“Ugh, child. You smell like wet dog. We didn’t you bathe before coming to dinner?” the Red One, my mother, complains. “I apologize, Red One. The she-wolf is feeling poorly and I had to care for her, as well as clean her portion of the cell.” Just because she has claimed me as her daughter in front of our enemies and this spell is all for my “benefit,” that doesn’t mean that I can speak to her as if she were my mother. She is now and has always been the Red One to me. I haven’t called ehr mother since she backhanded me so hard that I fell down a flight of stairs. I think I was six then. Even with my limited understanding of family dynamics, I know that isn’t something that a loving parent is supposed to do. I have rarely, if ever, been shown any affection in this coven. The first time was by a nanny who had been proud of three year old me for solving an addition problem. She had picked me up, hugging me toward her chest. When my mother came in and saw me in the other wo
Thank the Goddess on high for Nyx’s morning sickness cure. Damn, do I feel so much better! I already know that I am pregnant with twins and I’m scared as hell that something is going to happen to them while I’m here. I know that they need me to be pregnant for them to do whatever fucked up ritual they’re going to do, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t do shit to us. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to allow me to carry my pups to term or that they’ll care for them once they’re born. If anything, they’ll kill them immediately after they’re finished with me. It’s the Riding Hoods, they hate werewolves. I shake my head, trying to rid myself of those thoughts. I’m much more emotional than normal right now. I’m not sure if it’s the stress of being kidnapped and away from my mates and Summer, the fear of what they’re going to do to us and when, or my pregnancy. Probably a combination of all three, but whatever it is, I break down crying at the drop of a hat. I’ve managed
We’ve been here for two days. The cabin is gorgeous. When Gael told us about it, I thought that it would just be a dinky little place out in the woods. This is a huge, three-story lodge surrounded on three sides by a lake. It reminds me of the vampire house in that Twilight move with huge floor-to-ceiling windows on every floor. They’re tinted and double paned with blackout shades between the panes that a remote control can raise and lower, but the view is fucking beautiful. The bedrooms are spacious with attached bathrooms. The whole place is beautifully decorated. There’s paddle boats and fishing equipment, as well as a speed boat for the lake. No electronics out here. Gael’s family wanted to be completely off the grid and able to focus on their mates. There are some books and board games, but all and all, there’s not a lot here for us to do. We have a satellite phone and a mobile hotspot for things that we absolutely have to do by phone or on Zoom, but we try not to us
“Will you shut the fuck up!” Jacob screams at me. We’re getting stuff together for the meeting with all of the wolves and supernatural beings who will be arriving over the next couple of days. They’re trying to come up with a plan of how to hunt and stop the Riding Hoods. Jacob and I are in charge of compiling all of the recent information about the Riding Hoods’ movements, the abduction of Esteban and Kayla, and the prophecy. I’ve got my earbuds in as I’m typing up the notes from Jared, Micah, and Jai from when they arrived at Esteban’s house and everything they were able to glean from the scene and from the people working in the restaurant. I’m listening to Taylor Swift and humming along to the music. Don’t hate, girl’s got bars. I take out one of my earbuds and look at Jacob. “What the hell crawled up your butt and died?” “You are making so much fucking noise I can’t even hear myself think. Just shut the fuck up,” Jacob mutters at me. I take the other earbud out and turn
I’m walking into the conference room where I left Rowen and Jacob when I hear Jacob’s crying. How do I know it’s Jacob? He’s my son. I know which child is crying the same way that I know their individual scents, their voices, and their touch. I had left Jacob and Rowen in here while I was working with Bella and Citra and their covens to start preparing healing potions, as well as offensive and defensive spells to prepare to fight the Riding Hoods. Jacob had been on edge for the last couple of days and I think it has to do with whatever the reason is that Alexander has taken off to see Xander and our families in Selene’s realm. I know that Jacob and Alexander depend on each other. It’s not hard to see the relationship between the two of them. I’ve known for years. They aren’t as discrete or clever as they think they are. Alexander is Jacob’s calm in the storm of his anger, his explosive and occasionally violent emotions. Without Alexander here, it isn’t a giant leap to
We’ve been in contact with Chris, Jared, and Summer a lot over the next few days. The fact that Zak and I don’t have our mate with us is making us just a bit needy. Chris seems to get it and she’s kind of bored anyway. Jared and Summer, on the other hand…I’m pretty sure that they’re ready to tell us to fuck off so they can do all of the things that I know Arya is keeping them busy with. As part of the elite warrior force, both Summer and Jared have been working with the fighting forces of the Supernatural Council to try to come up with a plan to figure out how they can track the Riding Hoods. No one has a solution yet, but we’re hoping that once we all get together we can figure something out. Maybe once we are all here, something will click. But in the meantime, Jared and Summer are scouring the lore to see if they can find anyone who may be of help. And Zak and I constantly checking in is just a bit distracting. I know that we’re being needy. Zak knows that we’re being nee
“Why are you helping us?” I ask Nyx for what seems like the one thousandth time. Normally, she gives a vague answer. “The is the wrong direction for the coven.” “My mother is too power hungry.” “This isn’t what I want to be.” But that isn’t enough of an answer. She’s started helping us gain our strength back. The high levels of silver in our chains had been hurting us and tamping down our wolves. She placed a spell above our skin beneath where the cuffs would rub, like an invisible adhesive that made it so that our skin wasn’t touched by the silver. It gave us a connection back to our wolves and helped us to heal, though we still couldn’t link outside of the cell because of magical wards that surrounded the building. That wasn’t something that she could do anything about without the witches noticing. She also was giving us more food and intel about what was going on around the coven. Like she was really prepping us to leave. I have to say, I thought it was some kind of t
I have no idea how Aubrey did it, but she managed to get both Kanati and Huitzilopochtli to come help us find our people and track down the Riding Hoods. Apparently, we weren’t the only race that the Riding Hoods were taking people from. Every single supernatural race was missing anywhere from one to four members. Something big was happening and the world of Supernatural Creatures was done with the Riding Hoods. We all knew that they needed to stop. Kanati, the very first man according to Cherokee legend, looked to be about 25 years old. He is tall, even by werewolf standards, standing nearly at Dad’s height, making him one of the tallest in the room. Both he and his translator, Kamama, both have a year-round tan from being out in the sun all day. They both have very angular features with starkly cut jaw and cheek bones and noses as flat and sharp as an arrowhead. He wore his long black hair in a scalp lock, which means that the hair was shaved except for at the crown of his