SarahI pull the crank that opens the ceiling in the tower, watching as the night sky comes into startling clarity. The stars are faint overhead, shielded by a layer of thin mist that moves across the sky like wisps of smoke. The moon, however, is full and painted a pale blue. It’s stunning, and even through the haze of poison still in my system, I can feel its pull.The voices that usually come from the orrery are silent as I move toward it, taking note of its gears and spiraling tangles of sleek steel and brass. The planets in our solar system circle around the moon in this version of the heavens instead of the sun like a direct line to the Goddess, and as I approach, my heart in my throat, the moonlight reaches the flat surface at the base of the orrery and sets the entire alight in dancing shadows.My heart rate quickens as the voices start up, whispering through the room like the mist hanging below the stars.&ld
SydneyI jolt upright, blinking into near total darkness. Moonlight sweeps over a cavernous space, illuminating darkened corridors and intricate carvings along the green-gray stone of the wall I’m facing. Condensation drips down the stones, gathering in pockets of moss.Cool night air touches my skin as I scan the perimeter, catching sight of four gray, wolflike bodies bleeding green onto the tiles.Reality sweeps over me like a tidal wave that washes me back into my body. I clutch my stomach, finding myself clothed somehow. I pull my shirt up and run my hand over my muscles. There’s no stab wound where Gabriel’s knife pierced my stomach.“Syd?”“Dad?”A groan echoes off the walls as I rise to my knees and look around, spotting Dad on his side only a few feet away.“Dad, Goddess fuck, what happened? How are you here?” I crawl to him, my pants s
SarahWarm, golden sunlight beats down on my skin. I blink into it, squinting against the onslaught of differing colors and the sense that I’m somewhere totally and completely unfamiliar. I’m in a bed, that’s obvious. The sheets beneath me are soft as butter and smell like roses with a faint hint of pine. A delicate lace canopy hangs from the posters of the bed, drifting in a warm spring breeze. The light–golden with hues of magenta and violet–drifts over a domed ceiling and reflects rainbows on the intricate floral wallpaper hugging the room, which is….I sit bolt upright and hug a thick, satin duvet to my chest. Where the fuck am I?Several windows line the far wall, the view on the other side of the glass obstructed by multicolored stained glass. I turn my head slowly toward a strange object on the bedside table. It’s no bigger than my forearm, and a pale circle of light floats over its pointed tip. Slo
SarahI’m not sure I’ve totally come back to reality when I leave Kenna’s room and fall directly into Sydney’s waiting arms.“Did you just deliver a baby?”“I think so?” I rest my head in the crook of his shoulder as he wraps his strong arms around me, holding me tight. “Am I awake right now?”“You’ve been out for over a day, Sarah. I don’t think you should even be up and walking around yet.” He scoops me up and carries me back to the room where I woke up, telling me in a quiet whisper that this is his personal apartment whenever he visits this side of his family. My back hits the mattress, but I’m not alone.Sydney curls his body around mine, and the quiet solitude of the room settles over us like a wet, cold blanket.We’re silent for a long time. I watch the light of day fade through the windows, casting silver be
SarahI spend an hour submerged in the bathtub up to my chin. Sydney isn’t in the bedroom when I finally emerge, wrapped in nothing but a robe. I curl up in bed on top of the duvet and stare at the sunlight raining down through the glistening windows, my mind in shambles.I have to knit myself back together somehow. I was taken from this place as a child, given a new home, a new shot at life. I have that now. I have a son, a mate, and a family that loves me and wants to see me whole.I can’t go back to Crescent Falls carrying any burdens.I hear the door open and close softly. Sydney’s familiar footsteps brush across the carpet. He touches my hip, likely just to see if I’m asleep, but I turn to him.He looks exhausted. Broken and worn thin.I open my arms to him, and he falls onto the bed on top of me.“I think we’re going to be okay,” I whispe
SydneyA Few Days LaterI pour another ladle full of chicken noodle soup into the bowl on the tray I’ve been putting together for the last thirty minutes. The kitchen all around me is a complete disaster, but the tray looks nice. I smile at the little yellow flower I plucked from Sarah’s collection in the atrium. She’s been spending most of her days there this week, taking inventory in preparation for the spring planting season. She has huge plans for not only the historic gardens surrounding our manor, but down in the village as well where I’ve carved out a few new parks for pack use.The kettle squeals, and I pour a cup of tea–the kind from a box. I have no idea what Cosette puts in the tea she’s always drinking with my mate.I carefully pick up the tray and turn my back on the mess I left behind in the kitchen and make my way down the hallway toward the sitting room at the fron
Sarah3 months laterI clutch the steering wheel as I turn my car toward the private driveway leading to the castle. Blake claps his hands to the music humming through the speakers while Sydney, seated beside me, digs through his briefcase, mumbling under his breath.“What are you looking for?” I ask, glancing at him briefly.Summer is in full swing all around us, shading the road beneath the thick, deep green canopy of trees.“I had something drawn up for Cosette,” he murmurs. “From our estate. I think I might have left it at home.” He runs his fingers through his hair then down his face, murmuring a curse. “We might have to turn around.”“I’m sure you have it, whatever you’re looking for,” I laugh, and Blake squeals with delight as we drive over a bump then turn through the main gate.The front garden has been
RyanJames scribbles on a piece of paper as people file into the pack house out of the rain. The two-story community building I had built three years ago, when I established Silverhide, is built in a traditional style I forced Sydney to help me plan out. The walls are made of thick logs burnt a deep black. The first story is just a giant room with several long tables and enough chairs for everyone–all hundred or so members, including a few babies born this summer–to fit comfortably with room to spare.A fire roars in the massive stone hearth at the very center of the room, sending heat licking down my back as I pace back and forth behind the main table.James, my Beta, looks up as another group filters inside, writing their names down. Andrew, my head warrior, the commander of my meager forces, technically, sits on James’s other side, his hands folded neatly on the table's surface.I’m not sure what
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