LOGINShare
Chapter 114
Last Updated:
2025-01-15 23:38:46
Related chapters
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 115
MaraI slowly come awake. I'm warm, dry, and comfortable. The last thing I remember was running down that mountain, the rage burning through me like a wildfire.Rain pitter-patters overhead, but the room is light and airy.Confused, I sit up and look around. I’m all alone, in a room that looks very much like a hospital. The bed is slightly inclined, allowing me to sit half upright.I'm in Haven's Crest infirmary.What happened to my my mate? My friends? My pack? Where are they?Panic courses through my veins. I have to get Johnathan. Is he dead?No.I grasp my heart, as if touching my chest will bring my mate closer to me. I’d know if he was dead. I’d feel it.I mind link with Johnathan. He's there, alive, keeping the connection open, but not responding to my endless stream of questions, asking him where is, what happened, who died, who lived...I couldn't stand it. Watching them die. Our warriors. Ilse. The vampires. Even the nymphs. Every time I saw one of them fall, it was lik
Last Updated : 2025-01-16In Service of the Alpha Chapter 116
MaraThe mansion feels quiet and dead. A gloom has settled over our home, and I just want it gone. I don't like feeling this unsettled in a place I love so much.The Omegas aren’t here, lighting up the space with their laughter. The kitchen, always filled with warmth and light, is cold and dark. Gregory isn’t here, asking me to ‘come play dinosaurs with me, Mara.’“Where are Preston and Donovan?” I ask, hoping that their presence will lift the despair that settled like a suffocating blanket over everything.“Gathering the dead,” Johnathan answers. His face is passive, but his eyes speak volumes.“Should we go to the funerals?”My mate shakes his head. “It’s not a funeral. They will cremate the fallen together. It's how we honour warriors.”I’m relieved that we don’t have to go, but I feel guilty at the same time. I want to support our wolves - they need to know they’re not alone. That their King and Queen didn’t abandon them.But after even a day in the infirmary, I’m still weak. Even
Last Updated : 2025-01-17In Service of the Alpha Chapter 117
Mara“Why are you here?” I ask Kahn. “Can you please just get me a drink first… before you start interrogating me? Cooking sherry will do, I don’t care, just give me something.”Snorting softly, I get up and go to the parlour, hoping and praying that the two Betas have left. To my great relief, I find the door open and the lights off. Without bothering to switch on the overhead, I walk over to the drinks cabinet and get a fresh bottle of whiskey for Kahn.He’s agitated and out of patience by the time I return. “Took you long enough,” he says and tears open the seal.“Well, I move at the speed of a wolf, not a vampire. What’s wrong?”“Apart from the fact that Felicity had me drawn and quartered, and mounted my head on a spike to witness my own dangling torso, not much.”“Yu- you were aware of it?”“Yes.”“Last time-”He slams his hand on the table. “I know what happened last night. Blissful memory loss. No such luck this time.” He pulls the cork out of the whiskey and starts to chug i
Last Updated : 2025-01-18In Service of the Alpha Chapter 118
JohnathanMara and I are both wide awake now, though she’s restless and paces around the bedroom, flitting back and forth like a gnat on meth. It makes me deeply uncomfortable watching her like that. She's filled with a kind of nervous energy that she needs to discharge before she explodes.When she comes around the bed for the fourth time, I grab her wrist. “Let's go outside. You look like you could use a run.”“Can we shift?” she asks, a hopeful tone in her voice.I pull her onto my lap and kiss her. “Of course we,” I say when we’re both breathless. “Or,” she suggests and swings herself around to straddle me. “We can just stay here and get rid of our pent up frustrations that way.”I laugh and drop my brow on her head. “Sorry, babe,” I say with real regret. “You’re still smelling a bit… heaty to me.”“Heaty?” she splutters with a laugh. “Is that even a word?”“I don’t know. Come on. We can get rid of our frustrations the wolf way.”"Shouldn't we stay away from each other? If I'm st
Last Updated : 2025-01-19In Service of the Alpha Chapter 119
JohnathanWe wake up at the foot of the mountain. My mountain, as everyone here calls it.Thank God Dante didn't get it in his skull to climb up there with Aria. She would have fallen to her death.The rain pitter-patters through the leaves, the steady drizzle already soaking us through to the bone. Shit. What happened?I look around and find Mara lying a few feet from me, curled up like a baby, hands clasps between her knees, wet hair clinging to her face. My stomach contracts, the muscles going tight as a drum. “Dante,” I ask. “What did you do?”He’s sulking. Refusing to talk to me.“Okay,” I try a different tact. “What did Aria do?”Nothing. Dead silence from my wolf.Sighing, I get to my feet and walk over to Mara. I lean over and gently touch her shoulder to wake her. She jerks and botls upright. Without any hit of shame or fear, she yawns, and stretches, giving me a good eyeful of her delectable body. “Are you all right?” I ask before she’s even fully awake. “What did Dante d
Last Updated : 2025-01-20In Service of the Alpha Chapter 120
JohnathanI am wet, I’m uncomfortable, I’m covered in mud and dirt, but none of that matters. all I can think about is my mate. Mara’s skin is so blue that she’s starting to look like the clear sky on a summer’s morning. All I want to do is get home so I can put her in a dry, comfortable room while she has her vision, but it's impossible to carry her right now.The best I can do for her while I wait for Preston to make his appearance is hold her, and hope the heat from my body warms her up a little.Unlike Mara, I run hot. I never feel the cold unless the temperatures drop below zero. We’re not quite there yet, and up here in our magical mountain home, it almost never happens, but I have enough experience to know that even a wolf can die of exposure when they’re in their human form.It’s Kahn who shows up, carrying the blanket in a backpack so it won’t get wet. “Preston asked me to bring this,” he says and pulls a blanket from the pack. “He figured I could get here faster.”Mara isn’t
Last Updated : 2025-01-22In Service of the Alpha Chapter 121
MaraI wake in Johnathan’s office. There’s a fire crackling in a hearth I didn’t know existed, and the room is filled with the scent of smoke, my mate’s comforting smell, and the spiced wine.The last thing I remember was walking back to the pack house, then the vision came. I tried to fight against it at first, but then I remembered Johnathan’s previous warning, and I gave in to it.I’m warm, comfortable, dressed in one of Johnathan’s t-shirts, and wrapped in a cozy blanket, but my insides are as cold as ice and as numb as the dead. I groan and sit upright, swining my legs off the couch as I do.I look around the familiar office with bleary eyes, searching for my mate. “Mara?” Johnathan asks. “How do you feel?”Worse than last time. I feel as if I’ve been assaulted by a lifetime’s worth of suffering and pain. “I-” I grab my throat and rub it. It’s dry, scratchy and achy and it's difficult to talk. “Whu-”“Don’t say anything right now,” Johnathan interrupts. “Remember how this works.
Last Updated : 2025-01-23In Service of the Alpha Chapter 122
MaraJohnathan rubs his hands over his eyes, and pinches the bridge of his nose. Something he does, I’ve come to learn, when he’s tired and feeling overwhelmed, though he’ll never admit to it.At long last, he empties his glass and nods. “So Donovan and Haley make peace some time in the future?” he asks.It has nothing to do with what I’ve said, but I guess he’s not ready to face the big demons yet. “I guess, but the child… he wasn’t there.”“Shit,” Johnathan grunts.“Maybe I just didn’t see him.”Johnathan turns his face away and scratches his head. “Tell me about our daughter?”For some inexplicable reason, my heart swells and my eyes fill with tears. I don’t know what happens between then and now, but I know I love that little girl. I also know that I was terrified that I’ll lose her.When we ran for the temple, I kept praying to the Goddess, begging her not to take another one. There’s no way I can explain this to Johnathan though. I don’t want him to know. “She is beautiful,” I
Last Updated : 2025-01-24
Latest chapter
In Service of the Alpha Thank you
And that is all she wrote folks.My dearest readers, I'd like to thank you for coming on this ride with me. Thank you for sticking around, for your thoughtful comments, and support. I may not always reply to every comment, but I do my best to read them all and I appreciate every one of you.Johnathan and Mara are two of the most complex characters I've ever written, and I hope I did their story justice. I always say that I'm not an author - I'm just the dumb ass writing up the incident report. The person chosen to tell their story. And that was very much the case here. I'm not in charge of a story, the people in my head are.My next book will be available soon, and I promise it will not be another saga like this one.I love you guys. Thank you for making my twisted heart sing.Until we meet again,Celice.
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 160
MaraI stand on the platform next to Johnathan. For once, I'm wearing a proper dress, fit for the occasion. Before us, is a sea of reporters, cameras flash, microphones are pointed at us like guns, quiet voices ripple through the air.Behind us is the ruin that was once our town. Johnathan insisted that we have the press conference here, and he made sure to invite reporters and podcasters of his own choosing. He really doesn’t trust the humans and their peace deal. The last two weeks had been brutal. We kept finding fresh bodies all over the place. All of them had been recently killed. Children torn apart, mothers with their babies still in their arms. Each dead child hurt me as deeply as if they were my own, and I finally understood the prophecy. It was never my own children who died. I begged the Goddess to spare my child because we had lost so many before the humans came back to take the town.Johnathan sent warriors into the forest to look for the culprits. They found a dozen su
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 159
MaraJohnathan is filthy and smells of death, but I don’t care. I roll into his arms and cuddle tightly against him. It’s all I can do. I can barely move as it is. I feel as if a bulldozer ran over me, and left me on the streets to bleed to death.I can't process it. All that blood, the pain, the suffering, the death. I even feel sorry for the human soldiers who had to endure that brutal battle. I lie against my mate, his arm protectively around me, and I cry. My heart has been torn to pieces. They took almost everything from us - and those who are truly responsible, the ones who sent their soldiers here to die - will never be punished for it. They will never feel the loss. They get to go on with their lives as if nothing happened.“King?” someone asks, her voice coming from far, far away. I hear her, but I can’t place her. My mind is a buzzing mess, unable to hold on to any thoughts.“What is it, Ingrid?” Johnathan asks, his voice muffled.“I, uhm, we found your mother.”“And?”“I-
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 158
JohnathanBefore the dust even settles, someone sticks a camera in my face. Not one of mine - a human. “Mister Banks, can you tell us what sparked this conflict?”Absolute fucking vultures. I’m still on my knees, naked as the day I was born, staring at my trembling, bloody hands, and they want a fucking statement from me?I look up and straight into the camera. “We didn’t start this,” I snarl. “You did. Look at it. Look at the mess you’ve made. We never bothered anyone, all we ever wanted was a chance to live our lives in peace.“They killed the fae king today. Are you aware? Did you see him die?” My voice is cold, bitter.The reporters are quiet, giving me room to speak, to contradict myself, so they can spin this in their favour. I know how they operate by now.“Do you know what the fae did for you? They never killed you, they never bothered you or harmed you. All they ever did was comfort those who were hurt, healed the sick, eased the suffering of the dying. And you killed them. F
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 157
Johnathan“I’m sorry,” I say to Kahn after our hurried meeting.Mara and Talitha already left with Oberon to bring the town’s children to the fae forest. The Omegas and humans who can’t, or won’t, fight are heading off into the woods to hide in the caves.“I’ve waited hundreds of years,” the vampire comments dryly. “Another month won’t kill me.”“You might die tonight.”He just shrugs. “Unlikely, but if I do… I hope Frans dies with me so we can be together in the afterlife.”That is such a cold way of looking at it, but I guess it’s pragmatic under the circumstances. I don’t mind dying tonight, but I don’t want Mara to die. The only reason I’m still fighting is for her and Gregory. It’s as good a reason as any other. A man who doesn’t have a reason to fight is a useless soldier. He’ll give up as soon as things get too difficult.“Why are you even fighting?” I ask Kahn. “If you’d rather be dead?”“I don’t want to die,” he answers calmly. “I just wouldn’t mind if I do. I’m really fuckin
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 156
JohnathanWhile the rest of the town is becoming complacent, going on with their lives as if nothing is wrong, I’ve been working, never relaxing, never letting my guard down.It's not over, not even by a long shot. I keep my soldiers fit, healthy and battle ready. We have accumulated a staggering amount of weapons and heavy artillery, all of it hidden from view. Oberon assures me that the humans’ satellites can’t penetrate our magical veil, but I’m sceptical. No magic is infallible, just as the humans aren’t infallible, and those fuckers are industrious. I wouldn’t be surprised if they develop some kind of technology that can ‘see’ through our protections.It only took us two years, but we finally found a crack in the human allies’ armour. The brilliant people I appointed over that time managed to find backdoors into the humans’ computer system and started intercepting their encrypted communications.I have no idea how they’re doing it, and I decided not to ask. There are some things
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 155
MaraJohnathan makes a plate of food for my father and hands it to him. To my surprise, my dad sits as far away from us as possible. "I know how much I stink," he announces. "I don't want to spoil anyone's appetite."With my father seettled for now, I can finally ask Kahn the question I've been burning utter since the trio showed up here, “How did you kill Thrax?”“They were hiding in a cave. He was in the death sleep. So old, and he still couldn't resist it. I just dragged him out into the sun, and poof. Dead in seconds. It was kind of disappointing really. I wanted fireworks. Anyway... we stuck around just to make sure he didn’t come back after sunrise.”“Good,” my mate says. “So it’s all sorted?”“Yeah, looks like it,” Kahn says.I look at Eli who is still chowing down. It's as if he can't stuff the food into his mouth quickly enough. "What happened at Red Ridge?"The vampire looks at Eli who doesn't utter a word, he just grunts and moans as he keeps chewing. It's my father who answ
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 154
Mara“What if we’re wrong? I ask. “What if he’s been playing us all this time?”It’s the first time since the incident with his mother that I feel I can talk to Johnathan about my concerns. He had so much to deal with, his heart was so heavy, that I did not really want to pile on. But if Eli has my father then I can’t postpone it anymore.“You saw him in your vision. Rick was torturing him. They don't usually torture people who cooperate.”“Yes, but there’s… a ripple effect, isn’t there? When we change the future, we don’t just change the outcome, we change other things too. It’s almost as if- the whole world bends around the new future we’ve created.”“The butterfly effect,” my mate says with a little smile. “One small action can affect the larger system.”A puff of air explodes from my lips. I’m relieved that he understands. “Exactly.”“Okay.” He smiles at me. “If he is on his way here, then it means we’ve altered the course of our destiny, correct?”I nod.“Then we’ll just have to
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 153
JohnathanThe inside of my skull explodes with hot rage so intense that I see the world through a thick haze of red. I am aware that I am on my feet, snarling and growling at the vampire. Dante surges, ready to rip Kahn’s throat out. I’m only vaguely aware of the others’ presence. “You had no right,” I grit past my teeth. “You took my vengeance from me. It was over!”“Can you excuse us?” Kahn asks the others.“No, they can not. Who the hell do you think you are?” I curl my hands into fist, aware that I won’t be able to hang on to Dante much longer.Kahn would probably survive if I tear him to shreds, but I wonder if he’ll survive being eaten.I blink, and the vampire is on top of me, his hands curled around my neck. I fall backward, missing the edge of the chair by an inch.“You have no clarity anymore,” Kahn says, and lets me go.Enraged I get to my feet, ready to pull him apart like a fly. I look around at the empty dining room, and my anger simply fizzles. “When did everyone leave
