Scarlett’s POVShady Grove was cast into darkness. In that moment, it felt to me as though it were Ryker himself creating that pocket of shadow; all the light in the world was sucked into him, drawn by like calling to like. I shuddered, writhing in his grip. It was tight enough to make me wheeze, but not tight enough to kill. Yet.“Nothing smart to say this time, hmm?” he purred, loosening his fingers one by one. It was a show of power, a reminder that I could do nothing to stop him. I knew that somewhere deep, somewhere intrinsic; my mind and body were a hacking, red-faced mess, my only conscious thought of getting oxygen into my straining lungs.“Do you understand your place yet, Omega?”I couldn’t even nod. I stared at him, bug-eyed, and waited for him to decide what to do with me next.“I’ve been away, you see. There have been… whispers, shall we say, for many years, about a beautiful and dangerous power lying in wait. Some of those whispers suggested that such a power had been ri
Enzo’s POVThe sun set and the moon rose. Dawn fractured the navy sky, and the pale sun rose and set again. Every day that passed blurred into the next, the week becoming a swathe of endless grey as the storm continued to rage. Swirling mist and black midday skies accompanied my misery as I read books in the library with Davin and as I talked to members of my pack with Marla. The monotony of it all made the pain in my heart more obvious, a striking red set against a backdrop of nothingness. I missed Scarlett more with every agonising second that ticked by.Having her for such a short amount of time made it ache all the more. I’d grasped joy for less than a month, had barely brushed my fingertips against it, before it’d been dragged away from me.I ground my teeth together. “I just feel useless,” I admitted quietly to Davin, closing the worn, yellowed book I’d been reading and sliding it across the table towards him. He nodded. I knew him well enough to understand what it meant - acce
Scarlett’s POV Hot hands grasped my shoulders, dragging me, bleary-eyed, out of the dark room. I squinted against the onslaught of daylight. Heavy chains dragged my sore limbs down. My stomach growled; I fought to ignore it. This was my new normal. Ever since I’d stood up to Alpha Ryker – how many days ago was it now? Three? Four? Five? It was hard to tell in the darkness – I’d been kept in a dimly lit room in the ass-end of the pack house, a room Ryker fondly referred to as his oubliette. A French word meaning to forget. But he’d not forgotten about me. God, life had to be fucked when being left to starve in a pit was preferable to my present reality. My time alone in the room, with my wrists and ankles chained in cold iron, was actually the highlight of my lonely existence. Sure, I ached all over, and sure, I couldn’t ever get comfy, bound upright as I was to the solid frame at the heart of the otherwise empty room, and sure, there was no food, no heat, no reprieve – but at least
Enzo’s POVMy parents lived in a small cabin on the coast. It took me half a day’s hard run to reach it, and I finally shook the water from my fur as the solar lights dotting their front porch came on. Dancing from paw to paw, I stared at the two steps I had to walk up to reach their front door. They were rickety, but in the worn sort of way that looked well lived in rather than abandoned and spooky. Fairy lights glittered against the rolling grey storm, trembling in the wind beneath a slanted half-log roof shaken by the wind. Wind chimes howled and clattered, smashing into the upright logs that formed the outer ring of the porch. A steady drip fell onto the shaggy welcome mat. Warm orange light filled the steamed-up windows, spilling out into the navy darkness and catching the uppermost edge of the rolling grey fog. Even from here I could smell the embers of the fire in the hearth and the deep, rich aroma of their nightly glass of red wine. Chilled in the spring and summer, mulled
Scarlett’s POV My breathing stopped. No. No, I didn’t want to hear it. It was a truth that had lurked in the back of my mind, watching me from the corner of my eye; one I’d never dared poke for fear of what would happen to me if I did. Of course Alpha Ryker had killed my parents. Of course he had. Almost two years’ worth of memories flashed before my eyes: the vague description of their death, which I’d accepted all too easily; the way Enzo had eyed me strangely when I’d recounted it to him; the fact that they’d disappeared and Ryker had been the one to tell me that they’d died… I’d known all along, really; I just hadn’t let myself think about it for long enough to accept it. Ryker himself had basically told me in Shady Grove, when he’d said he couldn’t take my family from me again. I’d shoved it aside, ignored it, done everything I could to pretend it wasn’t true to save myself the agony of accepting the truth. Even the notes my parents had written one another, tucked into the old
Enzo’s POVSilence filled the room. It was palpable, the kind so thick that a knife would struggle to cut it. The weight of my words hung heavy in the air, the accusation stinging even me.Mum’s lip quivered. Seeing that was a lance straight through my heart. “You – you think we poisoned her?” she asked, her voice trembling.Dad wouldn’t meet my eyes, and his question was just as evasive. “Scarlett has been poisoned?”His coldness was easier to bear than my mum’s heartbreak. “Both of us were,” I said levelly, fixing my gaze on the fire. “At the initiation bonfire.” I slid my gaze to my dad, whose brow had furrowed. “That you didn’t attend.”“Oh, Geno, I knew we should’ve told him!”“Told me what?” I glanced between them, chewing on the inside of my cheek.“We didn’t want to worry you, son.” Dad’s smile lines pulled taut as he frowned. “Well, now I am. What the Hell is going on?”“No, no, you must tell us what happened to you first!” Mum cried, clutching a cushion to her chest and squ
Scarlett’s POVAlpha Ryker never knocked. The pack house belonged to him, as did every soul living under its roof. Me more than most.His piggy blue eyes narrowed as he took in my prone form, the duvet pushed back from my body to let my too-hot leg, still stuck in its cast, stick out into the cool spring air. The windows were thrown wide, and the early time of his visit meant that the sun was yet to spill over the horizon.“Well?” he barked, crossing his arms over his chest. “I kept my word. Now it’s time for you to make good on your side of the deal, Omega.” He ground his teeth together. “Scarlett.”“Old habits die hard,” I said, stalling. I couldn’t give him what he wanted and I had no way out. I could lie to him. Tell him I’d made him immortal and then say, hey, I know how I can prove it – let me try to kill you. I swear it won’t work. But, even if he went along with it, I knew I’d never be able to do it. No matter how much he’d hurt me – no matter what he’d done to my parents – I
Enzo’s POVMy jaw dropped. “Hang on just a minute. They attacked you?”Dad waved a blasé hand. “Well, we’re fine, aren’t we?”Mum nodded along with him. “Exactly. There’s no need to blow this out of proportion, sweetheart.”I threw my own hands into the air. “Why didn’t you say anything?” They shared a long look that spoke volumes. My reaction was why. Schooling my features into what was hopefully a look of cool nonchalance, I waited patiently – as patiently as I could, anyway – for them to go on with their story. But neither of them did. “Well?” I pressed eventually, my expression sliding into one of sheer disbelief. “That’s it?”“They left us knocked out in the woods. We woke to a note that said this was a warning, and they wouldn’t be so gentle next time.” Mum shrugged. “All’s well that ends well.”“No, wait.” My brow furrowed. A muscle ticked in my jaw. “A group of rogues managed to overpower you? What happened to not needing backup?”“We let them do it.” Dad sighed over-emphatica