Justin POVI scooped my mate at the mention of her father in Vegas, let alone right outside the front door. Helen groaned at the movement, limp in my forearms as I kept her close to my chest.Geoffrey had craved her blood instantly for the long-lasting bite and I didn’t want any other vampires looking at her like a blood bag. She’s my mate. I will protect her.“This way,” Geoffrey said.He nodded us down the hall and back into the open club dancefloor. He waved for the music to stop and it did right away. Everyone watched my mate, knocked-out in my arms like road kill would appear to a buzzard bird.I kissed her temple, hoping if she could somehow feel the tension in the air now, that she would ignore it with my cradling, defensive hold.“My clan!” Geoffrey called. “We have an uninvited wolfen guest!”A low rumbled traveled through the velvet club.“You cover their tracks and you deny their existence,” he called, pointing to my mate and me. “They are one of us!”I felt light as he led
Helen POVThe sight had spun out of control quicker than I could wake up. Justin was tearing into Geoffrey, the vampire struggling to hold his own in the fight against a full Lycan.His claws were sharpened to their longest point. He wasn’t going let this vampire walk away from a fight with a slight wound. He was charging to kill something already dead by most standards, something that doesn’t bleed or feel pain.Whatever caused this fight didn’t matter to me. Justin couldn’t get hurt in it.I pushed myself off the bed, trying to shift into my Snow White wolf but I fell to the ground, the metal collar smaller against my wolf’s throat than it is on my mortal form’s neck. I coughed to breathe, pulling on the metal collar in angst.The metal beeped once, and I yanked at it harder, frustration consuming me all over.“Ouch!”I screamed, a harsh point stabbing the back of my neck and pricking through my surface. I could feel blood trailing down the ridges of my spine, pooling into the jacke
Helen POVI shouldn’t have been surprised to see warriors charging through the suite. It had been hours since my mate ran off into the mortal world, destroying everything in his way while experiencing a rage over my near-death.They dragged me from the bedroom, ruthlessly throwing me into a cage in the back of a van waiting downstairs. It was Lone Wolf pack, I could tell by their attire, and the sight of them wasn’t even alarming.Justin must have tipped off our location without a chance of us hiding out anymore. I looked through the kennel, feeling like a rabid and stray rogue, seeing familiar chains looped on the floor that must have been waiting for Justin’s capture.One of the warriors walked up and kicked the side of my cage, speaking through a buff snarl. “Where is he?!”My labored breath hadn’t got much better after being poisoned and bit twice by a vampire. “I don’t know—he jumped out the window—and I couldn’t stop him.”“Tell me what you know, mutt!” He kicked the cage again,
Helen POVWe sleep in the car for most of the trip, driving until we will inevitably run out of gas. We have nothing left from our lost luggage and the missing trinket of my necklace and rings still brings tears to my eyes.I stroke my neck, starving and exhausted.“Maybe you were right,” I said, speaking to the stars that fly over our heads. “At least with Juden at Lone Wolf Estate, we had a shower and warm meals.” I toyed with my torn jacket, the only clothing I had at this point. “And clothes sufficient for the cold wind.”The car Justin hijacked was topless and the chilly air had done little to calm my unsettled nerves.I wept into my palms, starving, thirsty and full of anger.“Hey now,” Justin purred, pulling the car over to the side of the wooded road. He came around to open my door, allowing me to throw myself into his arms. “It’s okay, Helen. We’re going to be okay.”“And what if we’re not?!”He patted my head into the crane of his warm neck. “We will be. We always are. You w
Helen POVThe wizards and the Fae have dinner at one massive table. It’s a large event with dancers and magic and delicious food. We sit on small pillows around the low hanging table suspended from the larges branch of the pine trees above.This place is beautiful, and I’m envious of their sense of community.As a wolf in a pack, I was never allowed to eat let alone sit at the dining table with my so called family. But here they hand out plates to the little ones first, letting them pick through the dishes in the middle of the table before the adults can.Wizard Olu, who had found Justin and I on the road, handed us a plate next while mentioning we are the Fae’s distinguished guest. Something tells me they haven’t been around many wolves, like we haven’t been around wizards.There was a hint of tension, but it was small enough to ignore with ease.They gawked at our every movement; Justin ridged in his movements while I hung onto the robe I was given to wear. It puddled at my ankles a
Justin POVHelen slept on the floor, curled up over a little pile of blankets and a stiff cot. Wizard Olu had little else to offer, his home a woodsy open room with a couple piles of similar beds for himself and his daughter.I looked forward to getting to lay with my mate tonight, even in these impoverished conditions, but for the moment it seemed right to have a drink with Olu on the deck of his home, overlooking the vast and dark forest below.“This place is beautiful,” I hummed, admiring their perfect craftsmanship and the attention to detail on the railings strung with thick ropes to prevent incident. “I would have never guessed Wizards lived like this.”Wizards, in contrast to vampires, seem a lot more hospitable.“I always though rogues were dangerous and unpredictable,” Olu said, looking briefly to the home where my gentle mate whimpers in her sleep. “You both have exceeded my assumptions as well.”“You haven’t seen us at our worst yet,” I grumble admittedly. “I don’t think yo
Helen POVI wanted to scream and scrap and tear into that woman, and also into my mate for being in this situation, but when he tells me to run, I know it’s for good reason.Joy was stronger than she was since the wolfsbane prodded into my bloodstream. I shift into my white wolf, wanting to get my necklace but knowing better than to stick around here any long.Justin tore into his Lycan form and charged the naked temptress, Joy forcing me to run into the woods that had once been scattered with wandering, gathering wizards. It’s colder now, bare of any creatures, and the shift of life to nothingness puts an eerie shade over things.It doesn’t take long before I recognize the trailing scents of wolves in these woods. Juden’s warriors won’t stop hunting, won’t stop chasing, and I fear their plans to use me against Justin.It was the purpose of the collar that had been demolished, to be used against Justin for something. I just don’t know what yet, and I don’t think I should stay to find
Helen POV“You missed a spot,” Scott purred, kissing my bare, bruised back as I hunched over to scrub the tile floors. He stepped over me like I’m a bug he would prefer to squish. “If you behave tonight, maybe I’ll let you sleep in bed with me.”“Never,” I hissed, throwing the sopping wet sponge at his back.He stopped walking away and turned with a raised brow. “Oh, so you want to keep being punished?”“It’s better than being with you,” I barked. “You cannot keep me here forever, Scott. I will make it back to my mate.”“I am your mate!”“You will never be my mate again!”I stood, fighting the chains on my wrists and my legs, hating how Scott treats me like my Lycan mate is being treated by his father. He wants to humiliate me into submission. It will never work.“You want some perfect coated white wolf but you will never really be my mate! I will never be your Luna and I will never submit to you!” I lock my jaw, speaking with so much hate I don’t recognize my own voice. “I am glad yo
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