AVAWe scoured the rogue camp for what felt like hours, and all we found out is that there must have been five of them and that they hadn’t been gone long.Once we were all back at the pack house, the Kings and I opted to have a quiet dinner by the lake instead of dealing with the chaos of the dining room.By the time we reached the lake, the team had put together a picnic for the five of us, complete with candles. We toasted to us before settling into the selection of goodies Paula had picked out for us. I could tell it was Paula from the sheer quantity of baked goods she included.Once we’d all eaten our fill, we relaxed on the shore, watching the stars over the lake. Theo and Noah sat on either side of me, their arms around the bottom of my back. Oscar and Callum sat off to the side, and I could clearly tell they were mindlinking each other.I glanced up at Noah, and saw that he and Theo were linking as well. I rolled my eyes, taking advantage of their distraction to get up, strip
Five days until the full moonAVAThe next morning, I was sitting in my Jacob’s office with Alex discussing border security. Or that had been the plan, anyway.Right up until we got word that someone vaguely resembling Matthew Stanley had been sighted not far outside our territory.Now we knew that, we were going after him instead.I’d put a mental block on my emotions, trying not to let my stress, anger and even really bloodlust bleed through to Callum and Oscar. This needed to be a stealth mission, with as few wolves involved as possible. The wolves best suited for the job were Alex and I, but I did not want to have to tell Callum and Oscar that their dad and mate were off on a stealth kidnapping mission.“Ava… I know you don’t want to, but we should tell Callum where you and Alex are off to.” Jacob’s voice was careful, controlled.“Do you really want to have to tell him that his mate and father are going off on a dangerous stealth mission to capture someone that we know is working
CALLUMSomething about this entire situation didn’t sit right with me.I leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing where we found the body, watching Ava look for anything that might help us work out what’s going on. She hadn’t been combing through the undergrowth long when Jacob and dad reached back out to us both through the mindlink.“Ava, Matthew is a twin. Identical.”I saw Ava’s mouth fall open at Jacob’s words.“He’s a twin? And Martha didn’t think to tell us this?”I was suddenly very glad that Ava’s power couldn’t truly affect me since we mated because if it still did, I’d have been forced to my knees from the weight of her anger.I walked towards her, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, bringing her in against my chest, my right hand stroking her hair. “You’re not on your own, Ava. I’m right here with you. We’ve got this.”AVAI’d love to know how exactly just being close to Callum can calm me down like that, but for now, it’s just a welcome mystery.I buried my f
NOAHI’m not too ‘macho’ to pretend that I didn’t freak out as soon as I heard that my twin could be in danger. It was common knowledge that he was the most sceptical out of our little five-way; he had always been the jealous sort.I shifted and sprinted out of the house towards the treehouse as soon as I got the message from Ava and Callum. I knew he wasn’t home with me, and that was the place that he would go if he wanted to be alone.Fortunately, he was there when I got there.“Theo, what’s going on, man?” I asked, voice low, calm.“I can’t do this, Noah,” he replied, his voice full of pain. “I can’t share her.”My heart broke for both Theo and Ava as he spoke. She had four fated mates, she’d never feel complete without Theo, and he’d never feel complete without her. “Theo… we can talk about this later, I promise, but for now, I need to get you to safety.”He looked up at me, eyes wide. “Why am I not safe?”I paused for a moment, wondering how honest I should be. I sighed. Honesty
NOAHTonight was the night.Tonight was the night that I would make Ava mine. I’d planned a romantic evening for us; we had a picnic, we were going to toast marshmallows over the fire, drink wine, and I was going to really try to pretend that Callum wasn’t watching us, even though I knew he would be. He took his job as Ava’s protector very seriously.I met her outside the pack house just before sunset, and we ran to the lake as our wolves. The picnic would be set up by the time we got there, and I’d packed spare clothes for both of us too.The smile on her face when we reached the lakeside made the strain of trying to pull this off worthwhile. She looked genuinely happy to be there with me; and that was all I needed to chase away any doubts I had.We shared fruit, chocolate and mini pastries as the sun set, all paired with a white wine that was apparently Ava’s favourite.She snuggled against me whilst we toasted marshmallows over an open fire, a content smile on her face.AVANoah r
CALLUMAva linking me asking for help sent a shiver down my spine, and definitely not a good one. Fortunately, Oscar and I were bunking together so we were close by in case Ava and Noah needed us, and it was apparently a good thing we did that.We sprinted through the packhouse towards the courtyard where we could hear the sounds of chaos. Right in the middle of the ring of curious wolves lay Noah and Ava. Noah was surrounded by dried mud and dirt, whilst Ava was surrounded by water and ice.“What on Earth…” I started, voice low.Ava rolled over and whimpered, her fingers dragging along the ground, leaving ice in their path.“Oscar, go to Noah, I’ve got Ava.”I sprinted to her side, dropping to my knees, wishing that I’d put more clothes on; the floor was bloody cold.“Ava,” I whispered. “I’m here, what do you need, little one?”She shivered again, shaking her head. “Can’t… can’t talk,” she replied, through the mindlink.“Okay, little one. You need to shift, okay?”She nodded slightl
Four days until the full moonAVAThe next morning, I needed to do something normal. Something that didn’t involve magic of any kind, or whatever threats might be trying to sneak up on me, and definitely not about the problems I was having with Theo.The solution? A 5am run with Alex and Jacob, of course.I knew Callum wouldn’t want to let me go on my own, but I managed to convince him to stay behind at the packhouse. Somehow.I wouldn’t go too far, so he’d be able to reach me within a couple minutes if it came to it. I also promised that I would keep my mindlink with him open so he could keep an eye on me.Artemis loved running. She always had and always would. With everything that was going on, we hadn’t really had a chance to stretch our legs in a while. I’d suddenly gone from nervous schoolgirl to assistant trainer with the Beta, to finding out that actually I could overpower even my Alpha because actually the legends I grew up on are true… and finally to where I am today, with th
AVAOf course, our bliss could only ever be short lived. We hadn’t even sat down for dinner yet when shit decided to hit the fan again.I was sitting in my office studying the old Lycan legends when the message came. Well, two messages.The first was from a team I sent to scout out the Eclipse Mountain pack. I knew what I was destined to do, but I didn’t really know what the situation actually was at the pack. Turns out… It was bad.The territory was being attacked by rogues most days, they were constantly attempting to push through the defences. No one was entirely sure why, but it was happening. The pack, my pack, had lost ten wolves in the last month, and another twenty seven were in hospital, critically wounded. Of the twenty seven wounded, six were children under the age of ten. Six.What absolute scumbag targets children?“Jacob, Alex,” I called through the mind link. “Can you both meet me in my office?”They were in Jacob’s office, so reached mine in less than a minute. When t