KierI despise myself the moment I realize what I have done. The hall is so silent, one could hear the sound of a pin drop.Randale stares at me with surprise, not bothering to wipe the blood dripping from his broken nose. I raise my gaze from his face to every single man who defers to me in the hall. They all have one question in their disapproving gazes. Why?My fingers clench around Jessamine's finger tightly, against my own will. I have lost control of my body, moving against my will. I found her note under my door, covered in her scent. Let's talk. Training hall. -- JH. I was well on my way to light it up when I say the scrawling behind the note. I'll consider letting you take me on your table if you come.I burned it anyway, trying to resist its lure, but I couldn't stop myself, couldn't help myself. I would call it curiousity, but it is more than that: something primal, untamed, and insatiable stirred within me when it came to this woman.A yawning pit of
JessamineIt took me years to discover the truth. Neredia may be my home, but it wasn't my mother's. Or my father's.And my mother did an awfully good job at masking it. Though, I'd think it obviously from her wild, savage beauty, very much unlike the kind I'd grown around that it was pretty obvious.Violet eyes, hair like the rising sun, olive skin--features that belong to those who worship the Sun Goddess; those who live far beyond the borders that are now occupied by rogues.In Neredia, we worship the Moon Goddess. Our shifting processes are tied to the moon's cycle. We may shift whenever we want to, but only under the moonlight are we at the peak of our powers as wolves.I chuckle as I brush my hair back into my hands, pulling it up into a tight ponytail. We. I talk like I can classify myself as one of them. I don't even have a wolf.In Dawn, the Sun Goddess's City, their shifting process is tied to the sun. In contrast, the moon's energy renders them vulnerable and weaker,
RenaeHands clasped behind her back, she watched from a distance, having gotten banned by her son from The Hunt. It didn't matter. She could only take pride in knowing the wretch wouldn't be returning with the rest of the contenders.She watched as the woman tried again and again to get on the horse. She watched the Gamma approach her, and Renae saw the emotions that flickered briefly in her son's eyes as the Gamma lifted the maid and placed her on the horse.Renae felt no regret for what she had planned.There would be casualties, perhaps, even deaths, but it was all for the greater good. For the pack, for Neredia, she would never let an outsider take the sacred seat from her.Did she hate the miserable maid? Yes. Why did she? Because there was none she hated more than Madeline Everhart. The whore. The one who could tell fortunes by reading one's hand. The one she had confided in once about her impossible love, and she had gone behind her and stolen him from her.Once upon a
JessamineI hate horses.My thighs are sore from riding and I hurt in places I didn't know existed. Branches crunch underneath my boots as I transverse the path with the others who are divided in groups, engaged in conversations that distract them from the sun that burns down on us furiously and the cold that bites through leather and fur.I can already tell. I don't like today.Ahead, Alpha Kier walks with Beta Randale and a few guards, their path leading us deeper into the forest. Ever since the incident with the thong, he's been tense and uncharacteristically silent. Understanding his limits is as vital as knowing his desires. Subtlety, you must master, for too much pressure could ruin everything.Sighing, I swat a flying bug away from my ear. It's getting tedious, all of this. Who's to say abandoning all of this won't get me the same result? Why does it have to be so difficult? Constantly playing these games tire me.But Mother must have seen it all. She couldn't have
We convene in a wide clearing, where an Elder awaits us, a long brown rifle in his grasp. There's a rogue woman kneeling on the floor beside him. She is bound in ropes and her lips are gagged, but when her eyes meet mine, I feel like I have been pinned in place for a more thorough scrutiny.Her eyes, they're a very light shade of blue, it almost looks white. I take one look at her dirty greasy hair that still retains the feathery look and her olive skin and I instantly know she's not from Neredia.In the same exact moment I come to that realization, pure hate slips into her gaze, bitter, raw and cold. It makes me shiver and I look away, focusing my attention instead on the Elder as he addresses us.The woman will be cut loose and given a head start of ten minutes. After which we will follow and hunt her down. The one who kills her and returns with a cut of her greying hair as proof wins.I swallow, eyes darting back to the woman. She looks unperturbed by her impending death. She looks
Lloyd wondered when it all began. He couldn't quite remember. Over the years, she had grown on him; her wistful gaze as she observed the Alpha from the shadows, her infectious laughter, and the unexpected grace in her every movement. Her efforts to conceal her inner darkness behind a facade of naivety had intrigued him.Lloyd couldn't pinpoint when he had fallen in love with her. Maybe it was because she was different, or perhaps because she embodied everything he was not. He, the simpering coward without a mind of his own, had naturally admired Jessamine, and that admiration had evolved into something more.Something Renae didn't appreciate.Lloyd's gaze shifted to his best friend, Kier, who was struggling to mask his worry, avoiding looking in the direction Jessamine had fled. It wasn't Kier's fault that the woman loved him, but that didn't stop Lloyd from hating Kier.There was no one like Kier. He had been the perfect, golden prince when they had been children, but now, he was the
JessamineFinding the cave was hard. Gamma Lloyd conveniently forgot to add that I had to swim to get into it. I’m cold, shivering and risking hypothermia remaining in these clothes, but there isn’t a change of clothes hanging anywhere.Screams echo through the forest and I’m grateful that I’m not out there. Outrunning Moira and Katherine happened on pure luck. They were much too distracted trying to kill each other to even notice me slip into the water, and I’d almost drowned, remaining under as they searched for me.I stand from the rock I’d been sitting on and blow hot breaths into my freezing palms, rubbing them together as I risk a step towards the cave’s entrance. I look beyond the water and I freeze when I spot someone at the edge of it.The rogue, I recognize her from her clothes. She halts when her light blue eyes land on me and she looks back, trying to decide if I’m a high risk. She suddenly lets out a cry when an arrow pierced her shoulder, toppling her into the wate
The acrid scent of burning skin marred the air around us, and a tear drops from my eyes to the bloodied, yet healing skin. “You love him,” the rogue says behind me, stoking the fire. “Father says love is weakness. You are not weak.”My fingers tremble as I push the burning branch into Kier’s skin again, and he groans, trashing. All that pain, and his eyes won’t open. I feel the burn in my heart, my soul, and it hurts me to hurt him. “Is that a question or a statement?” I ask, surprised to find my voice steady and unnervingly cold.“Why did you help me?” she asks, changing the topic entirely. Great, because I have no interest in conversing about my love or life with a rogue. “I was due the death sentence. Two years, I’ve been in that dungeon, waiting to die. I’d hoped for an execution. A quick one. I dreamt of it every night, you know. I didn’t expect to be used for sport by your stupid—”“Keep talking and I will gut you,” I tell her without looking back, and I mean it. At least, I so
Az rubbed his eyes tiredly. It’d been days since he last had a peaceful night’s rest. Lord of Grimstone. He often found himself laughing at the title. He wasn’t lord of anything—at least not yet. His people didn’t seem to think so with their constant rebellion of him and stealing from him, no matter that he tried his best to ensure even the darkest parts of Grimstone got ridded of their poverty.They didn’t warm up to him. They called him a freak. It was pathetic and he should have known Jessamine was lying the moment she started batting those long lashes of hers and speaking to him sweetly.He left Dawn after the wedding and he’d been at Grimstone for a total of seven months now. And in that time she’d come to see him thrice, with her twin boys, Wren and Alder. They both had their mother's eyes, but that was where the resemblance ended. The rest was all Kier. From their red hair down to their angry growls whenever Az didn't give them what they wanted.Of course, Jessamine had come to
Jessamine If you’ve ever been away from home for too long, you’d understand the feeling of your stomach plummeting at the most familiar scents, the urge to breathe in deeply, feel everything, reacquaint yourself with every single detail—details that suddenly seem more vivid and…and intense. That is all I can call this—coming home. Somehow, between punching Kier and telling him I hate him and I’ll return to my father’s castle and find me a man who isn’t quite as infuriating as he is, he’d kissed me. Concussion be damned, Kier’s lips heal me in more ways than any physician could. I walk Kier back into the throne room, pushing off the remains of his shirt. His fingers tangle in my hair as his lips on mine reminds me of the first time…the first time I saw him. His eyes looked like a tear from an ocean of peridots. His hair was shorter, not long enough to run my fingers through, but I was fascinated by the rich hue of it. He rarely smiled then, but when he did, it was bright as starlight
My fingers shake and I hide them behind my back as I round the corner. Slowly, I approach, the large oak door standing ominously in the distance. I wipe the sweat from my wrist against my light skirts and grip tightly as my chest thumps. Once. Twice. The closer I draw, the heavier the dagger under my skirt weighs. The maids behind me chatter, but I barely hear the words they say. I try to hide it behind a show of boredom but the fear creeps up my spine and it is all I can do to keep going. It takes an eternity, but I reach the door eventually. “He’s not in,” the guard tells me when I start to open the door. There usually aren’t any, but after this morning, I understand why he has his chambers guarded. My fingers still by the door. Not in? This is when we have dinner. Every night. I didn’t factor his possible absence into my plans. Gods above. “Where is he?”“Throne room. The reports from the prisoners came back. He’s off attending to it and said to tell you to wait for him.”Oh no.
Jessamine“I didn’t do it,” Killian growls for the umpteenth time. His gaze darts to me. “She did. This is her attempt at trying to get rid of me. Tell me what motive I would have to set the freak free. I’d gain nothing from it. I wasn’t even in the castle!”His argument would seem solid enough to Atticus if he wasn’t also accusing me of framing him. Darrock got out last night. Kier didn’t. When I heard the news, I bawled for hours in the bathroom, keeping the water running to drown out the sound. Why didn’t he leave? Because he’s mad at me? He claimed that I destroyed him last night. His eyes were hurt and broken. Why didn’t he just fucking leave?Atticus’s head tilts left. “Where were you last night?”Killian hesitates, his jaw grinding. I ponder on his reluctance to tell Atticus where he’d run off to. The bonfire. His gaze cuts to Raya and his fists clench. “The queen informed me of Raya’s plans to leave. I had to go bring her back.”Raya gives me a look that is equal parts be
JessamineHe’s drunk. I should have known serving him glass after glass would lead here. My hands trapped in his, held above my head, and his body a cage above mine. His long lashes flutter as he breathes in deeply. “Say it again.”The lie comes as easy as breathing. “I’m yours.”His canines gleam as he gives me a smile no one else has seen. “Youknowwhat intriguesme themostaboutyou?” His words tumble out together and it takes only a second to pull them apart as he leans in, his hot breath tickling my nose. “That I can’t tell your lies apart from your truths.”“Now, that is a terrible lie,” I whisper, reaching up to brush my lips against his chin. He shudders, a strangled noise building in his throat. “You like that you never know what I’m thinking. You love the danger I present. It excites you. It is why you keep me close, despite knowing I have a dagger strapped to my thigh, especially made to kill you. You romanticize with death, and death I will be, for you.”His response is a hea
JessamineKier might have been in chains and covered in dirt and blood, but there will never be any man as beautiful as him. He hasn’t noticed me yet, his teeth bared at the guards fighting to put him on his knees. The humans gasp, the smell of their fear filling the room when his bound arms ram into the side of a guard’s head, knocking him out.That earns him a growl from Killian who doesn’t hesitate to draw his sword and ram it into the back of Kier’s head. My mate stumbles, his blood spilling down his torn brown shirt, and he falls on one knee. I start to stand from Atticus’s lap, a growl traveling up my throat, when Atticus breathes against my neck, “Does his discomfort trouble you? You forget that he abandoned you, left you to rot here while he chose them again over you.”Kier would never, but I don’t say that. My mind is whirling in so many directions. How could he surrender? How could he let them…take him? How…my eyes widen when Lloyd walks in next and bows low, to the hip as h
JessamineI’ve been involved in an unhealthy number of ceremonies, and each time, it’s even less eventful. That isn’t to say that our wedding wasn’t a large affair. I’m fairly certain nearly all of Ashbourne was in attendance, all eager to see the werewolf princess with eyes like precious stones. Yes, someone said that as she delivered gifts to me, wishing me a long, happy marriage—a duchess, maybe. If only she knew.The castle couldn’t contain all of the guests and the guards around me were triple the normal size, like Atticus half expected someone to disrupt the ceremony. Someone who I can bet is Kier. Nervous, the entire time, I’d waited, staring at the door, hoping for a commotion that would bring a special redhead to me.But Kier never showed up and the ceremony was sealed. I was the puppet queen of Ashbourne. I was Atticus’s dove, his pet. I was thankful that nothing else was expected of me, other than sitting still and looking pretty. Unlike Kier, Atticus didn’t entertain the
JessamineI get a visitor a few minutes to my…wedding. My gaze lands on Darrock’s and nothing could have held me back. I launch myself at him with whatever little strength I have garnered in the past hour—which is close to nothing and he snatches my wrist before I can impale him with the butterknife I’d stolen from my dinner tray earlier.“Violet, please,” he rasps. “Listen to me—”Reaching up, I slam my head into his. He groans, retreating a step back and I see that I have caused no damage except the ache spreading through my head. I stumble in the bid to attack him again and he steadies me before I can fall. “Take your hands off me—” A firm hand clamps down on my mouth, silencing my scream of outrage before it can escape. “I’m trying to help,” he whispers. “We’re leaving. Now.”I let him see the response to that in my gaze; Over my dead body will I follow him anywhere.Darrock glances over his shoulder and when his eyes return to me, they’re troubled. “I know you have questions, an
Kier“It can’t be breached,” Lloyd explains and a disgruntled sound from the man seated beside me, whose aura rivals against mine greatly seems to set us all over the edge again. “Do not speak in absolutes,” King Hunter murmurs, his grimace turning darker. “He doesn’t have enough of us to guard his foothold. Surely, an army of humans can’t be that lethal.”Lloyd laughs, and it is nothing charming. He’d been the first I’d gone to for help after Randale convinced me that I’d get myself and Jessamine killed if I headed first into Ashbourne without a plan, and it had taken a lot of convincing to get him in here—the council room. “They have weapons and banes that’d render you useless in the twinkle of an eye. If you wish to bring him down, you must do it from within. An outright attack will if anything, help him kill your daughter quicker—and believe me, there is no level of relevance that would prevent him from doing that once he decides he has no use for her.”Pain flickers behind Lloyd