Chapter 48 My gaze locks onto Luke’s, challenging him and Axel’s arms tighten around me. I channel my anger, ready to force Axel’s arms from me, he might be strong but his strength can’t match the anger I have. The tension in the room seems to crackle with unshed power. “Woah, let's all calm down. This is not a time to be flexing our new powers,” Theo half laughs and I move my eyes to him. “Jose, why don't me and you go and take a breather in the bathroom?” he adds subtly tapping his ear like I had earlier when I'd asked if the others could hear us. “Fine,” I blow out a breath and relax my body in Axel’s arms. Theo takes my hand and Axel releases me, letting Theo lead me to the bathroom. The moment the door closes he turns to me and taps his ear again, nodding in encouragement. How does he know I have the hearing ability? I never told anyone. I'll ask him later, right now I'm grateful that I have at least one of them on my side. I try to recall how I'd used this gift before. I focu
Chapter 49The bang is accompanied by shattering glass and rubble falling, something hits my head and everything goes black. Hands yank me from the bed as I regain consciousness. My ears are ringing and my eyes sting. I can't see anything as I'm carried from the bed. I can hear panicked shouts but I can't make out what anyone is saying. Fear grips me as I try to frantically rub at my eyes, I need to see what is happening. My hands refuse to cooperate and they flail about uselessly. The scent of acrid smoke fills my nose and then I cough as it hits my lungs. “Dot,” I hear Mason roar but the sound is muffled as if I have headphones in. “Please fix her, you have to fix her,” Mason pleads and I feel him drop to his knees with me in his arms. “Stay with us, baby girl,” I hear Theo. I don't know where he thinks I'm going to go because whatever is in my eyes is virtually blinding me.“Mace, I don't think I can,” I hear Dot sob. “Fucking try, you have to try,” he barks. “Axel is raging. H
I spend some time relaxing in the warm water, letting the heat soak away some of my aches. Then I notice how hairy I am. Wow, who knew I could grow so much hair in 6 weeks? I glance around for a razor, I can't walk around like this. I might be the reincarnation of a cavewoman but it's 2024, there's no need to live like my past self now. My search for a razor is unsuccessful and I huff in frustration. How the hell am I going to deal with this? I stare at the unwanted hair, wishing it would just disappear. Then I yelp in shock when it dissolves right in front of my eyes. “No way,” I gasp, running my hands over my now smooth legs in disbelief. I lift an arm to check my underarm and that hair is gone too. This is my favourite power to date. Never having to shave ever again? Awesome! Then I reach up to touch my head in a panic, a rush of relief washing over me when I feel my hair still there. My eyebrows and eyelashes are thankfully still intact too. I hear a brief shout before the bathroo
Chapter 51“Mine!” the words slip from my mouth and as if the wolf hears me it stops in its tracks. Turning its head its glowing blue eyes find mine immediately. I recognise it, it's Mason. He looks to have some kind of internal struggle as the light in its eyes dims before shining even brighter, and then he tears his eyes from mine and continues his path into the thick forest and out of sight. “Uh oh, someone's wolf just got a glimpse of one of their mates for the first time,” Theo says coming to stand beside us. “When you feel up to it we should all go for a run together, it will be good for our wolves to finally meet,” Luke says. “Not without Axel,” I shake my head. I'm not letting him miss our first run together. “I can come, I shifted,” Axel says quietly behind me. I turn in his arms to look up at him.“Axel, that's amazing. When did it happen?” I grin, so pleased for him. He looks down in shame before he answers.“The night you were hurt, I lost control,” he admits.“Hey,” I
Chapter 52Theo's room is decorated more modestly than the rest of the house, with plain blue walls and curtains. It's a typical teenage boy's bedroom apart from the huge bed that takes up almost the whole floor space. The bed is like the one we had at the apartment and I wonder if it's a standard bed in this realm. “She could have let us keep Sophie’s room,” Theo grumbles when he struggles to move around the bed. “This is fine,” I reassure him. I'm just grateful we have somewhere safe to stay together. “I'm going to do a perimeter run,” Axel says from behind me. I turn to him and I'm concerned with the change I can see in him. His face is no longer the sweet shy one, his expression is hard and fierce. His posture is tense and on high alert. It’s the kind of change you can only earn from trauma, and I did that to him. I wrap my arms around him and feel a little comfort when he holds me back and kisses the top of my head.“Come back to me,” I whisper to him, hoping he understands the
Chapter 53The phone rings twice before I hear Dot’s voice.“Luke, you better be calling with some good news because I'm going crazy here. She should be awake by now and the healers need…”“Hi, Dot,” I cut her off. I can't believe no one has told her I’m awake yet. “Josie?” she gasps.“Yes, it's me,” “Oh my goodness, Josie, it's so good to hear your voice! I've been so worried. How are you? When did you wake up?” she blurts and I can hear the emotion in her voice. “I’m good Dot, thanks to you. The doctor said I have no negative effects,” I tell her. “I'm so happy to hear that, I thought maybe I messed up and…” her words are cut off by a sob. “Dot, I’m fine. You saved me, I owe you my life,” I say with tears rolling down my face. I wish I could hug her right now, she has spent all these weeks thinking she had done something wrong. “They wouldn't let me see you, I've been going crazy here. Is Mason with you?” she asks.“I know, I called as soon as I found out. Mason is not here ri
Chapter 54“Looks like we are going for that run now,” I hear Theo sigh as I dart after Mason. I don't wait for the others, I lower my nose to the ground letting my wolf guide us with her instincts as she takes note of Mason's scent. “Hey, no shifting in the house,” I hear a startled female voice from downstairs and my wolf heads towards it. Theo’s mum, Maria, comes into view and I wish I could apologise to her as I run by her and out the door. “Sorry Mum, it's a bit of an emergency,” Theo calls from behind me. I can hear the footsteps of Axel, Theo and Luke as they run in human form behind me, trying to keep up. “Theo, put some bloody clothes on before you go outside,” I hear her chastise. “No time,” he shouts. Their footsteps come to a halt and I assume they've stopped to shift. I don't wait, instead I push forward in chase of my mate. He's so fast but I'm determined to catch him. When I break into the forest my wolf becomes more alert. This is her domain and I let her take full
Chapter 55The girl hangs from a tree branch with a rope around her neck, her long dark hair covers her face and she has the letter J carved into her abdomen. It's not hard to miss the message. She looks very similar to me and the J has to be for Josie. “Mason give me your phone,” I pat his pockets in search of it. He reaches around to his back pocket and hands it to me.“Call Deacon and tell him to lift the wards, we are porting out of here now,” he orders. “Okay,” I nod, not fully sure what he's on about but there's something I need to do first. I open the camera and start snapping pictures of the body.“What the fuck are you doing you psycho?” Mason snatches the phone from me. “I’m not done,” I try to take the phone back.“Yes, you are,” he growls, “I’m deleting that shit off my phone,” “Mason, how many people can we really trust right now?” I ask him. “None without screening them,” he frowns. “Then give me back the phone, there is evidence right in front of us and I can tell
Chapter 168** Josie’s POV **“Babe, calm down, it's going to be perfect,” Theo says as I attempt to rearrange the tables by the pool again.“What if everyone hates it and never wants to go to a gender reveal party ever again?” I ask, covering my face with my hands in an attempt to calm myself. “Why would they hate it? Everyone will be here because they love us and our baby and they're excited to find out the gender. I don’t think they care if the table layout is up to standard,” Luke says.“You're right,” I nod. “I just feel this pressure to make it perfect, I need to prove to your families I'm capable of doing this, I want to prove I'm worthy of being in this bond group and that I'll be a good mother to their grandchildren,” I admit. “They already know that, and more importantly, we know that. You have nothing to prove, Babe. This is supposed to be a fun day for us all to be together with everyone we care about, so relax and enjoy it,” Theo pulls me to him and Luke steps up to my
Chapter 167** Josie’s POV **Once both my men are gloriously naked I watch them for a while as they explore each other's mouths. It’s clear Mason is letting Theo take the lead here, which confirms what I thought Mason needed from us. “Take charge of him, Theo, he needs it,” I say into the mind link. Theo breaks the kiss and looks over at me with a subtle nod.“Our girl is looking lonely on that bed, don't you think?” he asks. Mason turns his head and his eyes land on me before he nods.“Get on the bed and crawl to her, Mace,” Theo whispers.Mason steps up to the bottom of the bed and casts a glance at Theo behind him before getting on the bed and crawling up to kneel between my legs. I sit up to meet him and pull his head towards mine kissing him briefly before I lie back. Theo comes to kneel on the bed beside us and his hand moves straight to my sex. “Look how wet she is for you,” Theo hums, spreading me for Mason to see just how much I want him, before plunging two fingers insi
Chapter 166** Josie’s POV **It had taken almost a week to fully recover from the psychic attack from Cornelius. I had spent most of that time in bed with Mason. We watched movies and slept a lot for the first few days. On day three Mason felt back to normal, but due to my pregnancy and that I had depleted my energy to fuel the rest of my bonds I'd needed longer. The rest of my bonds have been navigating the aftermath and keeping me and Mason informed. We recently learned that Cornelius was confirmed as spark bonded, which adds another layer of betrayal to his entire scheme. When Cornelius died, one of the females captured by Raff’s team became distraught, screaming in anguish over her loss. Three other males tried to console her in the holding cell, revealing their identities in the process. I chose not to find out what happened to them afterwards. I can’t imagine the depth of her pain in losing one of her bonds, even if he had committed terrible acts. The thought of her dealing wit
Chapter 165** Theo’s POV **I move to intercept a wolf running towards Josie. I step in its path just in time for the little shit to launch up and latch painfully onto my arm, dragging me down with it. The wolf suddenly disappears from on top of me, seconds before it was about to chomp down on my face. I sit up and look around in confusion. Josie lets out a pained cry from behind me and I jump to my feet, turning just in time to see her drop to her knees. I rush forward with a burst of energy, catching her before she falls forward and she goes limp in my arms. I look at Mason in a panic, which only increases when I see he is on the floor, twitching and groaning. Luke is nowhere to be seen.“What the fuck is going on? I need help here!” I scream into the mind link. I lay Josie down next to Mason, ready to protect them both when Luke appears.“I’ll get them out of here. Go help Deacon and Axel,” Luke says before leaning down and touching Josie and Mason before porting out with them.
Chapter 164** Josie’s POV **Cornelius stands in the centre, dressed in black and wearing a bulletproof vest. He looks as arrogant as hell whilst he laps up the attention of his worshipers. People cheer and clap, drowning out the booing from outside the park fence. I look around at all the people, there are a full range from babies to elderly and I hate that they have no idea who this guy is and that they are just unwitting pawns in a game they never chose. We have to free them, we are their last line of defence. We swore we would save this realm and we are about to prove it, no matter the cost.I spot Mason and Theo moving into position and I glance over to where I know Axel and Luke should be. Once we see them we begin to move too, weaving our way through the crowd. I recognise a few of the faces along the way and feel a little more at ease when I see them shadowing the more vulnerable members of the audience, ready to protect them. When I am happy with my position I stop, letting m
Chapter 163** Josie’s POV **Deacon and I port into an empty apartment in a building that overlooks the park, whilst Luke, Axe, Mason and Theo port to a disused train line in the underground station across the street. Some of Raff’s team are already here and some have even managed to compel themselves onto the security team. We know Cornelius will have informed his team to be on the lookout for bonded groups so it’s important that as a female I am only seen with one male, otherwise we may draw suspicion. This theory is confirmed when a single female with a group of three males is stopped at the gate and pulled to one side. We can't see what is done to them from here as they are led into a large white tent. I hold my breath as we wait, only releasing it when they exit the tent unharmed.“Probably using compulsion to question them. If we get pulled in, remember to draw on Axel’s blocking gift and make your gaze look vacant. Imagine you are in a daydream and answer their questions quic
Chapter 161** Josie’s POV **By the time we port into the human realm, I have already been made to make what feels like a thousand promises to get out if I'm in danger. The guys are on edge, which is almost crippling me through the bond. Mason is pacing my small childhood living room as we wait for Freya to arrive and I fear the cheap carpet is not going to survive much longer. I sit down on the couch with a sigh as Luke makes me some tea. Deacon, Theo and Axel have gone on a little scouting mission, checking security near the park where the meet-and-greet is. The location had been released less than an hour ago and people are already gathering in the area. Theo told me people are holding up makeshift signs calling for us to save them, which gives me hope that we will face little resistance from the humans. A sudden flutter in my abdomen has my breath catching in my throat and Mason is kneeling in front of me in a flash.“What’s wrong?” he asks, gripping my knees. The mind link be
Chapter 160** Luke’s POV **We arrive back at the training ground with a few minutes to spare. Josie sits on a dusty old tyre whilst eating a banana that Theo’s mum insists will help with the swelling in her feet and ankles. We also all agreed that will will take her to the infirmary for a check-up once we are done here. Not just because of the swelling but to give us all a little peace of mind that she is fit to come with us tomorrow. My family was overjoyed when I told them about the Little Bean. My mum had even cried with joy and told me how proud she was, which I find an odd thing to be proud of. I didn't actually do anything. “Does anyone think it’s odd that my mum is proud of me for Josie being pregnant?” I ask the others, unable to get the thought from my head. “I think she probably means she is proud you are growing up maybe?” Josie shrugs. “But I'm not, I'm no different than I would be if you weren't pregnant,” I shrug. “And even if it was me that biologically fathered t
Chapter 160** Axel’s POV **My biological father seems to be making a little more effort with me than usual, although it’s still minimal. My mother and two other fathers are still as disinterested as ever. They're all only here to be a part of something. They don’t care about saving the human realm, they just want to be able to say they were there. They think it will bring them some respect. I could put them out of their misery and tell them I am a part of the Spark bond, that their son they thought was such a disappointment for having strength-based gifts is who they are now here to see, who they are excited to meet, but it feels like a little revenge to have them sitting at the table with the Spark bonded group and have no idea for a while. I hope they feel stupid when they realise. “I heard a rumour that your headmaster is a part of the Spark bonded group, is that true?” my mum asks, her eyes searching out Deacon in the crowd.“Yes, he is,” I nod. “He’s a fine man, his bond is