Scarlett’s POVThey were dead. Suze. Luna. Ollie. And it was all my fault.There was something in me. Something dark and scary. It swelled to a crescendo, beating out a rhythm in time with the thought of each of their names. Suze. Luna. Ollie. It grew and grew, a hurricane swirling around and around and around – Something dragged my arm up. It yanked my bones, forcing my muscles to follow. My fingers splayed of their own accord. Suze. Luna. Ollie. I knew distantly that I was sobbing, but the hot tears spilling down frozen cheeks didn’t feel like they belonged to me. I was a cold and callous being, controlled by the air whooshing through my veins. I was a marionette. My limbs were dragged into place by invisible strings. Air slammed out of my palm and into an unsuspecting lamp. It flew off the bedside table and smashed on the hardwood floor.Still being propelled by the same wind that had broken the lamp, I stood. My knees jerked. “Scar?” Enzo stood too, his hands hovering worriedl
Enzo’s POVWe boarded the earliest flight we could. I’d asked Scarlett if she wanted to say goodbye to her roommate and co-workers – and what a headfuck asking that had been – but her eyes had clouded with tears, like fog rolling in over the ocean, and she’d shaken her head, unable to voice the no that had surely been coming.This was all wrong. It was like doing a paint by numbers in unorthodox colours, making a mountain purple and the lake orange. It was the complete opposite of being black and white; nothing made sense, nothing was drawn out plainly to see, and there were no reasonable conclusions I could draw.Scarlett was asleep beside me, her head tipped back, her lips parted. With her eyes closed, at a quick glance she could have been anyone. Her nose ring glinted in the low light. The weirdest part was that I really liked the changes to her appearance – she looked badass – but I didn’t like that I didn’t know how or when they’d happened. The hair made sense if she was on the r
Scarlett’s POVThere wasn’t a big enough word to describe how downright odd it felt to be back at Moose Creek. Strange only skimmed the surface, and bizarre felt too fun, too flamboyant, too… kooky. Being back with Enzo should’ve been fun. Parts of it were – holding his hand still sent bolts of lightning tingling upwards from the point of contact, and his idle chatter about British television shows still made me laugh. There was something intrinsically different about us both, though, which I came to realise only truly once we’d made it back to his home.We’d both been thrown into the fire. It had forged me, but it had melted him.Of course, I was far from unbroken. But I felt stronger inside than I ever had before, my conviction to do the right thing by my human friends and my determination to not harm anyone with my wild new powers holding me steady. I knew what I wanted to do and what I needed to do. That was enough to keep me upright on the days when everything became too much.E
Enzo’s POVShe didn’t have to tell me twice.I cradled her, a beautiful, precious thing, and felt the earth shatter around us as I pressed my lips to hers. Her shaky breaths warmed my face as I leant in, such a delicate part of her to be shared only with me. The gaping wound of my heart began to stitch itself back together at last as she wound her hands into my hair, tugged lightly, and swept her tongue into my mouth.Groaning, I nudged her back until she was flush with the fridge. Nails scraped over my scalp, making me shiver. “Scar,” I moaned, my throat thick with lust. “Enzo.” My name on her lips? She may as well have shot ecstasy straight into my veins. My dick twitched, growing hard against her hip. She sucked my lip into her mouth and bit down. “Fuck,” I whimpered, squeezing my eyes shut. “You’re perfect.”“So are you.” Her breaths were coming shorter and faster. Her trembling fingers trailed downwards, curving around the edge of my ear and tugging at my earlobe before going f
Scarlett’s POVThings between Enzo and I weren’t fixed, not exactly, but they were definitely patched up. We both knew where we stood, now. He hadn’t moved on from me, and, as it turned out, I hadn’t moved on from him. Not one damned bit. Being with him was electric – which was good, because I didn’t want to talk to anyone else. Not yet.We lay tangled on the bed, my head on his chest, his strong arms wrapped around me. “We’re okay, aren’t we?” he murmured, punctuating his words with a kiss to my temple.“Of course we are,” I breathed. “I hated thinking that you – that you…”His throat bobbed. “Yeah, I know. Me, too. I’m so sorry for getting angry.”“No, don’t be. I know how frustrating I can be.” I burrowed further into the hollow of his neck. “It’s just been a weird time. I still can’t believe any of it. A few months ago, I was Ryker’s slave. I couldn’t shift into a wolf; I was worse than an Omega. And now…”“Now?”“Now, I’ve found my mate – an Alpha, by the way, did you know?” I te
Enzo’s POVI tapped my foot. I chewed the inside of my cheek. I sighed.Waiting, I decided, was its own special brand of torture. I’d told Scar two things: that I trusted her, and that I didn’t trust Samael. The problem was, even though Scar could now hold her own, her powers were largely unknown and entirely unpredictable. If she needed to use them, would she be able to?I started to pace, the warm tones of the hallway and the wintry light spilling in through the windows contrasting starkly. I checked my watch. Tick, tock. I scratched at my stubble. How long had she been in there? Five minutes, ten, twenty?I should’ve checked the time when she’d gone in. I could still feel where she’d squeezed my hand, my palm tingling from the long-gone contact. She’d slipped back into my heart effortlessly, but I knew removing her from it now would be impossible. Even if the mate bond didn’t exist, I knew that I would have found her and loved her. Scarlett was woven into my very soul. A jolt of s
Scarlett’s POVI stared at up Enzo. Terror locked my joints and froze my muscles. He didn’t look like himself; his lips were pulled back from his teeth in a snarl, one so animalistic that I could barely find the sweet, human nature that I knew so well. This wasn’t him. This wasn’t my mate.“No,” wheezed Samael. I blinked up at him, confused and scared in equal measure. “I’d die before I’d tell you.”What the fuck was going on? One minute, I’d been in the library. The next, I was here – wherever here was – lying in the snow, dazed and foggy. And Enzo…Enzo wasn’t here. Not him. Not really.He shrugged, his eyes cold as frosted coal. They glinted with something dark, something nasty, as he said, “That’s fine with me.” I struggled to get my body under control. But when Samael’s eyes started to roll back into his head, my soul slammed back into my chest and I found that I could move. I gasped. “Enzo.” My voice was rough and raspy, and I could barely manage a whisper. “Don’t.”Samael’s he
Enzo’s POVWhat. The. Fuck.I ground my teeth together, staring at the coarse tree trunk. Scar’s air magic had pushed back a knot of thistles that had previously been covering it – pure chance, pure coincidence – and yet somehow, some way that was totally scrambling my brain, that random blast of magic that she couldn’t even control had revealed another fucking message. Staring at the words unseeingly, I felt nothing but the pounding of blood against my skull.Scarlett’s gasp was the sweet version of all my swearwords. “What does it say?” she muttered, pushing in close to me. It was maddening that even that small, thoughtless touch had my heart pounding. After what I’d done, I didn’t deserve her. Sure, it wasn’t the first time I’d killed someone, and sure, she’d killed someone, too, but she’d done it by accident, using a newfound power she had no control over. I’d wanted to hurt Samael. I’d wanted to see the light leave his eyes. That made a monster. Didn’t it?I didn’t feel like a m