Delaney The softness of the kiss doesn't last long. Soon, Alec is kissing me with a passion that burns right through me. His hand slides over my breast before it settles on my hip, where his fingers dig into my flesh. My hands—and every other part of my body—have a mind of their own. I slide them up his broad chest, feeling his muscles flexing under his shirt. My fingers curl around the hair on the back of his head, pulling him closer toward me. My legs part, allowing him to settle between them. Once that happens, he gets even closer to me, and I feel his erection against my hip. It sends me into a spiral and a deep panic that mixes in with my desire and needs, and makes the moment even more pleasurable for me. This is madness. Absolute madness. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Alec hooks his hands behind my thighs, and I practically jump on him while wrapping my legs around his waist. He slams me against the wall once before, breaking the kiss for a few seconds to plant op
AlecHer taste floods my mouth as she comes, clenching tightly around my fingered and I lap it all up like I’m dying of thirst. Before this moment, I was and hadn’t even known it. Her scent envelops me. It’s all I smell when I breathe in, and it’s in my mouth now too. But I need more. This isn’t enough. I need her in my fucking bloodstream so she can become an essential part of me. I need her the way my lungs need oxygen. I straighten up, my wolf threatening to make an appearance. I fight with him to keep him underneath, and it’s a constant battle because he wants his mate, but I have to have her before he does. He can’t enjoy her before I can. Delaney stares at me with huge dark eyes. Her face is covered in a thin layer of sweat, and she looks so angelic with her legs spread open for me and her lips bruised from my kisses. I’m struggling with control right now, because I want nothing more than to bury myself inside of her and claim her in the way I’ve always fantasized about do
Delaney With a racing heart, I make it outside. For some reason, I look over my shoulder to ensure that Alec isn't right behind me. He isn't, and I sigh in relief. I stand in the dark and watch as people run up and down the cramped passageway. If I walk out now, it might be suspicious, and they can't find Alec. Not a chance. I don't know where this protectiveness over him came from, but now that it's here, there's no turning back. Something between us has changed, and we will never go back to what we were. My legs are still shaking from the pleasure he's given me, and I can taste myself in my mouth. My head is spinning, so much that I grab the wall of the house to stand upright. I take a few steps, and focus on breathing. They continue to rush past me with torches in their hands. I feel bad for giving them so much trouble, but I have to be mindful and careful, and not make anyone suspicious about where I truly was. I'd told Pollux that I was going to the bathroom, but I probably
AlecThe exit is as free as it was when I first got here, thank fuck, as I make my way down the dark, narrow tunnel. I run my hand along the rough stone wall, ensuring that I’m going the right way. All the tunnels tend to be interconnected, and when I got here, I almost got lost, but I’ve always had a good memory, so I make my way through be right tunnel.When I reach my destination and push the trapdoor open, the faint scent of lavender and those pungent herbs fills the air. Anna is behind the counter, a pile of ancient-looking books spread before her. She glances at me, her face severe even though a smile flickers over her face. “You look haunted,” she says, a hint of amusement in her voice as I brush the dust off my shirt. I grab my coat from the hanger right next to the trap door, and shrug it on. “Haunted?” I lean against the counter, glancing down at the mess of trinkets and dried plants. “Why do you say so?”She raises a brow, closing one of the books with a snap. “Reading p
DelaneyA meeting is held to introduce me to the world as the daughter of Tobias Renner.Throughout the whole meeting, I’m silent. I let Matteo take the lead. To be honest, I don’t quite know what to do with this newfound admiration that I’m seeing in people’s eyes. Almost everyone is treating me differently, and I don’t see it in a bad way, but it’s quite overwhelming. The only person who’s treating me the same is Pollux, and of course, Paola. They’re seated in the crowd at the bar now, staring at me. I’m seated next to Matteo, and he’s giving a huge speech about my father and what his beliefs were. The whole time, I’m thinking about whether or not Alec left. I’m almost tempted to go and check, but it’ll attract too much attention if I do go there and someone sees me. “…so, let us continue to remember Tobias Renner, and keep him in our hearts for the sacrifices he made. Little did he know that the world would always have a reminder of him, and that his own daughter, not knowing w
DelaneyI race to the spot, feeling somewhat nervous. I make sure to look around before stepping into the darkness. The passageway is completely vacant, so I’m not spotted by anyone. I don’t feel any presence in the dark, but in any case, I say, “Alec?”No answer. I decide to step even closer to the open window, and then peer at it. It’s too dark for me to see a thing, so I call his name again. No answer. I take this as a sign that he’s gone. Otherwise, why wouldn’t he answer me? I choose to believe that he’s safe because thinking the opposite makes me way too paranoid for my own good. I start to turn back, breathing a lot easier, but then I hear a familiar voice calling my name, and no, it isn’t Alec’s. I turn around, and see the man—my stalker—climbing out the window. The sight of him there fills me with dread all of a sudden, but I try to regain my composure. “You,” I say. He steps closer to me, though I can only see the outline of his body and not his face. Suddenly, it all
Delaney“Where were you?” Pollux asks when I open the door. Paola and Cade aren’t in the living room anymore, so I assume that they’re in the room. “Oh, I just wandered around,” I reveal. There’s no way that I’ll be able to tell them about my father. Goddess, I can hardly believe it myself. “But you’re feeling better?” he asks. “Yeah, way better,” I lie. I don’t feel better than I did earlier. In fact, I might be feeling worse. My father’s words are sinking in with quickness, and they’re blending in with Alec’s words. But how can I step away from all of this now? People are counting on me. Even Matte is deriving inspiration from this. What about what I believe in?I want to fight for this. I felt fulfilled. I understand that this is a movement that could change the lives of many people. I was happy doing it. I can’t and won’t change my mind just because people are telling me to. I still haven’t changed my mind. But maybe I have to sleep on it. Pollux leans against the door, gra
Alec Seeing Delaney makes my heart beat out of my fucking chest. She made it. She actually made it. The whole morning, I’ve been thinking about whether or not we should have made a better plan. How would she find her way to me when she could have ended up taking one of the hatches on the other side of the Underworld? She would’ve ended up on the other side of the city. But I trusted that she might show up here. Something stronger than me made me stay, and it’s times like these that make me realize that there’s a higher force guiding us all. We were meant to meet today. I’ve been thinking about last night nonstop. When we finally reach each other, her steps slow and so do mine. I keep my eyes on her face, though, taking in every little part of her. Her eyes. Her lips. Her nose. Everything. I commit it all to memory. “You made it,” I tell her.“Yeah,” she replies breathlessly. “It was by some miracle that I found this place.”Goddess knows how much I want to pull her close to me
AlecI wake up suddenly, in the middle of the night. It’s another one of those nightmares that make my fucking ankle burn like shit. I sit up, reaching for it in hopes that it’ll remember to stop hurting, and that’s when I realize that Delaney isn’t in bed beside me like she has been for the past seven years. “Delaney?” I say loudly. “Here,” I hear her say. She’s standing near the balcony, which I only realize now is open. The curtains are billowing in the wind, covering her from view. I get out of bed, and limp to where she’s standing. She turns to look at me, and fuck, my heart stops beating for a moment. She’s never not stolen my breath from me. Snatched it right out of my lungs. “What’s wrong, baby?” I ask her as I approach her. “Just thinking,” she says as she turns to face me. She places her hands on either side of me, and I inch closer to her and kiss her lips. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” she says. “No, it wasn’t you, it was my foot,” I explain briefly. I then pay clos
DelaneyAlec comes up behind me, his arms circling my waist. It startles me because I was so deep in my thoughts that I completely forgot that he was somewhere behind me. All I can think about is the election that will start in about twenty minutes. We’ll be late if we don’t leave the house now. “You okay?” he asks while placing a tender kiss along my jawline. I find it in me to smile at him. “Never been better.”“It’s finally happening,” he claims as he steps back. I turn around to face him, and he hops back on his one good foot to circle my waist with his arms again. “I hope that’s not sadness I see in your eyes.”“No, I’m just thinking,” I admit. The memories claw at the edges of my mind as Alec’s arms tighten around my waist. His warmth anchors me in the present, but it’s not enough to silence the ghosts of the past. Faces flash before my eyes—people we lost, friends who sacrificed everything, moments drenched in pain and blood.But here we are. The war is over. We won.It doe
Alec Delaney. No. Pain courses through me, thick and intent to kill. She shouldn’t be here. When I realized she wasn’t in the car that came speeding down the road, I was relieved. But now she’s here, with the few other rebels who came here to save me. I don’t know what is going on. “Ah,” the sick fuck next to me says. He has his eyes on Delaney. On my girl. And the gleam in his eyes is twisted. “Miss Renner. You’ve finally joined us. I thought you’d never come.”At the sound of the man’s voice, her face completely transforms. She appears fierce. Ready. A warrior. My heart swells with pride, then shrinks with fear in the same beat. “You’ll unhand him,” she says, stepping into the role of a rebel leader swiftly. Seamlessly. “Or, we’re going to rain bullets down on you. On all of you.”The man laughs, and the crowd gasps. I stare at her face, and pray to the goddess that she won’t die here, right before my eyes. That’ll kill me faster than the silver will. “How typical of rebe
Delaney I drive around in circles, and nothing springs to mind. I don't find Alec, nor do I figure out what to do. I even drive all the way to our pack, and nothing. I think it's ridiculous for me to assume that I'd find information on him so quickly. Who would tell me? How would I just know? I guess what made me run so fast was the need to get away from Pollux. The fact that he'd hated on me for so long simply because I hadn't recognized him as my mate means a lot. He was always toxic and problematic, but at least I didn't fall for his schemes. I have this distinct feeling that tonight, everything is about to change. Thinking about Alec makes me cry. If it weren't for Pollux, he would've been safe. He doesn't deserve whatever will happen to him. He's a good person and all he ever tried to do was help us. I feel so responsible. Now, I don't know where to find the others or why they even left the camp to begin with, and I have no clue where to find Alec.I've never felt so lost
Alec When I open my eyes, I realize that I’m in a very bright room. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that there’s someone standing right next to me. On my right, to be precise. I look up and see the man from earlier. He’s peering down at me with disdain written all over his face. When he sees that I’m awake, he smiles a little and asks me, “Ready for what’s to come?”I look down at my body and realize that I’m still in wolf form. Pain immediately shoots down my paw when I try to move, and a growl leaves my lips. I’m chained to a metal table, and I have to way of moving without feeling a crippling kind of pain. “Yes, I think you are,” he claims. Before I know it, the table starts to move and I’m being wheeled out. The sharp screech of metal grates in my ears as the table wheels over the polished floor. Because all my senses are sharper in this form, I see and hear a lot better, so these little sounds while I’m disoriented are too loud and obnoxious in my ear. But not
Delaney “How!?” I yell as I continue punching his chest. “How could you have done such a thing!? HOW!?”Pollux takes the punches and doesn’t say anything. I grow angrier with his sudden silence, and punch him even harder. After a while, my arms start to hurt and my throat grows hoarse from all the screaming. I step back, and let my arms drop to my sides. By the goddess. What the hell is happeningHow did things take such a terrible turn in a matter of hours?I realize that I’m screaming in the streets while people are driving and walking by, and that somehow, I lost my beanie. My hair is out, red and wild, but I could’ve give a shit less about that. Alec has been captured. Everything has gone to shit. Shit, shit, shit.A strangled sound leaves my throat as I try not to cry. I can’t cry now. I have to use this anger to focus on what the hell I’m going to do. I bite my knuckles and think deeply. Where could they have taken Alec? “Delaney,” Pollux has the audacity to say. “You’re not
Delaney Upon reaching the bar, I find it empty. The doors are barricaded and it looks like there hasn’t been anyone in here for a while. The windows are broken, and when I peer inside, everything is covered in dust. What’s worse is that I don’t even see footprints, so I know that nobody was in here. They aren’t here. I’ve wasted my time coming all the way here. Bile rises up my throat, and I have to throw up on the side of the road, right next to Cade’s car. I don’t feel better afterward. Instead, this has made me more nauseous. I don’t have much left inside of me, though, just breakfast from earlier. I get in the car, and shut the door. I run my fingers through my hair as wave after wave of despair crash into me. I pull my knees up to my chest and rest my forehead against the steering wheel as despair takes hold of me. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to be here. I hoped they’d be. I’d imagined walking through those doors and finding them—safe, together, alive.
Alec It doesn’t take me long to find out that there will be a raid in a newly discovered rogue camp not too far from the city. They were hidden in the middle of nowhere, but someone leaked the information and now, everyone will be headed there when the sun sets. I have a feeling deep inside of me that Delaney is in that camp, and I now regret telling her not to tell me the address of where she was staying. That way, I’d be sure.Fuck. That doesn’t mean I can’t call her though. I tell myself that as soon as I can, I’ll give her a call and ask for her exact location. Right now, I’m just waiting for this meeting to end. I notice that the hall is uncommonly empty, which makes me wonder where the hell everyone else is. Where have they gone? I’m not in the state of mind to ask, though. Carla’s burial was meant to be today, but I’ve asked for them to cremate her instead. I’ll keep the ashes at home and…I don’t know. I don’t know what I’ll do with them. So much is going on. I don’t have
DelaneySaying goodbye to Alec is always a bittersweet moment. This time, it’s more bitter than it is sweet. He drops me off near the car, and after saying goodbye to each other for the hundredth time, I start making my way back to the rebel camp. At least now I know that we have Alec’s support. What happens next can’t be predicted by anyone, we’ll just have to wait and see. And keep fighting, of course. I hope I won’t find the group as demoralized as they were last night. I come bearing good news, I hope. I hope it’ll cheer them up. We’ll see.The drive back feels longer than it should. Maybe it’s the silence in the car. The rebels don’t exactly have state-of-the-art vehicles, and the rumbling engine is loud enough to drown out my thoughts if I let it. But my brain insists on working overtime, replaying Alec’s words over and over again.I clench the steering wheel tighter, his words curling like smoke in my mind. I’ve never felt this desperate, not even when I was in the prison.