Alpha Jason’s Office
Perrin
I didn’t think there’d be enough time in the world to process what my father had shared over the last half hour. Some of it we knew, some of it made other things suddenly snap into place, and the rest? Well. It was altogether unsettling.
Mistra sat whitefaced in the corner of the office, her face stony, refusing to look at Ethan. My step-mother maintained a quiet composure at her usual place on the sofa while my father spoke. Jaz for some reason was here, looming silently in the back of the office by the door. I could tell from her body language that she was uncomfortable; an unusual emotion for her to showcase so openly. And Mark stood behind my father as he delivered the true story behind Ethan’s treatment. Small components of his story seemed to fit like puzzle pieces into the last few months, s
Hi everyone. I just wanted to say thank you so much for supporting this story. With 200 chapters (and less than fifty to go until it wraps!) I just wanted to make sure you all know how much I appreciate you being on this storytelling journey with me! xoxo CL
Perrin“What the hell was that all about?” I asked, slamming the door behind me.“You didn’t see that?”“See what?”“What Mark and your father were doing?”“You mean trying to protect you?”Ethan barked out a laugh but didn’t reply, still pacing around his suite. I wasn’t sure where his mother had gone after I left, but given the face-off between her and her son I doubt she’d show up here anytime soon.“You call that protection? They’re trying to get dirt on my mate.”“Were you even listening to my d
Perrin“When’s the last time we’ve sparred?”Ethan finished with his warm up. He had looked distracted when he got here, but was now the textbook of concentration and focus.“Honestly? Way too long.” He grinned, and took up position on the opposite side of the floor.“I’ve missed this,” I said openly. He knew how much I had missed him. How my right hand felt like it had been missing for the last few months.He nodded, the natural grin of my best friend taking over as we began to circle each other. The downside of training with your best friend your entire life is that you knew every strength, every move they would make. They were predictable in their strengths as much as their
Perrin“Again!”Jack’s form wasn’t anywhere near as polished as it should be. It’s as if he hadn’t even shown up to the Lodge for the last year.“Again!” I tried to keep the snarl out of my voice.He was sweating and panting as he had been going for nearly four hours. But he wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t ever going to be good enough.“Are you sure you’re not pushing him too far?” Seth sidled up behind me, watching Jack struggle against one of the Alpha Guard who offered to train this morning.“I’m not sure anyone has pushed him enough. He isn’t anywhere near ready to go up against Gowan!” I pause
LoMy alarm didn’t need to go off. I was awake already. So when the buzzing of my phone sounded from my side table, I turned it off without my normal disgruntled haze.The hint of a sunrise has been illuminating my shaded window for the better part of the last hour. I was mentally awake. Had been, really. A looming sense of stifled excitement that today was my eighteenth birthday.But as big of a deal as that typically was, I couldn’t help but feel that it was all a little anticlimactic. Not just because this was usually all about becoming eligible to mate. I was long past wanting that or even thinking it was right for me. Besides--it didn’t actually happen until the sun set on your eighteen birthday anyway. But it was typically a day in which an heirloom was passed from mother to daughter, moreso as an antiquated custo
LoI ran to my bedside table and reached for my phone.I began to draft a text to Perrin, but another knock sounded at the door. I couldn’t imagine who it could possibly be and swung iit open.“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A confetti cannon exploded in my face and a sea of balloons clouded my vision.Ethan laughed as I stumbled backward, picking confetti out of his own hair.“Thank you,” I laughed, trying to pop my ears from the sound of the mechanism and brushing confetti out of my eyes. “That’s one way to do a wakeup call.”“You only turn eighteen once!” He beamed at me.“So they tell me,&r
PerrinPERRIN: Did they make it ok?ETHAN: Yes. They were there before I got there this morning.PERRIN: Excellent. I’m glad she was pleased.ETHAN: You did a great job. Inviting them was an excellent ideaETHAN: Are you sure you just did that as a ‘friend?’PERRIN: Yes. We’re just friends. I’m in no headspace to think about any of that right now.ETHAN: Why not?PERRIN: Are you too wrapped up in your own mate to remember I broke up with my girlfriend of over two years like a week ago? For good?I stared at my phone after I sent the text. It was harsh. But I was being honest. And Ethan wouldn’t want anything else.ETHAN: You’ve been avoiding me. I knew it.
Perrin“Alpha Nael?” My father said in genuine startlement. “I didn’t realize you’d be joining us this evening.” His voice was hard as steel. Mark took a reflexive step towards my father.Alpha Nael’s smile was a textbook vision of political sleaziness. “Salindra, as you may know, is a dear friend of mine. How dare you hide it from me that you brought her here!” His voice was thick with sarcastic censure. The mood in the room changed immediately from respectful excitement and anticipation to uneasy tension in the flash of a moment.His eyes swept the room as he led Salindra to her chair, making a show of taking her arm from his elbow. “Perrin, Ethan, Justin, good evening.” His voice was sinistar and dangerous. “Ah, and the healer who took such good care of my s
PerrinOnce I was seated, I noticed that Dina had brought up the first course. I sent a mind link to my father.What is Alpha Nael doing here?We don’t know. Are you ok?I’m fine. Just overdoing it.You have five days to get it together. I watched as he looked at Alpha Nael while he spoke to me. Rest is part of that.But what is he doing here? I repeated, eager to change the topic.Salindra’s out of her mind,
EPILOGUEMarge shuffled through the archive, her shoes making the only sound in the quiet stone building, echoing all the same through the high vaulted ceiling of the church building above. She raised a gnarled hand to the shelf and deposited the book after two tries, her hands shaking slightly with the cold. There were only a few books to return tonight. Far fewer than there had been when Leila had been here.So why had she waited until this late in the evening to do it? She just shrugged and pushed on, the slow creaking of the cart’s wheels punctuating the silence, her old watch on her pale wrist noting the time; 1:45 a.m.She really had no business being there so late. But she had gotten caught up in one of her research projects, spread out across her circulation desk and totally lost in thought until the rumble of her empty sto
Perrin“How long is it going to take?”I sat on Lo’s bed as she shoved clothes into her suitcase. “Maybe a week? I’m not sure.”“Why don’t you just leave all of that stuff here?” I pointed at the suitcase. “It’s not like you’re not going to bring it back.”She heaved a heavy sigh, full of fake exasperation. “I still have to pack it to move it down the hall. It’s just easier if I do it all at once.”“Nah. Let’s just throw it all in some garbage bags and unpack later.”She laughed. “Hand me those shoes?”I strode over and picked a pair
Perrin “Because I never want to create a monster like my father.” Silence hung in the room. I digested each word, the implications of it. “But you’re not…” I said, more for myself than for her. “No, I’m not. He never got his hands on me. My little brother made sure of that.” And even though she spoke in a viscous, quipping way; there was a hint of something grateful in her tone. “So he won’t be anything like him!” I said, assuring myself more than anything. “Does it matter?” She snapped, regaining her typical composure. “If my father’s insane lust for power is hereditary, then it’s best that the blood line ends with me. At least my brother won’t be breeding any offspring considering he’s gay–” sh
Perrin I glanced at my phone, then at Lo. We had made love for several hours, refusing to stop until we had our fill of each other. But each time hadn’t felt like enough, leaving us drained and happy but wanting more. After one particularly hot session in the middle of my bed involving whipped cream, I pulled her close to me, blissfully peaceful with her cradled in my arms. I felt her stomach growl against my hands. And apparently hungry. I swept my mouth to her ear and felt her shiver against me, goosebumps appearing up and down her body. I fought the impulse to warm her with every inch of mine. “Do you want me to get you a snack?” I said, and waved the small can of whipped cream in front of her face so she could see. She hummed lazily in my
PerrinAnd it had happened like that.I recalled the broad strokes for my friends.“You what?” Ethan said, shocked and nearly angry. “You can’t make that kind of promise!”Justin shook his head sagely. “That’s free reign, Perrin. And a dangerous move, backing out of every challenge. It puts you at a huge disadvantage if anyone trespasses on your territory.”“Or attacks on your land,” Ethan said.“Or poses a border dispute,” said Kira.“How will you expand?” Ethan asked, c
PerrinI tried to cover the nail marks she had left on my shoulder with a spare set of scrubs from Deidre’s office. It was no use. The scrubs were too small, tugging comically at my shoulders and Lo’s pink cheeks and ruffled hair couldn’t be fixed.We had retreated long enough to ourselves, and I pulled us back into the world of the living and down the hall, walking hand in hand as we rejoined our friends.Ethan smirked when he saw us. “Nice.”Kira rolled her eyes, glancing at her imaginary watch. “Couldn’t you two wait?”“At least get a shirt,” Ethan added, eyeing my bare chest. I had ditched the scrubs, unable to get them over my chest.
PerrinWe didn’t talk as much, even though that had been the plan.I had taken one of the chairs opposite Deidre’s desk, hoping to keep my brain thinking platonically for as long as possible. But part of me was still in shock. I could smell the smell of her coconut shampoo. See the glimmer of her earrings in the desk lap. And I had felt the tips of her fingernails as I held her hand; the short ones that she chewed on when she was reading and lost in thought.But I knew it was definitely her the moment I felt my head slightly dizzy with the draft of warm honeysuckle, intoxicatingly perfect.I wasn’t shy, needing to have her by my side. I pulled her easily into my lap, and she didn’t protest, as if still quite unsure that all of this was really happening either. She swun
PerrinAs soon as Mark dismissed the crowd, the crowd had begun to descend from the stands in droves. It hadn’t taken long for Lo to find me, fighting the current and pushing her way against the flow of teaming bodies and up to the platform.I sensed her, long before she ran up the platform stairs, Justin hot on her heels. I dove past my father, darted behind Mark and ran to meet her, not caring for any protocol or public indecency. I needed her.Her scent hit me first. It made my blood sing and my heart beat so fast I thought it would stop.And then there she was. The sight of my home and my heart, running and slipping across the wet platform towards me.My weight almost buckled beneath me, the unexpected reality of seeing her here st
Justin The arena was packed. I could hear an excited roar from the crowd from behind the Lodge, drifting over the top of the massive building and floating through the chill evening air. Lo parked illegally in front of the entrance to the building. Now was not the time to point it out. A series of battered and limp-hanging banners and signs showed the way around to the back. It had rained today, apparently, and we made progress towards the arena as quickly as we could, sludging through mud and the trampled pathway. A stadium had been erected, filled to the brim with stands of onlookers, cheering and applauding in a range of darkened colors, soaked from the rain. Despite the bad weather, it hadn’t dampened their spirits. The crowd had been here all night, awaiting the results. Colored tents for each challenging pack were spaced ou