Bastien’s POV
“You’re doing this,” Selene accuses wretchedly, “Your wolf is doing this.”
What is she talking about? I demand of Axel.
She’s near her mate. Her instinct is to change. It has to happen eventually – her wolf has never been free.
I swear under my breath. I know he’s right, but the timing is terrible. I remember my first shift vividly – all wolves do. It’s a horrible process, requiring almost every bone in the body to break and reform, slow and agonizing. Thankfully shifting gets easier and easier until it’s effortless, but there’s no way to make the first few any easier. You just have to suffer through.
“It isn’t like that sweetheart. It’s just your time.” I explain apologetically. I gather up Selene and deposit her on the sofa, moaning and
Selene’s POVAfter eight years in a veritable dungeon, I thought freedom was escaping to Elysium.After spending three years married to a man who didn’t love me and obligated to help lead a pack of shifters who hated me, I thought freedom was finding my independence in Asphodel.After nearly four years of living without my wolf, I thought freedom was getting her back when I became a mother.I was wrong every time.This is freedom. Transforming, releasing my soul and setting her loose – that is the freedom I’ve been missing my entire life. Running on all fours through the rolling Vega hills with no map and no limitations, no hurdles to jump or weights slowing me down: it’s adrenaline like I’ve never experienced.I don’t care that I’m not in the forest, or that it’s broad daylight. I don&rs
Selene’s POVThat isn’t fair. I object immediately. And it isn’t ethical, how can you abide bringing an innocent child into your troubles.You mean the way you oh so ethically chose to hide your Volana daughter in a pack you know is incapable of safeguarding her, all the while knowing the Calypsos are after you? Bastien growls, genuine anger in his voice.From the sounds of it we wouldn’t be any safer in Elysium. I rebut, conveniently omitting the fact that I know we’re safer here because his saboteur is far from our only antagonist.At least in Elysium there’s an Alpha capable of protecting you. He rumbles. Now come on, out with it, who is her father?Why do you even care, Bastien? I exclaim. She’s not yours so why does it matter whose she is?
Bastien’s POVArabella is the one who set the fire that was supposed to have killed me.A few years ago I would have thought Selene was out of her mind for suggesting such a thing. Before the fire, Arabella seemed like the same vapid teenager I’d always known: Vain, self-centered and far too used to getting her own way. Dad and I spoiled her after Flynn died, letting her get away with murder out of misplaced guilt and convincing ourselves her antics were harmless.In some ways it served us right to be manipulated by her – if we were foolish enough to buy the act when she batted her lashes and played the delicate flower, well, that’s on us, not her. And though I was always aware the innocent act was just that – an act – I never imagined Arabella was concealing anything truly malicious.I underestimated her desire for power, as well as her ego and c
Selene’s POVI know the words are a mistake the moment they leave my lips.It was one thing to tell Bastien Lila isn’t his pup. It was another to instruct him to forget about us, but suggesting we’ll never see each other again was akin to waving a red flag in front of an angry bull – and all three together? Well, that was just stupid.Bastien lunges toward me, tangling one large hand in my hair and tugging my head back so that I’m forced to look him in the eye. His molten silver gaze bores into me, and his mouth hovers mere inches above my own. My breasts graze the muscled contours of his abdomen, and Luna whine needily in my head.“What did you just say?” Bastien snarls, hitching me up against him.“I–” I stammer uselessly, not following his train of thought.“Say it, Selene.” H
Arabella’s POV“We have a problem.” A deep voice thunders over the phone line.My senses sharpen, locking onto the familiar sound, “I thought everything was set for the next phase?”“It’s not that.” My longtime ally answers. “Bastien found Selene.”“Excuse me?” It takes a moment for the air to return to my lungs, “Selene is dead. How can he have found her?”“It’s possible she’s not as dead as I led you to believe.” He hedges.“What the fuck does that mean?” I hiss, “Either someone’s dead or they aren’t. Besides, you didn’t lead me to believe anything – I did it, not you!”“Yes well I got cold feet!” He blurts out, “I pulled her out, alright? She&rsqu
Bastien’s POVI’ve never spent much time in Asphodel.When I was a boy my father dragged me all over the continent, visiting different territories and packs, learning the lay of the land and meeting other Alphas, but I never liked anyplace as well as Elysium. Now, watching Selene and Lila commune with the strange animals who live in the watery mangroves of the Eros Pack’s capital, I can almost appreciate the strange, floating city.A soft, furry snout emerges from the water, kissing Lila’s tiny toddler hand and making the pup squeal with delight. Selene keeps one slender arm locked around her daughter’s middle so the child doesn’t leap from the dock, but her own beaming grin is so wide I feel tempted to step forward and impose the same protection on my mate.As if she can feel my gaze on her, Selene glances over her shoulder, her bright, intelligent eyes n
Selene’s POVLuna is flat in her back, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she exposes her belly to Bastien, but I notch my chin up defiantly. “I don’t belong to anyone.”Bastien cuts his eyes to me with a cocky grin, as if he knows exactly how severely Luna and I are currently disagreeing. “We’re mates.” I snarl at the word and he chuckles indulgently, heat traveling from the tips of his fingers straight to my core, “I belong to you, and you belong to me.”“You had the chance to claim me as your mate Bastien, you had a thousand chances and you never took one.” I’m not even going to bother arguing his logic. “It’s too late to change your mind now.”“I’m not changing anything, little wolf.” Hunger sparks in his silver eyes as he watches me pace. “I couldn’t claim you in good
Bastien’s POV“You were about to mark me!”I stumble backward, dazed as Selene’s words pierce through the fog of lust. She was right, I was about to mark her.My instincts had completely taken over, Axel was urging me to mark her as he had a thousand times before, but my old self restraint is long gone. I thought my mate was dead for three years, kissing her again was too much too resist. If I mark her, make that searing, claiming bite that will forever tie her to me and announce to the world that she belongs to me, she’d never be able to run again.Even now, knowing how wrong it would be to mark her without her consent, I have to admit the idea is tempting. I watch my mate obsessively, taking in every facet of her expression and demeanor. She’s so beautiful with her wolf alight in her eyes, a wolf that still seeks mine despite Selene’s objections.