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
Amy’s POVNobody could outsmart me. Nobody.And especially not an Omega.I smiled smugly as I pressed my ear to the door. Not that I needed to – Jane and Colin were being loud enough that the whole of the Storm pack could hear them. It was just like that little slut to spread her legs without a care for who was listening in.‘Or maybe it had something to do with the aphrodisiac you slipped her,’ said my wolf, Eve, her voice every bit as smug as mine.‘Maybe.’ I smiled to myself. ‘Anyway, I’ve heard enough.’‘Enough to know it worked.’ ‘That it did.’ My smile widened into a grin. ‘That it did.’* * *It had all been too easy. Jane liked to think she was a clever little thing, but I was always one step ahead. ‘One? You do yourself a disservice, Amy. You’re always at least ten steps ahead.’ ‘You’re right. It is more like ten.’I smoothed a hand over my blonde curls and met my bright green eyes in the mirror with a perfectly coy smile. I hadn’t gone to get Obie back from Daisy, or the
Jane’s POVOh my god.Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god–‘Girl, you’re giving me a headache!’ cried Ina. ‘Think something else, for the love of the Moon Goddess, pleeeease. I can’t take another second of this! So you had sex with Colin. So what? The guy is hot!‘It’s not just that,’ I replied, trying to get my jumbled, panicked thoughts in order. ‘It’s everything. It’s how drunk I got, how out of control I felt, what Amy told me, and, yeah, okay, the fact that I had sex with Colin.’I peered at him. Everything looked picturesque this morning – too picturesque, if you asked me. Golden sunlight fell across the bed in perfect slants, bringing out his freckles and making his hair shine a glossy auburn.I wanted to want him. It made sense for me to want him.But, in the cold light of day, I knew I didn’t. My heart still ached for Hunter, if I were being honest with myself. Know I knew why I’d despised him so intensely, it made me wonder if we’d had a chance at happiness tha
Hunter’s POVReg’s paws thudded hard against the earth. We were running around Lake Pear, the Alpha’s exclusive area in the Storm pack. I didn’t want to be disturbed – not today.Not after Amy had told me that she’d overheard the new Luna having sex with Colin over breakfast, her eyelashes all fluttery and a soft smirk painting her lips. She’d put it between saccharine sweet wording about how nice it was that they’d finally rekindled their passion, after the so-called Eremita had told her all about how she’d fallen out of love with her mate, but it told me two things that she hadn’t meant to let slip.The first was that Amy was trying to manipulate the fake Luna in some way.The second made me realise why that was. It was because Amy knew who Luna Eremita really was. That was a fact that made me feel sick. ‘You don’t know that for sure, Hunter,’ Reg pointed out. ‘You never really know what Amy is up to.’‘I know,’ I bit out. ‘I know her and I know what she’s up to.’ Then I barked at
Hunter’s POVThe scene that unfolded before me would confuse me later, but as I raced towards Jane, driven mad by the scent of her blood, desperate to find her, to make her safe again, I didn’t take any notice of the strange group of people surrounding her.S was there, his face almost worried, just a tiny line marking the spot between his eyebrows, a cold cloth in his hand as he rested it on her forehead. He kept looking down at her like he wasn’t sure how he felt, so I felt no remorse in knocking him aside and stealing the cloth from his hand.I almost said her real name. Almost. But a crowd was gathering around the immediate circle surrounding Jane, so I managed to force out, “Luna Eremita,” instead of saying Jane. A woman I vaguely recognised stepped forward, but I took no notice of her in my panic. “Alpha Hunter,” she said, a little breathlessly. “She was coming towards me and she just collapsed.”The twin boys jumped up and down. “Alpha, we don’t know what’s wrong with her!” cr
Rose’s POVI stayed in Moonrise City after Jane left. I’d lived here for more than a year before Jane and her boys had moved to the city, and it had become my home – even after I’d ditched the boyfriend I’d moved here for. I had a house here, friends, family – all of them werewolves, but not me.That was how Jane and I had first become friends. She’d been a tiny slip of a thing, all wide, wild eyes, clutching her two babies close like she was terrified they were going to be taken away from her.It hadn’t taken long for us to strike up a friendship. We shared a kinship that neither of us could explain – at least, not until we became close enough to open up and explain it to each other.We were both from werewolf families, but neither of us had a wolf. That was why my family had moved to the human lands not long after my eighteenth birthday. When it had become obvious that my wolf wasn’t going to show up, they’d decided it would be best for me to be around humans. They hadn’t meant it
Rose’s POV “Step back. I’ll ascertain what’s happened,” the sexy-as-all-hell man said, dropping down beside Maybe-Jane and listening for her breath and feeling for her pulse.“Will Mommy be okay, S?” Maybe-Owen asked, his lower lip wobbling as he bravely blinked back tears. Mr. Hot Stuff was called S, then. I had to fan myself. Actually fan myself. My body ached for him, craved him, but it felt like I was on the cusp of something without quite being able to grasp it. Was it him that had drawn me all this way?It almost sounded like the stories my family, and Jane, had told me about the mate bond. But that was impossible. I didn’t have a wolf, so I couldn’t have a mate. It was as heart breaking as it was simple.Hang on. I’d never thought of it as a bad thing before. At least, I’d never let myself. I’d told myself I couldn’t think of anything worse than having a mate, someone to live and die for, all of the blood in my body beating only because they stood beside me. It sounded so, s
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