Watching him from behind was a damn sight! That butt cheek She thought. Then she suddenly stopped when she remembered that this cabin was no longer hers. Her grandfather didn't mention anything about selling this place, and it was unnerving that he didn't let this cabin into her care. Sophie felt a little disappointed. Sage was not a stranger, but she couldn't help but feel so unwanted and undesirable for a company. Yes, he saved her; he looked for him when she ran away from the awful disaster in his brother's and her sister’s wake, but Sage didn't even offer a single remorse about what happened. Or maybe, like her, he too felt relieved?But why?A million-dollar question.She looked around and sighed again. She wanted to go home anyway.Wait. Her headaches were gone, and she didn't even notice it. How strange? Well, who was she to complain? At least her head was not hurting from the pain anymore.*****Ten minutes later, fully clothed and with her backpack on her shoulder, Sophie o
"Why did you run from the mess? Your family is looking for you. Your mother is worried." Sage said as he looked for a decent place to sit. "I hate politics, Sage. I don't want the media to know that I wasn't grieving or saddened by Landon’s decision. In fact, I felt relieved." Sophie muttered just to get the elephant out of the cavern. She focused on the fragrances in the air, like the loamy smell of calm rain or the salty tang of the usual earthy and ocean air. How was that even possible when the ocean was a thousand miles away from here. Weird? "It's the spirit of this cavern you sense." Out of nowhere, Sage grumbled as if reading her silent wonderment. "How?" "You are a seer, Sophie. The daughter of time The spirit of your ancestors, who once dwelled here thousands of years ago. They recognize you." "How did you know this?" "You must know that, even though I'm just the beta of my pack, I'm the one who loves to read.." "Really?" "Why? Is that unbelievable?" "Well, hearing fr
Back to the temple royal chamber, meanwhile, Sage’s father had made it as far as the door when his breathing got a lot worse. The royal pack doctor, against his father’s wishes, said that bed rest was called for as a precaution. It was half an hour later when Sage, who was deputizing for the Master Alpha, a first, was leaving the room when he encountered someone he vaguely recognized as the Savannah’s delta, Wally, a man who bowed excessively and never smiled. "Beta Sage. I mean, um, your highness." Wally sounded breathless, his bow perfunctory, and the big politician’s smile was absent. "Are they here, sir?" "Who?" Sage asked, furrowing his forehead. "Doctor Sophie, and, um, my daughter, Chenna? We have no idea where they have gone, and Luna Ally is quite distressed. She has decided they have been kidnapped." "Considering the level of security here, I seriously doubt it. I have an idea, though. Leave it to me," Sage said, leaving the gasping man standing there staring after him a
"I don't know, I’m not sure either," Sage admitted, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel before he opened the window and leaned out. That was when he smelt the smoke—acrid and unmistakable."What the—"Sophie mumbled under her breath, "Chenna’s blood?""Stay here, don't move."She craned her neck as Sage, with long-legged ease, exited the car and approached one of the several people who had already left their cars. Some were pointing, and then she saw the plumes of smoke rising from behind the hill ahead. Sophie’s stomach muscles quivered as she clambered out and, skirt in hand, ran towards Sage, oblivious to the stares her outfit was attracting.Sage stopped, suggesting to drivers that they pull their cars as far to the side of the road as possible to give access to rescue vehicles, and turned to her. "I said to wait inside the car."I'm a doctor, for fuck’s sake. She thought to herself."I can help."She ignored the statement. "Sage, what’s happening? Do you think Chenna..."No
But so far no one has, and, as it was hard to imagine that their treatment could have been better if the hospital staff had realized they were treating their beta, it hadn’t seemed a priority to explain or correct the myth that they were a newly married couple, which had obviously followed them to the casualty department. But she doesn't want to correct them; it would raise too many questions. While Sophie waited to be seen herself, she was kept up to date on Sage’s progress. Sophie knew she would not have been told the results of his CT or any of the other tests if they had known the truth. After all, this part of the town was almost on the border between neighboring pack and human territory.As someone who was not his mate or family, she would have been told nothing, so she silenced the twangs of conscience, and took comfort from the technicality that she hadn’t lied—yet. Unless staying silent could be counted as lying. Should she reveal that under the dirt, blood, and injuries the
Sage was there, but not in bed, when she walked into the room past the security guards who had been there when she left. Her brief flurry of irrational panic subsided when she saw the figure standing in a narrow open door that was a tight squeeze for a broad-shouldered man plus a portable drip stand.In her absence, the bulky dressing had been removed. In its place was a narrow, almost transparent strip that showed the full extent of his repaired wound. Sophie was relieved by what she saw. The man who had operated had clearly been as good as the nurse had claimed. Her professional eye could see beyond the bruising and swelling that made his face unrecognisable, and she knew that the healing process would fade the livid, raised red scar to silver.The professional in her saw a good job; the woman in her saw not ugliness but pain, and she winced, her empathy shifting uneasily to dismay. What she was feeling went beyond normal empathy. It wasn’t even guilt that she felt; it was more... T
"If that is true, then why on earth couldn't I see us being married?" Sophie asked."I can't answer you that; you are the seer here."Sophie groaned and rolled her eyes.The master alpha wanted the marriage to go on. Marriage with Sage?Who doesn’t want me any more than the first one did?She recognized it was irrational, but for some reason, this knowledge was far more painful to her than the humiliation she had suffered at Landon’s hands.The belief that she was doing the right thing had enabled her to take a pragmatic approach to the prospect of a loveless marriage to Landon, but when it came to Sage being coerced into taking his brother's reject, Sophie couldn’t be objective. But the mere fact that she wasn't sad about what happened between her and Landon made it more confusing. However, with Sage, it was a different matter. She liked him. Her wolf recognized him as an equal, and the animal longed to imprint the man.Nevertheless, everything inside her just shriveled up with horr
Three weeks later Low-key, as it had been agreed, was appropriate under the circumstances, and the civil ceremony was just that—a handful of people beyond the immediate pack family. There were photographs, which would be released along with an official statement to be issued later that week. So Sophie was married. Sophie could not decide if she was meant to feel different. She glanced at the man—her husband, her mate, her alpha—who sat beside her. There was a remote, untouchable quality about him that even had she wanted to make conversation, it would have made her think twice. Sophie didn’t want to. There had been no mention of Landon and Cherryl’s either. No talked about her vision or what was supposed to happen to her. Three weeks. This was supposed to be something drastic, suffering from Roxanne’s hands. Yet here she was. Married to Sage—not the beta Sage she knew but to the Alpha Sage. The true heir of the Master Alpha. What changed? Sophie didn't have an ounce of an idea.
Two days later.Sage picked himself up off the floor and realized he could remember nothing from the time he’d entered the doorway hand in hand with Sophie until now. He shook the fuzziness from his head and glanced around, finding Sophie near him. He sighed in relief and reached out to lay a hand on her arm.When Landon jumped from Eve's windows through his unstable passageway yesterday, it made Sage sick. He followed his brother, but to no avail. His trip had not been pleasant, but he wasn’t retching on the floor the way Sophie had been. After then, they knew they'd been poisoned and that Eve's was missing. So many questions remain unanswered.Why Eve?He thought to himself.Greg was already up and examining the room.Sophie got to her feet, and Sage struggled to stand, too. They stood in the middle of a darkened chamber. Symbols were etched into the veined marble floor, and tables, interspersed with tall, carved armoires, lined the room. Bowls and cauldrons sat atop the tables, alo
Drinking it, Edmond added, "Not that it matters; darkness was darkness; I believed it was always their answer, a sad but true reality at the same time.""Yes, my friend." After their hunger plight and exchange of rye bread and beef jerky, they agreed to travel north towards the lake, where some of the two pack allies must reside.After some point, the air was rich with the fragrance of leaves and loam, and it was moist too. Even so, many hours after the rains have passed, the soil remains wet, releasing its heady fog. The melody of running water in the stream has the same slumberous quality as music; Raymond wants to stop just to drink in the melody. On the side, the berries were red and bitter, but with just the right amount of sweetness.He took in all the air her lungs could hold and expelled it. These hikes were like a trip out of her life, a visit to somewhere where the measuring of time was done only by the rising and setting of the sun. Raymond went his way through the skinny t
A few hours later, Alpha Henry took his cup of tea and savored the fresh minty taste. The cup of tea was small enough to fit in the palm of a child, holding that potent brew only the hardiest of the grown-ups could savor. Sipping it, he simply added it and looked at Eve. "By any chance, you knew something about where they took Elizabeth and the rest of them, Eve?""Yes, probably in the Devil's Forest.""Are you sure, Eve?""I'm sure. I was never wrong. The only forest that would disable the werewolves to shift, or more likely, the southern pack, has demon warriors and rogues on their side. It only made sense now. They've abducted Tomas before, and he wasn't able to fight them back, and because he wasn't able to communicate with his wolf, he became feral. Most likely, the one who had Jefferson and his family were feral."Sophie interrupted them, saying, "Eve, what does this devil's forest look like?""Glad you asked. From my knowledge, it was a cursed forest where any supernatural powe
"Who is this, Eve?" Sage appeared from behind them. His lips twisted. The words made the skill sound imperiously elegant. Eve swallowed a lump before she turned around and said, "Alpha Sage, this is Alpha Henry, ally of the north." Henry gasped, I'm sorry, Eve, Alpha Sage? The Alpha Sage? " he asked in bewilderment. Unbelievably surprised, he heard so much about this legendary alpha traveler, but none seemed to have seen him or knew him personally. It had been rumored that he wore a disguise and could vanish in thin air. He was rumored to be the only one who could travel in time and was cursed for eternity. If this was Alpha Sage, then he was indeed fortunate to have such an honor to see him face to face, and knowing that he was indeed real and not just the figment of imagination was a privilege enough. "Yes, I'm Alpha Sage of the Robinson Pack; how did you know me?" A few seconds passed before Henry could answer. "Pardon, um, I heard from, um, rumors, tales, and all," Henry respo
In the afternoon, Alpha Henry arrived at the misty woods and shifted into his human form. Butt-naked, he looked for something to cover himself and found a banana leaf. He wrapped it around his exposed manhood, tied it carefully around his waist, and then whispered a safe passage to the hidden cottage of Eve. Few knew about it, yet he was one of those few who was fortunate enough to know the precise location of her hidden location. Whispering words to the garlands, the foggy cottage was now visible as he knocked on the door and silently waited for Eve to open it. Surveying the surroundings, he noticed how the front door opened slightly, and the enclosed, tiny stone porch carried the aroma of flowers and the warmth of the home. The old wooden veranda was where one would relax when the chance of a conversation with passing neighbors was welcome, yet it was all covered in mud and drops of recent blood. "Eve?" On the left side, some plants reached up past the wooden railings and branched
"Holy crap! Should we help Sage, Raymond?" Sophie asked and was startled by Tomas' howls. They were hiding behind a gigantic tree, trying not to get near two vicious fighters.A minute passed, maybe more, and the only thought that kept pounding through Sophie’s brain was. She has to help him. She has to help Sage."I don't think it's a good idea, Luna Sophie." Eve muttered. "Let them. Don't worry about your mate. He is an alpha for a reason.""Well—" But out of shock, Sophie’s mind wouldn't even let her think, her feet running towards him. Ultimately, she knew he didn't need any help, but she did anyway. "Sage... don't kill, Tomas."Tomas's wolf snapped out of its confusion and snatched its neck from Sages's mouth. In that second, Sage backhands across Tomas’ face. The wolf's head whipped to the side, and the smack echoed around them as he dropped to his bottom onto the moist ground."Stay there, Sophie." Sage yelled. Sophie halted.Red blood flowed from the wolf’s stouts from the spl
Alpha Henry woke up suddenly. It was just a dream, but it felt like it was real. He was confused for a while and tried to remember what happened as his bewildered mind began to ensue. He discovered that he was still on the floor of the banquet hall, below the table, and thankfully hidden. With all that wolfsbane in their drinks, it was all a loss. The northern pack manor didn't burn after all.All around him was blood, and dead bodies lay neglected humans and werewolves in human form. He glanced around and surveyed the banquet hall, yet no one appeared to move. The headache told him it was time to rest someplace quiet, to ride out the storm within his brain, for with time, pain does wane.Unhurriedly and carefully, he sauntered his way out of the manor and breathed in a lungful of the fresh morn
A dozen feet away, Sophie saw all the disregarded cadavers. Ten, or more. Gawking at it, she shuddered from the horror.Dozens of small mounds of earth were visible there. The heaped soil looked very dark in the moonlight. It must have looked even darker to humans. And still, Eve and Raymond did not move.Almost all of it has been disgustingly slaughtered for food, with the head, limbs, and entrails removed.It was suddenly very quiet.Some small thing chittered in a tree. The wind rattled the grass. And then more quiet, silence so deep it almost drowned out the roar of the night music that pounded away in her secret self.Sophie shivered as she thought about how the small dirt road was barely visible. You almost had to know it was there. But she knew. She had been there before. The road ran for two and a half miles, twisting three times through the sawgrass, through the trees, alongside a small canal, deep into the swamp, and into a clearing.Except the old vegetable garden out in th
As Landon’s face passed over, he moistened his clitoral area and smelled the sweetness and sensual scent of her juices. As soon as the underwear was gone, his tongue found her wet mound. Her body trembled as the tip of his tongue flicked back and forth over her protruding clit. Casey spread her legs, and Landon gawked as her engorged lips spread, showing him the entrance to her tight mound. As her lips spread open, they allowed a tiny trickle of dampness to escape. Landon licked it up with his tongue. The intense taste refreshed his mind. He felt her pull on his pants and boxers.She jerked his head up to hers, and as she locked on to his lips, her tongue danced in his mouth, teasing him. Landon felt her cool hand grip his thick, hard shaft."I want this buried in me now!" He compelled and guided the tip of his shaft to the entrance to her moist mound. He began to thrust toward her, only moving enough to wet the head of his rod between her parted lips. Adding some strength, his head b