All Chapters of Born of Ash, Risen to Rule: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"This dress cost more than you'd be worth if you didn't have that working uterus inside you," Leanne croaked out with vehemence and anger as she handed it to me. I raised an eyebrow at her, "How much?" I asked out of pure curiosity. "Five grand," Lenny answered for her, bending down to pick up the box as I started pulling the dress out of the plastic it was wrapped in. "That must've put quite a dent in the Council's bank account," I murmured, giving the dress a once over. My nose scrunched up but I kept my mouth closed. I knew Leanne wouldn't take kindly to me dissing the dress she no doubt picked out herself. Five grand for this thing? There didn't look to be enough material to warrant such a price. "Why are you just standing there gawking? Put it on!" She rushed out, holding a small bag in her hand that I hadn't see attached to the dress's wrappings. "It usually helps to undress before you put other clothes on," Lenny quipped from behind his sister. "What about privacy?" I

"It's not fair," Aiden whispered to me in the back of the taxi. Living in downtown Phoenix, most of the places we needed to go were nearby, owning a vehicle and paying parking fees wasn't exactly feasible when the Council apparently thought it imperitive to dress me in an ensemble that altogether probably came close to ten grand. If the dress alone was five, I could only imagine how much the handbag and shoes had cost them. "Shh, they'll hear you. And I'm doing this for the future of our kind," I assured him, picking a piece of hair off his shoulder. "Liar. I know they use me to threaten you, I've heard them." I paused at that, looking at the guilt on his face. I grabbed his ear and yanked him lightly toward me, "Don't you dare blame yourself for any of this. I don't. So you can't either," I warned before I released him. His hand shot up to rub the side of his head. "I can't help it, I do bl-" "No. You don't." I argued heatedly, our voices still hushed. "Why do you think they

My father stood in the corner of the room while two men who were apparently doctors flanked me on either side. Dr. McDowell, the man which my father had brought back with him from checking me in, and a Dr. Bray. McDowell was tall, had dark hair and a bored look on his long face while Bray was shorter than me, which was saying something since I was only 5'5." He had mousey brown hair and was very serious looking. I chewed my lower lip, looking everywhere but at the doctors or my father as Bray took my blood pressure. We were in a room that looked exactly like what you'd find in a hospital. White walls and ceiling, tiled floors, two small beds and a countertop full of containers that held things like cotton swabs, wooden sticks, some metal instruments and gloves. Getting here had only taken a couple minutes, but the quiet from before made it feel like we were miles away from the goings on. McDowell had led us to one of the elevators and I'd watched the numbers count up as we went dow

"Mr. Nordberg, can I help you?" My father, despite having a werewolf who looked half out of his mind towering over him like he was naught but a five year old, stood there, steadfast and unblinking as he held his hand out to Lathan. Father really knows no fear... Lathan's eyes kept drilling into mine, "Get out of my way," he growled at my father. I wanted to shrink back from his intensity. "I can't do that, you see, you're scaring my charge," he said simply, pulling on the chain that held my cuffs, lifting my hands with the movement. Lathan's eyes dropped to my hands in a similar gesture as Whittaker's earlier and I glanced at the platinum-haired man again real quick. His eyes were locked on Lathan now, confusion and disbelief clouding his handsome features. He looked on the verge on lunging at the new male that had joined our little group. What's that all about? I wondered briefly before my attention was drawn back to Lathan and my father. "You see, Mr. Nordberg, this girl bel

Reese's POV"All of it goes on her," his Alpha's voice said over his bluetooth."You go it boss," Reese responded quietly along with the confirmations from the other four members that were also on the conference call. Not all of them were able to communicate telepathically, so the use of phones was necessary.Honestly, not many people knew about the telepathic means of communicating anymore, it was something that had been forgotten by most over the centuries of adaptation and magic loss. Reese had been a skeptic of it even being a thing before he'd taken the oath, joined the pack the way the Moon Goddess had intended and had found out firsthand that he could hear the other stronger pack members in his head. Some of the mid tier members were able to communicate telepathically, only if they were in their wolf form. Some couldn't even then. And then the most unlucky of them couldn't even access their wolf skins.The inability for some of them to be able to communicate that way, or even c