Talia P.O.V.Everyone is pointing at us. Tabatha discreetly grabs my hand, her other hand locking around a golden chain pendant. The Coven Mother’s will have a similar one, sending their magical stored power into and sharing it with us, so we can draw on it when the fight goes down. I can feel the power vibrating in the air between the lineup. This is it. The passing of small blows and blasts were just the beginning. A test to see which side would lose its patience first. Of course it would be Caitlyn. She never had any patience with any of us when we were children either. Flashback “You are not putting in all of your strength, Talia.” Mother says, looking at me with her dark disappointed eyes. My little sister is lying on the ground crying from what I actually did throw at her, so I don’t understand why it matters. “She doesn’t like to hurt anyone, mother.” Tabatha interrupts, stepping in front of me as usual. She is always nearby, ready to jump in and protect me if she feels it n
Prologue “How dare you speak to me like that you ungrateful bitch? I am your husband! You are bound to me, and I am sick and tired of your excuses!” The slap is precise and hard, snapping my face to the side with its force. The tears in my eyes don't spill, because I know if they do he’ll just be even angrier than he is.“Honey, just leave her already! You don’t need her anymore.” Jocelyn says from beside my husband. She has been his mistress since just after we got married 2 years ago, and he never treats her the way he does me. He never raises his voice to her or his hand. All his anger is aimed towards me, and I know why - because I am trash! “No! She needs to learn her lesson. She is nothing to me or to anyone else! Her family married her off to me, knowing she would suffer the consequences of my wrath. She is ugly, unworthy and stupid!” “I know, babe. But.” “I said no, Jocelyn!” His angry eyes switch from me to her, and she takes a step back in sheer fright. I understand the
Annabel P.O.V.The restless energy swirls through my body as I pack a bag with the things I need to take with me. I have put on make-up to conceal the bruises, and turned off my phone. I always turn it off before leaving the house, but I also always have it with me to turn it on when my half hour is up. Pete knocks on my door when the clock says 10 am, and I open with the bag in hand. He looks at it suspiciously, and I give him a smile. “Some things for the red cross.” I have done this before, and Bane thinks it’s to keep up pretenses, but it’s actually to help me today. This day has been coming for a long time, although there were times, like that night, I was sure I would never see this day. Pete grunts an answer and walks down in front of me. Neither of the men ever speak to me. They know it’ll be fatal if they try. Yes, Bane is that insane. Downstairs I don’t waste any time. I walk directly out to the car, going into the backseat. I know where my lawyer is located, and luckily
Annabel/AllisonAfter what seems like a lifetime, I finally hear footsteps outside the conference room. Outside the sun has gone down, and I am sure I have been sitting here for hours. “Annabel, are you still here?” Mr. Felton’s hush voice echoes in the empty room. I peek out and it’s only him. “I’m here.” I say, crawling out from my hiding place. “What time is it?” “Almost midnight. I brought you food, and something to drink. You must be starving.” I looked at him for a second, before realizing what he said. The smell of the food invaded my senses. “I’m used to..” I shut my mouth and Mr. Felton raises an eyebrow. “Used to what exactly?” I shake my head. I am not going to say it out loud, because once said I can’t take it back. “Alright. Let’s get this show on the road.” He sits down at the conference table, food, drinks and paperwork in tow. “I made a call to the bank today, after your husband left - which wasn’t an easy feat by the way. Someone tattled, and I will make an inqu
Bane P.O.V.“Boss, there is still no sign of your wife.” Pete says. I throw my coffee mug at him, and he dodge as per reflex. He knows my temper better than anyone as my Beta, and he knows how much he fucked up letting that little slut to my mate slip away! I need her back. My wolf has not given me any time to rest the last three weeks because he is pining after her. At least he gave me peace, more or less, when Annabel was here with us, even though he would scold me for how I treated her. I kept reminding him who’s in charge by holding him in a tight mental cage. He’s only let out when I allow him to be out. ‘I can still speak to you, dumbass.’ The flea infested mutt says. I growl out loud, the lack of sleep really annoys me as much as my stupid wolf and stupid Beta. “And why is that, Pete? She can’t just disappear.” I answer, my black eyes staring him down. He cowers under my stare. “I’ve personally looked over every camera there is in and around the law firm, and there is nothin
Allison P.O.V.The morning is beautiful when I drive into the town of Marigold. I have driven all night to reach here, and I have prepared myself as well as I can for what the cottage looks like. I’ve bought cleaning stuff, a vacuum, bucket, gloves and other house stuff. I don’t even know if it has a washer and dryer, or anything else about this place. But right now it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’ll be there in a few minutes and I’ll be home. A new home, a new start and new life. A life away from Bane and his abusive ways. I still have nightmares almost every night, but I am getting better at going back to sleep. Listening to quiet meditation music and soundscapes helps as well. The town is a decent size from what I can tell from the main road. I have to go straight through and do a right turn on the other end of town. Then I’m down a forest way, used frequently as there are fresh tiremarks, and then I’m there. The cottage is a little way into the forest, with a view
Allison P.O.V. Moving back into the entrance hall, I walk through the door opposite the living room. It’s the bedroom which has an en-suit bathroom, and a walk through closet, which can be closed from both the bathroom and the bedroom. The queen size bed is in the middle of the room, with bedside tables on either side of the bed and reading lamps in the tables. The bed even has clean bed sheets, blankets and pillows on it, so I don’t have to go out today and buy that. The big window overlooks where my car is parked, and the curtains are blackout curtains which will be very nice for the lighter time of year. I go back outside to the car, bringing in my stuff. It takes a couple of turns back and forth, and while bringing my things inside, I also get a look outside. The lake is beautiful, and the forest is full of sounds of life. I’ll need to go shopping later, but right now I’ll unpack and start washing my dirty things. The time has flown by, and soon I find myself staring at the
Blake P.O.V.So far this day has been boring out of my mind. We have had endless meetings with other packs concerning the growing numbers of rogue activity, but no one can come up with a solution to get rid of them for good. I have nothing against rogues per se, but I do when they attack and steal from packs. It’s been a growing problem since before I became Alpha 8 years ago, and seeing as I am Alpha of the largest and strongest pack in the region, the Council counts on me to be a leader in all of this. “Alpha Blake, are you with us still?” Head Councilman Eddar asks into the camera. We’re doing this on a zoom meeting, just because of the nightmare of assembling all the Alpha’s in my region, let alone the whole damn country. “Yes, sorry. I was contemplating how we may proceed to prevent these unprovoked attacks. Because I assume they are unprovoked?!” I answer, looking at the little pictures of my fellow Alpha’s. Especially some of those in the East region who have been complainin
Talia P.O.V.Everyone is pointing at us. Tabatha discreetly grabs my hand, her other hand locking around a golden chain pendant. The Coven Mother’s will have a similar one, sending their magical stored power into and sharing it with us, so we can draw on it when the fight goes down. I can feel the power vibrating in the air between the lineup. This is it. The passing of small blows and blasts were just the beginning. A test to see which side would lose its patience first. Of course it would be Caitlyn. She never had any patience with any of us when we were children either. Flashback “You are not putting in all of your strength, Talia.” Mother says, looking at me with her dark disappointed eyes. My little sister is lying on the ground crying from what I actually did throw at her, so I don’t understand why it matters. “She doesn’t like to hurt anyone, mother.” Tabatha interrupts, stepping in front of me as usual. She is always nearby, ready to jump in and protect me if she feels it n
Allie P.O.V.‘Dawn, we need to make sure they are following us back to the pack!’ I tell my wolf as we are running at full speed with Shadow at our side. Everyone else is behind us, Elliott’s wolf, Thor, on our six, watching our back.‘They are following us, don’t worry!’ Dawn replies as a growl rips through the air. We both know that growl from the day we first shifted. It belongs to Bane’s wolf and he is close to our trail. We need to go faster. I mindlink Elliott telling him to split up and take some warriors with him, he breaks left away from us at the next turn, taking half of the people they summoned with him. ‘Neptune, where are you?’ I include Blake in the mindlink to our Delta, mostly so Neptune knows we are both okay. ‘With Tabatha and her mate at the packhouse. We are getting innocents out of here before everything goes to hell when you all come back.’ Neptune answers. ‘If I might say so, Alpha Allie.’ He adds, probably thinking he offended me. ‘Good! Can one of you make
Tabatha P.O.V. “You always were a big disappointment to your parents, Tabatha. And now we find you whoring yourself out to wolves and other disgusting lowlives. No wonder your mother is distraught and grieving.” My aunt taunts, while smirking at the wolves by my side. I asked both Neptune and Damien to shift back into their wolf forms so no one saw who they were in human form. “You do know the bitch you are calling my mother, so not the woman who carried me and Talia and birthed us, right?” I ask, rolling my eyes. I am just keeping a shield in front of myself and the wolves for now. My aunt is a talker, not a fighter. She’ll run for the hills the moment she even thinks she has to fight me, and I need to save on my magic. A shield draws almost nothing from me, besides, Damien allowed me to draw some strength from him through our matebond. Although we haven't mated and marked each other, our matebond is strong and will only get stronger as time goes on. “Of course she did.” Aunt spit
Blake P.O.V.It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be over before it really got started. But now here we are hunting for Allie and Athale, Tristan is in the hospital recuperating from his temperate stay in the world of the unalived and we are nowhere near the end of the battle. Shadow is going crazy in the search for his mate, knowing she is properly with that insane bastard to Bane all the while we are looking for her. We promised to protect her, and we screwed up! I should never have agreed to this plan. ‘It’s too late for what if’s. We just need to find her in time and make sure she never leaves our side ever again!’ Shadow grumbles. I have to agree with my grumpy wolf. We are never letting our little mate out of our sight again after tonight! We’ve been searching for some time when the air ripples in front of us. Thor immediately puts himself between the ripple and Shadow, trying to protect us. Shadow snorts, but I shush him, proud of Thor and Elliott. They are acting l
Talia P.O.V. “So we’re all in agreement?” The wolves nod and I smile. After I teleported us via my focus on Blake, we landed right in front of him and Elliott’s wolves. They were taken very off guard, and I was lucky they recognized me in time to not attack out right. I hadn’t really thought this through - I just knew I needed to get to them fast and this was the fastest way I knew how to get to them. Ethan and Ophelia, strongly encouraged by the snapping teeth and growls of the two huge wolves and the fact that they can’t use their magics because of the cuffs, showed us the way to their base of operations. Of course they would choose the old Marigold packhouse. The irony of that location was something Bane and my parents could not pass up even if they wanted to. I put a strong illusion on the cuffs on Ophelia and Ethan so only they and I could see them, making sure my parents would think they had truly taken me hostage. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I was going to be a hoot
Bane P.O.V.I finally had her where I wanted her. She was here and she couldn’t do a single thing to me. I was going to enjoy breaking her little by little, seeing the light that shined so brilliant in her eyes now dim with every blow and stab. I had planned meticulously for her capture. For my victory. And then someone from the outside had to fucking ruin everything. I was allowed to be there when they captured Annabel and that witch bitch, but I could not touch her, could not be near her. I wanted to taunt her; see her face when she realized I was winning, but no. They put them in a room with a guard, and told that fucktard of a guard to not let me in. I was livid. The only good thing to come out of this was Lucy. She came to us when we came for Annabel, and she joined our forces. At least she could be a distraction amidst my anger. And she was more than willing to play my little games. She told me everything she knows about her former pack, her former Alpha and made me promise to
Talia P.O.V. “Come on, babe, we need to bring her to your parents. We’re not getting answers out of her.” Ethan says with irritation lacing his voice. They have kept out of the trap they set for me, knowing they seal themselves in here with me, on my terms, if they did. The first thing I did when they let up on the electric shocks a little, was search the little snare they had laid out. It was way out of both their leagues, and I decided my mother or father must be the ones who set it up. They made sure only the person who is directly inside the pattern in the ground is trapped, and his or her active powers do not work on those outside. Searching and understanding the concept of the trap is a passive magic, so it worked quite fine. It also told me they had to render me unconscious or put dampening cuffs on me to move me. “NO! I finally have her where I have wanted her for decades. Centuries. Helpless. She is mine!” Ophelia screams at Ethan, who takes a step back from my sister's ou
Allie P.O.V.“Wakey wakey little bitch.” A whiny female voice says in my ear, while nails dig into my throat. I’m tied to a chair, and the female is nauseatingly close to me, her perfume almost making me gag. I recognize her voice immediately and Dawn growls in my head, but I chose to not let it show as I slowly ‘wake up’. Apparently it’s too slow for her, because she lets me go, only to douse me with cold water. I blink the water out of my eyes, lifting my head to see Lucy’s smug face smirking at me. “Well, well. How the tables have turned, huh.” She says victoriously, but I ignore the obvious jab. I instead search the room with my eyes and find a still unconscious Athale opposite me, also tied to a chair. Dammit. So they got her too. Something hits me like a ton of bricks. Tristan came. He came to help us. He must have been close to the blast, but not close enough to be affected by it. He found us in the forest. They killed him. Tristan died trying to protect Athale and me from bein
Tabatha P.O.V.“Can you get in touch with your Alpha, Damien?” I ask, trying to think fast. We need to move, and we need everyone to understand the severity of the situation. “Of course. You want him here?” I shake my head, we’ll need to be somewhere else, somewhere safer. A place where we can regroup. I sigh. There is nowhere safer than here at the moment. The battle has completely died down here because of the blast and the vast numbers of dead still on the ground. I close my eyes, feeling for Talia ‘s aura as well as Ophelia’s and Ethan’s; they are not in our vicinity. Someone is. Someone who I don’t recognize immediately. I frown, but right now I just need to focus on this task. I handle this person if they make a move. I make sure to put a passive tracking spell on him, so I know where he is at all times. I know it’s a he, but something is off and familiar at the same time. This is going to drive me crazy. “Yeah, I actually think it is as good as anywhere. If he can get some of