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29. Hope
Last Updated:
2023-09-22 19:58:29
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Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 30. Cal
After the full moon, I lie in my lonely bed and replay every precious minute, pad in hand.My simple sketches are random snatches of thoughts. Just the curve of her shoulder, the way her hair falls. I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm trying.I kid myself it's good practice. A way to pass time. Rather than admit the truth. I'm preparing myself something to remember her by when this Freeze is over. After all, out of sight is out of mind. We both know that when Ryan stands in front of her, it could all disintegrate.I might be a fool for her, but I'm not naive.As the week wears on, it seems like Hope and I got away with it. Which only seems to give Vera the impression she has a chance.The leaders and pilgrims were all tucked up sound asleep whilst we found each other. Vera thinks I was shut away in the cells alone. Pining for female attention. Unfortunately, she's promising to make sure I'm not lonely next time. I need to wriggle out of that one promptly.Hope's new tactics
Last Updated : 2023-09-23Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 31. Mireille
I wasn’t entirely surprised to wake up after the full moon alone. Realising Cyrus was the man in the dark of the black space had been a hell of a moment. When the lights went on and he was right there, there was no clothing to hide his huge frame, every muscle tensed and fixated on me. I could have died.But I already miss feeling utterly weightless in his arms. My body melded around his huge shape. I loved how massive every feature of him is. Trying to wrap my legs around his waist left me so splayed out my sex had rubbed mercilessly against his rigid v-line. My hands barely covered all of his cheeks.He oozed pure strength, combined with an earthy, unquestionable sexiness that meant I could no longer look away. To make him crack and finally admit there was something between us was electrifying. But now I need more. I want to know all about his tattoos, the scars on his body, what brought him here. Why is he so quiet? Has he received any notes?Now he knows it was me every moon, wil
Last Updated : 2023-09-24Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 32. Cyrus
Of course I heard her screaming. Every single time. What the hell am I meant to do? I’d done my best to try and give Raze the impression I didn’t care about her, yet he’s still testing me. I slam my hands against the wall, blood dripping down from my drenched arms as Sven moans incoherently.He’s wanting me to crack. Raze is always dancing two steps ahead of me.. He compared us to the tortoise and the hare at our so-called reunion, outside the gates. Me the lumbering idiot, him the quick-witted wonder. I almost walked back into the dank, scum-covered prison he paid to free me from. Until he said her name. Skylar, the sister I killed for. Now I’m the bunker pariah. Everyone knows we share a past, I’m just Raze’s enforcer. Taking it this far, to actually hurt Mireille, I really didn’t see coming. So maybe I am the idiot. I should have guessed when Raze appeared after breakfast. Smiling calmly, running a hand through his short blonde hair, “hey Cy, can you check on Sven?”“He is refu
Last Updated : 2023-09-25Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 33. Hope
There is a limited take-up for my little art class. I tried to be diplomatic and not time it for Vera’s meditation. Maybe next time I will. Especially if I see her pawing Cal again. Just because I encouraged him to try that tactic doesn’t mean I enjoy seeing it in action. I set the wrinkled Laurel and Rex up with some charcoals and try my best to talk them through a still life. I took some classes as a teen, and I try to remember the best bits from the instructor. Soon, I have two happy little fossils sketching two potatoes. It should have been a more dramatic fruit, but I had to work with what the stores gave me. The three of us fell into a quiet space, heads full of lines and shadows. I worked on the piece of my mother, and they focused on the knobbly bits of the brown vegetable. Footsteps sounded, and I looked up, hoping as always that it was Cal. Sadly, the beige-wrapped, silver-haired Elvie stuck her head through and exclaimed, “oh how fantastic! I saw your poster!” “It’s jus
Last Updated : 2023-09-26Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 34. Cal
I kill time in the gym, attempting to get into a book and sketching. Praying for the curfew to hurry the fuck up. Plugging the leak. Even the way he said it, his icy eyes full of malice makes me want to shudder. Ervin avoids me the rest of the day thankfully but I still have Vera trying anything she can. “What are you drawing, can I take a look?” she cooed, leaning over me. Her hand rests on my shoulder, a blonde ringlet landing against my cheek. “Oh it’s a house! You clever thing! Has Hope been giving you lessons on the quiet?” "Nope just a hobby," I correct her. "Shame, if she'd taught you how to draw people I'd have asked you to try and sketch me!" a tinkling, obnoxiously flirtatious laugh landing flat. Goddess if she thought I was going to sketch her, those beams have twisted her mind more than I thought. I’ve found my skills are absolutely not in portrait. I can’t draw a person. No matter how hard I try to capture Hope I don’t have her talent. However, it turns out I am no
Last Updated : 2023-09-26Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 35. Hope
Cal assures me Ervin’s threat was real. I should probably be more scared, but when he is there, how can I be? One look at the power in his body, the intent in his face. He’d kill for me. I have no doubt in my mind he would do whatever it took. Which is crazy really. I forget about everything when I’m with him. My father has disowned me yet I end up twirling, parading my silky nightwear to Cal. Revelling in my body's shivers of anticipation as his eyes meld between navy blue and brown. I never rocked the boat or really pushed Ryan's buttons. I was already turning into someone meeker. A flame sputtering, struggling to find its oxygen. He made decisions, and I went along with them. Telling myself it’s part of the mate bond. I didn’t fly off the handle, not like Cal makes me. Perhaps the Goddess wants to extinguish the bigger, more annoying aspects of my personality. Maybe that’s why she paired me with Ryan. Smooth out the kinks. Staring at the sleeping man beside me, I struggle to see
Last Updated : 2023-09-27Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 36. Mireille
We’re only a couple of days away from the Full Moon and I have no idea what I’m going to do. The fourth full moon underground with no monks pepper. The excitement of the darkness has gone now. I can’t go back in there, no matter how much people try to explain the lights coming on as a strange fluke.It wasn’t. I just know it.Someone is getting their kicks from our reactions. Well not someone. Cyrus. He somehow rigged the lights to come as he was a hero. He took care of Quinn and her injured face like a kind, benevolent giant. He called me his angel.It all added up. The notes. The way everyone here judges him.But every night since then my dreams have tortured me. Sven is thankfully doing better. Again, Cyrus saved the day with his gruesome-sounding gut twisting deep dive. Then I remember Cyrus was the one who swiped half his abdominal muscles away in the first place.As much as I try, I’m struggling to pair the Cyrus who guarded me, who tenderly kissed my arm and treated me so prec
Last Updated : 2023-09-28Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 37. Cyrus
I’m sticking to my side of the deal. I remain his enforcer. I monitor, I report. He can’t hurt me if I shut all the feelings down. I've learnt my lesson the hard way.The cruel dreams I've had where she approaches me in white, seeking me out with love, not fear in her eyes. What else is there to think of her as but an angel? My knuckles are still red raw. I couldn’t handle myself for the first few nights after it all fell apart. In the room with the cells, where Mireille was first locked up, there is a separate annexe. While she slept, I had time to stare at the walls far too long and noticed the odd outline.It opens with a concealed metal mechanism. I don’t know who else knows about it, but so far, those small square metres of space are my only sanctuary from Raze. And now from Mireille.I am careful not to go there too often. Raze can't know every move I make. After all, I am the rat in his latest game.Will I go mad and kill everyone? Or will I keep quiet and survive at any price
Last Updated : 2023-09-28
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Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - CYRUS
Standing in the courtyard, I can feel my heart racing. It’s a strange feeling to know you’re going to die in a few minutes. I made my vow to Mireille all those years ago. I’ve been an Alpha of the North, overseen peace, and brought up our beautiful children, but this is the vow that matters. Because this promise was the one that eased my angel’s mind. Knowing we would have this final offering to the Moon Goddess and pray it is enough to free our children. /I love you/ I whisper to her, noticing her hands shake. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it. /You don’t have to do this/ she links back, her voice still as soft and light as the day I met her. Age has barely touched her. I am most definitely grizzled and rough around the edges. She is ethereal. Her pale green eyes shimmering with love and sadness, her white hair plaited tightly. She’s wearing a simple white dress. I insisted on wearing my huge winter fur. It seemed the right thing for me. /Wait, I want something/ I urge. I h
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - MIREILLE
The last twenty years have been a rollercoaster, to say the least. That night in the hail, when Cyrus pulled me back from the brink and I spilt every single woe from the bottom of my soul to him, was the turning point. Since the triplets' birth, I had walked around with lead weights in my shoulders, dragging me down. Guilt chipped away at my self-confidence. To the point when I didn’t even feel I could be a Luna. Standing at the top of that tower, thinking the isolation helped clear y mind when it only bogged me further down in the doubt. Cyrus changed all of that. He took my guilt and made a solemn vow. Twenty years. If we can’t fix it together in twenty years, we will offer ourselves to the Moon Goddess. After that night in the hail, I cried for two days in a row. Once whipped away from the beam, the full horror of what I’d almost done was crushing. I couldn’t look at the children without damning myself all over again. Cyrus though, he became the Alpha. With everyone’s bl
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE HOPE
If it wasn’t for the three women I lived with and little Opal I’d have lost my mind. Delilah hadn't changed from our blessed childhood friendship. Morgan’s mate Nell was full of bizarre ideas for preserving food and practising emergency drills. Lyra remained stoic and calm. Our lighthouse of sense and hope. Opal cried for her Daddy, and I had to try not to join in with her. I had to promise her he would come back, based on nothing but pure, desperate hope. It turned into full-scale war out there. The various Rogue armies were enormous, but they never quite made it to Filney. We were prepared, though. Thanks to Nell, we each had a gun safely stored by the bed. Escape routes planned. Little Opal still slept with me, keeping her close to my heart. Finally, one day, they returned. Trucks pulling in to Lyras white walled villa woke us up. One by one, we all screamed with excitement. Cal didn’t even try to trick or provoke me. He just pulled up the truck and sprinted towards us.
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - HOPE
**FOUR YEARS LATER** I don’t know how time flew by so quickly. Everything Cal promised me has come true. We have bickered, disagreed, and walked down the beach in a huff. Mainly me each time, knowing he would be sat on the porch waiting for me with an amused smile. That lopsided grin that makes my stomach flip. We never stopped fighting for each other. Not for a second. It's been everything and more. That first morning, dozing in the hammock together, I woke up with a start. Realising the time, how late I was for retrieving poor Button made me scramble and swing so violently he crashed to the floor all over again. “You know I might ban you from my lovely hammock,” he groaned. I just laughed and pulled him up, pretending to rub his muscular shoulders, back, chest better until he growled and finally bent me over that porch. It was perfect. Of course, Button was absolutely fine with Declan and Lyra. They were already playing on the beach with her, Declan, having his toes burie
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - CYRUS
“Shit, the weather look,” she whispers, lifting her head up from my bare chest. From our cosy tower room, we can see wind is starting to howl, hail pelting the glass. The first savage winter snowstorms have begun.“It’s time to start prepping,” I grunt with disappointment, sitting up to get a better look. My beautifully naked angel sits in between my legs, allowing me to start nuzzling my chin against her neck. Her hand absentmindedly trails up and runs through my dark hair, keeping me close to her. “We’ll be underground for the first moon,” I add, which is the only thought that makes the idea of humping all those supplies down below bearable.“Hmm, you might be right. Let’s see how it goes,” she whispers back in a soft little voice before turning to plant a loving kiss on my grizzled cheek. “Better get dressed,” she groaned before pushing me down back onto the mattress and climbing on top of me. My fingertips brushed against her still red, warm asscheek and she jumped at the sensat
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness EPILOGUE - MIREILLE
** TWO YEARS LATER **The first snows have landed. The next full moon is a fortnight away, but we will probably be underground before then. No pilgrims have arrived this month either. Things are a lot quieter at the Fortress these days. The grand days of my parents' first few years have definitely waned. A trickle of pilgrims instead of floods now make the dangerous journey over the mountain tops.I still stand at the top of the fortress and watch the sun descend. Every night, I stare at the black ridges of the mountains. I did it as a child. I did it the night before the rogues arrived and turned my life upside down. Now I stand every night we are above ground and observe its fiery descent and try to be thankful for what I have. Three wonderful children. A mate who worships me. Loyal, wonderful friends and family who made the last two freezes more than bearable. At first, I struggled with my survival. When Cyrus held me in his arms and told me dozens of times how he doesn’t need
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 103. Hope
“Hey there,” wasn’t the smoothest opener, but there was nothing else I could say. In the same way he knew my heart would melt for the flowers he put in the inn, he must have known that I would make some kind of entrance. My coppery hair is down, catching the breeze. For once I felt like a queen in my black dress after leaving Button with her kind-of adoptive grandparents. It’s tight, strapless, hugging my curves and showing off my long legs just as I intended. I don’t want my reunion with Cal to be about Button, as much as I love my little wonder. We'll get there, after tonight. After all, this moment has been a few days in the making. Cal’s not the only one capable of making plans. In fact, the first people I saw were Lyra and Declan. When I produced Button from out of the passenger seat, I felt a surge of panic. “She’s not Cal’s,” I said too quickly to sound polite. Then, allowing her to scamper off merrily towards the sand, I added softly, “She’s technically not mine either. I’
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 102. Cal
It’s a good job Hope was still asleep when I left. Otherwise, she might have caught up to me parked on the side of the road, still completely torn in two as to whether my gesture was romantic or insane. I ran my hands through my shaggy brown curls so many times it’s a wonder I wasn’t bald when I finally pulled up to the shoreline. Nine months after setting off I’m finally home. I raced home in dangerously quick time, panic-stops excluded. Because I have a home to build. A life to prepare. Howen and Pearl’s old villa at Finley is still magnificent, but it hasn’t been lived in for over five years. When I knocked on the door, there was only my mother there. Half a second of shock was followed by fifteen minutes of being almost throttled by her cuddles and kisses. Her long black hair was wavy from her morning swim, her gentle face full of worry. She quickly explained that my father had left to help Mireille and Cyrus after being summoned.. “So…what happened with Hope? I’m guessing tha
Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 101. Cyrus
Only after she fell unconscious did the room check who was actually capable of performing such surgery. Sven and Quinn immediately pointed to me and my heart sank to its lowest, darkest depths.Slicing open her soft, perfect skin was terrifying. The tautness of her bump meant every cut felt far too deep yet not enough. Plus, if I didn’t hurry, the medication would wear off and leave her enduring more pain at full volume.With my poor angels whimpering cries finally silenced, you could hear nothing but the tearing, slicing sound of raw flesh as I cut ever deeper. With everyone's eyes burning into me, the blade shook in my hand.. “Hurry, this is no time for hesitation,” Arlen insisted. Stifling a growl, I steeled myself and made a sweeping horizontal incision. Then it was a mad rush to gather the babies. Cords were snipped, Arlen telling what to remove and what to stitch. I blindly followed, vaguely aware of tiny cries in the background but unable to do anything but care for my pale,
