Neaera-“That works, but you still need to eat as well. Why don’t I cook something first, that way you can eat right after. I don’t want you to feel weak while you deal with whatever you are dealing with.” I suggested.“Then I am going to go up and shower really quick. I won’t be long.” Stryker started up the stairs before he finished talking.I watched him head up the stairs, wishing there was something I could do for him. There was a part of me that wanted to ask what he was up to, but I didn’t want to butt in. I might be his mate, but I didn’t have any intentions of becoming the Luna of the pack.I figured that if he wanted me to know, he would tell me. Perhaps it was my own anxiety that was making me imagine things and he could be perfectly fine. Until there was another attack, I didn’t know what I could do.It wasn’t like I could properly prepare for a defensive approach. The members were improving with what we were teaching them, but we still had a way to go before everyone was
Neaera-While Stryker cooked, I moved from the table to sit on the corner of the counter, so I could watch him. As he moved around the kitchen, he seemed to be in a whole new world. From the looks of things, it appeared as if he enjoyed cooking.He seemed to be completely in his element. While he chopped up some bell peppers and onions, I noticed he had better skills with a cutting knife, than Zach did. He chopped everything up into perfect strips.He already had some slivers of steak frying in the pan, so while he was cutting the vegetables, he would occasionally stir up the steak. As he moved between his tasks, I wondered how he was able to keep track of everything. After failing with my attempt to cook for him, I noticed where I had messed up.For one I didn’t manage my time, nor did I adjust the temperature of each burner accordingly. Watching him, I realized there was an art to cooking. Either that or he just made it look like it.“When did you start cooking?” I asked while leani
Neaera-Unlatching myself from Stryker, I grabbed some paper towels off the roll that was sitting near me on the counter. Cleaning up the blood that was dripping from his wound, I tried to come up with something that would settle Chloe. Stryker took the now bloodied paper towel from me and threw it in the trash.“You are a monster!” Chloe yelled and marched toward me as if she were intent on killing me.Her arm extended out to me, with her claws extended from her fingertips. Sidestepping, I grabbed her wrist and twisted it, while stepping around her to pin her arm against her back. Placing my free hand on her shoulder, I held her in place.“Calm down before you do something stupid.” I ordered her, not really caring that I was just making this worse for me.Instead of trying to convince her that I wasn’t a monster, I was holding her against her will. Luckily, I had Stryker on my side, so he could help me explain what was going on. The last person I ever expected to explain myself to wa
Neaera-Turning to Stryker, I saw he was watching Chloe walk away and he had a twitch in his eye. “Are you okay?”“It is better this way. I am sure we can figure out what to do without a pack doctor.” Stryker sighed, and his demeanor slowly started relaxing.“Actually, you won’t be without a pack doctor.” Dirk said, stepping next to Stryker and me.Smiling at Dirk, I had to fight back the irony of having a Hybrid as a pack doctor. Maybe it might prove to everyone once and for all that hybrids aren’t a threat. It was also a good thing to have the hybrids find a way to connect to the pack, especially after becoming a member of the pack. First, we needed to talk to Zach about it.“We can discuss everything inside. I think there are a few things that we need to discuss.” Stryker turned to head inside, without waiting for anyone to respond.Once inside, we gathered in the living room, with Stryker sitting in the recliner that his dad always sat in. I was about to sit on the couch, but he g
Neaera-For the longest time, Zach sat on the sofa, not answering, or giving away anything on his face. His eyes would occasionally look around the room, but other than that his expression was unreadable. As the seconds ticked by, I wondered if I had overstepped.When Zach finally opened his mouth to speak, I sucked in a sharp breath. “Actually, I have thought about this as well. It was something I had planned to approach you on later after we settled things here.”My nerves were on high alert as I waited for Zach to continue. His shoulders slumped and his face relaxed, once again displaying his emotions over his features. From the way his body relaxed, I thought he was okay with everything, but his facial expression appeared more stressed like he was exhausted.“I fully intend to continue helping hybrids find their place in this world, by being welcomed amongst the communities. There isn’t much I can do about vampires, but that will be something that will need to work out on its own.
Neaera-We all talked for a bit, then Zach, Mathew, and the hybrids left. I was going to be joining them soon, but I was wanting to talk to Stryker about something else. Once they were gone, I removed myself from Stryker’s lap.Now that we were alone, I didn’t want there to be any temptation. We have already covered a lot of things, but there was still something we had yet to talk about. I had him follow me into the kitchen, so we can heat up our food and eat.With everything going on, we had forgotten about the food. Since I knew how to heat up food, I took care of heating things up, while Stryker sat at the table. He had made stir fry and rice, which was one of my favorites when I was a kid.The more I spent around him, the more I learned that he had gone out of his way to take care of me most of my life. Now that I was back, I could only hope that I could manage to return that level of care to him. I might not be able to do everything he used to do, but I was going to work harder t
Neaera-I found Mathew at the main entrance, talking with the guards. It was too loud to hear what they were saying, so I moved closer. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on but snapped it shut when Stryker arrived demanding answers.“What is going on?” Stryker yelled over the blaring sound of the siren.“Every alert was set off at the same time. We haven’t seen any sign of vampires, but we can’t shut it down.” The guard answered, also yelling over the loud noise.“Do we know if this is an attack or a malfunction?” Stryker asked.“We don’t know yet. No one has spotted anything, but most of the pack is in an uproar. The few members that are still functional, I sent to run a perimeter check. It could be a malfunction, but the system says it is working properly.” The guard responded.Looking around, I located the speaker that the alarm was coming from. It was on a tall telephone pole a few yards away. Not having time to waste, I climbed up the pole with ease. The benefit of being wh
Neaera-“Did you see anyone?” I asked when I reached them.“We ran into a warrior on patrol, but he was passed out. After we smelled the wolfsbane, we carried him to a shed outside of the territory line. Other than that, we didn’t find anyone else. We saw some tracks where it looked like wolves were being dragged, but there were too many tracks to figure out which direction to go.” Leo answered.“I am sure that the noise was a distraction. I don’t know what is going on, but I don’t like this one bit.” Anthony added.I was thinking the exact same thing. If only I was able to control my ability to feel what others felt, I could locate everyone. It was strange how everyone that had been running around earlier, had all disappeared.Looking down the street we were on, I didn’t see anyone. My ears were still ringing from the sirens going off and now I couldn’t smell anything over this overbearing scent. The biggest question I had going through my head right now, was how was it possible to m
Neaera-Once everyone left, it was just Stryker and me, alone. I could feel his eyes on me, but he didn’t utter a word. Avoiding eye contact, I moved past him to go upstairs. It felt good to be back home and what I really wanted to do was take a long hot shower.Entering the bedroom I shared with Stryker, I went directly into the bathroom. I was about to close the door, but Stryker flattened his hand against the door, stopping it from closing. I guess I had been so focused on avoiding him, that I failed to notice he was following me.“Don’t think you are getting off the hook that easy. Things have settled down with everyone and everything else, but you and I still have something to discuss.” His deep voice sounded far too serious for my liking, almost causing me to cower in fear.“I know what you are going to say, and I am sorry. I won’t ever do what I did again.”“Do you know though? I don’t think you do. If you did, you wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”“I do.” I whispered,
Neaera-Slowly I lowered Stryker to the ground, away from Dimitri’s corpse. Cradling him on my lap, I pressed my hand against the gaping hole in his chest. He was alive, but barely. With all the blood that was seeping out of his wound, I wasn’t sure for how long.I could hear his heartbeat getting slower with each beat. His werewolf healing wouldn’t be fast enough, and we were too far away from anyone to help. Tears welled up in my eyes. I was at a loss for what to do.“You can’t leave me.” I sobbed, not caring that I was full fledge crying right now. “I should have been faster.” I added with another sob.A smile spread over his face, and it looked serene. I wanted to yell at him for smiling, but I was only glad to be able to see his smile, even if it was going to be the last time. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out.Leaning forward, I wondered if he had said something, but I hadn’t heard him. I swear if he says some snarky comment, I was going to yell at him. I felt
Neaera-Dimitri went back and forth, each one gaining the upper hand and then losing it. If this kept up, I wasn’t sure how I would manage to keep going. I was throwing everything I had into trying to take him down.There needed to be a change and it needed to happen soon. With no other choice, I focused on blocking and dodging his attacks, so I could reach out to Leo. He hasn’t mentioned any weakness Dimitri has yet, so I doubt I would be able to get any new information.“Leo, please tell me you have something that will help me win against Dimitri.” I connected with him.It was still weird that I could connect with him, even though we were no longer in the same pack. When I decided to the Luna ceremony in Alaska, there had been so much going on that I spaced about losing my connection to Leo. To my surprise, I was still able to connect with him.The Alpha King mentioned that it was possible that even if he hadn’t been a part of the ceremony, our bond was strong enough to carry over.
Neaera-“Why did you want me to meet you here?” I asked Dimitri, after a few seconds.I had no reason to respond to his last statement. I would much rather get down to the bottom of what had changed his mind about meeting with me to talk. I felt like he had alternative motives though, although, I did as well.“What? You don’t like this place? I thought it would add a bit of charm to our meeting.” He looked around with a look of nostalgia on his face.Narrowing my eyes at him, I tried to get a sense of what he was planning. He seemed far too calm and chill for someone who had made it clear that they wanted me to die. I wondered if Leo had gotten into his head at all.That was the only thing I could think of. Of all the hybrids Dimitri had in his possession, Leo was the best at mind games. I talked to Leo this morning, so I didn’t think I needed to worry about him. He hadn’t mentioned anything out of the ordinary.I was tempted to open my link to him, but to do that, I would need to let
Stryker-Now that everyone was gathered near the front entrance, the only one left was Neaera. Glancing at my watch, I frowned at the time. I thought she would have been the first one at the entrance, due to it taking a bit longer than normal to get everyone off.I attempted to link with her, but I felt her mental block in place. The only reason for her to do that is if she was trying to keep me or anyone from connecting with her. I knew instantly that she was either in danger or about to be.“Stubborn woman.” I growled, not realizing until it was too late that I had spoken out loud.“What is it?” Zach asked, who was standing next to me.“Nothing.” I said in a rush.Until I knew what was going on, I didn’t want to alarm anyone. If something was going on, it was probably better to keep it lowkey for now. Knowing her the way I did; she was probably doing this to protect everyone.That in itself was reason enough to not involve anyone. I just wish I knew where to start looking for her. S
Neaera-“What do you want?” I bit off with venom in my voice.“That is no way to talk to your father.” Dimitri laughed and the way he said father seemed as if he had a challenging time choking that word out.“You have never been that to me and you never will. I will ask again, what do you want?”“I just figured we could have a little chat.” Dimitri sighed.“What do we have to talk about? I have heard everything I needed to hear from you.” I tried to keep my voice low just in case someone was walking by. I didn’t want anyone to overhear who I was talking to.“I haven’t told you about your mother or how you were conceived.”That got my attention and as much as I wished I didn’t want to know, I did. Since knowing I was adopted and finding out I was a hybrid, as well as who my father was, I have wanted to know. I still hadn’t heard from Zach whether his test results returned, but I suspected I was his niece.With everything going on, I haven’t had a chance to learn anything about my mothe
Neaera-We spent another couple of days at the resort, enjoying our time while we could. Everything remained relatively calm. The Alpha King stayed just an extra day, but then he had to return to his duties. We didn’t have any more surprise attacks, which was a good thing.Things were starting to fall into place, which was great for everyone. Zach was becoming eager by the minute though. He mentioned how when everything was over, he planned to take a long vacation and spend some quality time with his mate.I didn’t blame him because he was overdue for it. I didn’t understand how he managed to stay away from his mate for so long. Since becoming Stryker’s mate, I couldn’t imagine spending so much time away from him.“Hey.” Speaking of Stryker, he popped his head around the corner, from the bathroom, where he was packing up our stuff while I packed our clothes.“You about done?” I asked, giving him a teasing smile.“I am, but I was going to see if you wanted to take a quick shower with m
Neaera-“What brings you here?” I asked the Alpha King the moment we were seated in the living area of the room that Stryker and I shared.“I had hoped to get here in time before anything happened, but I am sorry I hadn’t been fast enough. I am glad that you are okay though. When I found out that Benson escaped, I decided to follow him to Alaska and deal with him personally.” He was looking at me as he spoke until his attention moved to Stryker.“I am not surprised that you were able to take him out on your own. It just goes to show that some were born to be true Alpha.” The Alpha King added.“I can’t really take the credit. Nea had the situation handled before I got there, I just finished the job.” Stryker turned to smile at me as he reached over and grabbed my hand. “She is the true leader in all of this.”Shaking my head, I rolled my eyes at the pride in his voice. I could give a poor man food and he would think I solved world hunger. I did like how he admired me, but I was embarra
Neaera-It took two days to get everything ready for the ceremony. I was nervous, but I wasn’t at the same time. It was helpful that I had a large support system around me. To think that before everything changed five years ago, I only had my brother to depend on and a few others.Now, I have them and so much more. A part of me wished that Stryker’s parents could be here because I would have loved to show them the woman I have become. I knew they had loved me like their own daughter and for the first time since learning of their death, it hurt knowing that they weren’t here anymore.“Are you ready?” The Alpha King asked through the door.I was in the room I shared with Stryker, but he was already downstairs, making sure everything was ready. The Alpha King was stepping in to make the Luna Ceremony official since we were uniquely going about this. It made me think of a wedding ceremony, that I have seen in movies.I was wearing a white dress, minus the veil, with a tiara covered in dia