*Isla*I lean forward, stretching out my front legs. Shifting feels euphoric, and Maddox is totally right about the fact that I need to do it more. Plus, I have two hours to myself. Well, myself, and Elijah. He stalks behind me, a massive black wolf with gleaming hazel eyes. His coat is thick but marred by scars, giving me a glimpse of his sordid past. For the past hour, he’s been following behind me but keeping distance between us, letting me take the lead. We’ve been weaving through the forest for some time now, but I come to stop at the towering oak tree overlooking the bluff that gives us a sweeping view of the lands below, small villages and towns glimmering in the early morning sunlight. I sit back on my haunches, staring absently over the bluff. The flowers we planted over the freshly turned soil atop Mystica’s grave tremble in the cool morning breeze. Poppy and I had chosen perennials, so they’d grow back every year. I’d planted roses behind her headstone that would one day
*Maddox*“Are you going to be a good girl for me while I’m gone,” I rasp into her ear. We’re covered in sweat, and I’ve been drawing out every minute of the last hour to make this last as long as possible for both of us. I’ve made Isla come at least three times, but I’m not done with her yet. It could be months before I see her again. “Probably not,” she whimpers, but her mouth curves into a devilish smile. I thrust into her, hard, and she arches her back, crying out softly as I continue to drag my cock in and out in a desperately slow motion. Her nails have left long red scratches down my back that I’ll feel for weeks. I hope I do. I hope I taste her on my tongue and smell her scent on my skin until the day I return home. “Please, Maddox,” she whispers, her nails digging into my sides. “I’m so close!”I pick up the pace, reaching between us to circling my thumb over her clit in a way I know will have her screaming my name in a matter of seconds. I rise up so I’m kneeling over her
*Isla*Maddox left Elijah with me, of course. It’s his responsibility as Beta to rule in Maddox’s place when he’s away. While I like Elijah and have come to appreciate his quiet presence in the house, I miss Maddox. It’s been almost three weeks since he left. We’ve spoken on the phone a few times, but a lot of the time he’s been out of range, and I’ve gone days without hearing from him. Elijah was also called away on a super secret mission during this time and came back in a huff. He was injured, too, scraped and bruised and in a piss poor mood for days. Trinity and I agreed to secretly press him about it, with Trinity doing the dirty work and me listening to whatever Trinity could find out about Elijah’s uncharacteristically emotional mood, but he was keeping his mate in the dark despite her most convincing efforts.It’s been an odd few weeks, to say the least. “He should be home soon, right?” Trinity asks from across the dining room table. She bounces Isaac on her knee, who is b
The girl standing before me is not what I expected. Emery stands, slowly clutching the bars as she peers at me through the darkness. The lightbulb hanging from the ceiling flickers as I pull up a stool and sit facing her, crossing my legs with my hands knitted in my lap. Elijah said not to let her out. I wonder why? I guess I’ll find out. I give her a minute to look me over. She doesn’t hide her curious gaze, unlike other people I’ve come in contact with lately. Hardly anyone looked me in the eyes during the Beta Trials, which was my first real event as Luna of the Alpha King. People shy away from me now, speaking to me only when I speak to them first, so on and so forth. “Alpha,” I say graciously, bobbing my head to her in greeting. She doesn’t startle. In fact, her full lips twitch into what is either an impressed, or sinister, smile. I can’t tell which. “Luna,” she says, but she doesn’t curtsy or bow. She grips the bars until her knuckles are white, like she’s trying to pry the
Seven Months Later…*Poppy*“What the hell is going on?” I hiss. I’m waddling as fast as I possibly can given how enormous I’ve become over the last few weeks. I feel like I’ve tripled in size–at least. What has also tripled in size is my attitude, according to Antony. He recently accused me of looking for a fight when I lost my mind over the last of the chocolate chunk ice cream with the brownie bits I liked being gone. In my defense, I’d been out of my mind with hunger and pregnancy cravings. In his defense, I had been the one to finish off the carton. That had been three weeks ago before all hell broke loose.My anger right now isn’t an exaggeration. Warriors rush through the castle as I stalk down the hallway toward his office and yank open the door. “Antony!”“My love,” he says with little emotion and an abundance of annoyance. “What happened to the warriors I had guarding your room?”“I killed them,” I deadpan, even though that’s far from the truth. I just screamed at them unt
*Isla*I roll my lower lip between my teeth as Maddox paces the deck. Nothing about this situation is good. Nothing about this situation is clear, either, and none of us have been able to get a hold of anyone on Maatua in two full days. Whispers of unrest on Maatua had been coming to us for months now. Maddox and I hadn’t known the unrest was a wizard, however, until four days ago when a frantic call from Antony had us hastily packing and out the door in less than an hour. We’d just celebrated Isaac’s first birthday the day before. I lean against the railing and bow my head, ignoring the salty spray of the violent ocean preventing us from moving in on the coast of Maatua. The kingdom is shrouded in black clouds, and the air is thrumming with electricity. I’ve never seen a storm like this before, especially one that is exclusive to the island itself. Where we sit in our boat, the sky is blue, and the water is relatively calm. Two days ago everything was fine. “He left,” Maddox bar
*Maddox*How did we get to this point? I feel like the past seven months have gone by in a blur of activity, yet this moment, this devastation, has caught us all totally off guard. Rage burns through me as I guide my pregnant, physically and emotionally exhausted, mate through what is left of the town that surrounds the castle of Maatua. The storm has passed, but heavy rain still floods the streets. I keep an arm around Isla’s waist to steady us both as water rushes past us, soaking us nearly to the shins. Elijah is carrying Emery on his back behind us, the two of them talking in hushed whispers that are inaudible over the sound of the rain pelting the gnarled debris that continuously blocks our path. And all of this for what? Is this really about the Goddess’s necklace that Isla had seen in a vision? A necklace tied to a story we know nothing about?Anger toward Mystica bubbles in my gut for no reason other than the secrets left in the wake of her death. Her strange gifts had kep
*Isla*The portrait is ancient, much like everything else in the vault beneath the castle. Wealth beyond belief sits here, covered in dust. Mary walks with her arms behind her back as I look up at the portrait of a woman who couldn’t have been much older than me when it was painted so, so long ago. Atop her head sits a crown made of sea glass and gold, the same series of symbols as the necklace worn by the Goddess in my vision resting in the center. A moonstone dangles of a crescent moon, the light glistening on the gem perfectly captured by the artist. “I don’t understand,” I whisper to no one but myself. “Areduis was the first King of Maatua,” she says softly. “KiloKilo was once part of his territory. He sought refuge here and found it, but the Goddess caught up to him eventually.” She sighs heavily as she continues to look around the room, looking for something, and not finding it. “I swear it was here.”I turn to her, arching my brow. “You have the necklace I saw in the vision.”
Logan“BRIE!” I shout toward the trees. My voice carries through the night but doesn’t bounce back to me. It just keeps going, and going, and I’m at a complete loss as to where we are or where my mate could be. Maeve murmurs at my feet where she’s lying flat on her back. I woke up five, maybe ten minutes ago in so much pain I could barely breathe, let alone stand. Now, I’m stumbling from spindly tree to spindly tree, using them to steady myself as I scream my mate’s name into the night, but she doesn’t answer. Through the trees, I can just see the ocean, the storm raging in the distance. Lightning in shades of crimson and deep violet split the clouds as wind rushes toward the mainland. I can feel the electricity in the air, even from miles away. I can taste the thick, metallic stain of magic on my tongue. That storm… Maeve created it. It’s her powers drifting away from us, stirring up the sea. But Maeve is currently unable to even speak as it stands, and she’s cold to the touch whe
BrieI open my eyes as I’m falling through thin air. I don’t even have time to scream before my body drops into water. Deep, rough water that drags me under the second I suck in a salty breath. I flail against the waves, trying to find the surface, but the undercurrent drags me down again, pulling me by my dress and tossing me upside down. My head hits something hard, and I screech, but the sound is empty. I suck in water, choking, and realize quite suddenly that I’m drowning. I go as still as possible, using the last of my energy to start moving with the current instead of against it, which turns out to be the best idea I’ve ever had, especially under duress. I open my eyes underwater, staring down at the shallows. It’s sunny. Daytime. And below, seaweed waves between large, gray rocks. Pockets of sunshine dance through the water, illuminating seashells in shades I’ve never seen before. Another wave crashes over the top of me, sending me rolling into even shallower water, and fina
MaeveCole and Misty have a beautiful suburban home in Shadowcrest. It’s always the same–always smells like freshly baked cookies and the flowers she keeps in vases all over the house. Tonight, as my toes brush the ground, and my powers funnel back into my body, it smells like… popcorn. “You pig! You’re not going to eat all of that.” Josie’s voice, so similar to her mother’s, drifts down the hallway. I landed in the foyer, which is dark, soft moonlight drifting in through the windows and casting the stairs and framed photos of the family in silver shadows. “If you wanted more, you should have added it to the order,” Adrian argues then yelps after a smacking sound reverberates toward me in the gloom. “Give me one of your tacos–”“Or what?”“I’ll tell Mom.”“She’s in Eastonia, dumbass. Hey!” A scuffle ensures. I have two seconds to jump into the shadow of Misty’s study just off the foyer when Cole walks down the stairs, still wearing his hospital scrubs. The sound of a shower running
LoganRyatt and Evander walk out of sight across the bridge connecting the barracks to the main streets of the city. I look out of my old bedroom window at the sunny glare casting shadows over the valley. The shadows move as the clouds dart across the sky toward the castle, toward my wife, who I’d much rather be with right now than here. I… I don’t have anything to pack. Anything that meant anything to me–my laptop, my fucking glasses–were lost in the shipwreck. I have the clothes on my back, and even those were borrowed from who-knows-where, left on the dresser in Brie’s bedroom by the ghost that haunts her house. She’s all I have, and it’s not like I can pack her in my duffle bag and take her with me. I crank open the window to let in some fresh air to cut through the overwhelmingly male smell of the barracks. I turn to my empty duffle bag with a sigh, bracing my hands on either side of it on the bed, and hang my head, but a whoosh of air rushes out behind me, and I turn in time
BrieThe moment my bedroom door closes behind us, Logan’s mouth is on mine. The lock slides into place with a soft click, and an even softer groan leaves his mouth when I reach up to run my fingers through his damp curls. He smells like rain and leather. Like the promise of warmth and comfort through another stormy night. And now this man–this loud, obnoxious, opinionated man… he’s mine. He presses a kiss to the ring he bought today on a whim. It’s a simple band of gold–that’s it. “I'll give you a better one when I return,” he promises, kissing the palm of my hand before his lips find mine again. “A ring with a diamond the old gods can see from the heavens.”“I don’t care about that.” I giggle as his hands glide down my sides, pulling me close. Outside, thunder booms, the room lighting in ribbons of blue as lightning splits the clouds, but in here, it’s warm. It’s private. It’s just us. He removes my cloak. It falls to the ground in a heap at my feet. He’s careful with the dress,
MaeveBrie is… radiant. She glows in her simple white dress of lace and satin, her hair falling loose over her back and shoulders as Logan slowly, tenderly, lowers the hood of her dark blue cloak. The temple is quiet and dim, moonlight flooding the altar. Logan knits his fingers in Brie’s and brings her knuckles to his lips, pressing a kiss against them. They’re bathed in silver, the windows behind them dancing in starlight. It’s beautiful, really. It’s what I envisioned for her, one day, what I thought would be… years from now. I watch my sister–the person I love the most in all of the world–intertwine her soul with someone else, forcing myself to unravel the ribbons binding my heart to hers. She doesn’t belong to me anymore. Logan looks at her as they kneel before the priestess in her silver robes. They lean into each other like being inches away is too far apart. And the look on his face as he brushes his lips over her temple… he loves her. He’s devoted–body, and soul. My heart
Brie“Tonight?”“Yes, tonight.”“How?” I laugh, taking a step away from him. “We-we can’t.”“We can,” he says breathlessly, shaking his head. “The temple stays open all night. We’d just need to find a priestess.”“We’d need a witness,” I whisper as the cogs in my mind start turning. “I’d need a dress–”“I’d marry you like this,” he says, taking my hands. “But please, for the love of the Goddess, marry me before I go.”I blink up at Logan, my heart swelling and squeezing simultaneously. There’s still a whisper in my mind that warns me that he could change his mind, that he can’t really want me, but I… banish it, giving myself to him fully. “Are you sure?” I ask, scanning his eyes. “I’ve never been more sure of anything. I want you to be my wife, Brie.”“I’m already your mate.”“It’s not enough.” He brushes my hair out of my face and kisses me, but a rush of air alerts us to a visitor making their way up the stairs to the tower. I pull away as a soft knock sounds on the door. Neither
BrieLogan steps into my dad’s office. All eyes turn to him as he scans the men–Sydney, Grandpa Ryatt, my father, a few others that serve both my father and grandfather as generals, captains, and commanders. Logan’s eyes are like polished, imperfect emeralds as he eyes my grandpa wearily, like he’s not entirely sure he understands what Ryatt just said to everyone in the room. “Brie, you don’t need to be here for this,” Aviva whispers behind me, knitting her fingers in mine. But Logan growls, “She stays.”A silent, heavy, creeping hint of tension scatters around the room. The entire castle would explode if someone lit a match right now, I’m sure. My spine tingles as Logan turns to Ryatt and says, calmly despite the bite in his voice, “There’s nothing in Emberfyll.”“Quite the contrary,” my grandfather replies immediately, rounding my father’s desk, his shadow powers simmering and coiling around his fingers, “Debris has been washing up on the southern shore of Tarsian for decades now.
LoganBrie looks exhausted, but otherwise… happy, thank the Goddess, as she sits between her mother and Misty, listening to their conversation and picking at a sandwich. I lean my elbows on the table across the room where I’m sitting in silence, alone, still waiting for my mind to catch up with my body after Maeve jumped with us from the middle of the ocean to Veiled Valley. A shadow moves into view, crossing through the doorway before a shadow breaches the informal living area. Ryan looks around before turning the corner, beelining for me, waving away several rushed questions coming from the group of women on the couches nearby. He braces his hands on the table beside me, leaning down to whisper into my ear, “I need to speak to you in private before Ryatt returns. Can you come with me?”I glance at Brie, who’s watching us with her brows furrowed in worry. I suck my teeth before nodding, and Ryan moves back a step so I can stand. Brie and I have been using the mind-link as much as