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Chapter 47
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In Service of the Alpha Chapter 48
MaraJohnathan switches off the torch and turns to me. He looks like an angel with the ethereal light shining behind him. “Before we do this, I need you to know a few things.”Oh now I need to know things. I feel as if I found out way too many things already tonight. My head is spinning with all the revelations people have crammed into my skull already.“Only certain… oh, well, I guess I we can call them people, can pass through to the other side.”“Okay,” I say uncertainly. “What happens to people who are not allowed to pass… or whatever?”“Bad things. Bad, bad, bad things. It all just really depends on how the Goddess feels that day. If she’s feeling generous, maybe you’ll only get an outbreak of really itchy boils.”“And if she’s in a bad mood?”“Eh well. People have caught on fire, had their skin flayed off, you know… proper smitings.”And he’s being proper flippant about it. What if the Goddess doesn’t want me to pass and she decides to flay me? Or give me a case of itchy boils?
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 49
** TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: Domestic violence and rape. Please be kind to yourself and proceed with caution. **JohnathanI dread going through the entrance. Although, a better word for it might be portal. I'll fear what I'll see. As bad as my childhood was, as painful as those memories are, I know that seeing and feeling Mara's pain will hurt a hundred times worse, and I don't want to do it. I don't know if I can stand it.But there is no way around it. While wolves have sex to seal their bond, Lycans pass through the portal and learn their mates' every secret, all their dark parts, to seal their bond.The temple exists outside our space and time. I think it’s part of the star planes. The place wolves go to when they die. It’s like our heaven.I have spent days here, never getting hungry or thirsty, not noticing time passing, and when I returned to my own world, only an hour two had passed.I hate it here, and I think that’s by design. The Goddess doesn’t want us to get to
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 50
JohnathanThe moment we step inside the temple, the whole place lights up. Mara gasps loudly and does a complete three-sixty, looking at the cavernous entrance. “Wow,” she whispers.Her voice reverberates around the room, and disappears down one of the many dark corridors.There’s a blood-stained altar in the middle of the room, and currently it holds about a dozen scrolls, each of them several feet long, all of them filled with scribblings and drawings.Like me when I came here the first time, Mara is automatically drawn to the altar. She unrolls one of the scrolls, and with a small frown between her eyes looks at it. “Can you read it?” I ask.“No, but these drawings are a little… unsettling.”They are, and they look like cave paintings. They have no depth and the perception is all wrong. “It’s not as bad as you think,” I say. “It’s just the Lycans’ creation story.”“It looks like someone’s slaughtering this poor woman.”“I know. She’s just giving birth to the first Lycan though.” W
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 51
MaraThe morning alarm warbles through the house, rudely yanking me from a deep and peaceful sleep. I groan and grab my throbbing head. Johnathan and his fucking bells. I wonder if a hangover counts as being sick, and if I can get away with staying in bed a while longer.He’s not here though, I realise. He said he’ll be leaving before breakfast. I turn on my side and close my eyes to go back to sleep, but Aria is wide awake. “We are the Luna,” she chirps. “We have to set an example when the Alpha is not here.”“I am setting an example,” I answer. “No you’re not. You are breaking the rules.”“Exactly,” I say. “Johnathan’s rules are stupid, that’s the example I’m setting, and I’m going back to sleep.”But I am wide awake now, and Aria is not wrong. When the Alpha is away, the Luna has to lead the way, and make sure the pack follows the Alpha's rules. As much as I hate and disagree with Johnathan’s stupid schedule, those are the rules he made for his pack long before I came along.Whi
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 52
Johnathan My morning was insane. It went by in a blur of activity. I woke long before the morning bell, but so did Gregory. He came flying into my room like a little hurricane. “Wheh you going, Daddy?” I snatched my wild little boy up and let him sit on my forearm like I used to do when he was two. “I’m going away for a little bit.” “Can I come with you?” he asked. “No. It’s boring stuff. Just a bunch of grown-ups talking about business.” Instead of being upset, as I expected him to be, Greg saw an opportunity to get something he wanted. “Can I stay with Zach while you awe gone?” “Oh. I don’t know, buddy. I haven’t asked Zachary’s mom, and we can’t just show up there… Mara will be here to look...” He didn't wait for me to finish. He slipped off my arm, landed nimbly on the floor, and held his two, chubby little hands out in a way that reminded me way too much of myself. “Wait wight hewe, okay?” “Okay,” I agreed with a smile and continued packing, not suspecting a thing. Ten m
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 53
MaraI go back to our spot. This is where I feel closest to Johnathan. It’s weird, and I can’t explain it, but here it’s almost as if he’s right next to me. I can feel his presence here, and all I have to do is reach out and touch him.I feel less lonely here.It’s dark, and I should be inside, but it was as if the walls of the mansion were closing in on me. It was too quiet, too empty, too lonely, without Johnathan and Gregory.Preston and Ally offered to stay with me, but I stupidly told them I’d be okay. I should have taken them up on their offer. I didn't think I'd notice, since I spent every nigth by myself up on the top floor, but I did. I could feel their absence.How many of these cold, long nights will I have to endure before Johnathan comes home? Days? Weeks? I make myself comfortable under the tree, and look up at the starry sky and the moon that’s slowly swelling. This month, for the first time in two years, I’ll be allowed to shift on the full moon. I won’t have to suffer
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 54
MaraSomething about Kahn’s story still doesn’t make sense to me. Actually, a lot of it seems way too fantastical and unbelievable. I can poke holes the size of a log in his little story. “Explain Peggy,” I say."Who the hell is Peggy?" the vampire asks.“Peggy! Gregory’s mother.”“Penny,” Kahn says with a laugh.“Whatever. She was just a werewolf and she got pregnant with Johnathan’s baby. She gave birth to him and lived to talk about it.”“What makes you think she was a werewolf?”“Well… that’s what Johnathan told me.”“That’s what he believes she was, yeah. We did it that way on purpose. We were afraid he'd mark her simply because she was the only other Lycan he knew.”“We?” I ask, feeling anger and something akin to panic rising in my chest.“Yes, Gertie and me. She was my witch. She had been since I was a young boy. Back then, every Lycan prince had a witch. It was... a gift, of sorts.”I don't even want to know what that means. I do know that Gertie was extremely powerful. “She t
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 55
JohnathanNow that Mara and I are mated, I am able to feel all her emotions. I can’t mind link with her, but the witch who put up the block wasn’t strong enough, or perhaps not skilled enough, to sever our emotional connection.It’s a one-way street. I can feel her, but she can’t feel me. The only times she’ll ever feel anything from me will be if I cheat or when I die. As I reach the grasslands, the vast open nothingness between me and Red Ridge, I can feel a flicker of frustration and curiosity from Mara. Preston already told me that she left the pack house and that Kahn is watching over her for the night.I don’t like that vampire. At all. In the nine years I’ve known him, he hasn’t spoken ten words to me. He goes out of his way to avoid me. All I know about him is that he’s the only Lycan in creation who was successfully turned. That was all Felicity would tell me about him. Every other question about the mysterious vampire was met with stony silence.The witch used Felicity’s bl
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In Service of the Alpha Chapter 70
JohnathanI get up and massage the soft spot below my thumb. Mara’s vision lasted a long time, but I did not expect it to be so detailed. I’ve seen seers go into trances for hours, only to come out of it and give me a useless little vision that couldn't have lasted more than five minutes. Half the time, the biggest challenge for a seer is to come out of the trance.“You did well for your first time,” I say and return to my desk to get my notebook. I tried to write everything down exactly as she told it. I want to keep a record of her visions so I can remind myself from time to time. I used to record seers’ accounts on my cellphone, but I have a tendency to lose my phones. I lock the notebook in the top drawer of my desk, then return to the thick file Douglas sent. I hold the file up for Mara to see. “From your father. Money.”“What?” Mara asks. “The humans didn’t just take it?”“No. Your father was clever. He hid his tracks well. On paper, every penny belongs to a human.”“What huma
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 69
MaraI stop talking. I’ve reached the difficult part. The part where Johnathan dies. I don’t want to talk about it, much less think about it.But the image is there, forever etched into my brain like a brand.“Mara?” Johnathan asks and looks up from his notebook. “Is that it? Are you done?”I shake my head. “Remember? I told you… I told you that I saw you dead.”He nods and picks up his wine glass. He doesn’t look nearly as worried or afraid as he should be. “We can stop for now. Pick it up tomorrow.”I hesitate, gripping the stem of my wine glass like it’s a live preserver. The premonition plays itself out in my head again, vivid and unbearable, but I force myself to forge ahead. "No. I want to get this over and done with.""Okay," my mate agrees. "Go ahead."“After Rick took me-” I clear my throat in an attempt to get rid of the frog that caught there -“he took me into the mansion. To my father. They had him locked up in the wine cellar.” I let out a mirthless little laugh. “You sa
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 68
MaraWhile I spoke, Johnathan wrote everything down. There’s a small frown between his eyes as he reads back. “What did Rose do?”I shrug. “I don’t know.”“But you told Kahn things with her didn’t work out.”“Yes, but I don’t know what she did. I suppose it still has to happen.”He puffs his cheeks up and slowly blows the air out of his lungs. “Fucking premonitions. I now kind of want to kick her out, but I don’t have a reason.”“That’s what you’re worried about?”“Yeah. We can stop Donovan. Now that we know she’s coming, I can go get Haley before she comes here, make sure she’s safe.” He keeps reading, the frown between his eyes deepening. “This doesn't make sense to me... I'm not the kind who'll just discard a pregnant she-wolf like that.”I shrug. “I guess a lot of shit’s gonna happen between now and then.”He nods and pours a glass of the spiced wine for himself. “Can- can the future be changed?” I ask.“Yes, that’s the whole reason the Goddess sends premonitions, so we can alter
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 67
** TRIGGER WARNING: Infant death. **MaraSix months after Donovan joined Haven’s Crest, Haley showed up here alone. I saw her when she entered town, coming over the mountains. She was haggard, her clothes torn, and clearly starving. She was at the end of her pregnancy and could barely walk.I was surprised that she hadn’t given birth yet.My first instinct was to attack her. She had taken my mate. Caused my banishment. But then I saw it for what it really was. My pride. She wasn’t a danger to me. If anything, the tables had turned, and I was now a threat to her. She did me a favour, really, and the least I could do in return was to make sure she was okay.I had forgotten all about the threat Donovan made all those months ago. He had become a part of Haven’s Crest, and Johnathan paired him with a new Alpha called Luther. They were always off in the forests somewhere, training with their new squad. Johnathan wasn’t with me when Haley showed up. Like everyone else, he was preparing for
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 66
Johnathan“You’re probably just having a premonition. Focus on what you're feeling,” I say.Mara shakes her head and starts to hyperventilate while trying to cry at the same time. “Can’t… breathe,” she gasps. "Dying."“No, no, no,” I say and grab her face, forcing her to look at me. “You are having a panic attack.”She violently shakes her head.“Yes. Listen to me. The more you fight it, the worse it will be. It will happen whether you want it to or not. Just let go. It’s like falling asleep.”“No… scared.”“I know, baby,” I say gently. “It is very scary, but I’ll stay right here with you. I won’t let you go. It's just... it's a dream. It can't harm you.”Mara lets out a long sigh. Her eyes roll back in her head and she goes limp, falling forward and into my arms.I pull her off the chair and sit flat on the floor with her on my lap, cradling her like a baby while I wait for her to come out of her trance. As I watch, a tear rolls down her cheek. The warm droplet falls on my hand, sen
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 65
JohnathanGregory's mouth runs like a freight train on our way back to the mansion. The kid barely stops to breathe wihle he excitedly tells me about his week at Zach's house. We popped into one of the many diners in town for a burger and a milkshake, and the kid is in a fantastic mood. God, I missed my boy. I smile and adjust my wristwatch. I promised Mara that I wouldn’t be long, but it turned into a three-hour-long exercise, starting with Kelly who insisted that I stay for coffee and cake.I glance at my chattering son in the rearview mirror. “And I told Zach he can come play at owe house, ‘cause he don’t have a pool o' nothing.”"They have a big pool in town," I say. "Didn't Kelly take you?""No. She doesn't twust the men thewe."Oh-kay. “All right kiddo,” I say as we pull up to the house. “Settle down a little, will you? My ears need a break.”Gregory undoes the buckles on his carseat by himself and patiently waits for me to open the door. Grabbing his backpack, he hops out and
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 64
MaraJohnathan grabs me as I walk past him to the door, curling his long fingers around my upper arm to keep me in place. His grip is strong, firm, but he holds me in such a way that he doesn’t hurt me.“Is that what you think?” he asks. “That I’ll protect you to death?”I falter a little. “Well… yes. I’m sorry, but I kinda do.”“Have I been coddling you like you’re a child?”I quickly shake my head. “But you didn’t want to tell me about my father.”“Yes,” he admits and slides his hand down my arm to take my hand in his. “When I spoke to you dad, we had just met. You had so much going on. You were so… vulnerable. What should I have done? Should I have piled on and made it worse? Would you have done anything different if you were me?”I don’t have to give it much thought. He’s right. When I came here, I was on the brink of death, and so much happened all at once that he didn’t really have the time to sit down and talk to me about my father and everything that’s been going on at Red Rid
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 63
MaraI stare blankly at Johnathan, not sure how to answer him. I knew he’d ask me sooner or later to spend the night with him, but I thought it would be later. What’s more surprising is that I’m not afraid by the prospect of sharing his bed - I’m enraptured by it.“Why do you want me to stay?” I ask nonetheless.He shrugs and steps into his linen trousers. “I missed you.”“You did?”“Of course. You are my mate.”“You barely even know me.”“Didn’t make me miss you any less.”I smile. I’ve been smiling a lot lately. If I'm not careful, I'd go so far as to say that I'm happy. “Okay,” I agree at last, “but I train with Kahn at night.”“Not tonight you don’t.”“He’s not going to like that.”“He can go fuck himself,” Johnathan says with a soft little snarl that sends a weird little rocket of exhilaration down my spine. "I am in charge here, not Kahn."My mate doesn’t bother to put his shirt on. Instead, he sits next to me, but keeps a healthy distance between us. “Why do you trust Kahn?” h
In Service of the Alpha Chapter 62
JohnathanI sigh as I close my bedroom door behind me and drop my pack on the floor. The last leg of our journey was by far the worst. I kept as low a profile as I could with Rose by my side, which meant we had to take a lot of detours so we could dodge the rogues that are always circling Haven’s Crest, searching for a way in, The girl kept running off to find a male she could breed with.Several Alphas are closing in on Haven's Crest. Wolves that had been displaced by humans. These are the good Alphas I’ve been waiting for. I still outrank them by orders of magnitude, so I’m not too worried about their presence. If they can make it into Haven's Crest, they will join my pack, although I’m not quite sure in what capacity yet. Maybe as advisors or some kind of council. Eventually, order will be restored. They’ll be able to go back to their own lives and rebuild their packs.I hope.I handed Rose over to Ally, instructing the Beta’s mate to feed her, bathe her, and to keep her away from
