After scouring Dex’s addictively dark scent from my body I fell back asleep. Whether it was exhaustion, or the precious black ring he lent me, I woke up feeling surprisingly positive. No horrific dreams and Dex believed me. Even better, he said he loved me. Nothing else mattered even if he was only a forbidden staircase away. Or a near death experience shimmying up a balcony.I smiled into the pillows, replaying last night. The possessive grip of his hands around my waist did something primal to me. I wanted to be claimed. “Mine,” he had growled and it made my body tingle just with the memory. The sensation of the soft silk tumbling down my arms, fluttering down my legs as he removed my made me lick my lips with relish. Dex was unlocking a whole new side of me. Like a flower in the sun I had felt myself briefly blossoming, returning to my former self. Unfortunately I heard Etherly softly knocking, ending the illusion. I had to quickly scamper outside and throw the precious ring upw
Keeping myself together after Kate left was a monumental effort. I was trying to help her, not looking at her even though Alba whined and growled away. Thankfully she was tucked behind Luna Gwyneth’s chair. I had to play the part, when the Highton forest discussion came up I had to go with the flow. I am not allowing Austin to take another pack's land. He’s only grabbing it because he is sick of paying Highton. Gwyneth looked scared as she glanced back and forth from me to Austin. Kate looked stunning in her dress, it clung to her body and curves deliciously when she stood. It was just a shame about the clunky, pointless jewellery. However Austin’s lips on hers made me look away, catching Luna Madeline’s gaze. I don’t care if that’s a win for Austin, I couldn’t do it. I could focus on the task at hand once Kate left. I allowed Gwyneth to keep her hand on mine. Observing it, I couldn’t help comparing it to Kate’s slender fingers. Her natural inclination every time our hands touched
“Enough!” Beta Zaw snapped, as I curled in a ball on the ground. “You’re hurting my head with that wailing, go to your room if you can’t pull yourself together. Stupid bitch!” His pale green eyes appeared lizard-like against the pale skin of his bald head. When he grabbed at my wrist, I felt something break. A bond, an elastic band snapping within my mind. “What the hell was that?” he snapped, quickly dropping me as I hit the stony ground with a thud. “I don’t know, I felt a snapping? You felt it too?” His eyes narrowed, “what powers are you using witch?” He stomped forward, towering over me with disgust on his face. His boots were scarily close to my chin as I lay in a crumpled heap, exhausted from the battle in my mind. I had managed to keep Dex and Gwyneth’s name from my lips as I sobbed but anyone sensible would be able to guess what my emotion was about. “Tell me now, or I’ll kill you this instant!” shouting as he whipped out a silver blade from within his grey suit. He fli
Finally, this conference just got a hell of a lot more interesting. I was bored to tears in my little single side room while Rose snored like a beast when I heard a door slam. I peep down the stairs in my little silken pyjamas hoping for Alpha Dex, instead I get another handsome, powerful man. I’ve heard all about Kate’s little outburst, how she struggled to keep her shit together when the simpering Luna Gwyneth touched Dex. Apparently she cried like a lunatic outside. Now she knows. Now she knows how I felt every single day she was in Fyrestone. How nothing could take away the pain and longing of seeing someone you adored not look at you. For once my cloud had lifted too. I had not looked at Austin once when we arrived, my attention diverted to my one and only goal of gaining Dex’s approval. Whereas now, I saw Austin’s blue eyes and blonde hair as a refreshing change. A palate cleanser from the darkness I had been craving from Dex. He was slamming on Kate’s door. In my tiny si
Feeling my heart tremble during this evening's drinks left me feeling sick. The realization my heart was tied to Kate’s fear was still sinking in. I stood with my father and Beta’s Glenn and Rhett, closely watching the others in the morbidly dreary dining room. Rose was meant to attend, but Father felt she might let the side down and told her to stay in her room. It’s basically been a waste of her time being here. Had negotiations gone well and the mood been jolly she might have got to enjoy the party. Not this time.Normally I would feel some sympathy for her, but until I get to safely question her tomorrow, I’m not remotely concerned right now. I know I’ve done some shitty things, had numerous one-night stands and left some girls a bit glum for a week, I’ve never run one of them out of town. A piano was tinkling for entertainment as musty chandeliers glowed but after the tension of the meetings, there wasn’t much mixing going on. Instead, everyone stood about holding wine goblets,
Hearing Roxie seduce Austin made my skin crawl. When I heard his door shut, I paced the floor. Despite everything she had put me through there was no way I wanted her life in Austin’s hands. Perhaps this demon has made her overconfident, thinking she can read a man like Austin. Even the guys she went with back in our hometown, they might have been uncaring bastards but Austin…the risks were enormous. /Austin can’t hurt Roxie without damaging pack relations, he can kill you and nobody says a word because you’re his/ Raya warned. It didn’t stop me pacing, back and forth I walked for what felt like hours until I heard the door open once more. The sound of cackling followed, and I felt my worst fears confirmed. In that instant it didn’t matter what Roxie had done to me, my sister was in trouble. She’s always going to be my sister. Her betrayal still stung, it hurt every time I thought of her, but it was amazing how quickly that vanished when I realized she was in danger tonight. Afte
It was less than two minutes, but it was everything. Raya was pinging around my mind like a rocket, exhilaration firing as I blindly stumbled back into the room. Stripping off I quickly unlocked the door before diving into the shower. I had to scrub any trace of his scent away before Etherly came back. I couldn’t even pretend to look happy in front of her, knowing we were returning to the isolation and fear of Greenway. Etherly’s face was equally miserable from sleeping on a lumpy chair all night as she concocted her latest bizarre, gilded imagery. Today I looked like a stretched satsuma, in a loud orange and gold gown. It was in no way practical for driving home. The knots and buttons she fastened at the back would guarantee me a painful drive. “Are you looking forward to returning home,” she randomly asked, adding dozens of golden butterflies to my hair. My eye make up was a gold and kohl-black shimmer, hardly recognisable in the mirror. “I am,” I replied with a smile. Home to F
I looked at her on purpose. /Course you did/ Alba scoffed as I tried to convince him for the hundredth time on the drive home that I know what I’m doing. I’d fallen asleep almost immediately after leaving Foxton, no surprise after an entire night on the balcony. Rhett said nothing, perhaps he knew why I looked like shit, from sitting out in every form of weather waiting for those two precious minutes with her. /Worth it/ Alba growled contentedly and I smiled to myself. Her beautiful face, the way it tilted up towards me with so much trust and adoration. The way just grabbing her to me made a little desperate pant escape and a blush rise to her cheeks. Fuck. Time to focus. Not that I’d managed to do that when it became time to leave. When Luna Gwyneth came in for the flirty farewell I had to look across, even though Kate looked nothing like herself. She looked like a fucking candlestick to be honest, trussed up in all that silk and gold. But it was still Kate. Underneath the s
###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