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59. Hope
Last Updated:
2023-10-18 21:46:33
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Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 60. Cal
Elvie and Reu got the message. After that shitty back and forth in their creepy meeting room, everything started to settle into the same half-real way of living. The only real difference was Vera. Instead of pointlessly trying to seduce me, she had woken from her coma a tearful, guilt-filled mess. Ragged scars across her chest from Arlen’s self-defence and a mind broken by the loss of her brother. Hope volunteered to care for her. Arlen had tried, but his commitment to the injured Sol meant looking after two patients was too great a strain. Nobody said it, but I think all expectations were pinned on a return of the good, healing light produced by Elvie. If Sol could survive the Freeze. Drag his battered body out into the courtyard and pretend he wasn’t shot to pieces. For Vera, though, there was no such option. The light would probably remove the scars left by Arlen, but it was her mind that needed healing. Hope was more than willing to listen to her, feed, and bathe her. However
Last Updated : 2023-10-19Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 61. Cyrus
I completely forgot myself when I got out of that wretched hole, grabbing and embracing Mireille in front of everyone like that. Not that I regret it for a second. However after that moment, I got a grip. Guard back up. Just because Raze has gone doesn't mean everyone is trustworthy and friendly now. It was genuinely unnerving seeing everyone so thrilled to see me alive. Especially considering they all saw me as an enemy for so long. Then I found out Mireille had promised them a skull-wrecking session on moonshine if they found me. They found me like a pack of bloodhounds. Within a couple of hours. Convenient. Perhaps I’m just paranoid. Mireille, Quinn and Dee were on a giddy high. Quite rightly. I kept to the side, out of the way as Mireille and her ladies served the drinks. Her pale green eyes kept flashing to mine. I'd love to have known what she was thinking. Well, more accurately I’d love to grab her to me once again and not see any other face for a week. But she’s a
Last Updated : 2023-10-21Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 62. Mireille
He’s alive. Every time I glanced at him he’s still there. Of course he is, it’s stupid to think he’s going to vanish from my sight again, but I can’t help my heart racing each time I allow myself a look. The moonshine has been dished out, people are merrily slurring, wrapping arms around each other and making plans for the gold they’re going to be swimming in after I get back home. That’s all fine. However, I make sure to look each man square in the eye as we dish out every measure. They all say “thank you Luna,” they all nod politely. That doesn’t surprise me. They all paid Raze respect to his face too, yet watched his evisceration without issue. It’s men like Ryan I’m studying. He swore blind to me in that room that he is going to do whatever it takes to make Hope happy. She was his world, every minute of his life, for her happiness. All the promises a girl would love to hear her mate make. So why am I overhearing him talking about setting up some kind of fucking boxing, bettin
Last Updated : 2023-10-21Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 63. Mireille
The next few weeks were successful. The pack's hangovers were endured, work rotas picked up as normal. The temperature lowering allowed tempers to cool alongside, the general atmosphere was that of being able to see the finish line. If anyone did talk out of line or grumble, they were shot down by their own friends. Nobody wanted to rock the boat. A sack of gold bigger than they ever envisaged hangs just out of their grasp. Sven was an ardent reporter, so keen to prove his trust. Cyrus and I spent every night together. I am his angel. He is my everything. The world only makes sense when I am near enough to fill my head with his rosemary scent. We should be so happy. We’re practically safe, looking ahead to spring. Except he is having increasing periods where he is in his own head. Surlier, quieter than even I’m used to. For every blissful night we spend together, he seems to curse himself with guilt. When Raze ruled Cyrus brood without discovery for hours on end and get it out of
Last Updated : 2023-10-22Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 64. Cal
64. Cal (0.0k)Men will do an awful lot of things for sex. I’m no exception. I once jumped off a cliff straight into the sea trying to impress a woman whose name I can’t even remember years ago, in the hopes that after the bonfire on the beach that night she’d find me irresistible.It worked, of course. But it was a stupid, foolish, idiotic thing to do all the same.Yet I would take on that cliff again rather than head willingly towards Vera. Every day Hope continued to mention how bedraggled she was. How miserable life without Ervin was making her. The risk of her doing something crazy from grief grew every day. Somehow a problem only me and a wide paddle brush could fix.Not in the way Vera ever hoped for.Laughing at my grumpy expression, her hand ran over the bulge in my pants, “thank you for doing this, Alpha,” threatening to send me feral. Fuck she’s just exquisite when she laughs. All eighty-seven of the freckles of her face enchant me. “What exactly are you going to be doin
Last Updated : 2023-10-23Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 65. Hope
Unpacking reams of bandages with Elvie in her suite, I waited. I figured, like Cal with his hairbrush, the longer we stuck at a menial task together, someone would break and start talking first. “Peel these,” she muttered, placing a bucket of potatoes on the counter. “What, for dinner?” “No, we’re making a poultice. It’s worked for generations. Draws out pus.” I looked down at the bucket and grimaced. Just how bad is poor Sol’s infection if we mash up enough potato to cover his body. “Will you be performing the ceremony when we get out, see if the good light comes down?” I asked casually. Elvie sighed, her long silvery hair tied up in a huge bun, sitting on the top of her head like a crown. “It’s too early to test the ice. We should be out before the sixth full moon, so yes, I think I will lead it.” “I hope it works.” “It should do. The readings have suggested the issue…the issue is the host, not the ceremony itself.” So Mireille is the problem. “I’m sorry about Mireille’s ce
Last Updated : 2023-10-24Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 66. Cal
I never really met Sol, both of us were injured during the night the Rogues took Mireille. Yet his death cast a long shadow over the following weeks. Reu ordered the beige clothing be abandoned for grey for a start. It made the elderly ones who liked to meditate resemble statues. Or gnomes. Apart from that, it was an improvement, a slight de-culting of the place. Unfortunately Hope’s nightmares returned too. Waking up clutching at my chest, panting, eyes wide with fear for at least a week. It killed me to know there was nothing I could do. Embraces, my arms, my kisses aren’t enough to soothe what’s going on in her head sometimes. It also meant there was no opportunity to mention what fully happened with Vera, and what she suggested Ryan was capable of. As far as everyone knew, I left her room, smashing the mirror because she tried to seduce me. Vera hasn’t said a word to challenge that rumour either. Reu and Elvie tutted away at my actions as you would expect but nothing more wa
Last Updated : 2023-10-25Night of the Rogues: Bound In Darkness 67. Cyrus
You’re not meant to find out you’re going to be a father straight after you’ve roughly slapped your angels’ ass, ready to ravage her with a raging, powerful knot. I had cancelled all thoughts of my own children from my mind the instant I lost Skylar. A legacy of blood and failure was all my future offered. Before then, I had dreamed of it, the same as any man with a heart and a love of tiny, wonder-filled little faces. Of course, I had envisaged seeing my woman, ideally my mate, being a bit poorly on a morning, perhaps paler and more delicate. A wonderful realisation together and cause for celebration, flowers, every food and treat they could wish for. Not like this. Not me gripping her hips until they bruise sputtering out, “Knotting might hurt the baby,” in a dank, moss-riddled concrete prison. My poor angel. Finding out that way. Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung open for just a second. There was no way to tell if she was happy or sad. Her expression was pure shock. A second
Last Updated : 2023-10-26
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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,
