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087 | I'll take that wine now
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2023-05-13 23:59:12Related chapters
An Affair with the Alpha 088 | Family or freedom?
Hyacinth’s POV‘Girly, are you sure this is a good idea?’ Dolly asked me again.‘No. Yes. No. Oh!’ I threw my hands in the air. ‘I don’t know, but I don’t know what else to do. This is all I can think of.’Foxy Spangles cast his shrewd eyes upon me as I knelt down in front of my chest of drawers and started flinging clothes out of them. I tried to give him a placating smile, but it made me think that I might not ever see him again, and then I thought about never seeing Rhi again, or Stephen, and a sob bubbled up in my chest.“What am I doing?” I warbled around my cries, hugging the pile of clothes to my chest and squeezing them tight. ‘You’re trying to be brave,’ Dolly murmured gently. ‘That’s what you told me, anyway. If this is what you want, sweet girl, I’ll support you.’‘It’s not what I want,’ I mindlinked back to her, unable to speak aloud any longer. ‘But Rhiannon always does everything she can for me. I can’t bear to tell her that I’m Stephen’s true mate, and I don’t want to
Last Updated : 2023-05-14An Affair with the Alpha 089 | Returning that which should never have been taken
Rhiannon’s POV“Does he have to come?”I glared at Stephen. It was a half-assed glare; I was so emotionally exhausted that I couldn’t put my back into it the way I usually would.“He just wants to help,” I muttered, looking away and back at the letter from Dad again. “We don’t need his help.”I sighed and put the letter down. “He’s the Alpha. I don’t see why you’re being like this, not if you’ve found your true mate too. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but you didn’t tell me either. We can be glad we all know the truth now, or we can bitch and snap at each other for things that have already happened.” I put my hands on my hips and waited for his verdict.“You slept with him, though. I never slept with Hyacinth.”My eyebrows shot up. “You want an award for not having sex with my twin sister?” I slow-clapped. “Gold star for you, Stephen.”“Don’t be like that.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, then scratched the back of his neck. “I just meant… oh, I don’t know. I’m sorry.”“Me, too. I
Last Updated : 2023-05-16An Affair with the Alpha 090 | An unwelcome arrival
Caleb’s POVOh, no no no – this couldn’t be good.I flattened my lips into a thin slash as Amelia stepped out of the trees. Foxy Spangles was struggling in her arms, scrabbling desperately to get free of her. She winced as his claws scraped down her wrist and dropped him; he ran straight over to Rhiannon and wound around her legs like a cat.Stephen was still gripping Rhiannon, like if he held onto her tight enough he could fool the Moon Goddess herself into thinking that he was her true mate. Even though we were literally out here to look for his true mate, Hyacinth. This little love triangle was complicated enough without Ames coming along for the ride, too.“You were supposed to be looking after Foxy,” I said slowly, still trying to get my bearings. “Not bringing him out into the cold.”Rhi looked like she was about to collapse. “You asked the Luna to look after him?” she asked, staring between all of us like she couldn’t understand what she was seeing. “When you said you’d taken
Last Updated : 2023-05-17An Affair with the Alpha 091 | What sort of idiot would believe me?
Rhiannon’s POV‘This is amazing!’ I laughed, letting the thrill of sprinting through the woods ease my other worries. They didn’t go away, of course, but they were quietened for a while. ‘Fuck, Tigs, I’ve missed you.’‘I’ve missed you! It’s great to be back.’‘Where were you?’She shrugged, somehow managing to do it without breaking stride. ‘It’s hard to say. Gone, I suppose. I was still of aware of everything, but… I was separate. Like a star looking down, unable to do anything but watch.’My belly swooped. ‘You were really gone? For good?’‘If the Moon Goddess hadn’t put me back, I wasn’t coming back.’‘It was really her?’ I breathed. ‘The Moon Goddess herself intervened to give you back to me?’‘She did.’ Tiger’s eyes lit up, burning an even brighter gold than before. They reflected back to me off every tree trunk we passed, as if she had two lamps beaming out of her face. ‘Marcella should never have ripped us apart. She was righting a wrong.’‘Righting a wrong,’ I repeated, squint
Last Updated : 2023-05-18An Affair with the Alpha 092 | Alpha Caleb's power of command
Rhiannon’s POVI blinked through the shroud of darkness curtaining my vision. Every part of me was cold, and I tried to curl in on myself to warm up. Painful shivers wracked through me. Where had Tiger’s fur gone? I could feel hard snow compacted down beneath me, and human limbs trembling instead of my wolf’s powerful legs.Then I realised why I was so cold.I was naked.I sat up sharply and pressed a palm to my forehead. Or I tried to, at least – warm arms enveloped me, holding me tightly to a familiar chest. “Are you all right?” Caleb murmured, his voice raspy with concern. He tucked his cloak around my shoulders; I snuggled into its heat, too confused and brain-fogged to do anything more.“What happened?” I asked eventually.He kissed my forehead; I heard two low growls from the others. Caleb’s back stiffened. “Tiger was walking along, and then she wobbled, and then you fell. You shifted out after you hit the ground.”I squeezed my eyes shut before opening them again. “I think I b
Last Updated : 2023-05-19An Affair with the Alpha 093 | The awful truth
Rhiannon’s POVCaleb looked at Amelia sharply. That alone was enough to make me curious – and it wasn’t like I could turn down the Luna’s request anyway, even if I’d wanted to.“Of course, Luna Amelia.” My gaze dipped to Caleb as I spoke; he shook his head slightly, a frown pinching his brow. “We won’t go far,” said the Luna, but Caleb cut her off.“Why are you taking her anywhere? The reason we’re stopping is so that Rhiannon can rest.”Stephen shot me a dirty look at that reminder. I held my hands up. “I said I was fine.”Amelia sighed. “We’ll only be five minutes.”“If you want to talk to her, talk here.” Caleb crossed his arms. “Mindlink if you don’t want us listening in.”“I asked if she’d come with me. I never said anything about talking.”‘This is ridiculous,’ I muttered to Tiger. Then, aloud, I said, “It’s fine, Caleb. I’m more than happy to go.”He replied through a mindlink. ‘She’s up to something. What if she hurts you? Kills you?’I couldn’t hold back my scoff. ‘She’s sti
Last Updated : 2023-05-20An Affair with the Alpha 094 | Turned against me
Caleb’s POVI paced around our shitty little camp, doing loop after loop around the fire and feeling two sets of eyes on me the whole time. I was pointedly ignoring Stephen, but I met Foxy’s gaze whenever I went past him, curled up in a mound of Rhiannon’s clothes in one of the tents.All I wanted to do was mindlink Rhiannon – but how pathetic was that? The girl was a powerhouse in her own right; she could handle anything Amelia threw at her.Knight whined. ‘But she’s not well. She passed out not long ago. And Maeve is strong, man. Really strong.’‘Rhi is right,’ I said on a sigh. ‘Ames wouldn’t hurt her. She never agreed with what I did to Marcella, even though Marcella had poisoned half the pack. She wouldn’t touch Rhiannon over something none of us can control.’I hoped, anyway. I knew them both well, and that meant I knew they both had fierce tempers. One comment taken the wrong way could end up in fireworks.“What are you pacing for?” huffed Stephen. “She’ll be fine. Although I d
Last Updated : 2023-05-21An Affair with the Alpha 095 | I guess women just ignore me now
Caleb’s POV“Rhiannon?” This time, when I said her name, it wasn’t a breath of relief. It was a question, fraught with nerves over whatever had happened since she’d left the camp with Amelia.“She’s upset,” purred Amelia. The sound of her soft, sinful voice had the tiny hairs on the back of my neck raising. She slithered onto my lap and wound her arms around my neck. “Leave her be.”Stephen and I shared a look. Yeah. It had to be bad if I was sharing looks with bloody Stephen.‘I quite like him, actually,’ said Knight, but his eyes kept dipping to Rhiannon and the closed tent. He was as distracted as I was, then.‘He’s not completely awful,’ I agreed. ‘But, more importantly, buddy, what the hell happened out there?’Knight considered it before replying. ‘Amelia seems eager to talk. Rhiannon does not.’ He whined. ‘Do you think she hurt her?’‘There’s only one way to find out,’ I said slowly, already hating myself for what I was about to do.I looped my arms around Ames’s waist and pull
Last Updated : 2023-05-22
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
