Mason woke up with his face covered in something incredibly soft and a weight on his arm. At first, he thought it was Lillian since she had a habit of showing up and lying next to him when she was on a mission. Mason inhaled deeply, filling his nostrils with a heavy winter blossom scent. He opened his eyes and noticed he was in his room, in his bed, with Xenia's back cuddled against him. His breath caught in his throat as he tried to stay still. Her sheer red nightgown didn't leave much to the imagination.
How the hell did I get here, he wondered.
"She is our mate, and she was in pain," Rodin answered him. "It's only natural I would want to be close to her, and seeing how cowardly you are, I
Mason sat behind his desk, watching his mate scream and yell at two of his warriors. This was the fourth time she's been brought here in the past few days. It was starting to become routine. The warriors moved closer to the desk, carrying Xenia by her arms. She looked so small next to them, with the bottom of her red dress flowing at least a foot off the ground. He thought red was definitely her color while admiring how the dress fitted her and feeling a little deja vu. "I agree," Rodin said, remembering the red nightgown she had worn in their dream. Instantly Mason's cock twitched just at the sight of her. Rodin wasn't ma
Xenia held her hands in front of her as Mason moved towards her. She mirrored his movements, making sure to keep her distance. It's only been a few days since her fight in the dining hall, and she's becoming even more of a nuisance. "Did you find anything? Like more bombs, perhaps," Mason asked, noticing a slight crack in her facade before she looked away. "No. Though, it might save me some time if you just tell me where they are." "I think your antics have terrorized my people enough, Xenia. Don't you think?" Xenia laughed harshly. "Maybe I'll stop when they start acting like decent beings." She l
Xenia paced back and forth in front of the window, listening to the rustling sound of the hem of her dress at every turn. Tammy, the seamstress, made her a pretty crimson dress that flowed to the floor with some black leather boots. It wasn't her clothing style, but she was content with finally wearing something decent that fit perfectly. The past few days have been nothing but a boring routine. She would wake up to breakfast being served by the devil himself. She bathed before slipping into one of the three dresses Tammy made her. She tried looking for anything to use as a weapon, but they were meticulous about what to have in the room. Then, she would wait for Mason to return with lunch and clean up breakfast. She made sure to stay as far away from him whenever he came. Finally, he would return for dinner and ask her the same question every night.
Xenia tried folding her arms, but doing so would mean touching him. So she looked everywhere else but him. "So what if I did?" Mason chuckled before reaching up to stroke her burning cheek. She moved to push him away, but the touch made the burn almost nonexistent, and she felt herself leaning into it. God damn you, body. Don't do this. She squeezed her eyes together momentarily, thinking of Cristobal and how the monster before her killed him. "Get away from me." She tried pushing him, but instead, his hands covered hers. "Why, Xenia?" "Because
"Xenia is fine." Lottie kept reminding herself as she paced in front of a door in the infirmary. Her hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, and her eyes looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. She kept looking at the closed door before her, whispering to herself. Her mind was racing with thoughts of her friend, who had been missing for a few weeks. After that day, Lottie has been waiting at the infirmary. Waiting for news about Cristobal. He suffered from many broken bones, internal bleeding, and a concussion. Nurses were surprised he was even alive. Lottie inquired about his memory, and they told her there was a possibility of him remembering nothing. They would have to wait and see how he recovered, but that was a possibility Lottie couldn't accept. The door to Cristobal
Delilah stood a few feet away, holding Xenia's axe to her chest while Lottie and Spencer hovered over the wolf she found. She knew by the color of its fur and the scar above its eye it was Illipio. The mangy little wolf her daughter adopted. She knew it was in bad shape by the gashes on its body. She silently hoped it had nothing to do with Xenia until she found the axe beside the wolf's body. Her heart sank when she saw blood covering the axe, but she refused to believe the worst. Xenia wasn't dead. She can't be, Delilah kept saying to herself. "Miss Delilah." Lottie lightly touched her shoulder, breaking Delilah out of her thoughts. "Are you okay?" Delilah nodded slowly. "Well, Illipio has seen better days, but he will survive. We're going to take him in to get some help." Lottie looked down at the axe Delilah was holding, and with her senses, she could tell the blood on the axe wasn't Xenia's. "Miss Delilah, can I borrow the axe? We can see if the scent will lead us to more
Lottie paced in front of the Alpha's office. She was trying her best to calm down, but what she discovered was replaying in the back of her mind. The moment she left Delilah, she felt terrible. She didn't want Delilah to be alone, so she turned the carriage around and headed back to the cabin. When she got there, it was empty even though Delilah's carriage was still nearby. Lottie searched the house but could only find Xenia's axe, the drawn picture of the guy who possibly took her, and the scent of fresh blood. Delilah's blood. She spent the next hour or so trying to trace Delilah and returned to the road heading south. Same as Xenia. This was becoming a nightmare. So now, here she was, waiting for the person with the best chance of helping them find Xenia and Delilah. "Hey, it's going to be fine," Spencer said while rubbing her arms, but Lottie couldn't relax. Even with the mate's bond, she felt anxious and scared. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts she nearly jumped
Alpha Micah raised an eyebrow, curious about how this could concern him. Lottie went to hand the sketch and axe to Alpha Micah, but Laurie froze the items in the air. A white glow surrounded the items as Laurie stepped up to inspect them. "Sorry," Laurie smirked. "I like to inspect things before the Alpha touches them. You understand?" Alpha Micah sighed, but still, the smile on his face didn't falter. "I apologize. Laurie can be a bit suspicious of everyone.""Oh no, I understand," Lottie replied hastily. "I mean, we've never met before, and I'm not sure how much you trust Spencer, but even I would be suspicious too. There are so many ways to transfer poison onto things, and with werewolves, it's much easier to...""Lottie," Spencer interrupted. "I think we all get it."Lottie finally noticed the suspicious look on Laurie's face as Alpha Micah laughed at her ramblings."I'm sorry," Lottie said with a small smile. "It's been a rough." The magic around the items glowed briefly bef
Melania took on Nova, Roman, and Micah while Mason set his sights on Xenia.With a powerful swipe Melania threw Roman towards Nova, both crashing out of the way as she clashed with Micah.“I never thought in a million years you would want to hurt me like this,” Melania grimaced. “I am your mate, Micah. Me. Not that fragile little human!”Micah’s grip tightened on her wrists, and for a moment, their faces were inches apart as he held her gaze. “You lost me the moment you took away the only family I had left,” he snapped. “You used my grief like a leash. You made yourself a monster.”Melania’s lips trembled, fury twisting her features. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No, no–you still love me. I know you do. I can fix this. I can fix us.”“There’s no us anymore, Melania,” Micah said. “There will never be an us.”The words hit harder than any blow. Melania shrieked–an animal sound, furious and guttural–and her body lit up with a violent surge of dark magic. She slammed both hands
Xenia blinked, struggling to steady herself as the dream faded, ripped from her mind like torn silk. Her body ached. Every breath felt like she was inhaling smoke. She sat up slowly–and froze.Melania lay sprawled on the ground, her elegant dress torn, blood staining her lip. Her eyes fluttered open, dazed but furious.A sound to her left made Xenia twist around. Mason. Stumbling into the area, just as beaten. His shirt was ripped, and blood dripped from various parts of his body. He spotted Melania on the floor. His expression snapped.“No,” he whispered, then louder, “What did you do?”Xenia barely had time to get to her feet before he lunged at her.“You ruined everything!” Mason bellowed, slamming into her and knocking her back. “She gave you everything! And you spat on it!”Xenia hit the floor hard, the impact stealing the breath from her lungs. Dazed, she barely registered Mason’s shadow looming above her, his fist coming down.But it never landed.A hand caught it mid-swing wit
Xenia woke up alone. The brothers were nowhere to be seen, so she decided to get ready for another perfect day. She got dressed, fixing her appearance in the mirror. The moment she looked away, the reflection turned to Melania, who smiled before disappearing. Xenia stared at her reflection before leaving.“Good,” Xenia said to herself. “Today’s going to be perfect.”Downstairs the brothers were in the kitchen with Delilah. Micah was unusually focused, slicing and arranging with the precision of a man on a mission. Mason was just as focused, carefully packing fruits and cheeses, and crusty bread into woven baskets. Delilah flitted about the kitchen like a hummingbird, humming a lullaby Xenia swore she hadn’t heard since childhood.They walked to the sea, just the four of them. The cliffs were painted with wildflowers, the ocean stretched endlessly, calm and blue. Xenia leaned into the breeze and tried not to think too hard.But something was wrong.She felt it when she reached for the
Melania kept her magic flowing into Xenia, but she felt herself losing strength. Micah stood before them, his presence blazing with power.Melania didn’t flinch. “Keep him away,” she said to Mason. “She’s so close to accepting her new reality. If he interrupts now, she might have the strength to fight back. I need time.”“He won’t understand,” Mason said.“Then make him,” she snapped. “I know you can.”“I won’t say it again,” Micah said, interrupting their conversation. “Get out of my way Mason.”“I can’t let you,” Mason said, his voice shaking with fury. “You took her away from me once. I won’t let it happen again!”Mason snarled, aura flaring to full strength as he launched forward. Micah’s wolf, Roman, collided with Mason in mid-air, the impact sending a shockwave through the spirit realm. Mason crashed to the ground, rolling once before skidding to a stop.“Damn you, Roman,” he spat, rising. “Do you have to interfere. This is between brothers.” Roman stood between him and Mason,
Xenia stood frozen as Mason held her waist, his touch gentle. This was the kind of moment a girl might fantasize about–the reformed villain pledging himself at her feet. But something about it soured in her gut. The air shimmered, just slightly, like heat rising off pavement. Mason’s skin was warm, too warm, feverish. And his voice… it wasn’t Mason’s. Not really.“I’m nothing without you,” he whispered, face pressed to her abdomen. “You saved me, Xenia. Don’t you remember?”“Mason, I…” Her throat constricted. It was suddenly hard to speak. Hard to think. But she could hear her mother and Micah returning–footsteps, laughter, too far and too close all at once. The sounds blurred, like a warped vinyl record.“I believe you,” she said quickly, trying to get him up but he tightened his arms around her.“You know I can tell when you’re lying,” he said, eyes flicking up to hers. There was a flicker–just for a second–where his eyes changed, glitching like bad film. A blink later and they were
Blood and ash thickened the air as Alpha Micah and the group made their way through the packhouse and towards the ritual grounds. The howls of distant wolves still echoed, but for now, the area had settled into a tense, almost eerie silence. Laurie floated down from a treeline, black eyes turning back to her usual color, her expression grim. “More guards than we thought,” she whispered. “And that’s just the outer ring. Inside the ritual circle, we’ve the Three Sisters.”Micah’s jaw tightened. “The Three Sisters?”Laurie nodded. “They’re channeling the ritual. It’s working. Xenia’s… already changing.”“What do you mean changing?” Delilah asked, panic rising in her voice.Micah placed a firm but comforting hand on Delilah’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Miss Delilah. It’s not over yet.” Then, turning back to Laurie, he asked, “Can we get past them?”Laurie nodded. “They’re powerful, but we can get rid of them if we destroy the effigy tethering them here.”A chilling scream cut through the nig
In the cozy kitchen of her family home, Xenia found herself caught in a comical, slightly awkward situation as she sat down to breakfast. Her mother sat across from her with her chin resting on her clasped fingers. Delilah’s eyes darted between the two brothers she forced Xenia to sit between.“So,” Delilah began, her eyes twinkling with mischief as she sipped her tea. “Since I didn’t get the chance to properly introduce myself to you both because of the… incident in Ornyville…”“We are so sorry about that, Miss Bakken,” Micah interjected. Xenia turned to look at him and he regarded her with a smile before taking her hand and turning back to Delilah. “It’s just been a while since we had a mate and the bond was stronger than we anticipated.”“I don’t know what the big fuss was,” Mason added. Xenia turned to look at him. Her heart started to race as her hand curled into fists.What is this feeling towards him?“We did replace the bar table and compensated the owner,” Mason continued. “T
Serif laid down on the sand, exhausted. They’ve been digging themselves from the little sand hole the others stuff them into to avoid detection. Dottie and Molly ran to his side to help him sit up. He swatted them away.“I’m fine, I’m fine,” he said with irritation. “I’m just a bit tired, hungry, and my ass is full of sand. How much longer do we have to stay here?”Dottie looked over the empty waves, shaking her head. “Laurie said to wait here for reinforcements.”“She didn’t say how long they will be,” Molly added. “But this was the safer option.”Serik looked toward the tunnel the others left through the other day, wondering if they were better off going with them. Then he thought about the fighting and unnecessary bloodshed and decided he chose the right path. Still, the shade of the moon in the sky gave him an eerie feeling.“There!” Dottie pointed to a ship that appeared on the horizon. Dottie and Molly exclaimed, jumping up and waving their hands in the air. Serif groaned, bare
As the morning sun filtered through the curtains, casting a soft glow over the room, Xenia slowly opened her eyes to find herself lying in her room. She quickly sat up in bed, looking around. Was she dreaming? She had to be. That was the only explanation. She jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror. She was the same as she was before. She pinched herself thinking she was dreaming but she felt pain.What the hell?She absentmindedly touched her face, arms, and hair. Unable to believe where she was. She tried remembering where she was before. Melania. The fight. Nova. She had to get back and…“Xeni?”Xenia’s inner thoughts stopped and she froze. She looked towards the doorway, willing herself to move but her body was shaking with emotions.“Mother?”As if on cue, Delilah appeared in the doorway with a smile on her face. “There you are? What is taking you so long? Put on some clothes and come to breakfast.”Delilah turned to leave but Xenia grabbed her and pulled h