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[Apple]One moment I'm staring at my reflection, the next moment a man wearing a mask comes up behind me and covers my mouth with a cloth smelling strongly medicinal.When I open my eyes again, everything is dark. I don't know where I am or how long I've been here, but I know I am somewhere new because everything smells different. Gone are all of the gentle scents of cooking food, and the subtle aromas of fresh plants in vases, or the sky on the verge of late autumn rain. In their place are the stale smells of old exhaust, and the sensation of cold concrete underneath my skin.In the background, someone is listening to an old radio."Earlier today, my mate, Luna Queen Apple Sterling, was taken in broad daylight during a peaceful outing. We are unsure of who is behind the attack and are looking for clues, not only for her location but for those responsible."Sly's voice is strong but full of sorrow. He's trying to find me."The Luna Queen's health is also a consideration. Just moments b
[Apple] It is impossible for me to know how much time has passed with my eyes covered and my body falling in and out of consciousness. Riding in the back of this van, I don’t even have the feeling of sunlight on my face to give me a clue. It’s like living in a void. And impossible, neverending nothingness. I can hear the bustling sounds of Moon River City surrounding us, so wherever we are, it's still within their borders. I'm not surprised. There is no way that Sly would have let me leave. Now that he is the Alpha King, he has the power to shut the city down. "He'll find me," I try to convince myself. "It's only a matter of time." But how much more time do I have? Minutes? Moments? Seconds? My mind wanders back to this morning, the smell of my mate as he wraps his arms around me, the feeling of his release as he comes undone, his eyes glowing with love."Please let him find me again," I beg the Moon Goddess and whatever other deities might be listening. Reality slams into me wi
[Sylvester]Being able to feel my mate’s pain and not being able to do anything about it is torture. A slow torture where every emotion is magnified as I worry about not only my mate but our unborn child. I can't bear to be apart from them. I feel an overwhelming urge to hold her close to me. I need to feel her touch. I need to smell her and know that she is real.The only thing worse than feeling everything through our connection is losing that feeling. One moment I could sense her every emotion magnified through our bond--her fluttering heart, the way her body shook, the depth of her need for me. If Rudy hadn't been by my side helping me temper my emotions, I'd have gone rogue just to bring her home to me. I want to chase her scent through the city, hunting her like a feral beast, bringing all those who dared touch and hurt her to vicious and immediate justice.I still do. Unfortunately, I’m Alpha King now, and with that title comes a responsibility not only to my mate but to all t
[Sylvester] "I have two requests." The room is silent, the sound of our collective breathing and the dull hum of our beating hearts almost too loud in the cavernous chamber. I am standing before the most powerful wolves on the continent and asking them for a favor to save the love of my life. She is out there, somewhere, lost in this massive labyrinth of a city. There are so many layers and nooks and crannies where a person could be spirited away that even with the full power of Moon River City's wolves at my beck and call, I can't find her on my own. I hate to ask for assistance, but I don't have a choice. If I want to hold my family in my arms again, I will need help. "My Luna, my mate, has been kidnapped," I pause, letting my words fall around my captive audience like rain. "She is currently 2 months pregnant with our first child, my heir." A few bodies stir. They are all alphas here. They know what it means to fear not only for your mate but for your legacy. I have never
[Apple]When my eyes open again, I am on the floor staring up at a flickering light that swings back and forth, breaking the shadows. Sitting up carefully I reach down to feel my rounded belly and send a wave of love to my child. She responds with her own gentle trill, expressing her concern and her love for me."Don't worry little one," I answer softly with both my words and through our growing link to one another. "Mama is here, I'll get us to safety."A gargling cough draws my attention to the other side of the room. That's when I notice the bodies lying strewn across the room. Sucking in my breath the acrid smell of ozone burns my nostrils mixed with the overwhelming aroma of fresh blood?Slowly standing, I lean against the wall and survey what remains of the operation room. All of the equipment has been smashed, some have large claw marks going through them. Bent and broken scalpels and other instruments lay scattered amongst the bodies, some of which were burned almost to ash,
[Sylvester]The pack elders and alphas have been locked in the chamber, voting about my fate, for over an hour. My hands are sweating. If anyone finds out that I bound myself to those two witches, it will all be over before it starts, but I can't risk my family again. Never again. I've already lost two families before this one--first my mother and father, then my adopted father Lysander--Sandy. I miss him. I wish I could remember the name of his mate. She had been beautiful, her hair long and red, her eyes bright green like leaves. I can't remember much else about her except that she had been kind, pure, and sweet--not unlike my Apple. No wonder Sandy had been over the moon about her. The doors open and a flood of wolves in various states of agitation scatter in various directions. A few make eye contact, but most seem to be avoiding my gaze. Elder Harrison, the powerful elder alpha, came to me and let me know that they are deadlocked, unable to come to a firm and final decision on
[Apple]"I miss him." Blinking awake, I stare up into the faces of my friends, Hazel and Thorne, who look at me with a mixture of relief and deep concern before looking up at one another and sharing the non-verbal communication of expressions and gestures I've grown familiar with after being around the twins for so long. They're both worried about me. Not just worried, terrified. How much did they see? Do they know that I tore those men apart?"Apple, how do you feel," Hazel places a tentative hand on my forehead, her cold knuckles tapping me gently as she checks for a fever. Everything hurts. My hands, my back, my legs, and my heart. I tell them as much and their worried expression deepens. Hazel looks over my shoulder and I turn to see Araminta standing at a cauldron like a classical witch, mist billowing around her shoulders as she stirs something hot in a deep cast iron pot. Seeing me watching her, the corners of her eyes crinkle as the light twinkles off a pair of half-moon s
[Apple] The dusty old tome creaks as the old witch opens its worn, leather spine. "As Coven Mistress," she pauses to explain, that as the elder-most witch in the collective, she is the one the rest turn to in times of need. "I keep track of the lineages, or what's left of them since the war. Before we started killing one another, wolves and witches intermarried and raised families together in large, joint communities. At our core, we witches and wolves aren't so much a different species but two sides of the same coin, genetic siblings. It wasn't so uncommon once for witches to be born with a second form, or wolves with the ability to cast marvelous spells." The nostalgia in her eyes has me wondering again just how old she really is. How long do witches live? Is it that much longer than humans? "But then things started to change," the old witch sighs. "As they always do. We didn't need places like Haven, and they didn't always live in massive packs--that's something that came later.
[Hazel]“You’re doing the right thing,” Rudolph tries to convince me as I say goodbye to my dearest friend one last time. “You and I both know it isn’t safe for her above.” He’s right, and I hate him a little bit for it. There are a lot of things that I’ve grown to dislike but also love about him. Damn it, Moon Goddess, sometimes you have a funny sense of humor. “Well let’s just make sure that none of us regret this,” I push past him, our bodies tingling as our knuckles brush against one another. “Let’s go find your alpha and bring him home.” “What about your brother?” the stubborn Beta crosses his arms as he leans against a wall and watches me pack my satchel with various spell components. Unlike Hawthorne and Great-Grandmother who are both sorcerer-class witches, as a hedge-witch my energy needs to funnel through another medium. This means my magic comes through in the forms of potions and tinctures, a magic that can be felt with your fingers and tasted with your tongue. “We don
[Hawthorne]It's a portal. This wall was hiding a portal.Taking a deep breath, I follow after my family matriarch in a leap of faith, biting my lip to keep from screaming as the chilly dark of a void portal takes me to wherever she's gone. Traveling in the spaces between spaces, the void of eternity is a skill that only witches have. You need to have enough glow to sustain the cold, hungry darkness, as it feeds off our life force, taking a small bit into itself as payment. Even witches need to be careful, as a less powerful witch could be drained dry from anything other than the shortest of distances. It feels like I'm falling forever before my feet find purchase on a well-woven rug covering a smooth, stone floor. Usually, portal travel is quick, only seconds. That it felt like several minutes meant that this place wasn't anywhere near Crescent City. It also means that wherever we are isn't a place for a common witch. If I weren't descended from Araminta Thorpe herself, the most po
[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 behind
[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