It didn’t feel quite right, walking out to the construction site without Sophie. But I couldn’t let on that anything was amiss. Otherwise, I’d have to explain my cousin’s presence here. At least I still had Blake’s familiar presence.
“Do you really walk all the way out here every day,” Jeanette had been surprised that I chose to walk instead of having someone drive me out there and that I only took Blake with me.
I shrugged and gave her another polite smile, “Most days, yes. I prefer to walk most places when I can and time allows for it. It feels less disruptive to the pack as a whole, rather than zipping in with a massive caravan to carry a full guard.
Jeanette’s company wasn’t as unpleasant as I thought it would’ve been. Yes, she seemed a little anxious to be around so many people with only her Delta to guard her. And yes, she stood mostly apart from everyone and looking a little out of place. But she stood her ground when someone approached her, and she had a polite word for everyone that talked to her. Walking back to the main house, she was especially quiet. But she was also uncharacteristically fidgety, fussing with her clothes and hair way more than was necessary. It wasn’t as though the wind was blowing her carefully coifed hair out of place. “Is there something on your mind?” I hoped that it didn’t s
Kelly and Delphi wanted another chance to get a read on Jeanette before offering any suggestions for her wolf. It was important to secure Jeanette’s loyalty, but it was also important that I figure out how to deal with my family, and prepare to be put on display until I could kill Candice. At least I was able to talk Kelly into spending some time outside her apartment before Blake returned from guiding Jeanette to the greenhouse. I could go see what Dmitri and Caleb had accomplished, but that usually ended with me separating the two Alphas. Caleb had to stay where he was so Jeanette could learn to exercise a little independence. She was never going to learn to trust herself if she didn’t believe that someone could be completely loyal to her.&
One of the benefits of training and sparring with Nathan was that he knew just how much training Candice had had before she left the pack. I doubted very much that my uncle had spent the time or resources to bolster her skills before dumping her back in our laps. I had the advantage of increased speed and strength that most shifters gained, despite my lack of a wolf spirit. Not to mention the abilities I’d acquired through the unique circumstances of my birth. I had no doubt that I could beat Candice in a fight. But, it wasn’t enough just to beat her. I had to stomp out any doubt everyone else had. I used Dmitri’s private changing room to take a quick shower and change back into my regular clothes when Nathan, Blake and I called it quits. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had to train in secret now, I wouldn’t have felt so annoyed by the time constraints. Having more Alphas around would only make it more difficult. Na
We’d had this argument so many times that I didn’t know what else I could say to make her understand. Bringing up Candice hadn’t done me any favors and I knew it the moment the words came out of my mouth. Selene closed her eyes and took a deep breath, smoothing her face into a blank expression while dampening our bond so I couldn’t reel her emotions as easily. “It’s not the same thing, Dmitri,” even her tone had gone deadly calm. “I’ve never fucked Nathan or reciprocated his feelings in any way. I’ve never used him to fill in for you.” How did she know about his feelings? I thought I had specifically ordered him to keep his feelings to himself and forbade him from acting on them. She couldn’t have overridden my orders if she didn’t know about them. Her mask slipped for a moment when she tilted her head to study me. “Maybe it’s me that you don’t really trust,” her voice and face were devoid of any emotion, but her words st
Selene smacked my hand away as I tried to brush her hair back from her face, “Stop fussing over me! I’m fine, I feel fine and Isabel can’t run the damn test any faster than she already is.” It had been almost an hour since Isabel left with the vial of Selene’s blood, and waiting for the results in this tiny exam room was becoming unbearable and suffocating. I knew something was different, and I had to be sure of what it was before my impulses caused me to do something I couldn’t take back. Arkadi had been no help either, being as clueless as I was about the way I’d behaved. Selene frowned when I jumped out of my chair and began pacing once more, “You&rsq
It was beyond distracting that both Bo and Arkadi both found this whole situation entertaining, and I wondered if their human counterparts were hearing all the witty quips and snarky jokes the two were tossing around at me. I didn’t find any of this funny. I was happy that Sophie finally found her mate. I was elated that her mate turned out to be another woman, as promised. I was even ok that it turned that they were related to me. I was not ok with was her mate questioning Dmitri’s worth or anything else about our bond. I didn’t know her any more than I knew a stranger off the street. She might have heard things about us or our pack, but nothing that would give her the right to weigh in on our lives. She might’ve been related to me through blood, but even that was just a technicality and still didn’t give her the justification to judge us. Sophie was pouting at me, “I expected something like this from him, but you? I tho
Isabel looked like she sitting on a caltrop when we found our way to her office. It was almost like she didn’t want to tell us the results from the test, or that she was afraid to tell one of us. I never made it a secret to her during my regular check-ups that I felt I was too young for kids. And Dmitri wasn’t pressuring me to give him an heir. But wolves didn’t look at building a family the same way humans did. It was almost expected that an Alpha would be eager to produce an heir as soon as he found his mate. This also wasn’t the best time for me to be pregnant, if it was even possible. “I’m sorry,” she thumbed nervously through the pages in her hands, “but Alpha Selene is not pregnant.” There was immediate disappointment in Dmitri’s eyes, “And you’re sure?” “Yes, I double checked the results myself,” she leaned over the desk to hand him the file. “It’s ok, it’s not like we were trying or
“We’ve given them a few days, but Sophie needs to start sleeping in her own rooms again before our first guest arrives,” Dmitri frowned at my reflection as we go ready for breakfast, “Can’t you talk to her?” I gave him a frown of my own, “How would you feel if someone told you that you couldn’t spend your nights with me? I’m not going to ask Sophie to give up the little time that she gets to spend with her mate just because you want to keep her close to you when we’re overrun with alphas.” “Then we need to figure out a better arrangement,” he huffed his frustration at me. “She can’t keep spending all of her free time down in the cells. Eventually someone is going to notice Selene.” “Well I’m all ears if you have a suggestion.” “When you bargained with the Goddess to give Sophie a mate, couldn’t you have specified one who wouldn’t be controversial?” He pinched the bridge of his nose, “Is she intentionally f
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
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
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
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
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.
“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
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
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
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.&