Aviva
Ryan walks in alone, his unfamiliar companion rushing back down the stairs away from the house. He’s slightly unkempt, like he’d been to the sawmill, wood shavings sticking to his clothes and hair.
There’s a new scent being carried on his clothes–male. Familiar, yet unplaceable.
“Hey,” he says with a smile, pressing a kiss to my temple as he walks past me toward the bathroom.
I whirl, following him. “Who was that?”
He turns on the shower. “I have to make this quick. We’re leaving in a few minutes.”
“Oh–”
He rushes out of his clothes, stepping into the bathtub and pulling the curtain. I chew my lower lip as I walk out of the bathroom, edging toward the window to look outside. In the distance, a group has gathered in the center of the village around a stranger that I can’t see clearly. I have an odd feeling abo
AvivaI expected to be led into a throne room guarded by wolves. I expected gold finishes, ball gowns, crowns made of precious gems. I expected to see their powers at work and feel tiny in comparison.I wasn’t expecting the woman who greeted me in the doorway of a very simple, open sitting room in the depths of the castle, yellow wallpaper illuminating her face in a soft glow.She sucks in her breath and absolutely beams at me, her dark blue eyes widening with… joy. Or maybe it’s utter relief. I’m not sure. Whatever it is, she’s happy to see me, and she doesn’t even know me.“The girls said you had red hair, but this–wow, you are just stunning.”“Mom, can you at least let us come into the room first?” Ryan smiles down at the woman, his mother, his hand flat against the small of my back.I see the resemblance now. Ryan doesn’t look l
RyanThe family dining room in the private quarters of the castle where Ella and Ryatt spend their time outside of their royal duties is washed in starlight and the faint glow of a chandelier.It’s probably edging on 9:00 PM, by my estimation. The dinner was long, drawn out, conversations yelled down the impossibly crowded wooden table.Now, I sit on one end, nursing a glass of scotch, while my mate sits surrounded by my family on the other end, her eyes rapt as she watches Ella’s mouth move.I’ve barely spoken to her in the past two hours. She was herded to a seat and immediately surrounded, and I ended up on the other side of the table from my mate, stuck between Sydney and Granger, Evander’s father. Granger eventually moved down the table as well, joining whatever conversation I was being excluded from, apparently. The kids were scooped up and tossed in bed an hour ago. It’s quiet now, which
AvivaI wake to full sunlight bursting through ceiling height windows, warming the sheets covering a four poster bed. A cool morning breeze drifts through the open windows, ruffling the lace curtains as birdsong floats through the air.It’s like something out of a dream. I stretch, groaning with delight as my skin slides over satin sheets, and relax with a slump.I slept like the dead.But as I feel toward the opposite side of the bed, the sheets are cool and empty. I roll over and reach for the bedside table where a piece of paper is propped against a vase full of fresh flowers.“There’s breakfast down the hall in the pink room. I’ll see you later this afternoon.” I lie back with the note, smoothing my fingertip over the scribbles. Ryan has terrible handwriting. With a sigh, I roll out of bed and pad across the wide room. The carpet is soft, and the wallpaper is heavily detailed w
RyanThe club isn’t what I thought it would be. Sure, I’d had more than a few rowdy nights at the ancient taverns and inns scattered around the Roguelands drinking homemade beer and young whiskey, but this is….“They’re serious about a road system, then?” I ask over the thumping music, a mix of dark synth that makes my body believe it’s back in Crescent Falls, not standing in a sea of black velvet, gold finishes, and strobe lights in the center of Moonrise.Sydney sips his whiskey cocktail, nodding as he squints through the crowd to where Sarah, Aviva, and Kenna are currently tearing up the dancefloor. “Ryatt put a council of Alphas together a few years ago, and they finally voted to allow the road system. It’ll connect at the border with Crescent Falls, lead here, and across the rivers to Tarsian.”“Tarsian is already preparing for their own super-highway,” Evand
RyanMy fingers wind through Aviva’s hair as she kneels, rising on her knees. I should tell her to stop. A very small, insignificant part of me is begging to haul her upright and service her first, like a gentleman, but under the haze of the dim lighting and thrum of music vibrating up through the floor, I’m not feeling very gentlemanly. My eyes flutter closed at the sensation of her hands pressing against my thighs, her nails pinching my skin. This has to be some kind of dream state. My entire body jerks as her tongue glides up my shaft a second time in a slow, drawn out taste. She’s testing me. I know if I open my eyes, she’ll be looking up at me with that whiskey gaze that will have me spilling myself on her chest within seconds, and she hasn’t even fully taken me in her mouth yet. I’m fucked. “Aviva,” I choke out, my head rolling to the side against the door at my back. “Hmm?” She hums as she guides the head of my cock between her lips. It’s enough to send a jolt of electricit
Aviva“I can’t–you’re in heat. It’s my beast. It wants you bred, and I’m–” He starts to pull out, but I stop him, writhing in a way I know he loves. “Fuck, Aviva. Goddess, you’re making this–impossible.”“I’m going to come,” I whimper, begging him not to stop. “Please, don’t stop–”“You’re not on contraceptives,” he groans, sounding like himself for the first time since I led him out to dance. “I’ll get you pregnant. Right now, Aviva. It’ll happen now.”“Please?” Something in my voice breaks. It’s like… like I’m letting go of something, something that I let myself bury. A fear of mine only he has ever seen.But I trust him. Whatever comes. He’ll be beside me. I meet his eyes over my shoulder. His lips part, and his gaze is depthless, full
RyanThere are only three thoughts in my head at the moment, all of them intertwined. The first being that I’m starving. The second, that I’d like to eat, preferably as soon as possible, so I can haul my wife over my shoulder and carry her back to our bed to continue what we’d started last night.And finally, I do not like the look on Ryatt’s face as he gazes at my mate like she’s the answer to a riddle that’s been plaguing his mind for decades.At almost fifty, Ryatt still looks youthful and dangerous. He’s at his most powerful, from the whispers I’ve heard from my parents and close family acquaintances. He looks like a walking, talking angel of death with his shadows creeping between his fingers as he grips his desk, his silver eyes locked on Aviva.Something just changed, I know that for certain.“The G-Gate of the Gods,” Aviva says, standing, looki
AvivaThe next three days are easy and full of conversation, food, and children dictating our every waking hour. I’ve grown attached to Maeve despite the knowledge of her abilities, one of which is lighting herself on fire. She’s beginning to seek me out in a room now, crawling as fast as she can to tug on my pants or my skirt, and enjoys just sitting on my lap watching the other children play.Kenna watches us, not saying a word. Sarah has had a lot to say about it, however, going on and on about how there was finally another baby girl in the family but she wouldn’t allow anyone to touch her or snuggle with her… except for me.I wouldn’t consider Maeve to be a snuggly baby. She much prefers sitting on my lap and chewing on my fingers with the two razor sharp teeth she’s cutting in real time.All the while, Ryan floats in and out of whatever space we’re sharing with his family. He’
MistyTwo white wolves in a clearing.Their bodies made of mist and aether, standing side by side.Mates. A marvel of second chances and extraordinary fate.Two white wolves turn toward the sunrise knowing what they must leave behind; what he sacrificed for those he loved and her refusal to let him go into death alone.Two white wolves stand over their earthly bodies. He, battered and still.She, going into death with eyes open, cupping her mate's face between her graceful hands, her eyes locked on his at the moment of her dying breath.Their last words had been simple. I love you.They always had.They’d promised this instance in stolen moments, in private corners, when there was nothing but the stars to light their way.I will not stay here without you.I will not leave you behind.And so, it was.Two
AvivaThe first flakes of snow fall from the sky as I watch Ryan trying to herd everyone in position. Bundled against the cold in a wool coat Freya and I worked tirelessly on for the last three weeks, I step to the side, finding myself in the center of the crowd standing in the middle of the village of Silverhide. I watch my mate and his Beta, James, nudge families together and run back and forth toward a tripod where Ryan’s camera rests, facing us, to gauge whether all one-hundred and fifty people are in view of the lens.Ryan stands behind the camera with his hands up, his hair dusted with snow. “Okay. Nobody move!”A few excited giggles whisper through the front of the crowd where the numerous children are arranged. I glance around, watching as James joins Dahlia’s side, their baby on her hip. The baby girl finally has a name. Cosette, named after a friend of Dahlia, but they call her Cossie for short. Other babies
Two months later…RyanThe Harvest Festival has been held at the festival grounds between Endova, Teshka, and Navvan for centuries. When we arrived two days ago, leaving only a few people behind in Silverhide to make sure the animals are tended to in our absence, the wide, open space had been nothing but rolling plains.Now, it’s a city of canvas tents and twinkling lights, the air spiced with smoke and the smells of meals being cooked at each fire. Songs mingle as I walk through the festival with Aviva on my arm. I’m wearing a normal outfit. Well, not normal, actually. Mom forced me into a suit and tie with the Crescent Falls royal banner and all of my metals from my years as a warrior draped over my shoulders. Aviva is wearing that white, fur-lined dress again and a pair of new sheep-skin boots Freya and Mercy made for her, but instead of freshwater clam shells and pearls decorating her hair, her curls are w
RyanAn hour earlier…I can’t scrub the image of Aviva dead in my arms out of my head. It’s been several days since the battle, since the moment I put her in my uncle's arms and turned back to the ravaged scene, not knowing whether or not she survived the journey all the way to Maatua.Three days. It was three entire days before Sydney arrived in Silverhide with news about my mate. I’d just arrived back at my territory, exhausted and in tatters, when he clapped a hand on my shoulder and used his powers to spirit us to Moonrise, then to Veiled Valley, then to Maatua. He’s not as strong as Ryatt. Jumping took a toll on us both, and when we finally arrived at my grandparents’ beach house, I collapsed before I even made it up their driveway.Everything since the battle is a blur. Navvan is just… gone. The few survivors were mostly women and children who’d left the villag
AvivaI wake with a start to bright, warm sunshine and the smell of salty air. I grope white sheets, blinking several times to clear my vision as an unfamiliar bedroom fades to life around me. Warm white walls. Pale wood finishes and sleek furniture in soft browns and creams. White curtains drift in a salty breeze coming through several open windows, and a glass door opens to a deck with a view of… a view of the ocean.I’ve never seen the ocean before. From where I lie, I can hear the waves crashing on a white sand beach. Music I don’t recognize drifts toward me, carrying two voices with it, one male, and one female.“Your parents worry about you endlessly, Misty.”“They have nothing to worry about. It’s not like I’m ten anymore, Grandpa. I can make my own way in the world now. Plus, where was their worry when they shipped me here four years ago, huh?”“You
RyanI’ve been dreaming about tying Aviva to my bed, but I’m going to make it a reality for entirely different reasons. Now, I’ll be tying her to keep her there, forever. No more hunting. No more fighting. No more killing rogues barefoot in the woods.No more putting herself in situations like this. I will do her dirty work. I will gladly do it. I roll with Hardan in his… hellhound form? Whatever the fuck he is now. I wish, Goddess, I wish I could have faced him man to man instead of beast to beast. I would have loved to see the look on his face when I ripped out his heart for even thinking for a second he had some kind of claim to my mate, even before I found her. We roll down a decline. I sink my talons into his belly, ripping hard, but I already know hellhounds aren’t that easy to kill. We crash into an oak tree. Leaves shower over us as he tries to claw free of my grasp. He’s calling out, bellowing strange, high-pitched howls. The forest floor rumbles as I sink my claws into hi
AvivaI’m having the time of my life.I zigzag through the woods in my wolf form after three rogues who’ve decided they want nothing to do with me. In fact, the rogues have stopped hunting me over the past several hours and instead are trying to get as far away from me as possible. Their prey has become their biggest predator.I did my best to lead the horde away from Endova. That was my goal–the reason I made the snap decision to leave my mate behind and race into the jaws of death itself. Now, I have the horde moving away from the tribal packlands all together, herding them back into the open plains like a shepherd, and they’re my sheep–if a shepherd killed their sheep, that is.I’ve lost count of how many there are. My red fur is completely black with their blood. I catch my reflection in another small, burbling creek as I leap, seeing only my eyes shining like polished amber against a
Ryan“She’s not here, Ryan,” Mercy hisses as I run through the village. She’s hot on my heels, grabbing my fur to try to pull me to a stop but I’m not in my right mind.It’s been five hours since I last saw Aviva. Andrew and I have been scouring the forest and plains for any sign of her, but I lost her scent, and my desperate attempts to mind-link with her have come up empty and silent.I shift into my human form the second I cross into the pack house and immediately crash into one of the tables, tripping over the bench and landing on my side with a crunch. I’ve been in my wolf form since last night. Exhaustion sings through my bones as my vision spins. I hear Andrew similarly falling to the ground with a choked groan before hurried footsteps reach the pack house. Someone throws a blanket over me with a scoff, followed by Mercy’s sharp, soprano voice ripping through the air as she starts s
RyanIt’s barely dawn. Four hours ago, I was taking a deep breath as I tucked my mate into our bed, and now we’re here, lying low in the grasslands ten miles from Silver, with twenty of my best warriors scattered behind me. Stars still fill the sky, shining under a blanket of deep navy and vibrant violet. It's kind of hard to stay focused when the sunrise looks like this, the first echoes of gold casting Aviva, in wolf form, in a halo of light. She’s crouched in the swaying grass just a few feet below where the rest of us are lying, hiding in the scant brush and scorched trees. I watch her edge forward a few inches, her body covered in weapons and leather–one of her special dresses from Endova. A half dozen whispers ghost through my head, mingling with the thundering of my heartbeat in my ears as we watch, and watch, the dozen or so rogues passing by, moving in a lazy formation toward the forests we, and the tribal packs, call home. ‘What are they doing?’ Andrew lies on my left sid