Jane’s POVI stared at him. My sons rushed past me and sat down at the dinner table, grinning from ear to ear.“What’s going on?” I asked coldly, narrowing my eyes at the three of them. “I said we couldn’t have dinner tonight, Hunter.”“You did,” he said amicably, sitting down and pouring two glasses of wine for us, and two glasses of water for the kids. “But then I remembered that I’m your Alpha, and that means you have to play host to me if I ever feel like it.” He met my gaze with a cheeky smirk. “And tonight, I feel like it.”My skin burned with hatred. That bastard! He’d already used the Alpha card on me to force me to stay in the Storm pack, and now this. It was beyond belief.Only it wasn’t, was it? Hunter didn’t know how to show his feelings. I didn’t think he even knew how to feel them a lot of the time. He got what he wanted by trickery – or, like tonight, by just taking it.“Come on, then, sit down.” He gestured for me to take the seat beside him. “I’m still in my work clo
Jane’s POVColin knotted his hands together in front of him and swayed back on his heels. His brow was creased and his bottom lip was red and sore from being bitten.I bit back a sigh. “What do you want to talk to me about?” “It’s important,” he insisted.“I gathered that.” I gestured for him to follow me over to the sofa. “Come on. I don’t think I can deal with whatever this is standing up.”“Probably a good idea,” he muttered. I shook my head slightly before dropping down heavily onto the couch.“Well, go on then. Shoot.” Colin picked at his cuticles. “I’m sorry for saying it was a mistake.”It took me a moment to realise what he meant. “Oh – that? It’s fine, Colin. Honestly, it was.”He dropped his gaze and pulled his arms tight around himself. “Oh,” he whispered.I could feel myself getting impatient. “Do you have something important to tell me or not?”“I do!” he blurted, looking up so fast his red hair was flung back from his freckled forehead. “I had to say it was a mistake b
Owen’s POVMommy was in her own head that night. She didn’t let us see her upset, but we weren’t stupid. Something had really hurt her feelings. She was quiet over dinner and sat with us while we did our homework. Instead of focusing on helping us, though, she sat with her head in her hands over a blank sheet of paper. Occasionally she’d scribble something on it, only to cross it out a second later.Ares and I shared our patented Something Is Really Wrong look but didn’t say anything straight away. After a few looks, though, we asked what was wrong, but she wouldn’t say. Mommy was like that; even though we wanted to look after her, she always asserted that she was the one who looked after us.We still wanted to cheer her up, though. I didn’t like seeing her sad.So, the next morning, at Alpha training, Ares and I devised a way to solve all of our problems. It seemed so simple to us.But it turned out that we weren’t the only ones there with a plan.* * *“Good morning,” drawled Hunte
Jane’s POVI hadn’t been able to face Hunter this morning when he’d come to get the boys for Alpha training. I still felt awful about how I’d behaved last night, but it had taken everything I had not to shatter in front of them. I’d tried to help them with their homework – not that they ever really needed it – but I’d ended up staring blankly at the piece of paper I’d been planning to use to map out my muddled thoughts.In the end, I’d not even told Ares and Owen that Colin had gone. If I’d started to tell them, I would’ve cried. They didn’t deserve to have their own mother sobbing about her problems to them. Everything was hitting me all at once. I felt like I’d survived the hits I’d taken so far, like I’d managed to bounce back after each and every one, but this was the final straw for me.Even Colin had been out for himself, out to get me. After sleeping on it, I knew I had to pull myself together – and fast. After training was over, I would demand Hunter told me everything he kn
Hunter’s POVAres and Owen never showed up at Lake Pear to talk to me. I wondered if it was some sort of trick on Jane’s part, making them behave like they liked me only to spurn me later on. ‘Yeah, that could totally be it!’ said Reg. ‘I mean, they seem way too nice to do something like that, and so does Jane.’ He sighed wistfully. ‘Sweet, lovely Jane. So, no, maybe that isn’t it at all, buddy.’‘Such helpful insights as always, Reg.’‘Thanks, Hunter!’I let Reg shift out for a run around the lake. Maybe they’d got delayed, and I wanted to be here if they arrived late. But after an hour of laps and still no sign of Jane’s boys – my boys, I corrected, and felt a jolt of pure joy go through me – I decided to go back to the pack house.I trotted back, still in Reg’s form, letting him take the lead. There was a worry nagging at me, a tiny niggle at the back of my mind, but Reg’s endless, inane chatter silence it pretty effectively.‘Now I’m a daddy wolf, do I need to learn how to chang
Jane’s POVIt was my worst nightmare made manifest. ‘Nina, we have to find them. Is there any way we can track them without their scents? They must have been taken from here.’ I shook my head to myself. ‘But why were they out here? Was it training? I have to talk to Hunter.’I hated that, hated it more than anything. I didn’t want to rely on him, but I had to know more before I ran off, half-crazed, high on hope and desperation but with no plan in place. I’d wasted too much time already; my next move had to be deliberate, purposeful.Nina didn’t reply.‘Nina?’ I frowned. ‘Are you listening? We have to go, we have to find them–’Her loud howl eclipsed my words. ‘Nina?’ I tried talking to her again, but then I felt it, too.It was more potent than anything I’d felt in years. The faintest trace of an old smell, long forgotten but immediately remembered, filled my nostrils and then filtered down into the belly of my soul. It was woodsy, like pine sap and dew-damp moss, like the fresh sce
Hunter’s POV She was everything. I gripped her hair, her shoulders, her slim waist; I couldn’t get enough of her. I drove my hardness into her slick core, and it still wasn’t enough. “Jane,” I groaned, my hands clenching into fists in her perfect black hair. Her hair, the way it should be. The way it had been. I never wanted the illusion – or was it the reality? – to fade. As pretty as her new face was, it wasn’t hers. Huge blue eyes stared up at me, heated with lust, softened with love. I had never seen Jane look at me like that before, without so much as a drop of hatred in the perfect ocean of her eyes. My knees bit into the forest floor, bits of twig and dried leaf scrabbling against my skin. My muscles clenched. Sunlight spilled over our joined bodies, kissing us with its heat. “Perfect,” I grunted. “You’re – perfect.” She smirked up at me, and then her lips sought out mine again. Our tongues tangled, our hands entwined, and there, in the woods, uncaring who might see or h
Jane’s POVI felt the hold Amy’s hypnosis had on me snap the moment Hunter bit down onto the curve of my neck. His teeth dug in; blood spurted from the wound; like a burst of bright white light, it flared and then vanished.Since Nina had come back to me, it felt like I’d been taken by the hand, led towards a deep, clear lake – and away from the clutches of the hypnosis. Step by step, I’d been eased away from its cruel grip. Then, when he’d marked me as his, I’d not only reached the lake’s edge but dived right in.It had washed away everything. My innate hatred for him was gone. My heart could feel as it chose now, and it chose him.He held me. I lay, serene, in his arms, embraced by the soft heat of the mate bond as much as I was by him. I palmed his muscular chest and listened to the gentle whooshing of our breaths. In and out. In and out. In and–My sons were missing.I froze.I’d forgotten about them. In the heat of the moment, I’d completely and utterly forgotten that they were g