The night air was thick with mist, curling like fingers along the crooked streets. In the distance, lycans howled, but here, near the edges of the kingdom, the shadows moved differently—heavier, hungrier.The Baktu glided through the mist like smoke, her form barely visible to mortal eyes. Where she passed, streetlamps flickered and dimmed, casting long, twitching shadows over the cracked pavement.Her target stumbled out of a dingy bar, reeking of ale and regret.Cory.Once a proud man, now reduced to a shell of himself, unshaven, bloodshot eyes, clothes rumpled. He lurched forward, muttering slurred curses under his breath. Constance followed silently, savouring the desperation that rolled off him in waves."Oh Jessica," he muttered, lifting a bottle of moonshine wrapped in a brown paper bag to his head. He still obsessed over her. Still pined for what he had lost—and would never reclaim on his own.Cory kicked a broken bottle down the sidewalk, his boot scuffing the asphalt as he s
Jessica huddled on the floor, which had been her bed since she was thirteen, trembling from the cold. The heavy winds outside kept blowing the cardboard cut out from the oval window, letting all the frostiness inside and the only things poor Jessica had to cover with were some empty potato sacks which weren't doing a great job of keeping the winter breeze off. Sleeping on the hard, cold concrete floor only worsened her health, especially with all the dust and chemicals around. She had developed a severe case of pneumonia. If she were a regular girl, she would have died months ago. The strong scent of charcoal and kerosene filled the air, irritating her lungs and making her cough repeatedly as she twisted beneath her makeshift sheets. Having just recovered from yet another coughing episode, her body calmed down but was soon jolted awake when someone kicked her in the stomach. Her amber eyes snapped open to reve
ONE YEAR LATER "Come on, Pookie-Bear, you know I love you," Cory used his fingers to unbutton Jessica's blouse. His wolf, Curtis, was on edge. He had wanted to do this since the moment he found out Jessica was his mate. "But Cory, I'm not ready," Jessica said as she held onto his wrists to prevent him from unbuttoning her shirt any further. Cory grunted in frustration. His eyes glowed black, showing Jessica that his wolf wasn't pleased. "I am your future alpha, and how dare you refuse me!" He spat through gritted teeth, squeezing her neck while pressing her firmly against the wall of the supply closet. She flinched, the wounds on her back were still raw from the beatings the Luna gave her a few days before. She had forgot to pick up the Luna's dry-cleaning which caused the she-wolf to go berserk. "I-I'm so-sorry," Jessica stuttered. Cory might have been her mate now, but before he treated her just as bad as his mother. She remembered the many times where he tripped her or pu
Jessica smiled broadly while imagining her life as the Luna of the Graceland Pack. There were so many things she would change so she could make the pack better for every wolf, not just the ones that were of high ranks. “Pookie-Bear, are you OK?" Cory asked, pulling her out of her trance. "Oh yes, I'm fine,” she smiled, a blush tinting her cheeks. With a growl, he took another whiff of her neck. "You smell amazing." This time, he ran his hands down her thighs and under her skirt. Jessica wanted to resist, but his touch felt so good. "I want you so much. If I don't have you now, my wolf will go mad,” he growled. “Please just let me slip it in. I won't go all the way in, just the tip," he begged, squeezing her pussy through her panties. Jessica moaned in pleasure, arching her back and clenching her muscles together. Since it was the first full moon after Cory's wolf recognized her as his mate, her body was going into heat. She felt a fire burning deep within her. It was like s
Jessica was on cloud nine, she had just lost her virginity to her mate, the man she intended to spend the rest of her life with. She remembered the night she found out that Cory was her mate, and even though she didn't have her wolf, she felt the sparks when he touched her and kissed her lips. He kissed her like he was dying of thirst and only her lips could quench his thirst. Jessica was scared at first, because Cory had always been a bully to her, just like the rest of his family. His younger twin sisters, Margret and Margarita were just as bad. They wouldn't only beat and belittle her. They would also break stuff around the pack-house and then blame it on poor Jessica and the Luna would always punish her by whipping her in the fields. Alpha Conroy, however was a different kind of bully. The type that turned a blind eye to the abuse she was enduring, but ever since she turned sixteen, she didn't appreciate the way he would stare at her whenever he was in a room alone with
"No!" Jessica gasped. Maybe she didn't hear him right. How could the alpha even consider making her his second wife? He must be mad. Luna Magda would probably kill them both before she would be able to even make it to the aisle. Plus, what about Cory? There's no way he would just stand back and let his father marry his mate. "Yes, little one," Alpha Conroy chuckled. "Don’t look so surprised. You heard me right. I want you to be my wife." "But you already have a wife and the pack already have a Luna," Jessica tried to reason her way out of this. "I know all of that, little one and certain things won't change," he explained. "Magda will continue to be Luna of the pack. You will simply be my wife. The one I bring to balls, functions, holidays and such. Magda's place is to stay here and solve various pack problems and make sure the schools and hospitals have supplies." "So I'll just be eye candy?" Jessica scoffed. "I wouldn't put it like that," he laughed. "But Magda is twenty
Magda's face went pale. “Wh-who told you?” She gulped, terrified that her husband was going to kill her now. She thought she had everyone involved taken care of. No one was supposed to know that it was her and not hunters who killed Jessica's parents. "No one had to tell me. I knew the moment I heard Steven and Lisa were murdered,” Conroy admitted. “It took everything in me not to skin you alive back then.” Hearing her parents' names made Jessica lift her head as she tuned into the discussion between the alpha and Luna. “I saw how you looked at her, Conroy. She was beautiful and young,” Magda scoffed. “When I found out she was your true mate, I despised her.” “But I rejected her to be with you,” Conroy explained. “She found a second chance mate in that farmer.” Jessica was there in shock. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Oh please, you only married me for my father’s pack. I knew this back then, but I thought after being with me, you would at least grow to lik
In a state of turmoil, Jessica fled from the alpha's office. She didn't care if she looked a mess, with blood staining her face. She needed to find Cory and tell him he had to admit to his parents that she was his mate and that he wished to be with her. Before she made it to the corridor that would take her to her mate's room, the two younger girls with red hair and brown eyes intercepted her. One caught her by her hand and the other grabbed her by the hair. "Look, sister. It's the slave girl," Margarita laughed. Her red hair was curly like that Disney princess, Merida. Her brown eyes were dark with specks of green in them. "I see that, sis. What is the little omega doing running around our house like this? She knows better than to be seen in this part of the building," Margret pulled harder on Jessica's hair, causing her to wince. "Oh, she's got a busted lip, and a bloodied nose," she noted as she bent back Jessica's head so she could look on her face. Margret's red hair w
The night air was thick with mist, curling like fingers along the crooked streets. In the distance, lycans howled, but here, near the edges of the kingdom, the shadows moved differently—heavier, hungrier.The Baktu glided through the mist like smoke, her form barely visible to mortal eyes. Where she passed, streetlamps flickered and dimmed, casting long, twitching shadows over the cracked pavement.Her target stumbled out of a dingy bar, reeking of ale and regret.Cory.Once a proud man, now reduced to a shell of himself, unshaven, bloodshot eyes, clothes rumpled. He lurched forward, muttering slurred curses under his breath. Constance followed silently, savouring the desperation that rolled off him in waves."Oh Jessica," he muttered, lifting a bottle of moonshine wrapped in a brown paper bag to his head. He still obsessed over her. Still pined for what he had lost—and would never reclaim on his own.Cory kicked a broken bottle down the sidewalk, his boot scuffing the asphalt as he s
June's hands hovered above Daniel's broken body, magic swirling at her fingertips. Her lips pressed into a hard line as she tried spell after spell. The lights flickered, danced—and fizzled out, but nothing else was happening. She felt drained and she felt like giving up. With a frustrated grunt, June finally sat back on her heels. She wiped the sweat from her brow and looked at them all."I can't summon Opal," she said heavily. "Her magic... it's too strong. It's like trying to leash a hurricane with a fishing net. She'll feel the attempt and shake it off."A heavy silence fell over the room."The only way to get her here is," June added. "To go to her and convince her to come to us. The only thing I know is she lives on Mystic Mountain."Ariel tightened her arms around herself, staring down at Daniel, whose pitiful, animalistic whimpers were growing weaker by the second."Mystic Mountain..." Jessica murmured, exchanging a worried glance with Kanyon.DJ's jaw tightened. "Then we go.
Ariel didn't stop running until she reached the far end of the hallway. She had Dante wailing against her chest with one hand and the other holding her phone. Her hands shook so badly she almost dropped her phone as she fumbled to call DJ."Come back here. Now," she gasped the moment he answered. Her voice cracked with panic. "Please — it's Daniel. Something's wrong!"She hung up before he could say anything.Seconds later, DJ came tearing around the corner, his face pale and panicked.He skidded to a stop in front of her, reaching for Dante without hesitation."Take him to Reniece," Ariel choked out, handing the crying baby into DJ's arms. "Don't let Daniel near him. I have to get Queen Jessica and King Kanyon!"Without waiting for a response, Ariel spun and ran. The corridors blurring as she pushed herself faster.She found the King and Queen in their sitting room, hugging. It looked like they had made up after that heated argument earlier. They broke apart the second they saw Arie
The guest suite was too quiet. The kind of silence that pressed down on Ariel's chest and made it hard to breathe.She sat stiffly on the edge of the sofa, nervously twisting the hem of her sweater. Across from her, Daniel shifted in the armchair, his movements stiff, mechanical, wrong.His eyes, which were once so warm and so full of life — now looked hollow, like windows to a house long abandoned.DJ grinned from ear to ear, then he clapped a hand on his father's shoulder."Man, it's good to have you back, Dad," he said, his voice thick with emotion.Daniel smiled weakly but said nothing. His gaze flickered between DJ and Ariel, confusion and unease poorly masked behind that ghost of a smile.Ariel's heart squeezed painfully.He didn’t remember me. Nor did he remembered their son.But worse than that — worse than the empty look in his eyes was the smell.It wasn't fully vampiric, it lacked that sickly-sweet pungency, but it was there.Lingering in the air. Just wrong and unorthodox.
The heavy doors to their quarters slammed shut behind them with a deafening boom. Jessica flinched at the sound but refused to cower. She stood her ground as Kanyon paced in front of the fireplace, the muscles in his jaw ticking furiously. Yes, he was upset when he found out that Jessica dabbled in dark magic to bring Daniel back to life. But this, finding out that Constance is now a Baktu made everything even more detrimental. The temperature in the room felt hotter than the flames licking the hearth, the fury rolling off Kanyon in suffocating waves."You went behind my back," Kanyon growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "You. My Queen. The one person I should be able to trust above all others!"Jessica crossed her arms defiantly. "I did what needed to be done, Kanyon. You don't understand—""No! You don't understand!" he roared, whipping around to face her. His eyes, usually molten gold with warmth, now blazed like wildfire. "You brought back a dead Alpha using forbidden mag
"King Kanyon!" Daniel bowed. "What is going on and why am I here?" Daniel strode over to the king while he finished buttoning his shirt. "Alpha Daniel. Is that really you?""Of course it is, Your Majesty. Is this some kind of April Fool's joke?" he scoffed. "I wish it was," Cameron mumbled. "What's the last thing you remember?" Kanyon asked. "Well, Sofia and I had just celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary. First, we wandered through the park, then we ran a bit in wolf form, and after that, we went to bed. The next thing I knew I was waking up on that table over there," he finished, pointing to the mage's gurney-like table. "Father, that was over ten years ago," DJ spoke up. "Mom has been dead for fifteen years."Daniel's eyes landed on the tall, muscular man that just called him father. He looked like his son, but a way more mature version. "DJ, is that you? But you look so old. And Sofia is not dead. She can't be." "I'm thirty-five now, Dad, and yes, mom is dead." "How
"Cameron, what's going on? Everything started shaking, and I thought we were having an earthquake," Ren rushed into her husband's arms the moment she laid eyes on him. His gaze wandered to Theodore, who had a terrified Falcon in his arms."No, it's not an earthquake." He kissed the top of his wife's head before spreading a viral message through the pack link, urging all castle residents to get to their bedrooms, lock their doors, and widows then fortify the entrances with Moon Petals. He instructed the guards to secure every entrance and exit in the castle with Moon Petals as well. No one should come in or go out. "Are we under attack?" Falcon asked as he sank his face into Theodore's chest. The vampire prince held his mate tightly, stroking his shoulder for comfort. "No, but someone is doing something inside the castle that they shouldn't be doing," Cam let out. "Everyone stay close together and follow me. We're going to Lucy's chambers."******"Your Majesty," one of the nannies b
King Kanyon sat down at the head of the table while he conducted this meeting. “Cameron, is the Graceland kid still lurking around the town?” Kanyon inquired. “You mean Cory? Yes, he’s still being a creep. My informants told me he has been spending most of his time in the crafts shops,” Cam chuckled. “Why the hell was he still here?” Kanyon gritted his teeth. “I don’t know, but as long as he doesn’t come near the castle, and near Twinkle, I’m good,” Cam added. “Is there anything you’d like to add, DJ? Do you need any help with anything?” Kanyon asked DJ. “No. I cannot think of anything right now, but if I do, I’ll let you know,” he stated and the king could taste the sorrow on DJ as the young Alpha spoke, but he kept his composure. DJ's voice didn't crack once. “So Annabella is really gone?" he asked, leaning back in his seat with his palms resting flat on the table. "I'm sorry, man. I know how much she meant to you," Cameron rested a palm on DJ's shoulder. "Thank you, Master
“You will not have either of us!” Jessica exclaimed in a fit of rage as she confronted the being possessing her cousin. "Let me help you rephrase that,” it smirked. “I cannot have you — yet," Constance put emphasis on the word ‘yet’ which made Jessica angrier. Constance felt Ariel's soul fighting for its body back. "It looks like my time here is running out. Even though I know you've been warned already Queen Jessica, but I think I will warn you again. Mistress Paloma says Alpha Daniel's soul already belongs to her, so if you do this spell and bring him back to life, then there will be grave consequences.""What kind of consequences?" June asked. "The bad kind," Constance let out. She felt Ariel pushing her out now. "I will go now, but one of you has to break the seal." June walked up to her and used her foot to break the circle. Ariel began to throw up what looked and smelt like tar. Jessica sprinted to her side and held her hair away from her face. The tar transformed into black