Nicholas, for his part, only looked more concerned. He wasn’t alarmed. He wasn’t even startled. He just watched me closely. “Talk to me, Piper,” he said. “I can’t understand your growls yet.” I tried to bite back my growl, but I couldn’t manage. It erupted, curling around my words even as I atte
“I’m sorry,” I said. My voice felt raw from disuse. “I’m so sorry.” “Save it for Elva and Nick, yeah?” Julian’s easy smile was back. Truly, he seemed relieved. “Just a second, alright?” He stepped backwards from me and suddenly shifted into his wolf. Then, he threw his head back and howled. An
The next day, Elva and I spent some time with Veronica in the library. Veronica was nose deep in her books. Elva had begun their time together by flittering through the stacks pretending to be a dragon. Now, she was dozing on a big, comfortable, high-back chair. Watching her sleep so soundly helpe
An announcement went out for all the candidates to head to the foyer to receive the results of the most recent event, the ball where we were supposed to look happy. At that same ball, everything sort of fell apart. Joyce declared erroneously that he and I were having an affair. Jane tried to kill
Tiffany stepped in front of me, blocking Jessica from getting too closely. “Her name is clear, Jessica,” Tiffany said. “I don’t care if they didn’t fuck,” Jessica growled. “At the very least, she tricked him somehow. He’s a decent guy. He never would have behaved this way on his own.” “Back of
After the announcements were completed, I stayed behind to privately speak to Nicholas. When the other girls cleared the room, I said, “Thank you for the rescue.” “It seemed the other girls were ready to fight for you,” Nicholas said. “They were,” I agreed. “But so was my wolf.” His face sudde
I met with Nicholas in the same weight room we had our self-defense training. He’d had it cleared out again, this time so he and I could practice fighting. “Now that you have Miracle’s strength to aid you, you don’t need to rely on the same self-defense tactics as before. Those will still aid you
The next day at lunch time, Elva and I walked down to the dining room to have lunch with the rest of the candidates. As soon as I walked through the door, I felt the tension in the room. No one was smiling, not even Susie as she saw me. She waved as we came closer. Per the contest rules, none of u
Instead, the Queen pulled me into a hug. It was uncomfortable and brief, but a hug none the less. From the Queen, this was a tremendous breach of decorum, and I froze, unsure how to react. Even Nathan, standing dutifully as his King’s side seemed shocked.“I have misjudged you dearly,” the Queen sai
I wasn’t sure what to expect when our car delivered us from the train station to the palace, but even in my wildest dreams, I wouldn’t have guessed what actually awaited us.Cheering crowds lined the outer walls of the palace. Balloons and streamers of various colors were abundant. A stage had been
At once, my heart leapt up into my throat, while simultaneously crashing down into my stomach.I pulled away from Nicholas enough to push myself up onto my hands and stare down at him.The thought of breaking the engagement had never crossed my mind! Nicholas proposing had been one of the best momen
In a war between the wolves and the bears, only the lost bear princess will be able to stop this fighting. Else, the bears will continue to fight themselves to exhaustion or to death.“It’s up to you,” Nicholas said. “I believe in you. You can do this.”I closed my eyes. Miracle was still exhausted,
Slowly, my grief subsided for now, enough for me to look up at Nicholas and feel the relief of being reunited with my fiancé.My… mate.“I love you,” Nicholas said. “I’m sorry it took so long for me to reach you.”“How are you even here? It’s impossible for you to have found me this quickly?”Nichol
Joyce, despite his best efforts, was not a fighter. He was not bred for war and battle like Hawke was, so even calling on the power of his Alpha wolf, Hawk tossed Joyce aside like he was a sack of potatoes.However, Joyce did show amazing tenacity, and stood back up time and time again. Roaring, he
Nicholas was here. I didn’t know how. I didn’t know why. But he was here, and that gave me the strength I needed to act.I ripped my arm away from Joyce’s hold and rushed into the room where Hawk was choking my sister on the ground. Using all of my strength, I plowed into Hawk.My surprise more than
We slipped into the hallway easily enough. The lights were off, so we stuck to the shadows. We didn’t go far when we started to hear raised voices.“I want to know if Piper was telling the truth.” It was Jane.“You cannot mean to trust her more than me,” that was Hawk. His cold voice sent shivers ru
A mating bond…?Yes. Even though Nicholas and I had never talked about the love between us, I had still felt it grow over these months together. Nicholas had never made a bonding bite on my neck, yet inside of me, that bond had cultivated. Our hearts were bound together, mating bite or now.There wa