She had to get out! She had to escape! Picturing her freedom was the only thought in her head as she ran. She was running from an enemy she could not see or hear. And even though her senses were both blind and deaf to her attacker her fear still pounded in her chest as real as if she were staring down the monster from which she ran. She could not hear him, nor see him for she was drowned in a sinister darkness that almost consumed her but still, she ran. She could feel his wicked intent as if it were a specter caressing her skin making it crawl and sending her stomach into knots. The darkness that surrounded her seemed to extend to the very corners of her subconsciousness and it consumed her. She couldn’t catch her breath as her heart clambered inside her ribcage. She could almost hear his voice taunting her, laughing at her pain though no sound ever reached her ears. She could almost imagine his cold eyes glaring at her in smugness as she lay broken on the bedroom floor where he ha
Alexa had never slept as comfortably as she had the rest of the night and when the first rays of the dawn tickled at her eyelids, she was reluctant to allow them to pull her from her slumber. That was until her blanket tightened around her waist. The hand she was comfortably leaning on slid from beneath her head and down her torso until it came into contact with pure muscle. ‘Snake’ was the first thought in her head and just as she was about to squeal the snake’s mouth opened and captured her hand in … another hand? That was definitely another hand, a much larger one at that. It dwarfed her fists in its grasp and intertwined her thin, fragile fingers between thick strong fingers. Now more confused than ever, and down a limb, the redhead allowed her eyes to slide open but saw no sign of her assailant. She wriggled beneath the weight of the arm flung across her waist until she found the wall of muscle the arm belonged to. Pressed tightly against her back. Her movement seemed to distu
For the third time in the past twenty-four hours, Alexa found herself being led through the halls of the large mansion, only this time they were lit by the morning bursts of sunlight. As they walked along wooden floors her gaze drank in the villa-like style that she had not noticed the night before. It looked as if the manor was frozen in time with all the original furnishings and décor still beautifully preserved and intact. The intricacy of the detail put into every piece of furniture pulled at her. Feeling her curiosity Aiden slowed his brisk pace to allow her the opportunity to see his home, which was once her father’s and would now hopefully be hers. Crystal blue eyes swept over the décor and filled with appreciation when allowing the beauty of the mansion to sink in. She could tell there was a rich history etched into the gorgeous ashen stone walls they passed, and she was almost eager to hear it. Her curiosity encroached upon her mental defenses forcing her to take an intere
Alexa stared at her with a blank expression, was that supposed to mean something to her? The woman had introduced herself as if she were a hot celebrity, but all the redhead saw was a stuck nose with big boobs. Vanessa had been waiting eagerly all morning for the first sign of the future Beta. Rumors had been spreading amongst the pack that their Luna had returned and with them her children. She’d listened to the gossip about how smitten her Aiden had become with their Luna’s daughter and speculations were made that the girl was his mate. Of course, Vanessa shut this rumor down swiftly. How could she become the next Beta’s mate when there’s gossip going about that he’d found his mate? Everyone already knew they weren’t mates; it had been the topic of gossip for weeks after her first shift. Even so, Vanessa was determined to mate with him despite not being his true mate. She’d even go as far as rejecting her own true mate should he ever have the nerve to show his face to her. There
Ignominy had a bitter sting when it was paired with a wounded pride, and it radiated within her. The pungent taste left behind had a distinct acidic quality that burned in her throat. And although the physical wound had quickly mended, Vanessa found herself still nursing her bruised ego. Humiliation and disbelief were her new companions. Both churlish in body and spirit the disesteemed woman soon found herself seeking vindication amongst her peers and the humans whom she so despised. Along with this newfound need to seek reclamation Vanessa was overwhelmed with a need to leave the Burrow. The bar she soon found herself in was far beneath someone of her caliber, but she was itching to justify what she deemed as mistreatment by the werewolf she desired. Simmering over the humiliation and masking its ever-present bitterness lay the boiling rage that she directed toward the pathetic humans of a nearby town. The Native American woman found an odd sense of comfort in having human males tr
Time is a funny thing, she always thought, everyone always wanted more. And the more one wants the less one seemed to get. Plagued by the concept of time people find themselves enslaved by the ticking hands of a clock. Time waited for no one and did not conform to the ideas of others. The faster one wanted time to tick the slower the hands seemed to jump from one second to the next. For Alexa, the gears in the clock that haunted her seemed to have sped up instead of slowed down. In what seemed to be a blink of an eye she soon went from being infuriated with Aiden to somehow finding herself trapped in between his tanned and muscular arms. The redhead was confounded by the day’s events and could not for the life of her, figure out how she had once again ended up with his arms wrapped around her. Wasn’t she still mad at him for his behavior earlier that day? But laying there with her back flush against his chest while his soft breath tickled the back of her neck, she felt nothing but
Although said in utter adoration the word held nothing but fear and darkness for the frazzled redhead. Instead of Aiden’s deep voice, she heard a different man altogether. Except this man did not say the word in reverence instead he said it sinisterly covetous manner. The word bounced around her head like a piece of shrapnel as her world imploded all around her all over again. Her heart stuttered and nearly stopped when her mind was sent reeling back to that harrowing night. The face of her tormentor flashed behind her closed eyelids and sent her into a near state of panic. The hysteria flashed from her and into Aiden through their bond and had him lurching from her body in his own panic as if he had been doused with a bucket of ice-cold water. In his haste to back away from her trembling form he all but topples off of the bed. And lost in her terror Alexa thrashed around on the bed to loosen her legs from the bed sheets. “What? What is it?” he questioned, seeking the great terribl
She took a shuddering breath, and steeled herself for what she said next, “And when you did it too, I don’t know it sent me back to that night” He didn’t know what to say to her in return, a bitter taste left in his mouth at the mere thought that he had resembled that good-for-nothing piece of trash. As they sat facing each other in utter silence the sun rose to greet a very somber atmosphere that hung so heavily it could have choked any who wandered into it. The air hung thick with a nauseating mixture of guilt, shame, and a touch of anger. The room’s two occupants turned to face the symbol of the Sun God in all its glory, but no words escaped from clenched lips. The silence was almost deafening to the young teenage girl, and she longed to break it as her discomfort grew. She could feel his anger, his hatred, and his guilt. It was pouring in through that open pathway like a tidal wave until she was almost drowning in it. Knowing that she had been the cause of his dark emotions fil
** 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