LOGINThe Alpha's son thought he would humiliate me in front of everyone by rejecting me, but I turned the tables on him; I rejected him first! But now I'm paying the price for embarrassing the Alpha's son. I've been kicked out of my family home and I can't get a job. My life looks bleak and hopeless until a tall dark and handsome stranger shows up in the tavern with a small boy at his side. The newly widowed Jareth makes an insane proposal: A fake marriage. I get a home and the safety of his name. He gets a live-in babysitter for his kid. But he doesn't know that I'm no ordinary she-wolf, and something tells me that Jareth is hiding something too.
View MoreIn a dark cave in the Northern Mountains a blood-spattered and weary general sat hunched next to a dying fire. Beside him, a small boy slept fitfully, still whimpering and crying for a mother who would never comfort him again.
The battle was lost before the man had even arrived on the scene. The dead were scattered around the road, like blossoms shed from a tree, the Alpha and his Luna had been brutally slain, along with their beta, and the handful of guards that were with them. They had been ambushed on their own territory. The child was the only survivor. There was movement at the mouth of the cave, a small scuffle in the loose gravel. The general moved quickly, leaping over the fire, flying through the shadows, until he had the intruder by the neck, and his steel blade pressed against the neck. “Jareth…” The intruder managed to croak. Immediately, the general released his hold. “Apologies, Alpha.” They stepped into the cave, and the flickering firelight revealed the intruder was an old man with a weathered face and a shock of snow white hair that always seemed to be standing on end. He let out a sound, something between a sob and a sigh when he saw the sleeping child, with only the general's coat for a bed. “How can this have happened?” The old man whispered, squatting down beside the boy. He reached out a hand to touch the baby-fine brown hair. “It had to be an inside job,” Jareth said, rubbing a rough face that hadn’t seen a razor in weeks. “There’s no other way such a large force could have attacked inside pack lands. I’m sorry Alpha, I was too late. I couldn’t–” The words choked him. He closed his eyes to shut out the scene he’d encountered on the road, the absolute slaughter of his kinsmen. “I found the boy under the Luna. She covered him with her own body as she was dying. She saved him.” He bowed his head, the sorrow and the regret were too heavy to bear. Had he arrived sooner, perhaps he could have defended the Alpha and his family. But then again, one man, even an experienced general, might not have been able to hold off the savage horde. By the signs he observed, there had been at least fifty attackers. He probably would have died alongside the Alpha. And then there would have been no one left to find the boy. The old man sat back on his haunches. “The important thing now is that my grandson is alive. He is now the heir of the Broken Arrow pack.” “Will you take him back with you, then?” The old alpha stared at the fire for a long time. “Did anyone see you take the child?” “I don’t think so.” “If they know Colten survived, they might come back for him. Until we find out who is responsible for the murder of my son and his mate, and their men, my grandson is not safe.” He picked up a stick from the small pile the general had collected and tossed it into the embers. “It’s better that they believe the boy is dead. It will make them bold and careless.” “If their goal was to eliminate the Alpha’s family, they might come for you next,” Jareth warned. “Let them try, if they dare!” the old Alpha growled, with a ferocity that belied his age. They fell silent again, both of them thinking about what to do to protect the boy. “Take the boy with you. Pretend to be his widowed father. Go to Crimson Falls and stay there. Alpha Felix owes me a favor. He’ll grant you a pack transfer.” Jareth, who was fiercely loyal to the old Alpha, was ready to follow his orders. “For how long?” “I don’t know, Jareth. As long as it takes. Until we find the culprit, or until the boy is strong enough to take his place as the Alpha.” They both knew it could be months, or it could be years. The old man stood, and his knees popped in protest. He placed a hand on the general’s shoulders. “You are the only one I can trust now. You must keep Colten safe. I’m depending on you. The boy is depending on you,” his gnarled fingers bit into Jareth’s muscular shoulder. “The entire pack is depending on you.”SarahI couldn’t hide in the bedroom forever.I found my clothes, dressed carefully, and stood in front of the small mirror on the back of the door. The mark on my shoulder was visible above the neckline of my shirt — a small, precise wound, the bruise already fading at the edges the way wolf wounds did. But the scar would last forever. I pulled my collar aside and looked at it for a moment.Then I left it exactly as it was and went to face the kitchen.All three were at the table. Kevin was eating porridge with focused efficiency, going through it like he had somewhere to be. Malachi had his hands around his coffee mug and was looking out the window with an expression of elaborate innocence. Jareth also gripped a coffee cup, but I noticed he wasn’t drinking it. It looked extra black this morning.My heart warmed when I looked at them, and I thought in some strange way the four of us had become a family.I hadn’t had a real family since my mother died.Jareth looked up as I entered th
SarahI woke before dawn.For a moment I lay still, orienting myself. The room was the same room it always was — the crack in the ceiling, the thin curtain moving in the summer air, the familiar smell of the cottage. But the arm across my waist was not familiar, and the warm solidity of the body behind me was not familiar, and the tender ache in my shoulder where he had—I reached up and touched it. The mark. Slightly raised, already healing the way wolf wounds did, but unmistakably there.I lay still and thought about what I had done.No. That wasn’t right. I thought about what we had done. I had not been a passive participant by any measure and the man currently asleep behind me knew that better than anyone. I pulled his head down. I made the choice with full knowledge of what it meant.I also thought about the fact that Jasper and I had been together for months, doing the deed on a regular basis, but he had never marked me. He always had an excuse. Wait for the ceremony, wait until
JarethI found Kevin in the barn with Malachi, the two of them engaged in what appeared to be a serious strategic discussion about the best placement of a chicken roost they were building out of some slender pine boughs. Kevin was holding the hammer and giving directions while Malachi listened with the gravity they apparently deserved.“Keep Kevin with you tonight,” I told Malachi.He looked at me. One look, brief, amused, and entirely too perceptive. “Sure,” he said, and went back to the chicken roost discussion without another word.I walked back to the cottage.The kitchen was clean, the dinner things washed and put away, the beans that Sarah and Malachi had shelled were now simmering on the back of the stove. It was remarkable how she had somehow turned the ramshackle cottage into a proper home.No light showed under Sarah’s door.I stood outside the closed door for a moment.Fifteen years of discipline. The mission first, always the mission. No time to worry about finding a mate
SarahMalachi had been helping me shell beans for the better part of an hour. He sat with his elbows propped on the table, splitting the pods with his thumb nails like he was the most domestic man in the world.But deep down I knew there wasn’t a domesticated bone in his body.I hadn’t asked for his help.. I had come in from the garden with a full basket and he had simply sat down across from me and started helping, without asking, without ceremony.The nice thing about Malachi - he was easy company. No undercurrents, no careful weight to every word. He just talked. He had opinions about everything and a dry humor that made it hard not to smile and he asked questions like he actually wanted the answers.“Those chickens,” he said. “I heard Jareth brought them home for supper.”“That’s true,” I said.“And yet here they are, still roosting on my cot.”“They lay eggs,” I pointed out. “And they have personalities.”He looked at me. “I’m aware,” he said, with feeling. “The fat one likes to
JarethKevin was in bed and the cottage was quiet before I let myself think about the call I needed to make.Sarah had gone to her room without being asked — she had an instinct for when I needed space that I had stopped questioning and started being grateful for. Through the wall I could hear the
JarethPoppy’s was still busy with customers when we passed it on the way back through the village. I pushed the door open and found Kevin exactly where I’d left him — at the corner table, Poppy’s ancient tabby cat asleep across his feet, a half-finished glass of milk in front of him and a book ope
SarahThe transition from the violent spark of the kitchen to the mundane routine of service was surreal. Jareth’s words lingered in the air like the smell of ozone—a command to stay, to play the part, and to turn Jasper’s rage into a joke.I threw myself into the work. I prepared a large pot of ve
SarahJasper’s hand was a claw, reaching across the scarred wood of the kitchen prep table. For a split second, I saw my mother’s face in my mind—not the soft, smiling woman who used to tuck me in, but the woman she became at the end. I remembered the orange glow of the torches, the smell of woodsm
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