My beast wanted out. He couldn’t understand why we were downstairs dealing with them when we should be upstairs next to our mate who needed us. All he cared about was her and not the danger she was currently in. We needed to protect her. We needed to make sure that we were going to be safe when her full heat hit. I studied Xan with my brows dipped into a frown. We were the only ones who had seen Cora shift. Nobody else knew about it. Yet, somehow he knew about her. “How do you know about Cora?” Ryder asked the question before I could. Xan shifted in his chair but his focus was on Axel. I frowned at my brother. It would be easy for him to get the answers we needed. I hated how it was done, but it was effective. “She called to me,” Xan said softly. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy. She called to you the same way she called to me. You found her, didn’t you?”Dread flooded me. “Is…” I sucked in a breath and blew it out. “Is she your mate?”His eyes darted between the three
I was hot, sweaty, and sticky between my legs. My body ached. Everything hurt from my arms down to my legs. It felt like I had been exercising nonstop. Groaning, I turned around and rolled straight into another body. Warm sweaty skin brushed mine. I sucked in a breath and winced at the scent that filled my nostrils. Our scents were combined and it was my new favourite smell. Except I didn’t care much for the lingering scent of sex that filled the room. A low groan made my stomach clench. There was a rustle of sheets as the body next to mine moved. I forced my tired eyes open and blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision. The bed dipped behind me and a second later, someone gripped my hip. I turned my head and frowned at the man hovering above me. Axel smiled as he leaned over me. Biting my lip, I slowly turned onto my back. “Hey, sweetling. How are you feeling?”I swallowed a few times before I answered him. “Tired and dirty,” I croaked. His smile widened. “I ran you a
“As alpha of this pack, it’s my job to do what’s best for my pack.” He folded his hands together to the desk, and slowly raised his head to look at me. “I’m sending you away.” “W-what?” “Since you are not of legal age and nobody wants to take you in, I will be sending you away to live with your uncle.” Uncle? I frowned at him. As far as I was aware, I had no other family. It had always just been Mom, Dad, and me. There was never any talk about other family members. “Your parents never mentioned him?” I shook my head. “I’m not surprised,” Alpha Rowan muttered. “There’s been some bad blood between them for a few years now.” “And you want me to go live with him?” His eyes narrowed. “He is the only one willing to take you in.” If there was bad blood between him and my parents, I was sure that I wouldn’t be treated any better at his pack than I was being treated at my pack. “I turn eighteen in a month,” I told him. “By law, you need to stay with a legal adult until you are
My heartbeat escalated, and sweat broke out over my skin. He knocked again, snapping me into action. I pulled the door open and watched with a frown as he hurriedly stepped inside the cabin and pushed the door closed behind him. Dean glanced around. “All packed up?” “Y-yes,” I stuttered, feeling unnerved by his presence in the cabin. “Good.” He swallowed loudly as he turned to face me. “We need to talk.” “O-okay. Do you want to sit down?” “No, I won’t be staying long.” He shifted from foot to foot, eyes darting around. For some reason, he seemed extremely nervous, which made me nervous. To think that a few years ago, I used to have a crush on him. My tormentor found out and told everybody, including him. He had joined in on them making fun of me whenever he got the chance. “Did Olivia ever explain mates to you?” he asked. I frowned at him. “Come on, Cora. We already had the sex talk in school. You must have had some questions for your mother.” “I don’t want any part of wh
Another bout of thunder echoed around me. It was already raining heavily. The first drop fell an hour ago and it had been falling harder and harder since then. I was soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and I seemed to be walking in circles. My panic had long since faded. I had accepted the fact that I was going to die. In a few hours, I would be joining my parents. I was okay with that. I had tried to find my way out of the forest, but no matter how hard I tried or how far I walked, I couldn’t get out. The trees seemed to go on for miles and miles, and I had yet to find a sign of something familiar to help me get home. My foot caught on something, sending me falling to the ground. I tried to stop my fall, but ended up twisting my wrist. Instead of getting up, I curled into a ball with my injured wrist cradled to my chest. It took too long for me to realize that the thunder wasn’t the only thing echoing in the air. My body jerked when a twig snapped behind me. I sucked in
I frowned. The girl didn’t scream or try to make a run for it like they usually did. I wasn’t sure what to think of her. When Lucas found her, she hadn’t tried to fight, but then the beast came and she was ready to fight him one moment, and just gave up the next second. Humans were pathetic things…but this girl was...different. A shiver shook her body when the wind started picking up. My eyes dropped, taking in her soaked attire and the goosebumps covering her skin. She wasn’t dressed for a midnight stroll in the forest which made me believe that she might have been kidnapped and escaped, or someone had used her as bait for the rogues. “What’s your name?” I asked her as I stood to pull my cloak off. “C-Cora.” Throwing the cloak across her shoulders, I knelt in front of her again and gently helped guide her arms through the sleeves, and then did up the button at the front close to her neck. “Do you have a last name, Cora?” I questioned. She pursed her lips. I studied her s
I blinked at the blue pillow a few inches from my face. It took a few minutes for the sleep to fade and the memories from last night to flood my mind. A shiver raced through me. Turning onto my back, I blinked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before I slowly sat up. My eyes darted around the room. I froze when I spotted the man occupying the chair in one corner of the room. He had a book resting on his lap. The brown leather was worn like the book was being used constantly. “How do you feel?” His voice was deep and accented. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make out where his accent was from. Slowly, he raised his head to look at me. Gray eyes locked with mine for a moment and then lowered to my neck. I watched as his eyes darkened and flashed black for a second before they returned back to normal. “Doctor said that you should stay in bed for a few days until you are fully rested.” He paused. “How are you feeling, Cora?” I swallowed.”F-fine,” I stuttered.
I stood outside the bedroom door, sucking in deep breaths. Fighting my instincts was hard, especially since I was a man who always relied on his instincts to drive him in the right direction. I sucked in another deep breath before I forced myself to move. Everything was a fucking mess. Nate and I had grown close over the years. He was like a brother, and through him I had gotten to know my half-sister. There had been no hesitation when he asked me to take Cora in if something happened to them. But things were different. Everything had changed because the seventeen-year-old girl in that bedroom was my mate. Not only that, but I found out that she had already met her mate and he had rejected her. I frowned. None of this made any fucking sense. Was this a cruel game? Some sort of test? “At least she’s not blood-related to you,” Axel muttered when I entered my office. I snarled at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be locked in your coffin?” “Funny,” he muttered. “You for
I was hot, sweaty, and sticky between my legs. My body ached. Everything hurt from my arms down to my legs. It felt like I had been exercising nonstop. Groaning, I turned around and rolled straight into another body. Warm sweaty skin brushed mine. I sucked in a breath and winced at the scent that filled my nostrils. Our scents were combined and it was my new favourite smell. Except I didn’t care much for the lingering scent of sex that filled the room. A low groan made my stomach clench. There was a rustle of sheets as the body next to mine moved. I forced my tired eyes open and blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision. The bed dipped behind me and a second later, someone gripped my hip. I turned my head and frowned at the man hovering above me. Axel smiled as he leaned over me. Biting my lip, I slowly turned onto my back. “Hey, sweetling. How are you feeling?”I swallowed a few times before I answered him. “Tired and dirty,” I croaked. His smile widened. “I ran you a
My beast wanted out. He couldn’t understand why we were downstairs dealing with them when we should be upstairs next to our mate who needed us. All he cared about was her and not the danger she was currently in. We needed to protect her. We needed to make sure that we were going to be safe when her full heat hit. I studied Xan with my brows dipped into a frown. We were the only ones who had seen Cora shift. Nobody else knew about it. Yet, somehow he knew about her. “How do you know about Cora?” Ryder asked the question before I could. Xan shifted in his chair but his focus was on Axel. I frowned at my brother. It would be easy for him to get the answers we needed. I hated how it was done, but it was effective. “She called to me,” Xan said softly. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not crazy. She called to you the same way she called to me. You found her, didn’t you?”Dread flooded me. “Is…” I sucked in a breath and blew it out. “Is she your mate?”His eyes darted between the three
I fucked up…again. There was nothing worse than finding out that your mate was almost attacked by a rogue in our own territory and that it had been well-planned. Cora’s safety had been moved to the top of the list. There was no doubt that Dean was behind everything, but we needed evidence and that was something we didn’t have enough of. A sigh fell from my lips. Leaning forward, I picked up the tablet and studied the pictures Lucas had sent an hour ago. The council could easily dismiss it. I tensed when a scent filled my nostrils. A moment later, Keiran rounded the corner and froze when our eyes locked. Pursing his lips, he walked over to the fridge and grabbed water.As discreetly as possible, I sucked in another breath. Unfortunately, it didn’t go unnoticed by Keiran. Walking to the other side of the table, he pulled a chair out and took a seat. The tension rose the longer the silence stretched between us. Keiran suddenly tilted his head to the side.My eyes instantly locked
Keiran pulled back and then pushed forward again, entering me a few inches more with every thrust. The pain disappeared with every movement, leaving pleasure in its place. He paused when he was fully inside me. Lowering more of his weight on top of me, he slipped his hands into my hair and lowered his lips to mine. For a moment I stayed unmoving, unsure of what to do. But then I stopped thinking about doing it wrong and followed my instincts. I wrapped my legs around his hips as high I could and dug my heels into his beefy ass. My hands slipped over his shoulders and down his back.Keiran groaned, back arching when I scraped my nails against his skin. Breaking the kiss, he pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth and then raised his head to look at me. He pulled his hips back and thrust forward. “Oh.” “Still hurt?” he questioned.I shook my head, unable to utter a word. The pain was gone and in its place, there was only pleasure. The air locked in my throat when Keiran start
I expected pain.The pain I felt when that metal closed around my leg was still branded in my mind. It wasn’t something I was easily going to forget. The pain and the sight of bone sticking through the skin. But there was no pain when I turned onto my back. I hesitated a moment and then slowly moved my foot. There were no sharp pains shooting up my legs.Swallowing, I sat up and threw the sheets aside. My eyes locked on my leg. It was almost like it never happened. If the memories in my head weren’t as clear as day, I would’ve thought it had all been a nightmare. It would definitely explain why Kelsey fought the rogue. I was sure that if it happened, she would’ve chosen to run away instead of staying to protect me.Shaking the thoughts away, I finally focused on my surroundings. The bedroom was familiar and so was the scent that clung to me and the sheets. Keiran’s bathroom was right across the bed. He didn’t bother closing the door when he started the shower. I listened to the
Adrenaline still ran through me. I was shaking and fighting to keep myself in control. Swallowing, I focused my attention on Cora’s leg. “Broken bone,” the cat muttered. “We need to reset it before she starts healing.”He raised his head to look at me. My eyes narrowed but the guy didn’t even flinch when I hissed at him. “Go check on her,” I ordered, nodding towards Kelsey. The cat didn’t move. He gripped Cora’s legs, hesitated a second, and then set the bone. A pained sound fell from her lips, but she didn’t wake up. “Now feed her some of your blood,” he said softly. His eyes caught mine as he stood and moved over to Kelsey. I made sure that my body hid what I was doing. Slicing my palm with a claw, I held my hand over Cora’s leg and let my blood drip onto the wound. When I stopped bleeding, I rubbed the blood into her wound. Cora whimpered. I have her, I told Keiran. How many rogues?One. I slipped my arms under Cora and pulled her to my chest. He’s dead. “Hey sweetling
The fresh air felt good. My eyes darted around, taking everything in. Sun rays peeked through the thick leaves of the tree, warming some parts of my skin as I walked. At some point, I spotted a family of rabbits. Curiosity made me follow them until they suddenly disappeared. Letting out a sigh, I stopped and tilted my head back to stare at the canopy of leaves. I couldn’t hear any birds singing which was strange. I glanced around again and spotted a footpath. After hesitating for a few seconds, I headed in that direction. Twigs snapped underneath my feet as I walked. It was the only sound aside from my breathing. The path ended at a clearing. Four big rocks were in the middle, leaning against each other. They were surrounded by green grass with some yellow flowers here and there. Sucking in a deep breath, I carefully made my way over to the rocks. I studied every inch of it to make sure that there weren’t any spiders or other bugs lingering about. Once I was sure that there were
My eyelids were heavy but I forced them open. I blinked at the unfamiliar ceiling until the memories of last night returned. I had fallen asleep on Keiran’s lap and he had carried me to bed sometime later. Turning onto my side, I reached for my phone on the nightstand and frowned when my fingers brushed nothing. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and pushed myself up onto an elbow to search for my phone. Realization slowly dawned on me. I wasn’t in my bedroom. A glance over my shoulder revealed Keiran fast asleep in the bed next to me. My heart started beating faster as I turned around to face him. He was asleep on his stomach, his face turned away from me, and one arm underneath his pillow. My eyes darted over him and locked on the dark birthmark on his shoulder blade. Reaching up, I traced the mark with my fingertips. Keiran stirred. I jerked my hand away and clutched it to my chest. Licking my lips, I waited for him to wake up, but he didn’t. Scooting closer, I leaned up on
Ryder never returned home and when I asked Keiran about it, he told me that he was probably staying at the pack house. I understood that he probably needed space, but I was hoping to talk to him so we could clear things up. His reaction towards Axel and what we did confused me. He was the one who bought boxes of condoms. Was he expecting me to only have sex with him? Letting out a sigh, I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. I reached out blindly to grab my phone from the nightstand. Keiran had surprised me when he gave it to me the other day. I wasn’t bothered about not having a phone. There was nobody for me to call since my parents were dead and I had no friends. Except for Blue. And I had my mates now. Keiran had already saved their numbers for me. He even added Blue’s number. I blinked rapidly at the sudden glare of the screen. Once I turned the brightness down a little, I pulled up Ryder’s number. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. In the end, I settled f