I’m more nervous about this than anything else we’ve done together in the last twelve hours. Alone, just us, I feel like a king. Like the past really could be forgiven. Every time I call her angel, I see the pink, hazy lust flicker across her iris, and I lose all control. My sense of right and wrong evaporates. All that matters is her happiness.I should probably tell she’s the only girl I’ve ever actually knotted. The only girl I’ve ever spoken to like that. There was no other angel before her. It’s not some repetitive thing I liked saying to women. She brings out this side to me that I always thought needed locking away. My wolf is so proud of her. He preens and acts like he's the strongest alpha in town, all to impress Mireille.When she said she wanted to be called an angel, encouraging me with those flush little cheeks, I had to warn my wolf not to knot her again. Only because I don’t want to make her sore. Shifter healing is remarkable, but it’s not infallible. Otherwise, I’d
Cyrus was meant to die. The stew was rigged for him, and the realisation left me breathless. I stare as Cyrus kneels down, trying to help Brody. I know he shouted at me to run, but I am trapped in limbo, surrounded by howls and screams. Struggling to my feet, finding a table for support, I slowly walk around it, away from Brody’s twitching flinches. Silently wishing that backing away from the scene would make it less real. It didn’t stop Brody convulsing towards a painful, lingering death. In between Cyrus and I, Ryan cradles his brother's head, the red and white remnants of foam sputtering onto his pant legs. Rocking back and forth, he strokes Brody’s tattered blonde hair and kisses the dark shadows around his eyes. The closest family he has in the world murdered for nothing. Because Cyrus lacked a spoon and Brody was in a bad mood and couldn’t be bothered to get his own food. He’d been grouchy all day during our shift, but we hadn’t thought anything of it. Four months into life
“We can fight later,” Cal had murmured before he fell back asleep. He was so infuriatingly right. We repeated the same arguments. Cal’s vicious need to spill blood versus my refusal to be part of it. We were at a stalemate but at the same time agreed on other things. Together we took action. Roughly searching through my fathers possessions I found paper and pens. Writing, “SEND REAL FOOD,” I slid it under the locked door. We even hi-fived as I flopped back into the bed alongside him. Together this bedroom has formed a strange mini-world, just the two of us. Sleeping, arguing, silently holding each other on repeat. When the scent of freshly cooked steaks, potatoes and vegetables wafts into the room Cal chuckles at how quickly I fly into getting the broken knife blade out of the door. “You’re doing that quicker than when I was trapped in here,” he pointed out sarcastically. “You…are not a steak,” I remind him tartly, on my knees fiddling with the lock. “Should have asked for panca
It took being alone in the Howen’s room, separated from her heartbeat, scent, and infuriating attitude to realise I was holding onto nothing of value. Vengeance is just an empty-handed concept if it leaves me alone in a room like this. I’m not saying I wouldn’t take an excuse to beat Reu to a pulp, but if it came with the price of living like this, a bed with no spark, then what would I achieve? The rush of victory would soon diminish. Every passing day afterwards I’d feel less satisfied with my choice. Whereas I know every day with Hope will be a blessing. Whilst she showered, I rolled my damaged shoulder, lifting it up, squeezing my hand and returning it to the pillows. It's seriously improved. Just being around Hope is helping. Maybe my wolf is spurred on by the presence of hers, but something is definitely happening. Perhaps it’s eating proper food. That steak alone could resurrect the dead. Either way, when I saw her struggling with the thick, matted red locks, I was
After Ryan left and followed his master like a loyal mutt, I stayed on the floor for the longest time. Staring at the concrete floor until the cracks and moss started to merge before my eyes. I breathed huge gulps of air, hoping to clear the nausea. My limbs shook so much I worried Raze had managed to poison me too.He had fought Cyrus. That was obvious, but I could not see how he could beat him. There had been no gunshots, no large howls apart from that single one of Cyrus’ after I fled into my room. We’re not mates, but surely my heart, my wolf would know if something had happened.I just won’t accept it. There are too many questions.If everyone was in hiding like me, how the fuck did Raze get Cyrus’s body to the cold store? He might be an Alpha but it would take three, maybe four men to pick up a dead weight his size. He would have been sweating, struggling in the heat of this bunker to drag him in. Yet appeared at my door with barely a bead of sweat, just his one ragged wound.R
My lungs were burning, mouth lolling open in shock at Raze’s hissed evil. Dee and Quinn’s screaming overtook my senses. Suddenly Raze’s thick hand lifted from my neck. I wheezed violently, close to convulsing like Brody, rolling over and hacking.The two women had picked up the fallen blades and taken their vengeance. “You monster! You fucking monster!” Quinn raged, lifting the long silver blade up high like an executioner before plunging it into upper shoulder. Raze bellowed and roared but the two women had him pinned to the ground.Quinn screamed as Dee jabbed at his kidneys. “All the times I had to go to your fucking room! You evil, sick bastard!”No man stepped forward, though the other two women, Eila and Jo, were shouting and clapping for Quinn and Dee to finish him. Staggering to my feet, I glowered at the ten men before me. “You’re all cowards,” I croaked.In a hoarse, squeal of a voice I cried “Quinn, Dee!” and they paused, knives frozen mid-air. Raze was crying out in pain,
I can’t believe Raze has won. I was so close. Thought I knew exactly what to do, chasing that little bubbling feeling in my stomach at the idea of finally triumphing over the smug bastard. After shifting, my wolf had swiftly chased down and flung around the bodies of his three idiots. They weren’t even a challenge. The night I tore apart Chase’s friends it was at least an exertion. After chasing the final one down the corridor and ripping his head clean off, there was silence. I silently padded down every corridor, searching for Raze. He hadn’t charged in with the others, and it drove me to distraction. I let out a deafening howl. I wanted him to know I’d obliterated his men. He could send the whole fucking pack down after me and I would take them on. The man I wanted was hiding like a coward. Reluctantly I shifted back to human. I needed a clear head combined with the ability to get through normal sized doors if I was going to track the fucker down. Returning to my room, I
It wasn’t enough to worship her all night. The instant I woke up, I needed more. Still dozing, Hope's hair formed a shining cascade of fire across the bed and my chest. Nuzzling herself into me, her ass hit against my hip, and all real thinking vanished into thin air. Rolling over, I felt her sleepily murmur soft little noises, adjusting her shape to find me. Without hesitation, I rolled, wrapping my body around her warm little shape, spooning her close. The relief at feeling no pain in my shoulder was unreal. It also meant the same arm could slowly stroke up and down her leg under the blankets. Gradually stirring her breathing started to fall in time with the brushes of my hand, conducting my own personal symphony.When my finger trailed too close to her inner hip, she let out a little gasp of pleasure. “Morning Cal, now, just what do you think you’re doing,” she whispered with a sly smile, her eyes still closed. Instead of the soft, gentle Cal of last night, I feel restored, invi
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
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
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.
**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
“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
** 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
“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’
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
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,