Rayne's POV
To Kaiden, becoming a Luna wasn't an event that could have gone by without an official sort of celebration. He didn't even tell me his plans concerning it at all, but once the day came, I couldn't ignore the rush of energy in the air and the way people kept congratulating me when they walked past.The reverence in their eyes scared and honored me at the same time. The people, even without having to, had welcomed me with open arms and treated me as one of their own even before it became obvious to them that I was mated to their king. The bond the people of Mysticrock shared was a mystery that didn't need to be solved, but instead, nurtured and admired.One old woman, who had been walking with a small child no older than six, even stopped me along the hallway. She blessed me with her words, and inserted a lily behind my ear. The precision in her hand reminded me that even the old still possessed pure life within them, even though they were nRayne’s POVThe muscle in my jaw started to hurt from how hard I was biting down. My fingers shook, but found solace in Kaiden's hand. I hated the way my whole system reacted whenever I saw Reynolds. The shaking. The holding of breath as I waited for evil to befall me. The worry.I thought I had been healing from it all the last time I had seen him.He looked around the hall, with hands on his waist. “What a beautiful thing you both have going on here,” he said. “I'm a little jealous.”“What would your wife think?” Kaiden asked, voice too calm for the situation. I trusted him enough to know that he had everything under control, because if he was calm, then there was no reason for me to fret.But maybe it was the way Reynolds' had suddenly appeared here, right in our midst like he owned the place, that fanned the flames of my worry. Although nothing but a coward that couldn't be straightforward about a lot of things, every action he t
Rayne's POVI ran my hand over my mouth to keep myself from outrightly questioning the words I had just heard from Reynolds.“What exactly do you mean by, ‘see me before she's gone forever’?” “If it wasn't obvious from the picture alone, she's very ill, and the doctors aren't making any headway with her treatment,” said Reynolds. “She has a few weeks left, at most. You're the only thing she keeps talking about.”Even from the look in his eyes alone, I still couldn't bring myself to trust his words. But the picture . . . It couldn't have been fake, right?“How . . . How is she sick?” Werewolves didn't get ‘sick’. Sure, they could get severely hurt, like Bradford, poisoned, like Kaiden, but not sick. Our gene pool had become so isolated and deviated from that of normal humans that we just didn't have the capacity to fall prey to normal diseases. “We don't know. But it's bad, and it's very serious. You have to come with me as soon as you can.”I shook my head. “No. I'm not going anywhe
Rayne's POVIt didn't take long for us to get the Oceanpearl Pack. I couldn't even call it my pack anymore because of how much time had passed, but I could tell that nothing about it had changed at all.Reynolds parked the car at the pack house's garage, and I used the opportunity to quickly send a text to Kaiden to inform him of my arrival.My objectives were straightforward: see my mother, find out anything I could concerning Grog's death and the rogue attacks, and get back to Mysticrock, all in the same day. I didn't see myself staying in this place for the night, even if there was somehow a provision for me to do that. “Welcome home, Rayne dearest,” said Reynolds as we got down from the car. It didn't warrant a response, so I didn't say anything to him regarding that. I pulled up my hair into a bun, using the action to pull my mind into a state of focus. The band I used was actually a bracelet with rubber strings that I had swiped
Rayne's POV“Stop this, Reynold. I'm not in the mood for your sick jokes,” I said, noting every step he took towards me. They were light and heavy at the same time. Confidence. Almost regal. He only moved in such a way when he could just tell that he had the upper hand. His hands were in the pockets of his straight slacks, and he looked thoroughly bored. He didn't appear like someone casually saying things that made me question my origins.“Rayne, the reason why your destiny is tied with Oceanpearl, is more than just because of a simple prophecy. You see, very recently, I had a very serious chat with a Priestess, who revealed everything that I longed to know.“She told me about my family, and why you were somehow so important to us. I didn't want to believe it at first, but the more I thought about it, the clearer everything became. The truth that you belong here.”He stood before me now, slightly towering over me menacingly. He lifted his hand to my face, but I slapped his hand away
Kaiden's POVSomething had gone horribly wrong. I could feel it deep in my bones. I had been pacing my room for minutes, waiting for a call or message from Rayne telling me that she was alright. She had promised to give me a call when she arrived, but that had been four hours ago, and Oceanpearl was only an hour away from Mysticrock. By now, the sky had started to darken, but the moon remained out of sight. I moved over to my window to observe the movement of clouds, hoping that it would somehow clear my head. It didn't.I picked up my phone and dialed her number, hoping in my heart that she had simply been unable to make the call so soon after her arrival. Every single time I called, I kept getting sent straight to voicemail. Each time the automated voice came on instead of Rayne's low delicate tone, the worry in my chest fattened.Bradford came into the room after two swift knocks. “Sorry I didn't wait for a respon
Rayne's POV In the darkness, I forgot how to breathe without choking on my own fear. Locked in, as I was, with the corpse of a woman I didn't think I knew everything about despite having spent most of my life with her.I felt it, her corpse. Already giving way to bacteria and the other things that occupied a soulless body. Heavy and decaying, the stench of death hung in the air, coupled with the weight of everything I had been told. Information shoved down my throat before I could regurgitate it and rebuke it. My phone had been taken from me shortly before I passed out from a heavy blow to my head.“You should take a nice nap beside your mother. Who knows, maybe her spirit will visit you,” Reynold sharply commented before ramming his fist into the side of my head faster than my mind could process.Now, I had come awake, and I could immediately tell that I still remained in that same small, stifling room that my mother had been reta
Rayne's POVI stared into the mouth of the gun, wondering how I got myself to this point. Trouble never seemed to be too far away from me, and even in times when I would catch a sliver of peace, it always lurked in the shadows, waiting for the moment it would come out to light.But if there was one thing I had decided already, it was that I wouldn't just lay down and die like I didn't matter. I had things to look forward to, and people to live for. I had tasted what happiness felt like, and I wasn't ready to let go of it.“If you think shooting me will be the end of your problems, you're sorely mistaken.” I watched one of Sloane’s fingers spasm on the gun. “This will not bring you what you want.”A frown appeared on her forehead, distorting her features quickly. “You're supposed to be begging for your life. And you're simply running your mouth. Why don't you get on your knees and beg for your own life like you did your mother's?”At her d
Kaiden's POVWith an arm around Rayne, I faced the ones chasing her. It wouldn't take me more than fifteen minutes to tear them all down, but I gave them a chance to rethink their actions.“Are you all insane?” I roared, pressing my aura into them. “How dare you lay a finger on my Luna?”The men chasing her stopped in their tracks, and looked among themselves in awkward confusion. Did they not even recognise that Rayne was once one of them? I looked over her bruised and battered body. There was a shard of glass in her cheek, and the top of her shirt had been ripped at the shoulder, exposing her pale bruised skin underneath. Beauty marred by pain.Guilt and anger warred for dominance within me. I should have never let her go alone, and now here she was, in my arms, badly hurt. Even if she could heal, she didn't have to go through such in the first place.Her body trembled. She was crying.“My mother,” she said. “I couldn
Author’s POVYears had passed since the great war that signaled the end of an era for the Mysticrock pack and its allies. That singular moment that had seemed miniscule in the eyes of many ended up being a memorable turning point in the treaty between humans and werewolves all over the world. The scars of the terrible times had healed, though the memories of struggle and loss remained etched in the hearts of those who survived. Life, however, had a way of moving forward, and in the years since Dr. Cedric’s imprisonment, the werewolf community had continued to thrive. Mysticrock pack had expanded even further since Rayne’s rescue of the imprisoned werewolves. Many of them chose to remain in service to her, preferring to stay within reach of the Lycan Queen, than even in their own home packs. The pack now stretched across more miles of dense forest, now basking in the warmth of the afternoon sun. The land had increased in vibrancy, and anyone who saw it wouldn’t have been able to tell
Rayne's POVKaiden.I smiled at the thought of him, my heart swelling with warmth. He had been there all along, quietly watching, waiting, and never pushing. Even when I had been mated to an Alpha, our fates intertwined in ways I hadn’t understood. Kaiden had been my constant, my true north, even when I didn’t realize it. And now, here we were, fated to be together, just as it was always meant to be. Even the years apart did nothing to dampen the flames of our passion. Many times, thinking about him was what kept me moving during the most terrible of days—the hope that eventually, once I got free, I would be back by his side, where I was truly meant to be. The place where I truly belonged.A soft rustle of leaves pulled me from my thoughts, and I opened my eyes to see Sal approaching. Her twin daughters, Ivy and Isla, followed closely behind, their identical faces full of curiosity and energy. Seeing them filled me with a burst of joy, because I could still vividly remember when she a
RAYNE'S POVIt’s strange when I look back at everything now. All that chaos, the pain, the heartbreak—it all seems like a lifetime ago, though it’s only been months since my world changed for the better once again. I sat at the edge of the pack grounds, watching the late afternoon sun stretch its golden light across the treetops. A soft breeze played with the locks of my hair, pushing the strands against my face in a tickling manner. The wind carried the familiar scent of pine and earth, but it also brought memories, tugging at my mind until I could no longer push them aside.Eighteen years. That’s how long I had been trapped, held captive by Dr. Cedric, who cared for nothing else but his own twisted ideals—only what my blood could do for him. I used to wonder how I survived all those years, locked away, forgotten by the world I had once known, and separated from my family. The nights that I had screamed myself to sleep because I couldn’t stand the silence of those human-sized pods o
Kairen's POVI couldn’t help but let out a little surprised laugh as he took my hand and led me away from the crowd. Roman, who was talking to a group of his classmates, momentarily paised to give us a knowing look as we passed, but he didn’t say anything. He simply gave a small wave before turning back to the group of friends he was with. Todd didn’t say much as we walked, his hand warm and steady in mine as we made our way through the campus and out into the surrounding woods. It wasn’t until we reached the all too familiar clearing—the place where we had first crossed paths—that I realized where he was taking me.The memories flooded back the moment we stepped into the familiar space. The trees were just as tall, their branches swaying gently in the wind, and the soft sound of the nearby stream filled the air. It was peaceful here, just like it had been that day so long ago, when our lives had first intertwined. Who would have ever thought that I would have fallen in love with a g
Kairen's POVMonths had passed since the chaos surrounding Dr. Cedric had finally come to a fruitful demise. Life had slowly begun to find its beat once again, though the scars of what we’d been through still lingered in small, subtle ways. The pack had recovered from most of the damage done in those crucial 18 years, the tension, fear and anxiety giving way to a renewed sense of strength and hope. But more than anything, the peace allowed us to move forward—each of us in our own way.Today, we were gathered for something far different than the clashing of claws and roaring. The university campus buzzed with excitement and celebration as students in their robes moved through the courtyard, their faces lit up with the glow of glorious achievement. They were celebrating the years they had gone through the halls of this school, studying to become people of influence in the nearest future. Todd and Roman were among them, their final year completed, and now they were finally graduating. T
Kairen's POVI stood next to Todd, the silence between us heavy with everything left unsaid. His face was drawn, shadows clinging beneath his eyes, and I wondered how much longer he could keep this up—this weight he carried, the war within him.“Todd...” I began, unsure of what to say. What could I say? His father was a monster, and though I had known Dr. Cedric’s cruelty, I couldn’t pretend to understand what it meant to Todd. It wasn’t just about stopping a villain; it was personal, wrapped in all the twisted layers of family, duty, and a lot of shame.He probably didn't feel like he was supposed to be by my side.Todd shook his head, as if to stop me from saying whatever was on my mind. “Don’t, Kairen,” he said softly, his voice hoarse. “Don’t say anything. You don't have to try to make me feel better about this.”I hesitated, but I couldn’t let it go. “It’s not your fault,” I said, my words firmer than I felt. “It's not your fault at all.”His lips twitched, but it was far from a
Kairen's POVThe air I breathed in that evening remained thick with dampness, and the stench of blood and fear still lingered, though the fighting had long since ended. Even though the manor was now pristine and devoid of any evidence of the terrible fight that occurred, the memories still lingered in my brain, and I didn't think that anything would have been able to change that anytime soon. Todd had been quiet for most of the evening, focused on freeing the last of the prisoners trapped in the underground cells beneath the manor. Mom had said that even though she had managed to rescue some of them, she had the feeling that there were more of our kind still stuck in the manor—but she couldn't find out where for some reason.Todd had volunteered to go in search of the other prisoners and I had decided to go along with him for two reasons. One, I actually wanted to get some alone time with him and iron out some loose ends concerning his father's imprisonment. I could tell that he wasn
Kairen's POV“Your mother's healing capabilities is probably the major reason she was kept here,” said Dad. “I suspected that one of you might have inherited her abilities, but I didn't know who would.”By this time, Roman's wound had already healed halfway, and color had started to seep back into his face. He hadn't spoken yet, but the look on his face was one of pure relief.I didn't even know what to feel at that point. I had gone from shocked, to grieved, and back to shocked. All I could do was watch him, knowing fully well that I was completely dumbfounded to say or do anything else until I was sure of what was happening.“I guess Roman took my healing, and you,” Mom turned to me, smiling for the first time since she saw her son's supposedly dead body, “and you took my gift of sight.”“Sight?” I asked quietly, pressing a shaking hand to my chest. “What do you mean by sight?”“It's what we call being able to see beyond the physical. I discovered mine late, but my mom was supposedl
Kairen's POVTo my surprise, Dad only walked over to me and ran his hand through my hair. “My daughter has found a mate. Which I find to be a very wonderful thing. She is an excellent judge of character, so I have no doubt that she wouldn't have picked this young man if she didn't see him as worthy.”The man who had spoken up earlier frowned, his face showing disgust. “You would allow your child to be with the son of the one who had tormented your kind? The one who even kept your own mate away from you?” The man's eyes trembled as he stared at Dad. As long as Dad remained the Lycan King, no one actually had the guts to be disrespectful towards him.“I would allow my child the freedom to choose.”The man sneered. “And that is why we all decided that you weren't the best choice to lead us as a society any longer. The years must have changed you . . . Made you more of a spineless diplomat than the warrior you showed us years ago when you were going after this position.”Dad didn't respo