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“Jane?” Hunter prompted me gently, sounding so much like Colin that I took a staggering step backwards. Some emotion flickered across his face, but he was getting quicker at masking it now. “What do you think?” he asked, his voice flat and disinterested once more.I nibbled on my bottom lip. What I wanted to do was attack him and run with my sons, but without Ina I didn’t think we’d get very far. I had to go along with what he wanted – for now.It could benefit me, though. If I worked as a doctor here, I’d have access to equipment and ingredients that I could use to make new poisons. I’d feel a lot safer being back in the Storm pack if I had my glass vials jangling at my waist.The thing that worried me most were his honey-sweet words about Ares and Owen having a home and an education. That was all I’d ever wanted for them, but not here. Never here. If they got settled, made friends, forged a life, would I be able to drag them away?I set my jaw. We wouldn’t be here long en
Ares’s POVI couldn’t tell Mom.It was all Owen’s fault, really. He was the one who’d hacked his way into Mom’s computer. He was the one who’d found the deleted parts of her search history. He was the one – Who was I kidding? I’d looked at the laptop screen, too. I’d seen the two words that had changed everything for us: Hunter Burns. She’d searched it so many times! Mom was always reading up on this guy. It hadn’t clicked straight away. Owen had pointed out how similar we looked; Owen had zoomed into every part of his face, detailing the shape and colour of his eyes and how much they looked like ours.They didn’t just look like ours, though. They were identical.Hunter Burns was our dad.Owen had felt bad when he’d realised. “I think we should stop looking.” He’d tried to close the laptop, but I’d shot my hand over and shoved it open again before he could. “Ares,” he’d sighed, sounding so much like Mom that I’d looked around nervously, “we won’t find anything good.”“Yeah,” I’d his
Jane’s POVI crept over to the window and peered out. ‘He’s definitely down there, girl!’ cried Ina. ‘I can sniff him out! Sniff, sniff, sniff! I’ve got you now, Colin!’“Kim can smell him too, Mom,” said Ares. I twisted around and looked at him curiously; he shrugged. “He told me to tell you.”“He’s got a good nose,” Owen said seriously. ‘Has he followed us?” I asked Ina, frowning down into the darkness outside. He stepped into a pool of light, which spilled out from one of the windows on the ground floor. He waved up at me dorkily, grinning widely and stumbling around clumsily, so great was the force of his wave. He looked so much like the Colin I knew, the fake one, that my heart twinged. For a second, it was like none of the last few days had happened. I was Jane and he was Colin, and we were in love. He was sweet and goofy and protective; my walls were coming down, more and more, day by day, and I was able to see beyond my past and into what our future might hold.The image f
Hunter’s POVWhen Jane came into the dining room, looking for all the world like the Luna she was pretending to be, my heart stopped. I missed her real face, her dark hair, her blue eyes – but I could still see her in the way she carried herself, in the protective way she stood beside her two boys.My throat swelled. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t Colin anymore; I couldn’t let my emotions rule me. With the eyes of the Storm pack watching, I had to keep my cool mask on now more than ever.It went okay until she spoke to me. Her voice was unchanged; nobody here would recognise it. Maybe Amy and Carl, when they got back, but I doubted it. I’d tell Jane to shake it up a little when they returned, but until then I thought she had enough going on without worrying about adding an accent to her list.Being so close to her, hearing her voice… it drove me mad.So I put my hand on her thigh.She leapt away from my touch. It shattered me.But I couldn’t let her know that, could I? So I set my lips in
Hunter’s POV‘I’m sorry?’ I stared at S in complete shock. A blush climbed slowly up his neck. ‘I must have misheard you, Reg, because there is no way in hell that S could think Jane is his mate.’‘Did I say that?’ Reg cocked his head to one side, all faux-innocence, though he was still chuckling to himself behind his paw. ‘I don’t think I was supposed to tell anyone… Ian made me promise! Hunter, you can’t tell him that I told you that he told me that he thinks Jane is his mate!’I immediately did just that. “S, do you seriously think Jane is your mate?” I growled, leaning across the table and grabbing him by the collar. ‘Hunter, you traitor!’ cried Reg. ‘That’s the last time I keep any of your secrets!’‘Oh, the irony!’ I cried right back. ‘Says the dummy wolf who takes photos of me getting out of the shower!’“I don’t know, Alpha,” S said, drawing my attention back to him. “My wolf, Ian, thinks she smells,” he gulped, “good.”I shook him. “She. Is. Mine.”‘Is she, though, Hunter?’
Jane’s POVI looked up from Leif’s letter to see the door swinging and Hunter gone. Good riddance, I thought.‘Don’t you think it’s weird?’ asked Ina.‘What?’‘How quickly he left?’ Then she added a quiet, ‘Duh!’‘I wish he’d never come here in the first place. I hate him so much, Ina.’ I threw my hands up and started to pace. ‘What the hell did he mean, saying that S thinks he’s my mate? That’s impossible! S has never shown me any interest before.’Ina tilted her head to one side curiously. ‘I thought you agreed with Hunter about that? It doesn’t sound so crazy to me.’I scoffed. ‘As if I’d agree with him about anything. Besides, you know my plan is to go along with whatever he says. I wanted trust and freedom, and,’ I stopped by the door, which was still open, ‘I think I’ve got what I wanted already.’‘Where do you think he went?’‘Who cares? We’re getting out of here, Ina!’This was the perfect opportunity I’d imagined. I’d been paid in full by Leif and Hunter, in his haste, had l