“You’ll be okay,” Edric says, taking my sweaty hand in his. “I’m right here.”
I stare up at a house I don’t know. Behind the simple front door and dirty grey walls are my parents, my siblings. My heart hammers in my chest, and the need to vomit sits very close to the surface. I take a deep breath, trying to still my pounding heart. “Okay, let’s go.”
Cameron nods and taking the lead, walk up the cracked path. My father used to take such pride in his garden and home. What happened? The place looks almost deserted. I pick an eviction notice up from the front step. Are they even still here? The doorbell doesn’t work, so the king resorts to pounding on the door so hard that it rattles in the frame.
It takes a long time before anyone answers. I’m about to show the eviction notice to Cameron, and suggest we leave, when a haggard old man with unkempt grey hair opens the door, staring out at us with watery eyes. I almost don’t recognise my own father. He aged twenty y
Edric's POV:It’s almost like someone flipped a switch in Maya’s head, and for the first time since I met her, my mate looks content. She sits with her head against the car window, looking out at the lush greenery that speeds by us, a small smile on her lips. I am less enamoured by what I see.It’s mostly swampland, with rare glimpses of waterless patches. Creepers and gnarled plants I don’t recognise try to make their way out of the swamp. It’s a wonder they can even keep the roads clear. How can a wolf live out here? Surrounded by alligators and snakes? How do they shift without fear?Feeling my eyes on her, Maya stops looking out the window. “What?” she asks.All I can do is shake my head. I have no words to tell her how I feel. How proud I am to call her mine. How happy I am that she’s here with me, and I don’t have to face my grandfather alone.Cameron tried very hard to co
Edric's POV I listen to Alexander waffling on about the great Blake Lycans, and how they’re coming to their end. It does not escape his keen mind that they created their own downfall. “My first mate, Maxwell’s mother, was my first cousin. I should have known that weak bitch wouldn’t deliver good pups, but my father demanded it.” I say nothing, just stare at poor Maxwell – he’s no older than seventy, young for a Lycan, but he looks double that age. “He didn’t have any pups?” “A few…none of them came to term.” “My second mate was a second cousin. She delivered only female pups. All of them dead now.” He spits in disgust. “I have a new mate, unrelated, but she’s not taking.” It’s astounding that an otherwise intelligent wolf can be so fucking dense. They must have known the effect their inbreeding would have on their offspring. “This one--” he waves a hand in Maxwell’s direction --“was born retarded. We’ve been hiding it
I was already clawing my back from the underworld when the witch let me go. It took me a while to realise what had happened. Where I was. At first, when I came back, the terror wouldn’t let go, and the sheer relief of finding myself back in the real world overwhelmed me, but now that I’ve gotten over it, all I feel is anger. I stare up at Edric’s bloody face. “What happened?” “I don’t know. You were basically catatonic--” “No, I mean the blood--” I circle the air in front of my own face --“why are you bleeding?” “Oh. When you called me, you were a little loud. It ruptured a blood vessel in my nose.” He wipes his face with his t-shirt and gives me a lopsided grin. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even know that’s possible.” “Neither did I. I suspect there was a bit of a magical punch in there too…I could feel your fear.” He came, without question and without any reservations. He just came. Because I needed him. Just when I think I can’t lov
I don’t see anyone else for the rest of the night. Not the witch, an Omega, or my mate. The grounds are dark and quiet. I miss the sound of children playing, and mates laughing at their partners' secret jokes. I miss the smell of barbecue fires and the fresh mountain air. On the rare occasion that the world went silent at Mountain Fire, I found it peaceful, here I find it threatening, and nothing can ease my frazzled nerves. Eventually, I take a long, too hot bath and go to bed where I toss and turn half the night away, feeling lost and lonely in the strange big bed without Edric by my side. I fall asleep sometime during the early morning hours, woken at dawn by my mate getting into bed next to me. “What’s wrong?” I ask sleepily. “Nothing,” he whispers and puts his hand on my hip. “Go back to sleep.” “It’s daytime.” “Hm-hm,” he mumbles, half-asleep already. “I told Alexander we’re resting today. We need it.” I want to snuggle into him
Edric's POV For the rest of that day, we pretended that we were just normal wolves, without the weight of the world resting on our shoulders. We spent the whole day in bed, as newly-mated wolves should…just the two of us, finally alone, enjoying each other in every way possible. Body, mind, and soul. Getting to know each other, finding each other’s secret places – the ones you kept so deeply hidden that you sometimes forgot they existed. It ended too soon. I sit on the tiny bed in my cell, staring at the grey wall opposite me. My wolf is restless, pacing up and down, trying to surface. Wolves don’t like being trapped like this – it drives them insane. * Calm yourself. He’s testing us. * ~ We should kill him next time he comes down here. ~ * His warriors will kill us before can get close…and then they’ll kill Maya. * In my pack, I was the biggest wolf, but here I’m not, and the king has surrounded
Edric's POV I make it to the foot of the stairs that leads to my apartment before I run out of adrenaline and strength. After two weeks in the dungeon, surviving on very little food and water, barely resting, on high alert all the time, my mind and body finally give out. I sag to the floor and sit there, holding my head in my hands. The sound of the wolf’s breaking neck still echoes through my head, reverberating around my skull. Goddess, what did I do? I can’t just sit here feeling sorry for myself. I need to get upstairs, need to get to Maya before the king sends his warriors to kill her -– or worse, throw her in the dungeons. Groaning loudly, I get up grab the railing and leaning on it, drag myself up the stairs, one torturous step at a time. Everything hurts, and I keep waiting for my shaky legs to give way under me. My right side hurts the worst – yesterday, one of my tormentors repeatedly hit me in the kidney with a pipe. The deep purpl
I sit on the balcony watching the moon rise over the lake. The water is quiet, mirror-smooth. Nothing moves or stirs. It’s a dead silent, dead unnatural night. I’ve barely slept since they took Edric to the dungeons. The only reason I knew anything at all was because Stephen told me when he came home that night. Every night, I asked him how Edric was doing, and every night he said the same thing. “He’s alive.” And no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn’t tell me what they were doing to my mate down there. I threw myself into learning how to control my magic, because it helped me to pass the days, and I had a feeling I’d need it soon. In the late afternoons, Cedric and I met in one of the many quiet gardens, where he taught me how to fight like a proper wolf. I hear Edric groan from the bedroom, and my heart lurches painfully. I wish I knew how to cast healing spells, but only the most accomplished and talented witches can do them, and I’m nowhere near re
Edric moans and falls against the wall. “You need to get back to bed,” I say. “Yes.” He slides down the wall, hitting the floor with a loud thump. “In a minute.” He keels over on his side. The front door bangs open and Stephen comes stumbling in, still pulling on his shorts. Like all wolves, he’s unconcerned by his own nudity. I’m so relieved to have someone else here, someone that can help, that I don’t even mind. He kneels next to Edric, a panicked look on his face. “How long as your wolf been asleep?” “Since this morning…when the kid--” “Gus.” Edric looks up at me, breathing heavily, his face pulled in a grimace of pain. “Thanks. Since just before they started beating Gus. I told him to go to sleep.” “Oh Edric, that’s bad. You shouldn’t have done that.” “I know, but he couldn’t handle it.” “Why can’t you wake him?” “I don’t know.” Edric grimaces and rolls over on his back. Several things happen at onc