LOGINFallonZayn is a cuddler, which I find hilarious, given that he’s spent months growling, grumping around, and being overall ridiculously standoffish. At least, he likes me touching him. He likes spreading out on the bed like I’m not in it, his arm flat over my body, his leg pinning mine to the mattress. His cheek is pressed against the top of my head, and every breath he takes fluffs my hair. I don’t mind this. Not a bit. I’m used to sleeping with a dozen pillows around my body and a weighted blanket, and his weight is more than enough to send me into a stupor. I should be sleeping now. It’s raining softly–a naturally occurring rain. I’ve learned to tell the difference between the scent and electric current of his magic and the soft, breezy kind of storms that swirl over the islands. I’m not sure what woke me up. I don’t think it was the rain. It’s not morning and won’t be for another few hours. No maids are awake yet. The house is utterly silent, save for the trickling pearls of r
Fallon“Louisa.” I sigh, shivering with delight. “You beauty. I’m going to make Zayn give you a fat stack of cash just because you’re a miracle worker.” Louisa is, at this moment in time, a figment of my imagination, but I’m dripping in her delicate handiwork while admiring my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Naomi would be in tears, rolling around on the floor laughing, if she could see me right now, but also, fuck her. She has no taste, and I have more than enough for the two of us. I stretch my arms out to the side to admire the bubble gum pink fabric of my new robe, which drapes heavily before tapering at my wrists, lined with pearl beads. The fabric is silken and impossibly light, but the length is what really gets me going. When I mentioned I longed for something to wear around the house that wafted over the tiles and made me look like I was some kind of apparition floating this way and that, Louisa delivered without a second thought. The robe has feathers along the hem. It’s
ZaynTali won’t leave me the fuck alone. He’s been staring all morning. Every time I glance at him, he’s there, looking at me intently while I field conversations in every direction. If any other wolf, any other Alpha, was going to sense the shift in my relationship with my still unmarked mate, it would be him. “Fuck off,” I mouth silently, throwing him a vicious glare. He chuckles, looks away, then meets my gaze again and laughs so hard that several of the Alphas I’ve been talking to for the last half hour about trade, pack relations, and war–mostly war–turn to frown at him. This is the shit I hate that Fallon is unfortunately very good at. Talking. Delegating. Trying to get multiple people to heed my command at once. I’ve lost her to the crowd, which is infuriating. She waltzed into the packhouse in Eurye on my arm like a dutiful little wife and promptly herded all the Lunas in attendance into a group using her charm and grace, and now she’s gone, lost to the glare of the sun be
IanDad doesn’t like coming to Moonrise. I’ve never outwardly questioned him about it. Mom picks up the slack when it comes to his sometimes strange moments of silence and entirely skeptical behavior. It’s easy to forget what he is and where he’s from. He wasn’t born in the rolling, emerald green hills and valleys of New Glade. He wasn’t born in the sawdust and wheat fields of Silverhide. The gnarled trees of the still- recovering plains of the Deadlands pale in comparison to the land of his ancestors on both sides–Pantharas. I’ve never been, but I’ve also never had the itch to travel long distances by boat, especially to a place my dad swore he’d never return to. Moonrise, however, is a fine trip. My parents are old school, all things considered. A week spent in wolf form traversing the northern, unpopulated territory of the Deadlands was the highlight, at least for me. There’s plenty of hunting. The summer weather is fair and dry compared to the depths of the Roguelands, where we
FallonI grip his wrists, staring into his eyes, trying to piece together the last three years of my stupid life to make sense of what he’s telling me. “Blake knew?”He nods, still braced on his elbows, his body flush with mine. “My dad knew?”“I am certain he did, yes.”“Are you fucking serious?” I am, rightfully, I might add, fucking furious. Beyond livid. The works–whatever stupid adjectives my brain refuses to conjure. “Everyone knew except for me?”“No, I don’t think everyone knew. Any shifters like your father or Blake–high ranking, Alpha blood, yeah. They would be able to sense it. And… those who knew, other than Blake, that one time, never brought it up again or said anything about it to me.”I sit up so quickly I nearly knock him in the nose with my forehead, but thankfully, his reflexes are like quicksilver. He rises on his knees, looking down at me with an infuriatingly blank expression. “You bastard!”“Fallon, I need to explain why–”“Why you knew, from the very second
ZaynFallon searches my eyes. Her brows pinch together, and a look of uncertainty paints her expression in shadow. I’m still inside her, hard again. It’s been so long since I’ve done this–touched someone like this. It’s my first time touching her like this.My mate. I have her wrists pinned above her head to stop her from moving. I just needed a moment–a single slice of time to decide the best way to go about this. “How long?” she whispers, her voice breaking. “Fallon–”“How long have you known?”I slowly pull out, both of us wincing, both raw and torn open emotionally. Her, because I’ve lied for three years. Me, because I’ve known the truth for that long. I let go of her wrists, but she makes no move to shove me away again. She doesn’t bare her teeth or hurl insults. She grabs my hands before I can pull away completely, and we stay there, tangled, slick with perspiration, our hearts still rattled. “How long?” she begs in a tone I’ve never heard her use. It’s quiet, sad but susp
*Ella*“Do not let go of my hand,” he says. I allow myself to look at him for the first time, to really look into those slate gray eyes of his that I now recognize with startling clarity. Once, what feels like a lifetime ago, this man asked me to dance at Isaac’s twenty-first birthday ball. I’d decli
*Maddy*I feel like a puppet as the temple attendants turn me this way and that way, the high priestess rambling off another long, blisteringly boring monologue. Isla stands beside me listening intently. Her eyes are sea glass in the golden light of the sunset now pouring through the temple windows.
*Ella*I open my eyes, blinking into the eerie green light of the cramped room I was thrown into a few hours ago. The walls are made of stone and drip with condensation. I look up at the wooden ceiling where streaks of light filter down and cause the floor to dance with pockets of pale gray. The ceil
*Isaac*“You’ll burst through the seams if you keep moving like that,” Cassian says with a bite in his voice as he fastens my leathers–a vest and forearm guards–over my black shirt. Pins displaying my status as not only the Alpha King, but a warrior of the highest rank, are displayed over my heart. T







