I jumped awake to something touching my cheek, brushing what felt like my hair away. I swatted it off. It took me too long a moment to realize it was Ezra, and I was still sitting on the floor. Opened my eyes, but they felt heavy. Too heavy. It took me another long minute to groggily pull myself to stand. I stretched against my sore muscles for something to do, stifling a yawn. Sleeping sitting up on the floor was a bad idea. I needed to stay limber. But I knew I would have gotten no sleep without Ezra’s warm, steady presence. “Hi,” I grumbled.“Hi,” he said. I forced my eyes open to see him still sitting motionless on the long windowsill. “You look well rested,” I noted and couldn’t hide my disdain. He was perfect; he always was. I envied him; he was what I wished I could be. Half of his lips quirked up. “I rarely sleep deeply. I can get some sleep while still keeping watch,” he admitted.“Warlock,” I muttered, and my sleepy smile echoed his as I made myself go to the bathroom.
I wanted to talk to Ezra and send a note to Sam, but Alice intercepted me on the steps, insisting that I get ready for the funeral. I hadn’t really seen her outside my room before, and that shocked me. She wasn’t ever in the kitchen, but I knew there were other tasks. I hadn’t thought of that before that before, and I should have been.Where was she when she wasn’t with me? “The funeral?” I asked Alice as she brushed my hair. Again. She dropped my hair and met my eye. I didn’t look away. Not now. “Yes?” she asked. “What about it? Are you okay to go?” She eyed me as if death might tear me at the seams.“What do you know about it?” I asked. I couldn’t be caught blindsighted.She looked over her shoulder as if anyone else could possibly be in the room. Well, Ezra could. That thought filled me with a jolt of joy even though I knew he wasn’t. I didn’t sense him. “Two of them,” she whispered, her eyes wide, and I made mine match hers. “Why didn’t they say?” I asked, a hand over my chest.
Nolan’s eyes widened, and he looked away from me. “I don’t know,” he admitted. I took a deep breath through my nose. Something inside me crumpled, and I lost some of the anger.“I understand,” I murmured, “the good and the bad are muddled.” That was one overly simplified way to put it.I felt him glance at me, but I was looking ahead. “Yeah. They are,” he agreed.But who were we to discern when the bad outweighed the good? We all had different ideals.But that was why I was here. To enact justice. Part of me felt that was cheap, a huge part of me that wanted another reason, but I knew deep down I didn’t need one. I knew my reason. It was vengeance, and I clung to it.It was tight and fiery and lit me up from the inside. It tasted of justice, and I knew it would feel like it, too. My fingers tingled at the possibility, at the very idea of more vengeance. I clutched them into a fist and tried to hide my smile.I tried to focus and pull a response from my mind. An honest response. “I
Neither Nolan nor I didn’t say anything until he was gone, once he seemed to turn toward Alpha Raymond's office in the older wing. Nolan’s eyes were still wide, but they were focused on me. “What?” he breathed.“Did you not feel that?” I asked. He shook his head slowly, but his brows tugged together over pursed lips. “I mean, it felt a bit off, I guess, but…”But nothing like the suffocating skin-crawling power I felt. “I’ve seen that man before, but he didn’t have those tattoos,” he added.“Those weren’t tattoos.” I shook my head, but I didn’t have an explanation for them. “He’s probably just here to pay his condolences, and he will be gone,” Nolan explained. Again, it struck me that he was the one trying to comfort me after his brother's funerals, that were my doing.We stayed staring at each other for a minute before I brushed back through the curtain, now seeming a bit foolish for my insane reaction. Nolan must think I was actually insane. But I still hoped he feared me for it
My breath felt like it was knocked out of me. Logically, I knew what he was capable of. To conspire with Alpha Raymond for the demise of my entire pack. His entire pack. The pack he swore to protect above all else.He was capable of orchestrating the slaughter of those closest to him, no matter how big a part he played. Any part he played was too much. But somehow, hearing that he wanted me dead still shook me. To my very essence, the part that still unwillingly held on to my past.I slipped back into who I used to be before this all for a blissful and haunting moment. The child in me that knew him as my uncle, my confidant, my family, knew he wouldn’t do anything to harm me. He would protect me at all costs.Protection, protected. Something so foreign it made me crumble. My labored breathing and heaving chest brought me back. I wasn’t a child; I wasn’t protected. I realized that the blanket of shock I had been holding since I found out was still weighing on me, however lightly.
His eyes flashed black. The stagnant library air seemed to come to life around me, around us, as I stood there bare. I didn’t have much to give, but I would start with myself. Even though it felt like a hollow comparison to what he might give me. “Are you sure?” he asked. I nodded. “Yes,” I breathed. “Please.”He stepped forward but was far enough away to take in every inch of me. His eyes roved over my body appreciatively.He opened his mouth to say something. “I’m sure,” I added with finality. Both sides of his lips tugged up. He removed his swords from his back, undoing the straps around his front. Then, he unstrapped his scabbard from his side and placed them carefully with his swords on the chair. The fact that he trusted me enough to remove his weapons completely was huge.He took off his shirt, and I bit my lip. I’d seen his body before, briefly. I didn’t focus on it or tried not to before, but now I could fully take in everything he was.Goddess, he was breathtaking. Ever
I woke from a drowsy sleep, completely comfortable, warm, and safe. Shit.I shot up; those were feelings I should not be feeling when I woke up. My hand rested on Ezra’s warm, hard chest. I blinked as the memories of last night unfurled, and heat rushed to my cheeks. Ezra took my hand in his and kissed the back of it. “Good morning,” he said, but I was still trying to get my bearings. The fire was mostly embers, and the sky outside black. “It’s early,” he stated.“Good,” I managed, sleep coated my throat. I couldn’t remember the last time I slept that well.“That was the best sleep I’ve ever gotten,” Ezra admitted. His morning voice was even more throaty than normal, and it sent fire skittering through me. “Easy,” he growled, his mismatched eyes turned to matching black. I swallowed.“Today is it,” I said, looking out the window. The back of his fingers trailed across my cheek. “It is,” he murmured. We sat there for a moment before he said, “I guess we should get ready.” The relucta
“Are you okay?” Tia asked, and I nodded.“I just need a moment.”I strolled to the window, thinking over my options until we decided on something. I focused on the outcome to quell my rage. The sky was still black, but there was a fuzziness around the edges. I scanned the treeline, and I saw some movement. I knew I was looking for him. I tried to focus on anything else. He would come when he could. Why did I already miss him?I do, too - Aksala said - Last night was… niceNice - I repeated - Nice is an understatement.She barked a laugh, and we went over the plan today, step by step, accounting for any mishaps. It calmed me, and when I came back to myself, the sky was almost gray. A figure sat on the small balcony, and my heart thudded against my chest. I cracked the window, and his brows pulled together, looking behind me. “Tia is helping me with something,” I explained. Tia coughed and said in a shy voice, “I’ll come back in ten minutes. I need to get something anyway.” I heard h
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