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
Heart of the StormHYCINTH'S POVThe words left my mouth, and the atmosphere changed. It darkened. The temperature dropped. The air thinned and crackled with electricity, churning and chaotic, silently screaming a warning for anyone wise enough to listen-it was coming.No, it was already there.The thing of nightmares and dark fairytales had been unknowingly unleashed. It was free.I waited for the flash of lightning and boom of thunder. It was inevitable. I was going to be struck down by it. There was no way for me to avoid it. No way for me to come out unscathed because I was the heart of the storm.Leander stood unblinking, his face wiped clean. No trace of emotion as if struggling with the impossibility of the words that had just come out of my mouth.And then he blinked.His expression darkened, the eyes of his Wolf front and center, no longer a brilliant violet blue. Now, they glowed flat black. The timbre of his voice dropped, gruff through his vocal cords, "He touched you?"M
"Everything I wanted first?" Leander repeated flatly, his brows furrowed. And then understanding lit his expression. "And this...this is what you thought the entire time? That I was going to use you and then pass you around?""Yes," I whispered, fighting back tears again."Motherfucker," he swore under his breath. Instantly, he was right in front of me, one hand on my hip, the other cupped my cheek. His onyx eyes bore into mine. "You saw how I reacted with Luca. Never would I have allowed any of my wolves to touch you! And as far as what happened yesterday, I'll admit I thought about sleeping with Sydney. I was drunk. You'd made it clear where you stood, so when she offered, I followed her to her room. I sat on the edge of the bed. She pushed me back and climbed on top of me."Pain crashed over me as the images play through my mind. It was too much to take. I didn't want to hear all of the nitty-gritty details of their sexual escapade. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn't let me. He
Leander ignored him and walked over to a nearby wall, mounted with various weapons, and selected a ten-inch blade. He twirled the knife casually between his fingers as he made his way back to Dagger. Without another word, Leander grabbed Dagger's cock with his free hand and held tight. Dagger jolted and pressed his naked butt as far into the wall as he could, trying to wriggle out of the grasp Leander had on his manhood.Oh shit!Flashbacks swam behind my eyelids. Leander's animalistic expression as he threatened Luca. I'd believed then that he was capable of it. Now, I was almost certain I knew what was going to happen.But I couldn't have been more wrong.Because it was so much worse.Never in my wildest nightmares, had I ever imagined what Leander was about to do.Leander's mouth curled into a wicked smirk. "Do you have a preference? Would you prefer if I yank it off or would you rather I sliced it clean?" Leander continued to play with the knife, waiting for his response.Dagger j
Chapter 16: Punishment & LoyaltyLeanderNow that I finished with Dagger, my anger partially stated, but not done. I made my way to Hycinth. She looked up at me with wide, shocked eyes.Shocked. But not afraid of what had just happened.That's my strong little mouse, I thought with pride.The Moon had gotten right. She had the fortitude necessary, the internal strength required to be an amazing Luna. Now, I was going to have to find a way to convince her to stay. I wouldn't back out on her deal, but I sure as hell wasn't going to stop fighting for her. I was just going to have to be clever about it, I thought with a smirk, several ideas already floating through my head.But before I got to any of that, I still had business to attend. "Which Wolf told Dagger that he needed to stop because I would kill him for touching you before I got everything I wanted first?"Hycinth looked around the room, studying the many wolves. Before she could identify one, Samuel made his way through the wolv
HYCINTH'S POVI was breathless. Literally. So much had happened and changed over the last few hours. I was reeling, struggling to keep up.Leander dismissed the wolves, but a few remained behind to speak with him. While he chatted with the lingering wolves, I made my way over to Lucky's cell. He'd had a front-row seat to the commotion. I was curious what he thought, but I also knew he wasn't going to be happy with what he'd heard.When I reached him, his intense glowing absinthe eyes belied his casual stance and signature smirk. He breathed, "Wow, Cinn, that was quite some show. I gotta say, after we talked earlier, that particular testosterone-fueled Alpha display was the last thing I expected to see. Wanna catch me up on what the hell happened?""I don't even know where to begin," I exhaled.His gaze turned steel cold. "Why don't you start by telling me what that dick-eating fucker did to you and why you didn't tell me about it before?"I cringed. Yep, he wasn't thrilled. I sighed,
Time passed by slowly. The bleeding stopped momentarily but returned soon. Instead of blood spilling from my nose, it began choking out of my throat and I ran to the bathroom everytime I felt it build up. The sink was flooded with my blood, clots of it. I felt it all drain out of me.My skin changed colors, it turned into pale and I couldn't recognize myself anymore. Without blood, I felt colder and began shivering soon."You cannot cancel the dinner," I spoke with Leander and he tried his best to change my mind and to tune my thoughts elsewhere. "You have to go.""I'm not going to go without you. I'll reschedule for another day. And I'm not going to leave you alone." He whispered, pressing his hands against mine. My fingers trembled under his touch and I blew out a sharp, cold breath. "You'll be fine.""I feel like I'm dying." I buried myself in layers of blankets that were in the house. The cold was unbearable. But surprisingly, after all the blood I had lost, I still didn't feel in
Something had changed."I don't care. It's not that fucking late to get it out. What the fuck do you have a degree for? Don't you do this all the time?" A voice roared in my head, Leander's voice. It was full of tension and worry.I peeled my eyes open and stared at the window in front of me. It showed the backyard of the house. From there, I understood I was in Leander's bedroom. Everything came to me in a rush and sweat collected around my forehead before my pulse quickened and I rose up from the bed."It's already too late..-" The man in the white suit, the doctor, stopped speaking when his eyes fell upon me.Leander spun around and saw me, "Hycinth." He called out my name and rushed me in such a hurry I had never seen before. "Are you okay?" He asked, curling his hands around mine."No," I shook my head as I became furthermore aware of what had happened. "She poisoned. Oh," I breathed out. "Leander, she -she poisoned me." My eyes teared and I lost control of myself entirely."It's
I waved at Leander as he got inside the car to go handle a few pack matters. There was a group of rogues seen nearby the border and he went to question them along with a few other wolves under him. I stayed at home during the next day, pondering and having some chai latte whilst Gwen was making dinner. The night had passed by with ease. I slept in his embrace, forgetting all of my worries. When the morning sun shone, I turned over a new leaf and decided to not listen anything from Sydney anymore. Whatever she spat out, it was bullshit and I truly needed to stop listening to her."Don't you feel bored here? I mean, Gwen, you cook all day and light." I said, hands underneath my chin while my shoes were knocking against the table's leg. I had found boredom finding its way to me after leander had left. There was nothing more to fight with him about.We had invited Grayson, the Alpha of the Goldridge Pack and his mate, Claudia over for dinner and Gwen was preparing exactly that. They had c
My body was on fire and it burned through me when Leander pushed me over the bed. I curled my legs around his torso, sealing him, as if I needed to do that. I raced my hands over his back, feeling every inch of him while he deepened the kiss.It wasn't just about sex- it was more than that. It was ensuring that Leander was going to be with me forever and the only way possible was for me to let him in, to let him take me whenever he wanted to, to let him fuck him. I was his mate, he had marked me and l didn't want to loose him.I squirmed underneath him, rubbing my legs and arms all over him as warmth filled me up till the core. The feelings came by itself, it didn't need to be forced. It was always there, buried deep inside.He drew my lower lip into his mouth and bit down hard till I moaned loudly. Chuckling, he pulled away from me and that's when I saw his face. His eyes, brimming with lust and desire not for the first time.I ran my tongue over my lip and rose my arms as he reached
"I was once fucked by Leander, just like he does to you. We all the same. We want power , dont you?" She grinned at my response and the proudness appeared in her eyes for a longer time."I don't , I'm nothing like you." I stared down at her with disgust in my tone. From the corner of my eyes, I looked at the food and said, "Eat it if you want to live. I don't mind burying you at all.""You wouldn't be here if you wanted to bury me, Hycinth." She huffed and sat back, pressing her back against the cold wall. "What are you going to do? Keep me here for the rest of my life? Kill me? You and I both know you can't do any of that. You have to eventually let me go. You still weak.""So you can kill more people? Take more innocent lives?" I asked her in all honesty.What did she want more? She had nearly ruined everything for me and now she was killing people left and right with the poison she had created."And who helped you create the posion? Where is he?", I asked."Don't worry about my
It had been a tedious task to call Grayson and his mate, Claudia, over to the house. At first, we tried to come up with everything that wouldn't seem odd as we didn't want to attract any negative thoughts from them. We didn't want to let them know that we were ambushing them in any way.After another long hour of deciding, Leander finally placed a call over to Alpha Grayson's Beta who then handed the phone to the Alpha of the pack, the man we needed to bring in and question.Upon hearing his voice, I was more than sure that he was in possession of the poison and that it could be only him Sydney would have made a deal with.The Goldridge Pack was a known, favored pack around the area. It wasn't far from the town but not closeby as well. The drive could gather around for three long hours but by plane it would be merely a few thirty minutes, even less.Leander invited Grayson and Claudia over for brunch and to discuss future pack matters that couldn't be discussed at the charity event ea
Magnus and Allison arrived at the house soon after we had called for them. We had told them the details they needed to know and put them on work. There were at least twenty packs surrounding ours, some couple hours drive away while some a small plane ride away. The packs that were small, covering little towns were ruled out as they were wealthy enough to buy the poison Sydney and whoever had helped her create it.Leander knew Sydney and she wasn't going to give anyone with a cheap price. It was her work and she must've received a great sum of money by selling it.We short-listed five packs and then looked at the timeline of Sydney's visit to these packs. The ones she hadn't visited at all were ruled out as well.At the end, we were only left with three packs.The Goldridge PackThe Iron ClawsThe Silverpaw PackWe had our suspicion on all three but couldn't find enough evidence to blame one.Night fell and the sky became as dark as it could. Heavy clouds formed, promising a rainy nigh
There was a little pause before he asked, "I can?" He spoke slowly as he still seemed to be unsure even after I told him to have it."No, I can't." He shook his head and looked away, changing his thoughts and killing the hunger within himself."Why not?""I can't hurt you.""You're not hurting me," I shook my head. "I want you to have it." I whispered, leaning closer to him and resting my free hand over his shoulder.He had resisted it yet again which meant he had the control but I couldn't leave him without fulfilling the need his eyes that continued to grow as every second passed by.With his gaze on mine, he pulled my hand closer to his mouth and then ran his tongue, tasting my blood at last. Watching him do it was enticing and terrifying at the same time. Suddenly, a heat grew between us. He pressed my palm harder against his lips and continued drinking my blood for a long minute.His eyes were wide open and on me. The hunger disappeared. My lips parted and I almost gasped at the
I stared at the fireplace inside Leander's office and warmed my hands while he scurried through papers behind me. "Did you keep track on her?" I asked him while looking over my shoulders.He seemed confused, "I don't know. I'm not sure but I did have one of my men follow her. Though, I didn't keep track of the updates as I was dealing with problems of my own." He looked behind and met with my gaze while holding a bundle of papers. "The last time I had seen Sydney was at the same time and she had poisoned me then."Problems.I understood what he had meant by that. After Sydney had given him the poison, he began changing and with that came awfully terrible things. He was not the monster that we had encountered in the forest as he had learned to control himself. I didn't know how he did it but I knew it was difficult and it took plenty of his time.I lowered my eyes to the papers in his hold before lifting myself off the ground and walking over to him. "What's this?" I placed a hand ove