It was so weird when Dad walked me down the hall towards my room. Like he was… looking after me. There was a piece of my heart that had always yearned for this kind of care from him. This kind of… protection.
But the truth was, my father had rarely looked after me. Since my mother’s death, it had always been my job to look after him. And my brothers.
He stepped ahead of me when we got to the cross-hall where my bedroom was. He pushed the door open and flipped on the light inside, then ushered me in.
The blackout curtains were still pulled—I must have forgotten to open them that morning when they took me for breakfast.
Thinking about that made my skin crawl and I shuffled out of the circl
~ CASIMIR ~Maya was refusing to listen to my side of any of this and it was only succeeding in making my hackles rise and my wolf snap his teeth. The bond was tugging at me relentlessly, and the constant barrage of discomfort that bordered on pain in my chest was setting me even more on edge. But she was so damned stubborn. She wouldn’t listen. I needed to get out of here.“…I’m not saying it again, Cazz,” Maya snapped as if she’d heard the complaints in my head, though I knew I had my thoughts carefully guarded. “You pushed those two together—you cannot expect them not to grow close when at the beginning Jesse felt he was her only ally. You forced h
~ CASIMIR ~We’d been talking in circles for an hour and I was done. Maya would not stop pressing on me to simply let this go. To be in love, to trust.It was impossible!But I needed to get out of this fucking cell, and I couldn’t force my way out as long as she was holding my power.We hadn’t spoken for some time. She was resting in the chair, but I felt her eyes on me as I paced.“Cazz,” she started again, and I shook my head.“I need time. To think. I can’t… I can’t keep talking in circles.”Maya sighed and folded her hands in her lap. “I’ll give yo
~ CASIMIR ~“I would never do as my father—” I snarled.“You were never going to compel Rake, either, but I saw it in your head tonight.”“He breached his vow first!”“No, Cazz. He didn’t. God has given you hearts around you that are good. Can’t you see that?”“Good? He wants my mate!”“He loves your mate—he said so himself. But can you blame him? No wolf can control the seeds that bloom in their heart, they can only control whether they feed them. And that male has honored you. I would bet my life o
~ CASIMIR ~I sat in my chair, scowling at the wall, linked with Rory who was outside the caves, rotating shifts of guards and gathering intelligence. And apparently fighting the urge to tell me to get off his back, which only made me more determined to explore this from every angle and make certain we were covered.I literally shook with tension.‘It’s under control, Cazz. Rake has a team with him, they’re leaving stragglers along the route that will be part of our perimeter to raise the alarm if the humans get within five miles of us—and they’ll relay information from Rake as well. There’s nothing else we can do except wait. I need you to trust me with this.’
~ CASIMIR ~Rory was resolute. ‘We’re doing everything we can, Cazz. Honestly, I’ve given more males to this than I should have. But it means messages from the human city will reach us within a couple hours. Three at most.’Three hours? How many times could a fragile woman die in three hours?The thought terrified me—and it made me angry that she still had such a grip on me, so I pushed it all away.‘You still have enough Gammas in place to protect the catacombs if the humans attack?’‘Yes. Barely. But they’ll die in service to the assignment.’As th
~ JESSE ~The shock was so complete and so mind-numbing, for a moment all I could do was shriek and stumble back a step. But then I blinked and shoved Rake off—but he only laughed and clawed at me, pulling me closer with his long arms and big hands and—“Don’t fight it, Jesse. There’s no point. I’m your only hope now.”‘Play along, Jesse—please!’I blinked, shaking my head. “What the hell? What are you—”“She doesn’t seem excited to see you, Rake,” my father chuckled.“She will be. Whether she wants to be or not,” he growled back, still pulling at me as I con
~ JESSE ~Staring at the wolf Rake had become was terrifying. Instinctively, I tried to take another step back, but I was still pinned against the wall, so just ended up pressing myself flatter against it, panting.He took a step towards me and a strange noise broke in my throat. I couldn’t break out of that gaze, my mind screaming that it was Rake behind that warm brown gaze, but my body sensing only certain death.As he moved slowly closer, his animal body rippled with that savage grace only a predator possessed.“Rake… please… don’t…”He prowled right up to my toes as I mentally scrambled, trying desperately to remember if the wolves were still fully in their right minds when
~ CASIMIR ~Bodies rippling in time. Skin slicked with sweat. Drums beating in my bones. Howls echoing in the cavernous heights of the Den.I rippled into the touch of a dozen, feminine hands, stroking my chest, my back, my ass, as we all moved together. And as the packlink came alive, even our heartbeats began to sync.Come to me…Panting breaths, undulating bodies, eyes gleaming with lust… We were in frenzy, and I sank into it like a hot bath, further and further from the shitty chill of reality and deeper and deeper into the animalistic pulse.I hadn’t touched any of them yet, but opened myself, displayed, invited them closer. And now I danced, body rolling in the throng and rising to their