IZZY POV
They carried me to the bed. Ethan disappeared into the closet and came out with a handful of silk ties. I watched with interest, wondering what he planned to do with those.
He began by capturing my wrist and tying it to the headboard. He did the same with my other hand, bringing my arms wide open. My ankles got the same treatment, and I was soon spread eagle on the bed, tied with the softest of silk bonds.
“Here,” Caleb said, coming forward with a scarf. He gently tied it around my eyes, blocking off the light. I closed my eyes. This was going to be fun.
I knew that the boys were mind linking back and forth because no one said anything, but they began moving. I felt the bed dip as one climbed up next to me and began running something light down my body. I shivered. It felt soft, like a feather, and barely tickled me.
He dragged it across my chest and around my nipples,
REESE POV“I’ll go talk to her,” I told my brothers. “You guys stay out of this. That way she can be mad at one of us, not all of us.”We had just spoken to the Council. The Council was a group of elder werewolves who knew the lore and the traditions. They made the laws and stepped in when Packs overstepped or didn’t comply. If a Pack is peaceful, the Council rarely intervenes. But if an allegation was made, they would step in and rule.We had a virtual meeting with one of the Elders that had been a good friend to our father. He was aware of the living situation and how it had come about.“Traditionally, the Packhouse is the home of the Alpha, Beta and Gamma as well as where the pack gathers. When your father approached the Council about building a separate Packhouse that would also double as a sort of community center, we were agreeable because your pack had grown t
ETHAN POV “I got a lead,” I said, racing into the office I shared with my brothers. “Do you remember Gavin Burchard? The weird guy in science class?” My brothers nodded. “He turned into a really good warrior,” Reese said, noncommittally. “Yeah. That’s the guy. He went to visit his cousin over at the Firehole River Pack. They went out into town to a local bar, and he overheard a couple of shifters talking about a big order that they had to fill a couple of months back. It was for something they called the Black Draught. He got curious so he asked his cousin about it, and he said that it was a poison that is sold on the black market.” Reese sat upright. “Did he find out where the shifters stayed?” “Yeah. He asked around and turns out they live in town. I want to go talk to them.” I was excited about this lead. I was hoping we could figure out who had poison
IZZY POVI wearily opened the door to my floor and entered the sitting room with Stella. She and I had just gotten back from training. She tended to accompany me whenever I left the Alpha House these days. The triplets had been gone for over two weeks, following leads to find whoever was responsible for poisoning their father.Something crashed in my bedroom and Stella looked at me, alert. Warily I walked to the bedroom door and flung it open. Katie was coming out of my bathroom.“What are you doing here?” I asked, letting the anger fill my voice.“Did you not send in the order for supplies?” she asked me, her voice sounding as angry as I was. “I need shampoo. You didn’t order it, so I took yours.”I stood, speechless at her gall. She took my silence for compliance.“As Luna of the pack, it’s your responsibility to make sure we are pro
IZZY POV “I demand to see the Luna right now!” There was shouting outside of my office, and I hurried to the door to see what the commotion was all about. A very angry woman stood outside the door, shouting at Lucy. “Let me make sure she’s available,” Lucy was trying to soothe her. I opened the door wider. “I’m available,” I said, brightly. “Come on in.” I pointed to one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area of my office and took the one opposite the woman. “How can I help you?” The woman was angry. “You can start by apologizing.” I was confused. “For what?” “For standing me up twice!” She was working herself into a tirade. I was even more confused. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are,” I admitted. She stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Are you serious?” she shouted at me? “I’m Melba Able. My son is Tom Able.”
IZZY POVLucy and I looked at each other in disbelief. Finally, I spoke.“Is there a way you can make it look like the program is still working, but it’s not?” I asked. I wanted to regain control, but I didn’t want to lose the upper hand. Right now the person who was messing with my communications didn’t know that I knew I was being sabotaged.Ben pursed his lips and nodded. “I can build a program,” he said. “It will take a couple hours. And we’ll have to send some dummy calls through so that it still looks like they’re getting your calls.”“What do you need?” Lucy briskly asked. “And can you print out that list of numbers? We need to go through and figure out what’s all been tampered with.”“I can take this home and work on it there,” Ben said. “I have a better set up than what I&rs
IZZY POV“Izzy! They’re here!” Lucy poked her head into my office. Excitement danced in her eyes.I shut my computer and ran down the hall after her. She stopped at the entrance door, uncertain, and I pushed past her, running down the steps and into the arms of my mates.I forgot how good they smelled. I forgot how strong their arms were and how good it felt to be in them. I forgot how they made my knees weak and made my mind all muddled and how I would lose focus of everything around me except for them. I was in their arms, held, letting our mate bonds flood each other with emotion.“Well, look at that,” Caleb said with a grin, poking me and breaking the spell. I looked up. Lucy was looking at Brian with awe in her eyes. Brian was standing at the bottom of the stairs, just watching her. Lucy took one step down and Brian climbed the remaining eight steps
CALEB POV“How about we celebrate our return,” I suggested to Izzy. “We can go out to the village and have dinner at Emilios. I’m in the mood for some Italian tonight.”“Really?” She got a big grin on her face, and I melted inside. Reese took her hand.“Go put on something pretty,” he said. “But make it easy to take off. You won’t be in it for too long.” He gave her a wink and she blushed. She was so beautiful and, even after all that she’s been through, still innocent. My heart swelled just looking at her.“Should we invite Brian and Lucy?” Ethan suggested after Izzy left the room. “We should probably have a Beta lined up before we talk to Silvo. I’m not entirely sure he will accept. The training program he’s in is pretty elite and he might not want to give up his position.&rdq
IZZY POV We all climbed silently into Ethan’s SUV. He was behind the wheel, driving like he did life. Aggressively. “That was a hell of a punch,” Brian broke the silence from the third-row seat. “Yeah. Sorry about that,” I muttered. I was sitting next to Caleb in the second row. Reese turned around from the passenger seat and looked at me in surprise. “Nothing to be sorry about. That was incredible.” “Saved me from having to punch her myself,” Brian agreed. “I don’t like that she talks about you like that, baby,” he murmured to Lucy. For some reason that broke all the tension and we laughed. “Hey, would it be okay if we didn’t go to Emilio’s tonight?” I asked. “The mood is kind of gone for me. I’d rather get greasy burgers and go sit in the Packhouse watching the boys play some basketball.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” Ethan said, immediately changing direction.
EPILOGUE TALIA POV “Coming!” I answered my mom, looking in the mirror and tucking my hair behind my ear. Today was my eighteenth birthday and I was officially going to introduce my wolf to the Pack. I had technically been able to shift since I was a baby, but we had managed to keep that a secret from almost everyone, though it had been a close call a few times. My brothers were coming back from Mongolia with their mate, Zaria, and their friend, Leo, to help celebrate my birthday. They were on some sort of a mission for the Council, but they got permission to come home for this event. They were twelve years older than me and I liked to tease them about being old. They didn’t think I was as funny as I knew I was. They were cool, though, and all my friends loved my brothers. Their mate was also pretty awesome. She was the daughter of our Beta and one heck of a warrior. She went to the same camp my grandmama was accepted to. Only the best warriors are allowed to go. I ran
IZZY POV I rubbed my swollen belly and sat down behind my desk with a sigh. Baby girl was seriously a week overdue, and I was over being pregnant. I wanted to meet my Talia and that moment couldn’t come soon enough. A lot had happened in the three months since the Summer Solstice Celebration. Elder Voltaire had officially asked permission to join our pack and he put in his retirement notice to the Vampire Council. Apparently, serving as head Council Member for three hundred years was enough for him. We gave the Blood Moon Pack to Griz and Destiny. We talked a long time about it and had first asked Leo if he was interested in taking over for his father. He had vehemently turned down our offer, insisting that he never wanted to see the Blood Moon Pack again. When we had gone to visit, I could see why. The pack needed a lot of work and there was a general sense of discourse. Griz and Destiny agreed to take on the Pack with Griz being named the first non-wolf Alpha of a Pack.
IZZY POV“So what do you do, Elias?” Reese asked. I could see his nostrils flaring a little to see if he was a wolf. I didn’t sense a wolf in him, but I wasn’t going to ask. It was kind of like asking someone’s religion or income. If they offer the information, we could talk about it. But only if they offer it.“I’m a bounty hunter,” he said. Kat was clinging to his arm.“A supernatural bounty hunter,” she corrected. “He works for the Council, believe it or not.”Elias smiled. “Kind of. They hire me on occasion. I work for myself,” he corrected her gently.“Sorry,” she said, smiling. He leaned down and gently kissed her on the lips. I grinned. I was so happy for my friend.“Tell us about one of your captures,” Destiny asked. She was next to Griz,
IZZY POV“How are you doing?” I asked Destiny. We were busy hanging decorations around the backyard, and it was the first time I had a moment alone with her in a week. I knew she was feeling really guilty about Kat leaving.She shrugged. “I’m okay. I just feel awful every time I look at Griz. I never intended for her to leave. I just wanted her to be more careful.”I dropped the streamer I was holding and put my arm around her. “I know. And so does everyone else, including Kat. She just needed a change. She spent so much time and effort making sure every part of Cornelius was destroyed that she doesn’t know what to do now. She’s just trying to find her place.”Destiny sighed. “Tell Griz that. He is worried about her.”“She’s moving around pretty quickly,” I offered. “I think sh
IZZY POVThey say a Luna’s work is never done. They’re right.I got back and had my bath and some alone time with my mates, but the pack business didn’t slow down. I was involved in the planning of the half-way house we were building as well as another youth center. I approved budgets and began working on the nursery upstairs, a room we hadn’t used in eight years. And then I began to plan the summer solstice celebration, a tradition that we had upheld since we first started it thirteen years ago.“Black and white this year?” Destiny asked. “I hate black and white,” Lucy said. “It makes everything look so formal and this should be fun.”“Okay. Black and gold?” Destiny was relentless. Lucy threw a wadded up napkin at her.“You only want black because you love it,” Lucy accused her.Destiny shrugged.&
IZZY POVThe gavel dropped and the room exploded. I turned and Kat flew into my arms, hugging me. She wasn’t normally demonstrative, and I was pleased. I needed someone to hug right now, and Kat was perfect.She was also a great bodyguard. She pulled me through the reporters at the door and only got tripped up by one of the fae reporters who used projection to try to block us. Kat pushed him over and got me out of there and into a taxi without further incident.“Keystone Airport,” she told the taxi driver, naming a private airport. I was guessing that my mates had communicated with her.“I can’t wait to get back to the pack,” I said, leaning against the back seat. “I’m exhausted. I just want a bath and an uninterrupted night of sleep.”“I’m not going back with you,” Kat said suddenly. I sat up.“Why?
IZZY POVThe twenty-four members of the Councils filed out, leaving me standing at my table, still in the handcuffs. Thanks to Johan, the handcuffs were the normal ones that they used in the human world which meant I could break them if I needed to, but I wasn’t going to. I wanted the shifter world to see what was going on.After the council members left, Kat walked over to me bringing a couple of chairs. She plopped them down and I gratefully sat. “Did you have a vision earlier?” she asked.I nodded, rubbing my forehead. “Was it obvious?”“To me,” she answered. “I know you. I was about ready to create a diversion.”I chuckled. “You’re a good friend,” I said. A look crossed her face for a second but then disappeared. I had said something that bothered her. Curious.Her phone chirped and she looked at it.&n
REESE POVThere was an outburst from the spectators in the viewing area. The main werewolf and main vampire council members were banging their gavel, telling people to be quiet. We all exchanged grins.“We are not the ones on trial here, Luna,” the main vampire council member said fiercely.“No. You’re not. I am. And I am telling you why I had to do what I did,” Izzy said. She turned to the werewolf council again.“Who among you believed that the prophecy from Nehum thirteen years ago was about me?” She kept eye contact until all twelve members had their hands raised. “And who among you thought that the prophecy was also about my sons?” The same twelve hands were raised.“And the same on the vampire side?” she asked, turning. Reluctantly, some of their heads nodded. The others resolutely ignored her, keeping thei
REESE POV“This session will now come to order.” We were watching the trial on television. The Council, in their infinite wisdom, had decided at the last minute to broadcast the trial on a special encrypted channel that Packs would have access to. We had turned it on first thing this morning when we woke up, looking at an empty room somewhere in Salt Lake. We were watching when the members from both Councils filed in, twenty-four in total. Johan was part of the werewolf council. Alessia had gasped when she saw him take his seat.They had brought Izzy in with handcuffs on. I had roared, losing control of my wolf, but Alessia had wrestled me down. “It’s for show,” she had soothed me. “They’re not silver. Just look. She’s fine. She can break them in a second.” Vin was not convinced but at least he gave me control back.“Isadora Killian, Luna of the Moonstone Pack, you were called before the Council today to answer to an entire list of charges. But you were not the only one