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Chapter 27She Slapped Me!Jane’s POVI clutched my boys tightly to my chest as Hunter tucked Ava into my arms. I adjusted their weight, carrying all three of them close; the moment I had them settled, Hunter lifted me into his arms.Bearing the weight of all four of us as though it were nothing, he crouched amidst the rock fall and lifted the heavy stones, one by one, to pick a path out of them.As the rocks above use seemed to move of their own accord – S and Carl’s work, no doubt – Hunter jumped up and out.Moonlight spilled in, its silver light gilding the dark, craggy stones, and as we neared the top the sudden burst of its light blinded me.We were out. We were free.I swallowed hard. I could barely believe what we’d done down there. It felt unreal, as distant as a dream, and yet so palpable that I could still feel the hot flush of his breath upon my naked skin.I shivered, pleasant tingles spreading down my back. But I couldn’t think about that now. I had my boys to think about
Jane’s POV“No!” I shouted at him, my eyes almost jumping out of their sockets. “Are you crazy, Carl? Really? What are you thinking?” My nostrils flared; I glared at him, my shock giving way to anger. “We’re just pretending to be mates!”I’d just had sex with Hunter and now Carl was asking me to sleep with him? What did they take me for?“Relax,” he laughed, seeming to be enjoying my rage. “I wouldn’t do anything to you. You’re easy to rile up. But,” he paused, raising his eyebrows at the side mirror, “look over there. It’s the Hummer. S is following us.”I twisted at the waist, frowning. I could see the Hummer – but was Hunter still in the car, too? Was he following me because he wasn’t as cool and collected as he’d acted?I bit my lip, eyes narrowing as I stared hard at the windows, trying to see if Hunter’s familiar face was in there.“Stop torturing that poor lip of yours.” Carl smiled at me in the mirror, his eyes bright and teasing. “They’re so plump,” he went on, “they look abs
Jane’s POVOnce I’d shut Carl firmly in the other bedroom, not even hesitating there long enough to look around, I went back to the sleeping pups to watch over them.Smiling to myself, tears pricking my eyes, I gazed softly at them. They looked so sweet lying there together; Owen had put an arm around Ava, and the three of them were nestled in close under the blanket.I fetched a cloth, ran it under the hot tap, and went back to wipe their faces clean. I managed to dress them both in their pyjamas, and then I settled on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the blanket.“Good night, my snow angels,” I whispered, leaning forward to kiss my boys’ foreheads. I felt sorry for Ava, and patted her cheek fondly. She was so cute, with her lips parted slightly in her sleep and her dark eyelashes casting long shadows down her cheeks.I couldn’t hold her mother against her. Ava had been nothing but adorable in the short time that I’d known her.My head started to droop, so changed quickly into a
Jane’s POVOh. My. God!What was he doing here? I stared at the door, still ricocheting slightly from how hard I’d slammed it in his face. Owen had told me that he’d been planning to propose, but I hadn’t really thought about it since. How could I have?I bit my lip, so hard that it split. Why did it have to be him? He was the last person I wanted to hurt.Alpha Jeff had given me a job when I’d first left the Storm pack. My boys and I had been homeless, and he’d given me work and a place to stay until I’d managed to find my feet. I’d been able to develop my skills at the Institute, and it was those skills that had enabled me to become a doctor. I owed him so much.I owed him more than this.As the director of the Institute, Alpha Jeff was unlike any other Alphas I’d met. He was a true gentleman and, as a medical professional, he was uninterested in fighting and causing more harm.His Beta ran his pack, Thunder Cloud, which allowed him to spend most of his time at the Institute or sc
Jane’s POVMy face burned. I hated that my body responded to his like this, always giving him feedback too quickly.And with Carl and Jeff right behind us. I wondered if they were watching. My blush darkened.“Hunter, I can help you too,” said Carl, and then he was pulling me out of Hunter’s arms.Hunter arched an eyebrow at him. “Sure, you can – if her house is covered by insurance.”I looked between them as thick silence stretched through the room, filling it like fog. The atmosphere became strange again, tainted by so many words left unsaid, and so I put the knife down. Even that sounded loud in the quiet kitchen.“I’m going to check on Ares,” I said. “You guys can keep cooking without me.”It was a relief to leave the bristling tension behind. I jogged upstairs, opening the bedroom door to find Ares already up and getting dressed. His head was down, and as I followed his gaze I saw the twenty-pound weights attached to his wrists and ankles. I frowned.I knew those weights were to
Hunter’s POVFuck! I ground my teeth together, a muscle ticking in my jaw. My dick flexed, pulsing with the need to keep thrusting. Any guy would be agitated and riled up after being forced to stop halfway through, and I was an Alpha,I wanted more! I craved her body, missed the feel of her warm, lithe chest arching up against mine.She’d ended our sex – the sex that she had initiated – without a second thought. Shit! Was I so bad in bed that she could get over me that quickly? No woman had ever asked me to make that sort of crap promise before. Hell, usually the opposite happened. Usually, the women I bedded begged me to call them, to have another round, to see them – touch them, taste them – again. But this Omega had asked me not to touch her any more.Who did she think she was? Did she think she was my only option? Did she want me to feel like this, pent up and frustrated, so that I’d be forced to keep thinking about her,playing hard to get?I clenched my hands into fists. Wh
Hunter’s POV‘Since she wants to go, just let her. There’s no need to force her to stay with me. It’s just this stupid woman – doesn’t she know how dangerous she is?’Reg hooted with laughter inside my head. ‘If that’s the case, why don’t you leave? What did you mean by asking S to leave the backdoor open? You were expecting her to come to you? I think the odds of it are… zero!’His laughter drowned out my witty responses, and I had to work to keep my expression cool, calm, and collected. My own wolf was acting bitchy as hell towards me. ‘Sometimes,’ I said slowly, ‘I think it’s cuter when you shut up, Reg.’He huffed.‘Do you want her to go with Amy or Carl?’ I continued. ‘They’re both waiting for her here, too. And you’re happy if she’s in danger?’ I shot back at him.I understood why Carl was waiting here. After all, he was her so-called mate. That was just about reasonable, though the idea of it made me seethe for reasons I couldn’t fathom. But I didn’t know why Amy was hanging ar
Hunter’s POV‘Reg, what are you doing? You’re crying?!’ I was so angry I didn’t know what to say to him! ‘Don’t tell me you’re crying over an Omega you’ve only met a few times? Where’s your pride?’ I snarled.His sobs wracked through him and, as I spoke, his whole body started to tremble. His sobs became bawls; he threw his head back and tried to talk, his bottom lip quivering like a baby’s.All I could think about was him crying. It filled my mind, sending waves of pain reverberating through my skull. Fuck – I wanted to rip him out of my head and throw him into the woods.He finally managed to choke out some words. ‘Hunter! You’re an asshole! Jane will sleep with Carl now, and then she’ll get pregnant, then they’ll have their pups, and they’ll be a family, and then I’ll be left behind! Nobody understands how I feel!’My head buzzed and pulsed. All I could hear was, ‘sleep, pregnant, pups, new family.’ My nerves were alight, stimulated by Reg’s whining – and by those words in particu
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