Havermouth, Present TimeSigrid stood on the roof of the drycleaners across from the main base of the Van Helsings, the wind pulling at her hair and the long skirt of her dress. Samuel crouched at her side and they both watched as the Van Helsing crawled out of the door, trailing one leg, and leaving a snail trail of blood behind him, before clawing his way down the stairs.Inside, gunshot rang out, and the automatic door slid open again, releasing a woman in a filthy pants suit and bare feet. She looked both ways along the road, before heading towards the centre of town, stepping over the bleeding Van Helsing without looking at him.“Your maker’s mate went that way,” Samuel straightened slowly to his full height.“Yes,” Sigrid nodded.A man in a hospital gown had been pursuing her, but Sigrid was confident that Morgana would have matters under control. She had freed herself from the Van Helsings after all, and she was Thaelen’s mate – she would need to be as tough as armour and as sh
Havermouth, Present TimeWatching Heath shift revealed just how much their mate had changed, Rhett thought, his fear a nausea in his stomach. Shifting was never effortless, although time and practice made it easier, but for Heath there was a pause, a suspension between the two forms. It wasn’t the same as holding the shift – then the wolf came and went, hair sprouting and bones and joints cracking. That was not something that any werewolf could hold for long, although it added a whole other dimension to sex, Rhett admitted ruefully, both being the recipient of and the one to knot into their mate.No, with Heath, it was as if there existed a third form between man and wolf, one which his body wanted to assume, but that he had to push through. The third form was terrifying, powerfully muscled, clawed, and fanged, covered with a pelt of white hair that was not as thick nor as long as a wolf’s and with eyes that glowed ruby-red.As Heath pushed past it into full wolf and shook his hair ou
Havermouth, Present TimeSigrid tried not the fidget on Samuel’s knee. It had been a choice between sitting with the werewolves in the back seat, in the boot of the car with the human man, or on Samuel, and she had chosen the most dignified of the options.Samuel and her friendship had always been mutually respectful and platonic, and she knew that it would always remain that way as Samuel was already in love with the spectre that haunted his dreams and she… She had her own werewolves. Which had been why she had avoided the back seat. Werewolves could be territorial and she thought that her Triquetra would find it less offensive that she had sat on another vampire’s lap rather than another Triquetra of alpha werewolves.Her Triquetra… “Stop the car!” She grabbed Talen’s arm. She had not been mistaken. She had seen Tom through the window of a shop fighting with a Van Helsing.Talen braked. “Sigrid?” He asked in alarm as she threw open the door and slithered from Samuel’s lap.“Keep goi
Havermouth, Present Time“Stop the car!” Sigrid snapped out suddenly and Talen braked hard enough that Aislen clutched at Rhett’s shoulders instinctually, although his grip on her had not loosened since they had gotten into the car, and she was more than half convinced that his arms were fused around her or that he sought to absorb her through his chest so they fused into one person.Toby, in the rear of the car, did not have a Rhett seat-belt and slid, hitting the back of the seat hard with a grunt. “We should just get into the car and go,” he complained under his breath, his face near Aislen’s and she avoided his eyes, burying into Rhett’s neck in order to block him out.Talk about weird, she thought, being stuck in the car with all the lovers she’d had in her lifetime. All she needed was for Jordan and Aaron to arrive and all the stars of her dating history would be present and accounted for.“Sigrid?” Talen asked in confused alarm as Sigrid got out of the car.“Keep going,” she to
Havermouth, Present TimeThe warehouse Jules had chosen for their new accommodation was more modern that Leighton’s, and the offices at the top of the stairs were cleaner. If they’d had power, they would have also had heating and air conditioning, Rhett noted as he carried the office chair out and down the stairs, following Talen and Heath who carried the office desk and a filing cabinet as if they weighed nothing.They took them down to the main factory floor, where Harry and Jules had placed other furniture that they had cleaned out of the other office upstairs and had piled the supplies that they had claimed from the communal pile in Leighton’s warehouse.“We should… talk,” Rhett said as Heath and Talen turned to leave, blocking their way. “About this,” he gestured to Heath. “And what this means for us.”Heath’s shoulders stiffened and he turned to walk over to the window, the golden sunlight falling down and lighting his hair. He looked awfully like an angel for someone who had to
Havermouth, Present TimeHarry was fussing around in the room, and Jules hovered out in the hallway uncertainly. He was almost certain that he wasn’t misinterpreting Harry’s behaviour, and yet, there was a disbelief that froze him into place. Did anyone get third chances? He asked himself. It sure felt like a third chance, that buzz under the skin, that instant arousal that stiffened his c-ck and tightened within his stomach. It was not something he had ever expected to experience again.As a young alpha, like all alphas, he had taken many lovers amongst the humans, but he had been in love only twice.Aiden had been human and Jules’ first male lover – the combination of youth and a lover that he had known the pack would find taboo twice over had heightened their time together. It had been beautiful, wild, and passionate. And too brief.He had been a coward, he knew. In many ways, Cameron was like a better version of himself, he thought, turning his head to the office on the opposite s
Havermouth, Present TimeGreg was by the front windows of the apartment that looked out over the street when Sigrid left the bathroom, shaking with cold and wrapped in the bathrobe that she had found hanging on the back of the door. She crossed to stand beside him, following his gaze. “Trouble?” She asked seeing a group of Van Helsings by a black 4WD consulting and pointing down the street.“They searched the shop where Tom was shot,” Greg replied. “They left the body there and now they’re talking openly on the street…” He shook his head in disapproval. “It shows no regard for their fallen comrade, and no environmental awareness. They are not worried about snipers, at the very least.”“Hmm,” she looked up at him. The light filtered through the sheer curtains that kept them from the view from the street casting lines of shadow across his features that made the focus of his expression seem harsh.She did not know her werewolves well, and they were vastly different men to those that she
Havermouth, Present TimeJules’ heels hit the softness of the mattress and he staggered and would have fallen if Harry’s finger hadn’t been hooked into his shirt.“Oh, no,” Harry grinned. “You’re not getting away. I’ve been waiting a very long time for my person.”Jules’ breath caught and he forgot to swallow for a moment. Was he Harry’s person? Was Harry his? It had happened so quickly, that flash of recognition, that burn of desire… He had been so busy thinking about whether it was possible, he hadn’t considered what it would mean.When Jules had been a young alpha, he would never have contemplated a vampire as a mate. It would have been unthinkable, as unthinkable as a human, as unthinkable as a man. He knew that Cameron had struggled with his relationship with the Triquetra because the pack still found such things unthinkable, but… Jules was older, tougher, and his tolerance for the pack’s biases had diminished over the years.He’d ceased thinking about his desires as being his fa
Havermouth, The Present Aislen sat on the bench seat of one of the Unimogs whilst Talen and the Heath met with Rohan. There were lot of hand signals gesturing beyond the destruction of the farm and solemn expressions on their faces. When she looked up, she could see that Rhett and Cameron were busy helping to carry injured to the waiting vehicles and that the vampires and werewolf soldiers were destroying what remained of the farm’s buildings, ensuring that there was no way that the Van Helsings could return and continue to use the site. The crashing and shouting as they tore the buildings to pieces was giving Aislen a headache and she paused in her poetry writing to pinch her brows. “Here,” Bianca climbed nimbly up the Unimog’s ladder and offered Aislen a bottle of water and two pills. “Paracetamol. You’ve been sitting here rubbing at your head, so I know you’ve got a headache.” “Thanks,” Aislen took the pills and washed them back with the water. “Ah shit,” she said after she’d sw
Havermouth, The PresentRhett and Heath shifted into human form and the Triquetra threw their arms around each other and him, their hands smearing mud and blood onto each other unheeding in their relief that all four had made it through unscathed. Over Heath’s shoulder, Talen saw Morgana slip and slide through the mud, her cheeks streaked with tears as she saw them, and he held out a hand, welcoming her in, the Triquetra pulling her into the center of the embrace.It was where she belonged, Talen thought as he leaned his face into her hair and breathed the scent of his female mate into his lungs. Morgana had always been the center, the heart of their family, the piece that made the rest of them make sense together.“Everyone’s in one piece,” she pivoted slowly round the circle of her men, inspecting each for injury, smearing away blood and mud with her hands in order to make sure that they didn’t hide wounds below.“We’re fine. We are fine,” Heath laughed wetly. “Really, Aislen, we’re
Havermouth, The PresentTalen kept watch as Harry set the explosives under the last of the guns. Of all five machine gun stations, this one was the most exposed, and Talen could feel the prickle of stress sweat between his shoulder blades. They had debated leaving this one completely and hoping that the explosions from the other stations would be enough, but the Van Helsings on duty there had been called to help load a helicopter that was waiting to take off, leaving the station as an open invitation for sabotage.When Harry eased out from under the station and slunk through the shadows to Talen’s side, the relief dragged through Talen’s muscles like the heavy refractory period after sex. He was exhausted, and that terrified him as he knew that the battle was ahead. Get through it, he told himself. Win this battle, and then take your mates to the river house, as Cameron had suggested, for three days and nights of f-king and feasting upon his mates as he turned them.It would be bliss.
Havermouth, The PresentIt was one thing to ride a Unimog through town, and another to travel on one long distance for over an hour, Aislen thought grimly. She was certain that most of her bones had been shaken loose and that when she eventually did stand up, she’d collapse in a jumble of limbs like in a cartoon. She’d been trying to work on another Secret Keeper post, working in a notebook that she’d stolen from one of the desks in the bunker, but her handwriting was so shaky that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to read it afterwards.She also wasn’t sure if she was being optimistic in it’s message.However, if she wasn’t writing, then she had to focus on what was happening around her, where they were going, and the fact that they had to be getting close, and there still was no sign of Talen. Was he okay? She would know, wouldn’t she? She asked herself. If something had happened to him, she was sure that she would feel it somehow, like a wound to her heart.“He’s fine,” she said out lo
Havermouth, The PresentThe farm’s vegetable gardens had been trampled underfoot, without any care for the vegetables and fruits left unharvested, the Van Helsings having abandoned any pretence of the site being anything other than what it was – a military facility. Entrance into the farm from the main road was controlled by guards and cement roadblocks, however, away from the public side of the farm, the security relaxed. There were flood lights set at key points, but their focus was inward and in daylight, they had been turned off.One field contained neat rows of tents, and a portable shower and toilet building which was in use as Harry and Talen crept around it’s edges, someone singing an atrocious rendition of a popular love song as they showered.It made Talen pause, hearing that singer, and a fury began to burn in the pit of his stomach. The Van Helsings at this site were so at ease, so comfortable, that they sang in the shower, where he and his mates had spent nearly every mom
Havermouth, The PresentHeath woke to discover that he had slept through Talen leaving and that pissed him off as whilst he recognized the vampire’s seniority and experience, Heath was faster and stronger, and he felt that it just made sense for him to be included in the mission, and that if anyone should have been left behind, it should have been Harry.Sigrid and her Triquetra had control of the bunker by the time Heath’s Triquetra left their room with Aislen. They met briefly in the room and ran over the sparse information that Talen had given to Cameron and Rohan before his departure and to try to piece together a plan of attack with Rohan – something which was difficult as they had no idea the total size of Haven Farm, and Heath could only roughly sketch the areas that he had been admitted to when visiting Charlotte, and on the times he’d been on the escorted tour.None of the maps that they had showed property boundaries, and even Sigrid’s Triquetra’s fancy toys didn’t have any
Havermouth, The PresentTalen slipped out of the bed when the wait staff arrived in the morning, pulling on yesterday’s trousers in order to open the door and pressing his fingers to his lips to indicate that they should be quiet as they delivered the breakfast and clothing. He admired the efficiency of the bunker, despite the disruption to the leadership everything continued to run like clockwork and thanked the staff quietly as they departed.He showered quickly and dressed in the clean clothing, before creeping back out into the main living area.Cameron looked up from the table. “You’re up early.”“Shh,” Talen placed his finger on his lips as he checked to make sure that Cameron had closed the bedroom door behind him. “You should be asleep, Cameron,” he said quietly as he crossed to ruffle the werewolf alpha’s russet curls.“I smelled pancakes,” Cameron told him with a bright smile as he uncovered them. “Ahhh,” he sighed in satisfaction. “Would you just look at that? Blueberry pre
Havermouth, The PresentHeath rose from the bed as Rhett lifted Cameron’s face to his and kissed him, pushing Cameron’s hand away from his c-ck so that he could take hold of it, causing Cameron to moan into the kiss as Rhett stroked him.Talen released, Morgana’s leg, leaning over to suck on the nipple that was exposed as she lowered her knee to the mattress. He teased the tips with his teeth, knowing that the pinch of the clip would make them sensitive, and slid his hand down her stomach to rub against her clit as Heath positioned himself.“Would you like some Edison brand lube?” Rhett’s grin was wicked. He had wrapped his arm around Cameron, holding his redhaired mate by the throat, just under the jaw, and Cameron’s face was slack with pleasure as Rhett’s other hand jerked his c-ck viscously.“Hmm,” Talen laughed through his nose. “Go on then,” he encouraged them. Cameron would have time to recover from the orgasm and be good for a second round before the night was through, he predi
Havermouth, The PresentThe moment the door opened; Rhett jerked Aislen to face him, his eyes intense. “Play time,” he growled his wolf shading the amber of his irises with an oily sheen of green and gold. He pulled her top up and off her without breaking their gazes, and then lifted his own top up slowly in a delicious display of tattooed skin and muscle made more striking by his leanness.Heath and Cameron fell in behind him, assuming the Triquetra formation that she had seen them take so many times, an unconscious werewolf move, hunters stalking their prey, and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she backed towards the bedroom, Rhett keeping pace with her, the distance between them precise, his eyes locked on hers.Talen closed the door behind them and strolled nonchalantly towards the kitchenette.Rhett unbuttoned his trousers, his c-ck pushing against the fly so that the teeth opened little by little with every throb. “Undress, Aislen,” he purred the words, his smirk w