When Ismena knocked on Eline's door, it was around 4 in the morning. Thankfully, she needn't knock for long.The door swung open and Elaine stood there, looking like she just got out of bed. Her sleep-dazed eyes cleared when she saw who was standing behind the door."Ismena?" She called softly.Ismena entered the house, dropped her bags on her feet, and wrapped her arms around Eline. The cougar female embraced her as well—wrapping her arms around Ismena who has been so cold since she walked out of the Tower. Feeling a little bit of warmth in Eline's embrace, a sob escaped her throat. And then, another and another.Thankfully, Eline didn't ask her any questions as she cried her eyes out in her friend's arms. Instead, she held her close, whispering comforting words to her. Ismena had no idea how long they stood like that, but finally, she pulled back and sniffled softly. Eline was looking at her worriedly, her beautiful face dripping with concern. "Can I stay here for a while?" Ismen
Sandra was the one sleeping beside her, she'd woken up in the morning and extended her hand to pat Ismena awake, but then, she'd thought against it. Ismena had cried until midnight yesterday, she needs more sleep.Sandra went to the kitchen and began making breakfast. Eline was on night duties, so she wasn't home yet. By the time she was done with breakfast, Eline was back.They greeted amicably before Eline headed straight to her bedroom to freshen up. Minutes later, she came out freshly showered and took her seat at the old but homey dining table."Ismena is still sleeping right?" She asked, worriedly."Yes, but I have to wake her for breakfast. If it's up to her, she would wanna skip meals again.""That's a good idea. Get breakfast served while I wake her up." Eline got up and headed for Ismena's bedroom.In the bedroom, Eline walked casually towards her and placed her hand on her lower back"What the...!" She gasped, snatching her hand back. She felt like she just touched a burnin
"Sometimes, when a mate is very sick and her life partner isn't with her; providing occasional touching or making love to him, his body can go into a Crave Shock. It's very dangerous. Once it starts, it kills the mate within fifteen minutes of no intervention from his mated partner.""Jesus, what a mindfuck. Just fifteen minutes? It takes more than an hour to get to the Tower!""One hour, thirty-seven minutes. Forty-five minutes when you run there in shifted form." Eline confirmed."Oh, my God. My best friend will die!""Ismena is not gonna go into Crave Shock, Sandra. As I said, it's very rare and it only happens to mated couples who are apart from each other. That was what killed The Alpha King's father after the Queen died."Sandra's eyes widened, "Really?"Eline nodded, "His could have been easily prevented, it could have been stopped. All he needed was contact from his children—his wife's genetics are in them. All he needed was their touch but he refused it when he went into Crav
It's the middle of the night, but Alphose was still at the Tower. The meeting ended an hour ago but Wolfaraine needed him to wrap up some paperwork with him.All his life, he'd seen Wolfaraine and he'd been close to him, he thought he'd seen all sides of the male there is to see. Well, except for the weak side of him—he never allows anyone to see that—but he'd been wrong. These past few days he'd seen a different side of him.Cold, distant, heartless, and ruthless. Absolutely, utterly ruthless.He knew Wolfaraine changed when Ismena entered his life—it wasn't a visible, blatant change, but it was there nonetheless—but he never realized how much until she was no longer in his life. There was no warmth in his eyes, no life in his face as he carried out his duties, and saw to the new mission.The mission to look for every Experience Laboratory that might be associated with the Facilities and the Wolfhunters.The meeting tonight was about the progress of the mission. Or lack of. Beta Dan
Alphose needed that repeat because honest-to-God, he does not understand what she was saying. No, he heard the words clear but it wasn't making sense to him. "No, she can't be, Kassandra. Apart from the fact that it sounds so far-fetched, it's not even possib—""She's been sick for three days now. The fever kept switching on and off, on and off, she wasn't getting better at all. Harhan was there, he'd rested her and given us her meds to treat her with. We did everything by the book but it's not working and then, we woke to her confusing and her skin turning red and her teeth clattering." She was speaking so fast, her words jumbled up but she couldn't help it."WHAT!?" Alphose felt his soul leave his body. Those symptoms—especially the color change of her body—caused a ball of fear to form inside him. It's Crave Shock.Ismena went into Crave Shock. Ismena went into Crave Shock FIFTY-THREE MINUTES AGO!Alphose was already rushing back through the doors he just walked out from a few mi
"Please, you have to h-help my b-best friend, Alpha King. You have to help Ismena, you have to help, you have to help..." She shook her head miserably, "Oh God, you have to help her..."The urge came to him so strong like a tidal wave. He fisted his hands, gritted his teeth, and dug into his heels in an effort not to rush out of this hallway, out of the Tower, to the cougar clan.Because then, all his effort these past few days will be in vain. He hasn't gotten over her and he no longer thinks about her every five minutes AND THAT is progress. His chest still burns every damn time but it was no longer a massive throb of pain AND THAT is progress. His nights are still filled with the crawling need to wrap around her—in her, beside her, over her, and any other way he could get her but it was no longer a crippling need filled with burning pain that made his body fill itchy like he was at the worst stage of trying to get over an addiction AND THAT is progress too.Liar.He turned away
Desperation. Helplessness. Desperation.Those were the feelings coursing through him as he ran like never before towards his mate. In animal form, they are barely capable of rational thoughts. Just basic instincts and urges drove the animal. But these thoughts still invaded his mind. You are too late. It's been an hour.Noooooooooooo....! The denial rose through him like a tidal wave, threatening to consume him. The urge overcame him yet again; he threw his head back and howled to the sky.Fifteen minutes. That was the time it took for him to get to Eline's house. That was how fast he'd run. The wolf threw itself at the door immediately it got closer, breaking the wooden door effortlessly to pieces. It followed the scent of its mate, allowing it to lead him to the room where he should go.Eline, on the other hand, was still holding Ismena's body to herself, wrapped around Ismena—both arms and legs. Tears streamed down her face while she rocked the dead weight in her arms.Deep relie
Inside the bedroom, Wolfarine noticed the tremors of his hand as he leveled Ismena's lax body up, adjusted her, and gently pushed her body down until his dick slowly disappeared into her tight body. Thankfully, her body recognized him as her mate, making it easier for him to fill her moist channel. He wasn't gonna have séx with her but instead, he has to hold her close to him in the most intimate way a male could ever hold his woman. Her body was cold but that wasn't what his body was feeling. He was feeling his mate. A woman he'd forced himself to let go of, an addiction he'd forced himself to go without after he'd found out that he was involved in her horrible past and he was the very demon of her childhood. The knowledge was still like a knife to his gut but he shoved it all down to the deepest part of him. It isn't about him now, but about her. A muscle ticked in his jaw and a vein popped on his forehead, for a moment, he was overcome by the need to start moving inside her,
When the full moon eventually came, screams from two women in two different parts of Naturiah were particularly high in the air because two couples were getting mated. One from the Cougar Clan, the other from the Heart of Naturiah.In the Cougar Clan, Alphose held his woman close as he gave her all that was him. She has never taken all his forms before, but tonight she was going to before the mating ritual is performed. Her sweaty body shook under his, and he could smell her fear too. He whispered words of love and encouragement to her ears as he filled her body from behind yet again and began thrusting again.They were in their bedroom, kneeling on the floor with Kassandra's upper body lying on the bed and Alphose's own blanketing hers from behind. They've been at it all night. She has lost count of how many times she has released. At this rate, her soul was going to leave her body. Alphose was the best lover she'd ever been with—hell, even the word 'best' does not do him justice. G
"I love you too, baby." He rose with her in his arms, withdrew a gold ring from his pocket, and slipped it into her ring finger. "It's so beautiful..." She cried, staring reverently at the sparkling jewelry. "It looks so good on you," he whispered to her. That night, they made passionate love together. As always he took his time arousing her body, touching her everywhere until she begged him desperately to join them intimately before he proceeded to do just that. They created the perfect rhythm together, moving sensuously and whispering words of love to each other. Wolfaraine took his time making her go wild in pleasure in his arms, he savored the cries, the litany, the sounds he drew from her as they pleasured each other for hours. Afterward, they lay together, sated and happy. He caressed her belly, cradling their child as Ismena burrowed closer to him. "I'm so glad that it was my father that helped us escape. We were victorious because of him." She played with the soft hairs
The next day, Onaries was publicly executed in the square at the Heart Of Naturiah, before the people. Crowds gathered to watch it and it gave them great satisfaction to see the shame, the humiliation on the psycho's face before he was beheaded. To Onaries, it was the worst punishment. He should have killed himself when the lab was invaded—it was better to die in battle than to be killed by public execution where the people get to laugh at him, spit on his face and call him names. He'd been tortured for days by his own Head Sentinel, Rodarh who took great pleasure from the act. He tortured Onaries until he lost his pride and begged to be killed. But Onaries, that monster, had denied him. Until today when he was publicly executed. As for the human doctor, Beloca; Alphose, and Degar had taken turns beating the man up, they carved his skin out of his own body, his screams like music to their eyes. They tortured Beloca to an extent that he stopped breathing several times, but they did
"Nothing, Miss Kassandra; I only forced your dormant hormones to come alive. My 'attempted claim' on you forced your body to wake and take on your mate's scent." He smiled a little, "Now, you practically stink of him." Sandra doesn't understand. "Him?" She asked, confused. "The Steele trying to break down that door, ma'am. You are his mate. There was a time you were very sick, right? To the extent you thought you might die, right?" Sandra doesn't need to think hard about that. "Yes, when I was very young, I suffered pneumonia." He nodded knowingly, "Whatever drugs humans used to cure you suppressed your hormones that made you a potential mate. So deeply suppressed that they wouldn't have stirred if you hadn't met your lifemate, my twin brother, and I wouldn't have been able to awake them if I didn't push as hard as I did. I'm sorry for hurting you, lass." The man wasn't as bad as she thought he was, Sandra thought, and some of her fears dissolved. Instead, joy began spreading thr
When Ismena heard the news about Alphose and Kassandra, she left the Tower and went back to Eline's house to be with her best friend. Sandra cried on her shoulders, dreading every hour that passed, every ticking of the clock because it was a reminder that Josiah was already on his way to Naturiah to claim her. She told Ismena that she didn't wanna do it. She just wants to go back to the human world. It's better to go home to live the rest of her life alone than to be with a man who isn't her Alphose. Although it killed Ismena to do it, she talked her out of it. How will she live the rest of her life knowing that she could have met her soulmate? She could have been with him, but she gave up on it? She talked her into giving Josiah a chance. After all, who knows? It might be the best decision she has ever made in her life, right? The Alpha King, on the other hand, could only pat his best friend's shoulder, commending him for doing the right thing even when the 'right thing' hurts. B
He smiled, "She is. Do you remember all your time together with her?""Oh yes. She is my best friend.""She will be so happy to hear that. It'll probably make her cry. She thinks of you that way too. Maybe even more.""I want her to stay with us forever. You're going to mate her, right?" "Yes, I will. If she will have me." Wolfaraine stated matter-of-factly. He has no doubt anymore. He wants to spend the rest of his life with Ismena. In fact, he cannot imagine his future without her in it."I'm glad. I hope she will have you, too. We will be one big family. She is so brave. She's everything you need in a mate. She always came by my room, all the time, no matter how scared she was. She came every day. I knew you two fought when she didn't come by for a few days. I was mad at you because you let her go.""Is that way you growled whenever I came close? I thought perhaps you hated me.""I never. I was just mad at you, madder, because I couldn't tell you how I felt. I'm happy you two sort
He walked into the room, quietly closing the door behind him, and took a few minutes to just stand there and watch them. The two most important women in his life. He felt lighter and refreshed, his heart filled with happiness like he'd never known before. How his life has changed in the past few months. He'd resigned himself to a bland life filled with guilt, sadness, and loneliness, never taking a mate, never having a child of his own, and living day by day with the fear of not knowing when he would lose his sister forever. But Ismena came into his life and changed it forever.He'd felt more in the past six months than he has in almost twenty years. The past no longer fills him with rage and sadness, his cougar wasn't as rough and out-of-control as before. He has a mate who is so highly compatible with him, his child is growing in her belly, and his sister, who he thought was lost forever was back to him again.Complete. He feels complete."What are you thinking so hard about?" Ism
Gasps of disbelief filled the air. The people were shocked and excited. They found it hard to believe that their King's sister—someone who they'd all given up on—would take her mortal form again after all these years. Murmurs rose in the crowd, bits and pieces of them could be heard audibly."Did you see that—" A voice said."What just happened!?" Another added."She took her mortal form again...!" "Bless the Lord!""May the deities be praised...!""Did you see that too?""...thought it'll never happen for her.""It's been eighteen years."Wolfaraine Daminor Throne stood frozen. He glanced down at the small, pale, feminine hand in his larger one. His eyes trailed from her hand to her arm, up to her shoulder, her neck, and her teary face. His throat constricted at the sight in front of him.She was more beautiful than the distorted image his mind had desperately held onto all these years. His sister was ten the last time he saw her face. His eyes watered as he gazed into eyes as blue
All the leading Alphas of Naturiah were there, the sentinels, the Betas, the Omegas, the houseworkers. He could see Eline, Mirian, and Kassandra too, even the Alphas that fought with him in the human world earlier in the day. They were all gathered there. They rose and greeted him respectfully when he walked through the door with his mate in his arm.Then they were crowding him. The joy and relief on their faces, filled his heart with love for his people. The females had tears in their eyes as they came really close to him. Some were hugging him, while the others were kneeling at his feet—a gesture of welcome and respect. They were all careful not to press tightly against him because of the woman in his arms. Ismena wiggled a bit, a sign that she wanted to be on her own feet, but Wolfaraine glanced at her and shook his head slightly."Please, I'll be careful, and I'll be right here by your side." she pleaded, a hint of her smile on her face. She knows how badly his people wanted to g