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074 | FOLLOWING A TREMBLING STAR
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Alpha Ares 075 | WARPATH
For the first time in my life, I knocked on the door of my own family’s Pack House. It felt wrong, but as the silence swelled, deafening in its potency, I felt like I had to. Rather than entering my family home as I always had, suddenly the idea of pushing open the door and just walking in felt like I was intruding. Like I was an outsider.Part of me expected to find nobody. Another, darker part of me expected to find bodies. I blinked away images of Valeria, of the wolves that had been piled on top of her, and shuddered. I could hear the ever-present lapping of waves in my right ear and Ares’s laboured breathing. I strained my hearing; had I imagined that groan of wood just inside the door?And then the door creaked open.“Mum?” I breathed, squinting into the hallway. She peered around the thin crack she’d opened it to, her eyes widening as she saw me – and then narrowing as they fixed on Ares.She yanked the door open so fast I didn’t react. I couldn’t. “You bastard,” she snarled,
Alpha Ares 076 | FOREVER CHANGED
I drifted through the familiar rooms, traipsing away from my parents as we reached the long dining hall that the wake was being held in. None of the places or people looked real to me. It didn’t even look like my Pack House anymore. People greeted me, but not as their favoured Young Luna anymore. Not as the bright and bold child, or the sharp and smart young woman, that I had been to them before I’d gone to the Winterpaw Warrior Pack to be with Ares.Five wolves were dead. On top of the ten already killed. Aliana had told me about six; another four had been taken in that time. I traced their names in my mind, picturing their faces, mourning each and every one of them. My eyes glazed as I stared at different parts of the room, seeing plates of finger food and steaming mugs of tea and coffee and half-drunk glasses of berry wine, glancing over them without taking any of it in. Families clutched each other and cried. People spoke loudly of their memories of the wolves that had died. Four
Alpha Ares 077 | THE NIGHT SKY
I didn’t care that we were with my parents. I didn’t even care that, right now, they hated him – and that they probably hated me a little bit, too.I kissed him. I flung my arms around his neck and pulled him down until his lips met mine. The kiss seared me, inside and out; feeling the pulse of his emotions, of his love, through the mate bond, along with the physical press of his flushed mouth to mine, tasting the sweet red wine on his tongue, was heady, intoxicating.No. It was simpler than that.It was everything we’d both wanted to admit for so very long, now.It was love. And that, it turned out, was the brightest star of all – the trembling hope that resided not in the dark swathes of the night sky, but within me. Within us both.And then gentle hands tore us apart.“What–” I gasped, only to be interrupted by my mother’s snarl.“It’s the mate bond, Haile! You’ve said it yourself. We had a plan, remember? You were so determined, so sure of yourself. He’s convinced you that he is w
Alpha Ares 078 | ENEMIES TO LOVERS
Already embarrassed by my meltdown, I shifted back into my human form and tried to gather myself before replying to Ares’s mindlink.‘I’m okay,’ I told him. ‘I’m sorry for leaving you with them like that. I’m in the first wildflower meadow – you can come and find me. I think we need to talk.’His relief, heady, giddy, dizzying, swelled through the mate bond. I pressed my palms flat on the grass, the rush of it overwhelming me as my anguish drained from my veins, leaving me hollow.‘I won’t be long, beautiful.’I undid my braid and combed my fingers through it, almost as nervous to see Ares as I had been the first time we’d met. It was like walking up to the front door of his mountainous Pack House and knocking, with so much left unknown, uncertain, on the other side.“Hi.”I looked up. His bicep bulged as he lifted his arm to scratch the back of his neck; he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Everything as yet unsaid hung thick in the air between us, darkening the twilight sky and
Alpha Ares 079 | EAGLE EYED
I froze. ‘Ares,’ I hissed through a mindlink, catching sight of two shadowed figures lurking in the darkness of the woods, my lips hovering less than an inch from his, ‘there’s somebody there.’He gripped me tighter. ‘Someone might have followed us. Pretend you haven’t noticed them.’Part of me – a part I really didn’t want to analyse too deeply – was flushed with excitement over the prospect of an attack. I was brimming with emotion, with anger and hurt, and fighting at my mate’s side seemed like the perfect remedy for the lingering knot of pain that had settled deep within my heart.I pressed up onto my toes, pretending to kiss Ares’s neck while my eyes darted across the darkness. He shivered lightly at the feel of my warm breath on his cool neck.A twig cracked underfoot. Even with the roll of waves in one ear, I heard it. The two figures froze – they knew we couldn’t have missed that sound, as sharp as the splitting of a bone.“It’s them!” Cendres shouted, his voice rising in volu
Alpha Ares 080 | PACK HOUSE
I barely had time to process Tymote’s words before he pounced.“Don’t kill him!” I shouted – to Ares. An Omega would be no match for him, especially when he was so fuelled by anger and arrogance, so it was not his safety I was concerned about.If he hurt Tymote, Blue Moon would never believe us. Ares would prove himself to be the vicious monster they thought he was.With a loud, over-dramatic sigh, Ares grabbed Tymote’s hands and wrestled them up behind his back. Tymote grunted, straining against his grip, but he had no chance against the infamous Alpha Ares.I breathed a sigh of relief. Ares had listened to me. We could go in and talk to my parents now, make them see sense – People filled the hallway. They spilled in from all different rooms; I turned around, and saw Warrior Wolves and Omegas alike leaving their homes to surround us. Damn it. What in all of Erandos was going on?My parents’ Gamma, Triss, was the first to reach us. She held her hands up and, for the first time ever,
Alpha Ares 081 | AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
There was no way out. Even as I sprinted to Ares, letting teeth and claws graze me, barely feeling their sting, I knew there was no hope. He would die here, and I knew that, even with his death, I would not become the Young Luna I had once been. My parents had to accept him, had to let him live, else I would never be able to trust that they trusted me – as they always had before. ‘Don’t be sorry,’ I snarled down the mindlink to Ares. ‘Fight back.’‘I can’t. They’re your family.’‘You’re my family too, Ares.’I expected to hear Ares’s reply in my head, but another voice cut him off.‘Don’t waste your energy fighting. You need to run.’My head swung around, searching out her familiar face, and my heart leapt. ‘Nana Baspy?’‘I’m going to cause a diversion. You run straight to our cabin – the one by the lake. You run and you run and you don’t look back, you hear me, little wolf?’I glanced around nervously. Ares was injured; he’d barely had a chance to heal from Alpha Blare’s ministratio
Alpha Ares 082 | ROSEMARY AND CINNAMON
“So,” I asked, around a huge mouthful of bread, “how did you start the fire?” Nana Baspy grinned, looking up at me as she ladled spoonful after spoonful of extra stew into Ares’s bowl. “Nobody has seen my shifted form in quite some time, little wolf. When I heard the commotion outside, and I realised what was going on, it was easy enough to blend in with the fight – and grab an oil lamp in my mouth, and smash it against the Pack House in the midst of the brawl.” She shrugged like it was nothing, finally putting the ladle down when Ares’s bowl started to overflow. “And then I ran here, following a more direct route than you. I sent your Grandpa Attie over as soon as the fight started, in case I couldn’t make it back in time.” She beamed, proud of herself. “But I did.” I grinned back at her, swallowing a burning spoonful of stew. “I’m not surprised he’s so tired, then,” I said, looking over at Grandpa Attie and raising my eyebrows. She shook her head fondly, nudging him beneath the ta
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Alpha Ares 141 | EPILOGUE
One year later I smoothed my hands down over my thick cloak. Nerves swarmed in my belly: not the dizzying kind that made me feel faint, but the sort that cast a hazy glow over everything as I walked along the winding woodland pathway. Torches flickered every few feet; orange roses of light bloomed across the mossy, dew-damp earth beneath my boots. “Nervous?” asked Dad. “A little.” I worried my bottom lip between my teeth. “It’s silly, I know. There’s nothing to be nervous about. I’ve been his Luna for the last year – longer, really – but this feels…” I trailed off, unsure how to word exactly how it felt. Official? Real? “It’s been such a long time coming, sweetheart.” “Yeah. Part of me wishes we’d done this straight after the battle, but it made sense to wait until the pack was remade.” Unable to help myself, a grin pushed hard at my cheeks. Everything looked beautiful today, I thought, the pine trees bottle-green beneath the golden setting sun. Everything was glazed with the
Alpha Ares 140 | COME TOGETHER
As everyone took their seats, Ares and I remained standing. I clutched at his hand: it was a physical reminder to everyone there that we were joined, that Winterpaw Warrior and Blue Moon were enemies no longer.I glanced at Ares, letting him take the lead. He swallowed, straightened his shoulders, and then smiled hesitantly around at everyone. The expression looked strange, uncertain, and it took me a moment to realise why. Ares never smiled at people when he addressed them. He led through fear and control. Not anymore, it seemed. My heart swelled.“Thank you all for coming,” he said, projecting his voice clearly and confidently across the room. “Luna Sienna and Alpha Rodriguez, of the Firepaw Pack.” He inclined his head at the dark-skinned woman my dad had been talking to before, and the bald-headed, well-muscled man sat beside her. They were both older than us by about fifteen years.The Alpha and Luna of the Storm Guardian Pack were older still, well into their fifties, their face
Alpha Ares 139 | KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE
Ares had given Dad the nicest of the Warrior Wolves’ cabins to stay in. When we arrived, Ares’s arm still latched securely around my waist as it had been every single step of the way, I saw two other familiar faces peering out at us through the window, their creased faces crinkling with smiles so wide I half feared their tissue paper skin might tear.The wind whipped between the cabins, making my eyes and cheeks sting. Dawn had long since settled across the horizon, pale pink fading into the usual white-grey cloud cover. Everything looked strange out here, unreal in a way I couldn’t quite process. I clutched at Ares, suddenly apprehensive as dad moved to let us in.My nerves dissolved as soon as set foot inside. We were both pulled into an embrace on all sides, many arms winding around us and holding us close.“You did it,” Nana Baspy whispered.I scoffed and, after another long moment, I pulled away. “I don’t think I can take any of the credit, Nana. I wasn’t even conscious for half
Alpha Ares 138 | SURRENDER AND SACRIFICE
The world shattered. For a time, it was nothing more than a series of fragmented images and distant, distorted sounds. I heard screaming, felt the tell-tale burning in my throat, but I couldn’t connect the noise to me. I was weightless, without a body, and then there was nothing but silent darkness.Words I couldn’t understand split apart the quiet. “It’s the other packs,” someone said excitedly. I recognised the voice, familiar enough but not someone I was close to. A hazy, half-formed image of a missing hand and foot beneath determined eyes and wispy blonde hair floated just out of reach, and I gave up trying to identify the mystery voice as they spoke. “Firepaw and Storm Guardian. They made it just in time. We did it! We survived.”No, we didn’t, I thought bitterly. Not all of us.“It’s not over yet.” That growl, gravel and honey – that was Ares. Something in me settled. But why had he shifted into his human body? That thought, along with all my others, drifted away, becoming nothi
Alpha Ares 137 | BATTLE OF THE MOUNTAIN
We were all so focused on Aliana that none of us heard the quiet tap-tap-tap of claws pacing the stone hallways of the Pack House behind us.And then Scillian smiled. Behind him, the Sable Stalker Alpha and Luna smirked, too, a cruel hook of their lips that made my blood boil; off to the side slightly, Bloodpelt Prowler’s Alpha grinned toothily. They were all so smug, so sure of themselves. So sure that they’d won.“What is this?” Dad asked flatly.“Oh, this?” Scillian brightened impossibly further as he gestured to Aliana. “A game.”“You wouldn’t hurt your own daughter.” Dad sounded less convinced about that than he had a minute ago. “Let her go, and let the battle recommence.”“My daughter is a traitor. And, worse than that: she was running from a fight.” Scillian scoffed. I watched his face closely as he walked, every stride slow and purposeful, towards Aliana. He caressed her cheek, but I looked beyond that. I searched out his eyes through the snowfall, and I found only adoration
Alpha Ares 136 | THE END OF US
I knew, deep down, that this was my last hurrah. I knew, deep down, that if it were not, I would’ve let the pain and the shock hold me back from fighting one last time. My body was weak, but I would not succumb to its needs. This was no ordinary battle, and I had never been one to give up.I felt the pain and let it make me stronger. Adrenaline surged through my veins. I would fight by my mate’s side, and I would try to make it mean something. That was all I could do, now.We neared the Pack House. The tension surrounding it was thick with foreboding; the stillness of the battlefield was somehow worse than when the air had been metallic with spilled blood and the snow melting from the heat of the felled bodies upon it. Now, fresh snow dusted the blood soaked fur of the dead, masking the worst of the atrocities that had been marked upon the land in stark pools of red.Everything was calm. Everything was quiet. Some dark premonition made the back of my neck crawl with the sense that, at
Alpha Ares 135 | BE AMONGST THE STARS
I was numb, inside and out, as I watched. My mind struggled to break free of the overwhelming melancholy, the agony so strong that the only way I could deal with it was to feel nothing at all.The cold helped. A bitter wind whipped between the boulders, sending snowflakes into a flurry. They turned my vision blurry: everything was black and white and grey again, as it had been in the time before Ares. Everything, that was, except for the blood.And there was so much blood.It was start against the pale backdrop of the mist and snow. A physical mark of violence, marring the purity of the white beneath. And, atop its own puddle of red, sat my ear. I shuddered every time my gaze drifted over it; it was the sort of thing I didn’t want to look at but also couldn’t look away from. It was grotesque, torn at a ragged angle, the flesh pink within – My lip curled. It looked so alien to me now, that missing piece of me. I couldn’t imagine how I looked, bloodied and battered, one ear gone. A sn
Alpha Ares 134 | HAUNTED
Claws ripped into me on both sides. I flung Elena off easily enough; she was so small that, even exhausted as I was from hours of adrenaline-fuelled fighting, it didn’t take much effort on my part to dislodge her. Distantly, I heard her pull herself to her paws again. But in this fight, both physically and in the heart of it, she didn’t matter. This was between Etta and I.I winced as Etta’s claws ripped free of my fur and flesh. Blood spat from the wound, hitting the snow and melting the ice surrounding it. I wrenched myself backwards, darting behind the nearest boulder and peering out around it. ‘Why are you doing this?’ I asked – no, I begged.‘I promised myself.’ Her mental voice was nothing like the one I remembered. Etta was often sarcastic and teasing, but there had been a warmth beneath even her cruellest of jokes that had dissipated after Damon’s death. ‘After you left, and after the attacks began. I had to do something for him.’‘Damon and I were friends.’ I edged backwards
Alpha Ares 133 | ON THE WINGS OF FATE
I’d made my choice when Ares mindlinked me. He sounded weak and weary, but very much alive. My heart leapt at the familiar sound of his voice, of gravel and honey, loosening the knot that had been pulling my chest taut ever since the battle had begun.‘I had to run, beautiful. There were too many of them, but I managed to get away.’That was all I needed to hear. I turned and shifted into my wolf form, preparing to race across the empty stretch of battlefield that had been left behind the attacking armies as they approached.‘Are you okay?’ I asked. There was one other thing I needed to hear, it turned out.‘I’m fine.’ I was pretty sure he was lying, but if he was well enough to lie then I didn’t have to worry about my mate too much. ‘Are you? What happened with Nazte?’‘Nothing. It was weird.’ I fell forwards, landing on paws and snapping my jaws. ‘He wanted to know how Cendres was. We just… Talked.’The cabin’s front door banged open behind me. I twisted around, catching sight of Na
