A special thank you to all of you who have stuck with me this far! Be sure to check out my other book ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR, new chapters coming soon and my third book WHEN I SLEEP AT NIGHT will be coming in the fall. Much love to you all!
Amaris looked at Taji as he stepped forward. "You know that I will go. Do we know that I won't end up frozen if I go inside? First of all can I get inside?" Amaris looked to the breach in the wall as if she could see the vampire area from where she stood. "Yes, I have a plan for that. You should be able to get in. I will also make it so you can get out. I am not sure about what will happen once inside, or how we get the hostages out when we do." Anna looked like she was far away for a moment. She looked over at Amaris. "Where in the vampire bubble were the hostages?" Amaris thought about this for a minute. "They are at the furthest corner from us." Looking at Anna's face she replied. "I think I know where you are going with this. I thought about annexing that area of the bubble too, but there are too many vampires that are standing around the area where they are, and I think that we would have a lot of chaos, and more people would get hurt or killed." Anna screwed up
"What? Why would you go marching in there. You are the one that they want." Lyle said, dropping his arms now. Amaris looked him straight in the eye. She had expected him to put up resistance. "I do not know where they are, or even if they are in there. I can not communicate with them, so I am also not sure if my powers would be able to reach them, which means that we go in." She put her hands on her hips this time. Lyle looked hesitant, but just backed up and put out his hand signaling her to lead the way. Amaris walked to the hole in the wall, and peaked around the corner to make sure that there was no one around. She did not see anyone. As she was about to step out from around the corner, Lyle sauntered in without waiting to see if the coast was clear. Amaris scowled at him. She took a few quick steps and caught up to him. "Don't you think that we should be more careful? We do not know if there are anymore enemies here." She said in a low whisper. Lyle shrugged.
"Lyle?" Amaris said as she looked harder into the shadows of the now darkened room. As if in answer to her question, she heard pounding on the other side of the door. She could also hear a muffled voice. Amaris ran back to the door. She tried to open the door, but it did not budge. She leaned closer and heard the voice on the other side. "Amaris! Amaris are you ok? Open the door." The pounding continued. She tried the doors again, and still they would not budge. She pounded back. "Lyle they are stuck. You will have to find another way in." There was silence for a beat. "Use your magic." Was all the Amaris could make out. Amaris suddenly thought of the mind link, and tried to use it to see what Lyle had said. "Lyle I could not hear what you said. Say it again." Amaris waited, but she heard nothing. She tried again. "Lyle I didn't hear you. Say it again." Still nothing, and now there was no banging on the door either. She banged again. She recieved nothing in
Amaris walked forward to the center door. She put her hand on the handle and hesitated. She knew that her powers were not working in here, but she still concentrated and wished that this was the right door. She took a deep breath and turned the handle. It silently opened without any effort. It slowly swung out. The door was heavy, now that it was open she could see that it was metal, and had huge hinges that held it up from the inside. The door opened out into a dark hallway. It was hard to see much of anything in the dark, but at the end of the hallway, Amaris could see that it opened out into a huge room. There was some light coming from there and Amaris could see that there was a railing as if there was a balcony over looking the room. Trying to move forward as quietly as she could Amaris stepped into the hallway. It was carpeted, and it helped to muffle her steps. She did not want to be heard. The hallway was dim, and even though there was not much light in the foyer
Amaris froze as the voice continued to speak. "It's ok dear, I won't bite." To this there was a raucous laughter from several people. Amaris knew that she had been seen and had no choice but to come back to the railing. She turned back and stepped back into the room. The figure that had been sitting on the thrown moments ago, was no standing and looking straight at her. His arm was raised to her beckoning her to come down. Looking around the room Amaris saw that all of the faces were now looking at her. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the one face that she knew she would recognize. Alexis was now looking up at her. He looked defeated. He face was cruised and battered, and his mouth was bloody. Amaris instictively wanted to look away, when her eyes were drawn to the man beside him. At first she did not think that she knew him. He too had been beaten. He had blood that had run down the side of his head and face from a wound. The man winced abviously in pain holding hi
"You can call me Reggie." He says with a waggle of his eyebrows. Amaris mouth fell open in shock. Here she was face to face with the man who had been hunting her. The one who had turned her life upside down. Just who the hell does he think he is? The King started to walk toward Amaris. She stood her ground and glared at him. "So you are the one that has been hunting me all this time. Why?" She had so many more questions. Why have you killed so many people? Why are you holding all of these people? What are you planning to do with them? What are you planning to do with me? She knew if she was patient she would get her answers. The King walked beside her and put his arm around her. "Well of course. You, my dear, are the chance of a life time. I simply could not pass you up." He began to walk her forward toward the dais. He continued on as he walked with her slowly "I must admit your parents had me fooled. They disappeared. I had no idea where they were. Then their
Amaris took a step back in shock. The King reached for her again, but Amaris ducked under his outstretched arm and ran to Anna. She gave her a huge hug and looked her up and down. She then turned to Taji and did the same. She stepped back and nodded to the soldiers that were in their group, while secretly checking to make sure that they were not injured. Anna reached and grabbed Amaris' elbow. "I'm sorry Mari, they snuck up on me and once they had me Taji surrendered under threat of them hurting me, and then the rest did as well." Anna leaned in pretending to give Amaris another hug and she whispered into her ear. "We got them all out before they found us." was all she said. Amaris felt a great relief. The prisoners were gone and hopefully on their way to safety. The Kings voice boomed from behind Amaris. "Well, now that we all have had a happy reunion, lets get on with the main attraction. Shall we?" He had walked half way to Amaris, Anna and the group. The guards be
Amaris was shocked. She looked backwards and saw Anna trying to wake Taji. The soldier that was trying to help hold him up was using his other hand to try and tap the sides of his face to bring him around. The King gave Amaris a little jolt to bring her attention back to him. "Nevermind about them my dear, they will be just fine once they get themselves under control." Amaris found that she had walked back up front and was now standing next to Sveta and Lyle. Sveta had a haute put out look on her face while Lyle had a cruel smile on his face. A look Amaris had never seen on his always kind face before. It ruined his good looks. The King noticed that once again Amaris' attention was not on him and looked at Lyle with a frown on his face. With a huff, the King let go of Amaris and walked over to his throne. "Let's dispense with this needless charade, shall we?" He said looking right at Lyle who seemed to be pouting. Sveta finally turned and looked at the King. "About time
Amaris and Lyle sat at the table in the RV which had now become their home. They had settled into their life together on the run. They drove through the European countryside acting like all the rest of the tourists. They stayed away from areas that were known concentrated werewolf areas. They fell into their day-to-day routine, and Lyle had even taught Amaris how to drive the RV. Amaris was starting to show now, and Lyle was concerned that she did not have the proper doctor's care for her pregnancy. More than once he had tried to see if he could find a pack doctor that was willing to see her that was not loyal to the crown. However, they were in Europe, where the werewolves were most loyal to the King or Queen, since they were so close to them. He had not had any luck. They had not had any contact with anyone that they knew, as they had planned. Lyle had bought a burner phone in case of an emergency, but had not even turned it on yet so that there was no way to trace them. To further
Amaris bent down to see Anna at her feet holding her bleeding leg. She had changed back and was now naked. Amaris stripped off her hoodie and gave it to her grateful best friend. "Are you okay?" Amaris asked Anna while looking over to see if Lyle had moved. "I'll be fine. It's nothing Taji can't take care of when he gets back. Go check on your mate." Anna said watching the torn look on Amaris' face. Amaris looked back and gave Anna's shoulder a squeeze, and then hurried to Lyle. Amaris dropped to her knees between Lyle and The King's corpse. Lyle was breathing. It was as if he was asleep. Amaris knew that he must be like the others that she had brought back. It would drain her of her energy to do it. Then she took a look at the area around her. There were so many men and women that were injured and needed help. She knew that Taji could not do it all on his own. Amaris thought about how to heal them all for a moment, and then came up with an idea. She took a deep breath and closed her
Alexis and Andreas' men were attacking in their wolf form. They were coming in from every side, and from the look of it they had The King's men out numbered. The clearing was in an uproar with men and wolves everywhere. Before Amaris knew what was happening, Lyle had transformed into his wolf and leaped between her and The King. His muzzle wrinkled as he bared his teeth and growled in warning. The King looked at him and merely laughed. He reached behind him and grabbed the staff that he had back at the palace. Lyle seemed to recognize it and backed up a few steps. The King laughed at his retreat. "Smart lad. Hand her over and I will not have to use it." Lyle backed up a few more steps and this time he leaned into Amaris pushing her back too. The fighting was still going on around them. Many of The King's men lay upon the ground, and most of the rest were fighting two or three wolves now, since they were severely out numbered. Amaris saw that many of the wolves were making their way cl
Lyle walked around the back of the house to the UTV as the truck drove away. He climbed in and looked at Amaris. "Decoy." He said with a thumb over his shoulder. "Where did you find him? He looks like your doppleganger." Amaris asked amazed. "Funny thing. When I went to get some of those items that we needed earlier, he was the supply clerk that helped me. I asked him to help me out this evening by taking the truck out for a test drive to see if the repairs I made earlier are going to hold. I told him I needed to drive a short way behind to see if it was okay." Lyle laughed again. "So that poor guy has no idea that he is bait?" Amaris was getting ready to get out of the UTV. "I did tell him that since we were hiding out that we need to be extra vigilent for the possibility of attack, which is more likely since we have been here for a while." Amaris got angry. "Lyle, that poor man could get killed because they think that he is you!" She turned and yelled at him. "We
Amaris' mouth hung open for a moment, and then anger grew. "Who? Who whipped you?" Lyle turned to look at her, then down to the floor. "Adam and Sveta. They were made for each other. They are equally twisted and driven by their need for power." Lyle said with a dismissive tone and then almost mechanically started taking the rest of his clothes off. It was clear that he did not want to continue this conversation any further. Amaris walked over and lifted his face to hers from his bent over position. "I'm sorry." She said in a whisper that cracked from the emotion behind it. "I did not want any of this, least of all for you to be hurt." she kissed his cheek tenderly. Lyle dropped the clothes that he was holding and put his arms around her. "This is not your fault. Don't ever think that. This is not something that you chose. You were as much thrown into this as the rest of us. This is all the fault of the ones who have greed and lust in their heart. The ones who have
Lyle dropped it back into the pack and put a few things in from the pile that he had set aside to go into the truck. Then he grabbed the pack that Amaris was filling and sorted through her things. He found a tracker there too. "Well, at least we know it wasn't Kliman. He never touched your pack." Lyle said as he moved over to the doorway of the barn. Sitting against the wall of the barn were a few dozen hiking packs waiting to be filled. Lyle grabbed two from the end and handed one to Amaris. "Fill them with everything that you will need. Only one extra set of clothes, and a couple extra pairs of socks and underware. Food, and matches, and so on." Lyle was moving so quickly that Amaris was not sure what to grab first to stay out of his way. "Quickly! We need to do this before he gets back, or anyone else comes along and sees us." They both hurried and filled their packs and then Lyle took them both and told Amaris to stay there and he would be right back. While Lyle wa
When Amaris' hand touched the young man's arm she suddenly was transported to another time. It was night here. There was the unmistakable sounds of fighting. Growls, and yelling all around her. The young man that Amaris had just been talking to was in front of her hiding behind a tree. He held some sort of black box in his hand and loooked to be waiting for something. "Where are we?" She asked the young man in a whisper as she stepped closer to him. The man did not respond. He did not even look at her. She reached up to tap him on his shoulder. Her hand went right through him. Amaris jumped back startled. She stared at her own hand, and then tried to touch the tree next to her. Her hand passed through that too. She took another look around her. She realized that the man standing next to her was speaking. "They are leaving now. Green transport truck. She is hidden in the back under the tarp. Out" The man said. He was putting the box away and turned to leave in th
Amaris stood there frozen and watched the back of Gran as she walked out of the room. She slowly sank back down on the couch next to Lyle again. He still had not moved from his spot, but seemed to be in deep thought. Amaris brought Lyle out of his stupor by grabbing his hand. "Did she just say what I think that she said? Are we going to have a baby?" Amaris thought about what Gran had said 'Little ones'. What did she mean? Was she talking about our children in the future? Amaris felt just like she often had lately after talking to Gran, more confused. Lyle took a deep breath and turned to Amaris. "According to the tapestries that we saw earlier, you and I will have one set of twins. A boy and a girl. Like you they will also have powers. Which means that like you they will also be hunted by others for what they can do." Lyle hung his head. He did not want to think about his children being hunted anymore than he wanted to think about Amaris being hunted. Now it was Ama
Amaris sat back and looked at Gran who had a big grin on her face. Anna walked over and squeezed in between Lyle and Amaris. "Sorry Romeo, but we need to get this meeting moving, and you just can't help yourself." She said patting Lyle on the shoulder at his disappointed look. Lyle rubbed the back of his neck again and smiled raising his hands in the air. "Got me." There were a few laughs and then everyone turned back to Gran. "Well, as I was saying. We will be splitting up." Everyone gathered around her nodded. Gran had presented this idea already, and no one seemed to disagree with her. "Lyle you will be taking Amaris and hiding. NONE of us is to know where you are." Amaris' eyes grew wide and worry now crept in. Up to this point she had been able to stay safe because she had the help of a lot of people. She did not want anyone else to die, and she was afraid that she would get Lyle killed if he felt that he was her only line of defense. Gran pointed a finger at Amari