Helen POVI couldn’t help but fall asleep, feeling like I had been in this cell for three days now. The full moon has come and gone, and I never got the chance to mate with Justin. I knew he wanted to have pups soon, and the idea is so thrilling to me, but maybe it’s for the best.He could kill me if he’s not careful and I can’t ignore that possibility.I dreamt of his Lycan and the darkness that clouded his eyes at our worst moments together. Our relationship isn’t fully mended after I stabbed him, but it had to be good enough for him to come after me… right?I can only imagine he thinks I have run away and he has no interest in finding me, but it’s so far from the truth. I want to fix our mating bond so we’re back to where we used to be.We still had our enemies and we had our battles, but we were in love through it all.I woke up at last, groggy and weak. I looked at the ground all around me, seeing piles of pixie dust where that murderer must have destroyed every last one of them
Justin’s POV“Do you smell that?” I asked, stopping the line of wolves on either side of me, each of us still combing through the woods to look for my mate. “It smells like her blood.”A few warriors growled and ran froward, following the scent. It had been hard to find Helen after her scent was seemingly all over the woods, wiped on trees and scattered in the fields to throw us off.William must have spread her scent everywhere to throw us off her trail, but this new scent was stronger, carrying through the wind from miles away. My Lycan roared inside of me, needing our mate back.The full moon without her was too difficult and I fought him all night, losing half a day when I could have been looking for her! I’m making it up now, charging toward her scent of blood while Randy kept beside me, trying to keep me calm and hopeful.“It will be okay,” Randy said, speaking low. “She’s strong, like you said. She will be okay.”I shake my head, too disappointed to even begin to consider her s
Helen POVI sit up quick in bed, screaming for help and calling for my mate in this cold, dirty dungeon. Justin tackles me in his arms, holding me tight to his chest while he used his arm under me to reach over and turn on the lamp.The bedroom came into sight and I inhaled sharp, seeing that my reality was different from my horrible nightmare. At least, maybe it was a nightmare and maybe it was a memory.“Justin,” I panted, confused while I rubbed my eyes to double check where I was. “Oh moon goddess, we’re home! How did I—where did we—when did this—”“Please,” he grunted, pulling me against his chest. “It’s the middle of the night, Luna. Go back to sleep.”I fell back into his hold and made sure I was flush against his chest, loving the fact that he was holding me like my mate should hold me again. It felt normal and loving and trusting between us like it hasn’t in so long.I didn’t want to ruin it, but I knew we had to face William and make him pay for hurting those pixies. When Ju
Helen POVI rushed back into the estate, Freya clinging to my shoulder as I ran into the house and down the hall to the bedroom I probably shouldn’t have left. Justin is just coming out of the doorway, his eyes wide and relaxed when he sees me.But it doesn’t last long.Randy is coming up behind me, out of breath and brushing past me as he heads to face Justin. I can see my mate’s eyes, jealous and confused, and I realize all too soon how it looks for me to come running down the hall with his Beta while he’s sleeping.Doesn’t look good for anyone. Randy still approaches anyways.“Alpha, sorry for the mix up,” the Beta grumbles. “I tried to get her to a healer and then the pixie showed up and was telling us about—”“Save it,” Justin snapped, his tone strict. “Luna, please. Come back to bed.”I looked at Freya, knowing I couldn’t leave thing unsaid about Ezequiel. I took a cautious step back, knowing Justin would throw a fit, get angry and drag me to bed after I’ve gone behind his back
Helen POVI hurried to get to Justin’s side, worried that Randy’s pause would grow into a fight, but he took me into his lap and brushed my hair back, letting me lean into his chest while he held me simply, carefully—lovingly.“Randy, tell him,” I plead. “Tell him he’s being irrational. You don’t like me like that.”Justin didn’t even growl at me, didn’t try to help me not defend Randy, and I thought it was weird that Justin was so smooth over this accusation that was obviously a lie.But still, Randy sat there perplexed and ignorant to reply.I kissed my mate’s lips quick, wanting to ease the tension, but I saw Randy flinch behind me, the sight making my heart drop in dread. Everyone saw it, too.Everyone could tell Justin’s accusation wasn’t false after all.I looked on in horror as Randy hung his head, straightened his chair and fell into his seat. Justin was cooing over me, petting me and being tinder, either out of sovereignty or to calm himself down, I didn’t know which for sure
Justin POVMy mate’s shrieking scream sounded off from the distance, and I tore through every obstacle in my way to get to her, including shoving that eavesdropping Fae out of my way.Randy wasn’t far behind me, the two of us running into the village square, seeing my mate laid out, eyes shutting on instinct, while a little dart is in here fingertips. She drops the dart, her body going under with her mind, and seeing her so motionless from a mere dart frightens me so much…What if it were a silver bullet? She would be dead.My Lycan snaps out of my frame without warning, rushing over to my mate where we stand over her protectively, looking around the skit of the pack village where a few of my warriors are watching on. They glare through them all, trying to find the one responsible.Randy snarls, his dark fur wolf coming out and charging towards my mate and I, a panicked look on his face that I can’t exactly read until I hear a shot being fired, like a needle whizzing through the air t
Helen POVI woke up in a hammock bed, a warm breeze carrying the smell of fresh trees and warm soil brushing past me. I couldn’t help but sit up in fear, knowing that the last time I was awake, the Huntsman had just shot me with a dart.Justin waltzed over nearby, coming to the edge of a pond where I rushed over to his side, throwing us both into the shallows in terrified precaution. He coughed a breath, both of us soaking wet now, but he look at me like I was crazy.I was just trying to protect him!“Whoa, Helen, what are you doing?”I inhaled sharp, petrified. “We have to be careful, he could shoot us, Justin.”He bit his lower lip and then sat up slow, helping me do the same until we were both on our knees in this fresh, clear water that was so cold it made my shirt cling to my body and gave me the chills.“We’re not anywhere near the Huntsman, Luna.”I tried to make sense of that claim, looking around in perilous realization. We were at the mouth of a beautiful lake, on a wooded s
Helen POV“What the hell, Helen? Are you trying to drown?!”I sucked in air through the water that had leaked into my lungs and it ached so bad that I wanted to double over, but instead Justin linked is arms around my lower back and held me to his warm, bare chest. He made sure my head stayed above water while I caught my breath.“I’m—I’m sorry but—but you wouldn’t come swim out if—”He cracked a reserved smile and only shook his head, pushing my hair back as it sat tangled with sand and knotted from the soft water where we were now swimming together. I can’t help but feel a little proud of my work.“You almost drowned so I would come and swim with you, Helen?” He looked through me as I nodded sheepishly, flustered and blushing from the couching fit. “My mate is a trickster.”His lips brushed mine softly, taunting me at first, and I caught them at last, turning a once innocent moment of closeness to a hard grinding of our flushed bodies, needy and hot together in the water.“Justin,”
Luke’s POV I knew my sister had run off to hide again after I heard her arguing with Dad. I wanted to find her and make sure she wasn’t sulking. Aurora liked to do that when things didn’t go exactly her way.But it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had that idea because halfway to her so-called “secret” place in the garden, I caught sight of her current boyfriend, Jay, sneaking out there, too. Jealousy prickled at my stomach.Aurora was my twin. I was the closest one to her. If she needed cheering up, it should be me doing it, not some random guy. What could he ever offer her that her twin couldn’t?Besides, Jay wasn’t worthy of her. He was a single-color coated wolf, the son of some gamma in my father’s ranks. If she was going to date and seriously consider finding a mate, I didn’t think Jay was anywhere near worthy of her.Jay was a consolation prize, at best. Some poor lady wolf could end up with him, but not my sister. Still, if she was just killing time by fooling around with him
Aurora’s POVAs the oldest of my mother’s twelve children, everyone expects me to be responsible. And as the first lycan born to my father, everyone looks to me to continue the lycan race.That’s a lot of pressure to put on an eighteen-year-old. Don’t get me wrong, as the future luna and heir to my father’s throne. I get where the pressure is coming from. Not that I particularly enjoy it.At the moment, I was hiding in the garden. I had many happy memories of this space, and on many days when I needed to think for myself or to get away from my many siblings, particularly my twin brother, I snuck out here and hid. Luke was way too over-protective of me, and it got annoying.When I was small, I used to make forts in the hedges surrounding the rose garden. I’d carved my hiding spot out into a hidden alcove that nestled inside the hedge behind a veil of ivy. Sunlight could dapple through the vines and illuminate the inside.And as long as I kept it free of cobwebs, it was a nice space to
Helen’s POVEach of the twins had gotten to choose party clothes for the event, and they were quite excited about it, probably because I let Luke have a tie that had a dinosaur print all over it. And because his little suit wasn’t anywhere near as fancy as Aurora’s poofy dress, or I guess it was just as fancy but less to his taste, I let him pick out a little undershirt and underwear with dinosaurs on them, too. That way, he felt he had a satisfactory number of dino garments on and was much easier to coax into his little gray suit.Aurora had chosen a dress perfect for a budding princess, all tulle and lace and sparkles in a vivid teal that complimented her dark hair, each accentuating the color of the other. I had just finished pulling on her tights and buckling her sparkly little shoes when Celine joined us.“Why don’t you come and help me greet the guests, Luke?” she suggested. “While your Mama finishes doing Aurora ‘s hair.”“Okay.”He took his nanny’s hand and left, and I fussed
Helen’s POVI bustled around the kitchen with our nanny Celine helping me. On her back, my two-year-old son, Wilson, kicked his legs happily, asking nonsense questions about what we were doing.Inside me, our new baby, another daughter, kicked and squirmed, looking for more room inside my womb. Celine and I were busy frosting cupcakes for the twins’ birthday. They were turning five today, and it was a big birthday party because we were doing their official reveal.Today, they would reveal their wolves and begin to learn about them and grow together. Justin and I had spent the last five years working furiously to repair all of the damage his family had done to the reputation of the multi-colored coated werewolves in anticipation of this very day.The last thing I wanted to do was have my children reveal the color of their wolves only to find out that they were multi-colored, or at least that’s the way it would have been if we hadn’t put in the effort. By now, everyone in the True Mates
Justin’s POVIf anyone said “honeymoon” to me, I would assume plenty of sex on the first night. But that was not at all what our first night in Tahiti was like.We arrived at the airport late and got shuttled straight to a hotel. We were exhausted and then had to get up early again to catch our inter-island flight to Bora Bora.Neither one of us was in the mood to do anything that night. So, thank goodness we had gotten a chance to fool around on the airplane. And I have to admit, fooling around on the airplane was so fucking hot.Ever since I found out that she was carrying one of the Huntsman’s twins, well, actually, that’s a lie. Ever since I found out that she was the Huntsman sex slave, and then when I found out that she was carrying his child, my feelings of desire for Helen wavered up and down.Sometimes I felt like everything was normal between the two of us, and I wanted her just the same as I always had, or at least the same as I had since I’d gotten my lycan and she’d gotte
Helen’s POVMy stomach buzzed in anticipation. Even the rumbling of the jet engines through the seat in my rear end didn’t dispel the feeling. Next to me, Justin adjusted his seat belt, putting his books and such within arms reach for the flight to Bora Bora.I’d finally gone with that as the location for our honeymoon. The twins were safe with Randy and Emily, and our nanny. Outside, snow swirled around the plane, but in about fifteen hours, we would be out in warm sunlight. Well, we were arriving at night, but we’d be out in warm weather anyway in Tahiti. And from there, first thing the next morning, we were catching a small flight over to Bora BoBora.“Are you excited?” I asked, poking Justin in the shoulder.“For the hundredth time, I am. And I can tell you are, too, annoyingly excited. You’re going to drive me crazy.”I poked at him again. “I don’t wanna drive you crazy, but I have an idea.”“What?”I tugged on his shirt, so he had to lean close so I could whisper in his ear. “I
Russo’s POVWhen we arrived at the hospital, the nurses thought it would be amusing to put us in the exact same room that Helen had been in while she was waiting for her C-section. Being a witch, Lisa shooed the nurses away as much as she could because she brought her own herbs to help with the delivery.In fact, after she’d taken some at the start of the contractions, she didn’t seem to be in much pain at all. Her body was going about its business without really disrupting her. It confirmed my suspicion when one of the nurses walked out, grumbling about how it must be nice to be a witch.“How come you didn’t offer the same herbs to Helen?” I asked, sitting at the bedside by Lisa’s head.She glanced over at me. “Because the mixture that I took includes wolfsbane, which is hard enough on adult werewolves, poisonous in large portions, and deadly to a newborn or an almost newborn. I would have essentially poisoned her and the baby.”“Not babies?”She shrugged. “I don’t know what would h
Helen’s POVWhen I got to the door, sure enough, Randy stood outside. I opened the door, and I held her finger to my lips.“The babies are napping?” he whispered.I nodded. “Like angels.”“Sweet,” he said, stepping inside. “Now, what did you need to see me for that was so urgent?”“I need your help with something,” I explained. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Justin hasn’t been as affectionate with me as he was before all of this went down. He’s done a pretty good job of coping with the fact that one of the twins isn’t his, worse, that he’s a part demon. But it’s kind of left a quiet wedge between us, and I wanna get over that.”Randy nodded. “I did notice. He hasn’t said anything to me. Though, I know he’s trying.”“I realize he’s trying,” I agreed, “but that doesn’t mean that he needs to try all on his own. So . . . I have an idea.”A wide grin spread across my face just thinking about it. “Before we found out that one of the twins belonged to the Huntsman, Justin was planning
Helens POVI thought, when I fell in love with Justin, that I knew what true love really felt like. That was until I met my babies. The love in my heart for my twins surpassed anything I’d ever felt before.I wanted to protect them, and at the same time, I wanted to take them out and show them to everyone I met. I wanted to have them seen, for the world to know that I had created perfection.And they were perfect. From their tiny little lips to their little button noses, they were utterly adorable. They each had ten teeny fingers and ten petite toes. Their downy heads of hair were so soft that I could help but smooth my hands across them, reassuring them that their mother loved them.Everything about them was indescribably perfect.We knew from the moment that they were born that my daughter was the lycan and my son was the child of the Huntsman. If Justin was disappointed in not having a son of his own, he didn’t say anything. And I wasn’t worried about having a male lycan pup just y