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
Jane’s POVToo angry to sit around doing nothing, I went to confront S. Ina was worryingly quiet about the matter of him saying he was my mate, and the fact that he’d told Hunter, of all people, made me wonder if he truly believed it.It didn’t take me long to find him. I asked an Omega if they’d seen him, one I didn’t recognise from before, thankfully, and she hid a giggle behind her hand and said everyone knew where he was, which made a change.She pointed me out into the gardens, and I saw him immediately. He was lying on the grass, surrounded by broken glass, blood soaking into the earth beneath him.“S?” I called out to him, breaking into a jog. What the heck had happened to him?He groaned, pulling himself up. “I’m fine,” he started to say, and then his head jerked back so he could look at me. His throat jumped. “You came to find me,” he murmured.“Uh… yeah, I guess I did.” I dug the toe of my boot into the ground. “S, what happened?”He shook glass out of his hair and stood up.
Jane’s POVI pulled back, not letting his lips touch mine, then moved back more slowly, forcing an apologetic smile onto my lips in place of his kiss. “I’m sorry,” I muttered, chewing on the inside of my cheek and glancing over at my sons.“No, I’m the one who should be sorry.” His throat bobbed. “And, just to clarify, in case it wasn’t obvious, although I did think it was obvious–“My smile pulled a little wider. “Just tell me, Colin,” I said.“I’m sorry,” he finished, blushing as red as his hair. “I know you’ve been through a lot. I don’t… I don’t know what came over me.” He shrugged, displacing his mug of tea and sloshing it across the tray.I leapt up and rushed into the en-suite, grabbing a hand towel in my hurry and blotting the spill. “There,” I said, gesturing weakly at the mess pooling atop the silk bedding. I met his eyes.His lips twitched.I looked back at the bed. God, it was awful – a half-soaked towel, stained with tea, and the spill still seeping across the covers.Co
Jane’s POVI felt uneasy as we walked outside, heading to the westernmost part of the pack. I was on edge with every step, expecting someone to start pointing and laughing at me, to call me a stupid Omega, to hit me, to whip me, to kick me.It was worse still when I watched my sons running around in the long grass. They looked so carefree, so unaware of the danger that lurked in every person that passed. This place was hell on earth. I couldn’t believe I had failed them so badly that they’d ended up here.It didn’t look like hell today, though. There was gossamer summer sunshine casting everything in a golden glow. People smiled at me politely, even bowed their heads respectfully, as they passed. But over the top of the reality I was seeing, memories of the past kept flashing by. There was nothing but sun on the grass one minute and snow the next. I felt myself making this same journey on all fours, labour cramps killing me slowly as I dragged my weak body across the frozen ground.
Jane’s POVWe fell into a routine of resentment as the days we were forced to spend at the Storm pack turned into weeks. Well – when I said we, I meant me. In truth, I’d never seen my sons so happy. Except maybe for when they’d broken Ed’s windows, but that wasn’t the sort of happiness that could bloom and grow into something lasting. This, though? This was.For the first time, they had a real home. There was always food on the table, other kids to play with, and a warm bed to fall into at night. I spent the summer reading to them, laughing with them, and I almost hated Hunter a little less when I saw how happy my boys were. Almost – but not quite.Alpha Colin, to keep up the pretence that he was my mate, had moved into the bedroom with us. We’d been given a new, larger one, that was somehow even grander than the first. My boys had their own, separate, adjoining room, which they loved. We’d never had this much space before.Colin had insisted he sleep on the floor. I’d offered to tak
Ava’s POVI am Ava Burns – maybe. My daddy, Hunter Burns, was one of the most powerful Alphas to have ever lived. My mommy, Amy Walter, was his Luna. Every member of the Storm and Riverrock packs loved me, because they believed I was my father’s saviour. Or so they wanted me to think. I knew they were lying to me, that they hid their hatred behind their snide smiles and saccharine-sweet remarks. It wasn’t just the pack wolves, either; I thought my own mom hated me, too. She managed to hide it sometimes, usually in public, but I often caught her looking at me with disgust in her pretty green eyes. My eyes were blue. I wished I had Mommy’s eyes, not Daddy’s.I never understood why until I heard Mommy and Daddy arguing one day. My mom’s voice was so shrill, so harsh, that I’d cowered into a corner, huddled into a ball, and pressed my palms to my ears in fear. I’d rocked back and forth, trying to drown out the sound of her rage.Daddy had stood up for me. He’d always been there for me;