It was worse than any of us had imagined. I smelt it before I saw him as I was encouraged to walk down the thin corridor that led to the basement of the Pack House. I could taste the ash from the candles and smell the burning of skin the second I walked down the first step. Frederick wanted that, to prolong my thoughts and fears of what he’d been doing to my father. I was almost sick from the anxiety, and still we walked. It felt like we would never reach the bottom.The claustrophobic corridor began to open up and the first thing I saw was Fredrick smiling at me with that sadistic smirk on his face that made me flinch. He held out a hand like a groom accepting his bride and I trembled as I took it. He led me to a silver-lined door with bars and inside was my father, bound in silver, lying on the floor, screaming in agony through his gag.I rushed to try to open the door, but Fredrick held me back, firstly by my shoulder, then by encircling his arms around me like a lover’s embrace. I
I barely said a word when I got back from the Pack House. My mother had only asked one question:“Is your father okay?”I couldn’t stop myself from bursting into tears at the question, wishing I could give her any other answer. But I couldn’t. And soon she pulled me into her arms tearfully, sobbing into my hair before we both sunk to our knees, weak from the stress and sorrow. My brother got angry instead, swearing that he was going to rip Fredrick’s head from his body.It took my mother standing in front of the door, tears streaming down her face to stop my brother from leaving the house. He tried to get past her but she held him tightly, begging him.“If you challenge the alpha you’ll end up just like your father,” She cried, clinging onto him for dear life. “He needs to pay! I’m going to tear him limb from limb,” He screamed.“Please,” My mother whimpered and I’d never heard her voice be so small in my entire life, “Please son. I won’t be able to take losing both of you.”That was
We didn’t say much else after the crying session. We managed to compose ourselves and had a few minutes in silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence but more one that we didn’t need to talk to understand one another.Jackson was the first person to stand up and dust himself off.“I’ll give you some more time with your family,” he said before placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder, “Think about the offer I made you.”I only nodded, offering a small smile, “Thank you.” I didn’t need to add the ‘for everything’ for him to know what I meant. He smiled back at me and turned to go before he remembered something. He knelt again and with a small click, the silver band around my ankle was freed. He pocketed the item and offered another small smile before he headed away, giving me that valuable time with my family.I rubbed at my ankle, the cold air feeling strange against it. It was like the anklet had become another part of me and some weird part of me felt sad that it was now gone. Anoth
I had gotten so used to these dreams now that I wasn’t even surprised as I found myself floating in the sky above a familiar forest. I was pulled towards one direction and it felt like it would take forever before I ended up where I needed to be, even as the moon stayed stagnant and bright. Finally, I saw where I had floated towards. It was the New Moon pack. I tried to turn around and fly away, wanting nothing more than to never see this pack again, but there was a pull my body couldn’t ignore no matter how hard I tried.My body lowered itself to the pack house and I was forced to take a step closer towards the door that led me to my father’s fate.This time, I didn’t go down those steps, but rather I went up and some part of me was aware that this was the way to the Alpha’s Room. Frederick had the entire floor to himself and made it so he could access anything he needed. He had his bedroom, meeting room, an en suite and much more on that floor.It was cloaked in a black shadow and
The week rolled over quite quickly and after watching the pack train and glaring at them every so often, Doctor Heath and Clarissa finally found me fit and healed enough to rejoin the training. I was specifically told to be careful of my shoulder but other than that I could start training again!I wondered what we'd be doing today, maybe more drills or activities, I heard a rumour that we'd be doing a capture-the-flag type game at some point, defending territories and invading others, there were enough of us to have like three teams. That would be fun!Annabelle was still quietly hinting that she wanted to see my wolf. I had been able to put it off so far by telling her I was still healing. The pack were told that I suffered a broken arm, something that was notoriously difficult to heal, even with a strong wolf. Poppy's broken nose still hadn't healed properly so it wasn't too bad of an excuse. So with that, Annabelle understood why I was reluctant to shift so didn’t push too much, b
The room fell into a flurry of questions and accusations, mainly pointed my way. As soon as the words left Jackson’s mouth, the heads of each faction looked my way and I could feel the suspicion fall my way.“Who?” Doctor Heath asked, being one of the only people to not accuse me.“Who do you think?” Alexis scoffed. Whilst Annabelle had been training me, Alexis kept a close eye on me despite maintaining a distance.“Is that why she’s here, Alpha, so we can lock her up?”Poppy snarled with a pre-emptive grin on her face, “I always knew she was a two-faced bitch.” She looked like she’d had some kind of victory over me and was just waiting for Jackson to give the word and have me carted away.Maybe a few weeks ago I might have thought he would, but after everything we shared and what he offered, I didn’t believe that was his intention in the slightest. I was here for a reason and it was not to be humiliated or forced into guilt.Throughout all the chatter and arguing, Jackson slammed his
Everyone turned to look at Clarissa, and I felt my body go rigid. She promised me that she hadn’t told Jackson or anyone else about the surgeries or the fact that I couldn't feel my wolf, and if she spilled that secret in front of everyone, I didn’t know how I was ever going to forgive her.I did my best not to look at Jackson because even the slightest of movements might have given me away or raised his suspicions again.“Blessed Silver?!” Alexis spluttered, “Where on earth did you get Blessed Silver.”Clarissa narrowed her eyes at Alexis like a lion ready for murder, her magic began to flow from her body from the anger and lift her hair slightly. I could’ve sworn her eyes began to glow an electric colour, “And why is that any of your business, wolf?”Alexis snarled, feeling the challenge in the air from Clarissa’s power and Abel seemed to acknowledge it too, his fingernails growing and creaking against the wooden table.“As we are all aware,” Jackson interrupted them with impatience
“Hey, are you okay? You’ve been quiet for a while,” Annabelle mumbled softly as we left the Mess Hall to go to the next training session.I’d skipped the past few sessions because I just didn’t have the energy or hope for it the last few weeks. I’d still visited Annabelle and met with Clarissa, but something in me had deflated. My mind would drift back to my shoulder and the feelings that came with it. I knew that Clarissa would resume the surgeries soon, but it wasn’t soon enough and there had been no updates on the traitor.“Yeah, sorry I’m just feeling a bit down,” I replied softly. Some days it was difficult to get out of bed, but something in me today told me to stop feeling sorry for myself and I decided I wanted to start my training again. I needed to keep up my stamina and strength and at the very least a routine would help make me feel steadier. “Are you sure? Ever since the meeting you-”“I’m fine, Annabelle, promise.” I tried to give her the best smile I could but I think
Jackson’s POVI waited for Fredrick to move first. If we began to circle each other I’d be worried that my back would be exposed. It was the first rule of a fight, you don’t leave your back or your neck unprotected, especially when shifted, they were two of the most vulnerable points of a wolf’s body, one swipe too deep and it was game over.I didn’t even risk turning around to give Elise a final comforting glance, or to give her a final goodbye in case everything went wrong.I didn’t want to think about that. Because the only thing that was keeping me going was thinking that at the end of this fight, I’d be able to swoop Elise in my arms, claim her lips and mark her as mine once and for all.The standoff didn’t last too long, just enough to get my heart pumping. Suddenly Fredrick lunged towards me, baring his teeth threateningly as if he was going to tear my head off in one swift movement. I didn’t plan on going down that easily.I easily dodged and now the two of us were in the ine
Elise's POV The moonless sky gave a sense of impending doom as both alphas glared at each other with different emotions. Fredrick was smiling and cocky like he knew there was no way he was going to win. Jackson was deathly quiet, trying not to give any of his thoughts or feelings away. Did Jackson secretly have that same confidence that Frerick had or was he just as terrified as I was?I could hardly believe what Jackson had just said. He’d challenged Fredrick to a dual. Alpha Fredrick of the New Moon pack, one of the most vicious alphas and packs in our shifter world. If Fredrick were human he would either be a serial killer or a money-hungry politician.Despite Jackson being a powerful alpha and leading a strong pack at such an age, he was still young. I doubted he'd been in real life-threatening fights since he'd lost his parents, or at the very least I doubted that he had fought on his own.Fredrick, however, was a veteran of fights. He had been undefeated for decades and had kil
Jackson’s POVNo. No that couldn’t be true. There was absolutely no way in hell he would’ve sent his head warrior and adored witch alone to my pack, not when I’d left it in Christian’s capable hands with Clarissa supporting him,I didn’t have to worry about that. I didn’t.I had faith in my friend. Christian had done more than enough to earn his place at my side as my beta. All the warriors had also earned their spot and even the healers were no strangers to a fight every now and again.That’s why I organised the weekly training so that everyone felt like they had a fair chance in a fight. The only people I was concerned about were the elders of my pack and the pups.I didn’t want Fredrick to know that he had me frazzled by his threat and whilst I tried to control my emotions I couldn’t help but keep thinking of everything that could go wrong back at the pack:Were Clarissa’s wards reinforced?Was Melanie stronger than Clarissa?Would Christian be able to stop Marcus if the two met in
How did he know we were here? We hadn’t been gone for very long, there was no way he could’ve organised all of this in that short time. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there had been a couple of wolves chasing us or a warning howl, but everything had been silent.“Did you really believe I’d leave you unsupervised whilst in recovery?” Frederick asked snarkily as he took a step forward.Jackson tensed, looking at all the wolves surrounding us, debating his odds. If he attacked first how many would he be able to take down before he was overwhelmed? I could see the cogs turning in his head before he turned to me slightly. Another problem, he’d be trying to protect me as well. His odds of winning would decrease rapidly if he had me to think about too.“You have your Blessed Silver,” Jackson spat, “Let her go.”Frederick tutted, “Yes, yes I do, but you see, Jackson,” It was a blatant insult not to use his alpha title in front of the rest of this pack, “there are two things that you fail
We crept out of the infirmary and Jackson held onto my hand tightly, keeping me behind him. He mentioned briefly that his bracelet from Clarissa protected him from being seen so long as his movements didn’t draw anyone’s attention.I had faith in Jackson and in Clarissa so I stood behind him and let him lead us out of the infirmary. I was glad that Clarissa had done what she did, because not only did it mean she was looking out for Jackson but she wanted me back too.Even though he’d explained this to me, I was still shocked when we weren’t immediately attacked by the multiple wolves patrolling the area. It looked like no one had even seen us and I let out a quiet sigh of relief as I stuck close to Jackson.Even when someone walked close to us, they didn't seem to notice us. It gave me more confidence in Clarissa's abilities (not that I had any doubt to begin with).Jackson glanced around too, watching for even the slightest of movements like the warrior he was before he took his fir
Elise's POVI thought I was still in my dream when I opened my eyes. One moment I saw his body, bloody and broken on the floor, the next he was in front of me, touching me so tenderly and looking like he was about to cry. I relished in his touch. It was so warm and gentle and my whole body tingled. I wanted to move and hold him and cry all at the same time, but I couldn’t move, my back was still so sore.But I knew the second I opened my eyes that he was my mate. Jackson was my mate. And I had fallen in love with him all on my own even before that.“I’ve always been yours,” He said to me with a smile that made my heart jump, even as tears began to fall down his face.I pulled one of my hands away from his and stroked that stray tear away, “And I’m yours,” I said, proudly and clearly.Jackson’s smile grew wider and despite the situation we were in, no matter how horrifying or painful, he leaned closer towards me, and kissed me.He was careful not to move me too much, but I kissed him
Jackson's POV I followed Elise’s scent, my mate’s scent. I could hardly believe it; she was my mate. Maybe it was because her wolf had been suppressed before, but even still, the longing and connection I felt for her must’ve been our mating bond trying to slip through the Blessed Silver’s defences.And I had hurt her when we first met. I’d imprisoned her and tried to keep her isolated out of fear of what a rogue could do to my pack.If I knew she was my mate back then would it have made much of a difference? I tried not to think about that. Those mistakes were in the past and I was here for now, I would do anything in my power to protect her.Gradually I made my way through the pack to a dingy-looking building that had a small cross on it, one you’d see at hospitals or on ambulances. I wondered if this was their version of an infirmary. Quietly, I stepped inside, checking to see if anyone was in the room. If they were ‘d have to take them out nice and swiftly otherwise they’d aler
Elise's POVHe wasn’t dead, not yet, but he was close to it. Blood trickled from his forehead and down the corners of his mouth. His breathing was short and shallow and he lifted his head, eyes pained as he slowly realised I was there with him. Jackson made some guttural sound that I’d never heard another person make before as he slowly began to crawl towards me, no matter how broken he was.I could hear his breathing, hoarse like something was blocking it, maybe as if someone had crushed his windpipe. "Elsmmm." Was another sound he made and I was horrified to think that that was my name and he was calling it out so desperately. My heart hurt.I took a step towards him, my body trembling as I took a step forward but no matter how hard I tried to reach him, it was like I was walking in sludge trying to trap me. He was trying so hard to reach me and I wanted to reach him so badly, but I could barely move.Jackson raised his hand, and I wanted nothing more than to grab it and bring him
Elise’s POVI held onto Stella like she was going to disappear once again. I’d spent so long without her, my memory of her had been taken from me. So when this overwhelming feeling of comfort shot through my body it took me by surprise. She was my wolf. She was real. She was here.There was nothing wrong with me after all.I had waited so long, year after year as I watched other kids my age begin to shift for the first time, and whilst I knew I was in a dream, I knew that Stella was real, I knew that she'd finally been freed from the Blessed Silver.I nuzzled my face against her fur and she was just as eager to touch me too as she licked my face and nuzzled me right back. Two halves of the same soul finally reunited.“You’ve been alone for so long,” I whispered to her. Whilst I had my family, Stella was trapped in the pockets of my mind, only able to watch as I grew, was hurt and on my own too after my family died.“But I’m not anymore,” She mumbled in response.I wished she had the c