A day after that fight with Sheiyan, Evander found me staring blankly out the window of my room, overlooking the lush and vibrant colors of the garden. The sun was setting and the purple-pinkish sky made the whole scenery on my window look like a painting of a masterpiece that could easily draw someone’s attention to it.I turned to look at him. The rim of my eyes was red and swollen. My face was taut with utter agony, suffering from the fact that the only best friend I had hated me to the bone.“Holly…” Evander’s eyes were wide with fret as he made five large steps towards me from the door, where he was shocked after seeing the horrible look on my face.“Did something happen?" He gazed into my face; his instinct to protect me flashed in his eyes and then he pulled me into a tight embrace.Sheiyan didn’t tell him. She didn’t tell him about that awful argument we had.I shook my head before I pulled myself a little away from him to stare into his troubled eyes. “No. It’s okay, Evan. Ma
Evander had to think of a way for the sentinels to leave my door and as the Alpha King’s son-in-law, no one doubted when he told them a new shift schedule was released and it was their time for their rotation to be stationed at the gates of the garden.My heart was rioting in my chest when he told me that all the lights in the palace would be out in five minutes.“How is that possible?” I asked him when he came back to my room with a grin on his face. I couldn’t think of anything about how Evander could pull that off. But I knew him. There was no stopping him when he had to do or needed something.Dad was out of the country attending an economic meeting with the Alphas of the Southern Packs. Evander told me he got into Dad’s schedule where the old man would be away for days so we never had to worry about him running after us and beating the sh*t out of him.But cutting off the power of this massive place?“‘Kian knows someone who is working at the main power source of this palace and
My hips and legs were a bit stiff after I mounted Evander’s back in his wolf form. I was still in awe whenever I watched him shift in front of me. It was as if it were a very natural thing for him to do and I wondered if he still felt pain during that morphing process.Because every time I shifted, it felt as if I would collapse from pain and only had little enough energy to spare for the fight, which was a very dangerous thing if I was alone. I would be an easy target and it was hard that I couldn’t practice shifting when I was still pregnant with our firstborn.We left the car at the east border of the land that used to be the territory of the Ivory Pack.Carefully, I slid down my husband’s dark, shiny fur and felt it on my cheek before he stood on his four feet and scanned the whole area. I hooked the straps of a small backpack to my shoulders, where I secured my husband’s clothes so he could wear them when he shifted back to his human form.[How do you do it?] I asked him, full of
A snarl rumbled in my husband’s throat and I stroked his fur to calm him.[Let us wait, Evan. I have a feeling he personally knew Melinda. Hence, he won’t be able to get into that hole that easily.][I always know he is up to something.] Evander growled low in my head as we hid behind the thick bushes, far enough for Alec not to sense our presence. I kept stroking my husband’s fur until his breathing slowed and the massive, powerful muscle underneath that black coat relaxed.[We have to know what his connection is with her.] I breathed.Two minutes and Alec hasn’t climbed out of the hole. I started to feel worried. What if I was wrong and he didn’t really know Melinda? What if she kills him inside that dark, scary pit?[We have to go. We have to see if Alec is still alive in there.] I said to my husband with alarm and gave the bag of his clothes to him as he shifted back to his human form. I glanced in his direction and my heart skipped when my eyes scanned with hunger at that ripped
“Holly!”I heard Evander’s soft voice but all my mind was in a haze of pure anger—not for the scarred woman who was pressing herself against the hard, cold wall of her small hiding place but for the man who pretended he cared for me my whole life! The man who made me believe that he was my father and almost ruined my life if it wasn’t my mate who saved me from the darkest pit Randalf Ambrose dug for me.I tilted my head as I heard my husband whisper to me but my eyes were fixed on Melinda’s terrified face. Pale as moonlight. As if she had never seen the sun for a very long time. Scared that people might see her and report her to the man who made that horrible mark on her face. Her long, thin fingers went to her throat as if she were choking out of fear. No. It wasn’t fear. Those round, copper eyes were so wide that her eyes balls looked as if they were going to roll out of their sockets.“Holly! You are killing her!” Evander’s voice turned into a snarl as his body tensed. He was behin
I sharply turned to look at my husband from my shoulder.Even my mate went still as he gazed at Melinda’s copper eyes. “You want to join my pack?” He asked, his jaw tight and his brows meeting in a deep frown. He knew it was a huge risk to take a person like Melinda into his pack. A hybrid with a strange ability and the one who had been hunted by Randalf’s men—A smirk tugged on Evander’s lips and my brows raised as he continued speaking to the lady. “Fine. I can arrange it.”I turned around to look at my husband’s face. I knew what I was thinking might upset Melinda so I whispered it through our matebond. [You can’t be serious! The council—I don’t think they would agree with taking Melinda into our pack. They barely accepted me!]Evander’s eyes didn’t leave Melinda’s nervous face as he answered me. [We have no choice, love. I am still the Alpha of the pack. They shouldn’t question my authority.]The tension on my shoulders was released as soon as Evander’s emerald eyes went to gaze a
Melinda hesitated to go with me to the Snakewood Pack, but she had no choice. Her life was in complete danger now that she was being hunted by Randalf’s men and the only way to protect her was for her to come with me to my dad’s territory, where I could have my eyes on her all day, just as the Snakewood sentinels would do everything, even give their lives, just to make sure the daughter of their Alpha would survive the threat from the Ivory Pack.The Pack that was once my home—that was once I loved.Before the first ray of sun struck between the stratocumulus clouds covering the morning sky, Evander had already brought me and Melinda safely into the garden, and no one even questioned our disappearance, which made me a little curious.“When the lights went out, I asked Sheiyan to pretend to be you, sleeping soundly in your bed,” Evander explained after he shifted back into his human form.Alec was still dressing somewhere. He asked the sentinels that were posted at the gates of the gar
“Tell me, why are you here, Alec?”Evander’s irritated look went to the Alpha of the Agarwood Pack. I could tell how much he wanted to get rid of my former mate but Alec stood his ground and met Evander’s glare with a cold, ‘I don’t give a f*ck’ look.Alec raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t get me wrong, Edgerton. I don’t like being here as well. But I want to know what you folks are up to. I know this isn’t my sh*t but I can’t just sit down and watch all of you do something stupid. And you know what I mean.”“Alpha Alec is right. We shouldn’t make reckless decisions and hide them from the Alpha King. This is complete treason, Evan. And Holly is pregnant! She is in the very delicate stage of her pregnancy. We can’t risk any more plans, just like you did last night.”Sheiyan folded her arms around her chest with a worried look for me and his brother. I felt guilty that I dragged all of them into this and put their lives at risk. But we did it. We finally have Melinda and we know how to r