Sorry this went up late, thank you all for your patience! Chapter 28 will be posted in a few hours.
[Apple]Grabbing a towel, I scrub the writing from the mirror as best as I can, but instead of coming clean, it leaves a pinkish-red stain across several panes of glass. Next, I try soap and a bit of cleanser I find under the sink, but the best I can manage is to make the letters a little less clear as if reading them while wearing a friend's glasses. Giving up, I look around for something to cover my face, I tie a hand towel over my nose and run around the room opening every window in an attempt to dissipate the smell. When I look over at the bed, I see that my nose didn't deceive me when I first walked in. "That nasty bitch peed on my bed!" I growl. "Come on! Doesn't she know I'm just doing my job!""She's just trying to scare you away," the voice inside my head suggests. "Don't let her win." Grimacing, I hunt under the sink until I find a pair of rubber gloves and pull the comforter off of the bed along with all of the sheets, blankets, and ruined clothes. Once I have everything
[Sylvester]I knew that she was the right pick for this job. She is so different from any she-wolf I've ever dated. She shapes the world around her with her smiles and frowns, brightening the room with her light. She almost glows with energy, and when I saw her with the pups tonight, I could tell that they could feel it too. If she were a wolf, I'd have been afraid to make her my Rental Luna. A wolf with that much charisma is destined to run a pack. Because she's a human, she'll never be a threat. "She'd never be a threat because she is ours," Rufus rolls his eyes in my mind. "Alexis was once ours too, remember?" Or so we thought. I don't understand why she's come back. I know it's not for me, no matter what she's been telling the Board of Directors. "Apple is different," Rufus insists. "She is OURS. Alexis was never really ours." The way he emphasizes our ownership of her usually means one very particular thing--something that can't be possible. If it were, I'd send her as far a
[Apple]"Good Morning, Apple," the Alpha stretches slowly. "Did you have pleasant dreams? You were making quite a bit of noise in your sleep." He plants a kiss on my temple and then rolls out of bed as if waking up next to me is the most natural thing in the world. I try not to watch him stalk around the room in his boxers but I fail. Miserably. He's an absolute Adonis. His body is so well-formed that even his muscles seem to have muscles. He isn't overly bulky but moves with the predatory grace of a wild animal designed to hunt its prey.And right now that prey is me. I take long steadying breaths as he walks toward his bathroom. "How did I end up in your bed," I ask in what I hope sounds like a neutral voice although internally I'm seething. I fell asleep on the couch, the only way I could have gotten here is if he carried me in here from the couch where I fell asleep."Don't worry," he says to assuage my worried frown. "We didn't do anything more than sleep next to one another, a
[Apple] "Alpha," I pull on his arm. We are seated in the car, just moments before Rudy opens the door. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"I try to pull my dress to cover the mark and the alpha growls softly. As I move my hand slowly away, I look to see his eyes watching me attentively. "Don't cover it, Apple. You should be proud of it. That mark on your neck is better than an engagement ring. If my wolf is so smitten with you that we'd willingly leave that kind of mark on such an important location," he explains, a touch of anger in his voice. "Most people will assume I'm very close to declaring you my official mate." Reaching down, Alpha Sylvester adjusts the deep v of my dress, until it frames his nibble mark like fine artwork. Looking me up and down appraisingly, he smiles widely. "I wasn't planning on this mark appearing, Apple, but I plan to take advantage of it. I was only thinking of saving your honor last night, but now that I think of it, I really couldn't have planned i
[Apple]Sitting at my desk, drinking a cup of coffee, and shouting into a phone, is the she-wolf of my nightmares.Alexis.Looking poised, professional, and every inch the Luna in charge, she sits in my place like she belongs there. As Rudy starts to growl softly in outrage, she raises her eyes briefly, then blinks away as if we are invisible, returning to her call.The nasty bitch who peed all over my room just snubbed me. I'm usually not a violent person, but I have a sudden urge to claw out her eyes. "Excuse me," I almost raise my hand to get her attention but remember myself. "Um...Hi, I'm..."Irritated, she closes her phone and addresses Rudy, ignoring my presence entirely. "Oh, you're finally here," she holds up a stack of papers. "Can you run these down to accounting?"To his credit, Rudy doesn't flinch. In his calm, easy-going way he says. "I'm sorry, Ms. Greystone, but you have the wrong office. I'm sure you'd be more comfortable in one of the visitor's suites down the hall.
[Alexis]How dare they.This is the company that my father built. By every right, it should be mine. As I walk down the hallways, I can see my father's hand in every detail. He poured his heart and soul into this company only to have his vision squashed by the very same upstart foundling he pulled off the streets. Sylvester. I want to hate him. I've tried to hate him. No, I do hate him. "That's never been true," Alana speaks to me from the shadowed corners of my mind, her white pelt shining in my thoughts. "You loved him once with all your heart. You love him still, just admit it." "No, Alana," I correct her, "I pitied him." "You loved him. And I love Rufus," she curls up in a ball, tucking her nose under her tail. "And I still don't forgive you for what you did to him." None of it matters now. I have a job to do, and his new little tart is getting in the way. I need to speak to the Board of Directors. The elders brought me here to reconnect with Sylvester, and now our plans ar
[Apple]I could see the rage brewing in Sylvester's eyes even before he took a step toward his Beta. Rudy immediately falls to his knees before the Alpha, his head bowed, prepared for the worst. "Explain now, Beta." There is nothing Rudy could say that would save him from some kind of terrible punishment. He is responsible for keeping me safe when the Alpha cannot, and I was harmed by Alexis on his watch. "It's all my fault," he begins, telling everything from how we entered the room and how he failed to keep Alexis from putting her hands on me. The longer he spoke, the more tense Sylvester became, holding onto me so tightly I'll probably bruise. Wolves, I've learned, are very possessive. Especially alpha wolves. Hazel had warned me about this possibility, that once the alpha considered me "his", Sylvester would be unable to keep himself from being as brutal as he deems necessary when it comes to protecting me.It won't matter that Rudy did his best. It will only matter that he fai
[Apple] Sylvester seems so happy, but all I feel is terror. I'm not a real wolf. What am I going to do in an agency full of alpha-class she-wolves? They'll smell my weakness a mile away.Not only that, the Alpha didn't ask me what I wanted to do. He just signed me up for classes as if my opinion didn't matter. "No," I pinch my lips as I grab my cup of water and take a sip. The miniature rose bush in the center of the table shakes as I set the glass down with too much force. "I have classes this afternoon. I can start tomorrow." "Skip class, get your friends to give you notes," he brushes off my concern as he takes a bite of his steak sandwich. "Problem solved." I close my eyes and repeat, “No." Why isn't he listening to me? He's always so stubborn. As I open my eyes, I cross my arms in frustration, accidentally knocking the rose bush over, leaving a trail of dirt and muck behind as I scoop the plant back into its overly fancy pot. Carefully, I replace the dirt, apologizing to t
[Hawthorne]I was three drinks in when my great-grandmother swept into the tavern, her sudden appearance quieting every laugh and sob with the sheer power of her presence. Even the music seemed to disappear as the door closed behind her and she made a direct path to the bar where I sat surrounded by other lovesick witches mourning their losses over cheap beer. “Come with me child,” the old witch commanded in a voice barely above a whisper, as she leaned in. “If you want to help her, you’ll come. You aren’t doing either one of you any good moping around here.” She barely masks her disappointment as she looks me up and down. I've seen that look on her face before, every time that I disappoint her. Now is no different except for the rushed intensity of her movements. Her glare has the power to incinerate stone, so I moved quickly before there was nothing left to me than ash.The powerful Coven Mistress doesn't wait for me to catch up as she sweeps from the room, her cape billowing behi
[Apple]As I stand there watching my two closest friends hold one another, the ferocity of their embrace startles me. It isn't anything more than a tight hug, but the way their bodies mold to one another, his nose burying itself in her hair, feels more intimate than a simple kiss might have. My homecoming with Sly might not be much different if he came to me hurt as Rudy is now. I've known them both for a little while now, but neither have been known to show more than a passing respect and kindness towards one another. Now as I stand there, stunned, I realize there is so much about their everyday lives I know nothing about. Eventually, they pull apart, but before I can ask either one of them a question, Hazel yells and smacks Rudy hard across the face while carefully avoiding a large gash running downward from his eye."I thought you died in that courtroom," Hazel's hands seem to shake as she wraps them around her chest. She mumbles something else that I don't quite catch and Rudy s
[Apple]Despair is deeper than sadness--it is the feeling of no longer having hope. As I sob on the cold, hard ground, my body seizes with loss. What will I do without Sylvester? Is this little spark of life all that remains of my mate and our love? Will I end up like my mother, alone with a child, still in love with my mate but unable to be with him, mourning him for the rest of my life until I die of depression?Rudy falls to his knees beside me, shielding me with his body and grounding me in comfort as my body struggles to adapt to this new information. Sly is gone, missing. But that doesn’t mean he’s dead. I sent my wolf along the connection between my mate and me, and she came back with the report that the link is still there, but he is blocked somehow. “I can still hear Rufus, but it’s like he’s far away,” Astrea reports, disappointed but emboldened. Nobody is going to keep her from her mate. Her certainty that we’ll be reunited brightens my despair with the smallest flutte
[Apple] I should have known he’d be the one who would find me first. Of all the wolves in Crescent City, he has always been the one looking out for me. From the very beginning our bond has been strong. He really is the very best Beta a pack could have. “Luna,” Rudy gasps, doing his best to bow while holding his side as he leans against a wall. “Thank Goddess I found you!” Stepping out of the shaddows of the alleyway, the first thing I notice is that Crescent City has changed. Since stepping through the portal to arrive in my great-grandmother's shop, I've spent all my time back here underground in Haven. Haven, if anything seems even more bustling than normal, full to the brim with witches wanting to keep their families safe with the disaster happening live on TV. But here on the surface, everything is unnaturally quiet and still. The shop fronts are abandoned, stuck in a state of unchanging, forever trapped in sales from last month. The streetlights are blinking red and a few
[Apple] No. I can't breathe. There is no way that anyone in that room is going to survive. I'm going to be a widow before I have a chance to be a wife. The wolves holding whips jump to the front of the line at first, swinging like mad until one by one they begin to fall, and the remaining defenders, afraid for their own lives, turn tail and run in the opposite direction. But the cowards soon discover that all of the exits are barred, the bodies of the living dead, wandering, mindless rogues poisoned by some drug, push at every door and window. The courtroom is like a box of cookies, and the rogues already have their hands inside. It's only a matter of time before they are all consumed by those wolves' insatiable hunger. "This is April McKaine coming live to you from the courthouse," the frazzled reporter whispers into a camera whose cameraman has either fled or fallen. The camera is tilted to the side as she hides under a bench, her fine white suit blemished with dirt and bl
[Sylvester]The sting of Chancy's whip burns more than just my body--it sets fire to my mind, searing my soul as I fall into memories from an almost forgotten moment of my childhood. [18 years ago]We were a small collective, just twenty wolves. No alpha and no lands, so we couldn't be called a pack. We were all rejects, wolves that didn't fit anywhere else, so we were forced to wander from pack to pack, begging for whatever charity they might have. For lack of a better term, we were rogues. My mother tried her hardest to make the best of things but I could see it wearing her down. My father had been her fated mate, as unfortunate as that was for her because he was an alpha and could afford to reject her. She, on the other hand, couldn't handle the separation, and while she kept up a brave face for me, after three years away from our pack, a place I can't even remember, she had withered, her omega body unable to handle the strain of a broken connection. So like many of the other ro
[Apple] Every day I watch my mate dragged into that courtroom and placed on that podium, center stage in a ridiculous farse of a fair trial. Sylvester never stood a chance of defending himself. His fate was sealed before he stepped foot in that room. Despite Sly Sterling being a werewolf, all of Haven is watching the proceedings with bated breath, and while there have been some comments about how the wolf "deserves whatever foul future he receives," there are more voices saying "His mate is one of us and he stood by her." When I walk around town, people recognize my face from the proceedings and bow in reverence. The girl who is a witch and dared to love the Alpha King--Granddaughter of the Coven Mistress and a Thorpe! Such a prestigious background with such powerful allies. In a way, he's become a bit of a hometown hero. One of Crescent City's own defending the rights of all of us, not just wolfkind. "It's time," Thorne, turns on the television. The screen focuses on a
[Alexis]I've been trying to keep him safe, and still, he chooses her. That weak, sniveling, useless girl. She doesn't know how to be a Luna, she hardly knows how to take care of herself. What is the use of having so much power at your disposal if you cannot use it as it is intended?I can't let my uncle see the rest of this footage. "Erase it," I tell my old delta, "Wipe the record clean. Nobody should see this...ever. Do you understand?""Yes Luna," he bows, still loyal after all these years away. "As you command."I have given Uncle Chancy an edited version of the tape from the clinic where the botched procedure created the opportunity we needed to finally topple Sylvester. The footage shows Apple strapped to the table. It shows her idiot human boyfriend demanding that she be cut without anesthesia. Fool. If he had just been more patient, and let things happen as they should, she wouldn't have awakened. The light that shone from her immediately grew so bright that it blinded the
[Sylvester]The first day of the trial was long and ardorus. I am exhausted mind, body, and soul. Several alphas came forward, each with their own evidence against me. The first, of course, was Clancy, who presented the case, standing up in court declaring he had proof of my guilt, that I've broken my bond as Alpha. His testimony was followed by the head of Rental Luna and the Alpha from Arc de Lune. All saying the same thing. "Alpha Sterling forced us to lie. His Luna isn't a real wolf." My status as Alpha is tenuous at this point, awaiting the end of the trial. Although nobody in the courtroom doubts the conclusion--I will soon be a rogue again. The march back to my cell was solemn. The room that they placed me in was in the basement of the city center, where all the criminals were housed as they awaited trial. Due to my status, the guards shoved me into the corner cell, one that looked more like a room and less like bars and bricks. "For privacy, " the guard explains, "Due to yo