Tom’s PoVIt had taken a few days but things had finally calmed down enough at the pack for us to be able to mount our reconnaissance. Lilly hadn’t wanted me to go, worrying that I would run into trouble and end up hurt somehow. I tried my best to reassure her though and finally, after much persuasion, I left her to go and meet the mercenary leader.We had agreed to meet with Delores before we left so that she could update us on Alpha King Andrew’s condition but as I expected, when we arrived, there was very little change to his condition.“Would you like to see him before you leave?” She asked softly as we stood outside his room, peering through the glass on the door at the myriad of tubes that linked him to life-saving machines.“Is it really necessary?” I said coldly as the mercenary leader tutted loudly.“The least you could do is pay your respects to the king you know. Once he’s recovered I’m sure he’ll be immensely grateful to all those who helped to remove the usurpers and rein
Lily PoVI paced endlessly while I waited for Tom to return from their mission and the possibility that things might go terribly wrong terrified me.What if he ended up like Ryan and Amber? Locked away in a cell somewhere, waiting for his fate to be decided by a bitter old queen.I groaned loudly and threw myself face down on the bed. There wasn’t even anything that I could do to distract myself from my overactive imagination. Delores had spent a little time with me but she had to dash off to see to something urgent after a little while.Then, the sound of cars pulling up filtered through the window, and I pushed myself off my bed, running over to see if this was Tom returning home safely.My heart pounded in my chest as I watched him step out of the car, my eyes roving over his body to make sure there were no signs of injury and when I saw that he was unharmed, I let out a sigh of relief.He stepped back to the rear passenger door and opened it. I watched as the mercenary leader step
“Do you think we got enough information?” Lilly asked me as soon as we stepped outside the interrogation room, my head turning and snapping towards her in surprise at the sound of her voice.“Lily? What are you doing down here?”“I had to hear it for myself.” she answered softly, “The sooner Luna Kelly is removed from her position the better. Do you have enough on her to make it happen?”“I think so,” I sighed, “It’s still going to be messy as hell though.”“Are we still moving ahead with the plans for tonight?” The mercenary leader asked as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.“Yeah, let’s get these omega’s escorted to more comfortable chambers and take a quick break, What do you say?”The mercenary leader chuckled as he looked between Lily and me.“Sure, go and play lovebirds for a little while before we show your Alpha how an escape plan is done, yeah?”Lilly blushed furiously and lowered her head, and the sight of her so embarrassed stirred the fury of my beast.“I do not play at anyt
Amber’s PoVAfter Peter had made his intentions known, I had felt sick with my inability to change anything and I was at a loss of what I was supposed to do.Ryan had been silent since Peter's visit with Viola and his mother to the cell and there had been whisperings amongst the guards that Alpha Rick had arrived with his men too. Any chance of rescue that we had was growing slimmer by the minute and it was infuriating that it was beginning to look like Kelly was going to get away with this.A noise at my cell door had me looking up and once the door opened, it revealed Viola standing in the doorway, her face red with anger and her hateful eyes narrowed toward me.“Viola, what a pleasant surprise,” I intoned dryly as she snorted disdainfully at me and stepped towards me.“I can’t believe you’ve done this to me…again.” She hissed bitterly, “No matter what man is destined for me, you take them for yourself.”I sighed heavily and fought the urge to roll my eyes.“It’s about time you grew
Amber’s PoVWe moved in silence, Viola’s guards setting a brutal pace as they frogmarched us through the shadows, a wall of bodies separating Ryan and me from each other.The further we walked into the forest, the more a pit of unease grew in my stomach and I couldn’t seem to shake the image of Viola’s grinning face out of my mind as she watched us leave.“Ryan..” I said nervously but his name dissolved into a cry of surprise as the man at my back shoved me roughly forward and despite my best efforts to remain upright, I stumbled and fell.“For fuck sake, No talking! Are you dumb? Do you want to get us caught?!” The guard snarled as he lifted me by my hair off the ground.“Get your fucking hands off her!” Ryan snarled as he turned and attempted to come to my defense, but the other guards surrounded him, blocking his progress and laughing at his anger.“Not much you can do about this right now though is there?” The guard sneered as he dragged me to my feet and shoved me again, the men
Amber’s PoVI couldn’t believe it. Even seeing it with my own eyes as I looked through the window at where Andrew lay, it still seemed so surreal.“What are we going to do?” I breathed to Ryan as his face hardened beside me.“The only thing we can do. Try and wrest control back from Kelly and Peter. It’s not going to be easy though and I would rather avoid all-out war if possible.”“What do you have in mind, Alpha?” Tom asked seriously.Ryan was silent for a while before his eyes drifted to me.“Would you say it’s safe to assume that your step mother and Viola are involved in this as well as your father?”“Without a doubt. Although my father wouldn’t be involved if he didn’t stand to benefit financially.”“I was thinking that too.” Ryan hummed thoughtfully, “Have there been any changes with his financial staff recently that you know about?”“Not that I know of,” I said as I shook my head, “I don’t think he would take the risk…not knowing what his accounting is like.”“Good. That means
Amber’s PoVIt took only a few seconds for the realization to dawn on me that Delores was implying that all along, Ryan and I had been meant to be together. Both of us had been meant to suffer to get to where we are today, yet, none of this seemed fair in the slightest.“You need to tell her Ryan.” Delores pressed, “There's no escaping destiny, and the more the both of you know, the better for you both.”“Ryan?” I asked with a frown as he radiated nothing but anger and hatred towards the woman before us, “What is she talking about? What don’t I know?”“You just don’t know when to shut up, do you? I don’t know where you get off waltzing in and out of people’s lives as and when you see fit, to proclaim their futures as if they asked to be chosen for something special…”“Ryan please!” I pleaded with him as my heart began to beat anxiously in my chest.Whatever it was that Ryan was hiding from me couldn’t be good and as he turned to face me I could see the conflicted emotions on his face
Amber’s PoV“I see you still enjoy turning people’s lives upside down with your prophecies, Delores.” My mother said with a soft chuckle as she stepped forward to hug her tightly before turning her attention back to me, “I know none of this is what you wanted to hear Amber, but this curse…it feeds on secrets and lies and only draws strength from it. You must..”“No! I don’t have to do anything. “ I hissed, “All of this talk about curses, secrets, prophecies, and lies…I never asked for any of this. All I have ever worked for was to free myself and my mother from my fucking deadbeat father's grip and now, I find out that not only my father, not only my mate, but it’s looking like my mother had a hand in all of this?! What the fuck is going on?!”“Amber I promise you, I had no idea what your father was capable of when I accepted the mate bond.” She said as she stepped towards me.I felt trapped being surrounded by so many people that I felt had betrayed me in the worst way.“We met entir
Amber’s PoVWe sat through each and every trial, and I know initially I felt pity towards Kelly for her death sentence, after learning just how deep her depravity was during the trial of her lover and true mate, I found that little spark extinguished quickly.She deserved everything she had coming to her.Peter and her true mate Rick knew everything and ultimately faced the same fate as she did. The death sentence was rarely given among our kind but no amount of time they were forced to serve would ever atone for what they had tried to do to our kingdom.My stepmother Ann was sentenced alongside my father, both of their sentences determining that they would spend life in prison alongside some of the most terrifying criminals that existed in our world. My father was also charged with the illegal killing of Ryans parent’s, with Ryan standing as a witness and finally, he received the justice that he had sought for most of his life.And Viola?She too had played a part and for the crime o
Amber’s PoVRyan received word from Tom first that Kelly and her lover had been successfully apprehended and by all accounts, things went off without a hitch for them.The team that went after Peter and Viola, however, had a tougher time once they had found him as his personal guard had never been far away from him. The absence of my sister was noted though and when pressed for information, he reluctantly admitted that Viola had been moved to the cells as punishment for setting Ryan and me free, as well as her inability to provide concrete evidence that we were no longer a threat.She was currently being attended to in the cells by the doctor here at the safe house.As for my father, he hadn’t even put up a fight. Surprisingly, my stepmother had injured more of the mercenaries than he had, furious that her hard work was going to come to nothing.I smiled to myself as Ryan draped his arm around me lazily as we took a short walk in the grounds of the house. It was the first time we had
Tom’s PoVBy the time our party arrived at the packhouse, the sun was already casting long shadows through the leaves of the forest. It was these shadows that we moved through to the entrance I had escaped through with Lily in what seemed like an eternity ago.After a brief discussion with the mercenary leader, they agreed that I should lead the raid on our former pack house. As Ryan’s Beta, this was personal to me and I felt as though I had a score to settle as he couldn’t be here himself. This thought only made me more determined to succeed.The mercenary leader had taken a few of his men to lead a smaller raid on Alpha Luke’s territory with the intent of snatching him without too much issue. He had never invested in defensive infrastructure as much as he should have, so getting in and out for them would be easy.The air inside the tunnel that I led my band of misfits down seemed to be thick with tension as we made our way silently through the darkness, stopping only when we reached
Tom’s PoVI rose early the next morning, making sure that I didn’t disturb Lilly as she slept. Delores wanted the mercenaries ready to move out at a moment's notice and Ryan was counting on my support so I did the only thing I could think of and began making sure that my own preparations were in order.By the time I had everything organized and moved to wake the mercenary leader, Delores was already hovering in the corridor, watching me with interest.“What do you want?” I grunted as I went from door to door rousing the men as the leader got himself ready.“I’m just watching you work Tom. You’ve grown into quite a capable Beta, just as I knew you would. It makes my heart full with joy and pride to know that I was right.”I snorted and rolled my eyes as her gaze burned into me.“You didn’t know for sure back then, but you were still willing to leave two teenagers high and dry without the slightest idea what they were doing. I’d say that was pretty heartless.”“Really?” She mused, “I wo
Amber’s PoVThe Elder’s were true to their word and wasted no time in getting down to business.Once they had eaten their fill and reviewed the evidence, requesting copies to be taken into their closed-door meeting, they disappeared off to one of the more secluded rooms on the second floor with Delores leading the way.Lily made sure they had a tray of drinks and snacks to take in with them, more as a show of goodwill and hospitality on our part more than wanting to sway their decision. They had been good enough to travel all this way, the least we could do was to make sure that they were well cared for while they were here.“So what do we do now?” I asked Ryan, biting at my nails nervously.“I guess now we wait,” He said, letting loose a long breath.“Do you think they’ll take long to reach a decision?” Lily asked as she pulled her chair closer to mine.“I doubt it,” My mother answered gloomily, “They have everything they need and more to make a well-informed decision. The longest pa
Amber’s PoVThe Elder’s arrived as inconspicuously as they possibly could so as to not draw attention to the safe house location.As they were ushered into the hall and heads bowed in respect as they passed, I would be lying if I said I didn’t expect them to be more…imposing.The eight members of the council filed quietly through the crowd with benign smiles on their faces as they approached the head table. Both Ryan and I stood to greet them and bowed our heads in respect as we greeted them warmly.“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you all,” Ryan said seriously as their smiles remained in place.“Well, we come when called, and in the event of serious issues…I would say that the alleged events qualify as serious issues…wouldn’t you?” The man at the front answered with a sigh.“Delores said that the Alpha King is still alive?” another Elder asked curiously, “Would it be possible to see him?”“Come now Cecil, can it not wait until after we’ve eaten?” Delores grinned as she appeared behin
Amber’s PoVI still hadn’t made my peace with the fact that my mother hadn’t been able to somehow let me know that she was okay sooner than my wedding night, and I was still reeling from the fact that Ryan had planned to completely destroy me in every way possible in order to get revenge on my father.I know that I had managed to win him over by being the exact opposite of Viola, but it still didn’t sit right with me because he seemed to be quite happy to spit in the face of the Goddess and our mate bond just to get his own back for the death of his parents.I had no part in their demise yet he would have happily thrown me to the proverbial wolves. What happened to the benevolent Alpha that took care of his pack and helped even the Omega’s feel safe under his care? Was it all just an act?“Amber?” Ryan’s voice came from outside the locked door that I refused to open for him, or anyone else for that matter while I tried to get my thoughts in order.“What do you want? I told you I wante
Tom’s PoVIt wasn’t difficult to track down Alpha Luke’s head of finance. When we found that he wasn’t anywhere near his workplace, we headed to the only other location that he was known to frequent.The smell of stale sweat that assaulted our senses as we entered the bar made me want to gag, but I did my best to hold back the urge.“I don’t see him here.” The mercenary leader murmured as we scanned the faces of the patrons here.I grunted in response and pushed my way past the bouncers who looked at each other hesitantly. This was a private club and only members were allowed, but with the mercenary leader at my side, engaging us was more of a risk for these men on the door.“He won’t be in plain sight.” I replied, “He has specific tastes that aren’t fit for public knowledge.”The mercenary leader’s face darkened as soon as he understood what I meant and he lifted his lip in disgust.“The back rooms then.” He snorted as he turned and headed straight for the door where an increasingly
Amber’s PoV“I see you still enjoy turning people’s lives upside down with your prophecies, Delores.” My mother said with a soft chuckle as she stepped forward to hug her tightly before turning her attention back to me, “I know none of this is what you wanted to hear Amber, but this curse…it feeds on secrets and lies and only draws strength from it. You must..”“No! I don’t have to do anything. “ I hissed, “All of this talk about curses, secrets, prophecies, and lies…I never asked for any of this. All I have ever worked for was to free myself and my mother from my fucking deadbeat father's grip and now, I find out that not only my father, not only my mate, but it’s looking like my mother had a hand in all of this?! What the fuck is going on?!”“Amber I promise you, I had no idea what your father was capable of when I accepted the mate bond.” She said as she stepped towards me.I felt trapped being surrounded by so many people that I felt had betrayed me in the worst way.“We met entir