Dominic watched one of the most powerful Alphas in the world shake his head after the head facilitator and doctor reported on the care of Dom’s people. Paul arrived with him; Paul stood there looking uncomfortable. It didn’t take long for Dom to learn Paul’s discomfort came from guilt. “I’m sorry Alpha Jones. I gave the facts as I know them. Your Pet withheld information that would help her treatment.” “Why would she do that?” “Loyalty is my guess.” Dr. Graves jumped in. “This member of your pack is rather concerning for me. If I see someone like this, they’re a lone wolf or rogue. They end up here because no one knows what to do with them.” Dom could feel every eye on him. “I would say it’s circumstances of her creation, but I’d be fooling myself. I can’t get her to tell me why she won’t give up on the wolf who made sure our pack would hate her. Don’t ask me to give up on her. I won’t. Before you ask, I made her my Pet because I was afra
“Dom do you know if Raven is aware that she’s your mate?” Aireka asked. She frowned at him, a little confused. “I’ll be honest. I don’t see a difference between a Pet and a slave. You’re screwed if this leaks to the human press and with human laws as they are no one will accept it. She appears sweet, but her attitude is a self-defense mechanism. It wouldn’t be there if someone stood up for her instead of making her do it alone.” The room fell silent, all eyes on Luna from the Black River Pack. She’d listened and spoke now. Her pack knew how she and her eldest pup were. They could find perspectives no one else saw, and to disregard their words was foolishness and folly. “What do you mean?” Dom asked. This he wasn’t expecting, nor did it surprise him. Aireka was an insightful she-wolf. Her human and druid blood with her early years raised as a human and later changed by Gregory’s bite and the changes caused by carrying her first pup. “She
Raven awoke with a slight start. Someone placed a kiss on her forehead. The lightness almost caused her to miss the gentle touch of the warm lips. Eyes snapped open, meeting Alpha Jones’s gaze. She yearned to gaze into his eyes, but as his Pet or an unranked wolf, she couldn’t. Raven averted her face away from him as soon as she could. “I’m sorry Alpha, and I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I’ll prepare to leave right away. She felt stronger and if she moved with slow, determined motions, she’d be ready without too much fuss. She knew he’d feel unhappy about her delaying him. “What are you talking about Pet? I haven’t commanded you to do that. Are you presuming what I want?” Alpha Jones put out his hand to stop her and keep her from leaving the hospital bed. Nothing felt right for Raven. It felt like someone had wrapped her in cotton or she felt trapped in a waking dream. It didn’t feel real and someone else controlled her actions within that dream. The
Aireka entered the room once Dr. Graves had persuaded Alpha Jones to rest. Alright, Dr. Graves had to threaten to admit Alpha Jones to the hospital if he didn’t get some rest. The lost she-wolf was clueless about her next move. Dominic, in typical Alpha fashion, was doing his own thing, unaware of how it affected his mate. She remembered Gregory deciding he’d take what he wanted before he went crazy. So, she learned about wolf shifters and became a mate within days of each other. Aireka believed she was a full human then. Oh boy, those were messy and confusing times. She still wondered how she got through it all with her sanity. “Hi, are you alone?” Aireka asked. She’d leaned her head into the room to ask this. She intended to come as a friend and equal. Raven could use one right now. She’d go with Gregory as he prepared to head back to the city. That way, he could assess the threats in person, and she could help lend her support to Rave
Raven didn’t know what to make of Luna Wolversen, Aireka, as she insisted Raven call her. She ignored all protocol and spoke to Raven like she was teaching a catch-up class in summer school. Raven assumed this since she had only movies to go by and no experience. She’d dropped out of school before graduation. No one noticed or cared. She recalled telling the Alpha’s sob to mind his own business. Now she wondered if he’d done that because he didn’t want an uneducated mate. Aireka’s words held advice, insights, and answered her whys. Raven felt a little more confident now. It helped when Aireka gave her a way to call for help from other Lunas in the area. They have a chat group. Who would’ve thought! They insisted Raven join the chat group to fix her pack issues and educate her as a Luna. Or as one Luna named April said, she’s about to write the standardized on-the-job training manual. The conversation discussed creating standardized lessons or a lesson plan for
Alpha Jones hasn’t seen the problem he’s created. Others have noticed how he’s treating Raven. Raven hated the looks and glares. Everyone believed her his favorite, but that couldn’t be less true. No one treated their fated mate like this. If they learned, it might ruin Alpha Jones’s reputation and that would hurt the Pack. Which left Raven staying silent because she wouldn’t harm her mate’s reputation because he didn’t want her. In his position, it affected far more wolves than him. She could suck up the hurt feelings like an adult. It’s nothing new to her. People’s desire for Hilary as their Luna didn’t provide any help to her. Why? That’s the burning question Raven had, but as Alpha Jones’s Pet, she didn’t have the luxury of asking anyone that question. Luna Wolversen’s ideas weren’t as easy to enact as Raven thought they’d be. Alpha Jones didn’t enjoy letting her out of his sight. Knowing his secret, it became easier to bear. Raven s
[AFTER BEING KICKED OUT OF ALPHA JONES’S LIVING QUARTERS] Hilary found herself pulled from the room and her goal of inciting Alpha Jones into biting her. She’d heard those healing drugs could cause a wolf to go into a temporary form of false heat. Hilary desired the false heat. Once she wore his bite, then she’d be the Luna of the Humber Valley Pack. She had to suffer being his mate, but she’d sacrifice her freedom for that. No one believed in fated mates. They were pleasant stories to tell little pups and foolish she-wolves. “Can you be a sweet and loyal wolf? I’m sure this will be cleared up when the Alpha awakens. The Beta is mistaken, that’s all. After all, it’s me, and everyone knows I’m special to the Alpha. The Beta is just jealous of that. I’ll be sure to give you favorable treatment when I’m Luna.” Hilary knew this enforcer well. He hadn’t been an enforcer for long, but his father sided with her mother, and she was sure he’d side with her.
[ALPHA KLYNE, WHERE HE’S HOLED UP]“What do you mean we’ve received information about how to enter the Humber Valley Pack compound. I want my people retrieved and to push them further. If they will be tenacious what we want when we ask. We’ll settle this, let’s see who flinches first. Have you verified it’s not a trap?” Alpha Klyne asked from where they holed up in an old motel. Few places remained in neutral zones between Packs in Toronto. This one lay on the border of the Humber Valley Pack Territory and close to the Pack’s compound. “Yes, Alpha Klyne. We’ve confirmed the intelligent information is correct. Someone inside is not happy with something Alpha Jones is doing or has done. We can achieve this with our current group. We need your okay and we’ll do it. They have told us that the Alpha’s command group has scheduled meetings to run together tonight to keep moral and group dynamics active. Their fighting command will be away from the main buildings during these time
“Brigid says she’ll be in touch soon with scheduling so we can have a rotation of sorts. That way we can have a consistent rebuilding going on inside the Dream Realm. So, how are we going to run this place around all that? I don’t even know what anyone thinks about all of this because no one’s dared to speak to me. It’s like they think I’ll unmake them or something.” Raven said to Dominic as she returned from the Dream Realm where she’d had a meeting with Brigid and the other Dreamers. Dominic had seen the changes in her and the Pack. He’d said nothing to anyone about his idea of taking the Pack into the Dream Realm and becoming part of the enforcement powers there. He could see their Pack as a foundation of a future power.He wanted to support Raven the best way possible and he didn’t think he could do it from here.“Raven, love. Everyone is in shock because nothing is how they thought it was. They’re trying to figure out where they and you now rest in the world. People have
“Dominic, don’t worry about it. I know you don’t have to explain to me. When you disconnect your call with me I received a message from someone that explained what was happening.” Lily said as soon as they returned and she made them sit down to eat a meal.“Then can you explain it to us?” Dominic practically begged Lily to explain what they had witnessed even though she hadn’t been there to witness So, he wouldn’t stop the stow for anything and allow her to explain what she’d pieced together through some of her very odd channels, not that any of this was straight forward.“Please tell me she isn’t doing the biggest mistake of all time.” Raven stepped in now and she was practically begging to know that they weren’t letting her do something foolish. It was something they’d all been questioning since Brigid first said she was going to investigate the situation and she didn’t want anyone else going with her, because she didn’t like the idea of the risk. She had Het’ Tur and she didn’
“Does this mean that the danger is over?” Raven asked Brigid as she looked over the woman’s shoulder to see the males in the golden armor.“My family is gone and they won’t be offering the Dream Realm to the Fae again as a travel hub. But there’s still other dangers that they and the Fae abandoned in my realm without my permission. Then there’s the instabilities within it created by their interference and war of Dreamers. Add in now I have the dimension version of surprise boarders complicating all of this.” Brigid glared at the male standing in the golden armor watching her explain this to them.He stood with his guards in eire silence. They hadn’t drawn a single weapon or removed a piece of armor including helmets.“You have got to be kidding. How exactly are they dead? Did he say how he killed them? I mean if he killed your father. How is he alive? Why was he in the prison and not on the throne?” Heather didn’t sound like she bought the story he’d given Brigid.Brigid blink
“What about my brothers? Or brother? What ideas do you have to deal with them?” Brigid didn’t blink, but her tone was her reminding him of the situation she faced rather then asking him for help with a solution.“When I got through with him. He knew I was your mate, but he couldn’t do anything about it and he’d not be the one to sit on your father’s throne.” Het’ Tur said. He was smiling and trying not to laugh. He’d been angry with the brothers. They’d been so focused with their plans and emotions. This was why her brother was going to kill her. She was alive to work for him, but when she escaped he acted like like she’d betrayed him. Or she’d tried to kill him. Het’ Tur knew Brigid had never done anything to betray or hurt any of her relatives.“Het’ Tur, how did he ever learn about where you were or that you were my Fated mate?” Brigid didn’t understand how her brothers would have discovered him among the masses. Or that he was connected to her. That’s what she was asking, but
“That? Is your reaction Lady Brigadetta?” Het’ Tur asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Brigid winced at the name he used to her question before she looked at him in disbelief.“The woman no longer exists and you know that. She hasn’t existed for so long that I can’t tell you the last time I heard someone say her name. The noble house died ages ago and the few that didn’t have been fighting each other trying to finish the job of ending that noble house. I’ve been surviving in my own way doing my own thing until recently. But I will not answer to that name ever again.” Brigid stood up to him. She didn’t want to be that woman. Her past would stay there and she was determined of that.“Do you have a choice to do that? Really?” Het’ Tur asked in disbelief that she would believe she could believe change her life like this.“Welcome to the modern era and a new realm Het’ Tur. Here, I have the right to chose the way I lead my life. I choose how my life unfolds here.” Brigid s
Dominic didn’t know how to ask Brigid about Het’ Tur. If she didn’t know he was her mate. How would she react to his claim? She must help him get Raven back. First Dominic wanted to contact Lily. He wanted her thoughts on Het’ Tur. Did she know anything about him or what he was talking about? Could she tell if he was lying about anything? Any confirmation of facts he’d been giving out would be appreciated by him.Lily answered faster than he expected. “Lily, I don’t know where to start. Well, I do. Raven’s been kidnapped by a creature who says his name is Het’ Tur and is Brigid’s mate. He wants to exchange Raven for Brigid. Who is he? Do you know him? Do you know if he’s telling the truth?”“Oh, wow. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. A very long time. He was the Head of the Crystal Lord’s Guard. He disappeared when the Crystal Lord did. Mind you that time period is a historical mess. There’s a lot of deaths and missing persons. Missing treasures and all that. He’s ther
“We are stronger together than he can ever be. After all, the fool killed his mate and his offspring. He has nothing, but the fool believed that because he can’t die from old age that he’s all powerful.” Het’ Tur shrugged and acted like he found this entertaining as anything. “Wait, he’s immortal. But not eternal. Is that what you’re saying?” Dominic waved a hand momentarily distracted from his need for his mate by the discovery he’d learned. The big bad wasn’t as big and bad as he’d thought. “That is exactly what I have said. My mate understands this, but her brother appears to not understand it. I want to use it against him once and for all. He seems to use it easily enough against his relatives. I see no reason why I can’t use it against him before he uses it against my mate.” He seemed at ease with the knowledge that death was a lot easier and permanent than it was expected to be. Dominic wondered if he understood how permanent. Permanent was.
“I’m told, I have you to thank for doing what I couldn’t do.” The tall leader in his golden armor stood tall and straight and spoke to Dominic. His posture was stiff. One of his men held Raven’s unconscious body behind him as they lingered close to the portal. Another armor man held a squat brick colored statuette which Heather assumed was the anchor they searched for. “I’ve not said who I am and I’m not sure what I’ve done that you couldn’t do.” Dominic was off put by this creature. After all, it stood almost three times Dominic’s height, and he was fighting his instincts not to try to find it’s throat through the armored gorge. He wanted to get to his mate now. “There’s no need I can see it was you. But I still want her back.” The creature was certain in this as if he saw something only he could and that he felt made him superior to everyone else. “However, I don’t have that luxury.” Dominic crossed his arms struggling with his patienc
Raven and several other Dreamers moved toward the portal. The winds were unnatural and blew higher than they should. Her hair blew against her face and annoyed her. She should have tied it back somehow, but that could have complicated things if she had to shift to her fur. They were in pairs heading up the side of a mountain. It wasn’t a steep or tall mountain. They’d walked up it rather than climbed it. Raven would have called the mountain ridge a ridge of hills because the mountains were so old and worn from time. “That’s bigger than I thought it was.” Heather said as she assessed what was ahead of her. They were the first to make it to their portal. “Yeah, I see why we’re all here.” Raven’s eyes widened as she studied the portal. “What was that?” Heather asked as she jumped and pointed off to her right, startled by something there. “What was what?” Raven tried to follow Heather’s finger but couldn’t locate what