Elelira POV “Can I not convince you to stay here?” Lachlan asks me again, staring at me from across the stables as Cherum readies one of the spare horses for me. I smiled softly from hearing his voice in my head, but shook my head no. We’ve been over this since Cherum interrupted us and told us of what happened to Nilo, Beretta and the rest of the team being attacked at the border. I am not going to just stay home and do nothing, no matter how much he begs. “I love you,” I told him to soften the blow. “Then stay home,” he growls. “Ah, that’s not how love works.” I understand his worries. His mother was killed in battle, and he doesn’t want to be left alone again. He doesn’t want to lose me. I don’t want to lose him either. I bet that was why his mother fought. She would rather die alongside her mate than have a life without him. This sounds like a simple rescue mission, though. I'm not staying here and doing nothing. “You can take charge of the pack in my stead.” I chuckled
Unknown POVThe sounds. That’s something I will never get used to. The sounds of endless chaos and depravity going on around me. The sounds echo off the walls, amplified by our own fears. The sounds are what breaks you first.Everything has gotten worse over the past few days. The normal sounds, well, as normal as they can become when you are living in a literal hell, have been overrun with constant torturous cries and chants for destruction. Whose destruction, I don’t know, but the pack or kingdom they are after now must be something powerful. Something big. Through the bars in the window that give us a sliver of a glimpse of the outside world, we have seen hordes and hordes of demons and dark fae of every kind marching through the pavilion. They all seemed ready for war.Our master has not paid us a visit in several days either. That is completely out of character for the wretched filth. He rarely goes a day without defiling our bodies. He seems addicted to the screams of the new
Cedric POV“Please, be here. Please be here. Please be here,” I murmured to myself, swimming along the coast of the western borders to Wayne’s pack, hoping to find some sign of my King and my people.I’ve been calling for them all morning, sending out wave after wave of magic, hoping not to have to go this far from my princess. I wanted someone to meet me halfway so I could get back by the time they left.There’s not a prayer of that working out for me now. I had to swim like hell to make it here, and now I can’t see any signs of them anywhere.It was just a single squad of knights, led by Lillian, accompanying our king, but I still thought I could find one of them in the water.As I’m circling the docks again, I am about to just go on land to see if I can find anyone on two feet since I'm having such a hard time with fins, but then the King himself comes diving into the water.The transformation starts out subtly, his fins taking form with his legs. The pack here is under the impres
Mimi can’t be saved. Not from this. She won’t die alone. There is a storm of people outside her door waiting to shower her with every bit of the love she deserves.Beretta is my sister. She is the strongest woman in the world after me, though she would argue that to the death claiming she is the strongest.I have the strongest mate in the world, ready to save her, and his best friend and brother. He is just waiting for me, making sure that I’m ready to either stay here or leave with him.It's my choice.He wants me to stay, and I trust my mate. I trust him to bring Beretta home. And with Jack, those demons will be facing a new kind of hell against both these Alphas.“I’ll be right back, Mimi. I’m going to talk to my mate, and I’ll be right back.”She nods weakly, then closes her eyes, no longer trying to put on the strong front. Gemma rushes to her side as Lachlan and I step into the sitting room to speak.A soft, relieved smile, full of sadness and warmth is on my mate’s face as he s
My uncle, the vile man whose death has been my goal, is standing before me, on the shores where just hours earlier I had wished my loved one goodbye.My thoughts were already such a mess before this, wracked with grief and raw emotion. Seeing him is like putting salt on an open wound. “We can kill him,” Val snarls, “We can tear his repulsive body to shreds.”She was pushing forward, ready to take the lead, but then several of my uncle’s warriors rounded the bend of the cliffs, coming from the place I used to wash my laundry and bathe. It was the place Beretta and I first walked the Hidden Cove shores together, sparring to release some of the fury that was pooling inside me on my return home. Those rocky grounds surrounding where the freshwater ran into the salty sea have always been a place of turmoil for me. In a way, it is fitting that that is where my uncle and his men would emerge. Though it is a mystery how they got to be there in the first place.“What are you doing here, Alph
Lachlan POVThis was different. Different from anything I have experienced in war before, and I have been in a lot of battles. More battles than you could possibly count.This isn’t a battle. Not yet. We’re just waiting. Waiting for the ball to drop. Waiting for them to make a move. If we make the move as things are right now, we will do more than cause more bloodshed on our side. That is the way of war. You wait for your opponent to attack first. We have never had to wait before. No one is attacking. No one is invading. When we rode to the place where my warrior last saw my Beta, the demons were already just waiting on the other side of our border, watching but not attacking. They were merely looking over the rocky landscape, waiting for us to arrive.I’ve never faced an enemy like this. What are they waiting for?The warriors who had departed with Nilo were torn to pieces, their bodies ripped apart along the bloody landscape. Evidence of the battle coated the ground all across our
Beretta POV“She’s coming to,” a female voice hissed quietly somewhere nearby. My entire body is aching. My jaw is throbbing. My head feels fuzzy, but then I hear my beast muttering softly in my head, whimpering as she tries to heal the worst of my body. I quickly remember why my body hurts so badly and my eyes fly open, expecting another attack. Instead, I find a wet, cold room, large but cluttered with rusty dank cages. In each cage are women of all nationalities, some fae, some lycan or were, and even a few humans among the mix. All of them looked scared shitless and worn for wear. I can only imagine the shit they had been through after what I endured upon getting to this hellhole, wherever in blazes it is. There are several women out of cages, looking better off even though they still look terrified. Most of the free women are cuddled in a corner on top of a stained mattress, but two women are hovering over me, worry on their faces instead of fear. One of them, a young red-he
Nilo POV “Hello!” I screamed for the hundredth time since waking in this sour, battered, shit smelling hellhole. Blood sprays from my mouth, foaming and sliding down the side of my face. “Just kill me, you fucking bastards!” I’ve been strung up ass-naked, arms stretched to either side of the narrow cell, feet shackled to the floor since I woke up getting what smelled like sewer water dumped on me and being pummeled in the back with a silver-laced whip. Those fucking bastards. They could not let me have any peace from the pain. They didn't have the decency to kill me. They just beat me until I was awake, cackling among themselves at my pain and misery. My shoulder is dislocated. The bones in one leg are shattered. My ribs feel as if they are stabbing into my lungs, which won’t fucking kill me fast enough. I don’t know why they kept me alive, but their wicked mutterings about waiting for the alpha to surrender to kill me makes me believe they are using me as leverage for something.