I step outside my bedroom the next day, anticipation heavy in my heart and a permanent smile on my face. I was going to get to see my kids today. I looked up and down the hallway for signs of life, my eyes lingering on the door I knew belonged to Sebastain. Last night we had dinner together, and I can’t lie, I kind of enjoyed myself. We just talked. He told me a little bit about his mom, and what it was like being raised by a woman like that. He told me she has always had incredibly high expectations for him, her only son, to be the absolute greatest. I guess it kind of did him good though, because now he was the Alpha of literally the strongest pack in the nation. Knowing that, I could see how much she bothered him when he spoke of her. His shoulders tensed up and his fists clenched, and his face morphed into one of an immature child with no emotional outlet. It was definitely a more vulnerable side of Sebastain that I hadn’t yet encountered. I bite my lip a little and slowly
“Tell me what I’ve missed.” I say to Lucas as I tear up a pancake for Eli, who was sitting on my lap. We had moved to the kitchen of Sebastain’s house, where one of the servants had breakfast already prepared for us. Sebastian had said he had some work to do, and had gone upstairs to his office, leaving Lucas and I alone with the twins in the kitchen. I was a little surprised he was leaving us alone, to be honest, but I didn’t want to question it and make him change his mind, so I kept quiet. “Uh. Well.” He scratches the back of his neck and pushes away the food he was given. I can tell being here makes him uncomfortable, and it’s clear he doesn’t trust Sebastain’s people enough to eat the food they cooked him. Which was fine, but I was proof that being poisoned was a very real possibility in this pack. “Here baby.” I whisper to Eli as I offer him a piece. “Killian has been… in a mood. Since he came back without you.” Lucas admits. I look up from Eli to look at him. “He’s been st
The next day I slept in late, mostly because I knew Sebastain had his lunch date with Camilla today, and I didn’t want to run the risk of running into either of them; or worse, both of them together. I just knew it would annoy me, knowing I was in this weird dating game with them. I didn’t like being used like some kind of puppet.We’re still playing the denial game, I see. “Yup.” I mutter to my wolf as I get an outfit together for the day. I planned on walking around the pack grounds a little. I had done plenty of work with tons of different pack members during my first two years here, but I haven’t even interacted with any of them in… weeks now. Since I started feeling the effects of the poison Sebastain and his mistress had been slipping me. There had been a couple passing interactions, but nothing like the hands on work I was used to always having done in whatever pack I was helping lead. I wanted to make sure the maternity ward I’d help build was doing okay, as well as check in
“I’m glad everything is running smoothly.” I say with a smile to Crystal as we watched a nurse burping a newborn. “I hope that doesn’t mean you won’t come around anymore. If I need to lie and tell you things are awful I will.” She says, looking up at me with a worried expression. I laugh a little. “I’ll come back-”“Right this way Alpha. It's an honor to have you visit us today.” I stiffen and let out a deep sigh when I hear a nurse calling someone Alpha, and footsteps coming towards us. “We keep the newborns here for monitoring, and to let the mothers get a little rest after giving birth. Would you like to meet a few of them?” I hear the nurse telling who I assume to be Sebastain and most likely Camilla as she leads them closer and closer to where we still stand watching the babies. Why the hell did he have to bring her here? I bet he knew the first thing I’d want to do was check on my projects. He probably brought her here on purpose, to rub it in my face. I can feel Crystal look
I grab a glass out of the cabinet in Sebastain’s kitchen and set it on the counter. I move to the fridge where I know I'd seen a chilled bottle of vodka. It was already ten pm, and Sebastain wasn’t back from his time with Camilla yet. God, why the hell did that irritate me so much? I shake my head at myself as I fill the cup halfway with cranberry juice before topping it off with vodka. I scoff and drink the whole thing in one go, wincing a little at the burn of vodka in the back of my throat. Seems like you definitely care a little. “Shut up.” I mutter at my wolf as I pour myself another drink. My entire body tenses up when I hear the front door opening. I listened, my hand clenched tightly around the glass. I hear Camilla telling Sebastain something quietly, too quiet for me to hear. Sebastian says something back, and then I hear heels clicking up the stairs to the bedrooms. My eyes dart up to glare at Sebastian as he comes into the kitchen, stopping his tracks when he sees
“I don’t know why the hell you’re crying.” I run my hand through my hair, frustrated as ever but trying to keep my tone in check. Eli and Ella were both standing up in their cribs, big alligator tears leaking from their eyes and they screamed for something. They did okay during the day when they were playing and interacting with people, but at night they had been whiney every night since we’d gotten home. “Mama!” Eli demands, his tiny face angry and sad looking. I sigh, and shake my head. I had said I didn’t know why they were crying, but it seemed tonight was no different than every other night. They wanted their mother. “She’s not here.” I say, stepping forward to pick him up and hold him against me. He calms down a little, but Ella gets jealous and starts screaming louder. I picked her up too, holding one against each shoulder as they sniffed and slowly started calming down a little. I hold them tightly against me, my hand supporting each one under the butt as they lay their head
Lucas and I end up talking for a few hours, and decide on a few things. We’re selling the remainder of the packs businesses, and we’ll compile all the money and reinvest in something low risk and hopefully profitable. We’ll lay low on that front for a while, shift to hunting for as much of our food as we can to cut costs, while we stack some money again. After a while we’ll go back to reinvesting in other businesses for even more cash flow. We’re going to go and personally talk to the pack members that left under May’s supervision, and see what I can do to try and convince them to come back. I know it’s probably going to take more than an apology, but I was willing to put in the work if they would let me. The rogue problem had settled down a little, killing them on site seemed to have the desired effect. But there were still a few encounters here and there, including one this morning with some young wolves playing too close to the border. The kids were fine, because Lucas had been
I sit at the kitchen island, eating a bowl of cereal a little nervously. Three days ago, Sebastian and I hooked up. Thankfully, Sebstain had gotten called away to another pack that was having a conflict the morning after we did the deed, so I hadn’t actually had to face the consequences of my actions yet. But I’d certainly had time to think about what we’d done. I don’t think I’d ever lost control like that. I had completely given into my desires, and given myself over to Sebastain in a very no return sort of way. I sigh and set my spoon in my bowl when I hear voices outside. I hear the front door opening, and Sebastain saying goodbye to a few men I’m assuming he’d been traveling with. “I’ll see you guys later.” I hear him telling them as he shuts the door. I hear him groaning, and I think he stops to stretch in the entryway. I let out a sigh of relief when I heard him going up the stairs instead of turning into the kitchen. Maybe I wouldn’t have to face him just yet. I hear
The ride back to Killian’s pack was mostly quiet; he’d ask me something every once in a while, about the twins or his pack. But I think we both had a lot on our minds. I know I did. The car had dropped us as close to the pack lands as it could, and we walked the rest of the way. “God, I’m glad to be back in these woods.” Killian said as we walked along. He had his face tilted to look at the tops of the trees, and was smiling a little for the first time in what felt like forever. It was kind of cute, the way he was acting like he was literally being recharged just by being in his woods again. “What are you smiling at?” He asks me, bumping his shoulder against mine a little. I shake my head, and look up at him. “Just… happy we both got to come back here together.” I say. “Did you miss this place at all?” He asks, looking down at me. I nod a little. “Yeah, I guess I did. Or really I missed the good memories I had attached to it.” He nods along. “Like… Do you remember that one nigh
A lot had happened since I had beaten both Sebastain and Felix. Most of which I wasn’t currently letting Killian in on. It’s not that I didn’t trust him or think he wasn’t capable anymore, but I knew he was hurt. And I knew only half of the pain he was feeling right now was physical. First of all, May reared her annoying ass in again. It makes sense, as she had been spotted previously hanging out with Felix, and had been acting suspiciously close with him before. But I was a bit surprised when his body was taken away by his pack members, and she surfaced through the crowd, like she’d been there the entire time. “Look who’s leveled up in the world.” she had sneered at me as she glared down at the unconscious Felix. She looked at me bitterly, like I had taken something from her. She had gone on about how this and this were supposed to happen, but now everything was ruined since I’d stuck my nose into everything. She said I was in the way, like always, and should’ve just learned my
I always thought Everly had such a pretty side profile. I remember when I first started getting to know her, I would stare at her across the courtyard at our college, just watching her read or talk to someone. I liked the curve of her lips, the way her lashes brush the tops of her cheeks when she blinked.That’s what I was thinking about as I watched her talk to the doctor who had been taking care of me for the past couple of days. I was being released. My injuries weren’t all the way healed, but I was good enough. The doctor had actually said that. I wasn’t upset about it or anything, I was ready to get out of here as it was. I was still in Sebastain’s pack. Or I guess, Everly’s pack. We hadn’t actually talked too much about that little fact yet. I’d tried to bring it up a couple times, to find out what exactly happened. I knew the outcome of everything, but I still felt like I was missing a lot of important details. But whenever I did bring it up, suddenly Everly had to pee so
Failure. You lost. Pathetic. You don’t deserve to be Alpha. These words are the only ones that fill my head as someone carried my unconscious body like a sack of potatoes. I didn’t know who it was, if they were taking me to finish me off or help me, but I didn’t care. I can’t believe I lost. My mind can’t quite put everything that happened in order, not yet at least. I remember the beginning of the fight, flashes of Everly’s anxious face watching me get my ass kicked. I remember… getting knocked down. Lots of yelling. But I’m not sure why… I couldn’t pick out what they had been saying. Sounded like a woman, calling someone a monster. But who would be yelling that, and why? And I remember opening my eyes for a moment, and seeing Everly kneeling above me, blood on her chin, and her eyes so, so worried for me. Why was there blood on her chin? “...you gotta open your eyes buddy.” Whoever that is sounds familiar. Lucas? He was the only one who would call me something like “buddy.”
I hadn’t utilized my wolf much since she’d come back to me, a few small conversations here and there, but she didn’t seem all that chatty, to be honest. Though it wasn’t like she was before, either. I had even asked her once if she wanted to be let out so she could go for a run, but she said no, she was fine watching. Which I thought was a little weird, just because of what I’d heard about your wolf’s nature inside when I was a kid, was that it could always be begging to be let out. Wolves loved to run and play, hunt and kill. But my wolf always seemed like she preferred to remain inside, silently watching my life play out. It was a little odd, to be honest. I guess one might assume she’d be weak, from all that time spent locked up. But she wasn’t. She ripped through my skin, making Felix laugh like an evil maniac, and grin with excitement. He tears off his own shirt, and begins turning into his wolf. I hope my wolf knew what she was doing. I hope we dont both die today. I want
There were more than a few problems that quickly became evident to me from the second Adam told us to begin. First of all, I don’t know Felix, like at all. I’d never met him before all this, so I certainly didn’t know anything about his fighting style. I guess I had assumed based on his personality, he would dance around me for a while, taunting me and maybe revealing some evil plan he’d been cooking up. Starting out easy and building up to more serious attacks. I was dead wrong, because the first thing he did was charge me at a lightning fast speed, barely giving me time to put my arms up and try to block my face from the barrage of punches he was throwing at me. His fists pounded into my arms, and I could already imagine the dark bruises I would be covered in if I survived long enough to see tomorrow. I could hear the packs booing him, except for his of course, and throwing suggestions at me. Even they could tell I was in over my head here. I wanted to take their advice, but a l
After a while, Adam and an older woman come back over to me, both with those same, almost mourning expressions on their faces. They were looking at me like they were about to tell me I had cancer or something.“Everly… I don’t know how to say this..” Adam begins, but is cut off by the over eager Felix, who throws his arm over my shoulder and hangs off me like a rag doll. “Oh, do tell us Adam. Tell us how she’s going to have to fight me now, because of your tragic pack rules.” He taunts, an impish grin plastered on his face. I narrow my eyes at him, but when I look back at Adam, I can tell that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do. I’d already had an inkling, but I guess there was still some small part of me that hoped the fates might have mercy on me for once. I mean, it makes sense. Sebastian fights Killian, whoever wins that fight, fights Felix. Except, I just had to butt my big head in, and now I was the one who had won that match, so according to the rules, I was up next again
“Killian?! Wake up!” I’m hovering over Killian now, gently holding either side of his face. There’s blood all over, his nose is definitely broken, and his eyes are swollen shut. Serena still hasn’t shut up about what a monster I am in the background, even though Sebastain had already been dragged off by a couple of his pack members. I wish she would’ve gone with him, because she was only adding to the chaos. A couple committee members were holding her back by the arms as she yelled at me what a manipulative piece of shit I was, and that if her son died, I was the reason. Adam was one of the guys holding her, and I could tell by the look on his face, he had no idea what to do right now.“Please.” I lean down to Killian’s ear, kissing it softly. My heart races in my chest when I hear him groan, and his head rolls to the side a little. That was proof, he was alive, and that’s all I needed right now.“Luna, we must help him.” I look up to the voice talking to me, my eyes wide and franti
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” I blink a little, trying to pull myself out of the whirlwind of thoughts going on inside my mind right now as Serena starts speaking to the gathered packs. “Today, we are witnessing the challenge of two Alphas-”I hear a voice clearing, and look up to Felix, who is standing in between Killian and Sebastain. Serena sighs, and rolls her eyes. “Two Alphas and a… him.” She waves her hand dismissively at Felix, but he just grins that evil smile of his and waves at the crowd. “For the right to rule over all attending packs.” I notice she left out the real reason this challenge was even happening, to see who would have me as their Luna. She was one of the ones I’d heard him talking shit about me to, so I don’t know why she even cared. She already knew how he really felt, right? I look up then at Sebastian, who is already looking at me. His dark gaze stares into mine, and I swallow thickly. He’s mouthing something at me, something I can’t quite make out. I tilt my h