Bernice POV “I will go with you.” I frown in shock. This whole conversation has been one surprise after another. First Landry admitted he was worried about me. Now he wishes to join us? I shake my head. I know Landry’s schedule well, he’s told me of his duties often enough, and I know he is busy. “You can’t,” I say. “You have an important meeting, remember?” Landry shakes his head. “No. Canceled.” I frown, thrown. “When did this happen?” Landry grins wryly. I watch him carefully, wondering what he has up his sleeve. I know that look, that’s the look he gets when he has something planned. “Now,” he says, and I hear the familiar sound of him opening a mindlink. He added me to his mindlinks a few days ago, so I would be informed on important events, so I hear him loud and clear when he announces: “Today’s Alpha meeting is canceled. Alpha King Landry is sick. Reschedule soon.” The mindlink closes and I sta
Landry POV Landry looks up from his conversation about painting the palace walls just in time to see Bernice take a deep inhale of the most dangerous flower ever. “Shit!” He shouts, racing over. His eyes scan the area, looking for detoxifying berries. This flower is known as an intense aphrodisiac, sending whoever smells it into deep and sometimes incurable lust. Not only would that hurt a normal person, Bernice is already ill, and Landry doesn’t even want to think about how that could hurt her. “No!” he shouts, pushing the flower from her hand. Her eyes are already glazed and she reaches out for him. He steps away just enough to grab the berries he’d spotted but she catches up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. Landry can’t help but kiss back, he’s always been powerless against Bernice’s kisses. Even under the influence of the dangerous flower, her lips are addictive, and her kisses are intense. Their tongues clash, an
Tina POV “I am just telling you what I heard, Mistress!” Tina’s maid cowers in fear before her as Tina rages around her bedroom, throwing anything she can get her hands on. Her maid has just come to her with news, news that enrages her. Landry, her cousin and the Alpha King, has hidden a woman in his palace. Some are saying she is to be his Luna Queen! “No!” she shrieks, throwing her fists in the air. “I am to be the Luna Queen! That position is mine! This can’t be!” “I know, darling,” Tina’s mother says from the doorway. Her father is behind her, face purple with rage. He and Tina have the same tempers. Tina and her family were relying on her becoming Landry’s wife and the Luna Queen. The status increase would be intense, and they have been looking forward to that for a long time. All this time without Landry even glancing at another woman, Tina thought it would happen for sure. Now there is a mysterious other woman! “Mother!” Tina cri
Landry POV“Alpha King!”Landry’s advisor bursts into the room looking frazzled. Landry looks up, displeased, as the witch-doctor finishes bandaging his arm. Landry’s Beta is still glaring at him and pacing on the other side of the room, muttering about Landry’s decision to donate his blood to Bernice.“What is it?” Landry demands as his advisor pants and gasps for breath. The witch-doctor finishes bandaging his arm and steps back, gathering his supplies and finishing up the potion for Bernice. Alarm grows in Landry the longer it takes for his advisor to catch his breath.“The vampires,” his advisor finally pants. “They are planning to attack the capital. Today!”“They must think it poorly defended with the female Alpha on a mission,” Landry’s Beta says immediately. “We must launch a counter-strike.”“Immediately,” Landry orders. “Mobilize the soldiers. I’ll lead the strike. We’ll stop them before they even reach the capital.”“Yes, Alpha King,” Landry’s advisor says, and rushes off.
Bernice POV I am enjoying acting like an Omega. I never allowed myself to think of what had been taken from me when I was given the medication at twelve years old and forced to act like an Alpha. All of the things I’d enjoyed when I was a child, before the responsibility was forced upon me, I’d thought were lost forever. Now I am able to enjoy them again, and I am determined to do so with my last days alive. Landry insists on continuing to search for a cure, but I know it is useless. I was on that poison medication for most of my life, the damage it did is permanent. I know that. But I can make my last days good, even if Landry is acting strange. He takes me out frequently. If I didn’t know any better, I would say he was taking me on dates. They certainly seem like dates. One day, he cooked me a full five-course dinner, with a rich, chocolate tart for dessert. Another, he took me on a long walk around the palace grounds, just the two of us. If
Bernice POV I am shocked beyond words at Jessie’s question. Dates? Proposing? Landry? That’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and I wonder how to say so without hurting my friend’s feelings. “What do you mean?” Jessie asks, and I swallow hard. Part of me points out that that’s a reasonable question – wasn’t I just saying that Landry seemed to be taking me on dates? The rest of me reminds myself that love isn’t real and what Landry and I are doing is simply a transaction, nothing more. I straighten my shoulders and take a deep breath. “Landry and I…we are sexual partners only. We fulfill each other’s needs. There are no feelings, and feelings have no place in a relationship, anyway.” I learned that first hand. I was a bastard child, the child of my father, the Alpha of Sunset Pack, and a lowly Omega with nothing to her name, no status, and no say in anything. My father helped her with her heat and the result was me. When I was
Landry POV Landry can’t keep up with Bernice’s mood changes. After their practice fight, where she kept up with him admirably well despite her illness and Omega body, and the amazing sex afterwards, which was surprisingly tender, she’d turned frosty. Every attempt to speak with her has been turned down. She’d spoken to him only in short little snippets and he doesn’t know what he did wrong. “This ends now,” he thinks. He knocks heavily on her door, loud, unmistakable so she can’t say she didn’t hear it. As expected, she doesn’t answer it, so he just opens it and walks in. She’ll be angry, but he doesn’t care. “What are you doing here?” Bernice’s voice is angry. Her arms are crossed and she is glaring at him. He glares at her back.“I want to know why you are mad at me. What did I do?” He makes sure he doesn’t sound whiny. He is the Alpha King, damnit, he does not show weakness, not even to Bernice. “I demand an explanation!”“I’m not mad.” She’s lyin
Tina POV “Jessie!” Tina has watched and waited for Jessie to return from Landry’s palace. After eavesdropping in on their conversation regarding Landry’s mysterious woman, she is determined to get more information as soon as possible. Jessie jumps as Tina calls her name, walking over to her once she recognizes her. “Hello, cousin,” she greets. Tina smirks. Jessie may have calmed down when Landry made his excuses, but the anger is still there. Tina can see it in her eyes. All Tina has to do is coax it back out. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,” Tina says, leading Jessie to a sitting room off of the Entry Hall of Jessie’s palace. Jessie goes easily and Tina cheers in her head – perhaps this will be easier than she thought. “I have been busy, I apologize,” Jessie says, waving a maid over and ordering tea. “Tell me, how have you been?” “I have been good, thank you,” Tina says, giving Jessie her best innocent smile. “But I am not the