Helen POV The library is disheveled in the estate. We managed to sneak down various halls while the guards are busy at the medical office where Juden is still healing from the attack he raged on his son. It must have been an ugly fight, too; Justin is convinced when his dad reawakes, he will be set into chains, maybe even whipped, as to tame the Lycan inside. He was worried about the marks on my back but after some panting kisses and few lingering touches, the marks closed on their own. I was powerful, more powerful than I ever felt as a Tiger Lily, but more powerful than a Snow White. My coat was everchanging and Justin knew it was turning me into something stronger, but I don’t know if he realized how strong I had become. His wounds hurt in the moment, but the pain didn’t last. My fear would be palpable by now, loitering through the library, but I feel invigorated. I feel relentless. “What happened in here?” I took lengthy steps over the piles of books in the library, the
Helen POV Justin checked over his shoulder more times than I could count, waiting for my parents to follow and start more trouble. I knew how they felt by now; they didn’t care to fight me after Justin’s outburst. I wasn’t worth the trouble of war. We aimed for the hallway where he said his mother used to reside. Justin pulled my back into a spare closet, throwing us inside and shutting the door before a set of footsteps crossed past us. I held onto my mate, still overwhelmed by my parent’s words earlier. “Stop it,” Justin groaned, brushing my face with his fingertips. “Stop letting it consume you. They don’t deserve the right to break you, Helen.” I stared up at my second mate, feeling the warm cries on my cheeks trickle downward. “It’s not fair.” “What’s not fair, my mate?” “If Diana had beaten me in the games, if she had ripped my throat out, they would be proud of her. They would congratulate her and be glad that we had our victory.” I dropped my head, feeling the wor
Helen POV My heart shot up into my throat at the sight of my first mate. His eyes were hollowed in bruises, his lips clashed in a cut and he was favoring his left leg, limping on the other as he shut the door behind him and locked it accordingly. Only now do I notice the claw scratches on the inside of the door. Something tells me this room was built for fortitude, not for an easy break in. “What are you doing here?” I swallowed. Scott looked down at me in his battered state. I could have only hoped Justin killed him before in the courtyard. Now I’m not so sure this snake will die unless it’s head is cut off. I wince at such a morbid thought. “You’re mate has caused a lot of damage to this pack, to other packs, and I think it’s time he sees that just because he is a Lycan Devil, doesn’t mean he is invincible,” Scott sneered. “What are you planning to do, Scott? You will not hurt my mate!” “No, I’m not,” he growled. “At least, not directly. It’s clear that whatever stren
Justin POV I couldn’t ignore her pain. She cried in the shower every night, ushering me out as to not hear her wailing. I knew it was bad, but I couldn’t determine how bad it would get. We’ve been at Lone Wolf Estate for so long, I thought even through the lousy murder charges, we were somewhat safe here. Seeing that collar around her neck changed everything. They’re planning something, my father and Scott, and every time I try to dip into her thoughts, she shuts down. It’s an uphill feat, battling to open up a broken trinket. “Helen,” I breathed, peering into the bathroom to see her curled up in the tub. She sniffled a reply I couldn’t make out and cowered with her back toward me. “Helen, please. Let me look at that thing and I can get it off of you, I know—” “No,” she said, firm with a hint of tire in her tone. “You can’t. It will unleash wolfsbane, Justin. They set me up.” “Is that why you’re so upset? My father wouldn’t have you killed. I know he wouldn’t. Not after e
Helen POV Thankfully Alpha King Juden is a celebrity in the mortal world. His name got us around where our money lacked. We didn’t have much to pack, Justin finding a few coins and bills around the estate and throwing them in the bag before we fled, but it wasn’t nearly enough. His father’s name, however, was fucking plenty. “The gold room penthouse,” the receptionist said, her eyes beaming. “Please, follow the red line past the elevators, to the golden set behind the casino, and then ride it all the way to the top floor.” I swallowed with those words. Top floor? Penthouse? It seems impossible and yet, I opened my eyes to the suite at last, Justin nudging me to move forward. I held in an inhale, looking thoroughly over the large view of this endless city. Justin set down the bags and collapsed on the couch, burying his face into the cushions before snoring a few minutes later. He had driven the entire way out here on our stolen shuttle, looking over his shoulder every minute,
Helen POV “What do you want?” I asked, knowing his smell was not that of the wolfen kind, but of an entirely new species all together. “You shouldn’t be here.” He tipped his head, wearing a dazzling white hat with matching ivory suit and shoes. It was an odd choice for a vampire to take. They drink blood; it would stain that suit terribly. He craned his eyes past me, focused on Justin on the floor, sleeping peacefully. His smile grew larger. “A Lycan. So the rumors are true.” I centered myself between the man and my slumbered mate. His eyes darted down to my attire but it didn’t matter how much his eyes drank up the sight of me. I didn’t want anyone near Justin until I could be sure he was safe. A safe vampire? Maybe I am going crazy. “A delicious wolf girl,” he hummed, his eyes thirsty and shifting colors right before me. They were a matted gray before, but now they burned crimson like my cheeks. “I can see why the Lycan is exhausted. I would be too after—” “Shut up,” I
Helen POV I blinked up at the sight of my mate. He ran upstairs so fast I hardly had time to crawl into the room to change clothes. He bore daggers down at me without mercy. I shuddered. “Mate, what exactly are you doing?” I hollowed my throat with a gusty inhale. “I was—it wasn’t like—” Part of me was still so struck with his aura, with his power over our bond, but I had grown stronger too. I was no longer the tricolor wolfen with such a disappointed family and a bleak future. I was pure now, more beautiful than I had ever felt in my life, and Alpha Justin is still my mate. Climbing to my feet, I slung a finger into his chest. “You lied to me? You know the bloodsucker?” Justin’s gaze narrowed at my newfound courage. “I never claimed to not know him, Helen.” “You never claimed to know him, either!” I spun around quick, marching towards the bedroom to change but the grip of his hand on my wrist stopped me. It hurt, but not enough to cause a mark. He would never do that
Helen POV I pressed into my mate, fairly brave as of lately but not right now. Vampires surrounded us all around, Geoffrey prancing toward the wall nearby and grabbing a key off the holder. I watch him above the others, his presence like an Alpha to his subordinates. He plays with the keys, waving his vampire buddies from their trance on me and Justin. “No, no,” Geoffrey cheers. “They’re my personal guests tonight. Everyone else gets a blood shot on me!” Everyone cheered and went back to dancing, Justin and I ushered to follow the dazzling vampire around the club until we’re back in the hallway. We were nudged into a little velvet room. Geoffrey locked the curtain in place with a strap and pins it to the wall. He hides the key into his pocket when he’s done. I turned to examine the room, eyeing a particular device on the far wall. It was a giant X made out of wood, four leather cuffs nailed into each appendage of the contraption. While staring at it, Justin found a seat on the
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