BENJAMIN"The fuck are you doing here? You killed him, didn't you?" I asked, balling my fists by my side.Ervin was the closest thing to a brother, and Nathaniel had killed him. I was filled with rage, but at the same time, I couldn't fault him. We'd attacked him first."Why not relax, Benjamin? You wouldn't be here if you didn't want us to meet you.""Oh, so I can't visit a vampire brothel to forget about the loss I just suffered without it seen as me trying to gain an audience with you?""You weren't this uptight years ago," Nathaniel said, cocking his head to the side. He took a seat opposite me, his brothers, and a sorcerer I heard about from Ryker, standing guard behind him. They'd gained everyone's attention, but they didn't care about that."What do you want?" I asked, eager to get the conversation done and over with."Since you started sending you demons after Ayra and I, you've been the only one to incur a loss. You've lost several lair members, and I don't think your people w
NATHANIEL “I am fucking dead on my feet. I didn’t know that was possible until now,” Ayra groaned, throwing herself back on the bed. “Did you know Kimberly has a weird obsession with flowers?” She asked, shutting her eyes.“What did she do?” I asked, whipping my sweatshirt off my head. She opened her eyes, eager to tell her story. “She wanted these enormous bouquets around the table, and I told her people wouldn’t be able to see each other if it was too much. She almost swallowed me, and she came out with the ‘I am an interior decorator’ shit. Long story short, we had to tie her down to remove the excess flowers. If you find my dead body, look no further for a suspect. Kimberly did it.”I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”“Also, I heard there’s a pre-ceremony tonight. How many parties do you guys throw around here? It’s just one freaking ceremony. I don’t understand the extra shit going on.”I chortled. “My uncle loved parties. When he formed this pack, he used the Blood Moon Festiva
NATHANIEL Growing up in a pack that didn’t want you there hadn’t been easy, but my father had been willing to stick out for my mother’s sake. He loved her, after all. Her father was the Alpha of their pack, and she was the only heir. When she’d found my father, she had planned to rule with him by her side, but fate had other plans. My grandfather would never accept a demon as his heir. Even though he hated my father, he still loved his daughter dearly. So, he kept the secret of my father’s true identity from the pack.“He didn’t want them to know for obvious reasons,” I told Ayra. “They were all prejudiced against demons.”I couldn’t blame them, though. As I grew older, I understood why they spoke about demons with so much contempt. The war had ruined lives and had caused many werewolves to be homeless. Even I had hated demons when I read about the war.Looking back now, I could only laugh. How could I hate was I was? What my father was? Granted, I hadn’t
NATHANIEL “The moment of truth is finally here. Are you excited?” Alan teased, clasping on my cufflinks.“Fuck off.” I yanked my wrist out of his grasp.“He’s afraid Ayra won’t be his mate,” Aiden piped up from my balcony. “I have a simple solution for that. Don’t go,” he said, walking into my room.“Ayra and Kimberly put in a lot of work. It wouldn’t be fair to ask her to sit it out. Also, I know she’s my mate.”“Is that Acheron speaking or Nathaniel? It seems you’re forgetting this ceremony is for wolves,” Alan said.“I think our demons are a deciding factor. If your demon loses interest in your mate, things won’t work out. Anyone regretting not asking Mom about this before she died?” The twins shook their heads.“Just you. Why do you think we’re sitting it out? We’re going to be out of here tomorrow before the heat hits us hard and forces us to go find a female who could be our mate,” Aiden said.I understood where they were coming from. If it weren’t for Ayra, I’d have stayed at
NATHANIEL“Nathaniel, can I talk to you?” Ayra asked, tugging on my sleeve. I turned away from Kai to give her a raised brow. She looked like something had spooked her, and that was never a good sign.“What’s wrong?”“Can we talk about it here? They have enhanced… ““Okay. Come with me.”I led her out of the main hall, going down a hallway that led to an office. It was formerly the pack house, but the bigger we got, the less space there was, and to be honest, I preferred my privacy. I opened the door, shutting it behind us.“What happened this time around?”“There was a woman here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before. She didn’t look like she belonged here.”“Did she try to do anything?”“No. She just smiled and disappeared into the wall.”“Disappeared into the wall?”“I’m not crazy, Nathaniel.”“I didn’t say you were.”“Your eyes said so. I saw her. She was… shit.”She doubled over with a hiss. I’d already reached for her before the smell of her arousal hit the air. I looked out
AYRAMonths Later…I was sick to my stomach. This was the third time I was throwing up the contents of my stomach in the space of an hour.Of course, I wasn’t naïve. This wasn’t the first time. Since the week began, I’d become best friends with the toilet.“I think I’m pregnant,” I said to the girls over lunch. I couldn’t even bring myself to eat the food the server had placed in front of me. The diner was oddly empty, but I chalked it up to it being cold. Maybe they preferred staying home, where it was warm.Reese couldn’t join us because she was heavily pregnant, and according to her, she didn’t want people congratulating her and letting her know how cute she looked with her bump."Face it. I’m fucking fat," she had barked at me one time when I said she was beautiful.“Really?” Kimberly asked with excitement. “I was going to say the same thing. Logan and I are expecting a baby.”“Oh, God,” Nikki groaned, banging her head on the table. “First, it was Reese, and now, it’s you two. Ree
AYRA“Interesting cart you’ve got there.”I swiveled around to find Dalia standing a few feet away from me with a smile on her face.“Long time. Should you be here? Nathaniel doesn’t like you very much,” I said, checking out a pink onesie on the rack.“That’s his cup of tea. I’m here to check on you. So, you’re pregnant.”“Why would you think that?”“The cart is a dead giveaway.”“Oh, these aren’t mine. Reese is pregnant. I’m doing the shopping for her because she’s not comfortable being seen in public.”She frowned at me, her eyes fixated on my stomach like she could see directly into it. “So, the rumors were wrong?”“What rumors? You’re acting weird right now. Side note, you can’t see a baby growing inside my stomach just because you’re staring hard.”She shook her head, looking up at me once again. “Sorry. I just thought the rumors were right, since you had the fertility ceremony a while ago.”“We didn’t. They said something about it being pushed later down the year because of some
AYRAEver since Nathaniel mentioned Ryker was waking Draven up, he’d been on the edge, doing some research in his well-stocked library.He never came down for meals. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were in his office or the library. He spent every waking hour in one of those two places, and at this point, I was frustrated. Whatever he was looking for, he wasn’t finding it, and that left him frustrated.“At some point, you’re gonna have to sleep,” I said, pressing my lip into a flat line when I found him in the library, bent over yet another book. “You’re fucking crazy, Nathaniel. Stop, okay? You’re slowly losing your mind.”“You don’t understand, Ayra. I have to stop this.”“Stop what, exactly?”“Draven. If he wakes up, we won’t survive the attack,” Nathaniel replied with a crazed look in his eyes. Fuck, I wasn’t getting through to him.“The baby!”That effectively snapped him out of his haze. “What happened to the baby?”“How about we talk about that in the bathroom? You stink.” I snapp