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
Hunter’s POVJane stepped forward and gripped the bars. I padded over to the chest in the corner and shifted out, reaching into it and dressing in someone’s button-up shirt and trousers before I turned back to face her. ‘I would tell you to be a gentleman and get Jane some clothes, too, but she scratched my perfect face,’ Reg huffed. ‘What will my fans say when they see it? What if it scars?’‘It won’t scar. You’re an Alpha wolf, dummy. It’s already healing.’I grabbed a handful of clothes out for her and marched over to Jane’s cell. Four pairs of eyes watched me go; the other prisoners were waiting for their sentence to come. They’d be waiting a while. I needed to know what they knew, but I needed to fix things with Jane first.Everything was crumbling around me. I had to start putting things back together – and fast. “Here.” I passed the clothes through the bars to Jane. She crossed her arms and ignored me.“You forced me in here,” she said coldly. “I don’t want anything from you.
Hunter‘s POVReg hadn’t stopped shaking his butt since I’d told him we were going home. Even with an unconscious Jane to contend with, Leif and Keila both still alive and kicking, and Alpha Colin now conscious and staring at me with his thumb in his fucking mouth, Reg seemed determined to be in the most irritatingly good mood he could be.‘Back! To! The! Storm! Pack!’ He punctuated every word with another ass shake. ‘Reg, focus!’ I snapped.‘Sorry, Hunter! I’m just so excited! Things can go back to how they used to be, only I’m waaaay richer now, and even more famous and popular than you are. Ian and I can hang out, and eat all the hot wings we like, and watch back old episodes of Alpha’s Toy, and my new episodes, and we can gossip about girls, and I can devote more time to helping Ian find his mate!’ He whined suddenly. ‘Hunter, I wish we could look for our mate. I don’t like Amy anymore. She’s mean.’‘Oh my god.’ I glared at him. ‘You wanted Jane. When you finally got Jane, you dec
Jane’s POVEverything was dark and foggy. My body felt heavy, too heavy to move, and my brain struggled to make sense of the world around me. My eyelids wouldn’t open and all I could feel was a rumbling, bouncing sensation beneath – or was it around? – me.Smooth, warm leather pressed against my bare arm. Something nestled closer to me, a slack face nudging against my bicep, and my heart ached. That something felt more like a someone, someone I knew better than myself and loved with more than just the force of my heart. It felt like Owen, who always slept with his mouth open and his head tilted back.I couldn’t remember where I was or what was going on, but I did know that it couldn’t be my sweet Owen. Another burst of heat scrambled around on my other side, and an aggravated little sigh that sounded so much like Ares made my heart twist. This was a cruel dream, but it was one I didn’t want to wake up from.I vaguely recognised S’s flat, emotionless voice. “–It didn’t work on the chil
Jane’s POVI woke up in a surprisingly nice room. Even in my drug-fogged mind, I’d thought I’d known what to expect when I opened my eyes. I was no stranger to being bullied, hurt, and kidnapped, after all, and I’d seen the inside of a dungeon’s cells too many times to expect to see this.I sat up slowly, the plush mattress shifting beneath me as my weight moved. There were silk sheets on the bed, all a pale sage green in colour, and four fat pillows propped up behind me. A soft blanket had been slung over the top of the duvet, too, which fell to the gnarled oak floorboards below. My boys, I thought, my spine prickling. My gaze darted to the two still figures, curled together beneath the duvet of one of the two single beds in the room. I let out a relieved sigh. They were safe. The hastily thrown-off duvet on the other bed told me that one of my sons had climbed in with the other. My heart pinched. My perfect, snow angel sons were back here, in the one place I’d never, ever intended
Jane’s POV “Hunter?” I frowned at his back as he marched me up the stairs to our bedroom. “What’s going on?” He shot me a reassuring smile over his shoulder, but didn’t slow his pace. “I just need to talk to you.” We’d moved out of the pack house. It held too many memories for us both. Now, we lived in what was basically a small mansion on the edge of the forest, not far from Rose and S’s house. It was light and airy, all warm wood and draping ivy paired with gleaming, modern appliances and crisp, cream-painted walls. The kids had a room each: Owen’s filled with state-of-the-art tech gadgets, Ares’s with workout equipment, and Ava’s with easels and canvases and a drawing tablet. They had everything they needed, and more space than Owen and Ares had ever had, but most nights they dragged their mattresses into each other’s rooms and slept huddled together. We were safe now, but we’d all been through so much. Too much. I hoped my kids were young enough that they’d recover from the t
Hunter’s POVKim ran towards me, his jaw wide, his canines glinting in the weak sunlight. Owen and Ava clung haphazardly to his back. Fear flashed through me. I started towards them–But they were safe, and Jane was safe, and I was safe, and we were home. I sucked in a long, slow breath, and a forced a smile as they neared me. The smile took hold, tucking itself into the corners of my mouth, and by the time my children had reached me I was grinning at them. I opened my arms wide, and the three of them ran straight at me. We tumbled to the ground, rolling in the grass, laughing; Kim licked my face, and Ava and Owen scrambled into my arms.“Hey, kids.” I pulled back and ruffled their hair. Kim rolled onto his back, his paws sticking up in the air. Ava rubbed his belly.‘Wow,’ I said to Reg dryly, ‘he really is your son.’‘I saw Ares eat a salad the other day – and enjoy it.’ Reg shuddered. ‘I love him, but that really threw me.’I pinched the bridge of my nose. ‘Don’t remind me. Then
Jane’s POVTime passed strangely after that.There were noises out in the hall. Noises I probably should’ve listened to, made something of, but…What was the point? Hunter was gone. My heart, my soul – my life – was dead.My throat closed up around the words I’d spoken. I’d bared every important moment of my life to the Moon Goddess, bound my prayer in my story, and she hadn’t listened.She hadn’t listened.I knew Ava was still with me, still clinging half to me and half to her daddy, and that was the last straw for me. Her pain became glass shards, which scraped at the raw edges of my own wound.For a while, my hurt was so immense that I felt nothing at all. If Nina or Ava spoke to me, I didn’t hear them. I was numb, frozen to the spot, Hunter’s lifeblood going cold and sticky on my palms.Beneath the frost of my numbness, though, a fire roared. I was terrified to start feeling again, to start moving. The second I moved my aching legs and stood up, time would start again.And the sec
Jane’s POVI shifted out. “No!” I wailed. I fell to my knees, then crawled over to him. My fists pounded the cold, metallic floor with every weak, shuffling movement I made.“You can’t be gone,” I whimpered, tears streaming down my cheeks, a lump forcing my throat to close around the words. “You can’t be.”But I knew that he was. The mate bond writhed and shrieked within me, screeching out for the severed other half of its soul.“Hunter?” I choked, grabbing him gently. His head lolled back as I moved him. His eyes were open; their blue irises were cold, so cold, and his pupils were unseeing. Cuts nicked his face.I pried him away from his father. Hunter’s body was merged with Reg’s: his hands were furry and clawed, but the rest of him was human. I wished he had human hands I could hold.It was that thought that shattered me entirely. I would never be able to hold his hand again. It was silly, and childish, and pathetic, but it was that notion that broke me. Not that I had lost my ma
Jane’s POV I was torn between my sons. Owen was safe – for now – so I turned my attention to Ares. His wolf, Kim, hit the ground. I bit back a cry– Kim rolled over, tussling with his attacker. He snarled, revealing huge canine teeth, then dove his muzzle at the other wolf’s neck, again and again and again. Blood spurted, slicking his fur coat. Then they were rolling again, slamming sideways into the thinning crowd of battling werewolves. The wolf on top of Kim was grey, and as big as him, but its size looked abnormal – the result of performance enhancing drugs, not nature, as Kim’s stature was. They fell back, circling each other. Kim’s upper lip pulled back from his teeth, revealing shining white canines with blood dripping from them. My stomach turned over. Beneath that fur coat was my sweet son, who wasn’t quite seven years old yet. He and his brother had seen so much – too much – already. Kim pounced. The grey wolf was a half-second behind, but lunged forward with a snarl the
Jane’s POVAlpha Dylan – or what was left of him – pounced at Hunter. A scream built in my throat, but I was helpless to do anything. He’d given me a chance to get our kids out safely, and I wasn’t going to waste it.I wasn’t even sure how I was alive right now. One moment, I’d been lost to the foggy darkness of unconsciousness, and glad of it, too, after all the pain I’d been forced to endure. Even in the depths of nothingness, I’d known that agony beckoned in the light.But there were other things there besides the pain. Love, in all its many forms, waited for me here. My children. My mate. My friends.So I clung to wakefulness with everything I had and prayed that whatever was keeping me awake would keep working for another second, another minute, another hour. I needed every moment I could steal to get my kids to safety.Amy kicked the door open. My view of Hunter disappeared as Carl pushed me through it. The last I saw of him was his own father grinning at him, sick, twisted, sad
Hunter’s POVEverything moved in a blur. My eyes were fixed on my father, his mutated wolf filling my field of vision as he moved swiftly towards me. But, from the corner of my eye, a sudden burst of movement snagged my gaze.Jane sat bolt upright. She looked like a zombie, her wounds unhealed, her eyes blank – but she was moving, scrambling to grab the kids, crying out my name as my attention was forced back onto my dad.His jagged claws caught the edge of my shoulder. I shifted out before he could claim the upper hand, letting Reg’s powerful body burst out of mine.My father sneered down at me. The knobbed ridge of his spine seemed to snap as he bent low, his sickly orange eyes meeting mine. I could smell his stale breath. “You always were weak,” he said, his voice a hollow growl. It didn’t sound like it had; it was all wolf, vicious and as broken as he was.Suddenly, I wasn’t a grown man, a strong Alpha, a mate, standing before a weak and unwell old man who had clearly gone to desp
Hunter’s POVIt was too late. My hand was on the doorknob and it was already swinging open.There was no turning back now. Reg wailed. ‘I can smell her blood! Jane’s hurt! Jane’s dying! Jane’s dead!’The buzzing in my ears drowned out his mournful howls. Everything was moving in slow motion as I finished easing open the door. I took it all in whilst observing nothing other than the most heart-breaking thing I’d seen since… since...The present was so horrifying it eclipsed even my darkest memories.Jane was lashed securely to a metal table. My heart broke and, somewhere through the haze of my heartache, all I could think was: she must be so cold.Her limbs stuck out at odd angles. Blood covered her. But worst of all was her face. It was empty. It was like someone had made a perfect physical copy of her but had left out the most important part: her soul. The waxy figurine atop the metal table looked like Jane, broken and bruised but still my Jane, only without the bright spark of de
Hunter’s POVI expected for my world to spin off its axis at those words – but it didn’t. In fact, I felt very little. Nothing at all.I’d never clicked with Obie. I’d always been drawn to Ava but never to him. In my mind, she’d been my daughter and Obie had been Amy’s son. Huh. Now I knew why.That was why I fixed Carl with a cold stare and said flatly, “I know.”Compared to the other revelations I’d been through lately – hell, even in just the last few hours – this barely made me bat an eye. Maybe it was because I cared about Jane and Ava and her sons, but maybe it was because, deep down, I really didn’t care about Amy or Obie. ‘Hunter!’ gasped Reg. ‘How can you think that about a poor, innocent baby?’‘That’s the thing. I don’t think anything about him. Anyway, he’s nothing to do with me. Not really. That takes the matter out of my hands, don’t you think?’Reg muttered under his breath that I was horrible and unfeeling, and that was probably also true, but I still couldn’t make my