Alexa’s days continued one after other in a blur of ice and snow until she was certain she was completely and utterly lost, with no sense of direction or time left for the redhead. Alexa had begun to realize she was traveling around in circles when one evening she stumbled across one of her old campsites. The frustration had almost crushed her, she had yelled out and screamed in her anger. How was this fair to her? What has she done in this life that made her deserved this? In outrage, she slammed her right hand into the trunk of a nearby tree and regretted it almost immediately. With a sharp hiss, she shook out her right hand and continued forward never looking back at the tree. Her determination to get back to her family was the only thing in the forsaken forest that kept her going. She had even managed to crack a joke about how Isaac had been right all this time and her sense of direction was horrendous. Afterward, she had been overcome with sorrow as she missed her family dearly.
That sound brought dread into Alexa’s heart and she merely closed her eyes as her stomach twisted. There was a thundering crash that originated from somewhere just outside of Alexa’s line of sight. It was a resonated all around her as if it bounced off the nearby trees and pulled at a memory buried deep within the crevices of her brain and made her wince as if her head had been to split into two. The redhead tore herself out of her aimless musings and snapped to attention spinning around in fright. Fear-filled eyes searched the wooded area she had reluctantly become accustomed to. Enlarged electric eyes scanned the darkness seeking out for the source of the sound which frightened her. If Alexa were to look back on her decision, she could honestly say she wished she hadn’t. Adrenaline had made itself at home in her veins intermittently during her long trek and in that moment was no different. The organ in her chest threatened to give out on her as accelerated almost painfully in res
He couldn’t believe his luck; the stupid rogue had escaped custody and had run off in the middle of the night. Even after all his warnings and threats of the consequences, the mutt would face if he did so, it were as if the dog had no respect for his life. How could they have let this happen? He knew that it wasn’t their fault that the mutt had found a way to escape, but he couldn’t help the worry that raged inside of him. He was as confused as the rest of the pack; it should not have been possible to escape from their prison. And yet somehow this backwater rogue had done the impossible. They had received word from his father, Aaron Black, the pack’s Beta and temporary Alpha to retrieve the mutt, alive. Aiden could not understand what value the mutt had to the pack still breathing as his wolf just wanted to tear that bag of bones apart. But an order was an order and one he had to follow. With his best friend, Griffon, at his side, the two wolves raced through the perimeter searchin
Sheer and utter shock resonated within the injured woman’s body like a tidal wave washing away all echoes of fear that had previously inhabited her soul. Her widened cobalt irises looked on almost unblinkingly at the scene that took place just a few feet before her. It was as if her brain could not compute what was happening right before her very eyes. Alexa did not know what she was witnessing, or if what she was witnessing really was happening right in front of her. The injured redhead could not form a comprehensible thought in her mind. It was as if her long two-week stay in this icy wasteland had befuddled and confused her mind and had left her defenseless to the real danger she was surely facing. She was so sure that she was hallucinating, and that she wasn’t watching two very large and very viscous wolves try to tear the other’s throat out. It was not possible, it could not be possible, with a shake of her head she tried to come to terms with what her brain was telling her. E
Aiden panted harshly as he stood over the subdued werewolf. The mutt had finally transformed back into his human form. Naked, batted, bruised, broken, and bleeding in all his glory if you could call it that. He lay there in a pathetic heap on the blood-stained snow and Aiden felt pride fill his chest, although anger still paced in his heart his wolf was unsatisfied as the mutt still drew breath. Griffon stood at his side panting just as hard, but less injured than the mutt they had fought. Although the other wolf was limping slightly having taken a nasty bite to the front right leg, Aiden was not worried. They had easily taken this mutt down a peg or two and felt that they had shown him his place. He had no reason to be worried about his friend’s injuries, for werewolves healed fast and within the hour he and his friend would be as good as new. His victory made him feel powerful and all his wolf wanted to do was present this triumph to his female. He has successfully protected his f
Aiden had never felt so upset in his life, for the next twelve hours he had been stuck on guard duty. His father who had finally come home had been upset that the rogue had gotten free, so upset that he wasn’t up for talking, which was what Aiden really wanted. The young wolf had lost the opportunity to tell his father about the presence of his female. All this time he could have helped her, Griffon had spent most of the way to the pack house scolding and berating him for his poor choices. He had listened with a heavy heart and realized his friend was right. He could have contacted the sheriff in the town to let them know where she was so she could have gotten help sooner. He could have pretended to be a hiker out for a nature exploration, and he could have taken her back to town where she could have received medical attention. Griffon had been so disappointed and angry at Aiden and his lack of forethought. He had not even thought about getting her any form of medical aid that could
For 15 days they had searched and searched. They searched until fewer and fewer people showed up to help them, the town starting to doubt the girl’s survival. The sight had the eldest twin fighting off his fits of rage, how could these people not see how important it was to find the girl his mother was so convinced was still alive? Jean watched on in despair at her angry son and felt the guilt as her niece became more and more depressed as each sunset passed. The wary mother watched on as her son’s mood became darker and darker each day. She feared his heart would soon follow. Had she been right in keeping these secrets from her children? Had she and her husband been right in sealing away the power that could have saved her daughter? Was she wrong for refusing to go to the pack for help? Will her stubbornness to keep Alexa’s existence from Aaron going to be the cause of her death? These thoughts haunted her day and night, and fear gripped her in the wee hours of the morning. She wo
It was so cold that Alex could no longer feel her fingers, let alone her toes. She glanced at them despairingly and frowned at the unflattering black color they now sported. If she did not find a way out of here soon then she was going to start losing digits. How much longer could she go on like this before her body gave out? It felt like she had been in this forsaken place for months, but her sense of time had long since flown out the proverbial window. Since her tumble with the large wolves the wound located on her occiput had reopened further drenching her dirty red hair in her blood. She had spent the rest of the day in a haze often blacking out for what could have been hours at a time. The migraine that plagued her the night before after the fall kept her from sleeping for fear of a concussion. She had not seen those beautiful pair of eyes that had been her one constant companion since. She was almost sure that something was indeed still following her though she could not be sur
** Warning: Graphic mentions of violence and torture, mentions of rape, and graphic sexual content **Far away from the damaged Burrough across many, many acres of land, over hills and mountains, across rivers and streams, nestled in an open valley welcomed by a glistening silver lake and flanked by white-toothed mountains stood a tall ivory castle, lit up by the silver beams of the moon.The surrounding land was peaceful and the night quiet for all weary travelers wandering through the nearby forests, but it was anything but peaceful within the ivory walls, for what was once a beautiful shrine to the moon goddess was now possessed by a much darker, more sinister entity.For on a marble throne adorned with the skulls of his enemies sat the hulking figure of something more beast than man. His heavily scarred features could strike fear in all who gazed upon him as he relaxed back in his stolen seat, the once polished marble now permanently stained crimson from all the bloodshed during h
“NO!” Jean cried out, the sound grating against the sides of her throat as Aiden’s glistening, sharp fangs sunk into the tender flesh of her daughter’s neck. With a burst of power, she ripped the werewolf from her child and unceremoniously tossed him across the room, a common theme today it seemed, not particularly concerned about the grandfather clock he shattered along the way. “What have you done?!” she cried, pulling Alexa into her arms as the once thrashing girl stilled, almost as if she had died. “We just said that it could kill her! How could you be so stupid?!” Jayden angrily yelled. “I couldn’t just sit here and watch her die, I had to do something!” he sat up, wiping the blood from his lips as his fangs receded and his eyes changed back to green. “You don’t get to decide that mutt!” Isaac rebuffed, now coming face to face with the shifter, chest puffed out in anger and a defiant look raging in his glimmering green eyes. “She’s my mate,” “That means nothing if she’s dea
Alexa thrashed on the forest floor in an uncontrollable manner, her body spasming horrifically in the now-destroyed sanctuary. She was clawing at her own skin as she attempted to dig out the fire spreading through her veins, nails digging into the bite on her neck. Alexa screamed as if she were being tortured from the inside out as the vampire venom disseminated through every fiber of her being. Oh God, it hurt, it hurt so bad! She was burning up from the inside. Make it stop! She pleaded silently as nothing but screams ripped through her throat. Aiden rushed to her side, almost keeling over himself as her pain burst through their soul bond uninhibited feeling like a raging ocean was trying to overwhelm him and pull him under with its intensity. Desperation bloomed in his chest as he reached out to the seizing girl and pulled her into his arms. Alexa screamed and cried out at the feel of his hands on her skin, she tried to jerk out of his arms, but he only held on tighter. “Alexa,
Spinning around Alexa came face to face with the object of her nightmares. The sight of his blood-red eyes leering at her in a bestial manner as if he were the hunter and she his prey, which she considered to be exactly the situation she was in. The cold grin that stretched across his deathly pale face sent shivers down her spine and she felt her skin break out into goosebumps. With her heart hammering in her chest, she stared back into the gleaming crimson orbs and told herself that she was not the same girl he had broken nine months ago. “Julian,” His grin spread impossibly wider, and he let out a pleased hum, stalking toward her until he stood directly before her. “Good girl, you still remember me,” he reached out with his icy fingers, reaching out he pulled at a strand of her luscious red curls, bringing it up to his nose where he took a long deep breath and almost purred as he scented her. “Your hair is longer, what a pity,” he let the silky locks slip from his fingers as he
“What?” “Dream walking. It’s when you fall into a hypnotized-like trance,” “What could cause such a thing?” “Honestly I don’t know, I’ve never seen anyone do it before,” “But you’re over a hundred years old!” “That doesn’t mean I know everything you disrespectful child!” Jean snapped at her son, angered by his need to remind her of her many years on this earth. “There must be something we can do, anything you might know Aunt Jean,” Jayden replied warily, staring at the redhead’s back in concern. “There’s a myth that dream walking is the result of a deity calling you to them, if that’s the case then it’s no wonder I’ve never seen it before,” Jean massaged her temple, willing the migraine creeping its way into her brain to disappear. “Why?” “Our Gods rarely ever interact with us directly, to summon one of us means that something of great importance is needed, and the fact that they waited for the solar eclipse to do it is even more peculiar,” “So what? Let’s snap her out of it,
With his wolf-enhanced reflexes, Aiden quickly stabilized Alexa as the earth violently shifted beneath their feet. Glass décor shattered in a thunderous roar as it fell from the countertops in their room. A mutual look of concern passed between them, for they both knew that the unforeseen force behind the tremors was anything but natural. Not when it was accompanied by the shrill panic-stricken screams of their pack mates. ‘Their?’ the thought startled Alexa unsure as to when she had started thinking of this wolf pack as hers. With a shake of her head, she quickly banished the thought as quickly as it had struck her. Now was obviously not the time to dwell on such frivolous concerns. Instead, she focused on the strong hands that were securely wrapped around her upper arms. These large appendages were the only thing keeping her upright as the unnatural quake died down, but the sounds from outside did not follow suit. Without so much as a sound between them, they both dashed out the
Ten months he had waited, ten grueling months he had trained and plotted his revenge. Ten long agonizingly boring months he had nurtured the ego of a foul-smelling dog and her pitiful desire to rule over her pack of wild mutts. For nearly a year he had been plagued by an unquenchable thirst and the need to claim his revenge. It was almost as if he were hyper-focused on those two fixed points in his life. And although he learned to control his new state of being surprisingly quickly that hyper-focus could lead to his own downfall. Not that the man himself noticed too fixated on enacting his revenge too much to think about anything else, much less what he would do once he had it. Shaun, who had trained the new vampire on the wishes of his mistress could see the crazed gleam in the man’s undead gaze and wondered not for the first time what his mistress had seen in the newborn. His mistress, Amara, had never been the kind to explain the reasons behind her actions and Shaun had learned
“You don’t know,” Alexa’s eyes welled up with tears threatening to fall, her bare feet burning unprotected from the blistering cold. Aiden looked at her with an unreadable expression, one that not even she, who had learned to see the emotion behind his eyes could decipher. “I don’t know where I’m going, I wake up in a different place each time,” “Each time? How long has this been happening?” The flash of anger through their bond was enough to ground Alexa’s shaky thoughts, and she clung onto it as if it were a buoy floating in the middle of a raging sea and she was caught up in the tumultuous waves. Alexa was at a loss for words as they stared at one another. His anger was clear in his eyes. How could she tell him that she was scared, drawn in by an unknown force that called out to her even in her waking hours? “How long, Alexa?” he asked again, with more force behind his words. “A few months,” She let out a tired sigh. “A few months?!” the shock and the anger swirled within, f
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Spring bloomed, chasing away the winter chill, Summer burned hot that year until finally autumn leaves began to fall and the wind turned cold once more. It was funny how quickly Alexa became accustomed to living among the pack. No longer did she feel out of place as if she stuck out like a sore thumb. Eventually, many of the pack members warmed up to her presence and began accepting her not only as Aiden’s mate but as their future Alpha too. Her only problem being her unwanted run-ins with Vanessa, who was dead set on causing her as much grief as possible. Still opposed to both ideas she had learned to keep her thoughts to herself as many of the wolves couldn’t understand her opposition having been raised in pack life where all this was just another ordinary day to them. Even the few humans who had not been raised within the pack and who had had time to acclimate didn’t understand her firm stand against being labeled Aiden’s mate