Ashly's POV"You are leaving?"I was arranging my clothes in my box unsure of what to take and what to leave or if I should even take anything at all when I heard Shaun's voice. I turned to see him at the door, his expression frozen as he watched me, his eyes lingering on my half-packed bag. I tried to summon up a smile but it felt a little bit stiff and unnatural on my lips even when I licked my lips and attempted to speak again. "Dorian spared my life but I can't stay here."For a moment he didn't say anything, he just stood there then an emotion I could identify finally showed across his face. Anger. So much anger that I knew as he turned he was going to meet Dorian to pick a fight with him. I stood up in a rush going over to him as quickly as I could, stopping him before he could do that."Shaun, wait!"I wrapped my hand around his arm keeping him in place and his warm brown eyes fixed on me. I had never seen so much pain in those brown depths before and it made my heart lu
Keturah's POVAfter my meeting with Ashly. I couldn't believe how that nobody was questioning me. She should have felt grateful that I had even soared some of my time to see her. That was only because of the plans that I had for her. Once I was done with that, I would rip her open and show her what happened to those who stood against me. For now, I had something more important to attend to. The Lycan council members. They had responded to my carefully wired summons as I had expected them to and I went to join them for the meeting in my territory.I couldn't take the chance that we would be overheard. Being overheard meant certain death. As a minimal sentence. "Why have you called this meeting?" Garrett asked. He was the head of the council and easily the most outspoken. His opinions often reflected that of the entire group. If I could gmget hum to see things from my side then getting the others to agree would be a walk in the park. I went straight to the point."King Damien has
Kiara's POVThere was something so intrinsically special about waking up to your mate. It set the mood for the entire day and when you'd been waking up to your mate for days, life felt extraordinarily perfect.I kissed Damien's chest. "Hello, mate."His arms around me wrapped tighter."Hello to you too mate."He ran his fingers through my hair and I decided that was my favourite feeling in the world. The soothing touch of him. He kissed the top of my head. "You are beautiful."I giggled into his chest feeling so good at his words even if I knew that he had not seen my face before speaking. Instead of calling him out on teasing me, I nestled my head into his chest blushing. "And you are handsome."His broad expansive chest moved with unheard laughter. This was bliss. I could stay like this forever. Stay with him forever. "We are so cute." I whispered against his chest and he hummed, his body vibrating as he turned with me in his arms. He yawned, and then he kissed the side of my
Kiara's POVAfter breakfast, we went back to our room - Godddess it felt so nice to say that, not mine, ours- we took our time continuing where we had left off after Keturah intruded. It was passionate, hard and everything I could have asked for. As I dressed up for the second time that day because I needed to learn how to keep my clothes on in front of Damien, he sprawled on the bed watching me unashamedly. "You need to be presented to the court and council."I paused midway lacing up my front corset that did fantastic things to my boobs. Just because I was putting on my clothes didn't mean I wanted them to stay on. My mind was whirling. I was a werewolf and the council members had no doubt have been there for ages. What if they still carried the rivalry between werewolves and Lycans in their minds? Would they ever truly accept me that way?I looked at Damien."Do you think they will like me?"He stood up from the bed unashamed, naked and proud. And he was all mine. I swooned for
Damien's POVFor a moment, I sat stunned by the audacity of my council. How could they presume to tell me what to do?How dare they tell me to change Kiara? That was a decision that I would make on my own at her discretion and not theirs."Who do you think you are to make that demand?" I growled and the entire table fell silent. I knew that Kiara would never agree and this would end up being another sore point between us. I recalled the last few days of bliss before that assassin had come to ruin everything. I would fix that in due time but the past few days had to have been the best in my life. It had just been Kiara and me before the world intruded. I didn't want to lose the peace and stability we had attained in that time and if the council wanted to stand against me then I would show them why I was the King and they were the council. Garrett spoke up and I was surprised because he had always been so level headed in the last. I wondered what had changed since then. "The counc
Dorian's POVI couldn't believe that Ashly just threw herself in the line of fire for me. I had been so sure that she had found her way out if the room, the moment that things had done south. And now she was going to die for it if Damien had any say in the matter. I watched Ashly sway almost lifelessly in Damien's arms as her struggles finally ceased. I had told Kiara that I would never forgive Keturah he'll, I had told her as well but as I watched Damien strangle her for attempting to save me, I knew that I would never live with myself if I allowed this to happen. Damien dropped her to the ground and I noticed her chest lift and come down again. She was still alive. I just had to keep her that way. Damien moved and I knew that he was going for the kill. I stepped in front of him. "Stop!"Damien stopped but not because of my words, I think I had shocked him by choosing to save Keturah's life after what she had done to me. I was a little shocked myself. "Why do you want to spare
Ashly's POVWhen I opened my eyes, I was in the pack infirmary and Shaun was in the chair next to me, his face, a picture of worry and my traitorous heart skipped a beat. His brown eyes met mine and I saw relief bloom in them. "Hey." My voice was a croak, my throat still hurting from where Damien held me and my back and side hurt. He must have hit me there and or dropped me from such a height that it still hurt even now. "Hey." Shaun replied with a small smile on his face that had no right to make him look so handsome. As I tried to sit up somewhat, his arms wrapped around me and after he assisted me in sitting up, his arms lingered as he pulled me into a watkrm embrace, his head nestled in my neck. "Shaun." I breathed and his arms around me tightened but he seemed to know where my injuries were so he did it in such a way that he didn't aggravate my injuries.I took in his scent feeling unusually safe in his hold and basking in it. When he pulled away, he didn't move away full
Damien"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked Kiara who was now looking away sheepishly refusing to meet my gaze. How could Keturah have tried poisoning her and I was only just getting to know about it?I thought back to when I had thanked her for looking after Kiara in my abscence. I noticed that the atmosphere between her and Kiara had been tense but this was the last thing I had been expecting. Poison?I gripped Kiara's arm forcibly keeping her attention on me. "Kiara, I am asking you a question.""You want to know why? Fine I'll tell you."Kiara's face tightened and shr pulled herself out of my hold. "Because I didn't want you to blow this out of proportion like you usually do every single issue!"What was she even saying? She had kept the truth to herself about something as important as this simply because she wanted to stop me from over reacting? Was finding out about my mate being poisoned not a reason to get angry? To react? I wasn't over reacting. I was reacting plain and simpl
Kiara's POVYEARS LATER"You need to let me up." I told my mate that was looking way too comfortable pinning me down. With the training I had now and my Lycan strength, I could easily flip him and keep him that way but he didn't seem bothered. In fact, he seemed amused. "Do I?"I wriggled beneath him but his legs were stable beside me and I feared that he was enjoying this position too much to remember we had an event to get to. An important one. "We need to get going. We can't be late."Damien ignored me of course as he pushed his fingers up my dressing robe leaving me sucking in a harsh breath.Sensing my reluctance to stop things before they got too far, he spread my legs wide exposing me to him. Fuck. How was this so hot? Any thought that I had of going anywhere evaporated as my thoughts condensed to Damien and his unbelievably erotic touch. He pressed his fingers against my slick arousal making me to shiver. I was so turned.I could hear the smirk in his voice as he respo
Kiara's POVI hoped that I was just freaking out prematurely.I hoped that whatever he had to say wouldn't be something that could break us. Hule seemed almost as hesitant to speak as I was to hear what had to say. "I am used to being the smartest, strongest and most important person in the room. I forgot that I am not presiding over a set of people but in a relationship where I can't just make decisions for you."Oh Goddess, was I hearing wrong or was Damien actually apologising? Today was trully full of unending surprises. "Damien."He held my hands in his much larger ones and traced distracting circles across my skin with his thumb."I'm sorry. I shouldn't have agreed to change you without your permission. I'm sorry about that, sorry for hurting you, sorry for waiting this long to come for you.My heart was a gooey mess at this point and I didn't know what he said as tears of happiness traced down my face as he kissed the back of my hands. But he wasn't nearly done turning my h
Kiara's POVThe moment that she pulled me to herself and I met Damien's eyes, I knew that I wasn't going to be the reason she got away this time. That I wasnt going to get kidnapped this time and force Damien to make an impossible agreement to get me out of a situation that I put myself in. I moved and the knife sunk into me like my skin was butter and a scream escaped me as I went down. The pain was complete and it held me trussed up tight until I couldn't tell where was up and where was down. I clutched my belly putting pressure on the wound but the knife had gotten too deep and all I could do was feel my blood seep through staining my hand. Dorian was at my side in seconds while I watched Damien go after Ashly with a heavy heart. I would have preferred him next to me but with my blood pouring out of me and the she pain cutting through me, I could gave cared less who was saving me. Dorian lifted me as delicate as he could but it still sent pain tearing through me and as he sa
Damien's POVI was angry but then these days, I was angry all the time. I was angry at the fact that a werewolf that I should have had killed had me by the balls literally and that it had been one of my people that had spearheaded this. It was so fucking annoying that it pissed me off.My anger had almost blinded in me in those early days that I was grateful for Dorian being around. Despite him being the pain in the ass that I had considered him to be, he had a surprising amount of insights to give as regards how to properly manage my affairs. That first day, I had wanted nothing more than to go charging in to rescue Kiara but Dorian stayed my hand. He warned me that no matter how much stronger lycans were compared to wolves, one thing remained the same, a man couldn't go off to fight his enemies when his own home was in disarray. I was glad I took his advice because shortly after, some Lycan communities began wearing with each other when the information that Keturah had been be
Kiara's POVThe more time that passed the least likely it seemed that this was all an elaborate hoax by Damien to get Ashly distracted. I noticed the buzz in the pack and I had no idea the lie Ashly had spun to make the pack members okay with the fact that she was cheating on their Alpha but it must have been a really good one because they seemed completely fine with it. It wasn't until I overheard two of the guards' conversation about how brave she was for agreeing to get mated to Damien to make up for their Alpha that had absconded from a death duel. So that was how she had spun it. Despite the fact that it was because if her that he had been unable to get to the fuel, she was using it to her advantage. Days were counting down to Ashly's mating with Damien but it was as though I was in some cocoon that was outside of time. I was losing my mind. There was no actual news that could interest me apart from knowing the truth if what was going on. I didn't know what day it was only
Kiara's POVI was more than surprised when Kiara summoned me to her office. Surprised and disturbed. The last time I had seen her was three days ago when she killed Keturah and hunted me down as I ran away. I had no doubts that whatever this meeting was for, it wasn't for anything good. The guard escorting me stayed outside while I entered the office and Ashly looked surprisingly calmer than the last time I had seen her. I didn't know if it was just in my head though. She looked at me from head to toe and looked satisfied with what she saw. "How do you feel now?"How did I feel about my injury that had just finished reading on it's own without any attention from the healer which could have led to silver poisoning?Wonderful. I was feeling absolutely wonderful. But I didn't say that of course. I wasn't half as strong as Keturah had been and I rather liked my head where it was. Ashly's friendly tone died a quick death. "I understand that you are nervous. You should be," Her ruth
Kiara's POVShaun was dead and I didn't know a thing I could have done to prevent it. Keturah had come for me and I was ashamed to admit that I had been scared. Scared after she smiled at me maliciously and had me held down while she took my blood and a section of my hair was noticeably smaller than the rest if it. She wanted to use me to bait Damien but I.saw that she had gotten way too much satisfaction from what she did.She would hurt me just for the fun of it. She wanted to hurt me just for the fun of it if I would but give her the excuse. Hearing her approaching footsteps along side a shuffling one awoke fear inside me and told me that it was possible she was back for more.She unlocked the door gesturing for me to come out of the cell with that same mocking smile that said she was just waiting for me to resist her so that she would break me. I stepped out unwilling to give her that chance only for me to see Shaun barely on his feet as he bled from what had to be at least a
Keturah's POVI was suspicious. Before recruiting Ashly, I knew of her predilection to be a traitor and it didn't bother me not when I planned to use her and dispose of her as soon as possible. But now that she had gone out of her way to help me when I was.certain she was like me only counting the hours until our alliance fell apart. Leaving the dungeons after acquiring the blood and lock of hair that had somehow quelled my blog odlust with regards to Kiara, I had gotten a whiff of Ashly. I had felt doubly suspicious. I was certain that she would go into the dungeons to sabotage me in some way so I left and doubled back after dropping off my possessions. That was when I overheard her telling that wolf that always hung around Dorian to warn Damien.. Smart. So that was what she planned. Selling me out to Damien to keep her hide. It was a good idea. If I had not gotten to overhear this it might have even worked. But now…I heard the wolf speak again, his voice intense with a quie
Ashly's POVMy chest hurt. Maybe it was because Shaun had betrayed me. It maybe it was because I knew I was deserving of such a betrayal since I had betrayed him first. The guards hauled him away and I turned to leave only for Kiara's sharp judgemental voice to pull me to a stop. "What are you doing, Ashly?"What did she think I was doing? Playing? Kiara always asked the wrong and dumbest questions.I continued walking and she raised her voice so high that the guards escorting Shaun away would no doubt catch a hint of her hefty words on the air. "You care about him yet you would do this?"Do what? I found to face her as she finally hit me where it hurt. Where I had already been sensitive about to begin with. She was no one to judge me. She had grown up surrounded by the best of everything. She got chosen to be the most of Dorian out of all the other eligible she wolves because of the incidence of her birth. The only unlucky stint she had was when Dorian had rejected her and once