**Jade’s POV**I’d fallen asleep shortly after Elliott had poured me a glass of wine and started a movie. I felt horrible, but everything I’d heard about heat told me that exhaustion was a normal symptom and it was best to rest as much as possible. I was grateful—not for the first time— to be away from river bed because if I’d found my mate there in a warrior or another omega, I’d likely be expected to work through the pain and weather the exhaustion plus the onslaught of unmated males who’d be no doubt trailing and attempting to attack me. The more time I spent away from river bed, the more barbaric I’d realized they were.I felt soft lips on my forehead and my eyes fluttered open to reveal Elliott’s handsome face. He was holding a glass of water and my next round of meds to help with my heat. “I’m so sorry I fell asleep,” I mumbled, stretching and accepting the meds from him. “I guess this heat is taking more out of me than I thought.”“It’s fine, love. I’m glad you got some rest. P
**Elliott POV**I’d spent the time Jade was asleep trying to throw together as much pampering as possible for my mate and her friends. Thankfully, it was a nice distraction from mystic moon and all the questions swirling around in my mind. Once the girls arrived to keep Jade company, I decided to go to my office and put a call in to the elders.The elders told me they’d already unearthed many issues with the treatment of the omegas at river bed, enough to require a trial for sure. They asked me if they could borrow some soldiers and if I’d be willing to also offer my assistance in transporting Victor to trial once he was officially under arrest since we were the closest pack with to river bed that had the resources necessary for the job. They were still gathering information to figure out exactly what to bring forth in the way of charges. The Elder I spoke with did tell me he was reasonably sure Victor at least would be stripped of his title, and depending on what the rest of his fami
**Elliott POV**“Dad, this is going to freak her out.” I stated. My mate had been through so much, I couldn’t imagine telling her we had to find and figure out what happened to Mystic Moon and she’d have to relive her parents dying and her being most likely kidnapped by river bed in order to get her to her destiny of running two huge and ancient packs with me. If I were in her position, my head would’ve exploded.“It may,” my father said, getting up and refilling his glass before coming back to join me. “But I’m sensing a great deal of her mother’s spunk and toughness, so don’t underestimate the strength of your mate. Yes, this may overwhelm her but I really do think she can do it, Elliott. Matthew and I wondered since Jade’s birth if the two of you were the mates as foretold in the prophecy. I think you both have more strength than you give yourselves credit for, and you won’t be alone. You’ll have your mother and I.”I nodded absentmindedly, suddenly remembering more of my questions
**Elliott POV**I’d had a hard time falling asleep without Jade last night. It was funny to think about considering we’d only slept together for one night so far, but nevertheless it was unpleasant without her. The information my dad had given me wasn’t a big help either. I ended up giving up and going back to my office, finishing most of my overdue work before crashing on the couch. At least I’d be caught up enough to catch up on the time I was missing with my new mate for girls’ night.I was already anxious to see my mate, but after Jasper told me about the drinks he sent the girls when we were at morning training and knowing I’d made them one round of margaritas and bought them another with dinner, I knew the girls would likely be asleep until noon. Wolves typically had a higher tolerance for alcohol and a faster metabolism, so I was hoping we hadn’t overserved and they wouldn’t be too hungover today, because I was ready to see what my dad could figure out from Emma and Jade’s memo
**Jade POV**I woke up feeling somewhat dizzy. I stretched and rubbed my eyes before seeing Cleo still asleep in the bed next to me, but Emma was missing. I got up, grabbing my robe off the floor and started looking around the room for her before seeing her curled up in a chair on the deck and looking out over the mountains.“Good morning,” I said, walking onto the deck and taking the seat next to my best friend. “How long have you been up?”Emma shrugged. “Hours.”“Okay, what’s wrong?” I asked with a lightly accusatory tone.“What do you mean?” Emma said, looking surprised I would even ask which was a definitive sign that there was something wrong. I just stared at her. “Okay, fine. Our first night here I had a really odd dream and last night I had it again.” She confessed.“That’s weird. What happened in the dream?” I asked, wondering what could possibly have happened that would leave her this shaken. Emma was a tough cookie. Hardly the type of person to be shaken by a simple nightma
**Jade POV**Before long, Emma entered the room looking very unsure of herself. William and Elliott took the larger sofa, leaving Emma and I the love seat, probably so she could sit closer to me for moral support. “Well, let’s dig in to breakfast and see if we can get to the bottom of a few things.” Elliott said, cutting the tension slightly. Everyone began to eat in awkward silence, no one really hungry enough to eat much.“So,” William started after it looked like everyone was finished eating. “Jade, what’s the earliest memory you have?”It took a moment for me to think about it. “Um, I remember being in the snow and thinking someone was after me,” as soon as I said the word “snow”, Emma seemed to come alive and turned her entire body rapidly to stare at me, listening intently. “Then I remember darkness, and waking up at river bed to one of the omegas telling me I’d been brought here after the rogue attack and my scent smelled like I was one of them. I asked where my mom and dad wer
**Elliott POV**“We need to get Sebastians old room ready for him since I’m willing to bet he’ll be staying here for at least a couple weeks before his graduation. Cleo, I was hoping you could arrange that and maybe a welcome back dinner party. Keep it small, maybe just us and my parents and we’ll have a bigger one with the whole pack in a few weeks once he and my sister are both officially back for good. Jasper, I was wondering if you could pull records of pack members from 12 years ago to see if Emma was possibly a member here. I know it’ll be hard, but I’m hoping I can do some digging and see if I can find any census Mystic Moon had done of all their members around that time as well. I have a strong feeling she’s from one of the two packs. Cam, I’d like you to hand pick several guards to accompany us to River bed. Once the elders officially put Victor under arrest, they’ll be requiring some of our resources for his transport to trial, and we’ll need some focused and experienced war
**Jade POV**I bounced into my—I couldn’t even believe it was mine!— office, hearing Emma gasp behind me. I myself had actually forgotten how beautifully decorated my office was. I wanted to do what Elliott had with his office, to preserve most of the general look and only add a few new things that made the room feel more like MINE, but the time for that wasn’t now. It was time to learn how to be an equal partner to my mate, and I would not let him or this pack down.“Hello, girls!” Vera exclaimed as we walked through the doorway. I smiled at her and walked toward the sitting area where she was perched on one of the chairs from the desk area that she’d pushed over to the sitting area. There was a tray of teacups with a beautifully decorated matching teapot and a few assorted fruits. “Help yourself, we have a lot to go over and I’m sure you’ll need to gather some energy after last night. How was it?!” She asked as if she really was interested.“It was amazing! We got massages, manicure
**Logan POV**8:45 am. Like clockwork. I heard the howl emanating from my father before listening to his retreating footsteps as he ran toward his love. In about 15 minutes, breakfast would be all but thrown at me by one of his more sadistic warriors (he always chose the meaner ones to look after me when he was gone, his way of trying to discourage any “funny business” on my part), and after that, the coast would be clear to begin my exit.I stuffed my face with the near-inedible breakfast food I was given. My father was hesitant to give me anything of more than mediocre nutritious value. He wasn’t as oblivious as I gave him credit for, he knew our bloodline, and he knew I wasn’t the type to just submit without some serious beating down. Combine that with the fact he already knew I was a better fighter than I let on and the only conclusion he could draw was that any hope he had in keeping me prisoner for long enough to execute his plan was to keep me hungry and thus in a slightly weak
**Jade POV**I finished my shower in record time before quickly raking all the products I’d been given through my hair and giving it a quick blowdry before throwing it up in a bun still slightly damp. I remembered how my hair kept getting in the way while I was trying to take notes yesterday and I wasn’t willing to deal with it again. I wanted it out of my face so I could focus on the tasks at hand. I flitted into the closet and selected a pair of navy blue slacks with small white checkers and a thick, white sweater. It was soft and cozy, yet still fashionable enough to show Vera I could dress the part of a luna. I grabbed a pair of flat dark brown loafers and threw them on before heading toward the door. Elliott was already gone, probably to check on warrior training or spend some time with his brother.Just before opening the door, I saw a small note on top of a beautiful black leather bound journal. “This is for you, princess. Take awesome notes and enjoy yourself! I’ll see you for
**Elliott POV**The light was barely filtering in through the windows of my room when I heard a firm rapping on the door. I reluctantly got up, covering my naked mate with the heavy comforter so as not to accidentally let someone else see her glorious form and shrugged on my pants from the night before that lay discarded on the floor next to the bed. I heard Jade pout in her sleep once the warmth of my body was gone, but she didn’t wake up.When I opened the door, I saw before me a very unenthused looking Emma. “Cleo banged on my door about 5 minutes ago. She said Jade and I have a half an hour to be dressed and in her office for our next lesson, and she asked me to make sure Jade got up and at em while she works on breakfast and coffee for us.” She was rubbing her eyes and yawned twice while she was attempting to get the sentence out, but I nodded and stifled a chuckle at her disheveled appearance. Someone had definitely chosen the wrong night to have so many drinks. I wondered to my
**Jade POV**I’d woken up to Elliott gently shaking me awake from my dream. Or was it a memory? I could feel cold beads of sweat forming all up and down my body, I felt chilled as if I really had been trudging through snow for hours.There was something about the dream that resonated with me, that told me it was real. “It feels real to me too,” Astrid said almost as a question in my head.None of this made any sense. Vera and William would’ve told me if I’d had any siblings. I’d asked Elliott point blank, and he’d told me he didn’t remember me having any siblings. I’d begun to wonder if there was a possibility that Emma and I had known each other at Mystic Moon once Sebastian suggested it, but I’d fallen asleep before I could really think through it. The thought of knowing Emma before going to River Bed was odd and difficult enough to work through. Now I somehow knew my mate’s best friend? And not just knew him, I was to believe I was related to Jasper? And if my dream was real on any
**Sebastian POV**“About time!” I yelled to my brother who was finally making his way into the rec room. Cam and I had been playing a round of call of duty waiting for the other two to get their mates into bed and goddess only knew how long that could’ve taken.I was disappointed that Jade’s friend wasn’t my mate. Cameron had told me my brother’s mate had an unmated female friend and to his dismay, she wasn’t fated to him, and I’d been hoping to finally run across my mate. I knew it wasn’t like I’d been searching nearly as long as Cam or my brother had, but I was getting impatient to meet the woman I’d be fated to spend my life with.“Yeah, yeah, the single guys are annoyed with the mated ones! I was you guys literally a week ago, keep your pants on!” Elliott quipped, flopping into one of the seats nearest me. A wide smile took over his face as he looked at me. “Seriously. I know the circumstances suck but I’m so glad you’re home dude. We missed you!”I smiled back at him and clapped h
**Jade POV**It was snowing outside. Enchanted, I looked out my bedroom window, clutching my favorite dolly close to me. It was dinner time, and I knew I should be headed downstairs, or Mom and Dad would come up to find me and be disappointed I wasn’t washed up and ready to eat, but I just couldn’t help myself. I loved watching fresh snowfall on the ground, I loved trying to see if it would stick or not so I could build snowmen with Daddy. We would build snowman armies on days when the snow was deep enough to have an ample supply. We’d pretend to battle them, and he’d show me real fighting moves he’d used to take down bad guys before, all while we could see mom watching us in the kitchen window while she made us cookies and hot chocolate.It was perfect outside. It looked like a real winter wonderland. At that moment, everything in my world was alright.Screams filtered down the hallway and through my slightly opened door. That didn’t make any sense, why would everyone be making so mu
**Elliott POV**Everyone had already had their first, second, and third rounds of drinks. For most of us, there were hardly any effects beginning to show. Wolves did have an extremely high tolerance. But for the girls, it was at least their 5th round and they were starting to show it. Cleo hardly ever drank, and I knew Jade and Emma were extremely new to drinking so—wolf-level tolerance or not—they were beginning to cut loose in a big way.“Do we have karaoke?!” Cleo hiccupped as Jasper gathered her up in his arms and carried her out of the room, ready to take her upstairs and put her to bed.“I’m so disappointed Elliott’s brother isn’t my mate.” Emma said in a completely normal volume that she probably thought was a whisper.“It’s okay, I think your mate is gonna be SUPER HOT!” Jade managed to slur out.“Okay, it’s time for bed,” I said as I scooped her up into my arms and gave Cameron a look toward Emma. He strode over to her and threw her over his shoulder like a potato sack. I hea
**Amelia POV**“MOM! I need your help finding my black cocktail dress for court in a few weeks!” I yelled across the hall. My mom has been so spacey the last few days, which is so unlike her. I strutted across the hall and into her room to find her talking—as usual— on the phone to someone in a hushed voice.“Okay, I have to go now.” She said before pressing the “end” button and putting her phone away, turning to me with a weird smile as if to say nothing was wrong. She should’ve known that tipped me off. Unless she’d just hurt someone, my mother hardly ever smiled.“Mom, I need your help finding my black cocktail dress for court,” I repeated impatiently. Whatever she was keeping from me, I didn’t care. I had bigger fish to fry.I knew Silver Moon would be transporting my dad to trial and relieving the elder security team stationed outside the pack house. I knew Elliott would most likely be overseeing the transport, and probably attending the trial. I knew now he’d found his mate, but
**Jade POV**“What can we do then?” I found myself desperately questioning William. “Can we get our memories back? Sebastian knows the same person altered mine, Emma’s, and apparently Jasper’s memories, could we find them and make them give our memories back?” I knew I was being unreasonable, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop asking questions, to stop desperately trying to unlock more information. I could feel my entire past and the memories I had of my parents slipping through my fingers, and I wasn’t willing to let them go without a hell of a fight.“I’m sorry, Jade,” Sebastian answered for William, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. In some way, it did have a calming effect, but it was nothing like the effect I got from my mate doing the same thing. I had to fight my own curiosity at what other abilities Sebastian must be keeping under his hat. “I can only see IF there was dark magic used. Sometimes I can get an inkling of what was done, even possibly if the same person cast a