ANMELDENWithout another word, he crossed the room in a few long strides, took my hand, and drew me into a tight hug. The solid press of his muscled frame against mine, his familiar scent, and the slow glide of his hand up and down my back melted every bit of tension out of me. I melted into him, all the anger draining away. I felt both emptied out and lighter at the same time.“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I’m a total idiot. I can’t get anything right and… I don’t know. What else? I’ve got a tiny dick? I need to drop some weight? Lay it on me, your worst shot.”I laughed in spite of myself and tilted my head up to meet his eyes. “Okay, you definitely don’t have a small dick. The rest?” I poked his chiseled abs. “Yeah, those hit pretty close.”He sucked in a breath through his teeth and shook his head. “Guess I’ll have to cut out the late-night ice cream sessions. Oh well.”We both laughed softly, but I wanted to move past the joking. I rested a hand on his chest and said, “I get how it mus
The whole teleportation thing freaked me out. How did that even work? Was she going to rip open some kind of doorway for us to walk through? Or would our bodies get torn apart into tiny particles and then reassembled on the other side of the world like some massive fax machine? My brain kept circling back to that during the rest of our talk.Sinthy finished her tea, set the cup down, and let out a breath. “I’ll need a couple of days to recover enough strength to teleport all three of us. I’m fine staying somewhere in town, but do you maybe have an empty room here? It would make everything… a little less strange.”Leo nodded. “Yeah, there’s still one guest room that’s not being used. You’re helping us out, so you’re more than welcome to stay here for a day or two.”The young woman gave a small, tight smile. “Thank you. I always hate having to ask for anything.”Leo stood up and showed her to the room. I watched them head off, and the annoyance started building inside me again. The way
I’d fucked up. It was obvious, and I didn’t know how to make it better. Lyanna had been trying to get through to me, and all I’d managed to do was make her feel stupid. Worse, I’d made her feel like she was losing her mind. I was going to have to dig myself out of this deep hole I’d created. We were all stretched thin, which made it tough for me to focus on anything except the huge threats staring us down. I should have trusted Lyanna’s instincts from the start. Now we had a witch sitting on our back porch. That was priority one, what the hell was Sinthy really doing here? Making things right with Lyanna would have to wait a minute. But maybe we could at least get back on the same side. A little forgiveness would be a start.Lyanna was in the kitchen fixing tea. When I stepped in, she didn’t even glance my way. I walked over, feeling clumsy and out of place, the same way I used to feel when I’d let my mom down. “Lyanna, I’m really sorry about what happened earlier.”“Oh, you mean when
Deciding a peaceful hour by the creek wasn’t happening, I got up to head back home. That persistent feeling of eyes drilling into me never let up. I walked slowly, straining to catch any sound of footsteps in the leaves. Still nothing. The sense of being watched was almost too much to handle. My instincts screamed at me to run, to shift and bolt out of the woods as fast as I could. But curiosity won out over caution.I whipped around again, hoping to spot whoever it was. The only thing close by was that same crow perched on its branch. I nearly turned back but stopped cold. I’d left the creek a good two hundred yards behind, and that bird had been right there. If it was here now, it must have followed me.I let out a sigh and curled my lip at my own ridiculousness. “The bird is not following you, Lyanna,” I muttered to myself.Still, the way it sat there like some dark warning sign made me veer sharply to the right, trying to leave the thing behind. My paranoia didn’t give up that eas
Even though Valerian’s friend Donatello had been spot-on about the deadline getting delayed, it didn’t make me feel any better. Sure, some folks were resisting the royals and dragging out their campaign against shifters, but Viola wasn’t about to let that slide. While we were desperately hunting for a way to bring her down, she was out there somewhere scheming her next major move. One big spectacle that would finally swing everything her way. It’s exactly what I would pull off, so it had to be what she was up to. Whatever she was putting together would be the killing blow, the final shove the world needed to turn its back on us for good and brand us as total outcasts.I was parked on the couch, eyes glued to the nonstop stream of awful headlines on the TV, running through all the different ways Viola could wreck our lives, when Leo came through the door. He looked worn out. I clicked the TV off and walked over to him. “How’d things go with Valerian?”Leo dragged a hand over his face,
Jamison removed her glasses and pressed her fingers against the bridge of her nose. She replaced them and leaned forward slightly. "Look, Charles, I've been speaking with several colleagues in other fields, and none of us have ever encountered anything resembling this. Not a bacteria, virus, fungus, or prion, nothing that fits. In fact, a close friend of mine who works in infectious disease cannot get access to any of the research being conducted by the Monroe Group or the CDC. That is highly, and I want to stress this, highly unusual. In a genuine crisis of this nature, every available laboratory is typically brought in to assist with research and work toward a treatment. We saw that with COVID-19. This situation is being kept under an extraordinarily tight lock. Which leads me to wonder, " She stopped and seemed to pull back from whatever she had been about to say.The anchor frowned. "Doctor? Go on, or what?"She exhaled. "I question how truthful the parties controlling this na
Something was off. I could sense it, but I didn't know how to put it into words. For several days, I’d been in a foul mood and easily agitated. The previous night, I’d snapped at Travis, one of my bartenders, something I never did. He’d been bringing a jar of olives out from the storage area and ha
The moment we left the mountains behind, I already missed them. It had been such a stunning and peaceful break from reality, away from all the terrible events that had occurred and the ones that still might. All I wanted was for him to whip the car around, head back to the cabin, and just hide from
My shop usually opens seven days a week, but I decided to take a short break, including the weekend. After seeing how Lyanna struggled when her wolf tried to take control, I knew she deserved something special. For the past month, she had basically been stuck at my place, only making it to work a h
The following day, I got out of bed to find my neck and chest littered with marks. I looked like a teenager who had just spent a wild night with his girlfriend. I didn't feel any embarrassment; instead, I saw them as trophies. They were a clear sign of just how much Lyanna had craved me. Lyanna w







