With The Hunter’s eye’s on me, I couldn’t possibly try something against him unless it was time to finish him. My waking hours were spent unwillingly confused by the questions he posed. Was The Silent Assassin his boss, for lack of better terms, or a warning? I couldn’t figure him out, and I found people so hard to read, especially in the past few years. This was the first time someone confused me, and I had to admit it was just as much as a thrill as an annoyance. It might have just done something to quell my boredom, but I was curious, even if his words were a diversion. I scoured the unorganized library and found nothing of note, but it gave me something to do. I wanted to catch him alone, but he was either with Nolan or not easily found, and I knew that’s because he didn’t want me to find him. As far as I could tell, nothing was told to the Alpha. We carried on the next few days as normal or as normal as they could be. _____I turned a corner with my head down, deep in planning
I silently followed him, my curiosity far outweighing my annoyance. It wasn’t until we reached the Alpha and Luna’s office wing that I paused. “We’re not. I’m not supposed to be in there.” I had a slight in with the Luna after I brought her flowers, and the Alpha ignored my presence. But I wanted to save that for when I really needed it. At the moment, there weren’t any specific pieces of information I needed that I knew were housed here; and I didn’t want to risk being outright banished from the place and lose that advantage I was saving. “They’re not here.” He paused. “There was a paint emergency in her new office, and The Alpha is meeting with his Beta and Gamma. Besides, I’m allowed to be anywhere,” he added, and I looked behind him down the dark hallway. There were no sounds, but was it a-“It’s not a trap,” he said, reading my mind. “But that’s what people would say if it were a trap, so..”“So you lie?” I asked.“I said people, not me.” “Well, I guess I’ll have to trust your
“It’s your birthday,” Alpha Raymond drawled with a smile that made my stomach flip. “Yes,” I said, looking down, wondering not for the first time how he knew that, but it was probably in some public record for ranked members. I wondered what those records showed of my pack now.“Do you sense your wolf yet?” Dominick asked, eying me hungrily. “No.” I shook my head, clutching my fork. Why was breakfast taking so long to get to the table today? I needed anything to distract me, to distract them. “You’ll get it soon enough,” Luna Addison said, sounding bored.I was excited to get my wolf, for someone to talk to, even if they were part of me. But my nervousness ate any of my lingering excitement when I awoke today. My nerves weren’t something that even doing my morning stretches twice helped calm. Since the night I killed the visiting Alpha’s son, I never bothered learning his name; I realized how out of shape I was. So I spent some time before breakfast, stretching and training daily
The voice in my head, my wolf, pulled me back to myself. Hi - I thought.Rough day?I choked on a laugh - Rough few yearsI know - She paused - I know Having her with me calmed me more than I knew was possible. For once, since I was stolen from my pack, I felt that I wasn’t completely alone. Even if my wolf was part of me, she was a counterpart. Her showing up alerted me to my stark loneliness that I pushed away where it couldn’t linger on the edges. I felt stronger than ever, powerful as if my wolf awoke every sense along with her, and she might have. I stood up tall and brushed off the dress. I made it this far. I had been through worse and come out of it. I am from a long line of Alphas. Alpha blood runs through me. Powerful blood runs through me.I am power, and I am blood. __I made it through a polite dinner. I could tell by Alpha Raymond’s constant stares that he thought I would have come in crying or broke down at the table. But I wouldn’t give him that, and I didn’t feel
The next morning, I woke early despite not getting much sleep. I didn’t want to get pulled back into those fitful dreams. Even after the events of last night, I felt charged. The senses that awoke with me when I gained my wolf when I shifted never dulled. I didn’t realize that I would be this powerful even after we shifted back. I could hear the scuttle of Omega’s waking down the hallway. I could smell the lingering dampness of the bathroom from last night's shower. I could see the dust motes floating through the air. I knew my wolf senses would be heightened, but I felt like I was looking at a whole different world. I looked in the mirror. I didn’t look different. Possibly, my dark hair was a bit shinier, and my gray eyes flickered with something that wasn’t a fiery hate. But I could have been imagining things. Wishful thinking, maybe. On the way down to breakfast. I was pulled back against something hard, someone hard. Palms dug into my waist so deep I yelped. “I didn’t know you
I blinked. I had never been so caught off guard, not even when he sat silently on my window, outright accusing me of poisoning him. To his credit, he wasn’t wrong.What did I live for? For the vengeance, for their deaths, for some sort of peace after the turmoil that was my recent life. I opened my mouth to say something; Ezra’s gaze was fixated on my mouth. “What do you live for?” I asked. I couldn’t think of one decent answer that he would find acceptable to his answer, and I knew better than to lie to him. I knew I couldn’t lie to him. One side of his lip twitched up, but he wasn’t amused. “I asked you first. No family, no pack.” He swallowed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I was just asking.”“It’s true, I don’t have any of that. I’m a prisoner,” I whispered. Ezra took a step towards me, his hand twitched as he lifted it, but then he dropped it again. I followed the movements, a crease between my brows. “After it’s all over, then what?” he asked. I averted my gaze. I
I drifted from the library while Ezra stayed motionless. I was clogged with emotions and uncertainty, and I had to take a few minutes of silence. But before that, I had to do something. I couldn’t let my sadness overtake my plans, and Dominik gave me a fantastic idea this morning. I listened outside the Alpha and Luna’s office wing of the original packhouse, and heard nothing, not even an Omega cleaning. Maybe The Goddess started to take pity on me after all.I slipped into the room Ezra had shown me and grabbed what I needed. I listened again. Still nothing. I had just enough time to carefully extract what I needed and set the place as I found it.Then, I did something I rarely ever did before. I went to the new wing. I knew the layout; it was in Amelia’s office here. She rarely, if ever, used this, only for meetings with The Luna. I slipped in and memorized the rooms months ago.I thought I knew their schedules; I was pretty sure they were training. I knew that I was being reckless
Shock rippled through me, rooting me to the spot. I had to be wrong, but I knew, I knew I wasn’t. Logic fought with my emotions; nothing made sense, and I was abruptly pulled back to that dark place where only pain and confusion existed. My fiery anger was quelled completely by grief. We have to go - My wolf sounded far away, but she was right.Just start walking - She pleaded. Had I not? I looked down, and my feet were still rooted to the dark, fraying carpet. I swallowed and forced them to move. They felt heavy and wouldn’t do what I wanted. I didn’t walk away; I broke into a run, and I couldn’t stop.I ran down the stairs, through the front hall, and out the front door I hadn’t used in Goddess knew how long. I didn’t know if I passed anyone. I didn’t care how I looked. My mask shattered completely, and I left it on the floor of the hallway outside that office. I ran into the woods, brambles tugged at my dress, and my hair ripped through twigs. I wished I could have felt any of t
Nova and I unsealed the documents we found in the makeshift wall between our sacred areas. We uncovered what we expected, and a lot more—a whole lot more. It was the werecats history, written and drawn. Their history was passed through stories, word of mouth around campfires of temporary homes. Now, they had their homes restored and their true history remembered. “I feel as if so many have lived to come back here; it is a heavy burden to carry. That it is me who has led them back. Especially after so many have passed living an in-between life.” Nova’s lips pressed together, her golden eyes glassy. “I feel almost guilty, no, not guilt.” She pursed her lips. “Sad, mournful, I think.”“About?” “The fact we never settled elsewhere. I mean, we tried, but it felt wrong, something about being in one place for too long; it physically started to make my skin crawl, as if something was begging me, us, to move.” She looked to the ceiling and our lands above. “Here…this is the first time I hav
Ezra helped me meld the scattered pieces of myself. He gave me some new ones from himself that he would never ask back, and I forged some from who we were together.I had the hardest trouble sorting the pieces of what I used to be, what I was now, and what I could have been. I spent so much time trying to mold a persona, so much time perfecting it; when it was gone, it was both freeing and terrifying.Because I did not expect to have to learn who I was underneath it, the raw, confused, jumbled bits that were left of me.And I could not mesh them together.Was there a part of me that wanted to k.ill? It was an instinct now to start plotting the deaths of all the Alphas who said no to me during the challenge. I couldn’t understand if that was an instinct part of me or something I learned, that I created, or maybe someone else created in me.It was a jarring and difficult thing to try to piece yourself together from fragments, and I would only wish it on my enemies. Because it left me
Nova and I were working on rebuilding both of our respective packs. Which ended up being a lot of paperwork. So much paperwork. She was fine keeping this packhouse standing, and us to use it temporarily as she had no personal interest in it.As the days went on I could sense her anxiety.“It is time,” she stated, standing in the Alpha’s office across from me, her disdain and agitation from being here was palpable. “I cannot wait any longer.”I nodded. She glanced at Ezra sitting next to me who only replied, “I will be here if you need.” He nodded at us both.I followed Nova out of the packhouse, through the back lawn. Barely into the treeline stood a semi-cirlce of werecats.They eyed me, most with wariness, some with curiosity, and a few with possible gratefulness. Nova told me to expect as much, they did not know me or understand why I was standing at her side, the first wolf, well, the first wolf they knew of entering their sacred land before them. I knew they appreciated me restor
That attraction, that pull, snapped together and became a tangible thing tying us together—binding and unyielding.I looked down as if I could see it, and Ezra did the same. He reached for my hand, and sparks jolted through me. His scent was consuming, powerful, a drug. I blinked at him, the sensations overwhelming. “Mates?” I asked both him and Aksala.Did you know? - I asked only my wolf.No - she responded - I felt connected to his wolf, I felt as if I could trust them, I knew I could immediately. But I did not know they were our mates. Ezra held a hand up, and I placed my palm against his. Those sparks and tingles danced around them and through me. “You are my undoing, Simone," Ezra Rumbled, his mismatched eyes looking at our hands. "Tied forever together.”Forever suddenly felt like not long enough.He pulled me against his warm chest and encircled me in his arms. I hovered between sleep and wake in a state made of pure buttery golden contentedness, a state I wish I could stay
His hand came to the nape of neck, fisting my hair as he pulled me to him. I gasped into his mouth, our lips tangled with each other as I was led to the bed, until I fell back onto it. He did not remove his lips from mine as his hands untucked my shirt and roamed up my body. There was a rip and a rush of air against my heated skin, alerting me that I was bare under him, my shirt and bra torn. That thought was ripped away as his palm caressed my breasts, his callused thumb running over my nipples.He groaned into my mouth and settled himself between my legs; heat radiated through both our pants.“Is this okay?” he asked, his breath short.“I am yours,” I told him. “Touch me,” I demanded.And he did. His touches were claiming yet soft, searching yet hungry. There was a carnal need wrapped in innate affection. I was addicted to it. I thrust my hips against him, grinding against his hardness as warmth and desire pooled between my legs. His lips were ripped from mine. My mouth opened in
Nolan stood on the other side of the door looking apologetic. “The remaining Alpha and Lunas are set to take off soon,” he told me. “Thank you, give me a minute?” I asked and he nodded rubbing the back of his neck. “Nolan,” I explained to Ezra, who was propped on an arm his muscles tense. “I need to get ready the others are leaving.”Ezra nodded and followed me in. We took a bit longer than I originally planned. He joined me in the shower and although we did not touch each other with our fingers, we took turns helping each other bathe. It felt strange at first, in a way that was unfamiliar but not unwelcome. Then, it turned into something more accepting. BLAH BLAHNolan was still waiting in the hallway when we returned and we followed him us all in a tense sort of way. He felt very… formal. Professional - Aksala added.That - I agreed.When we got nearer to the front Nolan whispered back at us, “I told them you would see them off, there were a lot of questions. Some wanted to stay
I awoke to a sky that was turning to dusk. I felt depleted, but in a way that I could live with. My muscles ached, and I could not cry anymore if I tried. Putting them to rest was heartwrenching but incredibly healing, more than I could have thought. It was an honor I did not know I would get to bestow on them. After they were buried, a few words were exchanged between us all; it was a harrowing experience even for those who did not know them personally. A few other Alpha and Lunas had shown, probably to satiate their curiosity. Some stayed, but I did not know who. I could not fault those who could not stomach or accept what they saw.I had no words to express my gratitude to those who stayed, and I was too tired to try. I would always be indebted to them, and one day I would start to repay that. Ezra pulled me against him and I settled against his chest, burying my face into it. It was so strange being able to spend time with him and not hiding; it did not feel real. I wondered if i
When we emerged, I was expecting it to be deep in the night. I was surprised to find it was still afternoon, I felt as if we were there for days. I didn’t know if it were me or if the lands truly seemed brighter, more vivid as if their life was slowly being restored to them. Nova insisted we return after we found some of her lost history, saying it was enough to know that something was waiting for her pack, her own hope reignited. I did have a few things to deal with, things that were, for once, easy to forget. When we returned to my packhouse, Ezra locked eyes with me, standing over his brothers. He made his way to me, searching my eyes and body before he relaxed. “We have not buried anyone, just started to lay them together, to prepare them. I hope that is okay.” I nodded, tears filling my eyes as I saw the bones beyond, together as one pack, honored instead of left as they died, strewn about and ignored as if they were part of the furniture. “They have not gone. They refuse to
I felt entirely spent but renewed. As the powers drained from me, the heaviness lifted, and now, as I lay there depleted, the rush of magic settled around the place, warming me from within. I lay down on the cool stone and let it wash over me.It was a sense of calm I could not ever remember feeling.After a while Nova spoke, “It was said our lands were connected between the pools.” She was speaking to me as much as she was speaking life into the caverns. I glanced at her to see she was lying near me, staring at the ceiling where the muted blue lights danced across, making waves in their wake.I looked around the space—my eyes snagged on a bit of mortar that seemed different, a cracked brick, a stone slightly off in color—but nothing stood out to indicate that this place ever connected elsewhere. But there was magic I had seen today I had never thought true, so I wouldn’t debase what she said off logic alone. I looked back up,“I-I—” she choked, seeming to shed something herself. I