~Ivy POV~ I can’t help but turn the music on as I move around the house, cleaning each room just as Sarah would have done. It’s strange, feeling lighter and happier even when terrible things have happened or new truths come to light. After running with what I and telling myself was Caleb’s ghost, I can’t seem to shake this undeniably happy mood. This light airy feeling that even though all the things we are doing are hard, it will be okay. Caleb is watching out for me. Even from his grave he is being the protective big brother and finding his way to my soul to touch it, let it know that it’s ok to be free and enjoy the things life brings us. Like runs in the woods, or the embrace of someone you love. For so long, I have buried my head in the sand and refused to acknowledge that the sun rises. It was easy down there, in the silence of my head. No one bothered me because they weren’t allowed in. Maybe that is why I feel all these things? These conflicting emotions or feelings toward
I pull away from Caleb and just stare at him, my fingers touching his scar and running over his face as I try to make sense of everything. This feels like a dream. I went from being alone, having no one but Enzo, to having my brother back. It doesn’t seem like he has had an easy five years either. My smile slowly fades and my aching eyes well up again when he takes my hands in his. I can see that they are rough and discolored, even in the crappy lighting. “How are you alive?” I ask, sucking my bottom lip in on a sharp inhale. “Enzo said he left you…” I tilt my head, that familiar burn in my chest when I think about the day that changed everything. “Shhh, Ivanya,” Caleb says softly. “We can talk about that soon. Right now, let me look at you.”He takes a step back as I look at the woman. After a minute, I look back and Caleb’s eyes are guarded and his lips pursed. “What?” I ask, looking down. “You have a bruise on your jaw…” he says. “Is that from Deacon?” He asks and I shrug. I h
***TRIGGER WARNING: Extreme violence and gore! There is torture in this chapter, if this is something that triggers you please forgo this chapter. ~ENZO POV~ I can feel everything. Whether I am awake or asleep, it doesn’t matter. The pain settles deep in my bones, in the recesses of my mind, and buries itself deep. It’s rotting me from the fucking inside out. My muscles contract involuntarily as something as simple as the blood pumping through my veins becomes agonizing. Death has never been a fear of mine, but it has also never been something I crave. Until now. I can feel my veins bulging and straining as whatever the fuck they put in me spreads, poisoning my body and my mind. I clamp my teeth tight, my jaw creaking under the strain as I fight the urge to scream out. It would be natural and completely acceptable to do so. If I weren’t who I am and they weren’t dickheads looking to get off on my pain. “Who are you?” Jonathon rails at me again. He breathes heavily as he stalks t
~Ivy POV~Three days ago, you couldn’t have convinced me that James had a violent bone in his body. Well, ok. I had seen flickers of a temper in him when he drank, but that had been few and far in between. But now, three days after he exploded about Sarah, I know better. I have also learned he is the kind to disappear after he detonates. I have been hoping to find out if he is my mate or not. But he fucking disappeared. Left me with handwritten instructions to clean up his mess inside the house while he tried to rectify the one I made outside the house. Getting Sarah out isn't something I feel bad about. I understand now that this pack has a sick need to own people and not just in the slave sense of the term. I have had three days to sit and ponder the words he used and the anger and desperation behind them.‘What’s mine' he screamed at me. Like I’d taken his prize possession. Like I’d taken his… mate. I frown and shake that thought from my head, wiping down the counter again. He has
James narrows his eyes, fury burning in them as he stalks toward me. But I stay in place, my shoulders back and my chin held high.“You killed all of them?” he seethesI give him a shrug. “Maybe not all of them, but definitely killed Beta Dorian.”He rears back in surprise. His eyes roam over me and his lips set in a hard line as if he is trying to come to some conclusion about me. “Maybe you did, maybe didn’t,” he whispers, his eyes growing hard. “Why are you here, then?”“That’s my business.”“Your business affects my business.” He hisses and I roll my eyes. Damn, it feels good to do that without fear of being beaten. “We have the same endgame, James.” I say flatly, “Why the fuck does the in-between matter?” “Because as much as I hate my father and want him dead, I still have a responsibility to this pack.”“Fine. We will leave the pack out of it.” I say with a shrug. I never intended on doing anything to secure or bring about the downfall of this pack. Sure in the beginning I hop
~Enzo POV~ I feel like I’m swaying with the breeze on a pleasant summer night in the meadow. Or having a dance with a lover at a ball. A tender sway that lulls you to sleep and promises only joyful things. The sway grows more violent, more rapid, and panicked as I try to snap myself out of my headspace. The place I learned to run to in order to avoid pain and allow my wolf to heal us. The world slams into me, my ears ringing, my mind splitting and my eyes, fuck, my eyes sting. I gasp for air as I blink the blackness away and pain shots through me. Every single part of my body aches and tingles. A blunt object hits my forearms, and I cry out in agony. “Ah!” someone says gleefully. “Fuck boy awakes.” I have nothing to say, no witty comeback. They have beaten it out of me. My voice has long since fled my body. Not that I blame it, I too wish I could leave this fucking misery. The worst part about all of this–the torture is knowing that I will never get to see her smiling face again.
~Ivy POV~ James rips the front door open like a petulant toddler, and I roughly shove him through it. He growls his distaste, but I’m beyond fucking caring anymore. Haley stands in the doorway behind us, completely confused. I should try to get her to promise to keep her mouth shut, or I should kill her, but I get a distinct feeling, based on her begging James to save Enzo, that she won’t say shit. James growls at me before turning around to Haley. “Don’t say a word about any of this,” he hisses, and she nods, her red puffy eyes wide in understanding as she nods her head in agreement.“And you” He glowers at me as he turns his anger in my direction and stalks the three steps toward me. He stands towering over me, his eyes full of anger and a mixture of hatred. My heart twinges, missing the looks he used to give me. The same ones he had to fake.“What about me, James?” I square my shoulders, refusing to be intimidated by his tall, muscular frame. “You will follow my lead. My father
The pounding on the front door has been relentless as Jonathon searches for his second missing person. Though I’m not sure why he cares so much about Enzo missing, other than his ego being hurt. Now, looking for Sarah is something I can understand. She was his bargaining chip over James, and now all he has to fall back on are his loyalists and the fact that he is still alive and James can’t take full control of the pack until he is mated.I have been the lucky one who is known in the pack as James’ mate, and even though I started out as a slave, today I become an official pack member. With the mating ceremony just around the corner, it is imperative that I am made a pack member before we mate. Which I know won’t ever fucking happen, but Caleb, Clem, and I have kept that little nugget of information to ourselves. At this rate, I don’t care who becomes the Alpha of this pack. James has proven to be a pompous self-serving asshole, not that I can say much. But at least I saved his mate w