TYLER POV I bought Tessa home from the hospital a week ago and since then, she hasn't left my bedroom. She either sleeps all day or she's in the bathtub or shower. That's all she does. She doesn't talk very often. I get food delivered up to the room for her but I noticed that she only takes little nibbles out of bits of it but that's it. She's becoming a shadow of the women that I once knew and it was staring to scare me. Other were concerned about her but I was making excuses for Tessa because she refused to see anyone. I know that this had been happening for so long in her life, but she concealed it. She hid it and just lived her life pretending like it wasn't happening. But she couldn't do that now. Everyone knew what had happened to her and they had never tried to kill her like that before. But it kills me sleeping in the same bed with her every night and not being able to touch her. And I don't mean anything bad, just being able to put my arm around her. That's all I want. Me a
TESSA POVAfter Tyler had to leave for that warriors meeting where they were discussing going to war with my old pack and killing Matthias and my father I still stayed in the room. I knew that talking to Tyler was a good start for us to try and rebuild whatever it was that we had before and it felt like a weight had been lifted off of me. But there was still something weighing me down. Something deep down weighing my down that I just couldn't shake. I stood at the window looking out at the forest and longing for the woods. 'Why don't you try to shift.' A voice in my head said. 'Shiloh. Is that really you?' I asked shocked. 'You bet. It's been a while.' She says. 'I can't believe that you're back. I guess all that wolfsbane is finally gone.' I say.'It wasn't just the wolfsbane. You were shutting me out. You weren't meaning too. But you did. I guess you had to to survive. You didn't want me to attack your father otherwise he would have killed you.' My wolf said to me. 'It is so go
'Hello daughter.' My dad's voice echoed in my head. I froze at first hearing it but tried not to make a big deal out of it. Everyone was already treating me like I was made of glass. I didn't want to give them a reason to treat me any more differently. 'Get out of my head.' I demanded. 'Why am I still in your head? You've been here long enough? Why haven't you been marked and mated to the Alpha and tied to his pack. You're still nothing but a disappointment.' He mocked me. 'You know exactly why we haven't been able to proceed with our marking and mating. If those bastards hadn't tried to kill me, probably under your orders, then things would be different.' I retorted. 'Yeah. That was a genius plan. Having the wannabe Luna set you up like that. Too bad they got caught.' He says. "Too bad to you.' I say. 'I want them back. Right now.' He says. 'Aren't you speaking with Tyler. He's the one that you need to take this up with.' I say. 'No. I am taking it up with you. You give me Mas
TYLER POV As soon as I saw that warrior dead in the dungeons then I knew that I had yet again failed my pack. I had gotten really used to feeling this way. I had been failing a lot lately. I failed Tessa. I trusted Rachel. And people keep getting hurt because of my bad decisions. Sometimes I really don't think I was meant to be an Alpha. I don't know what I'm doing or how to make it better. Tessa is standing behind me saying that she knew there had to be another traitor. She's a better leader than I have ever been and she's not even the Luna yet. This pack would be better in her hands. I don't know why I didn't mark her when I had the chance. When she was asking. But I know this pack loves her and they will keep her as Luna. There's only one thing for me left to do. I need to put an end to this. NOW. I can't let anyone else die on my watch. I turn from the group and run from the dungeon with such fury and speed that I left them way behind me. As soon as I reached the top of the sta
TESSA POV As I jumped right into the middle of the battle everything stopped. Everyone looked. They were confused. No one had seen me in my wolf form before. Because I knew that it wasn't normal. I have always been larger than I should have been. That's why, even when I wasn't on wolfsbane, I wouldn't shift often. And I never shifted in front of other people. But the thought of Tyler going into this battle had me terrified. I couldn't let him do this alone. I know how my father and Matthias think and act. They play dirty. The first opportunity they would take the cheap shot and both would gang up on Tyler. Just to claim his pack. And they would enjoy doing it. 'Hello daughter.' Dad said through the mind link. 'I am not you're daughter.' I said through an open mind link to my whole pack. My old pack, that is. 'I took your abuse for years just hoping that my real father would come and get me. But he never did. So I was very happy to go with Tyler. And it was the best decision I ever m
As the mist was getting closer I could feel the goosebumps rising on my skin and the hair stand up on the back of my neck. "Shift now. Something isn't right." I say. "Agreed. You go first." Tyler says. So I had to block everything else out. I concentrated to picture myself with paws and a snout and fur and then it started happening. I let out a scream when the first bone broke and rearranged and then the next and the next. It took about 10 minutes for me to shift which was really painful but as soon as it was over, Tyler shifted in seconds and we both took off into the woods. We were headed back to our pack territory but I could feel that black mist following us. Tyler was trying to stay behind me but I didn't know how he planned on fighting it off. We could barely see it. It wasn't an actual being to fight. We ran as fast as we could and I had no problem keeping up with Tyler as we ran towards the pack and once we reached pack land and were back on our territory the mist stopped
"I said, what the fuck are you doing here Adam?" Tyler growled out with a really pissed off look on his face. I stood next to the stairs with Aria and Bella while Cade and Carter were just behind us. "Oh shit." Cade muttered. "Is something wrong?" I asked. "Well, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting around here." He answered. "Cade, Carter. I can't believe you are still here serving my brother. I thought you would have bailed years ago. How the hell have you been able to put up with him for so long?" Adam asked. "It's pretty easy when you're not around." Carter replied. "And who are these lovely ladies?" He asked looking us three up and down. "Off limits." Cade growled. "Oh. Their mates. Gotcha. But what about you blondie? How serious are you about your mate?" Adam asked approaching me and he reached out and stroked my hair. And within a second Tyler had him by the throat and slammed him against the wall next to us. "Oh. I probably should have mentioned that I
Tyler was looking between me and Adam who was still on the floor and I was waiting for Adam to say something. When I realized that he wasn't going to say anything at all then I was about to open my mouth. "I owe them a lot of money." Adam blurted out. And I looked at him curiously. "What?" Tyler asked confused. "Tessa heard me on the phone this morning. I was telling her not to tell you. But she heard me and it was a loan shark. I got into gambling and I owe this guy a lot of money. That's why mom and dad kicked me out. They were sick of covering my ass. So I came here. You've got enough money to help me." Adam explained standing up. By this point we had gathered quite an audience of not just our friends but warriors that heard the commotion and came in to see what was going on. "So, that's why you're here. Because you need money. Well, don't think for one fucking second that you're getting any from me. If you don't want them to break your legs then you find a way to pay off your
NINE WEEKS LATER Over the last two months every dream I had been given by the Moon Goddess had come true. But because of the warnings, so many packs had been spared by rogue attacks. Which meant that we had allies around the country from some packs that we didn't even know existed. And one night when I woke up I had to shake Tyler awake. "Alright. What pack is it this time?" He asked. "No pack. I'm in labor." I announced. "What?" He asked jumping up frantically. "Calm down before you hurt yourself. Just get my bag. Call Dr. Missy. We are going to the hospital." I say calmly trying to get out of bed with my massive stomach. "Alright. I can handle that." He says. So he grabs my bag and mind linked Dr. Missy. He helped me downstairs and we headed straight to the car and he sped the whole way to the hospital. "Would you slow down. You're going to kill the whole three of us before we even get to the hospital." I yelled. "Are you in a lot of pain?" He asked. "Not at the mom
I tried to stand up but I was getting too exhausted and I was having trouble getting out of the chair. "Can you guys excuse us for a moment?" I asked looking at everyone else at the table. I saw Tyler smirking as I was trying to get out of the chair. "Sure. We'll be over there hurrying up that food." Tyler says kissing me. "Yes please. Tell Ethan I am pregnant and ravenous. I will eat him if he doesn't hurry up." I said loudly. "I'm going as fast as I can." Ethan defended himself. And everyone left the table and I told the guys to sit down. "So, you four were all out looking for me as well." I say. "You are our sister. No matter what you say. We do love you." Ben says. "I know that. And I know now that I've been a real bitch. I think I felt abandoned when you guys left. You said that you were going to come back for me but you never did. You left me alone with him." I explained. "We tried." Heath says. "What?" I asked. "We tried to come back a couple of times. The Al
TESSA POV I was in hospital for three days in that pack before I was finally stable enough to leave and Cade drove us home while Tyler sat in the backseat with me. It felt good to be showered and in clean clothes again. It took three hours to drive back home from there and when we got there I was surprised by all my friends at the house waiting with a surprise party. I still wasn't at 100% but I was so glad that my friends were there for me. Even Ethan, Kaylee, Wyatt, Tobias and Taylor were there. Ethan was manning the barbeque outside and Aria and Bella were making the salads and Naomi and Ruby were setting up the snack tables. "This looks awesome. Thank you so much for this guys." I tell them all. "We will be joining you all shortly. We're just gonna see Mr. Missy after the long journey." Tyler says. "I'm fine Tyler. I just sat in the car." I say. "This is not negotiable. You are seeing the Doc on a regular basis. Weather you like it or not. We're not taking any chances.
TYLER POV Cade floored it the whole way to the closest pack territory and I needed permission from the Alpha to enter his land. But once I told him who I was and the situation that we had here, he let us straight in. I took Tessa to the hospital and the doctor was already waiting for us. I carried her in and placed her on a bed in a waiting examination room and as many times as they tried to get me to leave, I wouldn't leave the room. The checked all her vitals, drew blood, and did a lot more examinations on her. And a lot of it was hard to watch. They hooked her up to all kinds of machines and none of the doctors or nurses were making any sense to me. They checked for the baby as well. To make sure that the baby was alright. And they finally forced me out of the room so that they could work. I seemed to be sitting outside that room for hours with Cade and I couldn't sit still. I was receiving mind links from the other warriors while they were handling the clean up. It needed
TESSA POV No one found me hiding behind that dumpster for the rest of the afternoon which I was grateful for. But then it started getting dark. I noticed that the shops started closing around town. It truely was a small town. Nothing stayed open after dark and the streets were deserted. I came out from my hiding place looking around to see if I could see any sign of anyone coming to help me. But there was nothing. Until I heard someone walk into the street behind me clicking her tongue. I turned around slowly and Katherine was standing in the middle of the street. "What are you going to do now? There aren't any humans to witness any vampire or werewolf activities. So, I can do whatever I want here and there's nothing anyone can do about it." She smirks. And I suddenly throw my hand up and hit her with a bolt of electricity that sent her flying 20 feet backwards on the road and she landed on her back. "Wanna bet bitch." I say. "Right. So you're gonna do it the hard way." She
BELLA POV The packhouse had been so quiet for days. My mate had been gone for four days now out looking for Tessa with Tyler and I had nothing to do but have nightmares about the situation or pace around the house and try to clean every surface of the packhouse. Because I felt completely useless. I decided to get on the computer and I hacked onto the dark web and I started reading up about Katherine. Everything that everyone knew about her. And there was a lot. Apparently she had been around for a long time. A lot longer than Angelo and his siblings. And she never left a good impression on anyone by the looks of it. An entire village burnt in England about 300 years ago that Katherine was responsible for. 200 human lives perished that night. Another time she was accused of witch craft and was almost killed in the witch trial of the 1700's but managed to escape. She was accused of being a vampire in the 1800's and was captured but again, she escaped. She loved the finer things
TESSA POV I woke up the following morning to someone opening the door again and it was Sawyer. He was bringing in my breakfast for me. He placed the tray down on the side of my bed and he checked my bullet wounds. The one on my shoulder and my arm. And he needed to change the dressing. "How did you sleep?" Sawyer asked. "Fan-fucking-tastic. And you?" I asked not really caring. "Alright. Dumb question." He says. "What the fuck is this?" I asked looking in the mug that he bought in. "It's blood. Katherine wants the baby to start getting used to the taste." He explained. "I am not drinking that shit. I have never drank blood in my life. Except for maybe a couple of times when I was a wolf. But that's only while I was hunting. I am not knowingly going to drink blood. I want coffee." I demand. "I'll try to get you some coffee." He says. "Good. Because I'm not nice unless I have coffee in the morning." I say. "Wait a minute. Is this you being nice?" He asked. "So far, ye
TESSA POV I had been slipping in and out of consciousness for a couple of days now while my body tried to mend from the poisons. And the morning that I did wake up and I felt completely lucid it took me several minutes for everything to register. The attack at home, being shot and poisoned and kidnapped. I looked around the room that I was in. It was pretty basic for a mansion that we were in. There was only a bed and a single chair across the room from me. I felt a sharp pain around my ankle and I looked down to see the silver shackle around my leg that was attached to the bed. I started kicking my leg. Trying to get it to break the bed leg but I wasn't strong enough yet. Then I heard the door handle turning and I shimmied back against the back of the bed and I rested my hands over my stomach. A man walked in, who was obviously a vampire, and he turned the light on but it was still pretty dull. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise. My name is Sawyer." He says coming i
TYLER POV Carter gave me photos from the security camera's out the front of the packhouse and I growled as soon as I saw a man holding my mate. But then I stood in my chair and glared at the photos. "Why is she bleeding. You never said that she was bleeding." I growled out so loud that the windows shook. "That's what alerted me to the problem in the first place. One of them shot her while in the bedroom. I'm guessing she tried to use her powers because she was shot in the forearm. And then I guess that's when they got her with the darts. But when they came out of the packhouse that women came up and she shot Tessa in the shoulder to prove that she would kill her if she had to." Carter explained cowering back from me. "She should have healed from those gunshot wounds though." I say trying to calm myself down. "They were silver bullets. I could smell the silver." Carter says. And I grabbed the side of my desk and threw it across the room and it shattered when it hit the wall.