I waited for the killing bite, but suddenly, and without warning, the imposter wolf was turning tail and bolting from the scene. At that same instant, another figure loomed over me, and I nearly screamed again before I realized who it was. Justin, my heart, my mate, had saved me again.“Oh, my dearest,” Justin murmured, gathering me into his arms. “You need to shift so I can carry you.”In my human form, the pain in my leg was just as intense, but I could see the damage much clearer, which made it that much worse. He had torn my leg open to the bone, and it dangled uselessly from my body.“This is going to hurt, but we have to slow the bleeding,” Justin said as he pulled his shirt over his head. He was right. I was losing a lot of blood and beginning to feel woozy from it.He balled his shirt up and pressed it against the wound. I screamed again. The fact that I remained conscious was a miracle.“I know, I know,” Justin soothed, as he tied the sleeves of the shirt around my thigh, to
Justin stayed awake with me until I calmed down enough to stop crying, and then he drifted off. I tried to sleep, myself, but I couldn’t get my brain to quiet down. I kept replaying the earlier attack. How could I have been so stupid? Donna had already tried once in the same day to kill me! I should never have let my guard down.I stretched my leg a bit, testing it. The pain was still intense, but I could feel it really was already starting to heal. There was no way I would be strong enough to compete tomorrow, but still, I took some solace in feeling the healing process at work. If only there were something I could do to speed it up.I shifted a little, settling more comfortably into Justin’s arms. He didn’t wake, but I felt him tighten his hold on me. He was caring for me, protecting me, even in his sleep. I was so lucky to have him–my second chance–and I felt that winning the competition would make me, in some way, deserving of his love.As he tightened his hold, and I shifted back
I woke up with Justin’s weight on top of me. Opening my eyes, I saw him watching, smiling devilishly. “I figured one more round might be a good idea before the big match today,” he said.I couldn’t imagine I would ever want to say no to Justin, but especially not now, when every time we had sex, I could feel myself growing stronger. I would be facing my final opponent, my own sister, and I’d need all the strength he could give me if I wanted to defeat her. And I wanted to defeat her more than I wanted anything except Justin.“Yes,” I laughed. “You’re being so selfless right now. Fucking me for my own good.” He laughed too, easing into me.“My mate, you always feel so good,” I moaned. “I can’t believe I lived this long without feeling you inside me. My perfect second chance.”Justin kissed me sweetly. It was so unlike the brutal, biting way his mouth had met mine that first night together. I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him in deeper. I had never imagined that sex could be
Helen POVDiana had me pinned, my shoulders to the ground, her wolf weight holding me down. I heard King Juden begin to count, “ONE!” The crowd was in a frenzy.If this match had occurred even a week ago, it would have been over for me before it even started. It used to take me so much time to shift. But all of my and Justin’s time in bed meant I had grown into something so much more powerful than Diana could have ever imagined.“TWO!” the Alpha King bellowed. Diana threw her head back in triumph, as if she were already beginning to celebrate. But before Juden could let loose the final number, faster than anyone in the crowd could even process, I shifted, letting Joy, in all her newfound splendor, free. I flipped forward, knocking Diana back, and she yelped in surprise.Now, on all four feet, I shook myself from snout to tail, feeling my full strength as it rippled through my body. The crowd gasped in near-unison. The last time they had seen me, I was a small, unassuming, tricolor lit
Helen POV The morning was quiet. Justin moved carelessly through time as though his event wasn’t happening today. I suppose being a lycan was enough of a confidence booster for him to know that no matter the outcome, he was the favored to win. He is tantalized with the sight of me, slowly, teasingly dressing just within range of his peripherals. I was never a bold, sensual virgin but this second mate has brought a new side of me forward. I liked her, too. She was cocky and affectionate and sexy. He decided to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning back causally while I adjusted the straps of my thin tank-top before pulling them back down over my chest, then adjusting them a second time for good measure. “You’re teasing your mate,” he bit down on the words, his throaty tone palpable from across the room. “Have you not had enough, my dearest? Do you wish for more?” Joy perked at the idea of that offer. “More?” He nodded, taking to chewing on his bottom lip as I slipp
Justin’s POV The fight is my favorite part. The adrenaline, the shift, even the possible injuries. My lycan responded well to pain; too well to it at times, but I had to flicker away from the roughness he had come to enjoy with our mate these last few days. Her scent still marked me, even in this broad, muscular stance. The Game Master had called out his countdown to begin but there was hardly a waiting period. Everything moved so quick, without warning, that the shredding of skin and fur had started long before the fight was intended to. I undercut my opponent’s underbelly, latching my claws into his side and dragging it down before he managed a swipe in my general direction. It hardly hit at all, marking my wrist without a clear definition of a wound being made. My head was in a frenzy, my blood burning throughout every pulsing vein as I struck forward, sinking my teeth deep into his back before lifting to create an identical mark. He would enjoy the sight of these scars late
Helen’s POV I tilted my head back to give him access to my ear, the plane of my neck, anything he could reach through the small holes in the cell to get to me. His hand had been working overtime on my clit and the nether regions below it, drenching my bare ass against the cold floor where I let him have access through my hiked skirt. I moaned his name, his pressure going deeper while the cut on my forehead had lost its initial sting. It was begging to heal, shrinking with every pluck of his fingers, every brush of my sensitive button, and the pure hormonal desire his lycan was exuding in this small space. It would choke me eventually but I didn’t care. For all I knew, I was as good as dead, anyways. “Your mark has cleared,” he panted, his hot breath even hotter than before. “I should rip through this cage and chains and locks so I can have you properly.” “They will only find another way to retain me for murder,” I growl. His fingers drug up my inner thigh, leaving a wet tra
Helen POV “No,” I begged, clinging to the cell bars, my hands fighting the extra chains. This cell only seemed worse now, not because Justin was trying to break me out, but because he would break Scott’s neck. “Justin! Justin, no!” The Lycan was taller than the hallway ceiling, standing over Scott’s wolf as he had shifted in self-defense. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, it never will be, so seeing Scott even attempt to face the Lycan in his wolfen form only accelerated Justin’s recklessness. They collided but even on his hind legs, Scott didn’t hold a candle to Justin. “Guards!” I screamed, trying to find any buffer to put between these guys. “Justin, please!” Scott deserved his wounds, but seeing so many of them, so quickly, I couldn’t fathom how long it would take before my first mate would have his neck broken by my second. But conflict of any kind made me uneasy. This fight up close, so cruel and bloody, it made me sick. I would have nightmares for sure. Guards finally f
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