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
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
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
"What do you want to do for your birthday, honey? You keep brushing it off, but it's in 5 days, so we must plan something!" My mother says to me. I groan in response. "Why do we have to do something! Can't we just hang out at home and watch movies""For your 18th birthday! Come on, pick something fun. You don't even need to have me and your father with you. Enjoy not having any responsibilities while you still can." I roll my eyes but start to think about what she said. I could make my brother drive me and my best friend, Sophie, around the pack bars. We're werewolves, which means it takes a lot for us to get drunk, let alone incoherently drunk, so our legal drinking age is 18. "Fine, get Seth to be mine and Sophie's DD. But let’s do it this weekend, you know my first shift will take a lot out of me." I say. Mom smirks, seemingly satisfied with herself, and turns her attention back to the path before us. We were walking home from school. She trains some boys there during wolf train
A brightness shines through my closed eyes, signaling I've probably slept too late. I open my eyes and groggily reach for my phone to check the time. 10:04, great. Felix, my mate and the beta of our pack, probably turned off my alarm again. I could just stay in bed; besides, it's not like I have anything to do besides being my mate's housewife. I had hoped that by turning out to be mated to the beta, I would be able to do more than simply waste away as his eye candy. But alas, my only privileges as the beta female were an occasional training session and getting to plan the big lavish parties for the alpha. Woo-hoo. Other than that, I only got to accompany Felix to pack meetings, parties off territory the allied packs would throw, and again, basically be his eye candy wherever he went. One positive was that Sophie had turned out to be mated to the gamma, so she was there whenever I was forced to be with all the ranked females. It didn't come as a surprise that she was mated to Gamma Co
As soon as I made it home, I let my tears fall. I'm humiliated and confused. Sophie followed me home and just hugged me while I cried, not saying anything. I feel Tamisra's white-hot rage start flowing through me; she's furious that our mate disrespected us, furious that he would do it with a pack member who we have to face. It seems she missed the part where I realized I didn't feel a thing. She's pacing around in my head, growling, but stops in her tracks when she realizes too. 'How is that possible, Tamisra?' I ask her, hoping she has an answer. She thinks for a minute, but her answer only makes everything worse. 'The only logical answer is that he's not our mate.' 'You use the term 'logical' loosely; you identified him as our mate; we marked and mated. How does that make any sense?' 'I don't know, I don't know! But if he was our fated mate, we would have felt it; there's no way to block that off! Not even a witch who can manipulate bonds can block off the pain of a betrayal!'
It's about midnight now, and I'm huddled in my parent's house. No one ever moved in after they died, and Felix made sure the omegas kept it clean even though I never came here; it hurt too bad. Everything was the same as it was the day they died. I sat on the couch, knowing I only had to wait another half hour until the coast would be clear. Shift change for border patrol was an hour ago, and they usually scour this area first because it's the easiest. It's too open for rogues to hide out waiting to attack, but it's also so small that it only takes them around a half hour to get done over here. I heard them about 15 minutes ago, so I turned all the lights off and acted like I would be going to bed. It wasn't a secret I was here, just a secret that I wouldn't be staying here. I looked around my childhood house, committing it to memory. I had so many memories here. My heart was heavy as I walked around the house, unable to stop myself. I went into my parent's room, wishing this was all
We woke up with the sun high in the sky, meaning we overslept again! Shit! I didn’t realize how exhausted we would both be. Tamisra didn’t seem too concerned, so I guess it didn’t throw us off schedule too much, but I really did not want to spend the night in the rogue areas. ‘You worry too much; if we get started now, we can clear the area by nightfall.’‘Yeah, that’s great and all, but I was hoping we could eat. We’ll need energy if we encounter any rogues, and we haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday morning.’‘Fine, I’ll block you out and catch us a quick snack. Any preferences? Deer, fox, maybe a wild boar?’ she said while snickering at me as I gagged. She blocked me out, and I just went to the deep recesses of my mind and curled up. Now that I had time to let everything sink in, I didn’t feel so broken over this. I worried my mate would still want me if I bore another man’s mark. I would explain everything to him and hope for his understanding. Most people don’t save themsel