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Twenty-Nine
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Marigold
Once I gathered my wits, I moved in again, checking my mother’s breathing. Another thorough glance around the small room told me that she had likely been here for a while.
I sighed aloud when I zeroed my keen eyes in on the pair of scissors laying nearby, strands of light blonde hair littering the peeling linoleum and making it clear what my parental figure had been up to before she’d succumbed to the effects of the alcohol.
Turning towards the sink, I scooped up a semi clean towel, determined to at least make her presentable, but my plans were foiled when I tried the tap and nothing came out. Of course, there wasn’t any water. That would be too easy.
Frustrated, I covered my face with my hands, squeezing my eyes shut tight as I did my damnedest to contain the scream bubbling up from within.
Wholly intent on my own misery, I didn’t notice the sounds of my mates’ arrival, but their presence was irrefutable as Asher ens
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Zacharias I stuck close to Nicolai, not trusting him to remain in place while Maya received the information she needed, but, all the while, I couldn’t help but consider the insane pairings that had been being forged across species’ lines as of late. Ash took over for me, monitoring Nic, but I didn’t want to disturb the girls too soon, so I retreated to our room for now. I’d put off contacting Maverick and Finn earlier, seizing the opportunity to speak with Iris when it had arisen instead. She was much more forthcoming with information than her sister, and it was nice to get acquainted with the younger girl who meant the world to my mate. Iris was a breath of fresh air during all the turmoil, and my heart ached for all that her and Mari had been through. I didn’t want to pry, but I did need to know more about Mari’s past to understand how to help her. I’d seen her mother’s addiction problem firsthand for myself,
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Asher I’d overheard where Mari and Rias were off too, and I was accordingly paying careful attention to my mate’s emotions as Jace and I drove a group of males towards the nearest mountains in my territory. Hence, my wolf was howling with envy when our mating bond burned hot through my veins, telling me the visit hadn’t lasted long and that Rias was a lucky bastard. It was with a great effort that I sealed off that part of my brain, making myself concentrate on my current mission as I considered why the rogues had been zeroing their attention in on my lands after the recent reports I’d received from the other alphas this morning. I knew who was responsible for all the heart ache caused in my lands and the other territories, and my wolf was slavering to taste the blood of the traitor who’d been family to me once upon a time. Although Jace wasn’t entirely sure where the rogues had set up their base camp, I didn’t
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Asher I was thankful we weren’t setting off until after breakfast, but I was more than ready to eliminate the danger the rogues posed altogether. The brisk bursts of air created by Rias and his clan members’ flight throughout the rest of the morning and the ensuing afternoon was all I needed to keep my eyes wide open as we combed the land far below us. We started at the mountains and worked our way around the craggy peaks for the next several hours. Rias took care of guiding his males, and I observed them moving in fluid motions that covered a vast expanse of distance and simultaneously demonstrated the dragon shifter’s skill at leading his clan. My mind threatened to become a dangerous place as the minutes ticked by with us finding zilch, but it was helpful that I knew I could trust Jace to keep the home front safe in my absence, even if I knew I would never completely stop worrying. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t deny Mari’
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Zacharias In spite of the urgency of the situation, we all slept in late the next morning. It was beyond necessary with the abundant miles I’d been putting on my wings, and I relished each second spent in bed with Mari resting in my arms. After throwing a few items together for the trip and devouring a pile of food, I was letting my dragon loose into the cool fall afternoon, and Asher and Mari were seated astride my back in no time at all. The flight was smooth for the beginning of the trip, and it gave me plenty of time to ponder what was going to happen once this final threat was removed. It would be nice to not have anything hanging over our heads for a change, just waiting for the perfect opportunity to lash out. Initially, it seemed weird to me that I hadn’t missed my home all that much, notwithstanding my mother and friends, of course. Still, there were too many bad memories ingrained in my mind, my father had seen to that.
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Marigold My heart had virtually leapt out of my chest when the torrent of fire whipped out towards Asher and I when we fled to the nearby trees before, but the fright was nothing to the absolute terror suffusing my being when Rias had sheltered us from harm to his own detriment. I’d known in that moment that he’d been hurt, the agony flashing across his face had been unmistakable for a split second, even while in his dragon form, but I hadn’t comprehended the true extent of the damage until Maverick intervened. Regardless, I hadn’t been prepared for the grotesque image his wound turned out to be. Truth be told, I wasn’t great around blood while in my human form, but I was extremely grateful for Mav’s knowledge in this area as he took charge of the situation. It was long past dinner time when we made it back to Rias’s home at last, but food was the least of my worries then. I was a tangled ball of emotions with the combination
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Asher Rias and I walked in on the tail end of Annie’s announcement, and the sly look she’d aimed our way before making her excuses to leave told me it had been intentional. Still, the question remained, how the hell did she know what Marigold hadn’t even been aware of with her own body? Nothing made sense, but Mari’s ensuing flood of queries succeeded in answering most of my own. It didn’t shock me when she began with the most obvious, directing her inquiries at Rias as she asked, “How does she know that I’m pregnant? I hadn’t even considered the idea until she brought it up. If I am, then it has to be very early on.” I had my arms secure around Mari’s waist as she continued eating, but the other male wasted no time in busying himself as I watched him as closely as a hawk. He fixed two overflowing plates of food as he dawdled on the other side of the room, doing his best to hide the lingering pain I sensed in his stiff posture
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Asher Mari’s bombshell left the room speechless initially, no one expecting this turn of events, but Maverick and Finn were springing into action once it became clear there were issues buried deeper beneath the surface here, issues that were better settled in private. Their shock was plain to see, but then Rias and I were closing in on our other half in sync, cocooning her in our strength as everything but her distress disappeared in the moment. All the same, Mari collected herself before long, focusing on her breathing until she had her body under control. Disbelief was the emotion emanating above all else through our mating bond, but I was able to trust this turn of events more easily than Mari was after the intel Rias had shared previously about what he’d learned from Iris. I’d had Jace digging around for information since then, but I would be able to tell him to call off his search now, at least, even if I’d
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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
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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
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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
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Mated to the Alpha of the East Forty-Nine
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
