Hunter’s POV‘Wait,’ I snarled. ‘They need to stew in there for a while, and I’m not leaving here until I know Jane is okay.’‘How is she?’ S asked flatly, with no emotion in his voice at all. ‘She’s fucking dying, S!’ I snapped. I drew in a long, deep breath, held it, then released it.‘Look. At. That. Breathing. Pattern!’ Reg cheered. ‘Someone’s been listening to me. Finally, might I add. I’ve had this stuff down for years, and you’re only just learning the basics now.’‘Reg, shut up,’ I growled. Then I mindlinked S again. ‘Do the usual, S. Make it cold, then too hot, and make sure the bars of the cells are nice and sticky. Don’t say a word to them.’ Not that S needed to be reminded of that, anyway. ‘Make them as uncomfortable as you physically can and then just sit and watch them.’‘Got it, Alpha.’I let out a breath – and then tensed again as Reg started talking. ‘Yes, yes, yes! Hunter, you’ll be a pro at this breathing business before you even know it.’ He wiped a tear from his
Jane’s POV“Four of your wolves are what?” I frowned up at Leif, who looked ready to blow a gasket, and struggled to sit up as I shucked off the gauzy hospital sheets and adjusted my gown.“Locked in the ruddy dungeon!” He balled his hands into fists. "All of them are unconscious but one! That one had a lot to say, though. A lot to say about the two of you." He jabbed an accusing finger first at me, and then at Colin.“Really, Leif, there is no need for this,” the medic said in an attempt at placating him. It didn’t work.“No – no need for this?” he spluttered, rounding on her instead. I tried to share an amused look with Colin, needing someone else to acknowledge how ridiculous this all was, but he looked as angry as Leif, almost, his face as red as his hair and his knuckles white.“I merely meant that this is a medical facility.” The medic spoke in hushed, calming tones. “Jane has been through a traumatic event. She needs peace and quiet to heal, not of all this yelling.”“What hap
Jane’s POV“He – I – I don’t – I haven’t – he’s not–” Leif spluttered, looking aghast as he stared, open-mouthed, at Colin. I cut him off. “Leif, it’s over. I’m leaving. I trusted you, and you’ve betrayed me – in the one way that I could never forgive.” I levelled my gaze at him, a muscle ticking in my jaw as I fought to contain my wild rage. “Leave me and my sons alone.”“Jane, I haven’t touched them, I swear.” He scratched a hand over his bearded chin. “Colin is lying. I’ve made no orders regarding your kids. Why would I?”I kept my eyes locked on him, searching for any signs that he was faking. He looked like a man on the edge, desperate, and in that desperation his honesty seeped out through the cracks. He was shaking, his hands balled into fists, and his gaze kept darting to Colin. “Then why did I have to lock up the scum that tried to take them away from her?” Colin snarled. “It was me that put them in the dungeons, Leif. They’re there for Jane. She can do with them as she ple
Jane’s POV‘Is that…’ Ina trailed off.I gulped. ‘It is. How can Reg be here? Where did Colin go? What…’ I trailed off, too. As my boys would say: the woman was too stunned to speak.It couldn’t be Reg. It couldn’t be Hunter’s wolf, because he’d come out of Colin. Colin, my Colin, who’d just told me he loved me. Colin, my Colin, who’d followed me here to keep me safe. Colin, who sometimes sounded as cold as Hunter. Colin, whose eyes sometimes glinted blue. Colin, who hadn’t shifted once until now…Was this why? Had he been hiding Reg this whole time? It didn’t make any sense. My whole body felt numb as I watched them fight. I couldn’t even find a shred of passion to worry about Colin. If that was who he really was…‘Colin can’t be Hunter, Jane!’ cried Ina, backing up and shaking her head. ‘I would know. I would’ve smelled him. And,’ she sniffed the air, ‘I would smell Reg now, if that was him.’‘You said you couldn’t smell Colin at all,’ I reminded her, my voice turning pitchy in my
Jane’s POV‘Ina,’ I gasped, ‘are you seeing what I’m seeing?’‘I don’t know what I’m seeing, girl! It’s like hot double vision over here!’‘Then you’re seeing what I’m seeing.’ I wet my lips, which had suddenly gone very, very dry, and ran my tongue over my teeth. ‘Have you got any idea what’s going on?’‘Beats me! I just know I want to be in an Alpha Colin sandwich. This is the sort of thing most girls dream of, you know!’‘This doesn’t feel like a dream,’ I said. ‘This feels more like a nightmare.’Alpha Colin – my Alpha Colin, the original, the one I thought I knew – reared back and hissed, “What the fuck?”Keila laughed smugly as she swaggered down the last few steps. “I thought you might say that, Phoney McPhonerson. This is Alpha Colin of the Desert Assassin pack – the real one, not some dirty faker like you.”“Colin?” I stepped forwards, looking between the two identical men. “What’s going on?”Leif huffed and came to stand at my side, crossing his arms over his chest and scowl
Jane’s POVI couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe. Panic engulfed me. “How?” I breathed. The sound was barely audible, but Colin – Hunter – heard me.“How what?” His brow furrowed, looking so cute, so Colin-like, that my heart stopped again. It shouldn’t be possible. This man couldn’t be the same one that I’d run away from, not once but twice.“How did you take his body?”“Jane, I didn’t. I am me. I am Alpha Colin.” I glared at him, letting my sadness give way to anger. “No, you aren’t. That’s why there are Shadows at Ed’s house, I guess? Because you sent them there.”“What are Shadows?” he said, looking desperately between me, the prisoners, and the other Colin. None of us were going to help him, though.Even if I wanted to believe him, I couldn’t. So many tiny things, a hundred little inconsistencies, suddenly had an explanation.“If you aren’t Hunter, then why is Reg your wolf?”He swallowed noisily. “Who is Reg?”“Stop lying!” I yelled. Keila and Leif sidled closer together. He
Alpha Colin’s POV(The real Alpha Colin)What the ding-dang-doodly hell had I walked into?No, seriously, what in dangnation was going on?My jaw dropped as Jane, sweet Omega Jane, who looked like she wouldn’t hurt a fly, shifted into a huge, silver-white wolf that was quite clearly an Alpha. The Omega girl had an Alpha wolf, the two rogue siblings clearly wanted each other and were tying themselves in knots to avoid that fact, and Alpha Hunter was beating the living daylights out of them both whenever they came anywhere near Jane. Who, by the way, clearly didn’t need his protection anyway, not with that Alpha wolf of hers.I scrubbed at my eyes. Was this a fever dream? Yeah, that had to be it. I was still in the hospital, hopped up on pain meds and dancing to the weirdest song I'd ever heard.Only I knew this was real. I'd never had a dream this grotty or grimy before. I was way too cheerful to be coming up with anything this deranged, even in the deepest darkest crevices of my mind.
Hunter’s POVI woke up slowly and angrily. My back was pressed against the cell bars, which I’d crunched out of shape, but not broken, with my fall. I was dazed but not badly hurt.I didn’t know who I wanted to kill first. I looked up and my gaze found Colin. He was shaking in his boots, staring back at me like I might bite his head off. And maybe I should, the traitor. But it wasn’t him I ached to kill. The real Alpha Colin was little more than a wet wipe. Leif was down and, from the looks of it, bleeding out. It wouldn’t take much to finish the job and maybe he deserved to die bloody and slow.It was Keila I hated most of all. Keila, who was on something that made her impossible to hurt, apparently. ‘I don’t see that as a bad thing, Hunter!’ said Reg, baring his teeth at her. ‘It means we can hurt her for longer. And I bet you want to, after all that embarrassing stuff she made you do!’‘If you ever tell anyone about that shit, Reg, I’ll kick your ass all the way back to the Moon