Enzo’s POVI scrubbed a hand through my hair and sighed. My back ached and my chest felt tight, like a man was sitting on it – and not in a fun way. I ran my dry tongue over the back of my teeth. My leg bounced beneath the table. We’d been sat in the meeting room all morning. I’d stared at every inch of every wall over the last few hours, watching them grow steadily lighter as the sun had risen, going from a deep, burnished gold to the washed-out white-grey it was now. Floor to ceiling windows faced out to the forest, painted a rich green under a cover of cloud and fog; the dismal outdoors contrasted with the warm tones of the room, with its crackling log fire in the wide, stone hearth and the burgundy and terracotta throws covering the back of the worn sofa in the corner. Beside it was a small coffee table that held two mugs of coffee, which had long since gone cold, and a vase full of wilting flowers on it. I wished I’d set up this particular meeting on the sofa rather than at this
Scarlett’s POVMy shoulder throbbed. My chest pulsed. Oh, screw it – all of me hurt. My body, my soul. Even my thoughts were tinged red with pain. What did a little bit of death matter when I felt like that?I waited for the blow to come. I waited – and I kept waiting. I opened one eye, peering up at Naomi. She in turn was looking at Ryker, her wolfish face somehow managing to look confused. I couldn’t place why, exactly, and I didn’t spare the brain power to try to work it out. I scrambled backwards, no longer caring about whatever pride I’d stupidly thought I’d had for less than half a second. “Not so fast,” said Ryker. His hand snapped out, pinning me to the wall.“What?” I squirmed. “You said it yourself. I’m just here for your amusement.”“No.” Jaw clenching, his grip tightened. I cried out as his fingertips pressed against the hole in my chest. “I – no.” Ryker shook his head. “I don’t have to answer to you.”Well, I thought, consider my curiosity well and truly piqued. Naomi s
Enzo’s POVScarlett was in danger. I don’t know how I knew; I just did. It was her agony searing my skin; her agony pooling in my chest; her agony setting my shoulder alight. Her agony, not mine.And it didn’t fade. In fact, it only grew worse – my throat tightened as if squeezed, and my lungs burned desperately for air they already held. Whoever had kidnapped her was hurting her. Not just hurting her. It felt like they were trying to kill her.Something snapped in me at that realisation. I grunted, doubling over, bracing my hands on my knees as the back of my head hit a wall that was not there. “I won’t let you die,” I ground out, my vision blurring. “I swear it, Scar. I’ll find you, whatever it takes, and I’ll bring you home.”Home. Chest heaving, I pulled myself upright. The pain dissipated slowly, like waves being pulled back from the shore. As the tide went out, I thought through every meeting I’d been in, every pack member I’d spoken to. I had nothing definitive to go on. But I
Scarlett’s POV For two days, I didn’t see Ryker. It was a blessing – and a curse, because it stalled my plan. Granted, my body needed time to heal between each provocation, but I ached to find out what he wanted me here for. I had to find out, because I had to get home. Imagining that was all that kept me going. On the third day, I managed to pick the lock on his bedroom door. I bit my lip to hold back an excited gasp, wary of anyone lurking in the hallway outside. The central bed, walk-in wardrobe, and view of the outback had been my only company, save for the Omegas charged with keeping me locked up and the Warrior Wolves charged with serving my punishment. I preferred the inanimate objects. Fingers trembling on the two bent bobby pins, I sat back on my heels and held my breath. Shifting slowly, so as not to make any noise, I crouched and slid my cheek to the door, pressing my ear to it. I was on Ryker’s floor, within which only he and his most faithful Omega servant resided. The
Enzo’s POVI scoffed at Davin. “A prophecy? Yeah, all right.”He had the audacity to look hurt. “Hear me out. You just said it yourself – Scarlett can’t shift, even though she was definitely born with the right genetics. She heals fast. Too fast to be human.” He shook his head, green eyes wide and downturned with sadness. “There have been mentions of such a conundrum in the ancient texts, from the time of the last Lycan Kings.”Marla rolled her eyes. “Really, Dav? There hasn’t been a Lycan King in centuries. The four monarchies were abolished way too long ago for anything of that time to talk about our Scarlett.”My heart clenched at that. Our Scarlett. To know that my Beta and Gamma had accepted her, no matter what, made my insides tighten, half with grief and half with love. It was an acute sort of pain, the kind that was hard to ignore. Squirming, I shared a look with Marla, raising one eyebrow.Davin sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s why it’s called a prophecy. Y
Scarlett’s POV“I know where he’s gone,” she said again, quieter, gentler. It only raised my proverbial hackles all the more.“I don’t care,” I lied. Of course I cared – but I couldn’t let her know that. I couldn’t let her even have that most basic of things to hold over my head. She’d not spoken to me in years, not like this, anyway, and I wasn’t about to let her change that. “Yes, you do,” she sighed. “Look at me, Scar.”I bit out a single syllable: “No.” Then, fuming both internally and externally, I stomped off further into the grove. I wouldn’t let her ruin this for me, too.“I made a mistake!” she called after me. I bit my lip and vowed to ignore her. I was in Shady Grove to feel closer to my parents, not to engage in some stupid bitch-war over every nasty thing my supposed best friend had done to me. “Scarlett, please.”I hung my head, torn between slamming around and shouting at her and the crippling, ever-present fear that kept me submissive. There was not one person in th
Enzo’s POVRain fogged the windows, beating down relentlessly on the grey expanse of mountains and the craggy shadows of the pines. The library was a warm pool of lamplight, gold against the grey, but even the heat of the blanket Marla had tucked around my shoulders struggled to reach my frozen bones.She stared at me unabashedly from across the table. Davin had seated us away from the alcove he and Scarlett had taken to sitting in, a strange look crossing his face as we’d passed it. This nook was just as cosy, but I missed the memory of Scar’s presence that filled the alcove. It was as close I’d come to touching her in days. I scratched the stubble growing along my jaw, long enough now that it was bordering on becoming a beard. “You need to shave,” said Marla.“Yes.” I turned to look out of the window, cursing the storm that was holding me hostage here. “I do.”She said nothing more, and I made no effort to break the silence either. My thoughts dragged me into misery, and it was som
Scarlett’s POVI burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it; with the flood of fear that was crashing through my veins swelling to a crescendo, I came alight at the ridiculousness of such a statement. “Magic powers?” I bent double, hacking up a cough and a laugh in one. “Amber, don’t be so fucking stupid.”She flushed bright red – well, from what I could tell through my squinted, water-logged eyes, anyway. “I’m not being stupid!” she snapped, swiping at me. The laughter stopped. I gulped in a shaky breath, my chest constricting, my lungs too tight to let the air in. Stumbling back, I stared across at her with wide eyes. The dappled sunlight played across her taut face, shadowing her brow and making her appear all the more sinister. I shook my head, taking another, more measured, step backwards. “It’s second nature to you now, isn’t it?” I asked quietly.“What is?”“Hurting me. You don’t get your way, so you lash out.” I laughed again, humourlessly this time. Curling my fingers up again