King was about to tear into the boy, but then he saw it. The boy’s pain was not of a physical variety. Whatever he had witnessed had completely shell-shocked him, leaving him with mental scars deeper than the one on his stomach.“Right then.” He scooped up the boy as gently as his frayed patience could handle, and placed him over his shoulder. Next, he scooped Emilia into his arms, and then rocked to his feet.As he ran out of the woods with the two people, he glanced around for the young boy’s dog. He didn’t need to. He knew exactly what fate awaited the sorry animal.Rowan felt relief as he got back into safer territory. He set the boy down and then strapped Juniper into the passenger seat. He then strapped the young boy in as well. He jumped into the car and raced off into town, glancing at Juniper every five seconds.“What exactly happened to her?” the pack healer asked, shining a small light into both Emilia’s eyes.King had sped through the town like a lunatic, and had brought E
“I feel…weird. My head’s a bit fuzzy, but I’m fine, I think. Can you tell me what happened?”“You don’t remember anything?” King asked softly.“Not exactly, sorry.”“Well, you passed out again. We went into the forest to investigate the ward that had been tampered with, and…”And then her memories came rushing back with full force. The recollection slammed into her with unexpected strength, and she felt like she had just been rudely thrown into a cold pool of water.She remembered feeling the ward trigger and rushing into the forest with King. She had really hoped to find a clue about their target, but instead all they’d found was the young boy who had been hurt and left for dead.Emilia remembered how that had felt. The boy had lost a lot of blood and she was going to lose him. She had felt it. She had checked her reserves and had known that she did not have enough to bring the boy back.And yet, she had managed to stitch him back together. She had checked to make sure she wasn’t tra
“Hey…calm down. Okay? Calm down.” King covered Emilia’s hand in both of his and scuttled closer to her on the bed. “Listen to me, Emilia. I haven’t been able to tell you my true feelings. I’ve been trying to find the best time to speak with you, but I realize now that there’s not going to be a better time than right now.“The truth is that I am sorry for what I did to you. I never should have rejected you the way I did. By doing so, I called you a liar and led people to think that you were just being crazy. There’s no excuse for what I did, and no justification either.“I did it because I was scared. Scared of what people thought. Worried about what they would say if they found out about what we had. Worried about what my friends would think of me. But I was a fool to care about all those things.“I was a fool, because from the first time I saw you, I knew you were my mate. From the first time we were together, I heard my wolf howl for joy all through the night. What we shared, it’s t
It was only after Emilia got quiet that she realized she had been yelling loudly. The look on King’s face was that of pain and hurt, but Emilia didn’t care. She knew that she had been harsh and maybe unfair to him. While he had made mistakes, he wasn’t a bad person. She wasn’t even frustrated with him.Unfortunately, she needed to let it all out, or she would go mad. And he was the one who was here, so she took it out on him. She turned him into the receiving end of all the unfair things life had thrown at her.King had taken it with equanimity, but Juniper could see that she had broken something in him. She didn’t care. She suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to be alone. She made to get out of the bed, but Rowan stopped her, placing a hand gently on her arm.“No. Stay. You should rest a little bit more. I’ll go instead.” He looked at her with sad eyes and without saying another word, he got up and left the room, shutting the door silently behind him.King watched the door and felt a
It was only after Emilia got quiet that she realized she had been yelling loudly. The look on King’s face was that of pain and hurt, but Emilia didn’t care. She knew that she had been harsh and maybe unfair to him. While he had made mistakes, he wasn’t a bad person. She wasn’t even frustrated with him.Unfortunately, she needed to let it all out, or she would go mad. And he was the one who was here, so she took it out on him. She turned him into the receiving end of all the unfair things life had thrown at her.King had taken it with equanimity, but Juniper could see that she had broken something in him. She didn’t care. She suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to be alone. She made to get out of the bed, but Rowan stopped her, placing a hand gently on her arm.“No. Stay. You should rest a little bit more. I’ll go instead.” He looked at her with sad eyes and without saying another word, he got up and left the room, shutting the door silently behind him.King watched the door and felt a
“What are you going to do?” Blake asked.“No idea.” King shrugged. “She still hasn’t forgiven me for how I denied her. I asked her to stay. I asked for a chance for us to raise the child together. She threw me out of her room.” He sipped from his bottle.“I need to keep trying, it seems. We have a long time still before the baby comes, and I hope to convince her to change her mind before that happens. I did announce to the pack that she’s my mate, though. So there’s that.”Fannar scoffed disdainfully. “I can’t imagine they took it jubilantly when you told them, did they?”King grinned. “Not at first. But as it turns out, I can be very convincing. Look, we haven’t always been the most welcoming clan to Emilia, unfortunately. If I am going to convince her to stay, she needs to know she will be accepted.”“Looks like you have it all figured out,” Articus said.“Not as much as I would have liked, but I’m hopeful.”“What about your fiend in the woods? Any news?” The Yeti raised a brow at k
She thought about the little boy she had saved the last time she was out. She hadn’t really processed all he had said as she had healed him, and had passed out almost immediately. She felt fit and ready enough to return to her investigations.Not only did she need to distract herself from thinking about King, but the sooner she cracked the case, the sooner she could leave Moonwood behind. While she had spoken meanly to King, she had meant what she said about leaving the town behind.She had grown tired of loving a town which had shown that it had no desire or interest in loving her back. She had picked up the fact that the people were saying she had made everything up, from the young wolf’s testimony.Thinking about it filled her with bile and bitter anger. All she had done so far, she had done for them. She had left her safe haven and moved back to Moonwood, breaking her promise to herself. She had saved someone’s life. She had saved all their lives with her wards.And yet, all she g
She thought about the little boy she had saved the last time she was out. She hadn’t really processed all he had said as she had healed him, and had passed out almost immediately. She felt fit and ready enough to return to her investigations.Not only did she need to distract herself from thinking about King, but the sooner she cracked the case, the sooner she could leave Moonwood behind. While she had spoken meanly to King, she had meant what she said about leaving the town behind.She had grown tired of loving a town which had shown that it had no desire or interest in loving her back. She had picked up the fact that the people were saying she had made everything up, from the young wolf’s testimony.Thinking about it filled her with bile and bitter anger. All she had done so far, she had done for them. She had left her safe haven and moved back to Moonwood, breaking her promise to herself. She had saved someone’s life. She had saved all their lives with her wards.And yet, all she g
“I can’t stop thinking about Selina,” Emilia said wistfully.King turned to face her. “Truthfully, I had also not expected her to do that.”“I was moved by the fact that Selina apologized.”“That’s true,” King agreed. “To be honest, she was the last person I expected to apologize to you.”After Emilia had saved Selina’s life, she had come to apologize to her. It was quite a show of humility as she had gone down on her knees and bowed to the ground before Juniper. Juniper had pleaded with her to get up, but she’d refused to get up until she had said her piece.“I’m sorry for how I treated you growing up,” Selina had said, with teary eyes. “You were right. You never killed Dad. I was always so angry at you for that night, but I never thanked you for saving me that night. And that sucks.“So thank you, Selina. Thank you. Twice you saved my life, and all I ever did was hate you and bully you. I wish I could turn back time and do things differently, but I can’t. Do you think you can forgiv
He let out a sigh of relief, then collapsed on the bed again. His thighs burned something furious and he was afraid of moving too suddenly. He couldn’t deal with a cramp right now.Emilia’s breathing started to level out after five minutes. She had the energy of five people in bed, and no matter how tired King thought she was, she was always ready for another tumble.Her intensity and desire scared KIng, but it was still one of the things that he loved the most about her. She matched his energy in so many different ways and their time together always ended up looking like one of them had a point to prove to the other.She turned to look at him, beaming. “That was….”“Amazing?” King finished for her, chuckling.“I was going to say scary, but amazing works as well.” Emilia smiled. “Really, I thought I was going to burst an artery for a moment there.”“Lucky you,” King teased. “I think I heard a few pop.” Emilia laughed as he leaned forward to kiss her forehead, and then her lips.“Poor
With tears in her eyes, she admitted what she had been holding back from admitting for so long. “I love you too, King.”King smiled wider and put his arms around her waist. He pulled her close, gently, and kissed her softly. Juniper melted into his embrace and forgot all about her pain and fear and frustration. She wrapped her arms around King, happy that she could hold him again.She had been so afraid of losing him. She had been so afraid of dying. And yet…here they were. She gripped him tighter, wanting to make sure he was real, not another sliver of her creative mind, a figment of her imagination. Yes, he was real. This was real.She was startled to hear voices and broke the kiss abruptly. The entire pack approached them, whooping and cheering loudly. She blushed slightly with embarrassment. She had completely forgotten all about them, and with good reason.“Wow!” Articus said. “What you did? We have never seen anything like it before. Where did you learn that from?”Emilia blinke
She walked slowly to the side, keeping herself on his blind side as she approached. She tried to levitate off the ground but couldn’t. All her powers had manifested physically into the spear in her hand.The only mana left in her was what powered her to move and function. She had to strike, and quickly, or she would be dead before she realized it.King had seen her get up, had seen the spear form in her hand. By some miracle, he had managed to keep his expression neutral and his eyes on the vampire.The vampire landed softly in front of him and pulled his blood spear out of the air. “So, this is how it ends.” He grinned wildly. “You fought well.”King held his gaze. “Don’t patronize me. Do what you have to do. Do you remember your promise? My life for theirs. No harm comes to my pack or my mate.”“Why the rush to die?” The vampire shook his head in mock sympathy. “Such a naive little boy. I made you no promises, fool. But I will promise you this. When I kill everyone you love and dest
The vampire threw his head back and laughed maniacally. He held the whole town hostage. He was judge, jury, and executioner, and he had all the power. Worst of all, he wasraving mad.He formed another spear in the air and it hovered beside his head. He shoved Emilia casually, ever so absentmindedly, to the ground. She crashed into the ground and bumped her knees as she fell.Pain lanced through her. Her palms felt like she wielded two balls of fire, and she couldn’t feel her legs. She stretched out on the ground, taking stock of her injuries. She never suffered any real damage from injuries, thanks to her powers, but she still felt pain.She watched the vampire as he floated toward King. Her chest squeezed with fear when she looked at the long, thin spear that moved before him. He had a look of pure evil on his face.King, on the other hand, looked resigned to his fate. He looked like someone who was waiting to die. He looked ready for it, like he had been waiting his entire life to d
He saw the vampire hovering high in the sky, watching the people. King had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched the still vampire.The vampire spread his arms to the side. At first, nothing happened. And then, the air around him shimmered. Thin, red objects appeared in the sky. Thousands of them, pointed like needles.King let out a wordless cry when he recognized the pointed objects floating in the sky. Blood spears. This was why the vampire had spent his time killing and discarding of so many animals.This was blood magic on an unprecedented scale. Cold realization washed over him. The vampire was going to wipe out the entire pack in one attack, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.King clambered up to his feet, feeling defeated. How many of those could he block? How many people could he have saved today? He arrived at one inevitable answer. Not enough.As he had feared, the spears were turned toward the pack. His mouth ran dry and he watched wordlessly, awai
His body trembled from pain and he could feel a few broken ribs. He got up shakily and the pain lacerated through him, even as his body started to slowly knit itself back together.Still disoriented, he looked up just in time to see a fist flashing toward his face. The vampire’s bony knuckle connected solidly with King’s jaw and sent his head reeling backward.The force of the blow caused a shock wave to spread out around King and the vampire. He went flying backward, crashing into the ground several times before he came to a stop several yards away.He got up slowly and felt a hot, white pain in his jaw and knew that it had been shattered. He limped, his front legs faltering as his shoulder had not fully healed. The vampire floated toward him slowly as he felt his jaw. The vampire grinned at him and licked his lips with a pale tongue. “My turn.”King had no idea how to escape the blows that rained down on him. He ducked as furiously as he could, but half the strikes connected, and he
Fannar drilled Selina about what she had seen, and asked for details about her fight with the vampire.Selina cackled drily. “Fight? That wasn’t a fight. That was a beating. I barely managed to get my hands up before it ripped into me with the force of a bear and the speed of a fox. I have never seen anything like that in my life before. I think we are in big trouble.”The room fell silent and the alphas exchanged glances with each other. Asher spoke up first. “Did he give any indications why he took your sister?”Selina gave him an incredulous look. “If he did, I didn’t notice. I was too busy picking pieces off my ass off the curb.” She sighed and slumped into her seat. “What do we do?”The question hung over the room like a thick cloud of black smoke. No one had an answer to Selina’s question. No one knew how to find the vampire in the woods with powers like she had just described.Worse, they had no idea if Juniper was still alive. King didn’t want to think about what could have ha
He frowned and narrowed his eyes at her. She shriveled under the scrutiny. He looked down at her stomach and she covered herself reflexively in horror. Knowing how he felt about the wolves, she was afraid of what he would do to her unborn child.A look of realization settled on his face. “You’re carrying a wolf child in your womb…” His voice sounded as soft as the wind rustling through leaves, barely a whisper.He let go of her wrist and took two steps back. He looked hurt and upset. “How could you? How could you allow your womb to be tainted by wolves?” And then, his eyes turned as cold as ice and his voice hardened. “I will wipe them all out. I will start with Moonwood, and then I will wipe every last one from the Starlight Valley and wider.”Emilia started to plead but he just walked backward, with a look of cold resolution on his face. Without another word, he turned around and sped off into the woods, heading toward the town.Without thinking, Emilia started running. From the den