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Marigold Five Years Later Glancing around the large clearing here to the north of Forest Glen, I let myself revel in how far we’d come over the last five years. Dragons, wolves, bears, and, hell, even a few humans, all coexisted in peace as they had since that final fight, interacting without any drama in the wide-open area before me. Granted, it wasn’t all smooth sailing at first, and there were still the occasional troublemakers to deal with every now and then. It wasn’t a walk in the park to push past the prejudice when it did occur, but we’d found that most of it was due to misinformation that my father and the other former elders had spread throughout the years. For that reason, I’d advocated for the annual gathering that we were all enjoying now, ensuring it was open to everyone. Initially, there was more friction on the human side of things, but Finn and Maverick had handled any issues on that front in the aftermath of all the mayhem my father had caused. I’d felt guilty
Hello wonderful readers, This is the end of 'The Luminary Quartet." Thank you so much for reading and for all the incredible comments y'all have left along the way. Please do me a huge favor and leave a review on the book's homepage (for this book and any of the other three if you haven't already!) I need twenty something different reviews for my rating to officially show, and the first is the only one I've managed to accomplish this with so far. My next book is titled 'After the Downfall," and the cover is already up on social media. I'm tweaking the blurb, but it will be up tomorrow, as well. I'm going to start uploading chapters this weekend to the website, but I will be getting it signed ASAP so it shows on the app, too. This book was intended to be a standalone, but I may reevaluate depending on how well it's recieved. It is another werewolf romance with a post-apocalyptic spin, but I do want to stress that this does not mean I will only be limiting myself to these types of
***Please note this book begins with events that occurred in South before progressing past the end of West*** Marigold The bear shifters waging war against the wolves was a horrendous part of the lupine species’ recent past, one that no one wanted to see a repeat of. My heart ached from the mere thought of all the lives lost on both sides of the battle, but I was a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. Take the war for instance. Most would be hard-pressed to find a sliver of positivity within the sea of turmoil that had reigned for the last two years, but the fighting between the different groups of shifters was the best thing to happen to me in my twenty years of life, though it was tinged with a healthy dose of guilt on a daily basis. To say my home life had been less than stellar would be an understatement, but I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that every hard
Marigold Right when I thought I’d successfully hidden myself away in my room for the night, Ronnie showed up to drag me downstairs for the meeting that was taking place with everyone else. In the beginning, I felt okay aside from a few nerves due to so many familiar faces, but I could feel my cool slipping away by the second as time ticked by at a snail’s pace. Scarlett and Ronnie tried to keep me engaged in conversation, but my attention was dwindling, my wolf unexpectedly on high alert. There was no denying I had smelled the fresh apple and woodsy oak aroma seeping into the room before, but never in a dose so potent as when Asher strolled into the living room a minute later. The fragrance had driven me mad when I caught the faintest whiff of it prior, and I hadn’t slept well in a week, as a result. I supposed I knew the reason why now, but it didn’t give me back those hours of rest I’d missed. Although I hadn’t known
Asher I was currently borrowing Ryker’s makeshift office that he had set up at Ronnie’s house since he was here more often than anywhere else, but my mind was on the wheat blonde-colored she-wolf who was out in the back yard, enjoying the unseasonably warm day with the little girl who lived here. I couldn’t get Mari’s stunning hazel eyes, or the freckles I had seen sporadically spread across her face and the rest of her visible skin, to leave my mind long enough to focus on the task I was supposed to be completing, which was pretty damn important. Roughly shaking my head, I picked up the phone to dial my beta, Nicolai. I had been away from my province for far too long with all the shit happening here in the Southern Territory and the elders fleeing to only Luna knew where. Nic picked up on the third ring, and he proceeded to give me a detailed account of the happenings in my province. I felt uneasy about his report regar
Asher I awoke fully rested the next morning with Mari lounging across my chest, but it didn’t take me long to figure out something was different from when we’d closed our eyes the night before. Lifting the corner of the blanket, I peered down, confirming that Mari had apparently shed her jeans in her sleep. My heart rate soared, and I felt my blood drain downward at the sight of my mate’s creamy thighs on display. Fisting the fabric of the bedding in my clenched hands, I only just prevented myself from reaching out to caress her smooth skin, but I couldn’t hold back my sounds of appreciation when she chose to announce that she was awake by lightly tracing her fingers down my defined abs in steady strokes, growing firmer with each pass. “Babe, don’t start something you’re not ready to finish right now. I’m more than fine with skipping the rec center altogether if it means I get to keep your hands on me for any length of time.” I ground
Marigold Driving or riding in a car was one of my least favorite activities, but I knew a vehicle was the quickest way to get to the Eastern Province. I hadn’t expected to begin our travels quite so soon, but I was immediately on board with the rushed timeline under the circumstances. While I wished I’d had more time to say goodbye to my friends and Roxi, I was also ready to begin the next stage of my life. I’d hoped for a brighter beginning, but I was accustomed to making lemonade out of the zingers life seemed to keep flinging my way. Initially, I had planned on reading during the jaunt to the East, but my nerves were shot within the first fifteen minutes with the halting way the male drove. I was certain he wasn’t truly a terrible chauffeur, but the memories of the many times my mother had operated a vehicle while blitzed out of her mind with my sister and I in the backseat had been burned into my mind like a red-hot branding iron.
Asher The somber mood hung around our heads as we ate. Mari’s gentle perfume of freshly falling rain had brought me back from the brink of the anguish that was trying its damnedest to pull me under, but I was at a loss for what to do now. An echo of the frustration my beta had experienced during the heat of the skirmish radiated through me, but I regrettably couldn’t tell him about it with his absence. I was trying to figure out where to go from here, but the only thing coursing through my mind was my need to shift and patrol a perimeter around my other half until I figured out what happened to my pack. One thing I knew for certain was that they were alive. I’d felt the connections sever when the males I found earlier had passed, that was part of the pain that had crippled me when I was in the South with Ryker. Yet, I couldn’t get a feel on where the remaining members were through the pack bond. Nothing was making sense, and m
Hello wonderful readers, This is the end of 'The Luminary Quartet." Thank you so much for reading and for all the incredible comments y'all have left along the way. Please do me a huge favor and leave a review on the book's homepage (for this book and any of the other three if you haven't already!) I need twenty something different reviews for my rating to officially show, and the first is the only one I've managed to accomplish this with so far. My next book is titled 'After the Downfall," and the cover is already up on social media. I'm tweaking the blurb, but it will be up tomorrow, as well. I'm going to start uploading chapters this weekend to the website, but I will be getting it signed ASAP so it shows on the app, too. This book was intended to be a standalone, but I may reevaluate depending on how well it's recieved. It is another werewolf romance with a post-apocalyptic spin, but I do want to stress that this does not mean I will only be limiting myself to these types of
Marigold Five Years Later Glancing around the large clearing here to the north of Forest Glen, I let myself revel in how far we’d come over the last five years. Dragons, wolves, bears, and, hell, even a few humans, all coexisted in peace as they had since that final fight, interacting without any drama in the wide-open area before me. Granted, it wasn’t all smooth sailing at first, and there were still the occasional troublemakers to deal with every now and then. It wasn’t a walk in the park to push past the prejudice when it did occur, but we’d found that most of it was due to misinformation that my father and the other former elders had spread throughout the years. For that reason, I’d advocated for the annual gathering that we were all enjoying now, ensuring it was open to everyone. Initially, there was more friction on the human side of things, but Finn and Maverick had handled any issues on that front in the aftermath of all the mayhem my father had caused. I’d felt guilty
Marigold I was locked in place as turmoil ruled around me, Maverick and his team of males trying their damnedest to pull a miracle out of their asses. Nicolai was unconscious, badly injured from an ambush during his rescue mission with one of my true mates, and now both pieces of my soul were bounding off into danger de novo, my sister still in the clutches of my manipulative father. How much more fucked up could my family get? Letting the terror win as I drowned in my misery, I don’t know how long I stood there before someone broke me out of my stupor, but once the haze cleared, I was searching for some way to contribute, not wanting to be the damsel in distress. Still, I was being yanked out of the street by one of the healers before I could move an inch myself, and one look up told me the reason why. The dragons who were at the root of Nic’s suffering had decided to try their hands at finishing the job. To further complicate the situation, the humans impending arrival couldn’t
Zacharias I didn’t jump at Asher’s disruption, not surprised in the slightest. Rather, I used the opening he afforded to strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. Launching myself headfirst into the commotion, I maneuvered my arm up into the gap between Magnus’s and Iris’s bodies, using it to block the blade he still wielded as I concurrently swept his feet out from under him. The stinging ache from the knife slicing deep into the muscle of my forearm hardly registered in the heat of the moment, relief being the chief emotion in my head at averting the male’s sinister plans from coming about in his final act of desperation. Both of his fists unclenched as he tumbled to the ground with a growl, releasing Iris’s blonde tresses and the gore-splattered knife in the process. The blade clunked heavily as it dropped to the floor in front of him, and I hurried to kick it out of reach. As much as I wanted to stick around and deliver some of my own vengeance for present and past hurts, Ir
Asher One second, I was sprinting for cover as we came closer to saving Iris, my gaze pinned on a nearby building, but then Nicolai was roaring in alarm, his body crashing into me and bringing me down face first into the concrete sidewalk in front of me. The nasty collision set a chorus of bells off in my brain as my senses picked up on several things simultaneously, time seeming to slow to a crawl as anguish exploded from my head down. Heat was rapidly spreading from behind me until it became equally as unbearable as the ringing in my mind, yet I didn’t miss the agonized howl piercing the air above it all before darkness reigned, my body shutting down to protect itself. When I came too, it was by increments with pain radiating out from multiple points, but it was the ache from my face that commanded the bulk of my notice. It took me a minute to comprehend that someone else was moving my body, flipping me over so that I could see the smoke darkening the sky, and it took another on
Zacharias Finn had contacted me earlier during our flight into the Western Province. He’d let me know some of our males would be arriving throughout the day, but he’d also mentioned that he was planning to scout ahead in order to get an idea of what we were looking at. I let the others know as much before Asher and I escorted Mari up to the room, the fatigue crashing down on her all at once by the looks of it. When we returned, those that were left for the meeting had moved into the living room. Our location made no difference to me, so I took a seat in a recliner, listening as Nicolai and Asher discussed different tactics for approaching their mission to extract Iris. Mari had given us as much as she could recall of the secret route into the town earlier. It turned out to be an underground tunnel, which wasn’t surprising given all I’d discovered about the former elder of the lupine species. Moreover, I would be able to give t
Marigold My mind was a million miles away as I went through the motions of getting ready for our flight the next morning, every waking thought reminding me that I’d failed to keep Iris safe. Rias and Asher had taken care of packing any supplies we might need, so I’d only been responsible for making sure I dressed appropriately for the trek to the Western Province. More than once, my mates tried to pull me out of my own head, their delectable fragrances and compelling personalities enough to give me a fleeting reprieve from the recurring thoughts, but I was left with an abundance of free time while they ran around, tying up loose ends before we set off. Annie and Ruby joined us for breakfast, but no one was in a talkative mood with the daunting next couple of days ahead of us. Hence, it was a quiet affair before we said our goodbyes. Nevertheless, Annie hurried forward before I could follow my mates out the door a while later, stopping me in my tracks as she wrapped a heavy coat ar
Zacharias Mari was practically falling asleep in her food, but I knew she would resist any attempt I made to take her up to bed, so I didn’t bother wasting the effort. We’d been holding off on strategizing while everyone devoured the food someone had thoughtfully prepared beforehand, but I could see Ruby and my mom were finishing up their meals now, both of them slipping off a few minutes later. Nicolai and Maya had drifted towards the living room, but Asher and I had remained at the kitchen island with our mate sandwiched between us while she picked at her food. There wasn’t much conversation between anyone given the somber mood surrounding us, but I wasn’t idle in the silence. I may have botched rescuing Iris before those bastards stole away with her, but I was doing my damnedest to make up for it now. As it so happened, I had males positioned in the Western Territory still, keeping an eye on what the Western Clan of dragons
Zacharias My dragon roared to life within me, slashing to be set free with the impending danger heading our way, and I was already ripping my clothes off as I left Mari, racing towards the clearing so that I could take to the air. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind, there was no coincidence about the timing of the stray rogues’ and Keith’s assault, and there was nothing that was going to convince me otherwise. As I flew over the land, scanning my surroundings for any signs of intruders, my sharp eyes picked up on movement towards the north. Utilizing my shrewd senses, I zeroed in on the figures winding their way through the trees, realizing these were the rogues who were trying to infiltrate our territory after another minute of observation. I took note of their activity, making sure I didn’t miss anything. Honestly, there didn’t seem to be many of them, but I shot out a warning with the intel to Asher anyway while keeping the ma