XANDER.The whole day was too slow, and there were too many things to do.My new worker, a beautiful female named Nadine, whom I couldn’t stop staring at, ended up doing nothing but watching and following me wherever I went.For once, I felt secure and at peace just doing my routine, knowing she was just around me. But more than that, I took pleasure in all the little gestures she showed me that let me know how much she always wanted my presence around her.Nadine was a natural when it came to interacting with people. She knew how to make them comfortable, and she knew the right words to make them feel good about themselves.I always knew Nadine to be smart and tough, but seeing her soft side was mesmerizing. It took her only hours to gain their trust, a feat that took me days to accomplish.By nighttime, most of the workers in this place were already calling her Miss Nadine, and some had asked if she was a close friend or more than that. I always tell them to ask her instead. And she
XANDER.“I only have one heart, which belongs to the wildheart standing before me.”Her eyes watered, and I didn’t miss the quivering of her lips. Was she struggling not to cry?“It’s beautiful.” She mumbled.“Not as beautiful as you.” My finger brushed against her soft cheek. She cupped my hand and tilted her head, pressing it more to her face as she closed her eyes, stopping her tears from falling. “I didn’t know you’d notice the tattoo,” I told her. “I did, but I want to make sure I’m not hallucinating.” She replied.Because her head was tilted, my gaze landed on her marked skin, and a surge of hunger ignited within me. Her heat scent was driving me wild, and it was getting harder to control. My cock was already too painful.I couldn’t wait anymore. My head dipped, and my mouth landed on her soft spot where my mark stood, and I began sucking on her skin. Soft moans escaped her lips, and after a while, she grabbed the waistband of my jeans, tugging it lower. She bent further unt
NADINE.Xander gave me more than what I was hoping for, and I just found myself digging my fangs into his skin. I’d been dreaming of carrying his mark and marking him even before I was imprisoned—despite not knowing what lay ahead of us—but I couldn’t because of Mindy.Now that I had him in my arms, with Mindy in a good place and Maddox gone for good, there was no reason not to claim him. “Hmmm…” I moaned as his blood traveled down my throat, and a deeper connection bound us, enveloping my whole sense with warmth and security.Xander was finally mine. All mine.My eyes shut open, and I abruptly pulled away from his neck, scrambling on my ass as I moved away from him. My head tilted to look at him, and his expression was dark. I was right. He was upset. “I’m sorry… I got carried away.” I mumbled.It was a crime to mark a female without her consent, and I was sure it was the same for males. “Sorry for what? For marking me?” He asked.I nodded my head. “I should have…”“You should hav
NADINE.I was still far from seeing the possibility of him coming home with me, but I would take this—I would take what he could give me. And maybe one day, maybe soon, he would understand that there was also a life waiting for us at the Dark Forest Pack. “You’re so beautiful... Every day, I’m still in awe that I was paired with you.” He mumbled, and his eyes told me he wasn’t joking. “You look good in my shirt.”“I love you, Xander,” I said in a soft voice without taking my eyes off him. I was not good with this, but I hoped he could feel the sincerity of my words.“I thought I would never hear that from you.” He said as his eyes watered. “It’s an honor to be loved by you, Nadine. I hope I can be good enough and live up to your expectations.”“Why are you saying that? You are more than enough.” He didn’t say anything and just smiled at me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and his hands on my waist pulled me closer to him before our lips brushed against each other.“I love you.” H
NADINE“Fine, I’ll go. We’ll talk later.” He said, shrugging his shoulders and ready to turn around. “Xander, please.” I was getting frustrated. “Don’t leave.” It was Kenzo. “I’m sorry I came unannounced. But this next information affects you too, so I suggest you stay. After this, I’ll leave.”“What about it?” Xander asked. “Can we all sit down?” Kenzo requested.Xander sat on the couch in front of Kenzo. I went to the same couch and sat beside him but he didn’t even look at me. “One of the pack doctors visited us at the packhouse. She was worried and wanted us to know if we knew anything about Carlotta.”“Why?” I couldn’t help but ask. “She said Carlotta is pregnant, and she didn’t know she was no longer part of the pack, so when she didn’t show up for her scheduled appointment, she tried reaching out to her, but she couldn’t reach her anymore.”I sank into my seat, pressing my back against the couch. Pregnant? Was it Maddox’s pup?“Only then did she find out she left and deno
NADINE.“How about you?” I asked Xander. “I’m staying. This is my life now.” He replied coldly as he walked toward our bedroom.“Xander… Please, come home with me.” I said as I followed him. “This is my home.”“How can I convince you to be with me?”“You should have started by telling me everything. I feel like a fool believing you gave up that pack life to be with me. I thought the constant conversation about them was just because you were missing it from time to time. I didn’t know you still have a life there.” He grabbed my suitcase and began filling it with my clothes.“Why are you finding it so difficult to accept the pack? You asked me earlier why Arlo was just a temporary Beta, because I wanted to offer you that position. We can be a team. I know I will never trust my life with anyone but you. But I’m also willing to share the Alpha post if you want to give it a try.”“I don’t want anything from your pack. How many times do I have to tell you I never wanted to be an Alpha or
XANDER.The last two weeks were painful without Nadine. The farm was doing and thriving well. The people, like always, had been wonderful, but the place was no longer as amazing and exciting as it used to be when she was around. It no longer felt like home.I had a hard time getting up from bed to start the day, but staying was harder because every moment I wasn’t doing anything, I would only think of her.On the third day after she left, I moved to the big house. I thought having a place with no memory of her would make it easier for me. But it was the opposite. I hated that every corner of the big house seemed bland and frustrating. It was not even twenty-four hours since I moved there that I went back to the house I shared with her and cocooned myself in the same blanket we had before she left. But her scent was already fading, and I was getting tired of answering people where she was. They missed her, and I wondered if they knew I missed her more. “You’re leaving.” My hand sto
XANDER.Dad and I drove from the farm to the Dark Forest Pack after we talked. At the beginning, I was still uneasy sitting next to him in his car, but as the hours went by, I was getting more comfortable in his company. Like Nadine, he bore a serious expression on his face but as soon as he let his walls down, he was easy to get comfortable with. He asked many things about my childhood and my plans for the farm, but I never felt he was intruding or trying to spy on me. I felt he genuinely wanted to know more about me, and I just found myself talking to him about things that I had never shared with anyone, even some things I had never had time to share with Nadine yet. And he told me stories about her—how she was always a top notcher at school and a very disciplined child.He told me Nadine had always been strong-headed and a little stubborn. He then said he was not surprised that the Goddess paired her with me because it looked like I was more stubborn than her, and I could let Nadin
TEN YEARS AFTER THE BIRTH OF XAVIER.XANDER.“Are you ready, Alpha?” Xavier asked, and once I nodded my head, he turned to his side and nodded at his seven-year-old brother, Nexus. Without any more words, they hurried off into the forest for my wolf, Orion, to track them. I always give them a fifteen-minute head start before I start looking for them.Fifteen minutes—enough time for myself to soak in all the things my eyes could see and think of all that happened in my life over the last ten years.Three years after we gave birth to Xavier, Nadine fell pregnant again. This time, she extended an offer to me for the Alpha position. Like she said, I’d been doing the Alpha work whenever she couldn’t attend to it due to the nature of her pregnancy. She was going through a difficult time with Nexus. There were days she couldn’t get up from our bed and would vomit from time to time. Although our son was healthy, Nadine would always end up drained of energy. I, of course, could continue doing
NADINE.Dad and Mom arrived just a couple of hours after I gave birth. Nadia called them right away when my waterbag broke, so they were already traveling while I was in labor. Xavier’s birth came early, yet we and the whole pack had always been ready for him.With the approval of the midwives who assisted me, we began our journey home at midnight. I couldn’t wait to introduce our son to his pack and welcome Jillian as our Gamma Female. We arrived by dawn, and I expected the packhouse to be quiet as everyone should be asleep, but the sight that welcomed us was indeed overwhelming to a mother’s heart.The house was bright with lights, and the packhouse ground was decorated with lanterns and banners—both for our son and our Gamma Female—as if they had days to prepare for this and not just hours. The whole area was alive, and even without hearing anything from the outside, I was sure there was music playing as there were people dancing.But the moment Kenzo’s door opened, the whole pl
NADINE.I had just finished fixing my hair and was ready to drive to the Midnight Pack for Jillian’s debut. I came out of our room and went downstairs to find Xander. He was ready many minutes ago, and I asked him to leave me alone in our room so I could continue preparing because he kept distracting me with hugs and kisses. I found him at the bar, drinking alone. I wasn’t sure if he noticed my presence as he remained standing by the large window, gazing outside while sipping his drink.He must be thinking about Carlotta and her pup, as this had been the only thing keeping him quiet lately. Xander was determined to find Maddox’s child and give it a good life. But Carlotta had been dodging us for almost a year.But today, we got more information. We finally had a name and gender. Maddox and Carlotta had a daughter, Maxine Charlotte Trevino. Carlotta named her after her father. But we were still clueless about where they were staying. All we knew was that the child had a fever, and C
GAMMA KENZO.I unclasped her bra and tossed it aside before pulling away from kissing her, letting my eyes savor the perfect breasts that were made for me. Jillian had a petite frame, but her breasts were bigger than her size, and burying my head in between them was a fantasy I wanted to fulfill. She bit her bottom lip before her hands cupped the sides of her breasts and gently kneaded them; all the while, her eyes were swirling with lust. “Do you like them?”My eyes were surely twinkling as I nodded my head, like a boy on Christmas Day. “I fucking love them!”I didn’t need an invite as I bent over and captured one of her breasts, and a grunt filled my throat as I savored her bosom, one after the other, letting my tongue and hand play with them and her nipples while my sultry mate was fumbling with my shirt and my pants, helping in taking them off my body. After I had my fill, my lips pressed against her firm stomach. I trailed my mouth down to her inner thigh where my hand was, par
FUTURE GAMMA FEMALE JILLIAN.“Have you played hide-and-seek?” I asked him in a soft voice after he sent a message to Beta Xander. First, he asked them if Alpha Nadine had given birth and told them to call him anytime. He also informed him that “he got the girl and that he was blessed tenfold tonight.” Even though it was just a text message, I could see the pride in him as he puffed his chest while he was typing those words. Kenzo, even without him knowing, really knew how to melt my heart.“Hmmm... what are you planning to do?” He asked, his forehead creasing. We were already in the hotel lobby where I was staying. The party was already over, but my family was still there to make sure all the guests were sent off nicely and out of the border, but they let us leave ahead. I stood in front of Kenzo, walking backward as he walked forward at my pace. I placed my hand on his chest, a playful grin etched on my face. “Catch me if you can, lover boy.”I pushed him playfully before running
FUTURE GAMMA FEMALE JILLIAN.I watched in awe as my father, Alpha Lucas, took the center stage together with my mother, Luna Katarina. Unlike other parents, Dad and Mom were actually happy that I found out who my mate was as soon as I turned eighteen. Dad was glad he turned out to be the same man I was in love with. He didn’t want me to have any doubts about the man I would be in a relationship with, knowing that my mate was just out there somewhere. Although he was sad I had to leave them sooner, he knew I would be in good hands.“We would like to thank everyone for gracing us with your presence for our daughter’s coming-of-age celebration.” My father began, and the crowd gave him a round of applause. I couldn’t help but smile and playfully roll my eyes upon seeing my mother looking at him as if he held the whole universe in his hands. But then I realized it must be the same way I looked at Kenzo whenever he wasn’t looking at me, and I got to study his features. Dad looked at Mom
GAMMA KENZO.I had never driven so fast as I did tonight. Good thing that I only needed to drive along the forest road, so there were no cameras and traffic police lurking around. If I had my way, I would have run on my paws so I’d be faster, but I needed to look presentable, and I couldn’t just rip my clothes off. I was stopped at their border, and it seemed the one in there had no idea who I was. He denied me entry because I didn’t have the invitation with me. In my rush to get help for the Alpha, I might have dropped it somewhere in the packhouse. Only when I instructed him to reach out to Alpha Ledger and we conversed over the phone did I receive permission to enter.The drive to the hotel where her party was ongoing was plain torture. I was happy that I was here, but the thought of missing her dance and her not being my fated mate kept seeping into my mind. “Judgment time.” I reminded myself of this as I picked up the bouquet of red roses from the backseat of my car and made m
LADY JILLIAN.“Mine!!” The growl was so loud it vibrated through my whole body. I shoved Wes’ hand off me and abruptly turned my body around to face the direction of the voice.And my heart stopped as I stared at the man at the far end of the corridor. My eyes locked with Alonso, Alpha Aeon’s son, the next Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack. My mouth parted as a shriek passed my lips, something I was not able to control. “No!”Until I realized something.I was older than Alonso. Even with him having a wolf, it was impossible that I scented him. He was not eighteen yet. —----------------------GAMMA KENZO.I ran my comb through my hair one more time, perfecting my hairstyle before pointing at myself through my reflection in the mirror. To say that I was excited was an understatement. I was beyond ecstatic.Tonight, whatever fate had in store for me and Jillian, we would finally take our relationship to the next level. I could officially claim her as my girlfriend, and we would take it fro
A YEAR AFTER MADDOX’S DEATH. LADY JILLIAN of the Midnight Pack. I couldn’t erase the smile off my face as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was tied up tightly in a bun, and I was dressed in a swan-like ballerina dress. The only jewelry I had was one pair of crescent moon earrings that I had never taken off. Finally eighteen. My family was throwing a grand ball for me, and I would start the night with a ballet dance that I’d been practicing for many months. The dance was about a female coming of age and spreading her wings. I was excited, not only because I would be turning eighteen and would finally be able to do many things, but because I could officially say YES to Kenzo as my boyfriend. We could make it official. Kenzo and I started dating after he was re-inducted as the Gamma of the Dark Forest Pack. He asked me if he could court me, and I said he could, or he could come back once I turned eighteen, as I was not allowed to have a boyfriend until then. Not that