"Flame, move your ass, my dead grandma could be up here faster than you." I turn around from the top of the wooden wall and grin at her.
Her beautiful green eyes twinkle as I reach down to help her up.
Never one to be beaten, she jumps at a rope just off to one side and swings herself up and over, tapping my head as she sails past me before landing on the other side.
"Come on, don't want to get beaten by a little girl, do you?" She cackles as she sprints away to the next obstacle and I jump down, landing with a grunt as I push myself to chase after her.
At seventeen, I've grown bulky from endless training, whereas Flame is muscular and lean, making her faster than me initially, but my stamina is greater and it doesn't take me
The water is freezing and the wind is blowing strong across the sand, which explains why there are only a few dog walkers scattered across the beach and no one else. The cold weather doesn't deter us though. Channelling our inner children, we make sandcastles, bury our feet and paddle in the sea, ankle deep until our feet go numb. It's the most fun I've had in ages and only the mouthwatering scent of the fish and chip shop is enough to drag me away. As we eat, we watch a pair of dogs chasing each other around the beach, the few people around walking along, stopping to chat and then moving on, all of them look as happy and relaxed as I feel. "I might move here after graduation." I laugh, spearing a chip onto my little wooden fork and biting into it. I'm on
Never did I ever even consider that she left of her own free will. Never did I think that she would have started a life somewhere else, without me.This is not the girl I grew up with! The girl that I love would never have left me!"Aaah." I scream, tossing the desk across the room with one hand. It slams into the wall and cracks, falling on the floor in a broken mess of splintered wood.Kade has retreated into the furthest corner of my mind since I left the scene without Flame. Without even speaking to her or checking she was ok, he wanted to bring her here and make up for the time we've missed. He's not considering the fact that not only has she been alive this entire time, but that she's been happily living somewhere else, making new friends and doing whatever with whoever, wh
Ok, so I'm officially freaking out. Or going crazy. Maybe I banged my head a little too hard when those blokes tried to kidnap me last night because Coal is sitting right beside me. Coal. The guy who lives inside my imagination. I have no idea what is going on!Maybe I'm in a coma? That would make sense, because everyone seems remarkably calm about the attempted kidnapping last night, I'm pretty sure we should all be making a bigger deal out of that and now… now, the guy who I have literally been dreaming about my entire life, just walks into the house like he actually exists in real life.Sure he's referring to himself by a different name and sure it could be a massive coincidence, some kind of beautiful doppelganger but everything is the same as Coal. From his voice, his dominating aura, the way he walks, even the way his tongue darts out to touc
'Why are we leaving her? Go back.' Kade is stampeding around my mind from the moment we left Flame on her doorstep, trying to take control to march back inside that house and drag her home with us, like some sort of caveman. He doesn't understand that she's effectively human now and to do so would likely terrify her and we'd lose her forever. 'We need to take it slow.' I reply, grinning to myself as I remember her face when I taunted her on the Tree Surfers course. Whatever happened to make her forget who she is, hasn't changed her personality, she still bites when challenged. 'We're still her favourite scent.' Kade pushes the beautiful image of her, eyes closed, breathing in the smell of the woods tonight. I couldn't stop myself, Kade either, we pounced and she responded exactly as she used to, so she must still feel the bond, even if she doesn't know what it is that she's feeling. I need to find out what happened to her, how to help her remember who she is. Her parents will want
"We could leave now?" The words come out of my mouth in a rush of excitement, the cold air whipping around my naked form as I pull away from the naked man by my side."Is this what you want? We'll never be able to come back. What about your family? Your friends?" Coal places his hands on my shoulders and turns me to face him, leaves and twigs stuck in his hair and on his skin."We'll stay in touch, I taught my mum how to video call and Chloe is so wrapped up in Jaden, she won't miss me too much." I bite my lip, hoping he'll agree to run away with me, to be free of his father so we can finally be happy."Ok, let's do it." He kisses me quickly then hurriedly throws his clothes on while I do the same.We sprint back to the car and Coal drops me off at home, kissing me again and promising to be back within an hour. Once indoors, I creep upstairs as quickly and quietly as possible so I don't wake my family. I'll miss them but I can't stay and I hope they'll forgive me for running away in
The last two mornings have felt like a dream, waking up next to Flame was something I never thought I'd get to do again and after so many lonely months, I won't ever take it for granted. Darius and I left to check in with my father yesterday, because even though Darius covered for me and no one else knows about Flame's situation, my father seems to have a sixth sense when something is going on. The meeting only took a little over an hour, but it was excruciating being away from her for so long and unable to contact her. Tomorrow is going to be worse because I have to escort Cateline around the pack while he meets with Alpha Godwin, the two of them are still trying to forge ahead with this alliance, regardless of our feelings on the subject. I tried to refuse, but Gene unexpectedly spoke up, telling me that my father is hoping to pass the Alphaship over to me sooner rather than later and although he won't force me to take Cateline as my Luna, he's hoping I'll be able to create a str
Cain had to leave for work this morning, but not before trying to reassure me that there was nothing to worry about with Darius' announcement of an actual murderer on the loose. One that we may have had in this very house yesterday. As if anything except for him being put in jail would do that.We're all bored of being stuck in the house and it's not even lunchtime yet. Damien wants to leave to go back home early and if it weren't for my reluctance to cut my time short with Cain, I'd be all for leaving a day earlier than planned.I'm not even sure what I'm hoping to happen with Cain. Is it realistic to think we could continue to see each other whilst living miles apart? Would he even want to? Do I? A holiday romance is one thing, but I don't even know him, not really, I'm still not sure if I like him or if it's just that he's so similar to Coal that it feels like I've known and loved him my entire life."Good morning everyone, it's a beautiful day, isn't it?" Gale comes skipping down
Kade is restless, has been since we left Flame early this morning to go and meet my father. He was in a strange mood, he didn't even have anything to say about my absence except to check if I was ok and ask briefly if I saw the rogues that passed through yesterday."I understand you would prefer to be elsewhere, but I can't impress upon you the importance of building alliances with our neighbours, especially with the rogue issue we have currently." He says and then, as soon as Cateline arrives, unexpectedly alone, my father quickly ushers us out of his office telling us he's booked us a table for lunch at twelve and will meet us there, stating he had an important meeting to attend to until then.I was hoping to be back with Flame long before lunch, but when I mindlink Darius to get him to come and switch with me, he's in the middle of some sort of sex marathon with Gale and blocks me before I can ask him for anything.'We need to go.' Kade grumbles. 'She leaves tomorrow, we're wasting