“What are our options?” Aurora asked, and Layla sighed.“We already sent a message to Hilt Edge Coven, and they’re still thinking about it,” Hilton informed them, and Aurora nodded.“What about the other packs and covens?” Easton asked.“Well, most are still contemplating, but some have already flat-out replied that they’re not willing to have us in their packs,” Zach explained.“Since a large percentage of those allies are still undecided, we’ll have to ask the members about their opinions too,” Aurora said, her focus on the sketches, drafts, and maps spread across the table.“There’s no need to contact them and ask,” Hilton interjected. “They’re all very furious about it. Most of them are ready to declare war against the Moonlight Pack, but they understand that it won’t be in their favor since we’re still their ‘hostage.’”“Those in high school have stopped all their after-school activities and said they would quit school immediately,” Zach added.“I already contacted the treasurer
“How are you holding up now?” Ferix asked, raising his drink to his lips and taking a sip. Aurora, who was standing beside him, shrugged.“I’m not holding up. Layla and Easton are the ones doing the holding up,” she replied, staring at the garden with a sarcastic smirk.She couldn’t believe that she had almost kissed that jerk earlier. If she had, she would have driven a knife through her own heart. Thank goodness she hadn’t.“Then let me rephrase that,” Ferix said, placing his drink on the table. “How are you feeling now?”He knew the discovery had hit her hard. Her eyes were dull, her posture slouched, and the rims of her eyes were red. Her messy hair looked like she had run her fingers through it a thousand times that day, but she didn’t seem to care about her appearance—not that it diminished how beautiful she still was
“We are here to seek permission to let someone inside the pack,” Easton stated calmly, but the glare in his eyes as he stared at Maverick, Alec, and Stephanie was heated. Alec gracefully returned the look.“And who is that person? It is such a sensitive time; we would have to look through it ourselves. Who knows what your rogues are up to?” Alec replied, and Easton scoffed.“Alright, but get your fucking ass to it. We only have twenty hours left,” Easton snapped at him.“Are you really going to go to Hilt Edge Coven?” Stephanie asked, and Aurora straightened herself to stare at her.“And how is that any of your business?” She replied rudely.“It is dangerous, damn it!” Maverick yelled at her out of the blue, and everyone flinched. Aurora stared around in disbelief. She covered her mouth with one hand, rubbing her lips and scoffing once again.“And burning my land wasn’t lethal to me?” Aurora whispered in astonishment before banging her hand on the table angrily. “YOU DON’T HAVE A SAY
"You have a lot of guts, showing up right here where you could be killed," Easton scoffed, and Crystabelle snickered."You thought you could do something to me? How fucking cute," she said, scrunching her nose in a way that made her look cute and innocent."We have a score to settle, Crystabelle. Did you come here to do that?" Aurora stared blankly, her arms crossed. "I made a pact with my 'allies' that I wouldn’t fight here, but am sure they could make an exception for you." Her words dripped with a heavy amount of sarcasm that made Crystabelle smile again."Of course, they would. But I am not here to have a freaky fight with you. It’d be better to catch some time over a glass of wine than to battle with a bunch of swine over shitty stuff, don’t you think?" Crystabelle's voice was cocky, and it showed the level of her arrogance, which was way over the roof.Aurora only blinked and
“There was a feud between a witch and a coven. There was a werewolf watching, and the witch was not aware of the feud—or so it appeared,” Crystabelle said haughtily. Everyone stared at her as she continued her bizarre story. Some more people, including members of the Moonlight Pack, had gathered around her as soon as she started making a scene. “The coven was irritated by the witch’s behavior. To them, it was either ignorance or dismissal, and neither appealed to them.The wolf believed it was neither of these things and that the witch simply had too much on her hands. He began to fend off all types of sneak attacks aimed at the witch.Then the coven became even more irritated. The wolf was continuously getting in their way. They wanted to fight him, but they had no convincing evidence to accuse him of interference. So, they planned a major attack—the sneakiest attack that had happened in a century.”
Easton declared, “I have no reason to banter words with someone as ignorant as yourself!” He turned and walked away without waiting for a response.Before Hilda could blink, Kael’s hand was around her throat. He stared murderously into her eyes while Sadie stood frozen, her wide eyes locked on the scene.“Kael, you need to calm down!” Sadie exclaimed, glancing nervously at her assistant, now choking in his grip.Kael snarled, “I can listen to and tolerate all kinds of insults against her, but there’s no way I’m going to let you call her a cheater!” Hilda merely scoffed, even as her lungs burned from the lack of air.“And she said it,” Crystabelle muttered under her breath before turning to Kael. “Hey! Fur-for-brains, you might want to release her—for your own sake.”Kael shot her a glare. “Do I look like I care, bitch? She’s slandering Aurora!”Crystabelle rolled her eyes, irritation evident in her voice. “Ugh, why are you even doing this for a woman you have no chance with? You, fur-
Maverick didn’t get the chance to finish his sentence before a gust of wind cut him off. Without hesitation, he hooked his arms around Aurora and pulled her back, shielding her from the sudden gale.“Hehe,” a laugh came from within the swirling dust. “It’s finally nice to catch you guys in a place where I can get to you.”As the dust settled, Aurora’s eyes widened in surprise. Tessie emerged from the haze, flanked by members of The Seekers.“What the hell are you doing here?” Aurora demanded, her voice sharp with disbelief. Maverick’s brow furrowed as he stared at Tessie, his grip on Aurora firm.“Isn’t it obvious?” Tessie replied with a mocking laugh.“You,” Maverick said, his tone cold. “You’re the one. It’s finally nice to see you.” His hand remained protectively on Aurora’s waist as Tessie smiled, her gaze flicking pointedly to his hand.“I see you two have gotten along quite well now,” Tessie remarked, her smirk widening.“She’s the spy The Seekers planted in the Moonlight Pack,”
Aurora felt herself dragged back into the present, confusion etched between her brows, her eyes wide in disbelief.There was no way that was her. She was sure she had never kissed Easton. Neither of them had ever harbored any sort of romantic feelings for each other; they were just each other’s comfort.“What... what was that just now?” Aurora stuttered.She couldn’t remember a moment in her life where she had insulted and betrayed Maverick like that. Those harsh words couldn’t have tumbled out of her mouth, not even by mistake.How on earth could she have told him to leave her alone when all she had ever wanted was to be his mate? That was practically a rejection—before either of them realized they were destined to be together.She felt like a hypocrite for rushing to him and asking what was wrong, especially after thinking he was upset over her absence that night.Her mind raced, a thousand thoughts colliding and tangling into chaos. Had she really insisted to him that missing their
Ferix had run into the man he had come to this side of the city for, and the man had delayed him with talks that Ferix had paid absolutely no attention to. He just wanted to get away.Telling Aurora how he felt hadn’t been a good idea, and he was aware of that, but he couldn’t help it.At that moment, with her eyes lightened up and the laugh he knew he had caused, he had just blurted it out. Nothing good was going to come from it, because even though they were not particularly lovers, it didn’t excuse the fact that they were still mates.“The look on your face tells me that you’ve done something stupid,” he heard and raised his head to see Carly standing off to the side, almost blending with the shadows.“I haven’t done anything stupid!” he snapped at her, and she scoffed.“You’ve definitely done something stupid, so tell me what it was that you did.”“I didn’t do anything. So what the fuck are you doing here?” Ferix asked, walking to where he had parked his car, and Carly tailed afte
“Then I would contact you later,” Maverick said into the phone before he disconnected the call.“Maverick?!” Someone called his name with a loud shrill, and he was forced to turn in the direction of the person who was screaming so loudly in the hospital.“OMG! It’s really you!” she exclaimed as she moved toward him. Maverick was surprised to see the receptionist from the hotel at Eastwood Pack in his pack, but he hid his surprise quite well.“Hi, Carly,” Maverick said, and her eyes brightened when she discovered that the man recognized her.“It’s so nice to see you again!” she exclaimed, and Maverick was almost forced to tell her to calm down, but he held it down.“What are you doing here?” he asked.“I’m here to visit my cousin and have been here for quite some time, but I didn’t have any hope of seeing you since you’re the Alpha and all, but here you are! In the fucking plain sight!” she continued in her shrill voice, already wrapping her arms around Maverick’s and pushing herself c
“I can take care of it here,” Aurora said, but Maverick didn’t pay any attention to her as he continued walking towards the car, her hand in his as he dragged her along.“Seriously, it’s nothing huge, just a bit of cotton, bandages, and a couple of pain relief pills would help,” Aurora insisted, but he just opened the car and sat her down.“You have to recognize the fact that I’m a werewolf too, I have healing abilities too!” she exclaimed.“Healing abilities that are very slow, you forget that part,” Maverick finally replied as he sat behind the wheel. “Just look at yourself in the mirror. Only heaven knows how many bones you’ve broken, your face is all bruised up, and I’m sure your arm is aching from the amount of shooting you’ve done today.”“It’s not as bad as it looks,”“I believe the decision is up to me,” he said. “Now, you’ll sit still like a good girl and let me drive you to the hospital so that Sadie can check you up. I don’t want to hear what you think.”Aurora glared at hi
“You weren’t nice,” Aurora commented, and the woman smirked.“I thought I told you, you were the one who wasn’t taking me seriously,” she replied nonchalantly, taking pride in Aurora’s busted lips.“Then, pardon me for being rude too,” Aurora replied as the woman moved towards her. This time, both of them were merciless. They hit each other fast and hard, barely giving the other a chance to recover before delivering the next blow, but Aurora seemed to be on the winning side, while the other woman was getting tired.Aurora delivered a blow to her jaw, adding another bruise to her already bruised face. She grabbed the woman, who was still sputtering, and flipped her over her shoulder, throwing her on the floor hard. The sound of bones breaking made some of the werewolves on the field cringe. They watched as Aurora cleaned the blood on her lips and face with the back of her hands before groaning when she remembered that she must have dirtied it more because her knuckles were all bruised
Aurora stared at the numerous werewolves scattered across the part of the field that had been designated as the training ground. Many of them were warming up, while others chatted amongst themselves. The Night Pack members stood apart from the members of the Moonlight Pack, none of them willing to familiarize themselves with the others just yet.The Night Pack wouldn’t make the first move, especially since the members of the other pack didn’t show the standard amount of respect for their leader. While they didn’t openly disrespect Aurora, they also didn’t hold her in high regard. Many of them believed that without her spells, she wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Her reliance on magic was something the men, whose pride lay in their strength, found hard to respect.“Good morning,” Maverick’s voice rang out across the field, commanding immediate attention. Even Aurora turned to glance at him.His tone was nothing like the one he used when speaking to her. This voice was authoritativ
Aurora walked into the playroom after searching the entire mansion for her assistant and almost groaned when she saw Layla and Zach making out intensely on the couch. They were so lost in each other that neither of them noticed her presence. Tilting her head to the side, she observed them for a moment, shook her head, and then loudly cleared her throat.They finally broke apart. Zach tried to move away from his mate to face Aurora properly, but Layla pinned him down with her body, glaring at Aurora.“Can’t you just go on your way without interrupting us?” Layla snapped.“Can’t you just find somewhere else to do your dirty deeds? Thank god there are no kids here. They’d be blinded by your antics,” Aurora said, sitting on the couch opposite them. Layla’s scowl deepened.“What do you want?” Layla asked begrudgingly. Aurora scoffed at her grumpiness before reaching for the box she had brought. She placed it on the table, opened it, and watched as Layla leaned forward to examine its conten
Aurora halted when she saw Phoebe sitting in front of her, hands draped on her waist. The woman wore a spaghetti strap top and a tight skirt that accentuated her figure.“I have absolutely no idea what the hell you are on about,” Aurora said casually. She was at a restaurant, trying to tail Jerry’s movements. Anabella had informed them during the meeting that a mail had arrived for Jerry two days ago. She had checked it and found only a cryptic note:It will get delivered at Jay Restaurant and Pub at three o’clock, eastside.Aurora had arrived just in time to witness a man—likely a spy from one of the many packs—drop a small container into the trash bin. She retrieved it and discovered shiny, vibrant red rubies inside. Pocketing them, she quickly used her power to create a replica before returning to her table to eat.“Maverick and you are back together, aren’t you? You went on a date,” Phoebe said, interrupting Aurora’s thoughts.Aurora snickered. “So that’s what you’re talking about
Ferix sighed as he placed the glass cup on the counter once again. He pushed the bottle toward the bartender, who refilled it with one of the strong cocktails Ferix had absentmindedly picked when he arrived at the bar.His head was clearly not in the right place, and the lively bar continued on without him as if he weren’t even there. His mind wandered far away, no matter how much he tried to steer his thoughts elsewhere. He always ended up back to the same thing: Aurora. Specifically, the image of Maverick and Aurora sharing a quiet moment on the balcony and the kiss they’d shared in the car later that night.He’d been waiting for Aurora at the pack house, ready to leave when she didn’t show. But just as he was about to head home, the sight of them in the car caught him off guard. They were so lost in each other that neither of them noticed him standing there.He had asked himself countless times why he still liked Aurora despite knowing she had a mate. Back when they weren’t on good
“Why does it always have to be that man ruining our date at the park?” Aurora grumbled, her tone sharp as she crossed her arms. Maverick kept his focus on the road, his hands steady on the steering wheel.“At least now we know why he’s there now and possibly why he was there back then,” Maverick replied, his voice calm but thoughtful.“He came to meet with a member of the Blood Moon Pack eight years ago too?” Aurora asked, raising an eyebrow.“I can’t be certain it was the Blood Moon Pack back then, but I’m sure this park has been his meeting spot for a while. It’s lively, there’s often a crowd. A man his age walking into a trampoline park might seem odd, but not strange enough to attract real attention,” Maverick explained. Aurora nodded in agreement, her mind piecing things together.“That makes a lot of sense,” she admitted, placing a thoughtful hand under her chin.“You don’t seem that concerned about him being alive,” Maverick observed, glancing at her briefly.“I’m not,” she rep