Eleanor held her breath as Henry unfastened her dress’s zipper. His knuckles brushed against her back, the soft touch causing tingles all over her skin.She only sucked in a breath when he stepped away to get fresh gauze. When he touched it to her back, she felt a mild sting. “Is it bad?” she asked.“Just a few bruises,” he said.“See? I told you I was fine,” she told him. She was trying to act normal. Like all of this was normal. Like he wasn’t standing behind her in all his naked glory. Her voice didn’t sound as normal as she wanted it too–it was strained, betraying her unsteady breathing.“It could have been worse,” he told her. His touch disappeared. Was he done? “You should never get into a fight without your wolf. I almost went crazy with worry.”She bit down on her lip. Was he really that worried about her? Was it because she had saved him all those years ago?“I’m trained to fight without my wolf,” she said. “You didn’t have to worry so much.”Training in both their human and
Eleanor lifted her eyes to his. She did not know how to feel about this. Was there a special connection between them she didn’t know about? She wished her wolf would wake up. Maybe she’d be able to clear some things up.Henry’s hand moved from her face to the back of her head. His fingers toyed with her hair, massaging small circles into her scalp. “You have no idea what you do to me,” he said, his gaze roving all over her face. “You have no idea how much I want to claim you as mine.”Eleanor bit down on her lip, unable to come up with a response. There was no more denying her attraction to him. If he wanted her right then, she wouldn’t stop him.But being reckless enough to give in to her physical desires was not the same as what he was talking about.He sounded as if he wanted to keep her by his side, and not on a temporary basis.“I want to mark you as my mate,” he said, taking her by shock.What? He wanted her as his mate?Her heart beat heavily, overwhelmed by his announcement. S
When Eleanor woke up the next morning, her head was against Henry’s chest, his heavy arm around her waist. They were in his bed. They had gone upstairs to his room at some point–after having sex twice in the infirmary.She pulled back and looked up at him. His eyes were closed, his breathing even. He was still asleep. A smile curved her lips as a fluttery feeling took over her insides.She was having a tough time believing all of this was true. She had finally found her destined mate, and it turned out to be him.All this time, he had been so close to her, and yet their paths had never crossed. And when they did, she didn’t even recognise him. Sure, that was because her wolf had been hiding, but…she felt like she should have known.How could she not have known?His eyes opened while she stared at him. “Hey,” he mumbled, his voice thick with sleep.“Hey,” she said, pressing a kiss to his jaw. A day’s growth of beard pricked her cheek. “Mate.”He smiled, the expression making him look m
The next day after feeling the pain in his mating mark and the vanishing connection to Eleanor, Thomas’s anxiety and frustration kept rising. This was especially because she was not taking his calls.Had this been her plan all along? To abandon him and run away with the other male? Was she doing this because he had brought Mia back to their pack?He even started regretting bringing Mia to the pack. He had been so focused on how having his mate could help him that he had not spared a thought about Eleanor.Him being with Mia hurt her. After so many years together, why couldn’t he prioritise her feelings? Sure, having his mate could help him, but was it worth it? He and Eleanor had been doing well leading the pack without any of them having their fated mates with them. If he had never brought Mia back, they would have been okay.Or, he should have handled his relationship with Mia differently. Just because he had brought her to the pack did not mean he had to have an intimate relationsh
Upon seeing Miller’s message, Eleanor quickly dialed Sophia’s number, but there was no response. She tried a few times, hoping that her friend would pick up.Each time there was no response, her heart sank further. As she recalled what had happened to Sophia in her past life, her anxiety grew. In her previous life, Sophia had been framed by Mia and accused of spying on the pack for their enemies.As a result, she was exiled to the northern borderlands, where she had died in conflict. At that time, Eleanor had not realised it was Mia who had framed her friend. But after Mia revealed her true colours after having her imprisoned, she put the pieces together.Mia had been removing everyone around her, turning them to her loyal followers. Those she couldn’t convert to her side, she got rid of.Sophia was Eleanor’s biggest ally in the pack, and she would never have betrayed her to side with Mia. So Mia had worked on an elaborate plan to get rid of her so Eleanor had no one to rely on.As th
Why did this ‘witness’, she wondered, have the same scent as the rogue she had encountered in Darkfall? Was it just a coincidence, or were the two of them from the same pack? Did they follow orders from the same person?“Which pack are you from?” she asked him.He only looked at her, saying nothing.She stepped closer, a threatening look on her face. “I asked what pack you come from,” she repeated.“Beta Miller captured him at the western border,” Mia chimed in. “He might be from the West Lake Pack, which has always wanted to carve out a territory in the western forest. After Beta brought him to the dungeons, I saw your friend come to see him in secret. I was concerned, so I told Alpha. Alpha Thomas searched her room and found evidence that she was sharing sensitive information about our pack to another pack to plan an attack.”Eleanor turned around and faced her. “Since when did you know the pack’s affairs so clearly?”“Since I’m now a member of this pack, shouldn’t I–”“Do you have
“Sophia is not a traitor,” Eleanor maintained, “and I’ll not let you send her to the north. As Luna of this pack, I can also take over the investigation, so just leave it to me if you don’t want to spend your time on it. If I cannot come up with evidence proving otherwise, you can go ahead and send her to the north.”“Is it even okay to let you investigate this case when it involves your best friend?” Mia asked. “You are convinced she is innocent and that’s all you really care about, instead of wanting to find out the truth. What will you do when you find out it’s true she has been betraying the pack? Can you be trusted to bring her to justice?”“I’m not here to explain myself to you,” Eleanor told her, becoming impatient with her meddling. Being Thomas’s mate didn’t give her any sort of power or authority to involve herself with matters regarding the pack. But of course, seeing as Thomas had even allowed her to punish Sophia, she must think she had a say in all of this.“Mia is right
Eleanor stepped back, getting away from the collapsed bricks. Thomas did not let go of Sophia’s arm. Ethan burst through the dust, his face contorted with anger, his fangs extended.His eyes zeroed in on Thomas’s hand gripping Sophia’s arm. “Get your hands off my mate,” he snarled, stepping forward.Eleanor’s eyes widened. Ethan’s entrance had shocked her, but his words shocked her even more. Did he refer to Sophia as his mate? Were they fated to each other?Her mind took her back to the night they’d had dinner together at the restaurant after Henry and Ethan arrived at Blackstorm.Ethan had rushed out of the restaurant after seeing Sophia, and the latter had gone after him. But when Eleanor asked about it, Sophia made up a story about Ethan mistaking her for someone else. That must have been when they recognised each other as mates.Thomas’s eyes narrowed at Ethan. He made no move to release Sophia’s arm. “Darkfall’s Beta. what are you doing here, interfering with another pack’s matt
Eleanor woke up in the morning after the coronation ceremony to the sensation of Henry’s fingers stroking down her arm. Electricity skittered across her skin from the simple contact, waking her completely.“Are you awake?” Henry asked, as if he could tell without even looking at her face, which was buried in his shoulder.“Yes,” she mumbled.He hooked his fingers under her chin and lifted her face. He smiled at her softly before kissing her on the lips. It was a soft kiss at first, but before long, it intensified into their tongues tangling together and her hand rising to sink into his hair.His hand on the other hand went lower, slipping between her legs and seeking her warm centre. She moved her legs apart, granting him easy entry. His fingers teased her nub, rubbing her until she was panting against his mouth and humping into his hand.“Please,” she pleaded, wanting to feel him inside.He pulled his hand away and before she knew it she was lying on her back and he was positioning h
was the culmination of Henry’s efforts in the past few months, which had seen him rise to the position of the Alpha King of the South.While Blackstorm started rebuilding and putting things back in order, Henry had gotten busy strengthening Darkfall’s territory.The alliance with Jonathan had left most of the rogue packs around Darkfall weak. They had sacrificed most of their warriors and funds in plotting against Darkfall and Blackstorm and helping Jonathan wage his war.They had been promised territories and titles, but with the hybrid’s defeat, all they had gotten were losses. This made it easier for Henry to conquer and absorb them without extending a lot of effort. He also took over Alpha Elroy’s pack, making it part of Darkfall.In the months that followed, he had not faced any serious threat, and Darkfall thrived and became the most powerful pack in the southern region. Soon, all the packs in the region selected him as the Alpha King of the South, asserting his dominance and Da
The next day, members from the two packs–Eleanor’s and Thomas’s–gathered in the square, awaiting Mia’s trial. Word about her involvement with the hybrid attackers had spread, and everybody was looking forward to her sentence.Her execution would close a chapter everybody wanted to forget and move on from. After that, it would be time to rebuild the pack, as one, to what it was before all the chaos.Mia was tied to a post, with wood arranged beneath her feet. She struggled against the rope around her hands and feet as she cried out, claiming innocence. “She is only doing this because of jealousy!” she screamed so that the people gathered could hear her. “She killed Alpha Thomas because he chose me instead of her, and now she wants to kill me and his only heir.”“Witch!” someone in the crowd yelled and pelted a stone at her. “Shut your filthy lying mouth!”“There were many witnesses present when you killed Alpha Thomas,” one of the warriors who were with Thomas that day said, “and even
It was then that it occurred to Eleanor that she had not heard from Miller since she came back. She had been communicating with Sophia all along. If something bad had happened to him, Sophia would have told her, right?“Hey, have you seen Miller?” she decided to ask Henry. He had been at the pack before the attacks so she thought he might have an idea about her Gamma’s whereabouts. “I haven’t heard from him or seen him anywhere.”Henry sighed, his chest shifting beneath her. “Did you ever find it funny how he agreed to become your Gamma?”Eleanor frowned and shook her head. “What? Why? No, I…he had promised to support me no matter what, and he wanted the best for the pack. He knew Sophia would be my Beta all along and was okay with the position he got.”“So you think he was just being selfless, giving up his position as the Beta of Blackstorm to be your Gamma?” Henry asked her.Well, there was that, but there was also the fact that Miller had confessed to having feelings for her.Even
Henry deepened the kiss, his lips moving against hers with strong strokes. Their bodies, pressed against each other with nothing in between, lit on fire as a burning passion passed between and through them.Eleanor pushed him back into a tree, trapping him there while her hands roamed his muscular body. “Will anyone miss you if I lock you up in a room with me for the next one year?” she asked when they pulled back to catch their breaths.“They’ll just have to do without me,” he replied as she pressed her lips to his face. She trailed kisses from his temple and down to his lips, where she only teased him before moving on down to his jaw. He tipped his head back into the tree as she continued on to his throat.He groaned in pleasure when she wrapped her lips around his Adam’s apple and sucked. While she tormented him with her lips, he ran his hands down her back until they reached her ass.He squeezed her cheeks and pressed her forward, letting her feel his hot erection against her bell
Elroy cracked his neck as he smiled arrogantly. “Once you lose, your territory will become mine.”Good luck, Eleanor thought, wishing he would shut up already. Her wolf growled and hit her paw on the ground, letting him know that he was wasting time blabbering. He seemed to get the message because he shifted back to his wolf form and faced her.Henry got out of the way and the two rushed at each other, growling. They met mid-air and crashed into one another before falling to the ground. Elroy’s wolf lunged for her throat but Harper was quick on her feet and got away.She went straight for his hind leg and snapped it between her fangs. Elroy’s wolf howled and violently pulled himself away, the scent of his blood filling the air.Eleanor wished she could taunt him then, ask him whether he was sure he wanted to go ahead with this. Taunting him like that would make him see red and attack out of spite without caution. It would be a quick way to end this battle.She settled for regarding hi
Nessa fell to her knees beside her brother, tears streaming from her eyes. “Thomas! Thomas!” she called, holding onto his arm and shaking him. “Don’t do this. Don’t leave me!”A sombre mood engulfed the warriors who had accompanied Thomas and they watched helplessly as his sister cried over his body. It was such a sudden death, and none of them could have imagined that it would be the end for him.They had left Blackstorm determined to aid their former fellow pack members and fix the strained relationship between the two packs. Nobody could have foreseen such a tragedy.Eleanor wrapped an arm around Nessa’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug. The girl turned to her and accepted her embrace, crying into her shoulder.Eleanor wished she had been able to notice Mia earlier and stop her from hurting anyone. Nessa’s pain awakened the despair from losing Liam.She wished that the thought of bringing Mia to justice could do anything to erase the pain she had caused. It would not bring back
Thomas’s warriors rushed towards him where he lay on the ground unable to move. Eleanor looked up from his body and to Mia, who had shot the arrow.Mia’s eyes were filled with rage as she faced Eleanor. There were about a dozen werewolf warriors baying for her blood, but she did not even seem to be bothered.After being sprung from the interrogation room, it had taken her a while to find her way to the east gate without discovery. Before she could make it there, the building she had taken cover in had blown up. She was lucky to get out alive!She was running on fumes from the anger she felt towards Jonathan. How dare he set off the bombs without first ensuring she was out of harm’s way? She was the one who had introduced the idea to him.She had delivered Henry to him on a silver platter, but he had botched that up to. How could everything go so wrong after everything she had done?She could not believe that he had allowed Eleanor to escape. Was this the she-wolf he regarded far above
By the time Henry got to Eleanor’s pack, there were buildings up in flames.“What happened?” he asked Sophia when she came to meet him.“There was an explosion,” she told him, and then continued to give him a rundown of the situation. “Fortunately, we were able to evacuate most of the pack members successfully.” Worry took over her features. “However, there are a few Omegas trapped in the kitchen and basement. We are working on getting them out. Some of my warriors are holding off the attackers away from the compound.”“Where is Miller?” Henry asked.“He is keeping an eye on Mia,” she replied.“Coordinate the rescue for the Omegas trapped in the basement and I’ll go check,” he said. “That woman led me and my warriors into a trap, I don’t trust her.”He was already suspecting that she had a hand in the explosions. Jonathan had not had a chance to send a signal before he killed him–at least not one Henry was aware of. So if the explosions had gone off, it had to be one of Jonathan’s spi