That's not how he wanted that to go...
“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
The bath is tepid and too small, but it still feels glorious. A bargain basement bath bomb, a travel-sized bottle of Moscato left over from a very confused man’s bachelor party, and a sugar cookie candle that one of the other servers gave me for Christmas and I’m in heaven. No thick, itchy stage makeup to cover my rogue mark. No aching feet. No hands on parts of my body where they aren’t wanted. No father that never wanted me lurking around. Just me and marginal luxury. Thinking about the night, I realize how good it was. I made $800 in tips. That’ll cover what’s left of my bus pass for the month, food, and a little extra cash just in case, leaving me with $500. Calculating in my head, I add that to the total that I have hidden away in my room. I’m within $5,000 dollars of my goal. Maybe by the end of the month. Definitely by next month and then I’m out of here. Away in the cabin in the woods that Cody and I said that we woul
I stay in my wolf form throughout the night. It’s the best way for me to heal. My wolf’s metabolism is sped up which will help to heal the bruises to the point that I can at least cover them up with makeup tomorrow. The bones will all shift back into place when I shift back, probably leaving a bit of soreness and ache behind, but nothing that I can’t deal with, even on heels. I’m used to pain. It’s like a second skin that I wear, whether physical or mental, I always feel it. I can fake like it’s not there and no one will know. And at least in wolf form, if Roy comes back I can defend myself better. Healing from major wounds like this always causes me to dream. I don’t know if it’s because of the fact that I’m in my wolf form and closer to the Goddess or if it’s because of all the crazy amount of chemistry that’s going on in my body to heal myself. Whatever it is, I find myself floating into a dream. I find myself walking in a fami
“Come on, man. It’s your 25th birthday. We can’t be late!” my beta, Jude, calls from my bedroom. “All the guys are ready to go.” I’m standing in my bathroom, having just finished putting on my hair. I grab the body spray that my mom got for me. It’s a pheromone enhancer, one that will increase my scent for my mate to find me. It works pretty damn well on the general unmated female population, but it will make my scent nearly irresistible to my mate. Wolves are able to start finding their mates after their first shift at age 16, so the fact that I’m 25 and haven’t found mine is fairly unheard of. Especially since I’m an alpha. Honestly, I’m not all that pressed about it. My parents hadn’t found each other until Pops was 31 and Mom was my age. Pops stayed alpha until well into his 50s, giving the pack over three decades of stability. He’d made alliances and friends in a ton of different packs and grown our own pack to nearly one thousand wol
Fuck she’s hot as hell and I can’t keep my eyes off of her now that I’ve seen her. I keep trying to catch her scent, but there’s too many other smells for me to scent hers out. And it isn’t uncommon for a working girl to cover her scent. That’s the complicated thing for an unmated she-wolf. Her scent will drive males crazy, whether they are her mates or not. And if she goes into heat? She’s not safe without those pills. What’s bothering me is the fact that she’s not responding to my alpha scent, especially with the fact that it’s amplified. All of the other she-wolves are basically drooling all over me. They’re doing their jobs and riling up my friends, but they keep watching me. Leaning towards me. Yeah, some of that is because I’m the alpha. Some of it is that, as a werewolf and an alpha, I’m fucking sexy as all fuck. I’m not bragging, it’s just fact. All alpha males and females are. But I think the fact that they keep movi
The alpha has been watching me since I walked into the room. I don’t know why. There’s no way that he could know that I’m a rogue. I’ve made sure that my scent is covered, as is my rogue mark. He can’t know. But something about his gaze is predatory and it’s scaring the shit out of me and I don’t know how to get away without raising a lot of questions. The scent of all the males have permeated the entire room, though, luckily, all of the females are using descenting spray. However, the alpha’s scent is the strongest in the room. I know it’s his just like I know my own name. It’s scary, overpowering, and authoritative. Like he owns the very air that we breathe. I mean, he is the alpha of our pack. It’s not a far fetch. But all of the females in the room seem to be falling over all themselves to get to him, his scent making their eyes glaze with desire. Just because I am not old enough to be paid for the services that
She’s trying to hide from my eyes, I can tell that. The meddling wrangler had gone up to her and told her what had happened and I saw her body tremble at the thought. It’s odd. I’ve had females be nervous about my attentions before, but because it’s a bit overwhelming to have the alpha want you. We alphas are known for our possessive prowess. It makes being under an alpha’s attention a lot to deal with. But their nerves are not because they didn’t want me. But Nova’s reaction…I have to say, it puzzles me. She seems genuinely scared. Like she doesn’t want anyone to notice her. And the fact that I have scares the absolute shit out of her. “She is a beauty. Banging body, too. Those fucking tits!” Jude says from beside me, only to stop when I growl at him. Like I said, we alphas can be possessive in our pursuit of a female, even if we don’t want to keep them for more than a night. Jude just laughs at me. Only my beta w
Alpha Derek and Luna Annalise are staring at me from the couch like I’m the missing link in their world to finally attain peace. I’m assuming that Ivan told them that I’m his mate, though I still don’t quite believe that. My wolf didn’t recognize him. I mean, there is something about him that I can’t quite seem to be able to let go of. As much as he scares me, I also long for his touch. And with my wolf not recognizing him…well, I’ve heard people say that their wolf has talked to them. That their wolf has a name. Things that their wolf thinks and feels and wants. My wolf has never done that. I mean, every once in a while, I’ll get feelings of anger that seem to come from more than me. Especially when Roy was beating me. That’s when I would have bursts of defiance. Sometimes I would fight back. Sometimes I would partially shift. It was inconsistent and I could never predict it. But it was there. It made me wonder i
I haven’t seen Nova all day and I’m excited to get to her room. I slept in my bed for a few hours, but it was shit sleep. Now that I know what it’s like to have my mate’s scent in the room with me as I sleep, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to sleep without it again. I’m excited to see Nova, so when I walk into the room, I’m smiling as big as I can. Even more so since the nurse told me that she was awake. Turns out, the nurse didn’t tell me everything, because I see movement to the side of the room and I look over to see my parents sitting on the couch. “Hey Mom and Dad. What are you two doing here?” I ask with a furrowed brow. “I came to apologize to her, son. I need her to forgive me. I need her to know that I never meant – “ Dad’s voice cuts off as he starts to cry, his face in his hands and his shoulders shaking. Fuck! Fang curses in my head. She’s not ready for this shit. They couldn’t hold on to it for a few days so tha
The bastard managed to hold out a lot longer than I thought he would, but after finding out that he’s a beta blood, that makes sense. He’s tougher than the typical wolf, able to heal damage faster and withstand more damage than the typical wolf. I have two advantages over him. One, I’m an alpha, pissed off over the pain and suffering that this asshole has caused my mate her entire life. That is the other half of my soul and he damaged her just because he could. And there is very little a wolf won’t do for their mate. Add to that the fact that I have an alpha’s strength and temper and Roy was in for a whole hell of a lot of pain. Two, those hot shots might heal all of the physical injuries that he’s experiencing from the torture that I’m putting him through. But it does nothing to heal the mental damage. There’s only so much continuous pain that you can take before you start to crack. I’m pretty sure that he was catatonic by the time that I lef
I’m pushing the hospital food around on my plate, trying to make it look like I’ve actually been eating something. I mean, I know I need to eat. I need to build up my strength and all, but holy shit is this stuff bad. There’s like no seasoning. Everything is the texture of mush. I didn’t know that it was possible to burn something and have it partially frozen at the same time. Unfortunately, Dr. Fern is going to be pissed if I don’t eat. He said that me getting strong is the only way that he’ll let me out. And part of that is me eating my meals. Maybe I can order some food to my room? Pizza would definitely make me feel stronger. I’m trying to figure out if I can stomach a few more bites or if I should just risk flushing it down the toilet when there is a knock on the door to my room. Confused, I call, “Come in.” It’s weird that someone would be knocking on my door. The nurses knock, but they come right in, not waiting. And Ivan, the only other per
The doctor comes in and checks Nova over. She’s healing well and her wolf has come back online. The doctor wanted her to eat something to give her wolf some energy, but Nova’s eyes were already heavy. “You sleep. When you wake up, we’ll make sure that you get some food in there,” Dr. Fern tells her, a calm and fatherly tone to his words. “Thanks, doctor,” Nova says, her eyes already closing and a cute sleepy note in her voice. I can’t help but smile at her and I kiss her forehead as she drifts off to sleep. I follow Dr. Fern out of the room, wanting to make sure that I didn’t wake her up. Once the door is closed, I turn to the doctor. “Alright, how is she really?’ Dr. Fern allows me to look at her chart, as if I would really understand anything written here. “I told her the truth, Alpha. Our Luna is doing great. Her wolf appears to have almost completely healed all of her broken bones. The abdominal bruising that was concerning
One week later… The sharp smell of astringent is the first thing that registers as the blackness starts to fade. I open my eyes, squinting even in the low lights. I’m facing a bank of windows and can easily see that it seems to be the dead of night. I can see the moon shining in the sky, letting me know that I’m high up in the floors of whatever building I’m in. That doesn’t take long to figure out with the IV in my arm and the machine beeping along merrily beside me. The hospital. How the hell did I get here? Why am I here? Searching my memory, the last thing that I remember is reaching for my money in my room as I was trying to get away. Did Roy come home? Did he beat me? Based on the aches and pains in my body, as well as the pounding in my head, that seems likely. But how did I get to the hospital? I’ve never woken up in any place other than the room that I was beaten in.
“Wait. You’re saying that Noah Martin’s mate…she’s Nova’s mother?” Dad asks. “It appears so, Alpha,” Dr. Fern replies, nodding towards the lab form still in my hands. Dad grabs it and looks it over as if it makes sense to him. Of course, it might. When Mom had her lymphoma scare, Dad had done a shit ton of research to figure out as much as he could to help her. Mom is a hybrid witch and werewolf. Her healing abilities aren’t the same as a typical werewolf. So when she started to have symptoms, like unexplained fevers and weight loss and weird bruising, it wasn’t something that we could just blow off. Luckily, with treatment, early detection, and her sped up healing abilities, she was able to heal quickly. Dad pulls out his phone and looks up a picture of Karmyn. When her picture pops up, his mouth flattens into a line and he turns his phone so that Mom can see who it is. When she sees it, she gasps. “What is it?” I as
It’s evening when my parents find me in Nova’s hospital room, carrying food and a duffel bag with a change of clothes and some toiletries. “This is your mate? Our future Luna?” My mother’s voice, though bleeding the sadness that she feels about Nova’s condition, also holds a hint of excitement. This is what she’s wanted for me for a long time. And she’s made no secret of the fact that she wants grandpups ASAP. I can’t help but smile, though it’s small and pained. I know that Nova is a rogue, but finding out how she became one, even the scant details that I have, make me feel oddly better. People are only rogues for bad reasons, usually things that they have done themselves. Violent crimes. Rape. Frequent assaults. But that isn’t Nova. And I don’t know how I could have thought that the Goddess would have mated me with someone like that. It made me judge her. It made me less than ecstatic that she was my mate. If I had immediately accepted
Fang is freaking the fuck out in my head, moving between whimpering as we watch the paramedics work on stabilizing Nova, pacing when we don’t understand their medical lingo, and growling whenever we get a whiff of that man’s scent. He lives here with Nova. I can tell that from the mixed scents in the house. Are they related? Is he her boyfriend? He looks too old for that and she seems smarter than that. Granted, I don’t really know her, so I don’t know what her type is other than me. Mates are made to be each other’s “type.” Hence the big tits and amazing ass on Nova. Guess she likes tall, dominating, well-muscled guys.And this dude ain’t that.Jude and Jakobi, my head warrior, come and drag him out of the room. “Find out who the fuck he is,” I growl at Jude, my voice much deeper from Fang being present with me. “He lives here, there has to be some form of identification for him here.”“Yes, Alpha,” Jakobi says immediately.Jude looks at me and I know that he can