With Zaw steadfastly remaining outside my room the entire time I was trapped. I tried the windows, they were locked. There was no balcony. The bathroom had no window to open and to break the glass would have alerted the bald psychopath in the hallway. In vain I even stacked chairs onto the bed and tried the ceiling. Diamonds rained down from my hair as I tried to find any kind of access but it was a solid box of a room. I sadly watched the ceremony preparations and as the sun slowly descended so did hope. I took out the map from my bodice, even when folded it was the size of my palm and as thick as it was due to the heavy paper. I placed it inside my shoe, under the arch of my foot. Who knows, maybe I could pretend to lose my mind and throw it at Dex during the ceremony before my throat is slit. I’m getting desperate. Partly because I have the answers to stop Dex making a terrible mistake, opening himself to harm and betrayal from his peers. More than that, I am desperate for hi
I spun around the instant I heard her voice. /What was that?/ Alba demanded, every fibre of my body tensed./ What did she say?/ I knew she was seated somewhere behind me, her gaze scorched into me the instant I hesitantly set foot down the aisle. /For the pack, for the whole fucking shifter nation/ Alba had muttered over and over. Each footstep felt like it was just one closer to the gallows. Yet the instant Alba heard her delicate voice he abandoned every plan and spun us around to find her. My eyes met hers and it was too much. Hers shone with fearful emotion, her dress the colour of an immaculate sky, twinkling under the torchlight. “Please,” she added softly as Austin sought to grab her wrist but she evaded him with a twist. Standing defiantly upright, staring directly at me as the crowd started to whisper. When Zaw stood up I saw the flash of his knife and lost my control. “Get your hands off her!” Alpha Austin rose up, and suddenly Kate was enclosed by the two brutes again
I saw it all. Every second of Kate’s triumph. When I finally woke up from the sedative the doctor had already gone. I remembered everything though. There was no point hanging around, for what medicine on earth could she offer me to remove the guilt that suffocated me.In my drunken, petty, spiteful desperation I had offered Felix as a tribute. So Dex would hold and caress me, his skin on mine. Yet this whole time I mistook the demon for my ally. He never once cared about my happiness.So yes Dex held me, cuddled me close to him. I felt his warmth and inhaled that bonfire scent straight from the centre of his chest. Hell, I even felt his pulse beating against my cheek. But it was for nothing.I had offered Felix as tribute. Berlarot, in his twisted mockery, had taken his child.That is the summary. The only conclusion that can be made. I had no idea I was even pregnant.The price I had paid for my foolish ego boost was too devastating to even start thinking fully about. Staggering bac
When the mate bond clicked it felt like a huge, searing spotlight had turned on. My reality switched into a sharper focus, all I can see is Dex. All my head, heart, soul and body want is in front of me. The fact he had already asked me to be his Luna before the bond meant everything.Knowing our wolves were meant to be as well as each other, I'm just soaring. Since he swooped down to me on the balcony…I can't describe it but it's like we were always going to end up here. As long as I kept my heart going for him. Here we are. We stopped walking to the packhouse, Dex swirling me around to him in a circle as I laughed. "Mate," he growled again, yanking me into his arms. This time his hands weren't trying to console me or quell my fear.They were hungrier, needier as his kisses grew firmer, his hands on my ass and upper back. "I have so much to tell you," I breathed, "I don't want to keep any secrets," but he kept clamping his mouth to mine, muffling my words. I could feel his sly, sex
I exclaimed in surprise, “Dex no, I’m yours. I was yours months ago. I just couldn’t admit it to myself” before losing my words in another deep, hungry kiss. Our tongues entwined, as our wolves connected. There was something deep within him that I didn’t know about, there was loss in him. I sensed the heaviness as the sliding pieces of our souls began to align. It only made me love him more. Pain, just as there was in my history. Perhaps we were more perfectly matched than I thought.Even so , these deep thoughts soon evaporated under the influence of his bonfire scent and tingling touch. My mind fizzed with excitement as I slowly hitched my thigh against Dex’s hip, opening myself up for him. When he grabbed his cock and guided it to my entrance I let out a little moan of need.The head of his shaft was immediately soaked in my juices. I wanted him so badly I was almost mewling in pain at him moving his length away. I craved the sensation so badly it made me whine in his huge arms.
He sat up as I flung the material from my body, feeling the rough patches in panic. /Shit that's blood, it’s definitely blood/ Raya confirms as I take a step backwards.“Kate, come listen for a second,” Dex urged, pulling himself up to sit as I ran my hands through my hair. I couldn’t sit, how could I dive back into his arms and bed now with my best friend's blood on his clothes?/He hasn’t cheated, he wouldn’t,/ Raya argued, /but has he hurt her? Our sister?/“Dex what’s happened, I need to know.”He stood up from the bed grabbing a pair of grey sweatpants. He came towards me with his white shirt, the one from the ceremony a few hours ago and wrapped it around my shoulders.“Come back to bed, let me explain,” he said, softly taking the shirt from my hands. “I’m not fragile, I just need telling now,” I replied firmly. Stood in the middle of the darkened room, only the lingering light of the full moon to see with which he sighed and put his hands on his hips.“Rosie took a bad blow in
It feels like a completely fresh start. It sounds cheesy but this is my chance to get everything right. Waking up with Kate in my bed for example, just as it should have been months ago. It isn’t one of those awful dreams where I imagine her there, only to touch her bare shoulder and wake up with a thump. She’s here, perfectly messy, rumpled, maybe even snoring a little bit.I nuzzle my nose into the back of her and plant soft kisses along the nape of her neck, down her spine. Mate. Alba is still reeling, though the pieces are all connected and the bond already secured. My mark tingles, healed but now a sensitive spot of skin, in between two twisting tattooed ropes. Under my fingers the small raised edges where her mouth took my flesh hums with sensation. I wonder what Kate feels like as I slowly guide my fingers up and over her shoulder towards her collarbone. With the brightness of morning filtering in I can see the room is a mess. Her blue dress is scattered on the floor, trous
The dining room quietened as we walked in, clearly we were a hot topic of conversation. Drama for generations.“Good morning everyone, apologies for keeping you waiting but as you might be able to tell…I found my mate,” and kissed Kate’s hand. A happy murmur went up in the room. Luna Madeline was the first to offer her congratulations, getting up from her chair, walking stiffly in her black ruffled dress to squeeze Kate’s hand and whisper something in her ear. She blushed and kept hold of Luna Madeline’s hand. She gave me a kiss on the cheek and whispered “your girl did amazing with that map. So brave..”I nodded, proud that she had found the courage to take such a risk. Over mindlink last night as she slept in my arms I was briefed about how she had given it to Alpha Frank. Knowing that even if I had rejected her, or Austin harmed her the information would still be out there and have stopped my murder, if not the wedding. I owe her so much.Alpha Frank followed next, slapping my sho
###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