When the Alpha is murdered and Rogues seize control of the pack, Lyra is terrified. Stuck living underground under metres of ice does not stop the heat of the Full Moon. Nor does it stop leader Declan struggling with his history with the bunker. Declan is trying to prevent chaos and starvation, whilst fighting his wolfs yearning for Lyra. She must be ignored. The servant girl, a tainted daughter of the dead Alpha is off limits. However trapped together, every month soon becomes a passionate torture. Hurt by the past, Lyra refuses to let her guard down, even as her heart melts. Rogues are not meant to be trusted, but could it be the secrets she has hidden that bring the pack down?
View MorePanic is rising. You can smell it in the air. There are maybe only hours until the Freeze descends. Every servant, including myself, hurries goods down into the packs underground concrete base for the next six months.
Luna Corina still has trunks of furs and gowns to transport. We are her, vile, scuttling bugs. We say nothing because her slaps and pinches are nothing compared to her father. To be truthful,he is my father too, not that he has done anything but add to the suffering in my life.
Valdis is a tyrant of an Alpha, delighting in the life or death power he wields.
Especially at this time of the year. Metres of snow is due to fall any day. Vast, lethal ice fields form that even the thickest, furriest wolf cannot withstand. We are hundreds of miles from the next settlement.
Once that bunker door slams shut, you can’t hear the begging of those trapped outside. Those first burials are the worst jobs of spring. It never gets easier. Alpha Valdis was more willing to make an example of an unfortunate slave who caught his eye.
Above ground was a stone fortress, the packhouse for the other months of the year. I stood in one of the turrets, gathering piles of furs in my arms. For the briefest moment I paused and gazed at the view. Nothing but cragged, snowy black mountains for miles.
Getting through each Freeze was like surviving a shipwreck and not being eaten by sharks. Except we have to keep going through it every year.
How much fear can you endure before your brain is rewired to trust nothing?
My silver-haired friend Elvie and I had extra work due to Mara being taken to Valdis’ quarters again last night. To refuse was death, to attempt escape this close to winter was no better.
Numbed by fear, we long stopped dreaming beyond the cragged mountain horizon. So with a trembling head of golden blonde hair and tearful blue eyes Mara had silently stumbled towards his chamber.
Elvie and I stayed up waiting, praying that the screams we heard were from an injured animal and not our best friend.
Female servants wear long plum velvet gowns with gold-buttoned fronts. Luna Corina wore rich silks, warmed by the immaculately pale polar furs. She draped them over her bare skin, the ice princess.
We shared long, raven-black hair and green eyes. I sometimes wondered if we would have looked alike had I been fed properly during my younger years. Instead I was a petite figure, enabling her to always look down on me.
The apple of the Alpha’s eye, Corina had eagerly developed his taste for cruelty too.
I am thankfully safe from the Alpha’s vicious sexual interest. Only because I carry the shame of being his offspring. The daughter of a madman. I was born from one of his many previous assaults on other servants during his twenty year reign.
Guilt that I was safe pushed me to care for all of his victims. Nurse of the whores Luna Corina once described me.
I never get used to seeing what he is capable of. Even with shifter healing, poor Mara was a mash of purple, green and brown bruises today, one blue eye swollen beyond recognition.
I guided Mara into the dark backrooms of the underground bunker. Dragging her mangled frame down the stairs broke my heart as she tried to muffle her cries.
“Lyra, he will kill me soon, I can’t do another Freeze down there, with him…” she whispered. A sickly cough from being forced to crawl back to us in the cold left her spluttering.
“I won’t let it happen, I’ll always try to look after you,” I soothed, adding some minted balm to her sores.
Softly whimpering under her tattered blankets, blue eyes wide and frightened. “What can we do though?”
For that I had no answer.
With regret in my heart, I had to leave Mara and return to work. Musty air, grey brick walls and red, painted concrete floors. Strip lighting above. Once the huge metal vaulted door shut this was our world. Protected from the deathly cold outside by entombing ourselves.
“Lyra!” came Elvie’s shrill cry from the bottom of the stairs. “I’ve got to prep the Black Hall, can you handle the rest of the furs on your own?”
Looking out from Luna Corina’s turreted bedroom window the sun was already setting, soon it would be so cold every limb prickled agonisingly. “Yeah, sure, I’ve got it!”
Setting up the Black Hall gave me the creeps anyway. When the full moon hits and a load of Alpha and Beta hormones combine with cabin fever it turns crazy. The Black Hall is where anything goes for a night.
Pulsing music, hardly any light and soft furnishings allowed sweating, grunting knotted couplings to take place under a veil of semi-anonymity. Its power thrills and terrifies me.
Once the full moon's power ebbed away, nothing was discussed. Real relationships underground were completely forbidden. Every woman was claimed as Valdis’ property already anyway. Only on a full moon did his men cut loose and they took every minute of it.
My fear of the Black Hall is why I risk my life at the back of Luna Coraline’s tower. During summer I tend to a small, lavender like bush called monk's pepper. It has medicinal powers, but mainly, it lowers one's sex drive.
I make a strong, foul-smelling tea with it and it takes the edge off, just enough to keep myself sane and out the Hall. Seriously, painfully aroused, but sane.
Without it I dread what my wolf would succumb to. Never again I mutter. Harvesting the final pale purple flowerheads a few days ago, they hang in a small bag flat to my waist.
Our cruel Alpha suspended the Black Hall one month during the last Freeze. Two fired-up Beta’s killed each other over nothing. Without a way to disperse the full moon tension even his most steadfast Beta’s could turn savage.
Valdis spent most of the freeze in his luxurious, cosy, fur-lined chambers. No concrete misery in his world. He wore his long dirty black hair plaited into huge twisting coils. He stank of sweat, musk and filth. He enjoyed being an Alpha with no class. Those long, matted coils move like snakes down his muscular, tattooed back.
He was Alpha not because of his superior bloodline, but because he was a brutal, murderous psychopath. Over twenty years ago he murdered the ruling Ragnar family and took over. Corina was the product of him assaulting the dethroned Luna after his victory, proclaiming her a princess.
I am merely one of many accidents from his obsession with servants. The others illegitimates all tripped up in some small way and found themselves dead. Only Corina and I remain.
Surviving amongst the violence of a bloodthirsty Alpha has left me hardened. There is a shell around me that nobody will ever break through. Trust nobody. Not even Mara and Elvie, though I love their company.
It is how I survive this so-called life of mine. No physical contact with another soul if I can help it. Mates, love, adoration, they’re for the others in this world. The ones I dare not envy for fear my sanity will break.### FIVE YEARS LATER ### The truck has seen better days. More grey than black it trundles us wherever we need. Declan has become the expert at fixing it, fully aware that I absolutely love it when he gets oil on his hands or face. Rolling up his sleeves, showing his huge forearms that are solid from hard work, I offer up a daily prayer of thanks to the Goddess. “You are sure this is the place?” “I heard about it from the others back home.” Home was our small fishing village named Filney. Today was an unusual adventure for us, having barely left our little world for so long. Leaving the fortress all those years ago we had just headed south. With no more diversions or magnetic tourist attractions to show me, Declan took me to the very furthest tip of our nation. It still took a couple of months to get so far south. Just as he had dreamed, I fell asleep in the truck, waking up to him gently nudging me. However back then there had been no bump, just the first twinges of nausea and
The rumours were true. Only a minute or two after we got Howen and Pearl onto the ground did a silent shaft of light blaze down. Watching from outside the fortress it appeared painful, the way everyone dropped to the floor covering their eyes. Even I had to shield my eyes with my hands.From what I could see amidst the whiteness Elvie appeared to have lost her mind, stood tall, flailing her arms and shouting upwards. Declan held me close, wrapping his leather jacket back around my shoulders and kissing the top of my head.“Thank you,” leaning into him, loving the warmth of his huge body against mine.“What for?”“For not wanting to change us.”Declan shifted, leaning against the black truck door. “Can I say I am happy with myself without sounding like a dick? I’m covered in damage but I don’t care anymore.”“Well you are perfect, to me at least.” I smiled, watching him roll his eyes even though he squeezed me a little tighter. As quickly as it descended the beam vanished. From a dista
The past few months have been a blur. When the Goddess light first appeared I didn't have a clue what to do. Instinct took over as I shredded into Reu's jacket with my claws, my wolf somehow emerging for the first time since I accidentally shifted at fourteen. I was whipped so severely for just my claws emerging in front of a Beta that I never tried it again. But when the light subsided, returning us to cold darkness I was sprawled underneath Reu in my wolf form. "What the fuck just happened?" Dill shouted, as everyone rubbed their eyes and huddled. Nearly everyone had dropped to the floor, unable to find their way indoors in the searing brightness. "Is everyone okay!" Reu shouted, clambering to his feet, his white hair a ragged mess. "Does anyone need help!" Everyone gasped as he stood up, revealing my shifted form. All the originals knew what a big deal it was. "Elvie is that you!" Arlen cried out, pointing in surprise. Then Sol gasped. "Arlen your…your hands!" "Dill your fac
I squealed as Declan roughly shoved me into Pearl, scattering us to the ground.Then I saw why. Holding a long-barrelled shotgun, eyes blazing a furious gold stood Viktor. He was red-faced, sweating with exertion. Blonde hair now hung down to his shoulders, dirty and tangled. “What the fuck are you doing here,” Viktor said with a sneer, keeping the barrel pointed directly at Declan’s face. Manoeuvring so he could see all three of us togethe, his once handsome face twisted in smug victory.Gesturing the gun quickly towards me I gasped in fear as he mocked us. “You’re looking good Lyra, and a pretty friend too. My Declan, aren't you getting adventurous. Or did you fancy a less damaged slut for a while?”“Fuck off,” Pearl growled but this was no time for trading insults. Not when my mate had a gun waved in his face.“You’ve hidden the golden wolf here then?” Declan said flatly, flexing his huge chest, parting his legs to try and cover Pearl and I. From my crouched position I could feel
Lyra, forever formed of kindness and light raced to her side, Skidding into the blood and straw, not caring about her light cotton dress as she cradled Mara’s long blonde hair in her hands. “Mara what happened to you! Shit! Pearl, get some help, quick!” As the guard swore and cursed his bad luck, Pearl ran off. I heard her rummaging around in the guard room at the top of the corridor. Mara spluttered, her teeth stained with blood. Lyra carefully stroked her blonde hair away from the blood on her face, as gently as a mother would a newborn. “Lyra he…I did everything he asked.” “But you hurt people for him? The guards at the fortress, the men in this gold sale?” “I had to! I didn’t want to but he told me it was the only way. The only way we could be together. We put the golden wolf safe then came here to sell the little trinkets,” as she got upset her words became more ragged, her breathing starting to rattle. “We had such a good time…it was, he was perfect.” Pearl came scampering b
I have failed. Six months ensuring nothing harmed her happiness and I’ve gone and trashed it anyway. Those green eyes are filled with confusion and it’s all because of me. Because of something as simple as a dream. Albert having finally waddled downstairs, I slowly walk towards her. For the first time she steps backwards. Fuck. “You want to find Viktor? Howen? Both of them?” “I have to,” I confessed sadly, slumping down to sit on the soft bed. I rubbed at my eyes, running my hands through my short brown curls in frustration. “Lyra, these nightmares…these dreams are telling me I’ve got to do something.” “What dreams?” her voice softening, even though her arms are still folded. I keep my head in my hands, gripping my hair tightly as I force the words out. “Last night, I saw Howen as he was, as a young man being led away from me by Viktor, into a crowded road. I run, I search. I kill strangers in the streets to try to get to him. It drives me feral to the point where my dream ends wi
Of course leaving the Fortress wouldn’t be complete without some final bloodshed. Seeing how Declan’s brotherhood had torn themselves to pieces the instant Beldon died was sobering. When I asked if we needed to tell the rest of the Rogues waiting back at the base, Declan shook his head. “The ones that made it out would have high-tailed it straight back there anyway."“What made Beldon and Morrell so…angry?” “I think they let their Bond fail. I don’t think you can live a life that violent, however well intentioned and not let it taint something pure,” Declan replied flatly. “Once that starts to rot, it all falls apart. Like how you described Corina.”So with Beldon’s body gingerly dragged from the flatbed of the dented black truck, we left. We were silent for the first few hours. Mainly because I was staring out of the window like an idiot at everything new. Declan was content to just drive, and watch me from the corner of his eye. Seeing the cragged black mountains up close, actual
Declan and Lyra left a few days ago. Elvie and I insisted on being the ones to take them back to what was left of the Rogue camp. On the snowmobiles, carrying machine guns and blades, we found a site of devastation. Blood had been spilled. A huge amount of it judging by the snowy corpse-clumps in the ground. Only one truck remained, Beldon’s frosted corpse. Tent sheeting flapped with claw marks, chunks of leather clothing shredded. Elvie and Lyra had shuddered to discover Amelie under one of the collapsed tents. “So this is Rogue law?” Elvie had muttered with a bitter tone. “You never know with Amelie, she may have struck the first blow or tried to lead a group attack,” I said after a minute's consideration. She always wanted to play big.She wouldn’t have even been up here had she not begged to come. Sitting quietly around every campfire for years, I have learned to watch people when they think they aren’t being studied. Amelie wanted more than her usual piece of Dec the instant
Seeing Declan standing above my bed, blanket in hand, face flushed with desire I had for a second assumed it was just another fantasy. Too much hugging of the sandalwood-scented pillow, tricking myself again.Then he kissed me. He was so real. With a desire that bordered on frenzy, he seized and fucked me so exquisitely I felt I was coming apart at the seams. Only his gruff, heavy hold over my body kept me together. There was no feeling like it in the world when he sunk that deep inside. Laid next to him, watching the rise and fall of his chest, my toes curled at the memory of how he grabbed my ass, admiring me even though I knew my back was littered with scars.I love how even in his sleep, if I try to move away he instinctively pulls me closer. So excited to have him home I study him, unable to rest myself. His brown hair is shaggy and unkempt. That brown beard I love is even more ragged and needs trimming after so many days away.Despite the fighting and lack of food, Declan’s bod
The novel is written by Alle and readers find the story intriguing and unique. The story is about werewolf adventure, romance, and betrayal. In the encounter with the rogues, Declan is trying to protect Lyra. While the rogues inevitably hurt Lyra, she was close to her death, and Declan became out of his mind. His agony led him to think and do things that were not meant to be - including making love with Corina. While Lyra was hiding in Corina's room and faking her disappearance, Declan hasn't been any smarter. On the other hand, Corina slowly falls for Declan...
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