Helen POV“What happened here?!”I only looked up slightly to see Randy charging toward the pond. He was alone, watching Justin carefully as he knelt behind my back.“Moon goddess,” he said, running his fingertips lightly down my spine. “You’re covered in bruises, Helen.”I spit out the remainder of Justin’s come still clogging my throat and blushed deeply, looking at my pale form to see what he was talking about. He was right. Some of them even looked like bite marks. I felt sick at the sight of them, but more so at how Justin saw them.“No, it’s fine—” I pleaded, looking at my poor mate in his cycle of losing self-control. “Please, don’t—”Justin roared in shifting into his Lycan.I flinched at the sight of my mate running off. Randy pulled my hair back, assessing my naked, battered body.“Did he really do all of this, Helen?”“It doesn’t hurt,” I said in defense. It was true, too. It didn’t hurt. The only pain I felt was seeing Justin so furiously fighting himself. “It was too much
Justin POVShe finally fell asleep. Her body was jerking around when I entered the dwelling of the cave, her heat so palpable it sent waves over my Lycan. He wasn’t happy with my abrasive need to create distance between us.Neither was her wolf.It took so much out of her that at last she passed out. Randy wanted to be sure of her submission against her heat, so he tied her wrists in rope and looped it through the headboard of the bed.Seeing her like that only fueled the need and desire that bubbled through my chest. I wanted her like that, to please her mercilessly while she was tied up and panting and begging.Randy connected a fist into my cheek, knocking me unbalanced and pissing me off.“What the fuck?!”My Beta snarled. “You’re doing it again, dammit. Relax, Justin. You’re going to put each other back in heat.”I shook my head and settled my nerves; for now. “I don’t know what happened out there it was just—we just took a break to swim—I wanted to calm her down after that terri
Helen POVMy wrists bleed for days. Anytime I need to get up, I’m untied from the bedpost but the ropes stay wrapped around my wrists. Randy spends most of the time with me if I have to get up to eat, to shower, but he is ruthless in putting me back in bed.I’ve fought him before, but I’m not strong enough to break away from him completely.Justin has been far too focused on setting the new pack up in the mortal cities nearby, all while collecting rogues and other pack outcasts to join our new pack. Justin was trying to stay busy and trying to stay away from me.I only made my heat worse.“RANDY!”I screamed as I woke, the stabbing agony in my abdomen like a million knives sliding in and out of my flesh over and over again. I woke up in tears that didn’t stop until I saw Randy undoing my wrists overhead.He picked me up in a single, rough swoosh and put me on the shower floor. The water hit me like a train would pelt my back if I were standing in its way. I screamed as the fever fough
Helen POVIt was the first morning I didn’t wake up in agonizing pain.Justin was brushing my hair back, untying my wrists, all while I had shifted in and out of my dreadful sleep. His lips lightly pressed into my temple.“How can you be sure it’s over?” Randy asked.Justin hummed a noise, running his palm down my cheek. “I can smell it. Her arousal has dissipated and she’s not whimpering in her sleep anymore. She’s better now.”“I don’t want anything like that to ever happened again,” Randy admitted in heavy exhale. “I couldn’t watch you two have so much tension. It was painful to witness.”I grumbled slightly, aware of my mistakes when in heat.“She couldn’t resist, and I couldn’t either,” Justin huffed. “I made a mistake and pushed her away too hard but my Lycan—I’ve never felt like that before. He was furious.”“It was hard to talk you down, Alpha.”“I know, Randy. I appreciate you doing it, though. I don’t know how my Lycan would mate her in that state, in that form, but he was r
Helen POVWhen I managed to wake up, the stirring voices around me had stalled. I watched the unfamiliar faces in the small, wood home stay perfectly still, looking down at me. my hands ran across my body, noticing the patches of natural bandages they placed there.I peeled a sticky, ointment sticky Lilypad off my hip, exposing the dainty scar underneath.“Where am I at?” I panted, panicked. “What pack is this? Lone Wolf?”The younger wolf nearest to me shook his head, the female I saved in the woods behind his shoulder. “You’re with Small Oak,” he sighed. “We’re a small, riverfront pack. I’m Ezequiel and my half-sister, Martha, she brough you here.”“Oh,” I groaned, sitting up to see them watching me closely. “I’ve never heard of this pack.”Ezequiel grinned softly. “We’re not really a big pack, and we live pretty simple lives out here. Our Alpha died a few months back so we’ve been waiting for the moon goddess to send us someone to lead our pack. Then you showed up.”My brows furrow
Helen POVJustin, Randy and I are the last to move into the village.Randy picked a small little cottage that hangs over the river, while the rest of our new pack saved the largest cottage for my mate and me. It was the last Alpha and Luna’s home, and it’s a beautiful space. Three stories tall with countless rooms and a barrack in the basement.It was fit for an Alpha, that’s for sure.Justin folded his clothes away in our new bedroom, meanwhile I had decided to lay down for a nap, or at least to watch him unpack, to catch a breath. We had been hiding for awhile and it wasn’t easy, but this finally felt like it was all worth it.I stretched on the bed and yawned, Justin giggling at my sleepiness.“You can’t go to sleep yet, Helen. We have the first pack dinner tonight,” Justin reminded me. “I’ll be announcing out pack name to everyone who moved in.”I pondered what he had chosen but liked the idea of being surprised with everyone else. “I know, Justin. I’m just tired. It’s been such a
Helen POVScott was wildly outnumbered, but that didn’t stop him. He shifted through the clearing and sprinted toward the pack. Some of them met Scott in wolfen form while others hung back, Marth moving to my side as she watched on in horror.I stayed behind my mate’s back. Justin wouldn’t let Scott near me again. I wanted to fight him but after the curse he stabbed into my spine, I was too afraid of going through anything like that again.The wolves of True Mates had stopped him before he made it into town square, biting and nipping at his extended throat. Justin ordered for them to take Scott to the barracks under our new home.While they did that, Justin cleared his throat and tried to salvage the night.“We will not be intimidated by false Alphas,” Justin roared.Martha left to take her seat and I took mine, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder to my Lycan mate. I leaned into his side and tried to focus on the festivity of this evening but Scott nagged through my mind.Without a mating ma
Justin POV“Reject her first. Then I’ll save Helen.”I stood firm against that. “No. I can’t reject my mate. No matter what, she is mine, Scott. I would never let her live a life, no matter an antidote, with you as her Alpha.”She purred against my leg, nodding her head in steady agreement. She wasn’t made to be a pawn in this war, but here she was, swallowing poison and spitting out Scott’s offer to be her mate all the same.She was strong, but it wasn’t going to last under these circumstances. Her sickness will only worsen.“Come here, Helen,” I groaned, lifting her off the floor and into my arms. She hung there, lazy and sweaty and tired. So understandably tired. “Tell me something, Scott. How did you and my father poison my mate?”He smiled proudly. “The fish. We knew you’d take opportunity of the river water. She would eat from it eventually, as would the traitors that left Fiery Cross. Their death is retaliation but hers, it can be prevented. You just have to reject her, Devil.”