LoganBrie keeps toying with her coffee mug. It’s like a nervous tick. Like she needs to do something with her hands at all times. If I were in a different state of mind, I’d probably be thinking about what those hands would feel like braced against my chest. I would again be questioning why I rejected her, ignoring and damn near forgetting why I needed to in the first place. But right now, I’m blinded by absolute, stunning rage. “Brie–”“Not many,” she says under her breath. “Maybe… ten Alphas.”I close my eyes, trying to pull myself together. Of course, I’ve seen the headlines, which are normally dominated by Blake, who tends to put himself in precarious situations at night clubs and other seedy establishments in Crescent Falls… but whispers about Brie have been more common since she turned twenty-one. She confirms where my thoughts are headed when she says, “The public has a special interest in us now that we’re nearing maturity. I’m twenty-two. Blake will be twenty-one this wi
BrieI’ve decided I don’t enjoy being on the yacht by myself. Normally, everyone is here. Maeve and I would spend mornings lounging in the sun while Mom and Dad sat nearby, talking about the books they were reading. Aris would be off doing something dangerous and naughty, of course, like threatening to jump from the roof of the cockpit into the hottub. We’d play board games, and my parents would tell us the family lore and secrets we weren’t privy to as children. Taking the yacht to Maatua for Solstice has become a beloved family tradition that I look forward to every year… but being aboard is different this time. I stretch my legs on the lounge chair, letting the sun fan over my skin. I tan easily. A few days of this kind of weather and my skin will be a perfect, golden bronze. I even squeezed lemon juice in my hair and brushed it out like Maeve does in the summer to give myself some natural highlights. It’s too quiet now. Even with music humming through a speaker nearby, I can he
LoganI stalk down the hallway at a near sprint, cutting around the corner that leads to a narrow stairwell to the bottom of the boat where the crew quarters are located. Down another narrow hallway, the engine room fades into view, but I’m not looking for the chief engineer. I cut into a room, slamming my entire weight against the door, which pops open, revealing the man I’d just found in Brie’s suite. He jumps, startled, and presses his back against the wall of what looks to be a bunk room. I slowly shut the door behind me, turning the lock. “Your name?”“Now, why the fuck would I tell you that?” he growls. I eye the toolkit on one of the bunks. The other three beds are unmade. The room is a mess, actually. I slowly draw my gaze back to his. “Name.” I crack my knuckles for emphasis. “Trent.”“What pack do you belong to?”“You think I’d be scrubbing the fuckin’ floors on some rich bitch’s yacht if I had an Alpha?” he sneers, snickering. His tone betrays the way he’s trembling,
BrieMy vision blurs with fast moving bodies and… fur. Lots and lots of fur.I stand on the bed, pressing myself against the wall as four wolves tangle with Logan, who’s as black as midnight in his armor, his sleek, dark brown coat barely visible beneath. But he’s outnumbered. I watch in horror as one of the wolves sinks his teeth into the only soft spot in those impenetrable scales of metal, ripping into his lower back. Logan snarls, thrashing with the two other wolves, ignoring the pain that must be immense. But the fourth wolf stalks toward the bed, beady black eyes locked on my vulnerable neck. I should shift. That would be the smart thing to do. But instead of listening to that voice deep within my mind, my wolf, I leap off the bed with a jarring scream that echoes over the waves crashing against the boat and race out of the room, stumbling over the shattered remains of the door. The splintered wood bites into my feet, tearing my skin, but I ignore the sharp, throbbing ache as
MaeveThis isn’t real. None of this is happening.I can’t really be pacing the halls of the palace in Maatua, wringing my hands until they blister. I can’t be craning to hear the voices drifting in from the foyer, where my parents talk in low tones, their voices so wrought with anguish they’re unrecognizable. This morning, before the sun rose, I woke abruptly to Mom screaming bloody murder and Aris shaking me awake, his eyes wide with shock. That was… hours ago. It’s nearly nightfall now. The deep red sunset–the sky after a brutal storm that swept through the islands surrounding the capital of this sea-faring kingdom–paints the hallways crimson as my shadow stretches toward what’s left of the sun. I’m not sure my heart is beating anymore. How can it when it’s lost at sea?“Fuck.” I sink into a crouch, bracing my back on the wall. I bow my head, pressing my face into my hands. In the distance, I hear Mom’s strangled voice as she talks to… Maddy? Yeah. Maddy’s still here. She was he
BrieHot, bright, unforgiving sunlight burns through my eyelids. My body feels… shattered–and itchy. Incredibly itchy and dry and…I open my eyes just enough to feel the grit of sand before I close them again, my stomach rolling and twisting. I cough once–a painful experience that has me moving quickly from lying flat on my belly to my knees where I choke and gag, spilling an exceedingly large amount of water from my lungs. My throat burns like fire. My teeth ache. My lips burn from several splits now packed with… sand.I wipe my face which only spreads the sand further. I spit more water, gulping down air and choking on it like my lungs aren’t used to breathing anymore.My hair sticks to my face in wet, sandy clumps. My skin is raw and blistered from the sun.It comes back to me in fragments. Fractured memories of a fire, of a fight, of death, hurtle to the forefront of m
BrieI’m not sure what I’m expecting to find while following these two strangers dressed like pirates from the poorly illustrated fairy tale I used to make Dad read to me over and over again before bed.Sawyer offered to carry me back to their… camp, but I refused, of course. In retrospect, I should have accepted. My legs are peppered with scraps and bruises, and I’m sore in places I didn’t know existed, but they have their hands full with Logan.They’re dragging him. They don’t have any other option, I realize. Logan’s a big guy–bigger than Sawyer, who has a few inches on his Alpha, and Alex isn’t a small man by any means.I feel childlike and useless in comparison as I drag my piece of driftwood, deciding if I’m going to put my trust in a pair of strangers, I should at least have a weapon.Sawyer stops, panting, and says, “We should shif
BrieI gasp as cold water rushes over my head and shoulders, flowing down my body in icy rivelets. The woman leaning against the doorframe nearby smirks at my expense as I shiver violently, trying desperately to cover my naked body with my arm braced over my breasts and my hand shielding the apex of my thighs.Another bucket of water is dumped over my head, and I swallow some of it, choking.“It’s not that bad,” Monica smirks, her arms crossed over her chest as she watches another woman, a young maid or something, start scrubbing sand from my hair for a fourth time.“Wh-why is it-it so c-c-cold?” I stammer through chattering teeth.“It’s filtered water, that’s why.” She untangles her arms and knocks on the doorframe, her pretty, angular face shining with pride. “This ship might look like something out of the stone-age, but it’s high-tech. We have
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