Before leaving the council meeting last night, we spoke with the leaders of the five packs that would be joining us at the Southern outpost when we moved so that we could figure out who would go first and when. We decided that Chloe, Case, and I would go with the warriors and first wave of construction crew to help set things up for everyone, since we don’t have a pack that we’re in charge of. Technically, I guess that this makes us an alpha, luna, and lune of a nonexistent pack. Weirdest shit ever. We rang in the New Year with two bottles of champagne that Diego, Karamea, and Lily gave us to welcome us to the pack, a soak in the jacuzzi in the back, and some outdoor sex. It was pretty fucking hot. I wake this morning to find myself sandwiched between my two mates. Chloe’s naked back is pressed into my front and Case has his front pressed into my back. I guess this makes me the middle spoon? The pleasurable feeling of sparks all over my body has my cock hard enough to cut
I know that the first few times that Case, Sev, and I were together that they also had sex, but I didn’t get to watch. And it is so fucking hot to see Case fuck Sev. To hear their moans. To watch the pleasure that consumes both of their expressions. To see Sev’s cock bounce and move as Case pumps in and out of him. It just does something to me. I push my fingers in and out of myself as my eyes watch Case’s cock disappear into Sev’s ass. “Please, Chloe. Please! Suck me. Touch me! I need to feel you!” Sev is begging me, but I enjoy teasing him.“Shhh. I’m enjoying my show.” I look up at Case. “How does his ass feel? Is it tight? Is it squeezing that big ass alpha cock?”“Yes. Goddess, yes,” he hisses. Case smirks at me before his eyes roll back and his head falls back. “And your teasing is making him even tighter.”I can’t help but give out a low chuckle as I watch Case speed up and moan at the feeling of being inside our mate. And Sev is obviously enjoying it with a
The majority of the morning was spent in meetings with the leadership of Donavon’s pack and the rest of the packs. Seeing as I’m now the beta female, I’m expected to help out. And I have no problem with that. Except that we’re going through the mating period. The leadership has to figure out how to get everyone to the Meteoric Rise territory, who is going to which satellite post, and how exactly we’ll stagger everyone there over the next two weeks. Again, no problem with being there to help out. Except that we’re going through the mating period. The meeting lasts for the whole morning, going into great detail to make sure that everything is ready so that all we have to do is carry out the plan. Some of the betas, lunas, and lunes will be meeting this afternoon to go over how to get everyone there, along with Naomi as the luna of the Meteoric Rise pack and the only member of any leadership that actually knows the territory. Everything is planned down to the most minor detail
The scent of Kesha’s arousal has been driving me insane throughout the whole morning. I mean, how did they expect us to be able to focus on anything that concerned moving during the mating period? Hell, I know most of the alphas in this room had to deal with the war with Mathias during their mating periods, but that’s different. Our wolves are territorial and protective over what they deem as theirs. Their families. Their pack. And especially their mates and pups. War strategy will definitely get them to think about other things, even causing the effects of the matebond to die down temporarily. But as badass as these witches are and as much as they’ve hurt others that we care about, neither Kesha nor I have gone up against them. Our wolves don’t feel their threat to us or our people to the same degree and are, therefore, having a lot of trouble being kept at bay during this boring ass meeting. Now I understand the memes that I always see the humans spreading around about a
Alone in my office, all I can do is hear the three-faced Goddess’s words in my head over and over. “You will be mated to two of Selene’s children, a High Priestess and a Luna in one.” “You will give birth to a change in the world of witches and wolves alike.” “You will help to bring about the death of the Riding Hoods, eventually, though not without much pain.” “Trust yourself and your allies. Look for the traitor. Find the hybrid and nurture his talents.” I know that Marcus has a gift for understanding prophecy. He actually foretold my ascension to High Priestess when I was three years old. The rule is that it has to go to a daughter of the High Priestess or someone of her choosing if she didn’t have a daughter. It never says which daughter it has to be. But Arthur knew that I would be the great protector of my coven and that my gifts would be strongest in all forms of protection. Too bad that those gifts didn’t save my coven. Or my sister. Or Talon. I shake myself out
Pain. So much fucking pain. They beat me for two full days. No food. No water. I was stuck in a dark cave and the rogue wolves were allowed to do anything they wanted to me. I was mutilated, losing a finger and part of one of my ears. I was bitten, marks left all over my body. I was clawed, deep gouges raking down my back, stomach, and legs. I was raped, over and over by each of the rogue wolves. And then they chased me through the woods. The rogues could have easily caught me. I could barely stay on my feet. But they played with me. They were just chasing me to terrify me and get me away from the Riding Hood’s encampment. I was herded through the woods, their jaws snapping at me anytime that I moved away from where they wanted me to go. I have no idea how long I ran. It felt like hours. I just know that I finally made it to the edge of my covendom. There, the lead rogue shifted back. He walked up to me, all swagger and coiled violence. I flinched away from him. H
Celeste is beaten to hell. She’s almost unrecognizable. The only reason I did is because I could feel her power, though it is waning. Flickering with the ebb and flow of her life force. Celeste’s beautiful honey blonde hair is dirty, matted with filth, and hanging limp and stringy from her head. There are no marks on her face, but they cover every inch of skin from her chin down. Large bruises. Bite marks, both human and animal. Claw marks. Blood caked on her skin, especially between her thighs. Her brown eyes just stare, completely unseeing. Though they continue to spill unceasing tears. She’s obviously been raped and beaten viciously and repeatedly for several days. According to our doctors, she’s also severely dehydrated and they doubt that she’s been fed either. Her feet are bare, cut, and bruised, making it obvious she ran here. She also has a mauled and broken ankle, showing she was chased and nearly caught. She’s not talking. Not responding at all. The magical
I wake to Gregory’s head on my shoulder, his soft snores buzzing in my ears. I pull him more into me, snuggling into his neck. I breathe in his sweet scent of magnolia, losing myself in the happiness that I feel whenever I’m around him. “I love you,” I whisper to him, kissing him on the forehead. His arms tighten around me, seemingly a reflex in response to my movement. It cuddles his body into mine, causing the sparks to flare up even more before they start their slow fade to their usual tingle that they become when we touch for more than a few minutes. The feeling is made more potent by the fact that we’re both naked, so every inch of skin is touching. The feeling of pure pleasure that runs through my body causes me to roll my eyes as my head falls back. My entire body bows and my cock begins to thicken and lengthen. Oh, fuck. Every damn morning. Every damn night. Anytime that I feel him asleep beside me like this, my body reacts. I can’t help but want him. He’s like my
6 months later…Somewhere south of the Hoia Baciu Forest, Romania “How is she doing?” I ask as I follow the tunnel through the twisting and turning passageways. “She is much more stubborn, much more resilient than we would have thought. But, we believe that we may have turned the corner, High Priestess,” my Thane, Sybil, explains. “Oh?” This is an interesting turn of events. Morgana’s torture has been so slow, so…unsatisfying. She has been so hard to break. You see, torture has very little to do with the actual physical punishment. It is about psychologically breaking your victim, making them lose their very sense of self. And then making your victim wish they were dead, pray for death, and denying it over and over. Until they no longer breathe, no longer blink, no longer eat, without your say so. But Morgana has proven very stubborn. It’s been nine months. Nine months of us breaking her body and healing her on a daily basis. Of allowing rogues to use her however they w
The ride from Texas to our packhouse should normally take 21 hours, but we’ve made it a one week trip, sending our beta, Landry, ahead of us in our plane. He will help our people move in and settle while Brandon, our parents, and all of our pups take a little side trip for some downtime. Carl, Richard, and Lauren elected to move back to Artemis lands with us. It’s where they lived, where Carl and Richard grew up, and where they had raised their older children. Now that they had a new set of pups on their own, they wanted to come back. My mom and Charlie’s parents were also moving back with us. It was their way to see their grandpups grow, but also to honor the lives of my father and Charlie. Carl, Richard, and Lauren were a little upset that Dev, Arya, Jakey, and the twins are remaining in Texas and that they won’t be able to see them as much, but we’ve already got a couple trips scheduled back and forth so that all the cousins could get together and we could see our best friend
3 months later… This has probably been some of the most emotionally difficult months for me. Not only am I nearing the end of my pregnancy with our little male, but we are also leaving Texas. All of us. Except for the old Diana pack and Arya and Dev’s pack, the rest of us are leaving tomorrow. The past three months have been about coming to a consensus about pack laws and succession rules, building the packhouses for each of the seats, moving all the things from everyone’s old homes to wherever they are going, and figuring out who is where in terms of pack members and how we will keep track of them. We also had to figure out who would be our betas, gammas, and deltas. In a surprise twist of fate, Donavon asked if he could be our beta so that Kesha would be close to Slade and Chloe. Rin also asked to be beta for Case, Chloe and Sev, so they could all be together. This means that Mike and Seth will also be moving up north. But the cool thing about the tech squad is that they
1 month later… “Reports have been consistent from all of our sources. Other than one of the fae discovering what was left of Locasta’s body in the bayou, there hasn’t been a single sighting of any Riding Hood’s on American soil,” Hawk says. We’re in one of our combined council meetings, all the alphas from every pack in the U.S. as well as the heads and representatives of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone covens for Hecate. We also have a representative from the Seelie Fairy Court and an ambassador from the Unseelie Fairy Court. The sooner we can get all of us on the same side, the better we’ll be protected from all of those groups, like the Riding Hoods. We’re hoping that we can make it a global thing. Sort of like a U.N. of supernatural beings. Right now, we’ve got to prove to the fae that it can work. They are more than willing to make the U.S. the guinea pig for the experiment. We’re trying to get some of the other shifters to participate, but they are proving to be fair
After the ceremony, Gregory and I help Jamal back to our cabin. Every time that I see him in this fucking wheelchair, I get livid all over again. Those stupid bitches. I can’t believe that Locasta and Morgana got the drop on Jamal. He freely admits that he was distracted, having gotten a phone call from Seth and Mike about incoming witches. Turns out it was just the Crone coven sweeping up like they said they would. Apparently no one had gotten in touch with our techies about that part of the plan. Likewise, no one but Jamal had their phone turned on. Morgana had woken up shortly before Jamal had taken the call. While he was distracted, she directed Locasta to get a knife out of her boot. It was silver and coated in wolfsbane. Once they cut themselves free, they stabbed Jamal in the back of his neck, severing part of his spinal cord. He can’t walk. The wolfsbane had rendered him unconscious and the silver cauterized the two ends of his spinal column. For a while, he co
Zak and I have been in a fog since Charlie’s death yesterday. The one and only thing that has brought us any solace are our pups. It seems like, overnight, they began looking more and more like their mother. Though both of them have always had Charlie’s gray, raincloud eyes, their faces and bodies seem to have gotten leaner, both of their chins coming to more of a point, their cheeks seeming to hollow some showing high sculpted cheekbones. Granted, it could have all just been wishful thinking, but many of our pack and those that saw the pups commented on it. Our families are around us and friends keep coming in and out of our cabin. All of our mothers, Lauren, Danielle, and Clara, busy themselves with the pups and cooking. People bustle around us, but I don’t really remember. The only things that really make impressions on me are Zak’s hand in mine, a sloppy kiss on the cheek from Christy, or the heat from Jerry’s body as he lays on my chest. I know I ate. I showered. I dre
So many emotions. Thank the Goddess on High that I’ve been training how to empty myself of other people’s feelings. If not, I would be drowning in these feelings and rocking in the corner with my thumb in my mouth. Despair. Pain. Rage. Dread. Determination. All of them flood over me like a tidal wave. Using the imagery that Meredith taught me, I let the feelings wash over my body and flow back out, like a wave on the beach. I have to keep my head on straight throughout all of this. I’m obviously going to need to help my friends deal with their pain at the loss of their mate, putting their pain to the back of their minds, cooling their anger to rational levels, calming their desperation so that they can focus on the task at hand. And get out of here alive and back to their pups. Right now, I know it’s not what they want, but it’s what they need. I can feel Dev’s pain, too. It’s nearly as deep as the pain that Zak and Brandon feel. Understandably so. Charlie was like a
Zak and Brandon push through the door, Brandon almost immediately shoving Zak to the floor as a ball of lightning rushes through the air toward them. It slams into the door, just above their heads before Gregory vaults over them, a shield of the same crackling energy covering us as we begin to move through the doorway. Gregory’s ability to mimic Morgana’s powers surprise her, giving Jamal the time to walk into the room after his mate. His power fills the room, nullifying all the goddess gifts of those within 100 feet (we checked). That includes all the witches’ powers. The only ones that won’t be affected by Jamal’s power are Arya and me. Our gifts aren’t Goddess-given, but Goddess-like. He can’t take away what is part of the Goddess. The look on Morgana’s face as she drops like a fucking stone is almost enough to make me smile. Her scream echoes through the stairwell, the resounding thud as she lands and the breath whooshes out of her is quite satisfying. Unfortunately for
I don’t know what gave me the idea of the salt trail. Honestly, I haven’t been able to think of much since I’ve been here. The thought of us being so close to freedom seems unreal. I never thought that I would escape the Riding Hoods alive. It makes the frustration that Charlie is feeling about us going around in circles barely register to me. I’m still finding it hard to believe that we’re going to get out of here. But the salt sparks a memory of my favorite childhood fairytale. My mother hated it, the way that the witch was portrayed, but I loved the thought of children being able to outsmart an adult like that. I have read every version that I could find of the story and acted it out with my toys all the time. I even made Mom, Dad, and Bella call me Gretel for about a year. So, I really shouldn’t be surprised that my old favorite story came to me in a time of need. The whole scenario was made better by the fact that Charlie called me Gretel. I feel like I’m getting some