Erin POV I grip Leroy's body, burying my face into his fur, silently sobbing as I can't contain my emotions anymore, as it gradually starts to fade away, revealing a naked man's body. I jump slightly and gasp as I feel an arm rest on and around my shoulders."Leroy?" "Erin.." he groans, stroking my hair, "I'm here, I'm ... okay.""Oh, Leroy," I whisper, wrapping my arms around his neck, he groans as I squeeze him, "Oh, I'm sorry," I apologise, I got too excited and carried a way, but Leroy rolls over slightly and pulls me into an embrace. "Oh Leroy, I thought I'd lost you," he chuckles at my words and then whispers in my ear "It's like you said, we've only just got each other, I'm not going anywhere any time soon, I'm not leaving you, I promise." I can't hold the tears back any longer as they rain down, "although there was a moment there I thought I was a gonna, but I guess I was wrong." I pull away and try to look him in the eyes as I choke out,
Elias POV I tighten my grip on Leroy as we race through the trees, zig zaging as my heart beats a hundred times faster than before. My need to protect my mate, unborn child, and pack, sky rockets above the moon and to the stars. Leroy grunts in my arm because I'm basically carrying him, his feet hovering inches above the ground. I keep my eyes on where we are going and the girls in front of us, and every so often, I tell them to keep going, reassuring them we are right behind them. As I fight the knowing that we, in our current state, its very unlikely we can out run who ever is chasing us. I push my panic down and away as I can hear and feel them getting closer and closer, I force myself to focus on what lies ahead, until the sounds of our hunters engulf us and are coming from all around.Shit! We stop where we are, sitting ducks, our enemies closing in on us. I wrap the three of them in my arms and behind my back, to shield them from the oncoming attack, as I feel Chilli hand grip
Now sitting in Maxwell's office as the door opens and a middle-aged woman pushes in a trolly. It's carrying some plates covered with metal domes and cups and glasses. She stops the trolly just off to the side of the room, picks up one of the plates and cups full of coffee, then sets it down on the alpha's desk. "Thank you, Sally," he says, picking up the coffee and taking a sip as she bows her head and excuses herself from the room. Maxwell then waves at the trolly and tells us to help ourselves, "You must be hungry." He comments.I am, we are, and I know Chilli hates situations like this, so I get up and head for the trolly to investigate its contents. Under the domes are some sandwiches, a choice of bacon or sausage. Knowing Chilli's love for bacon, I take one of each, along with a cup of tea and fruit juice. Returning to my seat, I hand the bacon sandwich to her as I thank Maxwell for the food. He nods as he digs into his own breakfast of eggs and toast. With a mouth full of bread
"So?" Maxwell asks inpatiently as I struggle to quickly swollow my mouth full of meat and bread. I tap my chest to help it go down and take a sip of my tea, which is way too strong for my liking, but I'm in no position to complain."It all started about a month or so ago I think, at a pack event. In the middle of the event there was an interuption, an attack and our alpha, my father was challenged for the title. We were drugged, taken and held captive across no mans land. Alpha, please understand although myself and Chilli have only just recently returned, I have been updated by Leroy and Erin, who are very trustful and reliable sources." I pause for a moment for Maxwell to interject but he just grunts, so I continue by relaying what I learned in the car ride over. "From their acount of events, my father was defeeted, and our pack... the winter pack was taken over unrightfully so..""Why unrightfully?" Maxwell interupts, unamused by my words it seems."My father was defeeted not in s
Chilli POV It feels like my heart is beating in my throat, choking me as a cold sweat threatens to drip from my brow or down my spine. I swollow my stirring panic, setterling my nerves and pulling myself together. I am glad I am not alone, I am incredibly thankful I have Elias and that he is by my side, but all I want is for this to be over and to get out of this office. The supportive pressure from Elias holding my hand in his, recentres me as alpha Maxwell's single spoken word, seems to echo around the office and our ears. "Dead?" Elias and I nod our heads together in unison, confirming it. I can't help but hold my breath, as I wait for what I assume will be his follow up question. The man's silence is killing me, freezing me still in my chair as he caresses his chin. I feel a need to scream build in my mind and just as it's about to erupt, deafening my innerself, Elias's voice alleviates the pressure almost instantaneously. 'Nothing nor no one will hurt y
'What does he know? Has he somehow figured it out?' I panic inwardly, as he goes to step forward,"It's strange," the doctor adds, stoping mid step, "it's as if the body is lacking something, or more, waiting for something, as if there is a piece missing to complete the puzzle." And with that said, the man starts walking again untill we reach and push through another set of double, swinging doors to enter a long room full of beds, with curtain tracks surrounding each one. All the beds are exposed and empty except one at the far end. The doctor gestures towards it and then leaves without saying another word."Okay..." we are both left thinking aloud, we thought he had more to say, to tell us, but I guess not.The emptiness of the ward strikes me as odd, especially as there was an altercation just hours ago and I'm sure I heard them say some of their pack members were wounded, if that's the case, then where are they all? They 5 have healed already, could they?
Elias POV A still silence falls amongst us as I watch Chilli's gaze fall on our friend hanging on for his life, lying in front of us. As I watch Leroy seemingly sleeping, movement out of the corner of my eye draws my attention to Chilli, as she starts to slowly move towards Leroy. As she reaches out her hand to touch his, I get a strange feeling from her, like she is in a trance and or going to do something she probably shouldn't. Before I know what I'm doing, I'm growling at her to stay back, warning her not to."Elias, I..." she stutters, freezing on the spot."No!" I snap at her with a hush, sharp tone, "think of her!" I snap again, feeling angry as I look at her womb, which is growing our child, our pup. Guilt then floods me for snaping at her like that, my anger turns into self-hatred and loathing for reacting towards my mate like that, for wanting to simply help. But its not simple, it could hurt or jeopardise our baby girl. Chilli steps back with a slig
Chilli POV As Elias does as Erin requests, I go to stand up and make my own way over to the empty hospital bed, to lay down as Erin asks of me. But as soon as I am nearly on my feet and standing upright, a screaming voice full of hatred, anger, and pain fills my head. My ear drums feel like they are about to burst from the shear volume and pressure building in my head, and I can't help but scream myself from the agony of it. 'YOU FUCKING BITCH!' The voice howls at me as I clap my hands over my ears, trying to stop it, or at least muffle the sound but its no use, the voice is deafening. 'YOU CUNTING HORE! HOW DARE YOU! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!' The voice is so incredibly loud and strong, I can't even hear my own heart beat racing what feels like a thousand beats a second. It feels like it's going to beat right out of my chest or explode. I can't do a thing to stop it, let alone get a word in to ask who or what the hell it wants
Elias POV I look up and watch as Chilli steps out from the en suite, wraped in just a towel, making her way towards her dressing table as I lay on our bed where I was just aimlessly flicking through my phone. Taking a seat and opening its draw, she removes a single, plastic pot housing her facial cream and unscrews its lid. It's nothing fancy, not expensive, its just a simple, none branded, vitamin E night cream.I continue to ovserve as she dips two fingers into the pale lotion and looks into the mirror, to then slowly drag said fingers down her face, starting at her forhead, gliding smoothly along her nose and then finishing with a dab on her chin. She then wipes a bit of the remainder on each cheek before replacing the lid and putting it back in its draw. My eyes are fixed to her as she slowly but firmly works the cream into her skin, taking extra care near and around her eyes. Her finger tips caress over her own face and down her neck, over my mark on her neck
Chilli POV Perching under a tree with Chant as we take a break from sparring whislts our mates for some reason decide to chop some fire wood. I find it amusing and humble how as the alpha he likes and enjoys chopping fire wood for the pack house, no job is to small for our mighty leader.Chant's seductive eyes never leave her mate as he swings the axe up into the air, where it seems to pause for the briefest of seconds before falling down onto a chunk of wood, spilting it into two. The whole movement and process is magical, so smooth and artistic like poetry. I had watched my own mate for a time, admiring his tensing biceps with every swing, the beauty of his movements and strength of the action, but now I'm just leaning back against the tree's trunk with my eyes shut, listening to the beautiful rhythmic sound of the wood splitting, of metal against nature, somehow for some reason I find it peaceful as I smirk at the thought of Chant lustfully gazing at Jay, it al
Elias POV That was brutal, oh my goddess do I hurt, I haven't hurt this much from training since, shit, I don't know when. Sure, I was mad and needed to work it off, but fuck me, Chilli was livid, she was masking it well, I mean, wow. My ass hurts. I had to use all my strength to stay on my feet, especially after I hit the ground hard the first few times of her kicking and taking me down. Once she swept my legs out from underneath me, my wolf instincts took over just so I could stay on my feet. I think I pulled something that time, thank the goddess for wolf healing, cos my left ass cheek and leg are killing me. With Chant now paired with Chilli and Erin and Leroy working together, that leaves me with Jay, who is as good as his mate, oh dear. I sigh inwardly as we step away from the others to train, I can spar and keep up with anyone, I'm alpha afterall, but after the beating I've just endured, I'd prefer a nice easy spar, but hay ho, lets do this. Thankfully, Jay see
Chilli POV Finally everyone is out on the field, we can get started. I am needing to hit something. Elias insist on sparring with me first and to Erin's relief but Chant's dismay, I agree. Which just leaves the others to pair up, one of them did suggest mate paring but the guys seems a little bit wary so it's girls vs girls and guys vs guys. For now anyway. After a fairly rough spar with Elias, I finally start to calm down and release my rage, which I guess was his plan, so I don't feel gilty later now if I cause anyone else major harm. Clearly sensing this, Elias allows us to switch partners and Chant and I go straight to each other, to which the rest of the group chuckle at our predictableness. Chant and I exchange a sinister grin as the others repair up, Elais with Jay and Erin with Leroy. I mirror Chant as she raises her arms up into a defensive stance, declaring she is ready, a smile growing on her face. As we stare down on each other I am reminded of our rematch
"You know there was no way he would accept and train with us," Leroy says once we are alone and with just our own pack members, "I know, but it was fun and satisfying to embarrass him like that, the look on his face at the mere thought of it was golden. To watch him squirm." I can't help but let out an enormous laugh, to which Chilli shoots me evil eyes for finding any of this so amusing. "What?" I chuckle at her before pulling myself together because if looks could kill. I had to laugh, if I didn't I think I would have lost it, plus it felt so good, too good to put Jordan down a bit like that in such a slight way in front of the others. However, by Chilli's facial expression, she does not agree, goddess, did I want to kill him, thankfully in a way he did say no, or we would have had a dead alpha on our hands and territory. "Come on, your telling me you didn't want a chance at hitting him?" I ask her in a teasing way, she looks at me whislt crossing her arms across he
"I hear some incorrect information has reached the ears of my children," "Oh, and what's that got to do with us? Idle gossip is not what these meetings are for." "No, not normally, but," she pauses for the briefest of moments to adjust her tone and the ferocity of her words, "but when it comes to petty, stupid, horrible lies about my family, my children, then you and I have a problem! A big problem!" He nearly chuckles in her face as he asks half heartedly,"Pray tell what are these so called insults?""A spare heir, a baby," she lists off the tamer ones first, working up to the biggest and worst one, before she stops again as I feel a heat burning off of her directed straight at Jorden, "and an inbreed!" The room falls silent after everyone gasps and shoot death stares at the alpha. A low growl escapes from mine, Erin and Leroy throats, our protectiveness taking over. Jordan looks like he doesn't know weather to laugh or bite back."Jordan!" One of the ot
Jordan holds his hands up in defence as I take a few deep breaths to calm myself before turning to the rest of the room to acknowledge our other guests. "Alpha Jonathan, Luna Suzie, beta Willow, sorry for my tardiness, how is Maxwell?" I ask taking my seat next to Elias, pushing my anger down for now, eyeing up Jordan in the cornor of my eye, I'm not done with you yet, I think to myself."No problem Luna Winters, father is doing well and thoroughly enjoying his retirement," he smiles with a nod of his head, which we return, "thank you for asking." Jonathan took over as alpha of the west pack two years ago with his mate Suzie and appointed Willow Steal as the first female beta of the west pack. She is a strong minded woman with a powerful right hook."Alpha Alex, Luna Ela and beta Karl, welcome and thank you for coming today," Elias smiles to the leaders of the Spring rise pack from the south, who joined our alliance about four years ago.With the greetings done and out of the way, we
The drive to school is a pretty normal one, we talk, sing and laugh all the way there, forgetting about any and all problems the day may have already brought. Once there and out of the car, we all walk hand in hand with Marcus in the middle, through the blue painted gates."Luna," the teacher on the gate addresses me with a nod of the head, as does any other adult that comes into eye contact with me. I smile back and return their nods.Like always, even though we come to Lily's class room first, we walk Marcus around to his first at her insistence, she says its part of her job to look out for him to make sure herself she sees him to his door. It warms my heart the care and love they have for each other. As I kiss my son goodbye and he hugs his sister, I take note of the other high ranking children from other packs, sitting at their tables ready for the lessons to begin. Future alpha's, beta's and Luna's all learning together including Tammy and Willow, Erin and Leroy's twins who are a
Chilli POVEleven years later"Lilith Kay Rosalee Winters! Get your furry tail out here now! Don't make me call you again!" I call out by the front door as I wait for my ten year old to take her to school. "Mummy, is Li-li in tuble?""She will be if she doesn't hurry up sweetpea,""Oh,""Lily!" I shout again,"I'm coming, I'm coming," my oldest calls back at me, jeez, ten going on fifteen, she's acting like a teenager, where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday that she fitted in my arms as I rocked her, singing her back to sleep.Take me home tonight, I'd do anything with you, buy a bottle of whiskey, we'll get matching tattoos, tell me that you love me, let me drive your car, we can sit 'til morning light, just countin' every star, 'cause if there's a hell, I'll meet you there, and if there's a heaven, they're serving beer, and if you're an angel, then I must be high, if there's a church, It's rock 'n roll, if there's