The room was filled with laughter. There were joyous alphas and beta males spitting out their alcohol, and embarrassed lunas and beta females who’d all glance at each other knowingly and roll their eyes. The room was packed with high rankers from four different packs not including our own. We were all cozied up at a long banquet table in the cabin-styled dining room, with patterned high backed cushioned chairs and an antler chandelier. Alpha Damien sat at the head, to his right was Luna Grace, looking even more angelic than usual.I wonder if it was the lighting.To the left of the alpha sat Carter, and I sat to the left of him. A luna of a pack I was unfamiliar with sat on my other side but we both must have been socially awkward because all we managed to do was politely smile at one another and nod and that was the end of our interactions. Another bout of deep throated laughter shook me from my thoughts. “If George really needs something to brace him, he might want to grab the hea
“Take action… as a united front?” Alpha James repeated warily. I surveyed the room. All of the alpha’s were tense, some eyeing one another. Carter even had a wary frown on his face, but it seemed more along the lines of concerned rather than hostile. I caught his eye and he leaned over.“The packs haven’t been united since the war, and even then it was extremely fragile. With multiple alpha’s, it tends to get a little…” He whispered softly in my ear. I would have been turned on if the atmosphere wasn’t so serious at the moment.“Tense?” I whispered back. "Something like that." He winced and nodded.The other high ranking wolves looked around the room with glazed eyes. It took me a moment to realize that they were mind-linking each other to discuss. This seemed to continue for a few more seconds until Carter turned to Alpha Cunningham.“What would being a united front entail exactly?” Carter asked the group. I was surprised he spoke up because it seemed that the beta male and females
“Now then-” Alpha Cunningham turned back to the rest of the table, “Any more questions?” He smirked.And like a beautiful dance, I witnessed Carter and the rest of the high rankers navigate through a minefield of tense negotiations.Wolf politics were interesting, if only for the fact that words had to be carefully crafted in every sentence so as not to offend any of the highly emotional and dangerous wolves. However, if a wolf needed to show their strength, they purposely tried to make the other uncomfortable.For instance, as questions were fielded about the legitimacy of the claims of wolf children being taken, Alpha Cunningham got swept up in a stare-off with the alpha who skeptically denied the validity of them earlier. The two refused to look away as it showed weakness and it took each of their luna’s to pull them away from nearly turning to a wolf at the dinner table and challenging each other. “How can you expect us to believe that they’re taken?” The same skeptical alpha gro
Once Carter and I finally sent the last of the high ranking wolves on their way home, I sighed and slumped against the front door. I banged the back of my head against the wood trying to ease the headache that was forming. “You look like you just ran a marathon.” Carter teased, easing against the door next to me. His crossed arms bulged through the dress shirt he wore. I chuckled, glancing at his demeanor. “And you look like you’re about to run a marathon. ” I leaned against one side to face him and unabashedly assessed his body. “Where on earth do you get all that energy from?”He leaned close and whispered in my ear, “You really want to know?” He rumbled. It was a call that my body answered to. No. Not my body. Paisley’s.I leaned back and rolled my eyes. “No thanks. I’m good, actually.” I pushed off the door and crossed my arms trying to still my racing heart.I opened my mouth to let out a retort when I finally noticed Carter’s furrowed brow and clenched fists. “What’s wrong?”
Carter parked the car along the side of the road. When it came to a stop, there was a clear hesitancy in both of us. Ultimately, Carter kept his seat belt buckled and looked at me with a strained smile. “Have a wonderful night, Paisley. And thank you again for accompanying me to the dinner.”“Of course.” I brushed my hair behind my hair. With a smile, I thought back to the dinner. “I hope it was less boring this time, for better or worse.”“Having you there made it better, no matter the circumstances.” Carter smiled, a hint of sadness in his gaze. “We made quite the team, you and I.”“We did, didn’t we?” I bumped my shoulder with his before opening the door. Carter's wrist caught mine before I could let go of my grip on the car door. “Don’t be a stranger, alright?” He looked seriously at me. I smiled tensely. “We’re friends, remember?” He gave me a sad smile. I tried to nod but felt a little too guilty. Was it bad of me that I wanted him to walk me to my door again? To hold me in h
“Luna Grace! What a delightful surprise to see you! Welcome in!” Gloria cheered as she washed a few of the children’s hands in the sink.Behind her was a scared, doe-eyed, familiar little girl who brightened once she saw me.“Paisley!” She shouted and ran straight into my arms. My heart was filled with warmth as I wrapped my arms around little Lucy.“Lucy! I haven’t seen you in so long!” I squeezed her tight. She giggled. “Are you coming to preschool today?” I asked. Lucy was enrolled in the preschool but she only came about half of the time. I had only seen her once since I started working there but Gloria had told me before that Lucy’s schedule tended to vary since she was the alpha’s daughter. Lucy nodded meekly, clasping her hands together tightly. I quickly got her settled on coloring a picture and went back to Luna Grace. She was observing us oddly, a look of strange curiosity at our exchange. “I forgot Lucy took to you so well.” She said lowly, keeping her gaze on Lucy.Not kn
Then Time passed by at work. The kids were a little extra rambunctious today, but still such sweethearts. We were all currently outside enjoying some sunshine on the playground behind the pack house. Gloria was currently helping kids get themselves across the monkey bars because heaven forbid they try to attempt it themselves without a teacher there to support them. I was put on the field with some of the bigger kids, all kicking a soccer ball back and forth- attempting to explain the rules of soccer without any of the kids understanding at all the definition of the word ‘team’. That's when I heard a scream. I quickly scanned the kids and noticed the screaming came from a young girl next to the fence. “What happened?” I huffed when I ran over to her. She was on the ground, holding her leg which had blood dripping profusely from it. Little Lucy stood next to the girl looking up at me blank faced. “Smoke come and hurt her.” She stared at the bleeding leg. “A what?” Another kid- a
This did not turn out to be fun. Now, don’t get me wrong- Lucy has been an angel, through and through. But- where an angel dwells, a demon lurks in its shadow.That demon turned out to be named Dax Lockwood. It had not even been thirty minutes since Luna Grace left that Dax had tried to break every single valuable item in the house, take a knife to the couch cushions (granted, it was a butter knife but the intent remains), and attempt to get footprints on every white wall in the goddamn house. I couldn’t take my eyes off him for a second because if I blinked, he was already gone!I felt like I witnessed Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Cat in the Hat be melded together by a satanic ritual with the purpose of bringing armageddon to the world. The child was evil incarnated. At this very moment, I was chasing the demon child through the house and had cornered him to the top bedroom hallway. The chupacabra was cackling like a witch, naked as the day he was born, and dangling my phone from his
They say that when your body is under extreme distress, it triggers one of two reactions: Fight, and attack your opponent with either physical or intellectual strength; or Flight, and flee your opponent with terrifying speed fueled by adrenaline. What people don’t realize is that there is a third reaction when your body is under extreme distress, one that is not acknowledged as heavily as the others, and that is Freeze. Freeze locks your body into place or perhaps takes away your power to move your limbs. Everything is frozen in your entire body- except your mind. Your mind is racing with unparalleled thoughts far too fast to place any action in them. You’re simply helpless to the orchestrations of your mind and imprisoned by your body. You cannot move, speak, or even blink, yet your mind is screaming for you to do so and punishes you with thousands of synaptic thoughts pulsating your brain, frying it from the inside.I unfortunately belonged to this group.“What did you say?” Carte
My body was utterly exhausted, yet I had never felt better. It was a long night of passion, more than I had ever experienced in my life, yet he never penetrated me. Carter spent hours thoroughly ‘taking care of me’ as he called it, with half of it being on his kitchen table. Every time I tried to reciprocate his touches, his passion- he would simply grab my wrist and start kissing my palm and scold me with the mention of how I was too eager. “I just want to touch you. Don’t take away my pleasure tonight, beautiful,” he had said after my second orgasm when I had tried to grab his length. To punish me for going against him, he made the next session last twice as long before he allowed me to come. I had been in tears by the time he finally gave in. Even now, just the thought of all that we did last night sent heat straight to my core, along with the exhaustion from how tightly wound my body was last night.I felt a soft shift of a weight underneath me and a seductive rumble carry through
Carter Lockwood’s home was not as I expected it to be. Typically, significant characters in werewolf novels had such grand mansion-like houses with manicured lawns and a beauty to be envied by all who entered.Carter’s house- or should I say cabin, reeked of humble naturalness. It was a small cottage with natural foot pathways and wild plants growing all around, protecting the secluded little house from outsiders. Wildflowers peeked out in bloom in various areas and trees surrounded the house on the sides, tucking it nice and neat for an adventurous hiker who wanted a natural environment. For some reason, it seemed to fit exactly what I already knew about Carter and his soul. He wasn’t one to brag, and definitely wasn’t the one who liked the spotlight naturally, but rather had it forced on him from duty.I fell in love just looking at the beautiful little home. I don’t know how Carter knew what I was thinking but his wolf rumbled in approval at my satisfaction and pressed his nose de
“I told you to come to me when you need something, didn’t I?”I whipped my head around to see a familiar dark silhouette hiding in the shadows of the street. The figure took a step closer to light themselves under the pale yellow light of the nearby street lamp. Carter looked disheveled. His hair looked unkempt, like his hands ran through it over and over again. His tense muscles clenched as he slowly walked over to me, putting me in shadow as the back of him lit up like he was covered in heavenly glow.When my eyes finally traveled to his face, he was furious. Considering how much was going on tonight, I didn’t even want to try to analyze what was going through that mind of his. Not tonight. I was so tired.Carter held out his hand for me to grab. I simply stared at it.“Damn it, Paisley, just take my hand.” He sighed in frustration.Trying to put a halt in my tears, I eased my hand into his warm one. Without a second of hesitation, he pulled me to my fight and wrapped his arms aroun
“There you are! We were worried sick about you!” Denise and Phil ran out of the house. A look of genuine concern was on Phil’s face but Denise’s was obviously a burning fury disguised as concern. She assessed Carter for a moment before throwing her arm around my shoulders and trying to brisk me inside.“Thank you, Beta Carter.” She smiled tensely. “I’m sure my daughter put you through so much trouble tonight. We appreciate you taking her home.” Denise’s tight grip on my shoulders practically pushed me up the porch steps. I glanced over my shoulder to see Phil shaking Carter’s hand and thanking him earnestly for his help. Carter nodded respectfully but it was clear he was still filled with rage from what happened. He couldn’t take his eyes off mine as I was ushered over the threshold and into the house.Phil came in a moment later and shut the door just as Denise shoved me away from her.“How dare you!” She yelled, pointing her wrinkled finger at me. “All you’ve ever done is give me tr
“Are you really that clueless?” He stared at me. I blinked and backed up, the sexual tension melting away to a cold icy river between us. “Excuse me?” I raised my brow, feeling so cold suddenly. Goose bumps raised on the back of my neck.“You could have been killed going to a place like that! Why on earth would you go to a club- and a well known RIH club at that! Don’t you realize that just being mated to me makes you an enemy to them?!” Carter yelled, talking angrily with his hands. I stared straight ahead and merely folded my arms, the cold seeming into my bones. “You act like I had a choice.” I murmured.“Well, didn’t you?” He scoffed. “Your father told me tonight that you were having a sleepover at a friend's house. So you can imagine my surprise when I found you in a club when not only are you underage but the club is in the heart of the RIH community?”“You didn’t tell my father where I was, did you?” I whipped my head in his direction, fear creeping through me. “When I real
It was absolute chaos all around me. I couldn’t hear anything except the dull ringing in my ears from the gun that fired next to me but I could see the massive wolves ambushing the human men with guns. Guns fired from the men in a panic, lighting up the dark side of the alley for brief moments like lightning. I was shoved to the ground for a moment as T.J. screamed something in my ears, saliva spitting as he shouted something with pure rage directed right at me. Out the the corner of my eye I saw T.J. raise his gun once more and aim it at me but before he could fire, a large wolf tackled him to the ground, clamping his jaws around T.J.’s firing hand.The ringing turned to a small dull noise as shouting and screaming were starting to be heard in my ears. I sat up to watch the same wolf decimating T.J.’s arm and shoulder.It was Carter. I hadn’t had a chance to take in his appearance before because of the gun trained on me, but now that I was out of immediate harm's way- I gasped from
Beta Carter:I was a ball of boiling pure rage. My wolf had taken over my body as we listened to the phone call of two men disrespecting our mate. He was shaking with the desire for blood as we continued listening as we swerved through the streets, breaking all speed limits and barely avoiding accidents. All as we continued to search for Paisley.There was something that all wolves knew deep in their soul. It wasn’t spoken much but it was acknowledged as truth no matter how often others- humans especially, seemed skeptical of it. The phenomena was- that no matter where in the world a wolf was, no matter how far away they were from their mate, if they were in danger- their mate would always be able to find them. Some said it was because of the mate bond, others said it was because of the tying between their souls that brought them together- even if they were worlds apart. There was a pull in my soul, guiding me towards her- towards Paisley. Her soul was calling out to mine in ways that
Beta Carter:My wolf was growling at me- once again. I could feel him there, pacing in my mind. He wanted Paisley and he wanted her now. It was getting harder to control him every day but being summoned away by Damien just as we were about to taste her for the first time- that was his final straw. He was snarling at the mental barriers I put him behind, digging his sharp claws at my mind, making me wince. Keep it together Carter. Control your wolf.I’d always had a harder time controlling my wolf more than others excluding Damien. However, he seemed to embrace his out of control nature more than I which led to his ruthless nature. Something I had admired when I was young but lately…I knocked on the door to Damein’s office and waited for permission to enter. Damien was always a professional person and didn’t tolerate disrespect- no matter who it came from.I heard him mutter an ‘enter’ and let myself in. He was exactly where I left him a few hours ago. He was slumped over his desk wh