Kade is restless, has been since we left Flame early this morning to go and meet my father. He was in a strange mood, he didn't even have anything to say about my absence except to check if I was ok and ask briefly if I saw the rogues that passed through yesterday."I understand you would prefer to be elsewhere, but I can't impress upon you the importance of building alliances with our neighbours, especially with the rogue issue we have currently." He says and then, as soon as Cateline arrives, unexpectedly alone, my father quickly ushers us out of his office telling us he's booked us a table for lunch at twelve and will meet us there, stating he had an important meeting to attend to until then.I was hoping to be back with Flame long before lunch, but when I mindlink Darius to get him to come and switch with me, he's in the middle of some sort of sex marathon with Gale and blocks me before I can ask him for anything.'We need to go.' Kade grumbles. 'She leaves tomorrow, we're wasting
I was tormented by dreams of Coal all night but when I woke up, somehow I felt stronger. The pain was still there, but it had faded considerably and even after the copious amounts of alcohol I'd drunk, I didn't have a hangover. In fact, I felt good enough to go on a ten mile run around town, something that I'd have struggled to do on a normal day when I hadn't drunk my weight in alcohol the night before."Good morning." I practically sing at Gale, who glares at me through half open eyes."If I didn't love you as much as I do and if you hadn't just had your heart broken, I'd be giving you shit about how very non hungover you look." I put one of the coffee cups I picked up on the table and she drags herself over. "How are you this ok? I feel like I died and then got dragged back to the living after being embalmed already.""That's graphic." I push my trainers off with my toes and flop down onto my bed. "I had an epiphany. So what Cain did was awful, but was I any better? I got super i
We arrive at the university and hang around for it to open. It's the end of the break so there's only a handful of students milling around and no sign of Flame or any of her friends. Kade is still suppressed, so I have to rely on Darius to pick up on scents and it's fucking frustrating, he can smell residual scents from werewolves, vampires, sirens and numerous other creatures, but nothing that links us to Flame or her friends.A fairy, ever wanting to appear useful, tells us that there are four campuses and the business students are not here, but one in the next town over. Giving us detailed directions, she waves us on our way with wishes of luck.We get there and it's huge, I feel useless and it's not something I'm used to feeling. I know she's here somewhere, but not being able to find her is driving me crazy.Darius picks up the scent of a werewolf and so, while he follows it to see if they know anything, I make my way to the admin department in the hope that I'll find her addres
"Seriously, why would you think I had a wife?" Cain looks at me with shocked wide eyes even though it was Gale that blurted out his secret and my chest constricts with pain as a vision of him sitting with her outside that restaurant flashes into my brain. His hand reaches for mine and I flinch away from his touch, my anger that he toyed with my feelings and put me in danger, overtaking any logic or questions about why he's here."Look at me." He says, snatching my hand into his and refusing to let go. "I am not and I have never been married."He looks so sincere, my gut tells me he's truthful, but then who was that woman and why would that man tell me he was?"Who was the blonde woman you were with at the restaurant then? When you told us you were working?" Gale's voice is dripping with accusation and mistrust, but when his fingers lace through mine, I don't resist and I hate myself for giving in when the evidence was literally right in front of my face only yesterday.I'm pathetic a
My father's door smashes with a satisfying crash, breaking in half with small fragments flying inside the room and instinctively he's up on his feet, ready to shift and fight off the intruder.His eyes widen when he sees it's me, but the fear only increases and I'm glad he knows what to expect.I waste no more time, launching myself at him and allowing Kade to shift in seconds in mid air. My fury is nothing compared to Kade's, he knew all along it was something to do with my father and we don't need to know the details, just the knowledge that he lied to us, to her, and sent her away confirms what he's up to.My teeth tear chunks from wherever they can latch on, my claws digging into his skin. He's shifted, but both he and his wolf know we're stronger, they can see that this is the end for them and I can see the acceptance in his eyes."He wants to die." Kade snarls, releasing his bite on my father's neck just enough to let the blood pour over us. "This is what he wants. I won't make
"I need you to distract Darius tonight so I can ask him." I watch through the crack in the toilet door as Selena Wilkins fluffs her horrible hair and makes her stupid lips look gross and sticky with her lip gloss. What sort of thirteen year old needs lip gloss? And high heels, they're totally impractical for anything, we live on the Moors for Goddess' sake! Not that I'm being petty or anything because for the last few minutes she's been talking about how hot Coal is and how she is going to make him her boyfriend. "Like you'll be able to get anywhere near him. You know his shadow will be there too." Her best friend Valkyrie Evans smirks at her in the mirror, dabbing the sticky goop on her own lips and smacking them together like a girl twice her age. "Amelia Cousins reckons they're secretly a thing." "Pfft… as if he even sees her as a girl. She dresses like a guy and is always wrestling with him, just like the other guys in training." Selena scoffs, rolling her eyes and then grinning
Unsure where else to take her, I drive to the cliffs, knowing she used to love it here and hoping she still will.She questions me incessantly about what Darius will do with the "creature", asking me what it was and whether there's a zoo nearby because it looks like the thing that chased her, although she adamantly refuses to accept it's the same one, saying the one before looked healthy, while this one looked like it had mange.It's stressful trying to think of lies to tell her and by the time I park the car, I've decided to be honest with her about what I am, what she is and what happened. At least what I know of it anyway. I'm not sure how she'll react, it almost never goes well when real human mates first find out, but this situation is even more complicated."Oh wow. This is so beautiful." She gasps, getting out of the car and turning around, she frowns then as if trying to remember something and my heart stops, wondering if coming here has triggered her memory. "I think I must h
I'm going through the motions as though this is all real, but I'm fairly certain I'm either dead, or in a coma, likely as a result of that creature. It would make a lot more sense that it had hurt or killed me, than everything that has happened since and I'm not sure if I even want to wake up. Everything I've ever wanted is here. Cain has practically told me we're soulmates and is holding my hand as we walk through his home to meet a loving family that I've always wanted but never had, and my friends are here too. It's like I've got everything I need all under one roof. Even his father, who clearly didn't want me near his son, has apologised and accepted me. Life doesn't work like this, so it can't be real. The only thing making me question myself is that I've never had a dream before where I know I'm dreaming, but then I've never been in a coma before, so maybe that feels different? Cain and his father seem to communicate silently with angry facial expressions and despite their po
It's been seven months since we left Ekron and Merida's ceremony. My parents are not only refusing to believe she was working against us, but that she's dead altogether. It's gotten so bad that Amara has had to move out and into the packhouse. My mother is convinced she'll find Merida and has been searching every day for her. We took her to where it all happened, but instead of helping them accept it and move on, it just gave them a place to base their search. Coal is reluctant to separate the packs until Maloney is found, or so he says, there's something else going on in his head that he's not sharing with me and I'm letting it go for the time being, if he's not sharing it means he hasn't worked it out yet, so I won't push him until he's ready. It's at least giving me the opportunity to get to know the potential Alpha's a bit better and hopefully it will help maintain pack relations when the time comes. The would-be Alpha's aren't pushing the situation, I'm guessing they've realised
Flame and Ekron's wolves circle one another, Onyx is silent, assessing him as he snarls and snaps at her, waiting for the best moment to make her move.When she does, sinking her teeth into his neck and digging her claws into his side, I notice movement in the crowd and ready myself to intercept anyone trying to intervene, but instead I see a slow trickle of deserters slipping away to become rogues. The remaining individuals glare at them, spitting out words like "traitor" as they pass."Cain, how's it going?" Gene links with me and I can tell by his tone that something is wrong."Flame's fighting Ekron, about a third of the pack have left to become rogues. What's going on with you?" I link back, my eyes following the fight in front of me. Ekron is good, he must have been trained well, but he's got obvious tells, which Onyx is taking full advantage of and by the sounds of the crowd, everyone can tell she's winning."We've found the humans. It's not good Cain, we've got Doctor Fayer th
As soon as Coal told me about Ekron and Maloney, I tried to mindlink Amara, telling her so she can go to Merida and hoping to cause a distraction so I can get to speak to Ollie.The angry screams of Merida and rush of footsteps past our room gives me my opportunity, Coal stays in the room to cover for me and I run up the corridor, following the vague scent of him to lead me to the right place.Coal said there was a guard in his room, but fortunately for me, the guard must have been one of the ones to run towards the chaos, become the doors slightly open and Ollie is on his own inside."Leila." He greets me happily, as though we're still at uni and I've just popped over to say hi. He catches himself and bows. "Sorry, Alpha Tegwen.""Ollie, what are you doing here?" I scan the corridor carefully before closing the door."You know why, it's all I want." He tells me, lowing his voice as though if any wolves were around they wouldn't hear him. "Don't worry though, as soon as I've got my wo
We're being followed, it's obvious from the moment we get close to our destination. No one is visible but the scent of wolf is too strong to just be a territory thing.Tegwen looks at me, sensing it too and then we look back at Levi who is already loading weapons for Tegwen's friends. He's cracking jokes with the humans, his humour belying the serious warrior underneath, constantly alert and assessing his surroundings. His eyes meet mine for the briefest of seconds and flick towards my window. When I look, it initially seems to be just a dark section of forest, but, deep within the shadows, I can see the dark outline of a wolf running alongside the car."We're surrounded." Levi mindlinks me, while simultaneously handing a shotgun to Gale and showing her how to load the cartridges."Now, don't point this at anyone you want to see again. Even wolves can't recover when they resemble Swiss cheese." He jokes and Gale laughs, nodding her head as she looks over the gun in her hand, oblivious
"Ollie, no I can't." I say as gently as I can, while studying the map on Alpha Abaddon's office wall - I can't seem to call it my office yet, at least not in my own head, it doesn't yet feel real."But why not?" He actually stomps his foot like a child having a tantrum and I'm surprised, I've never seen this side of him before."Ok, aside from the fact we are currently in the middle of a war, it's also too dangerous, you could die." I drag my eyes away from the map long enough to look at him."Emery was fine and I'm stronger than her, even when she isn't injured, if she could survive it then I'm bound to." A knock on my door has us both turning to see Anastasia striding inside, an earnest look on her face."Look, Emery was a chance we took because she was dying anyway, we would never have considered it if we had any other choice and have you seen her? She is not 'fine' at all, she's struggling and terrified of the ch…""But that's because it was never something she considered. I want
We were foolish to think it would be over this early, that it would end with the death of Eligor and his followers would fade back to wherever they came from. Samuel is inconsolable and if it weren't for his desire for revenge, I'm not sure he wouldn't have ended his own life by now. As it is, we've had to get Flame's parents to take Amara home because his wolf seems unable to separate twin from twin, projecting his fury at Merida onto her and demanding her death in recompense for the loss of his mate.In the meantime we've sent scouts out to search the area for any signs of Merida or Ekron or any gatherings of any description. Thankfully Flame's parents have also stepped in to help Emery with her wolf, because Flame is torn between her friend and leading the now far too large pack."We found marks up by the Western border but they're odd. Too obvious, like they've been left there on purpose." Darius pulls up a picture of some slices in a tree, swiping through them all and each is sl
When I wake up, I instantly know something is wrong, I'm alone in a hospital room and though I can feel Coal is close and obviously there should be staff around, the sound proofing means I can't hear anything going on outside of my four walls."Find Coal, something is going on." Onyx confirms the tickle of fear running down my spine, so I carefully remove the tubes from my body and sit up, tentatively feeling the stitches running along my stomach. The wound seems to have healed, but it still feels a little bruised when I move and a jolt of worry has me placing my hand lower, where my baby is."She's fine, luckily your sister went too high." Coal pushes open the door, his eyes raking all over me, dark circles under them show me the stress and exhaustion he's trying to hide."What's going on?" I notice he closes the door fully behind him, closing out the brief snippet of the chaotic noise outside."How are you feeling?" He asks instead and now I know it's bad."I'm fine, now what's goin
Flame clings tightly to my hand as we join the crowds, all walking slowly through the roads. Darius appears beside me, escorting her human friends who have been allowed to witness tonight's event. I'm a little concerned about how excited Ollie seems to be by everything, he's not changed his mind about wanting to become one of us, but that's a problem for another time and he is at least trying to be respectful by reigning in his excitement to just wide eyed staring. Gene and Levi have gone all out for tonight's funeral celebrations. They just have involved pretty much the entire pack to have gotten all of this done in such a short time. Flowers and lights lead from every road up to the clearing and a stage has been erected to one side of the numerous bonfires. Photographs line the stage, my father amongst them, and even though I was there, it hits harder to see the smiling faces of those we lost. We exchange brief words with those we pass, accepting condolences and offering them back,
There's so much to do and not enough time to do it, I don't know how Alpha Abaddon ever got to leave his office. It feels like every other minute I've got someone trying to contact me, directly inside my mind too, it's not like when I thought I was human and could pretend I'd left my mobile on charge if I didn't want to answer it, no, this lot have a direct dial straight to my mind and there's no answer phone or text option. My parents have been respectful and I think that's only because Samuel went over there late last night to explain the situation, but they're amongst the cacophony of voices jostling for priority inside my head, not only because they know I remember who I am, but also to talk about Merida. I don't know if they know where she is, I can't even consider the fact that they might have known that she was working for Eligor all along and what about Amara? Her twin sister is a traitor, that's going to take some digesting. Unless she already knew? In which case she could b