RIVER BROWNBritney hasn’t spoken since she confirmed her mate’s death. I know better than to push her but that doesn’t mean I don't worry for her.She sits on the bed, eyes out the window but they are so empty and bleak like her soul and wolf have left her.I hate seeing her like this and quite honestly, I don’t know what to do.“Can you watch over her? We both need new stuff”, I tell Jake as we both eat breakfast silently.I’m forcing myself to eat the breakfast cereal even if it tastes like cardboard and swamp water combined because this isn’t my house.Jake is doing me a favor. Especially and most especially when his wounds are staring at me right now and they are so ugly I’m still surprised he can smile.“Like I said you don’t have to ask. My car’s in the garage, I don’t know if you know how to drive but if you do you can take mine…or I could get you whatever you need- ““Jake? I know you don’t mind doing anything for us but I have to do this on my own. I’ll be back by evening”H
NEO KINCAIDHer pheromones are dripping in the air like rain drops.I smelled her the minute she stepped out of Jacob Castaneda’s house with a cloud of fury on top of her small height and a bit of sadness behind those eyes.River denies what’s happening to her body right now.Sure the little thing rubs her panty covered core against my very hard erection that is begging to be inside her but she’s avoided every chance I take of trying to touch her.“Lemme in, beautiful”, my voice sounds restless, “I’ll take care of you. We’ll take care of you”She sweeps her hair from her neck, the same neck I would have bit into given the chance.Those brown eyes are back on me again. Needy, dripping and craving touch, wanting something other than air filling her up.She pulls away from me faster than I catch her.Then in her panties and a bra that’s barely holding her boobs, her voice is sharp and precise, her face hard and serious, her eyes…sad. So sad.I could be the mate she deserves and tell her
SHANE KINCAID“We are going to catch them, kid. You hear me?” Connor assures.Eyebags rest under her eyes, those bright eyes of hers look like they’ve been doused in cold icy water rendering her soul itself cold. Britney blinks at us. The woman seated on the bed next to her stares at us too but she’s not really pleased about us bursting her personal bubble in this filth she calls her home now.“I want to avenge him! I want to be the one to end the life of those bastards. You’ll grant me this”“Britney- ““He was my mate”, she screams and a certain edge to her voice makes us all flinch.River too.“He was like a brother to us, you know that”“Yeah? They cut your brother in half and you haven’t killed them since he died. They—they ended him and you took this long to find them. Come on, who did it? Who do I need to go after? Ronan’s pack? Lin had beef with Jamie too, he could—could have—”“Brit as much as I understand your grief, I don’t think you are in any position to fight. I don’t t
RIVER BROWNI’ve had my periods tons of times but this time, it’s different.It’s different when they are near.It’s different because I crave warmth.It’s different because I’m in my room, my hand on my throat and my lips stinging from the need of any of them to be in this room with me. For them to be here to touch me and not be in some place looking for killers.I worry for them.My head is spiraling, my heart is in my mouth, my whole body feels like someone is pricking me from the inside and drawing drop and drop of blood from me.I should be with Brit in her room.I should be taking the glass of water I snagged from the kitchen but one, I’m too terrified to move and two, Brit’s grief over Jamie acts as a sort of foreshadow that my mates could be next.They cut Jamie in half for Goddess’ sake. And for some reason he couldn’t be healed nor could he heal himself.What if the same happens to them?Goddess no!They are Alphas. They can take care of themselves pretty fine. I shouldn’t b
RIVER BROWNI envisioned death a couple of times and this was not it.I thought I would die in my sleep or the Moon Goddess would grant me a respectful death. Instead…I feel his claws inside me. I feel him even as he withdraws them from my spine making sure the pain is etched on my brain.I feel my blood leave my body like a huge mass of water spewing from a crack.Blood gushes from my throat. My eyes try to focus on the clouds, on the skies, on the Moon Goddess.Like always she doesn’t answer me.She doesn’t help me.She watches as I shrivel to the ground, as my face touches the cold unrelenting grass, as the blood mixes with the water wiping any evidence that I suffered.A wolf howls behind me. Jake, I smile.Sweet Jake with the golden eyes is the reason I’m dying tonight.When I think the nightmare is barely over that I will die like a peasant, no wolf, no life, no mate, no pups...my hair is yanked by my killer.I don’t struggle.I’m losing too much blood.The pain is too much.T
CONNOR KINCAIDBritney O’Shea wounded.That punk’s house destroyed.Carnage all over.A ton of her blood pooling outside Jacob Castaneda’s house.The only missing equation?Our mate. Gone. Still alive. Injured. Dead?Shit.“You don’t have to do this. We are here, Jack, me, Luke, everyone of us is prepared to lay down our lives for our future Luna”“No”This is personal.“Alpha-“His words feel like stale cookies in my mouth right now.Every one of these shits supposed to be my pack irritates me to the bone.My patience drawing to a close line, my claws digging into my palm drawing enough blood to make it hurt and to make me sane, my eyes linger at Dice.Dice. Dice. Motherfucker Dice.He wouldn’t get what we are going through.Wouldn’t get what’s happening because one, he’s never had a mate, never truly desired one if we are being honest here and two, he’s never been cursed with a cynic of a father who’ll steal candy from you and bite a huge chunk of it while you watched. While you cri
SHANE KINCAID‘You are not leaving with this bastard’Sage grumbles and I’m right with him on this one.I was right with him too when we took out the kid without thinking twice. He chose this road, he chose to side on the wrong team, he deserved death.Connor catches on what Sage just said but my little brother isn’t backing down.Always hard-headed.Always putting himself at the front line when we are at war. That was Connor.Right now, Sage and I are looking at my brother and we get the feeling he is not bluffing.Connor is negotiating with the intent to go with the old man if that means River gets to live.I’m torn between my mate, my brothers, my father.“I wanted you to be an omega, boy. You had the spirit, had the resilience and you took after me in more ways than I could explain right now.Your mother was right, Con. You were good, hundred times better than I was”“And you will be, with me by your side. You will be”, Con takes a step further.Ten feet in and he’ll be able to re
RIVER BROWNAll I can feel is the copper metallic taste of my own blood in my mouth.The pain has become tolerable a little but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel sick.That doesn’t mean I don’t feel like my whole body is spliced in two and nothing will ever be the same again.We are running.How I figured that out is because I can feel the fur beneath me tickling my face, getting sticky with my own blood, I can hear whoever is carrying me breathe cold air into the night and while he pants like the clock is ticking.He doesn’t feel like Killian.No, this wolf is smaller. Scared like I am.The wind doesn’t care about me and my rescuer, not at all.Why? Because this is the Goddess laying down her thunder on me.Sealing my fate by ensuring I don’t make it out alive.One minute the wind is caressing my face, the scent of wet grass, exotic herbs and wet fur accosting my senses and the next minute, my rescuer loses his balance.The world spins, like it has been spinning since this torrid night
EPILOGUE: KINCAID BROTHERS’ POVNEO KINCAID“Keep you boys away from my kids”, Kane grumbles, I chuckle looking at said kids.Callum is dressed in a tux, his unruly dark hair carefully gelled back, an action that took Shane more than ten minutes.More than looking like a little gentleman, his little hands are all over Jessica, tickling her.Jessica Grey, Ria and Kane’s daughter, chuckles until a second later, the fit of giggles turn into tears of happiness.Callum removes a handkerchief from his tiny pockets, wiping the tears on her eyes and cheeks.The second he touches Jessica’s lips with the handkerchief, I’m already headed in his direction before Kane even thinks of punching my face to the ground.“Cal, hey. Come here.”My boy kisses Jess’ cheeks before he runs to me and I have no doubts he took over Connor.He’s cheeky like that.I kneel when he stands in front of me and I push lint off his suit.“What did we say about lying low when it comes to Jess? You know her father wants yo
RIVER BROWNThe ripple of his deep voice carries in the air and vibrates against my skin.My nipple puck as my hips buck taking every lash of his tongue like the good girl, he just declared me to be.I drown in his scent, in his taste, taking his tongue, matching the crescendo that’s us kissing like maniacs.Teeth gnashing against teeth, tongues fighting and him winning, his teeth biting my bottom lip before he sucks it like it’s supposed to give him energy.My pussy clenches when Neo goes ahead to play with my nipples.Not soft. Not gentle.But hard.His kiss is punishing.Him pinching my sensitive buds feels like he’ll draw blood and I damn know very well he’ll suck that blood and I will be hornier than ever before.By the time he goes to my neck, my heart beat accelerates like a motor engine. I growl for more knowing very well I’m out of breath and the building pleasure rioting in my body will be enough to bring the roof of the room down.My mates pick up on that.A second later, t
SHANE KINCAID“You ready to rodeo this shit?”Connor yells.I grip the chains harder, my boots sinking into the sand. Then I take one good look at the old man from his high seat looking at us like he thinks a couple of wild boars will be able to get rid of us.I’ll kill these beasts. I’ll pass whatever trials he has for us.And when we are out of here, I will fuck my mate senseless and mark her again if need be just to show the old man his daughter is mine.His daughter will always be ours.“Ready”, I retort over all the noise and the upheaval.Silva latches on to the neck of the boar up ahead in seconds.That’s one boar down.And the other is boar headed to us while we still can’t shift.“One.”I can hear the amusement in his voice.My brother is having quite a little bit of fun in this.I would find the whole situation funny if it wasn’t for the fact that we’ve been dangling in a dark room for days taking beatings from omegas we could have well killed.I’m pissed at everything.I’m
RIVER BROWNA few days of being here and Brit and I have searched for them to no avail.It doesn’t help talking to Osiris—my father because he has relentlessly refused to let me see my mates no matter how I ask my mother to knock some sense into him.“I chose them. I’m old enough to make my own decisions. I have made my own decisions for a long time long before you even showed up in the picture.”“Osiris- “, my mother pleads.My father’s face softens but that mask of overprotectiveness is back as soon as he holds my eyes tenderly.“I’m here now and you do not have to do anything you don’t want to.”“You think I don’t want my mates? I love them, they are my mates!”“Do you know if they are? Or did they tell you they are your mates and you went along with it.”Britney scoffs next to me.I fight the urge for an eyeroll because deep inside, his question boggles me.I admit at first, I didn’t feel anything towards them that classified them as my mates.Sure, they called me their mate first
CONNOR KINCAIDMotherfucker.The silver digs into my wrist, at this point it might as well be filtering into my bloodstream, weakening Killian and I.Shane’s the one who’s taking this harder than ever.Pissed as ever, exerting energy he doesn’t have trying to free himself, I know the silver stings him harder than all of us.“I’m calling it now”, Shane grunts, the chains rattle from the damp ceiling, “this is the last time we let any of River’s family members close to us. There was the delinquent sister and now there’s the psychotic father.”I cough.Blood taints my lips, almost choking me.Feeling the blood tainting my teeth, I smile and then I erupt into a full-blown pained chuckle.Curse our fucking luck.After all we’ve been through, to get River, to get the kids and the only thing stopping us now is a pissed off father-in-law who thinks we’ll corrupt his daughter.Our mate for Goddess’ sake.We’ve corrupted her so much, not even another man can breathe down her neck.We filled her
SPECIAL CHAPTER: ALPHA OSIRISWhen life has taken a lot from you, quite literally and figuratively, nothing surprises you anymore.I’ve seen everything the realm and the worlds have to offer and nothing in my entire lifetime has boggled my mind since.They call me a traitor, a traitor I have lived.My people were fickle and if I was a man who cared about the rumors and the backlashing, I would have slaughtered them. Had some peace, enforced the power I craved so much in my youth.Yet one thing changed in the equation and life was as meaningless as the walls I erected to keep the outside world out.My lotus flower died.My human mate left me to rot in this wretched world.Not a single day has gone by not wishing I could join her wherever she went.Humans believed they went to heaven when they died.Werewolves believed there was only two paths in the afterlife. To the Goddess or to hell.I hadn’t done a lot in my life that made the Goddess like me but I would have done anything to join
NEO KINCAID“Iridian? Lotus flower, is that you?”Osiris asks like he’s floundering in a vast pit of his own self-loathing and guilt.I can’t imagine what it’ll feel like knowing he has twenty-six-year-old twin girls, one of whom he just threatened to kill for the punk standing pale next to him.My little boy grins, turning around to look at us.“Meemaw, he knows your name”, Niko says.Iridian slowly steps forward, lips quivering, her hands covering her mouth to stop the sobs.A few of the shit betas and omegas in the room with us murmur.Some of them might know her.Some of them think she’s a fraud.But most of them smell it in the air.River and my kids smell like Iridian, only different.And Iridian smells like what she is. A human.Maybe that’s why Osiris picks Niko from the floor and in his hardened scarred arms taking painful steps to meet us.A minute ago, I thought we’d take out Osiris and get to the displeased omega who’s only gotten paler.Right now, we all watch as two love
CONNOR KINCAIDFor a myth guy and for a guy who’s been a traitor to his species, Osiris didn’t earn the title for the most powerful alpha in the realm for nothing.We thought we were rogues.Osiris makes us look like a bunch of fools from Brackenridge.You can tell by the infrastructure in Gozam, the gravel-built houses surrounding the castle for protection.There are the omegas guarding the gate and as we move inside the city, there’s the betas guarding the inside of the city, guarding the outside of the grotesque gothic mansion up ahead.Each tumble of the jeep we are currently occupying raises our guards up.River’s father might be some bigshot but bigshot or not, we don’t give a shit about his power or his city or his shit guards that stare at my kids like vermin.As soon as we get Levi, we are out of here. Back to normal. Back to making up to our kids for missing in action in all five years of their lives.River and the kids are up ahead in the jeep halting in front of the castle
RIVER BROWNI have been biting my nails since they disappeared into the woods.At some time in the night, Gypsy alerted me she heard screams. I wanted nothing more than to let my curiosity take over but the thought of leaving my kids stopped me.They left us with a couple of omegas to protect us.And then there’s Gio who’s protecting the premises with a bat in case of trouble. We all know that bat won’t stop anyone but I let the old guy think he’s doing something.Mom hasn’t stopped looking out in the woods yet and I get her.Brit is out there too and by the look on her face when she left, she’s determined to see this through to the end.I’m determined to put this behind our backs and start a life without wars and hunting and constant danger.The Moon Goddess might have heard my prayer because the trees by the west ruffle and the moon’s light reveals the triplets’ faces.Brit follows behind them but that’s not the only one tagging along.Some guy is being yanked and forced to walk beh