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CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT
I can hardly believe what I’m hearing.“Sterling, please,” I whisper, clinging to his hand as if I could hold him back from making a deal with Coello. “Don’t do this.”“It’s more important to return Stella to her family,” he insists. “She’s a Crescent Child. And a baby. I’m just a soldier. I’ve always been ready to sacrifice myself for my pack.”“But you’re not just giving yourself up,” I plead. “I can’t live without you. Sterling, please!”“That won’t be a problem,” Coello says, striding down the steps toward us. “Because I’ll accept the young man’s offer, but only if you’re included as well.”“What?” Sterling snaps.“I want both the soldier and the Star Twin,” Coello says. “If both of you agree to submit to serving me, I will let the child go.”“No,” Sterling says. “She was never part of my offer.”“Well, she’s part of mine,” Coello tells him. “It’s a deal, then,” I say. “Ayala!” Sterling’s eyes are wide. “Are you sure?”I nod. “At least I can stay
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE
Sure enough, Coello invites some other celestial beings over. He places me and Sterling on either side of his throne, standing with our hands behind our backs. We must look like statues, some kind of grotesque decoration.“Don’t look anyone in the eyes,” I whisper to Sterling. “Has he done this to you before?” Sterling murmurs back. “Put you on display like this?”I nod. “It’s part of belonging to him.”Sterling is about to say something back when Coello notices us talking. “Be silent!” Coello’s voice booms across the room, piercing my eardrums with a shrieking pain. I see Sterling, too, raise his hands to cover his ears. No one else in the room is affected. They’re all celestial beings, after all. So although we’re mere feet from each other, Sterling and I can’t speak, can’t touch, can’t do anything but stand perfectly still, our eyes cast respectfully down, and listen to the strange gathering going on around us.Finally, the guests trickle out, leaving me
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY
Time stretches by. There are no days or nights in the celestial realm, so it’s impossible to know just how long we spend trapped in the Moon Rabbit’s dungeon, but it’s a long, long time.Sterling and I pass the time by talking with each other. We share stories from our childhood, and make plans for our lives together when we finally manage to escape. We make up games to play, and come up with so many strange inside jokes that sometimes I wonder if anyone will still be able to understand us once we make it back to earth.Being in this strange isolated world with Sterling feels sort of like how it used to be with Layla. Back when we were just two Star Twins roaming the world together, seeking magic and learning new ways to wield it. We also had our own language, our own stories, our own dreams and hopes, a vision of a future that we shared and cultivated together.Layla. I miss her so much. I wonder what she thinks of my decision to trade myself for Stella, to willingly go back
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE
STERLINGWhen I wake up, Ayala is back in the dungeon. I’m so happy to see her - I always hate when Coello takes her out without me. “I have an idea,” Ayala tells me once I sit up and blink through the dimness, letting her know that I’m up.“What kind of an idea?”“A spell that might get us back to earth,” she tells me. “One I remember trying with Layla.”“A spell?” I’m curious - we’ve gone over, and over, and over, the entire list of spells Ayala knows from her time on earth with her Star Twin. Plus the spells she doesn’t know, ones she’s only barely heard of or half remembers. I thought we were long past strategizing about spells Ayala might be able to perform.“Yeah,” she tells me. “I just remembered one.”“Are you sure? Is there something you’re holding back?”Ayala shakes her head, but she won’t look at me. Finally, she admits that she has a half formed plan, but thinks it will work better if I don’t know much about it beforehand. “You just have to tru
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO
The last few times Sterling went out on one of Coello’s stupid missions, he came back without anything I could use in my plan.He always seems to disappointed in himself, worried that he’s let me down. The truth is that I was actually relieved. Every time he returned empty handed was another day that I didn’t have to put this awful plan in motion. Another day I could try to come up with something, anything, besides this.But when he brings back the dirt, holding it triumphantly in his hand after turning out his pocket, I know my time is up. “It’s perfect,” I say, trying to keep my voice light and my smile bright. He passes it over to me, and soon I have a handful of dry earth dust.“What are you going to do with it?” Sterling asks me. My heart breaks at the excitement in his voice. He really does trust me to get us both out of here.“I’m going to try and cast a spell,” I lie. I wish I could tell him the truth of what I’m planning. But I can’t. It would put every
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE
“What is this?” Coello shouts, pointing at me accusingly. “Are you trying to forfeit your agreement? To trade your life for the child’s?”“What’s going on?” Sterling asks, sleepily rubbing his eyes. “I’m not trying to escape,” I say. I come to the front of the cage, reaching out toward Coello. “But I needed you.”Coello raises one eyebrow. “You needed me? For what reason?”“For all the reasons,” I say. “I need you. I want you. I wish to become your mate.”Coello sniffs. “What about this other mate of yours?” He gestures toward Sterling’s cage. I can’t bring myself to look at Sterling and see the hurt and confusion I know must be plain on his face.“I renounce him,” I say. “I am tired of being mated to someone who shares my captivity, and who has failed to protect me. I see now that with your power and majesty, you’re my intended mate.”“Ayala!” Sterling is screaming my name. I hear himself bashing his fists against the bars of his cage, and smell the singed fl
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR
I pad quietly down the hall toward the Moon Rabbit’s chambers. The white pelt, his own fur, shed so many years ago to trade for my entire life, is warm and soft against my skin. It’s nestled under my dress, where I hope he won’t be able to see it.Everything rests on this. My heart pounds in my throat as I make my way toward the heavy, ornately carved door that leads to his bedroom.The hallway air is cold, and perfectly still. My footsteps don’t echo like they would in a similar hallway back on earth. Nothing movies besides me, as I make my determined way toward Coello.He thinks we’re about to mate. I have other plans.I push the door open, bowing my head deferentially.“Welcome, my little pup,” he says. He’s standing beside his massive bed, his shirt unbuttoned. He grins at me like a predator over its prey.I take a deep breath and remind myself that he is a rabbit, and I am a wolf. And I am not his.“Hello,” I say, keeping my voice low.“I am glad that y
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE
The bars of his cage are twisted and mangled. The room smells like singed flesh. But my mate is nowhere to be found.I search frantically for Sterling, calling his name as I run around the dungeons.Nothing. Only silence. I scream for him until my throat is raw and scratchy. I run up and down every staircase, every hallway, until my feet are sore and bruised from pounding them against the stone floor.I tear open doors, growing more desperate after each room turns out to be empty. The entire time, I can feel Coello’s hatred and rage emanating from the bundle in my arms. He’s kicking and twisting, and I know that if he ever got the opportunity to escape, he’d absolutely destroy me. But I don’t have time to think about any of that. I have to find Sterling. He’s not in the dungeons. He’s not in the throne room. He’s not in the living quarters. I go outside, circling the strange castle, calling out for him while trying to ignore the endless emptiness surrounding me
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The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED
Damian is a healthy baby, well loved, and by the time he’s a few months old, it’s obvious that Jasper and I don’t need to stick around in Serpent’s Creek. The mansion is nearly full to bursting with wolf and bear shifters excited to be part of this new family and to dote on the precious baby whose existence symbolizes a fresh start for everyone.Jasper mentions going home to Santa Cruz a few times before I’m happy about it, though. I tell him that Orsina could still use my help, or that there’s still some magic I want to learn from Clara. He sees right through my excuses, though. “Are you nervous and going back to live somewhere with those guys in the basement?” Jasper asks me one evening, sliding his hands around my waist to nibble at my earlobes as he asks. “Maybe,” I say. “Now that he’s not a rabbit anymore, and he’s seen me and spoken to me, and he’s already gotten out once -”“He didn’t get out,” Jasper reminds me. “We let him think he escaped.”“I know, but he th
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE
My eyes fall shut easily, after such a long day. But I don’t sleep very deeply. Instead, I get caught up in a long, complex dream.In the dream, I’m back in the celestial realm, standing in the same dungeon cage that Coello used to keep me in. Sterling is there, too, walking up to me with those piercing gray eyes and that familiar smile. “Hello,” he says. He leans in to kiss me, and I think that the bars will prevent him from being able to, but he just passes right through. I feel his hands on my face, his lips on mine, and he kisses me for a long time.When I open my eyes after the kiss, I’m no longer in the cage. Now, Sterling and I are standing on top of the massive tower where we found him, high up above the rest of the celestial realm. But when I look out, I don’t see the rolling, starlit darkness of the celestial realm. I see the golden yellow plains of Montana, the valley that stretches out around Serpent’s Creek.“Where are we?” I ask, feeling strangely dizzy.
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT
Clara and Zach arrive soon enough, and we all go careening up the mountain. With Clara behind the wheel, we get back to the house in record time. Orsina is sweating now, her breaths coming heavy and hard, and Zach has to help her out of the truck and into her room.“Can you shift?” Clara asks her, gently lowering the laboring mother down into her bed. “It’s so much easier if you shift.”“I think so,” Orsina says. She squeezes her eyes shut, holding her breath. It takes a few tries, but soon she’s a bear, curled up on top of the quilts in her bedroom.“Perfect, perfect,” Clara coos. “There you go, mama bear.”“Could that cause a problem for the baby?” Zach asks, hovering in the doorway. Clara asked him to bring towels, and he’s already brought twice as many as we’ll need, but he has yet another armful. I don’t even know where he’s getting them from, at this point. Even a mansion like this can only hold so many towels.“What do you mean?” Clara asks, her voice calm and unf
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SEVEN
When we call home to let Regan and Isaac know what’s going on, they’re thrilled to hear that Barrett is okay and that Zach and Orsina have a safe place to land. They tell us that Howling Wolf is doing amazingly well - after so many volunteers and friends came to help us with the battle, we’ve gotten tons more clients in the shifter world, and we’ve been able to hire a handful of new employees.Since they seem to have things well in hand, Jasper and I decide to stay in Montana. We set up in one of the westward facing bedrooms, next door to Zach and Orsina. Clara and Bennett take an upstairs bedroom, smaller but cozier and with more privacy. With Weston defeated and his supporters scattered after our Santa Cruz victory, the rest of the bear clan needs a leader and a place to stay. Through a peaceful process, Clara and Barrett become the Alpha and Luna for the bear clan. Bear clans don’t typically refer to their Alpha’s mates as a “Luna,” but Clara is a wolf, and the title just see
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX
“Barrett!” Orsina rushes to his side, laying a hand over his forehead. He lifts his head weakly at her voice, then his eyes spark with recognition.“Orsina…” he croaks, his eyes fluttering shut again. “Help…”Everything then happens in a flurry of activity. Clara sends everyone but Orsina out of the room, giving each of us specific directions. Jasper is sent to get a bowl of hot water and towels, I’m supposed to find a medicine kit under the sink in the kitchen, and Zach is told to go secure the perimeter of the house, especially the rear door.I return with the medicine chest in my arms. It smells familiar, full of the healing herbs and magical potions Layla often uses. It’s also got modern medical stuff like clean white bandages and stitching kits.Clara instantly sets about getting Barrett to sit up. She holds a glass of water to his lips, encouraging him to drink and take a handful of pills and capsules she’s picked out of the medicine chest. She works on Barrett fo
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE
We barely have time to process everything Clara has told us before she’s packing us a picnic dinner and ushering us out the door. We pile into her battered, ancient Jeep, which is almost definitely running more on shifter magic than gasoline at this point, and she heads out toward the mountains. “So, uh,” Orsina asks, after a bit of silence, “does that mean this is, like…you?” She rolls up her sleeve to show the tattoo mark of the wolf that appeared on her arm after the spirits from the carving gave their blessing.“It is perhaps an image of me,” Clara says in her cryptic way as she careens up the switchbacking roads. “Or, perhaps it is another manifestation of my spirit. There have been many over the years.”“What about your beloved?” Orsina asks. “The bear shifter you fell in love with. Where is he?”“That is a lovely question,” Clara says softly. “At times, we have found each other. At other times, our spirits have been far from one another. Since the curse took a deep
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY FOUR
It takes Malcolm and Coello a little while to accept the reality of their new situation - that Malcolm is irreversibly bound to Coello, and that Coello is bound to us by virtue of some very powerful magic Layla cooked up for us. They snarl and fight, argue and wheedle, and even try to bust out of their chains by brute force. But nothing works. We’ve won. Malcolm and Weston are both banished to cells in the basement, very far apart to prevent them trying to scheme together. Maybe someday we’ll have another use for them, but for now, it’s a breath of fresh air to know that my biggest enemy, and the biggest enemy of my pack, are both completely neutralized. I had hoped that we would be able to relax and settle down for a bit now that this problem has been solved. In fact, we had a lovely day after the battle, with all our friends and volunteers and former trainees lounging on the beach and splashing around in the cool water.But something is bothering Orsina. She paces, agitate
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE
The Moon Rabbit doesn’t waste any time once Malcolm agrees to the binding spell. With quick, almost spider like hands, Coello spreads the stalks and herbs out on the rocky beach, fluttering them into complex shapes. I stand on my tiptoes, peering out from behind my hiding place. Coello’s form of magic is rough and brutish, nothing like the delicate work Layla does. But it does the job. Malcolm steps over the edges of the intricate shape Coello has created on the ground, and even I can feel the burst of intense magic that snaps through the air as the spell takes effect. “I look forward to having you in my service,” Coello says with a low bow. “For now, however, I must depart. Do enjoy your newfound power.”Malcolm smiles, flexing his hands like he can somehow feel himself getting stronger. Then the two separate, Coello sneaking back into the tree house before anyone catches him outside.I’m surprised, but not entirely so. Some of us thought Coello would try to get as far a
The Alpha's Mate CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY TWO
The various wolf shifters staying with us to help out have been instructed not to speak with the Moon Rabbit, but to keep a close eye on him. Coello soon gives up trying to draw them into conversation and instead just wanders around the busy tree house, doing what he clearly thinks is subtle reconnaissance in preparation for his escape attempt. What he doesn’t know is that his ability to slip out of here isn’t going to be the result of his own careful cleverness. It will be perfectly engineered by me and my team, right down to the very moment. It’s early afternoon when we get the signal. We’ve had scouts placed in inconspicuous locations all around the forest and the town of Santa Cruz watching for any sigh of Malcolm or Weston. Sure enough, they roll into town with a huge entourage of bear shifters and werewolves. Our scouts say that they’ve set up a campsite near the beach about a mile south from our location, and that Malcolm is heading our way on his own, apparently to chec
