Mercy lay awake in her bed, on her back, staring up at the ceiling. She'd been lying there for hours, thinking about the possibility of falling asleep, and what it would mean once she started to dream.Lately, the only time she slept well was when she was asleep on August's chest. That hadn't been frequent enough. While he had offered to help her any way that he could, it seemed a bit silly for her to ask him to spend the night in her room with her every night. After all, she was a grown woman. And she should be able to fall asleep and have tranquil dreams without having someone with her.Yet, here she was, in the middle of the night, watching the shadows from the trees outside of her window trace across the ceiling, wondering when she would fall asleep, and if she fell asleep, what horrible dreams she might have.Would it be too much to ask him if she could sleep in his bed tonight? Would he think it inappropriate? It was difficult for her to say whether or not August was beginning t
The lit to the box wouldn’t budge, no matter how much leverage Mercy used with her legs, pushing up from the floor, trying to get the top to open up. Frustrated, she sank back down to the ground, her arms aching.There had to be a way to get out of here!She was dreaming. That cognizant thought came back to her. She was dreaming--and she knew she was dreaming. So wouldn’t that mean she should be able to get out of here? Shouldn’t she be in control of what happened in her own mind?Looking up at the lid of the box again, she concentrated on it, willing it to move. “Open!” she whispered. “Open, now!” It didn’t move. A little louder, she demanded, “Open! Open right now, damnit!”The box lid still didn’t move. Mercy wrapped her arms back around her legs. Why was it that even in her own dreams she couldn’t overcome this horrific environment?As she sat there, fuming, she felt a tingling in her hands. Other memories came back to her. The television she’d made explode. The soda can she’d eru
August stood as still as he possibly could. He’d taken precautions to hide his scent, but it wasn’t always one hundred percent foolproof, so there was a chance the female wouldn’t come, or if she did, she might smell him and run. He didn’t think she’d see him, though. He was sitting beneath a pine tree that was set on an angle from where he’d seen the female earlier in the week.Ever since that spotting, he’d had his patrols out looking for signs of her. So far, none of them had seen her, but he thought she might be too afraid to come close with so many wolves nearby. Perhaps she would come if she didn’t sense a pack.Even if he did see her, he wasn’t sure what he would do. He would have to be in his human form to talk to her, and he didn’t think he could catch her without being a wolf. If he was in his wolf form, he’d have to cross the creek to get to her. That would mean he’d be leaving his pack lands, and that was never safe either.But he really wanted to speak to her.She had to
The dreams were becoming more frequent, more intense. Every night, Mercy dreamed that she was stuck in that box, and then the shadow man appeared above her, and she screamed louder, and then she woke up. Most nights, it brought August running to her room, rocking her, until she was calm again. She’d usually manage to fall back to sleep, but it was always a fitful, restless sleep.Isabell had offered her some sleeping medicine. Mercy had been tempted to take it, but ultimately, she’d passed. It wasn’t that she didn’t think it would help; she was pretty sure it would. She just didn’t like the idea of it putting her into such a deep sleep that she couldn’t wake herself up, in which case she might end up stuck in the dream that had been tormenting her for weeks.Then one night, the dream changed. Rather than Mercy waking up the moment she saw the man’s face, she screamed, but he reached down, grabbed her hair, and pulled her out of the box by that hunk of hair. The pain radiated all throu
Waking to the sound of Mercy screaming was something August was growing used to, unfortunately. But hearing her cry was something else completely. When he’d first opened his eyes, he’d been confused about what he was hearing. It was so muffled, it was really difficult to hear at all, and he sort of wondered how something so quiet had woken him up. But then, he was so in tune with her sleep cycles at this point, he might’ve woken up even if she hadn’t.Running into her room while she was screaming was one thing, but Mercy wasn’t screaming this time, so he wasn’t sure whether or not he should walk in or just leave her be. After ten minutes of hearing her cry and realizing it wasn’t getting any better, August got up. He took the time to put his slippers on this time, something he didn’t normally have time to do, and then he walked down the hall.Her door was closed, so he knocked on it. Since she was awake this time, there was no reason to barge in.“Y-yeah?” Mercy said between sobs.“It
August tasted even better than Mercy had imagined he would. All of these weeks of being so close to him and longing for his touch, to feel his hands on her skin, to taste his lips, and finally, here he was, kissing her, his strong hands on her body as she leaned into the kiss.In the back of her mind, a voice insisted that this was wrong, that she shouldn’t be doing this with a man she just met, especially when she truly didn’t know if there was someone else. What if she had a husband back in her old pack? What if she was in love with someone else?But with August’s tongue tapping against hers and his hand on her waist, the other on the side of her face, Mercy knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop herself.Her response to him was completely instinctual, like he was a raging fire and she was a moth, mesmerized by the dancing flicker before her. How could she tell her body not to lean into his? She may as well tell her heart to stop beating or her ears to stop hearing. She had no con
In the kitchen, sipping a cup of coffee, the morning light streaming through the window, August was left to his own devices. Had he done something as diabolical as it seemed, or had he done the right thing in answering the call he’d been hearing ever since the moment he met Mercy? He hadn’t left until after Mercy had woken up and went to take a shower, but then, she hadn’t come downstairs, so he wondered if she’d ended up going back to bed or if she was waiting up there for him to leave. Maybe she didn’t want to see him. He certainly hadn’t gone into her room with the intention of making love to her, but once they’d begun kissing, it seemed evident that the feelings they had for one another were mutual. He’d known the moment that he’d met her that she was special, and not just because of her powers or her beauty. She was made for him in a way he’d never known anyone to fit with another soul. It was as if they were locking pieces of the same puzzle. Still, she had been out of her el
Mercy had stood in the shower for a really long time, not sure why she wanted to keep the water running over her body. It wasn’t as if she felt dirty, but she did feel guilty. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way either. They were two adults. They had been with one another consensually. So why in the world did she feel bad?Mercy got out, dried off, and got dressed. She still had the towel wrapped around her body when her reflection in the mirror caught her attention. Her hair was starting to grow out more and more each day, and she could see her roots. The odd black color was also starting to fade away. She tipped her head forward and pulled on her hair a bit, trying to look more at her real hair. Why had someone tried to hide it? Had that someone been her?She also looked at her body. She was so scrawny. Granted, since she’d gotten here, she’d started to put on a little weight. She wasn’t quite so bony, but she could still see her ribs, and her arms looked a bit too much like chick
“Mercy, hurry up!” August shouted up the stairs. “We’re going to be late!”“We can’t be late,” Mercy shouted back to him. “They can’t start without us. You’re the Alpha.”“Well, we’re supposed to be there in fifteen minutes, and it’ll take at least ten to get to the chapel.”“I’m coming,” Mercy said, sliding an earring into her ear and looking at herself one more time in the mirror. What her husband failed to realize was that she not only had to get herself ready, she also had to get the baby ready, and that took some time.She looked good in a nice red dress and silver dangly earrings. She wore a pendant around her neck that had a picture of August in one half and her daughter in the other. Her hair was up in a clip, and her knee length red dress was tight at the top but flowy at the bottom. Her red heels were not so high that she couldn’t walk in them easily.She hurried down the stairs to see August standing at the bottom of the stairs, holding their daughter, Abigail, in his arms.
“Put him down, Leeta,” Mercy demanded. “Unless you want your husband to explode all over the place. Put that wolf down.”“That wolf?” Leeta repeated. “Isn’t this your husband? The Alpha?”“No,” Mercy lied, hoping she’d buy it. “You’ve got the wrong one. That’s just an Omega.” August didn’t even look like a random Omega, but her sister wasn’t the brightest, perhaps she’d fall for it.“Don’t listen to her, honey,” Rider shouted. “That’s Alpha August.“Says the man who left you and ran away only a few minutes ago. I could’ve just killed him in the forest, but I didn’t,” Mercy reminded her sister.“Why didn’t you?” Leeta asked. “Why didn’t you just kill him while you could?”“Because they call me Mercy now,” she explained. “I want to live up to my new name. I wanted to give my husband the opportunity to spare yours.”Leeta pressed the knife so that a drop of blood appeared on August’s neck.“Don’t!” Mercy yelled. “If you kill him, you know I’ll kill Rider.”“Then let him go, and I’ll let
Mercy had a choice to make. She could either chase Rider down and destroy him, or she could stay there with her sister who had collapsed on the ground but could get up at any moment and begin to wreak havoc on the sleeping wolves that Mercy had immobilized earlier.She couldn’t leave the wolves unprotected, but she also couldn’t let Rider get away.With no other choice, Mercy hit her sister with a jarring bolt of energy, one that was sure to keep her from getting up for quite some time. She hated to hurt her own flesh and blood, especially since she was quite certain that her sister was misdirected in the decision she had made, but she had little choice because she couldn’t take the risk of Leeta getting up and hurting someone.Then, Mercy took off after Rider.She wasn’t going to catch him by running after him, though. He was a male, for one thing, so he was naturally faster than her. Also, he was an Alpha, so he was stronger, more muscular, bigger than she could ever hope to be. No,
It didn’t take long for Rider to come into view. He was about a quarter of a mile ahead of her, in between some trees, just stepping out of a clearing.Of course, he would be hiding from the battle, Mercy thought.He stepped out into the field. The fog curled around him, just as it had in her dreams. He was in his human form, just as she was, and for once, Mercy wished she hadn’t forced herself to wake up before the dreams had ended.At least then maybe she’d have some idea what was about to happen.Rider wasn’t alone.It took Mercy a few seconds to realize that there was another person following him, but when her eyes locked on the blonde woman behind him, a rush of memories came back to her, and she suddenly realized she knew exactly who she was.She looked so much like Mercy, even from a distance, she could tell that they resembled one another. It was almost like she was looking in a mirror. Except she was shorter and a couple of years younger.She was wearing a flowing gown, the s
August had made her promise to stay in the house, and Mercy had pretended to comply. It was better that way. Well, it was easier that way, anyhow.When she stepped outside, about an hour after the battle had begun, she knew exactly what to expect.She wasn’t wearing a long, flowing gown like she had been in her dreams, though. She was wearing a much more practical outfit. She had on pants and they were tucked into her boots. She was also wearing a long-sleeved shirt. It was a bit chilly in the predawn hours. A light fog hung over the village. It was fog–not smoke.Why would it be smoke? It wasn’t as if wolves fought with weapons that fired gunpowder like humans did. Still, she did smell smoke in the distance. As she began to walk toward the sound of fighting, the smell became stronger, more acrid, and she realized that there were some buildings on fire on the perimeter of the village.That bastard Rider had set some of the villagers’ homes on fire.Mercy shook her head and knew that t
It was no wonder that Rider had been quiet for so long.He’d been training his warriors.He’d been collecting more.As August made his way across the battlefield, it was clear that his enemy had been working hard to prepare himself for this night. Everywhere the Alpha looked, he saw his Omegas fighting with Rider’s ferocious wolves. Blood, sweat, tufts of fur, claws, and fangs…. It was a vicious battle, one of the worst he’d ever seen, and August was afraid to see the aftermath.If he survived the night.Before August could even think about what he needed to do next, a large male wolf stepped before him, and he found himself engaged again. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to fight instead of simply directing his warriors that night. He’d already dispatched four other wolves, and if he wanted to get back to overseeing the battle, he’d have to do the same to this large black wolf as well.Saliva hung from the wolf’s teeth as he stared at August, his eyes glaring with menace. August was
She was dreaming about Rider again.Mercy was walking through the battlefield, the smoke blowing around her, bodies lying randomly around her feet. Her eyes were fixed at a distant point where she knew he would appear.Only this time, unlike all of the other dreams she’d had, Alpha Rider wasn’t showing up, and she didn’t understand why.As she continued to search for him, her mind wandering, trying to sort out where he might be, where Alpha August might be, she began to hear a banging noise to her right. It was a rhythmic noise, but the longer she walked, the more persistent she became until she finally realized it wasn’t part of her dream.“I’m dreaming,” she reminded herself.Mercy sat straight up in bed. August was up, too, and he was pulling on some clothes over his boxers. Someone was banging on the door downstairs, hard. “Who is it?” she asked him.“I’m not sure, but something’s going on,” he said. “Stay here.”“Why would I do that?” she asked, getting up and rushing to the clos
The view out of Mercy’s window was beautiful. August had given her an office that looked out on a meadow, and sometimes, she would stare out the window and daydream about how beautiful their wedding had been and how lovely it had been to take a week off and just spend time with her new husband. Mercy hadn’t wanted an elaborate wedding, but everyone in the pack was invited since August was the Alpha, and Mercy was becoming the pack Luna. Still, they were able to keep the ceremony itself relatively short. After that, they’d gone straight into a ceremony to name her as the Luna. The reception had been long, but the happy couple had not stayed for the entire time. They’d danced a bit, ate some food, thanked all of their guests, and then gotten straight to their honeymoon. Now a few weeks later, here Mercy sat, staring out at a beautiful spring day, wondering how she got to be so lucky. Being the Luna was exactly how Mercy thought it would be. It was challenging, but it was so very rewar
That night, once dinner was over, August took Mercy back home to their room and the bed they’d been sharing for months. It all seemed different now, though, now that he had asked her to become his wife, to be his Luna. His kisses were somehow even sweeter, and every touch of his hands on her flesh was even warmer, alighting her flesh on fire.August stood behind her, his arms wrapped around her, his lips playing with the sensitive flesh between her neck and shoulder as he slowly tugged down the zipper on the back of her dress. Mercy had kicked her shoes off already, and when the top of the dress came loose, she worked her arms out of the short sleeves. August’s lips worked their way down her neck and across her shoulder. She leaned back against his muscular chest, her eyes closed so she could concentrate on every touch of his hands on her skin.The dress came off and puddled on the floor at her feet. He slid his hands inside of her bra, causing her peaks to harden instantly at his tou