“Sitting here is kind of therapeutic, isn’t it?” I look up at the sound of Samuel’s voice and watch him come closer to me. He sits down next to me, careful about putting enough distance between the two of us. I shouldn’t be surprised at seeing here, given that this used to be our place. I had come to the lake banks after meeting Lea. I needed to sort out my thoughts and I thought the best place to do that was here, where I had spent countless nights in my youth, contemplating and moaning about my life. That time seemed so long ago, and sitting here with Samuel felt as if two very different times of my life were merging into one.“Yes, it is,” I replied because there was no way I could deny what he said. It was indeed therapeutic to sit here on the lake bank and watch it shimmer in the moonlight. The water glimmered and made it seem like some fairy tale realm where all the magical creatures came to drink and rejuvenate themselves. It felt and looked like something out of a dream. Sitti
This was a strong pack, with even stronger pack warriors. According to the headcount, there were around sixty rogues that attacked us at our pack border. Out of the forty pack warriors, actively engaged in battle, only five were wounded serious enough to get medical attention. Others are minor injuries and have already healed. The medical camp was set up outside the pack house to ensure the best medical care was given to the five wounded warriors.Agata, a mother of three, lives in a two-storeyed blue house, overlooking the hills in the southern part of the pack. She and her mate are both pack warriors and they fought together in the battle. Her oldest child, Ryanna, barely sixteen years old, made sure her two younger brothers made it to the safe house in time. She has been admitted because of a deep gash in her thigh, extending from the hip to the inside of her knee, tearing her quadricep muscle, and her artery. She would have bled out on the battleground if her husband hadn’t felt t
Twenty years ago…It’s been twice now that I’ve felt his crippling pain inside my body whenever Samuel and Sophie have sex. It is this soul-crushing, skin-ripping, and jarring pain that I can’t help but take up a fetal position in my bed and wait for it to subside. Nothing I do ever lessens the impact of it. It makes me feel like a handicap because I lose all sense of focus, all sense of belonging, and everything that’s happening around me fades into oblivion. Time feels endless, it could have been going on for hours or days or months, even but could not have been realistically more than a couple of minutes. By the time the waves of pain subside, I’m left gasping for breath, sweat pooling in the corners of my body, my wet clothes sticking to my skin, my heart beat thumping in my ears, my head addled with confusing thoughts, and my skin hot and flushed as if I’ve had a very bad fever.After the second time it happened, after my wolf vanished from my mind for a couple of hours because s
There was an itch inside me that I just couldn’t scratch. It had all started when the medical camp was finally wrapped up, leaving me with nothing to do. Going to school and resuming my life in a normal fashion seems wrong, somehow. The pack was attacked by a pack of rogues; it was a pretty big deal. How can things go back to normal so quickly? As I look around the pack, everyone’s lives have already started going back to normal. It’s only been a few hours since the last patient was discharged from the camp, but I feel like I need to have some new purpose now.I spring up from my bed, an idea forming in my head. This basic instinct to do something can easily be satisfied by what I have in mind. Energized by this thought, I walk out of my room and head to Noah’s room, faintly remembering his assigned lot from the couple of times I have been there. I breathe a sigh of relief when I realise that he is inside. At least, I won’t have to go around searching for him now. One thing made it ea
Twenty years ago…What happened between Samuel and me was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It was glorious, all-encompassing, and unforgettable. I look at Samuel, his face half hidden in shadows, resting so serenely that I don’t want to disturb him at all. I want to freeze this moment because this is the most relaxed I’ve ever seen him. His forehead isn’t creased into a frown and his eyelashes fall gently against his cheekbones. Visions of last night flash into my mind and that makes me want to stay in this bed forever. As much as it paints me to admit, I know I have to get up.I take one last look before turning away from my sleeping mate. In a perfect world, where everything is right and well and good, I wouldn’t have to walk away from our night together. There wouldn’t be Samuel and his pregnant girlfriend to consider, in addition to a bucketload of issues. I swing my legs out of the bed and am blasted with the coolness of the air conditioning. Goosebumps ris
I had no expectations when I asked Noah to take me to the pack dungeons where I could meet the captured rogues. I had maybe hoped that meeting them could somehow help me help this pack. I had also hoped that maybe seeing the captured rogues would give me some sort of vindication over all the horrors and terribleness of the attack a few days ago. I hoped seeing them would make me feel that a kind of justice had been meted out to the perpetrators who tried to attack this pack, infiltrate its defenses, and even hurt innocent people.But what the rogue said has baffled my mind and a thousand different thoughts are racing in my head. I don’t have any idea about the hierarchy between the rogues who attacked us but assuming the captured rogues are somewhere in the middle, it would be safe to say that at least a lot of rogues were aware of who my mate is. They knew her name, and probably her history too. At least, they knew that she was once a rogue. The rogues were familiar with her, seemed
Twenty years ago...I’m sitting on the toilet bowl, my feet tapping an impatient rhythm on the floor. I’m cursing my luck and every decision that has led me to this point. I’ve peed on the pregnancy stick and I’m waiting for the two pink lines to appear. In my gut I already know I’m pregnant; using this pregnancy sick is a mere formality. My period is twelve days late and if I have not suddenly developed a serious hormonal imbalance in the last couple of days, I’m pregnant. I can’t believe I could be producing cells for a new person inside my body right now.I can’t be in this situation, I just can’t. I close my eyes and try to erase every bad decision that has led me to this point. I want to undo that night I spent with Samuel because I don’t even know what he’s going to say when I tell him about it. My phone beeps with the timer I set up for the test load-up. I stand up, constantly giving myself a pep talk that everything would be alright, and pick up the test from the counter. I pe
Samuel only summoned Lea to his office but Aaron didn’t raise an eyebrow when I volunteered to accompany her. I didn’t know how many people knew about Lea and I being mates but I’m guessing since Aaron didn’t stop me, he knows or Samuel must have hinted to let me come. If it had been any other situation, I wouldn’t have felt the need to be with Lea but since the issue is so sensitive, concerning the rogue attack on the pack and possibly, her father’s involvement in it.The idea hit me when I was running from the dungeons towards the pack house to talk to Lea. I didn’t believe she had anything to do with the rogue attack. I know she’s loyal and holds real regard for Samuel because he accepted her and her brother in his pack and gave them home without any prejudice. It would also be rare for a pack member to have any connections with a rogue and leak pack information for a planned attack. The only thing that made sense was for her father to be the mole. He is only an honorary pack membe
LeaI watch Ben and Mason circle each other, judging each other’s stances and anticipating each other’s moves. These boys were growing up too fast, they were already too eager to participate in the pack’s training sessions and they still had years before they could officially attend those sessions. It still didn’t stop them from watching every practice session and cheering for the older werewolves. It didn’t help that Kyle encouraged them all the time, boosting them up, and telling them to aim to be the best pack warrior there has ever been. I think it was cute how they both looked up to Kyle, wanting to impress him, to spend time with them, and to just be near them.Ever since Kyle has officially started training to be the future alpha of this pack, he has become incredibly busy. He barely has time for himself, and I know he feels guilty about not being able to give me enough time. If he had been here from his birth, Alpha Samuel would have groomed him to be the next alpha from the m
I know I wasn’t supposed to eavesdrop, wasn’t mean to listen to their conversation, but how could I not? Even a saint would have had trouble to avoid listening in on them, and I am no saint. I had been reeling from the revelation after the pack initiation ceremony, about how I had magically changed packs, and I was so confused about everything that I didn’t know what to do. I kept trying to deny what was happening, what had already happened and it had gotten me nowhere.When I ran out of Samuel’s office, I had no idea where I was supposed to go, and what I was supposed to do. I couldn’t go back to my room, or talk to anyone. The thought of interacting with anyone or sitting alone in my room made me claustrophobic. So, I did the only thing I could think of, I ran to the lake so I could think and re-think everything and decide what I had to do now.An epiphany slammed into me when I was there. I realised I could go on thinking about everything, thinking about the past, present, and the
The party after the initiation ceremony was still going on in the dining room of the pack house. Everyone was assembled there and I couldn’t catch a breath or take a step without someone congratulating me or telling me how amazing the hunt was. Pack hunts were rare because we didn’t want to disturb the ecosystem around us, but they were sometimes a celebration, like today. I was lucky to spot a herd of deer, and we managed to hunt down a couple of them, enough for everyone in the pack to take a celebratory bite of the hunt. Now, I was tired, both from the day and everyone frolicking around me.I wanted to retire to my bedroom already, but before I could do that, I wanted to see Samuel. So, I went upstairs to his office and knocked on the door. It is probably the first time I’m coming here without being summoned for doing something wrong or breaking the rules. It felt nice to not be the troublemaker for a change. I waited for his call to come in before swinging the door open and going
I had witnessed pack initiation ceremonies a few times in this pack and back home. They were rare because it was unusual for an alpha to induct a wolf into their already blooming pack. Often, these ceremonies were held after an extensive background search and interviews, and all for a very good reason. Alpha has to make sure that they’re not introducing a sneaky snake in the pack that could harm them or the pack in the future. But this ceremony was an exception because not only Kyle was Samue’s blood, but Samuel was sure of Kyle’s heritage and I’m sure he is excited about having Kyle in the pack because it means that he will have his son in the pack and a legitimate future alpha.I had gone through the pack initiation ceremony myself when I had chosen Brad as my mate. I was as unprepared for it as Kyle was for his ceremony. I would have told him about what was supposed to happen but werewolf law states that the person is supposed to be initiated is supposed to go with as little knowle
Ever since the pack announcement, everything in the pack has been a whirlwind. Everyone has been running around to organise the pack initiation ceremony as if it’s the most important even to happen in their lives. Decorations are being torn apart and hung again, menus are decided and then discarded, everyone is striving to make the even perfect. And it is all making me antsy. Surely, it is not that big of a deal, getting initiated into a pack. Even people’s attitudes toward me have changed, they somehow stand straighter whenever I enter a room, their heads bowing to me in deference, their voices going quieter and their smiles becoming brighter. I don’t understand what the big deal about all of this is because I have been living in this pack for the last couple of weeks and I’m still the same person. I’m still me but the way I’m being treated is completely different and disconcerting.I’m being treated like an alpha son, exactly how Ryder was used to being treated back home. I feel a l
Twenty years ago…After I talked to Samuel, I made my way home, tears blurring my every step. I felt like the world was crashing around me. I couldn’t breathe, I felt the air around me had been sucked out and I was stuck in a vacuum. How had this happened to me? I couldn’t for the life of me figure this mystery out. All my life I’d just wanted to have a mate, love him as truly and honestly as I can, and be there for him in every aspect. Now, here I was, practically rejected by a mate who had a pregnant girlfriend that he was planning to propose to. On top of everything, he had the gall to reject my child, choosing to stay with his girlfriend rather than his mate.Tears were already leaking out of my eyes when I reached my home, but as soon as the door closed behind me, I started bawling. I had expected my parents to be there, I wanted their support at the moment, I wanted their love. I also hoped selfishly that when I told them Samuel was my mate and that I was pregnant with his chil
I’d thought Lea’s father was in bad shape but I hadn’t expected it to be this bad. I could see an endless number of tubes going in and out of him, several machines beeping continuously, and he was sedated with such a high dose that I was sure he wouldn’t wake up if someone set him up on fire. His face looked black and blue his whole body is mottled with bruises and it’s crystal clear that he had been brutally beaten by the rogues before being left to die at the pack border for us to find.Lea had gone ghostly white after seeing her father in that condition and I couldn’t blame her. The scene reminded me of the time Brad was stuck in the hospital during the last couple of weeks of his life, how emaciated and weak and sickly he had started to look. It took me back to the time when Mom used to worry about him leaving us behind all the time, how the twins realized that he would leave and never come back. I’m sure these thoughts must be running in Lea’s head too, and I wanted to take her a
I’m once again in Samuel’s office. Surprise, surprise. In the short time we’ve been here, I have been here more than is normal for any pack member. I may as well set up my chopping block in this office because I’m summoned to be here so often. I think Kyle has also done everything possible to make sure we’re called again back to this office. Every time I’m here I’m brought back to the past when I and Aaron had been asked by Samuel’s dad to not see each other since we weren’t fated mates. My life has moved so far away from that trajectory, that it feels like a fictional tale someone uninvolved with my life is reciting to me. I can’t say my current life feels familiar to me because, for the first time in forever, Kyle hasn’t done anything remotely wrong. We’re here because of Lea and her father, and I’m a bit relieved that at least, we’re not the bad guys right now, always seemingly disrupting the pack peace, rules and regulations.For once, I wished we were called here for a good reaso
Samuel only summoned Lea to his office but Aaron didn’t raise an eyebrow when I volunteered to accompany her. I didn’t know how many people knew about Lea and I being mates but I’m guessing since Aaron didn’t stop me, he knows or Samuel must have hinted to let me come. If it had been any other situation, I wouldn’t have felt the need to be with Lea but since the issue is so sensitive, concerning the rogue attack on the pack and possibly, her father’s involvement in it.The idea hit me when I was running from the dungeons towards the pack house to talk to Lea. I didn’t believe she had anything to do with the rogue attack. I know she’s loyal and holds real regard for Samuel because he accepted her and her brother in his pack and gave them home without any prejudice. It would also be rare for a pack member to have any connections with a rogue and leak pack information for a planned attack. The only thing that made sense was for her father to be the mole. He is only an honorary pack membe