The sound of a car door slamming shut wakes me. I tense. My muscles coiling like a too-tight spring. Sticking my head out under the covers, I can hear soft footsteps approaching the cabin. I didn’t lock the front door. Did I? I can’t remember. But I do remember locking the bedroom door. The front door opens and closes. I get out of bed and stand facing the door, my legs apart and arms outstretched, ready to launch my magic at whoever is on the other side. I don’t even care about the consequences. “Willow,” my father whispers in my head. “Are you asleep, girl? Wake up!” I’m dizzy with fear, but I won’t let him win. Not this time. I’ll fight to the death if need be. The knob turns and the door rattles in the frame. “Willow. Open up.” Kane says on the other side. Letting out a slow breath, I walk to the door on shaky legs, turning the key and standing back so Kane can get in. “What’s wrong?” he asks, looking around the room. I take one look at him, the misery written all over his face
Kane's POV: The day passed in a haze. I wanted to confront my father, but Glenn wouldn’t let me get past him. “You are not thinking clearly, and you have no proof.” “You know he did it!” “Yes, but we can’t just go accusing him…we’ll build a case against him, be patient.” I paced up and down my apartment, sweat dripping from my body. I never thought I’d be this upset about Shay dying. I always thought it would be a relief, but I was broken up in ways I couldn’t explain. “It’s the loss of the bond,” Glenn said. He sat on the couch, watching me with weary eyes, getting ready to jump in if he needed to. “We barely had a bond.” “But you had it all the same, even if it wasn’t as deep as a true mate bond.” “Richard is going to blame me for this, and rightly so. I should just have abjured her.” “You couldn’t have known your father would go that far to get what he wants.” I stopped pacing and stared at my chancellor. “I should have. He’s done much worse in the past.” After that, thin
Kane's POV: The old woman leads us ever deeper into the woods, and the farther we go, the more nervous I become. Willow seems completely unfazed, she’s happy to be with her own kind. I can understand that -- I’m at my happiest when I’m with my tribe. One moment there’s nothing, the next, we’re in the middle of a thriving little village. Laughing, half-naked children run by us, barely glancing at us, while the adults stop what they’re doing and openly stare at us. What the ever-loving fuck? “How long have you lived here?” I ask. “We have called these woods home for, oh, near on two-hundred years now.” “You’re lying old woman. I’ve been here a hundred times, and I’ve never seen you.” “But we have seen you a hundred times--” she waves her hand and the village disappears --“Illusion spell,” she grins at me, and with another wave of her hand the village reappears. Fucking witches. “Okay,” I growl. “What is going on here?”
“Willow,” Agatha says and turns to me. “Are you not paying tribute to the gods?” “No,” I say flatly. “Why not?” Because, the gods have never done anything for me, that’s why. Because the gods left me to rot in Crystal Rose’s dungeons. Because the Gods gave me a father like Daniel fucking Jones. And now, as if the first twenty-one years weren’t bad enough, they fated me to a werewolf. “None of your business.” Kane looks at me with a little frown on his face, but he doesn’t say anything. “If you don’t pay tribute, the gods will not bless you,” Agatha says. I snort loudly. “They’ve never blessed me. I doubt they’ll start now.” “You are wrong, girl. You should be grateful. They’ve given you more than most of us get.” I fold my arms around myself. My joy at finding the witches has quickly turned to regret. They’ve been attacking me relentlessly ever since I stepped foot in their village. Like I’m not broken enough. If it weren’t for the fact that we needed the information Agatha has
Kane's POV: I have never been so angry and so afraid in all my life. I’ve faced some of the most brutal wolves the world had ever seen, and even then I wasn’t this terrified. When I wouldn’t willingly drink the potion they tried to force down my gullet, they cast a spell that immobilised me. Unable to resist, I swallowed the vile concoction, hoping and praying it’s not something that would kill my wolf. They needed six men to lift me off the ground and place me on the altar. Once on the hard stone slab, Agatha walked up to me, cut my clothes off, and left me here by myself, trapped in my own body, stuck with my own thoughts. At first, being nude in front of the witches didn’t bother me, but then the potion kicked in, and I realised what it was they gave me – I have the biggest, most painful erection of my life, and the longer I lie here, the more it hurts. I try to focus on the painful way the altar eats into my back an
I don’t know what happened or why. As soon as I started licking the blood from Kane’s chest, I felt their magical hold over me slip away like a bad dream. “On three,” he whispers. I nod, barely moving my head. The witches are walking around the altar, chanting their spell, stepping out of the circle one at a time to lay their offerings beside us. “Three,” Kane says. I roll to the left of him as he rolls to right, shifting as he falls off the altar. The witches scream and rush away from him. For a moment, I forget that I’m supposed to get on his back. His exquisite, golden wolf transfixes me. The rarest of them all. The biggest and strongest wolf to walk this earth. Born only once every hundred years and known to us as the Alpha of Alphas. Wow. Well fuck, don’t the gods have a twisted sense of humour? The witches realise their mistake at the same time that I realise what my mate is. They drop their offerings and start running for the exit, fall
Kane’s POV: “I have no idea what we’re going to do, Willow,” I say, running my fingers up and down her arm. “I still don’t see a way how we can make this work…fuck--” I push her away from me and sit up --“I’m…we’re really screwed. I did the one thing I said I wouldn’t do.” “Marked me?” “Yes, that…and now I have to hide you--” I run my hand through my hair –“I know of other wolves that did something similar…I always ridiculed them, and now I’m in the same boat.” I am confused and terrified. Confused, because her marked stuck, terrified, because I know if my father finds out about her, he’ll kill her on the spot…not even to mention what Daniel Jones will do to me…and Willow for that matter. “So nothing’s changed,” she says. “No one can know? We can’t be together…not really.” “I’m sorry. I’ll figure it out.” “We’ll figure it out,” she corrects me. I smile and am about to ans
The whole day I feel restless, pacing around the cabin, then the garden, then back into the cabin. I’m irritated and uncomfortable with myself, crawling in my own skin. I eat without tasting the food, my mind constantly on Kane, then the push from my father, trying to catch me unawares so I will tell him where I am. Every so often, a wave of sadness hits me, but I recognise it for what it is. Kane. It’s faint, but I can feel some of his emotions bleeding through. I am still unreasonably jealous of the dead she-wolf. I try to shake it off, but can’t. Maybe when he stops talking about her, it will pass. “Willow,” someone calls from outside. Agatha. Readying myself for a magical fight, I step outside to confront the old woman. “What do you want?” “You completed the spell,” she says, giving me a big grin. “Yes, but you couldn’t harvest the energy.” “It’s all right…we have what we need.” “I’m not going to war with Moon Flowe