Cali
They say when you come to the end of your life you see the beginning, that the life you have led flashes before your eyes like an old movie reel.
But standing there, staring at certain death, I didn’t see the life I had led, I saw all the things I had yet to do. I saw Tristan and I laying on a beach and playing with our children, I saw huge family Christmases at the pack house and watching our children meet their mates.
I saw love and life in complete contrast to the death that stared me down.
A shiver wracked my body as reality hit, not only were we about to lose, but we were going to lose spectacularly.
A group of wolves somewhere in the middle started to shift, six of them in total changed to human form, completely naked they stood amongst their men and stared me down.
“Luna huh? Well, we made a mistake letting you go.” One of the men on the left stated and Freya gr
CaliIt was like watching the dust settle after a storm in the desert, the green light seemed to dim and shower down blinking from existence where it met the ground, each grain of light causing a sprig of fresh grass to grow or a flower to bloom on the trampled battle worn terrain. It was like a touch of beauty in an otherwise desolate scene.Everything was still once again, like a battle hadn’t been waging only moments before, the trees swayed in the morning breeze, the sun broke through the clouds and a serene silence fell across the land.I glanced around us fearful for the state of our men, but our warriors stood looking at the body strewn ground in astonishment without a single scratch on them, as though the light had healed the wounds of the battle. Unfortunately, the six men that lost their lives lay broken on the ground, unaffected by the wave of light and I felt a sadness creep in at the sight.
CaliMy whole body was alight as Tristan ran his hands up my bare legs, along my hips and waist, his fingers brushing the sides of my breasts and caressing my neck before settling on the sides of my face and he lay himself between my open legs, his erection pressing against my wet core, and I groaned from that feeling alone. The want coursing through me had me heated from the inside out and I wasn’t surprised to see small flames licking at my skin.Reigning it in I took a deep breath to control the wolf in me and watched as the flames disappeared while Tristan watched me fight for control.“Sorry.” I uttered, praying that he didn’t take it back, that he didn’t stop where this was going.“It’s okay. Let go, feel, I’ll match you.” He stated demonstrating when he brought ice to his fingertips. “Just let me know if I hurt you, I’ll be as gentle as I
Cali“It feels like it’s been ages since we had a catch up. How are you after this morning?” I asked as Freya poured out glasses of wine for each of us while we waited for Amber to join us, no matter how often I suggested it the Blonde refused to move into the pack house full time, instead opting to use her designated room sporadically when she was here working late and residing with her parents the rest of the time.She had been a little off the last couple of weeks, avoiding any of the social evenings and group meals, and only showing up for work, and with everything that had been going on it felt like I barely saw her even during the working day.Considering her background in teaching Tristan and I had decided it was a good use of her skills to have Amber be the packs Liaison with all things education and training and she was working with Lucas to set up a new physical training program off the bac
CaliI barely saw Tristan for two days after the northerners were captured. He got up before the sun each morning and returned to bed after I was asleep. We crossed paths in the pack house a few times but never with more time to spare than to say hello.It did give me time to spend with the girls, who were fast becoming family. We spoke briefly about Freya assuming the role of my delta, a position that was afforded to her by her mate bond to Damian, initially she had seemed quite excited by the idea as we discussed plans for the fast-approaching winter holidays and ways to increase the moral in the pack now that things seemed to be returning to normal.The excitement however had seemed to disappear less than twelve hours later, as had the sparkle in her eye that was pure Freya, the feisty go getter seemed cowed and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why.Amber too seemed to be on some sort of emotional rollercoaster of a personal nature. One m
Cali“I’m really glad that there was nothing for us to see. The mental images of their stories alone are bad enough. Some of them cried, a couple begged us to kill them, said they deserved nothing less for the crimes they had committed. I can’t even imagine.” Jackson uttered as he threw a grateful look towards Tristan, the Alpha of Blackrock was nothing if not kind and fair. A fact that I would forever be grateful for.“What’s happened to them?” Amber queried and I wondered the same for a moment, I knew of Tristan’s reputation, while he was known to be fair he was also known to be merciless when it came to the safety of his pack and I honestly didn’t know which way he would go on this so I had tried not to think about it over the last couple of days, at least I hadn’t smelt blood or death on him when we had crossed paths so I had taken that to be a good sign.
CaliI would be lying if I said his words didn’t hurt. For weeks I had been coping, or at least I thought I had been. Maybe I really was screwing up and he was just too nice to say anything.I thought back over the time I had been here, from that first day in the ballroom when he looked at me like I was an inconvenience when he realised how little I knew, to his exasperation when I didn’t have a dress. Through the weeks of being Luna and helping to run the pack, and all the times I had to check things with him, interrupting whatever he was doing at the time.The moments when I had practically begged for his time, even though I knew he was exhausted. The fumbling in the bedroom and my embarrassment over just about anything sexual.Getting abducted.I really had caused the pack more problems than I had solved, but I steeled my spine, as much as it hurt, Tristan was hurting worse, I knew he woul
CaliTristan seemed to be avoiding me as much as I was avoiding him over the next couple of days. Something that I was equally thankful and distraught over.I needed the mental space that came along with the physical distance, I needed time to come to terms with the failure of my mating and what I was prepared to do now. There had been whole minutes over the last couple of days when I wished that we were all human, with their silly marriage traditions where they could marry and divorce as often as they liked. There was no way to undo a bond, no divorce for shifters. No, a mating was for life, until death do us part in the most literal sense of the statement.So, our options were limited. We could continue to try and make things work, although I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to cope with that. I had been under the impression that everything was fine, that we were fine and yet seemingly the whole time Tristan had felt that
TristanWatching her walk away from the car after saying everything was fine and something snapped inside me. For five days I had been living in a different kind of hell. One of my own making.I fucked up, royally.It seemed that even an Alpha had a mental breaking point and I had found mine. The battle with the northerners had been terrifying, not because I was scared of war, unfortunately it was a hazard of the job and one I had become accustomed to over the years, but because the entire ride back to Blackrock I had known that Cali was there facing them alone. The woman was stubborn and hard-headed and determined to prove something she had no need to.I knew her strength, I saw it every day that she climbed out of bed knowing that the day ahead was likely to be more difficult than the last. She was fierce and loyal, brave, and beautiful. There weren’t many women on this earth that would run towards dang