2 more chapters coming. Editing now
“You never should have said that about the betrayal pains,” Killian tells me in a dead whisper, his pain too great. “You should never have mentioned the pain you felt. You should have fallen to her feet and begged for her forgiveness. Why?” He groans. “Why did you have to try to compare pain?”“I don’t know,” I tell him, my insides shattering with each breath I take as what Lira said plays over and over again in my head. “I’m an idiot.”“You are an idiot,” he agrees, then curls inward on himself, “Mate,” he whimpers, “My poor mate.”She went through too much. Her pain is something that would have destroyed anyone else. Thinking about how she suffered, I wish I could bring back every single one of those men we killed and kill them all over again, making their pain last weeks, just like hers. I am going to kill Wayne. There is no doubt about it. I will destroy him for what he did to her. “Who are you to bring up rejections at times like this?! You have no idea what he has done for her
Jack POV That bastard. My entire frame is shaking. Oisin, my Lycan, is snarling loudly, wanting blood. That bastard, Alpha Lachlan, basically called me a coward. Me. Cowardly is something no one has called me before. Oisin’s pride is critically damaged, and it’s taking all my strength to keep him at bay. Alpha Lachlan was the one who harmed Ela. He was the one who betrayed her endlessly for two years. He was the reason she ran away from him, not once but twice. Why am I the one who feels ashamed right now? He said I ran away? I’m a runner? He insulted not just me, but all my men. Running is what we all had to do. It was the only way of life for us after our packs were destroyed. He doesn’t know what it’s like being overrun but Alpha Wayne’s forces…. But that’s what he was trying to protect himself from. The thing he told Ela about thinking she was a trap sent by Wayne comes back to mind. Maybe he has an idea, but he doesn’t know what it feels like to have your mate raped and
12 HOURS EARLIER…. Elelira POV “We have a visitor,” Beretta nods in the direction of the treeline as she gets dressed. We just shifted back and she is slipping back on her pants after cleaning off in the stream. “I noticed.” Val sniffed him out the second he got there, but she was too focused on fighting with Beretta to stop and ask why he followed us. I’m glad it’s him and not Lachlan. That would have just angered Val more. Cherum was more than welcome to follow me around all he liked as long as he didn't try pulling that babysitter nonsense on me like he did before, have an army stalk me everywhere I go. Val would tear through any army he sent. Even the thought of taking on that many warriors in a fight excites her. She doesn't want to be overlooked or underestimated ever again. He didn't call an army, though. Cherum just watched, wincing when the fighting got heavy, and twitching like he wanted to step in several times. Val was winning the entire time, her aura and larger fra
I bite my lip, fighting back the heat building behind my eyes. Val got most of our aggression out while fighting Beretta, leaving us with mostly sorrow and despair from everything that has happened and was said earlier. If it was anyone else but Cherum that followed us out, I wouldn’t like feeling this vulnerable. I’d probably lash out and let Val take over, like I did with Lachlan earlier. I can’t lash out at Cherum that easily, though. He is still my Delta. My ultimate protector. I feel safe with him, even now. I know I can physically handle myself, but I also know emotionally I can still be a mess, and I trust Cherum to help me through that mess right now. “There is too much damage there,” I whisper, welcoming some of the calm he is trying to pour into me. “When I thought he was someone different, it was easy to consider that kind of life with him. I didn’t know he was the same man as before. Now….” I shook my head.“Ela,” Cherum took my hands. “He is not the same man as before. I
Beretta POV What an informative and insightful evening. So, so insightful. I thought that maybe Ela was ignorant of the Captain’s feelings because she was so young, and she was just jaded from her mate. It happens often. I didn’t want to even think about men after what my mate put me through either. Hearing that she truly just thought of Jack as a brother and nothing more was almost as much of a shock as seeing her confess to still loving her mate. She said she didn't want to, but that was as much of a confession she loved him as if she outright said it. I thought she had gone through what I once had, suffering from betrayal as well as being abused by the one fated to love you. Even though after hearing all she went through, I was sure she went through worse than even me, I was also sure she had no desire for our captain. More important than me being sure, so was my Lycan, Bella. Bella and I always cared for Jack. Deeply. He was our savior. What started as admiration and trust
Lachlan POV “Alpha!” Cherum’s voice echoed in my head through the mind link. “Alpha. Help!” I was instantly on alert. “What’s wrong with Lira,” I asked, knowing that was the only thing that he would be needing this late at night. He was with her at the brothel. I was sitting in the parlor in our old bedchamber after meeting with her father, staring at the rowdy ships in my harbor and waiting for news she was somewhere safe for the night, praying it wouldn’t be in that grimy pirate’s presence. “The lass is drunk as a skunk, and Val is making this harder than it needs to be.” Drunk? Lira doesn’t get drunk. “Where are you?!” It’s Killian’s voice snarling at Cherum now, not just mine. “Meet me at the packhouse gates. She’s flailing like a flippin’ fish. Gah!” The mink link cuts out, and I race towards the entrance to the packhouse. Why would Val take over for Lira? Why the hell did Cherum let her get drunk in the first place? When I saw Cherum start stumbling up the path towards
Elelira POVLast night was a blur. I never get drunk, but Cherum fed me a few of his special coffees before we headed to town, and then Lady Vera insisted on giving me free drinks all night to celebrate my coming back. I wonder how I got back to bed? Cherum was there, and Val was on alert, so I'm sure everything was fine.Stretching in bed, feeling well-rested, despite my hazy night, I stop when my hand lands on something hard and warm, and sparks shoot up my arm. My eyes fly open, and there he is. Lachlan. Sleeping bare-chested in the bed we used to share.He’s bare-chested, because I’m in the bastard’s shirt. Just his shirt. The scent of him is so overwhelming it makes my entire body buzz. “What the hell?” I muttered, backing away from him as far as I could, taking the sheet with me. He still has on his pants, thank heavens, but his chest is completely bare. Val stirs awake in my head, and when she sees our mate through my eyes, she growls furiously, not just in my head but out
Lachlan POV “That was brutal,” Killian mumbled. “That’s better than I expected her to be.” At least she didn’t slit my throat. I think if she tried to physically hurt me it might hurt less than seeing how badly my mistreatment of her in our first lives affected her. She was never open about it before. There were signs, but she never told me. Now that everything's out in the open, she doesn’t have to hide her pain. I lean against the wall across from our room for a few minutes, gathering my thoughts and settling my heart before I go and knock on Niomi’s door. “Mimi?” I yelled to her after knocking, not hearing her moving around. All of us have taken to calling her Mimi when addressing her, since it was the nickname she loves given to her by my wife. She asked us to do it herself. I knock again, but there is still no answer. I’m about to mind link her, but then I hear her voice along with Cherum’s drifting down the hall. When I looked up, they were rounding the corner, Cherum c
~~~~~~I had closed my eyes in hell, giving the rest of myself, all that I was over to the man I knew would fulfill the task that I had set out to do. Lachlan would bring my daughter happiness. He was giving her a family. He had already given her everything she had missed out on in her former life.As I closed my eyes, I felt peace, knowing they were going to be fine. I felt peace, knowing that my greatest accomplishment was finally seen through to the end. I felt peace….because I knew I could finally be with her. I could finally join my love. I had closed my eyes in hell, and I opened them again in the light. The light around me was brilliant, so brilliant I instantly knew where I was. There was no sun. No moon. No definition of time. There was just the light, and all the good the light had to offer. None of the pain and heartache of the mortal world could be felt in this place. My feet pressed into the soft, vibrant grass, like a pillowy carpet and without the harshness of weeds
7 months later on Elelira’s 20th Birthday….Elelira POVTonight was the night. It was finally the night I would turn twenty. Just a few more minutes, and the full extent of my power will be released inside me once again. “You look lovely,” Gemma gushed, standing beside me in front of the mirror. “She looks like she’s getting ready for something other than taking a swim,” Beretta muttered to Yasmin, who was feeding her and Percy's daughter. “Maybe a private swim in the hidden pools near the stream.”Yasmin snickered. “They do that plenty. Percy overheard the Alpha ordering the sharp stones be smoothed down so as not to hurt his Luna’s back.”“Will you both stop it,” I snapped, scowling at them in the reflection. “It’s just a robe.”“And what are you wearing underneath?” Beretta wiggled her brows.“You’re annoying. Don’t you have a pack to run?” I huffed. “Eh, it’s running itself right now.” She appointed one of the women who escaped the North with her, who was also originally fro
Lachlan POV“Where is she?!” I demanded, running through the castle after being called back from town. “Where’s Lira?”“Alpha,” Meldec was waiting for me, and was rushing to keep up as I stormed through the halls. “Ced and Cherum took her to the ocean.”“THE OCEAN?!” I roared. Killian was growling in my head, “This is not the fucking time to take a bloody swim.”“She kept demanding to be taken to the ocean, Alpha. She commanded it.”“Of course she did, that infuriating woman.” She goes into fucking labor the day she insists I pick Westley up to surprise Mel and Cedric. She was too excited about sending me away with their adoption papers they applied for last week. Because Westley had living relatives from another pack, we had to ensure they wanted no claim on the boy before we granted my gamma and Lira’s knight’s request. They didn’t want to take him in years ago, and they didn’t want the boy now. When we got the message back this morning, Lira insisted I handle it right away, but I
Elelira POVLife after the brief but impactful war was much different than our lives before. So much had changed. When the rest of our warriors saw that Lachlan had survived and I was also alive and well after running into literal hell, the celebration lasted weeks. Percy chewed me out, as did the rest of my guard, but they soon turned to rejoicing at our return from certain death. Our pack was celebrating, but our hearts were not in it.My father’s body was taken back to the sea by Cedric and Lillian after I was finally able to let him go. It took me days to accept that he was gone. I had been hoping that some magic was left in his body and could save him from death, and everyone allowed me to live in the fantasy until I came to terms with him truly being gone. He was to be laid to rest deep in the ocean, at the place where all the siren kings and queens were buried. I wasn’t aware, and neither was Lachlan, but when my father and Lillian had stormed into my uncle’s pack the day bef
Elelira POVMy soul was torn. My heart felt like it hadn't beat since the moment we felt the pain of his death. Val was howling and roaring furiously as we tore through the rugged terrain to get to the place we sensed he was. Something was pulling forward, whether it be desperation or insanity, or maybe some lingering trace of our dying bond, our body just knew where he was. He can’t be dead. There was no way he would die just like that after all we had been through. After everything we overcame to finally be together, I can’t accept that it was all ending just like this. I could sense others behind me, but Val wouldn’t slow down for anyone. She was maddened with her desperate need to see our mate. To see with our own eyes that this was truly the end. As we raced forward, I suddenly felt another tear in my heart that had Val roaring loudly with the pain. I’m choking with the dread of finding out what it was from. My world was collapsing, and we could do nothing but run towards th
King Brennus POVEverything happened so fast. I was already feeling weak because of draining as much of my magic into the necklace as I could. It was not just my daughter I needed to save anymore. It was all of them. My daughter, son-in-law….and their child. I wouldn’t let all the sacrifices her mother and I made be in vain. With the bond connecting them, I prayed that the magic would flow through that and keep her safe, while also protecting the one that will protect her and my grandchild in my coming absence. When my mate told me before we reset the fabrics of time once again that his happiness was hers, I didn't understand what she meant. I thought that just Elelira being alive and safe was all that mattered. Then, she ran away, joining the pirates, and though she was fierce and found her inner strength, I could see that it only made her bitter. Not happy.Her happiness didn't come until she finally forgave and accepted her mate. Now, he was dead, and everything was coming full
Jack POVThe sky was growing dark. Night was coming. The anticipation for the battle to come was now painful. It was festering. The anxiety it left in my chest was like an infection that I couldn’t cure. Even if I had a lick of alcohol, it wouldn’t help this feeling to go away.That, coupled with the fact I still had no idea if Beretta was alive or dead, made this entirely unbearable. I wanted to attack first. I wanted to draw first blood, and tear through any and everyone blocking my path to save that maddening woman. I knew why I couldn't. I knew I would never make it through the demons alive. All I would be doing is risking every life here. It didn’t make it any easier to just sit around and wait. “Gamma!” A group of freshly shifted men came running towards where the Gamma and I were sitting, staring at the growing dark army while discussing our plan of attack for our men when the time came. “Gamma!”“Percy?” Gamma Meldec stood up, looking curiously at the men that were left beh
Nilo POV“We have to stop her!” Beretta was hissing at me. “Do you know what he will do to her? Do you have any fucking idea what these monsters do to women?”I knew. I knew that too damn well. I wish I could do something, anything to stop her, but I feel helpless right now.Irrita used her magic to hide our voices, but the strain on her was growing. I could tell the energy was draining from her face. She may be free from the restraints, but there is no telling how long she and these other women were oppressed. They won't have the reserves of energy like a fit warrior would.The other women were holding Beretta back from revealing our location. When the Luna said she was here to trade her life for ours, I reacted the same way. The command Ela gave and my fear for my mate's safety were the only things keeping me from acting right now. When I saw Ela move to cut the throat of her own uncle, my blood ran cold. She is my Luna. I should be out there protecting her from the vile stares of
Elelira POV“Oh, really? Then what, pray tell, have you come here for?” The dark fairy was gazing down at me with sinister superiority. He did have the upper hand, but I had a plan. Val and I were discussing how to get Nilo and Beretta out of here, speaking about how we could use the magic still inside us to win this, even though the situation was not in our favor. We came up with one way, and it was something we never could have considered in the past. Something so grotesque and shameless that even suggesting it would have sent me into a panic before. I just need him to take the bait. If I can get him alone after I guarantee my loved ones’ safe passage to the south, I could finish this, and there will be no need for endless bloodshed. “I have come to trade myself for the prisoners you took from my pack,” I stated boldly. “I wish to give you my life for theirs, as long as you allow them to return home unharmed.”A vicious snarl ripped through a mind link that I recognized coming