-RAINA'S POV- Speaking in a place where everything echoes back to you was a true interpretation of real loneliness. Hera’s agitation prevented me from relaxing in the living room. Constantly on edge, her whimpers were like a microphone feedback that was maddening me. Dad left me alone in the cabin after being summoned by Alpha Vance. I knew that they’d be talking about the white-haired woman and the precautions that would be taken at Dark Wolverson. Thoughts mulled over in my head. Villainess Snow wasn't terrifying. She seemed rather inclined to let Vaheed die, but why? What did she have against my best friend? She could have easily killed me when I chased after her on Monday. Yet, she didn't. Instead, she warned me. Friend or foe. I did not know what to classify her as. Come to think more of it, was she the moon goddess? If she was, I must say that I was not impressed. What is she up to? I was pacing the green carpet of the room, back and forth, wondering if Valen would be alright
-VALEN'S POV- "This is impossible," I thought aloud, wracking my brain as we investigated my brother’s missing profile. "Nope." Devin disagreed, standing at the end of the second white, rectangular, folding plastic table that contained the helicopter scraps. "It's happening." Devin had spent the night with Cheryl in the adjoining cabin so that Raj could have his room at mine. We left the abode before sunrise to assess items in the evidence room, regarding the chopper that crashed. We missed breakfast but this was how it was whenever critical situations arose. It was just one of the bungalow-looking storage houses where Mercedes converted one of the rooms into an examination space. Two good attributes about her were that she was very efficient and proactive. Getting through the wreckage materials before Raina woke up was my way to avoid having her here. As well as to not have her getting upset over my officially declared missing brother. "I’m still having a hard time believing tha
-VALEN'S POV- "Hey man," I could see that he needed rest. "Are you alright?" Devin gazed at me oddly, "Of course not. I need to get laid." "I thought that was no longer an issue." I understood his sexual frustration. "Cheryl complains that I am too rough and she’s being weird." His face saddened. “I know that we have a casual affair but I’d rather she be honest about what’s going on with her than to have me confused.” Hurt inlaid his face. “One minute we are good and fucking like animals and the next, she’s withdrawn.” “So, what happened last night?” I continued to query him. His responses were clipped. “We argued. I left and went for a run. I came back. She was crying and refused to tell me why. We argued again. So I went hunting.” “Is it possible that she’s in love with you?” I noticed the way her swooning smoky eyes wandered to Devin when he wasn’t paying attention. A reprehensible expression morphed on his face. He repelled the idea. “I vowed never to love any woman. Cheryl
-VALEN’S POV- "Valen….." "It's Alpha Valen to you," I snarled and straightened my posture. Mercedes stopped at the first table where the exploded tail of the chopper laid. In her right hand was a cardboard drink carrier tray with two white customizable takeaway cups in it. Her black V-neck blouse with open buttons revealed plunge cleavage. The black and white plaid mini skirt was at thigh level to display her defined legs. A failed attempt to rouse my lust. She let out a hard breath and adjusted her tone, shifting the weight on one leg. "Devin…." "It's Royal Beta Devin….." I snapped, cutting her off. Her presence irked my bones. Zeus truly disliked her. It was time she learned a lesson. "Now start over." Ruefully, she glanced down at her hands. Then, she squinted her eyes with disapproval but submitted as she should. "I understand that you are selecting individuals to be on the rescue mission. I was informed that my name did not make the list." "And?" I exhaled a lung-full of i
-RAINA'S POV- “Don’t go near her,” Hera warned me. Unmasked, the long, pearl-white, wavy-haired woman sat on a light brown boulder in the middle of the open cave. No. It was not the person that I expected. It wasn’t Villainess Snow. Nonetheless, with my back turned to the roaring sea, I squared my shoulders and stared at the smirking woman. A coil of dread rolled inside of me because she was a threat and I was alone at goddess knows where. The sea-brine air brought with it a vicious rainbow swirl that caused my hair to hitch over my face and flow to the right. I raised my hands to immediately clear my face to keep my eyes fixated on the stranger. I hurriedly brushed the straying stands backwards. It's another woman who bore a similar resemblance to my nemesis. Maybe two inches taller, but thinner. Her face was powder white, and a small glittering rose gold feather at the third eye. Dark shell pink painted her cupid bow lips that faked a smile. It was so friendly and warm that it
-RAINA’S POV- Fortifying myself for their next move, I released my painfully bleeding, red-coated, dislocated shoulder and tried to get up. Hissing and grunting, the task was most challenging. A shivering fear enveloped me because my inability was pretty obvious. “I see you have come to join the party,” I satirized in an uneven tone. “I warned you.” Villainess Snow stood inches from my feet with condescending blue eyes like I was the sorriest thing alive. The line of our blue gazes met coldly. Snow growled in anger and turned to the other woman, squaring off with her as though she hated her guts. The cave walls vibrated with dust and stone particles falling onto my shoulders and hair. I lowered my head to avoid anything else getting into my eyes. It befuddled me since I thought that they were friends and she had come to get her share of whooping my ass. I peered intently at both women. As a sign of the day's direction and breadth, animosity rolled out like the red carpet. Wistful
-RAINA’S POV- A panting, sweat-dripping, and naked Devin showed up at the mouth of the cave. “What happened here?” He surveyed the area and sighted no enemies. “Not now. I’ll explain later.” Valen was too busy panicking with me in agony to dive into details. “Let’s go back.” “But I just got here,” Devin grimaced. Then his Prussian eyes took note of my cringing form, going dull with concern. Valen glared at him, standing upright, carrying me bridal style, and walking towards him. He was doing his best to control his emotions. “You could have saved one of those mother fuckers for me to beat up,” Devin complained about missing the fight. “You always do this just because you can teleport and get here faster than me.” “It was a fucking emergency!” Valen yelled in irritation, hard and scary, then passed him. “What did they do to Raina?” Devin came up behind Valen, stretching out his neck to see what was wrong. His expression changed to panic. “I’m taking her to the clinic. Go and ge
-RAINA’S POV- In my next life, things ought to be better. That's all I thought as I floated around in a sea of golden light, staring into nothingness. Incredible peace engulfed me. I could stay here forever. "No," a whispering voice said. Humph. Just my luck. Suddenly, my horizontal body spun rapidly, until I got dizzy. I closed my eyes. When I felt like I was being shoved off a ledge, I flipped them open and fell onto another plane. Above a dry riverbed at the outskirts of a parched valley of empty land, I hovered in midair overlooking a battle between wolves, but not just ordinary wolves. These wolves had a body hue of blue-black, a mane of white hair at the neck resembling a lion's, and a white-tipped tail. They were equine height and had insignias on their foreheads. A rose gold feather was on one of them. Where had I seen that before? I couldn't recall. So, I returned my focus to what was playing out before me. The moonlight imparted to the graphite night a soothing beauty,
-RAINA'S POV“I can't stop. I won’t stop. Not until I get my wolf.” I replied with all seriousness, showing my determination. Then sadness overcame me when I thought of everything that crashed into my life. My voice dropped, softening. “I'm scared, Valen.”This doppelgänger was as impassive as the first time I met him. This was the Valen who was incandescently in love with Villainess Snow, also known as the nefarious Mercedes.Scanning his features, his edgy mohawk had gotten a lot whiter with a sleek shine. From this angle, the loose black strands were barely noticeable with the bulk of his long hair combed over to the right. This time a thicker, short beard covered his sharp jawline, and he pinned me with a hateful glare. Strapped and overpowered.“Then find your mate.” He simply said, annoyance still palpable in his demeanor.I shook my head stubbornly. “I need some answers, or I'm stepping through.”His eyes hardened at me. Anger, like stone, set in his features.“Why did you try
RAINA'S POV-“When your Grandma said she would keep my snow globe safe, she really wasn't kidding,” I muttered with sarcasm as I walked down the dark passageway. Our feet thudded on baked black mud with its walls decorated with brown-black, twining, trunky vines.Leading with a torch in her hand, Pennelope chuckled and then uttered with dramatic emphasis, “Grams never—and I mean never joke around.”“Your home is creepy as hell,” I swear the big vines moved sometimes.Witches' houses were truly a haunted horror for intruders. You could get in, but only the goddess could help you to get out. A modicum of dread weaved through me, but with Penn here, I thought I would be alright.Get it together Raina.It's amazing how the home could transition from a lovely spacious cottage on the upper floors and then descend from the basement into a whole murky forest with thin, white smoky ghosts popping up here and there, whooing around. Ancestors, Pennelope called them.Marlena told me the snow glob
VALEN'S POV-Zeus' volcanic rage was swarming me. It was hard to control him like this. I never expected Devin's revelation to propel my wolf into a hissy fit. Vaheed's attack on my best friend left a bitter taste of betrayal.Not to mention, his actions with Raina were incomprehensible because he was marked by his own mate. Once again, my brother was after my mate. Why? I thought we passed this stage, but no. He’s a damn dickhead who has gone off the rails.“Alpha, did you get the new location?” Jason’s voice came through the communication earpiece.“Yeah,” I replied in a not-so-nice tone. “We’ll move in five.”Nuuk, Bahia Blanca, and Isiro were fruitless. This was the last sanctuary that was on our agenda to investigate. However, Heidi had found that this one in Waipu had a branch in the United States. Pennelope also confirmed high amounts of camouflaging magic that were widespread across the town. All of its energy waves pulsed from that synagogue.I stood to the side with my rifle
VALEN’S POV-I caught Jason standing from his chair with his head down. He was scratching his forehead with his palm blocking most of his eyes, but I saw them sneaking upwards to watch out for my reaction.Guilty as sin. He had to be the culprit who provided the girls with everything they needed, including war gear, despite that he knew how we felt about our women on the battlefield.I growled at him.“We're coming on the mission.” Venus was always the boldest to speak first.With hands on my waist, I rebuffed, “No, that's a negative. You've been up all night, and it’s two a.m., plus the Howl De Lune cannot be planned by itself. The team and I will be gone for days.”“Cleo and Mom are here,” Raina argued, failing to see my point. She shrugged and emphasized, “I’m safest when I am with you.”“Mom left you in charge.” As I spoke, my feet crossed the space to draw closer to her. “Everyone else has to be here to assist you. Besides, the Bolivian and Ugandan wolves rely on your presence. Y
VALEN POV-“This coffee is shit,” Theo’s deep grumpy voice complained, almost spitting the liquid from his mouth after taking his first sip from the cup.“Too bad, I thought it was the perfect flavor for you,” Jason sassed with a cocky grin from around his grand U-shaped desk with the multiscreen computer system up and running.“You are the greatest hacker I know, and you can build the most advanced techno shit. That you can do, but you can’t make a damn good coffee?” Theo exaggerated, gesturing to the hot cup in his hand.Jason huffed and turned his head back to the computer screens, typing away on the keyboard. “Screw you.”“I would, but not today. You’ve got to buy me a beer first,” The Gamma twin jested back and stepped over to Azara with the coffee in his hand, giving it to her.We were at the IT Hub, which was Jason's domain. It was a fawn-colored, single-story federal house located across from the Training Center. He worked hand in hand with the Gammas, being our eyes from the
VALEN’S POV-I side-eyed Gamma Blayne furiously. He immediately bowed his head and averted his gaze.The stench of blood got stronger, permeating my senses, causing my legs to speed up. I can't stand the thought of any more of our members getting hurt or killed."What the hell..." I trailed off as I inched closer, crouching down and examining the line of dead bodies. It was just downright sick and twisted to use them for a ransom note effect.A chill entered the air that made everyone shiver. Raina’s eyes widened at the gruesome sight.Venus gasped, going pale with a hand flying over her mouth. “This is barbaric.”All their necks were slashed by claws and two of the deceased were used for the punctuation marks. Reading from left to right, it stated: ‘We have not forgotten, and we are coming for her.’Gamma Blayne crouched at the lifeless body next to me. He touched the wound on the man’s chest, inspecting it. “The gashes aren’t as deep as you’d expect, but this one got a double tap en
VALEN’S POV-Together, Theo, Thaines, Jason, and I pushed forward in our wolf form. Leaves and twigs crunched under our pounding paws. The sight of the full moon took its turn in the sky and the faint wind skimmed my fur.The grim sound of battle reached my ears long before we reached the outskirts of the station. We arrived united, skidding to a halt as we met the bloody scene with hard eyes and fangs bared. The air was thickened with the stench of sweat, blood, and death. Gruel residues of combat.Looking around the field for a target, the sounds of gnashing teeth, angry snarls, and painful shouts that had previously filled the air vanished with the rogues that swiftly fled through the tree line, leaving an eerie silence.“Cowards!” I roared internally, anger filling my veins.“Go now! Don’t let them get away!” Gamma Blayne shouted orders to a specialized team of elite wolves to pursue the escapees. He stood naked, heaving and curling his hands into fists, and his head whipped to spo
VALEN’S POV-“What’s my Alpha doing in a place like this?” Albert the old bartender had the nerve to joke as he wiped down the triple-fronted bar counter with a chuckle.“It’s a bar. What crime have I committed?” Although he was jesting, I was in a foul mood.Arbitration Day with those bumptious Alphas has finally ended. Things at Alpha Camp were going well with Valiant. Devin’s still in his coma and Raina seems to be in a bad mood. She was madder than a fucking hornet and shanghaiing my mental space.Yesterday, everything went downhill. Devin’s condition showed no change and I did not find the damn Worgen. I came here to clear my mind from the weight of failure that settled over me.All I wanted to do was head to Raina’s room and hug her. But knowing that she’d probably bring up Mercedes again, I detoured here. The thought of her name made the beer in my hand so damn distasteful. Out of panicked desperation, I’ve been spinning my wheels all day to come up with a way to get through to
RAINA’S POV-Theo bent and picked up the folder. He placed it on the desk and fell back into position.The file contained four candidates. Me being one of them. It depicted the Alpha cabal, who represented seventy percent of the werewolf kingdom, voting on whom they advocated to be Queen. Mercedes gained the highest votes, while I had a meager one percent. I saw Tallulah Rumer’s photo, an Alpha-Female from the Rym Greyback Pack in New Zealand. Next was Kristen, the Alpha-Female Valen pitted me against in the sparring competition for the world to see.Then there were pages of signatures and pack seals to officiate the petition in demonstrating which candidate held their favor. This was the beginning of an uprising. It could plunge the kingdom into chaos if Valen’s choice upset them.My heart chipped away at the daunting situation. Mercedes bowed her head to hide the gloating smile that curled on her lips.Okay, I see you Mercedes.“Your Royal Elders marshaled me for the task. Their old