NIXON
The heat and Nixon’s chocolate scent assured me that he was still alive, but the lack of two heartbeats was enough to startle me awake.
Alice was gone.
‘Where are you?’ I reached for her over the link.
‘With Maddy,’ she responded immediately and Declan cleared his throat from the side of the room.
‘She doesn’t look well still, she barely slept a few hours,’ he linked me, clearly not wanting to chance Alice hearing our conversation. ‘You’ve been out for most of the day, nightfall is in a few hours,’ he proactively answered my next question, which meant that crying was almost as draining on me as rebirthing was.
‘What was wrong with her? What is wrong with her?’
NIXON “What are you doing?” I asked Alice when she looked at me like she knew I was there the whole time, her thick scent hanging in the air, more potent than it usually is, “Is that your-” “Yes,” she interrupted, “Marcy needs it to survive now, Nixon.” “You’ve already lost enough,” I hissed, taking the time to really look at her and Declan was right. She looked paler, had bags under her eyes, and reacted slower than normal. We’ve never been sick, part of the shifter charm I suppose, but that's how she looked now. Sick. Onyx was scratching at the surface to be let loose, even though Marcy was Linden’s mate and he understood she needed it to survive, the fact that she was drinking Alice’s blood was boiling his. Marcy looked better, and she was technically dead.
ALICE “Just because you couldn’t survive out there, doesn’t mean I can’t,” Jerrika was arguing with the guards as I approached, “I’m allowed to leave.” “Jerrika, I can’t let you go out there, your dad-” “My dad is dead,” she said, a little too emotionless for a nine-year-old with a baby on her hip. Her back stiffened once she sensed my presence, standing taller as she prepared to face me. “Jerrika, what’s going on?” I looked down at her as I linked some of the mothers I knew had recent babies, ‘I’d like someone willing to nurse another to meet me at the main gate.’ “I’m not a prisoner, am I?” She asked so matter-of-factly with no hint of aggression and I knew what it was like to hide all of your emotions, she must be exha
IAN Scar walked into Ambrosia with a murderous look, nodding his head to the back at me, and talking as soon as the door to the office slammed behind us. “We have a problem,” he paused, “It’s Lucius again. He killed an Alpha-” “Which Alpha?” I could feel every ripple of muscle in me tense. I haven’t quite worked out which pack my little wolf belongs to, but I know where Scar found her. “Black Claw’s, I’ve already ruled out-” “Unless you know for sure, you can’t really rule a pack out,” I snapped as I debated how to go about this, “and I assume that this is a problem because you don’t know where she is?” “She’s resourceful,” he tipped his head slightly down before meeting my eyes agai
IAN Alice was down there. Of that I was sure. The Heir’s weren’t just any Wolves, they were the royalty of their bloodline, each of them somehow descended from the original Wolf… that must be making the pain of losing them worse. She wasn't just losing an Alpha, she was a losing part of herself. The other heir had shifted back to human form, a tiny woman to have come from such a wolf, and as she let out a piercing scream, the pain my mate was feeling mounted. The crippling pain didn't last long but still had me on my knees watching the devastation unfold, anything Jasper was saying being lost to the wind, but as soon as the pain in my chest let up, the Heir jumped into the air. I half expected her to change in
IAN “What… did you… do?” Huffed my giant, very angry mate as his large hand was crushing my jaw. Blame it on desperation, on the endless nature of his eyes, or on the fact that I’d been without him now for weeks, but I was paralyzed as I stared up at him. When he finds out I’ve known our mate for over two weeks, he’s going to lose it. When he finds out that Lucius was near our mate, that she’s in pain and I left her, I’m dead. Part of me always knew this day would come. He would find her and there wouldn’t be a need or a place for me anymore. I wanted a chance with her, any chance to know her before he took over her world... because he would. It would be hard for her to resist him. Even now while he's close to becoming undone, the painful burning in my che
RIAN Sebastian was barely holding himself together, letting little snippets of his thoughts through that he thought he was keeping private. Losing Lucius would seem insignificant to most, a blessing to others, but to him, he was what made becoming a Vamp bearable. Lucius used to be carefree, a light where they had none. Sebastian was broken when I found him today, and I had to be careful not to give away my access to his thoughts. He’s my mate. Alice is my mate. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for either of them and although it may take time to prove that to him… he will see. I cared about how Sebastian was dealing with it all, but the priority right now was finding Alice and getting her to the safety of our home. The text message I received almost sent my beast
RIAN “What is this?” My body was reaching inferno heat, angry and vibrating that someone had already marked what was ours. We’ll kill them with our bare hands, we’ll erase any record of this mark from her and replace it with- “It’s my brother’s mark,” she whispered, “it bonded us and my other brother together. My brother wears the same mark, and he’s now mated… it won’t interfere,” I looked back up into her eyes and it hit me. I was too distracted by my adoration of her, too lost in her absolute beauty, too busy trying to breathe in her presence that I missed what she was afraid of showing me. She’s an Heir. Facts started to assault my thoughts, coming in rapid-fire as I pieced everything together about what S
LINDEN Ace was growling in my head, and as the light filtered through my eyelids... I wish it didn’t. I can’t be alive without her. I don’t want to be. I can’t survive this. My body moves on its own accord, a sudden surge in my movements causing me to go off the bed, getting tangled up in a number of tubes that are now pulling at my skin as the coolness of the hard tile flooring reminds me that I'm really here. “Thank fuck,” Nixon’s voice reached me just as he righted me and his forehead was against mine. “I want to see Marcy’s body,” I snapped out, the warmth from him doing nothing to su
ALICE **6 months later** Sebastian held me from behind, sitting up on the bed with his hands carefully tucked under mine, holding Tiernan up to feed as I slept against his chest. It always woke me, but it was adorable that he tried to let me sleep through the feedings. His lips lazily grazed my shoulder and neck, sensing I was awake, as Rian’s stronger scent announced his arrival with the sweet notes of fruit. 'Always scanning my thoughts for movements,' I teased, and when I opened one eye slightly to look at him, he was standing there with a smug smile on his face, not caring in the least. I looked down at our little greedy bundle of love and with each look, somehow the pain of the longest pregnancy in life subsided.
NIXON **6 months later** Rest in peace, Ian. You had a nice life. A fine life. One you clearly don't value too much when you're trying to argue with the woman carrying your offspring and my mate. A strong shiver crept up my spine at the thought. Nope. Even I'm not that crazy. "She does what she wants," Bridget announced, the rose notes in her scent rising as if to remind you that in her beauty is also thorns. My mate was correct, even in her oddly robotic
NIXON Alice's hand was tucked into mine, her other arm reaching across her body as she pressed into my side and lazily stroked my arm. This was the conversation I'd been waiting for since my parents left. Linden was standing on my other side, his arm pressed up against me as he showed his version of support. He wasn't as outwardly affectionate as Alice, and while he hardly initiated contact, he also wouldn't stop me if I reached for his hand right now. Their mates had given us this moment alone, Mountain and Ian were learning to give Alice some space the more they were here, but they never went far, always hovering in the background like she'd disappear if they took their eyes off of her. Well, she might. But it was drawi
LINDEN I still can’t believe the giant monster curled up casually outside of the house. Alice has been home for over two weeks, which was also so unheard of that I was beginning to wonder if I was dreaming. The blue scales on his body rippled as his lungs expanded, the horns coming back from his face shaking a bit as he seemingly got comfy and pups crawled all over him. They were sliding down his tail, where Sebastian and Nixon were on watch in case they needed to flash to catch anyone who fell off. Patient, yes his beast was that. Careful, cautious, really any kind of safe, he was not. ‘I don’t think I ever want to leave,’ Alice leant her head on my shoulder and I wrapped my hand around her as we watched them and she ate some… kale? She’s always eat
ALICE Rian's knot was nestled into me, the feeling of just how much it stretched me out being accentuated by the way my body was stretched up, slightly tugging at my entrance. My hands were tied together with a soft silky type of fabric that looped through a ring on the ceiling as Sebastian circled around me. He flashed to deliver little nips of his fangs all over my body, while Rian laid back and watched us like we were his entertainment. Sebastian loved knot time almost as much as I did... this was his time to take my submission that he craved freely. Rian let me play with Sebastian alongside him once, and oh was his perfect ass red, but I preferred handing the control over to them. He continued to edge me until I was a vibrating mess, begging him to let me find my
LINDEN Later that day, after a well-deserved nap, I came back out to check on Nixon but found Alice’s mates sitting in front of his fire with her. She was sitting backwards on Rian’s lap as he sat cross-legged on the ground and sideways to the fire. Her cheek was resting on his shoulder and her face pointed in the direction of the fire, although it didn't surprise me that she would be keeping an eye on Nixon. What did surprise me was when I rounded her and her eyes were closed. Was little volcano finally sleeping? She hardly ever slept when Nixon rebirthed, only admitting defeat after several days if his episodes lasted long enough. Al was always afraid that she would miss something, that he would wake without her and she wanted us to be the first thing he saw when he did.
LINDEN Terran confirmed his support of the two coupling and offered to help build Nixon a nest, but it had to be me and Alice, no one else ever has, or ever should, although we did allow him to construct a platform the nest would go on top of for us to be able to carry it easier. Once Ayana was let go, she left with Cato and Terran to solidify the truce with the other Fae bloodline holder, Baylin. Alice's mates were getting increasingly handsy, but her attention was solely on Nixon. She always had the natural ability to manage people without them feeling managed, Goddess knows she's managed us our whole lives, and she knew what her mates needed in order for her attention to be elsewhere soon. As I started to collect the bigger logs Alice began weaving some smaller bra
ALICE My chest began to heave up and down as I stared at Sebastian, the pain of him leaving me in the middle of the night flooding back to me. “Why didn’t you come back to get us so that we could have done this together? You let me think you left me? That you’d betray me?” Sebastian’s eyebrows scrunched together, his jaw flexing with tension, “I had to get us close enough with minimal risk, I was working on a way to get you here alone-” “Nixon is dead,” I interrupted him, cocking my head as I took a step towards him, “Terran could have died… Linden could have died… again!”
ALICE Jasper looked to Sebastian behind me, but his cruel red hues narrowed like he didn’t find what they were looking for. His anger turned to surprise and a slow ember type of light started to shine through his veins, turning the skin above, and then around them, to ash as he fell to his knees. My blood, and anywhere it touched, was burning him alive. The few screams of agony that he let out were like ecstasy wrapped in more ecstasy, drawing the attention of the very bloodied and probably broken prince’s. Linden’s eyes started to bulge not because of what was happening with Jasper, but because of the water that was filling his lungs. Panic filled me as my body tried to leap into action but Sebastian’s hold hadn’t let go of me yet and his voice boomed out