Neaera-Feeling a little better that we were starting to get somewhere with everything, I turned to face Stryker, giving him my full attention.“We know that you have control when touching me, so I was thinking what if we start with that and slowly integrate that to where I am not touching you? Where I pull my hand back little by little?”I was expecting something else from him, not this. Scrunching my brows together, I thought about what he was suggesting. It sounded a little way too simple.“I was just thinking that if we slowly introduced it, it might help. First, we would need you to be able to understand what you are doing when we are touching.” Stryker added.Maybe it sounded easier than it actually did, either way, I didn’t know how this could solve anything. It certainly sounded like something that would take a bit of time, which we didn’t have a lot of. Letting out a slow breath, I nodded my head.“We can try it.” As the words left my lips, I looked around the table, hoping s
Neaera-We returned to the house and found that everyone was already gathered around the table. My laptop was in the center with Zach, Travis, and Mathew watching the screen. They looked engrossed in whatever they were seeing, but there was no sound.“What is going on?” I asked as both Stryker and I stepped around to see the computer as well.On the computer screen, it was a video feed that was in the gym. Dimitri was pacing back and forth yelling something. From the way he was throwing his hands around, I could see he was mad about something.He moved to stand in front of someone, but I couldn’t see clearly who it was. Their body was just outside of the video frame, but I could see their right shoulder. I wish we had audio, because whatever was going on, looked as if Dimitri was losing his cool.“We are trying to get audio, but he has been like this for the last twenty minutes. It is Leo that he is yelling at.” Zach answered.“Do you know why?” I placed my hand on Zach's shoulder and
Neaera-“I love this car!” Natalia said as I climbed into the driver's seat.I had thought about having Stryker drive, but I wasn’t very prone to let anyone drive my car except for me. I knew that I would have to let him take over eventually because I did need to focus on controlling my ability before we got there. That didn’t mean I couldn’t at least drive for the first hour or so.“Thanks.” I said, not sure what else to say.Waiting for Stryker to get in the car, as he was talking to Mathew, I adjusted my rearview mirror so I could see her without turning around. She was kind of cute, in the gothic but girly sense. She had long black hair with pink hair framing her face.She couldn’t be more than nineteen, but with her size, she looked as if she was closer to twelve. At most I was only a few inches taller than her, but she looked tiny compared to me. Unlike her, I was more built, as I spent these last few years getting rid of my fat and building a good amount of muscle.I had curves
Neaera-“I think I have it under control enough to connect with everyone.” I said through our link and was surprised when it went through without difficulties.“You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.” He responded shortly after, with a bit of laughter in his voice.Wanting to share my good news with Stryker, I looked over at him as I opened my mind up to him as well. “I did it.”I knew I still had to figure out control on the empathy portion of things, but for the first time since I found out I was a hybrid, I felt relatively normal. I was happy about that, which was saying a lot when Stryker made the car swerve suddenly, and I didn’t get upset about him nearly wrecking my car.“Sorry.” He muttered, but a wide smile spread across his voice as he continued to speak, but only to me, by using our link through the mate bond. “Seriously?”“Seriously. How else would I be able to speak to you like this without touching you?” I teased, still using the link between us.He looked down at
Neaera-As I looked at Leo, standing next to Dimitri, a weird feeling fell over me. I couldn’t explain what it was, but it gave me goosebumps. There was something off with seeing Leo stand next to the man that says that he is my father.I hoped that when it was time to get him away from the enemy, there wouldn’t be any issues. As it stands, to get to Leo, I was going to need to go through Dimitri. After the last encounter I had with him, I wasn’t too sure if I could fight him and win.When I returned my attention to Dimitri, I kept myself from looking directly into his eyes. Whatever his ability was, Zach had warned me about looking into his eyes. Looking at his nose instead, I clenched my teeth, grinding them a few times before speaking.“The problem with vampires like you is that you have no honor.”“Who cares about things like honor, when you have power.” Dimitri scoffed. “Just as your friend Leo. He has witnessed what power can do for someone determined to rise to the top. I, well
Neaera-“Not so fast.” Dimitri said in a deep voice as he stopped my hand.His fingers were wrapped around my wrist, with the tips of my fingers barely touching his chest. I had thought I had him, but his movement had been so fast that I didn’t see it until he grabbed me. As quickly as he grabbed me, he stood up and twisted my arm behind my back.A loud popping noise resonated through the wind as my shoulder was dislocated. Pain shot through me so intensely that I nearly blacked out. Clenching my teeth, I did my best to remain conscious.“What is wrong Nea?” Stryker’s voice spoke inside my head.“I am fine.” I responded to him, doing my best to keep the pain out of the link.The last thing I needed was for him to fly off the wall and rush in when there was still a hint of wolfsbane in the air. It was mostly cleared out, but not enough for a werewolf not to be affected. Just a little longer and maybe we can get out of this.“The hell you are, I can feel your pain, but I don’t know what
Stryker-I knew this guy was insane, but this was on a whole different level. This was my first official encounter with him, and he was laughing like this was just some sort of joke to him. Delivering one last blow to his face, I stepped back as he clutched his stomach and laughed.“I am going to pee my pants from all this laughing.” Dimitri said between laughs.Stepping back, I looked over at Nea, who had also stopped attacking. We were getting nowhere with him, and we both understood it. Looking around I saw things were getting messy with everyone.A few of the vampires that we had brought with us were now dead, while the others were barely hanging on. When Leo had alerted Zach that the air was clear, we ran as fast as we could to get here. The others were waking up the pack members, but we weren’t going to last much longer if they didn’t get everyone on their feet soon.As the thought occurred to me, the doors to the school burst open and my pack members scattered around to attack
Neaera-Stryker led me to his bedroom and all I could think about was tasting his blood. Since he mentioned it, I thought of nothing else as we walked to the house. I didn’t really need it, but I wanted it more than I wanted to breathe.“Before I give you any blood, you need to promise that no matter what is going on, you will not block me anymore. It was different when you couldn’t control it, but I don’t like the feeling of being disconnected from you.” Stryker said the moment we entered his room and he shut the door.It took a second for me to register what he was saying. My mind was so focused on the beat of his heart and the beating of the pulse just under the surface of his artery. When it clicked that he had spoken, I had to focus on him and not on my lust for his blood.I needed to learn to get control over this side of me, or I was going to become the very thing I hated. Snapping out of it, I looked him in the eyes while letting down my mental block. It was still strange that
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