LEANDER'S POV I'd paced a path through the carpet in my office, anxiety running rampant through my body. Hycinth was in good hands with Ever, but it didn't stop me from stressing, particularly after her interaction with Sydney this morning. I cringed. Of all the shit conversations to have, my little mouse had somehow convinced me to give her a list of my past lovers! I cursed myself again and again for allowing that to happen. Nothing good would come of it.Of course, I hadn't expected Sydney to come off with that level of aggression. That part surprised me. Maybe it shouldn't have. Sydney hadn't been pleased when I broke it off with her three years ago. Truthfully she'd been relatively relentless in trying to change my mind over the years, but I couldn't do it.I told Ever to remove her collar during her session with Sydney and her team of she-wolves because I'd been sure a fight would break out. I'd even thought about attending the session myself, trying to head off the problem, bu
Ever just stood, staring at me silently, his expression a mixture of frustration and lost hope. Because he too knew the answer, she would never believe me. I said quietly, "You need to go home. It's been a week since Gwen finished her heat. She's going to need you tonight."Now his expression looked pained for an entirely different reason. His mate had finished her heat seven days ago, and within hours, he would either scent a pup in her belly, or she would begin the process of expelling the birthing byproduct no longer needed in the absence of a pup.He nodded, turned and left.I sank back down into the chair. After another moment, I finished my drink. I missed my little mouse. There was still some daylight left, and there was some place I wanted her to see."Where are we going?" She looked up at me curiously as we walked through the woods."A place of refuge and adventure I went to as a young pup.""Oh," she breathed and then lapsed into silence.After a moment, I asked, "Did you se
Everthing I WantHycinthThe water pounded onto my skull, hot and burning. Steam billowed in the space around me, clouding the air and fogging up the transparent glass walls, making it impossible to see through them. Not that I could see anyway. My eyes were red and puffy, swollen from my tears. I listened to the sound the water made coming out of the shower head. It echoed in my ears, resounding with its own heartbeat in my head. I was desperate for it to drown out all of my other senses -to make me numb. I wanted to forget what I'd just seen...what I'd just heard. The tortured wails of a shewolf, unfathomable, heart-wrenching cries of pain ripping from her throat. Her mate, on his knees, crying for her pain and also his own. I've never seen anything like it before. I've never heard anything like it before.I understood everything now.I understood why Leander was so desperate for this claiming ceremony to happen. Gwen wasn't the only she-wolf struggling in the Pack. Over the last f
Wicked GamesLeanderI'd dealt with some messed up shit in the past but never pain like this. My heart felt like it was going to explode from my chest. My head was pounding, and my Wolf was howling mournfully, his agony echoing mine. So that was it. She told me everything I needed to know. And she had a foolproof plan to make everyone happy- everyone except me.I'd told her how I felt- I wanted her as my real mate.And she told me how she felt she was never going to be capable of loving me.Fuck, those words hurt.I looked up to find myself in my office. I didn't remember walking there. Robotically, I headed toward a $600 bottle of Bourbon I'd been saving for a special occasion, opened the top and turned it up to my lips, drinking straight from the bottle. It burned as it went down -it was precisely what I needed. Right now I needed to be numb to the world because if I unleashed the chaos inside of me, I knew I had the potential to do a lot of damage in some form or another.I settled
HYACINTHS'S POVHe'd said yes.He'd agreed to my deal.I couldn't believe it. I was going to have my freedom in a little more than a month from now! I was going to get to walk away and never look back. I wouldn't have to run from him anymore. I'd made him promise last night, swear on his life to stick to the arrangement once I was gone. He'd agreed. He'd sworn he wouldn't try to look for me. He would let me go. His only other condition of our arrangement was complete secrecy. The pack could not know about our agreement until it was over. He didn't want them to worry. I was fine with that.I was getting everything I wanted, so why did it feel like a large part of my heart had been ripped out of my chest?I pushed the feeling away. I couldn't dwell on it. I didn't have time. Most of the wolves were already gathered outside. Shockingly, they had pulled together all of the arrangements for our Announcement Ceremony in less than eighteen hours.I looked out the window, down at the wide ope
LEANDER'S POV As soon as I walked into the room, Hycinth got off the bed and faced me. She stared at me for a long moment, expression contrite at first. But then it slowly transitioned into fury."What the fuck happened?" I snarled. The Ceremony she'd just recklessly ruined with her hot-headedness was meant to give the wolves in the pack an outlet to express their appreciation and thanks. That certainly wasn't how it turned out.I couldn't believe she'd put me in that position! An open challenge always required a public punishment. There was no way that she was ignorant of that fact, and yet instead of talking to me, like I asked her to do, she decided to issue an openhanded challenge right across my cheek!If she'd done that in private, I would've handled it differently. But she didn't. And my Wolf would never allow that disrespect to go unpunished.So here we were, glaring at each other, and I was hoping for an explanation soon, which didn't look like it was forthcoming with the wa
Ever had told me she owned a tattoo parlor, but for some reason, I never anticipated she would have tattoos, primarily because pure silver extract had to be added to the ink. Otherwise, our bodies would reject the ink and heal around it. But using silver made the normal pain of getting a tattoo about a hundred times worse.And she didn't just have one cute little heart or flower on her belly. No, she had a stunning Phoenix nestled between her breasts, its wings fanning out over her pert mounds, but designed so that the flesh around her nipples was left untouched- looking as though they were peeking out alluringly from behind the bird. And if that were not enough visual titillation, the tail of the bird curled around the entire left side of her torso and flared out into beautiful swirls and tail feathers covering her belly. Like her nipples, the skin around her belly button was left untouched revealing an enticing belly button piercing.The design continued low on her stomach, flowing
She studied my expression, eyes boring deep into mine. I was shocked when she didn't immediately shoot me down Or at least try to slap me again or something. She drew her soft lip between her bottom teeth again, warring between the desires inside of her. I held my breath and waited. After a long minute, still not releasing her captive lip, she finally whispered, "Okay."It was all I could do to keep the lust filled growl contained in my chest.I spread my legs wider to make room for her. My voice so gruff, even I didn't recognize it as I said huskily, "Take a step back closer to me."She did as instructed, stepping back so that she was nestled right between my thighs.It was a chore to keep my hands steady and not let them roam everywhere on her skin. I focused on the task at hand, extracting some of the crème from the jar with my fingertips. "It's going to feel a little cold at first," I warned before pressing my fingers lightly against the beautifully rounded cheeks of her backside
"Welcome home." Leander announced while stepping inside with me. He seemed a lot more happier than the last time I had seen him. Was it me? Was this what he wanted?"This is not my home." I cleared my throat without looking anywhere. It was all too much to take in."It is your home, Hycinth." He took a few steps toward me while I stood stiff on the main hall. "This is where you're going to live. It's yours." He continued, his smile only growing wider."This will never be mine, do you recall the one you destroyed when I was still young?."His lips lined straight, "I just saved you, be thankful." He taunted, reminding me of the hero he had become.I rolled my eyes at him and groaned, "I didn't want to be saved. You know why you came there, don't act as if everything you did was for me." I spat out before talking the three little steps down into the stairs. I headed toward the fireplace, giving myself some warmth while Leander continued to hover around me.He was confused with what I had
"It's called infatuation-" | swallowed hard and forbade myself from flinching as his finger reached underneath, into my throbbing opening. My senses reeled, driving me away from all of the reality. I was entirely in a different world. My body grew warm and my mind blurred at his single touch.One touch.Only one and I was gone."Meh. I think you're still fucking craving me or your pussy wouldn't have been gushing with the conversation we had." He strained my head back, forbidding me not to move an inch while his large, experienced fingers played with me. "Does it make you horny when I get possessive about you? Is that what this all was about?"As much as I tried to control myself, I couldn't. I was a mess-a dripping mess. "No." I choked out before slamming my lips shut and forcing any sounds of pleasure back down my throat.I couldn't let this happen, I couldn't let Leander feel that I still wanted him. Neither of us were ever going to move on."I'm just wet with thinking about the ot
"It's been over an year. You should've moved on by now rather than waiting for something that's not meant to happen, to happen." I said, mocking him while my voice was full of taunt. I wasn't holding, I didn't intend onto.Not after he had forced me on the jet.My teeth grazed against each other and I took a quick, deep inhale while turning my face away from Leander who was unbothered with any of my comments.His eyes were glued on the phone, his thumb running across the screen while he tried to kill time.It was going to be hours before we would land.I wasn't here alone. There were a couple of cabin attendant's and the pilot's sitting up at front while the cabin I remained in was locked from the inside, it's keycard hanging inside Leander's pants.I couldn't run.Not at all."I still have no idea what you're talking about." Leander murmured, his eyes never leaving the screen of his phone. It was intended, he didn't want to face me but at the same time, he didn't want to drive me cra
We walked back from the forest to the warehouse where I was being kept. Cade's body was discarded in the side, near a hundred-year-old tree where he could be found by his men. It would be chaotic for the pack to deal with their Alpha's death but something good would come out from it all."So," I stopped Leander just near his jet that was going to take him back to his town. The silent ten-minute walk allowed me to think about what I wanted. "I don't want to go back. I'm doing fine here and with Cade dead, I don't see any problem anymore with staying here. This is now my chance to fully look for Sydney." I began, breaking my silence and speaking with Leander.We stood in front of each other, our eyes levelled. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He snapped as soon as I finished talking.My mouth dropped in surprise. "What?""You're going to get inside and you're coming with me, regardless of everything. You can get all confident and courageous once we land but if you don't get on the plane, I
Rage flashed in his eyes before he began unbuttoning the buttons of his shirt one by one. I stood near to him, startled. What was he doing? Why was he removing his clothes? Once the shirt came off, I turned my eyes to the corner, fixating them over a tree and hoped for the rushing feelings collecting my stomach to disappear. It couldn't happen now. My wolf was jumping in joy within me, preparing herself for a midnight sex while my mind was jumbled up.Leander's hand reached lower to his pants where he unzipped them and removed it. He left nothing on his body, not even his underwear. I swallowed the lump in my throat while continuing to keep my eyes up and away from his naked, bare body standing in front of me."Wh-what are you doing?" I asked, confused.The shadows of the night danced over his bare flesh, uncovering, and flaunting all the muscles he had built up over the years.He picked up the clothes from the ground, folded them and stretched his arm toward me. I hesitated for a sec
Leander didn't probably hear me when I spoke that I wanted to finish Cade because he went on with walking while speaking on his phone. I did walk with him too but I couldn't tear my thoughts away from Cade and his words from earlier where he had wished to assault me if Leander wasn't my mate. I felt disgusted to my core. He was with Dagger but Leander let him free and didn't kill him. He survived that time but now I had my eyes on him.The moon hung heavy in the night sky, casting its light all over the city. Utter, complete silence surrounded us. There was no one around us, not any cars passing by or strangers. The warehouse was miles away from the main city which I supposed would be the reason to why Cade had bought me here.So, I couldn't scream or run..."What did you tell me earlier?", As soon as he stopped speaking on his phone, he turned to me.I stared at him for some good time with out replying.I wanted to tell him again about finishing Cade. I wanted to tell him what my int
HYCINTH’S "It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was doing perfectly fine until Cade set his eyes on me. I'm really sorry for the trouble." I said, walking alongside with Leander and taking steps farther away from the warehouse. My wrists continued to ache along with the rest of my body. There was a stiffness that I needed to get rid of."It's completely fine." Leander replied. The silence and the quietness gloomed in his voice. We barely uttered any words to each other ever since he untied me from the warehouse.I glanced over at him once more, remembering the face before my eyes diverted back to the ground.I didn't know what to feel. I was certainly shocked and consumed by the idea of Leander, my mate, being present beside me after a long year of nothing. We made no contact, not a single word or a call to one and other.When I stepped out of the warehouse, I quickly recognized the location-the outskirts of the city where no one ever came. There was a dock nearby. The smell of ship
HYCINTH'S MEMORIES"Oh!" I sucked in a startled breath as I found myself straddling his lap on the wide seat, my hands pressed flat against his bare chest for support.Skin against skin.Tingles ran from my fingertips straight to my core, making me squirm.He groaned in appreciation and tightened his hold, one large hand gripping my hip, the other wrapped around the nape of my neck. Swirling violet and cerulean orbs stared up at me. Deep. Darkening.Under his intense stare and scrutiny, I felt incredibly alive.I was entranced, caught in the raw intensity of his gaze. The invisible force that drew us together tugged at my defenses, threatening to break down my walls and demolish my resistance. It was kinetic. Glorious and warm. It flexed, pulling us closer, refusing to be denied. A pulse of truth rippled through our connection -this beautiful male belonged to me. He was mine.For this moment, I was okay with that. I welcomed it. I embraced it. I didn't want to think about tomorrow-whe
HYCINTH’S POV Leander My mate.It wasn't hard to forget your mate, especially when there were cruel memories attached with them. I had seen it all with him, the good times, and the terrible times. There was nothing else I needed to see.He was a man, of my past.I let my head fall back on the ground as the men began leaving the shady warehouse. Cade simply grinned at me before departing. My pleads became useless, inaudible as soon as he recalled that he can't kill me because Leander will come for him.Shuffling with the restraints, I groaned and kicked my feet out of frustration. I still had enough time to run away before anyone could get here and find me but the only problem I had was setting myself free.Memories of Leander snapped into me like a whip, forcing me to face my past once more and open my eyes wide to see the reality. His face flashed through my head, I closed my eyes and breathed. It had been a long time since I had seen him, since I had spoken to him and since I had