“I told you to keep your eyes down…” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the roof flew off the walls, sprinkling us with dirt and debris. Three long razer blade claws swiped down across my face. “Shit!” Luca screamed like a scared toddler than a big bad alpha. Ignoring the pain, I lunged at the creature. Too many times I battled these shifters. My claws dug into its stomach as it opened his jaw. The toxic saliva spraying all over my face as it gave one final scream before falling over. “Run!” I yelled and took off without waiting to see if he was behind me. The toxins were burning my vision. I needed to get to the water and flush this out. “You’re bleeding!” Luca caught me just as we reached a stream. “Listen…” dropping to my knees, scooping up the water and splashing my face. The cool water felt spicy and welcoming. “I’m going to pass out and probably hallucinate. You need to find somewhere and keep your fucking eyes down.” Everything started spinning. “Demi… love… I’m
Demi fell forward into my chest. Her breathing relaxed as a day walker stepped out from behind a tree. Every hair in my body tensed, but I swear it was the same one from before. He looked at Demi before looking at me with curious eyes. I didn’t sense any hostility, but my wolf was on edge. “Help me.” I wasn’t sure why I said that. I wasn’t even sure what I needed help with. He walked up to Demi, slowly. Turning her body, I let him see her face. As soon as the cuts were visible, he turned his face into anguish? It wasn’t mad at me. Thrashing his fist into the trees, he let out a screech that made me wince in pain. It was a screech I heard many times growing up. One that my grandma told me to always avoid looking for. It only meant one thing. The creature calmed down, but his breathing was heavy. Looking at my eyes, he looked behind him. As if asking me to follow him. I wasn’t sure what he wanted or if he wanted to harm us. However, my gut was telling me to follow him. Picking Demi
He looked over at a hole in the wall and then back at us. “He wants us to go in.” Demi whispered.I stood up first, holding my hand out for her. “Come on. Let’s see where this takes us.” Demi went first. The creature didn’t follow me through the hole. Instead, he drove back into the water and disappeared. “Luca…I…” If it wasn’t for our wolf’s vision, we would have to hold on to the walls to guide us. Grabbing her arm, I pulled her tightly against me. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he forced her head to look at me. “I love you, Demi Rose. Regardless of what we find.” My jaw clenched as I fought the urge to shut my mouth. This was foreign to me. I didn’t grow up expressing my feelings. When she said she felt like a business transaction, I was blown away. That is what I saw my dad and step-mom act like. Heath always told me that wasn’t how mates acted, but he wasn’t an alpha. I just assumed alphas had to be different. Looking intoDemi’s eyes it made me want to be different. “I’ll
Demi and I pressed ourselves against the wall. It was a good thing they weren’t paying attention as they ran into the darkness. We closed our eyes to keep ourselves hidden, so we didn’t see who passed us. “Stay quiet. We need to go.” I whispered in our mind-link. I could feel the anguish Demi was feeling. Whoever that woman and man were, could have been responsible for her parent’s death. We took one step into the lights and both of our jaws dropped. More creatures were being transformed, but in the daylight was more terrifying. There was a very large ladder against the far wall. “Start climbing. I’ll be right behind you.” Just as I said it, the woman let out the kind of scream that sent chills to your bones. “Go!” Demi nodded and took off as I looked at the bucket. The first time worked, so I didn’t even hesitate as I did it again. “Luca!” The man and woman stood in the entrance with their jaws on the floor. The only thing that separated us was the orange liquid spreading acros
Demi POV“A car…” I whispered. In unison, we took off running towards the sound. My heart was beating with adrenaline and the hope that we were finally out of the woods. Luca was quicker than me, breaking through the tree line moments before I did. My eyes looked just in time to see a large black SUV slam on its brakes, sending smoke in the air. Luca grabbed my arm, pulled me behind him. “Do you know them?” I whispered as the driver’s side door opened.“Luca?” I deep voice echoed across the road. It was a small road that I couldn’t remember ever being on. “Rook!” Luca sighed in relief. Leaning forward, he placed his hands on his knees, letting out a small laugh. Rook was just as tall as Luca. With shorts hanging off his hips, every inch of his torso was covered in tattoos. His ears had spacers in them, piercings all over his face and was solid muscle. There was a beautiful mark on his collarbone that told me he had found his mate. Three more men stepped out of the car and looked a
The woman smirked at me as she took a few steps forward. “Hello, I am Lilith, Rook’s mate. Welcome to our pack.” She motioned for me to follow her inside. “I have a room for you guys. I guessed at your size from what Heath and Heather told me. If I am wrong, let me know and I’ll get you the right size. Help yourself to whatever is in there as we keep it for this purpose.” We were going up two flights of stairs before she turned down the hall. “Thank you.” I whispered. “Take your time and shower. I will have supper brought to our office for you guys and we can have a private meeting.” Lilith looked behind me as Rook and Luca walked up. “You can have the doctor look at her there.” Luca raised an eyebrow at me, daring me to argue. “Yes, please have the doctor come just to tell you that my cuts are healing and he doesn’t need to do anything.” Rolling my eyes, I went to step inside but froze. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful…” I was stopped by Lilith’s laugh. “Girl, please
“What?” Rook pulled up a chair and sat down across from us.“Those fucking legends we were told…” Luca looked back at Rook with a look I couldn’t place. It was a little haunted and concerned. “…. all fucking true!” Rolling my eyes, I just sat up straighter. “First off, they are all true. Just some details are true. Honestly, if you learned to leave them alone and keep your eyes down…” Luca pressed brew and turned back towards me. “I’ll never know how you managed to survive.” He looked at Rook. “You guys look through the boxes?” Rook and Lilith sat up straight and nodded. “We did. Demi, this is my beta Zade and his mate Kasey.” Rook pointed to two people who turned their chairs around and scooted closer. They nodded as they were introduced but kept their mouths shut. Heather sat on the other end of the couch and Heath stayed standing. “I want you to talk to us like we don’t have an emotional stake in this. Tell us what you honestly think.” Luca was all business now. Lilith frowned
Only when the food was gone and half of the bourbon was gone did the conversation turn back to me. “I’ll get the press conference set up for tomorrow…” Heath’s phone rang. Pulling it out, he looked at it and handed it out to Luca. Luca accepted it and walked to the back of the office for as much privacy as possible. However, Rook kept talking to me. “… I know Luca and Heath have contacted your allies and got that ball moving. If you are okay with it, I will use my company and staff to start the clean up. Obviously, we will try to save as much as possible. Anything we can give back we will.”“Thank you. Can you just pile it up and burn it?” Rook and Lilith looked taken aback. “Burn it?” She glanced at Rook.“We burn our people when they die. Allow their ashes to become the earth. Why not do the same for the pack? I haven’t decided what I am going to do with the land, but it feels right. Burn it, let it become part of the forest.” Rook looked impressed. “That actually makes a lot of s
Everyone clapped and went back to their conversations as the servers brought out food for the buffet style. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it smelled like a BBQ. “Do you want to get some food?” Luca leaned down and whispered in my ear. Amelia and Veronica had already taken off for the food. “Sure.” I wasn’t sure how hungry I actually was. However, the bourbon was making my face feel hot, so I might not be a bad idea to get some food in there. We got in line behind a couple that was being extremely touchy. Not that I minded it, but it almost felt like Luca and I were not acting like mates. He had her blonde curly hair messed up with loves bites down her arm. His hair was too short for her nails to really change the look. However, his collar had a few red lipstick smears on it. Losing her balance, she stepped back and bumped into me. “Oh! I’m so-” Her eyes got wide she they realized who we were. “Luca!” A wide smile spread across his face. Instantly dropping his mate, he he
There was a knock on the bedroom door. “That would be the men.” Nora smiled as she walked towards the door. I had just finished putting on my jewelry when Luca walked in. He looked me up and down before he slipped his hands around my waist. “So beautiful.” He whispered before he kissed me. “Don’t ruin her makeup!” Nora yelled at us. “I’ll do what I want,” Luca growled at her, but he let me go. He looked at me in the eyes. “Are you okay to go down there?” “She has had a lot of liquid courage.” Amelia came over and handed me my glass. Luca raised an eyebrow at me. “Started without me?” He took my glass and downed half of it. “Rude.” Amelia took the glass from Luca and emptied what was left of the bottle into my glass. “Ready?” Rook was waiting for us. “Yeah, I’m good.” Nora pinned the front part of my hair behind my ears, allowing the diamonds to really shine with my necklace. “Oh, I forgot to tell you. Chase ended up coming tonight with Alpha Dylan and Luna Callie.” Rook looke
“I have popcorn and bourbon!” Amelia held them up. “I just came for a good time.” Peggy shrugged. “Ditto.” Nora was putting on a movie. “I grabbed the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. We can watch it and smoke.” They were all wearing the same lounge set as I was, just different colors. “How very nice of you all.” I couldn’t help but smirk as I sat down. They moved the chairs and pillows near the balcony and had the doors open. The cool rain air was refreshing as Veronica handed me a cigar. “Here is your cake and bowl of popcorn.” Peppy pushed it towards me. “The most important part… bourbon.” Amelia handed me a tall glass, completely filled. No one spoke of the packhouse or questioned me about how I felt. Instead, they focused on smoking, eating and drinking. If this isn’t how a group of friends is supposed to cheer you up, do you even have a group of friends? The door flew open. “I’m sorry I’m late!” Lilith looked devilish as she ran in. Carrying a large bowl, she almost tripped over
I wasn’t even sure what to say to her. Heath put his hand on her shoulder and she instantly followed him out to the car. Luca didn’t try to touch me. Instead, he just stood beside me, letting me work through my emotions. “This is now a historic landmark and we won’t be able to rebuild on it.” I wasn’t sure why I said that, but it was true. Even if I wanted to, there is no way to make sure the rest of the ground is safe without thorough examinations. That might take years to complete. What was once a private territory for wolves could turn into a tourist attraction. “We would have to know where this comes out of and where it starts. Whatever you did find, it could come out down there.” “Or have sunken to the bottom to be gone forever.” Luca nodded. “It could be. Demi, I had to pull you out when I did or we would have both ended up in the river.” I wasn’t sure why I was mad at him for that. Logically, I knew he was right. I knew he saved my life. Only, my heart didn’t understand. M
“This is straight bourbon.” I had to cough a few times since I wasn’t prepared for that.Luca laughed and took it from me. “She did tell you it would keep you warm.” He took a long swig from it before he handed it back. “Let’s climb down and see if we see anything in there.” “Seriously?” I was shocked. Taking my own drink, I tightened the cap back on and set it down. “Let’s go!” Luca wrapped his arm around my waist, keeping me from running away. “Listen here.” He muttered. “You need to be safe and not go all Indiana Jones on me when we get in there.” “Indiana Jones? If I had a whip, I’d whip you for saying that.” “I know that.” Luca rolled his eyes. “I meant that if there is treasure, you need to be smart about this.” “Yeah, yeah. I heard you.” Luca let my waist go and walked beside me as we came up to the crane. I watched as Luca went up to the operator and spoke with him for a second. The crane operator nodded, and Luca stepped back. As Luca walked back to me, the crane moved
“I like it.” Amelia nodded and pointed her fork at me. “That’s the spirit.” “That’s the spirit?” Nora looked at Amelia like she grew three heads. “Don’t you think she should be laying low and seeing how things unfold?” Amelia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that is what a weak alpha would do. She is a female alpha. The only one in this world today. If she doesn’t make a statement, then what? Plus, this isn’t about popularity. This is about getting even. Are you going to tell me that you would roll over if your family was killed?” She raised her eyebrow at Nora. “That is what makes her an alpha and you a luna.” Nora didn’t appreciate that comment. She sat up straight and looked at Jared. “What I think Nora is meaning is that she just wants Demi to be happy.” It was Veronica’s turn to look at Nora. “Demi won’t be happy until she finds out the truth. Just like everyone else here. If this would have happened to any of us, we would be doing the same thing. Laying down and being happy is for pe
She wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t have a response to that. Instead, we fell into an understood silence as they kept working. Jared ended up joining us. Nodding his head towards me, he stayed on the other side of the group. The entire morning was just me standing there as they removed piece by piece. The mist became heavier at one point and all that was left were Luca and myself. We were completely drenched, but I didn’t care. Luca didn’t complain once as the water dripped down his chin, landing on every single muscle showing through his shirt. If I wasn’t torn up, watching the place I grew up with being burned, I would have been turned on. “It’s still watching us.” Luca finally muttered as lunch time was approaching. “Probably will all day. This is new and a change to their environment.” “Demi? Luca?” Peggy walked up to us. Her hair was stuck to her face, telling me she hadn’t went in any shelter that was placed up. “You are soaked.” I commented before turning back to my home. She
“Aren’t you going to stop her?” Heather whispered as I shut the door on them. I didn’t hear what Luca had to say to her. “What are you doing?” He asked, slightly curious. “I saw movement. What if it’s that creature again? We should name him.” “Name him? He isn’t our pet, Demi.” Part of me wanted to slap him through the mind-link, but I wasn’t sure how. “Are we going to just call him the creature? There are a lot of creatures out here. No one even attacks at night. All the more reason to think it was them who took my pack down.” Luca didn’t respond right away. “Freddy.” “Freddy? Like Freddy Krueger?” I crept along any open path. It didn’t look like anything had been disturbed but something was in the trees behind it. “Just because he comes out at night?” “I mean… it fits. See anything?” Luca seemed rather calm. “Something is in the trees, but it isn’t coming out. It doesn’t want me here.” That sent warning bells to Luca. “Maybe come back now?” “I’m assuming Heather is freakin
“Good to know I have that much power over you.” Kissing him hard one last time, I pushed him back.“Maybe we can sneak away and have more fun in the woods?” Luca rolled his eyes, but walked out of the bathroom as he adjusted himself. “I’m learning more and more about your kinky desires.” “What are yours?” I asked as he slipped on his shoes. Luca smirked as he looked up. “We are installing a pole in our bedroom.” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks as my tongue pushed against it. “I guess I’ll need some outfits…” “Love, you can have whatever you want.” Luca stood up and walked towards the door. “Ready?” “Ready for business Luca and not playful Luca…. never.” Luca rolled his eyes, but I felt the humor in him. As I passed him, he squeezed my ass. “Just remember all the fun things I’ll do to you. Do you really want me to do that in front of someone?” He whispered behind me. Wanting to call his bluff, I turned and looked at me. “Maybe I do.” Crossing my hands, I knew my boobs pushed