AURELIA~~“I can't do that.” I blurted before I could think about what effect my words would have on everyone in the room. And by everyone, I mean, Susanna, Seth, Andrew, Otis, and Benji who were officially announced as the Alpha of Moon Stone Pack yesterday evening after the funeral his people had in honor of their dead, Jeremy, Tamia, Lori, and, of course, Raiden —a man I have been aching to have within me for the past two days and nights. “Why not?” Jeremy asked me with respect but a hint of mockery.As an elder, he has been careful around me ever since Tamia made me the leader of the white wolves, a position with authority that I don't get to use often because I was still training to become a better leader. Perhaps I should rewind a little. Earlier this morning, Raiden came to the apartment to pick me up for an impromptu meeting he scheduled with the white wolves. Raiden has been sleeping in his office for the past two nights because he and I could be in the same room and
ALPHA RAIDEN~~Constantly, she willingly put her own life at risk. For goodness sake, she was a wolf not a cat with nine fucking lives. “Do I ever get a say in these crazy decisions that you make? You throw yourself under the bus, drain yourself and barely take care of yourself. What's wrong with you, Aurelia?” Was I angry? Hell yes! But was I more terrified than angry? Hell yes! The thought of her burning out like Tamia had warned her repeatedly scared me. The thought of losing her made my heart ache and she didn't seem to care about her life. “The twins need you. I need you. The pack needs you. Heck, the entire realm needs you to stay strong and alive.”Aurelia stood still, close to the but where she had been training tirelessly. She didn't react to my outburst. It was unlike her not to have a comeback especially when I doubted her decisions. She always had something to say.Until now. My will to make her hear me out this time faded when she saw her face… her eyes were shin
AURELIA~~I would recognize that betrayer anywhere. Although she looked a lot less like her pretty self and she had cut her hair, I recognized her immediately. Although she masked her scent, I perceived her fakeness from miles away. “How dare you show your face in my Pack!” I seethed, seeing nothing but red and that bitch’s face. This was the first time I would publicly call Dark Moon Pack ‘My pack’ but I couldn’t celebrate that milestone because I was seeing the face of a woman who I once trusted with everything, including my kids. “I knew you wouldn’t die like that. I knew you were alive.” Her voice which used to make me feel loved once, irritated me as I closed the distance between us both. I could see her fake tears brimming in the hazel eyes that I used to love as she asked, “Please tell me Katie and Kyle are fine as well. News has it that you all died in an accident and–” I reached the bitch before she could finish her fake ass sympathetic statement. My balled fist sma
LARISA’S POV ~~“Why are we still not attacking Dark Moon Pack?” I asked as I sat down on my throne. The pack elders were standing on one side and the most influential warriors were also in the hall, all looking at their toes. “Will someone please answer my question?” I asked firmly after about two minutes of silence from people I knew had been meeting every day for the past week. They have been meeting in secret.Most likely plotting against me.Louis stepped up to speak, “We haven’t been able to penetrate their border, Luna. We tried to send spies into the pack but they never made it past the borders even though Alpha Raiden has been allowing people from other packs into his pack.”I didn’t care about spies or cheap information that Louis believed we needed before we attacked Raiden’s pack. We were wasting precious time and the baby in my womb wouldn’t last forever before it wither away like a dead plant.I was at my peak, for goddess’s sake. Slowly, I muttered, “Didn’t you se
AURELIA~~My hands shake visibly over the small white fabric I had laid on the floor of the purifying hut where I have been since Jeremy and I stopped training earlier this morning. Jeremy believed that training with him in the morning and on the training ground while other warriors were training would be better and while he had shown me what he could do, I haven’t been able to empower any warrior… not even one. And usually, when I’m done with Jeremy, I come straight to the purifying hut to train with Lori but for some reason, she wasn’t here when I got here over an hour ago. I was alone. And that gave me the chance to try out my experiment. I found a fly outside the hut and decided to use it for my experiment. With one finger, I killed it carefully so as not to make the process of restoring its life harder than it already was.I placed the fly on a white fabric and sat with it, my hands over it as I connected with the energy from the lake. But after minutes of nothing, I kne
AURELIA~~Phoebe just happened to be the healer I found in Hazel’s cell.“I’m sorry you got dragged into her mess.” I apologized to Phoebe who still knelt beside Hazel, her hand over her chest. Rather than wave me off as I expected, Phobe exclaimed, “Thank Goddess you are here. I need your help.”The urgency in Phoebe’s voice had me rushing into Hazel’s cell and kneeling beside her. “What do you need?” I asked Phoebe. “She stabbed herself in the chest with her cutlery. She punctured her lungs and I have been trying to keep blood out of it but I also need to fix her lungs which I can’t do here. We need to get her to the hospital.” Phoebe announced professionally. “Does that mean she needs surgery?” I asked, understanding the concept.“Yes,” Phoebe answered. “I can’t do that here and not alone.” “What do you need me to do?” I asked Phoebe, avoiding Hazel’s gaze even though they were fixed on me. Phoebe looked away from me as she said, “You can’t help. We need a car to transport
ALPHA RAIDEN~~“I have to give her a befitting burial,” Aurelia uttered to everyone in the living room.She sounded unsure yet stubborn. And as much as I considered bursting the sad bubble Aurelia had built around herself since Hazel dropped dead before her yesterday, I let her live in the moment. However, Susanna who had been with Aurelia since yesterday, trying to console her because she claimed she had just lost a friend, scolded, “What’s befitting if not throwing her out of the pack? I–” “Susanna!” Aurelia scolded loudly. But Susanna shrugged, “I’m done babying you, Aurelia. Yes, she died but she’s the same person who stabbed you in the back. You have been–” “She was my friend–” Otis took over from Susanna when he countered, “From what I know, she wasn’t your friend. She was spying on you.”Aurelia’s face turned red. She was livid, “Why are you so…” She couldn’t come up with the right words so she gritted with balled fists, “Argh!”To be honest, I would have told her the
AURELIA~~The reality was sinking in. The truth was sinking in real fast and with Hazel’s death, I now know for a fact that I was a failure. I have failed and I would still fail. I knew that now.No matter how hard I try, I will never live up to my mother’s legacy or uphold my father’s. I would be a disgrace… a complete failure–“Will you please snap out of it? This isn’t helping us in any way.” Inara scolded me just like Susanna and everyone else. They all expect me to be okay with the fact that I failed to save Hazel yesterday. How could I be okay? “No one is expecting you to be okay, Relia. I hate Hazel but I also don’t wish her death but she got what she deserved. The bitch stabbed herself in the chest so why are you beating yourself for a death she brought upon herself?” Inara screamed at me as I entered the bedroom. I shook my head, wiping the stream of tears on my face, “That’s not it, Ina. I’m not mad about Hazel’s death. I’m mad at myself because I failed to save her
AURELIA~~I knew I screamed. I felt my lips parting and my lungs pushing out air as my mouth widened. I knew I screamed but I heard nothing. The world went still while Raiden kept falling. Faster than my brain could register. Faster than my body could react. Although I was still standing, I fell with him. Although my eyes were still open, they closed the second his eyes did. I saw the same darkness he saw when he closed his eyes. I felt the same pain he felt when his heart was engulfed by a strong force and maybe I screamed because I knew there would be no going back as that force crushed his heart before I could even blink. “No!” Inara’s cry burst through my crushed soul as she exclaimed, “Do something, Relia.” But what could I have done? After draining Larisa as my wolf suggested, I didn’t expect any sudden movement from her. Heck, she was as good as dead and when Louis screamed those warning words, I was too tired to react quickly. Converting Larisa’s dark energy to pur
ALPHA RAIDEN~~It took seeing Larisa and Aurelia in a fight for me to realize that I was wrong to assume that I could take down Larisa just because I was the most powerful Alpha in the realm… Physical strength was no use against Larisa because she had soaked my soul in dark energy. She wasn’t even touching me and I was feeling pain despite floating in the air like gravity had decided to take a break.Sadly I realized that I was of no use in this war. In fact, I was merely a weak link that Larisa wanted to use to defeat Aurelia and have her way in the realm. I was trying so hard not to scream and came off as a powerless puny before my exhausted mate and my warriors but this pain was eating me alive. It was everywhere. Digging deep into me. I have been trying to block the pain from getting to Aurelia as I could tell that she didn’t need that right now. If I couldn’t contribute power, I shouldn’t add pain either.But of course, that wasn’t easy to achieve. I could feel the pain sli
AURELIA~~Raiden’s scream was heard by every warrior. I could feel every one of our friends and pack members freezing for a moment as we all understood that for an Alpha; in fact, the strongest Alpha in the realm; to scream like that, hell was coursing through him. We all understood. I, as his mate and Luna, knew even better because the second the hell burst out within him, I felt it burning me from within and it was only a matter of time before I let out a scream of my own. “You dare not, Relia.” Inara’s voice echoed, breaking through whatever Larisa was doing to Raiden which was affecting me greatly as I tried to keep the spiritual link between me and the warriors open. If those links should close, they would all die as they would be no match for Larisa’s fortified warriors. “It hurt. I’m burning from within and–” I cried to my wolf even though Phoebe was still right behind me, healing me and Otis keeping me out of sight.“Do you know why she is coming at you hard?” Inara as
ALPHA RAIDEN~~My feet couldn’t carry my body weight fast enough as I ran through the forest, noticing how deserted my pack was. Those pack members who were not in the hall with Mia Lu were with Aurelia on the battlefront where my body was literally yanking me toward.I was on high alert and if I was being honest with myself, I would admit that I wasn’t in my right senses but how do I even think when all I felt was the urgent and dying need to be with Aurelia? It was like a pull.The kind of pull a mate should feel only when his mate is in grave danger. The kind that makes a man’s heart bleed and every nerve in his body go out of control.Yes, I was losing it. I had lost it from the second I regained consciousness and felt the strange burn on Aurelia’s mark which was sitting on my neck.I woke up with the need to get out. To break free and get to Aurelia even though my kids were in the hall and beside me. The second I saw Mia Lu stagger due to exhaustion, I ran and hadn't stopped
AURELIA~~“You did it, Alpha.” Jeremy’s words echoed in my mind. He was satisfied. I could tell, even though I wasn’t looking at his face, that he was smiling. Together we have extended our spiritual energy and every warrior with his now has enough to fight against Larisa’s warriors. I have been trying to study their behavior and movement since we arrived. They seemed strange and I had also reported everything I noticed to Tamia and Lori through the mind link. The duo promised to start working on breaking Larisa’s hold on the warriors of Black Fur who might still decide to fight us afterward but when we get to that bridge we will cross it.“Stay with me, Alpha. You can’t be distracted now that you have announced yourself to the witch.” Jeremy warned me, becoming a friend faster than I could ever imagine. He had my back.I felt safe with him.“For how long can we keep this going?” I asked Jeremy through the mind link, my eyes on Andrew who has his hand on one of our opponent’s hea
LARISA’S POV ~~That bastard Jake!He couldn’t do anything right!He failed to save my parents and now he even failed to kill this bitch…I didn’t see this coming and I hated the sight of her. I felt like pulling all my hair out just because she was standing there and wasn’t an illusion. And did that warrior just refer to her as the Luna of Dark Moon Pack? This has to be wrong. I was hallucinating–“Oh, I’m very real, Larisa,” Aurelia said to me like she could hear my thoughts. Yes, I was screaming them in my head but still, she…Argh! Aurelia chuckled, fueling my rage as she said, “For me, it’s good to see you again, Larisa because not only have I taken my rightful place as Raiden’s mate and Luna of this pack but I’m also his wife and the mother of his kids.” Her words ripped me apart, limb by limb. That was my biggest dream. To be everything to Raiden but she had always been in the way and now? Now she was living my dreams–“And of course, that’s the least of my achievements
AURELIA~~I heard him scream. I heard him plead. I heard him lose his cool. Scratch that, I felt it more, his emotions pushing through our bond in a way that had me standing outside the shield for what seemed like forever even though I had no time to waste. I just couldn’t bring myself to move away from the house even though it was hidden perfectly within Tamia’s shield. I could see beyond the shield if I wanted to but I was scared I would change my mind if I was to see Raiden again. I was afraid I would let him out because he doesn't deserve to be locked up against his will–“We have to move now, Luna Aurelia,” Seth said to me, without asking questions about why I had to lock Raiden up. Even Andrew who was standing on my other side didn’t question me. It was as if they knew. I also didn’t ask them any questions as my feet failed to move away from the shield. I didn’t realize Andrew was experiencing the same until I heard him groan in pain. Susanna was also beyond his reach a
ALPHA RAIDEN~~Without hesitation, I agreed with Lex because I couldn’t imagine my family without me even though they lived well without me in the past…I couldn’t imagine living in the Great Beyond without them– if there was a Great Beyond. Heck, nothing would be great about a place where my family wouldn’t be–Katie etched, calling me back to reality, “Can I go with you? I can fight too.” Truly, she could fight. She has been training with Seth and Tara, the strongest female warrior if Aurelia isn’t in the group. My daughter was a little warrior but she was one I wouldn’t want on the battlefield.Her innocence was to be protected for as long as possible so I answered, “You will fight right here beside Mia Lu and every others that will be staying behind. They need you to protect them.” Katie didn’t seem convinced but she nodded regardless while Kyle just looked at us. He didn’t utter a word, not until I asked him, “Everything okay, buddy?” My son held my gaze for a second before
ALPHA RAIDEN~~The war was here. The same one that would claim my life and make my kids fatherless. The same one that would make the woman I love a widow– mateless. The same one I have been dreading since Aurelia started falling in love with me again. The same one–“Snap out of it, Raiden. Death or not we still have to fight!” My wolf barked at me as I mindlessly stood beside Aurelia in the same hall where we married. “Aurelia is right. You gave up even before the war. It’s like you are willing to die–” “If that will keep them safe, then yes, I’ll die.” I cut my wolf off. “You can’t keep them safe by being a living dead!” Lex seethed. “Look at her taking over and leading alone even though you are still here. Wake up, Raiden or Aurelia will die before the so-called predicted death gets to you!” My wolf’s words hit me hard.I tried to pull myself together just as Aurelia started addressing the people in the hall. When I built the hall and had some of my pack engineers work on it