Sophie wanted to stop for a rest when suddenly a low, humming voice commenced behind her. Whirling around, she saw what looked like a low, dark cloud."Oh, fuck! Now what?" Now she knew she was panicking. She was trained to fight dark fucking clouds.Soon the humming evolved into something louder, and the dark cloud became enormous and darker. Sophie then realized with horror that a swarm of vicious bats was about to encircle her. "Come on? A fucking bat?" she muttered.Suddenly, she shot her hands in front of her face for cover, but it didn't do any good."Oh God, I'm going to die here." She screeched, "Help!" Her eyes were now glossy. How was it possi
Sage smiled to himself while he listened to Sophie’s laughter. Her laughter was the summer rain and the birdsong too, and every time he heard it, no matter the weather, the sun brightened. It was as if her sound lifted a veil from their eyes and allowed them to see the world more clearly. It was funny how her laughter could do that—those honest rumblings of her soul. He was lost in it. Sophie's laughter was always a kind of laughter; it was like a song to a bird and came in happy moments. Fresh and new every day. So childish and so pure. It was the sound of her soul, something that came when the smile of her eyes overflowed into the air. So when he heard her giggles and her soft expressions of joy, they were as much a gift for her and this pack house as they were a sign of their growing bond. Though they were sleeping separately, nobody except Greg knew about their arrangement; in fact, no one was allowed on the east side of the pack house where the three of them occupied. Greg had b
"Yes, your grandfather and my grandfather were once best of friends; my old man told me a lot about him. Stories. Tales. That he was—um—" "How?" Her eyes widened before she said, "I mean, I didn't know this, he never mentioned it." Sophie was confused. What was this new information? Her old man never told her about being friends with Robinson’s former Master Alpha. "Your grandmother was a powerful seer; your grandpa was Savannah's alpha at that time when he met her, but something happened when she was pregnant with your father. Someone from the underworld visited her in her vision and cursed her bloodline when she declined to offer the life of her unborn child. By then, your grandparents were so scared that when your father was born, they, um, counteracted the curse. At first, they thought they won; your father didn't have any vision for or was a seer for so long, they lived at peace, and when you were born, the same old fear resurfaced, but even when Cherryl was born, there was no s
"Sophie, I think you're doing it wrong. Tell me, what are you picturing in your mind now, hm, imagining?""Well, I'm trying to summon a beach." She blurted in a good practice, duh tone as she began to waver.Sage's eyes widened. "What? Are you crazy?" he shook his head, "in my fucking backyard? That's not even possible." Despite her nonsense, Sophie put a reassuring hand on his hand and smirked at Sage.He wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "A beach? Sophie, really?""Why Sage? Are you judging me again? I want sea air and to take a swim. So sue me!""The hell are you thinking? That's not even possible, woman. How about you start using your brain and lift this fuckin stone in t
"So what's next?" She asked and mentally shook her head after a visible gathering of internal forces, "So what happened now?"Sage breathed heavily before responding, "We have to practice more so you won't experience the after effects. It was like being an athlete, where you need to practice every day. I hope I'm being clear now, Sophie. And you will start taking this seriously. You are a powerful hybrid. Don't let your doubt and stupid judgment say otherwise. Am I clear?""Yes, I get it now, Sage!" She might as well take things seriously now like a good writer, who was in a good mood, like a writer that writes words that are like excellent wine and sweet music; words that contain more therapeutic medicine than all the drugs created by man. Like they were c
"Hey, woman, let me explain, okay?" Sage said this while Sophie stood up, and her demon fangs suddenly elongated as if telling him that she was not happy with what she heard. Her heart was pumping, lungs were burning, and her demon heart was flailing in her throat."Sophie—"She growled at her alpha. She extended her hand. A slender tree plucked from the garden ground slowly floated towards Sage from either side with nimble, spidery fingers, slowing him down, and the ground turned soft under his feet. "Stop this."Behind Sage, the wind screeched and cackled at the delighted triumph. Dark, hidden eyes watched from every egress, waiting patiently. Bones, human and animal, lay scattered among faint rust-brown stains and pitted black scorch marks beneath heartless rockslides. The forbidden woodland knew nothing of forgiveness, of mistakes, or of second chances.Suddenly furious, Sophie’s fire surged from h
Seven hours later, after Greg disturbed their little moment in the garden because of some rogue sightings in the boundary, Alpha Sage closed his cell phone after reporting into the compound and leaned back on the ridiculously froufrou velvet settee in his private room of the packhouse.He was pissed off that the night had resulted in a stalemate with the patrol and more rattled than he cared to admit by the hybrid demon reality check he’d gotten at the facility. Seeing a hybrid demon and the other rogues was a damn good reminder of the fire he’d walked through after her mother’s death.He’d managed to beat his bloodlust all those years ago, but the fight had been brutal. And the hunger was always with him, even when he was trying his hardest to deny it. Revenge and bloodlust were hard to fight. Being near Sophie only magnified his craving. Damn, but that female put his blood on a slow, rising boil. A beautiful scent still lingered in his nostrils.That moment alone with her in the gar
With the keen, aching desire of her "You say you don’t play games, but you’re a master at it, Sage. In fact, I think you’ve been playing at them for so long you can’t remember how to be real anymore."Sage was hardly aware of his own movements as he whirled back on her with a furious roar. Distance closed in fractional seconds—a blink of time between the moment he’d been turned away from Sophie and the next, when he was bearing down on her like a train in motion, pushing her with both the force of his will and his body until they both slammed up against the closed door.He pinned her there, between the hard, unyielding length of him and the thick plank of oak at her back.&nbs