Jessamine. He gave her flowers. She's been mooning about it all morning, telling everyone who cares to listen that the Alpha handpicked the roses himself. Why am I mad? I know he hates flowers. They make him sneeze. But if he'd gone as far as handpicking the flowers himself, then he must really like Moira. And that makes competing against her even more difficult than it already is. "The first test," Luna Renae starts, unrolling a scroll, and her expression is stern as she says, "Wisdom and Leadership." Alpha Kier enters the hall and I make a point to stare only at his mother. The others are swooning, whispering, rising from their chairs and bowing. My heart's beating hard and fast, but he can't know that. I keep my expression neutral, uncaring, even if I watch him in my peripheral vision. He's staring in my general direction, but I can tell his gaze is fixed on me, the only woman who isn't fussing about his presence. Settling
Kier "This is getting out of hand, Kier," mother murmurs, tugging on the ropes of her robe tightly. "Word is spreading. The Alphas aren't pleased." I lean back against the door. "Let it be, Mother. They will come to accept my decision." "Whatever game this is, it isn't worth the disparities. Have her thrown out or I will," my mother warns, her weary gaze darting from the mirror to me. "Do you desire her?" "No, Mother." Her hazel eyes take me in. "Your eyes tell a different tale Kier, and you must work on that. Meet with Moira tonight. Or Helen. We all saw your exchange earlier. You must diffuse whatever gossip may arise from this before it even begins. It is not unheard of for Kings to covet...women of lowbirth--" "I do not crave her," I cut her off. "I will meet with Moira at your behest, but this will be the last you try to bend me to your will, Mother. I am not a child." Mother stiffens at the authority in my voice and her head
KierSlowly, Jessamine Everhart gets out of my bed, rising with a grace that surprises. She is in a long pink chemise that reveals nothing, but she looks...I swallow.She yanks my favourite robe off its hangar and wraps it around her body. Her audacity baffles me. "I thought I'd come by to apologize for my behaviour, but you weren't in when I got here. I waited and... well, your bed is more comfortable than the mattresses in the servants quarters. I fell asleep.""And you thought to fall asleep in MY bed?!"She looks up at me, violet eyes searching mine. "You will wed me soon with the Moon Goddess's blessings. It'll be OUR bed soon. I thought I'd start getting used to it as well."If I had any doubts before, they have been erased. Jessamine Everhart has more than a few screws loose in her head. No matter that it's a very beautiful head.She turns around, walking to my closet and prying it open. "Surely, you do not have a problem with that. The same way I did not just see you fool arou
My eyes feel heavy and I yawn for the third time in the past minute. I couldn't get enough sleep last night. Between hurrying up to finish up my chores before dawn so I could be on time for the second task, I couldn't afford more than one hour.And now I'm trudging down the narrow path that leads to the Goddess's temple. I'm far behind.It's a little difficult to keep up with the agile Alpha females. The first to reach the temple gets a headstart into our next task.Diving into the sacred lake behind the temple to retrieve diving into the lake behind the temple to retrieve the Lunar Crest, the Luna's symbol of power. They say it's been passed down from Luna to Luna, first owned by the Goddess herself.Well. I'm at a disadvantage. I'm a horribly poor swimmer.I can already see myself drowning amidst the rest. Violent shivers wreck my body. I would've avoided this one, but that'd get me disqualified.Someone bumps into me and I lose my footing, falling hard on my rump. I wince, glancing
KierI'm staring.And it definitely isn't at the Crest in her hand.I noted her bleeding hand first, before my eyes snagged on the parts of her that were on display, as well as the bruises and marks that are taking far too long to heal because she's an Omega.She's covered in cuts and bruises and... I'm not sure what to feel about myself as my eyes keep circling back to her perky nipples, peeking through the scrap that is left of her shirt, and the unreal dip that is her waist.Her pants are in shreds and I swallow hard as she climbs out of the water, water dripping from her wet hair, down her shoulders and chest, between her breast, down her diamond shaped bellybutton and disappears into her pants.There are a few scars on her belly. Old claw scars that peak my interest."For the love of the Goddess, someone please cover her up," my mother mutters, and for some reason, my legs move.Lloyd is faster, moving in a flash and he drapes his jacket over her shoulders, pulling the flaps
JessamineI really shouldn't be out of my quarters by this time, but then, I take this walk on every other day.What walk, you might ask.The walk in which I stalk Alpha Kier. And it really isn't a walk. I'm mostly hiding behind pillars and walls.Now, it's a wall. He's standing on the balcony, one hand against the railing and another nursing a bottle of liquor that he brings up to his lips every now and then, drowning out whatever sorrows plague him.Alpha Kier is strong, brutal and wicked to most. But only I have ever seen the side to him that is neither of those things. The first time I had seen him, I was much younger and it had been my first day here.I got lost on this floor and stumbled upon a figure in the shadows. I found him in this same spot, gazing at the stars. A single tear had rolled down his cheek, and that had been all of the grief he had been allowed to feel before the mantle of Alpha had been passed on to him, right after his father's brutal death.A beheadi
JessamineThere's a ruckus in the castle.Someone stole a diamond bracelet from Lady Helen's room. She's raised an alarm and the guards are searching room after room.I watch them scurry about the hallways, yelling and barking orders. Alpha Kier is gone from the castle, visiting the borders. There was a rogue attack in one of the villages, I heard. Two dozens injured, no deaths.The attacks started two years before Alpha Kier's father was sentenced to his brutal death, and they haven't let up ever since. A group of people who were wronged by the previous Alpha King pulled quite a number of lone wolfs from here and there, all with the same vendetta, and created a pack of haters. Their chosen Alpha, King of the Rogues, Atticus, used to be Alpha Kier's godfather, his father's best friend and Beta.I'm unsure of the details since I gained most of my knowledge from kitchen gossip, but it's a whole messy story.I can't say I'll miss Alpha Kier. He broke my fingers last night. Bending
JessamineTwenty lashes, I think as I put my left foot in front of my right, refusing to let my head hang in shame as the crowd watches me in utter silence.Each beating, I had taken, my screams muffled by the bit. Twenty.Ten more than mother gave everytime I ran. Very early in my life, I came to understand pain and fear. My mother...she loved me. Too much. I was wild and free. I would run the expanse of the woods, threading places even warriors didn't. She didn't understand why I ran to the wasteland and marshes. She didn't know why I spent hours sitting on the tallest tree, watching, waiting. I would return home, covered in small cuts and bruises, and I would reek of smoke and ash.My mother was scared that I would run one day and never return, like my father.So, she locked us in. Barred the doors for days. It didn't matter that we were starving and had nothing to eat. She'd rather we starved and died together than let me leave.And one day, I grew tired of it. I took dow
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