NIKOLAIThere hadn’t been much improvement in training. I reminded myself that we’d only been here for a short period of time. These things took time. In our pack, we had never expected anything of our women, not even to pass the bare minimum physical requirements that packs in the US apparently had. While I’d come to understand that Tyce’s pack was considered traditional for the standards here, they were still far more progressive than the vast majority of packs in Eastern Europe.Before the war, it had made sense. Women were to be protected and cherished. They made a house a home, a dead animal a meal, a mating a family. Each gender brought its own strength. But what if a pack was only forty, half of which were women? Then what?We no longer had families, we ate for survival, not for enjoyment. And mates? What of them? Sasha wasn’t wrong. We did need to increase our numbers. But it was also irresponsible. We hadn’t set up our permanent residence. We were still reliant on the Jade Mo
NIKOLAI“He should take Terri with him,” Yulia explained. “She could help him if something happens. We never allow anyone in our pack to travel alone. It’s for good reason.”“You know what.” Lance looked up, and a smirk appeared on his face. “That girl has been getting weak. She slacked with her training in school. Time out in the Alaskan wild would be good for her. I’ve been going too easy on her.”Yulia nodded her approval.“Go get Terri ready to go. I’ll have a talk with Nikolai,” Lance said, and gestured to the chair in front of his desk.Yulia practically skipped out of his office. I likely lost a centimeter of teeth from grinding them so hard. It took everything in me not to flip over Lance’s desk. What could he possibly be thinking?He pulled a knife out of the top drawer of his desk and stroked it between his thumb and pointer finger. A typical threatening alpha tactic. “I’m assuming you’d like to make an heir one day.”“I would,” I confirmed, not sure where this was conversat
NIKOLAIWe traversed through the snow for hours. By evening, Terri’s stomach grumbled, cutting through the silence of the frozen wilderness. I turned my head to sneak a peek at her, and she kept her head facing ahead, marching on.Again, her stomach grumbled.I had planned to make it further before attempting to hunt, as I had learned it was a bit more abundant a good dozen or so kilometers forward, but something inside me stopped my feet in their tracks. I physically couldn’t ignore her hunger. It was as if my willpower had been overtaken by the aching need to fix what was wrong with Terri. She stopped next to me and tilted her head in a look of confusion.I pointed my nose toward the open tundra and nodded. I’m sure she understood. She followed me into the pitch-black landscape and switched off her night vision as soon as I did. It was time to hunt using our other senses.We stuck side by side as we crept into the icy terrain, scenting along our path, perking our ears for any sounds
THERESAThere was a shift in Nikolai. I don’t even know how I so definitively understood this. One moment, he was his usual grumpy self, with dark clouds hanging over him. And the next moment, something just seemed lighter about him.At first, I thought I imagined it. But as we traveled, something was… different. His shoulders weren’t as tense. His ears weren’t flicking back toward every sound like they usually did. And when I stumbled over uneven snow, his head turned—just for a second—before he returned his focus forward. The realization crept over me slowly. There was a shift in Nikolai.I didn’t think I’d ever felt so in tune with someone before. I’d never been so aware of someone’s mood, especially someone that was well-practiced at keeping a poker face. But the longer we traveled together, the less I could ignore how tuned in to him I was.After following him for over twelve hours, he made an abrupt stop. I can’t lie. I was relieved. My legs felt like they would give if we conti
THERESAWhen I woke up, I felt more refreshed than I had in a long time. I guess there was nothing like an ice-cold, pitch-black cave in the middle of winter, snuggled up next to the hottest man wolf I’d ever seen in my life to get a good night’s rest, right?As soon as it was clear that I was awake, Nikolai separated from me and stood up. I soon followed, rising from the makeshift bed. As soon as I stepped away, he gathered it back into the travel pack, and swung it back onto his neck. We didn’t waste any time exiting our sleeping quarters.I felt like we should have had some sort of conversation. Hello? Good morning? How did you sleep? But, it was useless. We couldn’t communicate in our wolf forms. It just felt so wrong. We’d just spent the night together, and we continued as practically strangers, me tagging along on his venture that I’m sure he had no desire for me to be a part of.We continued through the snow, heading to some destination only Nikolai knew of. I assumed he knew w
THERESAI jumped onto the enemy wolf, trying to get a good hold of his back. I latched my claws to his body as if he were a piece of rock I was climbing. Thick blood stained my paws. He bucked, but I kept hold of him, riding him as if he were a wild bronco. Nausea bubbled in my stomach. The wild ride was not mixing well with the wolfsbane that was still in my system. I swallowed back the vomit and tightened my grip on him. I would not give in to the wolfsbane or to him. I had to keep him away from Nikolai. It would be far too impossible to fight two wolves at once. Especially such big and trained ones as these. Alpine Snow Pack had certainly not sent their runts out here.The wolf kept bucking, and my grip began to slip. My claws slipped down his back. While it did have the effect of lengthening the scratch wound I was leaving in his back, it also left me less stable as he kicked up his hind legs, shook himself side to side. And then he finally shook me loose. I flew through the air,
THERESAI squeezed my eyes shut. I was hot, so so hot. My face and body were on fire. But, wow. Wow wow wow. When I opened my eyes again, he had turned away, and I found his back to me, crouching over a fire he’d presumably built in this dark place that had no light. It appeared to be some sort of cabin.After the sound of some logs being thrown on the fire, and the resulting sparks, he returned, and crouched down beside me. “Is it okay if I… If I lay down with you again?” He asked in a hesitant voice. “I was doing it because we can’t shift, and it’s the best way to stay warm until we can again.”“Um,” I stammered. “Yeah, that would be good.”He crawled back toward me, and I awkwardly opened my arms to him. He eased himself against me, wrapping his limbs around me as if it were the most natural thing in the world, allowing warmth to seep back into me. “It shouldn’t be for too much longer,” he said. “You look much better now than you did at first.”“What happened?” I asked. “Where are
GINGERMy legs wobbled like Jell-o, barely holding me up. My arms were heavy like lead. Each labored breath stabbed my lungs. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. I was sweating like a fat hog at a barbecue. Which was quite a lot considering I was outdoors in the middle of the coldest winter I’d ever experienced in my life. Long story short, Sara was kicking my fat ass.For our first day of training, she took me out to an open area where the snow was so deep I could barely walk. Every time I tried to move more than a foot, I was out of breath. I had, of course, worn a full snow suit, knowing we’d be training outdoors today. And very much regretting my choice.And you’d think that she would go easy on me for my first lesson, but no. Not at all. Not even a bit. Didn’t pull back any of her punches. Well, okay, she hadn’t actually punched me, but she had knocked me into the snow so many times that my whole core was burning from how many times I’d had to get myself back up from a hor
THERESA On Thursday, I showed up for the last training session with the ladies of Severnaya Zvezda Pack. They all gave me a warm greeting, making me feel right at home in their pack. After some warmups, I started them out on sparring, so I could at least teach them some good fighting techniques before I left. I was pleasantly surprised. These Ukrainian ladies could fight! I supposed that’s how this group had made it out of the war. After spending the entire morning and afternoon with them, they convinced me to join them for drinks that evening. The ten of us headed to the pack’s pub together, where we grabbed a large table and settled in. Despite my insistence on paying, they wouldn’t hear of it. I knew they were living off modest contributions from my pack, yet they pooled their money together and made sure I didn’t spend a single cent. Toward the end, Mariya, who had the biggest personality of the group, pulled me aside. “Alpha smiles again,” she said in her heavy Russian accent.
GINGERI ran and leaped, targeting her with my claws. She swiftly ducked and grabbed me by the torso, plucking me out of the air and slamming me onto the large mat underneath us. So much for giving me an advantage.I tried again. This time, I lunged. Fast.Or at least, I thought I was fast.Sara sidestepped me like it was nothing. A blur of motion—before I felt a brutal force against my ribs.My body slammed into the mat, air rushing from my lungs in a painful burst. For a moment, all I saw were stars.“Again,” Sara ordered, pacing around me. “You’re not using your claws enough. You’re letting your opponent dictate the fight. That’s how you get yourself killed.”Gritting my teeth, I scrambled to my feet, forcing my breathing to steady. I had to land at least one good hit. Just one.I pushed forward, snapping my jaws toward her shoulder, but she twisted mid-air, flipping over me before slamming her elbow into my back. My knees buckled, pain shooting through my spine.“Still too slow,”
GINGERBy the time my final training session with Sara rolled around, I’d—mostly— recovered from what I’d experienced during the previous one. Tyce clearly sensed something was off during the drive, because he kept trying to interlace his hand with mine, but I wouldn’t give.“I’m sure you did amazing for your first torture, Gi,” Tyce tried. “You’d be surprised at how many grown ass men throw up and pass out.”A phantom sound echoed in my mind. The screams. The knife cutting flesh. The smell of blood, thick and metallic, clinging to my nostrils.My stomach turned.Tyce reached for my hand, but I pulled away.“You couldn’t have done any worse than me,” he added.“You were ten!”As soon as I said it, I regretted it. His face darkened, shadows flickering in his eyes.“I’m sorry.” I winced. “That was really insensitive of me to bring up.”“You’re not wrong,” he replied softly.I exhaled, searching for the right words. “I guess… I just feel so behind. All those years I didn’t have a wolf, I
JULIA*29 years ago*The day after the incident, I made sure to wear my tightest, lowest-cut black dress to dinner. Even Gabe’s father, who otherwise loathed my existence, couldn’t help his eyes as they skimmed the tops of my breasts.Gabe clearly noticed, because at one point, during the meal, he leaned in, gripping my wrist under the table. “What are you wearing?” he hissed, his voice barely audible over the clink of silverware.“What?” I fluttered my eyelashes and acted dumb. “Is there something wrong?”He scowled but said nothing else, though his tension was palpable. Across the table, Lance’s sharp gaze found mine. Unlike his father or Gabe, his attention wasn’t rooted in lust. His eyes narrowed, assessing me, silently questioning me. I met his stare with a shrug and resumed eating, unbothered.After dinner, Gabe, as usual, whisked me up to his bedroom. I went through the usual motions, stroking his ego and his dick. I excused myself at the earliest I could. I had big plans, and
THERESAI’d spent my whole life under the weight of constant criticism and impossibly high expectations from my parents, never stopping to think how deeply it affected me. Of course I had stayed. It felt familiar.My breath hitched. “I never even realized…”Maybe that same crude judgment was what had drawn me to my ex in the first place—without me even recognizing it. It was why I felt so at ease around him, why his behavior hurt but never felt out of place.I let out a deep breath. For the first time in months, the idea of forgiving myself felt possible. But I was too exhausted to unravel all the complex thoughts that had suddenly formed.Instead, I glanced at Kolya and smiled faintly. “You still owe me an answer to a question.”He raised his eyebrows but didn’t speak.“What is the Russian pack after? Why did they go to war with you?”His muscles stiffened against my body and he pinched his lips together.“You promised,” I reminded him.With a resigned sigh, he sat up and crossed his
THERESA“I know you probably think I’m stupid for not breaking up with him sooner. I guess a part of me cared about him. He’d had a tough life—his parents were chosen mates, not fated ones, and they fought constantly. When he was a kid, it sometimes got so bad that they’d forget to feed him. He didn’t have many friends either. Really, his only friend was that warrior I mentioned before, and even that friendship wasn’t a close one.”Desperate to justify myself, I added, “If I’m being fair, not everything was bad. Some things were good—really good. We’d have times where we’d just hang out and talk, and he could actually be sweet. Those moments made it harder to walk away.“Sometime in early August, I told him I was ready to have sex.” Kolya tensed beside me. “We did it one afternoon while his parents were at work. It was horrible. One of the worst experiences of my life. He was so nervous that he couldn’t get it up, and he took it out on me. He kept being mean, blaming me. I can’t even
THERESAI shook my head, pushing the thoughts away, and then continued. “Everything changed this past spring. I came home for summer break after my sophomore year of college. By then, I’d mostly gotten used to the idea that I’d stay a virgin until I met my mate. And then... I met him. My now-ex.”My mood darkened at the thought. Kolya seemed to sense it, as he gave my upper arm a squeeze.“Honestly, I didn’t even like him at first. He was a friend of a friend of a friend. My friend Kaylynn had a crush on this warrior who she invited to a party she was throwing. He had duty and couldn’t make it, but he asked her to invite one of his friends in his place that he said was kind of a loner. Said he was trying to get him to meet more people. And Kaylynn, of course, agreed.“We were all just sort of hanging out. I’d made some silly joke, teasing him in a flirting sort of way. And instead of laughing, he flipped me off. I don’t even remember what I said, but I’m sure it wasn’t anything that r
THERESAI stirred awake, blinking against the lamp light. Had I fallen asleep? I glanced upward to find a pair of silver eyes meeting mine.“Oh, shoot! Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I stammered, scrambling to get up. Gosh, last thing I needed was for him to think that I believed this to be a relationship where we spent the night together and stuff. Moreover, my family was likely getting back soon, and it was in my best interest to scram before they figured us out.As I sat up, readying to grab my clothes and get out of his way so he could leave, his hand closed gently around my wrist. “Wait.”I glanced back at him, searching his face for a clue to his thoughts. As usual, his expression was unreadable.“Would it be wrong to want to spend a little more time with you?” he asked.“Oh,” I replied, caught off guard.“When we can speak to each other,” he added.I blinked, then smiled faintly, the tension in my shoulders easing. “Look who wants to talk all of a sudden,” I teased, play
NIKOLAIWhen she finally lifted herself, and lined her entrance up with my cock, I was a goner. Any other misgivings I may have had were wiped from my consciousness.I let out a deep, appreciative moan as she lowered herself onto me in a slow grind, rocking her hips to allow each bit of my length to methodically enter her. The inner walls of her pussy clench around me. My hands dug into her thighs in reaction. I couldn’t believe such a beautiful angel was allowing me inside her, packing every inch of me into her. She continued to slowly and carefully lift and lower herself onto me until she was filled to the hilt.“Fuuuuck, you feel so good!” I cried out.She smirked and lifted her arms over her head, elevating and emphasizing her sporty, pert breasts. I couldn’t take my eyes off them as they bounced with every movement. Using only her thick, well-muscled lower body, she easily slid up and down the length of my cock, impressing me with her display of athleticism.I wrapped my large ha