JohnathanThis is our town. Anyone who comes to our home and disrespects us pays a price. Anyone who doesn’t follow our customs or our rules, pays a price. Anyone who questions me and my decisions, pays a price.And now, Elder Liam will pay the price for openly disrespecting me, my home, and the pack’s new Luna.He did not just disrespect me. While I argued with him about the sealing ritual, Preston reported that the Omegas saw Liam snooping around the mansion, going into rooms he had no business entering, and opening drawers he had no right to open.It doesn’t matter. I keep anything secret or sensitive in my office, behind lock and key and in multiple safes. Liam would not have found anything important, but it means he can't be trusted.Nor can I forgive him for disrespecting me and taunting me in front of my pack. If I simply let him go, the pack will see me as weak, and I'll lose their loyalty.I can be a very petty man when the mood takes me. And tonight, the mood has taken me.Ev
JohnathanWe wake at dawn next to the same lake where I took Mara to wash after she was healed. Dante went to sleep, but Aria is awake, sitting quietly by my side, staring at me with her unsettling green eyes.“Where is Mara?” I ask through the mind link.“You told her to go to sleep and give me control,” Aria answers. "She is still asleep."She sounds reasonable. A few times while we ran through the forest, Dante gave me temporary control. Nothing Aria did seemed out of the ordinary. She’s just a regular she-wolf.I nod at the tiny wolf. Lucas probably took one look at her and deemed her useless. Having such a small wolf as a mate more than likely bruised his fragile little ego. Many wolves make the mistake of underestimating the small wolves. They have hidden talents, deadly ones at times. “Why don’t you trust me, Aria?” I ask.“You are a man,” she says simply. “An Alpha.”“Fair enough,” I reply with a smirk. “But we’re not all the same. Your father strikes me as a good man.”“He so
MaraI’m so angry at Johnathan that I can spit. I have had enough of men telling me what to do, and I’m convinced he’s only making me see the healer so he can assert his dominance over me.I plant my hands on my hips and straighten my back, jutting out my chin as I do. I must look totally absurd, with Johnathan’s long sleeves dangling to my knees, and the undone buttons just about hiding my shameful places.I haven’t felt this sure of myself in a long time though. It feels foreign to speak my mind and to stand my ground, but at the same time it’s familiar. I used to be a recalcitrant, pain in the ass… and my father fostered my defiance, encouraged it even. He always said that Omegas need to learn how to use their words the right way. Mindfuckery he called it. We can’t fight physically, but we can fight back in other ways. “We have mouths and we have brains,” he always said. “And we will use that to outsmart the stronger wolves. They rely on their strength too much. We will rely on t
Johnathan While Mara is with the healer, Gregory is with me, playing on the floor of my office. I haven’t looked at my cell phone since Friday and I take it out of my drawer to check my emails and messages. I promised Greg we’d go into town for lunch at the country club if he behaved, and he's doing his best to be a good boy. It also gives me some time to catch up on my work. I plug my phone into the charger and start to go through the dozens of emails and texts I missed, making notes to phone some people back tomorrow and discarding the rest. It’s the last text that catches my attention, though. It was the text I received on Friday, right when I threw my phone aside so I could spend time with Greg. I should have looked at my phone. *They are here. My attorney’s name is Herbert Klein. He’s a vampire. He will be in contact. D.* My blood runs cold. Douglas is not dead yet - if he were Mara wouldn’t have had her premonition, but he has to be close to death or, at the very least, i
Mara I decide to stay home while Johnathan and Gregory go to the country club for lunch. I’m still sweating non-stop, and no one else needs to see or smell that. I go to my room instead, planning to clean it. I stagger back when I open the door. It smells even worse than it did yesterday. It’s as if the poison fermented, and the place now smells like rotten, pickled herring. I have to do something about the soiled mattress. I don’t know if I can even get it clean, but I have to try or I'll sleep outside tonight. The substance leaking from my pores is like tar. It’s easy enough to wash off, but once it dries, it’s like syrup. I don't even know how Johnathan can stand to look at me, let alone hold me and smell me. As I go around my room, cleaning the place from top to bottom with the strongest antiseptic I could find, I think about that hug we shared. It made me tingle all over, and instead of making me feel unsafe and afraid, Johnathan made me feel secure and at peace. Instead
Mara "I'll call Kelly," Johnathan says and leave the cleaning closet. "Don't leave before she's here." I’m a little hurt that Johnathan doesn’t want to come with me on a run, but I understand his reasoning. If I go into heat while we’re both in wolf form, it could end badly for me. No, I'm wrong. It will definitely end badly for me. In comparison to Aria, Dante is gigantic and if Johnathan loses control of his wolf, Dante will kill us for sure. Besides, I’ve seen what can happen when the heat haze takes a pair of wolves. It never seemed like a particularly pleasant experience for the she-wolf. I’m afraid that the scent of my heat will attract other males, though they will usually respect a mated wolf - especially the Alpha’s mate - but one can never be too careful. Especially in a place like this. Isolated and packed to the rafters with rogues. I don't want to wait for Kelly. I want to go out by myself. Johnathan promised I'd be safe here, and he also told me that I could come and
Mara I try to remind myself that here, at Haven’s Crest, vampires aren’t dangerous. We are their enemy, not the other way around. Vampires leave wolves to their own devices. We hunt them, they don't hunt us. Except here. Here, we're supposed to be allies. I can’t exactly blame the man for wanting to kill me. We have been hunting his kind for centuries. I don't know exactly what started the war between us. I do remember hearing something about it back in the day when I was in school, but that part of our history has faded from my memory. “Kahn,” Felicity says and lands next to the tall vampire. “Don’t torture the girl.” “I should, really,” Kahn says. And die? I wonder. My blood will kill him. “I won’t die,” Kahn says and smiles at me, revealing perfect teeth and two wickedly sharp fangs. "Not if I feast on you, little wolf. You are different. Special." Did he just read my mind?” “Yes,” Kahn says. “It’s a shitty talent. You have no idea how exhausting it is to listen to your non
**TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER!!!! Child abuse and a short description of sexual assault. Proceed with caution. This chapter is kind of brutal.** Johnathan’s Story The boy, now the size of a fully grown man and twice as broad in the shoulders, leaned against the door and listened to his father fighting with Eli. “You have done nothing this year,” William screamed. “The humans raised the taxes again. "The council wants to incorporate our pack with Wild Winds because we haven’t paid them their dues. All you do is drink and fuck. You sell our wolves to the highest bidder and keep all the money to yourself. What kind of Alpha are you?” Today was Johnathan’s thirteenth birthday. In other wolf packs, that would be cause for celebration. He was officially a man and ready to start warrior training, but his family didn’t even notice. “Don’t yell at our son,” his mother said in a simpering little voice. “He's doing the best he can. You should know better than anyone that it’s impossib
MaraI slowly walk back to the pack house, swinging the heavy velvet bag by my side. I haven’t given Rose any thought since Johnathan took her to live with the vampires. I don’t know if she’s doing okay, if they’re mistreating her, or if she’s even learning anything.Guilt gnaws at me like a hungry caterpillar. After what happened with Ally, I should have gone and gotten my sister. What she is, and what she became, isn’t her fault. Just as it wasn’t Ally’s fault for being raised in a man eater pack. She was a child. She didn’t know any better. Rose doesn't know any better.I come up to our pack house from the back, walking across the sunny deck and past the glittering pool. The days are getting cooler, but not cold. The heat is just about bearable, but the pool still looks very inviting.Instead of jumping in, as I’m prone to do of late, I walk past the blue water and into the mansion. Everyone should be back by now, and they need to know that the Lunae is on their way.I wonder what
MaraOnce outside the town, I easily trace Preston’s scent. He doesn’t bother to hide himself, and the newer wolves are afraid of him. He smells of despair and sorrow. body odour and blood.I find him close to the foot of the mountains, staring up at the peaks he will never be able to reach. When he sees me coming he turns to run away, but I quickly hold him in place, using my new magical talents.Elemental magic can harm or heal. Earth elements heal. I’m still not sure how it all works, or what it really is, but I know how to wield it, and that’s the only thing that matters now.Preston freezes and slowly turns to look at me. He is a mess. Dirty, smelly, his unkempt beard covered in twigs and the dried blood of the animals he killed to survive.“What is that?” he asks, his voice hoarse and low.“My magic,” I answer. “It’s new.” And I'm getting really good at it too. I'm often surprised by my own abilities.“I know it’s your magic.” Preston huffs, his voice laced with anger. “I was th
JohnathanGregory sits quietly in his car seat, staring out of the window as we drive into town. The two of us haven’t had a lot of father-son time lately. Maybe he’d open up more if I gave him my undivided attention for a few hours. “Hey buddy,” I say on a whim. “How do you feel about ditching school and going to the waterfall slides instead? Just you and me.”“Really?” he asks, his eyes widening with surprise, and his face lighting up with delight.Mara spent the last several months teaching him how to say his Rs properly. I have to admit I sometimes miss the way he used to speak - it was sweat and innocent - but they grow up fast, and as much as we want to, we can’t keep them babies forever.“Yes. Let’s swing by the cafe, get some snacks and drinks, and head out. Winter is around the corner, and this could be our last chance before the rains come.”“Yes,” Gregory says and claps his hands excitedly. “No one else? Just you and me?”“Just you and me.”I just want my exuberant boy back
JohnathanThe days bleed into weeks, the weeks into months. The wheels at Haven’s Crest keep on turning, the world keeps on spinning. If it weren’t for the wolves that showed up here every day, reporting about the vicious attacks that befell their packs, I could go on in blissful ignorance, believing nothing’s wrong.Every night, the vampires search the town and surrounding forests, looking for the assassins and spies who fled when we started our interrogations. We caught two in my house. One of them was Susarah.Gregory was heartbroken when I arrested his nanny. After all the work he put in to be a good boy for her, her betrayal crushed him. I can't get over the fact that I blamed my son for mistreating Susarah, but after Kahn spent ten minutes with my boy, he declared that Gregory could see her true intentions - he just didn’t understand what he was seeing. His violence was a direct reaction to her true heart. It wasn’t an excuse for his actions, but my son fought against his inst
MaraI find Donovan at the old pack house where a crew is busy cleaning up, carrying decaying furniture and debris from the crumbling building. “What is going on?” I ask the Beta.Donovan straightens and wipes sweat from his brow with his forearm. “Well, yesterday, before everything went tits up, Beta Preston told us that Alp- King Johnathan wants to fix this place up for the Alphas. "Preston left before he could put a crew together, so I decided to do it.” He gives me an uncertain look. “I- I hope I didn’t overstep. You gave us a home. Safety. We just want to be helpful.”Much as I hate to admit it, Donovan would be a good second Beta. He has all the leadership skills and training for it. The crew consists mostly of the Gammas and Deltas from our old pack, and a handful of Omegas I’ve seen around the town and new pack house. I don't know who we can and can't trust anymore, but I doubt anyone can do much damage while they're busy cleaning up the massive pack house. The ones we need
JohnathanIt’s business as usual at sunrise. The weekend is drawing to a close and our visitors are leaving, none of them even aware of the drama that unfolded around them over the weekend.I sit on the ridge overlooking the road, watching the humans drive in and out of Haven's Crest. “We have to close the town,” I say to Kahn who decided to join me on my morning excursion.“Those humans bring the money. They're the reason your Omegas have jobs.”“They could also be spies, assassins.” I don’t care about myself, but anyone who knows just a little about me, knows how much my son means to me. How much Mara means to me. They could just as easily kill them to get to me.Kahn snorts loudly. “No human would ever be able to get close enough.”“A sniper could.”“And kill you with what?”“A silver bullet.”Again the vampire lets out a derisive little snort. “Please. Nothing so pedestrian. It will take more than a little silver to kill you, Johnathan. They need to get closer than that.”“In Mara
JohnathanThe only reason I decide to leave the mountain is because I can feel Mara waiting for me. Her emotions are carefully controlled, and she refuses to let the sadness in. She keeps it at bay, allowing it to nibble at the fringes of her mind, but all her attention is focused on me now. She's watching me. I can feel her eyes, even from a distance. Her concern is for me, not herself or the pack, or even my son.There have been moments throughout the day when I felt pangs and stabs of intense sorrow from her, and every time she purposefully pushed it all away. First so she could take care of Preston, then Gregory, the pack, and now me. She had a very busy day, doing my job, keeping everyone and everything together. And what did I do? I hid in the mountains like a proper fucking coward, wallowing in self-pity.Half an hour later, I find her at the foot of the mountain, sitting in a clearing with her legs outstretched, leaning on her hands, face turned to the moon. For now, she is
Mara It’s a long walk to Johnathan’s mountains, and I’m not as fast as he is. By the time I reach the place, I’m exhausted and it’s full dark. It’s a clear, beautiful night, with the moon lighting my way. The air is crisp and clean here, the stars beautiful and bright, the majesty of the universe laid out before me like a painting on the canvas. What a magnificent place. Here, I can’t see Haven’s Crest, or hear the sound of people partying in the brothels and nightclubs. I understand why Johnathan likes to come here. It’s peaceful. Like I’ve been wrapped in a bubble of warm quiet, calm. I stare up at the mountain’s sheer cliff. How the hell Johnathan can climb this thing is beyond my comprehension. There's no way to get to the top. Not that I can see anyway. I can feel him up there, though. His presence. But there’s no way I can reach him. He won't even answer my mind link. “Good evening, Queen,” an unknown voice says next to me. I squeal and jump to the left, away fr
MaraTime slowly ticks by. I can’t seem to distract Gregory, and more than once he has a meltdown that leads to a lot of crying, screaming, kicking, and biting. The third time it happens, I sternly stop him, and hold on to him the same way Kahn held Preston. “I know you are very scared, but you can’t hurt other people because of how you feel.”“I want my daddy!” he screams at me and tries to wiggle free of my grasp“I know, big boy,” I say. “So do I, but do you see me kicking and screaming about it?”He tries to bit and scratch his way out of my arms, but I refuse to let him go. “Stop!” I say and remarkable feel the warmth of my aura slipping out. Gregory calms down and goes almost limp in my embrace. “I know you are feeling some big things right now. Scary things. Use your words. Tell me what scares you.”“What if Daddy’s dead?”“He’s not dead, sweetie,” I say. I put my head on his brow and start to hum a lullaby I remember from my childhood while I gently rock back and forth with hi