(Alpha Aiden POV)Jonas walked into my office and sat down in the chair across from me.“Well?” I asked.“She’s still not coming.”“Seriously?”Jonas nodded.What the f&&k. It has been four months since I punished Piper… and three months since I have been unsuccessfully trying to modify the punishment and apologize to her. “What is her excuse this time?”“You don’t want to know,” Jonas replied matter-of-factly.“It cannot be any worse than her last few excuses.”“Wanna bet?” Jonas asked with a smirk. “But you deserve it.”I glared at him angrily.Although Jonas is my beta, he is first and foremost my best friend. And as my best friend, he —like my wolf— was completely horrified when I told him what had happened during the meeting with Piper.The original plan had been to punish Piper by: 1) forbidding her from leaving pack grounds for any reason; 2) switching her to night shift; 3) eliminating her days off; and 4) forbidding her from having unsupervised contact with male wolves. T
(Piper POV)Was it smart for me to taunt and knowingly disrespect an arrogant, cocky beast of an alpha? No, of course not. Especially not one who had accepted me into his pack and allowed me a safe place to stay, few questions asked, while I was on the run.But you already know that I get triggered by sexist bullsh&t. I do things I probably should not do.And being triggered does explain some of my reaction to Alpha Aiden. However, I NEVER, EVER would have tried something like that at Blue Ridge. Even when I am triggered, I am a rule follower, and the rules are very clear that you are to always respect your alpha and obey their summons. That is just how it is.But this situation was different. I wasn’t taunting Alpha Aiden just because I was triggered. When he first announced my punishment, I was actually crushed. In fact, I cried every day for a week straight after our conversation. Part of that was the timing. I was already starting to mentally break because of the overwhe
(Piper POV)“You have really been doing this every night?” Alpha Aiden asked me for the third time.I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”“By yourself?”“Yes, which is exactly how you wanted it, remember? Fewer males around to randomly f&&k me,” I replied. There was some bitterness in my tone, but not as much as earlier. Now my voice held an equal amount of genuine humor.Alpha Aiden looked up at me and sighed.“How many do we have left?”“115.”“As in, one-hundred and fifteen?”“Yes.”Alpha Aiden wiped sweat off of his eyebrow with the back of his hand.“Is that total?”“No. That is the number left in this building.”“How many buildings?”“Well, we have the packhouse, which we are doing now; the hospital; the warrior dormitory; and the training facility. So… three more after this one.”“Oh, good Goddess.”I laughed. I could not help it. This was poetic justice, and I was enjoying every single minute of it.I had not intended to break down in tears in front of Alpha Aiden earlier. In fac
(Piper POV)Another two months passed, and life at Moon Shadow had mostly become tolerable again. After our last fight, Alpha Aiden had lifted most of my punishment, including the offensive, impractical rules about having no contact with unmated males. He also allowed me to go back to working days; the night shift would once again be rotated amongst the omegas just like it used to be.The only part about the punishment that Alpha Aiden kept in place was the requirement that I not leave the pack for any reason. His excuses for leaving that part in place were confusing, but given how close I now was to my 20th birthday, I was mostly okay with it.Alpha Aiden did continue to make the occasional, irritating comment about wanting me to avoid being around unmated male wolves, but he did not enforce any restrictions. He also never again called me a whore or a sl&t. And, importantly, he himself seemed to stop sleeping around. I think the combination of all of those things made it easier
(Piper POV)It started as a normal Thursday evening. I was sitting in the dining hall eating dinner with Maya, Asher, Becky, and a few of the other warriors and omegas. We were at a round table and all the seats were full, so when Daphne walked in, I had some naïve hope that she would be forced to sit elsewhere. Sadly, I had no such luck.Daphne grabbed a chair from another table and brought it over. She then started to push it into the gap between me and Asher, effectively forcing Asher and everyone else to move over a few inches to accommodate her.“Seriously, Daphne?” I said in an annoyed voice.“What?”“There are plenty of empty seats at other tables. Why do you have to sit at this one?”Daphne looked at me in confusion.“Why would I sit anywhere else? I always sit by you, Piper.”“Yes, you always TRY to sit by me, and I do not understand why. You don’t even like me.”I did not want to be rude, but Daphne’s weird behavior had been going on for weeks now and I was exhausted.
(Piper POV)"What is your end game, really? We all know that you have one."Daphne opened her mouth to protest, but then seemingly decided against it.“Ok, fine,” Daphne huffed. “I just don’t think it is fair that Piper will not be honest about her birthday while everyone else in the pack is running around making bets about when she will meet her mate and who her mate will be.”“I never asked you to bet on my personal life,” I snapped. “If you don’t think it is fair, don’t participate.”“You may not have asked me to participate, but you never told me not to. And I now have $5,000 riding on winning the bet.”Asher spit out his drink. “$5,000?!?!” he exclaimed. “Daphne, why would you bet $5,000 on anything, much less who Piper’s mate is?”Daphne gave a fake-innocent smile. “First of all, I did not bet on who Piper’s mate was. I bet on whether she would have a mate at all. Second of all, despite what Maya wants to believe, I am Piper’s best friend and I know her better than anyo
(Piper POV)All of the dreams started the same way. I would watch myself walk through a beautiful forest, and then I would find myself standing before a grand waterfall. We do not have waterfalls like that in Blue Ridge, in Moon Shadow, or any in other pack that I had been to, so I had no idea where I was. Nevertheless, something about the waterfall felt both magical and comforting. In the first dream, I sat down on a large rock and soaked my feet in the pool of water below the waterfall. At some point, a handsome, muscular male came and sat down beside me. His face was fuzzy and I did not know who he was, but sitting next to him somehow made me feel better, and I knew that I could trust him. Without saying anything to each other, I put my head on his shoulder. We sat together until I woke up.The next day, I could not shake the memory of the dream. Nothing much happened in it, but yet it felt far too real to forget. Strangely, the dream also made my anxiety about everythi
(Piper POV)To my disappointment, my mother did not appear in the dreams again until the night before my 20th birthday.That final dream started the same way as all the others, with me and the male at the grand waterfall. I do not remember what we talked about that night, but I remember feeling more anxious than normal.“You seem distracted tonight, Piper. What is bothering you?” the male asked.“My mother. She came here once. Why hasn’t she come again?”“You miss her a lot.”“I do,” I said sadly. “Why hasn’t she come back? Why isn’t she here?”Suddenly I heard a female voice behind me.“You silly girl. I am always here with you, Piper. You do not have to see me for me to be here.”I jumped up from the rock and looked towards the forest. As soon as my eyes landed on my mother, I took off running towards her. Unlike the male’s face, nothing about my mother’s voice or look was fuzzy. Instead, my mother looked and sounded radiant and happy.“Mom!” I cried as I wrapped my arms a