I woke feeling mostly rested. The undercurrent of exhaustion was there, but Athena was stronger, and she was excited, hopeful. Her anticipation of what today would hold helped me drag myself up off the sofa. I had slept deeply, without dreaming, and the evidence of just how deep clung to my cheek. Curls matted in drool, disgusting. I shoved my wild mass of hair back, sending thoughts and prayers to my stiff legs, in hopes they would agree to carry my to the bathroom to wash up, when someone laid a hand on my shoulder. I shot up into a defensive stance, preparing to attack, but calmed when I scented Eva. Her wolf was at the surface, but her Amber eyes sparkled with amusement, and I heard Athena for the first time. “Play.” She whined, nudging at me to shift. “Settle down, she’s holding Mariana.” That sobered Athena, she mourned the loss of our pup, she longed to hold him, scent him, run with him through the forest and teach him to stalk prey. Pushing her down, I relaxed my stance an
Ridley let out a low growl, he stalked us, demanding Athena’s attention. She whirled on him, letting loose a mournful howl. Without completing the mating bond, or being a part of the pack, the wolves could not speak to each other through the mind link. But they both knew what the future held, and they already felt the loss. Ridley rubbed his body against Athena, circling back to scent her neck, when he was done, he gave a deep huff, his grief crackling through the air. Athena couldn’t stand his sadness, she rubbed against him, yipping and nipping at his paws. We were in the forest, we can run together, play together. When Ridley didn’t budge, Athena snarled, she was playful, but her snarl was an alpha snarl. Ridley’s ears perked up, the challenge intrigued him. Athena feinted an attack to Ridley’s throat, when he leapt back, she charged into the forest, knowing he’d take to the chase. And he did, flying through the forest, Ridley almost caught us several times, but we were too fast
Ridley raged at me when I refused to follow our mate back to the castle, just as he raged at me for breaking the chase when the pack notified me there was a rogue breach at the border. His instinct was to protect her, my instinct was she may be working with this intruder, and I needed reinforcements if I was going to take her on. Ridley released control, forcing me to shift back into my human form. When I reached out to him, needing to catch the rogues trail while it was still fresh, it was like reaching out into emptiness. Even his pain was gone, which unnerved me, but there was no time to contemplate it. I linked Ben and Saied with my location, and ordered them to search along the rogue’s trail, and organize teams to sweep the woods and the rest of the pack lands. It was time to interrogate the rogue and maybe some of the others that the guards had failed to extract information from. So I linked one of the servants to bring me clothes, and headed toward the pack dungeon. It was ea
I woke up sweating, heavy arms encircling my waist under five thousand blankets. I used my arms and legs to frantically push at the arms and blankets at the same time. The arms tightened when the blankets fell away, then flipped me to face the man attached to them. The faintest sparks danced over me where my top rode up, and I pushed them away, just as I pushed away from Eli’s chest until he opened his eyes, peering down at me.I froze for a moment, his heavy-lidded eyes roaming my face, arms tightening slightly around my waist. “Pervert!” I yelped, and punched him in the nose. Instantly he released me and I scrambled to a crouched fighting stance. Stunned, he dabbed once at the blood that ran from his nose, sitting up quickly. Before he could retaliate, I lashed out again, catching his jaw with my fist before leaping to the floor. But he was faster than me, snatching me out of the air and slamming me back to the bed, pinning my wrists above my head, resting his weight on my legs to
Seeing Eva and Mariana was becoming the highlight of my days now. Eva and I had reached a tentative peace, and I enjoyed having the company. Today though, she brought news that I didn't realize I had been dreading until she gave it to me. "I have found a wet nurse for Mariana, she arrived this morning. I think it will be good her her to have someone in the nursery at all times to tend to her, but I will still bring her to you if you would like." Leaning forward to grab her tea cup, she patted my knee with her free hand. "I know how attached the two of you are to each other, but Elbrus tells me he needs you to free up time to help with the council matters and the ongoing treaty negotiations." "I understand," I murmer, accepting the tea she has poured for me, "If I'm able to, I'd like to see her at least once a day, even once my milk is dry, but I'm sure you can determine what is best for her schedule." Mariana hiccups and wraps her chubby baby fist around my index finger, my heart ac
Athena stretched out in the morning sunshine, she had brought us to a creek bed in a large clearing to drink and sun before we returned. "You must show him he cannot cow us into this role he wishes to fill. Submission is not what we were designed for, if he wants submission, I will make HIM submit." She ranted, "Demand partnership and trust, we have proven our strength and shown we are committed to this, that we can be trusted. Claim your respect, we are mates, and I will not tollerate this treatment for much longer, it is unnatural." She huffed, dropping to her belly and nipping at the grass between our paws. "I will, hopefully he will hear me out. But, if he throws us in a cell, perhaps we can study the behavior of the captives that we are supposed to question." Athena snorted and rose to her feet, taking off in a graceful lope back towards the direction of the castle. Towards certain doom. With every step, my spirits sank and her temper rose. I would need to deescalate things as
Eli made short work of my panties with one hand, as his other hand worked at my center, stimulating me until my hips were rocking back and forth, up and down along his length, my slick juices drenching him until he couldn't take it anymore. Rolling us both to the edge of the bed, he threw his legs over, moving into a sitting position, he jerked me to the side, so I was kneeling next to him, leaning over his lap. Jerking my hips to his face, I yelped as he swung me upside down, crushing his face to my core, sucking my bundle of nerves into his mouth. Some kind of gutteral animal noise escaped me as Athena purred with pleasure, and I grasped his thighs to steady myself, already shaking as my body wound tighter, ready to explode for him. His arms tightened around my waist and I let go of his thighs, grabbing his hard length with both hands. Even two hands wouldn't cover it, it throbbed and pulsed in my hands as I sucked the tip into my mouth, tasting the precum at the tip, snarling
Eli was nowhere to be found when I woke up, I could see a note on the desk he'd had prepared for me, but my anger, while not as raw, was still fresh. I didn't want to know where he was, I didn't want to be in his room, in his suffocating scent, bending to his suffocating will. I had slept for almost an entire twenty four hours it seemed, and the sun was maybe an hour away from setting. I could hear rythmic drumming and howling, and it reminded me of the summit mist pack runs, where the whole pack would gather to run and hunt together. Athena pushed to the surface, and I let her take over as I opened the bay window and allowed her to shift just as she had the last time we left this room. Throwing a little extra magic at the mental steel walls I used to block out Eli and his mind link, I sent a tentative question out towards the direction of the pack. I felt surprise, and a little anger, but mostly curiosity from the wolves who now reigned over their humans. In our purest form, our wo
I felt light, as though no gravity weighed me down. I hadn’t been sleeping, but I was floating, dreaming in colors. Athena nudged my hand, drawing my attention to her wolf form. As I reached for her, a ball of light drifted towards us, expanding and blinding until it swallowed us, pulling us through to a warm, grassy meadow. Pushing up to my knees, I scanned the area, noticing how Athena trained her gaze on the wood line. She whimpered, and I followed her line of sight to see a woman emerge, and stop just beyond the trees, about fifty yards from where we stood. The blonde woman wore a loose flowing white gown, and shimmered in the low evening light. She smiled at my wolf, and held out her arms. Athena turned to me, and I realized then that I hadn’t heard her speak since we died. Realization washed over me, and I rocked back on my heels, sadness echoing distantly in my heart, like it was separate from my being, but I knew that this moment would hurt. She pressed her large furry head
I smelled the dungeon before I opened my eyes. My head throbbed, but I felt a surge of hope as I sensed magic thrumming through the air around me. I sat up, groaning as the change in position worsened the pain in my head. I felt around in my hair and located the knot, on the right side of my head, I must have been thrown in here, because the knot was raised and bloody, still not healing because of the wolfs bane. Reaching for the magic, I pulled it towards me, attempting to heal my head. Only it barely gave, and once it reached a certain point, it snapped back into place. The cells were protected by powerful charms, and would not allow me to use any magic here. “Psst!” someone hissed, and I squinted into the darkness, trying to refocus my vision. A few seconds later, Roland emerged from the darkness, carrying a flask and a gauzy bundle of fabric. Keeping his voice low, he crouched in front of the silver bars. “Drink this, quickly, before the other guards catch up!” Unscrewing its li
Heleos opened the passenger door of a sleek black Audi R8, and held it open for me. The windows were tinted heavily, and the windshield itself had some type of reflective tint on it. I buckled and examined the windshield as Heleos situated himself in the drivers seat.“Is this so the sun doesn’t burn you?” I asked. The garden had been heavily shaded when we’d toured it the day before, so I assumed he could be out during the day, just not in direct sunlight. “No, it’s so people can’t see in. Even wolves and other vampires have a hard time identifying faces through an obstruction like that. The sun doesn’t actually affect me at all. It would have, but several generations ago, the vampri found favor with the soul witches, who bestowed generational protection charms. Any vampri we make, or spawn, will receive the imprint of the charm, protecting them from the sun.”“Well, that’s convenient, what about garlic?” Heleos side eyed me as he pulled down the long, winding driveway. “Actually,
I woke up tangled in the sheets of the bed in my guest room, wrapped in a damp towel, with my still damp hair in a tangled mess around my face. Heleos sat in an armchair in the corner of the room, his feet propped on an ottoman. He held a small tumbler of blood in one hand, and a book in his other. He glanced at me briefly, snorted, then went back to his book, occasionally sipping from his glass. Wrapping the comforter around me, I dragged myself to the bathroom, showered properly, and emerged clad in a plus bath robe, with my hair wrapped in a towel."Not much of an improvement, but it's a start." Heleos nodded toward the closet, "I had the housekeeper order some things for you, they're hanging there. We will be meeting with a few of my trusted friends today, feeling out the extent of ground work we'll have to do in order to infiltrate the council and... cut out the infected members.""Infected?" That sounded ominous, and a little shivver trailed down my spine. Heleos snapped his bo
"You're staring, and staring is rude." Heleos hummed.I snapped my mouth shut and returned my attention to my food, letting my hair fall forward to help camouflage my blush. Heleos was eating blood out of a pristine white bowl, with a spoon. Of all the ridiculous, cringy things I'd witnessed since becoming a part of the supernatural world, this one was easily the most asinine."Can't you just... you know, drink it from a glass, or a blood bag, or ..." I trailed off. It wasn't exactly my business, but for some reason it irritated me. He rolled his eyes and the corner of his mouth tipped up, as though he were trying not to grin. "You have always hated it when I took my meals this way." His mask of indifference was exceptional, but something told me he was extremely pleased to have found a way to pester me. I picked at my steak and brushed off my irritation. "I don't hate it, I just wondered if you knew how stupid you looked, eating a bowl of blood. No wonder you live in isolation, I'm
"Please, have a seat." He said, casually, as if we were old friends catching up. I scented the air around me, but I could feel the protection charms around him, blanketing his true scent. I stiffined, yanking my hand from his."Who gave you those protection charms?" I demanded, readying for an attack. The most likely explanation was that he was already part of the vampri alliance with the shadowmoon, which meant I had walked directly into a trap."Your mother." He grinned widely, and aside from his cuspids, also known as canine teeth, being a little sharp, there was nothing alarming about his mouth. "Ah, don't worry, I won't use them on you, not unless you ask." He paused, thoughtful. "Not unless you ask, nicely." And he grinned again, tugging me to the sofa. It occured to me that I should shield myself, but a warm, relaxed feeling washed over me, and I found myself eager to hear him speak again."You are Heleos?" I asked, then without waiting for an answer, "When did my mother give y
I woke up nauseous, and perched on something uncomfortable. Sitting up, I realized I was in the back seat of a car, and Roland was driving. He glanced at me in the rearview mirror."We've been on the road for about two days, you've made good progress healing, but there are a few developments you have missed. The king has your friend, Phoebe, and is trying to use her to track you down, he also has your son, and Phoebe's daughter. I don't know what agreement he made with the Summit Mist alpha, but it does not seem that he objects to any of this.""Take me to the Quell, we have to go over a plan of attack before he finds me.""I'm afraid the attack has already happened." Roland sighed, "Are you hungry?"My stomach answered for me, it had been clawing at me since I woke, demanding my attention. Roland laughed, pulling off at the next exit, where a diner and two gas stations sat around a blinking yellow traffic light. We sat down and ordered, and Roland gave me the rundown on what he was a
Athena sprinted through the forest, pushing herself to top speed. The trees here were enormous, and several feed apart, without thick underbrush to snag us. Leaves and pine needles mixed with the damp earth and moss to form a soft, springy bed to soften the blow of our paws. I let her take full control, focusing on her senses. I'd always loved the smell of the forest, but as a wolf it was so much richer. Catching the scent of a deer, Athena whipped to the right, changing course, racing for the higher ground. The scent began to change as we crested the hill, blood tainted the deer smell, and it became harder to tell if it really was a deer. Athena slowed, creeping forward as she scanned the forest. The afternoon sun was low, offering a bright orange glow to the treetops, but the forest floor was growing darker. Wolves have much better vision in the dark than humans, but that didn't mean we couldn't be caught off guard. The wind shifted slightly, and a rotten scent that made the hair
My heart thundered in my chest as I sprinted through the forest. Every few seconds, a mage from the quell would pop up out of nowhere, and I'd be forced to throw up a shield, or change course. There was no escaping, no recanting the terms of our agreement.It had been a week since I came to them, asking for their assistance in the fight against the vampri and the shadowmoon cult. Their terms were reasonable. That I be trained, to tap into the true power inside me, instead of grasping at the edges of my power, to have a seat on the council, and an open line of contact with each pack for apprenticeships. This was my third day practicing shields and traveling, and I was barely making any progress. My head throbbed, pain radiating through my temples as I strained to channel all my energy into traveling. A hot, searing pain jolted through my body as I slammed into a shield held by one of the mages. Shit. I'd allowed my own shields to drop, and still wasn't able to travel more than once pe