‘You will lose one you love.’ Jackson. So that was it. That was Silke’s prophecy that finally came to fruition today. The one I loved like my father died today. The long and difficult battle with the humans that very nearly obliterated our home. I stare at Arlene’s body. She’s cold. She must have died soon after we left. All alone. Crying for her dead children. “Willow,” Patrick says softly. “Go wash. I’ll take care of her.” I kneel next to my guard and friend. My heart doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just a jumbled-up box of broken and missing pieces that I’ll never be able to put back together again. I don’t notice when Patrick gets up and leaves, returning a few minutes later with Remi and Julia. They wrap Arlene in a white burial cloth and take her away. “Willow?” Patrick asks somewhat hesitantly. He doesn’t know what to do either. I crash to the floor, sitting next to the spot where Arlene died, trailing my fingers over the place where her body lay, as if I could connect with he
Kane's POV“Willow?” I ask and crouch next to my mate.I’m on autopilot, physically and mentally exhausted, I have been for a while now, but Dario insists that I take care of her, and until she's in bed, he won't leave me the hell alone so I can get some rest. Truthfully, I don't know how to take care of her, how to help her, but I want to be with her - and if it's enough for me, maybe it would be enough for her.“Arlene died.”“Yeah.” What else can I say at this point?“Silke said this would happen,” she intones in a flat voice, staring past me into the open garden. “She said I’d lose one I love, but she wouldn’t tell me who. I thought it was your mother. I was wrong.”Goddess, I hate that fucking woman. “She didn’t predict the battle?”“She predicted a battle, but wouldn’t give me specifics.”And maybe if she had, I could have cleared out my wolves before the humans arrived. But there’s no point in getting angry at the völva. It's done. Nothing I do can change that, can bring back o
Kane's POV Glenn wakes me just after midnight. “Kane,” he says through our mind link. “They want you.” “Who?” I ask, still half-asleep and slightly confused. “The wolves. The funerals?” I wake with a rude bang, Glenn's words pulling me back to reality. Shit. War. Death. Destruction. “Right," I say. "I’m on my way.” I stumble out of bed and pull on a pair of jeans and a sweater. There’s a nip in the air. With any luck, winter would come early this year. It would give us time to regroup and recover. Before I leave, I lean over the bed and brush my lips across Willow’s brow. I don’t wake her – no one will blame her if she’s not there. Tomorrow, it will be a year since she walked into my life for the first time. It feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago. So much has changed since that day. Remi and Julia are standing right outside the door, looking exhausted. "Do you have anyone that can take over?" I ask as I close the bedroom door behind me. "In an hour Mario and Demi will
I stumble into Kane’s office and collapse on the couch. “Are you okay?” he asks and opens his fridge.Jackson and Anne’s funeral was brutal. They placed the two mates on the pyre, their arms interlinked, the two devoted mates always together, even in death. Their children were broken, and witnessing their grief was almost worse than watching Jackson die.I knew one of them would die. I should have sent them all away. Jackson, Anne, Glenn, Patrick, Arlene. I should have sent them away. Should have kept them safe.My mate hands me a glass of water and kneels by my feet, resting his big, warm hands on my knees. “What you’re feeling is called survivor’s guilt.”“What?” I ask, distracted by my thoughts.“It’s okay, Willow. You will start to feel better again.”I sigh and sip the cold water. “I want to go to Adare,” I say.He’s the one who has been holding me together, supporting me. He’s the one that’s being strong, not me. Silke was wrong. I’m not the rock. Kane is. “Okay,” he says. “I’ll
Kane's POV I wait in my office until I’m sure Willow’s gone before I go to our bedroom. Letting her go like that, forcing her to leave, was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do since I sent Adare away. It’s not until I’ve showered and dressed that I see the parcel on my pillow. I pull the note out of the ribbon. It reads: * Don’t worry about me. Stay alive until I’m back. Happy Birthday. Sorry I won’t be there. Love you. * I smile and unwrap the gift. It’s a magical charm of some kind. Clear quartz cut into the shape of a tetragon, dangling from a golden chain. I can feel the powerful protection spell emanating from it. Something inside the crystal, maybe an imperfection of some kind, catches my eye. Frowning I turn it up to the light and swallow past the sudden knot in my throat. Somehow, she magicked some of hers and Adare’s hair into the crystal, intertwining the two different coloured locks into a complicated braid that looped and twirled into a triquetra. I take off the o
“Can I ask you something?” I ask Zael after half an hour of complete silence.“You are the queen.”“I’m not your queen though, am I?”I can’t see his face, but I can almost imagine the vampire’s smile. “You are while we're at war.”“Why are you helping us?”The vampire drops his head to look at me, sighs, and rapidly descends. He lowers me to the ground and takes a seat under the nearest tree, leaning with his back against the trunk. “I need to rest,” he says. “The sun saps my vitality, and the last few days I haven’t slept at all.”“Do you ever sleep at night?”“No. I physically can’t.”“And you have to force yourself to stay awake during the day?”He nods in answer. The vampire does look tired. It’s more than just the usual daylight exhaustion that shows on his face. He looks older somehow. Deep cracks had formed around his eyes, and silver strands I’ve never seen before shimmer in his black hair. “Maybe you need to take a few days to rest up. Can you die from fatigue?”“No,” he gru
Kane's POVThe Gammas are not happy about Marlon’s presence in the castle. They hate the human out of sheer principle – he fucked with their queen, and that’s all they care about. “Do not talk,” I warn Marlon. “Do not try to say anything in your own defence, and whatever you do, do not interrupt me when I'm talking.”I wait for the wolves to hurl every insult imaginable at the human, giving them a chance to get it out of their systems. When it looks like things are about to get out of hand, I push my aura out over them and they go to their knees.I don’t like using my power on them in this manner, but sometimes it has to be done. These wolves are my squad leaders, they are in charge of my warriors, and while they are loyal to me, the warriors are loyal to their Gamma first. A good Gamma can easily convince an entire squad of warriors to go rogue. “One at a time,” I say. “Ask your questions.”Carl steps forward. As commander of the Gammas, he’ll speak for them. “This human took our que
Kane's POV Zael shows up at sunset, looking haggard and near death. “Did it take you this long to fly back?” I ask him. “Yes,” he answers and sinks into the nearest chair, dropping his head in his hands. “You would have been better off resting somewhere for the day.” “Yes,” he replies, his voice muffled. “Are you feeding?” “No. None of us are. Our donors are too far away, and we can’t risk feeding on random humans right now.” “Goddess, Zael,” I say. “You need to feed.” “I know, Kane, but what do you suggest we do?” That is a good question, one to which I have an answer and solution for once. The wolves won’t like it if I tell them the vampires have to feed on them. To supernaturals, the exchange of blood is very personal, too intimate. “We have a whole camp full of humans. How do you do it back home? Do you take it directly from the source, or…” “If we have a close relationship with the human we bite them, otherwise, we just use blood bags.” “Like…at a blood bank?” “Yes.”