The next two days passed in a blur, and if it was any indication of what my life would be like here, I was going to get bored very quickly. Bram spent a large portion of the days with me, trying to get answers out of me. Most of his questions pertained to information about the royal pack, which I was cautious to give answers to. Even if I did not like the Alpha King, they were still my people. I wanted to ensure they were safe. Until I knew how or why they were going to remove my father from the throne, pack secrets were safe with me. Sometime after lunch, I would be escorted to Isaac’s office over at the packhouse. My leash was getting longer, though, and the Lycan King was allowing me to explore within the building unsupervised. It was in this way that I overheard rumors. Rumors that ignited that spark that had me targeting my first victim as a rogue. If I could plan it right, it would be a welcome outlet for my boredom, and satisfy my innate need to protect that I had always b
The unfortunate thing about beings with a soul is that it is quite easy for them to become corrupt. There is never a shortage of bad people out there that the long arm of the law is overlooking. It’s even worse when it’s a paranormal, as our laws… tend to overlook things. The absolute worst, however, is when one of us commits crimes against a human. Their superhuman abilities make it easy to never pay for their crimes. Needless to say, a werefox that had entrenched himself within the community to such an extent he was holding local office and was most probably responsible for at least most of the fourteen violent rapes reported in this community in the past two years was right up my alley. My reputation as a faceless advocate for justice unreceived preceded me, and I had a wide radius around my home base of Burlington, Vermont. He had to know he’d contract the curse of the rogue at some point. But, he would never know when he was staring it in the face. You see, everyone thought I
Isaac POV I was agitated today. News of a volatile werefox in the vicinity had surfaced again, naming him as the primary suspect for a serial abuser just a town over. It started with a singular infraction being reported, which resulted in several other women coming forward. Once a description was pieced together, it was easy enough to narrow down who it was - a rogue werefox who had taken up living amongst humans, going so far as being elected the sheriff. Foxes, like wolves, were my responsibility, but he was crafty. Lycans over there couldn’t pin him, and he had covered his tracks on the human side well enough we couldn’t even nudge an investigation from higher authorities in the correct direction. We had the guy pegged. We had his local haunts and his tells down. But it ended there. I hated to admit it, but I was beginning to think we needed to enlist the curse of the rogue. I had gotten close to this point before. I used to justify keeping a close eye on her by saying it wa
The remainder of the drive back to Isaac’s house was silent. The tension was thick, and was completely sexually driven. I was frustrated and annoyed, for more reasons than one. When Isaac finally parked the truck in front of his house, I noticed my truck was already there. I was thankful for that, as it seemed like a vote of confidence. A sign that I was actually trusted. The child locks remained on, though, so I was stuck until he came around to open my door. He still didn’t grant me freedom, blocking me in. “You are trusted here,” Isaac insisted. “There’s more than you understand going on right now, and I can’t risk you leaving this pack.”I wanted to ask questions, but his expression warned me otherwise. For maybe the first time, I conceded, letting him win this argument. It was only when I lowered my head and slowly nodded that he picked me up around the waist and gently put me on the ground. Once inside, he still had a strong arm around me, as if he was ensuring I wouldn’t t
I jerked away from Isaac, needing out of his head. I was all too familiar with the memories he showed me, and I didn’t need the additional pain of an alternative perspective. “H-how?” I choked. Isaac’s touch felt foreign, but oh so familiar. As if I had always known it. Hands drifted from cupping my cheeks, falling down to my shoulders. His shirt had slipped over my petite frame, leaving one shoulder bare, and one hand drifted over my shoulder blade, finding my birthmark there. He looked down on me with golden eyes. Golden eyes that if I thought hard enough, I had always known were there. Always hiding just outside my periphery, barely out of reach. But thinking hard enough to find them required I wade through too much pain to reach that safe place. “I’ve always known, Princess,” he whispered. “Your mother knew before you were born that your father had ill will, and she had me give you a staking mark as soon as she realized…” I nodded, gulping down air I so desperately needed.
I glanced up at Bram, not paying him much mind as I continued dissecting Isaac’s alarming lack of evidence against my father. “He had a long night. Still asleep when I left.” Ever a man of few words, Bram didn’t respond, instead just coming to sit in front of the large walnut toned desk that dwarfed me. I, however, felt large and in charge here. I could see why so many craved power if you could sit behind a desk like this and feel all high and mighty. He glanced over to see what I was reading, but his eyes also found what had previously caught my attention. “Question for a question?” he offered. It must have been important, because usually he just barked at me what answers he wanted, and I needed to remind him of our standing agreement. I nodded absently, motioning for him to continue. “Why did you do that yesterday?” I took a long drag of the cigarette before answering. “Boredom, mostly.” I didn’t know if Bram had caught me in a lie, or if he was simply learning more a
Isaac POV Maise sat there like she owned the place. My desk dwarfed her, but the way she controlled the room without even trying made it seem like where she sat, dripping power, was exactly where she was meant to be. She even had one of my two right hand men doing her bidding. It was intoxicating, and I understood exactly how her particular flavor of dominance would scare anyone opposed to her into doing their best to remove her from the picture. But me? I wanted it all. It lured me in, like a magnetizing force drawing me closer to the light she didn’t know she shined with. Weaker men would try and douse it, bottle it, consume it, but I wanted to cultivate it. The world deserved to see it. She would drive me insane, if she hadn’t already. She didn’t look up at me until I leaned over the desk, looking down imposingly at her. The sly glint in her eye, though, told me she knew she was pushing my buttons. We had so many unspoken conversations. Ones we desperately needed to put w
The intoxicating physical attraction between Isaac and I left my head spinning, forgetting about needing to remember wrong from right. He was a lycan. This was wrong. But, at some point, the moon had written that he was mine. This was right. It would hurt in the end, but I didn’t need experience to know I found pleasure in the pain. I couldn’t even tell you if Isaac was right that there was no bond between us. I had no experience with them, but I felt strongly that the way I craved him was so intense it had to be fate. This addiction had left the territory of want far behind and was now a need. If he was a drug, I was in desperate need of a shot of Narcan. Something happened when he kissed me last night, and it was much more than him proving he knew the side of me I always tried to forget. That truth unlocked something in me that was unhinged. The part that scared me was that I didn't even want to try and control it. Isaac was the one who claimed the responsibility of calmin
Annalise blinked slowly, as if she had just been struck across the face. "That... is not the turn I expected. Is that not the exact thing Melany and Karabasan did?"I smiled softly at her. "Name one person in this room Fate has assisted, given a better life. All it has done is harm each and every one of us. Is that retribution for crimes that were out of our control, or are we just being used as pawns to put on a show for our dear Goddess? Either way, it's wrong. If the Moon Goddess can take away immortality when her chosen no longer deserve it, we can take away the dealer when it becomes evident the deck is rigged.""No," Annalise declared, eyes darkening. "I can't stand by that. I won't see you destroy yourself and everyone around you the way our parents did.""You think that lowly of her, really?" Rudi scoffed. "You think Maise has the twisted, sadistic mindset to do what your father - what you - did to me? You forget. Fate doesn't only dictate the good. It a
Annalise's exiting statement resounded in my ears. It took me a moment to process what she said, but when I did, I chased her out of the room, catching up with her just outside the front door. It seemed that no matter the species, pregnant being move slowly. "Wait!" I called. "I have more questions!" Annalise turned to face me. "Well, the story is no fun if you are given all the answers." "And you know me well enough to know I don't take anyone's words at face value." "An aspect all good rulers should possess," she touted. "Maybe your mate could learn something from you, but it wouldn't matter. It's not like his words and demands bear any true meaning." A growl built in my own chest, one that made me seriously question whether or not I truly had no wolf blood. "Royalty may be given, but leadership is earned. He has that, I don't." "But you have the power to take it. Why don't you?" "Because I don't want it," I snapped. "Look at what the desire for power turned our parents into."
Long gone were the days of being surprised by anything. I prayed to the moon my days really were numbered, because I couldn't handle this anymore. With weary eyes, I looked up to Isaac, and saw he was able to feel the shock I refused to process. His eyes weren't even for me, transfixed on the names of my mother and supposed uncle. That made me thankful.Yin and Yang. That's what we were. You couldn't have one without the other, and each side held a small piece of its opposite, giving us the power to understand the balance.I looked around the room, and everything became abundantly more clear. Rudi and Kaleb denied the truth of their own destiny as mates because they didn't trust Fate. My cousin, I guess, was Team Fate, and her mate didn't know which side to choose. A human was here, but only because she so easily succumbed to the fleeting desires of that red string. My own mate, even, had no power to work against it. If he did, I wouldn't have been sitting on his lap.Fate controlled
Isaac POV Sitting in the basement, waiting for my mate, I realized something. All the control I always thought I lacked, had always been mine. I had a firm grasp on it, running my world like it was my puppet. My hands were in everything, and my knowledge spanned farther than even I knew. Fate had been a raucous dealer, but I knew how to play my cards. Control had always been my friend.I understood that now, because I felt the loss of it.In this room, Bram held confessions from Alpha King Faolan, and Kaleb knew the secrets of Karabasan. Only Maise had the information to tie them all together. I was at the mercy of whatever they had to share. Never had I sat in a room with no idea what would happen, and I didn't like it.Simply a month ago, I would have infiltrated every single one of these endeavors, but I had given it all up. Willingly, even. All because I needed to remain with a little girl. I adored her dearly and would not change the choices I had made, but the itch to regain th
Several times, everyone asked me if I wanted to stop and see my mother on our drive back to the lycan pack. Several times, I refused. I knew it didn't make the two lycans happy, but I was thankful they didn't press and allowed me the autonomy. I knew it would have to happen eventually, but I wasn't ready to open that door yet. Too many emotions I had worked so hard to eliminate from my life would resurface, and I couldn't handle that. Not with everything else going on.Bram, Isaac, and I had stayed in his Audi, and Blair and Leah had driven my truck up to the pack. I wanted to join my friends, but Isaac wouldn't let me out of his sight. I was a little surprised the witch had been trusted with someone who was essentially a prisoner, but I was happy trust between the two species was beginning to grow. I was also fairly certain Leah would endure the most lenient prison stay. If Benate went against Isaac's orders in the bear pack, Benate would pay for it, not his mate.We got back to th
When I resurfaced from sleep, I was still in fur with Isaac's monstrous wolf form wrapped around me. This was common for us werewolves, to simply say in our furs when a threat was sensed. Our wolves had more acute senses, and stood a better chance if there was a surprise attack. But, I didn't exactly know what the current threat was. It was only a mental battle that was waging. There was a quiet knock at the door before I heard it swing open. Isaac stiffened and growled at the intruder, followed by Leah's yelp and the door quickly slamming shut. When the door opened again, not even Isaac's posturing sent the unwanted guest away. "Stop it," Bram barked. "It's afternoon. She was checking on her friend." Wolves were exceptionally possessive and protective. You only get one mate, after all. They were worth laying down your life for. Add in that he was a lycan, tasked with the life of a runt, and Isaac was even more unreasonable. So, I wasn't surprised when Isaac picked me up by the scru
Isaac ran his fingers delicately up my arm, his eyes once again transfixed on the inky sky. "Something else is bothering you. Mind telling me?""Don't you already know?" I huffed. "You've been in my head since you found me on Church Street."I glanced up just enough to see Isaac purse his lips. "You think very little of me if you truly believe I'd negate your right to the privacy of your own mind."And there it was. Even though he so easily could, Isaac never dug for answers, always waiting for me to provide them. He knew the exact things to say to steer a conversation in the direction it needed to go, but the information I shared with him was always new. Unless he had heard it from a different source, of course. Not only did he want to know my thoughts, but he wanted to understand them, help me dissect them.It was one of the qualities that made him so trustworthy, but I didn't understand why. If my father had that ability, he would use it to control me. From my very limited interact
The sun was rising when I made it to the outskirts of Burlington, but all I saw was King Midas's touch. The city was just beginning to wake up right as I was starting to shut down. My paws felt like lead weights. It was exhaustion that begged me to stop, but not the physical kind. No, I was overwrought with emotion. Emotions I had successfully shut out for eight years - longer if I was being honest. The closer they got to the surface, the more the dam threatened to break.I wanted to lay down and drown in the flood that would ensue. Let it wash away all the trauma and my life along with it. The currents could carry me to the sweet release of oblivion, and the only people that would care would be the ones who abandoned me every step of the way. I certainly wouldn't mind. Not anymore.My entire existence, I had fought so hard for life. As a royal, assassination was a constant threat. Being an undeserving runt only compounded that. As a rogue, everyone and everything had been out to get
I had crammed myself against the passenger side door of Bram's car. I was staring at the man driving in absolute shock, quite certain he was nothing more than a figure of my imagination. He was supposed to be dead. "Call your mate," he said. I blinked dumbly at him. "What?" He never took his eyes off the road, simply repeating his request. I fumbled for my phone, struggling to find the power button to turn it back on. Out of my pocket also came the key to the car that was currently rolling down the twisting state roads of Vermont. "How did you get a key to this car?" He glanced over to me briefly, flashing his cocky grin - one of the few things I vividly remembered about him. "Bram gave it to me when I met up with him this morning. Now, call your mate." I just nodded, not wanting to argue with another one of the dead come back to life. The line had barely started to ring before it was connected. "Maise," Isaac growled in a tone that made it abundantly clear that I was in trouble