Sydney
Four Months Later
Dad’s orrery clicks and spins, the internal gears grinding against the soft patter of winter rain on the windows. I watch the strange tangle of metal for another few minutes, tucking my hands in the pockets of my old leather jacket before taking a breath and walking toward the stairs.
It’s only 8:00 A.M. The sun barely crests the snow-capped mountains in the distance when I reach the main foyer. Maids and workers rush past me with courteous bobs of their heads.
The world keeps spinning and spinning.
A flash of memory clouds my vision. I watch Gabriel drag his knife across Evander’s throat. Kenna’s scream sears into my mind
Beginning of Book 9Two Months Later....SarahIt’s warmer down here under the grow lights. Electricity hums through the air as I move from plant to plant, pruning, plucking, and watering. Outside the frosty windows, the Neutral Zone is every shade of silver in the unforgiving cold. Someone passes bundled against the frigid, windy air. Their red hat disappears into a rush of snow being swept by the wind down the street. I shiver despite the slight warmth in the air. I’ve been cold for weeks. Cold, hungry, and stressed beyond belief. The baby swaddled in a sling across my chest wriggles before falling back asleep, his cheek pressed against my breast. I move to the utility sink in the storage room and wrench on the pump, but the water doesn’t start. The pipes are frozen solid. “Shit,” I whisper, closing my eyes and trying to swallow past the lump in my throat. Mr. Foxglove, my landlord, was supposed to be here this morning to fix the heat to the building. My one room apartment up
SydneyCosette screams into the foyer, her apron knotted so tightly in her hands that her slim fingers are white. Her light brown hair is flaked with silver, and her dark brown eyes glow like embers in the chandelier light as they narrow into a glare. I shut the front door to my manor firmly behind me, ignoring the incessant screech of the wind howling outside, and eye my housekeeper–my life manager, honestly–as she huffs a breath and glowers at me. “Am I past curfew?” “Alpha Sydney, I thought you were dead!”“It’s just a blizzard.” I shrug out of my coat as Dalia–the only other person I employ at my house–comes up behind me to take it, gathering my coat, gloves, and hat in her tiny hands. I give the mousy, red-haired maid a gracious, silent smile before turning back to Cosette with a frown. “Don’t look at me like that, Your Grace.” She plants her hands on her hips and looks up at me as I approach her. “It’s below zero out there and blowing like hell has frozen over.”“You’re just
SydneyThe botanical garden is a thirty minute drive from the city and even longer from the castle. Juxtaposed against a sea of silver trees, the glass domed building sticks out as a bright pop of color against ribbons of pure white snow.I pull my truck to a stop, checking my watch.Someone opens the front door to the building and steps out, bundled against the biting sub-zero temperature in a pale purple sweater and gray leggings.Mom’s wine-red hair is pulled in a bun piled on the top of her head. She waves at me, motioning for me to hurry the hell up.“You said you’d be here at eight!” she says by way of greeting as I hike up the snow-covered steps.“It’s 8:15,” I reply as she motions me inside, pulling the heavy glass doors closed behind her.My thick coat and hat are suddenly suffocating inside the humid warmth of the building, but I don&
SarahI’m hallucinating.I have to be because Alpha Sydney of the Shadowcrest pack is standing in my doorway looking like he’s ready to rip someone in half.He’s handsome. Too beautiful to be real. His face has been carved from the purest marble by craftsmen who spent their entire lives dedicated to their art. Soft, slightly curly dark brown hair glints with copper as he takes a single step into my apartment.A jawline that could cut glass. A strong, stately nose. High cheekbones.But the one thing about him that haunts my dreams are those dark blue eyes that feel like I’m looking into a pool full of pure magic when I meet his gaze. Such a dark shade of navy that they edge on a stormy, blue-gray.And right now, those eyes are scanning my face with such fervor I feel my cheeks going crimson.My lips part to ask him why he’s here, but his eyes lift to scan t
SarahWe pass the main gates to the Shadowcrest territory. They fall away behind us, cloaked in frost covered vines.It’s been a silent drive. Silent–and I’m terribly sick to my stomach. Alpha Sydney was right about the uphill drive being bumpy and dangerous, but his pack lives in one of the more remote territories surrounding Crescent City.A stone wall runs alongside the truck as he continues driving uphill, turning with great effort around a sharp bend in the hillside. My view from the window gives way to a small, bustling city below, the roof tiles mingling with thick, snow covered trees, and in the distance?The castle of Crescent Falls rises like a beacon overlooking a sprawling metropolis.He turns onto a side road, and eventually, we meet a private gate that swings open for him automatically. No guards linger around the entrance to what I assume is a private driveway. A dense forest hugs the
SarahI can’t remember the last time I felt full.I look down at the plate in front of me, which Cosette is piling with food for a third time. A piece of lusciously dark chocolate cake stares up at me while she arranges a scoop of vanilla ice cream next to it.Everything is homemade.Everything is delicious and filling.I take a bite and close my eyes, fighting the urge to moan.Cosette clucks in approval, and as I finish off the cake and ice cream, I wonder what she’s going to bring me next. I couldn’t possibly eat another bite, but after weeks of the occasional bowl of oatmeal and scrambled eggs, I’ll keep eating her food if she wants me to.But she brings me a cup of tea spiked with warm milk and so much sugar it makes my teeth tingle as I take a sip. She sits across from me at the snug kitchen table, stirring her own cup as her dark eyes look over me critica
SydneyThe sun hasn’t risen yet when a peel of anguished cries thunders down the hallway. Brie’s image flashes in my mind–Brie being held to that altar while Gabriel taunts me, taunts her–and I’m out of bed in a second.My heart hammers against my ribs to the point I find it hard to fill my lungs with air. The entire room spins, and I can barely get my bearings.But then I remember where I am. The deep navy wallpaper and dark wood crown molding comes into view as gray, early morning sunlight ghosts through the silken curtains.I slowly sit on the edge of my bed and lower my face into my hands.It was just a dream. Another nightmare. Everything is fine. Brie is safe with her parents in Veiled Valley. Everyone is safe and secure.Another faint cry sounds from down the hallway, and I’m up again, sprinting through the near silent second floor toward the source of the sound
SarahIn the end, it isn’t the Alpha of Shadowcrest darkening my doorway with breakfast.Cosette comes into the sitting room, beaming, her arms full of clothes in colorful fabrics. Within a few minutes, I’m dressed in a perfectly tailored pair of comfortable khaki trousers and a shirt made of light pink cotton, and I’m sitting at the kitchen table, surrounded by an endless amount of food once again.Cosette rambles about the clothing she ordered yesterday that some poor seamstress in Shadowcrest likely worked on all night to have ready so soon. When she offers me coffee, I shake my head, and she’s delighted when I ask for a cup of tea like she made for me last night.Dalia sits in a sunny, frost covered window with my son in her arms, letting him curl his tiny fingers around her impossibly small pinky.I remind myself how young Dalia is despite her expertise in newborns and allow myself
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