Amber’s POV The coppery taste of blood in my mouth made bile rise in my stomach. My head ached. My body felt like it was on fire, and I was sure I was close to becoming unconscious. I struggled with it, praying I didn’t become unconscious in these circumstances. Through my now swelling eyelids, I peeked up at Lydia and the man who were deep in conversation. If I became unconscious, they’d definitely kill me without hearing my side of the story. I laughed internally at my foolishness. They were going to kill me with or without hearing my side of the story. I was a slave. Lydia was a pack member, and worse, she was very close to the Alpha. It was clear the man already believed her words over mine. I needed to run away, to hide until I figured out what to do and how to get out of this mess, but my body was too weak to listen to my mind. I knew what was going to happen. What usually happened to runaways. They died. Simple. The patrol guards usually shot them in their spot, and
Yeti’s POV Alpha Dale was a mess. I saw him breaking apart in front of me, but I could only watch and do nothing to help him. It squeezed at my heart. I knew how bad it was to feel… powerless. Especially for a man like him who had all the power in the world. Seeing your loved one suffer was… well. A punishment I didn’t want to endure. Janine was not taking this well either. Earlier, I had had to watch her argue and then fight with Alpha Dale. I had no idea what it was about, but I knew it had something to do with that uncle of his and the stupid council. I clenched my fist as I thought of them. They did this to her. They put Amber in this state. She was finally healing, and they sent her spiraling over the edge. I was going to—I didn’t realize I was gritting my teeth or that my abilities were spilling out of me until I felt a firm but warm touch on my shoulder. I blinked, looking up to meet my mother’s warm gaze. I sighed, and she sighed as well. Removing her hand from my
Yeti’s POV My mother was lying to ne about working with Alpha Derrick. I knew I needed to tell someone but this was my mother we were talking about and I could be wrong. Still, I had seen her use her abilities when she said she wasn’t working with Alpha Dale. Clearly heard the lie. What did that mean? Was she still working with him or was she hiding something? Whatever it was, I didn’t want to find out and I didn’t want the others to find out as well. I sighed heavily, stumbling back when I felt the priestess’s eyes on me. My mother had left in a hurry an hour ago and the priestess had taken her place. “Is she going to be aright?” I asked, trying to shake the feeling that her stare was pressing inside me. for some reason, I felt guilty, exposed. Like she could see my deepest, darkest secrets. “What did you see, child?” she voiced, taking a seat on the chair beside Amber’s bed. I know you saw something that day. Was it one of her memories?” I glanced at Janine whose eyes were n
Amber’s POV My body was on fire. Not from the scorching sun or the heat that caused sweat to run down my blistering skin. It’s been three days since they tied me here, and since then, I’ve been flogged, stoned, spat on, growled at, clawed, and subjected to every horrible thing imaginable. Rope dug into my hands and legs, and my broken skin and the sweat that rolled down my body made everything worse. I was thirsty, but I couldn’t ask anyone to get me water. Not with how swollen my tongue was. It’s been only three days, and it already felt like hell; Alpha Derrick had decreed this punishment was to go on for seven days _if I even survived it. On day one, I had simply been a mode of entertainment for the pack. They all came to watch me as I suffered. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their arrogant chatters and their scornful judgement. Of course, I was the one at fault. I had tried to ‘run away.’ On the second day, I had begun regaining my vision, and that was when Celia vi
Amber’s POV Murmurs filtered through my ears, disturbing my sleep. Even if I was not awake, I could tell that something was wrong. I felt… different. I felt everything when only a while ago, I had been unable to feel anything at all. I felt the hair on my body, the air around me, the blood that pumped in my veins. My eyeballs as they moved beneath my eyelids. I felt everything except for one thing. Pain. The absence of pain was the first thing I noticed. The headache that had attacked me for days and made my head feel too heavy was…gone. My tongue, which had been swollen in my mouth, was okay. The coppery smell of blood, which had clung to me like a second skin, was not in the air. Instead, I smelled flowers, cinnamon, and musk. The scent made something rouse in my chest, pulling at an invisible string that made me feel an aching need. The voices hushed for a second, and then altogether, they started talking at once. I blinked my eyes open, wincing as the glare of light almost
Amber’s POV I killed a person. I killed a councilmember.The weight of what I did settled heavily in my chest as I could barely breathe. Memories of the moment rushed to the surface of my mind, and I saw the way my abilities had twisted inside him. It was like a lightning whip, except this whip had clung to his organs like a lifeline, sucking every life out of him until all the light in his eyes faded. I recalled the horrified looks of everyone in the room as they took in the horror that was unfolding right before their eyes. They had looked at me like I was a… monster. And I had relished and basked in the fear that evaporated from them. The truth—raw and unforgiving—burned through me. I had killed someone, and in the thrill of the moment, I enjoyed it. I could still feel the rush of power his life had given me, the hunger that gnawed at me after that. I wanted me. The monster in me couldn’t easily be satiated. So, no one could tell me anything—I had killed that man. It
Amber’s POV Izzy and Fabian threw me unceremoniously into the damp cell. I was fast enough to catch myself as I stumbled onto the stone floors, but I couldn’t say the same for Janine, whose sharp cry echoed through the cell as her knees scraped the ground. She muttered under her breath, cursing at the guards and whoever may have offended her. Yeti rushed to her side, trying to help her up, but she brushed Yeti away, breezing to the bars only to catch the guards back as they left. “A bunch of ungrateful fools.” She cussed out. “I can’t believe they’ll betray Alpha Dale like this. What did that old man promise them? What could be more expensive than their loyalty to their Alpha? ”I glanced at Yeti, who had settled herself in the corner with her back pressed to the wall. It was obvious that this was not her first time experiencing something like this. I bit my bottom lip, wondering just what this girl went through in that godforsaken pack. Janine paced like a caged animal; each sto
Amber’s POV It’s been three days since we were thrown in this cell. Three long, crawling, stinking days. None of us were saying it out loud, but today was the day. The day of the execution. On the first day of our imprisonment, Janine had nearly bitten the bars off. She had banged, screamed, cursed, clawed, threatened, and kicked until her voice was hoarse and her knuckles bled. I stopped her when she started yanking at the meat with her teeth. Usually, she was the most controlled of all of us, but the more the days went by, the more she lost a little of that control. Yeti looked like she was faring better than the rest of us. She said nothing and ate very little when they finally brought our rations, giving up her food for Janine, who only knocked her plates away. After hearing the things Yeti kept from us about her mother, she had decided she couldn’t trust the girl. As for me, I had no idea what to do or think. I had tried several times to reach Alpha Dale through our bond, b
Dale’s POV Although we only spent a few hours apart from each other, I was already missing my mate. When Izzy called to say that they were on their way back with Amber, I went down to the dinning hall to shop through the kitchen there, grabbing whatever supplies I could to prepare lunch for Amber. I already knew that my mate was easy to please when it came to meals though, thank the goddess, but I still put extra care in preparing the food for her. A loaded sandwich with trimmings had her beaming at me as I kicked the bedroom door shut behind me. I was making plans to move us to a more permanent bedroom since our sacred space had been tainted and desecrated by Mallory. Thinking about her now made me want to dig out her corpse and kill her again, just for the sake of it. I sighed as I saw Amber looking fucking adorable sitting in the middle of the giant bed in one of my old jerseys and sweatpants. I swallowed. Goddess, she was everything I wanted and needed. “Oh, I love bacon a
Amber’s POV Even after we return to Free City and stop in front of Alpha Dale’s pack house, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Alpha Dale helped me out of the car, wrapping his arms around me to help with the travel sickness and once he felt I was getting better, he moved away from me. I glanced around the garage where we were packed hoping I could spot something out of place, but the only thing I saw was Beta Trent, staring directly at me. The way he was looking at me made me want to climb out of my skin and run far away. Although, just a few weeks ago, we had been working together and even after that, he had quietly acknowledged me, being around him still gave me the jee-bees. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that deep inside me, I knew he agreed with the Council that I wasn’t good enough for the Lycan King. A girl like me with no background, even if my wolf was the strongest and rarest. I swallowed roughly and just stared back at him like an idiot
Amber’s POV With my ability, I could somehow tell that there was just two people in the house. If there was someone else. Alpha Dale and Silas would sniff them out. The lake house was luxurious and it was very clear that Alpha Dale’s family weren’t just rich, they had a sort of wealth that encompassed the entire werewolf community. Everything was perfectly designed, and even though there wasn’t anything particularly flashy or extravagant, it still oozed money. Beta Trent moved through the house with a type of precision that only came from knowing the layout intimately. It made me wonder how often they spent time in any other properties. It couldn’t be that often since for the one year I was with them, we never went anywhere. In under a minute, we were staring Donn and Celia down in one of the many parlor rooms on the first floor. It hadn’t been that long since I last saw Donn, but he was unrecognizable now. His skin looked tight over his bones and he lost so much weight that he
Amber’s POV I was tired and sleepy as hell. While Alpha Dale had been busy walking from one councilmember to the other and interrogating Yeti’s mother, I had been busy with tracing who the actual spy was so we could finally clear Yeti’s name. If the charge weren’t dropped. We had worked till the early hours of the morning and just when I had begun dozing off, the computer geek guy announced that there was a lead! And he didn’t just pinpoint where we could find our spy, but where Derrick and Donn could be as well. It was a vacation lake house just outside of Free city. One of Alpha Dale’s properties which he didn’t use often. We left for the Lake house the next morning and I only got an hour of sleep. Our computer guy had enough intel to find the whereabouts of the security cameras and surveillance around the house Donn, Derrick and our spy was holed up in, so we already knew how far we had to travel to remain undetected. There was a long hike ahead of us, but with a deep brea
Dale’s POV Once I knew for sure that Amber was safely in Janine’s office, I let my beta know that I was heading out for the day. I wasn’t one to check-in and report where I was going to be but, thanks to the current circumstances, we were all at high alert. The fact that a witch had been able to infiltrate our minds, helping our enemy get what they want with us what something I was very much ashamed of. Finding my uncle and Derrick was not just a necessity now, it was what had to be done to prove to my subjects that I wasn’t weak and I could protect them. And now with the council hounding Yeti. It wasn’t just disrespecting me. it was a threat to my title and one that I wasn’t going to let go that easily. “Do you think going to see Graves is really a good idea?” Silas said, keeping his eyes glued to the phone in his hand as he questioned me as if he was nonchalant about the answer. But I knew that was far from the truth. As chief security officer, he shouldered plenty of responsi
Amber’s POV Yeti was the person who kept me going when everyone hated me even in Moonstone pack. I realized that a long time ago even though I hadn’t known her identity then. Although she had been going through a lot herself, she still tried to help me with medical supplies not caring about what would happen to her if she had been caught. If I lost her, I won’t be okay. The panicked flutter in my chest started up again, stealing my breath. It only took a minute for everything to fall apart and the little bit of peace I found gone with one swipe from the council. They were always the problem. Yeti was my goddamn best friend, and if she’d been a spy this whole time, I would have known. Besides, no spy would give their life to save the person they were spying on. All I wanted was hot shower and a bed to hide in for the rest of the day after the way I dealt with that councilman. After I put my powers under control – the best I could – we fell into an uncomfortable silence, but it’s
Amber’s POV My chest was on fire. My lungs screamed for air and my heart thumped inside my ribcage at a frenzied pace, but I couldn’t force myself to be calm as I stared across the room at Janine. I couldn’t bring myself to look Yeti in the eye, not with the sight of her being slammed and strangled by Derrick still fresh in my head. Janine’s eyes bored into mine, her own anger at Donn’s betrayal simmering just below the surface. I didn’t think things could escalate so freaking quickly. One minute I was happy my friend was out of danger and was no longer under the threat of losing her wolf and in the other, I was finding out her fated mate was one of the men who could have killed us had the order been given some nights ago. “It’s true…” Janine said, ducking her head to concentrate on the scrapes and bruises she was healing over Yeti’s skin. “Fabian is her Fated mate. I saw his wolf choose her during the Culling,” Although Fabian was highly trained with more skills than me, Yeti
Amber’s POV I woke up as early as 3:30am the next morning to take another shower and get ready for the day. I had a lot to do and one of them was seeing Yeti and finding a way to clear her name even if the issue hadn’t been raised yet. I didn’t want it to be raised at all. I was done dressing by the time Alpha Dale’s alarm sounded at four. He groaned like he was being murdered, shoved a pillow over his head and grumbled under his breath like he was plotting a murder for whoever it was that woke him up early. He reached out with one arm to find me once he was done grumbling and when he came up empty, he threw the pillow over his head away, sitting up with a scowl. I tried not to laugh because he looked like a child missing his mother. I smirked and waved at him because it was good seeing him off-kilter for once and not the usual composed and straight man that he was. “Stop that,” he growled. “Stop looking smug and get over here. Trent will be here any minute and I need another
Amber’s POV When I woke up, it was long after dark. Alpha Dale was right beside me and instead of distracting himself by getting busy with something, he was watching me sleep. Seeing him beside me, looking at me like I meant everything in the world to him was deliciously tempting. I sat up slowly. There was a nervous energy surrounding me now that I knew I was going to be a mother. I wasn’t worried about my wolf anymore; she had proven herself many times in the last few weeks that I was sure it was time to spare her the benefit of doubt. “You’re awake,” Alpha Dale said drowsily. Leaning forward, he placed a kiss on my lips. “You looked really peaceful, I didn’t have the mind to wake you up.” I smiled, thanking him silently for allowing me sleep. My body needed all the sleep it could get. Glancing around, I saw that I was still in Janine’s office where I had fallen asleep earlier and suddenly recalled why I was here. Yeti. “How is she?” I asked. “But first, how did the council m