My mind spins as William leads me back to my cell. The Alpha has to be wrong. I can’t have fae blood. My parents were werewolves. I’m a werewolf. I’ve shifted. I have a wolf. There’s nothing special or unique about me. I’m just another grey wolf in a pack of thousands—or was.But why don’t I remember my parents? Remember anything from before the boarding house I grew up in? When he compelled me, I said I inherited the Whitehouse lands.I didn’t inherit them, I found them with Victor. We settled there. That’s why they’re the Whitehouse lands. I mean people could have called it the Rice farm or the Rice lands, but that sounds silly. We didn’t grow rice. I always just assumed people chose to attach my last name to the lot because it was less confusing, and I didn’t take Victor’s last name anyway. It was all I had left of my parents.They didn’t have anything to inherit, especially a huge plot of land near the Darkwood. They were lowly omegas. It wasn’t always called the Whitehouse farm.
I awake to the sound of my cell opening. I must have drifted off the sleep for a while—not long I think. The tiny electric sun above me still buzzes. Two warriors sway through my door, skunk drunk from the smell of them. One stumbles as he swings around examining my space catching himself on the wall. Laughter ensues.His eyes settle on me as I move to sit up. “Ah, there she is,” he slurs. “Prettier than I thought,” the other one comments, “for the unfuckable wolf in cell six.” The stumbler laughs again. “But she’s a killer, Harry,” he says in a bad English accent. Both laugh at that.I watch as Charlotte drops from her corner web, startled by the slamming of the cell door. I regret it when one of them seems to notice my attention isn’t on him. He follows my line of sight and jumps back when he sees her just over his left shoulder.“Christ!” he exclaims. His friend laughs at him and mocks itsy bitsy spider hands as he sing-songs, “Oh, the big bad spider’s gonna come down the spout and
“Amalea! Wake up!” I feel hands on my face. I open my eyes as a bit of intestine drops off the ceiling beside me. Mack’s leaning over me. His shirt draped over my naked body. More men are standing at the cell door, a shared look of abject horror on their faces, one of them turns and leaves. “What have you done now?” He runs his arm under my back, helping me sit up. Another bit of guts drops down beside us. “I—I fought back I guess.” I run my hand down my face, finding it covered in blood. “You’re lucky the guard is a friend and scared shitless of you. He called me rather than William. If the Alpha finds out about this, he’ll execute you this time, Amalea. He might not care about whoever these two are,” he motions to the gore show around us, “but there’s no denying you killed those men at the farm now. He’ll see you as a threat.” “How could he possibly not find out?” My brows furrow in confusion. “We’re going to move you to another cell. Clean this up. Only the four of us know about
I squint as the light above me in my new cell clicks on, stirring me awake. I groan. I’m still exhausted. My sleep was restless, and I had trouble falling asleep. My mind almost immediately begins playing the events of the night before over again, the same thoughts that prevented me from getting any rest. My shifted form. I wasn’t a wolf. I was bigger, stronger. A bear? Was I a bear? A big fucking bear if so. Werewolves can’t shift into anything else. What am I? Is it the fae blood? I wasn’t even sure that was true, but how else could I become something else? I don’t know much about hybrids. No one does outside the council. They’re so often slaughtered before they reach maturity. Interspecies breeding is forbidden. The resulting offspring can be unpredictable, dangerous. I’m dangerous. What few that survived have wreaked unspeakable havoc if the stories are to be believed. But then, the Alpha here. He’s a hybrid. Why was he allowed to live? I scoff to myself. He has wrought unspeaka
I feel out of place in the massive ballroom. Its glittering chandeliers and grand floors gleaming pristine and polished, reflecting the faces of 50 or so she-wolves standing in a line through the middle, their heads and hearts down. I’m at the end of the line, but I’m in it. I wouldn’t have even made it in the new Gamma’s girl line-up if it wasn’t for Mack. I heard one of the guards who brought me up here tell his companion to leave the wolf in cell six—she was dangerous—but I wasn’t in cell six, and they didn't even check if I was. Mack moved me just to spare me the horror of sleeping in my own mess, and in the confusion of his death, and many others I’m sure, no one came to clean out my cell or move me back into it. Instead, they brought me here by mistake. Even in death, he’s still helping me, and I will avenge his loss. I look for Liza in the line ahead of me and spot her standing mid-row about ten heads down. One of the few not looking at the floor, she’s intently watching the
Between my limited time out of the dungeon, the trip to the ballroom, and the walk to Andrew’s quarters I feel like I have a rough idea of the floor plan of the pack house, or at least enough to make it out a door with Liza and any girls she can gather. I concentrate on drawing mental maps as Andrew stops to unlock his door. “Don’t expect a ride over the threshold,” he notes as he swings the door open for me, “You’re not my mate or my wife, but I expect you to respect her someday.” I don’t answer him but allow him to lead me inside when he places his hand on the small of my back and pushes gently. This is more than just a room. It’s a house within a house. The entryway leads into a living room with furniture that likely costs more than my whole property, and on the far side I see a hall that leads to what looks like a bathroom, bedroom, and likely an office—there are three doors. Andrew slips off his jacket and pulls a set of keys from his pants, throwing them in a tray by the door.
Tap, tap, tap. I hear the impatient drumming of fingers against wood as I groggily start to wake, pushing up off the hard marble floor. I’m not in the dungeon? Where am I? I have a splitting headache, and the hair on the back of my head feels moist. The skin itchy from recent regeneration. I open my eyes and try to look around. “Finally awake, little wolf,” a voice from a desk beside me breaks the silence. I scramble upright, realizing where I am. I’m on the floor of the Alpha’s office. He sits in a tall-backed office chair, leaning back with one leg resting on his knee, his cold eyes watching me. “You’ve made a habit of killing my Gammas it seems, and I’d only just found this one.” I steady myself, glaring back at him, but saying nothing, as he seems to mull his own comment over. “You tried to burn down my pack house, too.” He clicks his tongue. “What will I do with you now? With the girls who conspired with you?” I growl at the mention of them. “So fierce,” he says with a soft lau
I stretch as the morning light hits my face, feeling well-rested for the first time in what feels like ages, and jump, nearly falling off the bed, when I see the Alpha sitting near my feet, intently watching me. The corners of his mouth turn up slightly, nearly a smile.“Good morning,” he says, not moving. I shrink away from him, pulling the covers up to my chest as if their soft down filling will act as a shield from whatever he’s here for. He just continues to stare, and it’s too awkward to stay like this, so I stand up, grabbing a glass of juice he’s left on the side table beside a tray of fruit, eggs, and sausage. His eyes follow me.“Whose room is this?” I ask to break the silence. The faint smile on his face fades. “Your predecessor. You actually look quite like her asleep,” he says softly. There’s a longing in his tone. I want to get away from him, yet I also want to talk to him, know more about the girl whose ring I found, and maybe it’s just the good night’s sleep talking, bu
“You can stay in my room!” Anna chirps as we come to a stop in front of a neon pink door. She swings it open to reveal an equally pink room. “I decorated it myself! It was one of the first spells Laumae taught me. She says I have an artist’s heart,” she continues proudly.“My room is next door, and Thomas is across the hall. There’s an empty room next to his for you. I wouldn’t stay in here if I were you. It looks like a pink elephant puked up Pepto,” Eric adds laughing. Anna gives him a death glare. “It does not! You’re just jealous you couldn’t figure out how to change your room!”He goes quiet and kicks a stuffed animal at his feet. Anna continues to show me all her treasures and triumphs oblivious to the nerve she’s struck in her brother. He continues to sulk for a bit before Anna mentions the training grounds, and he perks back up, tales of his newfound prowess with the bow and arrow pouring out of him.I soak up every word they say. Every expression they make. The way the light
Showered and in dry, clean clothes I feel much more like myself, albeit a far weaker version of myself. How long will it take to regain my strength I wonder? If I regain it. You certainly don’t hear tales of great rogue alphas in our histories. Is that because there are none, or because rogues don’t write history books? Time will tell.I eye the bed in the corner of the room. It’s strange to feel tired. Sleep has always been more of an optional pleasure for me than a necessity, but right about now, I feel as if I could sleep for a century. That would be one way to pass the time.Making my way over to the bed, I collapse really more than lie down, relieved to be off my feet, but just as I settle in and close my eyes, the door opens. Becca leans against the door frame with her hip. She doesn’t say anything at first, just watches me with her head cocked to the side. I sit up.“What?” I ask, trying not to let my annoyance show. I am her guest after all.“Just debating joining you in bed
The cold collision of my skin against rock jars me back into consciousness as the council guards walk away from me, leaving me in the mud with nothing but the echoes of their laughter. I knew this could happen. I just never believed it would.I push up out of the muck, trying to get a sense of where they’ve dumped me. Even that’s a struggle. I’ve never felt so weak, even when I was transitioning. Death hurt less than this. It’s as if a piece of every cell in my body has been violently ripped from me. It’s so quiet, startlingly alone, after feeling so many connections for so long.It’s no wonder there are so few rogue alphas. The few that survive the pack bonds breaking likely end things themselves just to escape the isolation. That won’t be me. I’m stronger than this. I can come back from this.The terrain is rocky here, and there’s a chill on the breeze, but no sounds of civilization. I’m not near a town. Mountain peaks peek over the trees around me. The road the guards brought me he
“Wait! Slow down!” I call out breathlessly to my strange guide as I struggle through the brush after him. I don’t know how far we’ve gone, but it feels like miles. Whatever I was dosed with may have worn off, but my body still feels foreign, like it belongs to someone else. Someone weak and slow. It doesn’t help that I have no shoes, and I’m constantly struggling to keep the cloak my guide gave me tied around me, but it is better than being naked.I nearly topple backward when he doubles back and pops up beside me—he certainly isn’t slow. “Have you seen others like me come from the mountain? Werewolves I mean? Two boys and a girl?” I ask, trying to distract myself from the creeping realization that I’ve now followed a fae creature deep into their wood. I’ve followed the enemy.He answers without hesitation—with an elvish stream of gibberish. I can’t understand him. His tone seems friendly at least. The confused look on my face as I try to puzzle out what he means must be clear because
My visit to the capital has gone a little differently this round. No luxury cars and comfortable accommodations, that’s for sure. Just cold dark walls and distrust. Worse, they’ve given me a cellmate this time—fucking Darius. Two days now, and he hasn’t said a word. He just sits there brooding. He’s plotting, I’m sure. That bastard is always plotting. His plotting got us into this. At least the council seems to view this matter with slightly more urgency than Alicia’s dramatic performance. We’re set to stand before them today. I still don’t know how I’m going to get out of this. Fuck, I still don’t understand what happened. All I know is it’s Darius’ doing somehow, and he’s got to pay. Thankfully, I’m not doomed to spend another awkward afternoon stuck in my cell. An omega gives us our daily bread and Darius gets his blood bag before a council agent escorts us to the meeting chamber. No one is working this time. All eyes are on us, and the looks we are getting are more than disappro
I can’t sense her anymore, but she can’t be dead. I felt her through the blood bond, followed our love all the way to a huge oak tree in the Dark Wood, but I couldn’t find her, and as dawn broke, I felt her move away before I lost her completely. I don’t understand any of this. Having fae blood explains her ability to shift into other animals, but not why I can’t feel her now. I can smell she was here. There’s an itch in my mind—something I used to know. Something familiar about her abilities. What have I been forced to forget, and what does it have to do with Amalea? It would take a powerful witch to cast an enchantment like this. To erase something from reality? That’s not child’s play. It’s not something that would be done on a whim or could be done by just anyone. It would have a price. Clouds gather overhead, casting a gloom over the forest as it begins to rain. I don’t want to, but I need to leave. I won’t figure out anything just sitting under this tree. I’ve been here for ho
It’s soft. Where—where am I? I should be dead. I try to open my eyes, but they feel heavy. I feel heavy, sleepy, distant from myself, like—I can’t think straight. My thoughts run from me, confuse me. Why is it soft? I can feel it all around me, against my skin, cradling me. Naked—I’m naked. Why? They hung me.I should be dead. It smells like soil, like earth, like home. Am I dead? Am I home? I have to open my eyes. Open. It takes all my strength, but slowly the world fades into view. Moss. The moss is soft. I’m below a tree, an oak tree.The realization sends a shot of sobering adrenaline through me, and my mind emerges from the haze—it’s not just any oak tree. It’s our oak tree! I’m laying at the tunnel entrance, but how did I get here? Who brought me here? Why am I naked? Why can’t I move?I try to wiggle my fingers, but they won’t budge, and my eyes flutter closed from the effort. My tears fall anyway. Who cares how I got here? I’m alive, and I’m home. I just need to sleep whatever
I can’t even look at her. I know if I do, I won’t be able to go through with this. Even if this isn’t a real execution. Fuck, even if she really does hate me—wants that asshole instead—she shouldn’t have to go through this. I can feel every step she takes. Her anger, confusion, hurt, fear, and now calm. She’s letting go. I just hope that I can bring her back.“The bag,” I manage, trying to keep my voice steady as I glance up at her—and that’s when I know. I feel it. A surge of defiance. I should have known her calm was just the eye of the storm. A smile plays across her perfect lips as she jumps off the platform before Jackson can put the bag over her head.She seems to fall in slow motion as I watch my world end. The council member will know. He’ll know she isn’t dead. He’ll know I tried to defy the council’s orders. They’ll kill her anyway, and me too maybe, if they don’t expel the pack from the alliance or both.I hear her bones snap, breaking me from my trance, but not at the end
I’ve had a lot of time to think—too much maybe. I wish that I had more time for so many things, but thinking isn’t one of them. The more I think about how I got here, about all the things that have been done to me, the angrier I get. Angry that I won’t get to do all the things I wanted in my life. That I won’t ever get to see my children again, to know if they’re alright, to see the people they’ll grow to be, to say goodbye. I’m angry that my own people put me here. That the leaders we chose to protect us built a system that uses us as fuel to create power for a few, for them. That I can’t do anything to change it, make it a better place for my children, for Liza, for everyone I love. That I’m letting them all down.“You didn’t eat your breakfast,” James muses beside me. I don’t need the mate bond to know he’s worried about me and that makes me even angrier. I hate him for putting his mark on me, for forcing fate on me, for being here right now instead of Darius.“I’m ready,” I repea