ALEKSANDR When Ace asked to be assigned patrols, my first instinct was to panic and fight back against the idea. Rieka had already been attacked, and we’d increased security around her children. Why on earth would I risk putting him out on patrol?! Then he argued his point, and quite well I might add. Rieka linked me to let me know that she would defer to my judgement on this, and I had to make myself stop and really think it over. Logically, if he was my biological son and had been through all these trainings, I would have already put him on a patrol shift by now. But would it be the same in these circumstances, with threats lingering? “I’m sorry, Ace, but I’m going to need some time to think it over.” He looked disappointed, and I knew it was a bit of a copout on my part, to stall for time, but he also didn’t argue. I mean, I didn’t say no, so he still had hope. Ace turned to leave, and although he was disappointed, he held his head high, like a true alpha. The door click
ALEKSANDR The entire pack had been notified of Jacinda’s betrayal and warned that now Emmett was not only a traitor to the pack, but also considered highly dangerous because he’s aligned himself with this evil female. There was a dark cloud settling over the pack and the tension continued to build. How had I failed my pack and my mate so terribly? My wolf was in a constant state of agitation and clawing to get out and hunt down our enemies. He didn’t care that Jacinda was more powerful than us and she could probably kill us handily if she really wanted to. We needed a plan. She might be powerful, but she can’t take on an entire pack of wolves at once. We just need to be prepared so that when she reappears, we can overpower her. ----- JACINDA “Tell me why I shouldn’t just drag you to the alpha and turn you in right now?” The wolf tried to play it cool, but I could sense his emotions. He was both nervous and excited at the same time. Emmett and I had been circling the terri
ALEKSANDR Meeting with the team was so much easier now that I could pull Rieka into any group mind link. Ivan was the first to arrive, but Jericho and Gina showed up shortly after. Although she wasn’t officially part of the leadership team, I also included my mother in this meeting. The value of all of her years of experience as the packs luna was immeasurable. ‘We need to prepare the pack to take on Jacinda if she shows up here again.’ I explain to the team as they all gaped at me. ‘She is powerful enough to hold me back, but I don’t think she can’t take on an entire pack by herself.’ ‘Do you really think she’ll try to return?’ Jericho challenged. ‘I hope not, but we need to be prepared just in case she does.’ ‘Honestly, we don’t know the strength of her power,’ Rieka chimed in, ‘We never really discussed that with her. We know she is strong, but everyone has their limits. Our best chance of beating her is by trying to overwhelm her with the size of the pack.’ I nodded an
RIEKA “Does Aleksandr know?” “About my gift fading? No, I’d assume not,” she shook her head. “There was no seer in my original pack, so I had no one to teach me. When I mated Nikolai, I’d hoped to find someone here in the Silver Eclipse Pack who could help train me, but there was no seer in this pack either.” “That must have been so difficult! I can’t imagine having no one to help me navigate these abilities!” Lis shrugged but smiled, “There was a lot we didn’t know about seers, and I’ve been slowly learning more about this gift over the years. I’ve had to seek out other seers to ask questions and try to learn from them and their experiences, but not every pack has one, so we’ve all learned from one another. We are extremely blessed to have two in succession here in Silver Eclipse.” “I had no idea that being a seer was so rare in the packs. Had the others been in communication with one another when you started reaching out to them?” “No, I actually tracked many of them dow
JACINDAIt didn’t take long to get the male talking after we said few unflattering things about the alpha. In fact, once he started talking, it was hard to get him to shut up. He was giving me a headache with all his yammering on, but the real challenge was getting any valuable information out of him.He said his name was Beau, and at least it fit him. He was indeed beautiful, but he seemed to talk in circles without ever actually saying anything useful. I couldn’t figure out if that was by design, or if he was just an idiot.It was in moments like this that I wished Emmett had marked me so that *hopefully* we’d be able to mind link, but I understood his reasons for wanting to wait.Now we sat here listening to this moron go on and on about how important he was, and how he was chosen for his role because he was the only one who could do it.For the first time in my life, I felt trapped. I couldn’t escape this hell because we needed to know what he knew. I could have easily invad
ALEKSANDR We called for the warriors to come for reevaluation first. We started with those who had the day off from patrols, and then would slowly start working through different groups. Although I wanted to be there for the evaluations, I also didn’t want to be separated from Rieka, so she came along as well. I held her close and did my best to protect her, and she didn’t seem to mind, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that I didn’t feel like she was safe. It was a painful revelation that I didn’t trust my own pack to protect my mate and their luna. If I really wanted to break it down, I trusted at least fifty percent of them and I was feeling fairly confident about their loyalty. The other fifty percent I was suspicious of but had yet to see any evidence of betrayal to back up my suspicions. It was most likely just because they were the pack members I didn’t know as well. As we began to observe the evaluations conducted by Ivan, Jericho, and Gina, I started to get
JACINDA What was a child doing all the way out here, alone, in the middle of the night?! This little girl looked to be about ten years old. A bit young to have a wolf, but not impossible. Though usually when a wolf shifted this young, they had alpha blood, and we were certain that Alpha Aleksandr did not have any biological children. “Do any other alphas from nearby packs have a daughter this age?” I whispered to my mate. Emmett shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of.” I cursed under my breath. This was not a part of our plan. I don’t want to see a child get hurt, and don’t really want to leave her to fend for herself, but we also can’t reveal ourselves to save her. Who is she and what is she doing out here? Is she lost? There is no reason that she would be lost. If she already has a wolf, her wolf should be able to help her find her way back home. We watched her for a few minutes longer. She weaved between the trees, slowly moving further away from the territory border
JACINDA Everything went black, and then there was an immediate flash of light and I found myself standing in a large, open field surrounded by flowers and a small stream off in the distance. The sun was shining, and birds were chirping in the trees at the edge of the clearing. It was peaceful. Quite possibly the most peaceful moment I’d ever experienced in my life. Part of me wanted to lie down in the grass and take a nap, but my brain kept reminding me that I was here for a purpose, and I needed to figure out what that was. Standing in the field, slowly spinning around, my eyes were searching for any sign that could indicate why I was here. After making four rotations and not seeing anything helpful, the desire to lie down had grown significantly stronger and I was tempted again to rest in the peacefulness of this place. I almost caved, but then I forced myself to stand strong. Walking would be helpful to keep me awake and alert, I decided, so I began walking towards the smal