Adriana didn't know when dinner time was supposed to be, so she quickly bathed in the luxurious bathroom attached to the room she was in. Just like the rest of the place, it gave off airs that it had been built for another era, with its gold accents and huge clubfoot tub. In just a few hours, she had experienced more comfort than she ever had in her eighteen years living with the Turnbulls. When she was done, she chose a dress from the closet, picking a red and black dress with short sleeves. The more time she spent browsing the clothes, the more she realized that everything that she had ever worn had been hand-me-downs from Rhonda, or things she rescued from the trashcan when Rhonda was done using it. Just as she was brushing her damp hair, someone knocked on the door.
Rowan left the tent and went to check up on a few of his omegas who had been a part of the battle. His body was still stiff and sore in the places where he had been wounded, but he was well enough to move. Once he had a better picture of how his pack was doing, Rowan headed towards the main house. When he reached the path that led to the Turnbulls' house, he couldn't help but remember how he had led Adriana back here, and how surprised he had been at her reluctance to let him speak. Even if she never forgave him and didn't want anything to do with him afterward, he needed to tell her how sorry he was. The yard around the house was mostly cleaned up, save for a stack of burnt wood near the edge of the forest. Two omegas flanked the entrance to the house, and they eyed Rowan with suspicion as he walked up to them. "I'm here to see Alpha Darien," he said and continued to head towards the door. "Who are you?" One omega stepped aside and blocked Rowan's path. He was about to push Ro
What the hell had happened last night? Adriana woke up with a headache, still in the clothes she had worn to dinner. Had the wine really messed her up so much? One thing was very clear: she was going to have to smarten up. Back at the Turnbulls, they were her biggest threat. Now that she was on her own, in a way, she was going to have to be very careful with what she did. Flashbacks of her conversation with Alaric ran through her mind as she took a bath. He seemed to be convinced she had something to do with the strange things that happened during the attack on Black Moon pack. That simply wasn't possible; never in her life had anything like that happened around her. She dressed quickly, taking out yet another dress from the closet. Some day she'd b
Rhonda cornered Rowan in the office after her father had left to investigate what had happened in the mines. He had a slight suspicion that the incident wasn't something too bad and that Peter had just wanted to get Alpha Darien out of Rowan's reach. Rhonda kept talking as Rowan thought of his next move. "And... it just can't be true. Did she say something to you? She must have tricked you!" Rowan glared at Rhonda, making her flinch. "Yes, I am sure. Now, please let me through. I need to go take care of important things." "But she isn't an Alpha's daughter! That's not how it's supposed to work." Rhonda sounded like a whining little girl, and she all but stomped her feet. "It's unfair." Luna Mona a
“Don’t be scared,” Ravenna said, gazing down at Adriana as she stood and backed away, her back against a bookcase. This couldn’t be true. Maybe she had just imagined that this woman’s teeth were sharper than normal and combined with her pale skin, she had panicked. Vampires didn’t exist, did they? But then again, humans lived under the impression that shifters didn’t exist either. “Ravenna, please.” Alaric looked like he was being held immobile with an invisible straightjacket. The veins on his neck popped up and a bead of sweat fell down his brow. “What… what is going on?” Adriana’s eyes darted back and forth between Ravenna and Alaric. “I take it A
What his mother had shown Rowan in the morgue… was something he would never be able to forget. One of the attackers from Crimson Blood had died of his wounds earlier in the day, and immediately his body had… changed. It was as if it had been drained of blood and he was all skin and bones, and the doctor who had set his time of death said it happened within minutes. Now they were on their way to Crimson Blood, and all he could think of was that Adriana was stuck with these… creatures. Whatever they were. "How far are we?" he asked for the millionth time. Jaina, who sat in the back let out a sigh. "Close. We should stop soon and assess the area before approaching their entrance. We should-" "AARGGH" A wav
Adriana had never felt so poorly in her entire life. Not even when Rhonda "accidentally" sprinkled rat poison into her food. Every muscle in her body hurt the second she stirred, realizing that she was lying on a hard, rocky surface. The sound of water rushing close by overwhelmed her ears, and she covered them, wishing she could go back to sleep. "Adriana?" said a soft voice that sounded familiar but she couldn't quite place. It was like music to her ears. Suddenly, memories flooded her brain. The bite. Ravenna carrying to the steps of the house and leaving her there as a full-on fight raged outside. Rowan. Rowan had been carrying her. She lifted her head with pain flooding her body, and there he was, sitting with his back against an enormous boulder, looking intently at her. "How are you feeling?" His voice pierced her ears. She covered them and groaned. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "I don't know what happened to you... But-" His voice was too loud. It echoed through the sm
Adriana flinched with the sound and crawled further down the cave. Soon, however, she heard voices."You could have let me know it was you. I almost jumped you!" Rowan sounded furious. "How did you find us?""Us? Aren't you alone? And some of us can actually track people." It was a woman's voice.That almost scared Adriana even more than the growl, though a few seconds later, the logical side of her brain kicked in, telling her it wasn't Ravenna."What is that supposed to mean?" Rowan said. His voice was getting louder."I'm the one who should be asking questions. What on earth are you doing here? And why didn't you wait to attack? Right now, I don't know if you're stupid or suicidal. We lost people.""We were going to lose people anyway," Rowan replied, sounding very angry."Where are you going?! Come back here!" The woman kept cursing at Rowan as their footsteps grew louder, coming towards the cave.
ROWAN Three weeks. It had been twenty-two days since the incident, and Adria showed no signs of waking up soon. For Rowan, it was as if time had stopped: nothing he did mattered more than staying by Adria's side in case she opened her eyes. "All we can do is wait," the head doctor said for the thousandth time, leaving Rowan alone. He had all but moved into the hospital, arranging for Adria to be moved to the biggest room. Taking her to his house would have been more convenient, but he couldn't make the head doctor be there 24/7, and he didn't want a nurse or another doctor to be the only one close to her in case she woke up. At first, so many people had come in to check on them daily. Marla, Cora, Lucien. His mother was the only one who kept coming to spend time with him and the sleeping Adria. Rowan knew she was worried not only about his mental health but his body, too. A quick glance in a mirror showed him he looked disheveled and thinner than he'd ever been. There was ju
The rain kept pouring down on them, but through an opening in the sky, the enormous bright moon shone down on the clearing. The two drenched men slowly turned their heads towards the growling wolf. "Alpha Rowan!" one cried out, stumbling back and falling onto the mud. "No..." the man named Flint said, his eyes widening at the sight of Adria. The wolf wasn't a danger. But those two men... They were the ones who had thrown her into the water. A quick blur of images swept through her mind, reliving the torture they put her through. Adria sprinted toward Flint and the man barely had a second to try to hide behind the car, slipping in the muddy soil and falling face-down to the ground. With a strength she never knew she could possess she picked up the man by the collar of his damp shirt and threw him backward, sending him flying towards the forest. "Alpha Rowan! Stop her! She's a monster," the man behind her cried out, as she slowly walked towards Flint, who lay on the ground tryi
Water filled Adria's nostrils as she realized she was going to die. Something dragged her to the bottom, and no matter how hard she tried to push her body to the surface, the current and the weight pulling her down were too strong. Her desperation turned into resignation with one last try to float back to the surface. So short. The happy moments she'd had in her brief time with Rowan had been so, so short. Why was the Moon Goddess so unfair? She had given her so much just to take it away so quickly. Back in Black Moon pack, there was an old lady who planted strawberries at the edge of the village, and sold them to the Turnbulls every once in a while. Her husband drove her in a motorcycle with an attached cart, and he beamed with pride at his wife when she stepped off with her baskets of strawberries. Adria had always envied them. The simplicity of their life, how they didn't seem to need anything else but each other to be happy. How the husband took care of her and helped h
Rowan sensed something was wrong the second he stepped off the helicopter. In the distance, thunder rumbled and a strong wind howled up the mountain. He was never comfortable being away from the pack for too long, and now he was regretting coming over.“Alpha Rowan?” The helicopter pilot spoke to him via the mind link. “Sorry to disturb you. I don’t think I can take off in these conditions.”“Was this storm in the weather readings?” Rowan replied. There was no other way to put it. Even if the storm wasn’t directly over them, it was unpredictable as to where it would go. “No, just mild rain. And even so, it has been very unpredictable.”Rowan was about to tell the pilot that he could stay in the cabin for as long as he needed, or even spend the night until they’d have to return in the morning, when the sky broke with light. A few seconds later the roar of thunder hit the earth, shaking Rowan to the core.There was no way this was a normal storm. And the last time he’d seen a storm of
The deafening shrill of a smoke alarm began to ring, numbing out most of what Adria could hear. She couldn't shift in such a tiny space, nor was she able to feel anything pertaining to her powers inside the dank bathroom. "Rowan?" she said through the mind-link, thinking that alerting him to what was going on was her only chance. "Please don't run! Exit in an orderly manner!" a lady yelled.The man held on to her with an iron grip, and no matter how much she squirmed or tried to hit him back, he kept her pinned to the wall. "Flint? Let's go, man." Someone opened the bathroom door and then appeared in the tiny stall. "Tie her up." The guy removed his hand from Adria and in that split second, Adria was able to use her arm to claw at him, grabbing his hair and pulling it with all her might. "ARGHH!" The man called Flint pulled away from her, releasing his grip on her mouth. He pulled away from her and a tuft of hair left his scalp in Adria's fingers. Adria screamed for help but th
Adria had been right about the impossibility of having a conversation in the bar.Luke almost had to stand to get close enough for her to hear a word he was saying."...And we'll keep observing the people we have in custody to see what their behavior is like. But there's nothing to worry about. From what we know, vampires can't fully convert Wolves," he said.He had been trying to tell Adria that their discoveries on her blood weren't concerning. They were consistent with the other people they had captured from Crimson Blood pack."I find your unique wolf gene much more interesting," he continued, smiling at Adria.It must have something to do with her strange powers, but she didn't want to discuss that with Luke just yet, so she smiled back at him and continued to sip the beer he had gotten her.She was almost done with the third glass, but the initial numb feeling from the first one hadn't intensified. Perhaps it was the natural resistance to alcohol that Luke had mentioned.A rock s
Rowan stormed out of the hospital and shifted, losing his clothes without a second thought. He didn't care about the rain, about who saw him, or if the stack of papers in his office was still waiting for him to go over them. Right now he needed to be alone and blow off some steam. It had been a while since he took a few hours off to clear his head, and he couldn't help but think that if he had given himself some time to go over everything that had happened in the last few days, maybe he wouldn't be in such a mess. How could everything go downhill so quickly? It was only last night that he and Adria had agreed to try to trust each other. If he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with her, how were they going to be able to do it if they couldn't talk about things? He finally relaxed when his paws hit the muddy soil of the forest, crunching dry leaves beneath them. The steady raindrops falling on the trees and the distant cry of birds and other inhabitants of this place made him
Adria left the hospital feeling devastated, and the gloomy weather outside reflected her pain. A steady, strong rain fell on her as she hurried towards Rowan's house. She was pretty sure he hadn't gone there, and she dreaded the conversation she was going to have with Luna Marie, but the truth was, she didn't have any other clothes than the ones he had gotten her. She was terrified that Luna Marie would think she was ungrateful for leaving like this all of a sudden, but she was sure this was what she wanted to do. No matter how much love she felt for Rowan, they needed to figure out a lot of things before they continued their relationship. Or ended it. She shook off the cold and devastating feeling that idea brought her. What had he meant when he said he was done? Was it really just going to end like this? Luke had stayed behind at the hospital because there was a patient he needed to see, and thankfully, he hadn't even noticed the rain. Or else, she was sure he wasn't going to
Adria wiped the tears off her face as Luke and Lucien entered the office. "What happened?" Lucien said, his eyes darting back and forth between Adria and the door. "Are you Okay?" "Yes," Adria said. "I'm fine." "I... should go," Lucien said, turning. "Let me know if you need anything." With that, he ran out and disappeared behind the doorway. Luke closed the door and eyed Adria sadly. He briefly looked at the box of pills and pouch in her hands, but then looked away just as quickly. "You know, we don't have to talk to the Head Doctor right now. Do you want to go home?" The mention of the word home made a sob almost escape Adria's throat. She had no home anymore. What had even happened just now? Did they break up? Were they really ever a formal couple that could even break up? "I'm not going to be staying at his house anymore," Adria said in a quavering voice. "What?! He kicked you out?" Luke cried out. "He's-" "No," Adria cut him off. "I... told him I didn't want to stay