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049 | Twisted firestarter
Last Updated:
2023-04-04 23:00:23Related chapters
An Affair with the Alpha 050 | If only
Rhiannon’s POVHyacinth and Stephen were waiting for me on the damned doorstep when I got back. They crowded around me like penguins desperate to huddle for body heat and started braying like donkeys with inane question after inane question.“What happened?”“What did they say?”“Did they think you did it, Rhi?”“Was he nice to you?”“Did you argue?”I put a hand up and halted just past the doorway. “Stop.”They both froze. Then they started clamouring around me again.“Did something happen?”“Why do you look so shaken?”“Did he shout?”“Did he ask you questions you couldn’t answer?”A growl built in my throat. I just wanted to be alone for five minutes to process everything that had just happened – but I wouldn’t get it. I had to sort myself out right here, right now, because I was the only one that could hold this family together now.Without Dad, I was the closest thing to a leader we had. Even though Cin wasn’t my younger sibling, it had always felt to us both like she was. I coul
Last Updated : 2023-04-05An Affair with the Alpha 051 | The call between us
Rhiannon’s POVI shoved my hands deeper into my pockets and huddled down into my coat. Snow tumbled through the air, a thousand infinitesimal ballerinas dancing in the dark; everything felt eerie, as though the world itself was leaning in closer to watch whatever was about to unfold. I couldn’t know what was to come, but the intensity of the very air around me made me think the earth beneath my feet and the trees surrounding me could.‘Maybe this isn’t a good idea,’ I muttered to Tiger, but I knew I didn’t mean it even as I said it. I’d never had a single sliver of doubt in my mind that I was going to find Caleb. I couldn’t refuse his call, not after we’d been forced apart for so long. Goddess, it was ridiculous, really – I’d spent longer apart from Stephen before, the man I was actually in love with, and though I’d missed him I’d just made the most of our time apart and then been happy to see him when we were reunited. This, though? This was like I was going out of my head with des
Last Updated : 2023-04-06An Affair with the Alpha 052 | Just like magic
Rhiannon’s POVCaleb’s touches were everywhere. His mouth was on my throat, carving along the sharp edge of my jaw, brushing softly, so softly, over my parted lips. And yet I wanted, needed, more of him. We slid off the wall. Caleb backed me up until I hit the oak tree, which trembled behind me as wantonly as my thighs were. I tipped my head back, a moan building in my chest. When I let myself go, he became my everything. My everything – but I ached to know the parts of him I didn’t yet. He seemed to know exactly what I wanted from him and exactly when to stop just short of giving it to me, making my core throb with desire and my thighs clench together. It seemed crazy to me that he knew me so well, while barely knowing me at all.His fingers carded through my hair, pulling my braids free. He sighed contentedly as my hair came loose and he could at last run his hands through it.“Perfect,” he breathed, and then he kissed me.I gasped as he kissed me. Actually gasped.He laughed into
Last Updated : 2023-04-09An Affair with the Alpha 053 | A spell for sunshine
Stephen’s POVIt had all been going so well.By that, of course, I meant that I’d been avoiding Rhiannon like the coward I was and spending far too much time with Hyacinth. Moving in here had meant to push me closer to Rhi. In reality, it had done the opposite.Not that she seemed to mind. She spent all of her time with her new pet, Foxy Spangles, walking alone and brooding, or sitting with her father’s plaque in the woods. I’d gone with her to The Endpoint once, where she’d stared blankly at her dad’s name where it had been carved into the wall. That had been the last time I’d insisted on coming with her.I didn’t know what it was, but I felt half a step out of stride with my mate. That wasn’t supposed to happen – was it?‘It’s because you’re a scoundrel, young man!’ cried Brian. ‘Hyacinth is the bee’s knees, that I cannot argue with, my boy, but it does not justify your behaviour. You and Rhiannon need to have a jolly good chinwag about the whole thing. You are just chockablock with
Last Updated : 2023-04-10An Affair with the Alpha 054 | You're not the scallywag - she is!
Stephen’s POV“Hyacinth?” I murmured, going to reach for her but thinking better of it and stopping myself short.“Come on,” she said again, her tone unnaturally steely. “We need those herbs. I’ve drawn a map of our territory and set it by the candle. We should have everything we need now.”I swallowed down further attempts to make whatever I’d done wrong right and sat down opposite her, with the yellow candle between us. There was a carefully drawn map of the Night Wind pack’s territory beneath it, too, as well as a small glass bowl to the right of the candle, and a box of matches to its left.Hyacinth didn’t say anything until I started to lift the herbs. “Tip them into the glass bowl,” she muttered, refusing to look at me. What the heck had I done? Brian’s voice was unusually sympathetic. ‘Marcella said you needed good intentions for this spell to work, did she not, my boy? It might be best to put your disagreement, whatever it was, to one side and focus on bringing spring back to
Last Updated : 2023-04-11An Affair with the Alpha 055 | He's made a fool of me
Amelia’s POVCaleb was gone. Again.I reached for his side of the bed. It was cold. I shivered as my palm pressed into the mattress. Even with the fire crackling in the hearth I felt the night’s chill – but I thought it had more to do with the fact that my mate had never come up to bed than the bitter middle-of-the-night air.He’d been distant since we’d been back in Night Wind. Okay, to be fair, he’d been distant with me for a lot longer than that, but he’d been particularly unaware since our return.I missed home. I missed home and, more than anything, I missed Kieran. Leaving him behind had carved an entirely new hole out of my heart. It was for the best, I knew that, and I’d made this choice a long time ago… regardless, that didn’t make it hurt any less.He was my soulmate. Making a decision in my head didn't change the way my heart felt.And now I was back here, in the place where somebody had poisoned me, and the one person I relied on more than anyone else was leaving me alone
Last Updated : 2023-04-12An Affair with the Alpha 056 | Duty comes first, prick
Amelia’s POVThe blood left my face in a rush.That bastard.Not only had he kept on fooling around with the Omega, the absolute idiot had done it carelessly enough that he’d been caught red-handed. Or red-dicked might be the more accurate description…He was a cheat. He was a liar. And, worse still than all of that, Caleb had jeopardised everything we’d worked for – everything Kieran and I had sacrificed our love for – all for a shag. My whole body burned with rage. My blood was boiling; I couldn’t see past the haze of red clouding my vision.‘Breathe,’ Maeve said. ‘You can’t lose it in front of this Omega. You know how fast word spreads in a pack, Amelia. You also know how much is riding on this. I know it hurts; I know you want to kill him right now. I do, too. But you’re angry that he’s risked the peace for this. Don’t let him win. Don’t let everything fall apart, not after everything you – everything we – have given up to get to this point.’‘You’re right.’ I picked up my own cu
Last Updated : 2023-04-13An Affair with the Alpha 057 | I've ruined everything
Caleb’s POVI raced upstairs to tell Amelia everything, desperate to share the news that the Eternal Winter seemed to be ending, though I’d left my heart back in the gardens with Rhiannon. Separating myself from her, for now, was painful but necessary. I was so hopped up on passion and joy and the swirling highs of the mate bond that I was prepared to tell Amelia the truth about everything. It was the only way to get us through this. She could be with Kieran and I could be with Rhiannon – no harm done.I swung the door open. I’d seen the lights were on from outside, so I knew she was awake. “Ames?” I called, smoothing a hand over my sex-ruffled hair. Oh, to hell with it. She was going to find out soon enough.She lunged at me with her teeth bared. Her hand balled into a fist at my collar, digging into my throat. “You,” she spat, her upper lip curling as she glared at me. “You bastard, Caleb!”She shoved me back against the door. I stumbled, taken by surprise. “What?” I winced, rubbin
Last Updated : 2023-04-14
Latest chapter
An Affair with the Alpha 127 | Epilogue
Rhiannon’s POVSix months laterThe Night Wind Pack needed this, I realised, beaming around at the crowd as I stepped off the stage. Though there was a notable sadness still clinging to the wolves – my wolves, I realised with a heady burst of shock, not unlike being doused in cold water – most of it had been shoved aside for tonight.It was a celebration, after all.The night sky was alight with glittering stars and the full, fat orb of the moon. Our unnatural spring had blurred into the real thing, and now the first signs of summer were in the late-evening warmth and glossy green leaves on every deciduous tree.Lamplight lit up the stage and the seats before it. Smaller bulbs were strung over the heads of the crowd, fluttering slightly in the wind. Something made the back of my neck prickle, like I was being watched – but of course I was being watched. I brushed my fingers over my new ring, and my smile widened impossibly further. Caleb helped me down the last step, his grin even bi
An Affair with the Alpha 126 | I want to mark you
Caleb’s POVNight Wind settled into our new spring with trepidation. Of course, there was joy too – so much of it I’d had to look the other way when most of my Omegas turned up to their cooking and cleaning shifts still drunk on honey mead and sweet berry wine – but it was undercut with uncertainty and loss.We’d had a day of silence for Luna Amelia. Her death was a dark shroud over the entire pack. Even when we were drinking under the stars, lying on the fresh spring grass and looking up at the blooming buds on the branches above, we were toasting to her memory. I’d heard more wet-voiced, “Three cheers, in honour of our fallen Luna!” in the last week than I’d ever wanted to. It was a knife through my heart every time.We still didn’t know what had caused the Eternal Winter and, even after Rhi had told me everything she’d experienced on the border between us and Moon Chasm, over and over again until she was blue in the face, I still couldn’t make sense of it. I’d paired her account o
An Affair with the Alpha 125 | The long walk home
Rhiannon’s POVReturning home was… confusing.I was torn between awe and heartache, love and loss, a giddy, child-like glee and the raw sort of grief I’d only known once before, after my father’s death. The sun glittered overhead, the sudden spring my death had brought on as unnatural as the everlasting winter had been before it. It was beautiful, too, the kind of beautiful that made my throat catch and my eyes glisten with unshed tears. Caleb’s hand in mine was steady and grounding, and whenever I stumbled his arm looped solidly around my waist. As always, he caught me.That bliss only compounded the unfairness of it all. I had lived, but Amelia had died. Kieran’s cries still echoed in my ears.He hadn’t come back with us. Nobody had been able to move him away from Maeve’s fallen body. I hoped he was okay but I knew, I knew, that he wasn’t. I inhaled sharply.“You all right?” murmured Caleb, squeezing me.I let my weight rest a little more on him. “Just thinking about Kieran.”He sh
An Affair with the Alpha 124 | Enough is enough
Stephen’s POVI hit the floor hard. I didn’t quite black out – but I wanted to.The pain was everything. There was no part of me not consumed by it. My blood burned and my skin turned to ash. But it was my heart that hurt worst of all.It was ripped from my chest, torn and bloody and, when I thought it couldn’t possibly hurt any more than it already did, some otherworldly hand took my heart and dunked it in acid. I had a vague, distant awareness of movement. I couldn’t focus on it, on anything but the agony echoing through me.When the pain started to ease, I opened my eyes. The world turned sideways as my vision struggled to cling onto a single spot, but eventually my focus steadied on Hyacinth’s face.My lower lip trembled. “Beautiful,” I mouthed, no sound coming out.It hit me then, full force, how striking she was. There was no way I could’ve been so blind, all of this time. Rose petal lips let out a small, relieved gasp, and icy blue eyes, never before so blue as they seemed rig
An Affair with the Alpha 123 | We'll wait for the dust to settle
Stephen’s POVHyacinth was kept under observation in the medical centre for a full day after Rhiannon left, despite her repeatedly telling various doctors and Omegas that she felt fine, thank you very much. I stayed with her the whole time, leaving only to collect a basket of fruit from my family and bringing it back to her.When we finally made it back to her cabin – our cabin, although it felt weird to say that, knowing I’d moved into it to be with her sister – there was a fresh fruit basket awaiting us on the kitchen table. I muddled raspberries and boiled water, and told her to wait on the sofa, under a blanket, for her tea.“So.” She swung her legs and gripped her mug. She still looked even paler than usual and sleep-deprived, with heavy bags under her eyes and sallow cheeks. “What happens now?”My throat bobbed. “What do you mean?”She gestured vaguely towards me. “With us.”An awkward silence sat between us. I glanced at the fire, remembering the feel of the rough wood against
An Affair with the Alpha 122 | Why did it have to be her?
Kieran’s POVI stared down at Maeve. I tried to see around the blood drying across her fur. I tried to see past the slack way her jaw was hinged, past the tiny sliver of glazed eye peeking out beneath her closed eyelids.I couldn’t. Not anymore. Those things were focal points now, the only parts of her I could really see. There was no life left in her. There was only death.My hands curled into fists in her fur. Another sob tore apart my throat. I didn’t feel like a person anymore; I was an empty shell, the wreckage of a ship left to drown. I was a scattered hull and deck, planks of wood and metal, all floating separately to drown in the darkness of an unforgiving sea.Gentle hands touched my shoulders, breathing a mimicry of life into my lungs. “Kieran? Kieran, is she…”I twisted around, my eyes as glazed as Ames’s as I looked up at Rhiannon. I would’ve frowned, had I been alive enough to do so. I hadn’t registered much in the last… how long had it been? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Day
An Affair with the Alpha 121 | A million miles away
Rhiannon’s POV “Rhiannon?” Caleb cupped my cheeks. His hands felt a million miles away. “Rhiannon, this isn’t funny. Wake up,” panic leaked into his voice, “please, Rhi, wake up!” I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hold onto him. I wanted… I wanted… What did I want? The darkness was closing in. There was no way out of it, this time. That knowledge settled deep in me, heavy as a stone sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Even the pain of my wounds was starting to ebb away. My neck had been one burning, pulsing, point of red-hot pain, so sore that even the flow of blood over my torn skin had hurt, but now it felt more like the after-ache of getting a piercing. Soft, gentle, but still a little sore. Not the ripped-to-shreds agony of having my throat torn out of my neck. Instead of comforting me, it panicked me. The further from the pain I got, the closer I got to leaving my life behind. Caleb. Hyacinth. Stephen. Even Amelia and Kieran. And, oh my goddess, little Foxy Spangles.
An Affair with the Alpha 120 | All things end
Caleb’s POVI watched Rhi fall to the ground in slow motion. It was eternal, that moment, as her body slumped, her weight suddenly too much for her to hold up, and she fell to the earth. Her limbs cartwheeled; blood poured from her neck.I reached her as she hit the ground. “Rhi,” I rasped, pressing my bound hands to her wolven shoulder and shaking it gently, terrified of hurting her more. “Fuck, Rhi, oh, goddess, fuck.” I couldn’t think properly, couldn’t say anything more useful than the string of mumbled curses falling from my trembling lips.“Liam, enough!” roared Luna Fiona. “This is wrong! The war is over; we should never have… never have…” Her throat closed around a sob as she looked down at her daughter.But Alpha Liam wasn’t listening.And then he turned his attention to me.I snarled at him. My heart was beating so hard I couldn’t hear myself think, but I stared him down, in his huge wolf form, his jaws stained with my mate’s blood, and I knew – I knew – that if it came to i
An Affair with the Alpha 119 | Alpha Can't-Handle-His-Emotions
Rhiannon’s POVPaws battered my side, my neck, my cheek. Red-hot pain lanced across each of those places. Alpha Liam was too fast for me; he clawed me, pulled back, clawed me. I could barely see his movements before he landed each strike.‘Move!’ Caleb screamed into my mind. 'Move now, Rhi!'I darted back, letting Tiger take over as Alpha Liam lunged at us again. She ducked down, narrowly escaping the slash of his teeth, the lock of his jaw. I heard his teeth clack together above my head and shivered.Blood rolled down my side, burning hot against my chilled fur.I was, to put it frankly, fucked.“No, Liam!” cried Luna Fiona, from somewhere off to the side. “This isn’t right!”I turned to look at her, confused by her seeming to side with me, and saw her bowed over Amelia, her face set in a cold mask. The only emotion was in her eyes – and they were swimming with agony.I’d let myself be distracted a moment too long. Teeth clamped down around my neck.That was it, then. I squeezed my e
