Troy“It’s a nice day,” I said. “Want to go for a swim?”Quinn gave me a dubious look. I felt her hesitation. “I don’t…not with all the Lycans outside.”“You don’t like having them here?” I know she didn’t. I felt the shiver of resentment running through her when she said the word Lycan.“The girls are okay. I like them…well, most of them. I can’t stand Margie. She’s just the werewolf version of Caroline.”I laughed and swept hair out of her face. “Yeah, she’s a piece of work-” I rolled off the bed to get my trunks -“but not as bad as Caroline.”I walked into my closet and stared straight at the painting of my prophesied mate, the one the witch gave me ten years ago. It had been there, hidden behind my row of suits, for nearly five years. Someone moved it. Glover? My father?I decided to worry about it later.I picked the heavy painting up, and quickly moved it to its original place. I didn’t want Quinn to see it. Not yet. I’d already overwhelmed her with big and terrifying news, and
Troy I peered at Quinn. As per usual, she handled the stress and rapid changes going on around and inside her with remarkable calm, taking everything in her stride. “How are you?” I asked. She shrugged, grabbed a peeler from the counter, and took her bowls and vegetables to the table. She sat down on one of the benches and simply started to peel the carrots. “I’m okay,” she finally answered. “Really? A lot has happened.” “Yes, and? A lot seems to happen around you. I decided to just go with it...flow with the tide.” “You don’t have anything on your mind, things that are bugging you?” “Yes,” she replied. “I want to know how you ended up in Haverton.” Unwilling to talk about that part of my past, I started to add spices to the meat. “War is expensive. My father sent me here to earn money.” Quinn looked up from her work. “You’re lying.” “No, I’m not.” “But there’s more to the story.” It wasn’t a question. Her instincts were developing much faster than I anticipated, and unsurpr
Quinn My head was pounding and the buzzing in the back of my skull was driving me insane, but it was worth it if it meant I could learn a little more about Troy. With ever minute that passed, I understood him a little better. My mate broke our mind link and took his plate of raw meatballs over to the stove. “That’s it?” I asked. “That is not the whole story.” “Taking a break,” he said. “It’s difficult to maintain a mind link for this long. Even for me.” He opened the fridge and took out a can of beer. “Do you want one?” he asked. “I don’t like beer. Too bitter.” He chuckled. “There’s some cider…and these strawberry cocktail things.” "I'll just have water...or juice." "I really suggest something alcoholic. It helps with the mind link." "Why?" Troy shrugged. "I think because it relaxes you a little." “Give me the strawberry cocktail thing, then.” He pulled the bottle out of the fridge, opened it and handed it to me. Without even looking at the label I downed half the bottle i
Troy We finished our lunch and wandered out to the patio where we took a seat on one of the loungers. The pool house was still quiet, but the voices of the girls carried out of the mansion and through the open bedroom window. They were fighting over who had to clean the toilet. Quinn pretended she couldn’t hear them. The heat was stifling, wafting up from the baking pavement like a fist trying to strangle me. The umbrella I opened provided shade, but only trapped the heat and made it more difficult to breathe. “Fuck, no,” I said after a while, “let’s go to one of the gardens, it will be cooler there.” Quinn was pale, sweaty, and trembled a little as she got up. Part of it was the extended mind link I maintained while telling her about the long journey that eventually ended with me coming to Haverton, the other part was the heat and the stress. Being my mate had to be exhausting. “I don’t want to see the Lycans,” she said. “They are confined to the Omegas’ garden. The only Lycans
Troy I glanced at Quinn. She was exhausted, so plae that even her lips lost its colour, and the muscles around her jaw worked hard as she tried to fight through the headache caused by the extended mind link. I wasn't feeling too hot myself, but I was determined to tell her everything now that I had started. I couldn’t break the mind link. It was too dangerous, and the scent of rotting meat wafted across the orchard, mixing in with the fresh smell of wet earth and ripening peaches. There was a Lycan in the orchard, and judging by his stench, a bad one. A man that had been irredeemably corrupted. It was so bad that I couldn’t even catch his regular scent under the stench, and I had no idea who it was. “Can you smell that?” Quinn asked in my head. “Yes. Just pretend you don’t know he’s there. Lean into me a little - let him think we’re just a regular couple in love, enjoying each other’s company.” "Is it your father?" "No. He smells like rotten fish. I'm not even kidding. It's rev
Quinn I stared at the massive, naked Lycan that took up the entire walkway between the rows of peach trees. He was almost comically large and unfortunate looking in appearance. Something was seriously wrong with him. He was completely hairless, with a perfectly round head, thin, narrow slits for eyes, a tiny nose, and barely-there mouth. His neck was so short that it looked as if his head rested directly on his shoulders. He had long, powerful arms that reached down to his knees, hands the size of hams, and massive, powerful legs that looked as if he could crush a man’s skull with his thighs. He was the caricature of a bodybuilder who took his steroid addiction too far. And he stank. Oh my God, he smelled awful. It wasn’t just the corruption that tainted his scent, which was bad enough, but also the stink of death. I smelled it before – when Troy almost died in the warehouse. Death was coming for him. Soon. I could sense its approach. “Magnus,” Troy said. “Meet my mate, Princess Q
Quinn The mansion didn’t feel like home anymore. I felt like an interloper, a refugee, in my own home. We all felt it, and we each dealt with it in different ways. Troy was constantly on guard and snippy, Sebastian fell into a depression and went to a dark place where we couldn’t reach him, and Troy's two loyal servants clung to us like shit to wool. Justin preferred to stay with the warriors. Raf told me that the young wolf wasn't a warrior, but he was part of the pack, and even though he couldn't fight for shit, he was more than welcome to train with them. There were days when I wanted to train with the warriors just to break up the boredom a little, but Troy told me that it would be 'unbecoming' of the future queen to hang out in the warrior barracks with a bunch of unmated wolves. I had a serious case of cabin fever. I just wanted to get out, but Troy steadfastly refused. According to him, Fionn couldn’t take him out directly, but he could kill me without any repercussions, a
Quinn For a long time, no one spoke. Glover came and went with the refreshments, which in this case was a variety of drinks, both hot and cold, and enough food to feed all the Lycans and have leftovers for the werewolves hiding out in the forest. My grandmother helped herself to tea and sandwiches, while my grandfather just kept staring at me as he sipped on a coffee. The atmosphere was thick and uncomfortable. After a while, even Raf started to squirm. When Jolene finally put her cup and plate down, I mustered the courage to ask, “Why did I never meet you? And who were those people I thought were my grandparents?” “Claude wouldn’t allow us anywhere near you. He feared that we’d draw too much attention to you. The two people you knew as your grandparents were my uncle and aunt. They are also wolfless. They practically raised Claude. He saw them as his parents and called them mother and father,” Jolene explained. “You…abandoned your son?” “No,” Dexter answered. “No. I knew when he