, and a soft whimper slipped out.“Hazel,” Jari murmured tiredly, as he opened his eyes for the first time in about half an hour. He looked like he had been asleep - and still was.“Sor

~ Hazel Irwin ~ Maybe it was just me, but something felt off when I woke up. I couldn’t remember much, except for running into Omari the second I escaped this place. It was like I had entered a fit of rage that I wasn’t so sure I’d left yet. I blinked a couple of times, trying to fight off the light cast over my face, and raised one of my hands for shelter. A shadow fell across my eyes, but I still felt fuzzy as I looked around. I lay in a large bed in a large room, with a beautiful window facing outside, where the sunlight was shining in on me. Confused, I started to move, but the covers returned some resistance. My head snapped downward, only for me to notice something else in the corner of my eye. Nex

“I can’t believe Jari actually fucking believed you, Irwin,” Omari snarled, dragging me toward the door I had only just escaped from. “He shouldn’t be so goddamn trusting in his mate. You should have been put down.” Feeling Omari’s trespassing hands on my arm taking me back to the one place I never wanted to be again, I started to panic. More than that, the werewolf genes inside of me started to stir, to fight against the external force. I would never shift, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t steal a couple of abilities from my closest-related species. My body took over, throwing Omari off of me and sending him hurling into the wall. The sound