The cool water against my skin was soothing beyond belief. I could see small fish swimming away from the shallows as I stepped in and sat down. Darnell went to scout the nearby area, allowing me and Jay to have time alone, but keeping close by so that he could make sure we remained alone and didn’t need to be prepared for a sneak attack. With this assurance, we could relax while not near the rest of the pack. Jay and I made use of the cool water’s edge.
“This feels so good,” I mumble to myself, allowing myself to slip deeper into the cool waters. Jay slipped in beside me, murmuring his agreement. I glanced at him. His toned body glistened from the sun as the rays hit the water drops. I could feel my face growing warm, but I didn’t shy away from my husband this time.
Leaning in with that stupid smirk on his face, Jay whispered, &ldq
My eye twitched as I looked down at the item placed before me. It was a silly thing to get mad over. I knew that. I understood very well, but I couldn’t help it. Wife Appreciation Day should have been something perfect, something wonderful and Jay had tried, bless him. Really tried. However, the dress he picked out for me was far too big. Like two sizes too big.“Are you calling me fat!?” I questioned him, his face a look of pure bewilderment. Of course, that wasn’t what he had meant to imply. He just hadn’t bothered to ask me my size and thus wouldn’t have known. He could easily take it back and swap for something smaller, but my hormones were completely out of it today.“I- no?” Jay faltered over his words, unable to fathom why I was so overcome with emotions. “I will get the right size. Please? I’m
A long staring match was fought between me and the Beta in front of me. He hadn’t answered my questions, but he hadn’t attacked yet either. I couldn’t figure out why. I supposed my command had no sway over him as we were from different packs, but there was no reason he would need to wait before striking at his enemy.“Well, if all you’re doing is trespassing, I’m calling my mate,” I hissed at the man, then opened the mindlink to Jay. Lumi was cowering in my mind, but I had to hold it together. Perhaps if I distracted him long enough, the rest of the pack would get here before he tried anything.“Patrick,” the man finally offered me a name. I could only assume it was his. He lowered his head, at first in a way that almost seemed respectful. Then I heard the low growl of his voice. “I heard word that a h
I do not know where Patrick is leading me, but no matter how hard I try to fight him off, he avoids my flailing attacks. A coldness spreads throughout my whole body as I smell other unknown werewolves in the area. Though even the area itself is smelling a little different from before. It still smells like a forest, of course, but perhaps it is the plans or animals here that are different? It doesn’t matter. The main thing is that this is a clue that this area is not Jay’s land.My breath hitches when I see several eyes staring back at me from within the shadows. It is deathly silent suddenly, too. Animals here are afraid of these werewolves, which can only mean they know not to be seen around them to preserve their lives. It isn’t as though Jay’s pack doesn’t hunt, but likely not to the same extent. As Patrick continues to drag me further into his Alpha’s lands, more wer
Suddenly finding the silence in my head deafening, I tried reaching out to Jay once more. However, like Lumi, there was no response. The silver cut me off from everything that made me a werewolf. Looking frantically towards Jay’s lands, I hoped, prayed, to whatever listened that he would come and save me.There was no salvation for my predicament. Patrick, now once more human, heaved me up over his shoulder. He muttered something under his breath before carrying me further into enemy territory. Some of the pack remained. I could only assume they were to act as a deterrent to Jay and anyone else that came to save me.Even without Lumi, I refused to give up. I hit Patrick’s back with my fists, in the vain hope, it would actually do anything to stop him. “Let me go!” I demanded, but he ignored my efforts. “I said let me go, you big je
Every minor bump and dip had me wincing in pain. I could see nothing with the darkness of the blindfold over my eyes, nor could I move as my wrists and ankles had been bound again. Though this time by mere rope. I still felt too numb to do much more than roll onto my back as a sudden turn toppled me over. I did not know where we were going, but I knew to whom I was being delivered. The mindlink was still cut off, despite the lack of silver bounding me into human form. The only explanation was that something in that drink must have been causing a similar effect on my body. It wouldn’t last for much longer though, and as soon as I could, I would reach out to Jay and give him the Alpha’s name. I just hoped they were taking me to his pack and not at some location to have me killed right away. The sound of muffled talking somewhere in front of me made me aware tha
It must have been a good hour or two before there was any sign of Alpha Shaun. Luna Vanessa stayed with me during the wait, monitoring me and entertaining me with stories of her children’s wild adventures. I had been right about there being a river nearby, as she commented on how the boys in her family had all gone down the cliff and further upstream, where the current wasn’t as strong. There they would spend all day playing and fishing in the waters until it was time to come home. Each time more filthy than the last.I was glad of the distraction. The marks on my ankles from where the silver had touched the skin was bothering me. Now that I was no longer numb, I could once more feel the tingling sensation. I kept that to myself, as the marks would take time to heal. Ben had kept Lumi’s presence quiet as he had said he would, and I had no intention of letting this pack know either.
I can’t speak for the longest time after Shaun lays that request on me. It was one thing to have all these packs come after my life as they had done, but to ask me to betray Jay? To allow my mate and my pack to be killed? And for what reason could they have that would ever justify it?“This might be hard for you at first, I understand,” Shaun said as he watched my reactions. “They have held you for a long time, assuming they own you because of your parents’ position, right?” He added, assuming that I was in a forced marriage. Well, at first, yes. That had been the case, but they were not forcing me now. However, Shaun did not know about Lumi or that we had accepted Jay as our mate.Closing my eyes, I cleared my thoughts free from the sudden shock that had spread throughout it. “You will let me go home if I agree to your
As soon as the glass shattered, I could hear the sounds of people scrambling to my room. I guess the Alpha hadn’t expected me to be brave enough to vandalise his home to escape. As soon as I got out of the window, I allowed Lumi to take over. The meagre clothes Ben’s people had put me in were of no consequence to me, so there was no mourning of clothes tonight. As soon as our feet darted forward, we could hear the alarm-howls going out to the whole packhouse, and knew it wouldn’t be long before the arm spread to the town as well. We had little time. Sprinting forward, we rounded the corner to the front of the packhouse, aiming for the outskirts of the town. We were going to be free of this troublesome situation one way or another! I just knew it! That is when we almost slammed into a light grey wolf. Right away, we could tell who it was. Vanessa had already s
I just want to thank everyone who has come with me on this fluff/adventure/romance of a journey. Although not my first novel, it is one of my first straight-pairings and although I feared Gwen would either be too whiny or hyper, I am glad to see some people enjoyed her personality. I wanted to make her dependable by the end of the book, so I hope I pulled that off. Although I won't be getting to the sequel right away, I do plan to write one for this book. It'll focus on Gwen's twin sons, so please keep an eye out for that in the future! In the meantime, if you want to support me, please leave a review and some gems as I would greatly appreciate it! Even if you didn't like the book, I would like to hear what you think I could approve upon. Much love, and happy reading,Yukiro.
A few months have passed, and although it wasn’t easy, my pack has finally settled into their new home. It had taken us a long time to rebuild, but Bucky had helped us learn how to make cabins and how best to sustain ourselves out here. He couldn’t directly interfere with any conflicts, but he didn’t seem to have any issue with teaching us how to grow crops or forage for fruits.As soon as we were self-sufficient, he would leave us to continue his travels, but for now, he had promised to stay until we no longer had to rely on him. I never brought my pack to see the witches, but the witches knew I was going to bring my pack here, and my pack was now aware of my split bloodline. They never questioned where the witches were, but they knew to be respectful of the forest we now called home.Looking around at the slowly growing village, I couldn&rsq
“You want us to live where!?”Jay’s outrage at where I was taking him and our pack was everything I had expected him to showcase. Luckily, we were so far from Shaun’s lands now that I didn’t fear someone might hear him.Glancing at him, I offered a small smile. “I know you wouldn’t like it, but we don’t have many options,” I reply to him as I turn my attention to Aderyn in the sky. We had taken a very long route to reach Bucky’s place, and we were about halfway there by now.“I’d rather not give up our home,” Jay complained, lowering his voice again.I squeezed his hand in comfort. I knew how he felt and I too did not want to leave our home, but I had made a promise and knew this was for the be
The sound of warning cries enters the town down the bottom of the cliff, letting me know the shadow-wolves have begun their task of distracting everyone. Those who were still up near the backhouse seemed to hesitate before finally running off to join their pack. Shaun must have ordered them to find out what was going on.I wait for everything to be clear before nodding to Jay. “I need to release the prison guard from his sleep before I forget,” I tell him, placing a kiss on Jay’s nose. “I’ll be safe. No one will see me, but you cannot wait for me to get back. Follow Aderyn down the cliff’s path. We’re not going home, unfortunately.”Jay gives me a confused look but nods slowly before he makes his way towards the direction Aderyn leads him and the pack. There are better ways to collect our things than risk our pack
Shaun looks at me in disbelief. He looks from me to my raven, then back again, as if trying to figure out if this is really all I want in return for my pack. Perhaps he doesn’t even believe me about my shadows or that Aderyn is my familiar. Whatever he thinks, Aderyn has his own plans and glides over to Shaun and lands on his shoulder.Aderyn has Shaun’s full attention now and croaks, “she speaks the truth. She wishes no harm, or else she could have easily done so by now, but she wished to bargain her pack’s freedom for everyone’s safety instead.”“He can’t understand,” I say, but stop as soon as I realise that somehow Shaun has actually understood.Looking at me, Aderyn explains, “we’re connected now. I can pick the language for those to understand m
As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear the Alpha and Luna off in the distance and knew Aderyn was still distracting them enough for me to slip on out of the door and shut it behind me. There was no turning back as soon as we enacted the next phase of our plan, so I left the prison door unlocked, just in case my pack needed to make a run for it.I headed towards the Alpha’s room, knowing now where it was. The original plan was to have the Luna leave the packhouse before we caused the distraction, but this was still workable. As I slipped into the bedroom, I shut the curtains to the windows and set to work breaking the lights. I couldn’t have him turning them on and accidentally preventing me from using my gifts.Once that was done, I sent Aderyn the secret code through the shadows to let the raven know it was time to enact the next
With a loud croak, Aderyn leaves the rails and lands on the roof. It peers down at the Alpha and then, with a louder call, tells me, ‘I will distract him.’I nod slowly. Thankfully, only witches can understand familiars, and even then it isn’t always the case that we can understand one that belongs to another witch. Either way, I can get past the Alpha and into his room without being detected.I pause at the door, however, and glance back to Aderyn as he annoys Shaun. Is this really going to work? Just sneak in and sneak out? I can’t bring others with me in the shadows, and there are too many patrols to get out of here without a fight.I frown and turn back to the door. I have to at least confirm everyone is safe and well first, then I can deal with Shaun and his pack after. My idea isn&rsquo
The water is cold against my skin, even with all this fur on my body. As soon as Aderyn had returned, it let me know I could make it up part of the way before a patrol would become an issue. There were more further up that it would then become impossible, but this would get us past the outskirts of the border and at least as close as where I had washed up on shore the last time I was here. Any further and I’d find it hard to avoid patrols and battle the river’s current.Things can still go wrong, though, so I am cautious about how quietly I make my way upstream. Anytime Aderyn lets off a warning call, I lower my body further into the river’s waters. It takes a bit of practice, but there are spots even here where the shadows can help me blend in with my surroundings. The only issue is they are not as still as those on the ground.To say I am re
After returning to the location of my body, I release the bond with the raven, allowing it to fly back off to its nest or wherever it will go. I then look at Aderyn and sigh softly. “It won’t be easy, but we can get in just fine. It will be the getting out that will prove trickier,” I relay to it.Aderyn cocks its head to the side at me and then croaks, “there are many warriors there, each knowing the layout of the land. Fighting will not be easy for your people.”“I know,” I agree with a single nod. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to find a way out, though.” With a fold of my arms, I mull over my options. I would rather not hurt the other packs, because that’ll just cause even more fear and terror to fill their minds, and now that I know the truth, I don’t want that to be my legacy.“If not to fight, can just scare off. Use shadows to m