I hope you enjoyed the training chapter. Let me know what you thought!
ELLE Kade made sure that everyone knew what was expected of them. He wanted everyone to get what they wanted and needed today. They all looked confused because they had never met someone like Kade before. They were hesitant when they agreed, but I would make sure to reassure them as much as possible. There were many vehicles that carried everyone. Apollo and Vienna rode with us this time, and I could not help but smile at them. You could see how happy they were with one another. I looked over at Kade and pressed a kiss to his cheek before he put the car in gear. I had never been shopping before, so this was a new experience for me. I knew that many of the others from Blue Crest were in similar positions or had not been since they came to the pack. “We have plans on building a mall in the next couple of years. We have a shopping district right now that has stores for everything anyone could need. If someone honestly can’t find what they want then we can order it online and have it s
TYRE Kade and I always longed to find the one that the Goddess chose specifically for us. Every wolf desired their mate because only through them would true completion be found. Part of us had slowly started giving up hope of finding her because six years had gone by since it became possible. Little did we realize it was because our mate had not reached eighteen until right before we met her. Mate was everything that we could ever desire. She was strong, fierce, gorgeous inside and out, and took care of her people no matter what it cost her. It tore us apart to know what pain she suffered all these years. She was a child thrust into Hell and nobody came for her. She had Gabriel, but not even that fully saved her. They had to endure things that nearly everyone would never be able to relate to. It killed us that our own pack members hurt Mate. However, she still carried on and still survived. She was a warrior and completely unbreakable. Then we had Faye, my kitty. I had never laid e
ELLE “Do you plan on cluing us into why you have a medieval torture table set up?” I asked Dante. The table was laden with everything from different blades to jars to syringes to bowls of herbs. He called us all into his suite but did not explain the reason. That was how Glenn, Cara, Kade, I, Chris, Lindsey, Apollo, Gabriel, their mates, and my parents all came to be standing around, looking at Dante curiously. “Trust me that this is not a torture table. It would be far more fucking creative if it was. This is our table of fucking protection and peace of mind,” he quipped. I loved his personality so damn much. He had a witty response to everything and loved the word fuck, but it was purely Dante, and it made me happy to see that he was not afraid to be himself. Dante pulled out a chair for me and waited until I was sitting to explain the purpose of this all. “I read through the book and came to some disturbing conclusions. Before I get into that, this table will be used to not o
ELLE I blinked my eyes to refocus on the room. Concern laced everyone’s gazes as they looked at me. “You all okay?” I asked, looking around the room. “Are we okay? What the fucking hell just happened to you? Your eyes went completely white, and nothing we said or did could get you to respond,” Dante explained. That would definitely explain the concern. I was still trying to wrap my head around what I just witnessed and learned. It was so far outside of my wheelhouse, but I bet Dante would be able to help me understand it all. “I’ll explain everything if I can get a piece of plain paper and pencil or something to draw with,” I said, taking a long drink of the refreshing water that Gabriel handed to me. Dante wasted no time in grabbing a sketchbook and a set of charcoal pencils. This would definitely work well. This was either Dante’s or Chris’ drawing tools. I set to work drawing Bandore while I explained what happened with excruciating detail because I did not want even the slig
ELLE “Why do you call me Lady Elle instead of just Elle?” I asked him curiously. “Does it bother you?” he asked instead of just answering. I shook my head. “You are my charge and very important. It is the way of my kind. My mother would smack me if I did not show you the respect that you deserve.” His eyes narrowed at the mischievous smirk that found its way onto my face. I just held my hands up in surrender. “Janina is a friend of mine and reached out to me, inquiring about Light Fae essence for a remedy to disrupt a tracker of Dark Fae. I asked her who it was for, so that is why I insisted it be mine. I had a feeling that she knew I was your Protector which is why she contacted me directly. Please explain to me what happened with the Zeltenea.” I looked to Dante because this was his area of expertise, and he seemed to enjoy talking about it when given the chance. He leaned forward with a smirk and recounted the story. My eyes remained on Caiathus because I wanted to see what ty
KADE I had held my mate while she slept last night. Part of me was wary of falling asleep because I felt like I was failing to protect her at every fucking turn lately. Elle had been through so much horror in her life, but more was still coming for her. She had always been a strong pillar of support for her people, and the only way that she could get through each day was to push aside what she could just to keep moving forward. My heart shattered for her when she broke down about feeling those bastards. People always took what they wanted from her, and I had no idea how she was so fucking strong to keep going, but she did. I wanted to destroy every single entity that ever forced a tear from her eye or touched what never belonged to them. Sadly, reality did not work like that. “Here you go,” Apollo said, breaking me away from my thoughts. I took the coffee and thanked him. I was not certain how much sleep I actually got last night, but I knew that it was not much. “Darling, you h
ELLE Cara had been all for helping out. It was like I offered cotton candy to a toddler. That was her level of pure excitement. I should be wary, but it was endearing. That was how we found ourselves seated in a large conference room. My mother, Ansley, Vienna, and those females from my previous pack were also accounted for during this planning phase. I rethought the fact that it was endearing when Cara opened up a large binder and a detailed slide show. “Wipe that fear off your face, sweetheart. Every detail will pull together until your mate has the breath ripped away from him as he finally sets eyes upon you,” Cara said the exact words that I needed to hear in order to push it all away. I gave her a grateful smile. There was no way in hell I would even know where to start with planning, so I was thankful to have guidance. Five hours ticked by until we had everything planned out, assigned, and were confident in our choices. Kareena had already fitted me for the dress and took
KADE Hold on. Please just hold on. ‘He dared to hurt Mate,’ Tyre snarled in my head. Failure again. I promised her that she would be safe, but I could not even keep her safe when I was three feet away from her. My body would not stay still, so I was pacing the length of the hallway while I waited to hear an update. Anything. I just needed to know that she was okay. It was like a clip stuck on repeat. Apollo must have picked something up from Troy because he lunged for him, but the hidden knife left his hand before Apollo ripped him away. The knife was thrown straight for my mate’s neck and hit the mark. I would never be able to unsee what she looked like with a knife sticking out of her neck. I was a shit mate. Elle deserved so much better than me. My love was not enough to keep her safe, and I never once thought that my fucking pack would end up causing my mate so much pain. Troy was a dead man. I would bask in his screams of agony as I fileted his flesh from his fucking body.
SNEAK PEEK FROM FATED SOUL – FATED LIGHT – DANTE “How did you do it?” I asked Kade as I ran my fingers through my hair for the hundredth time today. He pushed a glass of Bourbon to me. It was gone in one swallow. I was a little on fucking edge. Sue me. “I’m not going to lie to you. It’s fucking difficult. I have no idea how I did it because I wanted nothing more than to rip the last breath from each person that hurt my mate. I wanted to watch as their lifeforce left their bodies. Fucking hell. I wished that I could murder every single bastard that even thought something negative about her. However, I realized that destroying them was also about me. It wasn’t just about what happened to Elle. It was about me feeling like a failure for not protecting my mate even though I didn’t know who she was yet.” Kade placed his hands on my shoulders and gave them a comforting squeeze. I came to Kade because he had been in a similar position to what I was in right now. His mate, my sister, ha
ELLE “You can sit the presents over there,” I said, pointing to the table. Today was the twins’ first birthday. Everyone decided to throw a huge party in celebration. Nightshade, Shadow Falls, Dark Moon, our vamps, our Fae friends, and our fiery dragons all came to spend this special day together. Our boys were little heartbreakers already. They were Alpha pups on steroids when it came to their strength and size. They looked more like they were two instead of one. Then they had the intelligence of years beyond themselves. They were their own species so to speak. It was exciting and scary at the same time. We just wanted them to be carefree pups, but they were destined to be so much more. “Oi,” Denny grunted as Gabriel Reece plowed into him. Our boys began walking at about six months. They were little hellions with how fast they were. Not to mention that they were already befriending the shadows. Oddly, the boys never did anything harmful. It was like they were self-aware. Caiathus
KADE Time had passed by quickly, and life moved on with it. Those bastards involved in Ada’s murder and Anya’s attempted murder, had been tortured until every single detail was spilled. There really had not been much left in them, but we enjoyed exacting justice for what they did. Apparently, Ada had no idea who the bastard was when he got her pregnant. He essentially had roofied her at the library one day when she was studying. It made sense why she had dropped out of school and moved back to the pack after that. She had been drugged, raped, and gotten pregnant from it. It was not until they were torturing her that she learned the truth all along. The bastard took great pleasure in detailing exactly what happened, including using illegal herbs to force becoming pregnant. Elle made sure that I sliced his dick off for that bit. Only my mate could sit in the corner of a torture chamber and eat mint chocolate chip ice cream while giving us suggestions here and there without being aff
ELLE Kade insisted that we get a checkup when we got back to the pack. I could not deny him the reassurance that the twins and I were okay because I knew how terrified he had been about me being on that battlefield in the first place. I had asked Dante if he wanted to come as well since he had not really been present since he was at Dark Moon during everything. It was where he needed to be, but he was back here now. “We’ll be doing your scan. Is there anything new that you’ve experienced, Luna?” Dr. Silva asked as she prepared the machine. I bit my lip, trying to think of how to explain the odd occurrence on the battlefield. I had not even mentioned it to anyone, so I hoped that Kade remembered how much he loved me. “There was an unavoidable situation –” I was cut off by my mate. “She means a battle,” Kade interrupted, giving me a pointed look. Dr. Silva looked at me with widened eyes as if that was the last thing she had expected to hear. I understood how this looked from an ou
ELLE The battle with Bandore really had not been a battle at all. The closest thing that I had experienced were feeding rooms. However, even that did not compare to this right here and now. Adrenaline pulsed throughout my body, reminding me to stay alert at all times. There was no room for our failure here because that would mean the death of all involved as well as the pack behind us. There was no greater honor than to be given the opportunity to save those who needed us. Brynn had an important destiny, one that I was not privy to know the details of other than she was a prophesized and chosen Vessel. My cryptic ass wolf just loved annoying the shit out of me like that. ‘You know me so well,’ she cooed. ‘I couldn’t ask for a better wolfy than you.’ ‘And I couldn’t ask for a better human than you. I’m blessed that Selene chose me to be your wolfy.’ I smiled despite the carnage everywhere. Faye just proved that there was beauty that could be found even in the midst of damaging ch
ELLE Kade and I grabbed a few hours of sleep before making our way down to the Command Center as Apollo so conveniently named it. We had all of our leadership, a conglomeration of our vamp friends, Caiathus’ brothers, the Council, Mystra, Fyst, and Celeste as well. Gabriel and Ansley pushed in coffee carts, and my entire day finally felt right. I eagerly grabbed my specialty drink that was always perfectly made. I sighed as the first sip hit my taste buds. “You still really suck, sis. It’s not fair that you can drink caffeine,” Ansley huffed. “You could always take it up with Selene,” I said coyly, taking another sip. Gabriel vehemently shook his head back and forth behind her. He apparently did not like that idea whatsoever. “Why would you be against your amazing mate asking for such a simple thing? Do you not want her to have caffeine? Perhaps you shouldn’t be having caffeine either then if you’re going to be unfair to my amazing sister,” I told him with mock shame. Her head
KADE I was waiting for our people to finish putting the trash in the cells and join me in the office. Honestly, I needed a bit of time to cool down before I dealt with them unless we wanted to just snap their necks and be done with it all. That seemed too lenient a punishment for them though. The memory of finding Ada’s body would forever haunt me until I drew my last breath. Nobody deserved that type of treatment or death. I sighed, rubbing my eyes, and scrubbing a hand over my face. It was seriously throwing me for a loop that we had traitors in our pack and in our ranks yet again. Would there ever come a day when traitors would no longer exist within Nightshade? It was like an endless cycle that we could never break from. Ada and Anya deserved justice. What would that be though? How much would be enough? Honestly, nothing would ever be enough because they suffered far too much. I grabbed the framed scan of our pups from my desk and smiled at it. They were such a blessing alrea
ELLE His daughter. Anya was his daughter. I tried, and failed, to understand what that claim meant because he willingly murdered his own pup. He did not know she was alive, and he never would. He was a threat that we would eliminate before he could even think about sending any harm her way. “You knew who Ada was to you,” Kade said, coming to the same conclusion that I did. “Of course, I did,” he said nonchalantly. “Ada was a full-blooded witch. I was only half-blooded. However, I knew that a child between the two of us would yield even stronger magic than if I sought someone else out. It was for the greater good.” Kade did not like that at all, so a shadow slid across the bastard’s throat, strangling him. My mate held it for a count of five before the shadow relaxed but did not move from his throat. “You mean it was for your greater good,” I spat coldly. He smirked at me and looked very pleased with himself. I returned the smirk with one of my own because he was about to see a s
KADE I woke up with a start, heart pounding, and not understanding what was going on. It felt like my emotions were drowning me. Elle’s side of the bed was cold, causing me to jump out of bed and find her. We still had no idea who the hell killed Ada, so we had no idea who we could trust outside of our own leadership. We had been down the road of traitors before, but I did not expect us to be back there once again. Was this a cycle we would always face? I threw on some shorts and went to find my mate. It was not hard to find her, but my heart broke when I did. She was in the living room, rocking back and forth on the floor, sobbing her heart out. “I’m here, darling. I’ve got you,” I murmured as sat down and pulled her onto my lap. She buried her face in my chest and continued to cry for Ada and Anya. I was right there with her as tears welled up in my eyes as well for them and for her as well. My mate was the strongest person that I knew. She survived years of being tortured in e