OliveraWolfsbane infused sugar in tea is the easiest way to deter a stubborn captive. I wanted to save it for the last minute, just so she wouldn't use her mind-link any further with her mate while we found our way into the pack house. It's a cavernous dwelling, on the edge of a daunting cliff, only accessible through a short, tunneling area under the heavy brush of the forest.I packed a small batch of tea, something I normally sip on to blossom a tolerance to the plant, but instead I decided it was better used on the frustrating Luna, fighting me every step of the way and trembling in doing so. I've never seen such a petrified and yet stubborn woman in my entire life. Granted, most of the women I come across are extremely willing to be led away by the likes of me, but a captive and a courtesan are two different things.She is restless in her sleep, her face permanently pink as she grumbles against the toxins I forced down her throat a few hours ago. This pack house is new, more-so
AlysonHe lists twenty-seven names in the ransom note, muttering them out with their ages, some even under the age of twenty, and it almost pains me that he forces me to sit here and witness it all. I feel guilty and I shouldn't—I am not the with the elders, but they officiated Ryan and my ceremony and they are at the palace now, helping look for me, and Olivera can't seem to stand hearing that I wouldn't want anyone dead, even a rogue.He still writes the letter, demanding the board will pay for their actions in the past, and refuse to carry them on in the future, and it's making my head spin thinking about how none of this will work out in the way he thinks it will. Ryan, or the elders, will come for me and kill him in the wake of it all. I hate thinking that way, so negative, but I have no bounds to this Alpha or his ragtag pack.I just need my pack, my Alpha, and my life back.I dare to drift asleep again, stunned with the same poison from the day prior, and I'm jolted awake secon
RyanI replay the words in my head through all hours of the night and the day. I hear my voice telling my mate, my beautiful, strong mate, that I would protect her. I should have carried through with that but I couldn't have anticipated anyone wanted to bring her harm. Jessica was banished and far to weak and pathetic to carry out this attack on my mate. I killed Jacob, knowing he wouldn't be trusted alive.I thought I did everything I was supposed to. I thought she was safe.I thought wrong.My Luna is missing now, somewhere taken against her will, while my warriors were killed or wounded in the process. It's a terrible tragedy, a horrid outcome that frustrates me to no end. I should have had her by my side that night to meet with the elders, or had forbid her to leave the palace, but she is headstrong, and I let her roam when I should have kept her within arms reach.The elders are kind enough to watch the palace, protect my pack if necessary, but I pride my warriors on their streng
Alyson"Let me go!" I say, brashly fighting the chains on my wrists that Olivera tries to steer me around with. He pulls for me to follow but I refuse, tripping over the long gown I've been stuck in since my bath yesterday, the silk sliding against my feet while I pull and kick to be let loose. "Let me go! Let me go!"He finally yanks me into a nearby room, kicking me aside so that I trip over his leg and hit the floor, my side aching when I blink into focus. We're in a dinging room of sorts, tables adorned almost everywhere but none of the seats filled, or the tables made, except for the one in the center of the dining hall.When I don't stand, he grabs me by my arm and hoists me over to the table himself, pressing me into one of the seats and tying the chains off around the center pole of the table. he takes the spot across from me, his hands freely working to pour himself a glass of something similar to wine, the berry scent making my mouth dry in envy.I dare to reach for the glas
Alyson I wait until he thinks I’ve fallen asleep, watching his insurmountable pacing finally cease before he returns to the suite off of his bedroom. I hear the water fill the tub. I work at my wrists, bloody with blisters so that my wrists slide out freely, only at the mercy of a hiss. I look up, hearing the water part at the Alpha settling into his bath, and eye the bedroom door. Whatever I had to drink at dinner wasn’t just wine. I know by the feeling in my gut now that it was the same poison as I had before, the muting potion that lingers in my blood making it hard for me to sense my wolf, if at all, and I can’t tell if there’s another outside the door or down the hall. In my woozy state, I must try. Even with a drunken, hazy stagger, I limp through the bedroom and into the hallway, seeing it empty thankfully. I press to the wall, walking slowly as I try to find which way is out of this packhouse. My senses are stunned, my body weary, but I push
Alyson I dream of the moon goddess, the keeper of wolves, and the one deity who saved my life. I see her long, silky hair, her bright cloudy eyes, and her charming, yet saddened smirk. She stands on nothingness, floating through the navy sky, her dress flowing in white silk that leaks into the cloud of which she hovers above. Bowing my head, I dare to weep in her powerful presence. “Have I died?” I ask, too scared to hear the reply. Her hand hovers over my cheek, not touching me physically but instead grazing my surface with a gentle mist. I meet her gaze, her eyes squinted in a fashion that makes me sure of my question. Of course I’ve died. “No, not quite yet,” she hums, her voice like church bells behind a gentle stream in the woods. She smirks, folding her hands over her lap. “I didn’t want to pull you back in, Alyson, I just felt I should interject and seeing as you’ve deteriorated in the presence of wolfsbane in your blood, I felt it was
Ryan I’m convinced that I’m going crazy. Without my mate in my mind, or in my arms, I feel like half a puzzle, incomplete and scrambling. I picture her silky hair, her beautiful vast eyes, wide and wandering with love and admiration as she stares at me. Her hands are soft, precious but built with a few callouses, fighting through her first life, and now the second. I sit at the breakfast table alone, unwilling to even lift my fork, relying on stress and coffee for far too long. I don’t mind the jittery adrenaline it gives me; it only fuels me more in the search for my mate. I know she’s in the woods near our pack lands, I know she was taken, and if the note meant anything, she is at least somewhat safe in order to be used as collateral. I he
Alyson My body is trembling, burns gashing over my face and down my neck, the feeling oddly familiar from the scar I once bore as Alissa Clark. I try to force the memories aside, the acid on my skin tingling like a million little pin pricks poking at me simultaneously. Alpha Olivera is running, pressing my body to his chest, forcing his way through onlooking rogues as he runs down lengthy, winding halls. “Get out of my damn way!” He barks, forcing me to flinch, my throat catching a breath and causing a grating cough. “Easy, blood pet, just relax,” Olivera hums, as though trying to be snarky and yet, I hear the lap of concern in his voice. I wait for him to stop running and set me down before I open my eyes up, seeing a bright white light shi
Alyson The pain is insurmountable. I fight through it, thinking of the pups that need me, that are clinging to the hope that I will always fight for them, and I won't disappoint them now. I turn over, laid out on the floor of the bathroom, the healer working at the cramps in my spine. I grab the towels, grab my own shirt, desperate to get through this sooner than later. My wolf whines and my heart hurts. "RYAN!" I need him, I want him, and I fear I can't do this ordeal without him beside me. I lay out, exhausted from the agony, crying inconsolably until I hear heavy steps parading through the bedroom. Soon, they find the healer and I in the bathroom, my eyes dizzy as I spot Ryan, naked and drenched in rainwater. My breath catches, curious if I am dreaming. "Right here, Alpha, come help me with this," the healer grunts. I feel my mate hold my head, pushing deep into my spine as I straighten my back out in reflex, feeling th
Ryan "Damn this weather," I mutter. The storm has yet to let up and in fact, I believe it's started pouring down harder, with more vigor, and still shows no signs of slowing for my benefit. "Have you tried linking to the healer?" Olivera asks, his antsy attitude not helping my worried state right now. "I mean, if you can't reach through the link to her, she might just be asleep and everything is okay—that could be possible, right? I mean, if you think about—" "Hush," I beg. "You're rambling again." "I'm sorry that I'm flustered," he grovels. "I'm just trying to keep calm." I raise my brow, trying to stay focused on my mate but I can't seem to shake this infatuation Olivera has had for my mate. I should ignore it, as I have in the past weeks, but something about being stuck in this small cave with him has my mind tethering off too many emotions at once. "Enlighten me, please," I sigh, shaking my head out at the storm. "What is this weirdly possessive, sympathetic binding you thi
Ryan I fight through the winds, the rain cascading over my warriors and me. It wasn't the best idea coming out during this type of storm but we lacked one natural ingredient that grows just south of the waterfall trail and then the cure would be complete for the last facility of rogues. I have healed slowly in my weeks of developing the cure, but I could use a dose myself. Thankfully it hasn't affected my poorly mate, spending most of her days passed out in bed until I force her to get up and move around a bit. It's been exhausting for her, but she is the patriarchy of a new family, the strongest she-wolf I know who is capable of carrying these pups. "Dammit, lover boy! Where are you?!" I barge out of the mouth of the cave where my warriors have been taking shelter from the monsoon outside. I see that rogue alpha in the distance, throwing his hands up in a small fit of rage. It's almost amusing if he didn't also sport a petrified look of angst as well. "Over here," I call out. H
Alyson It's hard to feel not included in the cure development, but I watch Ryan and Olivera get along for many consecutive weeks. At least I have that peaceful energy around, watching them work with the palace pack healers to help the rogues locked up in the facilities, still sick. Thankfully there wasn't an enormous outbreak and everything seems to have worked out. I can't help the feeling of doom, though, thinking about every time things were perfect, something horrible happened. I thought once we defeated Jacob and sent away Jennifer, everything would have worked out forever. I was wrong, but if none of that bad stuff happened, I wouldn't be pregnant. I fear these pups won't be okay, the healer making a daily visit, sometimes twice a day, at least to check on my progress. I worry everyday he will say something bad has happened and they're hurt, or worse. I would give my life for these two pups but I hope I don't have to. "Morning, sweeth
Alyson "Relax," Ryan coos, brushing my hair back. He has finally come to my side, forcing my eyes to stay on his, even as he paces his attention back and forth between me and the healer. I squeeze my mate's hand, feeling pressure build in my abdomen. "There you go, he's done." The healer removes his gloves, my eyes catching a glimpse of Olivera in the hall, seeing him pace frantically fast back and forth in the hallway. I look at my mate now, glimmering with sadness as he peers down at me. I know he feels like I've grown feelings for the rogue Alpha, and I haven't, but I can be sympathetic to the wolf who lost everything; just like I had. "Are the pups okay?" I breathe. Ryan flinches. "More than—more than one?" He watches the healer as though waiting to hear so magical, good news. "What is going on? Are they okay? How many are there? I—" The healer settles his hands together before his body, like a man with bad news. "It's hard to tell
Alyson Whatever causes the fight, I'm not exactly sure, but it breaks out anyways. Every single wolf in the courtyard has shifted, the movements so fast that I don't even release that I've been thrown out of the hecticness, my side slamming against the brick wall and my head smacking right up against it until I feel the blood flow from a cut on my temple. I curl into a ball, my hands instinctively curling to my stomach, so dazed that instead of being able to see what has caused this fight to break out, I only spot wolves tearing into one another, biting into flesh and blood being poured. Ryan, I reach through the mind link, not capable of spotting him through the haze in my eyesight. What the hell is going on? Rouges came from the pack lands; they must have been waiting to ambush. Where are you, mate? Get out of here! Go inside, now! I aim to sit up, my head so discombobulated that I can't even dictate which direction would take me bac
Alyson It only takes a moment for me to catch my breath, and another for me to sprint across the hall, watching Olivera struggle to stand, instead melting to the floor where he slams his fist against the tile floor—it cracks instantly under his bold knuckles. I dare flinch, seeing him so angry almost a warning for me to be careful, but I instead charge forward anyways. I grab his cheek, forcing him to meet my eyes, and he relaxes ever so slightly. When he does, I drag my palm across his face in a single, sharp slap. He jolts upright, standing suddenly and staring me down with a pure look of surprise written across his face. "What the hell was that for?" "That's for doing something so stupid," I growl, my fists trembling at my sides. "You could have died from that cure, Olivera, how dare you try something that risky in my palace?" "You might be the Luna, but you're not my Luna," he says, snide. "I am free to make any decision I want if
Alyson I find myself sitting in the hallway between office and bedroom. In one, my mate suffers with an ill mark on his shoulder and back, and in the other sits an enigma of a wolf. He has kissed me, he has fondled me, and unknown to us both, he has poisoned me while I was newly pregnant. If anything, I should hate the rogue Alpha, but I don't have it in me to leave him completely. So I sit in the hall between them both, curled up with my hands resting on my stomach as if I have already blossomed outward, waiting for one of my favorite Alpha's to wake up. If I leave here to be with one, and the other wakes, I'll feel guilty forever. For now, I wait, hearing steps breach my silent mediation between Alphas. "My Luna, why are you out of bed?" I hear Fritz hum, my eyes watered and wide, shocked to see him here of all places. We didn't exactly part on the most amicable of terms. "You're still looking pale." I wave off his words and
Alyson I try to fight Olivera from going into the office, but he easily grabs my wrist, twists it, and nudges me out the doorway. He's too smart and too strong for me right now, my head blotted with the sleepiness that I can't seem to shake. I grab at his arm, at his shirt sleeve, and dig my heals against the ground. He drags me a few paces before finally stopping. "You're a persistent little bug," he snaps, releasing my hands off of his shirt and giving me a stern look. "We have to find out what this cure does to an Alpha and as it stands, I'm the one best capable here of verbalizing the aftermath of taking this cure. If it makes things worse, so be it." I feel my heart patter to a screeching halt. "What does worse contain?" He looks to the healer, the vial on the desk nearby, and then back to meet my eyes. "I could die, of course, or I could only loose my wolf. I'm happy to put both on the line to see if this stuff is worthy of fixing Ryan, fi