Priam is waiting for me in a parking lot a few blocks down the estate where the Ironclaw packhouse is located and there’s a hard look on his face when our eyes meet.I’d have thought he’d be smiling or looking jovial but he’s not. He looks slightly tired, pissed off even. My mood isn’t any better so I tamp down on whatever his face makes me feel and I open our conversation with one statement, “You dropped seventeen missed calls on my phone.”He nods and I huff, “Seventeen? It’s not an issue but a text would have worked better, like ‘Hey Scarlett, it’s me, Priam.’ ”At this a slight smile enters his eyes and I tuck away the fact that Priam has changed since the last time I was actively in his space. He was irritable and grumpy then, but now he just looks wizened and a bit more mature. His apology is a low “I’m sorry I dropped seventeen missed calls. I should have texted.” I shrug and rest on the hood of his car the same way he is, hands folded across his chest and legs crossed. His o
“What’s that?”I jump so hard the hot liquid in my hand almost goes tumbling out.Roman’s scent is a wintery thing in my nose as he moves, the action bringing a light gust of wind to caress my cheeks when he stops behind me, steadying the cup in my hands with his and his voice rumbling in my ear when he leans low to ask, “What’s wrong?”My heart is pounding.My pulse is racing but all the same I lean into Roman and ask playfully, “How do you know anything’s wrong? I was spooked, that's all.”I turn my head to look at Roman’s reaction and he has an eyebrow cocked up, a very funny, skeptical, questioning eyebrow that makes me chuckle and has him holding me even more while we stand. His question still hangs in the air though and just when I'm about to relent with a sigh we’re interrupted by high-pitched chatter and laughter.The room falls silent the moment the ladies see me and my eyes go wide because they’re looking at me and Roman!I have a meeting with the Ironclaw females today and
Hi lovely readers. I'm really sorry but I won't be able to update the book today. Feeling sick and I also have to attend to some other things. Updates will continue tomorrow as usual. As for the requests to increase update frequency and volume, i'd say the platform makes the rules not me. They require me to update 50,000 words in a month in at least 25 days. I have to find a stable frequency to achieve that but not to worry, I'll speak to my assigned editor and see if i can work around it (I really doubt it though) Thank you all for the love and support so far. I see your front page reviews, i see the chapter comments, i see the gems you send. Thank you so much. Love you all, till next time (Tomorrow lol)
Roman’s pov. “Have you ever imagined that all you know about Elara might not be so true?” Scarlett is on the phone with me and my hand has paused over the lunch she sent but a frown lines my face. “Does this have to do with the memory you saw of her in the forest?” Scarlett chuckles nervously on the other end of the phone and answers with a shy, “Yes, but it’s also not entirely about that anymore. I think something isn’t consistent about Elara like she’s different.” “The same way Hunter also seems different?” Scarlett falls silent like those words just stung her but I never meant for them to hurt her, “Scarlett?” She answers with a hum and I test the waters, “Are you okay?” She chuckles and scoffs, “Yeah, I'm okay. Hunter talk doesn’t trouble me that much anymore.” A soft grin lights my lips as I lean back in my seat, “It’s okay to admit if it does y’know. Talking about Elara leaves a sore feeling in my throat.” A dry laugh escapes Scarlett and she replies, “Same way I feel a
Scarlett’s pov.Roman breaks the news to me the next day. His father wants us to attend his mum’s memorial.I chuckle and frown warily, “But we’ve always attended your mum’s memorial. We did it last year.”Roman nods and guides me close to him with his hand behind my neck. I kiss him because it seems he needs it and because I like it and Roman sighs afterward. It’s a content sigh but it’s also a sigh that tells me something is up so I lean into him and place my arms on his chest, overlapping my hands and placing my chin on it as I stare up at him.“What’s up?”I know he didn’t sound happy when I asked him to keep an eye out for Elara, and while I know it’s going to be hard for him to do it, if that’s what’s making him this way then I'll ask him to drop it.There’s no amount of information I could get on Elara that would make me compromise Roman’s happiness.Roman’s voice is sullen as he responds.“My father said my mum knew something was up.”When my eyebrows crease in confusion Roman
“This is my cousin.” Roman stares at me with a barred look on his face as I pace and read the headline. I know this paper. My father used to receive one every morning, Oakridge Daily, it’s a locally run newspaper in my pack, the Oakridge pack. The picture on the headline is the one that was taken at Oly’s funeral. “Where did you get this?...... And why are you bringing it out now?” “Why didn’t you tell me?”, Roman’s question is a soft thing and he’s staring at me intently. “His death should have been a loss to your family.” I nod because it was, I feel my mood drop as memories come rolling in and my voice is meek when I respond, “It definitely was. Oliver’s parents were inconsolable when it happened, speculations were that it was magically caused. The pack shaman said it had to do with magic, malevolent magic, the very violent kind. They said he shifted and ran mad while in his wolf form, and he killed himself. I didn’t mention it because it hurts to. I was really close to him
I'm all smiles when I get ready to go to the clinic with Roman. Doing it brings tears to my eyes actually because I realize I've done this before. I’ve gotten ready to go to the hospital once, an expectant but totally new mother. Hunter had been excited then. He’d kissed me goodbye, but he didn’t take time out of his work to come be with me as I went through the cycle of appointments and checkups and visits. We didn’t do a scan to determine the gender of the baby, and thinking back on it now, that might have been my saving grace. Hunter could have done things to make sure I didn't give birth to Maya. I know it like I know him. “Is your purse lost? I can help you find it.” Roman sounds so concerned I chortle and shake my head, “It’s nothing, I've found the purse already, we can go now.” He opens the door for me, an action that causes me to roll my eyes and giggle, then he links our fingers together, swinging it lightly as we walk, him still fully dressed in his forest green suit
“Why did you invite him to the Jubilee?”Roman asks this question through the mindlink as we exit the hospital but I don't have any answer to it. I want to say I did, or rather I do, but I don't and that’s the truth. I don’t have any concrete reason, so do I tell him I'm really suspicious about the identity of that doctor? Or do I tell him I'm beginning to suspect the doctor whom I asked to carry out a checkup on Axios behind his back and who has airdropped the report into my phone isn’t who he says he is?A sigh leaves my lips as I think about that. Sometimes I feel it’s sinful the way the current world has made hiding things and keeping secrets so much easier. He did that while Roman was seated next to me.He dumped this report that’s making me feel like I'm doing something particularly wrong into my phone, while Roman was seated next to me and he wasn’t any wiser to it.“Scarlett.”Roman’s sudden touch sends feelings rippling down my spine and I stop, snapping out of my thoughts a
Hi wonderful readers.First of all, I’d like to say thank you for reading so much and so far. Thank you for the time invested into this book.Without you, nothing would have been possible, so thank you for that.We have come to the end, and while it is a bit abrupt, I’d like to clarify some things.The book is already at 290 thousand plus words, I was really worried about its readability because anything longer would probably scare readers off. I don’t know how everything usually operates because I am a mildly new author on the platform and this is my first completed book, but it felt like Luna Scarlett was getting long, and if I was to go further into settling some other points in the story….. It’d have been way longer.Now to pick up some of the points I left unfilled in the story (Without giving any spoilers of course.) (Okay, maybe one spoiler, or two :)The fact that Hunter’s mother killed Oliver: I’d say this would have led into a whole other story, and it will, it’s basically
Roman carries me in his arms.Diane is helped along by the mage.We’re laid on beds and the pain from the contractions almost makes me pass out.“Your body’s burning, Scarlett.”I feel water enveloping me and I hear Diane’s low low grunt as she’s laid into the pool too.The contractions make everything feel hard and painful. My mind slips in and out of a haze and the water is red, so red, but through it all Roman stays with me.His red eyes are as clear and pure as two scarlet moons.The indoor swimming pool is converted into a labor room the moment the doctors arrive. I open my eyes weakly to see a whole team of them, strange faces in blue overalls, and the smell of the hospital lingering in the air.The contractions hit again, and this time Roman helps me onto a table as I grunt and cry my way through them.This is stronger than anything I've ever felt.I hear one of them tell Roman firmly, “If you want to be here, wear one of these.”Roman is back at my side in less than a minute,
Scarlett’s pov.Each blast of energy I let out makes me grit my teeth in pain.The doctor and Myrtle watch me with calm eyes and though it rips my heart to see them standing there like that, I don't stop.The shield over me shimmers with each blast of energy I release and I can see the impatience filling them because they can’t touch me while this is still going on.There’s an impatience to the way Myrtle grits her teeth but I can't bring myself to be happy at that…. because I'm killing him.Hot heavy tears flow down my cheeks and I burst into a sob because I can hear the sound of his pain each time I release my power.His shield is directly linked to his power, to him.I’m like a bomb in a can. He is the can.He can’t contain me.He can’t keep me in.I will go off as many times as I need to. I am a woman. My energy is endless, but while I do it… he suffers.It’s either I stop and get my stomach ripped open, my baby… my child will be killed.I would never forgive myself because it wou
The scarlet glow in his eyes grows in strength and all the dots come together in my head.Elara was never abducted. She orchestrated the attack.The strangeness of the wolves that attacked us was because she had infused them with the gene mutation she stole from me, and Ironclaw warriors weren’t able to do anything but die at their hands, because they had never met anything like that.They couldn’t take over the pack totally, because, like everything that’s stolen, it’s never stable. The look in Elara’s eyes makes me chuckle as another truth hits me and I let her get himself to full strength. I let the shift take him over, and in a moment of nostalgia, the scent of jasmine comes carried on a gentle breeze as little lines appear in the wind.They blaze to life with bright but silent lights, each one swaying as if blown by a light breeze. I see the lines extending through the wall behind me, the room where all those in the packhouse are being held currently. I see them in my mind, from
Roman’s pov.The bond between me and Scarlett stretches taut due to the distance and it’s the first time I've felt something like this between us.Feeling her and barely feeling her at the same time.The cars pull up to the gates of the mansion and I can tell my packhouse has been taken over by foreign forces. No one makes themselves visible when the gates come open, everyone is hidden but the moment we drive in, the gates slam shut faster than they ever have.The feeling of arrows already poised at us sends a light tingle down the side of my neck and I send a message to my father through the mate bond, ~Take the children to the safe house. Drive there like it’s what you always meant to do….Stay safe Father, and keep the children safe.~My father sends a feeling that echoes low on the mindlink, one that tells me he will obey my words to the letter because he is a wolf under my command, and I am his Alpha.But as a father and someone who’s watched me grow into who I am today, he’s
“Scarlett.”A brief silence punctuated by mumbled words and then the word comes again.“Scarlett.”The tone is more insistent this time and my eyes flutter open as a headache burrows it’s way through my head. I groan as i open my eyes fully because my head hurts a lot.Surprise steadily flow s through me when i realise i have been bound. I can barely move my hands or my feet.I try to struggle against the ropes but i can’t, and the voice comes again.“Psst, Scarlett.”I raise my head just the slightest bit, unable to see through the large mound of flesh that’s my belly.I feel my baby moving andd kiclkin, the discomfort stinging me like pins.“No, no need to raise your head.It’s me… the mage.”My fuzzy head clears up enough to remember where i am and what happened to me before i blanked out. I feel my body go rigid as shock courses through mel, a healthy dose of shock and fear.No.I struggle against the ropes.NO. NO. NO.Hunter wouldn’t dare.Hunter would never!“Hunter!”My heart
Walking through the halls of the Nightshade pack has me feeling… not nostalgic.I can remember wallking through here when i came here with Danis once. We delivered wolfsbane to Hunter.Then simply being in the compound had shaken me. It had made images of me back here float around in my mind, and then i knew Hunter would have done something horrible to me and Maya if he had gotten his hands on us.I don’t know what must have caused the sudden self proclaimed change in him, but i wouldn’t risk myself and anyone i know depending on that.I’m only here because Hunter knows who i am now. He knows i cannot be hit or hurt by him, without him suffering consequences.“About the conversation we had the other day.”I turn to look at Hunter and i see the way he maintains eye contact with me for a second before looking away to stare at something else. His voice comes out more sulky than i imagined he wants it to be.“I only knew Oliver.I didn’t have any relationship that was out of the normal w
Scarlett’s pov.It’s a bloodbath.I feel the tang of blood on my tongue, the smell of death in the air, I smell the power leaking off Roman, and as it leaks off him, it goes into me.“Roman…”My voice is hoarse and croaky. I can barely hear it. It’s a rasp that leaves my throat feeling sandy and hollowed out yet Roman hears it.His head snaps to me the moment I whisper his name and I realise now why everywhere seems so silent. There’s not a sound emanating from the forest, not from the archers in the trees, not from the warriors Roman brought along, not even from the birds - probably already scared away by the violence, or the attendants - scared into silence by Roman, currently dotted in large splatters of blood. Roman’s presence jolts when he comes to me.I feel his aura wrap around me faster than anything i have ever felt before, and when he cradles me in his arms, i feel the shift take over him and his claws retract, the red glow from his eyes fade, the heat radiating from him d
Roman’s pov.The world pauses as I feel Scarlett’s anxiety spike through the mate bond.It’s a thick and heavy feeling in my gut.My head snaps to her, searching for any traces of what might be happening and for a minute all I can feel is Maya telling her there’s something wrong with the boy.There’s something wrong with Axios.Before anyone can pull another breath, I feel my wife fill herself with power so pure it leaks into me and sets my nerve endings on fire.“Everybody down, Now!”The blast of wind Scarlett releases makes a boom when it rips out. Screams come from the attendants now on the floor, the shrill whistles of arrows are almost masked by the boom of air but not quite. I see the arrows fly back with the force of a snapped twig and they find targets.Scarlett fills herself with that power again, needing not even a second to fill herself up, already primed for an attack while I'm still trying to make sense of it all.The orders come from my lips not a moment later, “EVERYO