She crossed her arms, and a line formed between her eyes as she tried to fight against my innate abilities. “I liked you better before you started embracing your alpha side.” Then she looked up at Mark, who nodded and smiled encouragingly at her. “I’ll change if I need to, so I’m going with you.”I raised a brow and tilted my head. “Are you sure?”Last I’d heard her say, she was trying to stay hidden and since she hadn’t had any visions, I wouldn’t have thought anything would have changed in that regard.“I think denying who I am might be why I haven’t been able to see what I want,” she admitted sheepishly. “Something cracked inside me on our first day here when you were attacked. Instead of shifting to help protect you, I used my magic to put up the shield, which was helpful in the moment, but if Jack hadn’t called his Bears off, I would have soon been useless to you. I would have failed at protecting you all, because I was trying to keep my secret.”There was too much self-loathing
That, I wasn’t a fan of.Sure, I’d had no problems punching Elena and plotting her death when I’d thought she’d been a power-stealing, child-murdering witch, but the thought of truly hurting her or letting anyone else do so now…made every facet of me boil with the darkness I worked to keep tightly bound.“I’m going to get so drunk when we get to Riff-Raff.” Amy giggled, hanging on to Mark.I couldn’t tell whether or not she was putting on an act with the way she draped herself over the Bear shifter, pawing at his chest. Regardless, I looked away.Elena seemed to be ignoring them as well, which made me want her even more.She had no expectations about who I was supposed to be as her mate. She didn’t ask me to fawn over her or be someone I wasn’t. She accepted my gruffness as equally as she accepted my need to touch her when we were together at night.There wasn’t an inch of her body that I hadn’t worshiped with my mouth or fingers yet, but since I’d told her about sex solidifying our b
He kept his arms crossed, watching his wolves die, or at least go down, without doing a fucking thing about it.There was no way the asshole would have ever had a chance leading a territory like Fire and Fluorite. Even if Elena hadn’t shown up.One Bear bit my tail and scratched down my side, but it was only a surface hit that hardly made me flinch before I raked my paw across his face, taking out an eye.The whimper and moan that sounded from him grew quieter as he limped away, something I soon noticed the rest of the wolves were doing as well, except for the three who still flanked their leader.“Mark,” Ethan said first. “You’re trespassing in a House that banished you.”Mark shifted back to his human form, and I noticed that Amy had never transformed into her unicorn. So much for her no longer hiding.“I was banished by an Alpha Supreme who no longer lives, not by this House,” Mark replied confidently. “Unless you’re here to tell me you’ve successfully filled the Alpha Supreme posi
The moment Ethan realized what I’d done, he turned even more feral. Saliva dripped from his jowls, and his chest heaved with unnecessary force. He lowered himself, then leapt for me with canines and claws extended.Instead of moving out of the way like I easily could have done, I decided to quit playing with him. This bear couldn’t beat me. I knew that the moment he’d lost control of his emotions.This was my House, and he wasn’t going to take it from me.I let his claws scrape down the length of my spine the worst injury I’d yet to receive and when he landed on the other side of me, giving me his back, I used my larger bear size to jump on top of him.My right front paw tore out one of his eyes while the other cut clean through his throat just before my jaws locked around the back of his neck, keeping him somewhat still.The bubbling gurgle that sounded soon after made my stomach churn, but I didn’t release the hold I had on the stubborn bastard. This was the fate he’d chosen, and I
Atlas’s lowered voice sounded in my ear. “I’m not saying you can’t handle looking for Jacob, but you’ve made a very loud statement here today. Do you want to risk searching for Jacob, finding another few supernaturals to fight, and possibly coming back here beat to shit?”Fuck.He made a good point. Mark was hurt. I was…not one hundred percent.Unless I was going to rely on Tuck and his team, which I didn’t want to do, then Atlas was right.It wasn’t that I didn’t trust jack’s people, but just as I’d said before, I wanted to prove a point.I’d shown up here with a rejected House member, a supernatural who was supposed to be extinct, and a mate with powers most bear shifters had no access to.We had something to prove as a whole, just as much as I did as the future Alpha Supreme to Fire and Fluorite.There wouldn’t be a point, at any time, that we could appear weak. Even after multiple fights.“Fine, but we leave again first thing in the morning.” I took a step closer to Mark. “Are you
I couldn’t see one and, honestly, didn’t want to. Not any longer.He was trailing kisses over my chest when I’d come to that realization, and his slow, tender movements suddenly weren’t enough for me.My heart raced and hands shook with the need I was consumed with. The need to touch him…to claim him…to make him mine. Officially.Hell, even my Atlas seemed to be in agreement.I grabbed onto his face and kissed him with ferocity. My legs wrapped around his thighs, and I held him to me while our mouths became a tangle of tongues and teeth.When he pulled back, there were slits in his dark eyes and only a faint appearance of the flames I so often saw there.“Elena.” He spoke the word as a warning, but a warning wasn’t necessary.“I want you, Atlas,” I said confidently. “All of you.”He appraised my face, sweeping his eyes over every inch, then his chest rumbled. “Fucking finally.”His hand wrapped around my neck, tilting my head back as he kissed me again. His tongue owned my mouth while
I was officially done with the slow and careful movements. I couldn’t wait any longer for him to be mine in every way.Thankfully, he seemed to be on the same page and thrusted forward, gently holding my head with one hand while the other gripped my hip.His stare seared my soul, and we never once broke eye contact while he began moving more fluidly above me.My inner walls burned from being stretched, but that ache was easily overshadowed by the bond between us growing like a bright light within my chest.Energy swirled inside me, pounding against my ribs and begging to detonate, branding myself to Atlas.Even his normally dark-brown eyes were briefly turning a light, tan color while he peppered light kisses all over my face.As euphoric tensions rose, sending shivers from my chest all the way to the tips of my toes, I held tightly to Atlas and moved my hips in time with his. Every thrust came easier and more passionately than the one before.Tremors shook Atlas’s arms where I held h
No, it didn’t. Fire and Fluorite was known for its brutality, but that didn’t mean they were all idiots like Ethan had been. I wasn’t even sure how he’d become a leader of a faction, given he hadn’t known when to walk away, but that didn’t matter now.What did matter was that his bears would have already gone back to tell the others what had happened and we needed to know what was being said.“We’ll go see Jack,” I said as I turned off the water and reached for my towel on the hook.Even if he didn’t tell us what I hoped, it didn’t make much of a difference. I just needed him to confirm what I already suspected: The third faction, led by Dylan, would be coming for us.It would also be helpful if jack could fill in other details, but no matter what, once Elena was healed, there wasn’t a fight I didn’t think she could win.Even if it enraged me to see her hurt, I’d known soon after meeting her that there was a superior wolf lying in wait inside her.Soon, all of Fire and Fluorite would