Helen’s POV
I jerked awake, drenched in sweat and heaving for breath. Not that I liked being tortured in the moment, but somehow waiting for pain to arrive was almost worse. I wish you’d just gone back to bloodying me up during my dreams, I thought.
I had to find the Huntsman, and I had to stop him.
I looked at the clock. It was only 5:00 a.m. I hadn’t been asleep for very long. I was going to have to find a way to get some sleep for real. Surely there had to be a way to keep him out of my head and out of my dreams.
Wait. Maybe that idea held something.
The Huntsman couldn’t get into my dreams if I didn’t dream. I would just have to find a way to induce dreamless sleep. And then, perhaps, I could get some rest in peace. The only thing I had in the house that I knew would work was alcohol.
I went down to the kitchen, and I found a bottle of hard liquor. It was going to take something stronger than wine to knock m
Helen’s POVRusso seemed to sense my thoughts. “I know you’re living alone for the first time in your life, and I thought that it might be lonely. As the luna, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to keep—”“No!” I said, startling myself with the firm denial in my tone. “I refuse to put anyone else in my service. I spent enough time waiting on other people. I’m not letting someone do that for me.”He reached out, putting a hand on my upper arm. “You misunderstand me,” he said. “Julianne is not here to work in your service. I didn't think you would like that. But a similar occupation is to function as a luna’s lady’s companion. She wouldn't be in charge of the chores. She would be here to make sure that someone is helping you as you start out on your own. You can use her as just a companion, if you want or she can take you through the day-to-day stuff that you might not u
Helen’s POVA larger smile took over my face. “Honestly, I could probably use some help. I was up until 2:00 in the morning last night trying to decide how I wanted to decorate my bed upstairs. It took me hours and I didn’t even come to a decision. And all I was trying to pick where sheets and a comforter. I can’t imagine how much trouble it would be to try and decorate the rest of my house or pick clothes for myself. I don’t think I’ve ever picked clothes for myself. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”A happy look shone from her face. “I would love to go shopping with you. I know all the best places and we can find you some really cute clothes. You have a beautiful figure.”“We can’t go too crazy,” I warned. “Our incomes come from the pack and our lands here around the village. I’m not going to drain those resources for my own vanity.”She nodded. “Th
Helen’s POVIt didn’t take too long before we were ready to go and found ourselves in the library. This time the restricted section was not off limits to me and it felt odd to be able to walk in and simply go straight to the book that I wanted. I didn’t think about the fact that when I had originally looked at the book about the Huntsman that the little silver key that had gone with it. I dropped the key who knows where.My stomach sank. How was I supposed to research this man if I couldn’t get it back into the book? Hoping maybe Russo could pick the lock with some sort of fae magic, I went ahead and went straight for the book and pulled it out, setting it on a nearby table which was set up for reading.To my shock, the key was back in its place. That was creepy. Had somebody put it there or did the book draw it back with some sort of magic?I gave a shudder. Either way I didn’t like the idea.Russo and Julianne both h
Helen’s POVI turned my back on the book and looked between Julianne and Russo. “All right, everyone think hard. We have to find a way to figure out what sort of being fathered the Huntsman.”Julianne pressed her lips together and thought. “We could go back in the historical records and see if anything unusual happened in 1893.”“Perhaps that might give us a clue or maybe we can dig through the historical records and trace his mother,” Russo suggested.“There's got to be clues somewhere,” I said. “Let's do both of what you suggested. I think one of the computers is hooked up to the human internet. Russo, are you any good with that sort of human technology? Can you look up the information on his history?”Russo nodded. “I got good blending in wherever I could find a home. Part of that included residing amongst humans for a while. I can handle their internet and their databases.&
Helen’s POVThe fae glanced around, but we were the only two in this section of the library. A quiet hum emminated from the sleeping machines and the last of the day’s sunlight cut long across the room illuminating floating dust. The place had an eery abandoned feel to it.After checking to see we were alone, Russo nodded his head at the computer. “I was going to find a more gentle way to break this news to you, my little wolf. But it seems like the Huntsman isn’t the only one who has an interesting lineage.”“What do you mean?” I asked. “Did you find out something about Justin?” I pulled my chair closer. “Tell me quick, so that we can try to figure out this puzzle.”He pointed to the screen. “The Huntsman isn’t the only other piece to this puzzle. You are a huge enigma as well. Didn’t your father finally admit before he died that he fathered you on another female, t
Helen’s POVRusso studied further down the page, eyes skimming over material about my heritage. “Listen to this,” he said. “This is interesting. It says here that members of your pack can gain strength and the purity that the rest of the werewolf community considers ideal by sexually joining with pure members of their pack. If the members of your ancestral pack continue to breed with one another, or breed with mates of solid coat colors or took multiple partners, then their offspring would continue to gain additional colors in their coats.”He huffed a sigh. “Weird. The pack you are descendent from places a higher value on more colors. It’s the complete opposite of the rest of werewolf kind.”He pointed to the screen, and I read the paragraph too. Sure enough, according to the research that this professor at the werewolf university had done, the pack I was descendent from placed a higher value on multicolored coats. Rather than having one single wolf-mate that they were drawn to, they
Helen’s POV“Out of curiosity, why not?” I asked.Russo sighed. “I don’t know how long your nature will allow you to go between drawing the essence from someone. I would hate for your dry spell to turn into an affair, which would ruin things between you and Justin.”A blush flamed across my face. “I don’t know that I’m ready to sleep with him.”He nodded. “I can understand that, but your magnetism and need are still there. And I think we can get both you and his lycan on board with this mutual sharing of power. His lycan draws strength from his true mate because lycans, from what I’ve heard, are all as seriously monogamous as Justin seems to be to you. Once they choose a mate, they don’t stray. And your need to draw essence from someone that has enough power to satisfy you.”“How were you thinking we should go about doing that?” I asked.“I
Helen’s POV“So, how did your first day of research go?” Justin asked me.I put my hand over my mouth to finish chewing and swallowed before answering. “We found a little bit more on the Huntsman. It will help us some. But the biggest dead end that we found is his lineage.”“What do you mean, his lineage?” Justin asked me, his brows coming together on a creased forehead.“She means that we discovered the Huntsman isn’t fully human,” Russo told him.“That’s right,” Julianne added. “But in all of the records that he made of himself, the only mentioned of his father was to call him a beast and say that he would never be mentioned because the Huntsman wouldn’t do anything to mark any sort of remembrance for the man.”“Sounds like you’ve been busy,” Justin said. “Did you find out anything else good?”“No,&rdqu
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