Elle tries to be the impenetrable women who never breaks, but she is only human, and there's a lot of trauma that she has to live through as well. Kade recognizes this and can help her with it.
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.
ELLE “I don’t think that’s an appropriate outfit, darling,” Kade said as his eyes swept over every inch of my look. My body turned towards the mirror, and I did not see the problem. I had black skinny jeans on with a maroon top with capped sleeves that tucked at my waist and had embellishments around my chest. The jeans were paired with a pair of leather boots that went up to mid-calf. “What’s wrong with it?” I asked. I actually really liked it, but if it was not appropriate then I could change. My mate wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back into his body. His tongue traced my earlobe before nipping it. “It’ll take every ounce of patience I have in order to fuck you wherever we are.” ‘He really should start doing that. It’ll keep all the other females away from him,’ Faye supplied. ‘And all the males away from Mate. Good thinking, Kitty,’ Tyre purred. My head turned to take in the time and I wanted to scream. Now I was horny and had to go deal with stupidity instead
ELLE It was the following morning when we decided to gather those that Troy named. I wanted to do it individually, but I learned from Blue Crest that showing support right away can help promote long-term acceptance and strength. Brianna and Tinsley were both more than happy to help out. I had given them the brief overview of what went down with Troy. They wanted all the details, but I just told them that I made him cry before breaking his nose. Cara showed us to a large sitting room. It was once used for entertaining guest packs. It had plenty of comfortable seating, and the window wall was one-way, so nobody could see in. It gave us a beautiful view of the woods though. The kitchen arranged to bring in carts with drinks and snacks just incase anyone wanted anything. It was 10:00 A.M. by the time everyone showed up. They all looked confused and nervous, so I encouraged them to get something to drink or eat if they would like and find a seat. There was a variation in ages of the
KADE Tonight, was the official Luna ceremony, and I could not be any prouder of the woman who would officially take her place beside me. She was the only one who was truly worthy of standing beside me to lead this pack. There were going to be some additional surprises presented at the ceremony that would make our pack safer, better, and more inclusive as well. Not to mention one that nobody but me knew about. There was a knock on the office door, and Apollo opened it up when I linked him. Brianna, Tinsley, and Bronx entered into the room. Apollo and Dayton followed behind them. “Take a seat,” I said, gesturing the three chairs in front of my desk. “Thank you, Alpha,” the three of them said in unison. I had to bite back my smile because this just proved that my mate had been right in coming to me with this opportunity and these three to take those roles. I never once doubted that my mate could see the potential within others. “I won’t take up much of your time, and Luna Elle wou
ELLE I had been nervous as I was getting dolled up, but it all faded away when I looked in the mirror. All of my nerves were thrown to the side. The off-shoulder maroon satin dress dipped into my cleavage but in a classy way. The bust had diamond embellishments and was cinched at the waist before it flared just a little until it hit my ankles. It was an open back, and there was a side slit that ran the length of my right leg, showing off the high heels that laced up my calf. My hair was loosely curled with gems pinned throughout it and was draped one shoulder so that Kade’s mark was shown off. It was the Nightshade crest with one change. The two wolves looking up both had marks on their foreheads. Those in the know understood what it symbolized, but the rest would not detect anything. My makeup was dramatic but classy at the same time. Black double wingtip eyeliner, silver and bronze smokey eye, with maroon lipstick which all made me feel like royalty. I had never looked like this
KADE So much had occurred since the day I met her, but I would not change it one bit because it was what brought us to where we were right here and now. A beautiful smile was on her face as she admired her ring while we waited on everyone to file in for today’s meeting. I knew that she would say yes, but Tyre and I were still nervous while we waited for her answer. The fact that she agreed to marry me still left me breathless. Not all shifters got married because the mating and marking ritual was even more sacred to our kind than a wedding. However, Tyre and I wanted tie ourselves to Elle and Faye in every way possible. We had quite a few things to discuss on how to move forward with our pack. We would have an in-depth one with those who knew Elle’s secrets later tonight. “I want you to plan our wedding exactly how you want it to be no matter what it involves. It’ll be our final official way of being tied together, and I want there to be fantastic memories to share with our future
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