ALPHA COLTON Shirley sauntered into the conference room. She looked confident, she looked beautiful. I averted my gaze from her beautiful face to Karl who was fighting to train his gaze on the coffee Ron was serving him—anything to keep his gaze from wandering to her. Karl wore a cast around his left arm which was signed by a few people, everyone close to him but me.Shirley sat in a seat Ron held out for her, her thick lashes fluttered at me before a smile twitched on her lips. Ron had scheduled the meeting and had pushed it back three days from the day the elders had initially visited. I had requested Shirley's presence at the meeting. Here she was looking as beautiful as ever. Sir Ferren spoke on behalf of the elders sent out to represent the rest of the council. His speech was thick with insinuation, this didn't seem to faze Shirley. "All I said is that I can't have my baby outside the walls of a long-term commitment with your Alpha." She brushed back a swathe of her blonde
ALPHA COLTON"You've changed. Big time." Shirley muttered when she got to my table at the restaurant where I had lunch out with Vinny later that noon. "Shirley, please give it a break, damn!" I released a breath. This was exhausting. Having her nag me about our baby was draining. "No!" She pulled out a seat and dropped on it. A waiter darted forward to take her order. "I'll have the chicken Caesar salad with no croutons.""Why are you here?" I asked when the waiter had disappeared to bring her order alongside Vinny and mine. "I need a little cash to get some things done." She flashed me her sensuous smile. I couldn't help but get lost in her bright stare. "How much do you need?"She delved into her purse and retrieved a nicely written list. For the first time, it was short. She dropped it before me with another radiant smile on her lips. My eyes skimmed through the list."You're buying a house?" My confused gaze left the list to her face. "You don't imagine I'll be having my
ALPHA COLTON Haedon returned from the inner chambers of his sacred temple where he had gone in to complete several rituals for the forthcoming moon festival. "Like the eagles, so shall your strength be my Alpha," He blessed and took a seat facing us. His attention was directly on me, moments like this were the most suspenseful moments of my life. "I know why you're here," He looked away to the crystals in his hands, "As clear as these crystals, you're on a thorny path. Our Goddess has turned her back on you and your territories." "That can't be," Karl murmured with a chuckle. It wasn't funny. "I don't get why." Vinny sounded bothered. I knew why. "It doesn't matter." I tried to maintain a detached and clinical composure. "It is clear in these visions, that the strongest shall be swallowed up by the weakest territories and strength shall spring up from the weakest Lycan territories because she pleases the goddess." "Still doesn't explain why the goddess chose to for
ALLISON KEELER The Pack nurse checked me and gave me some drugs and supplements. For the first time since I was declared pregnant by Glomé, I could see the bump starting to grow. A smile creased my face. "You look happy." The nurse returned my smile and handed me my card. I placed it in the little bag which held my drugs and other supplements. "Of course I am happy." I waved at the nurse and headed back to my room. The only place where I felt at peace. I stripped and stood before the mirror, the bruises and the ugly marks on my skin were fading. It was a good thing. I had a shower, got into my uniform, and headed out for lunch. "Phoebe's here," Evelyn whispered as she linked our arms. "So?" "You've forgiven her?" "I have nothing against her. We have different lives, we chose our paths."I sat on the wooden seats where a few other girls joined us as we awaited lunch. "Allison?" Payton approached our table with flushed cheeks, leaning into me she whispered, "Gamma Adrian is
ALLISON KEELER "Where am I?" I asked the second my gaze adjusted to the brightness in the room enough to realize Matt was beside me in the brightly lit room."CaeHills." His sullen eyes didn't leave my face. He must've taken in the confusion on my face because he added with a weary smile, "CaeHills Pack."I still didn't get what he meant. The only thing I could make out was that I was in another Pack, but why?"Why am I here?" I sat up in the big bed, "Why are you here?" My gaze roamed the room to his face. Then instantly, my hand flew to my stomach. When I felt my growing baby bump, I was relieved to realize I was still pregnant. "You don't imagine they would want to mess with Colton's heir?" He chuckled moving from where he sat in an armchair by the window coming closer to me in the big bed. "I'll protect your baby with my life." He spoke quietly and convincingly. "You're the Luna's assistant, not her mate." I quipped. "This is my Pack, so I want you to consider yourself safe
ALPHA GRIMSBY EVANS "She's just a thirsty whore." I spoke softly, not daring to avert our speared gazes.Faye broke our gazes first, moving away to the balcony. Letting out a muffled exasperated breath, I tailed her to the balcony. "You don't imagine I'm attracted to such a lowly runt...""Are you?" She snapped the question in a way that was supposed to trigger the truth, her eyes searching my face for the slightest flinch to suggest I was about to lie to her. "I won't consider this an insult to my face." I feigned annoyance to scare her off from the subject. Other than the runt energy, Allison was very attractive in a sensuous way. If only she wasn't pregnant. I sighed out my frustrations. It was going to be a sin against the goddess to lay with an already pregnant wolf, especially a sin against Colton, for if the goddess spared me, the Westerners never will. "I just don't understand why you will choose to bring her here to my stalk. You know we aren't a strong Pack. What if Col
ALLISON KEELER "So I won't have to scrub the floor and do laundry anymore?"Hope resonated in my tone as I considered Matt in the beautiful garden, he had taken me on a tour around the mansion. "There's not quite a lot of things to be done here," his smiles helped me relax, "I'll show you around the pack at every chance we get. It's lovely here and I'm glad to be back.""Sounds like CaeHills is a better place to be, well, except your boss shows up.""Don't get her upset then you're good." He shrugged clinically. "I feel like just being around upsets the hell out of her.""She vents on people a whole lot but you're going to be good." He handed the sunflower he had plucked from the bush of beautiful sunflowers. This brought out a smile from me. Matt was so kind to me. "Is the Alpha of this Pack aware of this arrangement? I don't want him to think I'm a trespasser.""Flynn's not the Alpha but I guess he's quite aware, you don't have to be afraid. I'm here."I sniggered at how he tho
ALLISON KEELER "Have you ever for once imagined Alpha Colton would choose you over Shirley?" Faye asked with humor plain on her face and tone. The mockery glimmering in her eyes stung pretty badly. "I don't care who Colton picks, it's not some match. All I want is to be happy with my mate," I replied as honestly as possible. "That's cute. But we don't get to have what we want." She placed the teacup back on the white saucer and went back to her phone. I stood watching her on the terrace hoping she would dismiss me but she looked away from her phone, planting her gaze on me again. "You've no idea how disappointed I was when I realized you're Colton's mate. All my dreams of bonding with Shirley Hilton came crashing down." She also had no idea how disappointed I was in Colton when Grimsby took me away. "But the goddess has found a way to make that dream come true for me and you're not going to stand in the way the second time, are you?" She waited until I shook my head before
ALLISON KEELER"What's going on?"I asked Alan after it took Dane forever to spill whatever he had in his guts. "We just received an email from the Western territories of the kingdom." Dane went ahead with a tone that sounded more husky than businesslike. "There's bound to be a war."A war? My face conveyed my shock. War was never a good thing especially when my territory was starting to thrive and recoup from bad governance."Our territory is safe." Alan must've caught the dismay on my face so he chipped in. "We're sealed by magic, it would be hard for the Outlanders to strike.""So why then is everyone acting this way?""The westerners solicit our amalgamation." Dane dragged out the words as though it was supposed to affect me. It did.The Western territories revolved mainly around Colton's territories. His territories were the majority. If we amalgamated our territories that meant going for those meetings, running into Colton, and risking the big discovery of the child we had to
ALLISON KEELER "There's a notice from the border," Alan dropped the folders in his hands on my desk, "It's a good thing we were on guard last night.""We would have been swept last night if we didn't take security measures?" I asked to be certain I understood him. "Here's your speech for this noon." Luca dropped a file on my desk. Smiling, Luca took a photo of me on my executive desk and smiled broadly into his phone. "Hmm, look how good you you look!""Delete that!" I growled at him stretching out to snatch the phone from his hand."You will need some executive photos," he held the phone out so I could see the photo. A smile curled on my lips. I looked so good. "Delete that," I said regardless. "We will have more patrol teams on the borders and send spies and trackers to see what they can gather." Alan went back to business. "You will address the entire Pack today by noon."I already knew that. Thoughts of standing before the entire Pack kicked in my anxiety. "Your executive a
ALLISON KEELER"Congratulations!"Evelyn gushed as I descended the stairs the night of the full moon. The silver dress I wore was perfect as the glow of the moon shone on it, and my hair and makeup looked extremely perfect. This was one of the things that kept me smiling all through. "So we get to leave this hole?" Darlene snorted. "I love this place." I did. The size didn't matter to me, all that did was have everyone together. Sir Garfield, although placed in a facility to help him recover quickly, was now an integral part of my life. A bigger mansion was no doubt going to fit everyone but it wasn't what I fancied at that time of my life. The ritual that night was a rare lucid moment. Without a trace of doubt in my heart, I picked Alan as my Beta. He knew so much about the pack and I was unsure why I picked Dane as my Gamma. This caused a stir in my circle but none of them seemed to own up to their thoughts. Was it because of the crown on my head now?"I don't know what's goi
Alpha Colton"Bullshit," I spat with vengeful eyes on Grimsby. All he said to me made no sense at all. "Where the hell is she?""You're not here for war now are you?" Grimsby sounded nervous but he kept a feigned composure. "You give me the girl and we're all good." I tried not to let my fury consume me. "She's not here." Grimsby huffed.My face dissolved into a confused frown. What did he mean she wasn't here?He met my inquisitive eyes and chose to explain things."Allison is safe. Trust me but I'm not the only northern ruler bonded to this deal, we don't want to turn this into some bloodbath." His tone was gravely low, "Let's talk at my office."Vinny released a breath glancing my way. I completely understood the dangers of striking out at the moment. The risk to these innocent pack members' lives was great and even worse, the weaker Western territories were going to feel the heat. The northerners were only going to strike brutally as revenge. This didn't feel right. "It's jus
ALPHA COLTON "I can't sense her," I informed Vinny the second we made it through Hornsgate borders. "You don't expect her scent to waft up your nostrils if she's a million miles away from here." He replied, his gaze on the map on his phone. "Hornsgate isn't that big a place." I inwardly scorned it. I had been to bigger territories, this was absolutely not one of them. "Grimsby will realize we're in his territory in no time." Vinny glanced from his phone. "I want him to as soon as possible. I just can't wait to end this." I hissed and drummed the steering wheel as the car zoomed through the highway. The thoughts of the northerners pooling in on us were now so overwhelming that I gestured to Vinny to get the anti-wolfsbane and anti-silver spray that Haedon had given me. If anything, this barbaric Pac was only going to try to use these two lethal forces on us. I knew just that. From a distance, three trucks zoomed up behind us. There was every possibility they were Gri
ALLISON KEELER"Would you abandon your territory to become Colton's Luna if he wanted you?"Dane typed a few things on his computer making a few edits to the speech Luca had just sent him. My coronation speech."My people are now my priority. So, no." I was unsure why he brought this up. Dane rarely talked to me and lately, he was all bent on asking about Colton. Did he fancy the ruthless ruler as well?He stretched and glanced at his wristwatch before he put his computer away. "I want to grab dinner," he slammed the computer and got to his feet grabbing his keys, "Coming?"Me?I thought he didn't like having me around but what did it hurt? I nodded and got to my feet. I left Sir Garfield's home office to first check on Fihl before I followed Dane out towards his Rover. "I want to see the pack, I want to meet with and get to know my people," I said in the front seat of his car. "You will, in a few more days." He glanced at me and reached out to grab the little fancy gift bag stre
ALLISON KEELER Matt was eerily silent all through the meeting with the pack elders. Alan and Chase did most of the talking. The elders swore their fealty and were more than willing to back me up on my rulership as the Luna of the pack. The day for the official crowning was the next full moon which was in just six days. I was happy. My joy was radiant but Matt's silence caught me even as we were all gathered for dinner he didn't say a word. All he did was cast me weird gazes and toy with his salmon. Something was bothering him and he denied it each time I asked. I offered to help Evelyn clear the table and stack the dishwasher. She was teasing me all over again about Grimsby's felicitations. I rolled my eyes and remained silent. "A diamond ring?" She gasped, "That's an awfully expensive one." She was talking about the ring Grimsby had sent my way amongst other gifts and items which were now in Darlene's possession. I didn't want anything from Grimsby. But what if it was
ALPHA COLTON "This is extremely impulsive," Vinny breathed, "We don't act on impulse." "If Grimsby wants to make this into a war then so be it." "This can cause a lot of damage, this can lead to regret." "I'm already wallowing in both." I hissed, "There's nothing left to lose." "Your territories?" I flail my hand in the air in an attempt to ease the fury inside of me. "I've already made up my mind. Do what needs to be done around here, I'll be back in a few days." "I'd be doomed if I let you off on your own." He met the fury in my eyes and quickly added, "You're a strong Alpha no doubt but the Northerners..." "I want the Pack matters that need my attention to be instantly sorted out, I want you to..." "Fuck it, Colton, I'm coming with you." "You're not leaving my territory unguarded, you're the Gamma of this pack..." "Karl will take care of what needs to be taken care of. We'll find a wolf to track her scent and I..." I hoisted the backpack from the coffee table and hea
ALPHA COLTON "Not that frown again," Shirley clucked her tongue with a broadening smile on her face. "What do you want?" I asked my face, suggesting I was not pleased to have her meddle in my part of the property. I had been unnecessarily liberal when I chose to offer Jace a part of my mansion to live in. Now I had to deal with it. "I miss you." She pursed her lips reaching out to touch my face. I acted instantly to prevent her from touching me. Whatever we had ended a while ago. She was now with my stepbrother. There had to be some boundaries. A lot was going on with me and having to pick a fight over a girl with Jace became a luxury I couldn't afford. "From now on you will speak discreetly. There's nothing between us anymore so I expect a more discreet relationship." The smile on her face faded, and a snort appeared on her face. "There's no gain being with you." She hissed, "Jace had a lot more to offer. I'm happy and content with my small family." "I'm glad to hear t