— Kaden —
My phone rang. It was Jasmine. She never calls me during the day. Actually she pretty much never calls me unless something goes horribly wrong. Actually—scratch that—when things go wrong, she usually evades me like the plague. If she has anything to tell me, she’ll come to see me in person, which would give her a good reason to sneak a peek at whatever is going on.
“Yeah,” I a
— Mishka —“I thought you’d gotten yourself a new gig,” I told Ylva.“I have, but it’s not stopping me from going to kick ass when the opportunity arises,” she told me.“Is your stomach fine?”“I’m healed.”We were muttering to each other not to encroach on what was going on. We were in a big hall in probably one of the fanciest places I’ve ever seen. Every wall panel was covered in intricate detailing. There was a periwinkle blue that covered everything but the molding, which were gilded. The Alpha of this pack couldn’t be much older than the minimum drinking age. He was complaining to Dimitri. “Nearly three weeks. They had to stretch this to nearly three weeks. It could have been done ages ago. Do they think Alphas have nothing better than to wait for them?”“Bureaucracy,” replied Dimitri. “That’s generally how it goes.”“Do they do this to your pack too, or is it because they think they can walk all over me because I’m young?”“They do that to pretty much every pack, it’s just that
— Ylva —We were riding back from Greysky.It had been a bit of a let down.
— Elaeya —I got up in the morning around the same time as Kaden and went for a run.Ylva has spent her days with me nearly
— Darren —“How is the transition going?” I asked Michael.“Not as smooth as I’d hoped,” he a
— Kaden —I called Anders to gather the whole security team ASAP.I skitte
— Ylva —There are things that aren’t done. A single ant doesn’t run towards an elephant screaming blooding murder with the hope of toppling it over. That ant is going to get squashed, bad. This is a truth that no one would dispute.
— Kaden —Elaeya was bleeding and screaming so hard, I could hear her voice break. The big black thing was wriggling on the floor and trying to attack her, interrupted every time she smacked her glowing hands on it.
— Mishka —I heard of the hospital incident fairly quickly.I’m generally good at learni
— Elaeya —I woke in a familiar hospital room. Kaden was there. I tried to smile and tell him I was okay and to wipe those worries off his face, but the words caught it my throat. The place smelt clean and fresh, but there was this echo of filth, and blood, and gore that came back to me and refused to go way.
— Kaden —“What’s the report,” I asked Darren from a small room next to Elaeya hospital room.“First, how is she?&rdquo
— Elaeya —We grabbed the fuel. I opened the door and splashed it in the direction the men went. I knew there was no other way out. Tamarak came in after me and splashed another can. His hands were nearly back to their normal size now.
— Kaden —“We got words they know we’re coming and have called up the cavalry,” told me Jaxx.“Huh,” said Mishka
— Kaden —“I found it,” said Jean-Philippe on the other side of the line.The info we had found on Elaeya’s position had been
— Kaden —‘Hey boss,’ said Mishka through the mindlink.Everything was pa
— Kaden —I was covered in blood from head to toe.‘What’s the result?’ I mindliked the head of all my teams.
— Kaden —We were on the clearing where I married Elaeya.There were no fairy lights, no flowers, no decorations. All the trees were bare excep
— Tamarak —Seven hundred and fifty-nine days.I haven’t seen the sun or the moon since, but I feel it, every time the sun sets, every ti