The moment they were shown out into the garden to their luxury treehouse, Sue felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. The treehouse itself was more like a cabin built up high with a wooden spiral staircase leading up to it. It looked like something out of a fairytale with its strings of fairy lights hanging along the wraparound porch.Although Sue’s mind was whirring and she was dying to ask Knight about his conversation with Jared, she was completely distracted by how charmed she was by the place. There were a few more treehouses on the land, but they were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear each other. Considering what Knight had promised her in the car on their way there, Sue was grateful for that.“Wow,” she said after she and Knight climbed the stairs and entered the cabin. There was a big bed with a dark wooden frame and an emerald-green throw over it. There was an area with a tabl
A few days after their stay at the hotel, Knight had given Sue the keys to his apartment and told her he would meet her there later. When Sue asked why, Knight had told her that he was going to the clinic to donate blood to his sister, like it was no big deal.Knight had been completely closed off to the topic of Angel and Carlos, either changing the subject quickly or completely shutting down altogether. Sue didn’t think it was a healthy way of dealing with things, but she knew that if she pushed him too hard the werewolf would just get angry at her.“Stupid, stubborn werewolves,” she muttered to herself as she let herself into Knight’s apartment. She put her overnight bag down in the hallway and shrugged off her jacket before throwing it on top of her bag. She had mostly finished writing up her article, but she had left some spaces for questions she had devised for Knight’s grandpa.As she walked into the kitchen, she had the vague notion that it might be nice of her to make dinner
Knight hadn’t been to visit Angel at the clinic, even though she had asked him to. Perhaps he was a bad person, but it wasn’t his job to look after her. He had paid for the clinic and he had donated blood, but that was where he drew the line. Even when he had gone in to donate, he hadn’t gone to see her. It was more than a lot of people would have done for a complete stranger.Sue had tried to talk him into seeing her once. It had led to their first real fight. Sue had gone out to sleep on the couch afterward, leaving Knight feeling like a real prick. After ten minutes of Sue’s absence, Knight had gone out to apologize, only for Sue to beat him to it.It had been a relief when Sue finally admitted that it should be Knight’s decision. He had to admit that a big part of not wanting Angel in his life was his mom. She had been through enough, thanks to Carlos. Knight wasn’t going to put her through any more.It was Saturday, the day before the pack barbeque, and Knight and Sue were stayin
Knight stood back on the porch and watched Sarah talk to Jared’s little girl. The grown woman looked uncomfortable as she kneeled down on the grass in her skirt and heels. Fortunately, the little girl seemed to be the kind of child who was happy to sit and talk as opposed to the kind who just liked to run around like a lunatic.The way Jared was beaming at them both was almost enough to make Knight care about any of it.“She’s cute, huh?” Leslie said as she came up behind him. “She’s already calling me Auntie Les.”Knight smirked at her and crossed his arms over his chest. “Grandma’s beside herself at having a child to fuss over again.”“Oh god, don’t.” Leslie sighed dramatically. “She’s already dropping hints about how she’d like some more.”Knight laughed and shook his head. “You know what grandmas are like, a werewolf grandma, so much worse.”“You don’t need to tell me that. She’s been trying to set me up with guys since I finished high school,” Leslie said. “Hmm...where’s Sue? Wa
“What are you talking about?” Knight’s mom asked him. She had always been kind of fragile, which was why Knight hadn’t wanted her to know about Angel. “You have a sister?”Knight ran his hand over his face and leaned back against the porch railing.“I’m gonna let you guys talk,” Leslie said as she made a beeline to the door, mouthing an “I’m sorry” at Knight as she went.Knight sighed. Of all the days to have this conversation, it had to be today. “A few weeks ago, a woman showed up. Her name’s Angel. She was hooked on wolfsbane and wanted my help.”His mom started walking up and down the porch, shaking her head as she went. She didn’t say anything, so Knight continued talking.“Carlos had her hooked on the stuff from a young age,” he told her. “Mom? I know this must be hard to hear.”Julia just shook her head again, her face the picture of shock. “No, it’s impossible. Whoever that girl is, she’s lying. She’s not your sister.”“Mom,” Knight began, keeping his tone calm and soothing. “I
As Knight drove back into the city, he began to feel himself calm down. He felt betrayed by the lie his mother had kept up for so long, but he knew that he would eventually forgive her. He had always been protective of her, ever since he had witnessed the way Carlos had treated her when he was just a kid. That wasn’t going to stop now.As he drove, his mind had been whirring, trying to make sense of it all. He had started out by giving Angel the benefit of the doubt, assuming that she didn’t know Carlos wasn’t really her father, just like Knight had, but as he got closer to the city, he started to wonder about that.He was brought out of his thoughts by the ringing of his cell phone.“Shit,” he swore. He had meant to call Sue to let her know she was on his way back but had been so caught up in his own head that he had forgotten. He knew it would be Sue before he even glanced at the screen.He quickly swiped the screen to answer and put it on speakerphone.“Hey, how’s the article comin
Sue stood on the porch of Knight’s grandparents’ house and watched Sarah and Jared play a giant game of Chutes and Ladders with Jared’s daughter out on the lawn. There were around forty people there for the pack barbeque. Some of them were swimming in the pool and others were standing around talking. It was warm out and the smell of barbequed food wafted around her. She felt calm, peaceful even. Knight had been hovering since they got there the night before. It had been late by the time they reached the house, having given their statements to the police and gotten checked out at the hospital.It was Sue who had insisted they stick to the plan to go and stay with Knight’s grandparents for the weekend. It felt good to be away from it all and with all the werewolves around her, surprisingly she felt safe. They had spent an hour talking with Knight’s family, filling them in on what had happened before finally going to bed.Sue had fallen asleep quickly and hadn’t woken until morning. K
The low, setting sun cast strange shadows on the bedroom wall. Knight West lived on the top floor of his building, so there were no trees outside. Still, the dark and shadowy figures twisted like tree branches, dancing, clashing in a sinister way.“It looks like two wolves fighting,” Sue said to him in a whisper. He hadn’t heard Sue come in, which was unusual. He didn’t know why, but something didn’t feel quite right.He turned and looked at his girlfriend and gasped when he saw the human. There was a huge gash across her throat and blood was gushing out of it, pumping and spraying onto the shadowy figures on the wall.“Sue,” he shouted, his hands clutching at Sue’s throat in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding.“It’s no use,” Carlos, the man Knight had believed to be his father, said to him from across the room. “She’s human. She’s weak.”Knight let out a ferocious snarl and lunged at Carlos, shifting into his wolf form as he flew through the air. He launched at the other werewolf
Christmas had never been a time Sue looked forward to. While most people were with their families, having fun and enjoying each other’s company, Sue was with her mother, making small talk and feeling like she didn’t belong. She would try and get to her house as late as was acceptable and leave as early as she could. Her mom certainly never tried to talk her into staying any longer.It wasn’t until the year before, her first Christmas with Knight, that she had actually started to look forward to it. Christmas Day was spent with the family, but Christmas Eve meant another pack party. Although Eden and Julia had taken care of most of the planning, as usual, Sue had asked them to give her one thing to do. She didn’t care what it was, she just felt like she should make a start on being a better alpha mate.This year she had been put in charge of Christmas-themed cupcakes and cookies. It was easy enough. She had found a good bakery and all she had to do was pick them up on the day. As she m
By the time Sue and Joey got back to the apartment, Sue was feeling a lot better about things. Spending time with her little brother tended to have that effect on her. It was funny, considering that Sue used to hate him when he was a spoiled little brat of a toddler messing up Sue’s room.“Knight’s not here,” Joey said disappointedly. Sue followed Joey into the kitchen when Joey found a note and held it out to Sue.I have some things I need to take care of. I’ll explain it all later. Meet you at the hotel.I love you.Knight.XxxSue sighed and folded the piece of paper up. “I guess he had to work.”Joey frowned at her and sat down at the breakfast bar. “Things are okay between you, right?”Sue watched her little brother grab a banana from the fruit bowl and unpeel it. Knowing Joey as she did, Sue knew he was probably just eating it because it was there, rather than the fact that he was actually hungry. She didn’t really know how much to tell Joey about what had been going on between
Knight hadn’t been to see his grandpa’s grave since the funeral. He hadn’t thought it was something he would take solace in. Yet, there he was, on his own, in the dark.It took a little while to find the grave. He remembered his grandma saying that they had to wait for the ground to settle before his tombstone could be placed. Instead, there was a wooden cross with a plaque glued to it. It simply read his name.In life, Lenard West had been such a big character, to see his grave like this, with no more than a measly wooden cross on it was like a stab in the gut. Everything in life died, logically Knight knew this. Still, to him, it didn’t make any sense that his grandpa, once the strongest man he knew, was now no more than ashes in the cold ground.He dropped to his knees in the slightly damp grass and felt a wave of nausea in the pit of his stomach. He might not be able to hear his grandpa talk back to him, but Knight could still talk to him, and he could probably guess what he would
After showering, Knight got dressed and went into the kitchen to put the waffle batter in a container in the fridge so that he could use it later. On the counter, Sue’s phone gave a little trill indicating that a message had come through. Knight hadn’t meant to look at it, but the message flashed across the screen. It was from Andrew.Hey. Hope you feel ok after last night. Listen, if you want to talk any more give me a call. I’m sorry Knight’s been working so much lately, and I hope things get better between you two soon. Here’s the number of the couple’s therapist we used, if you want it. Talk soon.Knight read it through quickly before the screen went black again. He felt an instant surge of anger go through him.Couple’s therapy? What the hell had Sue been telling him?He angrily swiped the phone from the counter and marched into the bedroom before tossing the phone onto the bed beside Sue.“If I didn’t like you talking to Leslie, my own cousin, about me, then why the hell would y
Knight had been feeling so bad about the fact he had been working so much the past week that he made sure to get home early. In the week since the fall gathering, Knight had hardly seen Sue. He knew it was his fault, but it couldn’t be helped. Still, he knew he had to make it up to his wife. He had spent the day working nonstop so that he could get home at a reasonable hour.What was early for him was still a full day’s work for anyone else. It was nearly seven when he let himself into the apartment. He had a bag of take out with him and a bottle of wine.“Sue,” he called out as he shrugged off his jacket. He didn’t need to wait for a response. His hearing and sense of smell would have picked up on something by now.He walked into the kitchen and put the bag of food on the counter. As he had been staying late at the office lately, Sue had been driving herself to and from work. Her car was in the underground garage, so Knight knew that his mate had come home after work.Pulling his pho
It was pretty late by the time Sue and Knight got back to the apartment. The car ride had been unusually quiet and tense. Sue had tried to make some effort at conversation, but she was tired and fed up. It was obvious that Knight was still mad at her for spilling the beans to his mom.When they came through the door, she half expected Knight to say something, to finally bring it up, but obviously that wasn’t his way.“Knight, I’ve said I’m sorry,” she said as Knight went to walk past her to go to the bedroom. “Like a hundred times.”That was obviously an exaggeration, but her point remained.“Sue, just let it go, please,” Knight said with a weary sigh. “I just want to go to bed.”“No,” Sue practically shouted. “You can’t. We’re not supposed to go to bed angry.”Knight turned on her with a look of annoyance marring his handsome face. “Where did you read that? The Big Book of Marriage Clichés?”“It’s okay that you’re mad at me.”“I’m not mad at you,” Knight practically barked.Sue found
Since his grandpa’s death, Knight had missed the old man every single day. Being at a pack party without him was a whole new kind of pain. Lenard had been so full of life. He was always at the center of every group, telling stories while everyone else hung on his every word.There was a light missing there today.Knight walked through the throng of people, trying his best to make small talk and act like he was interested in everything they were saying. After deciding he had mingled enough for the time being, he went looking for his cousins. If he was ever tired of people kissing his ass and telling him exactly what he wanted to hear, his cousins soon put it right. Particularly Leslie, who delighted in tormenting Knight.He found them over by the fortune telling machine that his grandma hired every year from a carnival supplier. As a kid, the thing had always given him the creeps. It was a glass booth with a creepy wizard-looking mannequin inside. You held on to a metal rod, and it pum
As they made their way back outside, Sue took the lead, walking faster than the others in an attempt to escape the awkward situation. She spotted Jared and Leslie over by one of the apple bobbing stations, and she made a beeline for them.The two of them were with Jared’s daughter, Marie, but it was the adults who were doing the bobbing.“Having fun?” she asked as she got closer to them. She looked behind her, sparing Knight a glance. She felt a bit bad about abandoning him to his mother and grandmother, but she couldn’t take Julia looking at her like she had taken her baby boy away from her again.“Jared made a joke about me having a big mouth,” Leslie told her. The hair around her face was a little wet, but Jared was absolutely soaking. “So I dunked him in it.”Sue laughed as Jared shook his head like a dog.“Do we win anything if we get an apple?” Marie asked.Sue didn’t know the little girl very well. She had only spoken to her a few times. While she was fine with kids, she wasn’t
The West pack had four official meetings every year, one for each season. The one they had in autumn was during the week of Halloween. A big party was thrown at the estate with games and various other attractions outside. Sue had been to a couple of their parties so far but not the Halloween one. It was going to be the first pack gathering since Lenard’s funeral and the first gathering under their new alpha.As the alpha’s mate, Sue still didn’t really know what her new role was, if any. Knight’s mother and grandmother had organized everything. If she was honest, she was grateful that they hadn’t asked for her input so far.“So, things not to mention to your mom are the fact that we got married and the fact that you’ve not only met your real dad but have also been hanging out with him and his pack,” Sue mused out loud as Knight parked the car outside his grandma’s house.Knight turned and gave her a look. “No, I’m going to tel