Helen POVI obeyed my mate for a week while my bones realigned and healed. He was surprised I had done so well after taking his super poison every morning, but I never really did take it.At last, I convinced him to let me see Martha, so I ran over to her little hut, only to burst through the door and find Oscar in the living room, his face fallen in his hands. I took the seat next to him, his eyes lifted and bloodshot.“What’s wrong?”He paused for a long, heavy moment. “She’s gone, Luna. She left.”“What? Why did she leave?”He bit his lip and spoke in a raw, rough voice. “That mate of yours said she was crazy, but we both saw it, Luna! It was unbelievable but it happened!”“What happened? Justin wouldn’t tell me much.”“We just saw some kind of man with Ezequiel when he was taken from the house.”“Wait, he was taken?”“Yes, of course he was. He loved True Mates, he would never want to her this pack. I promise.”“Where did this man take him?”“I don’t know, Luna,” he look pitiful an
Justin POVI chased her until I felt like my lungs and legs would explode. She had gotten too fast for even the likes of my Lycan, which seemed both impossible and impressive.I wasn’t sure if to be angry and or delighted by my little white wolf mate.But the facts still stood in offense to her being honest of me. If she could shift then that means she never took that poison, so all this time she could have been hiding the truth from me and the Huntsman has still been attacking her, or she stopped taking the poison recently.Either way, I felt like I had been lied to and stabbed in the spine again. Every time I just want to do what a good mate is meant to and it ends up like this. She runs off, defies me, and leaves me in the dust.I couldn’t determine if it’s a death wish or a defiant strike where she has to go against everything I suggested. Either way, I didn’t like it, and I refused to find her beaten and half-dead in a field somewhere because of that damn Huntsman. Again.“What’s
Helen’s POVSomething inside me snapped, even more than when I had slapped Justin. A sort of rage had taken over.“I hate you,” I screamed.Hurt flashed through Justin’s eyes, but I didn’t care. I was beyond caring anymore.Justin growled at me. “You don’t mean that.”“Oh yes, I do,” I said, beyond caring that I was making a scene in public.Anger, frustration, and hurt all flickered through Justin’s expressions. Part of me wanted to feel bad for causing my mate this much pain, but the more I’d been thinking about it, the more I realized he’d been doing nothing but causing me pain for months. And the worst part was I was sorry for what I was doing, yet I never saw a hint of remorse from him.“You don’t mean that,” he said again, his alpha voice angry and commanding, as if he would tell me exactly how I felt even though he had just gotten through yelling at others for telling him how he should feel.Some little voice tickled the back of my mind. Justin never responded well to other peo
Helen’s POV“I know that werewolves are always two parts to a whole.” I stared intensely at him while I laid out the framework for my question. “We have mates that are two parts of a pair. We have two sides to ourselves: a mortal and a woven one. We are all about dichotomies, but you are insisting that I am a dichotomy that can’t exist.”Justin had stopped responding to me, and I wasn’t entirely sure why he hadn’t stormed off yet, but I was going to continue to press my luck. These things needed to be said. They’d been brewing in me for a very long time. And his insistence that I just surrender everyone to the mercy of the Huntsman while he continued to disbelieve me staunchly had finally pushed me far enough to ask something that I had wondered about but hadn’t found the words for yet.“How do you think I could exist as two beings who are so different?” I asked him.“What do you mean?” he snarled. Justin was clearly near the end of this conversation, so I’d have to make do with what
Justin’s POVWhy? Why was Helen turning on me?We ran through the forest in my Lycan form, me doing everything in my power to keep him running instead of ripping apart Helen like he wanted to.She’s rejected us. Our mate has rejected us.Those words kept running through my lycan’s head. I knew how he felt, but I was also calm enough to understand that our connection, our mate bond was still there, just as it had been before she had spoken all of those horrible words.What did she mean I didn’t love her? How could she possibly say something like that? Of course, I loved her.Yet, against my will, Helen’s comments wiggled in, chewing on my brain like insects feasting. They were painful, and they wouldn’t let go.Had I really treated Helen that badly?A little tiny voice in my mind said, yes, you did.I snarled at that voice. I didn’t want to hear it. “I love Lily!”Do you? that little voice asked. Or did you love her the way your father loved you?“My father was a monster,” I snarled. N
Justin’s POVI gaped at the audacity of Russo’s question. Then sputtered a response. “Helen hurt me first. I was only trying to help her understand the seriousness of her actions.”Russo nodded. “I think that might be part of the problem. I think she’s upset you’re treating her like a child who needs to be taught or punished rather than a mate who’s supposed to be your partner.”“Partners don’t stab each other with poison knives,” I screamed.Again Russo just nodded calmly and took a step back away from my raging lycan. “Let’s look at this from a different point of view,” he said. “I want you to explain to me how the mate bond works because you’re right. I’m not a lycan. I’m not even a werewolf. I’m not even in a partnership with one of my own kind. So why don’t you tell me in your own words how exactly this is supposed to work?”“I’m the alpha. She’s my Luna. Her job, along with the job of everyone else in the pack, is to follow my orders.”“Without question?” Russo asked.“It wouldn
Justin’s POV“I never wanted my lycan to have control,” I snarled.My lycan’s claws came back out. I tucked them under my armpits. I didn’t want Russo to be wrong. I wanted to be able to control my beast. So I wasn’t going to let him see that I was starting to get out of control.“See,” he said, pointing to my hidden claws. “Like right now. You’re irritated with me, and he’s angry because he doesn’t take perceived insults well. That agreement between the two of you allows him to get the upper hand. I think, at least in some small measure, those times when he ran completely out of control, both of you were feeling at least somewhat the same.”“Interesting.” My claws pulled back in, and I ran my hand through my hair. “So you think that if I’m angry and he is angry, it gives him an open door to do whatever he wants and run away with me?”“Yes,” Russo said. “So you have to find a way to be calm even when your lycan is all worked up. That way, you can keep him from running amok while you h
Justin’s POVRusso stared patiently at me. “You can fix things between you and Helen just like repairing the damage she did to you, not the physical but the emotional. By stabbing you in the back, whether it was her fault or not, the damage was done. So just like this, the damage is done whether you meant to or not. And it’s going to be slow fixing it. You are going to have to gain her trust.”I snorted. “Well, that’s ironic.”He chuckled. “Yeah, it is kind of. But you’re going to have to regain Helen’s trust and show her that you will treat her the way a luna ought to be treated. You will have to show her that you’re willing to let her be an active part of her life, your life together, and the life of the pack. Just like she’s going to have to continue to prove to you that she’s not going to hurt you. You’re going to shy away from her. She’s going to shy away from you, and it will be a hot mess for a while. But in the end, if you guys both put in the work, I think you can fix what’s
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