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“Ok, baby doll. I know this is hard, but we’re gonna try, ok?” I say to the sweet pup in my arms. She’s obviously small, even for newborn standards. All they had to feed her was the formula that the humans supplement or replace their milk with. Though it seems to work for humans, it doesn’t work for wolves. For whatever reason, our pups at birth merely look human. Their responses to pretty much all stimuli is more wolf than anything, and that includes their diet. They can only handle wolf’s milk. Anything else just fucks with their digestive system. It explains the vomiting and complete diaper blowout that I just cleaned both of us up from. That was the most foul smelling thing I’ve ever smelled come out of a pup. I had to call Citra, who lived the closest to Homestead. Carmen and Corinda don’t have anything that would be in either of our sizes, me being super petite and Summer being so young. Luckily, Citra had just finished feeding Caleb and was able to come right ove
Over the mindlink between the alphas, I hear Zak scream: Charlie’s been taken! That was the beginning of these past two weeks of hell. My best friend has been taken by these leathery hags. We’ve been searching for her and the pup everywhere. It’s fairly obvious that the Riding Hoods took her. Bella, Citra, Hawk, and Marcus were able to find the trail that they used to get into our part of the pack. It’s circuitous, through streams and over bare ground, making their scent easier to disperse. The only reason that we knew the route that they took was because the witch used a huge amount of magick to cover their tracks. Apparently, magick leaves an imprint in the environment or some shit like that. Whatever it was, they could track them to a main road where the trail stopped. That means that they got into some kind of car. Why do I keep saying “they?” A rogue was with the Riding Hood. The rouge had to have been the one that carried Charlie, while the Riding Hood had carried
Morgana sent Joseph, Clayton, and Rhett on a mission with Lucianne to convince some more Crone covens to join the Riding Hoods. I was wondering how they were getting so many witches into the country after the original twenty that Celeste got into the U.S. Apparently, they had convinced/taken over several of the Crone covens in the area. It didn’t surprise me at all to find out that some of the Crone covens shared many ideals with the Riding Hoods. America is nothing if not famous for its xenophobia. It’s more that about 10 Riding Hoods could take over several covens on their own. How do they have that much power? So they were off to another coven, trying to bring enough witches to our side. As powerful as the Riding Hoods are, they can’t take on all of the wolves in all of America along with two huge covens. Shit, by now, they might have called in some of the other Mother and Maiden covens that they have alliances with. That’s even more magick to contend with and the Ridin
“Celeste told her that they’re in the warehouse district of New Orleans,” I tell the combined Alpha and Witch Council via a conference call. “And why should we believe her?” Kare asks? “It’s true. She’s a traitor. She could just be leading us on a wild goose chase so that we don’t find Charlie and Summer,” Sandra says. “I don’t think so,” Bella says, slowly. “She was really adamant that we save her coven, even if it meant her demise. I think she’s probably telling the truth so that we’ll save her coven when we get Charlie.” That makes sense, actually. “Great! Then let’s get going!” Zak has been busting at the seams to get out of here and go get our mate. Truthfully, I agree with him, but I know that we’ve got to come up with a plan. Our friends will probably want time to prepare and consult Selene as well. They are going to want to figure out how to get everyone there and even more people back, and it’s all just going to take more time away from us getting our mate ba
It’s been 24 hours since I’d learned of Lucianne’s and the rogues’ fate at the hands of the Crone coven. An entire glorious day since I’ve had anyone question my command. Having that Crone coven launch a surprise attack on their little band was the best idea I’ve had in a long time. Now I’m free of Lucianne and Celeste all in one fell swoop.Of course, I had to wait until I found out if Celeste was pregnant. There was the off chance that Celeste could get pregnant with her mate, since only mates could get pregnant. That little piece of deception was one of my favorites. Of course there weren’t any spells to make a barren woman pregnant. That bitch sold her soul and her coven for a lie. I’m proud of myself for that one.Now, the only thing that I have to worry about is taking care of the Crone coven. Can’t have people thinking that they can kill our people without punishment. I’ll wait until they arrive in a few days before taking our retribution.So far, everything was actua
As soon as I get out of Morgana’s office, I slump to the floor, trying to catch my breath. She’s going to use me until I’m wrung dry and only then will she give me what I want. Will I even be able to carry Winnie’s baby by the time they’re done with me? No. This isn’t what I agreed to and I won’t go through with it. If I’ve learned anything about Morgana, it’s that she’s smart, but impulsive and vengeful. She’s going to take away some of my power, at least some of my power within the coven. So, she’s likely going to my magick and my power over Charlie. She’s going to reduce me to a common witch. Less than that, because I won’t have access to my powers. What do I do? Do I go back and help Charlie? If I can get the two of us out, along with Iris and the pup, I might be able to convince them to help me with carrying Winnie’s child. I would need to come up with a cover story. Something that would make them want to help me. Surely Liv and Leo would want to get revenge on t
Zak? Brandon? I don’t have much time, per usual, but…well, weird shit is happening. Charlie’s voice in the mindlink is urgent and full of suspicion. Brandon and I are instantly alert, sitting up in bed. Neither of us had been sleeping especially well since Charlie had been taken. Many of the mothers of our friends have been taking our twins in the hopes that we would sleep during the day, but that hadn’t been happening. Brandon and I were too keyed up and typically spent the time either training or pouring over maps, trying to find our mate. Since Celeste gave her information to Charlie about a day and a half ago, we hadn’t slept. We had literally pushed ourselves to the point of exhaustion and fallen asleep at the Alpha Council table. I really don’t know how we made it back to our cabin and our bed, but based on the time the alarm clock is showing, we’ve been asleep for about six hours. That means that we had missed another mindlink from Charlie somewhere in there, somethi
“Ok, based on Charlie’s feeding schedule, they’ll be going into her room around 11:00. I say that Charlie and Iris escape then,” Kare says. “Yeah, but you’re talking about not going in until 12:30, making sure that the Riding Hoods are completely busy with the Crone coven. What are they going to do until then? Hide in the house?” Zak says. “Zak, your mate is fully capable of getting out. I know that she isn’t at full strength, but I also know that she has a lot of other skills. She can hide herself, Iris, and the pup and get them out and into the street. She’ll mindlink you the whole way and you can tell her how to get to us. If not, she’ll find another place to hide. Even if they do find her, they won’t kill her. They need her right now. We’ve gotta use that against them,” Sandra says. “I’d feel a lot better about everything that you just said if any one of us could get in touch with Selene. I’m assuming that you guys couldn’t get Hecate to speak to you either,” Brand
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