Jane’s POVEvery leaden footstep I took felt like it lasted a lifetime. We went back to my bedroom. My throat bobbed as Colin sat down, the bed dipping under his weight. I wanted to push him back, to kiss him all over, to mark him as mine and claim him as my own.‘Maybe I misjudged you, girl!’ said Ina. ‘You’re as hot as a hot dog on a summer’s day for this guy. And believe me,’ she purred, ‘I don’t blame you. Those muscles?’ She licked her lips.Ina’s voice took the edge off my nerves, but it wasn’t enough. ‘Yeah,’ I admitted in a small, raspy voice to her, ‘I am. But I need to focus. This is too important, and we keep… you know… instead of discussing this.’‘Okay, I wasn’t wrong. You’ve been kissing, Jane, and you’re not even calling that by its name.’ She tutted at me. Colin cleared his throat, then reached for my hand. He held it in his lap, between both of his, and started to toy idly with my fingers, one by one. I caught my bottom lip between my teeth as he started to talk.“L
Jane’s POVI took a moment to compose myself before I flew out of the door. I smoothed my hands down over my rumpled shirt, swiped my thumb under my smeared eye makeup, and inhaled slowly. I was no use to my boys in a state of panic.“Jane?” Colin stood in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you all right?”“Fine. I’m fine.” I pulled my shoulders back and straightened my spine. “Come on. We need to make sure they’re okay.”He nodded. A muscle ticked in his jaw; his brown eyes narrowed. It was still strange, getting used to Alpha Colin acting like – well, acting like an Alpha. There was a depth to him sometimes that I couldn’t quite grab a hold of. It lurked under his happy-go-lucky, sweet exterior, like there was somebody else living under his skin.“I stole a phone,” he said. “I had to hide it from Keila, but I can fetch it now. You can call Ed and check on your sons. Do you know his number?”I bit my lip, then shook my head. “God, no. No, I don’t. I should’ve memoris
Jane’s POVI couldn’t lose myself to panic. I couldn’t. My sons’ lives were hanging in the balance.So I focused on what I did know and what I didn’t. Then I could start to ask the right questions. “Ed,” I stammered, “what are they doing there?”“Hell if I know! Eating my food.” He sighed. “They say they’ve been stationed in the desert by an Alpha Hunter Burns, to keep your boys safe. I made them stay outside for the first two days, but I caved and let them in on the third for dinner. I guess I have a soft spot for sad looking eyes,” he grumbled. “To keep them safe?” I repeated numbly. There was a loud ringing in my ears.“That’s what they said. I didn’t trust them, of course – but they’ve done no harm. In fact, they’ve even been helping me with my herb garden.”“Have you seen him?”“Him? Who’s him, the cat’s father?”“The… Alpha. Hunter Burns.” I felt like I was choking as I forced his name out.“Not a peep.”A loud smash rang out down the phone line. Ed cursed loudly. “Those boys!
Jane’s POVIt didn’t take Colin long to get to me. I opened the door with trembling, twitchy fingers and stepped back to let him see the teenage boy who was close to dying on Leif’s fancy silk sheets.“What–” he started to say, but I interjected with the explanation I knew he wanted.“I found something,” I whispered, jiggling the doorknob to make sure it was properly closed.“I can see that,” Colin retorted dryly.I sighed. “His name is Yuan. I don’t know how long he’s been here, but he’s in a bad state, Colin. From what I can tell, they’ve been draining his blood and doing… something, to it. I’m not sure what.” I looked up at him and held his gaze. “He needs help. I have to get him out of here, or hide him at least, but I don’t know where to take him or how to get him there when I do figure it out.” “Jane.” Colin pulled me in for a tight hug. His breath tickled my ear as he murmured, “You aren’t alone in this. I’m going to help you.”I pulled back, my relief so potent it scared me.
Jane’s POVKeila lunged towards me, the shift ripping through her as she pounced. But she didn’t strike. She leapt straight past me with a snarl, spun around – kicking the mirror off the wall and crashing her paw through the bath tub, which shattered into huge chunks of ceramic and clattered across the tiled floor – only to shift back. Her clothes drifted to the floor like dandelion seeds on the wind.“Come on, Colin,” she huffed, breezing past me and grabbing him instead. Before either of us could protest, she yanked him out of the room. I followed them numbly into the bedroom and stared after the pair of them as Keila sauntered out into the corridor, towing Colin with her.She didn’t look back. But he did.“I’m sorry,” he mouthed, his brow creasing.A lump swelled in my throat, so thick and so fast that I couldn’t even move my lips to mouth him anything in return. I wanted to follow him, but Keila’s threat was clear. But if I didn’t, what sort of fate was I condemning him too?I c
Jane’s POVI leapt up as glass shattered everywhere, slivers of silver sparkling in the moonlight as they twirled through the air towards me. I covered my face with my hands; shards sliced through my palms, slick blood coating them and dripping onto the rug. It all happened so fast that there was only shock and a spark of pain to me, the details blurred but becoming clearer as I looked up at the wolf who’d burst in through my bedroom window.I didn’t recognise the wolf. It was big – as big as an Alpha and with the angry red eyes of one, too. Its sandy fur bristled and its muzzle opened, revealing an extra row of huge, white teeth, gleaming wetly in the lamplight, set behind its normal ones.‘It’s Keila,’ snarled Ina, her hackles rising. ‘And, yes, if you were wondering, she does smell like a little bitch.’‘What the hell has happened to her?’ I gasped, eyeing her new, second set of teeth with trepidation.Slowly, I lowered my arms and peered up at her. Keila shifted into her human bod
Jane’s POV“S?” I rasped. Blood choked me; I coughed, the sound rattling and reedy, and blood hissed from my lips, splattering down my front and onto the floor. I blinked. When I managed to focus my gaze on the windowsill once more, S was gone. My head hit the floor. I couldn’t hold it up any longer. Terror sliced through my veins, making my heart beat faster, making me lose more blood more quickly. Had I really seen S? If he was here, did that mean that he was, too? If he wasn’t already, was S going to get him?This was his perfect chance to strike. I was dying; he could do whatever he wanted to me in this state. I tried to cling to wakefulness but it was dimming, even the dull lamplight too bright for my eyes now.‘Hold on, girl!’ cried Ina. ‘Don’t go into the light!’‘There’s no light, Ina,’ I said on a sigh, my eyelids drooping. Everything felt strange, weightless and incandescent. The pain faded and flared, faded and flared, spiking and drifting away on each laborious hollow an
Hunter’s POVI lay entwined with Jane, our legs tangled, my hand splayed across her belly. I didn’t think anything could worry me, not here, not with her.“That’s funny,” Jane murmured, toying with my fingers, looking up at me with a tight smile, “he said I should be careful around you, too.”Damn Leif, I thought. He clearly didn’t trust me any more than his mother did. I just had to hope that Jane trusted me more than either of them. After all, she may not know who I really was, but she did know Colin pretty well now. She knew he – I – had saved her from the auction, from Leif’s whip, from coming here alone. And, if what we’d just done was any sort of sign, she liked me. She liked me a lot.I’d known my plan would work, but the reality of it – the feel of Jane clenching around me, of seeing her pretty face flushed as she rode me, of the way she looked with eyes gone heavy-lidded with lust – was something else entirely to the way I’d imagined it. I’d stopped her from saying my – his
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