CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT: Rachel~ I opened my eyes to a field surrounded by redwood trees. The sun was setting and a lovely scent, honeysuckle, wafted through the air. A flock of birds flew overhead and I continued to look around. I was in a sitting position, my legs crossed, like I had been meditating. “Rachel, good. You’re awake,” I heard a light melodic voice say from somewhere behind me. I turned to see a lovely middle-aged woman with long auburn hair and intense violet eyes. She was beckoning me to stand. “I’m sorry - do I know you?” I asked her as I pushed up off from the grass. She shook her head, “No, not really. But I know you.” That made me raise my brow. What did that mean? “I don’t mean to startle you..” she said, brushing imaginary dirt off the skirt of her dress. “I’ll introduce myself. I am the Archangel, Aurora.” Huge white wings unfurled behind her as if in emphasis. I gasped. My jaw hung there, open. And then it hit me, one thing at a time. Vance.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE: Ally~I froze in my tracks. “I- Nick,” I searched for words that didn’t seem to come. I just looked at him, the car, the guys and Rachel - and - the head. I turned to the side, seeing it again and feeling sick. “Hold on,” he said calmly. I kept my eyes fixated on a tree and heard his footsteps retreat. After a few moments he started walking back. I looked up at him again. The sight of him walking toward me made my breath hitch. He smiled. That made me all warm again. I could feel my cheeks flaming. I breathed in deeply. It was him. “It’s you - you smell like…” I started then hit the brakes. I might just die here of embarrassment. “What? Tell me?” his eyes brightened and he stepped even closer. How does one breathe again? I’ve forgotten. “I can tell you what you smell like to me?” his eyebrows went up a bit. “Like freshly baked cinnamon rolls.” “How?” I squeaked. He turned his head to the side and scratched the back of his head as he thought. A breeze
CHAPTER NINETY: Kyle~ This morning, I had thought that the hardest thing about today would be how Rachel would take the news about magic and all things supernatural. Fae Goddess above, was I wrong. “Can you check again?” Ally asked from the bench next to me where she held Rachel up. It had been about ten minutes since ‘the big bad wolves’ left us. Ally’s mom was now with us, waiting for any progress. I couldn’t quite describe the state she was in, but I could feel in my bones how dangerous it would be to try to pull her out of wherever she was. “Sure,” I said, lifting my hand to reach for hers. I let some of my magic flow to her, testing the connection, and then I tried pulling it (and more) back into me. This time was different. “I think it’s time,” I said aloud, focusing on slowly taking away these layers of unconsciousness. One by one they came undone and I felt her starting to wake. Before going all the way I stopped, giving her time to get out of the last one on her own.
CHAPTER NINETY-ONE: Nick~ We have the smartest, most amazing mate, Asher said in my mind after I finally hung up my call with Ally. We really do, I said back. And I meant it. Her abilities were out of this world. Her emotional intelligence when she was coaxing Jake into letting Rachel go - just all of her. Absolutely amazing.I couldn’t just sit there gushing about her forever and driving myself nuts by not running over to her house this instant - I need to get everyone up to speed.I linked my dad, Jake, Evan, and his dad to meet me in the Alpha’s office.About an hour later I had caught everyone up on everything from earlier today and all the things Ally was able to tell me. And as much as I wanted to proudly scream from the mountaintop that my beautiful, amazing mate is the Witchling we were getting all this intel from, one look at my dad and Evan’s dad set me straight. Our parents would lose it if we started telling them about mates across species.I set aside Asher’s sadness
CHAPTER 92 Jake~ In horrible situations, even if you tell yourself that you’re prepared for the worst possible outcome - you're just not. At least I wasn’t. The hollow feeling that kept taking over my body just to get through the things that needed to be done - my duties as an Alpha - was a reprieve. Most of the time I struggled to manage it all. I was supposed to have so much more time to train under my father, and more time on top of that to assume the role I now found myself in. Losing our warriors when my parents had been taken was one thing, I had something to focus on - to focus on looking for them. But now I found myself suddenly orphaned and with too much on my plate. I had always pitched in as much as I could, but this - this was something else entirely. Part of me was forever broken. I wasn’t anyone’s son anymore. I wasn’t going to have any more time to just ‘be a kid’ like Mitchell’s mom had always pushed me to be. It was too late for that now. My parents had been rippe
CHAPTER NINETY-THREE Rachel~ “So what would you like to do for your birthday?” Sean asked me. We were seated by the school’s community garden, looking down over the edge of the hill, down towards the ocean. It was definitely cold today as January was in full swing, but staying in the sun’s rays was keeping me warm. “Umm… I’m not really sure. I usually need to do something indoors. February usually means rain. Growing up I had indoor pool parties, bowling parties, movie theater visits in a group - that sort of thing,” I said thinking aloud. “How would you feel about a big drive-in? We can do the same setup as before but invite whoever you’d like to come too?” Sean suggested, swinging his legs that were dangling from the ledge we currently sat on. “Sure, that could be fun,” I said. Then after a moment I added, “Although I don’t think it would be anyone other than like Ally and Kyle, Lana, maybe Marsha if she’s feeling up to it, Maxine - if she ever comes back from France. Hmmm… I
CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR Kyle~ Ally and I had a long few days of ‘playing defense’ as we were calling it. We couldn’t rip Rachel away from her current reality yet, and we couldn’t do anything to Sean lest he do something worse to Rachel. But we sure as hell could limit their time together. It was hard not just punching Sean in the face when I pulled him to the side for our little chats. He was threatening my friends’ safety. And for all I know, he could have been behind my own kidnapping, or worked with Vance on it to keep me from Rachel. Threats laced his every word to me. I had tried on our first day doing this to bring up my kidnapping suddenly to see if he would give anything away. But this guy was a total snake in the grass. He hadn’t reacted at all. Not really. He held a deadness in his eyes. On the surface he put out this whole easy-going, cool guy routine, but there was something calculating beneath the surface. We wouldn’t be able to keep this new information from Jake much
CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE Evan~ While Jake worked on some things with my dad, Nick and I went out to Ally’s. I drove since Nick’s leg was bouncing with anxiety or anticipation. He didn’t say much on the drive over but I knew he was excited to see Ally while also worried about what we were about to get ourselves into. We pulled up to the curb by Ally’s house and Nick basically jumped out and ran up the stairs to Ally’s door. She must have seen us coming since she immediately opened the door and let him in. I took my time coming up to give them a minute. By the time I got up the stairs the two of them were down in the stairwell going downstairs, whispering to each other and getting real cozy. I spotted Kyle in the kitchen and decided he had the right idea. “So what is it exactly we’re going to be doing?” I asked him as he held out a box of cookies, a silent offering. I grabbed two and started munching. “All Nick said is we’re playing backup?” “Yeah, I don’t want to get into things too mu
CHAPTER 147 - Rachel~ I dreamed about the moon. Like I have a hundred times now. But this time it was full, and lit up everything around the forest. I recognized the area, it was our packlands. But parts were slightly different. We didn’t have a lake. I ran over in wolf form to see a lovely lady by the lake. I recognized her right away. Selene. “Rachel! Angeline!” She greeted us. “It’s been a while!” We padded over and sat next to her. “We’re all so proud of you and the pack. And I’m especially excited for your little one, she’s going to be a strong, strong wolf,” she said gleefully. I let out a surprised sound. “Yes! Sorry to spoil the surprise, I know it’s very early. But yes, it’s a girl. And you both are going to raise her to be tough and caring like her mom,” she said with pride. I rested my head on her arm. She got quiet for a while and I looked up at her after a few minutes, seeing an odd look on her face. “I’m sorry - I wish I was just meeting you with som
CHAPTER 146: Rachel~ My skin was itching to get back to Jake. Knowing they were likely out of their cells and making adjustments to our plan gave me some hope, but every touch from this disgusting being made me want to scream. Alright, on my mark, I heard Jake say. Wait. What? I looked around and confirmed Jake wasn’t around. And his voice sounded like it was coming from… in my head? Paul drags me along further and starts unlocking a door. We’ve got to be getting closer to wherever they’re keeping Meg and my mom. Could I- could I be getting some connection to him? Like how the others link? Jake?, I ask the ethos. There’s nothing for a minute. Rachel?, Jake asks back. Woah. How are you doing that?, he asks. I don’t know, I just heard you, I explained. Paul hauled the heavy door open and I gasped. My mom and sister were on the ground in a heap like forgotten laundry. I fell forward and reached into the cell they were in, trying to grab my mom’s hand. “Dove, g
CHAPTER 145: Jake~ As much as I think this could work, Aamon is absolutely livid that Rachel is about to be out of sight. Things have been working as she planned so far. Simon screaming down here brought Rosalind down as thought. I have to give it to the guy - he played ‘seizure guy’ very well. Then in the middle of things there was some shouting up top. Likely from the fire Elise set. Which meant that Kyle was pretending to surrender himself and if Rachel was right, Paul wouldn’t be able to fight the urge to have groveling at his feet. Which left Sophie. She was right outside my cell, watching Rosalind move Paul around in this cell, trying spells to stop him from freaking out, not realizing Ally had thrown him something he now had in his cheek like a squirrel that would ward off unwanted magic. “They’re kind of a mess, aren’t they?” I say beside her. “I would have expected more from a Luna in training…” She turned to face me with a look of defiance. “Desperate times…” I t
CHAPTER 144: Rachel~ “Sophie,” I say the name with charged disgust I can’t hide. “You couldn’t just leave and go find something else to do, huh? You had to stick around and try to take what’s mine.” “Yours?!” She screeches. “You mean what you stole from me! I’m supposed to be Luna. Me! I lost my mom and then my dad, and what? You just waltz along and get what’s mine? NEVER.” “So what? Trying to hurt me before by hiring Max wasn’t enough? Now you have to get some more help to do what you can’t handle? Typical Sophie. Can’t do a da*n thing by yourself. You have to wave daddy’s money around to get anything done. Pathetic,” I sneer. She sputters unintelligible words. I’m getting under her skin. “Enough,” Vance’s mom says, her voice cutting through everything. “You can play around when we’re done with our deal.” Sophie bares her teeth at me then turns. At the same time the door down to the dungeon opens again. Who could possibly be joining in on this nonsense? There’s two sets of s
CHAPTER 143: Jake~ It’s the Luna ceremony today. Rachel started getting into the spirit yesterday. She glows around here. And the pack members love her. Even those who were vocally against cross-species interactions. They know what she did out there that day and what she gave up without expecting anything in return. While a few left, including Tiffany’s family - which was expected anyway since Evan’s rejection - things were very different than I had thought they’d ever be. After she came back we all had made plans to leave and start our own little pack, but everyone surprised me. Now here we were. A pack pioneering acceptance of all kinds of love. We even had two newly mated couples join us from up north. A witch and a wolf, and a wolf and a vampire. The last one was nuts to me, but Jeanette had a totally clean background and a highly trusted wolf for a mate. If we ever grow to the point of needing a Delta, I have my eye on her mate, Juniper. A knock comes to the door and
CHAPTER 142: Rachel~ One Month Later It’s moving day. The thought hits me right when I open my eyes. It makes me smile right away in the early morning light. I guess I was too excited to wait for my alarm to go off. I look over and see Meg asleep in her bed, her head to the side, mouth open, and a soft snore coming out when she exhales. It’s all going to be different now. My phone lights up to my side and I don’t even need to read it before I know it’s from Jake. He likely feels that I’m awake. We’ve been getting more in tune lately. I think the bond is on hyperdrive for us. I’m not even a werewolf but I seem to know things too. I know when something’s upsetting him even if I am outside with the pack pups and he’s in his office, and I know when he’s anxiously pacing in his room even if I’m in the kitchen entertaining a visiting pack. We’re still learning about our bond. And he hasn’t even marked me yet, so who knows how much could change. When I came back to life after Th
CHAPTER 141: Rachel~ It felt like nothing. No. Warmth. Dark but warm. Cozy like being wrapped up in my favorite fuzzy blanket at home. Like I’m huddled in warmth on a stormy cold day. “Rachel,” I hear a lovely voice saying my name slowly, like the lyrics of a song I know. I stir. It’s just so cozy here. Can’t I rest just a little longer? “Rachel,” the voice says again. This time there’s a hand on my arm. The feeling has me trying to wake before I can make the decision to do it. “Rachel,” it says once more. It’s dark but warm. But I have to go. I start to stir, to look for the source of the voice. Who is it? Light surrounds me and it feels just as cozy and warm as before but its so bright. My eyes try to open but it’s just too bright. Then a shadow appears, making it darker. I open my eyes and they adjust to see- Oh, it’s not a shadow. It’s a person. I know this person. My mind is groggy like I’ve woken up from a deep stage of sleep. I’m slow. My synapses
CHAPTER 140: Evan~ I kept expecting her to wake up in Jake’s arms. That somehow, his tears would bring her back. But she just lay there, like a ragdoll, in his arms. If it weren’t for how strikingly pale she looked, I would have told anyone she was sleeping. But she didn’t wake up. It’s hours later and Nick was barely able to get Jake inside. We cleared the field as best we could, bringing in the injured and putting the dead together. Amber had removed all traces of The Collective while we had sat there with Jake. I don’t like how shell shocked she was. She didn’t seem to be actually experiencing all of this and I worry for when those feelings will surface. I know she didn’t like those people. But they still raised her. She told me about jokes and kindnesses that she received in little bursts along the years. She’s basically just lost her family. But she doesn’t want to talk about it. She hasn’t even cried about it. And I can’t say I don’t understand that. I can’t even im
CHAPTER 139: Kyle~ I woke up next to the red wolf. Everyone was screaming or howling. It was chaotic and loud, which made everything that much more disorienting. What I saw next killed me. Rachel out on the field alone, with all the shadow Dementor things charging at her. “Rachel!” I’m screaming but no one can hear me. I look to see Jake crawling towards her from too far away. He won’t get there in time. How did it get this bad? How long was I out for? I flail about, my arms and legs pushing to move but I’m not coordinated or strong enough to get anywhere. “Why is no one helping her?!” I scream again, my voice cracking, my throat raw. The red wolf just tugs on my shirt again, trying to bring me inside the packhouse. I have barely any magic left but I send it to the wolf trying to drag me away. “Let go!” I scream. “We have to help her!” I look around frantically for anyone I recognize. Where is Ally? Evan? Nick? There’s so many wolves and people rushing back, I can’t