Ethan
The door closed behind Jesamine, and for the first time in several minutes I felt the air leave my lungs.
Justin still hadn’t looked at me. And as I looked to Perrin for some type of reassurance--some type of clue that this was all a bad dream, I noticed that his chair was empty.
“What the fuck was that?” I said to my mate, but also to the entire room.
Another silence had fallen with the exception of the water, still dripping to the floor from all of the overturned goblets.
The Alpha’s voice toned calmly from the far end of the table. “Dina, you will find Cynthia downstairs in my wife’s office. Kindly go down and speak to her? I trust that I don’t need to tell you to keep this to yourself.” Jason gestured vaguely to the room.
Perrin I was only one floor down from the top floor of the pack house. When I had seen enough--heard enough of her fucking deceit. Her damned betrayal. I had simply left. Out the door to the patio, using my rage of the moment to get the mere tip of a claw out to climb the side of the building towards my open window. It wasn’t my best escape plan. But there wasn’t enough room for everyone in that tiny room anymore. It was stifling. Besides; I had heard the worst. Nothing more could have changed what she was. Who she had been and what she had done. To my surprise, I was calm. Too
Perrin“I think you found your true mate.”I heard the words. I saw her lips form them. I even repeated them in my mind. But as I towered over her, the words… rearranged, jumbled, or even in the order Mistra had spoken them; they didn’t make any sense.“That’s impossible.”“No it isn’t.”“Yes it is!” I said, a deranged laugh escaping. I took a long look at her, but when her face didn’t change… “Wait, you’re serious?”“Of course I’m serious.”I let out a nervous laugh this time. “Mistra, that’s impossible. I’d know.&rdqu
EthanPerrin hadn’t spoken for several long moments. I had told him everything about what happened after he left the dining room. About Jesamine’s departure, Justin’s confession; all of it.He had stood motionless, staring out the window. At the very least, I would have thought he felt joy. But he hadn’t moved. Hadn’t said a word. Could wolves go into shock?“Perrin? Helloooo?”His head snapped up as if he hadn’t been paying attention. “Did you even hear a word that I said?”His brow furrowed. “I did.”“And you’re not ecstatic that you get your life back because…”
Lo“For a few minutes?” His voice was calm, but tentative. Not full of its usual confident swagger.“As long as you tell me what’s going on,” I said, pleading. I could tell he was physically close. Maybe even behind the shelf of books that stood in front of me. But his feet had stopped moving. “Perrin?” I asked into the dark.“Please, just stay where you are.”“Are you hurt?”“No, just. Trust me, ok?”I heard him, rather than saw him, sink down onto the floor and lean against the shelf, his back to books, a smudge of dust poking through on my side. In that moment, I saw the outline of his shoulders through the small peaks and
Perrin Her lips were warm and soft, her movements delicate and tentative at first, as if shy that she should press her tongue against mine with too much force, too much need. But that was impossible. She could never be too shy, or too bold. And my need was equal to her own. She was perfect, and I murmured so against her lips as I summoned her to me, pulling her gently into my body. She broke away briefly, concern in her eyes. I had sensed it correctly; she was worried. “Don’t be,” I murmured to her, my hands deep in her satin hair, eager to feel every strand of the silvery threads that adorn her beautiful face. She touched her lips as if to admonish how forceful they had been against mine, and I pulled them away, eyes falling to her beautiful mouth. “I want you to kiss me. Just like
PerrinHer words were the manifestation of arousal.“And don’t be gentle.”There was nothing gentle about the way I gripped her ass in my hands, rising beneath her to my feet and backing her into the book case I had been facing. Her legs wrapped instinctively around my waist, our mouths flushed together in a renewed, passionate tangle of tongues. I wanted nothing more than to taste her. Every part of her.She tore at my shirt, her hands drinking in my warmth as the fabric fell to the floor. After she felt the purr of my growl against her lips she removed her own as I held her up against the books, the remains of her own shirt joining mine at my feet. What she revealed beneath was perfection.My eyes filled with her breasts, their
Perrin The hours of the night I spent with Lo passed too quickly. While my mind told me that we’d have forever and then some to spend together, my body felt otherwise. Wrapped in each other’s arms until the quiet hours of the early morning were the most alive I had ever felt. We drifted at some point to sleep, awakened by the abrupt and pointed coughs of Marge as she opened the Archives, doubtlessly having a clear understanding of what the books had seen last night in her absence. We giggled like little kids, stuffing our limbs into clothing and running out the front doors like little kids, hand in hand and nearly tripping over each other. But bursting outside into the morning light didn’t give me the fresh air my lungs needed; only Lo could do that. Breathe into me the life I hadn’t been living until now.
Deidre“Well, that was unexpected.”Jason looked at me, his face flush and his eyes bright. I hadn’t seen him this proud in… in years, really.“May the Goddess continue to bless us,” he said, leaning back into his chair, the worn leather creaking under his warm weight. His hands spread wide and rested behind his head, elbows stuck out behind.Now that we were alone, I got up and rounded his desk, sitting on it and gazing out the window behind him, my back to the door.“She works in mysterious ways, doesn’t she?”“Indeed,” he said. We sat in silence, taking in the implications of the last twenty-four hours. It had been a whirlwind. Neith
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