“Tell me about your pack,” Catherine asked me.We were driving out of New York and it was eight am. The Council had tried to stop me but in the end with Catherine saying that she wanted to go with me, it sealed the deal.“Firstly, we don’t have a pack, we’re called a clowder,” I said to her.“Sorry,” she said and I laughed.“Don’t worry about it. You already met Jared, my Beta, and then there's Connor who’s my Gamma, the rest of the clowder are warriors and members. We don’t refer to people as Omegas and we function just like a normal pack would. People have jobs and houses and our territory is enclosed like a gated community,” I said to her.“And what about the Alpha family?” she asked me.“My mother’s still alive, her name’s Sara and then I have a younger sister Kat,” I said to her.“I’m sorry,” she said.“For?”“The loss of your father,” she said as she quickly glanced at me.“It was a while ago, but thank you,” I said to her. “What about you?”“I don’t know who my parents were, I
Iris never came back that night and I fell asleep alone feeling like shit. I had blamed her for something that actually had nothing to do with me and then I went and hurt her in the worst way bonded halves could hurt each other.“Who ate your porridge?” Jared asked as he joined me at the table in the dining hall.“Iris and I spoke last night,” I said to him.“And?” he asked me.“I was an idiot,” I said to him as he laughed.“So why do you still look like this?” he asked me.“Because I was so hell bent on what she did before we imprinted that I wanted to hurt her back,” I said to him.“Did you sleep with someone in New York?” he asked me his voice changing.“Yes,” I said as he stood up and took a swing at me, his fist connecting with my jaw.The whole dining room fell into deafening silence as I stood up from the floor and Jared readied himself to take another swing.“The first one was fair game but come at me again and I won’t hold back,” I said to him.Jared lunged for me as I grabbe
Four months later…Jared and I had just parked the car in front of the packhouse after an assignment and we had spent three days in a forest sleeping in our cat forms tracking rogue wolves. We had found nineteen and killed them all after getting the information from them that we could.“Welcome back,” Iris said as we walked towards the steps.“Did you miss us?” Jared asked her.“Maybe,” she said as she looked at me.I walked past her into the house and up the stairs to my bedroom. Iris had started talking to me but she hadn’t moved back into our room since that night but slowly she was warming up to me. Her mark had long ago faded now but I could still feel the bond when I was in her proximity.I had thrown the duffel bag on the floor by the foot of the bed and started undressing as I opened the faucets of the shower. I stood under the hot water as I felt the wounds from that morning burn as the water cleansed them. My right arm was completely covered and I had ten new marks on my lef
I sat in my office and stared out of the window as the shock of what the doctor had told me washed over me. Jared was ecstatic, I was less so. I still felt numb and I heard the office door open and I smelled Kat as I turned around in my chair.“Congratulations brother,” Kat said and offered me a small smile.“Please don’t,” I said to her.“Jared can’t stop smiling,” she said as she sat down.“It’s not mine Kat,” I said to her.“What?” she asked me suddenly looking furious.“We only completed the bond a month ago, if it was mine she’d be four weeks pregnant, not ten,” I said to her.“What the fuck,” Kat whispered.I didn’t answer her, there was nothing I could say. I felt too damaged and used to even comprehend how I should react never mind what I was supposed to do now. I wanted to throw up and even worse was that I wanted to kill her, humiliate her like she’d done with me.“Damon! She’s awake!” Jared said excitedly as he popped his head into my office.“I can’t even think straight ri
I had called for a trial gathering but nobody except Kat, Jared, Connor and the two guards guarding Iris knew what was going on. The Elders had tried talking to me numerous times but I refused to meet with anyone except those directly involved in this.Everyone had gathered in the ballroom which had now been converted into a trial room for the day since it was the only room big enough to have the entire clowder present. Kat sat on a chair to my left and Jared to my right.I stood up and cleared my throat as the room fell into silence and I looked at the two Elders who were seated to the left of Kat.“Good morning Woods Clowder,” I began as everyone bowed their heads and I relaxed my aura. I linked Connor to bring Iris up from the dungeon and I waited until he told me that he was outside the door.“Please bring the prisoner forward,” I said loudly as the doors opened.Connor walked in with his hand on Iris’s arm and gasps ran through the clowder as they watched her being marched forwar
At ten pm we had all shifted into our jaguars and hid in the canopies of the trees high above the forest floor. All the women, children and the elderly had been moved to the safe room in the clowder house at eight pm.We were scattered throughout the northern side forest and we would watch them as they entered our territory. I smelled them first and I gave the order to remain quiet and ready. The scouts reported their movement as they neared our border exactly where Iris said they would come from but the other scouts on our other borders remained quiet.It seemed that he had brought his whole force to this side. That was really stupid of him, we waited as they entered through the forest in their human form and slowly started making their way forward. Winston stopped two trees away from where I was and the men huddled around him.“Kill everyone, leave the Alpha for me and make sure you kill Iris,” he said in a low voice.They started creeping forward and I saw the warriors as they jump
Three years later…I opened my eyes and sat upright in my bed as I felt the air swirl around me. It was an intense suffocating feeling when an Oracle came to see you and in my line of work I had plenty of experience meeting up with them.“Damon Woods,” the old woman said as she stood in front of me.“Oracle Bloom,” I greeted her.They had no essence of time and they appeared when you were needed. In my reality this is who I took my orders from. An oracle is a person with certain witch-like traits, they are the oldest of our kind and they can see what nobody else can. They are the most revered and feared in the supernatural world and people like me were handpicked by them to ensure the safety of all species.“The human will be hunted because of what she’s revealing, she will need your protection, she cannot die, it will upset the balance of the universe,” she said as I stood up from the bed.“Babysitting a human?” I asked as I reached her.“She will be important,” she said as she took
“Hello,” I said with a smile as I answered the incoming video call.“Good, you’re still awake,” Mimi said as she frowned.“I’m always awake at this time of the night,” I said to her.Mimi was one of my best friends and we were the most alike in our dysfunctional little group. Mimi was beautiful, she didn’t realize how beautiful she was and she had a clear disdain for public places, people and anything to do with going outside. She owned an online boutique shop that sold handmade jewelry, that she made herself, and the most gorgeous evening wear you could imagine.“So I was already in bed when suddenly it occurred to me that one of these days the earth could just fall you know,” she said to me and I laughed.“Chances are rather slim, I think,” I said to her but her face was serious.“But just imagine, would we know we were dying if suddenly the earth started falling? I mean where would we hide?” she asked me.This was the basis of most of our conversations, where she came up with thing
I stood in the front of the ballroom as Connor grinned at me. Soft music was playing and the ballroom was packed to capacity. The doors opened and everyone turned simultaneously to catch a glimpse of her.Finley walked towards me as Archer held her hand and Griffin held her other hand. He had just started walking and his happiness was bubbling over. I couldn’t breathe properly as I looked at them, the two people that I loved the most in this world.“Members of the Woods Clowder, friends and guests, welcome to this auspicious occasion as our Alpha takes and acknowledges his true fated half for all to see. We gather here tonight to join these two in our sacred union by accepting each other as bonded halves for the rest of their lives,” Elder Matthews said as he welcome our guests and started the ceremony.Elder Matthews had been appointed as one of our Elders just a month ago and I was surprised that I really liked him as he proved his loyalty and his worth to all of us.“By joining you
DamonI couldn’t believe Finley let me mark her. The bond that had snapped in place was even stronger than the one we had previously shared and I woke up the following morning feeling like myself again. I had waited months for her to start treating me like a person again.I had loved her the first time before the bond and I loved her again the second time after I remembered her, all without the bond. I had been mean to her, but it was all to just keep her with me. I didn’t want her not to be in my life and the thought of her dating some other man nearly choked me as the pain ripped through me.I knew she was awake even though her back was to me. We were still in her bed and the sun would start making its appearance soon. I breathed her scent in as I placed my face in the crook of her neck and I felt her shudder.“What have we done?” she asked me softly.“What we should’ve done months ago,” I said.“We fight more than anything else,” she whispered.“Not really, we only fight when we’re
FinleyAfter our little confrontation in the kitchen Damon seemed to avoid me at all costs. We’d bump into each other during the night as we both got up for Griffin and I implemented a system where I’d get up for him before midnight and Damon would get up after midnight.I was mad at him but worse than that was that I was hurt. I understood his need to be a part of Griffin’s life but he had no right to interfere in mine. I just had one problem with everything that was going on, I still found him attractive and that infuriated me as well because I was sure the asshole knew it.He’d walk around the house with no shirt on and a few times he caught me staring at him. My feelings towards him varied between being in love and really hating him. Our routine consisted mostly of him cooking all the meals since he didn’t trust me in the kitchen and me doing things like the laundry.I had moved my laptop back down to the basement where I wrote in the past but I promised myself I wouldn’t give him
DamonI organized someone to come to East Whiteland and drive Finley’s car back to St Albans. She was quiet as we drove away from the house and I promised her that someone would pack it up and bring it in a truck back to St Albans.“I think we should move into your house,” I said to her.“You mean your house,” she said as she looked out of the window.“I meant our house,” I said to her.“Will you be sleeping in the basement?” she asked me and I grinned at her.“How big a house do you want?” I asked her.“Four bedrooms at least,” she said.“Why?” I asked.“My room, Griffin’s room, your room and an office, I still write Damon,” she said to me sounding somewhat bitter.“Finley, this is only going to work if you really give it a chance, I’m willing to do that for Griffin, aren’t you?” he asked me.“You know I’ve had just about enough of your insults and making me feel like I’m not good enough to be his mother. I did all of this alone, without any of your help,” she said angrily.“Can you
FinleyI didn’t dare call Archer again, knowing that Damon was there at the packhouse. My days spent with Griffin was absolute bliss. Every morning we went for a stroll in the park as I pushed him in his stroller and got to know the area better.Our house looked more lived in now and my house had been sold after being on the market for one day, above asking price. I didn’t care who bought it, I was just glad that Griffin and I had settled down now. I had phoned my friends and told them where I had settled down and they promised to come and visit soon.“Hi there,” a man said and I turned around as I looked at him.He was supernatural and I got the idea that he was feline but I couldn’t be sure. He obviously greeted me since he sensed that Griffin was feline too and that I was a familial.“Hi,” I said and looked around.“I’m sorry, it was just so odd finding a familial with a feline baby,” he said with a smile, “I’m Arthur.”“Finley,” I said as I shook his hand warily.“I won’t bite, I
DamonI watched Finley’s house for the rest of the night but she never came back. I continued to watch her house for the rest of that week and eventually I drifted off to sleep only to be tortured in my dreams. In the first dream she was straddling me, naked, as I held on to her hips. In a split second I was in the ocean looking back at her, then I was picking her up from the floor covered in blood, throwing her over my shoulder in a bar.In yet another dream I told her I loved her as we held hands and walked into the Council building in New York, the dreams were random and there were no order to them. I dreamt about my hearing but in this dream Finley was there as I was sentenced.In the last dream I had her pushed against a shower wall, her legs wrapped around me as my canines pushed into her shoulder and I marked her. I sat up straight in my bed as sweat covered my forehead and Axel growled in my head.“She’s our bonded half,” he said as the memories he had stored flooded through m
Finley“Finley, I’m so sorry,” Connor said as Damon slammed the front door closed.“Why would you tell him that?” I asked him.“He wouldn’t let it go, he had me up against the wall, slamming my head in!” Connor defended himself.“I’m sorry,” I said to him as he sat down and I took the first aid kit out of the cupboard.“It’ll heal, don’t worry,” he said but I cleaned it anyway.“You shouldn’t have said anything, he doesn’t remember Connor,” I said to him.“I know and I’m sorry because now everything’s a shit storm,” he said as he looked down.“It’s okay,” I said to him.“I’ll go finish the crib, it’s almost done,” he said as he stood up.I sat in the kitchen for almost an hour before Connor was done. He came back downstairs with his toolbox and picked up his jacket where I’d hung it over one of the barstools. He looked at me before putting his jacket back down.“I can stay with you,” he offered.“I’ll be fine,” I said to him.“I don’t know, Damon was pretty angry when he left,” he sai
DamonIt felt odd talking to Finley and for some reason I actually talked to her, normally I didn’t really like other people but she was easy to talk to and I guess it helped that she already knew what I was. I kept myself busy with stripping the inside of the house and starting with one room at a time, retiling, painting and so forth.I sat and waited for her to go on her afternoon walk but she didn’t leave the house for the rest of the week and I wondered what she did all day. I worked myself tired so that I could sleep at night, although I was sleeping better here than I was at the packhouse.I was just finishing my cup of coffee to head to the store to buy more tiles when I saw Connor’s truck park in front of her house. I watched him as he climbed out and frowned when he hugged and kissed her hello, touching her stomach and then it all fell into place.He was the father of her baby. That would account for him being so closed off in my presence, this was what he was hiding! Instant
FinleyI couldn’t control my beating heart. I could literally hear the blood rushing through my veins. He was here, he’d been standing just here a second ago before leaving. He must think I’m insane for staring at him like that! I couldn’t believe it, Damon was back.“He doesn’t remember me,” I whispered to myself as I felt my heart breaking just a little.I blinked away the tears as I sat down in the living room and rubbed my hand over my protruding stomach. I was thirty-two weeks pregnant and the only people that knew was Harley, Wells and Mimi. I hadn’t told Archer or Kat yet and I wasn’t exactly sure why, I guess I was afraid that the clowder would have some sort of claim on the baby.“Hello,” I answered my phone still staring into space.“Finley, it’s Connor,” he said.“Hey,” I said and snapped back to reality.“Are you okay?” he asked me.“I just saw Damon and he really doesn’t remember me,” I said to him.“I’m sorry, I just heard that he went to St Albans,” he said to me.“It’s