GINGER When we got back out into the sunlight, we decided to just grab a couple sandwiches and drive home, agreeing it was too risky to stick around out in public. "Hey, thanks for helping me out back there." Tyce squeezed my hand as we walked. "What was I supposed to do? Just leave you naked and helpless?" I snickered. "I may have been naked but I wasn't helpless." "You had literally two choices. Go out naked or as a wolf, in the middle of tourist central." "There was another option." "Which was?" He gave me an evil smile and said, "I mean, desperate times call for desperate measures. I could have just knocked out a human and grabbed his clothing if it came down to it. It was pretty dark in there. Great place for a real monster to lurk." "Damn, you're psycho." "You don't even know the half of it." I looked up, and he had the most ominous look on his face I'd ever seen, taking me aback—the look of someone you did not fuck with. The way he'd manhandled Lucy flashed in my mind,
GINGER Before I could respond, he brought his lips back to mine, and began feverously kissing me again. I gave in completely and knew for a fact that I didn't have enough willpower to reject him. There was not enough willpower in the world to reject him. I was playing with fire while drenched in gasoline, and I no longer cared. I had fallen hard and was now Tyce's prisoner to do with whatever he wanted. He kissed down my body. "Soft, perfect skin." Then he kissed across the top of my underwear. "Beautiful, luscious, grabbable hips." He hooked his fingers into the thin fabric of my panties and dragged them down slowly, kissing over the top of my pubic bone. He continued his journey as he kissed onto my legs. "Thick, mouthwatering thighs." I let out a soft moan, and he pulled my panties further down my legs until they were completely off. He kissed his way back up, bringing his lips back to the inside of my thighs, taking his time kissing up the inside of each leg. Soon he was nibbli
JASMINE "Tyce! Tyce! Tyce!" Gigi's moans echoed through the room. It had been going on for a few days that point. "These walls aren't soundproof at all, are they?" I asked Blake, who was lying in bed next to me. He smirked. "Nope, clearly not." "And anyone who ever slept in that room, including Tyce and Talia, have heard us, haven’t they?" "Yep." Blake chuckled. I groaned. "Goddess, that is messed up! My cousin and your sister have heard us have sex!" My whole body was burning with embarrassment. "They've heard us have sex so many times! Tyce has been listening all summer and never even said anything!" "What was he going to say? Nice job, Alpha, wink wink. You railed my cousin good last night." I groaned again. "Blake, you're not helping!" He laughed. "Aw, c'mon, Jaz, you have to agree it's kind of funny." He pulled me toward him. I made a face and said, "Okay, maybe it's kind of funny." Then after a beat, I asked, "So did you really not know? You used to sleep in that room,
JASMINE As soon as we entered training, Lucy did a 180 and went from being a sulky brat to her usual bubbly, flirty self. "Oh, hello there, Xander. Your arms are looking much bigger than the last time I saw you!" She touched his bicep. "You've clearly been working really hard." "Hi, Lucy," he replied, clearly not amused. "So, what's on the schedule today?" She gave him a big smile. "Let me get stretched out so I can be ready." She bent over and reached down to touch her toes, basically shoving her butt in his face. He barely paid her any attention and said, "Get stretched out because it's going to be a tough one today." "But Jasmine's pregnant!" Lucy exclaimed. "Luna Jasmine's been doing great. We've just been modifying anything that's not safe for pregnancy. But the doctor has cleared her to stick with her regular routine otherwise. Why don't we start with some floor exercises to get warmed up?" Lucy groaned as I go into position on the mat. At 12, the bell sounded to signal i
TYSON Goddess, she had me—she had completely dominated an alpha. I was addicted, spending all day going through the motions, waiting for my next fix. And I wouldn't be fully satisfied until I had her marked as mine. The urge had grown stronger with every time we did the deed, which was now every night, several times a night. I was barely sleeping, and I didn't care, greedily keeping her in my bed until she firmly insisted she had to go home. "Good night?" Blake smirked at me as I entered his office. "Seems like you were up pretty late." I couldn't help but smile to myself. "Sorry 'bout that. Will try to keep it down moving forward." "I have someone coming in an hour or so to soundproof my bedroom. Jasmine and I realized the sounds go both ways." Blake smiled and shook his head. "Guess I probably should have given you a heads up. Just felt a little awkward about it." I rubbed my neck. "Hey, no worries. You're not the only one that never said anything. My sister is just as guilty.
TYSON After we finished rearranging all the furniture upstairs, I found myself feeling weak with a pulsing in my head. My vision was starting to blur a bit too. My lungs ached and the familiar wet sensation flooded my esophagus. I quickly ran into the bathroom, just in time to hack up blood into the toilet. Fuck, I really had to lay down. I flushed the red liquid, quickly rinsed my mouth out, and then stumbled into my new bedroom, falling onto the pillow that had the strongest scent of Gigi. I inhaled deeply, taking in all her amazing perfume, thankful it clung so well to fabric and lasted so long. It was the most amazing scent I'd ever smelled, and I knew I'd have to ask her what it was again. I couldn't even believe it kept slipping my mind to ask. I supposed I'd always been thinking about other things when she was with me. And even as my whole body burned with the wolfsbane pulsing through it, and my head ached in a way it never had in my life, I still had a smile on my face as
GINGERI smiled to myself, continuously checking the text messages as they came in. Goddess, what was wrong with me? I'd never let a guy wrap me up so much in him before. Okay, every time I even looked at a guy, I tended to think he was going to be my boyfriend and maybe future husband. But not to this level!Tyson Chicken: New geography to explore tonight ;)Me: What, did you grow a second cock or something?Tyson Chicken: Damn, think witches can make that happen?Tyson Chicken: Second one I'll ask to be anal sizeMe: You're obsessedTyson Chicken: With your ass? YesMe: Don't you have some important alpha stuff to do or something?Tyson Chicken: Like fuck your ass?Me: That is not even remotely sexy or convincingTyson Chicken: Come over and I'll convince you another wayMe: No can do. My parents are complaining I'm never home anymore. Promised I'd hang with them tonightTyson Chicken: Damn cockblockersMe: You have a hand :)Me: Two if you need one for your second cock tooTyson Ch
BLAKE "Baby, can you watch Libby for a few hours today? Me and Erin want to go get some mani-pedis." Lucy threw her arms around Luke as he worked at his desk across from me. His look said everything. His shoulders tensed, nostrils flared, and he moved his hands from the keyboard, tightening them into fists. Honestly, I had to give him credit for being possibly the world's most patient person for having dealt with Lucy for so long. While she did have some positive qualities—she was very pretty, had bigger balls than most men, and wasn't a bad person overall. But, damn, she was fucking annoying, irresponsible, and had turned out to be a huge lush, especially in the past few months. "Are you serious?" Luke snapped. "What?" She asked innocently, fluttering her eyelashes. He let out a deep breath. "I've been going through the training rosters today." "And?" Lucy pulled away from Luke. "And did you have something to tell me?" He turned in his chair so he was facing her. She rolled h
THERESA The excitement in the air was palpable. The whole pack had gathered on the airplane runway. This was the one part of the pack that was consistently plowed so that we’d continue to receive food and supplies throughout the harsh winters after we gave up on plowing everything else, especially the roads that lead to the main highway. It was how I was able to get back and forth from school during the holidays. Full moon runs were a long-time tradition of our pack’s and one of my favorite celebrations during the long, cold, sunless winters. Even when seasonal depression tried to sink its way into my bones and pull my spirit away, these runs tended to give me the adrenaline I needed to keep going. There was something magical about an entire community coming together to expel all their energy in the wilderness, and then subsequently feast together on the kill we’d contributed to the celebration. My heart was full of gratitude in knowing that no matter how tough things got, this pac
TYSON‘Twas several nights after the winter solstice (and one night after Christmas) when all through the packhouse, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. And thank the Goddess for that, because we weren’t really big fans of mice around here. At least I wasn’t. Although, I had come to warm up to rats… well, some very specific pet rats. Other than that, still wasn’t a big fan.But you know what I was a fan of? T&A, especially when that T&A was attached to my perfect, voluptuous, thick AF fiancée and mate. My mate that was very conspicuously missing from my bed. I had gotten used to having her warm body next to mine every night, and every inch of my skin was practically tingling with the loss of her. Because her family was very religious, it had been decided that we would stay in separate housing situations during the duration of our trip to her old pack. She at her parents’ home, and I at the packhouse of my ally, the Midnight Maple Pack.I knew she planned to go back to school
GINGER“Okay, I really thought the people out tonight wouldn’t be so… old,” Lucy said.I sighed but figured I should just make the best of it. Maybe once I got back to Alaska I could meet some friends that knew how to party for real. Not that there were many places to go out in the middle of nowhere where I lived. And it was so strictly conservative too. More so than the pack I’d grown up in, which was saying something.“Here, take these!” Lucy handed Paige and me fake IDs that, as usual, looked nothing like us. She then draped about a pound of penis necklaces on everyone.We all marched in, and everyone’s eyes instantly went to us. Lucy made a beeline for the bar and started ordering us drinks before anyone could protest. I followed her, excited to get my drink on. The bar was playing my favorite Mariah Carey Christmas song, and I was ready to start dancing.After we all had our drinks in hand, an older man with a grey beard asked, “What is this all about? A birthday?”I blinked a few
GINGERMy twin sister Paige finished twisting the last bit of my hair around her curling wand and sprayed it down with hairspray. "I miss this." She let out a deep sigh, sitting back on her heels, her body collapsing a bit. We had gathered on the floor of her bedroom while getting ready for the evening—the bedroom that wouldn’t be hers much longer. She would be the last to flee the coop, leaving our parents to an empty nest—something our mother couldn’t stop being melodramatic about. Her wedding was in a matter of days, which was the reason I had flown back to Vermont with my mate Tyce."It's not that much different from when I was in school," I replied, my stomach squeezing a bit, but needing to put a positive spin on our situation."Yeah, but you were at least home for the entire summer then. Now I'll probably only see you a week a year or something like that."Nonchalantly, I blurted, "Maybe the family can move to Alaska." At first, I meant it as an offhand remark that I knew wasn’t
NIKOLAI"Za zdarovye," Sasha and I toasted each other, and I took a gulp of the vodka. After piling our kill in a shed the pack had for exactly that, he invited me over to the beta wing of the packhouse to throw back a few."Not bad, eh?" he asked."Not bad," I replied.He gave my shoulder a shake. "Hey, Volkov, loosen up. Life's getting better. We're free now."I grunted.Sasha was my good friend going back to when we were pups. People had always remarked we could pass for brothers. They clearly lacked keen eyes. Sure, we both sported thick blond hair and tall frames—although I had at least a good ten centimeters on him—our facial shapes were much different. His was more rotund, and his cheeks constantly reddened with emotion.My features were far sharper, and hardened, and had become even more so in the past year. At times, I looked in the mirror, and I saw my late father staring back at me. His ghost haunted me from the beyond, shaping my features to mimic the forehead furrows, life
NIKOLAIForty. That's how many pack members were left in Severnaya Zvezda Pack, including me. A nice, even forty. Our pack had never been particularly large. As opposed to some packs in Russia and other post-Soviet states, where numbers could climb to ten thousand, ours had always maintained a balance of around a thousand. Now only scraps remained of what we had been.After months of coordinating with my late beta’s aunt, Julia Tikaani (née Yulia Vovchenko), we had finally arrived at her pack. When we first fled our war-torn home, we traveled in our wolf forms, carrying only what we could carry as we crossed into Moldova. From there, it took nearly three days by air to reach Alaska.We had left just about everything behind, and a sliver of hope remained.As generous as Luna Yulia’s invitation was, we couldn’t depend on her hospitality forever. Our pack needed stability—a place to truly call home. With my newly elected beta, Sasha, at my side—a man as ruthless in battle as I was—I set o
Author's Note: Several characters in this book are native Russian speakers. To avoid repetitive clarifications throughout the text, assume the following:If a conversation takes place between characters who are native Russian speakers, they are speaking in Russian unless otherwise stated.If a conversation includes one or more native English speakers, it is in English unless otherwise indicated.This approach allows for a more seamless reading experience while maintaining linguistic authenticity.***THERESAHalf-full. Between the two options, that’s the perspective I preferred. It’s not that bad things never happened—I was only mortal after all. But attitude was everything. And a good attitude was particularly important at that very moment as the crushing weight of a sandbag dug into my shoulders, snow crunched under my winter hiking boots, and wind cut at the exposed sliver of skin between my gaiter and hat. I climbed, each step more precarious than the last on the icy slope."Faster
TRIGGER WARNING: This final scene contains torture and is not recommended to the squeamish. It is not necessary to the plot of the book and was only added to give readers some satisfaction with tying up some loose ends. --- TYSON I picked up my ringing phone. "Sara caught the culprits," Trav said, not even bothering to say hello. "Damn," I replied. "She's already tortured them, but offered to let you finish them off. You know, for pack alliance reasons." "I have a feeling that allowing someone else to do the final deed is a gift of generosity in her eyes." I chuckled to myself. Trav's mate was something else. But I'd be damned if I didn't want to watch the motherfuckers that killed my grandfather take their final breaths. Before I hung up, I asked, "Can I bring Dad?" "Obviously that's still a bit of a touchy subject but…" his voice trailed. "But you know that Dad, more than anyone, would want to be the one that does it." I finished his sentence for him. Trav let out a breath.
*Three weeks later* GINGER "Goddess, it's been such a long week!" I flopped onto the bed after showering and throwing on some sweats on a Saturday night in late October. "Your alpha schedule is no joke," I griped to Tyce. "I'm ready to go to bed now." "Do you think you could stay awake for a little bit longer?" He came over and sat on the bed. "Because I have a surprise that just came today." "A surprise? Have I been so busy that I didn't even realize it's my birthday already?" I joked. "It's a 'just because' kind of surprise." "Goddess, stop, Tyce. I can't do all this sweetness. I need a dentist! I think I'm getting cavities." "Okay, the surprise isn't really for you. It's for Splinter anyway. Are you ready for me to bring it in?" "Well, if it's not for me, you should ask Splinter," I teased. "Splinter already said he's ready." "Okay, rat whisperer." Tyce gave me a cute little smile that made my stomach flip-flop. Fuck, why did he affect me so much? Even though we'd now bee