“Two years later, the pain from our parents' death was still raw but at least we had found those responsible, it did not fill up the gaping hole that losing them brought but it was closure nonetheless. And we had each other.” Chase said, grief hidden within his words.I reached down and curled my hand around his, unable to stop myself.“We had no idea what was coming. If we had, I never would have gone for that meeting, I never would have left the territory, I never would have left Aubrey’s side.”“Chase...you can’t think like that, it’ll eat you up.” I said, running a thumb over his knuckles in a futile attempt to comfort him. He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it.“Trust me, I know that. But I thought of the what-ifs every single day and it killed me. Aubrey was the kindest and bravest soul and the fact that she of all people was gone felt so unfair.“I wanted to fall off the face of the earth and disappear but I kept on living. I had to. My dad, my mum, and now Aubrey, I
“Dad!” I screamed but there was no answer. My voice seemed to echo in the quiet night and the forest stood still, holding its breath.Terror threatened to suffocate me as I ran as fast as I could on human legs, spider webs crawling all over my body. Somewhere in the shadows, the menacing growl I had heard before sounded but this time it was closer.Desperation made me try once more to shift but it was no use, my bones started to crack and then stopped, making me lose balance and crash into the cold forest ground.Pain shot through my knee where my skin tore.A twig snapped near me and I jerked my head up.“Dad.” I whimpered, praying to the goddess that he would hear me.I gasped, my heart pounding as I saw a tall figure advancing on me with a gleaming knife. I struggled to get up but my limbs stayed glued to the ground and tears streamed down my eyes as fear grew.When the faceless figure drew a hand back and flung the knife my way, a scream tore from my throat and I jolted awake.My
I laughed as Chase swept me off my feet in a bear hug and gave me a kiss that turned me into a puddle. “Also,” I continued, drawing away so that I could see his face. “I want to help you find solid evidence on Kylan or whoever the true killer is.” Chase’s hands dropped away from my sides. “Not, absolutely not.” He said, shaking his head vehemently. “Chase—” I started to protest but he cut me off before I could tell him he was being a disagreeable ass. “Maya, I love the fact that you are staying, I’m absolutely over the moon but, and that is a huge but, I cannot let you put yourself in danger by involving yourself in this.” “I’m already involved in this!” I explained. “Me being here is an involvement on its own. And Kylan probably feels that way too.” His forehead creased in confusion. “What do you mean?” I shrugged. I had just spoken randomly in my bid to convince him but now that I thought of it, it seemed possible. “Kylan probably already knows that you’re on to him and if m
“I can’t do it.” I said, dread forming a ball in my stomach.“You aren’t doing anything, just smile and say hello. You've been here too long without an introduction to everyone and they're starting to feel unsettled. Chase might not tell you but they whisper and a few that have been to Lunagrove recently have directly gone up to Chase to ask why we're harbouring a fugitive.” Henry said, only pausing to suck on his lollipop while I gave up on reading the novel that he had stolen from Ron’s library for me.“Hey, I’m not a fugitive.” I cried, smacking his arm.“I know you aren’t but you have your face on posters all over your old pack so it looks pretty bad to everyone else.”I groaned and threw the book aside, dropping my head into my sweaty palms with a long-suffering sigh.“Maya, no one is going to eat you.” Henry laughed“That’s what you think. Okay, sure, whatever. I don’t have a choice anyway.” I went to my room to get ready for dinner where I was finally about to be officially in
“No.” I announced theatrically, pushing Chase away with a grunt.“No?” His brows rose in question and he gave me a slow once over that turned my knees to jelly then repeated his question like he knew I was pretending not to want this as much as he did. I guess he did know, my arousal along with his had filled the room with a heady scent that made me hotter.“No?”“No.” I said with finality. “I don’t want to go to dinner with your scent all over me.”“Why not? I’m about to tell everyone that we are mates. I will be very satisfied with having your scent on me so that they all know I’m yours.”The sensual way Chase said ‘satisfied’ made me shiver with awareness and the rest of his words melted my heart but I put it back together and stood my ground.“No amount of sweetness will work on me, babe, let’s go downstairs.” I said, sauntering past him on my way to the door. He let out a muttered curse and followed me with a resigned sigh.At dinner, Chase sat at the head of the table and I sat
I could hear how loud my pulse was as I spun to face the vile male, my skin crawling at the sight of his left eye that darted restlessly without focus.“What did you just say?” I asked softly, refusing to believe that this unnerving bounty hunter had just made mention of my dad.He shifted his stance, balancing a duffle bag that I had not noticed before on his shoulders.“Heh, you don’t like that, do you? Me bringing up your father.” He snorted, laughing strangely at something only he knew about.I was starting to get annoyed. I scanned him again, taking note of details that I had missed before and something new struck me.It was fake. The animal skin he wore as a cloak was a fake, I could not pick up any scent from it.My nose flared and my eyes narrowed into slits, I could hardly pick up his own scent either, it was almost like he had somehow masked it.How...?“Who are you?” I gritted out, hoping that Chase would return. Others hardly ventured into the garden by this time and that
“Maya?”I barely registered the third time Henry called my name. As much as I thought the creep was deluded, I could not shake off the sense of foreboding that shrouded my consciousness. Why on Selene’s green earth would a random stranger go through the pain of sneaking into the well-guarded house to lie to my face?He was definitely deluded but still...“Henry?” By now, the astute Delta had lost interest in gaining my attention but instead circled me slowly with his nose flared.“What’s that?” He asked.He stopped circling and stood at the exact spot in front of me that the bounty hunter had been in minutes ago, sniffing the air with his brows creased in concentration.I knew he was trying to place the male’s scent but it was of no use. I had tried but it smelt like something and nothing at the same time, discerning it was impossible. I was surprised Henry could even pick up the faint scent, I had been with the male and had hardly perceived a thing.“What’s what?” I asked back innoce
“You met a bounty hunter and you said nothing?” Chase thundered furiously “Do you have any idea how dangerous they are?!”I did know, for a matter of fact.“He was—” I started but Chase cut me off and turned to Henry.“Can you trace him? He couldn’t have gotten far.”Henry’s reply was grim, “He doesn’t have a scent.”Chase’s frown deepened.“How is that possible?”“He had a scent,” I said softly, averting my eyes from Henry’s inquisitive ones and trying not to be bothered by my mate’s detached silence. “It was mixed up and wrong like Henry said but it was definitely there. I think he masked it with something, maybe extracts from different plants. Probably dracaena, marjoram...”I trailed off and shrank away from their weighty stare.“Never mind.” I said sheepishly.Chase let out a longsuffering sigh.“Hen, I suspect that this hunter was responsible for the commotion that Ron called me out for. A distraction. There was no way he could have taken Maya without getting caught but I want t