“Bonjour! Cason, it’s Kas. I brought your afternoon appointments!” I call into the depths of the shop.The heavy metal music sounds like scrambled noise to me, but I see a couple of women bobbing their heads and reciting lyrics. Les and Adrienne are pointing to the tattoo samples that adorn the walls. Other Sentinel are showing each other magazines or sheets of paper with sketches to give to Cason for direction. I can feel the excitement of the nine women and it makes me happy. They’re always so serious and prefer a structured lifestyle. It’s good to see them more relaxed.They aren’t even wearing their signature black tactical clothes. Aryelles looks like a supermodel on her day off in baggy tan sweatpants, a baby blue v-neck t-shirt, and baseball cap with her shiny black hair cascading out from underneath. Everyone in jeans, leggings, and even Martina in a maxi dress is a surprising change of pace.“The smell of gunpowder never gets old, does it?” Les stands next to me with a slight
***TRIGGER WARNING***This chapter contains a depiction of ‘blood magic’ which could be compared to self-harm or attempted suicide.Bronx’s POVArrow pulls an arrow from his quiver and blows it after I tell him about Cason having rejected his fated mate. He rolls it with his fingers and it turns into crystal glass. I don’t know how he did it, but it’s the coolest shit I’ve ever seen in my life.“Is he going to shoot Cason with a glass arrow?” Saint watches quizzically.“That isn’t how it worked when he made an arrow for Kas and me.” I shrug. “So, I hope not?”As we get ready to go back inside, James’s truck pulls up to the curb. “I’ll be right there. Let’s see if Lady Camille has any words of wisdom before we do anything drastic.”I open the door of the truck and give Lady Camille my hand to help her to the ground. She’s dressed more casually than I usually see her in silk palazzo pants, a white linen shirt, and sandals. She’s holding a big floppy straw hat and has oversized sunglasse
“They’re safe. It won’t kill them.” Kas looks away from her arm, up at me, and sucks in a sharp breath as her eyes glass over. All emotion leaves her body. She slumps as her body stiffens. Her empty eyes stare at me, unblinking. I can see tears in her eyes, but they’ll never fall. Her mouth is open slightly, but she won’t speak. Even her scent disappears. I take her icy hand and try to listen to her heartbeat. It’s slow and steady, but not strong at all. I look back at her arm, still gushing blood onto the rug. “Kas?” I whisper, watching the change in disbelief. “No, Baby, come back. Please, come back.” I’ve never seen the moment she falls into one of her visions. I’ve only seen what it looks like when she’s an empty shell of Kas. The empty shell I’m looking at now. My mate, the love of my fucking life, the mother of my children, my wife. She is so much more than that. She’s the Luna of Blood River and of the Menae. She runs a charity and a business. She is so many things to so ma
Before I go upstairs, I make a quick stop. “Cason, I know this is a lot. You okay?”“Alpha, this ain’t how I thought today would go when I woke up.” His eyes glance at me, but back to Les. “The Luna stopped her sister from rejecting me.”“Yeah, she told us.” I clap him on the shoulder. “If she’s anything like Leticia, she may have never had a mate before. Leticia told Kas she had never even had a boyfriend before Klay. Maybe Les is the same.”“A woman that beautiful?” He looks at her longingly. “There’s no way she’s been alone in her entire life. The Luna asked me to give her a chance. Back at my shop when I couldn’t move. I-I don’t know if she knew I could hear her.”I look back at Les holding Kas. “Do you want to give her a chance?”“I… I don’t want her to feel like I’m holding her back.” He mutters. “Imagine how big her world must be. I’m like a speck of nothing compared to everything she’s experienced, Alpha. I’m just a tattoo artist.”“You’re not just a tattoo artist, Cason. You’
Every rational thought in my brain disconnects from each other and runs in opposite directions before they collide back together, out of order. It feels like a mosh pit reverberating off the sides of my skull. “I don’t like this guy.” Saint bristles. “Who’s his wolf?” “That’s what’s important to you right now?” I huff at him. “Well, he made the door disappear, so it’s not like we can escape.” Saint growls back at me. “We either find out as much as we can about him before you let me kill him, or we just go in blind. Your choice.” I turn my head to see what Saint is talking about. Sure enough, the door is gone. There’s only a smooth white wall behind me. I can still hear the Sentinel speaking to each other in the hallway, but they seem on guard, but not worried. “Who’s your wolf?” I tense my muscles, trying to prepare for anything. “I don’t have a wolf anymore.” He purses his lips and looks around before he raises his arms to the side. “I have this.” “This?” I squint my eyes. “B
“Of course not.” He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at me. “We were in Lechia… uh… Poland, I think it’s called now. We were trying to cut a deal with a powerful dark witch. She double crossed us. I got hit with a nasty spell that made me ill. We were trying to get away, but human hunters were scared of the giant wolves in the woods and mortally wound me. The only way to save my human spirit was to bring me here. Iokaste and I have more control over time in this place than we do on Earth. It gave her more time to heal me, but when I tried to go back to Earth, the old hag’s spell took effect again. It was magic that even Iokaste couldn’t reverse, so she brought me back.” “Mortally wounded, as in the end of your spirit’s journey?” I pay closer attention to his body posture. He seems at peace with the circumstances. “So if you leave, you die?” “Mmm.” He nods quickly. “It solved the problem of needing to have someone here for the Mavri Magea to come and go, but it took a toll on Róki.
Milo’s POV“Now isn’t a good time, Klay.” I pick up the phone not bothering to say hello. “What’s up?”“Beta, sorry to bother you, but Miss Codi just woke up from a nightmare.” Klay says with a strangled voice into the phone. Codi’s shrill scream crying maxes out the speaker on the receiver. My heart breaks into a thousand pieces when I hear her calling for me. “She won’t let me go and keeps crying about a mean lady.”“The mean lady?” I look around at the frozen Sentinel and Cason. I can’t leave. Codi’s bad dream isn’t as much of an emergency as this. “Give me ten minutes. Try giving her a t-shirt from my hamper. Hopefully, there’s enough of my scent to calm her down until I get there.”“See Codi? Daddy will be home as soon as he can.” Klay purrs, trying to soothe her. “We’ll be waiting, sir.”“Go home.” Ghost huffs. “Don’t leave Codi alone.”“She’s not alone, buddy.” I glance at Leticia who’s shuffling her feet on the floor waiting for someone to tell her what to do. “She trusts Klay
“Alright, Reg. Regroup. What do we know?” I open a mindlink while we help get some of the slower elderly pack members into James’s truck so he can take them to the packhouse. “Cason and the Sentinel were frozen, but not time stuck frozen. Lady Camille confirmed it. I heard Aphrodite’s crackle sound when she touched the arrow on Cason, but it went away when she touched Les. The victims unfreeze and are in pain.”“So was Leticia, Kas, and Bronx, even though they weren’t originally frozen. Kas’s ear was bleeding from whatever was causing the pain. That would lead me to believe it has to do with the Menae.” He continues. “Kas saw the blood, and I assume fell into a vision, then disappeared with her sisters, Bronx, and Cason.”“Don’t Menae Leaders and Guardians woke up from a similar nightmare at the same time.” I add after Mister Swanson shakes my hand and thanks me for the help. Reggie and I sit on the edge of the truck bed when we have all the people we can hold.“Except for Dre. He’s n