Liam My paws pounded through the bush as I cantered around, chasing a rabbit. I was supposed to be studying for my economics test, but I needed to run. I spent all Monday afternoon and evening filling my brain with the necessary information for Friday’s test. After my morning training on Tuesday, I spent the entire day at Kempthorne University. I didn’t leave Kempthorne until late, as my classes ran late on Tuesdays. By the time I got home, I was too exhausted to study. Wednesday held no physical courses for me, so I woke up early with all intentions to study, and the plan soon went out the window. I got through an hour or two and then went to find something to eat. My dad had come into the pack house kitchen and made himself a sandwich. He had been performing his alpha duties all morning and was keen to get out and work with his hands. So, after we finished our food, I went outside to help him do some work. He was renovating a cottage at the back of the pack house. Our pack house
Clementine My ankle wasn’t broken! Well, at least it wasn’t broken anymore. After a quick X-Ray and an ultrasound on my injury, they found that I had a severely twisted ligament, some bad bruising, and a freshly healed hairline fracture. He asked me to bear weight on it, and when I stood, I was surprised that my ankle could take the pressure. The pain had been subtle and dull, but nothing I couldn’t handle. There was no way I could walk on it earlier, and with a twisted ligament, I should have been at least given a moon boot and some crutches, but the doctor shook his head and told me that I was already starting to heal, so there was no point. I blinked a few times, half hobbling over to the mirror and noticing that the scrape on my face was mostly gone. Then I studied my knees. The scrapes had healed entirely, leaving a baby-pink splatter of new tissue. What the fuck? Liam studied me curiously. He looked like I felt: we had a million questions running through our minds. Dad arrive
Liam I was tense. I figured it had been the stress from my economics test. Or maybe it was something to do with the approaching full moon, but we were still a week out from it. I paced my room back and forward, deep in thought. I couldn’t be this jittery around Clementine, she was bound to ask questions, and I didn’t know how to answer them. I hadn’t responded to her questions since I left her with her dad at the medical centre. Her text messages had been left mostly unanswered too. This morning I received a message from Clementine wishing me luck on my test, and my entire stomach twisted into knots. I hadn’t replied to that one either. Instead, I turned my phone off and drove out to Kempthorne University. I had told her I would go to Lupus’ after my test, but I couldn’t bring myself to go. My mind was all over the place. My body thrummed with unwanted tension. I felt like I wanted to burst out of my skin. Lucian was lying down with his head between his paws, watching me pace but of
Clementine I smiled at my dad as he handed me the truck keys. It was Thursday and the day before the full moon. Dad had allowed me to borrow his truck a day earlier than planned. The full moon was officially at its peak on Friday night, but Dad had mentioned that the night before and a few after the full moon were still filled with quite the raucous for werewolves, and I could tell. The whole town seemed to be going crazy. It appeared that everyone started to go nuts a lot earlier than my father had indicated, honestly. Ryan seemed antsy. Tina was going through a deep clean of the bar and grill. Sophie was quiet, and Roman acted like she had too much caffeine in her system. Most other people were behaving oddly too. I hadn’t seen Liam since last week, so I couldn’t even begin to understand how the approaching full moon was affecting him, but I think it was safe to say that it was a good idea to get the hell out of Dodge. Liam hadn’t turned up at Lupus’ last Friday, and I tried not t
Liam I had woken with the sound of drills in my head. I felt out for Lucian, and I couldn’t feel him, which was my first indication something was wrong. I slowly opened my eyes but didn’t recognize the ceiling I was staring at. I looked around the room and noticed a cheap Formica coffee table and a small television fixed to the wall. “Good morning, Liam.” Stacey smiled as she entered the living room, walked over to the small kitchen, and started to warm a pot of coffee. “Oh, God! My head! What the hell happened?” The couch I was lying on was hard and uncomfortable. I tried to sit up, and the world spun. “You got piss drunk, so I had to bring you back here.” “Why does my head hurt?” She smiled at me mischievously. “I believe they call it a hangover.” “Werewolves don’t get drunk or get hangovers,” I snarled. The room spun slightly, and I grabbed my skull to try and stop it. “They do if they take shots laced with wolfsbane.” “I’m sorry, what?” “You took a shot with wolfsbane i
Liam I instantly got to my feet, took three steps forward and lowered my head, letting out a rumbling growl. My nose twitched as I smelled the four wolves running through the trees. Their scents swirled around as they darted closer, then further away, only to come close again. My mouth dripped with saliva, and I was more than ready to sink my teeth into those assholes. My hackles were rigid, and even without Lucian’s beastly anger to fuel my own, I was ready to rip them all apart, even if it was four-on-one. I growled again and waited. Fury vibrated through my paws, but I held my ground and waited. I reached back for Lucian, but he was still behind the wall in my mind. “Come on, Lucian. We need to protect Clementine.” Nothing. I shook my head. I thought that would rouse him, but he knew Clementine wasn’t here. Did the four wolves know that? I grudgingly opened my mind-link up and was smacked with indecipherable chatter. It felt like a rubber band pinging back into place. Within a
Clementine When my phone rang, I scrambled to pick it up, hoping Liam’s name would be flashing across the screen. I tried not to feel too disappointed when I saw that it was my dad. “Let me guess, you woke up in a pool of blood, and you don’t remember a thing that happened during the full moon,” I joked. “No, I remember. The blood belonged to the villagers. But don’t worry, I targeted all the pretty blonde girls,” he replied in a dead-serious tone. I grinned. “What’s up, Dad?” “Just checking in. Making sure you don’t need my bail money.” “Not yet, but maybe next month. TJ and I spent a long time planning a murder.” He chuckled. “And how is TJ?” “Curious.” “Curious?” “About my life in Blackfern Valley.” “Clementine, you cannot tell him,” Dad warned. “I know that. I’m not stupid.” I rolled my eyes. “How was the run?” “Good. They started with the initiation of the pups who received their wolf spirits. There were three this time. And then the whole pack got together and got na
Clementine I pulled into Blackfern Valley, with nervousness bubbling through my body. I drove straight toward my house and pulled into the driveway, cutting the engine. Grudgingly, I got out of the truck and slung my weekend bag over my shoulder, picking up the boxes on the passenger seat and closing the door. I pressed the remote lock as I trudged toward the back door. Everything looked the same. Felt the same. “I’m home,” I called out, then rolled my eyes, remembering both my brother and father had werewolf hearing. Half of the pack probably heard my announcement. “Welcome home, Clemmy!” Dad said from the kitchen, where he was sitting at the dining table with a cup of coffee. He smiled, and then his eyes went vacant for a moment, which he tried to cover by taking a sip of coffee. Looking back, I realized he did that a lot growing up, and I smiled. I guess some habits were hard to break. “I brought Timbits,” I said. I heard thumping footsteps, and seconds later, Vinny was instan
Clementine The full moon had come around again, but this time, it was different because I was a bundle of nerves. Okay, so I might have been a bundle of nerves the first time too, but at least I had Circe. My wolf still hadn’t shown up, and although I was wearing a brave face, the idea of being mated without a wolf made me nervous. Liam kept reassuring me that she would come back eventually, but as we got closer to the full moon, I became more agitated because I believed I couldn’t be with Liam without a wolf. Not if he remained alpha. I tried to convince him to hold off the mating ritual until we knew if she was coming back. I was trying to be pragmatic and develop a strategy in case I was left wolfless, as a human couldn’t be luna. Liam had simply shaken his head, dropped a drugging kiss to my lips, and inhaled along my neck. “Your scent is the same; that intoxicating honeysuckle and pear with the underlying scent of canine and human. Your eyes haven’t changed back to the pure tu
Liam The full moon was approaching, and the entire pack could feel it. Everyone was on edge. There were several ex-pack members still missing. Everyone seemed convinced it would lead to another battle and more pack members would die. Our pack had lost fourteen members in our quest to rescue my mate. Fourteen families had received visits where Clem and I delivered our heartfelt condolences to personally. I was unsure how many the rogue army had lost, but there were a lot of deceased wolves when we started to clean up and sort through the bodies. I had left Clementine the next morning, tucked safe and sound in our bed. I knew she would be pissed about it, but I needed to go and help identify the bodies. Twenty of us marched out to the battle site and started to sift through the woods, pulling wolves out of debris and resting them together in a small area where their loved ones could collect them. Usually, we would just burn the rogues, but as much as I kept saying it, these rogues we
Clementine I watched as Liam sprinted away and felt my heart fall into my stomach. My feet moved on their own, and Milo cut me off before I foolishly ran into the middle of a wolf fight. He growled, and I knew he was telling me we needed to get the fuck out of Dodge. “Sorry, I’m not exactly light,” I apologized as I clambered onto his back. He huffed and spun on his paws so fast I felt myself buckle. I grabbed fistfuls of fur and tugged. He grumbled. Oops! I tried to loosen my hold, but there was no good place to hold onto. I had no experience riding a horse, let alone a wolf. If I wrapped my arms around his neck, would I choke him? I felt awkward and clumsy on top of him. “Milo, you need to stop and let me down.” I got a grunt as a response, and, not surprisingly, he didn’t slow as he whipped around the trees. “Milo, I’m going to fall.” Another grunt. Vinny grumbled at me too. His eyes darted around the forest and back to me, watching me fumble as I tried to balance on the bac
Liam The sound of battle was emitted from deep within the forest. I was still a fair distance away, but the echoes and vibrations pushed my paws harder into the forest floor. The smell of Clem’s scent caught on the wind, and Lucian barked, scaring a small frog off a rock and back into the nearby creek. I followed the scent and the sounds of fighting in the distance, running past wolves in a combination of different fighting forms. Most of them were fully shifted, but those who had their level-three training swapped between wolf and human forms with the grace of deadly dancers. Clementine was cornered against a dirt wall. Her hands were bound, and even though she looked calm, I could sense the fear rolling from her. There were four wolves with her, encasing her in a semi-circle—standing sentry. Her brother was closest, as if the others had pushed him back to protect him too. Two large werewolves the colour of molten chocolate guarded the middle front from attack—Milo and his broth
ClementineThe lower side of my face was swollen. My throat felt like I’d swallowed razorblades, and my lip was split. “Put some ice on your face,” an unknown voice snarled. I opened my eyes and winced. I assumed I was still in the cabin, lying on a very uncomfortable cot in a small room. I met the brown eyes of someone I had seen around town and flinched back from the ice in his hands. “I’m not going to hurt you.” He rolled his chocolate eyes and offered me the ice again. I gingerly took it, looked up at him again and took in his chiselled jaw and brown wavy hair. “I don’t understand. Why are you helping me?” My voice was rough and scratchy. “Because you’re injured.” “You were part of Lincoln’s pack,” I stated. “I was.” His eyes travelled down my torso as I sat myself up and placed the ice onto my jaw. “And you know I’m a half-breed,” I whispered timidly. “I know. Are you hurt anywhere else?” he asked. “No. I don’t think so,” I mumbled. “Good. I just came in to give you s
Liam Half an hour later and the meeting had disbanded. Ryan and Stacey had taken off with a couple of trackers from the warrior squad. Patrick went to inform Vinny about what had happened, and Jerome and Dad helped me organize an urgent meet with the entire pack for this afternoon. Even though it was the middle of the afternoon, it was getting cooler now in the fall air. The mountains and thick forest made it almost impossible for the sun to warm up the valley. The sun tried desperately to shine through the trees, but it was met with an invisible frosty wall that couldn’t be penetrated. The chill in the air was almost foreboding, making me feel like I would never be warm again. Patio heaters and gas barbecues were lit up throughout the grounds. I smiled at the pack members as they filed in, wearing their summery clothes as if they were oblivious to the changes in the temperature. I smiled at the five hundred odd people who had turned up. Five hundred wolves would be enough to start
Clementine “He’s my true mate, Brady. I’ll never let you dishonour him by marking me. I’ll kill you first.” I coughed out as he continued to drive. “Oh, honey. I would like to see you try and fight with the wolfsbane running through your system.” “He’s going to wake up and figure it out,” I glossed. It didn’t seem like a good idea to tell Brady that Liam was already awake and was strong enough to heal without my constant presence. “That’s fine too. Maybe I’ll let you gain your wolf enough so he can feel you and track you. Or maybe I’ll just torture you and let him feel that. He’ll heroically and foolishly come to your aid. And I’m sure I can handle one weakened alpha. He’ll be dead soon enough, regardless what I decide.” “He’ll come with his warriors, Brady.” He chuckled deeply as he turned onto an old highway that travelled into the mountains. I tried to reach Liam. He would be freaking out the moment he realized I was gone. I had to keep trying. I even tried contacting other
Liam I shifted in my seat and grimaced at the pain in my stomach. I knew this injury was going to take some time to heal. Even under the watchful eye of my fussing mate, it would take more than a week to get me back on my feet. My first official pack meeting was going to shit, too. I listened as Dad and Patrick argued heatedly, letting them hash it out like an old married couple, but I didn’t intervene. I needed to hear this as much as they needed to argue. “I told you when you were alpha that those blood-haters were dangerous. Your gentle approach put my children at risk, Josiah. Again!” Patrick spat. “And I told you that killing isn’t the answer! That’s how Jed ruled the pack. Do you not remember how many pack members he executed for small misdemeanours? Do you not remember how we lived in fear that he would get bored and start killing us for sport?” “Of course, I fucking remember, Jos, but there’s a difference between executing people for misdemeanors and crimes like attempted
Clementine As Liam lay in bed, pale and covered in a cold sweat, I had a horrible sense of déjà vu. There was no smell of chemo, no impending death, but the feeling was the same. The first time I watched someone I loved dying I couldn’t do anything about it. This time, I would do everything I could to save him. My arm still hurt from where I shoved the central venous cannula into my vein, almost piercing through the other side. That didn’t matter, though. What mattered was that Liam needed blood, and I needed to give it to him. All of it if that’s what it was going to take. After he was stitched up, placed into our bed, and hooked up to monitors, my dad suggested that I have a shower. I had shaken my head vehemently in refusal. I couldn’t leave him. What if I was showering and he– Dad, unfortunately, didn’t take no for an answer. I stepped into the enormous ensuite but left the door open a crack so I could hear what was going on in the bedroom. Circe’s possessive side had come thr