Astrid“You’re late again,” Charles growled when I walked in the door. “I was working,” I replied as I shut the door behind me. “Sure, you were. You know, you’re doing this shit on purpose, aren’t you? You want to make sure I’m too stressed out and focused on you, that I can’t work and get the promotion.” “Is this a joke?” I asked. “I was just at work, Charles. It’s nothing more. You’re reading way too into this.” “Bullshit!!” he yelled. “You’re my girlfriend, Astrid! That means, I know when you’re lying! You like flaunting your title over me, don’t you?” I stopped, entirely frozen. I was completely blindsided by his words. Charles had never spoken to me this way before. Sure, he’d gotten angry, and sure, we’d fought, but he had never gone to this degree. I stared at him blankly for several seconds before I could muster a response. “Hold on,” I said. “What are you even talking about?” “Frank told me about the job,” he said in an accusatory tone. “What exactly are yo
AstridIt was cold as we walked towards the packhouse. I hadn’t expected the chill to settle in this early in the year, so I had left without a jacket. I was wearing a sweater, but it was thin and did very little to insulate me from the cold. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked down at my feet as I walked. I felt pathetic. I knew we were fated mates, but I couldn’t help but have the idea creep in that he was just offering to come with me to make sure I was safe, like he always did when we were kids. Did he see me as that little girl still? Someone he needed to protect out of some sense of duty? I jumped slightly as something warm wrapped around my shoulders. The strong scent of black tea enveloped me. I looked at my shoulder and realized that it was Tristan’s jacket. Heat rose to my cheeks and I instinctively pulled it closer around me. I looked at him curiously, but Tristan wasn’t looking at me. He was staring straight ahead of us at the road. “Thanks,” I muttered,
Astrid“So, I’m guessing your ‘friend’ is actually that jackass Charles,” Eddie began as we walked out of the packhouse. “What really happened to prompt this sudden trip?” I shrugged. I was fumbling with the keys my dad had given me. He was loaning me one of his vehicles for the drive. I hit the button to unlock the doors and listened for the beep. It was a white hatchback. At least it looked spacious. We’d be driving for a few hours. “You’re just going to ignore my question?” Eddie asked. “What does Charles want?” I opened the driver’s side door and tossed my shoulder bag onto the floor of the passenger’s seat. I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell him about the letter. When I told Tristian, I felt like an idiot—a complete idiot for getting myself into this situation and letting it get this far. Plus, Tristan’s reaction didn’t help either. He wanted to murder Charles, and judging from Eddie’s conversation with him the other day, if he knew what really was happening, he’d go even f
AstridThe closer we got to the city, the less trees were visible, and more custom homes and farm life appeared. A strong pang erupted in my chest. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss it out here. Granted, I wasn’t eager for why I was returning, but I was excited to feel the liveliness of the city once more. “Can we stop?” Eddie asked suddenly, pulling my attention to him. My eyes flicked in his direction, then back to the road. “What is it?” I asked with concern. He grimaced. “Sorry, it’s just my legs are cramping.” I looked down at the clock and frowned. We had only been driving for a little over an hour. We still had an hour and a half left to go. I didn’t really want to drag today out any more than necessary, but I recognized that they weren’t used to being in a vehicle for so long. Travel within the territories was normally done in wolf form. There wasn’t a lot of use for vehicles outside of travel to the human world. “Sure,” I reluctantly agreed. “We can stop for
Astrid I moved closer to Tristan and deepened the kiss. His back collided with the car, but he continued to pull at me. I was flush against him as his fingers tangled into my hair. I wrapped my arms around his neck. ‘Why are we doing this in public?’ I thought helplessly. I could hear people around us muttering and somewhere nearby, a young man whooping in amusement. I felt my face flush, but I didn’t stop. Tristan held me close and pulled away just slightly. “This is a mistake,” he said out loud. “You started it,” I muttered. I pressed forward and kissed him again. He moaned slightly and bit my lip just hard enough to make me yelp. “The hell I did.” He gripped my hair firmly and pulled me away enough for our eyes to meet. “Okay,” I replied breathlessly. “I started it. You finish it.” He growled. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” “I could say the same to you,” I replied. He pulled me in for another kiss. I surged forward to deepen the contact. The so
TristanI kept my eyes closed as I sat in the back seat and tried to reign myself in. For the thousandth time, I cursed at myself for kissing her. My self control had never been this weak before. I’d never had difficulty denying my urges. Right now, I was barely holding myself together. I could see Astrid’s face in profile if I opened my eyes. I could smell her airy lavender scent. I could taste her… “I can’t believe you eat these,” Eddie complained. Astrid laughed at him. “I told you they were hot.”She popped another jalapeno puff in her mouth. “It’s not that they’re hot,” he countered. “I like peppers. This doesn’t taste like peppers.” “No,” she agreed. “It tastes like hot.” “That doesn’t even make sense,” he shot back. She shrugged. “So, eat your sandwich,” she said. “It’ll get the taste out of your mouth.” “Tristan, try one of these,” Eddie urged. I cracked my eyes open to see him shoving the open bag towards me. I caught a whiff of the puffs and wrinkled my
AstridI parked the car and let out a slow breath. The car had fallen into silence a while ago. Eddie finally settled on a soft rock station and eventually, that was the only sound that we’d heard. The closer we got to the apartment, the more nervous I became. It was too much for me, and Eddie and Tristan both seemed to realize that I needed a few minutes of silence to prepare myself for whatever might happen when I saw Charles. I thought about texting him that I was on my way. I thought about calling him. I decided against it. I didn’t want to have any more contact with him than I absolutely had to. I didn’t feel like I owed him the courtesy of phoning ahead. I turned the key and shut off the engine. The radio faded out and we were left sitting in complete silence. “We’re here,” I said softly. Eddie got out of the car immediately and started to stretch. I stayed in the car. I looked up at the building with a mix of anger and sadness twisting in my chest. Not too long ago,
AstridMy shock at Tristan’s words left me unable to act. I was conflicted. I was frightened by how intense the situation had suddenly become, but I was also relieved to see that Tristan was having an impact on Charles. I was also more than a little dumbfounded that he cared enough about me to be pushed to this level. Tristan was so level headed and calm usually. This was almost surreal. Maybe Eddie was right. Maybe we just needed to scare Charles. I couldn’t imagine that he would continue with his threats after this. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and looked to see Eddie approaching Tristan and Charles. Eddie put his hand firmly over Tristan’s, which was still gripping Charles’ shirt and holding him a few feet off of the ground. I didn’t hear Eddie say anything, but I could see that he was applying pressure to Tristan’s hand. Slowly, Tristan lowered Charles back to his feet and released his shirt. Tristan glared at Eddie, but Eddie just looked back at him steadi
AstridThe festival had continued the next morning just as Solomon promised, but it was obvious by the increased guard that something was going on. The visiting Alphas and Lunas had arrived that morning at the packhouse demanding answers, and Solomon was the one to give them. He explained that the threat had been neutralized and that he gave his personal guarantee that there wouldn’t be any other issues. He offered to arrange a guarded escort for anyone who wanted to leave early. After a private conversation with Slade, it was decided that everyone was staying. I didn’t ask Solomon about what else was said, I was just glad that he was able to handle it. That night, while the party raged in town, I met with Solomon and dad alone. I wanted Tristan to be with me, but I understood why he couldn’t be there. Having Solomon there was going to have to be enough. I sat alone in the chair across from dad’s desk. Solomon was standing near me with his arms folded tightly across his ches
AstridVictoria was handcuffed to a wooden chair in dad’s office. There were guards outside of the window and the door and a patrol was rotating outside of the building in case any more of her creepy friends showed up. The house had been cleared room by room, so we knew no one was hiding inside and waiting for a signal to attack. We were all standing in the office in tense silence. I had no idea what was going to happen next. I was confused and scared. That attack was aimed at me. I had no idea why she would go to such lengths to try to hurt me. I had cleaned the blood off of myself, but I could still smell it and it made me nauseous. Tristan had his arm firmly around me, but he didn’t say a word. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for him to face Victoria right now after everything that she did to him. Dad stood awkwardly In the middle of the room. He hadn't made eye contact with anyone since we entered and I wasn't sure what to make of that. The only person who seemed le
AstridThere were dozens of people gathering in the garden. It was hard to see what was going on ahead of us, but I knew from the sickly sweet smell of perfume that Victoria was here. I hadn’t realized how strange it was that she wore perfume until Tristan had pointed it out. He said that he smelled it during his kidnapping and it was the thing that tipped him off to his kidnapper's identity. “It took a while to figure out where I’d smelled it before, but almost no one in the pack wears perfume. The artificial smell is too abrasive,” he explained. It hadn’t struck me as strange because perfume is so common in the human world. I was used to it. But Tristan was right—wolves often didn’t wear perfumes or colognes. The smell was too overpowering.I cursed internally. If I had realized it was strange earlier, I might have figured out that something was going on with Victoria before it got this far. She must be using the scent to cover up something, probably the toxic herbs she w
AstridIt was a cool autumn day and the garden was still in bloom. The scent of foliage was carried across the city on a gentle breeze. The streets were buzzing with excitement as the Lunar Festival officially got underway. Tristan had spent the better part of the morning preparing the garden for our presentation. Dean Parker had arrived early in order to help him. I was busy inside greeting the Alphas and Lunas that were going to be watching the presentation, and hopefully agreeing to take part in the program. “Welcome to Bridgewater,” I said for the sixth time in a quarter-hour. “Thank you so much for joining us for the festival this year.” “Thank you for having us,” a tall, robust woman with dark hair said. She was the Luna of Moonriver, Gwendolin. I had met her once before when I was a little girl and I remembered being struck by how strong and beautiful she was. I felt the same way seeing her now. Almost a little starstruck. “It’s our pleasure,” I assured her. “And
Tristan The amount of time that had passed without answers about Victoria's whereabouts was concerning at this point. The Alpha was operating under the assumption that she had fled into another territory. This put him in a difficult position because as much as we needed to find her, he had no desire to alert the other packs of what was happening. Reporting her as missing would look almost as bad as reporting her as being on the run—there was no way to address the problem without causing a scandal. So, with the Lunar Festival fast approaching, the packhouse was focused on preparations rather than the missing fugitive that had killed the Luna and kidnapped me. It was maddening to everyone in the packhouse except for Alpha Anthony. He was the only one who seemed confident that Victoria wouldn’t show her face. I was grateful for the Alpha's decision to allow me to stay in the packhouse because I didn't think that I could handle being away from Astrid right now. I was having a h
AstridAfter Tristan's rescue, it became clear that he was not going to be able to finish the semester. Dean Parker agreed to approve medical leave for him and Dr. Sanchez agreed that he would take over his classes for the remainder of the school year. The Dean was disturbed to learn that Tristan had been kidnapped from campus, and as a result of that and the incident in the bathroom with Lilian, the school was investing in a series of new security cameras. They were also considering updates to campus security and increasing the number of emergency call boxes on campus.Dean Parker was a lot more willing to implement changes than dad was. Unfortunately, the only change he’d agreed to make was to allow Tristan to temporarily stay in the packhouse.Solomon was taking things a lot more seriously. I was grateful that he was willing to take matters into his own hands when necessary. I couldn’t believe how incredibly stubborn dad was about this. Lilian had confessed that Victoria was
AstridDad brought down the full force of the pack on Bethany's house. Within 10 minutes of our phone call, the guard had filled the house. Dad was personally interrogating Bethany in a side room. I couldn't hear anything but the occasional sob from her. I'd seen him angry before. I knew how he could be and even I had never faced him in the state he was in now. I wasn't entirely certain that Bethany was going to walk out of that room. The healer arrived shortly after dad. She came directly to Tristan and knelt in front of him. I moved aside to allow her to work. Her long, thin fingers moved deftly as she checked his eyes, looked into his mouth, and checked his vitals. The look of concentration on her face was as emotionless as a statue. About 20 minutes after the guard arrived, there was a commotion from upstairs. I heard a woman shrieking and men shouting. The side room opened and dad stepped out. “What the hell is going on?” he demanded. Just at that moment, a guard came
AstridTristan was in this house. His scent was strong, and I knew deep down, that he was still here somewhere. I should have gone for help, I should have waited for dad or Solomon, but I just couldn't. I'd been looking for him for days. There was no telling what state he was in. Bethany would be suspicious about my coming here. They would move him as soon as I left, I was sure of it. I couldn't take the risk. ‘Take me to him,’ I told my wolf. ‘Quickly.’ My body moved at her discretion. We went down a side hallway to a locked door. I twisted the knob as hard as I could, but the lock wouldn't give way. I growled in frustration, but this wasn’t going to stop me.I slammed my shoulder into the door, not caring if Bethany heard. The sound was dull and muffled. I did it again and again. I put my full body weight and strength into the wood of the door. It cracked and then flew off of the hinges. A dank, damp smell met me as I looked down a set of wooden stairs into a dark basemen
Astrid I was even more tired than I realized, and I slept until the next morning. When I did get up, I quickly dressed, and then I groggily made my way down to the kitchen. My stomach was growling. I hadn't eaten anything in over a day. I wasn't sure what I was going to find, considering Solomon's promise yesterday about having everything replaced. What I hadn't expected was to see that he had taken my comments about pre-packaged food very seriously. Everything in the freezer, the refrigerator, and the pantry was in an individually sealed packet. But that didn't guarantee that Victoria couldn't tamper with anything. It sure made it a lot more difficult for her, though. I gratefully took a freezer pack of smoothie mix and made myself breakfast.Once I ate, I found it a lot easier to think clearly. I should have waited for Solomon, but I couldn't. That didn't mean I had to be careless about how I went about this. I knew that there was something about Victoria that I didn't know.