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;
Jane’s POVI patted Ava awkwardly on the back. I wanted to lift her into my arms and tell her everything would be all right, but I didn’t want Amy to get any more clues about my true identity. If I acted like I knew Ava at all, surely she’d guess there was more to me than met the eye?But Amy seemed so annoyed at her daughter that she barely spared me so much as a glance.“Oh, I’m so sorry, Luna Eremita. Come on, Ava,” Amy scolded her, tugging her off my leg and pushing her towards the classroom. “She’s a clinger, this one. Terrified of starting school, too.”I smiled tightly. “Well, that’s understandable. School can seem scary.”“Not for the daughter of an Alpha and Luna, it shouldn’t.” She arched a neat eyebrow at me and then nodded to my boys. “They don’t seem scared.”“I’m excited!” said Ares with a bright grin. “See, Ava? You don’t have anything to worry about. Now go inside.”Amy shoved Ava before grabbing my arm and towing me away. My belly swooped with nerves. Where was she t
Jane’s POV“What I mean to say is, I know how you feel about him – because I’ve found myself looking at Hunter that way, too. That’s how I know you’ll understand and, to be honest, why I wanted to talk to you about this. Everyone else I know with a mate is so smitten it makes me sick.”Oh.I was quick to carry on lifting the little bottle of poison, directing it to my own lips instead of hers. That was a sure-fire way to give my identity away if there had ever been one.I took a small sip, safe in the knowledge that I’d built up a resistance to it and would feel none of its effects, and pocketed it once more. “I thought the two of you made a perfect couple,” I lied.She frowned at me, her eyes following the path the poison had just taken. “What is that?”“Headache medication,” I lied smoothly. “I get a lot of migraines, so Daisy makes them up for me. I have two six-year-old boys,” I said with a smile and a shrug.She wrinkled her pretty face. “I suppose that is the one benefit of Ava
Jane’s POVI went very, very still.It was impossible not to react to that, even though my mind was screaming at me to stay in character, to laugh it off, to mock this idiot Omega who’d let herself be tricked by the ever-so-clever Luna Amy. I’d been… hypnotised? How? By whom? When?The other question was much harder to consider, but it seemed even more important than those.Had I ever truly hated Hunter? Or had it all been because of Amy?I realised I hadn’t said anything, hadn’t even breathed, so I forced a too-loud laugh and touched Amy on the arm. “No, you didn’t!” I said, the sound shrill and desperate. I laughed more to try to cover it up.“I did.” She grinned, her eyes wicked. “It was so easy, too. She moved to Moonrise City after spending years hiding out in the human world with her two sons.” Something in her gaze flickered as she said it; my heart dropped. “You have two sons…” she said softly.I had to own it. I wrinkled my nose. “I’m glad that’s the only similarity I bear t