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[Apple]My hands are shaking. It is not like me to be bold, and just the excitement of saying out loud what I am thinking and feeling is too much to feel all at once. I'm stuck between flight and freeze, wanting to flee this prison of my desires.I want him to touch me. To taste me. I want to feel his mouth and hands on every inch of me. But as he stalks forward, his eyes glowing faintly, I wonder what I've done letting this wolf into my world. The passion I feel for him overtakes every logical thought and feeling that I have, making it impossible for me to focus. As his woodsmoke and green tea scent grows stronger with each step, I feel it seep deep within me, becoming a part of who I am.I can't imagine my world without him anymore. And that scares me more than anything. In so short a time, I've become inexplicably attached to him. Even his touch drives me insane with how it tingles through me, electrifying my desires. I find myself holding my breath, waiting for him to brush a str
[Sylvester]A virgin.She can't possibly mean to give me such an amazing gift."Our mate waited for us," Rufus is preening with pride inside my mind, more pleased than ever that we found her first to claim her. "She knew she was meant for us." "She's just a frightened child," I argue with my wolf internally as I pull away from her, kissing her forehead and telling her to rest. "We need to leave before we do something we regret." "But she wants to mate with us," he whines, howling.Her warm apple and honey scent blended with my own is driving my desire skywards. Knowing she's untouched makes me want her even more than before, and I already found her irresistible.If I claim her, I will be her first. I will be her only. She will never want anyone else but me. I will love her so well it will be forever.No. I can't do that. I can't love her and leave her craving me for the rest of her life.Moonstruck. That's what they call it when a human or a witch mates with a wolf and becomes so ent
[Apple] "You're a virgin." Something in his eyes changes as he takes a step back, his face becoming a blank mask. "Did I do something wrong?" feeling naked and vulnerable, I fold my legs into my chest, trying to cover myself as best I can with the sheets of the bed. "Oh Apple, you deserve so much better than me to be your first." He kisses my brow like I'm a child and slides out of bed. "You sleep here, I..." he looks outside. "I need to go for a run." Without a backward glance, he strides across the room, and walks out, leaving me alone confused and feeling rejected. "He doesn't want a virgin," I sigh, thinking back to Zion and how he cheated on me with my sister because of the very same problem. "I guess I'll always be one then." Everything feels heavier without him here. I need him to hold me and tell me it is okay, but he can't even be in the same room as me now that he knows the truth. Why does my lack of experience drive men away? I thought Zion and I were waiting for th
[Apple]"Congratulations...?"Why did her eyes shine for a moment? Did I imagine it?What is going on here?Nervously, I step back."Apple," Hazel looks around nervously before adding, "We'll talk after."She gives her brother a knowing look and he nods, his expression still hard but his eyes strangely soft, like his face can't decide what it wants to feel."It's a good thing, trust me," Hazel winks, and then leads the way into class.Looking back, I suddenly find comfort in Rudy being only a few steps away. Whatever Hazel has to say is going to change everything. I can feel it.The problem is, there have been so many changes in my life recently that I can't handle another. I'm already overwhelmed."Let's just get through today and worry about everything else later," I try to pep myself up as I enter the classroom.Today is a lab day, and I'm excited to see how my seedlings are doing. We planted peas in various soils to see how they'd grow, or not, depending on the environment.The pro
[Sylvester]I know the Board of Directors is trying to tell me something important, but I can't focus. My thoughts keep shifting back to last night, the way she felt, the way she tasted, and the way she called out my name as I brought her release with my fingers and my tongue.My sweet, perfect, Apple.I need to see her. Why did I push her away?"So, as we were saying, we need to meet your Luna immediately. Waiting until the end of the month is no longer good enough," Beta-emeritus Clancy Greystone announces briskly. "And if she doesn't meet our standard, you have no choice. It's Alexis. Do you understand what we are saying?"I want to answer back with something flippant, but I hold my tongue. I need to see Apple. I don't have time to fight him."Of course, Beta Clancy," I remember my manners, giving a deep bow. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have important work to do, running our pack. I'm sure you understand."I'm given the details of the time and place to bring Apple, but I don't even
[Apple]This has to be a trick or a hallucination because none of this makes sense. Hazel’s words cannot be true. I can’t be a witch. Or a half-witch, or part-witch, or whatever.“I grew up in Pleasant Valley, California.” I remind her as I turn my head from side to side watching as my hair emits amber sparks, my skin glows and my eyes shine beacon bright. “A HUMAN ONLY community. They have hex-blockades and supe detectors installed in the roads leading into town," my voice is growing louder and as I blush in frustration, my skin's hue slowly blooming to match the flowers in my hair. "How can I be a witch if I grew up in a place like that?" "Witches are good at hiding." Hazel shrugs. "And I bet your mother or father tied your powers down so tightly they thought they'd never escape." She grimaced. "Probably even put a compulsion or two on you to keep you a virgin. That way your powers wouldn't manifest until you were ready." Hazel then explains that if my powers were locked as she s
[Apple]"Sly," the sound of the door closing behind me tells me we are alone. I hold my breath. He steps forward, closing the distance between us, and pulls me into his arms holding me tightly as he breathes in my scent."I needed to see you," he says against my hair. "I'm so glad I found you." "You left me alone," a sob breaks free, muffled by his chest as I bury my face in his embrace, craving his touch and scent as much as any wolf. "You don't need me. You don't even want me."He holds me even tighter as I cry, clutching his jacket. "I know this relationship is just pretend to you, that you never promised me anything, but I can't help how my heart feels," I try to explain, my words moving quickly. "I can't give my body without my heart, Sly. When I offered myself and approached you, it was with everything, and I know you can't love me back, but I thought it wouldn't matter.""But I was wrong," I confess. "I want you to want me too. To have you reject me broke me.""I didn't reject
[Sylvester]When I finally come back to myself, I realize that Apple is gone.Taking a deep breath, fall to my knees and inhale what is left of her scent. She couldn't have gotten far. I wasn't out of it that long, was I?Her friend, Hazel, looks shocked and hurt. "How could you do that?" she starts to shout, her fingertips glowing with light. Of course, she's a witch. That makes so much sense. A witch hiding another witch. I wonder if she gave Apple tips on how to seduce a wolf."She showed you who she really is and you took her heart and stomped on it." She snarls, disgusted. "I thought you actually cared for her, but it turns out you didn't deserve her after all.""She lied to me," I gasp, my heart aching as I feel that all too familiar burn of betrayal."No, she didn't, you stupid mutt," Apple's friend snaps, glaring at me with golden glowing eyes. "She had no idea of her true identity. Apple's mother never told her and blocked her abilities away so tightly that she'd never find ou
[Araminta] The door swings open, and I’m face to face with an angry alpha, glaring down at my gathered group as we walk inside. At my back is Hawthorne, along with Coven Master Harlem and his apprentice, Parris, from the High Witch Council. They were the only ones willing to help me find the Alpha after the meeting concluded, and I lost my great-granddaughter in a flush of claws and fur, running after the last traces of her mate bond. “I did my best, Alpha,” I snap back, exhausted from my trip. “She’s impossible to tame, you should know that as well as anyone. She’s a LeRoux. They’ve always been stubborn. Besides,” I take a deep breath. “She ran off chasing you. I was hoping to find her here.” The two wolves move aside and I can’t help but be reminded of a similar meeting a lifetime ago between me and a promising new Alpha King, his beta by his side. There was a similar feeling of friendship blended with antagonism, only unlike before we are on the same side. “Weren’t you witch
[Sylvester] My body is sore, but somehow I manage to stand on shaking legs. "No need," I assure him. "I'm fine." Rudy's eyes widen with shock and uncertainty. "Alpha?" His deep timber vibrates with fear and wonder, "How are you doing this?" With each step I take forward, my footsteps become more sure as I feel my spinal cord fully knit itself back together, the muscles in my back recovering as I move. "I was trapped in that place with the remaining elder alphas." My smile is more of a grimace as I remember how one by one they took the knee, only to be slaughtered by Clancy and Calyx. "All of them." "Does that mean...?" His voice is a whisper as the truth of my words dawn on him. "Please, Rudy, don't bow," I request with the edge of an order as I turn away and head towards a large crystaline lake. I can't bear to see his reverence or watch him bow before me as his king- a title I now loathe to have after seeing all the death such power can create. Because it isn't just the alphas
[Sylvester]Of all the wolves in the world to find me, I should have known it would be him.Rudolph Ian Forrester. Best damn beta in the world."Alpha, thank the Goddess you're okay," he looks down at my bruised and cut form with the biggest gore-covered smile on his face as he reached down to help me up.When I explain that I can't stand because the dead assholes "drugged me like a fucking elephant," he shrugs, picks scoops me up like I weigh nothing, and lays me down in the back of the van. Propping me up against a seat, he opens the door so I can watch him work while recovering from the effects of the drugs.Rudy is efficient as he partially transforms to dig a hole several feet wide and several feet deep. The entire time he does this, he rattles on about how crazy it's been out here since I disappeared from the courtroom, chasing down a red wolf, which I now realize was all part of Clancy's plan. How long had he planned this? Did he somehow set me up to be tried for treason? There
[Sylvester]When taking that first sip of alpha blood while trapped in that underground prison, I hadn’t realized how quickly my ability to heal would increase. It was almost instant, allowing me to turn around and see exactly who hit me in the back of my head. Calyx. The sly young wolf has an even more twisted grin as he holds a bloody, broken chair. I don’t think he was expecting me to still be standing. Swiping him with the speed of an alpha powered by other alphas, I moved more rapidly than I knew was possible. One moment I was standing still, the next, my clawed hand was around his neck, his face slashed to ribbons as I pinned him against a wall.“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” This idiot thought he could hurt me. To be fair, just a moment earlier, being hit with a metal chair from behind would have at least stunned me. Gargling on his own blood he laughs. “Distracting you.” “What?” I don't have enough time to process what is going on when a needle pierces my neck
[Sylvester]My lip curls as his foul scent fills my nostrils, invading my mind. The smell of him confirms what my eyes can plainly see. Even tattered and bruised and covered in filth, there is no mistaking the proud wolf hunched before me, trapped in a cage like a mutt. It’s Clancy--Alexis’s uncle and Beta-Emeritus from Silver Crescent Pack. Of all the wolves who died in that building as the rogues broke through, he may be the one who least deserved to live. And of all the people I’d want to be by my side when the end of the world comes knocking, Clancy isn’t one of them. If I’m honest with myself, I’d admit that I enjoyed watching what I thought was his demise. If I hadn’t been so distracted by my need to get out of there, I’d have noticed he survived and done something about it then. He shouldn’t have ever left that courthouse, not after all the sins he’s committed. Of all the people to be stuck with as I watch the world burn, he is the last wolf I’d choose.“How are you still
[Sylvester]This young pup isn’t a wolf, he’s a rat. What kind of wolf sells his own kind out to humans for experimentation? What kind of wolf laughs about how his father was used as a test subject for the current version of hellsbane.And how can this bastard be the true son of Lysander Moon with a soul so twisted and tainted?“Lysander Moon is my father,” he announced, gasping as I started to squeeze the life from his scrawny neck. “Prove it, you lying piece of shit,” I howled, slamming him into a wall. "Lysander wouldn’t have betrayed his mate. He was too loyal.”He smirks even as the blood leaves his face. “Maybe you didn’t know him as well as you think. But I am his son. You know I am. You can see it, can’t you? You can see my father in my eyes.”Either this pup is lying, or he’s telling the truth, in the end it doesn’t matter. I need him to help me find a way out of this nightmare.More importantly, if he knows about Lysander, and my foster father is still alive, this little pri
[Apple]Carefully removing the items from their hiding spot, my fingers touch the leather spine of my mother's book, a book that I've never seen before but seems more familiar than the back of my hand. My mind is a confusion of memories that seem like someone else's dreams, moments long forgotten and trapped deep within. Finding this book and mirror, feeling their weight in my hands, is a key unlocking a door in my mind behind which a wealth of memories have been stored. Memories of my mother and I.The room spins and then fades as I am pulled into these memories as an observer, watching everything as if from above, seeing the scenes playing out like a movie of my own forgotten life. I am standing in a small wooden house surrounded by trees. It is so cold outside that the windows are frosted, their edges rimmed with snow. Along the panes, small fingers had traced warm patterns--pentacles and symbols of protection, that my numb fingertips remember making earlier that morning as I prac
[Apple]Tansy was so shocked by my sudden appearance in the middle of the road, glowing like a beacon, completely naked with claws outstretched, that shortly after she recognized me, her lips said my name, her eyes rolled back, and she fell to the ground in a jumbled heap of skintight clothing and too much makeup. Even her shoes, three-inch spiked heels in a gaudy shade of yellow, screamed village tramp. Moon Goddess above, how did I ever miss that she was screwing Zion this whole time? Based on the half-dozen male scents wafting from her body, barely masked by her pea flower perfume, she’s probably screwing half the town. Lifting her legs, I dragged her to the back of the van. Finding her keys, I open it up to find it empty except for two stained mattresses that are strapped together, and 5 sets of silver shackles. Even though she didn’t have any prisoners right now, it is clear that this hexed van was designed to transport witches. Perfect. That means I can bring it inside without
[Apple]I’m not sure how long I ran, crazed, mad, unable to remember who I am, or why I’m even running in the first place. All I know is that on the outer edges of things, I can feel him.Sylvester. My mate. His agony burns through me like quicksilver, propelling me forward, keeping my eyes wide and my claws clenched as I race through trees along the river.Shivering, I fall to the ground, released from my wolf form for the first time in Goddess knows how long. It takes me a moment to remember how to use my arms and legs, but when I finally stop screaming in pain, I manage to roll over, hoisting myself up onto my elbows, before dragging myself to the water to take my first, tortured sip. The cool river water tastes faintly of algae as I lap it up, forgetting for a moment that I have lips and no fangs. I have a human form again, one I had almost forgotten about. “Just breathe,” my voice is raspy as the first words break the silence of my thoughts. “Remember how to breathe.” My naked