Helen’s POVI left the backroom with Justin, feeling much more settled than I ever thought I would have after everything I’d gone through. If he could really control Beowulf that much, it showed me how hard he’d fought himself and how much he’d come to terms with who we were as a couple.When we got back to the room that had the pool tables, a bunch of the warriors from the True Mates pack were there helping with the injured captives that we’d set free. As if she knew how much they meant to me, Julianne was guarding the little group of pixies who sat on top of a table. She shooed away any of the warriors who came over and tried to help with them.“You’re back!” She gave me a wave. “Did you work everything out between you?” she asked when I got close.“Yes. Hopefully, things will go as well with you and Peter.”She bit her lip and looked down at the table. “I hope so, too. In the meantime, the pixies wanted to go with you, and I figured you’d want the same. So, I wouldn’t let anyone el
Russo’s POVAfter I’d gotten the call from Justin, it took a few minutes for his words to sink in. We were free. We were safe. It had been so long since I’d had those things that it hardly felt real.Lisa must have felt the same because, after her initial tears of relief, she set about cleaning up the mess we’d made doing the ritual. The church might have been abandoned, but leaving our pentagram and offerings behind seemed tactless.I silently got to work, helping her. She loaded up the expired materials, and I searched the closets until I found an old mop and bucket. While the ink we’d used did mop off the floor, something about the ritual had etched the symbols into the cement, leaving rough outlines even after the drawings were removed.Well, I was the best I could do. If anyone bought the place, they could always cover the marks with carpet or hardwood. Once everything was clean, Lisa and I left.She paused on the stairs out of the basement. “We can’t just throw the remnants of t
Helens POVReuniting with everyone at my house passed like a whirlwind. We had to trade hugs and stories of what we had all accomplished.At first, I had worried that maybe my friends wouldn’t consider my contributions to be anything. I felt like they had all done so much more than me. Randy and Justin led the warriors and got rid of all of the Huntsman’s henchmen. Lisa and Russo had done the rite, which had burned the beast back to hell.And then there was Julianne and me. We had just been captives.But somehow, Justin and Randy, and Russo and Lisa all considered rescuing the Huntsman’s other captives to be just as important as anything that they had done. For the tiny part of me that wanted to argue against them, I shut it up.Any recognition was better than having them blame me for not being helpful or, worse, for jeopardizing our plan by getting caught in the first place. I wouldn’t have been able to take it if they all hated me.Justin and I had taken a nap when we got home since
Helen’s POVLisa reached across from the chair she was sitting on to the couch where I sat and gripped my hand. “I didn’t say anything about the Huntsman to scare you. I can see it on your face that you’re terrified. But I don’t think that there’s anything he could do to actually turn you into a demon.”Her expression remained serious. “But that doesn’t mean that you might not have gained some power that we don’t understand. I don’t think that this has ever been a thing before. I’ll have to do some research, and, now that it’s safe for them to come out of hiding, I will definitely consult with witches and wizards who are far better trained than I am.”“I’m still fairly young, so there’s a lot that I haven’t run across before, even though I have plenty of raw talent, which I can go ahead and admit now. I’m sure the Huntsman would have been happy to get his hands on me and train me up the way he trained Martin.”She shuddered. “Not that I ever would have worked for him. But I had to hid
Helen’s POV“I’m not worried about the Huntsman coming back,” I admitted, guilt beating at my chest. I” keep having dreams about having sex with him.”My voice had dropped to a whisper, and shame filled me to the core of my being.“Like he’s raping you?” Justin growled.“Worse,” I admitted. I felt sick to my stomach.“I feel horrible about the nightmares,” I said. “Because in the dreams, I like having sex with the Huntsman. I want him to fuck me. It’s like when I was under the spell, Martin cast over me. Somehow I feel like the spell is still there in my sleep, and I don’t want those feelings.”“I want the images of us in bed together to go away. Every time I wake up, I feel like I’m going to vomit. Can you understand why I didn’t really want to admit that to you?”“Justin, the last thing I want you to think is that I desire the Huntsman in any way. He abused me. He locked me up, and he raped me. He put me under a spell and took advantage of everything I had. I just . . . I don’t want
Helen’s POVThe contents of my lunch spattered into the toilet. I flushed it, leaning on the rim, gasping for breath. For a week now, I hadn’t been able to keep much down, and I had a feeling that meant good news.After all, it had been almost two months since I had mated with Justin. Pulling myself off the toilet, I went to the sink and rinsed my mouth, then patted my face dry with a towel.I hadn’t said anything to him, and he was busy most of the time, so I doubt that he noticed. Justin woke early and would go to work before I woke up and started acting sick.I had missed my period last month. But if I was wrong in my assumption and I had a stomach virus, then I should be getting my period at the end of the week. If I did miss another period, I was going straight out to get a pregnancy test.Just the idea made my stomach turn again, but with excitement instead of nausea. Justin was so excited about the possibility of a pup that he and I had been mating that way every single time we
Russo POVI got a set of frantic texts from Lisa telling me that we had to meet right away and that something desperately important had come up. After everything that had gone on in the last two years, her desperation made it hard to breathe.In my mind, I knew that Martin and the Huntsman were both dead, but getting that fear to relax was proving difficult. Every time I heard something out of place at night and every time somebody said they had news, my mind immediately assumed they meant something bad.I watched my own kind slaughtered and then watched the Huntsman trying to route the witches and wizards. I’d seen the aftermath of what he’d done to the lycans and what he was trying to do with the werewolves.Needless to say, after all that unpleasantness, it was hard to imagine that things would just continue to be as good as they were. I was blissfully happy with Lisa. The two of us were planning a wedding over the summer. We were thinking August but early so that all of the flower
Russo’s POVLisa tipped her head, taking in my kiss. All sorts of soft and beautiful feelings welled up inside me, begging for an outlet. Our kiss quickly became more passionate as I tried to express myself.I had never loved anyone more than I did at that moment. The gift Lisa had given me, even without meaning to, was something that I couldn’t express in words. I wanted to show her how much she meant to me, how much this child meant.“Wait a sec.” I stopped, pulling away from her.“Yes?” Her gaze was so sexy it hit like cupid’s arrow, slamming through my heart.“I really, really want to sleep with you right now,” I said. “But . . . do you think it’s okay? We won’t hurt the baby, will we?”Lisa burst out in wild giggles. “No. I don’t think we’ll hurt the baby. Nature does a pretty good job of protecting everything inside me. In fact, I’ve heard that birth experts say if your baby is overdue and you’re looking for a natural way to induce labor, an orgasm will do the trick. So, if you
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