Swimming in the pool feels really good. Clint takes it slow with me, helping me to stretch muscles that haven’t been used in too many years. Cara laps me over and over. I’m reminded of one of those Avengers movies Dad was able to get for us when we were in the cabin, the guy on the track saying “on your left”. I have a whole new appreciation and aggravation for that phrase now. When we’re done, my muscles are sore but it’s a good sore. ‘Clint was right, I feel stronger.’ Alessia says to me. I hop out of the pool, Cara bringing me a towel. I’m glad Alessia feels stronger because I’m exhausted. Cara sits down next to me as Clint rolls his wheelchair over. "How are you feeling?” He asks me. “Alessia says she’s feeling stronger, but I’m exhausted.” I say honestly. Cara nods her head. “Yep, that sounds familiar. It definitely takes a toll on you for her to get stronger, but it’s worth it.” Clint is looking at me thoughtfully. “Why don’t we make sandwiches around here today and you can
I have never, not once, begged for anything, and definitely not while I was on my knees. Not until today. Today, I will do anything that this woman wants me to do, if she will only stay with me. Rik’s words come flooding back into my head. ‘Be everything she needs and wants you to be.’ I didn’t know what that meant, but right now, it means that I will humble myself as I have never done before. When I realize that it’s me she’s running from, because of what I looked like when I left Eli, I feel a stabbing pain in my heart. I did this. I made our mate scared of us. ‘And you better fucking fix it. I warned you. If we lose her, I will go feral and I’ll kill anyone and everyone in my path.’ Even if my wolf wasn’t threatening to go feral, I must fix this. This sweet little angel has found a way to calm the chaos in my mind and body. I need her like I need air to breathe. Cara’s rejection is nothing compared to the possibility of Angel rejecting us. As she paints the picture, I can see th
Alessia told me that everything Liam said was truthful. He wants to make this right. He doesn’t kill just to kill. And he’s right, he is an Alpha. He’s been carrying a huge burden for so many years, it’s not fair of me to ask that he not ever kill. I know more than many how violent ours and other supernatural species can be. And I want the vampires dead too. I want to know that I am safe, after so many years of living in fear. So, how can I hold him to a standard that I am not willing to live up to. ‘Plus, we’re his Guardian.’ ‘What? What does that mean, Alessia?’ ‘A Guardian is the protector of an Alpha. The Alpha changes with the death and rebirth of the Guardian spirit. Liam and Cyran being our mate, makes us their Guardian. We can’t walk away from them. It is our destiny to protect them.’ ‘So even if I don’t want to be, I’m stuck with him?’ ‘I guess you don’t have to agree to being his mate, but yes, for the entirety of our lives, we are bound to them.’ Well, that sucks. I g
Sophia ignoring Angel aggravated me, but I didn’t want to cause any more strife between us, so I let it go. In the future, I will not have anyone disrespecting my mate that way. She’s their future Luna and like it or not, they will treat her as such. I insisted that Angel wear one of her new outfits. I wanted her to feel comfortable in her own skin, not like she’s wearing hand-me-down clothes from kids in the pack. Even dressed in adult clothes, her face has the sweetness of youth. I reach out and take her hand. I’m so thankful she’s willing to give me another chance. “What is this song that’s playing?” She asks me. “It doesn’t sound like something you would listen to.” She turns and looks at me. “Well, not based on the playlist I listened to the first time anyway. But even without that, this seems almost….girly.” I raise an eyebrow, looking at her in mock offense. “Girly? You think my music is girly?” “Well, um…” I pull her hand to my lips, kissing it. I love kissing her hand, s
I can see the impact my statement has on Liam. Instantly, his eyes darken and his throat convulses as if he’s trying to swallow but his throat has gone dry. I turn back to the picture. Young Liam is something to behold. He has a huge smile on his face and it lights up his eyes. I wonder if anything can ever put that look back on his face. Seeing this picture had an immediate effect on me. Maybe it’s the mate bond that’s in full effect. But the moment I saw this picture, I knew I wanted to have Liam’s children. I want to have a whole litter of pups running around with his smile on their faces, maybe a mixture of our eyes and hair color, but I want it like I’ve never wanted anything in my life. I know in this moment, that I want to be mated to this man. We still have things to work through, I need to know that I can trust him completely, but the thought of not marking him as mine and having another she-wolf take my place as his mate, is incomprehensible. I put the picture back and re
My heart is lighter. She’s willing to give this a try, and she thinks it will work. It’s not easy letting myself be this vulnerable with her, but it seems to be what she needs. When we finish with the bath, I wrap her in a towel and go to grab one of my t-shirts for her to wear while I pull on a pair of sleep pants. When I come back, I hand it to her. “Do you want to sleep in here, with me, tonight?” I’m hoping she’ll say yes. Now that she can feel the mate bond, I want her to move into this room, make it ours. A blush paints her cheeks pink. “I’m afraid that I will end up sleeping on top of you again.” I smirk down at her. I love that I wake up with her laying on top of me, but if she’s concerned about it, I have an idea. “What? You don’t like waking up like a lizard sunning herself on a warm rock?” “I don’t know about the lizard part, but the warm rock is accurate. You pump out some heat big guy.” “Big guy, huh?” She blushes an even deeper shade of pink. “Well, you are like a
You’d think I was a teenager with the amount of sex dreams I’ve started having. I’m waking up every morning to Liam helping me ease the ache between my thighs. I’m not complaining. The man is magic with his hands and his tongue. I was seriously tempted to offer him the breakfast he wanted this morning. And when he slapped my rear end? It caused something to clench deep inside me. I wanted to lean back and offer myself to him so he’d do it again. This mate bond is messing with my brain. ‘It’s not just the mate bond. It’s the Alpha in him. It’s instinct to respond to his dominance. And he’s so dominant.’ Alessia purrs in my head. Well, she’s no help at all. ‘I wouldn’t say he was being dominant when he made that girly playlist for me.’ I tell her. ‘He was telling you he loves you in the only way he knows how. It was sweet. He can be sweet and he can be dominating. Would you disagree that he knows how to command your body to do exactly what he wants? You certainly responded when he to
I cannot believe that Alessia fucking stepped in front of me. As if she was going to take on those five vampires by herself while I stood around with my thumb up my ass. I’m so pissed I could punch something, but right now, I have to deal with the fact that the vampires have found her. If the vampire prince is a decent leader, he’ll know exactly where he sent his scouts and when they are supposed to return. We can only hope that this was an early stop and they aren’t expected back for a while. Rik and I set up additional patrols to cover the canyon between us and assign some warriors to burn the vampires. Now that I’ve smelled them, I know Dustin was right. That’s not a smell you forget. It’s so sweet it almost burns your nose. I’m thankful that Angel stayed in her wolf form. I’m not sure I could have restrained myself if she were naked in front of all these males. I’m already angry, and I need to harness my anger before we get back to the packhouse and I have a chance to speak to he
Three years later It’s amazing how much changes in three years. Two days after Sarah and Dustin officially adopted Sienna, Sarah found out she was pregnant. It worked out okay because her pregnancy was very difficult. As expected, she was on bed rest for most of her pregnancy. Dustin would take Sienna with him to his office or I would keep her with me, having set up a kid’s play area in my office. Sometimes, Dustin would carry Sarah to her desk when she got too stir-crazy and needed a break from sitting in her bed all day. At least being in the packhouse, he and I were always close and could monitor her. The doctor told her she’d have to have a C-Section because her internal scarring was too severe to allow for a baby to pass through the birthing canal. And five months after adopting Sienna, they welcomed baby Jackson Dustin Roberts into the world. They named him after our previous Gamma, since he had given his life protecting Sarah and the others who were in the bunker that day. Ca
Three months later To say that being a father has changed my life would be an understatement. You don’t know how much you can love another person until you hold your child in your arms for the first time and your heart aches because it’s so full of love. The mate bond is one thing, that is a gift given by the Moon Goddess and nothing could ever compare to that. But being a father feels like the greatest achievement of my life. My son is perfect, of course. All ten fingers, all ten toes. He was born with soft fuzz for hair that has started to grow in now and he definitely got my golden, curly locks. However, every time I look into his gray eyes, I see his mother. Angel says his eyes are the only thing he got from her and that we’ll have a mini-me walking around very soon. Works for me. I figure our little girl will look just like her mother. I hope so, it means she’ll be beautiful. Yes, it means I’ll have to go all Alpha on any male that looks at her but having a miniature version o
After the terrible week of funerals, the pack began the slow process of rebuilding. We had to fix several homes, the back of the packhouse and the bunker. Liam refused to let me assist and he also refused to allow me at training, so instead, I started training with Sarah. Since werewolf pregnancies are much shorter than human pregnancies, five months instead of nine, I only have a couple of months before my stomach will be too big to do anything. I went with Sarah to see Dr. Phillips. After letting Dustin mark her immediately after the war, she wanted to know if she could have his children. She had extensive testing and Dr. Phillips decided that any human would struggle with the shorter gestation of having a wolf pup. The scar tissue would cause problems with getting pregnant, during the pregnancy and delivery, but since she would put Sarah on bedrest anyway, it should be possible. Sarah had told Dustin that they could have pups but that she would have to be on bedrest during the ge
When the doctor told me that Angel was pregnant, I was concerned that she had kept it from me before the war. I was happy to learn that she hadn’t known until her strange walk with Clint who apparently brought her back to me. I’m not sure what that means or why it happened, but I’m forever indebted to him for bringing my Angel back.Dustin had prepared the funerals and pyres for our pack members. He had talked it over with me while Angel was unconscious, and we had agreed to have three days of funerals. There was so much sadness and pain among the pack members, but each of them deserved to have their time to say goodbye to their loved ones.I had spoken to Rik about the loss of his pack members. After Cara’s show of power, I wasn’t sure how many in his pack had survived. He lost nearly 100 pack members after losing the mates of those lost in the war. Thankfully, Cara’s power surge only seemed to knock their warriors out, not kill them as it had the vampires.Her strength was chilling.
When I wake, it’s in a dream state. I’m walking in a forest. I can hear small animals moving around, but nothing else. It’s very quiet here. Beautiful, but lonely. Where is everyone? “Hello? Liam? Alessia?” I call out loud. ‘I’m here.’ Says an exhausted sounding Alessia. ‘Where are we?’ In my head, she lifts her head off the ground, looking around. ‘I know this place.’ ‘Where is it? Are we near the pack lands?’ ‘No.’ she says, just as Clint steps out of the trees in front of me. “Clint!” I run to him, throwing my arms around him. “I thought you were dead!” “I am sweetheart. It was my time. But why are you here? It’s not your time.” I look around me again. “I don’t know why I’m here. I woke up here.” I turn to look at him, horrified. “Am I dead? Where is Liam?!” I demand. “Can you hear Alessia in your head?” He asks me. “Yes. I can hear her.” “Then, you’re not dead. How about we look around and try to figure out why you’re here.” He puts his arm around my shoulders, guiding
The blast threw everyone into the air and off their feet. When I get my senses back, I realize two things. Angel is unconscious on top of me, and I hear a keening sound in the distance that makes my heart hurt. I sit up, holding Angel in my arms, looking around. There are fae warriors and werewolves around me, shaking their heads trying to figure out what happened, just like I am. I follow the sound of the keening and realize it’s Cara. She’s holding her father’s lifeless body in her arms, rocking him back and forth. Oh no. Please tell me Clint isn’t dead. I see Rik, picking himself up off the ground, going to Cara. He pulls her into his arms and begins rocking her, trying to comfort her. I know the sound a person makes when they lose someone they love. That’s the sound that Cara is making now. It’s the sound of your heart breaking into a million pieces. I know that Clint is dead, and Cara’s heart is broken. What I thought was a bomb going off must have been a power surge from Cara,
When Keenan sends his first wave, there are hundreds of vampires. The power that Cara, Clint and I have together can only hold for so long. It drains all of our energy. We are able to wipe out the first wave of vampires, but the second wave mostly gets through. By the third wave, we break off and begin fighting individually. We stay together as long as possible, and I see Rik and Liam throwing vampires to Clint to take out. He’s a machine. He always was. Alessia remembers him from his younger days. He’s stronger than an Alpha, so powerful. Even now, in his revised wheelchair, he’s taking on more vampires than most of the wolves on the battlefield. I wasn’t expecting to be able to feel the death of our pack members. I’ve never been a ranked pack member and it’s hard to concentrate constantly hearing the howling of wolves in pain and then feeling their death in my mind and heart. Thankfully, my Guardian instincts kick in and I’m fighting like my Guardian spirit has fought for centurie
I snarl at Keenan’s comment to Angel. I wasn’t sure which one was him, but I knew it had to be one of the two pompous looking leeches. And now I focus my attention on him. He’s mine. For everything he did to Angel, I will kill him. Angel and the power of the Guardians, give them pause, but only for a moment. They must give a signal that I miss, because suddenly, hundreds of vampires are heading our way. Angel, Cara and Clint push out their aura, Angel making sure it’s directed in front of our line of werewolves and fae. A second wave starts almost immediately after the first. The first group runs right into the Guardian aura and are instantly turned to dust. The impact is taking its toll on them because the second wave starts getting through and another wave is right behind them. I see several vampires heading toward Angel and Cara and I jump into the fight. Cyran bursts through at the same time Kai, Rik’s wolf, does. We begin tearing through the vampires. Remembering what they sai
When I get back to the packhouse, I call the leaders of each safe room. “Are we ready? Is there anything at all that is still needed? War is imminent.” After making sure that we are set, the leaders of each room and I begin going around to make sure that all pack members know that the rooms are open. Anyone that may need some extra time to get to their safe room or bunker can head over now and get themselves set up. We have one she-wolf that is on the verge of delivering her pup. I have assigned a doctor to the safe room where she will be. We have also made sure that any other pack members that may need medical assistance during the war are in this same room. I’m just finishing up and getting the older, slower pack members settled in the safe rooms when I get the mind link from Liam. “Angel, where are you?” “I’m finishing getting the elderly and pregnant into the safe rooms.” “They are coming. They will be here at dark tonight. I’m headed back. Start getting ready. I’m about to se