The final gusts of crisp winter as early spring settled over the earth like a warm blanket still clutched at her shivering form as she trembled her way down the rickety and root-filled pathway. She was in no way, shape, or form made to traverse in almost pitch-black darkness in nature’s corridor created by the eerily bony and towering shapes she supposed were once trees. She pondered on how beautiful it must be in the summer when the bare branches were covered with luscious green leaves, but for now, those densely packed branches were as naked as the day she was born. Even without any covering whatsoever, those spine-chilling limbs allowed not a single drop of light to enter and that in itself was a danger to someone as clumsy as she. The stillness of the air was almost as eerie as the surroundings themselves. Alexa warily glanced up as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she could practically see their bony hands reach out with rough willowy fingers. And if she closed her eyes,
The thunderous roar his body made when it splintered the thick, bare tree seemed to echo endlessly in this ghostly corridor of trees now missing one of its companions. Without anything holding her up, Alexa gracelessly slid to the floor, shivering as the cool air brushed over her burning skin. The redhead panted harshly as she shook the heated haze that had seemed to possess her, slowly coming back into her mind. Shaking the fog from her head she used the damp earth beneath her fingertips to ground her to reality. It was almost as if she had been spirited away by a phantom that had come to take over her body. What had she been doing? It was all a blur, sitting on the forest floor with both her jacket and top torn up, the latter clinging to her body and barely providing cover from both the cold and unwanted eyes. Now more in control of her body, Alexa was drawn to the commotion happening not ten feet away from her trembling form. “Aiden! Snap out of it!” It was a man’s voice; one s
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
“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
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
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
“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,
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