Novels by Ann michael

Being home with Amaani is somehow even more surreal than being in the hospital with her was.Maybe it's because the hospital still felt temporary.There were nurses coming in and out. Doctors checking on us. People constantly reminding me what was happening and what I needed to do.Here, there is none of that.It's just us.Amaani is actually home.My daughter is sleeping in her nursery, in the crib we spent so much time preparing for her. I can rock her whenever I want. I can read to her. I can sit beside her crib and simply watch her sleep.And apparently, I can do exactly that for hours without getting bored.Everything about this room makes me emotional.The little blankets.The clothes folded neatly in the dresser.The stuffed animals waiting for her to grow big enough to play with them.The rocking chair.The crib.All of it was once something I was preparing for.Now she's actually here.This entire pregnancy has been a journey.That's the only way I can describe it.A journey

"Are you ready to go home?"I look up at the doctor, still trying to process her question.Home?Already?I know parents normally don't stay in the hospital forever after having a baby, but somehow the thought of leaving terrifies me.Here, there are nurses.Doctors.People checking on Amaani every hour.If something happens, someone is right there.At home, it will just be me, Raven, and my tiny daughter.I'm supposed to know what I'm doing now.I'm supposed to be her mother.And somehow, that feels much more frightening than giving birth did."Well..." The doctor smiles at me. "I will be honest. You are healing much faster than I would have expected. Almost like you are a werewolf yourself."My stomach drops.I glance toward Raven.The doctor gives us a knowing look before continuing."And with this baby being a werewolf, she is more than ready to get out of here."She pauses.Then her expression changes.More serious."I also heard that there is a small group of werewolves downstai

Mark was right.Later that night, the exhaustion finally caught up with me.I had been determined to stay awake. I wanted to memorize every little detail about Amaani. The way her tiny fingers curled against my chest. The little wrinkles around her nose. The soft sounds she made whenever she shifted in her sleep.I was terrified that if I closed my eyes, I would miss something.But eventually, even my wolf couldn't fight the exhaustion anymore.One moment, I was watching Amaani sleep.The next, my eyelids felt impossibly heavy.I remember Raven moving quietly around the room. I hear the soft rustling of fabric before I feel her gently lift Amaani from my chest.I want to protest.I want to tell her that I'm not tired.That I can stay awake.That I need to keep watching my daughter.But I don't even have the strength to open my eyes.The last thing I feel is the mattress shifting slightly as Raven settles Amaani somewhere safe.Then everything goes dark.For the first time since I arri

Seeing this tiny little human laying in my arms is such a surreal experience.I knew that I was pregnant.I knew that I would have a pup.But now that the time is actually here, it feels completely different. Life altering.I have a little being who completely relies on me to survive. Someone who trusts me without question, without hesitation. There is something almost overwhelming about that kind of trust.Honestly, I am slightly envious of it.Raven hasn't left my side since we got here. Not even to go get Mark once I was cleaned up. Instead, she sent him a text and told him to come in himself.When he reaches my room, he stops in the doorway.For a moment, he doesn't say anything.He just stares."You can come in, you know," I say with a tired chuckle."You both just look so peaceful. I don't want to intrude," he says quietly.My daughter is lying on my chest, fast asleep.She hasn't even been cleaned up by the nurses yet. They said it was better to wait a couple of hours before gi

Lyall's POV"River, we are too far away. It is going to take us a couple of days to get there." I say."I know. We are going to get there as quickly as we can. Hopefully, she will not be too far away by the time we get there." She says.I nod as we finish packing our things.Knowing which hospital Rowan is going to be at makes finding her exponentially easier. For weeks, we have been chasing possibilities, following leads that went nowhere, and trying to piece together scraps of information that never seemed to give us enough.Now we finally have something real.A hospital.A town.A direction.We had to mind-link the other two and have them return immediately. They had been out searching for more clues while River and I figured out where we needed to go next.The moment they burst through the doors, they go straight to grabbing their things.There is no hesitation.No questions.They know Rowan is in labor.They know we finally know where she is.And they know that every minute matte

The drive to the hospital is absolute agony.Mark drives while Raven sits in the back seat with my head in her lap. Her fingers move gently through my hair, rubbing my scalp in slow, reassuring circles.To Mark, it probably looks like she is simply trying to comfort me.I know better.Every few seconds, a tiny pulse of magic moves through her fingertips and into me. It does not take the pain away. Nothing could possibly do that.It just makes each contraction a little more bearable."How far away are we?" Raven asks."About fifteen minutes," Mark answers. His voice is tight with worry. "Will she make it that long?"Raven glances down at me.My entire body is tense as I try to breathe through another contraction."Her contractions are close, but I think we have that long. I'm calling the doctor."She pulls her phone from her pocket while continuing to rub my head.The doctor gave us an emergency number months ago, just in case something like this happened. Raven barely gets the call to

"Wait, you can do that?" Frank asks shocked. "Yes, of course I can. It is not something that I have done often, actually only one other time but it is an option. It is one that terrifies her." I admit. "Who did you do it to before?" Rand asks me. "I did it to Morden. There was no other way to stop her from coming after my pack or my family." I answer simply. "Your grandmother said that Simonetta was behind that the entire time. That only makes it right that she gets the same punishment if not worse than what Morden received." Rand points out. I had not thought of it that way but it is true. Still, we need to have a system set up for something like this. Otherwise, there will always be somebody that takes advantage of the power and that is not something that I can condone. "That is very true. I had not thought of that but this is not a decision to be made lightly. There might be longer reaching consequences that even I am not aware of by using this ability. Still, I see no other o

It did not take long at all for the Hybrid Council to arrive. They all file in looking a little shocked to see Simonetta there, unable to use her magic as she floats slightly in the air. Quickly, they find their seats. Then, both Rand and Frank walk in as well. I had not thought of inviting them but I am glad that Dante did. With how long she terrorized their pack it is only fitting that they are here for this as well.I smile at them all as they whisper among themselves for a few moments. This is a bit of a shock for those that were not here to see Simonetta arrive. For Frank and Rand, they finally see their enemy tied up and floating in the air. They are not aware that I can take away her ability to use magic so this is going to be a shock to them when the meeting starts. "I take it you called us all here for a reason?" Elle says once everyone starts to calm down."Yes, I did. As everybody here knows, Simonetta has caused quite a few problems for us. She has terrorized werewolves,

Simonetta rushes towards me using wind to guide her speed. It is not enough to throw me off guard though and I shove a wall of dirt up in front of me. She almost crashes into it before she is able to skid to a stop at the last second. If she had prepared then she might have been able to use the air that was helping her speed up to me to jump over the wall but instead, she is used to using her other powers for combat and did not make the decision in time.As soon as she begins to stop, I tear down the wall and shift into werewolf form quickly to land on top of her with my teeth to her neck. Out of all of the forms that I could have turned into this was the only one that registered as an option. I would like for her to see the one thing that she thinks is beneath her be the thing that brings her down. For once, she surprises me when she throws me off of her with some air. I quickly flip over and land on my paws. I shift back and face her again. She is breathing hard and I find myself a

As soon as my illsuion drops I see Simonetta's face blanche. Chelsea drops to the ground and has it swallow her up as she falls through it to meet the others. I send her a brief thank you as she helps to keep them all safe from whatever back up plan Simonetta could have.She sends me a sad farewell. Apparently she is worried about whether or not I am going to make it out of this one. I might not have used much magic recently but I guarantee that there is no way I will let her get away with this threat. Today, she is going to go down and she is not going to be a threat to anybody with werewolf blood ever again."Wait, you had the baby? No! You can't have had it already!" She screams in rage."Actually, I can. There was nothing stopping me from having it. There is also nothing in the way of me putting a stop to you and your bullying once and for all" I say. She takes a few steps back as she steels herself for what we bothk now is going to happen next. It is a shame that the rest of the

"Why would she ever want to go with you?" I ask Simonetta in shock."I am sure that she can see the benefits when she realizes that if she doesn't then she will never get to meet the bundle of joy in your stomach. I will personally make sure that you are unable to deliever them. After all, the more powerful the babes the less the mother can use magic so I am sure that you are not able to defend yourself very well." Simonetta says triumphantly.I try my best to look worried. I really do. I find that it is difficult to be worried about her though. She has never really had a lot of sway over me. Even when I first realized how much stronger than her I am I had found it difficult to be scared of her. "You really think that I am afraid of you? Even without being able to use my powers you do not worry me. I have plenty of other witches that are able to come and help me." I say."Not before something bad happens to you. Chelsea, I would hate to see for anything bad to happen to Laina. I just

Each team splits up and gets ready to make their way through the obstacle course. They are all going to have to take turns trying to make it through safely. Each team has a designated amount of time before they get elminated. The one that makes it through the fastest and with the least amount of mistakes, will be the ones to win the competition. The course is very similar to the one that we did with the entire pack when we first started training. The one that really got the women moving faster as they fought to make good time through the course to beat the men. This one is just a little more geared towards children and not fully grown adults.Some of the obstacles are smaller to better accomodate their size, some things are closer together and they have even added some new obstacles that would have been difficult for the adults. There are also some obstacles that are going to require teamwork to make it through. If they do not work together then they have no hope of making it to the

After we finally leave the dining room we head back up to his room to begin packing our things to leave first thing in the morning. He explains to me that there are a few items I am able to leave behind as the door is kept locked when he is not here. He pays Mary quite a fee to keep the room open for him since he has had to leave in a hurry a few times while leaving items behind. She has given him his own key to lock the door with when he leaves keeping others out.As he explains this I am surprised to remember that the last time that he left he kept the bedroom open for me to use. He did not bother taking all of his personal effects out but rather left them behind and kept the door unlocked for me to have use of his room while he was away. This shows far more trust than I would ever expect a Prince to give a thief like myself."Are we making any other stops on our way into the city tomorrow?" I ask to stop my mind from spinning around all of the things he has been telling me today."

For the rest of the day I zone out most of what is going on around me as I try to find a way out of this meeting with the King. There is no way that I can bring myself to meet him. I value my life far too much to put it in danger like that. As we finish packing up and preparing to leave the following morning I find myself with little to share as I spend all of my time focusing on trying to find a way out. "Sloan? Have you heard anything that I have said lately? I am used to women being quiet around me but not having them zoning out while I speak." He says finally capturing my attention. I flick my eyes back to him and note the slight concern written on his face. He might be joking towards me but something about the way that I am acting is quite definitely concerning him. Maybe I should have made more of an effort to pay attention to him. "I'm sorry. I have a lot on my mind. Much more than the other women that happily hang on your every word." I say with a bit more venom than intende

The shock over what had just happened is hard to shake. My face is as bright of a red color as it has ever been. Probably more so if I remember correctly. I never would have expected him to kiss me on the cheek in front of all of these people. The fact that he did it directly after I had slapped him made it all the more shocking.When I do not respond for a while he seems to get more worried. At first he was smirking as he watched me blundering for something to snarky to say back to him. When I was unable to think of anything, I just sat there for a while and stared at him. I wanted to lower my eyes but I would be damned if I let him or any of the other patrons think of me as demure."Are you okay? I did not offend you at all did I? That was not my intention I just wanted to demonstrate how to distract those around you when you are in my position." He stammers when I make no move to reply. "It is a little interesting watching you flounder for a comeback though. If I had known that it

As soon as we finish our food some of his Knights sit down to join us. They are all staring at me curiously as we are sitting rather close together. After the way he kept me on his lap the other day I am a little surprised by their antics. Maybe, they are more surprised at the fact that I am still around than the fact that I am getting closer to the Prince."Your Highness, we made sure to follow him out of town. I have one other person tailing him to make sure that he does not circle back." One of the Knights says addressing the Prince."Good, I do not want to have to have him killed before I am able to save Hunt. That would really put a damper in my plans." He says turning to look at me.I warm a little inside as I realize that he really is planning to help me rescue Hunt. So far, I would not have been surprised if he had just used that to get closer to me. Knowing that he actually intends to help has me feeling things that I did not expect. There might be a bit more to him after all

Did he really just ask me to marry him? Hypothetically, of course, but still. He did just mention that word. I am not ready to even come close to thinking about something like this. There is no way that he would ever accept me either. It takes me a few moments to realize that I am staring at him with my mouth hanging slightly open. I have not replied to his 'proposal' at all. I guess that in the least I could just agree to think about it. Even if I have no real intention of entertaining the idea of marrying him by any means. Still, if it is going to keep me on his good side for now then I could at least pretend to think about it."Are you okay? I understand if this is rather sudden but I really expected that you would have expected it a little more after everything I have told you." He says sounding worried."It is rather sudden. I know that you have brought up the idea of us being meant for each other and all, but I just never really considered that you would ask something like this

When we arrive back at the Inn I am amazed to see that the clothing from the first store is already being delivered. It was lucky that she had that much stock that fit me or else we would not have seen any of it for weeks. Still, the fact that it is already here shows just how much he had to spend to get them to move it this fast. Most likely cost him what I would consider to be a small fortune.He immediately makes his way to his usual table while everyone stares at the fact that we both walked in together. Some of the ladies are giving me dirty looks as he places his hand on my back to steer me towards his table. I give them back an answering glare as they all give me looks that could maim.As soon as we sit down, Mary brings us out some water for us to drink before rushing back to grab us some lunch. As opposed to all of the dirty looks that the other ladies have given me, she gives me a hesitant smile as if she is judging my mood and reaction to all of the attention. I give her a