Kas’s POV Coffee and dark chocolate. Mochaccino. I smell it before I open my eyes. Bronx. My mate. He came home. He asked me not to leave. I have a pounding headache from crying, but I feel myself being calmed by his scent. I clutch his shirt tight and pull it closer to my nose breathing in deeply. I feel his hand gently rubbing my back. "You awake, Baby?" I hear his rough voice from outside the cocoon he has me wrapped in. I nod my head and he opens up his large arms, so he can look at me. "You ready to talk?" He asks gently, as he brushes my bangs out of my eyes. "I don't know." I tell him honestly. "I don't want to cry anymore." Bronx sighs deeply and shakes his head like he's not sure what to say. He rubs his hands on his face before he continues. "Kas, I-I have some confessions to make and I'm sure you're going to be mad but I need to tell you." "Confessions?" I squeak out. “Oh my Goddess, is he seriously about to say he has been cheating on us?!” Lex starts to growl. “How
I crouch down and try to make myself look as small as possible. I feel a lump of tears in my throat, but I refuse to let him see me cry, as I plead again. “Ryan, please don’t do this. You don’t want to do this.” My teeth chatter and I shiver as the frigid wind swirls around me. I look over the side of the deep ravine. The river at the bottom is raging dark red in the moonlight with giant chunks of ice and snow swirling in the current. Blood River. If I try to jump, I’m going to die on the rusty rocks just below the surface. If I were in wolf form maybe I would have a chance. Maybe. That’s not an option now. I turn back around to face my fate. "Please! Please don't do this, Ryan! Dagger, please let me talk to Ryan!" I beg for mercy. The wind gusts hard against my bare skin, chilling me to the bone. I am shivering violently, wishing I was somewhere warm. I hug myself, in a hopeless attempt to protect my naked body. Dagger takes advantage of my distraction and takes a step forward, lowe
When I wake up, Marco is sitting in the corner of the room. He stands and walks over to me when he sees me stir. “Luna, you’re awake. Everyone’s gonna be so relieved.” He sighs. “Marco, how long was I asleep?” I rub my eyes. I still feel exhausted. “You've been in and out of consciousness for about two days, Luna.” I look away from him as I think back to the events leading up to right now. “Call me Kas, Marco. I’m no one's Luna.” I scoff. “Okay, Kas, since we gonna be casual now, I’m gonna give it to you real.” His voice is calm, but his professional voice is gone and his Spanish accent is much thicker than I’m used to hearing from him. “First off, I wanna apologize for hurting you. I was doing what my Alpha ordered. It felt all wrong and I could see it was all wrong and I shoulda fuckin' known better. I wanted so badly to just tell you, but I wasn’t allowed. I wanted to quit and just go back to being a regular guard. Cause I didn’t wanna see you hurt like that, you know? But I d
I lean into Bronx and snuggle into the crook of his arm, draping my arm over his chest. He takes his hand and weakly pats me. “Baby, I need you to hear me out. Okay?” His voice is still scratchy and quiet. “Bronx, you need to rest.” I protest. “Don't worry, she put plenty of morphine in that drip, I'll be asleep soon, but I have to get this out first. Please.” I sit up so I can look him in the eye. “I fucked up, Kas. I should have told you what was going on.” He tells me all about his theory of my visions having to do with Ryan and that I needed to be distressed to have one. He thought it was going to be the only way to get ahead of Ryan and stop him from whatever he was planning after the packhouse fire. So he and Milo cooked up an insane plan to trigger a vision and set it into action. They knew the rogue attacks were a distraction being planned by Ryan, but they needed proof. "The last rogue we interrogated said they were waiting for you to shift so they could alert their mas
I doze off at some point, because I hear a rustling sound that wakes me up. I jump up with a start to see Bronx trying to get out of bed. "Oh no, Buster," I scold, "back in bed." "I gotta pee, Kas." Bronx whines at me. "Okay, well hold it for just a second." I push the call button for the nurse. I hear a little voice come over the intercom on the wall and ask them to send a male nurse to help. Cause Hell if I’m letting a female nurse help him. The nurse comes in quickly and helps Bronx to the bathroom. When he is back in bed and we are alone again, he reaches his hand out to me. "You look so beautiful right now, Kas. Please come here, Baby, let me breathe you in." His eye looks a little glassy. I am sure the pain medicine is influencing his words, but smile at him anyway. I crawl up on the bed, but I don’t let him wrap his arms around me yet. "Before that, let me see if I can heal you more. Lean back." He obeys and I put my hands on him. It takes much less effort to heal him thi
The next day, Bronx decides he wants to go downstairs for dinner. “Are you sure, Sweetheart? The doctor said you need to take it easy for another few days.” I ask as he is putting on a button-down shirt. “Yeah Baby. I have some apologizing to do. No. I have a lot of apologizing to do. To everyone. I’m not going to hide up here in my apartment. I have to face the music.” He says resolutely. He puts on a dark blue eye patch to match his clothes and looks himself over in the mirror. He looks handsome with his inky black hair slicked back and olive-toned face freshly shaven. As we walk into the dining room a hush falls over the crowd. I give Bronx’s hand a reassuring squeeze and he leads us to the front of the room. He stands in front of our table and faces the dining room. He looks out over our pack, takes a deep breath, and eats crow. He fully admits that he got carried away with trying to protect me and he was wrong. He assures everyone that things will be different moving forward
On Thursday, James calls Marco. Marco puts it on speaker and listens while James tells him to bring me to his house for training. They want to teach me more about hand-to-hand combat in small spaces. Two against one. “James, have you cleared this with your mate? Three wolves performing hand-to-hand combat inside your home... your home where your pacifist mate also lives, I mean?” I ask, skeptical of this plan. “Yeah, Delilah’s totally fine with it. She understands now that you need to know more than just how to block and escape holds. Plus, she said if we break anything it gives her an excuse to use my bonus money to go shopping. Speaking of which, she said to bring your change of clothes. You can shower at our place and then go on this shopping trip with her when we are done.” I laugh out loud. “Okay, will do.” Marco and I make our way to James and Delilah’s little house. I go to knock on the door, but it’s already cracked open. I look at Marco who shrugs and unholsters his pistol
My mouth drops. “I-is this the entire dress shop?” “Yes dear, your fiancé said you were a little nervous about other customers in the shop seeing some burn scars, so he paid for me to close the shop for the day and bring everything here. That way you’re in the privacy of your own home. Who am I to say no if Bronx Mason personally calls and says he is getting married? This is a beautiful mansion by the way, so many employees!” “Oh, thank you, ma’am. They're like family. I can't imagine what we would do without them.” I say still in awe as I look around my living room. She is clearly human, so we can’t let on that we’re werewolves. I'm not sure why she is so impressed by Bronx personally calling, but he is well aware that I don't care anymore if people see my scars. It's just a cover story. I am more comfortable with my body nowadays, but it is such a sweet gesture by him. Now I don’t have to have anxiety over the real reason I was worried about going to her shop. I don’t even want to