Drumroll.... Enter Kella Rose Steele.
GRANTMama Faye told us that Kella’s ability to heal was sped up as a result of the amount of healing that went on to keep Mom and Kella alive during surgery. That was certainly a good side effect. Apparently, some of it was absorbed into the DNA that determined gifts.“Alphas, please follow me,” Drew told us.We were at Steele Construction to go over the plans that we have developed for the home that we wished to build. We had put a lot of thought into this and hoped that Angel liked it. We made certain that the design would accommodate a growing family, seeing as how we would soon be welcoming twins.“What can I help you with today?” he asked us.I passed him over the designs that we had worked on. Uncle Dante had also offered his opinion because he was great with architectural design.“Seven bedroom, four and a half bath. Home office. Two-story with open floor plan. Window walls.” He was nodding along as he looked through everything. “Wrap-around porch, patio, and balcony off of th
ANGELThe last couple of weeks had gone smoothly. Elle was fully recovered except for some wariness when crossing streets, but nobody could blame her for that. I would be more worried if she did not have any wariness.The teen driver had nearly been destroyed by the guilt on his conscience. Luckily, Elle was able to talk him into attending counseling so that he could heal from this.If he had been an adult instead of a teenager, the punishment would have included the cells for an extended length of time. He was not being given a pass, but this was an ideal learning experience that could lead to a transformation that would make him even stronger. Thus, he would be attending a defensive driving course and community service on top of the counseling.The other night, I had a dream that lit a fire underneath my ass. Well, Athena actually called it a vision of guidance. They were aptly named because they were used to guide someone about something in particular.I had spent the past two days
ANGELThe fact of the matter was that nobody could outrun their past indefinitely. At one point or another, it would appear in front of you like a charging bull inside of a china shop, threatening to destroy everything within its wake.Something that I had recently learned was that trust needed to be earned instead of blindly given. Had I not been so trusting, had not allowed myself to ignore my instincts, then I might not even be here right now. Goddess, I had been so damn blind and had nobody to blame myself for falling into this carefully created trap.I had always prided myself on my strength. It had been hounded into me that I could overcome anything just as long as I fought hard enough and continued fighting no matter what. The reality was that it was much easier said than done when the time came to put that plan into action.Betrayal – the word itself stung, slicing into me like a silver dagger, serrating everything it touched. How had I been so blind to not have seen the snake
ANGELI was given a writing prompt in the fourth grade, which made an impact still felt today. It was a single sentence.Who are you?That should have been easy to answer, but it was not. I remember sitting back in my seat and thinking about what made me who I was.My birth mother had only been in my life for ten weeks. Sadly, I did not know anything about her. The story that I had been told was that a group of vampires had rounded up humans to be sold at a feeding room as portable juice boxes in a variety of flavors from O- to AB+ and everything in between. My mother was a she-wolf with a gift that concealed us as humans until it did not. I was still young enough to be passed off as human, but she was not. Feeding room vampires did not stoop so low as to consume wolf-shifter blood. Their thoughts, not mine.Thankfully, Luna Elle and Alpha Kade were undercover at that feeding room and saved me.I was brought back to the Nightshade pack and my parents immediately adopted me. They said
GABRIELI was working on the final touches to my project for school that had been assigned over the summer. This one was for my leadership training program. It used to just be Alpha training, but it was changed to all leadership when the academic curriculum for the academies that were being designed years ago.My proposal was an exchange program where those within a future leadership position would spend a month shadowing someone from the same rank from another pack. Each pack’s structure was designed by the Alpha in charge. My proposal would immerse future leadership amongst different ways of doing things, potentially opening them up to important collaborations.I twirled the pen I had in my hand while I checked the time. It was well past eight, and I had not seen my brother since school let out.As if I had summoned him, Grant walked into the suite, slamming the door behind him. It was a good fucking thing that we lived at the packhouse instead of our parent’s home or else he would
GRANT Last night sucked in the way of sleep. I just could not get my Aunt’s words out of my head. It made me feel restless, and I knew that it was the same for my brother. ‘Perhaps we should talk to Mom. If anyone can guide us then it’d be her,’ my wolf, Ghost, mentioned. Well, he had me there. She really would be the best guide for this. She was very intuitive and often privy to things that others were not. Mom was a Rosenthall by birth. That side of our family was related to the Goddess. Mom had a closer connection to her because she was chosen to be the Goddess’ warrior. It was an honor any which way that you thought about it. “Knight thinks that we should check in with Mom,” Gabriel mentioned as he donned his favorite leather jacket. “Ghost thinks the same thing.” I checked the time and saw that we had an hour before we had to leave for the academy. There were six academies across the country. They were open to any supernatural species and even humans who were a part of our
ANGEL School had always been something that I enjoyed because I loved learning and expanding my knowledge base. Some might think that it was lame, but I did not give two shits what they thought. These academies had done so much to help integrate the different supernatural species. Our pack had been diverse for as long as I could remember. However, not all packs were like that. It used to be that the species would keep to themselves for the most part. That in turn created plenty of conflict and purist ideologies. I never understood people who believed that they reigned supreme above all other species. Why did so many people look at someone’s species instead of who they were and what their character was like? Oh, I knew the answer to that. Pride, laziness, and egotistical bullshit. “See you at lunch?” Grant asked me as we were leaving English. “Of course. See you then.” Maxine, one of my packmates and a great friend of mine, had a grin on her face when she saw me. Her eyes tracked
GRANT ‘Did you pick up on anything unusual at lunch?’ I asked my brother as we were running laps around the territory. ‘You mean the fact that Angel wouldn’t look at either of us while also remaining mute the entire time?’ I just grunted in response because I had no idea what the fuck had happened. She was all excited about lunch when I left her this morning. Then she was off the rest of the day. Angel was never closed-off, not from us at least. Something had to have happened. I just wished that I knew what it was. “Alphas,” someone called out to us. We paused and turned around to see Maxine, one of Angel’s friends. She was newer to the pack and had hit it off with Angel right away. Angel was a social butterfly but had a harder time letting people in. “Hello,” I said as we threw our shirts back on after noticing her roaming eyes. “I was just wondering if you two were going to be at the party tonight.” Not a chance in hell would we be going without Angel, and she was on sitting