I feel like backing out.(Wipes fake tears from corner of eyes.)If anyone told me jogging would cause such a strain on my calves and waist, I would have told them I wasn't that rusty and I could still handle myself.That would have been a lie. That would have been such a huge lie.“How about we go for one more lap?”The humor in Roman’s tone makes me feel like killing him.“We’ve been running laps for an hour and a half, Alpha Roman. That’s ninety minutes!”“And you’ve stopped about twenty-eight times in the span of ninety minutes. Even Maya wouldn’t have stopped that much and she’s eight.”I frown.“Are you mocking me right now Alpha?”Roman moves ahead of me and again my eyes are glued to his form. His sweatpants don’t help in making me any more focused than I already am, which is very little and it’s appalling.My eyes track up from well-built calves to powerfully formed thighs and then to a compact waist. Roman is in a gray sweatshirt and with every move he makes, the fabric str
We do a three-hour workout routine in which Roman has me do nothing more than run from one end of the field to the other. It might sound easy, until you’re running the same path for what might be the sixtieth time in thirty minutes. My mind travels between the pain I am feeling and the controlled outburst Roman just had. I could always just rule it off as something that has been on his heart, or rather something that he says to everyone. “I am not a good man.” I could always rule it off as something normal………… but I don’t and I won’t. Something tells me the Alpha of the Ironclaw pack hasn’t fully recovered from the trauma of his pack’s attack. He might be hiding a lot of pain underneath that handsome face and cold eyes. My body screams in protest when I get up and I can swear I hear my bones crack slightly Roman opens the door to the room the next moment and we both engage in a staring contest. I win because he looks really good in his tuxedo and his eyes pop in this sky bl
Last night, Roman and I devised a small plan.I think I fell asleep conceiving the idea but after the workout session, Roman gave me the full rundown of what he had drawn up from my vague idea of last night, and we agreed to carry out the plan this morning after the workout. though I don’t remember ever having agreed to jog for three hours.My calves send a slight ache through my body but I ignore it and look ahead instead.Hunter Tyson of the Nightshade pack is one of the most enigmatic men you’ll ever meet.He’s manly. He carries that certain aura that allows anyone who looks at him to become unsure of themselves, and overly sure of him.They see him and they nod, thinking “Yes, this is the kind of man I need”, or “This is what a really confident man looks like.”In public, he walks with a smile on his face, a twinkle in his purple eyes, and the charisma of someone who’s seen the playing field of the world and knows the game plan to win.On the inside, he’s a dick. He will lie, chea
The car moves smooth and steadily on the tarred road and Roman explains some inner workings of the Alpha conference to me.To begin with, the conference is as much a physical event as it was a spiritual one. It can only take place during the season of a silver moon, and that surprises me because I thought the moon was always silver.Roman says we are in that period right now and in the next two months, a silver moon will hang in the sky. It will be bigger than a normal moon, and it will shine brighter tooThe Lykos fundraiser is happening in the mansion of a former Alpha in the Lykanos pack.My knowledge of pack history makes me tell Roman to get us hyacinths on the way, or any purple flower at least. The members of the Lykos pack are… superstitious would not be the word for it, but they believe in omens.And a good omen to them, is a purple flower. When purple flowers bloom in the pack, they thank the moon goddess and take it as a sign of fortune and goodwill.Roman says he doesn’t
My heart slams in my chest and my world comes crashing down.This is it. This is how I get caught not a month after my escape. If Roman tries to protect me, the other Alphas here will support Hunter. Another Alpha keeping an Alpha’s mate away from him won’t make any sense to them no matter what the circumstances are.I wait for the mate bond to pulse and alert him of my presence but it doesn’t happen.I wait for a minute, two minutes, I stand on the spot for five minutes and wait for my mate to recognize me, to feel the bond between us, but nothing happens. I look at Roman and he’s trying to conceal the anger on his face but he can’t. I hear his words through gritted teeth. “What do you think you’re doing?”I frown and open my mouth to deny doing anything but a voice behind me stops me.“Wine Miss Vivienne?”I grit my teeth realizing I've just been played. I turn to find Danis standing there, his body looking elegant in his clean-cut suit and his form better outlined. He’s slimmer
Roman sticks to me like bees to honey.I appreciate the gesture at first. Fear still courses through my bones at the fact that Hunter is in this room but when thirty minutes pass after our arrival and I am not approached by him or even glanced at twice, I begin to relax and get angry.Hunter Tyson, Alpha of the Nightshade pack seems happy at this event.He sips champagne, looking immaculate in his metallic gray suit and elegantly coiffed hair. Females crowd him and goddess forbid he lets them go without making his intention to sleep with them known.I notice some of them exchange pitiful glances or hurt looks, but they look sorry for him and it makes me suspect some foul play. Danis comes back with the information I need wearing a sneer on his face.He plops into the last chair around our table and Roman looks up from his phone to glare at him. I don’t know what to feel so I just look eagerly. A smirk lines Danis’s face and his green eyes glow a sinister color for the briefest mome
“I’ll have to beg for my leave. It was nice meeting you, Alpha Hunter.” Hunter nods and smiles brightly. “You too Vivienne, though you didn’t introduce yourself.” He chuckles and quirks an eyebrow up at me “Are you scared of your boss or something?” I smile and ensure it reaches my eyes. “Alpha Roman is the best boss I could ever ask for. My apologies.” Danis stands too and drops his glass flute on the table. “I’ll be taking my leave too. Come on Vivienne, let’s leave the Alphas alone.” I ignore the obvious undercurrent of spite in Danis’s words and nod to Roman before taking steady steps away from the situation. Danis walks beside me and the number of glances he gets surprises me. I get a few stares myself but when we pass, I can see the eyes of males and females having conversations stop and focus on him. The farther we get from Hunter the more the necklace around my neck feels light, almost nonexistent. We take a flight of stairs up and when we’re relatively alone, I stop a
Roman's pov.Hunter stares at me with knowing eyes but my eyes don’t search for him.They search for her.Scarlett has somehow managed to disappear with Danis and goddess help me, if I get my hands on that lying two-faced son of a…“I know you killed my Beta Roman. I sent him on an errand and I assume he had to pass through your pack. His trail ended there.”I turn to look at Hunter and focus on him once more.He’s oblivious to the fact that his mate is in the same hall with him. Dare I say, I don't believe he’s been searching for her in earnest. I see the way he looks at the other women here.I see the way he seems totally unbothered about the location of his wife and child, but I can also see the malice in his eyes when he speaks about her.He said he would get her back, but he doesn’t deserve her. It’s not my place to say, but it’s clear as day.I lean back into my seat and direct a level stare at him.“Do you remember those times we would both play adult as children? Your father
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