The drive is a little over three hours and when we get there it's dark out. Dad brought me here once. It was the place where he told me he met Mom. It was one of the things he did for me when he was sober. I sit at the spot where he said he spotted Mom crying. I don't remember what Mom looked like. I was three when she was killed, but I can imagine what my dad looked like trying to console her. Giant intimidating man, nervous at the fact that she was crying, trying to flirt to make her feel better. I'd witnessed his awkwardness several times when he was trying to be sweet. It's where I get my awkwardness from. Jay gets his assertiveness from our Mom. Or so dad would accuse him of. His go-to was you're just like your mother, Jaykob when Jay would get into trouble.
"When did he bring you here?" Jay asks sitting next to me.
"I was eleven," I say. "He came here a lot. I used to follow him and one day he just offered,"
"How did you figure it out?" h
"What are you doing?" I look up to see Danica and Ghost standing outside my door. "Homework," I say waving them in. Ghost jumps on the bed making herself comfortable behind me. "We had homework?" she asks sitting next to me. "Yeah," I glare at her. "For English," "This bed is massive," she comments, ignoring the fact that she has homework. "Yeah, I had to buy a new one after you and Jay spent forty-eight hours of intense working out on it," I groan. She laughs, and her face flushes pink before she looks away. "I'm sorry," "We don't apologize," I say going back to my paper. Has he not told her the rules yet? Don't Apologize is rule number four. "I kind of figured," she says quietly and a little disappointed. "Did he do something that might require an apology?" I ask. She shakes her head. "No. I-Iapologized and he got upset," she explains. "Upset as i
Jet doesn't move a muscle. A crowd is beginning to form around us. The classroom doors are all shut. It's a usual drill for teachers when fights start in the halls. They usually end with someone dying and the teachers know better than to get in between us if they don't meet the ranks. Especially when my breed is present. Jay and Leelie had accidentally killed several teachers in their fits."He makes you weak you know that? That's what you are. A weak-ass little girl who needs to be told what to do," she mocks."You think so?" I smile."Ms. Parker we should go." Jet says timidly."Shut the fuck up, Gay," she growls. He glances at me and steps back raising his hands in surrender. He's going to let me kill her."What do you think is going to happen? You can't beat me," she pulls out a huge hunting knife from inside her jacket.I step back staring at it. Who brings something like that to school? Who carries a knife like
"D," there's a knock at the door on my side of the bathroom. "Yeah?" I call out trying to hide the fact that I'm having a meltdown. "I have to go, okay? Heavenly had an emergency. Leelie is downstairs if you need anything. The twins are on their way," "Okay," I say softly. He lingers there for an instant and then walks away. I can hear a lot more than before. His footsteps. The sound of hearts beating. Ghost scratching herself. The low hum of the air outside. Even the sound of his engine as he drives away. I remove my wet clothes and toss them into the sink. I mean to wash myself but seeing th red stains on my skin again makes me feel like falling apart all over again. It's not long after, that there's a soft knock before the door is opened. "Hey," Leelie greets me like it's no big deal that she's in my bathroom while I was completely naked and falling apart. "I made your favorite," "What's wrong wit
The music is blaring downstairs and I can hear people arriving. I haven't left my room all week. In the return of Leelie and the fact that it's her birthday today, the guys decided on a massive party. Which means, I have to get up and go out there because let's face it. With all this noise, I am not going to be able to go back to sleep and Ghost is ten seconds away from breaking through my door to chew on someone. She's bent down in front of the door, her ass up, tail wagging back and forth aggressively wanting to be let out. "Dagmar, get your ass moving," my brother shouts knocking on the door. Ghost throws her head back and howls making him laugh. I pull my thigh-high boots on and grab my jacket. I open the door only to be greeted by Demon and Panther. Leelie's Dobermans. I move as they pounce into my room skipping around Ghost. No wonder she was all excited. They were waiting for her to come out and play. "Get the hell out of here," I poi
The images in my head get more violent.Memories that have never gone away are a lot more clear now. It's almost like reliving them all over again. A man is pinning me down against my will leaving a searing hot itch all over my body. My face and my arms began to itch with the fading sounds of the music behind us. "You can't mark her like this. It can permanently scar her. She's not ready," I hear Jay's voice. "Dagmar you need to calm down. Look at me," I pull away from Miles and look up at my brother. I can see him trying to say something but it's all just blending in with the ringing in my ears. I close my eyes and cover my ears trying to drown out the sound but it isn't coming from anywhere. It's all inside my head. I open my eyes to find I'm alone. I look around not recognizing the room yet there is something oddly familiar about it. I sit up getting off the bed. It's only then that I know. The lights are off outside in the hallw
I didn't go to my graduation and this morning, I was called into the office to clear my locker and pick up my diploma. Leelie is officially my new babysitter. She volunteered for the job, much to my surprise. She's been so helpful ever since she got back. The memories have calmed down enough to become nightmares. I'm remembering things I don't want to. Conversations I can never repeat out loud. Promises that should never have been made.Things are the same, but they seem completely different simultaneously. This morning I got very emotional over the sun rise. The way the pretty grays and purples burst into flames as the sun overwhelmed the night. I need to get a hold of myself. I need to get more than just a couple of hours of sleep a night. This is ridiculous.The school is full when we arrive. It's the last week of school for the underclassmen. I should have asked if I could wait until Monday to pick my things up, but I doubt they would have allowed it. O
My brother is not going to be happy about having to come down here. Leelie is already tapping away at her phone not paying us any mind. Oddly enough, my body is still. I don't feel threatened in the slightest. Not by this guy. At least, not anymore. "That was a hell of a display of authority, Dagmar," Geo snides, climbing out of the red Lamborghini. "I didn't think you'd be stupid enough to kill my sister," "I didn't think she was stupid enough to come at me with a knife," I scoff. I may have killed her but I wasn't the one at fault. I warned her repeatedly. I tried to walk away. My father would have beaten me black and blue if he knew I had started that fight or instigated it in any way. I think subconsciously, I've always followed the way he would teach us because I didn't want to get my ass handed to me the way he Jayk would. "You know I can't let you leave quietly," he warns. "You know I'd never go quietly,
We're away from the school when the cops drive past us. Miles takes me home while Micca stays behind to make sure Leelie isn't caught in anything alone. I look down at the mat of the car when we pull up to the house. That was scary, but it honestly felt a little orchestrated. Someone tipped the Alpha. He knew I was going to show up at the school today. "You're a little troublemaker," he says. I smile at the humor in his tone. "Says the King's shadow," I roll my eyes as I get out. He laughs watching me make my way inside the house. I open the door to Ghost and Demon playfighting. A table has been knocked over. Panther is lying in Ghost's bed asleep. "Demon, you little shit," Leelie growls from behind me. I laugh when he lowers his head in shame and runs over to lie next to Panther. She growls at him but makes no other attempt to move. Ghost prances over to me and sits down in front of me expectantly. "Oh, fuck. Ghost I didn't ge
Jayk "How much of that did you hear?" Lydia sighs as she pushes herself off the floormat. "All of it," I answer honestly. "She's right you know. We have literally anything you can think of here at the moment," "Best pre-workouts," she holds up her water bottle. "You were just going to leave?" I ask. "Yes," she gives me the same honesty. "I would rather go feral than stay here and watch your fuckery," "I don't want that for you," her honesty always hurts, but I don't know how to talk to her anymore. Not without hurting her feelings. "Now that you're the alpha, what you want is the only thing that matters, huh?" she sits on the bench behind her. No matter what I say to her, even if I sugarcoat it for her, it doesn't change a thing. "What you feel for me is nothing compared to what a mate bond feels like," I sit across from her. "You can love someone with you
Lydia is sitting in the middle of the gym alone with a fifty-pound weight on her chest while she does sit-ups. The lights are off and I can hear Watch The World Burn from her headset as she breathes out heavily every time she lifts her body. I've never been this upset about anything and I'm not going to pretend I know what she's going through. One thing I do know is that I don't want her to go away. She practically raised me. I don't know what to offer her or what to say that would be enough for her to stop thinking about running away. Lydia loved my brother before he became anything. I don't think she understands that Jayk isn't with those girls because he loves them. Something inside of him broke when Danica rejected him. I doubt my brother is ever going to love anyone ever again and he doesn't know how to explain that to her. "You have a very loud presence," she pants but doesn't stop. I make my way over to her and take the heads
My brother is sitting at the breakfast table with Every, Lucille, and Sloane. All of them are fussing over him and talking to one another like they're best friends. There is no sign of Leelie or Lydia. It's just the eight of us. Ashton and Micca bring out the breakfast and set it in the center of the table. "What the fuck?" Miles whispers when he takes a seat to my right. Micca sits to my left. "I don't know," I shrug and reach for a biscuit. Micca hands me the fried potatoes and Miles pours the buttermilk gravy. "Good morning, guys," Lucille finally greets us. Jayk and others look up at me. "I'm sure it is," Ashton sits next to Micca. We laugh when Jayk rolls his eyes. "Will Lie and Lydia be joining us this morning, sir?" "Nah, they're at the Beta house," Jayk takes a bite out of his pancakes. He sets his fork down and stares at me. It makes me a little uncomfortable, but I don't say anything. We've been fighting over
Jayk "What do you want?" he asks me. "Leelie almost died last week," I inform him. He sits back. "You're not like us, Jet. You don't know what it's like to have a ticking time bomb inside of you. One that goes off when you least expect it. It's not easy being on our own," I clear the itch in my throat. "Having a mate after years of being alone is taxing," "Is that why you killed Dani?" he sneers. "Yes," I nod. "Danica's death is my fault. I'm new to this alpha shit. I didn't know the power of a command until just recently. I wanted her to be something she could never be. The closer we got, the more she hated me for putting a responsibility she wasn't prepared for on her shoulders.It wasn't all hate. We had our moments and it's those small instances that make me miss her the most. Did you know that Arthur compelled her to father his heir?" "No," he shakes his head. "He convinced her that it
Jayk Seeing Dagmar upset the way she is, isn't easy. I underestimated the power I have over her and now I get why the alphas lost control of the very things they created. It was why I had put the rules in place. They gave me a sense of control. I had promised myself and my sister that I wouldn't let this get to me, but it's already started to bleed into everything we've been working for. I don't know how to fix this and now that Dagmar is home, everyone seems to be more at ease. "Jayk?" Micca walks in our makshift office space and sits in Miles's chair across from me. "What's up?" I say giving him my attention. He scratches the back of his head nervously. Micca has never been a man of many words. When it comes to anything regarding our business, he lets his work do the talking for him. It's why I love having him around. He's always been eager to prove that he deserves Dagmar. "I didn't think thi
"What did you do to him?" Jayk asks as the two of us watch Micca reading a book down by the lake behind Sloane's house. It took him a while to calm down, but once he did the emptiness slowly started to drift away and he slept for a good six hours. "Where is Sloane?" I shoot right back. He grins and turns around to walk back inside. I follow. "Miles said you had news?" "Lucille will be moving into the cotton farms as planned. Since you and Miles are going to be going to school in that region anyway, I was thinking of leaving you in charge of the entire vicinity," "And Micca," I add. He sighs. "You're letting Micca stay with me. He's my mate," "He's an essential part of my pack," "We all are, but Micca belongs to me," I remind him. "I knew you were going to be difficult about this," "Jayk-" "I can't just let him stay in one place, Mars," "Then no," I shake my h
Miles and I have been together a few times now and I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but Micca is an Omega. He is engineered by centuries of werewolf breeding genetics specifically for this. I once read that those who have Omega mates, their mates somehow know exactly what they need and for a while now, I've been asking myself what it is he thinks I need. I can tell it terrifies him and from what I've seen in his mind, I probably should be too. His arm wraps around me as he stands taking all my weight to lift me off the floor without breaking our kiss. I suddenly feel like we're falling and my back is hitting the softness of the bed. I gasp for air when he pulls away scraping his teeth over my cheek and down my neck. He growls canines extended, eyes pitch black, and his body is turning. He's fighting his urge to shift, just barely, but the pain seems to be keeping him grounded. His tongue is attentive to my wounds. He's slowly lapping at th
The smell of his blood is triggering my red vision. His eyes are pitch black and completely focused on me. Miles excuses himself after telling him that if he got to have me on our own he at least owed him that. Micca has pushed me to this. I don't want this to be our life. I can't only have half of him. He belongs to me and I need all of him even if he refuses to offer anything up. I'm going to have to take it from this fucking Omega asshole. I retract my claws and shove him. He stumbles back and falls into the chair Miles at him in. "Mars, I can't-" he presses his hand to the side of his head trying to keep himself in check. I pull his hand away from his face and straddle him. "Please, please," he begs and it's a really good look on him. He's fighting the shift. I don't want him to shift, but if we have to. We will. "I can't," "Micca," I lean into him pressing my lips to his. He tries not to kiss me back. I growl and bite down on his bottom
Miles They're basically the same person. Both prideful and resentful. It's not like I don't understand where she's coming from. Micca is so detached from everything that he's formed these iron-clad walls all the way around him and she's right. She's been trying to go easy on him and he's done his best to push her away. This feels like the last straw. The last time she snapped, she ended up marking him against his will. I still remember the bliss he felt from the severe pain he was in for days. Even after all these years, I still don't know how to get through to him. Talking rarely helps. All he understands is violence. I thought he was getting better. I can't be having this fight with Dagmar every time he has a fucking fit. It's not fair to either of us. Dagmar went up to the room we're staying in after angrily informing me she was on the third floor the second door to the right. Leelie, Ashton, and Micca show up after a couple of