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67: Shoot the Messenger
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2024-10-29 19:42:56A sense of dread settled in my bones as we rode out into the woods once again. The smell hit me before we pulled to a stop beside a derelict looking cement block of a building. The scent of old blood, mixed with dirt, filth and the stench of decay and death was enough to turn the stomach of the most hardened warrior. “What the fuck is this place?”
“Not all interrogations can be done with words alone,” Dmitri frowned at the moss covered grey wall. “The fact that Nathan thought this was the best place to meet worries me.”
“So it’s a torture shed?” I was happy that words were the only thing I managed to vomit at the moment.
&n
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Rite of Power 67: Bait in the Trap
Selene chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, “I don’t know what I think of this yet.” “You don’t have to do anything,” Sophie tried to reason with her; “we don’t know anything about who sent this, or what their intentions are. Like Dimi said, it could just be a poorly executed attempt to lure you out into the open.” It’d been so long since my sister had sided with me against her that I wasn’t sure that I heard her correctly. “We have no way of knowing how much of this is fact and we’re already stretched thin with your impending fight against Candice. Not to mention how all eyes are going to be scrutinizing your every move be
Rite of Power 68: Smart Moves
I couldn’t breathe. Caleb had been living in our house for almost two weeks. For two weeks I’d endured his irritating disregard for female shifters and his lofty ambitions to cede from the current regime. Two weeks, and not one word about my cousin being a few hours car ride away. Afraid I’d pass out if I stayed there any longer; I turned on my heel and stalked out into the crisp evening air outside. Dmitri followed a step behind me, steadying me with his hands as the world spun around me. “I don’t know if I want to kill him or confront him,” I choked back a sob as his fingers ran in calming spirals over my back. “Why wouldn’t he tell us about her after everything?” “I don’t know,” he sounded deadly calm, “but we’ll figure out his true intentions and make him pay for his deception accordingly when the time is right.” “What you mean is you want me to act like nothing is wrong and let him continue to handle everything we
Rite of Power 69: Friendly Foes
Neither Nathan nor Sophia was particularly thrilled with me when I declared their race a draw. Not only had I not been able to be there to see who got to the door that was chosen as the finish line, but neither was willing to rely on what Erik had observed. Part of me thought they’d rather call it a draw just as an excuse to race again later. Once we got Erik down to the secure wing, our betas split off from us to be seen taking care of our normal evening tasks for us. If all four of us seemed to be unreachable for too long people tended to take notice, but if just Dmitri and I were absent while our betas filled in for us, people assumed we were tearing each other’s clothes off. Kalliope wasn’t surprised to see me, not after Dr Martinez and Xandikos told her that I’d made of habit of visiting her daily while she was in her coma. She didn’t even seem all that surprised to see Dmitri there with me. But she couldn’t disguise the shock and c
Rite of Power 70: Jailbird
This was a bad idea. I knew it was a bad idea, but Selene promised we’d abort the plan if any little thing didn’t go exactly as planned. With any luck, it would only be a two hour drive out past a building and then a two hour drive back home. Even Selene hadn’t seemed particularly optimistic to test herself with such high stakes. I liked it less that we’d had to leave Nathan behind with Sophia to cover for us, but if something happened to keep us from returning, he was the next in line to take my place. I would’ve rather of left Sophia behind, but with her preference towards women, she couldn’t take up the mantle of Alpha and continue our family’s legacy. Instead I was left with Blake, who was more
Rite of Power 71: Guilt & Regret
“Sophie! If you don’t stop pacing like that and sit down for a bit you’re going to drive me crazy,” Nathan growled for the fourth or fifth time, it was getting harder to keep count as I struggled to keep myself from wolfing out. “I should’ve gone with them,” I hissed at him, tired of him trying to convince me to calm down. “They should’ve taken both of us with them to make sure that nothing went wrong.” He heaved a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose as he knocked back another glass of whiskey, “I’m not going to argue that they should’ve brought more muscle with them, but I also agreed with your brother that we sho
Rite of Power 72: Unsettling Presence
Never in all the time since the first time I’d been brought down to these cells did I ever think that we’d have so many occupied at the same time. I certainly never thought I’d see Sophie laying sedated on one of the hospital beds behind the glass. “How long has she been out now,” my voice sounded small and far away to my ears. “A little under six hours now,” Nathan frowned beside me, “I had to sedate her just before you sent word that you were back within our boundaries.” He took a deep breath and shook his head, “It doesn’t make any sense. I’d talked her down and she was back to normal; then it was like someone flipped a switch and she lost her mind for no reason.”
Rite of Power 73: Complicated Families
I couldn’t decide what was more unbelievable, Sophie glaring at me like I was the enemy, the fact that she was claiming a mate, or that her mate was the body lying in the bed. I took a step back, so that I was standing in the doorway instead of the room and held up my hands, “I’ll just give you a minute to process and be right here when you’re ready.” Her face flashed through a myriad of emotions before it smoothed back into her normal calm expression with a tinge of red coloring her cheeks, “I’m sorry.” She wrung her hands nervously, “I didn’t mean… I don’t know… I…” I laughed softly, “Take your time. I
Rite of Power 74: Search
As soon as the words left Sophie’s lips I could feel Arkadi surging forward to seek out and destroy any threat to our Goddess, our mate, our soul. I was already moving, ‘I’m going to check the interior perimeter. Stay with Selene and do not leave her side until I return! I don’t care what she says, you stay at her side!’ ‘I will protect her with my life, you know that,’ there was a slight annoyance to his thoughts, ‘but, maybe I should go instead so that you can stay with her and Sophia.’ ‘No, I need to see for myself if there is another spy among us,’ my legs couldn’t move fast enough to get me where I needed to go and it was all
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Rite of Power Rite of War
If you've made it all the way to end of this chapter in Selene's journey, then I hope that you've enjoyed the ride thus far. The next and final chapter of her life "Rite of War" should start posting around December of 2023. If you feel like being encouraging, and you have a minute or two to spare, please add a book review/comment. I don't know if it helps boost the story, but I do know that they boost my mood
Rite of Power 120: The Alpha of Alphas
I didn’t know how long I stood there, just staring at the lump in my hand as the thumping slowed to a stop. But I could still feel its pulse in my fingertips. Not fingers exactly, something more akin to monster hands. I found myself wondering if they’d be as pristinely white as the short velvety fur coving my arm if they weren’t coated in blood. “Selene…” Someone said my name, but they sounded too far away for me to recognize the voice. The dead lump rolled off my fingertips, falling to the ground with a wet thud. I didn’t feel anything now that it wasn’t pulping in my hand. I was numb and hollowed out, just like the lifeless husk at my feet.&nb
Rite of Power 119: A Final Breath
The sky was completely free of even the barest wisp of a cloud. It was as if the gods were watching, and had declared that nothing obstruct their view of the fight they’d been promised. There weren’t even any birds singing in the forest around our little meadow in the middle of the woods. Someone was going to die here today. Sophie had done well. A ten foot circle was clearly marked in the center of the grass with a larger circle marked around it another ten feet out. Beyond that, two white tents stood up on opposite sides of each other. I was supposed to do all of this, but the goddess wouldn’t settle for anything less than a full twenty-four hours. I had to kill someone today. I knew that I was physically capable of doing it. I was just a little iffy on if I had the conviction to kill her in such a gruesome way. It would’ve been much easier to just order her to stop breathing. But blood had to be spilt. I’d be rem
Rite of Power 118: Death March
I felt a little guilty for leaving Blake to deal with Selene’s possession all night. Now I owed him, Kelly and Sophie big. I just couldn’t risk that she’d find a way to seduce me if we were alone together. She curled up beside Blake on the sofa, under a throw blanket with her head on his lap. At least he’d managed to get her to sleep before she was set to fight to death in a couple hours. Blake looked exhausted himself, like he hadn’t slept a wink and brought his finger to his lips in a shushing motion when he saw me. ‘How much trouble did she give you?’ His shrug
Rite of Power 117: A Long Day
It wasn’t too hard to babysit a goddess once I started approaching the situation like I was taking care of my own little sister when she much younger. Aside from having a filthy vocabulary and an overwhelming sense of entitlement, it was just like taking care of a ten year old girl. She played in the water like she was a nymph, basked in the sun until it got too warm, preferred sweets and junk food over veggies, playing dress up with the plethora of clothes in the closet, and sitting on the floor in front of me while I brushed and braided her long, unruly curly locks for her. “She chose well with you,” she sighed contentedly as she watched me clean up our dinner dishes.
Rite of Power 116: Tick-Tick-Tick
“I don’t understand, what is going on?” Alex stared at me as I watched Dmitri storm down the hall. I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her out of the hall, “I don’t know yet either, but I’ll let you know what I can when I find out. Ok love?” She frowned at me, “Meaning you have to leave early this morning.” “You know I don’t want too,” I brushed the hair out of her face, “and in just one more day, almost all of this craziness will be done and over. Then I can ask Dimi and Selene to let us have a few days out at the cabin.&rdq
Rite of Power 115: Babystitting
Nathan ran back to spend his day with Candice, some kind of last day with her mate bullshit. Dmitri had shifted back into his wolf to carry the goddess in Selene’s body out to their hideaway cabin, since she was deadlocked in human form. I was tasked with grabbing a motorbike for Dmitri to ride back on, since I’d be staying out there with Selene. ‘There’s been a change of plans,’ I linked to Kelly as soon as I was close enough. ‘Did you guys find Selene?’ ‘Yes, but she’s not herself today, so we’re spending the day out at the cabin,’ I expl
Rite of Power 114: Dark Deals
It wasn’t hard to see that everyone had picked up on Selene’s complete lack of interest in everything around her. But just like everyone else, I said nothing. After the report Nathan gave me of the test run he’d put together for her, she seemed broken in a way that none of us knew how to heal. I couldn’t help but feel that things were only going to get worse. If ‘killing’ a statue had this effect on her, what was going to happen when she actually took a life? I cursed myself for letting her set the terms to all or nothing. Someone had to die, and I was starting to worry that she’d let it be her instead of having to take a life herself. Traditions and laws be d
Rite of Power 113: Erie Calm
There was definitely something off about Selene tonight, but no one seemed to want to voice anything about it. I was willing to bet that the only person that would’ve spoken up, was Blake, but she’d ordered him to stay with his mate for the rest of the day and even arranged to have their diner brought up to them so that Kelly wouldn’t have to tax herself any further by dealing with more people. She kept staring off into space throughout the meal. Clearly her mind was somewhere else. But she still managed to fake a smile, and nod at the appropriate times as the conversations prompted. She didn’t even lean into Dmitri’s touch, which struck me as more odd than her lack of banter.&
