~ CARA ~“Hey… are you okay?”I looked up from my lunch tray in the cafeteria to find Meg, the quiet girl from my study-group standing on the other side of my table.“Oh, hi. Yeah. Did you want to sit down?” I said, gesturing towards the chairs where Meg was standing.She smiled hesitantly, then nodded, placed her tray on the tabletop, then sat down directly across from me.For a minute we both just ate without speaking. I was distracted. My leg was hurting—and got worse the longer I was on my feet—but I had to work that evening at the library again. How was I going to get back to the dorm after? I didn’t have to close out the night this time, but I wouldn’t finish until nine and it would already be dark—“Are you sure you’re okay, Cara?” Meg asked gently. She leaned her elbows on either side of her tray, picking apart a bread roll without eating it.I sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you. I’m just distracted.”“What’s going on?”“Nothing…” When Meg looked at me, clearly sk
~ RIG ~I leaned onto the top of the desk and smiled, waiting for my turn as Cara finished giving some freshman instructions on how to find the reference texts they were looking for.She looked pale and a little tired, but she’d noticed me arriving, and her scent had lifted. I’d had to fight down a smug smile.“Hey,” I said when she turned towards me. “How are—”“I know I was freaking out, but it wasn’t that bad, I was just nervous, but I have the number for Campus Security, and they already said they’ll give me a ride. I just have to call them and wait if they’re already taking someone else, that’s all,” she blurted out, all in a rush.I blinked, confused. “I’m… glad you got whatever it was sorted out, but I was just—”“No, Rig. I told Mack it’s not necessary, and I meant it.”“Told Mack… what exactly?” Wait, she’d been talking to Mack?Fucker.Cara had folded her arms, but now her forehead pinched. “Aren’t you here because he told you that I was being weird at lunch?”“You had lunch
~ RIG ~I almost shifted, but if this thing was just a strange human, or if there were other humans around I needed to be in human form—and not be naked. So with a low growl, I moved as quickly as any human witness would think was realistic, following Cara’s trail deeper into the trees.Why had she done it? Why had she come in here alone after what had already happened?A tiny voice nudged at the back of his mind—why had I let her? But I shook it off. She was human and an adult. Not my responsibility.Moments. It took only moments to find the trail and follow it at a full sprint, first down the trail, then, where her scent mingled with that other thing, into the trees and underbrush.Teeth bared, hands whipping branches aside, I tore through the trees, then broke out into a small clearing where the moonlight turned everything silver and black… and my chest turned to stone.The moment I broke through the trees, the male on the other side of the clearing froze.He held Cara facing me, o
~ RIG ~“Yes, I’m certain. It was one guy. But he had… he had a dog or something with him.” I said the words carefully, avoiding Cara’s eyes, praying she didn’t hear me. There were lights in the clearing now. The Police Officer stood just a couple feet away, his notebook in his hand and a stern look on his face. Cara, the wound on her neck already cleaned and covered, was being strapped to the board so the ambulance officers could carry her out, but her knee was causing her a lot of pain.“We have had a couple of attacks recently. But no one has seen them except the victims. You’re absolutely sure—”“Did I stutter?” I snarled. My tension was growing, but they didn’t know that. The officer’s face tightened and I made myself take a breath. My frustration wasn’t for this human, but for the conversation going on in my head between my packmates who had followed the creature’s trail all the way to the main street just outside of Campus where it went cold.Either the thing had a car, or some
~ RIG ~I had to think fast. She was growing suspicious and I couldn’t use the Allure to soothe her.“Because you need help,” I said simply.“Bullshit, Rig. There are girls all over campus who need help. Why me?”“I’ve had to save you twice already,” I said with a wink. “If the hospital kills you now, it will have been for nothing.”But Cara didn’t grin with me. She shifted uncomfortably on the bed, but didn’t say anything. For the first time, I wished I could mindlink with her, hear her thoughts. Understand what she was thinking. Because my own instincts were on high alert, too. I doubted it was good.As her scent prickled and grew hard, I scrambled. I needed to distract her from her suspicions before she convinced herself not to trust me at all.“I’ll go get us some coffee,” I said suddenly. “There’s an espresso shop downstairs. It’s probably crap, but it’ll keep us alert anyway. You have to keep an eye on the doctors. They’re always trying to screw you on the charges.” I laughed un
~ CARA ~I sat very stiffly in the back of the fancy car, praying I didn’t bleed on the cream leather, or touch anything that would break. I’d never been in a real town car before. Back at the hospital, I’d tried to ask the driver to bring a more normal vehicle, but he’d become a little impatient and insisted that he had another job to go to after this. So I’d levered myself into the spacious backseat with my strapped knee and crutches as quickly as I could, then refused to move for the entire drive.As the driver took the final turn before we reached campus I could breathe a little easier… sort of. I felt strange. My chest was tight and I kept seeing sparkling lights at the edge of my vision.The nurse told me it was probably lack of sleep, and that my blood pressure was up from the adrenalin of the attack. She’d been sympathetic, but firm.“I know this was hard, Cara, but the best thing you can do for yourself is return to your life and get back into a normal routine. That knee will
~ CARA ~The next morning, I was swinging myself along the sidewalk towards the cafeteria, starving. I’d eaten all of my snacks and couldn’t afford to buy more until I got paid at the end of the week. With everything that had happened over the weekend, I needed to catch up on the studying I had missed. But if I was going to concentrate I needed to eat, and that meant having breakfast in the cafeteria. Which meant, with the crutches, that I was out of the door early to give myself extra time.I thought I would be sore after working so late the night before. But all that sleep had done my knee good. I still couldn’t put weight on it, but it wasn’t aching as badly as when I’d come home from the hospital. As I clunked onto the sidewalk outside the dormitory, I winced. The undersides of my arms were being rubbed by the crutches. How was I going to handle two more weeks of this?I wasn’t even halfway down the block when the rumble of a vehicle approached from behind, then slowed to roll alo
~ CARA ~“I can’t,” I blurted, sitting back in my seat to put more space between us. But it didn’t stop my pulse speeding up, or thumping in my ears. “I have to study… and I have class.”Rig’s smile slid higher on one side. “You know you don’t have to attend every class, right?”“Of course I do. That’s how I get good grades.”Rig blinked, then huffed a surprised little laugh. “Cara, please don’t tell me… have you never skipped class before?”I kept my mouth firmly shut, but as his stunned silence grew, I wanted to squirm.“Oh my god,” he laughed. “You really haven’t.”“It’s not that big of a deal.”“You’re serious? Not even in high school?”I frowned and started picking up my crutches. “Look, you said breakfast and a ride. I don’t have to sit here and get mocked—”“I’m not mocking you!”“What do you call all the laughing?!” I snapped.“It’s called… polite disbelief.”“Polite?”Rig straightened his face, but his mouth still twitched toward a smile. “Okay, okay, I was laughing—but I’m n
~ RIG ~ I let my upper lip curl up and bare my teeth. Let him see that he was dealing with a helluva lot more than a spoiled rich kid. His instincts were dulled by humanity and alcohol, but even his dimwitted senses caught the flash of my teeth. He stiffened. I smiled. “My wife wants to share her wedding with her Mom—we eloped, but we’ve just watched some friends getting married and it’s making her think about what we missed, so we’re going to do it properly. Make another memory. And Cara wants to share that with her mom. So, we’re going to renew our vows in front of everyone we care about. Which, sadly, includes you.” He smiled and I wanted to bite his face off. “You are invited,” I growled. “But you
SOUNDTRACK: “Your Daughter” by Chase McDaniel. ***** ~ RIG (Three weeks later) ~ Getting out of my jeep in the driveway of the house that was the site of Cara’s torture turned my stomach. My Alpha power—still difficult to contain at times, making me itchy and prone to aggression—surged as I took in the cracked cement with weeds and grass growing up, the overgrown flower beds now little jungles of three foot weeds, and the grass that was thin and patchy, and mostly dead. This was the place that her fucking father had made her believe no one could love her. This was the place she’d been hurt. This was the place I wanted to burn to the fucking ground. But for today, at least, that wasn’t the assig
SOUNDTRACK: “Unbearable” by Nathan Wagner. ***** ~ CHARLIE ~ Watching Mack salivate over Natalie as she walked up the aisle was a very specific kind of torment. Because even though I was supposed to be watching our friends publicly vow themselves, my eyes kept drifting back to Meg who, alongside Cara and Tessa, was standing with Natalie today. She looked… stunning. Natalie, always with the impeccable taste that I didn’t understand, but could fully appreciate, had draped all the girls in floor-length, light-green, figure-hugging-but-not-clinging dresses that revealed flesh without being suggestive. It was fucking torture.
~ MACK ~ When Natalie and Cara finally reached us on the stage, I knew that there was an exchange with the officiant. Cara and Rig said something, but I didn’t hear it. I just took Natalie’s hands and pulled her up to stand in front of me. I was aware of people speaking after that. The officiant—a wolf who’d been among the rebels, whose aunt was human, and had become ordained—spoke for a few minutes about marriage and what it meant, but all I could think about was the deep pools of her eyes, that hollow in her throat that she’d offered me the night before last, and how my entire blood hummed with love and desire and— There was a ripple of laughter. “Oh, what?” I asked. Someone had asked me something. Oh, right. “I do!”
SOUNDTRACK: “Don’t Give Up on Me” by Andy Grammar ***** ~ MACK ~ I had been shitting myself. Absolutely, one hundred percent, about-to-claw-my-own-hair-off, crapping my pants. When Cara told me about the human traditions around a wedding, and what she was planning to do with Rig for their vow renewal—which included not seeing or sleeping with each other the day before the ceremony, which sounded crazy—I’d joked with Natalie that we should do that too. I’d thought it would be cute and maybe increase anticipation for when we did come back together after the ceremony. I hadn’t banked on my mate getting cold feet about doing this in front of the packs, and how her nerves would kick my insecurities into gear—and that the whole damn thing would b
SOUNDTRACK: “Break Your Fall” by UNSECRET and Marc Scibilia. ***** ~ NATALIE ~ “This is stupid and… and indulgent and it doesn’t matter! I should never have agreed to this. It’s nothing but a dumb, human tradition and… it means nothing. I’m not doing it.” I stood in the bedroom that we’d made into a bridal suite—complete with three-way mirror—and folded my arms. I’d been staring at myself and all I could see were the imperfections. Tessa had done a beautiful job on my make up, but everything else just felt… sticky. My dress was a touch too tight around my breasts. There were too many people here and they were all going to be staring. I could feel Mack out there panting with nerves, but what if he didn’t like the dress? I should have shown it to him! Why had I let Cara talk me into all this traditional nonsense? “Natalie, you get your gorgeous ass out there and marry that man before he sweats through his Armani suit,” Cara growled. “Seriously, don’t make me turn it into an orde
~ RIG ~I started towards her, but was halted almost immediately as I watched in awe while my mate carved through lines of wolves as if they were butter.Claws, teeth, whirling body—despite her bulk, she moved like liquid, tail lashing and claws like wicked hooks designed to tear through fur and flesh.I shook and trembled because my father’s power was shifting to me and my veins were boiling with it—while the rest of me simmered in the rising rage and terror of the wolves around us.The transfer of Alpha should have been peaceful. There was an established hierarchy waiting, swelling with the newfound power. But my father was a liar and cheat, and he’d encouraged his wolves towards the same.The hierarchy, the elders, his advisors, every pack and family of power rolled towards us, howling in rage and fear.And my wolves, newly risen and brimming with the triumph of victory and the added confidence of success, tore right back to meet them.Mack, Charlie, Jack, and Natalie tore for me,
SOUNDTRACK: “Legendz” by AG and Devvon Terrell ***** ~ RIG ~ Everything slowed to a crawl, time seemed almost not to move at all as I watched my father go for my mate and I turned, twisting, pushing my body in ways I never had, panic screaming in my head, frantic to reach him before he got her. I couldn’t move fast enough. He was going to land at her feet before I did and his power would carry him right to her throat. She wasn’t equipped for this… It all washed through me in that second—the rage for what he’d done, the fury about his injustices, the anger that he would still cheat, even before the witnesses, and the shocking weight of grief because that was my mate. But then the second wave arrived that left me desperate, panicked, humiliated and hating myself. If she died right now it was my fault. My side screamed in pain as I launched myself after him, but my father seemed to hang in mid-air. I had time to see Cara bare her teeth and crouch. Everything moved so slowly I could
~ RIG ~My father saw the opening he’d been waiting for, gathered himself on his haunches and launched at me, the light of victory in his eyes.Instinctively, I didn’t even try to meet the attack, just leaped straight into the air in an attempt to deflect, dropping my chin, trying to hide my throat as my father snaked in—and to my horror, he would have taken me, except that was the moment Stephen howled in the link, then sent images to us both:Himself. Head bowed. Shoulders rolled forward. His human form submitted.To me.It was a boom of thunder right over my head. In any context, the submission of an Alpha brought al