I tried not to react as confusion washed over Arthur’s face even though internally I was squealing with excitement. Our plan was actually working and this whole ordeal was close to being over, I could barely believe it. We had hoped that putting silver in the water would be enough to weaken Arthur’s control but I never really believed that the result would be so profound. When he walked out of the room I was sure that I could sense his panic, but I didn’t have time to gloat over it. I closed my eyes and drew upon my powers to check on the progress of our forces. They were about an hour from the border of Arthur’s territory but those were only the forces that I could reach. As long as there had been nothing to change the plans in our absence, there would be a force of vampires arriving in just a few minutes' time. I was getting ready to open a mindlink to Mark when Elijah pulled me out of my seat and started dragging me towards the door. “Wait a moment, what are you doing?” I asked.
Diana had prepared for some kind of epic battle but things didn’t really work out that way. With Arthur’s powers neutralised most of the people in the pack gave up without a fight. They seemed to be disorientated more than anything else so Mark and the others gathered them all in more of the larger reception rooms so we could address them. I needed to explain to them what had happened to them. It was disorientating when you woke up after being controlled by someone but I had only ever been controlled for a few minutes. There was no way of knowing how long these people have been controlled for, it could have been weeks, years or even decades. There is one thing I knew for certain though, they were going to need help to integrate back into society. I was planning to offer them a place in our pack, at least until they had pieced enough of their life back together enough to know what they wanted to do. “What happened to Arthur?” Mark asked once everyone was assembled. “I bound his wri
My skin felt as though it was on fire and the only Elijah’s touch made it feel a little better. It made me want to rip all my clothes off and beg him to take me. I didn’t even care that we were in the middle of a staircase where anyone could walk past and see us. I let out a frustrated whine. “We are nearly here honey, just hold on a few seconds longer.” Elijah sounded as though he was struggling just as much as I was. He practically dragged me up the remaining stairs and into the bedroom we had shared together for the last few days. He didn’t wait for me to undress, as soon as the door was closed behind us he shredded my clothes with his claws and pushed me against the door. By the time my back made contact with the wooden door he was already kissing my neck. He held me in place with one hand while using his other hand to shred his own clothes and throw them to the floor. Now that we were both naked he let go of me and took a moment to admire my body. “Beautiful.”“Are you going t
The last four days have been amazing but also incredibly tiring. Diana craved sex almost constantly, only resting for a couple of hours at a time before waking me up so I could take her again. That cycle continued until late last night when her heat finally broke and we were both able to get some rest. That rest was a lot shorter than either of us would have liked. Diana’s mom knocked on our door shortly after dawn the following morning. She told us that we needed to get washed and dressed so we could get back to our pack for the celebration they were throwing in our honour. I wasn’t too happy with the idea of a party in our honour while Diana was so exhausted, but cancelling it would have been an unpopular move. I couldn’t even be unhappy at Mark for organising it, he was only trying to do his best to raise the morale within our pack after what had been a difficult couple of weeks. He knew as much as I did that the best way of doing that was spending time together as a pack, Dian
Sometimes I look at the way my life turned out and it is hard to believe that it is real. It has been over nine years since I accepted Elijah as my mate and in that time he has given me more love and happiness than I ever dreamed possible. We decided not to start our own family right away, instead taking a few years to focus on each other. But now that we had started having children we couldn’t seem to stop. Over the last four years we have added two sons and one daughter to our growing family. Elijah was an amazing father. He loved spending time with the children, so much so that our parents were constantly complaining that they didn’t get to see their grandchildren often enough. Today would be an exception to that rule, because today was our oldest son’s fourth birthday party and we were going to need all the help we could get. Elijah had dropped the kids off with his parents early this morning then joined me to prepare the venue for the party. I had also managed to rope in a f
For as long as I can remember I have had the same nightmare every time I fall to sleep. Every morning I wake up tangled in my bed sheets and drenched in sweat with a lingering feeling that I had forgotten something really important. The worst part of all of this is knowing that my nightmare isn’t a nightmare at all but a memory.The nightmare always starts with my mom reading me a bedtime story while my dad is watching us from the doorway. I can’t be much older than four years old at this time in my life and my parents look at me with so much love. That was how my life used to be, loved and adored by both of my parents.The story that my mom is telling is almost over. The characters are past their struggles and only moments away from their happy endings when all of a sudden my mom stops reading. She was in the middle of a sentence so the story can’t be over. I was about to say something when I heard the noises coming from outside.My mom and dad look at each other for a moment before s
When I opened my eyes the room was still dark so I knew it must be early. I picked up my phone from the bedside table and looked at the screen. It was 5 am meaning there were still two hours before I needed to set off for college.I tried to close my eyes and get some more rest but the memories from my dream were still too painful. There was no way that I was going to be able to get back to sleep again so I may as well get up. I reluctantly sat up and spent a few minutes mindlessly scrolling through social media before finally dragging myself out of bed.I took a quick shower and got changed into some black skinny jeans with a studded belt, a black band t-shirt and my leather jacket. The way I dressed probably wasn’t the best if I wanted to hide myself or fit in with the other werewolves in my pack but I stopped caring about things like that a long time ago.I spent a lot of time and effort trying to hide anything that might make me stand out when I first moved here. Dressing and actin
It only took me a couple of minutes to apply my make-up but I wasn’t brave enough to go back downstairs right away. I waited upstairs until I heard Ryker say goodbye to his parents and leave, and then I waited a couple of extra minutes before setting off for college myself. Maybe avoiding him wasn’t the most mature way of dealing with our feelings for one another but I didn’t have any better ideas.Every time we found ourselves alone in the same room together we ended up being drawn to each other in pretty much the same way. Part of me wondered if what we were feeling was just a crush or something more. Maybe the way we were drawn to each other meant that we were destined to be together.That would probably be the best-case scenario for me. If I end up with the same trait that my mom had then it would put me and anyone around me in danger. That would include my mate, that much was clear from the way they killed my dad alongside my mom. My parents had loved each other more than anything
Sometimes I look at the way my life turned out and it is hard to believe that it is real. It has been over nine years since I accepted Elijah as my mate and in that time he has given me more love and happiness than I ever dreamed possible. We decided not to start our own family right away, instead taking a few years to focus on each other. But now that we had started having children we couldn’t seem to stop. Over the last four years we have added two sons and one daughter to our growing family. Elijah was an amazing father. He loved spending time with the children, so much so that our parents were constantly complaining that they didn’t get to see their grandchildren often enough. Today would be an exception to that rule, because today was our oldest son’s fourth birthday party and we were going to need all the help we could get. Elijah had dropped the kids off with his parents early this morning then joined me to prepare the venue for the party. I had also managed to rope in a f
The last four days have been amazing but also incredibly tiring. Diana craved sex almost constantly, only resting for a couple of hours at a time before waking me up so I could take her again. That cycle continued until late last night when her heat finally broke and we were both able to get some rest. That rest was a lot shorter than either of us would have liked. Diana’s mom knocked on our door shortly after dawn the following morning. She told us that we needed to get washed and dressed so we could get back to our pack for the celebration they were throwing in our honour. I wasn’t too happy with the idea of a party in our honour while Diana was so exhausted, but cancelling it would have been an unpopular move. I couldn’t even be unhappy at Mark for organising it, he was only trying to do his best to raise the morale within our pack after what had been a difficult couple of weeks. He knew as much as I did that the best way of doing that was spending time together as a pack, Dian
My skin felt as though it was on fire and the only Elijah’s touch made it feel a little better. It made me want to rip all my clothes off and beg him to take me. I didn’t even care that we were in the middle of a staircase where anyone could walk past and see us. I let out a frustrated whine. “We are nearly here honey, just hold on a few seconds longer.” Elijah sounded as though he was struggling just as much as I was. He practically dragged me up the remaining stairs and into the bedroom we had shared together for the last few days. He didn’t wait for me to undress, as soon as the door was closed behind us he shredded my clothes with his claws and pushed me against the door. By the time my back made contact with the wooden door he was already kissing my neck. He held me in place with one hand while using his other hand to shred his own clothes and throw them to the floor. Now that we were both naked he let go of me and took a moment to admire my body. “Beautiful.”“Are you going t
Diana had prepared for some kind of epic battle but things didn’t really work out that way. With Arthur’s powers neutralised most of the people in the pack gave up without a fight. They seemed to be disorientated more than anything else so Mark and the others gathered them all in more of the larger reception rooms so we could address them. I needed to explain to them what had happened to them. It was disorientating when you woke up after being controlled by someone but I had only ever been controlled for a few minutes. There was no way of knowing how long these people have been controlled for, it could have been weeks, years or even decades. There is one thing I knew for certain though, they were going to need help to integrate back into society. I was planning to offer them a place in our pack, at least until they had pieced enough of their life back together enough to know what they wanted to do. “What happened to Arthur?” Mark asked once everyone was assembled. “I bound his wri
I tried not to react as confusion washed over Arthur’s face even though internally I was squealing with excitement. Our plan was actually working and this whole ordeal was close to being over, I could barely believe it. We had hoped that putting silver in the water would be enough to weaken Arthur’s control but I never really believed that the result would be so profound. When he walked out of the room I was sure that I could sense his panic, but I didn’t have time to gloat over it. I closed my eyes and drew upon my powers to check on the progress of our forces. They were about an hour from the border of Arthur’s territory but those were only the forces that I could reach. As long as there had been nothing to change the plans in our absence, there would be a force of vampires arriving in just a few minutes' time. I was getting ready to open a mindlink to Mark when Elijah pulled me out of my seat and started dragging me towards the door. “Wait a moment, what are you doing?” I asked.
My wolf is growling and trying desperately to push his way to the front of my mind. He knows that as much as this might look like a civilised breakfast, it is more akin to dining with the devil himself. At any moment he could suddenly turn on us and with his powers, there would be very little I could do to save those around me. I was particularly worried about the young girl. She didn’t look much older than four or five but, even so, I couldn’t sense any trace of a wolf in her. She was completely out of place here and so much more vulnrable than any of the rest of us. Yet she seemed to be unaware of the threat which Arthur posed as she used her pieces of apple to build a house-shaped structure on her plate. Arthur coughed to grab my attention.“I guess you are probably wondering who she is. She is my daughter and her name is Cora.” The smile he gave me as he spoke was the first genuine smile I had seen from him. As Arthur didn’t have a mate that could only mean one of two things, t
My nerves were on edge from the moment Arthur left us alone the previous evening. Elijah held me and kissed me for a while before falling asleep with me in his arms. I on the other hand couldn’t get to sleep, I laid there staring at the ceiling for hours until the sun started streaming through the curtains. That was when I decided that it was useless trying to sleep when my mind was so preocuped. So I decided to do something more productive with my time. Being careful not to wake Elijah, I slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom. Once I had locked the door and I was sure there was nobody coming to distract me, I sat down on the floor and prepared myself for what I had to do. The first time I had tried to take over the minds of another werewolf it hadn’t been easy. It had taken many hours to make me feel anything close to normal again but it was early in the morning. Arthur would still be asleep so his control was likely weak in many places. It didn’t take me long to find one
I felt sick. Arthur’s men had me tied to the bed with ropes infused with silver. I wasn’t strong enough to free myself from the ropes so I had no other option than to watch as Arthur sunk his teeth into my mate's neck. She screamed out in pain and started thrashing her arms and legs wildly against the men who were holding her in place. Arthur and his men let go of Diana then took a couple of steps back before she could punch any of them in the face. She let out a frustrated growl before checking the wound on her neck with her hand. I could already tell that the wound wasn’t acting like a normal mark would. There was more blood and it wasn’t healing almost instantly in the same way as a mate’s mark normally would. There was a smug smile on Arthur’s face when he stepped away from her but as the seconds ticked on, his smile started to falter. At the same time Diana’s smile grew wider. The bite on her neck was already healing and there was no sign of a mark being left behind. “Well, I
I had been expecting Arthur to come for me again straight after the little distraction we staged, but he didn’t. Instead he left me alone for the rest of the day and the next morning as well. That had me concerned. I was worried that he had realised there was something else going on, or that he had somehow worked out what I did. One moment he was talking about spending the whole day with me, the next he left me alone and ignored me for twenty-four hours. Something about that didn’t seem to add up. To make things worse, I didn’t feel any different after the spell that I cast with Elijah and I was worried that it had failed. I had followed the instructions to the letter but maybe I had missed something. Maybe there was another step to the spell that was mentioned in a different part of the book. There was so much about all of this that I didn’t understand yet. I wish there was a way I could ask my mom about it without Arthur finding out what we were talking about. Who knows, that mig