Raya is the daughter of the town’s drunkard, her father had a dirty habit of gambling and losing money. He blames her for everything miserable that has happened to him, including her mother abandoning them. Raya wanted to see her mother again and ask her why she left her at the mercy of her father. When she got mated forcefully to Alpha Toph, her father saw it as a way to pay off his debts and start afresh, even when the psycho alpha didn’t love his daughter. Alpha Toph treated Raya worse than anything she has ever seen and Raya made up her mind, she was going to run away. Her escape attempt led her straight into the hands of her second mate, Alpha Toph’s half-brother and worst enemy. Alpha Nikolai. Alpha Toph would do anything to have her back and Alpha Nikolai isn’t ready to let her go.
View MoreRAYA
I had been watching the house for a while when the boom of thunder echoed over the dark rims of the overcast sky.
“Shit,” I swore under my breath, hefting the rucksack of groceries from the flea market higher over my shoulder and jerking the leather hood of my father’s old trench coat over my face.
I must not have been quick enough, because the whoosh of wind whipping back the hood as I darted across the garbage-strewn streets on my tiptoes had me letting out an embarrassing scream.
I clamped a hand over my mouth, my eyes wide as I glanced at the house again, feeling for all the world like I had sung a bad rendition of donkey kong.
Had he heard me? Images of the stout beefcake of a man and the imposing deep V of his eyebrows flashed before my eyes as I fiddled with the back door lock on the cottage house as the patter of rain pounded noisily behind me.
My heart beat a frantic rhythm in my chest when I realized the tapping noise I’d heard earlier was the sound of footsteps. Someone was coming around the side of our house!
It couldn’t have been the beefcake of a man with angry eyebrows! I’d seen him stumble into the house with a bottle in hand! I’d made sure he was asleep!
“Shit!” I cursed again, loud enough this time, that I could hear myself over the din of rain as I burgled into my father’s house, snapping the door shut beside me and waiting for my eyes to adjust to the yellow halo of the hurricane lamp that was dying on the mantle sill of the furnace.
The plates from last night’s dinner were still stacked in greasy piles on top of the small wooden cube of the dinner table.
I sighed, the weighty knee of exhaustion ground against my spine as I tossed the rucksack to the side, turning to glance at the side of the house through the dirt-streaked mirror before occurring back when a man’s broad face stared back at me.
“Saints!” I shrieked, aware of the sharp rise and fall of my chest as I watched the man’s fat hand shoot up to motion to the door, a nagging feeling started in the pit of my stomach as I hesitated.
What to do? I couldn't very well let him in to barrel through the house. Not when I was hiding from the man snoring away in the other room.
I felt my tongue dart out to lick my lips as I cracked the door open a notch, still careful to leave the safety latch hooked, not that he couldn't break through it easily.
The tree trunk of the man’s knee was bigger than the size of my head, the stranger looking even taller as he darkened our doorway, looking into the house over my head before I cleared my throat questioningly and his eyes snapped back to me.
“Raya Banks?” The stranger growled, the ominous rumble of his voice sounding exactly how I thought it would. Foreboding. I felt a shiver run through the length of my spine.
How did he know my name? I let my head fall in a nod, watching him shift his stance so that it was almost suffocating standing so close to him.
”Where is your father?” The question was so harsh it surprised me.
Could he hear the bear-sized man snoring inside? I let my gaze rake over the man once more. He didn't look like one of the traditional werewolves, but they were so advanced these days that it was impossible to say for sure.
I could see the clean skin of his head was tatted, and so was the open v-line of his manly chest.
I swallowed a curse under my breath. What had my father dragged us into now?
“H-he's not in, hasn't been around these here parts for a week now.” I sang, flinging my hand behind me as though he could see. I watched the piercing gray of his gaze roam through the crack in the door before they settled unnervingly on me.
“Is that right?” He drawled, and the chill was back in my spine.
I nodded disjointedly, making to close the door before I watched with horror as the man’s foot stuck out to brace the opening so that for a moment, I thought he meant to push the door open after all.
“You tell him to call this number when he comes in,” The bald man with tattoos on his skinhead grunted, holding out a surprisingly glossy call card that I snatched up gratefully, allowing myself a small exhale.
“You have a good night ma’am,” He whispered, taking one last sweeping glance above my head before he put the black cotton of a face cap back on and disappeared out of sight into the grey darkness.
I let my shoulders sag, slapping the door shut and latching it only to turn around and catch the fuzzy oblong of my father’s head peeking from the corner of the hallway.
“Christ,” I grated, swallowing another scream.
“What did he say? Has he left?” He rasped, and I jolted when I realized how close his voice sounded, turning to see the large bulk of my father’s frame was hunched over, the bottle rim now pinched loosely in his hands.
“Yes, father, what have you done now? The Alpha father? Really?” I needled, the spike of bitterness surging in my heart curdled when I watched his head snap toward me, recognition staining his beady eyes until the swollen skin around his sockets tightened and puckered.
“You, how dare you talk to me like that?” My father grated, baring the yellowed squares of his teeth at me so that I stumbled back a step, whimpering raising my hands to brace against the ceramic plate he threw at me.
“Useless! That’s what you are!” He bellowed, and I could see in his beady eyes, the moment he snapped. The grey pallor of his face darkened into a mask of hate as he towered over me.
“Father, please,” I whispered, gulping reflexively as the bulk of his arm came swinging down and I squeezed my eyes shut, letting out a scream when it connected with the side of my head, sending a blinding pain bouncing between my temples.
I gasped, my mouth dry as I heaved frantic breaths, scrambling away as he stalked toward me, the honeyed green of his hazel eyes blazing.
“You are a disgrace, Raya, get out of my sight.” He sneered, the tight pinch of his lips turned down around the corners as he started down his nose at me making something vile and bitter twist in my heart before I nodded, getting up to stumble up the narrow staircase to my room.
“Goddamn bastard can't do anything right! I should have had your whore of a mother abort you while I still had the chance!” He roared, and I choked back a strangled sob, groping blindly for the doorknob of my room door before my fingers caught on the cool steel and I turned it with a soft click.
I could still hear the muted growl of his baritone through the wooden floorboards, but it was distant now, I was tucking myself away, into the box, into the darkness, the quiet place in my mind where nothing could hurt me.
Not anymore.
Raya BanksI hadn't stopped glancing anxiously through the wide carriage windows after we left until my breath caught in my throat when I saw the looming buildings of the castle up ahead and leaned back in my seat, suddenly feeling my pulse jump.“It's okay Raya, I'm here...I won't let anyone hurt you.” Nikolai growled and I felt something warm unravel inside me at the possessive tone of his voice.I nodded, searching his stormy gray eyes once more before looking out the window again at the wet plains of the fields off to the sides.And Olivia? I wanted to ask, but something stopped me and I shook the thought out of my head, resting on his shoulder instead as the giant gate of the castle creaked open and I marveled at the cheers that boomed and erupted.“Holy shit,” I whispered and my cheeks warmed to hear Nikolai laugh beside me. Gosh, I never wanted him to stop laughing! There were rows and rows of ruddy-faced wolves holding large bouquets that they threw like confetti at the carri
NikolaiThe voices, by Jove! The rush of shadows and voices crowded into my head as I wove the moonstone around my neck must have made me mad!I roared, feeling my rage amplify and baring my teeth with bloodlust as I turned my body to see Alpha Toph charging toward me like a bat straight from hell.“You bloody prick! I'm going to annihilate you once and for all!” He bellowed, his lumpy muscled frame flying into the air before I surged forward to meet him halfway, almost stumbling when Raya’s soft whisper carried to my ears.I love you, I love you, I love you. I inhaled sharply, throwing everything I had into the fight as our bodies slammed meatily together before we landed heavily on the floor and I pushed against the bracket of his arms. His disfigured eyes stared at me from behind the barricade with such hate and venom that I threw away all the guilt I had swirling inside me.“Not if I kill you first.” I sneered, jamming my knee into his sides and watching him crumple in on himself
158Raya Banks“Nikolai! Watch out!” I shrieked loudly, feeling my gut wrench with fear as I saw the king get knocked down by Alpha Toph’s hulking frame.“You let a woman be your weakness again Nikolai, it's almost as if you never LEARN! Wasn't Olivia’s betrayal all those years ago enough for you?” Alpha Toph gurgled in a voice that sounded like rushing water and I felt chills wash over me as I tried to struggle to my feet before one of the shadowlings slammed their heavy foot flat on my back, knocking the breath out of me.“No!” I cried out, winded, and stretched a hand to the huge gray wolf that was being mauled ferociously by Alpha Toph’s half-human, half-beast frame. A trap! The beast had set a trap for the king and now he was cut in between. I knew almost immediately what he had planned to do but there was almost no way to warn Alpha Nikolai as he crossed the field to rescue me.Had I been his weakness? How did he find me? It couldn't have been that long since I was kidnapped an
Olivia BurnsIt was the silence that haunted me the most now. The empty hours from dawn to dusk and everything in between, just me and the shadows, and the shadows and me.“You rest up now Miss Burns, His Highness will be back to the Stone Castle in no time.” Meredith’s calming voice rang, making me snap my eyes to her pale oval face that had lifted into an encouraging smile.“Enough, I'm positive ill turn into one of the meadow fishes if you soak my stubs any longer.” I hissed impatiently, feeling my heart squeeze when the woman only smiled, snatching up a dry, white towel from the rack before wrapping my tender feet in it and toweling me off.I sneered at the unhealthy size of the swollen lumps as she massaged them into a reasonable size, and I stirred uneasily in the low plush stool that had been placed in the sunlit room.The King had ordered renovations for me, giant blue ceramic pots with fake gold flowers at the corners of the room that hid the shadowlings from my sight. The bi
NIKOLAIShe was RIGHT THERE, a few feet from me before he snatched her right out of the air. So close, and yet, so far away.“It doesn't have to be this way Tophas, my mate has no business in our rivalry, let her go.” I deadpanned, hearing the din of my voice as it caught in the wind whipping about us before my brother’s uneven face jerked into an excited smile.I could hear the thud of my heart beating and was aware how fast my breaths rushed out from my chest and yet, I could do nothing but stand and wait. No sudden movements.“But you lie, brother, Raya Banks is my mate too don't you reckon?” Tophas growled, slamming one thick paw that looked like the fingers had been snapped all the way back against Raya’s full cleavage.“Please!” Raya’s desperate wheezes twisted at my heart as I held out a hand, stopping Gallagher’s copper-colored wolf from morphing out and tearing forward. I could sense his agitation, because it was double in my gut, watching the woman I loved so much desperatel
Raya BanksI couldn't stop the shudders from running through my body before the sound of wolves laughing heartily in the distance reached my ears.“Oh God, oh God, help me,” I panted, squeezing my eyes shut and clamping my lips firmly to keep from whimpering when what felt like a tongue licked at the underside of my ass from the stone.The damned thing was alive! Like the stack of bodies in the corner of the room! Wolf zombies, immobile now, no doubt until the dark shadow king Gobar wanted to command them!“A feast! We shall have a feast!” Alpha Toph’s voice boomed in the distance and my body automatically stiffened, still as a rock.It had been some time since he left and the hearty yellow beam I could see beyond the cave opening flaps if I angled my head right had now turned a smokey gray. Dusk. I had to get out of here fast, I couldn't hope on the King any longer, he may as well have moved on with his betrothed and heir and here I was slaving away, holding out hope and waiting for
Alpha TophMy tongue pressed against the uneven ridges of my teeth as I fiddled with the lock of the shadow king’s secret compartment.I had caught a glimpse of the mammoth beast leaving the small shed, the spot on his neck where the blood moonstone hung bare. I knew then that Gobar had to have been hiding it here. He never wore it to hunt.“Come on!” I gritted through clenched teeth, feeling my eyeballs sting as the sweat rolled down from the cliff of my forehead.Everything had begun to feel weird, it was hard enough to feed without tasting the worms from the inside of my mouth in the blood.If I could just get my hands on the dark moonstone I could stop the transformation and have SOME chance of killing the shadow king.Yes! I had to kill him, there was no way in seven hells I would have gone through all the pains to settle for being his eternal stooge!The numbers I tried to spin on the lock didn't make any sense and it was beginning to get dark. I glanced around quickly, catchin
Meredith The Maid“MEREDITH!” My name, I answer it with pride when my mistress calls, but she does not call today. “MEREDIFFTH!” My name, whenever the mistress was in one of her moods and couldn't stand to get the words out nice and proper, her shrill tone seemed to shake me to my very core.She was in one of her moods again as I led her away from the King’s horses, holding the blubbering countess by the hand and helping her climb the stairs until we were behind the safe walls of the familiar quarters.“What time is it Meredith? I haven't had my afternoon tea and all that screaming has made me rather, famished!” Miss Olivia exclaimed and I caught my tongue between my teeth before I could tell her she had taken her lunch already. Thrice.“Of course, I'll send for it M’lady,” I cooed softly, lowering her onto the plush cushion of the high bed and propping her feet too before smothering her with the rich red duvets that had been layered on the foam.“My Merd, what would I do without y
NIKOLAITime seemed to stand still as I swung the silver sword in a neat arc, striking the stretched meat of my best friend’s neck and feeling the sword spasm in my death grip before cutting cleanly through the bone and clanging up to my shoulders against the hard rock of the dias.My heart pounded wildly in my chest as the brightly colored room blurred in my vision for a moment before I caught the lapse and blinked everything back into focus.The silence was so loud that my ears rang from the nothingness, not a breath, not a word, nothing but quiet. I watched Igor’s blood-spattered head roll quietly down each stone staircase until it toppled in a neat circle and stopped on the floor.I was breathing fast, and heavily, with my fingers shaking on the hilt of the executioner sword I still held tightly in my hand and yet I couldn't manage to shake it off.It was like a part of me had died the moment I held the blade. My fault! It was all my fault. I had let my best man turn into a trait
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