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“Thank you, Miss Franklin. I’ll tell mom you need to talk to her,” I assured as I walked out of the general store.Miss Franklin is the little grey-haired lady who owned the store. It was more than just a small grocery store to this little town. It was also the gas station, video rental, and a deli-style sandwich shop.Besides the bait shop and canoe rental next to the river two miles away, it was the only business in our town.Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas is a tiny town in neutral territory.It’s a town that has a great sense of community and it’s very close-knit.My parents always told me they didn’t like being in their old pack because the alpha didn’t pay the omegas for their work and treated them like dirt.They always told me that if I ever wanted to join a pack, make sure to ask if the omegas are paid.That was a good way to tell if it was a good pack.My parents were loving and doted on me, as the only child, but they never spoiled me.As unaffiliated wolves, they couldn’t afford
I kept hearing a beeping sound.When I opened my eyes, the lights were way too bright so I put my hand over my eyes.I heard a sweet woman’s voice, “Hey, sweetheart, you’re awake! Let me dim the lights a little for you.”The voice sounded so familiar, but I couldn’t place it.I slowly opened my eyes and found an older couple sitting on either side of the bed.I remembered seeing both of these people at my last birthday party, “Grandma?” I asked then turned to the man, “Grandpa?”They both nodded.Grandma asked, “How are you feeling, sweetheart?”“Thirsty. The rogues killed mommy and daddy. Didn’t they?” I croaked. I knew they were dead, I just needed to hear it from someone else.As soon as I saw the worried look on each of their faces, I knew they were dead.My grandmother poured a cup of water for me and put a straw in it while my grandfather kissed my forehead.Their hands were warm and comforting.As I was drinking, I was informed by grandpa that they had made arrangements for me
Life after losing my parents was hard, but I quickly learned to move on. Having my grandparents and Isaac by my side helped me to move on more than I ever imagined possible. When I started Junior High School, five young ladies barged into my personal space and never walked out. My best friends, Wendy, Paula, Mandy, Chrystal, and Kari ran with me every morning, no matter the weather. With time, we started running five miles every school day and ten miles one day a week. I came to love that burn in my muscles after a run. It became one of my favorite ways to get rid of the images that plagued my memories and dreams of my parents. It was a constant fight to keep them beaten to the back of my mind. That caused a lot of anger issues that used to happen occasionally. Alpha Kenny and Isaac started running with us on weekends when they had time. Isaac and I were still considering each other friends, but my feelings for him had never changed. I had sensed the same with him. I could feel
Zariah’s POV~Three Years Later~“This is a really boring job.” Isaac whined. He and I have been practicing gymnastics with his cousin, Abby, for the last couple hours. Abby and I had been using him as our spotter.I laughed as I stood at the end of a very long mat, “You think it’s boring? Okay, spot me. You might want to start up here and keep up with me.”I waited for him to stand slightly ahead of me, and to the side. I started with three back handsprings and ended with a very high triple flip on the way to the mat, landing on my feet.Isaac kept yelling, “Wait up!” When I went airborne with my triple flips, he yelled, “How am I supposed to spot that?”As I landed, I laughed, “Just don’t let me fall. That’s all. Like this. Be ready. I am going to mess up on purpose and you need to catch me.” He was very serious as he nodded, “Okay.” I extended my arms over my head and started to go into a back flip, but I didn’t complete it.I jumped high and basically laid flat. He caught me with
I woke with a start and looked around in the dark.I could hear glass breaking from the first floor and voices on the second floor. My first thought was, “Again?”I called Alpha Kenny and whispered, “I need you to come over… quickly. It sounds like there are more than three people this time. They are on both floors.”Alpha Kenny answered, “We’ll be there in a minute. Don’t do anything until we get there.” I quietly got out of bed and crawled to the master bathroom, whispering “I’m in the master bathroom. I’ll be listening for you.”As I sat there on my bathroom floor, I kept hearing footsteps upstairs.Then, there was one thing that stood out to me: I didn’t smell the usual smell of weeks-old garbage that rogues normally carried on them.I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it did sound like there was a clear leader among them.As minutes passed, I heard one ask if they opened every door… including closets.I could tell there was at least one in my bedroom because I heard him
Selene continued, “You and your mate will be able to combine your powers to help your warriors defeat the witches.“There are also a couple other packs who want to take Onyx and you for their own benefit.“Depending on the alpha’s choices and your pack’s success in preventing his warriors from going back, you will only have up to one year to prepare for that war.“It’s hard to tell with one of them. He’s not the brightest of my children and he is very unpredictable. I would give him a second chance mate, but he is a very cruel man too. He has been slowly turning feral since his mate was killed ten years ago. I’m afraid I’m going to have to take his wolf from him soon. His wolf does not deserve this.“The other alpha is just a very greedy man and always has been. He rejected his mate in order to take a chosen mate for more power.“He is also very cruel to the omegas in the pack. You may have less time to prepare for him. Alpha Kenny is doing the right thing by keeping warriors around y
Isaac POVI have been watching over Zariah since she came to our pack. She was so badly injured; I was scared to death that she would die. I have always been drawn to her. I wanted nothing more than to stay next to her in the hospital until she was better.When she got out of the hospital, I spent all day, every day, at her side, taking care of her. I would help her to any room she wanted to go to and her grandma would giggle at the sight of us.I think I was just looking for a reason to hold her hand. I’m sure her grandma knew we were mates even when we were that little.I spent all of my time in school keeping all the guys away from her. I just didn’t even want them looking at her. My parents got called to school a few times because I knocked another boy out. I got in trouble for hitting them. Not for watching over Zariah.In junior high, I backed off from hanging around her because there was a group of guys who, I heard through the grapevine, were trying to find a way to get in her
Isaac POVDad was smiling widely. I think that was when they both started offering to help her with more stuff. Dad offered to teach her to drive and mom asked her to help her plan a couple parties.I had to make mom back off because I wanted her to realize I’m her mate on her own. Although, I know it will be so hard to keep my hands off of her.Zariah. Even her name sounded like an angel’s name to me. She always looked like perfection to me. She is very fit, even though she can beat me on the amount of junk food she eats.She looks like an angel with her long, light brown hair. It has a natural wave to it that always draws my eye.Her emerald, green eyes have always captivated me. It’s so hard to act as a friend when those eyes make me want to hold on to her forever and her long legs make me want them around my waist as I lower her to my bed.My mate is so smart. She is going to be such a great luna. She is about to become our pack’s first female financial advisor and the youngest on
Two Years LaterI was helping Aadi with refreshments when I heard Lena yell for me, “MOM!” I rushed to her room, tires squealing as I turned the corner into her room, “What’s up, sweetheart?” She was standing there, at the foot of her bed in nothing but her bra and panties with a huge pile of dresses on her bed, “I can’t find anything to where and they are going to be here in less than an hour!”I chuckled because we go through this every time Alpha Doug and Luna Kathryn come down for a visit, “Okay sweetie, let’s see what your options are. We don’t want formal because that’s just too much, so take all the formal gowns out.” That reduced one foot of the pile.I sighed, “Okay, are you feeling any particular color for today?” She shrugged, “I don’t know.” I suggested, “I would love to see you in something that highlights your eyes. You have beautiful eyes and he needs to see that.” She giggled, “He already has. He’s always told me I have beautiful eyes.” I smiled, “Then we need to show h
The following month, Alpha Doug and Luna Kathryn brought their two boys and one girl to visit our pack. The poor girl, Elizabeth, was stuck, in age, between both of her brothers, with no sister to have her back.Their oldest son, Lucas, was fifteen and held himself as a future alpha but he was also trying not to seem unreachable. He kept staring at Lena in awe, but it almost seemed as though he was afraid to approach her. I chuckled, “It’s okay if you want to hang out with Lena. Just stay where we can see you.”He let out a breath and walked up to her, “Would you like to take a walk?” She answered as she blushed a bright shade of pink, “I would love to.” As they walked away, I couldn’t help but notice the awestruck look on his face as he kept his eyes on her. I smiled at Isaac knowingly and Isaac nodded in acknowledgement. Aadi chuckled, “We may have a pair of mates.”Blaine approached Elizabeth, “Would you like to take a walk?” Elizabeth agreed and she started walking next to his whe
Within minutes, there were at least one hundred snakes covering his body, biting him, while he screamed in pain and terror. Blaine nodded and all of the snakes stopped biting and started climbing the wall to leave the same way they came in.He was still conscious and yelling obscenities at Blaine while our son laughed, “I’m glad you’re still awake, Devlin. If you thought that was bad, wait until you see what is next.” He nodded at the guards and Heather withdrew the tree roots.We all walked outside and the guards roughly dragged him outside and just let him drop, face up onto the ground. He looked at Heather and she smiled, “Happy to help, brother.” The tree roots started winding their way up his arms again.Devlin asked, “So what now?” He smiled, “This is going to be better than expected. You are going to see your end coming and feel every bit of the pain. Rot in hell, Devlin Thorn. You deserve no less.”We all stepped back and watched as two panthers approached him. He screamed like
We all went into the pack house and I asked if they would like some lunch before we go to the dungeons. Luna Kathryn asked, “Are you planning to go to the dungeon?” I nodded, “Blaine has a rather unconventional execution planned. We can go in Isaac’s office and tell you about it.”We sat in the lounge area of his office and Isaac started, “The first thing you need to know is that the prisoner is Blaine’s biological father. He kidnapped and raped his mother multiple times before she was able to escape. Not long after Blaine was born, he found them and tried to kill Blaine because he didn’t want kids. That’s how Blaine became paralyzed.”Luna Kathryn gasped, “Oh my Goddess! You poor child. You are so lucky to have survived.”Blaine spoke up, “It was the Goddess’ will that I survived. I have spent my whole life following Her path for me and I will until I die. Dad and I spent the last year looking for him so that I could get my justice. I’m just glad my biological mother kept track of him
One year later, I was at my desk in the office at the pack house, working on the books for the pack. I took a deep breath and sat back in my chair, thinking back on the past year.The kids have improved by leaps and bounds. My mind went to Blaine’s breakthrough moment.FlashbackShortly after I came home from the hospital, I had been resting on the couch because I wanted time with my family. The girls had gone to the kitchen to make a snack when Blaine approached me and laid his head on my chest.He asked, “Mom, can you tell me the whole truth about my father? Isaac is my dad, but I need to know about the guy who got my mom pregnant.” Isaac smiled and nodded at me. I looked at Aadi and she nodded also.I explained, “Well, your mom told me that he was a terrible man who had kidnapped her to sell her to some traffickers. He raped her multiple times before she was able to escape. I don’t know his name though.”Aadi added, “She told me that his name is Devlin Thorn. When you were a tiny ba
I gasped, “Three weeks?! What the hell was wrong with me?!” Isaac started trying to soothe me, “It’s okay, love. They were able to fix it. You had a brain aneurism. It burst just as you got here to see the doctor. They were able to stop the bleeding and fix the aneurism through your carotid artery.”I sighed as Isaac continued, “If you hadn’t been here, in this hospital, when you passed out, you could have bled out and died. They called me and told me to get to the hospital, and I jumped out of bed and ran for the hospital.”I furrowed my brow, “I remember you telling me that they were doing surgery, but I was out again before I could ask why.” He smiled, “I’m just so happy that you are still with us. The kids will be so happy that you are awake.”The doctor walked in and I shrugged, “I’m back, doc.” He laughed, “Yes, you are, Luna. I’m very happy to see you awake. I need to check and see if there are any neurological issues. Aneurisms can do that.”He checked the strength in my arms a
When we got home, Blaine had a huge grin on his face. Isaac lifted him out of his chair and put him on his lap. I asked, “So, sweetheart, how long have you been able to control animals?” Blaine blushed, “Since I was three. I can’t talk to them, but I can control what they do.”I smiled, “That is a really cool ability. Can you do that with humans?” He shook his head, “No. Just animals. But I can control their wolves after they shift.” I smiled, “Now that’s awesome. We make a perfect set. I can control humans.” Blaine’s eyes lit up, “Really?” I nodded, “Really.”Heather smiled, “Wow! That’s really cool!” She then put a somber look on her face, “Just do me a favor?” I asked, “What, sweetheart?” She sighed, “Just don’t do it to me?” Blaine and I laughed, “We wouldn’t even think about it.”Blaine explained, “I used to play with small animals when no kids would play with me. The staff would get mad at me for having a rabbit or a squirrel on my lap. When they would start saying hurtful things
Thirty minutes later, the guards were bringing the prisoner out of the dungeon and chaining his hands and feet to a large pole. Isaac and some warriors found a clearing in the forest that was just large enough to have the sun beat down on him the entire day.I growled as I watched him being pulled by a chain attached to a silver collar around his neck. I was quite pleased with the amount of silver attached to him. Just knowing his skin was being burned at each area made me smile.I asked Isaac, “Did you mind link Aadi to let her know where he is?” Isaac nodded, “I did. She linked the hospital staff to let them know.”My mate’s eyes glazed over as he received a mind link. Then, when his eyes cleared, he turned to me, “Our son wants the very last blow. He says he doesn’t need to be here. He wants to make the last one hurt the most.” I furrowed my brow, “I wonder what he is planning on doing.” He smiled, “It seems that our son has an ability that we know nothing about.”I nodded, “You are
When we reached the pack house, Isaac gave me a kiss and smiled, “I’ll see you at lunch time, love. I want to make sure you eat today.” I nodded, “Okay. I’m sure I’ll be starving by then. Did you want to start the interrogations this afternoon? We have a few to do.” Isaac ran his hands through his hair, “I forgot all about that. Yeah, we should do that this afternoon.”I spent my morning on the pack books and entering receipts. I was so glad that I was done with that part by nine a.m. and I mind linked Isaac’s dad, “Kenny, would you like to take some time to talk about the pack’s investment portfolio?” Kenny answered, “I would love to, Zariah. I’ll be there shortly.”After nearly three hours of discussing existing investments and then choosing a few new ones, I suggested we start looking for some real estate to invest in also. He agreed with that idea and said he would look around. We agreed to meet again in a couple weeks.As we finished our meeting, my brain started hurting and I was