I reached for the cup of water on the table next to the hospital bed and my fucking hand shook so much that I knocked it over. It bounced along the linoleum floor and rolled under the bed."Shit."I groaned, leaning back down on the pillow. Couldn't even get a damn drink of water. I hated this. Hated being so fucking weak. Hated that I was crammed into this shitty hospital bed while my brothers were out there fighting wolves who were trying to take Fagua back to her father.They needed me. And here I was, stuck, unable to get up.I felt the anger building up inside me. I hated the weakness. I hated the guilt. I hated everything about my life.I hated the fact that this was my own damn fault.That I had been the one who fucked up and hadn't mated with Fagua. And now her own father wanted to take her away. I gritted my teeth, warring with myself. And I was paying the price for it every second of every hour of every day.I deserved to be here.I deserved everything that was happening to
I relaxed in Winter's arms, wishing we could stay like this forever. Though I miss Sky too. And then there's Husk, but I don't feel any connection with him. Not like I do the other two brothers."I can feel you thinking," Winter said in a deep voice as he traced circles along my upper back and shoulder."Can't we just enjoy this moment?" I didn't want to bring Husk into this, but I know he’s going to come up."With all my heart and soul, I wish we could." He cleared his throat. "Fagua, the doctor's office called while you were out."I tensed, unable to keep the knots from tightening in my stomach."Doc ran tests on Husk and it's confirmed. He's found his mate—you." He stopped rubbing my back. "You have to mate with him. It's the only thing that can save him.""No." I push back and look into his bright blue eyes. "The tests have to be wrong. There's no way he and I are connected like that on any level, past, present, or future.""The tests are never wrong. He found his mate, and that's
Fagua didn’t want to travel with me. In fact, I didn’t fucking get how we were supposed to be mates when it was clear that she couldn’t stand to be in the same room as me. The bar she chose was a short walk from the hotel. The idea was for us to get a drink, then I would imprint on her. That was the short summary of it. Winter made it sound so easy—the mate that had been in our casino for so many weeks, was now going to roll over and allow me to mate with her. I nodded and agreed with his explanation of the events that should take place, knowing that there was no fucking way that it would happen so easily. "Go relax. Chill. Spend time alone and see how you feel about each other. Then, if it doesn't happen, we can take it from there."No pressure. None whatsoever. Doc was dead. He'd been killed by Fagua's father's pack, and part of me blamed her for it. Even if she wasn't part of their pack anymore. I had so much resentment and anger about the trail of events, but I was supposed to
I'd tried shifting before, but I could never complete a full shift; it was only ever parts of me that transitioned. And I could never hold the partial shifts for long. But finally being fully in my wolf was incredible, so incredible that I didn't want the night to end. To see my fur, my paws, and everything else about me that had changed. The crazy part was I thought I would share this moment with Winter or Sky, never with Husk. We resumed our human form and Husk approached me carefully, staring at me, as if he could read my mind. "I-I didn't think I could do that." I let out a breathless laugh. "Never been able to do a full shift before. It was so exhilarating.""You regret sharing it with me?" He met my stare and my breath caught in my chest.I shook my head. "No. It's not that. I've never shared it with anyone. Sometimes I thought there was no way I could shift completely, until now."He nodded. "I think it's this place. I think being among other wolves and not being different ha
Fagua was conked out in the hotel bed and I stepped out onto the balcony, allowing the moonlight to wash over me. I couldn't believe that we had mated. And running with her in our wolf forms felt so right. Hadn't even known a half-breed like her could shift. But then again, maybe I'd had more wrong than I'd once believed. Fagua was making me see things in a new light.Maybe I could open up a little more to her. Trust in the fates, or whatever Sky called them.I chuckled, shaking my head, and leaned my elbows on the railing. Vegas stretched out with twinkling lights and a warm late summer breeze. They said New York was the city that never sleeps, but whoever had coined that saying had never been here.Gamblers, drunks, and party goers would be carrying on until dawn. I glanced back at Fagua, who hadn't stirred since I laid her on the bed. I wanted her again, but she was sleeping like she was in a coma. The best I could do was wait, even if I was being impatient. I had to leave her alon
I felt something familiar, the same feeling I had when I first mated with Winter. A feeling of exhaustion, as if every last piece of energy had been taken from me. I couldn't control these gnawing feelings that were constricting my thoughts. I sucked in a breath of air and I felt as if I was slowly waking from a dream. My body felt cold and numb.I tried to open my eyes—it was as if I'd lost all sense of time—but it felt as if I’d been in a coma. One that I was desperately trying to awake from. Though I couldn't see properly, I knew that I was alone. Husk had brought me to the hotel and left me. I wondered for a split second if I was in the casino. Nope, the room was rustic and antique. A wooden table, red carpet, and deep red matching curtains hung from silver rings over the floor-to-ceiling windows. Nothing about this room was familiar. I tried to sit up, to get a better view so I could draw the curtains and take in my surroundings, but I felt so weak. I realized that mating with
"Say something! Anything, for fuck's sake. What is wrong with you? You saw that I was sitting and talking, yet you just left and you didn't even say a word!" Fagua screamed as she entered, then slamming the door behind her with her final word. "You're gone more than half the day, don't call, don't reply to my text, then you storm off like that?"And I wanted to say something to her. I wanted to say everything I was feeling because I went from being on such a high after imprinting on her to a low after hearing her conversation.I didn't know if this relationship was for me. I thought our spending time together alone and imprinting on her had brought out a new lease of life within me, something I didn't even know I possessed. Then in the space of six hours—or however long it had been since I left the hotel—this flame inside of me had turned to ashes.Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she waited for me to respond to her question with a tilt of her head. I tried to say something,
I had to pretend I didn't know what Husk was talking about because if I told him the truth, then he would panic and think I couldn't use my magic at all. I knew I could, or so I thought, but something had changed. I wasn't as strong as I used to be, but I assumed within a matter of time I would be. I had mated with Husk, but then at the same time, it felt like we were back to square one. No, we were even worse than before. At least before we had some kind of rules; by keeping our distance, there was no conflict. Now, we'd mated and it felt as if we were being forced to be something that we could never be.I just had to get over the idea that he was neither Winter nor Sky. This morning, it was like a rude awakening, that for over six weeks, we'd hardly spent any time together, and the little time we had, all we'd done was fight. It was as if we were enemies, being forced to be lovers.How do you make that change so quickly? We had to forget the past and all the tension between us in