DEAErica blinked at me as if I had sprouted another head from my shoulder. She reached out, fingers almost grazing the mark which sat where my shoulder met my neck, before yanking her hand back as if the mark could bite her. Strangely enough, Victor's bite had healed overnight. What was left behind was a black stain on my skin of a wolf with a ring around it. How a bite healed into such a beautiful design, I didn't understand. The area was still a little red and tender but otherwise, I didn't feel any pain compared to the all-consuming pain which resulted in me losing consciousness last night. "It's gorgeous," Erica whispered as her eyes bounced from one person to the next in the institute's cafeteria, "very eye-catching. Are you sure that came from a bite?" I understood the skepticism perfectly. I stood for half an hour in front of the bathroom mirror when Victor and I got back to the apartment. Every curve and detail was analyzed by my less-than-perfect eye-sight as I prodded th
VICTOR A week. Seven days. That was how much time lapsed since I had marked and claimed Dea. Every day was better than the last. My shoulders felt a bit lighter, my spirit was happier, and my soul was finally complete. This was the happiest I had ever been in my entire life and I wasn't sure anything could tear me down.The bond only grew stronger with each day. Each time we were intimate, it flared to life, rejoicing in the fact that we were finally accepting it and not ignoring its existence. We were meant for each other. No one could replace her in my life and I would never want a replacement for someone like her. I strolled down the halls of the institute, my boots thudding against the white linoleum floors. The walls were a deep brown and the harsh yellow lights above gave this place a cold, soulless feel. Yet, my smile hadn't wavered because I planned to surprise my mate at work. I wanted us to spend more time together. I wanted to show her how special she was to me so I pla
DEA I was exhausted. Between work and my nightly routine with Victor, I had little to no sleep most nights. Fatigue ate away at my concentration as I glared at the screen of my laptop, then at the whiteboard with multiple equations scrawled on it in blue and green ink. I was working on another paper, this time disproving a theory of a fellow scientist from an institute in the state of New York. His paper was ludicrous. None of the experimental physicists could prove his theory and to me, his math was just not mathing. I was working on this paper with one of my colleagues from the experimental physics department at the institute. Not only was I planning to disprove his theory, I was planning to correct it and conduct an experiment to prove my theory. If this worked well, the institute would be in line for yet another grant in the next few months. It was a lot. The late hours, the continuous research, and the math that had to be perfect and precise. But, I loved every second of it. It
VICTOR I was shifting in and out of lucidity as I fought to stave off the effects of the wolfsbane. My eyes struggled to focus on anything. A sharp, throbbing pain echoed through my head, making it too heavy to move. I blinked once, twice, three times in quick succession but it did little to alleviate the blurriness. A cacophony of sounds traveled to my ears, sounding so close and yet so far all at once. I wasn't sure if the echo was part of my imagination or if we were in a room that somehow produced one. I couldn't think straight. My brain was running a hundred miles a minute but it still felt too slow to catch up to real time. A searing pain clawed at the flesh of my wrists and ankles. I was bound in what had to be silver. With every minuscule movement, my flesh felt as if a thousand tiny mouths were devouring my skin from the point of origin. It exhausted my muscles, made my limbs feel numb and my muscles lax. I mentally chided myself for losing consciousness. All I knew was t
DEA I scanned the message Saint had sent once more, feeling my stomach bottom as a pit of venomous rage began to take root there. It felt as if lava coursed through my veins, sending a torrent of angry flames burning down my limbs as red clouded my vision. Could it have been Jason?Was I overreacting?Was Victor in danger?Why would Jason even do something as horrible as this? Certainly not because of me. If he used wolfsbane and/or silver on Victor, how did he know to do that? Had he discovered Victor's biggest secret? "What happened?" Erica questioned as my brother came barreling into the building with another guy on his flank. "We need to find Jason. If we find Jason, we can find Victor," I informed, hoping with all my will that Saint was wrong about Jason but knowing somewhere deep down that she had to be right. There was no one else in the building that would hurt him. Erica and I swiped our key cards and retrieved visitor passes from the reception desk for my brother and th
VICTORI hadn't told her that I loved her. I needed to live so I could confess my feelings for her, so she would know without a doubt that I did love her. She needed to know that all of this wasn't just because of the mating bond but also because I had grown to love and adore the person she was. But as the sticky crimson substance oozed from the open wound at my side, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it out of the bind I had found myself in. I had grossly miscalculated the level of Jason's wrath. Once my strength began to return, I attempted to break free. It took some effort but I shattered the silver cuff which held my right hand. I wasn't quick enough to free my remaining hand and legs, though. One of the three other people working with Jason had impaled a silver blade into my torso while another returned with a brand new cuff. Two ladies and a man worked with him. A total of four people I thought would be easy to eliminate once I set myself free but I was wrong. Once the w
DEAFlames licked their way up my bones, leaving smoldering heat in their wake. Beads of sweat matted my hair to the back of my neck. Pain like no other weaved itself into my skin, making the most ginger of touches painful. The more potent the brew of my anger was the more pain coiled around my ribcage, like a python ready to crack me open and make me its next meal. I ignored the black that edged at my vision and pushed my glasses into place with a rubbery knuckle. When Saint had called and told me Jason had Victor trapped in a lab, I knew exactly where to go. Jason only ever used one lab because of the equipment he needed. The sight before me was not something I thought I'd see in my wildest dreams. Victor was strapped upright to a steel table. His wrists were cuffed to the table on either side and so were his ankles. His shirt was now just pieces of bloodied material barely clinging to him. A wound on his side oozed with blood, the coppery metallic sce
VICTOR Dea's inky fur was soft between my fingers as I carded them through. It was long and shaggy, giving her wolf a fluffy appearance as her hair stood on end. I stumbled back with pride swelling my chest and splitting my face in half. The movement had me wincing from the wound on my side. I was healing, but it was taking too long. Too much blood had been lost. I gripped my torso, sealing the wound with my massive palm in hopes of staving off the bleeding. If the blood would clot, it might save me some time. A whine had Dea's head bowing as she sniffed at the hand covering my wound. "I'll be fine," I tried to reassure her, believing in my words with every fiber of my being and willing them to be true. "Here Alpha," a shirtless Alec stretched his hand out to me, his shirt feebly swaying from the hook of his finger. Offering him a curt nod in thanks, I ripped the shirt open and tied it tight around my waist to add pressure to the wound, "We need to clean up this mess before someo
DEA"Dea, Angel, I'm home." Crystal blue eyes glimmered up at me from the living room rug, filled with mirth and warmth like I had never known. "In here, Papa," she yelled as she pushed herself onto her feet. Angel was ten now. She was a surprise to both Victor and I. We weren't trying for her. At the time, we spent more time apart than we did together—me pursuing my career while he did his thing as alpha. It worked out for us in the best possible way. I managed to go on exhibitions and tours, conduct experiments, and travel the world with Victor. Two years of living that life until one morning I found out I was expecting. And then everything changed. Now she was ten. Now I lived in the sanctuary as a full-time mom and Luna of the pack, and I didn't regret a thing about it. Especially since I couldn't explain my lack of aging to the people around me. Erica was the only one from my outside life to visit me, otherwise, I didn't care for the rest.Victor filled the doorway with his
VICTOR I carved a hand through my hair as the blistering water cascaded down my taut muscles. The sweltering heat did nothing to rid my body of its tension. My guilt refused to swirl down the drain with the soap suds from my body and hair. Maybe it wasn't even guilt anymore. Maybe it was the fact that I missed Saint. I found myself seeking her out during my day. When I needed something done, I'd begin to instruct her only to realize she wasn't there. When I needed to share something, I sought her out. When the pack house was finally complete I couldn't even step into it. I could barely step into my apartment without being reminded of the girl. The girl who never got the chance to fully live. Once the doctor had cleared Dea, she returned to her usual routine. I saw her on the weekends now, unable to bear the thought of entering my apartment. Besides that, I had a lot of work to complete in the sanctuary. Tania had placed a ward around the sanctuary's border. Only wolves I trusted c
DEABeep. Beep. Beep.The sound was the pinnacle of annoyance. It wasn't my alarm going off. Maybe it was Victor's. Maybe he needed to be somewhere. Then, why wasn't he switching the darn thing off?With a groan, I peeled my eyelids open. A blur of white and baby blue assaulted my weak vision. Then the burning scent of disinfectants trickled up my nostrils. Memories of the last time I was conscious came rushing back like a river overflowing its banks during a storm. It swept me off my feet, drowning me in the current. The beeps grew louder and more feverish with every memory that flashed behind my unblinking gaze. I extended my arm out, feeling around for my glasses. When I felt them, I perched it in place with a sound of irritation scratching the back of my throat. The colors solidified. A blindly white ceiling glared back at me. Baby blue walls encased me. The beep was not from an alarm but from multiple monitors hooked up to my arm and body. I was in some sort of hospital room b
VICTOR"Dea!" I had shifted when I watched the horrific scene unfold. She was attacked and I was nowhere near her to help. My claws swiped at the underbelly of a rogue wolf, penetrating deep until guts spilled from the bloodied incisions. They were all going to die. My remorse bled from my wounds and stained the ground, not a drop remaining in my system. Not when one of them had gotten so close to ripping the best thing that had ever happened to me away. Their numbers were finally dwindling while the death count on my land grew at an alarming rate. I wasn't a superstitious man when it came to death but even I had reservations regarding starting a life on land tainted with so much blood. This made me angrier. I tried to do a good thing, tried to help these creatures that were revolting against me, and this was my payment—them going after the person I loved. "I think I've figured out who their leader is."I heard the drawl of Julian's voice before I saw him. A breeze tousled my lon
DEAI had never witnessed murder before. Not with my eyes at least. I went from a wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears scientist to this—whatever this was. Jason's death was something that haunted my dreams. In the darkest hours when the shadows grew thicker and the cold was icier, the ominous sound of his neck snapping under pressure weaseled its way into my dreams. Daylight hours were easier to ignore the relentless echo of it which gnawed at my sanity like a dog with a bone. This. This was different. This wasn't murder. This was a massacre and all I could do was sit back and watch as if this was some morbid scene out of Twilight. Except, the vampires didn't shimmer here and the wolves were far more feral. This wouldn't worm its way into my dreams. This would become a night terror, stuck on repeat each time my eyes fluttered shut. I'd never crave the warm embrace of sleep ever again. Because, now, it felt more like claws peeling layers of my skin back instead of the reprieve it was mea
VICTORMy paws thundered against the earthen floor, snapping fallen branches and dried leaves in my wake. A flurry of heavy breaths and howls sounded as a pack of five of us cut our way through the forest toward the sanctuary. Alec had enlisted two other wolves to help him with his breaking and entering abilities along with the theft of blood. We hadn't had to go to a blood bank at all. There was a local blood drive in town to encourage people to donate. We simply tapped into their supply. I was sure they wouldn't miss the ten bags we had nabbed. We made sure to snatch the common types so they could be easily restocked. I accompanied them—along with Saint—to make sure things went as planned and none of the wolves got any nefarious ideas. The duffle hung from my jaw, sharp teeth piercing through the knitted handles. I was as gentle as I could be as I dodged thick roots that arched from the ground and large boulders that served as unrelenting obstacles in my path. A foreboding sensatio
DEA"Hands up or your opponent will easily strike you. Protect your face at all costs so you can anticipate their next strike," Quade ordered. We were only fifteen minutes into my usual hour combat class but I already heaved for air while my lungs threatened to vacate my body to find a new owner that would take better care of them. I had gone to work this morning with three wolves patrolling the building. Victor had even ordered a wolf to trail Erica. As my best friend, she had a target on her back. Or, at least, that was what Sydney implied and Sylvain agreed—something about that happening to her mother's best friend. Of course, I didn't have the heart to tell Erica about everything that was happening. She was already keeping in tune with the office gossip for me. According to the latest office news, a rumor had spread like wildfire that Jason had eloped with one of the interns. Apparently, he and the intern had a relationship for over a year behind my back, and now that Jason and
VICTOR I inhaled deeply, held my breath for five seconds, and then exhaled slowly and steadily as I shut the door. Dea's thoughts were so loud throughout the night I had to build up a mental block between us until she learned to protect her thoughts. Her worry echoed down the bond. Her fear reverberated through my body. Her love spilled into my heart and slithered into the marrow of my bones. I had allowed her thoughts to bombard my head, allowed them to infiltrate like a feral animal gnawing at my sanity. But when her thoughts of loving me fluttered around my mind like a beautiful fragile butterfly that could be squashed at any given moment, I built that wall and kept it up. Everyone had dispersed to their respective rooms. It was late and I didn't want to risk driving back to the city at this hour. The chances of us getting ambushed were high and I had confidence that I could protect Dea. However, I wasn't about to fool myself into thinking I could take out a pack of rogues when I
DEA I wasn't sure what to make of it. After everything that happened with Jason, I thought we had cleared all our hurdles. At least, that was a hurdle in the relationship Victor and I shared. This was a different kind of hurdle entirely. This was not only an attempt on Victor's pack, but also on his life. It put things into perspective. I acknowledged the risks that came with being in a relationship with Victor. Acknowledging them and facing them in reality were two very different things. The thought of losing Victor had a sharp, acidic tang of bile crawling up my throat. I forced it down but the bitterness coated my tongue. It scared me. My fear was palpable and no doubt loud by the way Victor clasped my hand in his and offered a reassuring squeeze. It drowned out my insecurities about Sydney being here. By the way Victor regarded her with an almost cold exterior, I almost felt sorry for the girl. She didn't deserve the knotted ball of wool t