FAYE What stupid light wouldn't stop shining so brightly in my face? I groaned as my eyes slid open and snapped shut again when the rays of sunshine hit me. I always closed the windows, but I'd left them open last night. I grumbled the entire way to the window panes and slid them closed. I wasn't going to be angry. Don't make the rest of your day and angry one, Faye. I stopped to take in a deep breath, inhaling the fresh morning air and exhaling. My eyes found my bedside clock and my heart flew. I was late! I had to catch Yvonne before she left so we'd have that talk. I rushed to the bathroom and turned on the shower, stripping my nightdress off fast and flying into the torrent of water. The cool water hit me first, before it became hotter and I relaxed under the spray of water. My mind kept drifting off to think about the council of elders and their apparent lack of trust in me, and I kept pulling it back. I wouldn't let myself think of the fact that I still had n
NATHANWhat was she playing at? Thinking she could get me to spill away my guts to her.And about Layla.I hadn't spoken about her in years. It felt like a different lifetime altogether. It'd been so long ago I felt like… it hadn't happened.I hadn't lost a family.I wasn't going to think about that. I made deliberate attempts to divert my thoughts towards something else. I hadn't had my hands in her ginger hair as much as I'd like.I hadn't even realized how much I'd wanted her until I'd had to pull away last minute from her last night. It'd taken a lot to walk away, knowing I couldn't talk about the things she wanted to hear. I turned from my room window, the sight too plain, a reminder of all I'd lost here in the Black Saint pack house.A reminder of all I'd fucked up. My mistakes stared me in the face every morning, blinding me with my apparent faults that hadn't been so apparent at the time. I decided not to seek Patrice out, no matter that I badly wanted to ask her what t
FAYE Deep in my chest,the panic unfurled slowly, growing steadily to a higher point. I called Axel on the phone again and again and again, but there was no response. He never ignored my calls. He never ignored my calls, but he was ignoring them today of all days, at this very critical time. I bemoaned my fate, groaning loudly when the phone rang for the hundredths time and no one on the other end answered. I was slowly going crazy, when Yvonne came to me, holding my arm in a tight grip. "Yvonne
FAYEThe underground parking lot was busy, and it cost me minutes I did not have trying to get a space to pack in. I pulled into a space at the end, and walked all the way back to the elevator. Axel stayed in the penthouse here, just one of his many places.He was mostly here, if not at the pack house.I pressed the button for the penthouse and rode the elevator to the first floor, getting off at a brisk walk. I hoped he was in. What would I do if he wasn't here with the moonstone?If I couldn't fix this fast and get the moonstone back to it's vault before any of the elders discovered what was going on?I tried to shake off the thought. I couldn't afford to dissolve into panic now. I got to his door and rang the doorbell. I waited for someone to answer the door, but nothing happened.I didn't have time to waste, I tried entering the code he'd given me before. I keyed in the numbers and waited for the click of the door unlocking. The door remained locked. I keyed in the numbers
NATHANThe silence in the room was loud. No one seems to know what to make of this. It was apparent what was happening though.Some one else— no, some other witch was using the same methods Briggs had used. I was sure of it, and Zelda had confirmed it. The blue markings on Rhea's body were not caused by natural effects. I leaned forward, the palms of my hand spread over the table as I bent, staring across the room at the three people I trusted most in my life."Any new updates on what is happening, Lannon?""Nothing else happened, Nate. I haven't gotten wind of anything unusual at all.""You say she was found in our woods?"Carolyn asked, she'd been away in a trip and had just gotten back."Yes. From the looks of where we found her, she wasn't killed there. They did what they did somewhere else, and then came here, on our turf, to dispose of her." Lannon seethed, his fist clenched on his thigh.He really was worked up over this. And I couldn't blame him. "It would have been a pro
FAYEI gaped at the elders, not sure how to handle the situation now. Granger and Deindre trooped past Yvonne and me to the living room, not bothering to wait for us to invite them in. We all moved to my dining room wordlessly, the tension palpable, and settled down, all five of us.It was painfully obvious that one of us was missing."Axel took the moonstone."Yvonne nodded, her mouth pressed into a thin, hard line.Granger's eyes blazed with fury. "So this was what he meant when he said he would show us."All eyes turned to watch him. "Show us what?" I asked him, not sure I really wanted to know the answer but needing to hear it still."He was furious that you wouldn't mate with him. He said if the council didn't dethrone you, we would have hell to pay."My heart dropped so hard it fell to the floor of my stomach. I felt a little light-headed and I had to swallow and try hard to focus and not give in to the darkness.Yvonne had been right all along.Axel wasn't just punishing me
FAYE It has been ages since I've been at the Black Saint pack house. I can't go there by myself, and I don't have any way of getting to Nathan if I don't go to his company or to his home. Neither of those ideas appealed. The pack members would know something was up immediately if I were to go there. And doubt could easily be planted in the minds of many without them knowing the real reason we were meeting. If me being with Nathan had upset Axel so much, it wasn't hard to imagine how my pack would feel about it. I'd rather I didn't find out. The next best option was to set up a meeting with Nathan. Somewhere it would be just the two of us. No other eyes around to see us. I called Patrice. I had her contact info from the day I'd gone to see her and I knew she was the only one who would help me, no questions asked. I'd set up the meet for 10am tomorrow, at a small cafe downtown, but he'd refused that. Telling me instead to come to the glasshouse. Sometime in the early e
NATHAN I went out to Zelda's cabin, hoping she'd have found something else now. Anything from the decay of Rhea's body before we'd buried her. Lannon had gone on a sort of recon with the twins while I'd been to work to check in and back. It had just been a day since we'd found Rhea, and I was wondering if I should have gone out on the town with Lannon to search for answers. Pack matters had to be kept private and within the werewolf community. For that reason, we couldn't involve the police or private investigators. We had our own in various places for these reasons though,and Lannon was currently meeting a police officer for reports on any recent deaths we might have not heard of similar to what had happened to Rhea. The man was a werewolf, whose sole purpose at that precinct was to conceal any information concerning our community. Hiding our affairs from the prying eyes of the world. I knocked once and pulled the door open, walking into her living room. I followed the