Celeste is definitely up to something. I don’t trust this bitch of a witch any further than I can throw her. I’m not sure what to do about it, though, until I get some kind of evidence. At least the wolves don’t trust her, either. They seem to like me, though I don’t know if they trust me. But you’ve gotta start somewhere. We eat in near silence, though it’s obvious that the wolves are mindlinking the whole time. “So, Citra, how are you?” Celeste asks. “Fine, High Priestess.” Citra responds in a monotone, her eyes downcast to her food. Her mate, Michael, rubs his fingers over her hand and she visibly relaxes. I see Celeste’s eyes zero in on that little touch, her face turning stonier. Her voice comes out as cold and hard as steel. “Who is this wolf and why is he touching you?” At her sister’s tone, Citra’s eyes flash, what looks like actual lightning firing through her eyes. “He is my mate. And I would suggest that you watch your tone when you speak to him!” “Mate?
We finish breakfast before a young witch comes to collect us. He asks us to follow him to the conference room to meet the High Priestess and some of her minions - I mean the other coven leaders. Be nice, Charlie. Zak links me. Why? This bitch not only insulted us as werewolves, but she also insulted one of our friends. That and I just don’t like her. I link back. Not the biggest fan of her either, but we’ve gotta make nice for now. We’ve gotta get help about this Riding Hood situation. Fine. But she better keep her tongue civil. Karamea and Sandra have already come up with five different ways to shove her broomstick in a variety of orifices. Preferably with the broomstick on fire. Zak laughs aloud, breaking the silence as we follow the witch to the conference room and garnering several confused looks. As we walk up to the door, it opens without anyone touching it. Fairly impressive from our standpoint, but Bella looks almost bored. “Parlor tricks,” she whispers to
Oh, shit! Oh, fuck! What the hell did I just do? No! No, no, no, no, no, no. I DID NOT just throw myself at a mated wolf. I couldn’t have done that, right? And there’s no way that he was as turned on as I was, right? RIGHT!?!?! As soon as Sev and Meredith leave, I hurry to open the window and air out the room. Fanning the scent out, I hurriedly spray Lysol as well. I won’t be able to get rid of my arousal scent completely until I shower and change clothes, but this will cover it up enough until I can go sort myself out. Fucking hell! I can’t believe that I just did that. Did I really just get turned on by just Sev’s touch on my back? Of course I did. I’ve been in love with him and Case since we all escaped Black Night. Seeing them outside the other day just added fire to the lust I’ve been feeling for years. Shit! I quickly check to make sure that Brandon is ok, shut the window, and run to my room. Closing and locking the door, I nearly collapse against the do
Case asks me to meet Meredith out in the woods. He says that he and Sev will meet me at the edge of the property to show me where to go. Bring coffee. And a shovel? Is this the part where she gets rid of me? I ask through the link, only half joking. This sounds like the preamble to an ax murder scene. The Goddess has a message for us. She already talked with Sev and me. She’s gonna talk to you now. Then, we need to talk. Sev links. That sounds kinda heavy. I link back, grabbing two paper to=go containers and filling them with coffee. Not gonna lie, Fireball, it is. Case is trying to soften the blow with my Dad’s old nickname for me. Well, shit. This is gonna be bad. Ooookay. I’m walking out. See you guys in a minute? I grab a light jacket, stuffing my pockets with little creamers and sugar packets. Slade, Kesha, and Chloe drink a ton of coffee on the go it seems. Yeah. Sev’s voice is sad, nearly despondent. They both cut out the link after that. None of
I walk into the mud room to check my jacket pockets for a receipt from work when I see Chloe straightening up from putting some clothes in the washing machine. “Hey, bug. How ya doing?” I ask, calling her by the nickname I gave her when she was three and I found her lying under a tree in the backyard of the packhouse covered in ladybugs. She sniffs before answering, “Morning.” Immediately, I’m at her side. “Chloe, what’s wrong? What happened? Who am I killing?” She turns and wraps her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. “Slade, I’m so stupid.” She cries silently, her body shaking. Oh, shit. I immediately wrap my arms around her and let her fall apart while I keep her together. Years of therapy individually and together have shown me that I need to just be here for her right now until she’s ready to talk. So, I pick her up and take her outside so that there aren’t any eavesdroppers. As I walk out, I see Case and Sev by the bonfire pit. They’re standing,
Once we’re outside of the ugly ass building where we met Celeste and her toadies, we make a quick plan with Bella. We’ll all make our way back to the motel, pack, and head to Bella’s covendom. There, we’ll nail down our alliance and look for another coven of the Mother that will enter into an alliance with us. Michael and Citra can also plan their handfasting ceremony that way. Bella assures us that she has plenty of room for all of us. We make sure to say that we wouldn’t be here long. As soon as Brandon is healed in two days time, we’re leaving. We luckily have enough vehicles for all of us to pack up our things and ride in. After an hour, we are all out of our cars and receiving a blessing from Bella to enter her covendom. We are met by her sister, Iris, who brings a bag with her. In front of each of us, Bella dips a finger into the bag and uses the powder within to draw a trinity knot on our forehead. As she draws the knot, she whispers something so low that even my en
Bella takes us to a beautiful ranch style house for lunch, informing us that this is where the majority of people in the coven eat on a daily basis. Sure, all the houses and cabins are equipped with fully functioning kitchens, but Bella treats her coven as more of a family than a group of people that she’s in charge of. Unless on dates or sick, the witches of Bella’s coven preferred to be together for each meal. It was similar to the way that we run our mealtimes in the pack and it’s a nice reminder of home. Bella introduces us to her sisters. Bella is the oldest of the five and we had already met Iris at the border of their territory. Isla, Ivy, and Indigo round out the group. Apparently there was a theme going on with the girls’ names. Bella’s mother died in childbirth with her youngest sister, Indigo, nine years ago. Her biological father, who had been handfasted to her mother for about 10 years, had been the High Priest until Bella reached the age of majority at 18. He
Oh, good. Now I can get every uncomfortable conversation done at once. Then I might go take a nap. I deserve it. Treat yo’self! I quickly but thoroughly explain the deal with Casen, Severen, and Rin and their second chance mates. I mean, I’ve given the spiel twice. I know how to efficiently get the information out there. I’ve just finished talking and am looking around to see what everyone is feeling. Starting on my left sit Chloe, Rin, Slade, Kesha, Severn, and Case ending up on my right. The looks of unadulterated shock on Chloe, Kesha, and Slade’s faces are only matched by the complete misery from Severn and Casen. The only one who seems at ease is Rin. Even I'm more anxious about this than she is. Chloe looks at me, but I can see her sneaking glances at Severn and Casen. “Why would the Goddess do this?” “This has nothing to do with Selene’s will, other than you knowing it early and her wanting you to be happy. This has to do with Rin, Casen, and Severn’s relatio
The tunnels twisted and turned in an endless labyrinth beneath the Hoia Baciu Forest. The scent of damp earth mixed with the faint metallic tang of blood and decay. The flickering torchlight cast eerie shadows along the stone walls as I strode through the corridor, my Thane, Sybil, walking briskly beside me.“How is she doing?” I asked without breaking my stride.“She is much more stubborn, much more resilient than we anticipated,” Sybil admitted. “But we believe we may have turned the corner, High Priestess.”“Oh?” I arched a brow, intrigued. Morgana’s torture had been… sluggish. Less satisfying than I had hoped.Torture, after all, is not simply about the body—it is about breaking the mind. True suffering comes when a victim loses their very sense of self, when they beg for death, only to have it denied over and over. And yet, Morgana had proven difficult to crack.Nine months. Nine months of relentless torment. We had shattered her bones and healed them daily, forced her to endure t
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 raised their older children. Now that they had a new set of pups, 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 were remaining in Texas and that they wouldn’t be able to see them as much, but we’ve already got a couple of trips scheduled back and forth so that all the cousins could get together and we could see our best friends.Our side trip t
The past few months have been some of the most emotionally difficult of my life. Not only am I nearing the end of my pregnancy with our little boy, 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 will be gone by tomorrow.The last three months have been consumed with finalizing pack laws, succession rules, and building the new packhouses for each territory. We've been moving everything from our old homes, figuring out pack logistics, and ensuring every wolf is accounted for. It’s been exhausting, but necessary.We also had to choose our new betas, gammas, and deltas. In a twist of fate, Donavon asked to be our beta so that Kesha could stay close to Slade and Chloe. Rin made the same request to serve under Case, Chloe, and Sev, so their families could stay together. That means Mike and Seth will also be moving up north. But the tech squad doesn’t need to be in the same room to work together, so at least that transition will
"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 Hoods on American soil,” Hawk says.We’re in one of our combined council meetings, with 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. There’s also 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 groups like the Riding Hoods. We’re hoping to expand this into a global alliance—a kind of supernatural U.N.For now, the fae are willing to let the U.S. be the test subject. Convincing the other shifter groups, however, has been difficult. Many remain elusive or outright resistant to the idea. Zak’s presence would have helped—his Goddess gifts have a way of swaying even the most stubborn mi
After the ceremony, Gregory and I help Jamal back to our cabin. Every time I see him in that damn wheelchair, I get livid all over again. Those witches. I can’t believe Locasta and Morgana got the drop on him.He freely admits he was distracted—he had taken a call from Seth and Mike about incoming witches. It turned out to be nothing, just the Crone coven sweeping through like they promised. Apparently, no one had thought to inform our tech team of that part of the plan. And no one but Jamal had their phone turned on.Morgana had woken up just before the call. While Jamal was preoccupied, she directed Locasta to retrieve a knife from her boot—silver and coated in wolfsbane. They cut themselves free, then stabbed Jamal in the back of the neck, severing part of his spinal cord. He collapsed immediately. The wolfsbane knocked him out, and the silver cauterized the damage. For a time, he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t even breathe on his own.Arya and Dev managed to purge the wolfsb
Zak and I have been in a fog since Charlie’s death yesterday. The one and only thing that has brought us any solace is 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, their chins more pointed, their cheeks hollowing slightly to reveal high, sculpted cheekbones. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but others in the pack have noticed it, too.Our families are around us. Friends come in and out of our cabin. All of our mothers—Lauren, Danielle, and Clara—busy themselves with the pups, cooking, keeping things moving as if that will help. The house bustles with people, but I barely register them.The only things that ground me are Zak’s hand in mine, the weight of Christy’s sloppy kisses on my cheek, the warmth of Jerry’s small body as he curls into my chest.I know I eat. I shower. I dress. I might even respond to people. But it’s all
So many emotions. Thank the Goddess on High that I’ve been training on how to empty myself of other people’s feelings. If not, I’d be drowning in them, rocking in a corner with my thumb in my mouth. Despair. Pain. Rage. Dread. Determination. They flood over me like a tidal wave, crashing against my mental defenses. But using the techniques Meredith taught me, I let them wash over me and drain away, like waves receding from the shore.I have to keep my head on straight. My job is twofold. First, I need to help my friends process their grief without letting it consume them. Zak and Brandon’s pain is like a living thing, a force that threatens to unravel everything if I don’t keep it contained. I push their suffering to the back of their minds, tempering their anger to something useful. They don’t want this—but they need it.Then there’s Dev. His grief is just as raw, just as deep, but there’s a difference. Beneath his devastation, there’s acceptance. A flicker of hope. He knows that he’l
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 surprises her, giving Jamal the time to step into the room after his mate. His power fills the space, nullifying all the goddess gifts of those within a 100-foot radius (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 immensely satisfying. Unfortunately, o
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 read every version I could find 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 of me back. Like I’m starting to wa