CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT Rachel~ I woke up on the Saturday before my birthday with the imprinted vision of the loveliest dream in my mind. I had walked through a forest on a clear night without getting cold. I had magic coming from my hands that helped me protect myself - and defend others. I met an angel in heaven and we talked about life. If only any of those things were true. I flirted with a big, broad shouldered guy with a touch that felt like magic, and we went for a walk in the snow. There were beautiful twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, and we were somehow both in town for the Tree Lighting Ceremony, and the cabins in Tahoe. For a split second when I had woken up and was still a tiny bit unconscious, they all had felt real. Even the angel stuff, and I don’t consider myself religious at all. But that is all the kind of stuff that happens to main characters in stories - not to random people in real life. “Mija,” my mom called from the doorway. “Time to start- your sister is
CHAPTER NINETY-NINE Evan~ My Beta blood meant I was built for all kinds of things. Taking a beating. Giving a beating. Protecting the pack from physical threats. But I don’t think it was built for whatever this was that Jake was throwing at me. Not that I would tell him how badly this all hurt. His fists were fire, and I could feel burn after burn on my arms and torso. His body was fire. No other way to describe it. He was rock solid, living hellfire. My knuckles were badly burned and crusted. Blood coming through cracks in my skin. But if I used my training, and didn’t show pain on my face, he wouldn’t notice. I couldn’t let him notice, but not yet. Not until he worked some of this out on me. The first few hits I got in hurt me the most, but after some time my nerves seemed to fry and I couldn’t feel much of anything when I hit him. I was surprised that the fire coming off him didn’t burn through his clothing, or my own. But you couldn’t exactly see the fire either. You could ju
CHAPTER 100 Kyle~ I remember arriving here at the pack. But how I ended up by a training field with Big Bad Wolf Jake almost losing his sh*t on the tall tree known as Evan - I don’t know. Should I have been worried that I had been losing track of time or of where I was more and more often this week? Maybe. But with everything going on it just didn’t seem like a priority. I had been sticking close to Ally and I am sure if I were doing anything ridiculous or dangerous she would tell me. Right? Assuming she noticed I guess. But these days her focus was on Rachel - and Nick. Not mad about that last part really. But I can’t keep lying to myself. I still like Rachel - like, like her. My eyes hone in on Jake who is now completely still as a small crew of wolves escorts some girl who looks in trouble. Tiffany I assume. Ally had filled me in a bit. It seems she picks up on a lot that goes through Nick. I wonder if he knows. Does Jake even really value Rachel? He just seems straight obs
CHAPTER 101Rachel~I should be so happy. Spending time every day for several days in a row with Sean. But something feels missing. I feel like I am trying to wake up from a dream. Or maybe that I have woken up from a dream, and the dream is slipping out of my fingers before I can tell anyone about it. Come to think of it, I do think I remember something about my dream last night. I was walking home with someone, holding hands with - “Sunshine, you okay?” Sean asks me from his spot in the driver’s seat, interrupting my thoughts.No, I don’t think so.I try to say something aloud along those lines but all I find myself doing is grimacing and nodding.“Yeah,” is all that I’m able to say. Odd. I have a fleeting feeling of having no control some other time too. Not that long ago. But I can’t place my finger on it.Sometimes I automatically want to be honest and get away. Other times it’s like I am a prisoner in my own body. And the latter makes me - well, I think I’ve gone through some
CHAPTER 102 Jake~ If I thought I had been losing control over Aamon before, I didn’t know what to call it now. Every breath I took felt like a fight to stay in my own body. Trying to reason with him did nothing. Dreams are our only reprieve. Every night, after fighting to get some sleep, we dream of Rachel. Being with her in a forest at night under a full moon. I move between forms and she isn’t afraid. She turns into a wolf as well. And we play chase with each other. It’s so real that every morning when I realize I am alone, I get crushed all over again. I wonder if the Goddess is helping me not to shift by giving me these peaceful moments. But I can’t know for sure. It’s peaceful, but it could also be used as torture each time I wake up to realize it wasn’t real. Instead of helping, Aamon floods my mind with images of how satisfying it was to behead that demon creature weeks ago, and how good it would feel to do the same to the traitors I currently had in our cells. I had t
CHAPTER 103 Ally~ Last night was a bust, but something in me is convinced I need to try again tonight. Nick will be here shortly, and we are wrapping up a movie in the living room. My mom already went to bed, and now it’s just the two of us. I tried asking him a bit about what is going on with him, but in typical Kyle fashion he just made some jokes and brushed off my concerns. So I didn’t push him. Yet. When the movie finishes I make a show of stretching and yawning and telling him I was going to bed, likely to immediately crash. Kyle’s eyes flicker with something I can’t name and he just nods. I resist the urge to literally shake answers from him. In my room I see a new message from Nick on my phone telling me he’s outside and ready for whenever I need him. I find myself holding the phone to my chest like it was actually Nick there telling me this and I was hugging him. Man, I’ve got it so bad. After almost an hour I can’t take it anymore and I quietly sneak to the window to
CHAPTER 104: Evan~ The weight of breaking the bond still sat on my chest. The weight of a car or elephant wouldn’t hurt this badly. It couldn’t. But I still pushed myself out of bed. I still followed orders. I felt like I was stuck inside my own body. And speaking was just too painful. I could see the same in Jake. We have both been reduced to grunting cavemen who speak rarely and in very few words. Anything else hurts me so bad I can’t see. I imagine anything else for Jake risks what we have been fighting so long to stop. It feels like we’re on the verge of something. Everything feels too still, too quiet. Besides Nick and Ally saying that Kyle may know more than he’s saying, we haven’t gotten anything new to follow. No Maxine, no real information from Sophie - or T-. My knees buckle at the thought of her. Will this ever end? “Evan?!” I hear my dad call from the hall. I push myself up off my bed and rush to the door like it’s the end of my marathon and I just need one final
CHAPTER 105 Kyle~ I was swinging around and getting smacked into something hard. My stomach hurt. It took me a minute to realize I was smacking into another person. I was in the dark, being swung around. Fireman style carried? Through what? By who? My stomach was digging into a shoulder, the shoulder of the one carrying me. I looked over and saw another person there - Ally. And that meant it was likely Nick here carrying me. I tried to talk but found my throat a little off like I hadn’t talked in some time. I had to clear my throat before I asked “What are we doing here?” “Nick! Hurry!” Ally called. That’s when I really started getting smacked around. Nick was running up the stairs after Ally and I was getting bounced so much I didn’t risk talking, knowing I’d likely just bite my tongue. We ran through something - a door. And then some sort of building, old school. Downton Abbey era? No. Much older and much more gloomy. Outlander, perhaps? What a strange dream. Then we were o
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