For Goddess sake! How the hell did I end up like this?
I take a walk in the forest belonging to my pack and end up a prisoner of a neighbouring pack. I donāt recall what happened, nor how I got here. All I remember is running in wolf form, then suddenly, nothing.
I woke up in this dirty, stinking cell like some filthy rogue a while ago. Some dickhead threw clothes at me and told me to get dressed. I would have refused because Iām stubborn, but I didnāt want to be naked in front of him any longer.
For some reason, I canāt mind-link my pack, my parents, nor my triplet counterparts. My brothers will be going out of their minds with worry. Theyāve never been able to deal with me being too far away from them for long periods. No one knows why, and no one can explain it, though it may have something to do with me being their Omerian Alpha. An Omerian is the most powerful female Alpha alive; theyāre also incredibly rare. Though my brothers were born Romerian, the male equivalent of an Omerian and should be able to handle things without me, I am the superior Alpha, and they follow me blindly.
If I canāt mind-link with any member of my pack or family, no one will be able to find me here. I would have counted on our pack bond, but I donāt feel that either, which concerns me. A pack bond can only be broken if a wolf chooses to leave, is exiled, or the whole pack is slaughtered. I know that hasnāt happened, nor have I decided to leave nor been exiled. So what the hell is going on?
It isnāt lost on me that Iām chained in silver like a savage. I have no clue what those who took me saw in me, except maybe how big my wolf is, but it couldnāt have been a threat. Iām not an active threat to anyone unless they attack my pack.
Sure, Iām stronger than most, faster, and more strong-willed. But my parents raised me to respect everyone around me, no matter their shifting ability, lack of it, or rank. How am I meant to respect someone who deems it okay to kidnap their future Queen?
I hear the sound of a heavy metal door creaking open. The most erotic scent hits my nostrils, and I groan. Oh, come the fuck on! Of all the places to meet my mate, it had to be while I was locked in a damn cell?
A man around twenty-five stands in front of the cage, staring at me with a smirk. Heās not bad looking. Heās blond, has brown eyes, and tanned skinned. Heād be handsome if he werenāt a complete prick. āWell, well, well, look what we have here,ā He laughs.
I roll my eyes. Iām guessing this idiot is the Beta of whichever pack this is. Heās not the Alpha, and thankfully not my mate. āWhy is your little friend hiding? Canāt face me himself?ā
I hear a loud growl, and he finally steps forward, my mate. Shit, this has to be a fucking joke!
Bastian Ashworth?
Alpha of Greenrock Pack?
This canāt be true!
How can this pig be my mate?
Someone up there hates me.
Bastian scowls at me through the bars, his arms folded across his chest. āWanna tell me what you were doing on my territory?ā
āI wasnāt on your territory,ā I hiss between clenched teeth. I canāt believe Iām being treated like this! These idiots know who I am, and if they donāt, theyāre more stupid than they look.
āYou dare to speak to me like this? You filthy rouge!ā Bastian yells.
āOh, my goddess,ā I shake my head to the ceiling and roll my eyes.
āWhat you want me to do?ā I donāt know who the other guy is, but I want to claw his throat out. āWant me to break her?ā
A burst of laughter rips from my throat, and itās almost maniacal. āYou?ā I laugh louder; then it dies on my lips as I stare at the two of them with hate in my eyes. āYou wouldnāt stand a chance against me.ā
āA rouge?ā This time, itās blondies turn to laugh. āYou have to be kidding me? Youāre on Greenrock territory, rogue. You have no power against a pack this size, with an Alpha as strong as mine. I donāt give a shit if you are my Alphaās mate!ā
āSheās not my mate.ā Bastian opens the cell door and walks inside, his Beta following. āStand, bitch.ā
I roll my eyes and stay where I am. This arsehole does not have the power to command me. He may be an Alpha, but so am I, and I am much stronger than he will ever be. Fact!
Blondie grabs the back of my hair and drags me to my feet. I do nothing, and I say nothing either. They wonāt get me to cower in fear; I donāt know what that is. Oh, I can feel it, but not as strong as most would. Thatās the Omerian in me.
āIs this where the two of you beat on an unarmed woman? How very rabid wolf of you,ā If they think Iāll show respect, then theyāre sadly mistaken. Just because I may have stumbled upon their territory, it doesnāt give them the right to treat me like this.
āWhatās your name?ā
I take a deep breath. āLillian Dalgaard.ā
Bastian narrows his eyes slightly as if Iām lying to him, then laughs, proving that he thinks I am. However, heās too eager to reject me to think about it. āI, Bastian Armond Ashworth, reject you, Lillian Dalgaard as my mate and future Luna of Greenrock pack.ā
I laugh; he has no clue. I will never mate with this fucker, but Iām not going to let him off that easily. Being rejected and accepting that rejection is painful for the rejected one. The one doing the rejecting feels pain for a while, then gets to go off and live their life, while their rejected mate suffers in agony as the mate bond slowly severs. For Alphas like us, the sheer agony of rejection; is magnified tenfold. It will be worse for me because of my Omerian status.
Feeling every touch, kiss, and thought given to someone else through the mate bond can slowly kill someone. But I wonāt suffer alone; Bastian will soon learn that rejecting an Omerian and her not accepting will cause him twice as much pain as usual. I am not to be messed with, and itās time these arseholes realised why.
āWell, guess what, dickhead?ā
Bastianās eyes widen. He thought I would have crumbled at his rejection, but he doesnāt know me. Well, it seems he doesnāt remember me, at least. It might have something to do with the fact we havenāt seen each other in ten years. Our fathers are friends, our packs are friendly, but thatās all about to change.
āYou wouldnāt dare!ā
āWhat are you talking about, Bastian?ā Blondie lets go of me and looks to his Alpha.
I smirk. āOh, I dare. You have no idea what youāve done, but youāre about to find out.ā
āDonāt do it!ā Bastian hisses.
āI, Lillian Anja Dalgaard, Omerian Alpha and future Queen of Zidiah,ā Both Bastian and Blondies eyes widen so much itās almost comical. āDo not accept your rejection, Bastian Armond Ashworth, Alpha of Greenrock. You may not have remembered me, but I remember you, Bastian Ashworth. The mate bond will eventually break, and you know what that means for you, donāt you? Rejecting an Omerian is the most stupid thing any wolf could do. Now you will suffer pain you never knew existed.ā
āYou stupid bitch! Youāve doomed us both to death!ā Bastain rakes his fingers through his hair.
Once you find your mate, it isnāt long before the heat and rut come along. If youāre not with your mate, it will feel as though youāre being tortured with fire. It will burn you from the inside out. Itās much worse for Alphaās than any other rank, and Iām not sure Iāll be able to survive it, but Bastian most definitely wonāt.
āBoo fucking hoo! You thought you could reject me and watch me suffer? Youāre sick and twisted, and now youāre going to find out what real pain is. Enjoy your last few days, Bastian. May they be the most painful youāve ever encountered. Take to your grave that your rejected mate killed you.ā I laugh loudly, Bastianās eyes lock with mine, and I bite my lower lip seductively. He will never know what heās thrown away, the stupid man.
Bastian and his Beta storm away after closing and locking the cell door.
As soon as I hear the lock click shut on the big metal door, I slump to the floor. Bastianās rejection is already gnawing at my stomach. It shouldnāt feel this way when I donāt want the man as a mate. But sadly for me, the mate bond doesnāt care if you like it or not.
I donāt know why the Goddess Selene has cursed me like this. I mean, what have I done in life thatās so bad sheād curse me with a mate whoād reject me?
Hours pass in the blink of an eye, and I try to hold back a scream when the fire burns in my belly. This is not going to be easy by any stretch of the imagination.
āVasara, are you there?ā I call for my wolf, but she doesnāt answer. āVasara, please donāt ignore me right now. I need you,ā
āIām not talking to you!ā She snaps. āYou hurt our mate.ā
āHe rejected us, Vasara! He didnāt want us! It might have escaped your notice, but I didnāt accept it. You should be mad with Bastian, not me.ā
āWhatever.ā
I groan and hang my head. Iām not getting any help from my wolf until she stops sulking. I try mind-linking my brotherās again, but nothing happens. I donāt understand this; Iāve always been able to get through to them, no matter where I am.
I donāt know what Bastianās men did to me when they caught me, but theyāre going to pay for it, you mark my words.
āBastian, if Iād known who she was, Iād never have brought her here.ā I donāt look up at my Beta and best friend, Chris. Iām too angry to look at him right now. When he came to me an hour or so ago, telling me that heād come across a rouge on my territory, I was displeased. I was because unless a rouge causes trouble, we generally let them through. This rouge hadnāt done anything, according to Zayne, my army general. She was walking along the border, in wolf form, minding her own business. So what gave Chris the right to catch her unawares and knock her out? I donāt know, but Iām not going to let him get away with what heās done. How could he not have known who she was? The size of a Royal wolf makes them recognisable! I hope Chris knows what trouble heās caused. The fool brought my mate here, an
Okay, Iāll be honest, I thought I could see this through with ease. I felt that I could torture Bastian and teach him a lesson not to mess with me. That was stupid of me because I am in the worst kind of pain. Iāve heard plenty about the pain of rejection. Iāve also heard how itās worse for Alphaās, but I never expected this. Goddess, it feels as though Iām being burned at the stake! The flames then extinguished and repeated again and again. I also feel as though my gut and heart are being ripped out repeatedly. Add all of that together and multiply it by ten million, and itās still not close to what itās actually like. I havenāt eaten since I got here. The guard brings food to my cell, but I donāt touch it because Iām not hungry. I sipped water for the first couple of hours, but I havenāt drunk anything in days either. Not eating or drinking is dangerous for wolves; if we dehydrate, we die. R
Leander and I park our motorcycles outside the front of Greenrock packhouse. We both climb off and place our helmets on the seats. When Lilly finally managed to get through to me using our triplet link, this is where she said sheād be. Captured, she told me, but for what reason? They thought she was a rogue. Stupid motherfuckers! I didnāt tell Mum and Dad that Iād heard from Lilly; I didnāt want to give them false hope. However, I contacted Leander, and he met me a few miles away. My brother has just found his mate, but he hasnāt approached her yet. She doesnāt belong to our pack. Hell, she doesnāt belong to any pack, though she isnāt a rogue. Humans raised her, adopted her, Leander told me. Goddess knows if the girl even knows what she is, but sheās definitely a wolf shifter. I would have given Leander advice on approaching the girl, but I didnāt have time. Li
āZayne?ā I call his name as I pull against my restraints. āYeah?ā I turn my head to look at him standing beside my bed. āI need you to take me to Lilly.ā Zayne sighs as though he were about to protest, but I wonāt let him. āAs your Alpha, I am ordering you to take me to my mate. I canāt do this as much as I thought I could, Zayne. Look at me,ā I yank on my restraints, anger falling from me. āIām a goddamn mess, and the only way for me not to be a fucking mess is to be with Lilly.ā āI thought you hated her?ā I growl at the smirk on Zayneās face. āI donāt hate her; I thought she was a rogue. Why the fuck am I explaining myself to you? I need her, okay? Sheās my mate, and only if Iām with Lilly can either of us survive this.ā It shouldnāt have taken me this long to figure it out. āNow, get me the fuck out of here, and . . .ā
āGet her on the bed,ā Toby motions to the bed in which he wants Lilly to lie down. Dad took Lilly from Bastian as soon as we were through the doors. When we arrived home, the son of a bitch growled at my mother for merely wanting to check on her only daughter! I thought Luther was going to rip Bastianās throat out with his bare hands. No one growls at Mum without Luther ripping them apart. Luther and I may well be identical, but my brother is much more dangerous than I have ever been. With Mum being half-vampire, my brother, sister, and I were all handed down the gene. However, where Lilly and I got the speed and strength, Luther got much more. My brotherās vampiric side is almost as strong as his wolf side. Our grandfather, Drake, Mumās dad, once told my parents that it wasnāt possible. Lutherās vampire side should not be as strong as it is; weāre more wolf th
āI think you and Bastian should stay close over the next couple of days.ā āDo you?ā I mumble to Toby without looking at him. I woke up from my two-day coma an hour ago, and now I want out of here. Toby has no explanation of why both Bastian and I reacted so badly, but I know Iāll find an answer soon enough. Toby has checked me over, and though Iām not one hundred per cent, Iām okay for now. My heat isnāt over yet, but I canāt stay in this bed any longer. I wonāt stay near Bastian like heās my damn shadow, either. If the heat picks up again, Iāll hold the piece of shits hand, in full view of my parents, of course. I will not have sex with him, no matter what. Bastian woke five minutes after I did, but neither of us has spoken. I donāt want to talk to him; I have places to be, meaning I need to see
āWhat are you going to do about this, Bastian?ā I look up at my father as he towers over me. āDonāt look at me like that! You really fucked this up.ā I scrub my hands over my face and sigh. āI know what Iāve done. But I was following what youāve always told me about rogues.ā āDo not turn this on me, boy! You have a mind of your own; you should have used it! How could you reject your mate? It shouldnāt have mattered who you thought Lillian was; you should have accepted her!ā My father yelling at me is all well and good, but it wonāt change anything. I was stupid, and I lost my mate because of my actions. My parents have been good friends with the Dalgaardās for years. So why then didnāt I recognise Lillian? I feel so stupid, but I have no one to blame but myself. ā
Dancing, they say it’s good for the soul. Not that I’m much of a dancer, but I give it my all on a night out.I shouldn’t have gone to a nightclub with my friends, but I haven’t been feeling too good of late. I know it’s all my own fault for sending Bastian away, but it hurts.I don’t understand why I can’t forgive him and move on. It’s not like he physically hurt me, even if he did mentally. I healed, and I should be moving on, but I can’t.“Want me to walk you home?”I chuckle and shake my head at Rachel. “I’m a big girl with an even bigger wolf. I’m sure I can take care of myself.”She rolls her eyes while flicking her red hair over her shoulder. “Fine,”Rachel and I
āDo you think heās up there, looking down on us?ā I wrap my arm around Lillyās waist as we kneel before Harryās grave. The Royal Cemetery is where the King demanded that Harry be buried. His grandson could be put to rest nowhere else. It wouldnāt have mattered if Harry had been an Ashworth; he was still a Prince of Zidiah. So, here is where my son is buried. Though I insisted that written upon Harryās headstone, it should read, Harry Bastain Ashworth Dalgaard. Why my name? When Lilly and I mated, she said that it would be only fitting for Harry also to have my surname. Hers would have to be the predominant name as Harry would one day be King. Harry asked if Bastain could be his middle name. Goddess, he was so adorable when he asked
It’s been days, and Bastian is still sleeping.Nothing anyone does will wake him.I’m beginning to lose hope that he ever will.Every day, I sit with Bastian, and I give him bed baths. I make sure to keep his lips moist, so they don’t get chapped.Each night, I lay beside him, his hand in mine, and I pray that he’ll wake tomorrow.Lorcan hasn’t awoken in Luther’s body either. My mother stays with him in the next room, where they moved him the day I returned.I don’t understand what went wrong, but my father warned me that the Call of Prescha was not a good thing. It would only ever cause devastation. This is the price we have paid for Shayla invoking such a spell.I gave everyone the short version
“How did you get in here?! Where did my guards go?!”I watch Lian from my lazy position on her throne – one foot on the seat, the other on the floor. I have one arm resting over the knee that’s raised; the other holds a dagger of old.“It’s not like it was hard, and your guards are otherwise indisposed.” In other words, I made them disappear. I wouldn’t want them interfering, now would?“How the hell are you able to command my men?”“They’re weak, that’s how.”I smirk while twirling the dagger in my hand.It’s quite beautiful, really. The handle is filled with rare jewels of all colours. The silver blade is laced with the finest jade around, something Lian cannot come into contact
“Bastian, Bastian, Bastian. Why don’t you just give in? Then all of this will go away.”I grit my teeth at the celestial being in front of me.I don’t remember how I got here; all I know is that I woke with my hands shoulder-width apart and suspended in mid-air.I’m shirtless and barefoot. I’m sweating from being whipped so many damn times by Lian’s goons.For one so beautiful with those wings like fire, she sure is a sadistic bitch!I know nothing of Phoenix shifter’s and their port of worship. Hell, I’d never even heard of Lian until Krone spoke of her. Yet, here she is in front of me, swearing that I pledged to give myself to her in exchange for Krone and Shayla’s freedom.I did no such thing!I swore that I wouldn’t go looking for my sister. I did not agree to be this whore’s sex slave!That’s what Lian wants from me, to hand myself over to her, b
āVasara! What the fuck is going on?ā āLillian, please donāt be afraid.ā āAfraid?ā I scream at the ghostly woman who just apparated out of my wolf! Vasara and I were on our way to find Bastian after she informed me that Iād accidentally called him here. I donāt remember everything yet, but I remember enough to know that Thomas was never my mate. Bastian is my mate, and I need him with me. Vasara suddenly stopped walked and howled to the sky, then, this woman appeared. I almost shit myself! She said her name was Shayla and tried to explain how she got here and why she ended up sharing my soul. But I havenāt taken in anything she said. I donāt care if sheās looking for her mate also.
Ah, sweet freedom. I breathe in the fresh air and smile to myself. Here, in Lillyās mind, there is no Luther, and this body belongs to me. I didnāt think it would be so easy to get Dad to agree to this, me entering Lillyās subconscious mind. He was right when he said it would be dangerous for me to do this; it could kill me. Iām barely alive, so what does it matter if I die here? I didnāt lie when I said that Lilly means everything to me. I love my sister, and I would do anything to bring her back to the land of the living. It hasnāt been easy staying locked in Lutherās mind. It was even harder to get the prick to agree to this, but I didnāt give him much choice. There is no one else who can help Lilly through this; there is only m
Holy fuck, my head!Gingerly, I pull myself into a sitting position on the ground. I don’t know where I am nor how I got here; all I know is that my head is killing me.When I finally right myself, I slowly move my head to look around. The place looks like Dalgaard forest, and I’m breathing fresh air. But it also doesn’t seem real at the same time.I drag myself to my feet, clutching the nearest tree for balance.“Either I’m getting old, or I got hit by a truck,” I grumble while massaging the back of my neck.‘Neither,’ Comes a bored voice from behind me.I spin on the spot, eyes wide when I see the large black wolf with snow-white ears. He’s lazily lying on his front, looking at me.
There has to be something in these scriptures that will help me to understand how Lilly dragged Bastian into her subconscious.Call of Prescha is rare, so rare that I’ve never known anyone in my lifetime; invoke the call.As a Royal cub, I was taught many things about wolf kind. My grandmother was very strict and would often lock me in the library until she was satisfied I’d studied enough.My parents weren’t often around; they were King and Queen and were busy with their duties. Grandmother took over when it came to my education. As future King, she wanted to prepare me as she had my father before me.I had four siblings, one brother and three sisters, all younger than me. Grandmother didn’t let them get away without two hours a day of study each time. It didn’t matter that we spent six hours a day at
“She looks like she’s enjoying kicking that guy’s arse.” I laugh to myself.‘Not many wanted to spar with you.’ Vasara tells me. ‘You didn’t seem to know the difference between training and killing.’“Please tell me that I didn’t kill anyone,”‘No, you didn’t kill anyone here. You did break a fair few bones, though,” She chuckles.Vasara and I are sitting beside the lake, watching a vision of myself training with the Royal troops. I’ve been watching myself spar with a big built man by the name of Matthew.According to Vasara, I would often follow Luther to the training field. Luther trained the King’s warriors, and I felt the need to get in on the action.