Rune. “Talk to me,” Kane inched closer, staring intently at me. “I don’t know how accurate I am, or if this will mean anything to you, but I had a bad dream that the pack was set on fire, and a lot of wolves died.”My words were met with silence and Kane’s head hung low.“Did you hear me?” I tilted my head to search his face. “Fire you say?”I nodded. “I’m sure Soph has told you about the charms we found in the pack?” I nodded, patiently waiting for him to explain to me the relationship between the two things. “I’m forced to believe there’s a new pack targeting us, and they work closely with witches.”The seriousness of his words settled in and I found myself sitting up straight, my hands in his.“But what do you believe?”“I believe Pearlcrest is behind it. I mean it makes no sense that it’s a new pack because all the leads are somehow connected to Pearlcrest but yet, I’m being told something entirely different.”“Soph told me they are the ones with sightings of more charms?”H
Rune.“Hmph, look at her, so dirty,” I knew that high-pitched voice anywhere. In my kneeling position, I froze, clutching the chipped wooden handle of the cleaning brush tighter.“It suits her so well,” I heard the second voice that affirmed I wasn’t hearing things, and I was, in fact, right that Rachael and Jummy, my ex-friends, were behind me.A bile rose in my throat as I shut my eyes and hoped they wouldn’t approach me. I looked down at my shabby grey dress, eyes locked on the streaks of dirt and dirt lines on it, all from the work I’d been subjected to just that morning.“She’s so pathetic. I can’t even believe we were once friends with her,” Jummy huffed.I imagined Rachael with a smirk so wicked only she could pull off as she said, “She was never my friend; I only let her hang around because you wouldn’t shut up about her,” I forced the bile down, willing myself not to cry, not to waste a single tear on them.I didn’t cry when the declaration of my family’s involvement in treas
Rune. A devilish smile marred Rachael’s face as she stared at me while the other wolves gasped, clearly immersed in the drama.“What would I want with you, a servant?” she pursed her lips with a slight tint of amusement. The tears did not stop spilling from my eyes, so I wiped my face with the back of my hands.“You don’t have to do this,” my voice was shaky, with fear dripping from every word I spoke. “Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?” Rachael smiled sweetly and let her hand land on Kimi’s face the second time, sending the poor wolf to the floor. I winced. The side of Kimi’s face was a bright red, and for a few seconds, Kimi looked around us like she didn’t know where she was or what she was doing. More tears spilled from my eyes.“She’s just a child,” I wanted to yell, but the words came out like a whisper. I hated how weak I sounded and felt. Rachael had let Kimi go, but that only meant her attention was now on me, and there would be no way out.“She’s just a
Rune.The crowd went silent and parted at the sound of the voice, and chills ran up and down my spine. Everyone knew who it was; we knew his voice by heart because he was our Alpha. I, along with everyone present, turned our heads to the parted space as Alpha Kane appeared. Tall and mighty, with his thick dark brows knotted as his eyes roamed around us, taking in the scene. Beads of sweat marred his golden tan skin, and I watched, mesmerized, as a streak of sweat ran from his neck to his collarbone, where it disappeared into the grey shirt he had on, which looked damp from the sweat, I suppose.The muscles rippling under his damp grey shirt quickened my pulse, and I sucked in a breath. I knew, just like everyone in the pack, that Alpha Kane had a ripped body, but seeing him up close was a rarity because he was almost always away for meetings and wars. It must’ve been the reason I kept my eyes on him, taking him in despite the pain I felt in every fiber of my being. Deep down, I knew i
“Thank you,” I licked my lower lips while I rubbed my left arm. Chris smiled and nodded. He parted his lips and took in a breath as though he wanted to say something and thought twice about it. I grabbed my dirty gown from the brown chair in the treatment room and headed to the small restroom to change. When I returned, Chris had cleared out the bloody cotton wool and apparatus he used to treat me and was sitting on the brown chair with worry lines evident on his forehead. “Don’t you think you should wait up for him?” He licked his lips. I blinked twice.“I’m not sure I should,” my hand flew to the back of my neck.“Alpha didn’t say I should,” I gulped. He had only ordered Chris to take care of me, and Chris did meticulously. I had no business lounging around in the medical house or the pack house when I had work to do. Chris had stitched my wounds and given me painkillers, to which he ordered that I get something to eat if I didn’t want to faint while walking. I quickly remembere
It was my second time at the pack house in six hours and my first time in Alpha Kane’s office since I was born. The room was spacious. A big mahogany desk sat proudly behind a mini library filled with old books. Two maps sat on the desk with markers on them; next to the maps sat a stack of six books on each end. The top book on the left side was open with the words PEARL CREST PACK written boldly on it. Two tall shelves sat on either side of the room, all filled with books. Despite the banging in my chest, I was awed that Alpha Kane read books. I figured he was smart due to the number of wars he’d won since he became Alpha, but in my head, he was someone who used his fists and violence to solve problems quickly insteadof critical thinking. I forced my attention on other things to distract myself from the fact that Alpha Kane and I were alone, and while he had his back to me, his anger was thick and suffocating. He had dragged me from the medical house to the pack house, with his quest
Kane.Tiny.I didn’t expect my mate to be her. The second my eyes locked on Rune’s, I knew she was my mate even before my wolf, Ky, growled and ached to claim her. There she was, sitting on the ground, her tempting curved lips slightly parted as she stared at me. She was the perfect image of a cry for help, one that I desperately wanted to respond to but couldn’t due to our surroundings. For a moment there, I thought she had figured out I was her mate when she didn’t take her innocent brown eyes off me to bow like everyone else. As a wave of disappointment hit me when she exited her trance and bowed, it was quickly replaced with a sweet sensation when I picked up her scent. She smelled of peaches, with a subtle hint of jasmine, like a fine summer afternoon in a garden. So sweet and aphrodisiacal. I wrestled with Ky for control. “MINE!” Ky barked uncontrollably while a flood of anger wrecked me at the situation she was in. I knew she would be subjected to mistreatment when I o
Rune. I never did too well with change. I hated it more than anything, especially the type of change that came without a warning. Change was overwhelming, and the idea that I would no longer be where I used to be kept me up for as long as it could—which wasn’t much because when my eyes fluttered open to rays of sun slipping into the room, I felt well rested. It felt like I had slept for days when it was just mere hours. I was convinced more than anything that the reason I was able to sleep so soundly was because of a certain musky, masculine scent that spread warmth throughout my entire body, touching me lightly with a promise that everything would be fine soon. “Everything will be fine soon,” Zarah muttered, and a little bud of hope sprouted in the pit of my mind. I didn’t want to pay any mind to the part of me that warned about false hope because even though I didn’t know what being the Alpha’s mate entailed for me, I felt a little free. I could finally sleep in a well-roofed ro