She was gone again, and I eyed the delicious hunk of bread and meat, unwilling to leave the rest of it uneaten. Who knew when I’d get a chance to savor a meal like this again? Gods knew Ernest wasn’t feeding us like that.I stifled the urge to consume the rest of the sandwich, despite wanting to eat more. Agnes needed some just as much as I did more. She needed to keep her strength up so we could get moving, and I resolved to tuck some away for her. I bolted toward the door, stifling a moan of pleasure as I licked the crumbs from my lips. I hadn’t been paid, but even if I never saw a cent for that night’s work, the food would have made it all totally worth it.SELINAI didn’t recognize the driver waiting in the car behind the house. He didn’t introduce himself or even utter a word as he opened the back door to the town car and secured me inside. I found myself wondering if this was less to do with making me comfortable in my working environment and more to do with ensuring I was escor
Virgil was gone again, and I eyed the delicious hunk of bread and meat, unwilling to leave the rest of it uneaten. Who knew when I’d get a chance to savor a meal like this again? Gods knew Ernest wasn’t feeding us like that. I stifled the urge to consume the rest of the sandwich, despite wanting to eat more. My son and Anna needed some just as much as I did—more. She needed to keep her strength up so we could get moving, and I resolved to tuck some away for her. I bolted toward the door, stifling a moan of pleasure as I licked the crumbs from my lips. I hadn’t been paid, but even if I never saw a cent for that night’s work, the food would have made it all totally worth it. Emily I didn’t recognize the driver waiting in the car behind the house. He didn’t introduce himself or even utter a word as he opened the back door to the town car and secured me inside. I found myself wondering if this was less to do with making me comfortable in my working environment and more to do with ensuri
“What do you mean, no?” he asked, clearly unfamiliar with the term. “I mean…” I inhaled, carefully choosing my words. I didn’t need to antagonize him. I had no illusions about how he treated his wives, much as he wanted his virgins. “my son is not strong enough, he still needs my attention, Ernest “ I have tried ro be nice” he says. “ I beg of you,he needs my attention” I said as I weep. “Take me but let them go” Agnes says. I quickly stood up and rush to Anna. “ No,you can’t do that?All of this was for my sake , we will face it all together” I said. “Enough! We both almost jumped out of the window at the sound of his thunderous voice. “ Enough of the drama,You heard what he said,” he insisted, turning his attention back to the head fae healer. “Ten days, right?” The fae nodded, oblivious to my scathing glare. He wasn’t afraid of me. He wanted to tell Ernest exactly what his boss wanted to hear. “Good.” Ernest stepped back and beamed at us. “Then we’ll arrange for the wedding i
Last night.She would be back again that night.And I would need to see her. She needed to get paid, didn’t she?“Virgil?”I listened, but the fae didn’t return. I had scared her off with my glowering, but she couldn’t have gotten far.I finished up, patting down my face with aftershave, relishing in the sting as the fresh scent of pine filled my nostrils. Steam from the shower had cleared away to show my eyes clearly, and I was ready to seize the day ahead.I found Virgil in the kitchen with Luve, speaking in low voices. My brow furrowed as they straightened in my presence.“I hope you weren’t talking about me,” I purred, moving toward the island to slide onto a stool.“Not everything is about you,” Virgi muttered without meeting my eyes.They were talking about me.“Did you pay the girl before she left?”Virgil scoffed. “Me?”“I’ll take that as she didn’t get paid?”She sputtered slightly before offering me an answer. “You never discussed a wage with her!”I nodded, shifting my eyes
“No,” I heard myself say as I stood. “It’s going to be okay.”Elena tipped her head back as I drew closer, shaking her head. “It’s not going to be okay!” she fired out, throwing her hands up. “You don’t understand at all!”“I do,” I murmured, crouching down beside her.My hand fell on her filthy, faded jeans, the feel of her slender thigh beneath my fingers sending shivers through me.Easy, Jeff. Down, boy…My own internal warning was useless. I made no move to adjust my fingers.“I get it,” I insisted. “Ernest is a pig. His collection of virgins is disgusting, I am not even one but he still have his interest in me and my friend.”“All my friend wanted was to heal me and not marry us,there was no wedding deal, he just use it against us.”I recoiled, my hands falling back at the revelation. My mind’s eye saw Selina pinned and unclothed beneath Ernest’s body, unable to escape. Again, my reaction was visceral.“What?!”Selina shook her head, the golden strands falling over her face.No m
SelinaI had told Ernest so many times that I am no virgin, but he was too enamored with the idea of just having us as his wife or at least, he was choosing to ignore me. I didn’t push the issue, anymore, the insult to his ego might have catastrophic consequences for Agnes, me and my son.He might kill us, if only to save face.But for what I am sure about, I had never been in the presence of a man before even though I can’t remember how it happened back then.I couldn’t even remember them not when his mouth consumed me, stealing not only my breath but what felt like my entire life force.I had been on top of him, but somehow, in the passion of the moment, I found myself pinned beneath him on the cold, thin carpet of the office floor, my hands splayed above my head. His kiss grew harder, more determined, his eyes half-closed as his breaths became heavier on my face. My heart pounded so furiously, I could feel it in my throat.What had changed? He had been so determined not to touch me,
My actions took him by surprise, and he fell into the wall as I crashed into him, my lips finding the small of his throat, licking out to taste his Adam’s apple.“STOP!”The thunder in his single word froze me on the spot, and my arms fell to my side.He was serious.“We can’t do this,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair before he again avoided my confused stare. “It was a mistake.”And just like that, my security crumbled again, the world falling down around me. I wrapped my arms protectively around my naked body. I felt rejected , I felt I was never going to know my past.JEFFSelina’s pain might as well have been mine. Her perplexity was obvious, naked, and shattering. Those big, damn eyes locked on me, demanding an explanation I still couldn’t give her.Even though I’d fucked it all up already. I’d gone too far, hadn’t I? It was already too late.“What are you talking about?” she demanded, the uncertainty on her face breaking my heart.She was waiting for me to crack a s
“I’ll be right back,” I snarled, turning away.I hoped that a few minutes alone would give her the time she needed to clear her thoughts and calm down. Maybe I should tell her about the curse and the reality of why I couldn’t involve myself with her and her sister.Bring back tonight’s pay, too!” Selina yelled after me. “I’m not coming back.”I whipped back around to look at her.“You didn’t do anything tonight.”She scoffed.“I came here, didn’t I? It’s not my fault if you didn’t let me work.”The anger was laced with hurt, but I swallowed again and nodded.“You know, you’re no better than Ernest, Jeff.”I reeled around, stunned and infuriated by the comparison.“What?!”“You say you will help me one second and then redact it the next. You say that we can’t do…” She motioned between us. “Whatever this is, and then you go down on me until I scream,” she muttered, blinking furiously. “At least Ernest is upfront with what he wants from us. He’s made his intentions clear.”I inhaled shar
“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