My legs hang off the edge of the old run-down mattress Wren and I are sleeping on. My mind is stuck worrying about Tank and his journey. I hate that I’m not there with him. I can only imagine that Kaïs will try to deny it, or worse. Maybe he will try to fight his way out. I rub at the ache in my chest, thinking about an enemy being so close to people I care about. This is the first time I’ve had a still moment in my head to think about everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours. Truth be told, I have been trying to avoid these thoughts. Thoughts that make me feel worse about the life I led and leaving my brother who I have spent my life protecting, even without knowing he was my own blood to protect.“Fuck,” I mutter, scrubbing my hand over my face. The bed dips behind me and with a shift of the air, warm hands wrap around my abdomen and Wren’s face tucks into my neck with a warm breath tickling over my skin. “You’re worried.” She mutters sleepily. My hands find her
~Wren~“He ok?” Avi asks huffing next to me.I sigh heavily as I stare at Sebastian’s back. We have traveled in silence since leaving the rogue campsite. Sebastian only occasionally glances back to see if I am still close by. I can’t help but feel like he is already starting to resent me and regret his choice to finally make me. My hand flies to the mark on my next, stroking over the pink scar.“As ok as one can be with the current situation,”“He and Tank seemed pretty close. Like, ‘you and me’ close.” Avi continues. He knew the topic was already annoying me, but as a typical annoying brother-like friend can be–he presses on. Dancing around my building anger like an idiot with a death wish.“Yes, Avi. Nickolai was his whole life and Tank was the person who sat with him through it all.” My tone sounds flat to my own ears, but Avi ignores my attitude and smirks at me. “He seems like a pretty chill guy,” Avi says, now trying to change the topic. Yay for me. I roll my eyes. “Sebastian
A light clicks on behind me and I spin, ready to protect myself. My eyes go wide when they land on a male figure leaning on a cane and grinning so widely I nearly fall over. His features are smooth and kind, where his cheeks used to be sunk and shadowed are now plump round cheeks with dimples popping on the right side of his face. My chest cracks in half, and I drop to the ground, clinging to my chest. The relief is too much. As I rest on my hands and knees, tears springing from my eyes and breaths escaping in shuddering noises. He is on me in a second, cupping my face and making me look into his eyes. The eyes that match mine finally have light back in them and a sob rips from my lips as he tugs me into the best bear hug I have ever felt. “Dad” The words croak from me and his shoulders rise and fall like he is crying with me. “Wren…” a soft, tentative voice calls to me and my eyes search through the group of people standing toward the back wall. She steps forward and my heart onc
~Sebastian~Wren knows not to twist out of my arms and I’m thanking my lucky stars that we mated because if we were still at odds, she would throw a fit. All around us people are running out of buildings, screaming as they pound on neighbors’ doors, trying to find shelter. Things went to shit way too quickly. And yeah, us being discovered is most likely my fault, but the second her panic hit the link, I lost all common sense and I was climbing the wall with everyone watching me in shock. “Turn right,” Wren instructs, taking me down a road leading away from the city buildings and brick homes. “Go behind that house.”She points to a small tan house covered in weeds and I move my way around the back. A tiny porch light casts a shadow for us to crouch in for cover. I let her down, and she huddles toward the shadow, reaching out for me to come closer to her. “Are you ok?” she asks as her fingers roam my face and ears. Her hands freeze when she feels the crusty dried blood from the explos
“Looks like you were wrong about her real mate, Spence. You owe me your mate for a week.” “Hah. If I had one, maybe,” Spencer shrugs. “I’ll take your plaything, then.” He grins. The two of them joke as if their pack isn’t under attack like they have all the time in the world to waste. “Definitely thought they were putting on an act with the whole mate thing the first time,” Waylon says with a shrug. Wren squeezes onto me tight, trying to wiggle out from behind me, but I’m rooted in place and she isn’t wiggling free. Spencer clucks his tongue, sauntering around us to get a better view of Wren. He grins deviously before looking up at Alden. “You think Orion would come out of hiding if I fucked his daughter in the streets?” Spencer asks Alden. Alden laughs and shakes his head. “Nah, but he might come for her if it’s me.” “Every part of you that lays a hand on her will be ripped from your body,” I say calmly. Alden levels his eyes at me, assessing the threat and my ability to fol
~Wren~ There comes a point in your brain where the pain is too much and it stops registering the trauma. As I stare down at the fingers sinking deeper and deeper into my bleeding flesh, I realize I have hit that point. I can feel his fingers pressing further in, a strange pressure that doesn’t hurt but feels–wrong. I’m mesmerized by the way my blood pools around his skin, glistening in the artificial lights illuminating the open space. Sebastian batters at the mate bond, trying to make me talk to him, look at him in my last moments of life. I want to reach out to him, let him in my mind, but I can’t find the will to do it. The small conversation I was able to have brought me so much comfort, yet I could feel his distress, his breaking heart, and it is too much for me to bear. My eyes slide closed, my head bobbing up and down. The warrior on my right-hand side is dry heaving and I want to chuckle, but any movement at this point is beyond my control, as everything wants to shut down.
~Sebastian~ The alpha’s brand around my neck feels cold against my heated flesh as it settles and fades into my skin, disappearing as if it had never existed. So many voices resound in my head, howling in acknowledgment of me as the new alpha of the pack. When I look around, I can see my newest pack members standing on the outskirts staring at me, waiting for direction on what to do next. “Seb” Nickolai calls my attention and I glance back at him to find Wren, pale and bloody, as she clings to her midsection. I move swiftly to her, scooping her up and pulling her close to me. “Bring a healer to the packhouse,” I demand to any pack members who will listen. I break into a run toward the opulent house that is more suited to be called a mansion, Elara, Avi, and Nickolai hot on my heels. In theory, I could wait for someone to open the door for me, but in my panic to get Wren comfortable, I raise my leg and kick the door open, entering through the massive kitchen. I set her on the empty
I clear my throat and look back at the pack that watches me with varying emotions. The most prominent is a mixture of both fear and hope. This pack has been suffering for such a long time they don’t know how to trust. “As I stated in the mind link. Alden is dead. We only know a handful of the things he used and did to keep you compliant and stuck here in this pack. I can’t tell you how disgusted I am with how he ran things. I was raised in Alpha Jameson’s pack, a pack that believes in the truth of the mate bond and all the good it can bring to those who find it. If you are missing a mate, or have been living in fear of your mate being ripped from you at any moment, please know that you no longer have to worry.” “We can have our mates back?” An older woman asks, her hands clutched close to her chest. Her voice shakes and her question is timid, but I can see the relief, the desire for my words to be true. “Yes.” I nod. “Anyone who has been held to keep their mates in line are now fre