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
Helen POV I was dropped off in my cell, wrapped in a towel and soaking wet from my bath. I still had soap on my skin and the freezing cold basement of the pack house wasn’t helping me calm down. I panted my cries, screaming for my mate, hearing the scuffle continue on upstairs with Randy and Justin. It took all I had just to try and stand up, to look through the little wardrobe of clothes Randy put together in my cell. I slipped on some silk sets of pajamas and fell into the soft bed with heavy blankets. My skin is tainted all over in marks and I know I don’t even look like myself. But Justin knows me. He should know I would never hurt him. The fight upstairs grew louder and I ducked under the blanket when heavy, pounding steps came down into the barracks. The cell door unlocked at once and hands grabbed at my wrists. I gasped into a scream, only to see Russo standing over me, not Justin. “I know, little wolf,” he groaned, handing me a bunch of snacks and foil covered foods that
Justin POV I hated sleeping in bed after losing my mate to my father. After having her stab me, it only made things significantly worse, and my nightmares controlled a lot of how I slept at night. The nightmares crept back into my mind, jolting me alive while I shot up off the couch in a damp, cold sweat. I fell asleep by the dim fireplace, on the couch, somewhere her scent hadn’t touched thankfully. Wiping my tired eyes, I caught a glimpse of Randy in the kitchen, making something in a plastic cup and scurrying off to take it to the barracks. It’s nearly midnight by now. Why is Randy going down there to pester with my mate? I finally had enough of my guessing, stalking down the creaking steps to see my beta bent over the bedside, feeding my mate a cup of pink liquid. Her eyes hardly even opened and when he was sure she swallowed it all, he laid her back comfortably in bed. I grew somewhat jealous to see another male dote over my mate, his movements gentle and kind and loving… un
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