Her mouth twisted. I could see the gears of her mind churning. "Okay, do you have a pen and a piece of paper?"What the hell was she up to now?I sat forward in my chair. "Why?""Simple. So I can write all of their names down. I doubt I'll be able to recall such a long list off of the top of my head." It was her turn to smirk and smirk she did.I studied her, looking for any hint of humor she may be joking or bluffing. Her expression didn't crack as she looked at me expectantly. Okay, she was serious. Fan-fucking-tastic.I stood and walked to my desk, opening the top drawer, pulling out a pad of paper and pen. I turned around to find her holding out her hand eagerly.This was going to be bad. I just knew it in my gut.This conversation was going to get us nowhere, or more likely, it was going to push us back even farther than we already were, which was saying something. I closed the distance between us, depositing the items in her waiting palm and then resumed sitting in the chair. I
HycinthThe perky, blonde shewolf walked in like she owned the place, nose high in the air, ignoring me completely. And then suggested she put away my new clothing in drawers which she already knew were empty-how did she know that? Was she so familiar with every damned drawer in his closet that she knew what was, and wasn't, contained in each of them? The answer appeared to be yes.I fumed, both at her outright disrespect in ignoring me and her clear possessiveness over him. I had no right to feel that way, given my 100% intention of somehow escaping him, but at the moment, I couldn't tamp down my innate wolf tendencies. My Wolf was also feeling feral, a sustained growl churning through her chest.When the little bitch emerged from the closet, I stood to my feet. I wasn't going to have this conversation sitting down. She instantly focused on me for the first time. She tried to cover her obvious disdain with a fake smile, but her upper lip twitched like she was having a hard time keepi
I stared up at him curiously. He wasn't that bad of a Wolf. We'd found some common ground during our conversations-now that we were no longer discussing rubbing Leander's cum all over my body. Amazing how well two people could communicate when leaving that out."What is it?" I peered up at him."Hold up your hair."Now I was even more confused but reached to hold my hair away from my neck."Good. Turn around."I turned and was shocked to feel him release the locking mechanism on the collar. It slipped off my neck into his hands.When I turned back around, I stared intently into his eyes. "Does Leander know you're doing this?" Leander had been pretty clear on the purpose of the collar, to detour me from getting into a fight. He knew without my ability to shift and my Moon-given strength, I wouldn't be stupid enough to take on whoever got in my way in order to escape. I was almost certain Leander wouldn't approve of removing the collar and wondered if Ever frequently defied his Alpha's
I wasn't going to wait around or call her back to answer any more questions, but I needed to get answers somehow. And I certainly wasn't going to ask Leander. Abruptly, Ever was standing behind me. I turned to face him."So, are you done laughing at them?" His lips twitched.I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. "How did you know?""You made quite an impression...by doing nothing at all. Well, you did giggle at the six most formidable shewolves in the Pack, so maybe that's something." He rubbed his chin. "After this morning, Leander was worried a fight was unavoidable. Once again, he was wrong about you."Ever's words surprise me. He almost sounded impressed."I know what I can do. I didn't feel the need to prove anything."He nodded and mused, "You're good for him," and then he added, "Never thought I'd say that."I didn't bother to analyze his words. "Where next?""First, the collar...and then my house."That damn collar. I narrowed my eyes.He tensed as he watched me
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
A shiver ran down my spine and suddenly the hunger left my stomach. "What do you mean?" I clicked my eyes to Leander. "Have you seen her?""No." He shook his head."Then?""I'm assuming she's the one that might have poisoned the man and that man belonged to the pack, which means that Sydney is somewhere here." Не continued, speaking slowly and cautiously.I wanted to hunt Sydney down, find her, question her and force her guilty for all the terrible things she had done. I wanted her to be punished, not just for today but for everything she had done. Over the year, I had grown to resent her, hate her more than I could possibly hate anyone.I pursued my lips and gripped the knife on the side of the table while taking in heavy breaths.What did she want now?"Why do you think she is here? D-do you think you can find her?" I asked him while stammering on my words as the thought of my mother made me quite nervous."I think she's going to find you. Her appearance here after poisoning me only
Tears after tears spilled from my eyes uncontrollably. I placed my hand over my mouth to hold in my sobs but the sounds still made it through. The pain was terrible and the fear was greater than every. I had barely ever been afraid of anything but tonight I was.The clock was striking to midnight and an hour had passed by since the horrific events yet I couldn't get any sleep.I wasn't going to.Whatever had attacked me tonight and killed people- Leander was that. He was the same monster as that man was and that monster was most terrific thing I had ever seen in all my twenty years of living.I wanted to blame someone for this, I wanted to be furious over Leander and pin my finger over him for everything but I couldn't. This wasn't his fault, it wasn't anyone's except for Sydney. My hatred for her was so much. After another hour of sobbing and bruising my eyes, I stood up from the bed and walked over to the washroom. Warm water flooded down from the tap and I used to wash away the dr
After Leander parted from me, I placed my hand over my mouth, holding in the urge to scream and snap at him. He just had to do one thing and he couldn't do that.All he had to do was kill the monster.The warriors were still running around the camp, trying to find their way out. After a minute of walking around, I figured the way out from the forest and back into the town. There were wet tire marks from the car that had left earlier with the injured boy. The tire marks were going to lead everyone back home.I told as many people as I could and guided them out from the camps while a few of them remained on the ground, injured. Some of the injured ones were getting carried away by the other warriors while the rest were still there.It was a monster that had tore through this forest, nothing more."You should come with us," One of the warriors whispered to me. "It's not safe for you here either." He continued.I looked over my shoulders, finding the rest of the tents getting on fire. The
I lined my lips straight, "Take him to the hospital before I rip your head off."The man quickly grabbed the boy off my shoulders and turned around to command the warriors in training. A few of them got into the vehicle nearby and they began driving out of the forest while the rest of them remained surrounded around me.Whispers began to rise between them.The ones that had gotten a sight of the boy and the wound on his neck were gossiping among themselves. I could hear it all."Did you see that? It looked like a bite. I think she bit a boy." One of them whispered to another and I rolled my eyes before turning around and walking back into the same path I came from.I needed to find Leander. The silence was eating me up alive. There was no sound of him or the monster we both had encountered. The night was getting darker and I was getting uncomfortable.I parted myself away from the camp and none of the warriors followed me. They remained there even though I had warned them to leave the
The skies began turning dark just when the sun began disappearing completely. The golden hues were gone in just a couple of minutes but we did get lucky to see the sun setting from the hills. My heart thudded loud and hard in my chest, I felt enthralled and wild and so did Leander. We took lead over one and another after every minute, we fought hard and bruised each other's wolf's slightly. We raced and tracked each other's scents across the forest.Until...The air became stiff and the atmosphere changed. We stopped on our tracks in the middle of nowhere, both of us sensing something unusual. There were wolves around, tons of pack wolves running around and some training but this was different.'Do you smell it?' I asked Leander while my nose wrinkled. It was strong-the stench of death and blood. If I could sense it, so could he and if we both did, it was somewhere near us.'Yes. It's a lot worse. It's coming from somewhere around. We need to shift back. 'He quickly said before turnin
The lunch meeting lasted for another long hour. I didn't keep track of the time as I engulfed in hearing the chatters between strong, powerful Alpha's. It was the first time I had been in a place packed with Alpha's. It was different this time.The meeting was concluded soon and the Alpha's began leaving. They began dividing, and parting ways, entering their own vehicles and soon taking the highway out of the town.So many thoughts swirled around in my head. What were they doing here? I knew for certain one of them was helping Leander with the poison but the others. What were they here for?"Did you find out if any of them has the poison?" I asked, hands inside my pocket while I stood outside, under the cold, chilling air and watched the skies change colors and the Alpha's leave the town.The gates of the house were widely opened, showing the paved roads outside. The sun, nearly setting, shone it's golden light onto the road and the several trees surrounding the house.If Leander had
Leander gawked at me with his eyes wide and his nostrils flaring. He blinked slowly, waiting for my response. The word blurted itself out of my mouth. I didn't think about it correctly. The damage couldn't be reversed now but I had to try."I don't mean it like that-" I began and he got dangerously close to me. Every step he took toward me, I took one step back. "I meant, I just want to find her and she's the one who did. She must've something going on in her head and I'm the only one who can find her." I tried to come up with something quick, before he grew any more furious.I had an idea to where I could find Sydney. She probably must be laying low in someone's pack. I now wanted to search for her again.She couldn't have ran to far. She was probably around waiting to see how the posion will affect leander."You're not leaving this place and if you do so, I'll drag you back myself and the next time, I won't be so gentle." He threatened, once more. It was the first time he had said t
Sydney had reached a new low and it was way too low for her. Why would she have given the poison to anyone? Why did she give the poison to Leander?What did Leander do to her when she came back to him?! Leander didn't tell me everything that happened when she came back in his life but I think Leander didn't treat her right. At this point I wasn't even jealousy that Leander allowed Sydney in his life even after her killing our pup. I was worried about him."But I overheard you speaking to this other man- l suppose the Alpha of the Silvertail pack about the new strain of the poison and something about his healers." I quirked my brow at him, remaining confused."He's not the enemy. I asked him a favor to figure out a way to reverse the affects of the poison and in return, I would offer some of my army to him whenever he's in need of it." Leander explained to me. "Though, his healers haven't come up with anything yet.""What about the healers in your pack?""Nothing. No one knows about i
The shower was running when I woke up. I traced my hand over the bed, hoping to feel Leander but he wasn't here. He was in the shower. Inhaling a deep breath, I pulled the duvet off my body and sat up straight on the bed. The sound of the water dripping continued as I hung my legs over the bed, waiting for him to come out of the shower.I waited for a couple of minutes but nothing.What was he doing in there for so long?I groaned and rubbed my eyes before dragging myself away from the bed and toward the curtains. I parted the curtains, letting in the morning sun which forced the sleep right out of me. Once the room was brightened, I stepped toward the bathroom and wrapped my hand around the door knob.Should I go inside? Was it right?Just before I could make a decision, I ran my free hand around my body, examining myself. I thought I would be hurt somewhere but I wasn't. There were a couple wounds on my shoulders and stomach but they had healed over the night, only leaving me with a