Edric’s POV: “King,” Winston says. “We have to go back in there. Tell her.” “Yes.” Deimos fusses and screeches. He may not be able to tell me what he wants yet, but he’s definitely making sure everyone understand that he’s very upset. “And you want your mom, I know.” I don’t want to go back in there. I know I’m being a coward, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell her that she’s not sixteen, and her parents kicked her out of their home almost six years ago, that she’s a mated werewolf with a baby on the way. Where do I even begin? “Don’t worry,” Winston says. “I’ll tell her.” “No. She’s my mate. It’s my responsibility.” Deimos lets out a loud wail and tries to slither out of my arms. “Okay, big guy, let’s go in there and see if she’ll nurse you. Calm down.” I kick the door open and walk in on a very scared Maya. She’s staring down at her chest. Her breasts are leaking, and the front of her gown is soaked. “Are you a nurse or a doctor? What are you?” she asks. “That is a comp
I should be afraid. Somehow, five, no nearly six, years of my life have been erased from my memory, I woke up in a strange place surrounded by strangers, and I’m not frightened. I’m just amused and curious. At first, I really thought I was hallucinating or something. The doctor did tell me I suffered some kind of head injury, so it made sense, but then the man, Edric, the one that smells so damn good, changed into a werewolf right in front of my eyes, and hallucinations can’t pinch you. Can’t hurt you physically. I keep touching everything, trying to reassure myself that it’s real. I can feel, smell, touch, taste. Those things don’t happen in hallucinations. After a wild fit of hysterical crying, then a spell of maniacal laughter, I quickly accept my reality. There’s no point in dwelling. I’ve always been like this, even when I question everything, I’ve always accepted what I can’t change. ~ Why did you do that? ~ a voice asks in my head. * Do what? * I reply without even thinking
The sound of a ringing phone wakes me. I open my eyes in the dark room, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from, when I hear Edric clear his throat, and answer it in a husky, sleepy voice. “Yeah,” he says gruffly. He’s lying opposite me on a cot someone must have brought in while I was asleep. “Edric?” I hear the voice on the other side as clearly as if the person is standing in the room with us. “Adrian? What’s wrong?” Who’s Adrian? “Sorry, I know it’s late…but dad has lost his damn mind, and I don’t know what to do.” “Lost his mind how?” Edric asks, sounding a little more awake. “He’s been drinking, terrorising the Omegas…he’s not looking after the pack like he should. And tonight…he destroyed his office, then tore through the pack house…he’s passed out in the kitchen. I left him there.” “Oh fuck me. What about Jasper and Luca? Where are they? Can’t they help?” “Jasper transferred to another pack, and Luca…we don’t see him a lot, he’s always off somewhere…no one’s
Edric's POV: Maya spends most of the morning, reacquainting herself with Deimos. It’s comforting to see how easily she falls back into her role as his mother. I have a little hope now that she’s still the same person, that she wasn’t defined just by the sum of her experiences. Maybe this can work. Maybe she did it because she knew it was the only way forward for us. Goddess knows, everything else we’ve tried backfired and all we’ve managed to do these last three months or so was to continually push each other away. “Edric?” Stephen asks from the door. “A word.” I look at Maya sitting on the bed with Deimos lying on her upturned legs. He is gripping her fingers while she plays pattycake with him. It’s altogether adorable, and she’s so engrossed in their little game, that she didn’t even hear Stephen. I nod at my Beta and lean over to kiss the top of her head. “I’ll be right back, okay?” “Yes,” she answers without taking her eyes off Deimos. She drops her head and blows raspberries
Edric’s POV: Halfway back to the clinic, I stop. I’m suddenly wracked with indecision and doubt. The Maya waiting for me isn’t the Maya I marked. She’s someone completely different. She’s happy, positive, and bubbly – my Maya was always a little sad and afraid, but she was also strong and insightful with a twisted sense of humour that made me rethink life. Fuck. I can’t go in there. I don’t know how to talk to her. I lean against the wall, and close my eyes, swallowing hard past the lump that suddenly formed in my throat. “Edric?” Stephen asks. “Give me a minute.” “You have to go in there.” “I said give me a minute, dammit!” “You can’t leave it until--” “Shut up!” I snap. “I need a fucking moment to think.” “Think about what? She’s your mate, just go in there, and talk to her.” Exasperated and angry by his brash insistence, I let out a growl before I can stop myself. “That’s enough. Thank you for your input, I had to hear it, but you really need to be quiet now.” Stephen’s
Edric's POV: Stephen waits outside Maya’s room for me. “All sorted?” he asks. “Sort of. We’ll find our way back to each other, I think.” “Good.” I lean against the wall and sigh. I am not looking forward to going down to the dungeons to interrogate the she-wolf that took Deimos. I just want this day to be over already, but it’s no use standing here wishing. It never gets you anywhere. “Let’s go interrogate that wolf and get it over with.” “I can do it if you’d rather stay with Maya,” Stephen offers. “No. I want to find out everything I can about that little pack.” “Don’t you know their Alpha? Ask him.” I wrinkle my nose at the thought of going back to that weird village. “Maybe one day, but not for a while yet.” We walk in silence down to the dungeons. My insides start aching and my balls contract painfully when I step into the cold, damp, stinking hole. Breathing through the panic, I follow Stephen to the she-wolf’s cell. She is a bedraggled site, sitting on the bed with her
I sit on the edge of the bed watching Edric pack his suitcase while I nurse Deimos. My baby. I still can’t believe it. Edric can tell me all day long that I didn’t give birth to him, but it feels like I did. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love this little boy. He starts fussing, and I move him over to my other breast. He’s huge, and I don’t think my milk alone is doing the job anymore. “Maybe we should put him on solids,” I say as I stare into my child’s sweet face. God, I love him. “He’s barely three months old,” Edric says. “Yes, but his development is off the charts. At this rate, he’ll be crawling soon. I can’t keep up with his appetite.” Edric throws a pair of socks in his messy suitcase and walks over to us. “I don’t know, sweetheart…maybe ask the doctor.” I nod and hand the baby over to him. I’m not so bashful about nursing in front of Edric anymore, most;y because he's been keeping his distance. Apart from hugging and kissing, he hasn’t tried to approach me sexually.
Edric’s POV Leaving Maya and Deimos was harder than I expected, especially since I know how scared my mate is. She’s afraid to be alone with the Lycans, and with the full moon coming up, she doesn’t know what to expect. I’ve ordered Stephen and Cedric to stay with her during the shift, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. It's late afternoon when my plane lands on the private airstrip just outside the town. I booked myself into the little motel instead of assuming that Mountain Fire will accommodate me in their pack house. I don’t think of them as my pack anymore, and I won’t make any royal demands. Cameron waits for me with his guards at the little airport. “You didn’t bring a guard?” he asks when I get off the plane. “No. Do I need guards?” “Well, they’re your family, but…I’ve been receiving…increasingly concerning reports from Mountain Fire.” “Why didn’t you let me know sooner?” “They’re not your pack, not your problem,” Cameron answers as if it’s that easy. “But they’re
Abbadon's POV For ten years, I managed to stay away from Maya, and then I couldn’t stand it anymore. I left my home in Greece and went back. I watched her from afar, my heart screaming out to her, but knowing I couldn’t interfere. She needed her peace, and she found it. She was happy, living a life of domestic bliss with her mate and their mini-pack of eight pups. Deimos grew into an admirable young Alpha, and I felt her sadness on the day he left to take his place as Silver Springs’ leader. He was loved and respected. He visited his parents every chance he got until he stepped down as Alpha and was never seen again. Warwick took the throne on his twenty-fifth birthday. Edric was happy to retire. He was a good king and dragged his tribe into the twenty-first century whether they liked it or not, but he never wanted the job. He was at his happiest when his children and grandchildren surrounded him. Their third child, a boy named Joshua, returned to Mountain Fire when he was twenty.
With Warwick resting on my hip, and my other hand in Deimos’s I look around our apartment one last time. It was our home for more than a year, and I’ve grown oddly attached to it. “Where going, mama?” Deimos asks.I look down at my one-year-old who isn’t behaving like other one-year-olds and smile at him. “We’re going home.”“This home.”“No kid,” Edric says from the doorway. “This isn’t our home anymore. I build us a better home.”“Hellooo,” Cedric calls from the living room, his voice echoing in the empty apartment. “One last time for good luck.”I start laughing and let Edric take Deimos before we leave our bedroom for the last time.Cedric and Stephen waits for us in the living room surrounded by their three pups. They took to parenthood like ducks take to water, and soon after the pups arrived, Cedric resigned as Edric’s Gamma. “Are you sure?” Edric asked.“Yes,” Cedric replied, beaming at Edric. “It’s all I want now.”“You don’t just want paternity leave?” Edric joked. “Reconsid
Edric's POV Our date night turned into a bit of a flop. We had to take it in turns to stop each other. When Maya lost control, I’d remind her to stop, and when it was my turn to lose control, she’d remind me to stop, but somehow we made it work. Together, we found new and interesting ways to satisfy each other, rediscovering each other’s bodies. I yawn and flop backward on the bed. The moment we were home, Maya rushed off to find the boys, and I take the time to enjoy the silence. Goddess knows, I love my sons, but I do enjoy these quiet moments. It gives me a chance to think. The one good thing that came out of last night was that Maya finally opened up to me and shared her fears. Now that we’re talking openly and frankly again, I’m hoping that she’ll slow down and spend more time with me. I miss her. My phone starts vibrating and I pull it out of my pocket. With a frown I stare at the caller ID. “Adrian?” I answer. “Hello,” he says. It’s strange to hear his voice. We haven’t sp
Edric's POV Maya’s heat comes on as suddenly as it did the last time, only this time I’m here to experience it, and she’s not locked behind several layers of wood and steel. One moment, everything’s fine, the next I almost drive off the road as her scent fills the car and attacks my senses. I wipe my wet palms on my jeans and try to pay attention to the road so I don’t kill us. “What’s wrong?” she asks. “You don’t know?” I ask in return, hearing my voice rise several octaves. “You’re in heat.” “Is that what it is? I just thought I’m horny for…well, no good reason at all.” She laughs uncomfortably and shifts around in her seat. “Shouldn’t I get some kind of warning or something?” “Normally, yes…but we forget sometimes that you’re not normal.” We are almost to the hotel and the road is clear with no other cars in sight, but I’m not sure I’m going to make it. Blood rushes through me so fast that I can barely hear, let alone see. Just like last time her heat overwhelms me and I can’t
I crash through the misty woods, my wolf pushing our body harder than I thought was possible, oblivious to our surroundings as we keep trying to get away from whatever it is that’s chasing us. I never saw what it was. I just felt it. Danger. It’s right on top of us. ~ Go faster! ~ I scream at my wolf. She increases her pace, but we won’t be able to do this for much longer. We’ve been running for hours, and our legs are about to give out. At first, I’m relieved to see him. Abbadon lands in front of me, and I dash past him, placing myself between him and the thing chasing us. Finally, we can stop. I collapse to the ground, and my exhausted wolf lets go, forcing me to shift back to human. I curl up in a little ball on the cold, wet, forest floor and try to catch my breath, trusting that Abbadon will take care of the dangerous thing I’m trying to escape. I look up at Abbadon. My mate. No matter what he is or what he does, he’ll never harm me. “Is that what you think?” he asks in his
Edric's POV The weeks slip by without anyone taking much notice. New Year’s day comes and goes without much fanfare, but a week into the new year, Maya insists on speaking to Alpha Neil about Deimos, and after days of pestering me about it, I give in. The Alpha doesn’t tell us anything I haven’t already told her. “I don’t know what else I can say, Queen,” Neil says. “We grow up fast, and we shift young--” he shrugs --“but that’s just how it is with our kind. We are big, we’re strong, and we’re violent.” Maya shudders lightly and looks over at Deimos who is trying to pull himself upright against a couch. “He’s not even five months old yet,” she whispers. “Yes,” Neil replied. “And by the time he’s twelve, he’ll look like a fully grown man. But you have to remember, he’s still just a child.” The Alpha bites into his nails, his face pensive, then he sighs and goes on. “This is important. The first shift is the worst. It lasts for hours, and it is brutal. Make sure you lock him up.” “W
I haven’t seen Edric in such a good mood since the day he introduced me to the pack back at Mountain Fire. At first, the higher-ranking wolves wouldn’t join us, refusing to eat with the ‘lower filth’ as one of the warriors called the True Omega that walked past him. Just when I thought my grand plan would come apart at the seams, Stephen and Cedric jumped in and arranged everyone according to their rank, which placated some of the grumpier wolves. Less than an hour later, everyone is happily chatting and enjoying the day. Even Maxwell and Alexander’s widow, Esther, came out of their hiding place to join us, but they are sitting by themselves, away from the rest of the tribe. “He looks much better,” I say while staring at Edric’s uncle. Edric looks up and follows my gaze. “Yes, now that he’s not getting poisoned every day. He’s actually improving, but he’s still not speaking. Winston says the damage to his brain is catastrophic. He’ll heal some, but he’ll never be quite…right.” I’ve
Edric's POV I lie on my side, watching Maya sleep, trying to get rid of the unnecessary guilt that’s trying to eat me alive. She kept trying to reassure me that it’s okay, but I’ve been so conditioned by my time with Mountain Fire, that I can’t let go and believe it. I lost control. "Alphas don't lose control," I can practically hear my father's voice. It's as if he's standing right next to me. "It's a thin line between losing control and going feral." Sighing, I pull on a pair of loose boxers and go back to the balcony for a glass of wine. I won't be able to sleep while I feel like this anyway. “Evening,” Stephen says from their balcony. “Hey,” I answer and pour some wine into my glass before I walk over to the low wall separating the two balconies. “Where’s Cedric?” “Inside, feeding Warwick. How’s your date going?” “Well, it’s not…I think it’s over. Maya’s asleep.” Stephen laughs softly. “Yeah, I’m sure she’s tuckered out. You two were a bit…loud.” I blush, grateful for the d
It’s like I’m standing outside myself. Watching, hearing, feeling and seeing everything my wolf does. I have no control over myself and my body anymore. It was already too late when Edric brought me inside -- by then she had taken control because she sensed my hesitation. Edric tries to pull away from me, but she growls a low warning and grips his hair, roughly pulling him back to her, folding her lips around his mouth. The kiss steals the breath from my body and drives me insane with dark, needy lust. I want to stop fighting it, want to stop overthinking every little thing, I want to stop fighting my wolf and just let it happen. I want to find my mate again and be with him like we used to be when we found each other. Edric picks me up, and I wrap my legs around him. He carries me across the room, slamming me against the wall so hard that my head connects to it with a jarring thud. It doesn’t even slow my wolf down. Her claws surface and she rips his shirt to ribbons. I’m terrified