Sorry that it has been so long between updates. I lost my external hard drive that has everything that I have created for my books and I was in a bit of an ADHD paralysis until my middle child found it a few days ago! I'll be back to regular updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays starting this week.
I had been pushed into the deep end, the pool floor ten feet below me. I’m trying hard to get my head above the water and I know that if I can relax I could probably figure out the floating thing. But I screamed as I fell into the water and I can feel my lungs constricting and burning for air. There’s no relaxing when you’re running out of air. But even I know this much about the human body: if your body needs oxygen desperately then there’s no way that you can stop it from taking a breath. You can put it off for a bit, but your body will eventually force you to take a breath. So, yeah. I’m panicking just a bit. I try with uncoordinated slices and slaps of my hands at the water to pull myself up as I continue to sink down into the water. I try to kick my legs like I’ve seen others do when they swim, but I’m too panicked. All I was doing was tiring myself out and burning the little bit of air that I still have in my lungs. It doesn’t take lon
SHIT! Goddess-damned, motherfucking shit! His eyebrows pinch and his eyes widen as he takes in my rogue mark. He’s distracted by what he’s just discovered and I use that to my advantage. Twisting from his grip, I take the towel that was in his hands and press it to my face as I move to stand and pull away. I’m winded and weak from nearly drowning and I know that my body right now is in fight, flight, or freeze mode. I am fleeing as fast as possible. The second that I’m standing, I pull the ponytail out of my hair, letting it down and pulling it to cover my face. Luckily, my bunny headband had fallen off in the pool, along with my heels. I don’t have to worry about that stopping my hair from falling across my mark. The next thing that I do is haul ass out of there. I don’t know how much of my mark is exposed and I’m sure that the descenting spray is gonna wear off soon. The other wolves will be able to scent me out. They’ll smell
I make sure that the partition is closed between me and Edie, my driver, before saying through the intercom, “Take us back to the packhouse.” I can’t having him scenting that she’s a rogue. I can’t have anyone figuring that out, but I need time to figure out what I’m going to do, so back to the packhouse it is. “Yes, alpha,” Eddie responds and then we pull away from the back entrance of the Warren. Obviously, Nova didn’t know how often I have snuck in and out of the Warren. I can’t have my pack knowing everything about my sex life. This is a routine thing for me, so I was able to mindlink Eddie and have him bring the car around when I realized that was where she was going. I had to use my alpha tone when I realized that she was almost out the door and that her rogue scent would be out in the air. I can’t have anyone else scenting her. It’s not that a rogue scent is a bad scent. But it’s very different from the scent of our pack. Each differen
The ride to the packhouse is tense, but at least it’s only about a 20-minute ride. She keeps my shirt fisted in her hands but hasn’t put it on yet. She just sits there coiled, ready to fight or run, whatever will get her away. Her eyes never leave me, though she’s not looking at my face. She’s watching my body. The movements of my face, the center mass of my body. Hell, she could give my warriors some pointers with how vigilant she is to make sure that she is safe and how she knows to watch me for any threat. It makes something in me ache that she knows to do that. I know every wolf that is in training as a warrior. I participate in the training of the higher-level wolves on a daily basis, but at least drop by every other training group two to three times a week. She’s never been in one.It means that she’s had to learn these survival skills the hard way.As an alpha, I don’t like to know that any of my pack members are going through something like that.
The sparks that flow over my skin at Nova’s touch have me closing my eyes and biting back a moan. I can easily see how this would be addicting, which worries me. Even if she joins the pack, can I accept her as my mate? How long as she been here? Why does no one else know? Is she a harbinger of something worse happening? The easiest way to find answers to these questions is to ask her, but I can’t do that until I get her to my room. We hurry up the stairs and make it to the floor of my gamma and delta’s families. Straining my ears and scent the air, I can tell that no one is in the hallway and I nearly sprint across the landing, Nova able to keep up with me easily. The stairway that we just came through is private, just for the leadership of the pack and their families. We use it as a way to escape in times of attack, especially to get the pups out. It’s not that it’s a secret, it’s just faster. What is secret is the stairwell that is behind
I don’t know how to react to the alpha. He scares me. He has so much power over the city. Over me and my fate. I could piss him off and he could have me killed with just a flick of his hand. But, so far, he’s protected me. Yeah, he chased me through the Warren, but it seems like he just did it so that he’d be able to get me out of there without anyone seeing. I’m not really that gullible to just believe what he tells me, but his actions seem to support what he’s said. Now he’s left me in his room alone. He didn’t even lock the door. He gave me clothes, told me to get comfortable, and said that he was getting me food. Taking a deep breath, I look around the room. His scent fills me nose and, now that it isn’t augmented by the scent enhancer, it’s very pleasant. More than pleasant. I almost want to roll myself in it. To envelope myself in it and never emerge. It’s spicy and very masculine. Fuck, it’s making me horny.
“Daddy? Why are we here?” I know I’m whining and Daddy hates whining, but I can’t help it. It’s cold and dark and scary and I want to go home. “Shut the fuck up!” he orders. Though his voice is gruff and the words that he says are mean, he isn’t really paying attention to me right now. He’s too busy peering into the gloom that’s all around us. Daddy looks down at his watch and then looks back into the trees that surround us. His movements are fast and jerky, like he’s on that special medicine again. Well, more like he needs to have another shot with the special medicine. He always gets meaner whenever he needs the special medicine. “Are we really going to see Mommy out here?” I ask. That’s what Daddy had told me when he made me get out of bed. He was bringing me out into a deep dark part of the words beyond our pack borders where the teachers always tell us that we’re never allowed to go so that we could get Mommy and bring her home. He
Climbing the steps to my rundown, shit hole of a house, I feel a bone deep weariness that never seems to go away these days. The evenings at the club, the skintight clothes, the filthy hands grabbing at my body, it all takes a toll. One that I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to wash away. Tonight was no better. My feet ache from the heels that I’m forced to wear and I feel like I have a permanent wedgie from the way that the bunny outfit that is my uniform at work showcases my ass cheeks. I just wish there was a better, faster way to make the money the I need to get out of here. Unfortunately, those grabbing hands also fork over a fistful of cash for the liberties that they take. And if I want to escape the situation that I’m in, this is the fastest way to do it. Speaking of my ‘situation,’ I take another quick peek at the street in front of my house to make sure that he isn’t there. That his truck isn’t coming down the street or