(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
(Piper POV)They say that the safest place to be during a hurricane is in the eye of the storm. If we take that concept and apply it to my life, my 20th birthday was the eye of the sh&t storm that my life had (and would) become.In other words, my 20th birthday actually went pretty well. There was very little pomp or circumstance, and —even more importantly— there was very little drama.You might wonder how I could manage to have a drama-free birthday with Daphne lingering around. Well, that was the first birthday surprise that I received: Daphne volunteered to work the night shift the night before, meaning that we worked opposite shifts and she spent most of my birthday sleeping. I have no idea what inspired her to volunteer —it was very out of character for her— but I was not about to complain. After all, I deserved one day of peace and quiet. And peace and quiet is exactly what I got. If I am being completely honest, a small part of me was sad that I did not wake up to a spe
(Beta Jonas POV)“You got me a present?” Piper asked cautiously.Aiden nodded, and then gestured for me to pull the wrapped box out from where I had hidden it. Admittedly, the gift was a little strange. However, what it symbolized was important.I was actually a little surprised that Aiden was willing to give it to her. He had been waffling for days after I first suggested the idea, in part because he not-so-secretly continued to be uncomfortable with the idea of Piper dating, being mated, or leaving Moon Shadow. Perhaps confirming that Piper was not his fated mate made him more open to the idea. Although, now that we knew that she was not his mate, it only begged more questions. Why were Aiden and his wolf so protective of her? Who was she, really? Aiden had never acted this way with any other female, so there had to be something about Piper that was triggering this reaction.To that end, I knew that Piper had secrets. I knew that I knew some of them, but there were pieces o
(Alpha Aiden POV)By the time that Jonas found me in the warrior gym, more than an hour had passed, and both of my fists were raw and bloody. Not that the blood did anything to slow down my rage or the punches I was leveling at the punching bag in front of me.No, I was not angry at Piper. Anything but. However, if what I thought was true… if what I thought was real… I wanted and deserved explanations. And the wolves who put us in this situation? Those wolves I wanted to kill. Even if I had to dig them up from the dead to do so.“Took you long enough,” I said as Jonas walked in.“I went to your mom’s house first,” he explained. “I was worried you would go and confront her.”I frowned as I punched the bag yet again. “No. I wanted to, but I did not want to upset Natalie.” Natalie was my 11-year-old little sister.“Well, at least now Natalie will know what to expect in her future,” he joked.I stopped punching the bag and glared at Jonas.“Too soon?” he asked.“Yes,” I growle