*Craig*The girl had my head in a tailspin. She had stormed into my room like a woman on a mission. I was giving her the space she had asked for but it had been killing me knowing that she was so close to me but I couldn’t go to her. I hated that she was hurting right now. I wanted to tell her everything but I didn’t know if she was ready to hear it all. How could I tell the woman I was falling for that she was my natural enemy? I was trained to hate her people from the moment I was born. And now, come to find that my sworn new way was likely my mate.The cold water beat down on my skin as I tried to wash away the last interaction I had with Dawn. I shouldn’t have told her anything. She was better off not knowing.****The Previous Night*She started trying to get the answers I knew she rightfully deserved. “Tell me, Craig. You told me that I could come to you whenever I needed you. And here I am, in dire need of you. So, tell me why you aren't bein
*Dawn*I turned the page of yet another one of these history books. I didn’t feel any better after my talk with Craig. I had told him that I could trust him but I didn’t know if I actually could. He was still hiding stuff from me. I knew it. But I also knew that there was no one else who could help me delve more into the world of shifters than him.Shifters. My life was a literal joke at us point, I swear. How did I go from normal average 20 year old to researching on the powers of the Moon Goddess? I yawned trying to keep my eyes open. I looked at my watch and saw that it was getting a little late. Craig said that he would join me in the library after his shower but it was now well past nine now. I had gotten little to no sleep thanks to my rather vivid dreams.I still could not believe that I had lived that. I was branded and marked as a newborn to a boy who also had no say in the matter. For some reason, it humanised Jason for me. He was just as stuck in this situation a
*Craig*I hated being told what to do. I was no one’s servant, but I knew that being here, I needed to know to play smart and not bite back too much. Dawn's birthday was in a few months and then I would know for sure—but the crisis at hand was Jason. He wanted her but it would be over my dead body that he got to her. She was mine. “You need to keep your head, you idiot,” Jared scolded me.I growled. “Don’t call me an idiot.”“I will call you an idiot as long as you act like one and you are currently acting like the biggest idiot of them all. Why are you going to ruffle Edgar’s feathers when you are on your own there?”“I wasn’t ruffling anyone’s feathers. He is the one who came at me first.”My best friend sighed on the other side of the line. “Listen to me. I get that you feel that she is your mate, but you—”“I know that she is my mate,” I snarled.“But you can’t be certain,” he finished.“Well I am. I feel it. I know it.” At least I believed I did, but every
*Dawn*I stared at the text for what had to be a good two hours. I hadn’t responded or even made a move to leave my bed. After trashing his room like a complete and utter maniac, I had come back here and balled my eyes out. Craig was gone to god knows where and I was left here with a mountain of questions and a despairing heart. All he had to do was tell me. It wasn’t his fault from what I understood. He was simply born into this world like I was. Albeit he had lived in it more years than I had and had grown accustomed to the ways things were done but still. If he thought that him not telling me was protection, then he was mistaken. It was not his decision to make what was good for me and what wasn’t. This was my life after all. I wanted to be mad at him. I wanted to hate him. But there was another part of that was hurt that he was gone now and there was no specific date on when he would return. Dr. Sweany had told me everything. I remember how he had spoken of my parents
There was no way that I was missing Craig. There was no way. But I couldn't deny the fact that his absence was felt. I had finished my heart and the first person I had wanted to show was him. But he wasn’t there. I was so tempted to text him a few times but I knew that texting him was a bad idea. No matter how much I wanted to, I needed to remember what he had done. There was no way that I could trust him fully. Especially after all that he had done and hidden from me. I let out a loud groan and moved down the line to get my lunch. For the past few days, I was in my head a lot. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a way forward from this. I was nowhere near finding out how to break this bond that I share with Jason. All I knew was what I had learned from that dream. I hadn’t had a dream like it since. Now, my head was swriling trying to remember the faces that I saw. I had flipped though text after text in the encyclopaedias, but nothing came up. I was both frust
*Craig*There were many perks to being the Alpha one of the most powerful packs in the world. But there was always one short fall for the title I carried—I had to deal with elders who thought they knew far better than me simply because they had outlived the majority of their generation. Not only that, but I had to deal with other Alphas who acted as though we were in high-school. It was both frustrating and annoying. My time in Washington was nothing short of a shit show. From the moment I landed, I had complaints and rants of anger in each ear. It seemed like with each fire I put out, two more sprouted out in its place. I was drowning in a sea of politics, pettiness and stupidity. I had called on the seven Alphas of the north and south for assistance, but like I had expected, I was met with great resistance on their part. They were trying to attach decades old mistakes to the present day. Those were the actions of my forefathers but not me. I was a different man, my word me
*Dawn*I stared up at the ceiling completely lost in thought. Today was the first time in a long time I felt like I could breathe and then it was snatched away. I just wanted to have a normal life. I just wanted to go back to the way that things used to be. I didn’t want the stress or the horror of this wolf stuff. I wanted to cry it out but I had cried so much in the last two weeks, I had nothing left inside me. I was running on empty. The more books I read, the more questions I had. I worried about the first shift. I worried how I would deal with Jason, and Craig as well. I was still mad at him but for some reason, my heart was calling to him. I wanted him here and not wherever he was.I rolled over in my bed trying to calm my mind so I could get some sleep but I had been tossing and turning for hours and I knew that sleep was not going to come. Candice was out again in the town with her friends while I was here. I knew that I could just change and meet her in the tow
We worked well into the night on our respective pieces. Craig painted in silence, but he had moved his easel now and his body was now facing me instead of away. I couldn't see why he was working on though. He wanted to keep it a a secret until it was finally done.I, on the other hand, was not at all sure what I was doing. I had started and destroyed so many different shapes that I had lost count at 20. The creative juices just weren’t flowing the way they had that night. But I also think that had to do with the fact that I was not severely depressed anymore unlike that day. I had just squashed another wet piece when a granola bar was waved in front of my face.“You need to eat something,” Craig stated. He waved the bar in my face again. “It has cranberries in it.”I hated that he had picked up on my slight addiction to the fruit. I grabbed the treat with a grateful smile and moved away from my now destroyed piece. “Any progress on yours?” I asked.The man had taken off h
*Dawn*I had stared outside by the pool area where Craig stood over Jason’s body. He held Jason’s heart in his hands like it was it was squishy toy. Bile rose from my stomach and made my way up my throat. I used all my might to keep it down. It was over. The war was finally done. The enemy was defeated and now, I was free to be with the man I loved without having to look over my shoulder. So, why did I feel like this was only just the beginning? My hand absently when to the place Craig had marked me the other night. Coincidentally, it was in the same place my mark that I had shared with Jason was. When my finger touched the still healing wound, my body shuddered. I didn’t know if it was the old mark or the new one but something moved from my skin all throughout my body. I pushed down then ominous feeling and drew my mind back to the present. Craig must have felt my eyes on him because he lifted his gaze to the window and found me. His features softened when he saw my f
*Craig*There were three things I was sure of in this life: 1.Dawn Fairborne was my mate. 2.I loved Dawn Fairborne more than life itself. 3.I enjoyed having sex with Dawn. For the past 48 hours, we had spent our time entangled with one another. And in between the mind blowing sex we had—in every room in the cabin mind you—we broke away for food and to explore the forest. It had been the best two days of my life. The girl was this drug that I just couldn’t quite get enough of. I was a goner from the first ‘hello’. Now, she sat on my lap as we watched the sunrise beyond the horizon on our second day here. I felt so complete. I knew that this was the place I was meant to be.We had a whole host of problems to deal with outside of this place, but I knew that as long as her hand remained in mine, we would be okay. Dawn drew circles on the inside of my palm. I kissed the top of her head, breathing in her sweet scent. Her hair was still a little damp from the sh
Our lips crashed together again, the heat only increasing. Craig lifted me from the marble countertop and started moving. I was so preoccupied with his lips, I didn’t care where he was taking us. All I cared about was him and the throbbing between my legs. I felt us climbing some stairs and heading down a long space before a door clicked open. Craig laid me down on a soft bed, not once breaking our kiss. I had changed into sweatpants and a large hoodie after the cave, but I wore no underwear. I could feel the slickness against my leg already. Craig broke our kiss allowing me a chance to catch my breath. He used his elbows to hover over me so he wasn’t crushing my body beneath his. Our hot breaths mingled together into one small cloud of passion. “We will take it slow,” he assured me. “But it will hurt.”I shook my head. “I don’t need slow. I just need all of you.”I was out of my mind thinking that I could handle him at first go without being tentative. But I was
*Dawn*We sat in the car, my hand in his over the console. His thumb absently rubbed the back of my hand gently. I felt whole and complete being with him like this. I watched the trees move past us as we went up the winding road on the side of the mountain. He hadn’t told me what we were going to do, but I had an inkling of how our night was going to transpire. I was nervous but I was also excited. I was ready for this. I was ready for us. Wherever we were going was hidden away from society, or at least it seemed that way. The large pine trees acted like walls on either side of the road. The sun peaked just beyond the horizon as it gave way to a new day.So much had transpired within the last 24 hours, it was crazy. I had almost died, Jason was lamost killed, I had come to accept Craig as my mate, and Serena was redoing Craig’s pack against any retaliation. The mark was also gone from skin and now, I was free to be claimed by another. I was hopeful for our future. But ther
I lifted Jason by his neck and held him in the air. I held onto his neck making sure to give him just enough oxygen to keep him alive but also closing in on his pipes so he felt the pressure. “Tell me,” I growled. Even with his face turning red, the bastard still smiled at me. “Craig, he is baiting you. If you kill him, then we lose the ability to help Dawn.” Serena was right. I threw Jason onto the floor and scowled at him. I had to pull my wolf back to keep him from murdering the man he so desperately wanted to kill. “How do I remove the mark, Jason? I will only ask you one more time.”He coughed trying to rid the pain from his throat. I could see the sausage like bruise marks on his neck. “I can tell you how to remove the mark. But what will I get in return?”“Your life,” I seethed. He looked up at me with those pitiful eyes of his. “You think yourself to be God, but you are nothing in this world, Craig. Just because you stopped me today, doesn’t mean that I
*Craig*We moved through the cave as quietly as we could. I could hear the faint mutterings of a male voice that I was sure was Jason. Serena was right behind me with her hand on my shoulder. The darkness was slowly fading away as we neared the end of the cave. I could see the yellow light from flame torches mixed in with the bright blue hue of the moon. “Alpha, we are almost ready.” I recognized that voice. I peered round fhe corner of the entry way to the dome structure and saw Dawn’s aunt Cassie. What the hell was she doing here with him? As far as I knew, Dawn and her had come to an agreement when she left after her visit. Had she not told me the whole truth? My eyes moved from Cassie, who stood in a long white cloak, to the woman was was laying on a stone tabel with her arms and feet bound to it. It was Dawn. Her eyes were wide open but she wasn’t moving. For a second, I thought she wasn’t breathing, but when I saw the rising and falling of her chest, I soon
*Craig*The only thing that was left in this fucking rooftop was the dinner table that he had set up for her. I had felt her and I had heard her voice call to me. She was in danger and she needed me. I had wasted no time getting here, but it was too late. They were long gone and I was left to think of a way to track her. I was trying to keep a level head but the fact that he had her had my entire body in knots. The man was psycho and I knew that he was plotting and planning something. I should have never allowed her to go. I should have just gone with my instincts at locked her away and hid her from him. So, what if she was angry with me? At least she would have been in my care and by my side. “You need to calm down,” Jared tried to reason with me over the phone, but it was no use. When I came to rooftop, she wasn’t there. “You being this angsty will not help her.”“And neither will me standing here and doing nothing!” My anger was not toward him and he knew that. But I
I was about to murder the last family I had. The rage that poured into me was unhealthy and it heated my body in every vein, cell and nerve. All I could see is red at the moment. I don’t fully remember getting up but one moment, I was on the ground and the next, I was lunging at my aunt. She was lucky that Jason got in between us because I was ready to take her down. The anger building inside of me was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The tears that had pricked my eyes seconds ago were completely gone now. Now my gaze was laser focused on my aunt who hid behind Jason like the coward she was. She had crossed the line. I mean she had crossed it far before this, but now, it was too much. She had cried tears of pure agony and regret and yet, here she stood, next to the man who was trying to capture me and make me his prisoner. “I trusted you! I forgave you!” I shouted.“I'm sorry,” she cried. “But I had to. This is for the good of the pack and all those involved.”“Not
As the words left my lips, I knew that I had made a mistake. His nostrils flared and his eyes raged with an anger I had never seen before. His fists were balled on the table as he held onto his metal knife for dear life. The man looked like he was ready to murder me, or at the very least, maim me. Shit.I had messed up dismally and now, I was about to pay the price for what I had done. “I have been nothing but patient with you, Dawn. I have taken your disrespect and I have even allowed you time to frolic here without a single care in the world. But you have taken it too far. Do you not understand how many sacrificed their lives just so you could be breathing right now?”The ice in his words hit right in the centre of my chest. “You think that this man will love you? That he will treat you any better than a common whore?” He slammed his fist only the table sending the food in my plate flying. “You are far more stupid than I had initially realized! How can you not see his tr