Se connecterLUCIAN3 weeks later“Next.”It was funny actually. The things grief could do to you. It left you numb and aching raw and unimaginably. There’d always be that staunch hole left in your chest, one that wouldn’t be closed by anything.Nothing could heal it. Nothing could lessen that pain. Not when it was a pain caused by your very own hands.The next two men trudged forward, their ankles bound by chains, eyes heavy and holding a certain fatigue that couldn’t be put into words.After the war, we’d gathered up the rest of our forces and conducted a very much needed recuperation. A lot had been lost during this war, and now that I was sober enough, I could feel the weight of the death count like an immovable weight resting on my chest.We seized a sizable portion of West Creak’s Territory, the rest split between other packs of the alliances. Lesser packs tried to change allegiances and scramble for whatever little power or leverage they could.Tristan’s mate and beta had been nowhere to be
LUCIANThere were only two times I could remember feeling a sensation of pure, unbridled fear. One, was when I’d seen my mother lay on her sickbed. Unmoving, and not so much as breathing.This, would be the second time.“Violet?” I tried again, my heart thundering against my chest so loudly that it would leap out of my chest.I shook her lightly, trying to get her to move, flinch, do something that would allude to the tiniest bit of hope I had nestled in my chest. The hope that she was still okay.“Violet?”My eyes widened, another stab of fear hitting me square in the chest. There was something about the cold that hung in the air. No.This couldn’t be. I’d come all this way to find her, finally even got her and now…no. I couldn’t just let this happen. This couldn’t be it. No way in hell.”“Violet!” I shook her again.It was no use to doing so. She was out cold, more so than I was sure I was willing to even accept. The many bruises and injuries that littered her body should have been
LUCIANThey say when you’re in a life or death situation, every other thing around you dulls to a complete still. Everything narrowed into a single point. The scent of him, the pulse of the bond pounding brightly and without restraint, and the fury coiling through me like a living thing.The world collapsed inward until there was nothing but this moment, this target, this threat that needed to be eliminated.Tristan's face was the last thing I saw before everything else faded into pure instinct, his expression shifting from smug confidence to dawning realization that he'd miscalculated badly.I lunged, teeth bared, claws extended while every ounce of my Alpha force compressed into the strike. Years of training, decades of experience, centuries of wolf instinct, all of it channelled into this single moment.He reacted. Of course he did. His reflexes weren't completely inadequate, but not fast enough. Not fast enough for me.Not fast enough to counter the desperation of a mate protecti
LUCIAN“Violet!” I yelled.But my uncle was faster, grabbing her and then pushing her over to fucking Tristan. She squirmed, fear flickering in her eyes, staunch and clear as day. The bond flared like wildfire.It erupted through my chest without warning, searing hot and impossibly bright, almost blinding in its intensity.“We had a deal, yes?” Rodriguez smiled. “I’ll leave him to you then. Make sure you finish the job.”Tristan grinned manically. ‘Oh, I plan to.”Violet was so close to me now, but she wasn't free. Not yet. The connection between us pulsed with her terror, her pain, her desperate hope, and beneath it all, that fragile thread of trust that somehow hadn't broken despite everything I'd done to fracture it.Tristan held her in the center of the room, his stance relaxed and almost casual. But the tension in the air said otherwise. It was thick enough to choke on, pressing down on everyone present like a physical weight.Every one of his people present froze, waiting for hi
LUCIAN“Violet!”I screamed, clinging onto the hope that she’d respond if she was close by. I yelled out her name, sprinting through doors and halls like a mad man.Nothing.And then, something shifted. I felt her before I saw her. The bond snapped taut all at once—no longer distant, no longer fading. Just there, blazing through my chest with such force it stole the breath from my lungs.It was like being struck by lightning, every nerve ending suddenly alive and screaming bloody murder. Pain followed immediately, sharp and radiating from somewhere deep in my core. But I welcomed it. Pain meant she was alive. Pain meant I still had a chance.She was close."She's here!" I snarled, breaking into a sprint.The corridor narrowed as I tore through it. The walls pressed in on either side, torches flickering wildly from the draft of my passage. Shouts echoed behind me. I could have sworn I could hear Zayn calling out my name but it was all mostly a blur. My world narrowed to the pull in my
LUCIAN Burn the bridges. It was a phrase I’d forever carry with me so long as I still had fire burning through my veins.The first howl shattered the night like a blade through glass. It rose from the front lines, raw, furious and unrestrained. It was answered immediately by dozens more.The fight with nukes and guns were long gone now. Now, we’d go back to primal instinct. Tristan wanted blood, I’d give him every bit of that. The sound of more howls rolled across the forest, echoing through the trees and vibrating through bone and blood alike. It was the sound of centuries of restraint finally breaking, of old wounds torn fresh and bleeding.The war was coming to an end. and only one side would be the victor.I stood at the edge of Dark Moon territory, the air heavy with tension and an armour strapped tight across my chest. Torches burned low, casting flickering shadows over the warriors assembled behind me.Their eyes glowed in the darkness. Gold, brown, silver, blue and the likes
LUCIANCalm down. Calm down.Funny how the situation seemed to be reversed and I was the one trying hard to calm my wolf down. Every second that went by was a second more of him howling uncontrollably in my ears.“What the hell?” Zayn grumbled, tightening his grip on Reese.She looked paler than ba
VIOLETLately, there weren’t a lot of things I found particularly scary. And this was considering the fact that I’d been wracked by nightmares countlessly.Most of it had stopped since we got rid of the pillow barricade back home, and since I succumbed to letting Lucian cuddle me to sleep.But seei
VIOLETLucian had been sweet. In a way that was very odd for the enigma that was Lucian. I’d expected him to bury himself in work again, maybe turn his office to the retreat and escape he’d turned it to the last time we shared a kiss at the partyBut oddly, that hadn’t been the case.We’d spent ni
VIOLET“An annual summit?”Lucian nodded, taking out his marker and gesturing to where he’d written annual summit on the whiteboard.“Yes,” His eyes lingered on the people present.To his credit, Zayn was listening attentively, even with his head pressed against Reese’s cheeks. Honestly, their clin







