Kalen avoided me for the rest of the day and didn’t go to his room last night. The stress seemed to make the nightmares worse, and I woke up crying so hard I nearly choked on my tears. Exhausted, I wanted to just fall back into the bed and try to run away from reality for a while. I could ignore everything if I couldn’t see it or couldn’t feel it. Then I remembered, I made a promise. Today was the festival, and I had plans to make.I agreed to help Thomas win over Adelaide. With a groan, I stood up from the bed and into the bathroom for a shower, then downstairs for breakfast.“Ah, you’re here,” Thomas said, his face lighting up as soon as he saw me.“I am,” I said, feeling my mood getting lighter at seeing his excitement. “So this is a kind of romantic festival, right? For unmated couples?”“Yeah, there is a bonfire then a moment where in the dark couples find each other and kiss. There are also fireworks.”“Adelaide, I think needs honesty, Thomas. No games, no flowery words. Just co
I went back to the kitchen and took over everyone’s least favorite job, cleaning up. I scrubbed dishes, expecting the head servant to march in and tell me that Kalen demanded I go back outside so he could demean me yet again, or at the very least, for Chelsie to march in here screaming and yelling at me. However, no one bothered me as I worked, and it seemed the festival continued as if nothing had happened. Remembering I also had other things to do, I dried off my hands. I grabbed the bag of food and fireworks and left the kitchen.I glanced over and saw Kalen up on the stage platform with Chelsie on his arm. Taking on the role of Luna, Chelsie announced soon the ‘Encounter’ would begin. The fires extinguished, leaving everyone in darkness, and people searched for their mates based on the pull alone, ignoring all other factors.Music swelled, and people danced around the bonfires. Everyone seemed happy and excited by the prospect of finding their mates or finding a moment with their
Light flickered through the night as people relit the bonfires, chasing the darkness. Kalen relaxed his grip on me and broke our kiss with a look of triumph on his face. I looked over and saw Thomas watching us. Again, guilt filled me and I mouthed the word ‘sorry’ to him as Kalen pulled me against him, glaring at Thomas in a clear sign of possession.Thomas nodded. His expression seemed understanding, which only made me feel worse. He turned and left as Chelsie suddenly screamed. She slapped some man across the face as she shouted at him. “A gamma! A gamma kissed me? How dare you?” Her look of disgust only grew as her eyes fell on me and Kalen. Chelsie shrieked, outraged once more, earning a few chuckles from the crowd, and stormed off away from the festival. Her face was red and flushed, and more people snickered as she passed. Even the guy she slapped laughed. Despite my feelings about her, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. People shouldn’t laugh at or humiliate anyone like th
The morning was cool and crisp, and perfect for a walk. Last night left me conflicted. Kalen’s behavior was so hot and cold, but to see him so happy like he was… guilt welled inside me. Not only for Thomas’ ruined romantic gesture for Adelaide, but for the fact I couldn’t give Kalen a proper answer last night. I couldn’t bring myself to talk about Caden with him. As stupid as it sounded, part of me felt as long as Kalen didn’t know about Caden. Then it didn’t really happen. It wasn’t real. Just something like a nightmare.I heard the sounds of arguing as I walked, then saw Adelaide and Chelsie face to face, glaring at each other. “Listen here, I am going to be the luna of this group,” Chelsie demanded. “It’s all but announced. So you better watch yourself,” she demanded, then narrowed her eyes as soon as she saw me. Chelsie marched up to me. “And you don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing?”I held up my hands. This morning, I wasn’t in the mood to fight with her. “I’m just taking
“I am not a luna,” I told him and decided it was best he didn’t see me as prey, so I added, “Last time I believe you called me a toy.”James laughed as he grazed the bottom of his teeth with his tongue, looking at me as if I was some curious new insect he found. “That I did, but we both know you’re more than just some toy my nephew picked up to play with.”“Nephew?”His grin grew as he stopped in front of me. “Oh, Kieran didn’t mention me? I’m hurt. He does like to keep things to himself, doesn’t he?”“Apparently,” I said, offering him a tight smile as I remembered how Adelaide and Kalen reacted when James showed up last time. “Well, I should be going.”
I tried to open my eyes, but it hurt, so I closed them again. Actually, everything hurt. Once more, I tried to open my eyes. After a moment, I adjusted to the lighting. I was in a rectangular room with several empty beds. With a deep breath in; I sat up, fighting the waves of pain that rushed through me.“Easy, easy,” someone said as they helped me sit up. “You have a concussion on top of everything else.”I look over at the older man helping me. “Who are you?”“Doctor Addams, Adelaide brought you here,” he explained.“Right… she attacked me,” I said, remembering the feral way Katie tried to hurt me and I shuddered.“Yes, and luckily you have fairly minor injuries, excluding the concussion. I am more concerned with the poison and lack of healing. It’s not safe for the baby.”I froze as I stared at him. “I’m sorry, baby? And did you just say poison?”“Oh, I see…” the doctor said. “You’re pregnant. It’s still very early, maybe a couple of weeks at most.”“No, you have to be mistaken,” I
Kalen set up the interrogation within an hour of me waking up. He insisted I take some time to rest before anything. Which I was grateful for, as my head was still pounding. We went to the building they were being held in and instead of going down into the basement, Kalen led me to another room.It looked like an interrogation room from crime shows. Both Alex and Katie sat in front of a long rectangular table, their hands cuffed and chained to the table so they couldn’t get up. Their expressions changed as soon as they saw me walk into the room and it became even more twisted when Kalen followed in behind me.“Rogue bitch,” Katie swore at me as I stood in front of her.“People really need to get more creative with their insults,” I said, annoyed. “They call me pack bitch, you call me rogue bitch… it’s really not that creative at all.”She sneered at me with loathing. As if I was the worst person to ever have existed. What did Carl do to them? “I know you think I betrayed you, but I di
“Jack, can you make sure no one bothers us?” I ask, still holding Kalen’s face in my hands.Jack looked indecisive, torn between leaving and staying. “Are you sure, Alyssa?”After being accused of treachery and attacked for things out of my control, I appreciated his question more than he would ever know. “Yeah, Jack. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. He just needs some time, quiet, and reassurance,” I told him. Again Jack hesitated for a moment, but left, closing the door.Once he was gone, I held Kalen’s gaze with my own. “Kalen,” I told him softly, ensuring his still icy blue eyes met mine. “You’re safe. I am safe. Everything is okay.”His lip curled in a silent growl and shaking as if he was trying to hold something in. I grabbed his hand and placed it on my chest, just over my heart. “Feel that. It’s my heart beating. Feel it, know that I am safe,” I told him, then placed his hand over his chest. “And there you are. Feel it and know that you are safe. There is no danger.”The silent sn
I shook out my fur once I finished shifting. I growled at the woman and stared towards her when Kalen stepped between us.“Remember the child,” Kalen said to me, but he kept his eyes are on the woman. When he spoke again, he was speaking to her. “You aren’t going to escape us. If you run, she’s going to chase you down, and I’ll be right behind her, but not before I yell to the others. Among those others include the rogue king. Now, why don’t you do the best thing, hand the child to me and we can all end this day unharmed.”The woman’s lips curled into a sneer, her grip tightening on the baby in her arms. “No, she’s mine,” the woman insisted again. “James said she was mine now.” I could feel my claws itching to extend, my wolf straining against the reins I barely managed to hold. The child’s scent, innocent, vulnerable, mixed with the sharp tang of fear, and it was all I could do to keep from lunging at the woman and tearing her apart.Kalen didn’t flinch, his voice calm but steel-edge
I leaned against the tree, my arms crossed over my chest, with Kalen next to me. He paced back and forth nervously. We were far enough from the building to be safe, but close enough to see whoever came out.It had taken the lycan king’s trackers and the rogue scouts two more days to finish their intel on the place. While I couldn’t go inside with them, Kalen’s father let me go with the team. That was good enough for me, or it was until I heard the fighting. The rogue king had made it very clear this morning. I was not allowed to set a single foot inside that building.The distant guttural growls echoed through the woods, sending a chill down my spine. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to stay rooted to the spot. Kalen’s pacing quickened, his boots crunching against the frost-covered ground.“They’ve got it under control,” he muttered, though the tremor in his voice betrayed his doubt.I didn’t respond. My ears strained to pick up every sound from the skirmish going on inside the bui
I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off. Danielle had finally started moving on from meditation and we began doing some exercises. I didn’t know if it was because of the baby or because I was out of shape, but I found it all exhausting.When I stepped out of the shower, I saw Kalen sitting on the bed. As soon as he saw me, he stood. “Hey, Dad says he has an update for us.”“Really?” I said, unable to hide my excitement. “Where is he?”“He’s waiting for us in the office,” Kalen replied, and I swear I heard a hint of excitement in his voice, too.I followed him out of the room and into what I had thought was Kalen’s office. His father sat behind the desk, looking over the papers. “We’re here,” Kalen said as we walked inside.The rogue king looked up and nodded at us with a small smile on the edge of his mouth. “We’ve found a building that looks like it’s one of James’ safe houses, and the scouts seem to think there is a good chance Caden is being held there.” “Really? What did
As soon as I arrived back at the rogue encampment, Kalen’s father called a meeting. We all met in what once was Kalen’s office, though it seemed it was more like his father’s now. “So how did it go?”“You can expect the lycan king’s best trackers in a few days to help look for James,” I told them, enjoying the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces.“He agrees to help?” the rogue king asked, giving me now a strange speculative look. “How did you do it?”“Honestly, I’m not sure myself. All l did was call him out and his childish grudges and power plays,” I replied with a shrug.The room fell silent for a moment, the weight of my words hanging in the air. Kalen’s father, the rogue king, leaned back in the chair that used to be his son’s, steepling his fingers as his sharp gaze pinned me in place.“You called him out?” he repeated, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “And that worked?”“That would work,” Kalen’s mom said with a small smile. “He usually respects honesty…tho
A wave of relief washed over Adelaide and Thomas’ face when I joined them in the main room again. Before they could ask, I said, “Let’s find our rooms for the night.”Thomas nodded and look over at the others waiting as well. “Let’s go. We’re in the east wing tonight. Pair up and we’ll meet here, bright and early,” he told the others, and they followed me up an enormous staircase and took the hall to the right.Once we were in a room, Adelaide took a seat in a chair. “So what happened? What did he say? Did he listen? Is he going to help?”I laughed and took a seat next to her. “Short version is, I don’t know if he’ll help. He’ll probably tell me tomorrow, hopefully,” I replied.“And the long version?”“To start with, the king tried to pull the same old tricks he did when Kalen and I met him last time. He tried to bribe me if I could get Kalen to betray his father and be loyal only to him,” I said, and Adelaide’s disgusted look matched my own.Thomas sighed and shook his head. “Then wh
The lycan king’s eyes blazed with anger, but I kept talking. If I was going to get myself in trouble, I might as well make it worth it. “I know I am no one, but shouldn’t a king’s job be to protect his people, make sure they’re happy, healthy and working together for the benefit of the whole?”The king worked his jaw and slowly nodded. “Ideally, yes.”“Well, that’s not how the packs are working,” I told him, crossing my arms. “Almost every single alpha is some version of a tyrant. I’ve seen insecure alphas who’d snap at anyone who might suggest their not powerful, misogynistic asses who seemed more concerned with creating a harem of lunas than actually being alpha, then you have the ones that can only prove their powerful by stepping on the ones beneath them, the ones that they were supposed to protect.”“What is the point of this?” the king demanded, his voice slightly growly.I held his gaze, refusing to flinch at the edge in his voice. “The point,” I said, my tone steady but sharp,
The rogue king sent six of his wolves, along with Adelaide and Thomas with me to meet the Lycan King. The closer we got to the meeting point, a hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere, I was getting more than a little nervous. “Don't worry, you got this,” Thomas said, giving me I guess what was supposed to be a reassuring smile.“He's right,” Adelaide agreed. “The king wouldn't send you here if he didn't think you could do it.”“You're right,” I said with a smile that was only mostly forced. The king also believed a slap on the wrist was enough for his misdeeds. Yet James was running amuck, so I didn't put much stock into what the king believed. “Let's do this.”We arrived almost at the same time as the lycan king did. To my surprise he came in person. &ldqu
My throat closed as I processed what Kalen told me. To witness meaningless death like that and not be able to do anything about it.. everything he did made a little more sense now. However, that made me think about the here and now. “What happened?”Kalen looked at me, confused. “What do you mean, what happened? When?”“What happened to make you change?” I asked. “You aren’t as tense or angry. I don’t believe it’s just your wolf calming down.”He didn’t answer me at first. Kalen seemed pensive for a long moment, then said, “I broke the pendants of your necklace.” Now, I was confused. I know him breaking them devastated me, but why would that make him suddenly change?Seeing my confusion, Kalen explained, “My anger took me over at that moment, causing me to make assumptions without actually thinking about them and I broke something that was so dear to you, it physically hurt you to lose it. As any sane, logical person would’ve done, you left. That moment the haze of anger disappeared,
Once Kalen and I were alone, he handed me a folder. “This is the report we have on your father,” he said, a look of guilt on his face. “Sorry. I am so sorry, Alyssa. From the beginning I should’ve told you, but… I didn’t want to give you a mysterious tragedy. Instead, I wanted to…” he sighed and shrugged. “I wanted to play the hero. Find the one responsible, punish him, then deliver his head to you… I know how stupid that is now.”Taking the folder from him, I nodded. “I appreciate the thought, Kalen. I really do, but you made me feel like an idiot. Like someone, no one feels the need to take it seriously. Just a toy to lay claim, play with when someone felt like it, then put me on the shelf until they’re bored again. You have no idea how demanding and dehumanising that is.”Kalen winced, his shoulders slumping as if the weight of my words pressed down on him. “You’re right,” he said quietly, his voice tinged with regret. “I was wrong to treat you that way. You deserved the truth from