* * * Jasper’s POV * * * Once Damian has entered Benedict onto the security system, we enter the pack through the gates and bid Damian good night. “So, what name shall I actually call you?” I ask him.“I prefer Alexander, so I would like to stick to that unless we are performing official duties,” Alexander tells me.“Very well. Are you coming back to mine? I will wake Sarah up and introduce you. I have so many questions: where is Sarah’s mother? Where has she been? How do you feel about being a grandpa? Why did Sarah’s power activate when I said her full name? …” I begin my tirade of questions.“Woah, Jasper, slow down. Her mother has remained hidden to protect Athena. She is currently working in a small pharmaceutical shop in a little human village. It works for her as she still feels like she is helping people. We create her a new identity every five years and move villages. We simply attract too much attention when together, although that doesn’t matter now. We can be together in
* * * Eve’s POV * * * “They were too late, they caught the vampires on their approach,” I tell the group as I read Jasper’s text message. My heart feels deflated, damn the traffic to hell. But I’m relieved to know my mother is safe,” I add. “Dammit. We need to out ourselves to the world. That way we don’t have to hide and can run in wolf form,” Max grumbles.“I know, baby. We should have used this opportunity to expose ourselves and deal with the aftermath later. How long before we arrive?” I ask him. “I would guess, 45 minutes to an hour. Why?”“I will let Jasper know. Why would vampires attack the Green Lake pack? They are friendly to vampires,” I muse, trying to figure it all out. “We will figure it out,” Max promises me. “Sarah, when do you think this snow will set? How deep was the snow?” I ask her, knowing a bigger attack is coming.“It’s hard to say. Maybe three or four days, perhaps,” she guesses.“It’s OK. I know it’s a lot to ask when you have just discovered your gift,
* * * Eve’s POV * * * “I have announced an emergency evacuation to the pack. They are to leave their belongings and meet at the packhouse. Those with babies will travel by car. The others with pups young enough to ride a wolf will travel in wolf form. It’s the quickest and safest option, but what of the humans who don’t know of our existence?” Alpha Reece tells us. “Max, is something the matter?” I ask him, noticing him typing furiously on his phone. “I have messaged the other Alphas and my father, along with the Alpha of the Sea View pack. I have told them all that there is a threat to every pack in existence and they should evacuate to New Moon immediately, without delay. Or to another location that is easily defendable. We can’t delay and risk being too late again,” Max sighs.“I hope they get there in time,” I say as I take his hand in mine.“We pray to the Moon Goddess, that’s all we can do.”“The humans that don’t know of our existence are about to be enlightened. There is no
* * * Eve’s POV * * * “He’s dead because he saved me,” I cry as I hold Allan’s head. “Eve drop the barrier, call the fire back, please,” Alexander requests.I hadn’t realised that my barrier was still blazing. I reach within for the connection and call the fire to rest within me. The land is scorched where the fire had stood, but I’ve been able to contain it and prevent it spreading to the rest of the forest. I still continue to cry for Allan. “Eve, you saved hundreds, Allan will be fine. His pride and ego may be a little bruised. But a severed head doesn’t kill a vampire, only setting fire to the severed limbs can kill us,” Alexander reassures me. “You mean he’s not dead?” I ask, wanting to make sure. “No, he’s not dead,” Alexander smiles.“What do we do?” I ask.“We return home and make sure the others have arrived safely. We protect those who need our aid, and we stop those who threaten the peace,” Alexander tells me.“But what about Jasper?” I fret, I can’t leave him. “He’s
* * * Eve’s POV * * * We carry Jasper’s dismembered body parts to Max’s and my home. Once he is laid on the bed and we have placed his body parts together, I pause to speak to him.‘You will be back together in no time, Jasper. We will use vampire venom to help speed up the healing process.’ “If we weren’t under threat of an attack, I would be tempted to place his body parts in the wrong place,” laughs Max.“He would kick your arse, and you know it. Now put his leg in the right place, the right way around and step back and let the vampires use their venom,” I scold him, but I can’t keep the laughter from my voice when he turns Jasper’s leg around with a sheepish expression on his face. “How does that work?” Max asks.“We bite his flesh where the limb was severed, and the venom will help the tissues knit back together. So to speak. I’ve never done this before.” Max and I watch, fascinated as the vampires' bite Jasper’s flesh, administering their venom. We stand waiting for five min
* * * Eve’s POV * * * “Jasper, once you have rested could you please tell us about the shadows and Richard?” Alpha Reece asks as we make our way to the door.“I will rest until after the prime ministers speech, and then we shall reconvene here. I don’t wish to speak about it more than once,” Jasper answers. “Of course. Rest well, and we shall meet again soon. Everybody please make sure you get breakfast, I will welcome the Lycans’ to New Moon and then prepare to continue the meeting,” Alpha Paul dismisses the group. Evolution built us to respond to disaster, yet not continuously so. We need to rest, to find peace within, to restore our health so that when called to action we are ready to move. And yet as I look at Jasper’s tired body, I realise that we may not get that chance to rest. “Thank you for helping me to get home,” Jasper says weakly.“It’s our pleasure. Please rest my friend. We all need a cosy place to hide at times, to feel safe and cocooned within, so that when the ne
* * * Eve’s POV * * * The alarms are still sounding as we rush from the meeting room and out of the packhouse. The pack grounds are in chaos, those with children are bickering about who will fight and who will stay with the pups, the young are scared and crying as they cling onto their parents and caregivers. Everyone, please do NOT panic. You are well protected and the safe house is just a precaution. Proceed calmly and quietly to your destination, we will protect you, Alpha Paul commands using his Alpha tone through the mind-link. The pack calms, only the young are frantic now and everybody goes about their business. “Are you worried?” I ask Alpha Paul. “I swallow my own fear to expand the safe zone of others, to become the stoic leader they deserve,” he tells me. “So, you have a safe house? We were only gone a short while,” I ask him. “I had planned to tell you on your return. We changed the doors and key codes to Charles’s underground hideout. We felt it would be a good pla
* * * Eve’s POV * * * “I REPEAT. BREACH. THE ENEMY IS WITHIN THE WALLS!” the voice cries out again. Down from the wall leaps Max with a fierce cry that echoes as he shifts into Nate’s angry form. His paws touch the Earth softly as he lands. He soon has his work cut out. Alexander looks down from atop the wall, hearing the great rumbling growl of Nate above all the chaos. “The enemy is in the pack!” he cries. “They are throwing their men over the wall and fence. Stand your ground and make them rue the day they challenged us,” he shouts as he leaps down the wall into the thick of the enemy with many men shifting into their wolf’s at his back. Their onset is fierce and sudden, and the enemy gives way before them. Alexander and those around him are fierce and all are slain or driven shrieking further into New Moon, only to fall before the gathered warriors. * * BOOOOM! * * A ground shaking explosion rings out around the pack grounds, so powerful it uproots some of the nearby trees a
* * * Nellie’s POV * * *From the punch to the erosion of self-esteem over time, domestic abuse can either come fast or act as a dimmer switch. Nellie was ashamed that she had never gotten out of her situation. It had almost killed her on several occasions. She was an emotionally dependent sort and had never been on her own before. But once you have kids, they are your priority. They have to be. You try to get out and make a new life, a better one, and become their role model. If you don't want your kids to put up with the same... neither can you... otherwise they most likely will... because people often subconsciously seek what they grew up with, even if it's harmful. That is why she had tried to escape over the years and that is why she had written for help from her parents. There were nights when she knew Max would lie in his bed listening to the sound of fighting. Her, his mother would shout and cry, begging to be released from this living hell, his father would begin laying int
* * * Max Aged Three * * * If Nellie was a house, it was built out of love, and the floor is her faith in who she is. Robert’s cynicism ate away at the walls and hit the floor until one day it cracked. The perfect house everyone knew and loved, fell completely. Recovery was the biggest challenge she had ever achieved, and only possible because she loved her son, the community and nature. She worked to rebuild her house, a brick at a time; she put in new floors and polished them to a homely brown. There are times she still finds that there is a brick missing here and there, or perhaps the floor needs bringing back to a shine, but she made it. She was determined to make it for her son.She had tried reaching out to her family and to Harrison. But to no avail, so far. But she wouldn’t give up. Once Max was down for his nap, she found her writing journal and began writing again.‘Mama and Papa,It’s been just over three years since I last saw your faces, and almost three years since I’v
* * * Nellie Aged 13 * * * “But Dad, what if I get bullied at the new school too? Please keep me home. Teach me here.” Nellie whined. “Sweetheart, you have to go to school. King Arthur promised that the teachers would look out for you here,” her father reassured her. “But what if they do bully me?” she fretted. “Then we go to speak to the King; it will be fine, I promise,” her father soothed her. It was her first day at the Lycan High School that resided within the Lycan kingdom. She had spent all night tossing and turning, wondering if the Lycans there would accept her. The last two years at her previous school had been miserable. The school was mixed with humans and Lycans. The humans were unaware that creatures of fantasy existed and shared their classrooms and halls. She had not bonded with the humans, and the Lycans had ridiculed her and kept calling her a dog, which was their way of insulting werewolves. It hadn’t bothered her to be called a dog; what bothered her was that
* * * Eve’s POV * * ** * * One Month Later * * * The final decision has been made. Max and I will accept the offer of the Gods and transcend into Demigods. We will live as immortals for an eternity, setting up the academy and keeping the peace. We’ve travelled with the gifted; Cherokee and Isla, Joe, Jasper and Sarah and little Theia, who will be approved to transcend. Our ceremony will be held in a few weeks. We will transcend and become Demigods. After that, we will only be able to visit our loved ones during the solstice. Otherwise, the only entry to Earth permitted is on a peacekeeping mission. I find myself thankful that the Moon Goddess had delayed us having children. I wouldn’t be able to accept this path if it meant only seeing my blood twice a year. It’s been a peaceful car journey and has only taken us an hour. The Gods will meet us within the castle to show us how the portal works. As we approach, the castle looks to be in ruins. Magnificent. But ruins all the same. The
* * * Eve’s POV * * * Zeus walks away from me to turn his attention to the hunters. “You humans will listen to me. I didn’t create your lives, to be disrespected by you. You will stop your violence and hunting and learn to live in peace,” his voice bellows across the battleground. Half of the humans drop their weapons and kneel before the God who granted them life. This is an historical day, and I’m certain it’ll be spoken about for generations to come. “And if we chose not to?” A hunter challenges.“Amos Clark, I would have predicted a life of peace for you after your upbringing. Seeing daily violence from the customers of your crackhead mother. Your life changed for the better when your mother was fated to be the second chance mate of Beta Thomas of the Blue Ridge pack. He helped her to be free of the drugs and to become the mother you needed. He gave you a home, an education and a family, and yet here you are openly killing the kind that saved you,” Zeus says knowingly.“That fi
* * * Eve’s POV * * ** * * The Final Decision * * *My heart shatters, my soul is crumbling, and I feel empty while floating in the abyss. There’s a hole in my chest, and I want to die. I want to end my existence so that I can reunite with him again. It was never meant to be him; the Moon Goddess said we would have lots of babies. She lied. The biochemical impact and bodily stress of heartache is an actual injury that one never truly recovers from. I will never recover from this injury and loss. “My child, I did not lie to you,” a voice filled with sadness rings out around the darkness. “You said we would have children. YOU LIED,” I cry. I know she’s the almighty and our object of worship, but right now, I hate her. She chose Max’s fate; she planned to cause me this pain.“No. Max deviated from his predestined path. That’s something I’ve never seen before. He was never meant to die.”“Please just kill me. I don’t want to live in a world without him.”“My dear, you don’t need to liv
* * * Eve’s POV * * * * * * Six Months Later * * * We’ve spent a month up in Scotland at Alpha Darius’s pack. The hunters have been picking off lone wolves, wolves who have wandered beyond the boundary line and any wolves or vampires they come across. Their weapons are designed for one purpose only, to kill. They have been uninterested in peace talks, despite the prime minister and local authorities being involved too. There is very little the human world can do to help. These hunters live off the grid and are funded by businessmen and women with very deep pockets. Occasionally, we have been able to find evidence of those rich people funding the hunts and the government has stepped in to arrest them. The trouble is they seem to multiply, for every head we cut off, two more will take its place. We’ve had several battles with these hunters, we’ve managed to avoid losing lives but there have been a few close calls and injuries sustained. They have remembered which of us have gifts an
* * * Eve’s POV * * * * * * 12 Months Later * * *“Tea, please,” I call through to the kitchen, after Max has asked me what I’d like to drink. He’s been my rock over the last year, I don’t think I could have survived and done it without him. Well, I could have, but it would’ve been harder. And truthfully, I don’t want to be apart from him. “Some things are only true if you believe they are. Take for example the trojan horse in Greek mythology. Those who believe that others of different ethnicities or faiths are as the Trojans in the wooden horse, waiting for their time to take over society in a bloody massacre, treating those others with suspicion, contempt and prejudice. As that group (or groups) increasingly have less to lose, they form groups for social protection and to challenge the order that suppresses and abuses them. Thus the fear and cold hearted emotional indifference causes the problem. After this point there is continuing consolidation of groups who arm themselves for c
* * * Eve’s POV * * * Horror—the crisis is here. The Beta has created and unleashed rabid wolves within the pack. We all hold a defensive position—half-crouched, our arms extended slightly. They are coming for us. ‘Why?’ I think to myself, wondering why he would do this. The words come through my mind in a snarl that’s louder than I expected. Too loud. ‘I’ve got him. He’s in the armoury,’ Cora growls as she passes this information on to me and the group I’m with. ‘It means that it’s far too late to sneak around now. Most of us need to take on the wolves, and a small group needs to stop the Beta before it’s too late,’ Alpha Paul growls as he assesses the movements of the rabid wolf. Alpha Paul’s body shifts, only infinitesimally, but it tells me where to look. I stare at the black shadows of the Hospital doorway. It’s like having my nightmares walk forward to greet me. Six wolves emerge, eyeing up their prey. My heart beats furiously, loudly, as if to make their target more obvio