I spent the rest of the day trying to forget about what happened the day before, both the nightmare and what happened with Nathan. I would be lying to say that I didn’t enjoy what happened with Nathan. My body had responded to his touch in ways that it had never responded to anyone. Though I had sexual encounters before, I never had one that was so intense and involved so much lust and desire. The vigor of my arousal so quickly had surprised me, and I was not prepared to handle that much emotion and physical response. Something was different about the interaction with Nathan. I wasn’t sure if it was because it had been so long since someone else had touched me with so much desire or if something within me had changed.
Thankfully, Lela and I agreed that we needed to be more careful with Nathan. Nathan was not set on waiting for or even finding his mate. Since his parents were not mates, and his dad purposefully avoided finding his mate, Nathan had a different
I exited the restroom and headed back out to the dance floor. Alpha Michael was standing along the wall, talking to a few others, those who I assumed were part of his pack. I made eye contact with him and he broke away from the group he was talking to and made his way towards me. A group of three girls stood about 15 feet away. Judging by the look on the one girl’s face, I assumed that was the girl Stephanie who had been talking shit about me in the restroom.‘This is going to be fun.’ Lela said, laughing as she saw Stephanie’s facial expression turn to anger as Alpha Michael started walking to me. I chuckled to myself as I saw how jealous she was. I could only imagine how long she had been trying to get the Alpha to put his hands on her, and here I was doing so without even trying.“Well, hello there, beautiful. I am glad that you came back to dance with me some more.” He wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me cl
ALPHA CALLAN’s POVAs soon as Raina contacted me, I started heading toward Club 11. I brought Rollo forward and shifted in midstride. I knew that there had been rogues spotted in the area, but until Raina’s report from the club, we had no idea that they were actually in our territory.My worst fears were confirmed when Raina said that the rogues were looking for a red wolf. While there was no way for the rogues to know that Raina was the red wolf, it would not surprise me if they tried to capture all wolves with red hair until they found the red wolf. I alerted the patrol on that side of the territory. Unfortunately, they were farther away from the club than was ideal, and it would take them several minutes to arrive.“Lizzie, where are you?” I mind-linked Lizzie, hoping that she was out of the club already.“I am outside of Club 11.” Lizzie’s voice shook with fear. I could only assume that she had either al
Multiple voices could be heard on the other side of the door. I could hear Alpha Callan, Alpha Michael, Beta Jack, and a few others.‘Why the hell are they arguing? And is it about me?’ I got an uneasy feeling as I spoke to Lela.‘I don’t know, but I think we need to get in there.’ Lela urged me forward.ShitRealizing that I didn’t have much of a choice, I raised my hand and knocked on the door.“Come in.” Alpha Callan spoke.I hesitated for a moment, wanting to take just a moment to calm my nerves. I knew that if I waited any longer to enter, someone was going to come open the door. Using Lela as motivation, I slowly opened the door and took a step inside, closing the door behind me. All eyes moved to me.“Raina. I didn’t know that you were awake. How are you?” Alpha Callan asked as he stood, his tone much softer than the tone I had heard from the other side
The Alphas and Betas continued to talk, speculating as to why someone would want me and how they would want to use my abilities. I tuned them out. A plethora of emotions rushed through me. On the surface, I felt guilty for what I had done to Alpha Michael. All of his response to me was an elicited response. While he could very well have some sort of attraction to me, it was highly likely that even his initial approach to me was elicited by the emotional and sexual appeal of my red wolf.That led to confusion, as I questioned my relationship with Nathan. The initial interactions with him were amazing and felt as if a real connection was made. But that day in the forest clearing was definitely different. I knew that when I kissed him that day, I had a hard time controlling my desire, and it made me wonder if I had influenced him to act in a certain way. I liked Nathan, but if I was going to have any more interactions with him, I would need to be certain to not influence him in
I quickly left the office, trembling at the thought of what just happened, both out of a bit of fear and a lot of anger. My mind raced through the events that happened, trying to determine if I actually did urge Alpha Callan to kiss me. I could not find anything, which increased my frustration with his response to me. I leaned against the wall and took a deep breath, allowing my head to fall back against the wall.“What the hell was that?” I asked to Lela. It seemed that I was asking her that all too often lately. “I mean, did a do something? Think something? Send a signal?”Lela was pacing back and forth, clearing trying to work through what happened. “We did not feel any sexual desire in the moments before he nearly kissed you. I know that we did not urge him to do that.”I nodded in agreement. “The moment was calm – peaceful almost. I enjoyed his touch, but not because it was sexual but because it was comf
ALPHA MICHAEL POV “Tell me again how long you are staying?” Alpha Callan asked, a clear look of annoyance across his face. I laugh, amused that was annoying him so much. “I am leaving tomorrow to get Elder Rosemarie. But, I will be back, we need to figure out what is going on with these rogue attacks and the threats against Raina.” I smiled, just briefly, as I said her name. The bewitching red-head had completely mesmerized me. Even after discovering what happened at the club, I was still beguiled. Going on the run after leaving Callan’s office had helped to clear my head. I had used the time to attempt to regain control. At the end of the run, I had decided that I would still love to have a chance to taste Raina’s sweet lips and touch her skin. Allured from Raina or not, she was still one of the most stunning women I had ever seen. I could only hope that my mate was half as beautiful as Raina. “I see what you are thinking, Michael. I have known you a l
RAINA POVI woke up early – much too early after the night that I had. After Alpha Michael left my room, I decided to just go to bed. I was angry. He took advantage of my heightened emotional response in an effort to increase my arousal. And my guilt. I had readily admitted that I felt guilty about what happened with him at the club.I pulled myself out of bed and groaned. The sun was coming in through the window, leaving streaks of sunlight across my bed. I threw on a sweatshirt and sneaked my way downstairs and to the kitchen. I looked out the backdoor and eyed comfy looking patio furniture. Making myself a cup of coffee, I decided to put to good use the patio couch. I slipped out the door and curled up on the couch. The morning was still a bit cool and there was a slight breeze, making it a peaceful time to sit and enjoy the calm. I sipped my coffee, enjoying the fact that there is literally nothing going on right now. Aside from the chirps of bird
After saying my goodbyes to Lizzie, I found myself nearly sprinting back to the packhouse, Nathan trailing behind me. Nathan finally caught up to me as we approached the packhouse. “Raina, Alpha Callan has indicated that Elder Rosemarie is waiting for you out on the back patio.” He grabbed my hand as he spoke. “Good luck.” He pulled me in for a quick hug. He kissed me briefly and I paused at the kiss and then kissed him back. He smiled at the kiss and I felt a calming run through me. I headed around the back of the packhouse. I could hear voices as I neared the back patio. Alpha Callan, Beta Davis, Beta Jack, and Elder Rosemarie were all sitting around a fire on the patio. Alpha Callan noticed me approaching and stopped speaking, making eye contact with me as I approached. “Elder Rosemarie, it looks like Raina has arrived.” The others turned to look at me as I arrived at the patio, a wave of shyness washed over me as all four wolves looked at me.
10 years later“Anders! Get back in here! Your mom told you dinner was almost ready five minutes ago!” Callan yelled out the back door, before giving up and going out to the backyard. I laughed as Callan fought to round up our son. From what Catherine told me, Anders was just like Callan was when he was young; stubborn, strong, and, at times, apparently hard of hearing. I had called him in several times alerting him of dinner, but he continued to run around the field behind the packhouse. At nearly ten years old, Anders was already showing his power and strength. He took after Callan in both behavior and looks, although he had my green eyes. Callan was often proud of his behavior while I was stuck running around trying to wrangle him in. His sister, Romy, was the opposite. At age 7, she was calm and controlled. She was empathic and caring. I didn’t expect her to be a red wolf and I doubted that she would be. At this point, there were six red wo
Two weeks laterLela was antsy. She wouldn’t stop pacing. I thought at first that it was related to the two weeks of recovery for Callan finally being up. But even after he woke up this morning and joined me in the shower, making sure that I knew that he was more than recovered, she still would not settle down. I know that my sexual frustration went away and down the drain twice this morning, but Lela still had this weird nervous energy about her. It was very uncharacteristic.‘Lela, what the heck is going on?’ I reached out to her, hoping that we could figure all this out. Her anxiety was rubbing off on me and I did not like the way it felt. I suddenly regretted all the times my emotions were overwhelming and bled in to how Lela was feeling. And that happened A LOT.‘I honestly don’t know what it is. I feel like I am waiting for something to happen, and I don’t know what it is.’‘Let’s just try to tak
Eight days. It has been eight days and there has been no change. I went home once a day to change and shower. Otherwise, I did not leave Callan’s room. Different pack members would come to visit, bringing me food and to keep me company. It had become almost routine at this point. Beta Jack and Marta would come first thing in the morning, bringing me breakfast. Beta Jack would stay and keep me company, updating me on anything relevant to pack business. Nathan and Jennifer would come at lunch time. Catherine would come with another pack member who had made me dinner. Justin would typically stop by after dinner and would stay with Callan while I went to shower and change. And the day would begin again.At the end of day eight, exhaustion was starting to set in. I was not sleeping well and worried filled me all day. I had just returned from showering and changing, thanking Justin for staying with Callan, when Dr. Powell walked in.“Hi Dr. Powell. What is
RAINA’s POVLela made it back to the pack in less than a minute. I did not even know that we could run that quickly, but fear can make you run quickly. While fear often drives you away from things, this fear drove me to Callan. Fear and anger. Callan was hurt and I was not going to just stand by and do nothing.Another pang of pain ran through me, but I refused to stop, despite how searing the pain was.‘Do you know where he is?’ I asked Lela as we approached the edge of pack territory.‘By our clearing.’ She responded. There was a certain irony in Callan being in the clearing that I had found so much comfort in. The amount of pain that I was in told me that Callan was severely injured. We would not stop until we were upon him. Brett and Emma were right behind me, keeping pace with Lela for the sprint to Callan.As soon as I hit the edge of the clearing, I saw Callan on the ground, and I immediately shifted back. One o
ALPHA CALLAN’S POVThe sound of breaking glass awakened me. My head was pounding, but when I looked at the car around me, my first thought was Raina. I could barely see the other side of the car, but I could tell that she was not there.“Alpha Callan? Are you alright?” A voice spoke from outside of my window. The breaking of glass was Beta Jack and Brett, who were attempting to pull me out of the car.“Where is Raina?” I asked as I pulled myself out of the car. Although pieces of glass were in my hands and legs, I did not care. I did not care that my head hurt and that it was bleeding. All that I cared about was Raina.Brett shifted and then spoke. “We have a faint scent of her. Right after the crash, my scouts observed two vampires in the area. We believe that they took her. My scouts have spotted the car and are following it.”Rollo roared forward. “We must get her!” I growled out, ready to sh
I awoke in the back of a car. My head was pounding. For a moment, I thought that I might have been knocked unconscious in the car crash and I was in the back of the car on the way home. But none of the smells in the car were familiar, and I knew that was too much to hope for. The pain in my head made it hard to open my eyes, but I forced them open. I was quite dark outside now. I tried to focus on the clock in the car, and, although it was blurry, I could just make out that it was 9:15 PM. “Looks like someone is awake.” A voice said from the front seat of the car. My head was throbbing, but I was awake and looking around, trying to get some understanding of where I was. However, there were just trees everywhere, so I really couldn’t pick up on anything. I looked up at the man in the front passenger seat. He looked young, but I knew that he was a vampire. I would guess that he is probably much older than I thought, although he looked like he is in
As the meeting wrapped up, the councilmen asked that each pack approach Callan to discuss planning, including when the warrior would be coming to our pack and how we would accommodate them. A few of the smaller packs were not able to send a warrior due to safety concerns, which made sense. Callan tensed a little bit when the first Alpha mentioned it, but I quickly put my hand on Callan’s arm to calm him down. One pack was a quarter of the size of our pack ad had lost several warriors in a recent rogue attack. It would be more dangerous for them to send a warrior for their pack. Not only would I have the guardian warriors protecting me, but I also have my own pack. It was important that we considered the other packs in the discussion, especially since I truly did have so much protection.“Luna Raina, Alpha Callan, I am so glad that you are so understanding. This last year has been very hard for my pack. During the last rogue attack, I lost my brother and a son. My
RAINA’S POVThe meeting room was stuffy and crowded. I could see at least 15 different packs represented at the meeting, if not more. Callan had filled me in on some basics about the different Alphas, including Alpha Brock and Alpha Scott, whom I had just met. Alpha Scott seemed nice but Alpha Brock was a prick. I could tell from the brief interaction I had with him. Callan also told me that there were 20 different packs spread across the U.S., although there were currently only 19 since no one had taken over for Alpha Thomas. Much to my surprise, there were apparently some pack members who had stayed behind.The Council sat along a long table at the front of the room on a raised area. Ten men sat along the table. As Callan walked us to our seats, I looked at each of them. While I wasn’t specifically trying to read the emotions of any of them, I was struck by the different emotions that some of them seemed to be experiencing. Most just seemed interested, ey
ALPHA CALLAN POVI was surprised when I slept until 5. I had really expected sleep to elude me with the meeting with the Council today. In anticipation of things such as this, Rollo typically was up early, as he was on high alert. ‘Decided to let me sleep?’ I joked to Rollo.‘I needed the sleep. I am still exhausted from the other day.’ Rollo stirred and stretched.I could only laugh, as I, too, was still feeling a bit of the exhaustion from the other day. But we needed our energy for today. It was clear that this was going to be a long day. I hadn’t meant to upset Raina yesterday, but I did have a feeling that the Council or someone at the meeting might ask for her to “prove” that she was a red wolf. It was ridiculous and I agreed with Raina about her concerns. If she didn’t want to shift or show them anything, then I would 100% support that. Quite frankly, it was ridiculous that they would even ask,