JASMINE I spent the entire morning and afternoon with my grandmother in her kitchen, the two of us working side by side to put dinner together for that evening. This was something I’d done for most of the past many years, except last year. I cringed, remembering what a sad state I’d been in at that time, embarrassed by how useless I’d become. My parents came over early to help set the table and assist with any last-minute things. Just as we were putting out all the side dishes, the doorbell rang. I went to go answer it to find Blake with his mom, grandparents, and Talia at the front door. Blake pulled me in for a hug and kissed me on the cheek as soon as he walked in. I then gave hugs to all of Blake’s family members, including Talia. “Thanks for coming, Talia.” I smiled at her. “Thanks for having me,” she replied. I wanted to ask her if she’d made any decisions about her mate, but I didn’t want to do it in front of everyone. I’d try to text her later. “Blake!” my dad exclaimed, co
JASMINE I sighed, looking at the ground, and said, “I just feel like I’m not cut out for this alpha stuff.” “What do you mean?” he asked, forcing me to make eye contact with him again by pulling my chin up with his hand. “For a while, I’ve been thinking that maybe that’s why I was mated to the beta and not the alpha. This alpha stuff is just too much for me.” I started walking forward and Blake followed. “But you are mated to the alpha.” He took my hand in his, the warmth of his calloused palm feeling nice in this weather. “You’re my second-chance mate. Anyway, why would you sell yourself short like that? You yourself come from an alpha family. To me, it seems like a perfect match. You’re intelligent, strong, great at fighting, and you have an amazing ass.” He smirked. “What does my ass have to do with being an alpha mate?” “It has everything to do with it. I’m the alpha and I love that ass. I want to tap it nonstop, all the time. Perfect trait for this alpha’s mate.” He had a gl
ALEXANDER On Friday afternoon, I went to meet with the head trainer of the pack to get my monthly status update, as I did on the last Friday of every month. We sat down in his office at the pack gym. I was planning to do my own workout after. I’d become concerned as I wasn’t making quite the same gains I used to. In fact, I’d found my progress had stalled. If anything, I was lifting ten pounds less than I had been before. “Alpha, I have concerns,” he started, and I instantly knew what he was about to tell me. “I’ve been tracking our warriors’ workouts for the last month, and their progress has been very slow. That's fine for some of our more advanced warriors as they’re bound to plateau at some point, and progress slows down. But for the newer ones, they should be gaining strength and endurance quite rapidly. It’s not normal for werewolves to plateau when they’re just starting out. I’ve gone by the high school, and the trainers there have observed the same thing.” “I see,” I said, k
JASMINE I’d never really had a normal relationship with my father, at least not the kind that other daughters seemed to have with theirs in sitcoms. My dad was just never really the goofy, understanding, “his princess has him wrapped around his finger” type. He was always strict growing up. My mom was worse, but he definitely wasn’t the type where I could go ask Dad after Mom said no. It was only in recent years that he’d begun to lighten up some, especially after the whole “secret love child” thing came to light a year earlier. Suffice to say, we’d never been close. However, now I felt even more distant from him, like I didn’t know him at all. While you couldn’t really describe my family as warm, I’d never thought my father was the type to be a cold-hearted torturer. Granted, Tyler was his son, and what had happened to him was horrible and sickening. I still felt nauseous when I thought about it. Blake didn’t spare any details when he told the story, graphically explaining the bruis
JASMINE The next day was Blake’s birthday. After not even realizing it was Blake’s birthday the previous year, I really wanted to find something special and meaningful to give him this year. It took me weeks of deliberating, bouncing ideas off Tyler. And then I finally figured something out that I thought would work. We decided to meet at noon to hike to our secret spot. Ahead of our meeting, I put together a lunch for the two of us. I decided to be ambitious and made pepperoni and sausage calzones, which I wrapped in tinfoil to keep them warm and put into an insulated lunch bag. I also made a tortellini salad and baked some cupcakes. For a final touch, I packed two thermoses—one with black coffee for Blake and the other with hot chocolate for me. I had much more of a sweet tooth than he did. I placed everything into a tote bag and headed over to the packhouse. When I arrived, Blake came out to meet me, climbing into my car. As soon as he got in, he leaned over to kiss me and said,
TALIA The week after Thanksgiving, in early December, Lucy convinced me to go over to her house after we finished up with work for the day. “Luke is so busy lately. It’s nice to have someone to hang out with.” She smiled at me as she unlocked the door to the packhouse. After we walked in, she took Libby from the nanny, dismissing her for the day. The nanny looked relieved as she pulled on her coat and practically sprinted out the door. Libby was in terrible spirits, howling. Lucy looked overwhelmed trying to calm her. She walked the entire first floor of the packhouse rocking her. When she got close to me, Lucy moaned, “I forgot colds even exist! I haven’t had one since I was probably twelve years old! Poor Libby.” She looked devastated looking at her daughter. “It will be so nice once she gets her wolf and doesn’t get sick anymore. Of course, then I’m going to have to deal with a teenager in the house. Ugh!” “How did she get sick?” I asked. “It’s been going around the pack, with a
TALIA I walked home, clutching a bag filled with different medications and a paper that explained how and when to take them. The cold air blew against my hot face. I felt light-headed and woozy as I walked home. I didn’t recall ever feeling this unwell in my life before. Once I got back inside my apartment, I fell into my mattress, only to hear my phone ringing loudly. I picked it up to see that a FaceTime call was coming in from Alex. “Hello, beautiful,” he sang out as soon as I answered the call. “Hi, Alex,” I said. A coughing fit followed. He stared into his screen, looking as if he was concentrating. “Was that your cough? You sound terrible! You look terrible!” He drew his eyebrows together. “Thanks,” I replied, sarcastically. “Talia, you’re always beautiful. But, are you—” He stared at me. “Are you sick?” he shouted. “Yes,” I replied. “I’m sick.” “Fucking Artemis! Did you go to the doctor? Fuck. Talia, we need to get you checked up right away. I’m leaving right now to come
ALEXANDER Fuck, fuck, fuck. I was worried. This was really bad. I’d never seen a full-grown werewolf get sick before. Adult werewolves didn’t get sick. At least not until they got past a certain age. I’d, of course, known of elderly werewolves who got sick, growing weak from the aging process. But not twenty-year-old ones! My legs were restless and my stomach churned, my heart incessantly beat in my chest, as if my inner wolf was clawing at me, needing to get to my mate. When I’d hit traffic during the ride, I’d grow impatient, throwing my palm against my car horn. I needed to be with Talia. As I drove, I also worried about my mom. She’d aged ten years since my father died and was a shell of who she’d been previously. Even when things were bad in her relationship with my father, she still always managed to have a smile on her face, humming different songs as she cooked and cleaned, always presenting herself immaculately. I’d never known my mother to have a hair out of place. Now sh
TYSON "Good night?" Blake smirked at me, as he caught me entering the packhouse after I'd gone for a run, his eyes crinkled in an amused expression. "What?" I asked, confused. "I saw that girl you had here last night doing the walk of shame this morning. Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." He chuckled. "I see you're enjoying everything my pack has to offer." "You saw her?" I asked. "Yeah, her family was worried about her so we put out a search. Like the pack security? Make sure you report that back to your family." "Do you know who she was?" "You dog!" Blake pushed on my shoulder with an amused smile. "You didn't even get her name? I always at least got the name." "Well, what's her name?" I kept my expression neutral, not sure whether it was better for Blake to think I'd banged her or not. I still needed to find out what she was hiding from her parents. As much as she infuriated me, I didn't want to blow whatever cover she had for whatever the fuck she was doing—which I a
GINGER Oh Goddess, fucking Artemis. My head hurt, my stomach burned, my chest wheezed. The sun was so bright. I kept trying to open my eyes, but the light streaming in through the window made it very difficult. I moaned, in terrible pain, my whole body sore. This was worse than my worst hangovers. Even when I blacked out it was never this bad. I really did need to go to the pack clinic. I'd cry out for Paige to carry me there. She was a full-time warrior—her muscles were definitely strong enough by now. I finally forced my eyes open and was instantly confused by my surroundings. This wasn't my bedroom. I'd never been in this room before at all. Had I hooked up with someone the prior night? I tried to think back. What had happened? The full moon! It all hit me at once. I had taken the double batch of the potion and then everything got blurry. And, oh my Goddess, was that a dream, or had that douchebag from the fortune-telling shop really appeared? It had to have been a dream, right?
TYSON If I were being completely honest, it was nice being away from my pack for once. That place could be so suffocating most of the time. I mean, my grandfather was a complete dick, and my dad wasn't much better. It's like they say, alphas always have to be in charge, and more than one alpha is volatile—an explosion just waiting to go off. In the case of my pack, there were three of us, which made the whole thing pretty combustible. I'm actually surprised we hadn't battled it to the death yet. Granted, things weren’t exactly smooth sailing coming to Alpha Blake's pack either. We were still two alphas with competing personalities, but it was better than dealing with my father and grandfather. Blake was pretty reasonable and wasn't hell-bent on making my life miserable. Although, I'm pretty sure Blake wanted nothing to do with me coming to his pack to "check things out". But he was desperate to make his mate's family happy, so he agreed to the arrangement for the summer. That worked
GINGER "Gigi!" my sister Paige wrapped her arms tightly around me as soon as I entered the house. I hugged her back, so appreciative to be reunited with her again, returning to my pack in Vermont after finishing up the school year. Being twins, we had a special connection. It had been much stronger when we were younger, a lot of my own resentment toward her pulling us apart over the years. It wasn't her fault, but I couldn't help but feel envious that she was able to accomplish all my dreams. An unsettling feeling that someone else was living my life constantly choked me, salt rubbed into the wound. The thing is, becoming a warrior was always my dream. Our dad was a warrior, and I was always way more into it than Paige. I'd love to go with Mom to watch him spar on nice days out. I loved when he spent time training me to fight and defend myself in the backyard. Yes, I was a daddy's girl through and through. And the way I hung onto my dad was the way Paige hung onto me. Even though she
Thank you for reading Wolfblood. This now begins book 3 of the series, Wolfborn, which introduces some new characters and also continues Jasmine and Blake's story. Happy reading!*** GINGER Secrets. Everyone has at least one, right? Mine was that I lost my wolf. It happened a long time ago—it was an accident. It was one of those moments in life that changed everything. You know what I mean. One day, everything was normal, great even, and the next thing you know, your life is destroyed over one bad decision. Yep, all it took was one stupid decision and my wolf was gone. I kept crossing my fingers that there was a chance she might come back—that she was still somewhere deep within me, stagnant, in a coma, just needing a little shove to wake up. That's why I went to see a witch on a regular basis. That was my other secret. My parents were suspicious of witches—us werewolves and witches didn't exactly have the best relationship. Lots of old wives' tales, I think—that whole 'be carefu
*** 2 weeks later *** TALIA “Good morning, beautiful.” Alex placed a mug of coffee onto the bedside table early one morning and then instantly slid into the bed next to me. The connection between us was much stronger now that we had marked each other. It was almost as if we had become one, our emotions connected when we were near each other, his running beside my own. At that moment, Alex felt both content and worried. I was sure that the worry was for his mother. “Is your mom okay today?” I asked, brushing my hand through his hair. “She seems okay today. I brought her her morning tea and toast, and she seemed happy with the small gesture.” “You’re such a good son.” I kissed him on the forehead. He grabbed me, pulling me tight against his body, kissing me deeply. “Ow!” I pulled away. “What’s wrong?” he asked, furrowing his brows. “My boobs are just really sore.” I rubbed one of them. “Does that happen often?” he asked. “No, not really. Sometimes when I get my period, but I do
JASMINE “All set, our flight’s been rebooked for tomorrow night.” Blake smiled as he plopped down on the hotel room bed—the one we were supposed to have slept in the previous night until, well, things didn’t exactly go as planned. He stared into my eyes. “Your face is looking much better now. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to torture that motherfucker for what he did to you.” “It’s okay. It’s over now,” I whispered to Blake, wanting to forget what happened. “You were amazing today, a true luna.” He brushed his hand through my hair. “I can’t believe you ever even doubted yourself.” I sighed. “I’ve actually realized a lot of things in the past week,” I replied. “Really? Like what?” “Like I’m excited that I’ll be able to use my influence as luna to make changes in the pack.” “What kind of changes?” “Like Tyler and Jack took me to a secret pack LGBTQ+ meeting. And everyone came up with great ideas for how they could feel more welcomed in our pack. I want to help them.
TALIA After I completed my portion of the mission, I went back into Alex’s car, and Jack and Kyle followed me inside while some of Alex’s men stood guard outside of it. I couldn’t lie, my heat was unbearable. The longer I went without petting my cat, the more painful it became. Tears were brimming my eyes as I squirmed in my seat. “Blake owes me big time,” Jack said from the back. “Goddess, this is awkward,” Kyle replied. “I can’t help it,” I cried out. “Can’t you just go outside?” “Can’t, we have two alphas on our asses now,” Kyle replied. I whimpered in response. I glanced in the rearview mirror as he turned to Jack and said, “I mean, maybe we should, Jack. Let her have some privacy.” “The last thing we need is to give her some privacy and then someone from Bois Sombre sweeps in when none of us are looking. Bad idea, Kyle.” “Just a thought, bro.” He frowned. “Consider yourself lucky. I had to go through over four hours of this before.” I grumbled, reminded of the last time,
JASMINE Not even an hour after I killed Charlie, a man in either his later thirties or early forties with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, tattoos covering his forearms, approached my cell. His distinct gray eyes scanned the entirety of the small room I was in. I could instantly sense this man was evil, a shiver traveling up my spine. My instincts were in full overdrive, my inner wolf howling with fear. I stood up, panicked. “Hmm, not such a weak mate, I see.” The man spoke with a French accent, scanning the room, smiling evilly at me. I stared at him, wondering what he was planning to do to me. After some time, he said, “I can’t decide if I should cut you up or fuck you. Why not both?” He pulled out a switchblade, exposing the knife to me. I began hyperventilating and the world was spinning around me as fur sprouted up my arms and legs. I was having a panic attack. As my body tried to force me to shift, agonizing pain shot up my arms. I cried in agony from the metal cutting into