I woke up only to discover that I was alone. It was few hours to dawn.Where was Thane?, I sat up from the bed.“You need more sleep." Axel – who I hadn’t realized was in the room, said to me. How did they always go in and out without me noticing?, was I really that deep a sleeper?“Where is Thane?” I asked.“Gone”“Gone, where?”“You don’t need to worry; he’ll be back in a while, and I’ll be here with you,” Axel said.I put on a coat over my nightgown and headed for the door.“Where are you going?” Axel asked“I know he is about to be punished; I need to be there.”“He doesn’t want you there,” Axel answered.“I don’t fucking care what he wants,” I said. The movement was fast. Axel had been over there a while ago, and now he was standing right before the door, startling me. With his intense gaze on me, I swallowed. I always had to remind myself that Axel was just as dangerous and scary as Thane. “I’m sorry. Could you just take me there, please?” I begged, force couldn’t exactly do it.
...‘Just some regular whipping’, Thane had said, but he had lied. The metallic steel-coloured whip was very much unusual. I couldn’t help but wonder how someone could create an object like this with the sole purpose of using it on people. The whip was a dark, shining metal, and the tip had been split into five. The elders passed the whip to the guards, the same ones that had too many piercings. They dipped the metal whip into the contents of a basin.“What is that?” I askedAxel was silent for a while, and that alone was enough to tell me that whatever it was, I wouldn’t want to know. “Wolf’s bane in its liquid form. Leave it up to the elders to devise things like this,” Axel said, and I could sense the anger in his voice.Thane was right; I wouldn’t be able to bear watching this. How could I stay and watch such cruelty?I knew what wolf’s bane was; it was one of those many things I’ve heard about a lot of times but never actually seen; it was rare for a good reason; this was a werew
“Don’t touch me,” I warned, but of course they rather obeyed Thane’s command.The guard dragged me away, and the little distraction was easily forgotten. The executioner continued, and I lost count.Thane seemed mad at me. I had made not only him but also Axel suffer, all because I couldn’t walk past the damn room. I got what I deserved.I felt slightly awkward due to Thane’s impolite words – he hadn’t spoken to me like I was his Luna, more like I was some annoying, clingy and bothersome person who didn’t know when to react and when to refrain. Still, I couldn’t help the surge of guilt I felt.Maybe Thane was right; punishing me will make things easier to bear. Lost in thought, I realized the soldiers had stopped before a room.I pulled away from them to walk in, only to get shoved into the room by one of the soldiers. I landed on my butt. I was mad at everything. I rushed for the exit again even if I knew I wouldn’t be able to escape them, only to have the door slammed in my face, a
Axel let my mother in.If only he knew that she was the last person I needed. “I would give you both some space,” Axel said.“Are you here to give me some more lectures, mom? There’s nothing you say that would change the decision I had already made, so maybe you could make this easy for the both of us and leave,” I said to her even before she could say a thing. Maybe Axel hadn’t picked up on the info the last time; my mother had been a total... I couldn’t call her a bitch, but she had acted very much so, making me feel like I was a naive and ignorant child who couldn’t see that she was headed in the wrong direction. Yet she knew that all I did - I did for her and for us.“Will you at least hear me out?” My mother asked“Depends on what you have to say, mother, if it’s along the lines of ‘he is too dangerous for you’ or your very favourite, ‘a life of slavery back in the Windborne pack is better than a life here’, then I’m sorry—but not so sorry, I wouldn’t be interested in...” “I am
I did need my mother’s visit more than I thought I did and after that, I was finally calm enough to fall into a restful sleep.I didn’t know how long I slept, but something awoke me; I felt like I wasn’t alone in the room. I snapped my eyes open to see Thane watching me, like practically sitting on a stool close to the bed and watching me like a complete creep. Thane was the last person I expected to see.My heart slammed fast against my rib cage, threatening to escape the walls.“You scared the living day light out of me, Thane,” I said. He didn’t say anything, still staring at me with those dark amber eyes. Could I still be dreaming?. I pinched myself to make sure. I did feel that. This was no dream.“I like watching you sleep,” he said, as if just realizing it. “I like so many things about you. I like when you are shy and embarrassed, but what I love most is watching you in tears. You cried for me, and it was a fucking turn-on.”“That’s very creepy Thane, even for you.” He was turn
I and Thane lay side by side on the bed in a comfortable silence.“I’m feeling very generous now. Ask me a question; you might get an answer,” he says, and I peck up. I had so many questions to ask, and he was finally giving me an opportunity. I might as well take it while it lasts.“Why did you pick me?, you would have had others easily... What is your intention, and what are you going to gain from this?”“So this was the first thing that came to your mind?. Ask any other question, but that,” he says. That wasn’t fair. But I quickly moved on, I didn’t expect an answer either.“Your parents had been present at the time you were being...” I paused; I didn’t want to say the word punished again, so I moved on, hoping Thane got the clue: “Freya did nothing. I feel like there is something you haven’t told me, something between your parents, particularly your mother and you.”Thane watched me silently. “That’s another question I can’t answer.”“Were you planning to ever answer a question?”
Thane paused. For the first time, I saw a flicker of emotion on his face.“She was dead. And in her hands, she held this paper. It was a message for me. She had explained the true reason she turned me down earlier: she hadn’t wanted me close because she knew I would be hurt in the end. She had this sickness, an issue with her blood; she said it could never be cured. I did notice how thin she got, but every time I asked, she came up with a story, maybe factoring it all to stress, and I believed her. I felt like a fool for not looking deeper. This illness had been eating her out for a while, and that was the reason she settled out alone; she didn’t want to hurt anyone. She said she had been selfish for wanting me and selfish for having me, even if she knew it would leave me broken in the end.I had been so furious at everything. At myself for not realizing it soon, at fate for pairing me with her as a mate, and at her for keeping it away from me, maybe I could have helped her if only sh
I could do anything just to see that other part of Thane again; the softness in his eyes had done something to me – something I couldn’t explain. But whatever I had seen two days ago was gone; now he was back to his cold self.Maybe he did regret telling me about his past, because for the past two days he had barely exchanged words with me, or maybe it was just me being paranoid and he was simply busy and stressed. His injury healed fast too, and now the marks looked weeks old, even though it had been barely two days. Axel hadn’t visited either, and I worried if something was wrong. Either way, I was not planning on remaining in our room all alone today; I was going to pay a visit to the training grounds and maybe explore a little too.I got dressed, ready to leave, when a knock on the door interrupted me. Axel?I rushed to the door and pulled it open, and my face fell visibly when I noticed who stood there. Beatrix.What the hell was she doing here? So far, I had imagined that this r
3ALEXANDER POVI watched her sleep. I couldn’t say exactly when the insecurities set in, but lately she kept talking about how she’d gotten “fat.” She wasn’t—she was pregnant, strong and healthy for an expectant mother.I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. I’d spend eternity reminding her of her beauty if that’s what it took.It was time for work, but I didn’t want to leave Kaida alone—not with her due date only weeks away. Before heading out, I went to check on Alexa and found she was already awake.“Daddy, take me to Uncle D, pleeeease,” she begged.She was too adorable to refuse, but it was far too early.“It’s still sleeping time; he’s resting,” I said gently.“But Uncle D don’t sleep. He a vampire,” she whispered, as though sharing a top secret. I could have asked where she’d learned that word, but I already knew the answer.Then Kaida’s cry rang out from the next room: “Alexander! It’s coming—the baby…”My heart jolted. I raced back to our room and found her leaning against t
1.***PHIL POVTwo Years Later…I had never felt so nervous.The day had finally come — Selene had turned twenty-one two days ago, and soon everything between us was about to change."Good luck, friend," Austin said to me."You got this," Ruth, Austin’s mate, added, and I nodded.A year ago, Ruth had finally said goodbye to the Winter Pack and joined her mate, Austin. Their reunion had been beautiful, and the pair had been inseparable ever since.I wanted something like that too — though I hadn’t realized how badly until I met Selene.At many points, I had thought about canceling the plan of waiting, but this time, Selene had been the one against it. I refused to think too deeply about the reason behind that.Now I stood by the door to her house and knocked.I waited a few moments; there was no response, so I knocked again.A woman answered — a complete stranger."I’m looking for Selene. Selene Ashford?" I asked."Oh, the Ashfords don’t live here anymore," she said — and my heart drop
“The others are very angry,” Kyiv said to me. “They think I’m on your side, and that’s why I killed Skale. It’s no secret they don’t like me very much, so they’ve requested something from me—to make clear where my loyalty lies.”“And I’m guessing this thing they requested of you somehow involves me.”“That’s right. Let’s look at the pros of this operation. You’d get to leave the cell for a short while—after days of being locked up, that has to mean something. But then the cons: you’d be paraded naked in front of thousands of rogues, bound, and many would want to… touch.”“I have nothing to be ashamed of, but I’m more worried about your little plan with the plane crash. Aren’t you worried the news that I’m alive will leak out?”“I too believe this is a bad idea. Even if I stand to benefit in many ways — I’d finally prove myself a capable leader to the rogues, and the other rogue leaders would have nothing on me. But I still don’t trust their promises to keep the rogues silent, so the n
I stared at the water in the wooden bowl. I was so thirsty.Could anything be worse than this?At least I would have one less thing to worry about—thirst.I reached for it. It was far enough to cause some strain on my already bruised wrist as I stretched for it, and then I took hold of it.Just before I could lift it up, the bowl slipped from my bloody grasp and fell to the floor, the contents splashing across the ground.Fuck.Well,I guess I really have no option now.Something captured my attention — a blackish smoke swirling in the air, growing thicker with every second.Then, through the smoke, Daemon stepped out.“There you are, about damn time. I was starting to wonder if I was at the wrong place,” he muttered.“How did you find me?”“I made a very wild guess.” “Kaida — how is she?”He tapped on the transparent glass, as if testing its strength.“She’s perfectly fine, and she knows you’re not dead. But she might not be too happy about the fact that I didn’t let her come with m
“There’s a slight chance we aren’t dealing with a pack,” Daemon said. “Thank you for this information.”“Wait, you’re leaving me here? I just proved how important I could be.”“Yes, indeed. If you get any other information, just reach out,” he said, then turned around. He was really leaving.“Fuck you.” I muttered beneath my breath.“I heard that,” he called out. “I intended for you to hear that!” I said, but of course he was already gone.My gaze fell on Sebastian, still standing on the other side of the wall. He raised both hands in surrender before backing away. Frustrated, I stomped off..Kate arrived at the pack a few hours later. This time, she brought along her luggage.“You won’t really need all those for a few days.”“No, I won’t. But I’m not planning to stay for just a few days,” she said, walking into her room. I followed with two more of her luggage. “I’m moving into this pack,” she said finally, and I couldn’t deny how surprised I was at that.“Really?”“Yes,” she said,
I walked past the patrolling soldier and Phil, who followed after me.“I thought you said you were leaving? I was worried you’d do something rash, so I came after you.”Good thing he and the other patrollers hadn’t witnessed what happened earlier.“Plans changed. Guess I was about to make a rash decision — but I changed my mind.”“Are you okay?” Phil asked, inspecting me.I knew I didn’t exactly look my best — I’d spent god-knows-how-long in the healing room, then ran straight to pack my bags, dressed in nothing but the white gown the healing wardens had supplied. My eyes must have been red from crying. But every other person in the pack looked the same, if not worse.They were all mourning Alexander—I realized.Many cast pitiful glances at me.“Why did he have to go?”, “He was too young to die,” “He ‘was’ the best Alpha the pack had ever had.”Everyone had something to say about Alexander.I could hardly believe I’d run past all these people without noticing a single thing. On the wa
KADIA’S POVI woke up in the healing room.A pair of blue eyes watched me — Daemon. He looked… different, and it wasn’t just the new haircut. There was something about him that made him seem more human."Daemon," I called; my throat felt so dry.He seemed to have already prepared for that. He passed me a glass of water, which I quickly emptied.Everything came flooding back — the news about the plane crash. It became harder to breathe.“Kaida. Calm down.”"He's gone — he was in the plane when it crashed."I yanked out the tubes attached to my arm and rose to my feet. The movement had been too abrupt; the room seemed to spin.I felt hands guiding me back to the bed. I couldn’t hold in the tears.“He shouldn’t have been there. I made him go, and now…”“Stop.” Daemon said, cutting me off. “He is not dead. I visited the site; I didn’t find anything that indicated he was among the ones that died.”“You were at the site?” I asked, my heart speeding up with renewed hope.“Yes. The moment I h
ALEXANDER’S POVMy blurred vision slowly cleared, and I realized I was in what looked like a small, empty room.The wall facing me was made of thick, transparent glass.I couldn’t tell how they managed to get me in here—there was no window or door, only a narrow slot likely meant for passing food and letting in just enough air to keep the ‘prisoner’ alive.I could only assume there was some kind of hidden entrance.My hands and ankles were bound with thick silver chains.The chains felt excessive—I could barely move a muscle.More wolfsbane than I’d ever consumed in my entire life had been pumped into my system, completely immobilizing me and filling me with this nauseating, sickly feeling. I hadn’t realized I was shivering until I noticed the tremble in my fingers.The room was chillingly cold, and with the wolfsbane suppressing my werewolf abilities, I was no exception to the cold. I tried to summon flames. Nothing.Maybe I was just too weak to summon the flames. The crushing feeli
1KADIA’S POVWhen I discovered the news of my pregnancy, I had been so happy. But I knew a lot would have to change.I had to be more cautious—for the baby. That meant I wouldn’t be able to keep training the pack soldiers for much longer. Of course, I’d have to give up that duty eventually and it had become a part of my life. I would have to watch my diet, too. And then there were other things. Like the fact that I would grow big, and I might not look the same. My toned stomach which I had spent years working on would be no more.This had been the type of life I once abhorred, but everything was different now—I wanted this. I could see a future with Alexander, filled with laughter and little kids running around, and the thought made me smile.Lara was the first person to find out I was pregnant.After I discovered the pregnancy test was unmistakably positive, I was as scared as I was excited.Lara happened to be visiting the pack, and we kind of bumped into each other. She was all s