IsabellaI sit staring at the council. We are all gathered in Asher’s office, and they just give me an option that I don’t want. The council believes that the only way we can sort the problem out once and for all is for me to claim my pack. Asher is onboard up to the point where they mention that Liam has the right to challenge me if the pack chooses me as their alpha. It is one big mess that I think I am completely done with.“No. I’m done with all of them.” I shake my head. I have a pack. I have a home, and it’s not that. Why do I need to fight for people who don’t lift a finger to fight for me? My mind goes straight to the fact that they said they didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t believe that.The council leaves without the answer that they wanted. I can’t imagine going there. I can’t imagine facing people who don’t care about me. Asher and I return to his office and I can feel that he wants to say something, but I let him stew about it for a while. I have to stew with i
IsabellaWe circle each other and I hear the council announcing some sort of official challenge, but I keep my focus on Liam. He is definitely out to kill me. He knows that this will be his only chance. He probably won’t live long after the attack, since I can’t see Asher accepting the terms.Liam lunges as me and I sidestep quickly. I hate him more than I’ve ever hated anyone. He is the reason I’m in the position I’m in. His actions brought us to this very point. I see a flash in his eyes right before he lunges again and this time, his teeth just scrap over my skin. It’s deep enough to scratch, but not deep enough to injure me severely.All around us, people are looking on in pure horror. Everything they believed for the past couple of years is now in doubt, and I understand it, but I can’t focus on them.“You are just as useless as your parents were.” Liam’s voice echoes through my mind and my anger boils over.“Oh? And that makes you a better ruler?” I growl and we lunge at each ot
ClairThe news finds its way downstairs, and I am not surprised. My father had always been able to somehow wiggle his way out of everything. It also doesn’t surprise me that he might not have been my real father. You just have to look at what he did to Adam.Sadly, the news doesn’t have any effect on my situation. I am going to die in a small cell. I am going to spend the rest of my days in the darkness. I have been condemned to it because of my actions and I know that I don’t have anyone else to blame but myself.IsabellaThe loyalty ceremony is arranged, and as soon as my old pack becomes part of my new pack, Asher makes the arrangements to build their homes. For a while, it is tough to go outside. There is a clear divide between the two packs.Neither one trusts the other. We know it is going to be difficult. Asher can’t leave things as they are. He has to eventually trust them, and slowly but surely, he finds spots within our ranks for the new members. Some are incredible warriors
EmilyIt isn’t fair! I watch Asher put his arm around the woman who has been sharing his bed and I feel sick to my stomach. It really isn’t fair. A girl goes away for a couple of years and, all of a sudden, your mate has found someone else!I have actually been back for over a month and none of his idiot warriors noticed me. Then again, I was never exiled. I still have my pack scent, so if they did find my scent, it would smell like any other pack member. I have been watching everything play out from the forest.As soon as I figured out that her pack was now a part of his, I knew that this was far more serious than I originally thought. That was when I hatched my plan. I never really cared much for Lisa. She was always against Asher being with me.I knew that killing her would hurt him the most. In the process, I’ve been able to almost point the finger at his mate’s pack. Once Asher believes that he can’t trust them, he will believe that he can’t trust her, and as soon as he gets rid
IsabellaI can’t help myself. I softly growl. The instant jealousy is unreasonable, I know. He had a life before he met me. I can’t be angry about that, but I am.“So, when did you last see her?” I walk around the table and sit opposite him.“Well,” he frowns and studies the piece of paper. “It was probably this date on the page here. Honestly, I can’t even remember. All I remember was that we had a huge fight, and she stormed out.” I can tell from our bond that he is telling me the truth. I can also tell that he doesn’t have any feelings for her. I sigh deeply, closing my eyes for a moment, and when I open them, he is standing beside me. He takes one hand in his and I feel better.“So, you don’t think she could have snuck back in?” I frown.“No, not Emily.” Asher sighs deeply and sits down beside me. “Emily likes attention. She would have announced her arrival. She would also have come straight to the main house.” He hesitates and I feel his insecurity suddenly rise.“We were living
IsabellaSomething in his eyes changed. After we literally searched every room in every house, as well as the forest, and don’t find Emily, it’s as though the cruelty in Asher’s eyes cements. He doesn’t say anything. I guess that’s the problem.Asher completely shuts himself off from me, and it makes me wonder if he perhaps loved Emily. Why else would my mate be shutting me out? I ponder leaving for only a moment, but I can’t. I have a son I need to think about.His future is the only thing I have to consider. If I leave with him, our lives will always be in danger. He will never know his father. He will never know how good it can feel to be a part of a pack. I won’t be able to ever join another pack.If there is one thing I’m definitely sure about, it is that Asher will hunt us down. He will find us. At the moment, I’m not entirely sure what he might do to me, but there is no way he would ever let me leave with his son.I sit in the corner of the office watching as he gives his warri
IsabellaBy the time I return, I can’t believe that I doubted what Asher and I have for a moment. Just because his ex-girlfriend shows up, it doesn’t mean that he still has feelings for her. I don’t like the look I saw in his eyes, and we are going to talk about that, but I’m ready to face whatever this Emily throws our way.She was just a girlfriend. From the sound of things, they lived together for a while, but Asher never marked her. He never chose her as his mate. He chose me. With that thought firmly planted in my mind, I walk into our home and straight to Asher's office.“Dammit!” Asher slams his phone down on his desk and I hear the glass crack. His eyes meet mine the instant I walk in, and I see the regret in his. “She left the hotel. We just missed her.” I wonder for a moment if he is angry because our people missed her, but I push those thoughts that threaten to surface back down.“Okay, let’s think about this, Asher. Do you think she would have gone that far? Nobody knows h
IsabellaI am shocked. Shocked at what I see. Asher’s anger is overwhelming. It nearly chokes me, but I stand there nailed to the floor watching the exchange between him and Emily. The only thing I can say for sure was that he doesn’t love her.My mind drifts to how incredibly kind he treats me, and how cruel he is being with her. I can’t blame him. Emily is suspected of killing his mother. She has to be guilty. Why else would she have run? Besides, everyone in the pack loved Lisa. Nobody wanted her dead.“I’m not lying!” Emily struggles to breath and fights for air, but Asher lifts her a little higher and her feet start to kick against the wall behind her. He growls softly but she doesn’t budge. She doesn’t confess. She just stares right back at him as though nobody else exists in this world.It is a battle of wills and if it wasn’t my mate right there in the middle of it, I would probably have thought it was impressive. Emily is resisting Asher’s alpha tone, and it quickly becomes c
LukeI check in on Alice, and she is fast asleep. I’m not tired yet, so I decide to go for a walk. I have too much on my mind. There are too many variables. Too many things that could go wrong.“You seem to be carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, son.” My dad joins me and I smile. I didn’t even notice he was nearby, which is actually a little unsettling.“I feel as if I am, dad.” We’ve always been close. My father is my sounding board. He and my mom had a stormy start, and I decide to confide in him about everything that is going on between me and Alice. Everything I’m feeling that I can’t act on. Everything that is worrying me and that the council is the biggest worry of them all.“Sounds like you have a decision to make.” He smiles and I sigh. “Son, I have always believed that we should follow our hearts. The council has always been a bit of a stick in the mud, but their latest decisions …” His voice trails off as he sighs.“The thing is dad, what if what they are say
Alice“So, if you don’t believe what the council believes, what do you think is causing those awful things to happen?” I notice his eyes glaze over, and I am sure he just mind linked with one of his pack. Maybe even all of them.“I’m not sure, but I just can’t imagine love doing that. Maybe a spell or maybe it is something scientific. If you think about it, not all destined mates get mated. Some choose their mates.” He shrugs and when he smiles, I notice the slight dimple in his one cheek.“How long do you think it will take before we know more?” It astonishes me that he is so open with me about everything. Especially after the way the council treated all the girls when we left home. That makes me wonder how many of the girls on the bus will ever find out the truth.“I’m not sure. They say they have a team working through the data, but my experience has been that they act before they have all the facts, and then it takes them forever to gather all the facts.” He sighs, stuffing his ha
AliceAs he took my hand, I feel his feelings and something tells me what he is about to show me is going to finally give me the answers I have been looking for. We walk into what I can only guess is his office, since he looks very comfortable opening one of the desk drawers.He pulls out a file and sighs deeply before handing it to me without any explanation. I open the file and my jaw drops. My eyes snap from the photos to him and I see the grim look on his face.“That is why you are here.” He takes a seat and I feel my legs go slightly weak, forcing me to sit beside him while I page through the photos. “I am showing you this because I can feel how upset you are about what is happening. I need you to understand why you were brought here and why the others are being taken to other packs.”“This is horrible!” I gape at the photos and finally close the file. Swallowing hard as he gets up, I gladly take the drink he offers a couple of minutes later and empty the glass without thinking.
LukeMy first thought when I heard what the council were planning was that they couldn’t have come up with a more ridiculous idea, but when I saw the evidence, I understood why they were planning to do it. All around the world, packs were reporting what I thought was pure fiction at first.That was until I saw the actual proof. Something had gone very wrong with our belief that the moon goddess was sending us our destined mates. It seems that belief created creatures that only half shifted. Pictures showed monsters of all ages, and according to reports, they were all feral.It is not just a sad state, but also a dangerous one. With those many possibilities out in the world, there is a very real chance that humans can find out about us and their next step would be to round all of us up and experiment on us.I was quickly convinced that the ridiculous plan might just work, and as I study myself in the mirror, I prepare for what will probably be the weirdest day of my entire life. Each pa
AliceAll I can think about as I clutch the letter with my name on it is that at least they didn’t lie to us about what was happening. They could have lied and sent us off thinking we were going to some kind of theme park or something.I try to read the letter as I’m hustled away with the rest of the group that has been picked. Once all the letters are handed out, our alpha starts to explain what everyone has just been gossiping about since last night. I don’t hear most of it.“Is this compulsory?” I frown as soon as he asks if there are any questions.“I’m afraid it is, Alice.” He grins at me. We went to school together. I won’t say we were best friends or anything, but we all got along fairly well. Could he be playing one of his jokes on me? I study the letter, but it is an exact copy of all the others I can see.I can’t imagine he would play such a joke on all of us. Some of the girls were actually excited, and it would be cruel to take this opportunity away from them. We are sent
LukeThere is a lot of pressure on me to find my mate from the very moment I turn eighteen, but I’ve never really been worried. My parents only met later in their lives and I believe that I will meet my mate when the time is right.I know that she isn’t in our pack. It’s sad because that would mean taking a girl away from her family, but I made sure to check every single and available female during the pack run. Besides, legend has it that you can smell your mate, and I haven’t smelled anything different.I sit down behind the desk I saw my father working at for so long, and it just feels weird. I guess I will get used to it in time. I’ve been training as alpha for a while. But actually, going through the loyalty ceremony and now sitting in the office makes it really sink in.AliceStanding on the porch, I look out at the rain. I was really looking forward to my birthday. Most importantly, I was looking forward to my father announcing that I would be taking over from him as the pack b
IsabellaShock runs through the entire pack. I take a step back since that wasn’t the answer I was expecting. It only takes a moment for Asher to give the order. I see the fury in his eyes as moment later chaos breaks out. Emily has already been released, but I know she won’t make it very far.I hear the howls as Asher shifts and the pack follows, and I turn and make my way home. I can’t be a part of that. I can’t bring myself to do that to anyone. Memories of Liam flood my mind as well as the promise I made myself that day.I know that I will have to fight for my survival again. I’m a werewolf. It is just the way things are. I know that I will probably have to kill, but I won’t do what the pack is doing right now. I just can’t bring myself to go that far.I walk into our son’s bedroom and pick him up. Clinging to him, I breathe in his scent. I send up a silent prayer to whoever is listening to protect my son. I don’t want this for him. I put him down when I hear Asher come in.By the
Isabella“How long do you think she will be able to hold out?” I frown when I see the look in Asher’s eyes. He sighs deeply, making me really worried.“I don’t know. She’s always been difficult to really pin down. Emily is motivated by money and prestige, and she will do anything to get it.” He sighs. “As long as that twisted mind of hers believes that there is the slightest chance, she can get me back, she isn’t going to admit anything.”“Maybe that is what we have to use against her then.” I sit down while he pours each of us a drink. He hands me one and sits down beside me.“What do you mean? What more can we tell her or show her that she hasn’t already seen? She knows we are mated.” He frowns, and I take a moment to think about it. I hate the idea of torturing someone. Physically and emotionally, but we may have no other choice.“What would she do if we condemn her? If you openly say that she is guilty whether she admits it or not?” I don’t even dare go further, but thankfully, I
IsabellaI roll onto my side and try to calm my mind. I know that he feels everything I’m feeling right now, and it is almost as though at that very moment it’s an invasion of my privacy. Especially since it feels as if there is this huge part of his life, of his personality, that I didn’t see until now.I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. I can’t even begin to imagine my life without him. The good guy, not the one I’ve seen since his mother was killed. I also can’t see myself raising our son with a bad guy. Something has to give.He either has to pick to be one of the two or I need to make a very difficult decision. I shake my head, not even wanting to think about it. I can’t. I know there is no way I can leave him. Even after everything I saw and everything I’ve felt, I still love him.I get out of bed and go in search of Asher. I need to talk to him. I find him in his office and the moment our eyes meet, it hurts. His eyes are filled with all the same emotions I’ve been f