Sparks. Intense sparks dancing across my skin are the first thing to pull me toward consciousness. I slowly start to come to. My sense of smell is the next thing to come back, and I'm overwhelmed by lavender and bamboo, like Roman's scent, but a million times more intoxicating and potent. It surrounds me like I'm bathing in it. As soon as I realize what's happening, my eyes snap open, and I shoot up. I must startle Roman because he jumps, waking up immediately. The bond snaps into place as soon as my eyes lock with his."Mate," I whisper, my hands trembling for a second.Then I'm instantly overcome with a hunger for him so unbelievably intense. I need him; I will die without him. I jump at him so fast that I barely even realize what I did and smash my lips against his. I growl and push him back when he takes control of the kiss. I look at him, my eyes clouding over with a black hue. "Amara, baby, come back to me," he whispers, running his hand up and down my body and pinching my nipp
I know she's hurting; I can feel it. I can feel her guilt, her anguish, and the worthlessness she feels. But we have to deal with this now; I can't lose her. We both shower in silence, me washing her and her washing me. I can feel her love through the bond too, which is a nice little silver lining in the turmoil of her feelings. Once we're done, we head downstairs to my office. I had already linked Seth and Aston to be there waiting. Max will be doing training today, so I'll fill him in later. He needs to be up to speed on everything, considering he doesn't even know I'm a hybrid. When we walk into my office, Aston, always the dimwit, speaks. "Hey, Luna!" he says, clapping her shoulder.I have to laugh because I feel confusion, anger, and then realization run through her emotions. I guess she forgot she was mated to an Alpha. She glares at me, probably feeling my amusement, and I pretend to choke on a cough very unconvincingly. She cracks a smile, but any amusement she had dies the
After Roman dropped me off with the girls, I did my best to try and simply hang out with them, talk with them, and enjoy their presence. But the darkness swirling inside me didn't let up; I had to count my breaths a couple times when black started to swirl into my vision. They had asked me a couple times what was wrong, noticing that I wasn't my usual cheerful, goofy self. Each time I'd simply smiled and said all was well, just that I was missing my mate. They would be filled in eventually, by their mates, or in Violet's case, by Gemma or Roman himself. Would they fear me? I wouldn't blame them if they did. I feared myself, feared what I was capable of. When I couldn't take it anymore, I stood up and returned to Roman's room, saying I was feeling unwell and needed to lie down. They probably knew I was lying, but they didn't protest. Tami didn't say anything; I think she was trying to siphon some of the darkness. I laughed bitterly, realizing my inner turmoil would somehow be much w
When I wake up the following day, the bed feels empty, and Roman's scent is faint. I groggily open my eyes and confirm he is indeed not in bed with me. I'm momentarily confused before the smell of bacon reaches my nostrils. I sit up in disbelief; there is no way the big bad Alpha is cooking me breakfast. I throw one of his shirts on and walk downstairs. My eyes widen at the sight before me. Roman is standing shirtless at the stove; a dish towel is thrown over his shoulder, a pile of pancakes and bacon is next to him, Red Hot Chili Peppers is playing on the speaker, and he's singing along. I admire the sight; how long did the Goddess have to spend sculpting this man to perfection for me? "You know you're supposed to have a shirt on when you cook, right?" I tease him as I walk up to him and wrap my arms around him "Good morning to you too, and that rule is for humans who cry over a little tiny grease splatter burning them," he says, leaning down and kissing me. "Well, you're not a
We spent eight days at the cottage, the extra day happening after Amara used her tears and a couple other parts of her to convince me to stay. But unfortunately, we have to get back to regular life. Aston, of course, whined like a little baby whenever I told him we were staying one more day. We spent pretty much the entire eight days having sex, and occasionally Amara would train. She would execute anything I had her do perfectly, so we could have dived a little deeper into the training if we hadn't gotten distracted. Yeah, we might have ended up fucking in the backyard a couple times. After the run back, we're just now walking into the packhouse."I'm gonna go find Violet! I'll stop by your office after." Amara says to me and kisses me quickly before running off.Okay then, I guess she isn't too upset about coming home. I chuckle and walk into my office.My eyes nearly jump out of my head when I see the pile of paperwork sitting on my desk. Fucking Aston! Did he do any paperwork at
My face is drained of color, and I feel dizzy. He knew he knew without me even looking at him. So that means anyone else who knew about this prophecy or whatever would know just by looking at me. I must sway on my feet a little bit because Roman pulls me to his lap. I take a couple deep breaths to calm myself, trying to keep my voice from breaking. "How did you know?" I ask "Your aura. I've never seen anything like it. Fae can read auras; it's like a sixth sense. Yours screams power, royalty, darkness, light, chaos…." Thayer says, pausing to think before continuing "It's safe to say any Fae would know what you were. As for other species, I cannot say. You've been a whispered legend for over a millennium, there's literature, as I said, but some think it's a fairytale. The vampires have had quite some time to think about how and what they will do with you; their wanting you isn't exactly a secret. The vampire king contacted me, asking for the Fae's legends about you." "The vampire k
I'm quite violently woken up by a familiar voice yelling at me and then jumping on top of me. It takes me a minute before realization dawns on me, and then I squeal."What are you doing here?! How?!" I yell as I push Sophie off of me, sit up, and then tackle her again in another hug"Your grumpy Alpha asked me to come a couple days ago. Oh, by the way, he definitely thinks I'm an idiot. I blubbered the whole way up the stairs. I don't know how you're not scared of him; he's much more intimidating in person. Which is saying something because the idea of him was already pretty freaking scary." she says"I've told you a million times he's a softie, and I probably put him in a bad mood because I may or may not have thrown a hissy fit before I came up here," I say and cringe at my earlier behavior."Girl, what did you do?" Sophie says, rolling her eyes and lying beside me on Roman's side. I stifle a growl that she is laying in my mate's scent. She rolls her eyes and punches my shoulder.
I want to stand up, but I know my knees will wobble. So I stay sitting, focusing on my mate's and Sophie's touch to keep me grounded. Roman must mindlink everyone except Seth and Sophie to leave because everyone gets up and quickly evacuates the living room. Honestly, I barely notice. I'm still staring at the man I'm supposed to call Dad and trying not to fall into the abyss of my emotions while I do so. "I…" I start to say but trail off, not really knowing where I am going with it, but I feel like I need to speak. I didn't expect it to be this emotional, ignorantly, I guess. In the abstract, it was much easier to think about him. But with him, my father, standing here in front of me, reminding me that I have a parent who's alive, is bringing up so many feelings. Stupid, stupid feelings. I don't know a damn thing about him. He could be a sadist, he could be a homophobe, he could hate women. I mean, he's the demon overlord from the underworld; he probably has some seriously sadisti
I watch from the trees as Amara kills the Vampire King, staring at his body like a woman possessed. The feathers of the blue jay I shifted into ruffle in anger as I watch the Demon King, the man responsible for the destruction of my life, approach her and put an arm around her lovingly. I resist the urge to squawk in anger, remembering the loving arms of my own mother. The mother fled the underworld with her twin boys in tow because she was forced to work in the brothels, constantly being denied the position of a castle servant by the King. That was all we incubi and succubi were suitable for sex and slave work, in his eyes. So, my poor mother, unable to bear having her body used to keep me and Axel fed and safe, fled to Earth. Only we were worse for wear there, unable to blend in when we were amongst humans, and no hope of a werewolf pack or Fae court taking us in. So, we build a house in rogue lands, somewhere no sane supernatural being ever ventured to, and no human ever came
Surrounded by Violet, Serena, Cici, and Sophie, I look at myself in the mirror as Aylin finishes my makeup and Gemma does my hair. Aylin must hold more magic than I thought because she managed to cover up these bags under my eyes. I almost look like I did pre-motherhood, minus the breast pump milking me like a cow. Remind me why I insisted on having my Luna ceremony, the equivalent of my wedding, after I had Delaney? Because I wanted to drink at my own ceremony? It seemed so logical at the time. Now, I wanted to go back in time and slap me upside the head, Aylin style. Delaney screams in Sophie's arms in protest at how long it's taking me to pump. In the hospital, the nurses and pediatrician on the postpartum unit said she lost too much weight by the time she was 24 hours old. It was before my milk supply came in, so they put it down to lack of production, but when I filled up a syringe with colostrum, they had a lactation consultant come see me. She had said Delaney's latch wasn't
Three weeks laterI breathe through another contraction. They're coming every five minutes now, but I didn't exactly feel like going to the hospital just to be sent home for another false alarm like I did last week. 'Uh, you going to explain why I feel like I'm being ripped apart from the inside every five minutes for the last two hours?' I hear Roman's voice come through my head as I feel the contraction start to come down'It's still early labor, probably. No sense in going to the hospital yet, if it even is actual labor.' I tell him'Alright, well, I'm coming back in and getting the hospital bag, so we're ready. The books said once they're every five minutes, we should think about heading in,' he reminds me.I don't respond just as I'm hit with another contraction and suddenly feel like I peed myself. Oh, good Goddess, here we go. I put my walls up so he doesn't have to feel anything.'Scratch that, my water just broke,' I say, and not even twenty seconds later, he appears next to
One week later That’s precisely what we did. We had funerals for those that wanted their loved ones buried and ceremonies for those who opted for them to be burned on pyres. Max, being a ranked member, was burned on a pyre with the entire pack present. We put some of his ashes in an urn necklace for Serena and then released him into the river. While I’ve seen Roman tear up, or get choked up, that night, he cried with his head in my lap. He fell asleep after hours, and I didn’t dare move a muscle all night. My heart was already broken for him; Max was Roman’s Sophie, but something about seeing my brooding Alpha mate break down like that killed a piece of me. Serena wasn’t doing any better; one of us was still with her almost all the time. I spent a couple nights with her, but mostly Cici was staying with her since they were always connected at the hip anyways. It was an effort to get her to eat or even go outside, but I wouldn’t give up on her; both she and Max deserved better than t
I hated battle, but I hated the aftermath even more. I made a list of all the fallen I could identify, so I could visit their families later. The ones I couldn't, their family or packmates who saw them fall would have to report to me, and I'd go from there. Aston and Seth took Max's body to the morgue before we were even back. Fuck that hurt. My best friend since we were fucking pups. Gone. Fucking gone. What was the point? The point of all this death and destruction? I stopped in my tracks, shutting my eyes as they became glossy. His death will gut me until the day I die. The day I die? I'm immortal. Fuck. I could live another thousand years, and I wouldn't have seen him for over nine hundred and fifty of them. How is that fair? And Serena. I have yet to find anyone who wasn't of Alpha blood, or royalty in Armaros' case, that lived past the first year of their mate dying. But we would do everything in our power to take care of and be there for her regardless. I wouldn’t let Max’s
I watch in horror as Silas grabs Adonis’ face, Silas’ red eyes glowing into the night, and Adonis…Adonis goes limp. I waste no time before concentrating on Silas’ body and start burning him. He screams, and Adonis goes absolutely feral and proceeds to rip his own body apart. I pull my powers back immediately, and they both stop thrashing. Adonis’ eyes are glowing red now, and terror, like no other, seizes me when Silas grabs him by both ears, twisting his neck, and Adonis does nothing to fight back. I look to my father, who is holding his own against the group of vampires attacking him, but can’t help me or be distracted without risking his own life. Then, I look around for Aylin, Az, Seth, or anyone to jump in and help, but no one is around. “No one is coming to rescue you this time, my sweet Amara,” Silas hisses I only stare at him and then at my mate. Maybe…maybe…I slam my mental talons into Roman’s mind, but he only whimpers and starts to thrash again. “Aht, at. You may be powe
It’s been four days, and Roman’s shadows still haven’t found any evidence of Silas moving toward his home; it looks like he will be coming to us. He’s been rallying all his people into one spot; even people from his kingdom were seen moving out, so everyone is on edge, including me. I suggested moving in once he had them all together, but Roman said it’s better to let him think he has the element of surprise, and it will give us the “home-field advantage.” I wanted to just get it over with; the stakes are so much higher now. Given that we’re unsure if he will lead with those half-Kudde beasts he made, Roman had the security system expanded so my family and I would have time to take off and neutralize that threat. Thayer, Dahlia, and all the troops he planned to send are here. Roman called and updated him on the situation, and he said he’d rather come now if an attack is imminent, so they could get familiar with the land. It was no question whether or not we would be attacked at night
I was finally discharged after my next ultrasound. My powers and Tamisra returned about two hours after my first ultrasound, so I insisted I was ready to go home. But considering it was already eight at night, Roman and the nurses convinced me to stay. I'm at least allowed to eat again, and goddess, I'm fucking ravenous. I feel like I can't eat enough. Roman and the nurse, Jess, tried to get me to slow down, but at my ultrasound, Dr. Crowen said as long as I can handle it, I should eat whenever I want to keep up with baby girl's growth rate. Speaking of, she gained another two ounces overnight. It didn't sound like a big deal to me, but I have no knowledge of anything in the medical field. Dr. Crowen said it was very significant, given that wolf pups are expected to gain two ounces weekly at this stage. Everything points to me going into labor at the end of the month, which I don't want to think about.But this isn't exactly something I can just block out. Thankfully, my dad offered
There's a knock on the door before it opens, and the same person who took me to my MRI, Justin, I think, comes in with a wheelchair. After my MRI, they brought me to a different room with a bigger bed that looked a lot more annoying to move. Honestly, I could have walked. Now that my supernatural healing kicked in, I feel fine. Starving, but fine. The doctors said I have to eat very slowly to get my digestive system working properly again and that if I ate an entire jar of peanut butter like I wanted to, I would just throw it back up immediately and feel like shit. So, my new best friends were crackers with peanut butter and a side of chicken broth. "Hello again, Alpha, Luna. Dr. Crowen is ready for you in the ultrasound room," he says as he locks the wheelchair. I sit up and swing my legs around to get out of bed. Immediately, Roman and Seth jump up, trying to help me. I roll my eyes. "I told you both, I'm fine!" I say, getting up and sitting in the chair Roman's nervousne