Aurora
“Slow down,” Paul grumbles, snatching away my glass before the bartender can refill it.
He is sick of me trying to numb my ache but in the same breath, whatever he mixed into that muting potion he gave us leaves such a sour taste in my mouth, I just need to get rid of it with something else; anything else.
He tries to push my glass away, but Ann follows his moves, sticking another glass in front of me and tapping it with the top of hers. We giggle, throwing it back quickly while Paul turns to see what has transpired with his back turned.
He snarls, Row busy paying the bartender, Ann and I loose and warm in the cheeks.
“You will make yourself sick like this, Aurora,” Paul hums, reaching for my newest glass. I snatch it away first, pulling it to my chest like a mother bear clinging to her pup. He rolls his tan eyes. “Really, girls?
“Blame Ann,” I snicker, both her and I breaking into a cackling episode of laughter.
She elbows my side and we are sent into another streak of hysterical laughter.
“Let them have fun,” Row says, leaning back in his chair, eying the gambling tables just outside the bar ropes. “What do you say we go try our hand at cards, Paul?”
He eyes me, then my glass, then the bartender who is happy to oblige serving us drinks as long as Row is tossing gold chips at him every few minutes. I watch Paul struggle to answer before finally nodding. The boys leave, Ann and I staring at each other for a split second, just long enough to get the same idea.
“Another,” we say in perfect unison.
The bartender hands over the next set of drinks.
My wolf is sick in my head, my own mortal body already taken a hit from seeing Luke earlier. Now with the alcohol and the armature potion Paul made, I really feel like my body is trying to shut down. I try to stand, stumbling, looking to find the bathroom so I can throw up or pass out; I don’t care which at this rate. Ann stays behind, too loopy to follow, and I search around the gambling floor for what feels like forever.
I give up, needing to find Paul and Row for help.
I find something else, though, mistaking the curtained room for the table where they play cards, instead stumbling into a situation I can hardly make out.
There’s six or seven, maybe ten, large figures in black outfits kneeling through the room where several stuffed duffel bags spill gold chips onto the floor. I blink slow, the world pausing for a short moment, unsure why I see a man in a dealer’s outfit laid out on the floor behind the group, face-down with a puddle of crimson near his neck and shoulder.
I aim to turn around, to attempt to slip out of here unseen. I don’t make it two steps, hefty hands grabbing my shoulders and spinning me around so fast that I stumble, hitting the floor on my knees. Someone grabs at me, dragging me behind their long, hefty steps, the world so blurry before I’m thrown against a hard wall, my head hitting the ground a second later.
“Shut her up,” someone growls, their voice so otherworldly deep.
I only realize now I’m whimpering, my head throbbing with a new pain. He rips a long strip of cloth off of my shirt, exposing my midriff, and it’s then tied around my mouth without leaving much room for me to breathe. I can’t make sense of what is going on around me, but my wolf let’s my head tilt in submission.
The stench of a rogue hits me now, radiating off the one that tied my mouth up with the cloth of my torn shirt. I can hear him humming a noise of pleasure. It makes me cringe. I feel sicker now, his eyes heavy on my outfit, now leaving my shirt to be just as long as my bra, my skin cold and exposed.
“I’m keeping this one,” the rogue closest to me growls, pushing me to lay down, his fingertips caressing my neck.
I realize now he is searching for a mating mark, something that the royals will take as a reason to leave a female behind but not rogues. They have no care if they ravish a mated wolf or not, they just want to get their pleasure and kill anything in their path.
“We have an unmated wolf, guys,” he says, gleefully surprised. “I heard the royals came through here four times in the last moon cycle and they didn’t manage to snag this slut? She must be really good at hiding.”
His hand slides down my neck, cupping on of my breasts. I struggle, trying to pull away, but he only retaliates by slamming his knuckles across my cheek, throwing my body sideways in a sting of pain before his hand crawls down further, hooking onto the hem of my shorts, an obvious threat.
“I want the honor of taking this one’s innocence,” he jokes, cackling in laughter. “I can smell the virginity in her damn blood.” He leans in closer, speaking against my neck as my nose dribbles with blood from the slap. “Smells like fear.”
“Let’s pack this up and get out of here first,” another rogue says, busy trying to zip up one of the many bags they have strewn over the floor. “At least she can be the bait if we run into trouble. Better than that useless mutt,” he grumbles.
I instinctively look to the man on the floor nearby, breathless and bloody.
“That’s the last of it,” another says after a long moment of coins being pressed into bags and then slung over hefty shoulders.
The rogue next to me bares his dark black irises down the length of my body. “Come on, pet, you’re not staying here,” he growls.
I’m forced to my feet, the alcohol making me unstable, but it doesn’t seem to bother the rogue. He pulls me with him, throwing me in each and every direction he commands me to go in. I heave a breath, pulling on the tie over my mouth and managing to get it down to my neck. He only takes it as an opportunity, snatching it in his hard fist and leading me around with it like a collar.
“Ugh,” I groan, needing to stop and throw up, maybe catch my balance. I’m not allowed to do either, thrown into a stairwell in the back of the casino, empty and dark. “No, please—”
“Let’s go,” he barks, pushing me up the stairs.
Each step is a struggle. I’m sick and miserable, and muted with a damn potion that still blocks my entrance to the mind link. All I can think about is yelling for Luke through the link and it hits me in this moment that I can’t rely on him anymore. He isn’t my mate. He is some friend of mine, a friend who is mated to another female, and he can’t swoop in to save me.
We breach the surface, the air colder than I recall and under the deep shade of the night sky with a thin, skinny moon overhead. I hit my knees on the forest floor, hoping they will leave me behind, but I’m mistaken. The rogue infatuated with my virginity pulls me off the ground like a limp towel, tossing me over his shoulder with his hands dangerously high on my thighs.
The feeling of his grip makes me struggle.
“Feisty, pet,” he jokes with a laugh.
His rogue buddies laugh, holding bags full of stolen coins, leading the way up the hills of the mountainside. They have obviously planned this out in advance. We take an old hunting trail, so old the brush has begun to cover the worn ground back up with heavy tree limbs and annoying vines that brush my body while I’m whisked away through the woods.
I would scream if I thought it would help.
We are far from the pack lands that are populated, let alone town where everyone has already closed shop and gone home anyways. No one will hear me out here. If they do and only royals show up, I’ll be taken advantage of all the same.
I still think of Luke, wishing I could reach him through the link, but only so I can tell him that I’m happy he found his mate; I’m happy that he is happy, even if it hurts my heart in the end.
“You smell that?” one of the rogues says in a small whisper.
The entire group halts.
“Smells like a damn royal,” someone else grumbles.
Everyone kneels, hiding in the brush.
Dread fills me instantly.
The rogue holding me throws me on to my back. His hungry eyes are dark, the white missing from his glare, staring through me with an appetite I have never seen before. That’s when I feel the ache in my side, creeping on slowly. I cringe, trying to hide the pain on my expression but it doesn’t work.
He smiles wide at the sight of me going flush.
“Little pet is going into heat,” he says, just loud enough for me to catch his words.
“We have a bigger problem,” one of the rogues says nearby. “Royals are closing in.”
“They’ll pass,” he growls, his hands grabbing for my shorts. He tears them off, the fabric ripping against my skin and making me gasp. The air is cold as he tugs on whatever is left of my top. I try to fight his hands off of my body, but he is stronger, quicker, and my top is ripped off in the process of our scuffle. “She’s going to need some relief. It’s only right that I help her.”
“The smell of her hormones is going to get the attention of the royal warriors,” someone barks in whisper. “Even I can smell them from over here.”
“Kill the damn mutt. She’s going to blow our cover.”
“Not without my fun,” he says, his hand grabbing a fistful of my thigh, parting my legs. I groan, trying to lock my knees together but the pain in my abdomen only seizes. I hold my breath, breaking into a hot sweat. “It smells too delicious.”
He leans over, biting my throat.
I release a scream.
His hand swats at me sideways once, then twice, heat dripping off my busted lip while I feel his hands drift somewhere near my legs, grabbing and searching, his wolf so damn greedy that I can practically feel the fang marks punctured into my throat. I hold my breathe to keep from screaming again, trying to block out the world around me.
“Rogues!” someone new shouts, their voice so crisp and clean in tone that it’s impossible to be anyone other than a royal. They yell again, this time making my heartbeat cease in my chest. “Find them and kill them all!”
JaxsonIt’s easy to say how I got my role as the lead warrior in the royal guard; and it’s not the relation to my father, King Alpha Kennedy. I worked hard to be the strongest warrior, the most endured fighter, and it shows when I walk through a crowd. Everyone smells the royal bloodline and when they look, they see a warrior, strong and fierce. I refuse to give up in a fight, or bend to the will of anyone that tries to challenge my father or the royal pack.Royals are the picture of prestige and strength, a group of wolves so damning in size and strength; we are the apotome of unfiltered perfection.We heard rumors of rogues searching for casinos to rob, most of those coins then taxed to the royal pack and if there’s one thing my father doesn’t like to be messed with, it’s his gold. Rogues are mostly harmless, a majority of them useless, puny commoners.They can’t stand authority.They really can&r
AuroraI can’t recall the last time I drank but I know it has never felt like it does right now. I jolt out of my warm bed, stuck in the blankets for a second, falling to the floor and having to crawl into the bathroom so I can throw up. My stomach churns, my body so sore that I feel as if I’ve been running for days on end without stopping.The memory of yesterday floods my mind while I sit by the toilet, waiting to hurl. Luke found his mate and my stomach seizes at the sight of him kissing her so outright. Everything changed so fast, too fast, that it left me in the dust to figure out alone.Then there was the casino, the endless drinks. After that my mind goes foggy.A delicious smell of pancakes and warm syrup floods my senses, and I stand slow, catching my balance. Only now do I spot myself in the mirror. I wear a long-sleeve white shirt, something I’ve never owned nor would I; it’s made for a male. Aside from tha
AuroraLuke appears outside my house, and I want to embrace him and never let go but I am inhibited by Jaxson's arm squeezing around my bicep. He drags me from my parents, being held back by warriors, and I watch them struggle at the sight of me being taken away.I leave with a small glance over my shoulder, being tugged into a horse-drawn carriage with the proclaimed prince of the royal pack. He takes a seat on the bench, and fall to the floor, flimsy with fear, his eyes burning holes into my back as the door is thrown shut. I close my eyes, expecting a hit, expecting some sort of pain or to have him finally do what royals do best with helpless, commoner girls.His brow furrows at the sight of me.As the carriage begins to move, he reaches forward to grab me but I flinch, my hands out before me, pleading that he doesn’t touch me. Now that we are alone, and my parents and best friend are out of sight, I feel vulnerable in the carriage
AuroraEven with the immaculate bed, so large I could roll over six times and still not hit the floor, I couldn’t sleep through the night. I kept tossing and turning, moving into the suite connected to my room and splashing my face with cold water, thinking it would help, but it only made it worse as I’d lay down and end up weeping into one of the millions of pillows.I feel dumbfounded at how this situation has come about, and how I should have never gone to the casino at all, but it wasn’t the worst part of the night. I could hear women being raped, being beaten, and I know for fact they are commoners. Royal men don’t hurt royal women like this.I miss Luke, my protector, my best friend.I always had a feeling Mary had a crush on him, always staring at him longingly while he and I hung out with our friend group, but I didn’t know she had already had the inclination that they were mates. I bet she knew for mont
AuroraThe cabin is small, stuffy, with a horrible stench of animal flesh and burnt cedar radiating through the small space. There’s a kitchen fit for one person at a time, chunks of meat set out on the counter, fresh and bloody from a recent kill. The living room is a few lounge chairs facing the fireplace that runs smoke outside, some of it staying dormant indoors, making it hard to breathe without tasting the stench.Jaxson pushes into the back room, something like a bedroom. The space is small, and the bed is nothing but a pile of blankets and a sleeping bag. I spot a male moving around in there already, laughing at Jaxson’s abrupt entrance into the room, and they exchange a hard handshake. Jaxson ruffles through clothes in a dresser against the wall and I watch him slip on some jeans and a flannel top. The rustic sight of a man so perfectly formal makes my head spin.That’s when his brother steps into the room, a blond kid cl
AuroraIt feels like ages before I finally fall asleep in bed, warm under the covers and exhausted from the day. Jaxson refused to speak to me after I hit him, and I feel on some level he is busy brewing with a new idea how to punish me, how to hurt me, and I can only see the way he had thrown his own warrior for grabbing me.His strength is unmatched.He left me in my new room alone for the rest of the day, the only exception being the servants coming through to bring various foods and fruits, but I hardly touched any of it. I can tell the servants are all commoners. It makes me sick to dine while they are bruised and wounded all over.I’m surprised that Jaxson hasn’t tried hurting me like they are hurt, speckling me with wounds until I conform and give into his whims. I turn nineteen in two weeks, the pressure looming while it will be a long year until my twentieth birthday, and I can tell if he’s a liar or no
AuroraAfter a few brushes of makeup, I slip into the gown pulled for me by the mute maids. They are young, like me, watching me be dressed and made up to be a princess with eyes of envy. I would let them have this life if they wanted it, considering how much I don’t want it. No matter my wishes, I am sewn into a long ivy white dress that mirrors the color of my silver hair, now pinned in a long ponytail down my back with extensive, loopy curls.They ignore their wounds and tend to my exterior, trying to make me beautiful, but I can’t stand the sight of being looked after by girls like Callie, girls I grew up knowing and being friends with who don’t deserve this treatment. I turn away from the sight of me in this dress, feeling sick at my reflection.The dress wraps over my shoulders, crossing over my breasts and leaving a lot of skin seen, not leaving much unseen. The fabric tears down over my legs, showing my thighs through the
AuroraJaxson pushes into the washroom, his crisp blue eyes a relief to see after experiencing such a threat from his brother. I am still weak with terror, my cuts and bleeding marks just enough to mask the smell of the second prince and his hands that crawled all over my body.Jaxson grabs for me to stand, holding me upright in the glass to assess my injuries.The fiery heat is still burning in my throat, still reeling off the threat, and my wolf is pleading feel safe. Pulling back from his chest, I can only shake my head, trying to make sense of everything that has happened and what came so close to transpiring.“What happened? Did someone hurt you?” he snarls.“No,” I lie. “It was my fault, sire.”He cocks his brow, as if he doesn’t believe me. I can’t piss off his brother more, though, so I do the only thing I know will shut him up and make him forget his rambling questions ov
AuroraJaxson is off with his training as he does before the pups awake. I take this time to myself to tidy up the hut, pour myself a cup of coffee and watch the sun dare to break the horizon. I watch the waves lap and decide to venture toward them, seeing the sky in the distance a beautiful navy color now. The peace of this pack brings me joy unknown to me before.I wish I had seen just where Jaxson and I would have ended up before I made things so difficult. I only wanted to be free, to love without trouble, but this trouble has brought me a grand future. Thankfully he never gave up on me, and I never fully let myself lose him because otherwise, I would be left in another life, one not as fulfilling as this one.I hear the sounds of feet on sand approach from behind and the scent of my mate’s wolf is nowhere nearby. Instead I smell that of my best friend, his tired eyes coming into focus as he stands beside me in blissful awe, watching the moon expire to the morning.“Good morning,
JaxsonI still fear for my mate. I watch her more than she would ever know. She is calmer now, not as frightened or startled as she used to be. She was never meant to be scared, to be worried that the world we live in would hurt her but I am not the maker of the world. I am not the keeper of knowledge and I am not a king.I’m but a humble Alpha, a father to three pups, a mate to an amazing Luna, and I am finally okay with that. I have let my childhood fantasies run free and I stopped chasing them at last. My life has become simple, not waited on by terrified maids, worried they will be slapped for missing an order or mispronouncing a name of a royal.My Luna has taught me the right way to live, easily, and she does so even now, holding one pup on her hip, stirring a pot for dinner and tending to the other two on the floor at her ankles, playing with large plastic utensils like they’re in a band. I watch her move through her night with a flow, a vine in the wind, easy and pretty.For a
AuroraFinally, free of the pups, I relax on the couch with Jaxson, sipping our hot-coco and humming tunes stuck in our heads. It feels so empty and quiet in our house but at least we have some time to lean back and breathe. I am utterly exhausted right now but that hasn’t stopped my mind from wandering to what I’ve been mulling over all day on.Jaxson gently breathes against my back, both of us snuggled on the couch that is hardly big enough for at least one of us, so I take to sitting on his lap, practically crushing his chest, but I don’t care and neither does he seem to. His arm curls around my shoulder, keeping me close to him without any intention of letting me go.I aim to kiss his neck, his hand diverting me elsewhere, kissing his lips ravishingly. I can’t help but moan as he makes out with me so vigorously that I pant for breathes against his mouth, begging to steal some air from his lungs to have for myself.“Alpha,” I say, practically begging for more with my whimpering ton
AuroraIt couldn’t possibly be more tense in this tiny hut if we tried. We have been lingering on the porch for what feels like hours, Kennedy and Jaxson mulling over conversations that vary from subject to subject. I try not to pry in the talks all that much. I don’t necessarily care firstly but secondly, I fear for my friends, my family, and the other commoners of Dawn pack while the king Alpha’s men all stand on the beach, prepped for trouble.My stomach aches at the mere thought of trouble in our paradise, especially when my three sleeping pups have to woken up soon from their afternoon nap so they can have dinner.Jaxson gives me an all-knowing look, his eyes heavy with concern. I give him the same somber look and the king must notice, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. I watch as he twiddles with his thumbs, sensing our hesitation, and I don’t think any of us are interested in dragging this out longer.“I know you were pregnant,” Kennedy sighs, finally breaking the tension. “My
AuroraWhen the panic subsides, Jaxson and I move slowly, trying to keep the pups quiet enough to inspect the living room first. Snowflake is startled and froze upright, worried as she looks out the front window. I follow her gaze, the morning simple and bright and warm as it pours into our small, quaint hut.Jaxson clings to one pup, while I juggle the other two. He gives me a daring look of caution.Stay close but stay behind me.I give him an approving nod, not stupid enough to face anything when I’ve got a perfectly capable, super strong Alpha with me. He and I both leave the hut and make our way to the beach, turning in every direction to see everything seems rather calm outside, like nothing happened at all. Everything except for a tall stack of black smoke in the distance, trailing into the sky.“Aurora!” My mother finds me first, thankfully taking Dawn from my grasp, clinging to the little pup. My father is next, taking Lily from Jaxson and then taking the young male pup from
Aurora“Please, tell me you’re joking,” I breathe, feeling to stunned to believe it.Jaxson kisses my temple, shaking his head. “It’s true sweetheart.”“Every—Everyone?”He nods once more. I feel tears form in my eyes.“Because of Xander’s death and the treason on me lifted for leaving the Royal pack,” Jaxson says, brushing a stray tear off my jaw, “I just thought it was now safe enough to allow everyone to come live in Dawn pack.”I throw myself to my mate, feeling him grab me, hold me, and never intend to let go of me. I cry gently into his chest. I was worried he would miss the royal pack and crave to be the royal king Alpha more than he would want to create a mating bond with me but I was terribly wrong. He has now proven tenfold that he cares for me so deeply that he would invite my parents, my best friends, into the pack we have chosen to live our lives in.I do worry though, truthfully, that Luke has come for alternative reasons. He hasn’t spoken to me since the beach and I don
AuroraI manage to slip on something to wear, feeling so clouded in my mind that I don’t even notice I have managed to slip into a summery white dress while holding Dawn on my hip throughout it all. I kiss her pale nose, her bright blue eyes a wonder to this world. She is too precious to believe and yet, I know she is special, like her two little siblings.She winks awake and back asleep a few times, attempting to finally fall back asleep but I can’t stand another sleepless night where Jaxson and I have to take turns with cooing these little pups back to sleep.I pace outside to the living room, seeing the beach full of people. I spot Jaxson first of course, his arms full of little Jax and Lily who is busy pulling at his hair in the fistful. He doesn’t seem to mind it as much while he converses with the newcomers.I know them all, of course. I’ve just been too nervous to say anything to them. I cling to Dawn, like a shield, or a distraction, and carefully step off the front porch and
AuroraLily Opal Knight, Dawn Emerald Knight, and Jax Hunter Knight.I hold them all three in my lap, my wolf ready to pounce and lick each of their faces separately, lovingly, so desperate to be their favorite admirer in all forms possible. I lean back in bed, cradling each sleeping child in my tired, limp arms.I haven’t been able to do much since the fight it took to give birth, and I’ve been out of my mind ever since. I have even sworn to hear Luke’s voice outside the hut, especially when Jaxson pounces to go to the kitchen or any other reason he has given when leaving the bedroom. I relish when he returns, aiding me in the smallest of acts that truly make me feel thankful to have a mate like him by my side.He never fails to hold me when I feel the nagging after-ache of what my body has been through, and he helps me rest in the shower, letting the warm water drown over my body when I need a break from my otherwise, perfect angels. I patiently wait for his return now, seeing him b
AuroraI see my parents.They were always so supportive. I never expected them to want to have children. We lived a hard life, the three of us brought up in a world where commoners are mistreated and slaughtered, if not used by royals as nothing but slaves. I always figured it would be hard for me to bring up children, knowing they could see the same fate as so many others I have witnessed fall victim to royals before.Meeting Jaxson changed all of that, but not at first. I still recall the coincidental moment that made him find me, and I recall spending so many days and weeks thinking it was a nightmare, that I had gone crazy and my mind was unsafe for me. I couldn’t come to accept what he claimed to be true. He had to have been mistaken.I see the moments where I asked him to just reject me, to make both of our lives simpler, but my mate never gave into that outcome. I even rejected him and it only pushed him further to be with me. It sent us closer together. It made sense at the ti