Ever just stood, staring at me silently, his expression a mixture of frustration and lost hope. Because he too knew the answer, she would never believe me. I said quietly, "You need to go home. It's been a week since Gwen finished her heat. She's going to need you tonight."Now his expression looked pained for an entirely different reason. His mate had finished her heat seven days ago, and within hours, he would either scent a pup in her belly, or she would begin the process of expelling the birthing byproduct no longer needed in the absence of a pup.He nodded, turned and left.I sank back down into the chair. After another moment, I finished my drink. I missed my little mouse. There was still some daylight left, and there was some place I wanted her to see."Where are we going?" She looked up at me curiously as we walked through the woods."A place of refuge and adventure I went to as a young pup.""Oh," she breathed and then lapsed into silence.After a moment, I asked, "Did you se
Everthing I WantHycinthThe water pounded onto my skull, hot and burning. Steam billowed in the space around me, clouding the air and fogging up the transparent glass walls, making it impossible to see through them. Not that I could see anyway. My eyes were red and puffy, swollen from my tears. I listened to the sound the water made coming out of the shower head. It echoed in my ears, resounding with its own heartbeat in my head. I was desperate for it to drown out all of my other senses -to make me numb. I wanted to forget what I'd just seen...what I'd just heard. The tortured wails of a shewolf, unfathomable, heart-wrenching cries of pain ripping from her throat. Her mate, on his knees, crying for her pain and also his own. I've never seen anything like it before. I've never heard anything like it before.I understood everything now.I understood why Leander was so desperate for this claiming ceremony to happen. Gwen wasn't the only she-wolf struggling in the Pack. Over the last fo
Wicked GamesLeanderI'd dealt with some messed up shit in the past but never pain like this. My heart felt like it was going to explode from my chest. My head was pounding, and my Wolf was howling mournfully, his agony echoing mine. So that was it. She told me everything I needed to know. And she had a foolproof plan to make everyone happy- everyone except me.I'd told her how I felt- I wanted her as my real mate.And she told me how she felt she was never going to be capable of loving me.Fuck, those words hurt.I looked up to find myself in my office. I didn't remember walking there. Robotically, I headed toward a $600 bottle of Bourbon I'd been saving for a special occasion, opened the top and turned it up to my lips, drinking straight from the bottle. It burned as it went down -it was precisely what I needed. Right now I needed to be numb to the world because if I unleashed the chaos inside of me, I knew I had the potential to do a lot of damage in some form or another.I settled
HYACINTHS'S POVHe'd said yes.He'd agreed to my deal.I couldn't believe it. I was going to have my freedom in a little more than a month from now! I was going to get to walk away and never look back. I wouldn't have to run from him anymore. I'd made him promise last night, swear on his life to stick to the arrangement once I was gone. He'd agreed. He'd sworn he wouldn't try to look for me. He would let me go. His only other condition of our arrangement was complete secrecy. The pack could not know about our agreement until it was over. He didn't want them to worry. I was fine with that.I was getting everything I wanted, so why did it feel like a large part of my heart had been ripped out of my chest?I pushed the feeling away. I couldn't dwell on it. I didn't have time. Most of the wolves were already gathered outside. Shockingly, they had pulled together all of the arrangements for our Announcement Ceremony in less than eighteen hours.I looked out the window, down at the wide ope
LEANDER'S POV As soon as I walked into the room, Hycinth got off the bed and faced me. She stared at me for a long moment, expression contrite at first. But then it slowly transitioned into fury."What the fuck happened?" I snarled. The Ceremony she'd just recklessly ruined with her hot-headedness was meant to give the wolves in the pack an outlet to express their appreciation and thanks. That certainly wasn't how it turned out.I couldn't believe she'd put me in that position! An open challenge always required a public punishment. There was no way that she was ignorant of that fact, and yet instead of talking to me, like I asked her to do, she decided to issue an openhanded challenge right across my cheek!If she'd done that in private, I would've handled it differently. But she didn't. And my Wolf would never allow that disrespect to go unpunished.So here we were, glaring at each other, and I was hoping for an explanation soon, which didn't look like it was forthcoming with the wa
Ever had told me she owned a tattoo parlor, but for some reason, I never anticipated she would have tattoos, primarily because pure silver extract had to be added to the ink. Otherwise, our bodies would reject the ink and heal around it. But using silver made the normal pain of getting a tattoo about a hundred times worse.And she didn't just have one cute little heart or flower on her belly. No, she had a stunning Phoenix nestled between her breasts, its wings fanning out over her pert mounds, but designed so that the flesh around her nipples was left untouched- looking as though they were peeking out alluringly from behind the bird. And if that were not enough visual titillation, the tail of the bird curled around the entire left side of her torso and flared out into beautiful swirls and tail feathers covering her belly. Like her nipples, the skin around her belly button was left untouched revealing an enticing belly button piercing.The design continued low on her stomach, flowing
She studied my expression, eyes boring deep into mine. I was shocked when she didn't immediately shoot me down Or at least try to slap me again or something. She drew her soft lip between her bottom teeth again, warring between the desires inside of her. I held my breath and waited. After a long minute, still not releasing her captive lip, she finally whispered, "Okay."It was all I could do to keep the lust filled growl contained in my chest.I spread my legs wider to make room for her. My voice so gruff, even I didn't recognize it as I said huskily, "Take a step back closer to me."She did as instructed, stepping back so that she was nestled right between my thighs.It was a chore to keep my hands steady and not let them roam everywhere on her skin. I focused on the task at hand, extracting some of the crème from the jar with my fingertips. "It's going to feel a little cold at first," I warned before pressing my fingers lightly against the beautifully rounded cheeks of her backside.
Heart of the StormHYCINTH'S POVThe words left my mouth, and the atmosphere changed. It darkened. The temperature dropped. The air thinned and crackled with electricity, churning and chaotic, silently screaming a warning for anyone wise enough to listen-it was coming.No, it was already there.The thing of nightmares and dark fairytales had been unknowingly unleashed. It was free.I waited for the flash of lightning and boom of thunder. It was inevitable. I was going to be struck down by it. There was no way for me to avoid it. No way for me to come out unscathed because I was the heart of the storm.Leander stood unblinking, his face wiped clean. No trace of emotion as if struggling with the impossibility of the words that had just come out of my mouth.And then he blinked.His expression darkened, the eyes of his Wolf front and center, no longer a brilliant violet blue. Now, they glowed flat black. The timbre of his voice dropped, gruff through his vocal cords, "He touched you?"My