Etherly can get stuffed, I’m staying in bed. All the suggesting and hinting in the world isn’t making me leave this silken pit. I’m in agony. Coupled with what feels like the worst period pain I’ve ever had, I’m also getting beaten up by the Fyrestone packs rejection. It didn’t happen until late last night. I’d spent the whole day expecting it to hit. When it did come, in the middle of the night, waking me up as I bent double under the silken sheets it felt like an insult. As if Alpha Fyrestone had woken up for a piss in the night and finally remembered to excommunicate me. Bastard. It meant I was in long silken silver pyjamas when the double doors to my suite flew open. Etherly had grassed me up the little bitch. Alpha Austin stormed into the room closely followed by Zaw. His mossy eyes glared at me, his grey henchman suit as perfectly bland as his personality. “What the fuck is this Roxie?” Austin snapped looking down at my sweating face. “Alpha I’m not messing around, the pac
“I can tell you're hoping it’s going to be foggy again,” Dex smirked at me as we bounced along in the car together. "Excuse me, I am here on important business," I replied huffily though when he trailed his finger along my hand a shiver of desire ran through me. "Fog would be amazing though," I said almost in a daze as he chuckled to himself. Rhett was driving, considerably less chirpy than normal seeing as we had to drag him away from Rose for this journey. I just smiled and looked out of the window, my fingers curling around his as we sat apart in the large grey car. We were heading back to Luna Madeline. In an effort to avoid war Dex had agreed to see if the mistress of Dark Arts had any advice for taking Roxie’s demon away without killing her. I know he is doing this trip purely for me, to satisfy my desperate wish to keep my best friend alive. Every day she is in Greenway I worry what horrors Austin will inflict on her. Dex and Alpha Fyrestone seem on tenterhooks, waiting
“Dex!” Her shrill, panicked voice ripped through my conversation with Madeline and Frank. I was out of my chair and fighting my way through the fucking mindless warren of little corridors and pantries to get to the outside. “Here!” the deep voice of Olaf cried. My fear was that she had been kidnapped. That somehow Austin had discovered her and sent his psychopathic Beta to take her. Instead I stumble outside onto the wooden decking to see Kate smiling. “What’s going on?” Standing behind Kate, his face largely obscured by the shadows was a man. Olaf lifted a lantern high and his face was revealed. Platinum blonde hair, a new scruffy beard and piercing blue eyes. Glenn. By this time Alpha Frank and Luna Madeline scuffled their way out onto the porch, obviously not in as great a hurry as me to find the cause of my mate’s cry. Rhett stood next to me as we both went forward together. “Glenn!” I cried, as he raised a hand as if warning us to keep our distance. “What’s going on?” I h
The thunder. Every time it rumbled over the packhouse it sent a wave of heat through my body. I could barely focus on Glenn. He is so angry, so bitter at how his mate has been treated. I know I would feel the same, to know someone had harmed even a hair on Dex’s head would mortify me. I don’t think the men quite realised how many scars she is covered in. Presumably if she has them all over the visible bits of her body, they’re going to be in the other areas too. The poor girl. Tomorrow we will do everything possible to help her. Climbing the dark wooden stairs with Dex another deep rumble sounds. The storm is getting closer. I cannot help grabbing his hand. There is electricity in his grasp and I feel my eyes flashing already. The instant he opens the door to our suite I jump at him. My lips on his before the door even shuts. His hands are unzipping the dark ruby red of my dress, unveiling my porcelain skin to him. Wordlessly, our actions perfectly synchronised in the darkness.
I am weighing up just packing up and moving here if every time the weather turns we have our minds blown like that. Waking under the chill, foggy dawn, the sun masked by clouds I realised I had Kate clutched to me. /Perfect/ Alba growled with pride and placed a gentle kiss on her bare shoulder. I had to agree. She was so clever in the meeting, so kind to Ariel then such a vixen with me on the balcony. Perfection indeed. /We need to deserve her. We must show her we are the Alpha, the mate she deserves/ Alba pushed. I’m feeling as though my wolf was teased too much by Kate’s last night, perhaps he is softening into a pussycat. My chuckling at Alba’s growls of protest internally woke her up and as her eyelids fluttered I caught that beautiful hazel hue and fell in love all over again. Her honey hair was scattered across the pillows, annoyingly masking her shapely breasts along with the white sheet clenched in her hand. Before I could even think about rolling her over and shocking he
I woke up without any pain for the first time in days. It didn’t feel good though, I knew it had come at a cost. I soon found out just how steep it was when a towering, amazon-like Mina flew into my room.The breakfast tray she was carrying hit the floor and I was sent sprawling with a vicious slap across my cheek.“Seraphine is dead! What the fuck did you do to her?” she screamed, her neck muscles rigid as I cowered beneath her.“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”“You don’t mean it! You’re just looking out for yourself, you feel better, at the expense of my only friend here’s life!” she raged. Kicking the gilded breakfast tea tray into the wall it smashed the remaining bits of porcelain not already decimated “I would never wish that on anyone, please believe me! Austin forced me!”“It’s your demon, so I’ve heard how the hell did he force you?”“You know he could kill me anytime he likes, he is insane!”“You’re a coward, you should have killed yourself, she was fine two days ago, perfectly fine
Luna Madeline is right. War is coming. Austin will be expecting it, we probably don’t have the element of surprise but we have to try. Together in Luna Madeline’s dark and musty drawing room we try to create a plan. “Any ideas?” I say, feeling Alba pushing me to the forefront. “We’re all ears, Alpha Dex, you know my pack does not have warriors to offer but we have different skills,” Luna Madeline said, sitting breathing raggedly. Lifting Ariel’s curse had taken more out of her than she wanted to let us know. Olaf fetched a cup of broth and a blanket, tending to her carefully. “I have several hundred warriors Dex, you know we will fight alongside you,” Alpha Frank said and I felt my heart rise with pride. With everyone else sat down, Glenn cradling Ariel close to him watching me with pained, blue eyes I felt the gears in my mind turning. “I want to send a unit to attack, and if necessary, kill Roxie and take the summoning stone. What we do with it after that I don’t know but i
Dex and I spent hours on that balcony. As he unburdened his hidden fears, he probably felt he was weaking himself before me. In my eyes he was stronger, even taller than before. He was an Alpha, he was born to lead. I knew he would make everyone proud in battle. Over the hours I told him dozens of stupid tales about Roxie and I. The time we once dug underneath the gate to escape. We dug for hours every break for over a week, using little plastic buckets. I had the job of hiding the earth Roxie dug, trying to casually scatter it near other buildings. Every night she would leave a construction of leaves and twigs trying to mask our route. We couldn’t have been older than ten and we felt so grown up with our plan. Roxie talked about how all we needed to do was find a circus. They would employ us, we could wash elephants and perform tricks. I knew Roxie was basing this entirely on one of the library books she’d seen in the library, but she was convinced. The hole was discovered, of co
###ONE YEAR LATER###KATESo I’m Luna Kate now. We had a big, outdoor ceremony that everyone appeared to see. Dex wore all black, looking absolutely unreal. I wore a long fitted red gown, in keeping with the ruby in his eyes and the colours of Fyrestone. Almost everybody was there, of course Roxie was not.Dex and I have taken the bike to Verna a few times since that first outing. I think it’s his favourite thing to do when life gets a bit much. We also haven’t made it back once without having stopped mid-way home. Something about the adrenalin of the tattoo gun I guess.I did get a tattoo added for Roxie in the end. It took me a while to think about what I wanted but in the end I had a twisting, mixed up lightning bolt. Not a cheesy, pointy outline, but the crackling, thin shards that splinter across a dark sky. It is on the side of my ribs, surrounded by the constellations of the Fyrestone compound.It stood for all the lightning and thunderstorms we sheltered in together as children
Just for a while we switched off. There was a whole world of shit to deal with back at the packhouse. Dex hadn’t yet mentioned the gigantic black opal ring of his fathers that was now on his hand either. The drunken bonfire blowout tonight sounded absolutely perfect to be honest, it wasn’t even something I usually enjoyed doing. So much had happened it sounded amazing to just relax for a few hours.I knew he was stressed about Rhett being so weakened, the fact there was no way Glenn and Ariel would be able to live happily under the scorching sun of Fyrestone. However right now, tearing along the red dust ground at a dangerously fast speed it didn’t matter for a while.He took the bends with rough, sharp leans that made me hold my breath and cling onto his chest for dear life as we raced across the desert plains. His leather jacket smelt so delicious, the bonfire scent that first captured my heart fast becoming a permanent part of me. I wondered if he found himself smelling of grass e
Finally, after what feels like weeks we are back in Fyrestone. The whole campus turns out to greet our return. Matt and Felix are treated like living gods, one blonde girl with red lipstick, Cherry I think, particularly clinging onto Matt as the student feted two of their own winning a war.The cars that arrived to fetch us from Foxton were gratefully received. The men were tired and ready to recuperate. Of course, it was only what was expected of them. To be classed as a Warrior meant to risk your lives and battle for the pack. Fyrestone had lost several men as well. A lot of them nearer my fathers generation, men he was reluctant to let out to pasture. My selection of younger, sleeker warrior students and recent graduates had all survived. My father and Rose were waiting at the Packhouse for us, alongside a scarily-slimmed down Rhett. His ashy blonde hair tied in a topknot and a smile brimming on his ridiculously bushy beard. If he had looked almost feral before, he certainly did
With a heavy heart we had to leave. Cliffrill, Foxton and other packs needed Dex’s presence. When I told Roxie she was almost enthusiastic at the prospect of being left. “Go, go be the Luna, it’s fine. I don’t want everyone here watching me scab over anyway.” she had insisted.I did wonder how much of it was getting rid of me, or knowing that the sooner we left the sooner Felix would be gone. He tried again to talk to her but Mina had to show him out when Roxie refused to see him.Now Mina and Olaf are mated, very happily so by the sounds ringing out day and night she is coming with us. So we have had to entrust Roxie’s final healing to Etherly. Still a petite, sour faced little thing I sat her down for a talk as we prepared to leave.“Are you happy Austin has gone?”“Not particularly,” she said with a scowl, her petite features against twenty years every time she creased up so sourly. “I had a good life here.”“There is nothing to stop you having a good life elsewhere. This place was
Fuck me I owe Olaf a drink. Maybe ten. He can have every jewel in this shithole.The sight of Kate standing there in the gardens, not that she was really eyeing up the silent giant was enough to make Alba go wild. The green silk slip she wore was fluttering softly in the breeze, her eyes so brown and soulful combined with that honey hair. I was rock hard before I even stood behind her.Now I’m watching as my mate keeps her eyes on me, unzipping my pants on her knees. I know it’s maybe immature, enjoying the risk of being outside but it’s something Alba and I have in common. Fuck, it’s clearly something Kate likes too, she’s been bent over a balcony howling before now so this is junior league in comparison.When she started teasing me, suggesting things I could do to her she had no idea how wild it drives me. Or maybe she does know exactly what she’s doing, in which case she deserves my cock in her mouth even more.Her plump perfectly pink lips kissing and wrapping around the head of m
The tender-hearted bear of a man who waited outside the door was soon replaced by a different beast entirely. On waking up he flexed his Alpha authority with ease. Ordering his collection of men into different brigades, plus reserves arrived with supplies and information. Almost twenty hours after the battle was won and the dust was starting to settle.A constant flurry of decisions had to be made. Dex, now sat in the library answered dozens of questions. Dispensing supplies, where everything needed to go and handling every kind of diplomatic crisis. We received an update on Rhett, he had been successfully taken by the Fyrestone and was under care.Glenn would still be heading back to Foxton to inform Luna Madeline but a scout had returned from his group to confirm Eduardo was being held captive. His pack were apparently only too happy to place him under arrest. It was peculiar how no local rebellion occurred. Fyrestone’s warriors were allowed across the territory without difficulty.
Hours of chanting, each of us holding Roxie’s charred hand or foot as Olaf mixed herbs and guided our voiced was exhausting. My head dropped, fighting waves of tiredness after days of running from Foxton. Olaf and Felix had battled too, their red wounds matching Roxie’s battered form. It was peculiar to feel the ebb and flow of her body. I would feel warmth and a pulse only for it to simmer away. Her breathing was barely there, her chest flickering instead of rising. Her wolf was pushing itself to the limits and there was no way of knowing what would happen.On the sofas, rapidly staining with blood as her wounds seeped, we surrounded her with our love. As dawn broke over a new day Mina looked around and clanged the cymbals.Olaf began to shake his head in failure, the herbs, hair and peculiar rocks he had procured moved to one side. He was accepting defeat. I couldn't. I gave my last bit of energy, chanting louder, closer to her ear praying with everything I had that she would choos
After swimming in the blackness, for what could have been years or seconds I was calm. Unable to form a thought, feel any pain I simply existed in a pool of darkness. That almost-tumbling feeling of falling asleep, when you’re just on the brink of accepting tiredness, was the only sensation. Then the pungent, unmistakable scent of burning hair entered the darkness.The first emotion and clear thought that dripped into my awareness was the fear that the smell was sulphur. That Berlarot even in death remained tied to me.As my senses slowly strengthened, like a slow turning up of volume I found my inner voice. Another thought occurred when I realised it was not Berlarot, was the assumption that the burning smell was my own hair. Perhaps the tower was burning, maybe Kate had done something marvellous and saved everyone.Kate. My sister.I’d left her. I’d jumped and left her to the mercy of Austin. A coward till the end. Death is the correct path for me.Thoughts swam around in the black
What the hell has happened here. We’ve saved the fucking day and I’m getting shit for it.As she vanished around the corner the blonde girl with blue eyes approached. “I’m Mina, I did not want to get Kate’s hopes up but I think…Roxie needs a healer. She might not be completely gone yet.”I groaned, rubbing my face. We’re just a collection of fighters, “Azus, do you?” knowing the answer would be a no before he walked off to check on his injured men. Then, as quiet as a tiger through the trees Olaf came into view. He was completely naked, his grey hair shorn, eyes shimmering gold and yellow.He walked down the grassy path, all of us staring at his intimidating presence. Was he some kind of fucking sun god? Blessed with serious muscles and abs behind all that weird grey hair it felt as though we were all meeting him for the first time.Ignoring everyone’s stares he fixed his eyes on the tall, blonde Mina. We all saw her breath catch, her eyes widen as she fell under some kind of spell. F