Hunter’s POVIt has become normal around here, for everything to go to shit at the drop of the hat. Tonight is no exception, only now I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.When Liberty showed me her visions, it was the most surreal experience. Like dreaming but not. I can’t explain it, I don’t have the words to do it justice. It was exactly what I needed though. I have been on the fence about my future, my magic, my Alpha gift, but seeing what I did has pushed me firmly to the side in favour of being unbound.If my destiny is to lead Shadow Ridge out of the darkness and into the light, who am I to decide otherwise? I know Liberty said there were many futures, and that it is not my burden to carry if I don’t want it, but if I don’t do this, I feel like I would be no better than the very person we are trying to stop. I don’t want to wake up every day for the rest of my life with regrets.I’m scared. I’m not afraid to admit it. Taking on Shadow Ridge is going to be a fight, one tha
Liberty’s POV ‘Trust your gut Liberty.’ Justice repeats the same words she always tells me when I start to doubt myself. I was hoping she would tell me it’s all in my imagination, or have an example of why my theory is way off base.“I’m trying, but if I’m right… the danger to the pack doesn’t bear thinking about.” My body quivers at the thought. The rebellion would foam at the mouth if they knew about Lottie and Arly, and if I’m right about this, the target over Pine Lake will only grow.‘She has been here for years, undetected and unharmed, there is no reason that would change just because you know.’ Justice, ever the voice of reason, tries to put my mind at rest. I have had my suspicions about the pack as whole, ever since we met Marcel. When the Old guard and Elite warriors shifted to follow me into the woods, there was something about them, their wolves had auras that were similar but different. I know, it doesn’t make any sense, I couldn’t wrap my head around it at first. Hones
Lottie’s POVThe mysterious figure entering the cave with a confident stride could only be Vitandi - the oldest dragon, and possibly my father. The fact that he knows my name is a shock, but the sight of him shakes me to my core. This is not how I planned to meet him, I’m not ready for this. I don't think I'll ever be ready for it.‘Look at his marks and runes, they are so similar to ours. I know it means something, I just cant figure it out.’ Naivleen sounds more curious and frustrated than concerned about the towering mass of muscle and magic that now blocks our only exit.His body glows with dozens of ancient runes, and his eyes burn with a fierce intensity and recognition, as if he has been expecting me, despite his statement to the contrary. He isn't what I imagined, he looks young for a start. Well, not young young, but for a centuries old being, he only looks maybe mid forties. He is tall, probably at least as tall as my brothers, and they push the boundary between man and gian
Wendy’s POVI could keep Liberty out of my head if I wanted to. Heaven knows I’ve had plenty of practice since being here. I tell myself those days are far behind me, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I feel the pain of my past from the second I open my eyes in the morning to the moment I close them at night. Every day I’m haunted by the ghosts of my past. They walk around in front of me, not knowing who they are and what they represent.The memory I brought to mind when I felt her slip into my subconscious, is over eighteen years in the past. Two days before I became a member of Pine Lake pack, I almost died in my birthing bed, but fate intervened and sent me a most unlikely saviour. Gerald and I had been running from the rebellion for months, but the bigger my belly grew, the harder it was to keep any distance between us and the trackers.I couldn’t mist for the sake of the baby, my magic had gone haywire, and as far as I knew, Vitandi had disappeared from the face of the e
Christian’s POV The drive to the North Mountains is almost as tense as when we headed south to find Liberty. We know she is meant to be safe, Liberty said as much, but we are all charging towards the unknown as if we are invincible.Imelda has been remarkably quiet, which isn’t like her at all. She and Esme have been frequent fliers at the pool bar, and the two of them are anything but shy. I think they have made all of us blush at least once with their innuendos and unabashed sense of humour.Seeing her sit silently between Gabe and Uriel is like watching a fish out of water. None of us are happy that she has known where to find Vitandi this whole time, but most of us are over it. When I say most of us, I mean everyone but Gabe, and Uriel, who always has Gabe’s back, even if they seem to continuously butt heads.When Hunter linked, to let us know he was taking Liberty to her office, Zand walked right out of the conference room to go and see what was happening. Which meant that I was
Marcel’s POVI can hear everything Liberty and Wendy discuss in the room below my own. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it eavesdropping, Liberty did announce to half the pack that my hearing is far more acute than theirs, so I continue to listen, my conscience half absolved.I have been aware of Wendy’s presence in the pack ever since I arrived. I had to do a double take when I noticed her tending the roses in her little cottage garden the night I first arrived. I was sure that she would seek me out to either ask for my silence or try to make some kind of plea for safeguarding her identity and that of Lottie.She had nothing to worry about, I knew everything would come to light eventually, things like this always do. I was beginning to wonder if I would have to help speed up the process by being more insistent about finding Vitandi, but when I saw Lottie and Gabriel holding hands at Liberty’s bedside, I knew I was about to have front row seats to the drama as it unfolded.That sounds
Liberty’s POV When I get back to our room my head is still spinning. I tell Zander everything Wendy and I talked about, thankful he is here to share the burden of all of this new knowledge. He listens attentively and without interruption as I fill him in on Wendy’s past and the fact that she is Lottie’s mother and a halfling, how Marcel saved her life, the veil she has maintained to protect the pack all these years and the thing I found most shocking of all, the hybrids among us. That explains why I couldn’t figure out what everyone’s auras meant, Luna Serephena took in people from so many packs, far and wide, their family history is lost to most of them. Wendy told me she has never heard any of them speak about mixed heritage, and she recons they are unaware of it. I wish I could say my head was in it whilst Zander and I discussed what this new information means for the pack and our future, but it wasn’t. I can’t stop thinking about Marcel, he has been avoiding me. I haven’t seen o
Uriel’s POVYou could cut the atmosphere in the car with a knife.I look at Christian who has Max in his eyes and is obviously still digesting everything Imelda told us. I am impressed by his self control though, even if he is only just maintaining it.Imelda is silent. That’s probably for the best. It never usually ends well for the messenger, and she has just dropped one hell of a bombshell. She and Christian appear to have found some mutual ground and he was quick to come to her defence when Gabe started ranting earlier in the hospital.Lottie is blithely unaware of the effect her disappearance has had on us all. She fusses over Gabe, checking his mark, reassuring him she will never disappear again. It is obvious she’s just as shaken up as he is, and from what Imelda had to say, I don’t imagine she has had a very easy time of it in the hours she has been gone. Spending your whole life waiting for your wolf then finding out you have a dragon, has got to be a right head fuck.Andy or
Chapter TwoConstance’s POV With the raiding party away, a rare calmness has come over the castle. I often find myself eagerly awaiting their departure so I can let down my guard and just be. This place is the only home I have ever known. I grew up within these walls and every room, every portrait and piece of furniture is attached to a memory of my life before, though it feels less and less like my sanctuary as Halen continues to fill it with his experiments.He says we are all one clan, the vampires he creates are family and that his creations will assure our safety and our place in the world. I know he believes every word he speaks but I can not get a moments peace with them around. I am constantly on edge, waiting for one of them to go feral and kill the human pets Halen keeps around for us to feed upon. He is adamant it will not happen again, but I have quickly learned that his belief in something doesn’t make it so.The dining hall is my second favourite room and as I walk ar
Please enjoy a sneak peek of Marcel’s story, which is now available. VB xxMarcel of The Lone Mountains.A Vampyre’s story by Veronica BlackChapter OneMarcel’s POV “Open your eyes and watch, boy.” My father snarls through gritted teeth, spittle flies from his taught lips into my face. He roughly grabs the loosely tied pony tail at the back of my head and wrenches my head back, which forces me to look up and watch the carnage unfolding in front of my eyes. My jaw tightens in frustration but I bite my tongue. I hate that he calls me ‘boy’. I haven’t been a boy for over a century, but he still looks down on me as if I am dirt beneath his boot and nothing more than a juvenile inconvenience. “This... is what we are. This... is what they made us. You can not fight nature son.” He shakes my head, pulling my hair out at its roots, as he aggressively makes his point.He is not wrong about not being able to fight nature, however, we are anything but natural. He continues his speech, the s
Grace’s POV I looked out of the window just as a dozen men in leather armour jogged past. It looks like they are surrounding something but I can’t see it the middle of the protective huddle.“Something is happening.” Lena sticks her head around the door of our shared room. Of course she would be one of the first to know if something is going on, her intuition is razor sharp and she is rarely wrong.“I can see that, but it’s none of our business. We should not go meddling unless we are invited. You know that.” I tell her in warning. Alma made it abundantly clear that we are to stay out of pack business unless she tells us otherwise. I’m more than happy to heed her advice and stay well out of it. The fewer people I meet, the less likely they are to find out anything they need not know.“It is our business. I have a really strong feeling we are meant to be part of this. Whatever they have brought back is tied to us. Come on. We will just watch, from a distance if that makes you feel bett
Marcel’s POV Imelda’s room has remained untouched. Not one of us has been able to face going in there. It just hasn’t felt right, like it’s too soon to close this chapter. Part of me wants to believe she is still in there, plotting and scheming ways to make Averson suffer. She may have been more understanding of what happened and why, but causing his discomfort had become a bit of a sport to her and it kept him on his toes.On my way back from breakfast with Claudel I walked to my room, the same as I have done every day for weeks. Claudel has been talking of leaving for a little while and it seems he has decided to bid us farewell in a few days. He has had his amusement and knows our clan will be anxiously awaiting his return. He and Vitandi have been getting along surprisingly well and it wouldn’t come as a shock to discover that Vitandi will join Claudel and spend some time at our home in the Lone Mountains. There is a palpable tension between the dragon and the Alphas and a parti
Lottie’s POVThere has been a sense of fragile peace and calm around here for a few days. I doubt it will last very long, it never does. It’s sad to think that at a time when we should all be enjoying every day, we are waiting for the other shoe to drop.My father is in the dog house with my brothers, they are both livid that he went off script and rained fyre down on the Katasan. He did what he set out to do, but it could have ended differently. Luckily when Christian, Zander and Marcel returned they had Alma, Grace and Lena with them. Without Grace’s healing magic Uriel would almost certainly still be in the hospital, but everyone is acting as if all is well that ends well.Speaking of Uriel, he has been happily holed up in his room with May, who we all now know to be Amaya, the mate he thought he had lost. I’m happy for him, if anyone deserves to find happiness he is right at the top of the list. Putting up with my brothers, he was due some good fortune, and Amaya has been through
Uriel’s POVA few of us noticed Liberty and Wendy disappearing into the woods whilst we gathered around the tables laid out for Thomas, Zachary and Imelda’s wake. Gerald was quick to his feet, signalling with a discreet nod of his head for three of the Old Guard to follow at a distance.Concern for the Luna has been spreading through the pack. She seems to have lost touch with reality ever since the night she had the pups. When I returned with Vitandi and Averson I expected to be read the riot act, punished, shamed, relieved of my command or at the very least given the dressing down I deserved from my Alphas. Fortunately for me they were otherwise occupied. By the time they had been reassured by Doc Wood that their mate and pups were remarkably in perfect health, their anger at my disobedience had dissipated.The excited tremor of success, when I debriefed the group about our mission, was short lived. Marcel had been nowhere to be seen so we began without him. It was strange holding a
Liberty’s POVI stand and watch as flames engulf the three carefully built pyres, and I feel completely numb. I can’t tell any of them how I feel or what happened when I saw Aadhya again the night I had the twins. Emotions in the pack are high, the loss of two of our warriors and Imelda has rocked the pack to it’s core.I couldn’t tell them I wasn’t coping or that I had died, no matter how briefly it might have been for them, it felt like a life time for me. Aadhya came to take me home with her and that feeling has not left me. She talked about all of the good I would be able to do on the other side, she told me my pups would be loved and cared for by the entire pack and they would never walk alone, but all I could think was that I’m not done.That is when I realised it was over. My life, everything we had been fighting for, the future I had grown to want and cherished the idea of. The pack would have to carry the burden without me. Lottie, Imelda, Esme, Hunter, Christian, Zander and
Marcel’s POVI like to think that in my long life and varied experiences, I have seen pretty much everything there is to see in this world. Since coming to Pine Lake, my belief in my own wisdom has been put into question on many occasions, as has my mastery of my emotions.Alma, Lena and Grace are another anomaly I can’t explain. Their power and knowledge rivals that of Imelda, which should not be possible, not unless they are all connected in some way, by blood or by magic. I can’t explain it and they won’t, not yet anyway. There is no denying the energy of the three of them individually, but when they come together you can feel it in the air like static electricity.By the time we reached the bunker I was certain that Alma is indeed a high priestess, and far older than her appearance portrays, and that she has taken the other two under her wing to teach them the ancient magic that has been all but forgotten. I was excited to introduce Alma and Imelda, the two of them are so similar,
Uriel’s POVPlanting the explosives is turning out to be the easiest part of this suicide mission. Getting out of this labyrinth in the next few minutes is proving harder than you might think. The whole base is like damned a maze. Every corridor is just like the previous one. There is no signage and the map is all but useless now. We have been turned around a few times, choosing to avoid oncoming soldiers rather than waste precious time fighting.“How long?” Averson calls ahead to me.I glance at my watch and know it is going to take a miracle or an act of the fates to get us out of here.“A minute and change.” I call back as I skid around the next corner, not putting on the breaks hard enough and slamming sideways on into the wall.“Move your arse.” Averson catches up, grabs me by the back of the neck and forces me forward with him. Hitting the wall at high speed stunned me for a moment but I’m alright now.The next, seemingly endless, corner we turn brings a welcome sight. There, la