Justin POVIt happened so fast.And it didn’t make any sense.Gwen worked on my back again, having to redo her work every hour on the dot just to pull the poison from my blood stream. I laid on our bed, suffocating myself with Helen’s scent, and growling every time I inhaled it.I missed her so much and that’s what she does in return? She betrayed me!Gwen tweaked with my spine and I snarled in response, Randy and the Fae holding back nearby as though ready to pounce if I were to attack our frail little healer.I shouldn’t be surprised because fury is all my Lycan felt now. It’s all I had left to deal with. I needed something to cling onto and it wasn’t Helen—not anymore.“It doesn’t make sense,” Randy growled, slamming his fist into the wall; again.“She may have been confused, Lycan,” Russo offered. “She would never betray you, I know she wouldn’t. She worked so hard to free those wizards so why would she turn around and want to stab—”“ENOUGH!” I roared. “She pierced me with the bl
Helen POV“I want you to count them this time,” Kelley purred, holding the whip behind me so I couldn’t see her next movements. “If you pass out again, I’ll just start over when you wake back up. Understand me, mutt?!”“Yes, Luna,” I breathed, my lips cut and swollen in bruises.I don’t know how long we’ve been back on Fiery Cross pack lands but I knew it had been a lot of time I’ve been down in this cell. My father would beat me with his belt, complaining that his pack hadn’t yet returned.He took in a few rogues as warriors. They stayed in the pack house, only adding to my torture.None of it matched my step-mothers. I guess technically, my aunt. She threw her sister out like Diana did to me and I couldn’t imagine doing that to my own family.Of course, I never imagined hurting Justin.I couldn’t stop seeing his face in my nightmares. He truly thought I had stabbed him, and now he’s dead because of me. I wished Kelley would just end my suffering but she wasn’t interested in that.My
Helen POVRusso held open the door to the vacant house and I fell inside immediately, unable to have any more strength to go further than the foyer. Russo made sure to lock the door, falling beside me so he could see my face, covered by my matted, bloody hair.“Little wolf, are you okay?” he gasped, his voice a stark difference than it was at my father’s packhouse. He is so calm and concerned. I’m glad he isn’t the ruthless and callous Fae he was pretending to be at the dinner table. “Helen, I’m going to pick you up, okay?”Before I could stop him, he lifted me off the floor. I gasped alive, my back on fire as it pressed into his forearms. My fists curled into the fabric of his shirt, begging to be cut loose.“Here, here,” he panted, lowering me into the bathtub. I slid onto my side, trying to alleviate the pain on my back. Lifting up the back of my shirt, Russo groaned, “moon goddess… Helen, your back…”“Whipped,” I breathed. “Nine—nineteen times.”“Why, Helen? Did your parents do th
Helen POVI kept my head down, knowing Kesler had one thing on his mind when desperately wanting to make me suffer. He is an alpha male, a dark coated wolf who reminds me too much of Scott.Now, above ever before, I wished that Kesler had the same fate of Scott.Maybe this would be over quickly. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt as much as I think. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll black out and be granted unconscious to avoid feeling anything at all.Kesler reels back his boot, brining it across my temple and throwing me into the side of the bathtub. Blood marks the floor already, but now there’s more. Crimson is such a terrible, painful color and it lines everything now.“Fuck, that felt good,” he mumbled, inhaling like stepping out into fresh air. “Let’s get to the real fun, though, little Luna.”He straddled my lap and I just tried to stay calm, knowing what is coming but not knowing how I would handle it. I laid back and shut my eyes, feeling him rustle around as he tried to get comfortable while I w
Justin POVI pace the porch, watching the intake of wizards all whisper and gossip around the town square. My body is sore beyond measure, but my mind was working overtime trying to make sense of everything that has occurred.Randy jobs up to the house, taking a set of jeans that I toss in his direction after checking on the warriors are the border of the pack boundaries.“He’s almost here,” Randy huffs, shaking his head. “What do you want to do with him when he gets back?”“I want to know why he left in the middle of the night at a critical time!” I barked. “My father is ill, my pack is growing in size, and he goes out for a midnight stroll and comes back hours later? He has some explaining to do.”Randy glanced over his shoulder, gulping obviously. “Looks like we’ll get our answer soon.”Russo limps forward toward my house. He’s wearing a pair of worn pants, his entire chest and abdomen smeared in red, crimson blood. I flinch at the downwind of his scent, the smell of that blood so
Helen POVI duck to avoid the slap that I know is coming.My father has been down here every night since Russo ran off, leaving me behind. He can’t contain his rage anymore. He’s furious with me for being such a disappointment of a daughter.He knew I didn’t kill Diana and I’m still suffering for her death. If anything, I feel so bad for my sister. She was a tool used by my father and my step-mother to forever torment me. She was tool, a weapon, and she died because of them.Not because of me.His next slap connects and I collapse onto my chest.“Fuck,” he snarled, panting through his exasperated sighs. “I can’t win with you, can I? You just never stop fighting me, Helen. You have to break eventually.”I spit to clear my lungs, the blood splattering against his boots. He hissed at me like a snake.“Worthless spec,” he snarled, swinging his boot back, ready to find its way into my already broken ribs but he stopped. Looking over his shoulder, the light from upstairs pouring into my bas
Justin POVMy warriors wiped out the rest of Fiery Cross in no time. The Luna died quickly, not as she had deserved, but I couldn’t ask them to torture her like she tortured my mate for her entire life.I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to be so vengeful. I just did.My warriors outnumbered the entire pack left under my mate’s father’s rule and now he lays in the living room, his breath stilling as he bleeds out from a gash along his entire chest and sides. He wasn’t going to heal from that wound—that’s for sure.I took out a small vial of wolfsbane from my pocket. I hadn’t even needed to shift to help in the fight. It was over before it even began.I tipped the bottle sideways, watching the thick, syrupy liquid dare to drip out of the vial and onto his chest.“You’re too late,” he spat, speaking through his gritted, blood-stained teeth. “She’s already dead.”I looked to the Fae, shaking his head as he frantically looked for my mate around the house. “She can’t be. It was only a few d
Helen POV My body was stiff when I woke out, laid out on the floor of a dark, unfamiliar room. Joy was still aching from our treatment under my father’s rule, but the scent in the room wasn’t anywhere near that of Fiery Cross pack. I could pick up Justin’s scent in the mix of heavy, lapping smells in the space. I shot forward, needing to find my mate, but in the dark my head met the bars of a rusted cell door. I fell back with a cry, my entire exterior marked and throbbing and pulsing. “Justin,” I panted, speaking through a locked, pained jaw. “Dammit! Justin!” Little steps came down the barrack steps and I finally could take in that I had been thrown into a cell at my mate’s own pack house! The Alpha, The Last Lycan, came down to face me through the bars. I tried to stand but melted to my weary, weak knees moments later. The world pressed into my shoulders, pinning me down at the aura that was leaking from my mate. His thick and hot anger was slapping me into silence, and he did