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“This is my daughter,” said Alpha Nash, as he introduced Joanna to me. Alpha Nash was a tall man, but a few inches shorter than me and father. His eyes were glinting as if there was some kind of a plan underneath, as if he was present here, but he was thinking something else. He had a sharp jaw with a square face. He shared the color and shape of his eyes with his daughter. In short, he looked impressive and wore clothes that screamed of money. “Hello,” I nodded at Joanna with zero interest. She blushed a little and I could feel her rising interest in me. Her soft sandalwood scent hit my nostrils and I overcame an urge to sneeze. “Hi!” she said, her voice animated with excitement as she shook her hands with me. Joanna was tall and a leggy blond. Her deep green gown was slit till her thigh on the left side. She had her hair open and with her light emerald eyes looked at me like I was the only man existing in her life. “Why don’t you kids catch up, while I speak with your father?” s
Anger must be evident on my face. I was heaving exhalations slowly, snarling at Luna Mira for hurting my mate. Artemis stood by my side like my soldier. I glared at my mother for a long time before settling Natasha on a leather couch near me. The rug we were standing on got stained by our blood. “Apollo…,” my mother breathed out as she rushed towards me as her face blanched. She looked at one of the servants and ordered him to get the family doctor. When I placed Natasha on the couch, she was semi-conscious. Her eyes were fluttering shut and open. Artemis took his jacket out and gave it to me. I covered her with it and in a soft voice whispered, “Stay with me, love.” Panic gripped me in a tight vise-like fist. Luna Mira came to stand next to me, her expressions pale. “What happened to the two of you?” she asked. Furious that she was acting ignorant, I spun towards her and growled, “Isn't it your doing?” I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t know that my mother would be so vicious and th
I could no longer sit at Apollo’s home. I asked Artemis to take me back to my home. Apollo wanted to come after me, but I couldn’t even look at him. Artemis picked me up and got me home. Their family doctor came to see me at my place. An elderly man with silvery hair on the temple, he had kind light blue eyes. He cleared my wounds, applied bandages and then gave me medicine to eat. “She is under a lot of shock,” he said to Artemis, who was standing by me all the time. He had called Nicole who was sitting by side. “The injuries are not deep, but she would need time to recover.” “What about her fever?” Nicole asked, as she squeezed my hand. “It will come down soon. It’s mostly because of the shock,” the doctor informed. “But don’t forget to give her medicine on time. I have given her a sedative. So, let her sleep.” “Thank you,” Nicole said and the doctor nodded. He packed up his things and left. I think I slept for the entire night and the day without any intrusion of nightmar
Artemis took me to their hunting lodge—a place where Apollo had brought me after Nicole’s wedding. Memories of the day assailed me. High up on the peak, the log cabin stood shrouded in the rolling clouds. It was dark and the aspens around it gently susurrated. “No one is going to find you here,” he said as he stepped ahead of me with my bag on his shoulder. I dragged myself after him. “But I can't say that about Apollo?” he added. “Because of the mate bond?” “Yes. Because he will hunt you down even if you go to the end of earth.” He kept walking ahead of me. “I am sorry with the way it came out, Natasha, but Apollo has his reasons.” “What are you all hiding from me?” Artemis didn’t answer my question and I didn’t feel like asking for more. We reached the door of the lodge and he unlocked it. I entered it and a familiar smell of damp wood hit me. “This is a place my father built for himself and mom, but later we took over it,” Artemis chuckled. “I seldom party with my friend
I continued to pour the contents of the can in a wok and then added water. I heard fabric rustling against the wood of the chair. Without turning to look at him, I waited. I held the edges of the counter and leaned forward with a baited breath. The silence in the room was thick, interrupted by his heavy exhalations. He understood that he had to tell me everything if he wanted me back. He started, “Your father, Ivan, and mother were rogues who had formed a mafia. It was so strong a mafia that every pack was afraid of them. My father was a progressive man and it wasn’t until Ivan interfered in his projects that my father got angered. Whatever my father did was wrecked by Ivan. He wanted to build roads. They were destroyed by his pack, which consisted of only rogues. When my father couldn’t take it anymore, he called upon a meeting with all the Alphas. In that meeting it was decided that Ivan had to be taken out. Sitting from a remote place in Russia, he was carrying out his operation
Apollo POVNatasha looked so broken at the moment that I wanted to hold her and hold her tight. But I didn’t want to push myself on her and at the same time didn’t know how long I would stay in control. She was trying her best not to break under all the truth and it was killing me to see how she was putting up. She turned away from me and gasped. She was so brave. Always had been. My wolf wanted to protect his mate and was clamoring me from the inside. “My aunt always says that I look like my mom, especially my eyes. It’s as if you are looking at my mother,” she said as she held the ladle and started stirring the soup again. After a long silence she switched off the hot plate and turned to face me. Tears were running down her face. When her beautiful blue eyes met my gray ones, she said, “That was why you always looked away from me?” Oh, she had sensed it? Panic gripped my chest when the images of her mother’s torture flashed in my mind all over again. “When you saw me first, you
My breath hitched when Natasha turned her head to the side, allowing me to see the skin where I want to mark her. Every little strength left in me vanished. My mouth crushed on her fiercely as I groaned. I grazed her lips with my fangs and when I delved my tongue inside, she whimpered. I growled as my kiss deepened. When I pulled away, I was breathless just like her. We were both so desperate that it hurt. I guess we wanted to discover each other all over again through a new perspective. I wanted to show her that she was Natasha for me and that I didn’t see her mom when I saw her. She wanted to make up for all the lost times and I wanted to give it all to her. “There is no coming back from here, Natasha,” I said to her, my forehead resting on hers. “I will go wherever you take me, Apollo,” she replied in a soft voice as she cupped my face. My sweet little mate. I lowered my mouth once again to hers and kissed her. She moaned into mine. In between kisses, I said, “I am not going to
Natasha POV At night, Apollo just let me sleep. I must have dreamt that he was watching me, sitting on a chair across the bed. I must have thought that he was staring at me, unblinking, with those intense gray eyes. I was sure it was all a part of my imagination until I woke up. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was glinting on the top of the palm forest that surrounded the mansion. I could see the palm leaves fluttering in the warm sea breeze. I wondered how rich Apollo was. I mean owning an island of this size was a different level. And he had a mansion built on it? We had arrived in his private airplane. I didn’t know that the de Vries’ also owned a fleet of planes. When Apollo brought dinner for us, he mentioned that his housekeeper had made it for us for the next few days and stashed it all in the fridge. I was thankful to God that at least one more person lived here, but when he said that she came here only when needed, and went back using her boat, I was… flabbergasted.
It had been a month since Apollo had become the Alpha of the pack. He was extremely busy with the pack activities. Taking over was a massive task. With Artemis as his Beta, they had so many things to look into that a day seemed to stretch for twenty-eight hours. And in that time, I saw Apollo only during nights when he would come back home, exhausted and grumpy. He would not let me and Lucas go out of sight until he slept. I could understand the pressure he was having. The positions of The Head Tracker, Head Enforcer of arms were still vacant and he had to fill them soon. Kirill had informed me that Ivan died that night when the attack took place. It was said that he was in his room while the whole carnage took place on the outside, watching his mate, Dahlia. When they forced open his room, he shot himself in the head, his last words being, “I love you, Dahlia.” I mourned my father’s death even though he had been a monster to me. As the days passed, I realized that he was missing m
When we reached the Black Moon pack, it was past midnight. Luna Mira had come to the airport. I could sense that she wasn’t alone. The whole pack was with her. I could hear wolves howling in the background. The news that Alpha Jacob had died came faster than us. I clutched Lucas in my arms as Apollo curled his arm around my shoulders and took us out. I came to stand in front of Luna Mira and even though I had coined the words of apology a hundred times in the airplane, I simply couldn’t utter a word in front of her. My throat was choked with emotions, as guilt weighed me down. Because of me, she had lost a lot. She was on the verge of losing her son, but Alpha Jacob went and got him back. And now Alpha Jacob went to recover me. His sacrifice was greatest. He was an alpha wolf who protected his family till he breathed his last. I guess the day I came into the Vries family, the day I was wedded to Apollo, he had accepted me as a part of the Black Moon pack in his own way. Luna Mira s
“Olga?” My whole body jolted in shock and I sat upright. “What the hell? Are you sure? How can that be? God, I had so many questions!” “Shocking,” he replied and to my frustration, Apollo just smiled. He crossed his arms beneath his head and settled on the pillow cozily. “You always have questions.” Shooting him a glare he was used to, I said, “How did Kirill take it?” “Obviously, he took it badly. But I was ready. Nash gave me video evidence of how Olga came to him to give Ivan’s names to the authorities. At that time, he was already with my father and going against Ivan. Olga became furious but she never asked Nash to not go against Ivan. In fact, she gave him some of his secrets and what would be the best way to take him down.” If the revelation that Olga betrayed my father had shocked me, all this information punched the air out of me. “Olga was always my nanny. She loved my parents and she was very protective about me. I never saw her leaving me, except when she went for he
I saw two wolves—a giant black one and a massive gray one, heading in our direction. They were both heading in our direction with ferocious snarls. Snow had started drifting around us and I knew that we had to find a cover before the cold affected my son. Kirill yanked me in the shadows of the naked pines as those wolves slowly came towards us, snarling menacingly. They stopped about thirty feet away and I picked up the familiar scent. “Apollo? Artemis?” “That’s them! Come on.” Stunned, I couldn’t even breathe as Kirill tried to drag me to them. As soon as Apollo saw us, he dashed through the snow to us, yapping and nipping and swishing his tail. I sank on my knees, not able to bear the shock of seeing my mate after such a long time. Apollo licked me and then his son who giggled. My eyes flooded with tears and my mouth was like a cotton ball on a cactus. I had been riddled with so many dreams of this meeting that it looked surreal to me. I threaded my fingers in his fur and brou
Natasha POV A rough calloused hand over my mouth woke me up in the middle of the night. Panicked, a scream surged through me which was smothered into the palm. A face leaned over me with wide eyes. He placed his finger over his lips. “Shhh!” Throat dry as a desert, I blinked my gummy eyes to see who was it through the darkness. Kirill was hovering over me. “If you promise to stay quiet, I will pull my hand away.” I nodded as I stared into his hazel eyes. “Kirill?” I gulped my panic down with some saliva to wet my dry throat. “What is going on? What are you doing here?” “We are under attack from rival rogues.” There was commotion on the outside. Red and blue lights flashed through the gaps of the curtains. My heart leapt out as I jerked to a sitting position. I whipped my head to Lucas who was still sleeping soundly in his cradle. Kirill raked his fingers through his hair looking perturbed. “We thought it was a plain police attack, but these are hardcore rogues. They are t
Apollo POVTwo months. It had been two months since Natasha had left with Lucas. I had become like a shell. I had stopped eating and looked so gaunt that my mother winced when she glanced at me. I knew that she would cry in silence seeing my condition. No mate should be treated like this. We had had numerous arguments over how much she had warned me against Natasha and that I should have rejected her. Every fucking time I would stomp out of the house and find myself in the bar where I had met Natasha for the first time. I would drink until I could no longer think and then had to be brought home. Each time it would be Artemis who would bring me home. He would mumble curses under his breath and I would chuckle and tell him never to leave his mate. I had stopped going to the office, stopped meeting people and had withdrawn into a cocoon. My father had not moved an inch when Natasha called for help because he had to protect his people. And Natasha? My little mate? She sacrificed herself
October November December was the most cruel in Russia. Ever since father had brought us back to Vyaska, our hometown in the north of Russia, he had been extra vigilant. All his energy was usually spent in taking measures that I was highly protected. He had started giving orders from home and barely stepped out even for grand political functions that he was invited to in the human world. My cell phone was snatched and smashed. The two months without Apollo seemed like eternity. I wondered if he was finding me. I didn’t feel like eating, having lost all my appetite. The only thing that kept me going was Lucas. I ate because I had to feed Lucas. I breathed because I didn’t want to leave Lucas in the hands of Olga. I stayed alert because I wanted to escape. I needed only one chance and I would leave, even if that meant running across the wilderness of snow-clad Russia. Ember wanted an out and she was aching to come out after my first shift. She was getting antsy inside me. Once I h
“Natasha!” I heard my father’s astonishment in his voice. “You have shifted!” When I looked down at myself, all I saw was brown fur that covered my hands. My gums were aching for they had protruded painfully long. And I heard a dangerous snarl, which belonged to me. For the first time I had shifted into my wolf and I couldn’t believe that she chose to come out now. ‘I am Ember,’ she growled. I was so much in awe of her that I let her take full control. The transformation was liberating and it felt so good. So, this was how every werewolf felt when their wolf came out. Now that I had my wolf, I understood the hollow, the void I suffered for so long. My wolf completed me. And right now, she was snarling because people had attacked our mate. ‘I will kill all of them,’ Ember hissed. I padded with my chin dipped and a low snarl. The four men in the room stopped beating Apollo. He was almost unconscious. “Natasha, you have to stop!” Ivan’s voice fell on my ears. “This is not what you w
I took a shaky breath in when my father repeated, “I had lost all hope to see my heir ever again, but now my hopes are renewed.” “Father…” I said, my voice breathy. “I am married… and I belong to Apollo and his pack.” I gazed in his eyes to see some kind of reaction, but all I saw was coldness on his face. I pursed my lips and looked away. I had to make him understand that I could never come back to him. He sipped his vodka as tense silence settled between us. When he didn’t speak, I continued, “I can't come back with you to Russia. This is the place I belong to.” From the corner of my eyes, I saw a dark figure moving behind the glass very quickly, as if hiding for being caught. I drifted my gaze back to my father avoiding it. My father swirled vodka in his tumbler as he became silent as if contemplating his next move. At this point of time, I realized that I had to be very careful. There was a darkness that spilled out of him and darkened his expression. He leaned back on the sofa