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SEVENTY-NINE | BONFIRE
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The Broken Alpha EIGHTY | DARK MAGICK
ElijahDawn light spilled into the clearing. Elijah scratched a hand through his dark hair and stared without seeing at the dark swathe of bottle-green pines surrounding them. Pale, fractured sunlight caught the tips of needles and the bends of boughs, highlighting the remnants of birds’ nests and the red belly of a lone robin.He dug the toe of his boot into the dry dirt from where he was sat, his back pressed at an odd angle against a fallen, moss-covered log and his knees bent, pulled up close to his chest. He was supposed to be sleeping, but thoughts and hazy imaginings of what Lily could be doing – or what could be being done to her – had plagued him ever since night had fallen, and continued to do so as the sun had risen. Sighing, he turned his grey gaze to his Gamma.“I know you aren’t sleeping. I’m on watch – and there’s no point us both being awake. You’re moping,” said Caslein, arching an eyebrow at Elijah. “Again. Stop it.”Elijah’s throat bobbed. “No, I’m not. I’m thinking
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-ONE | TWILIGHT
AtticusLily looked beautiful like this: painted in shades of red and orange and gold by the trembling brush of the firelight, one side of her face cast in navy shadow and the other all the brighter for it. She was smiling at him, and there were no reservations in her eyes.Atticus froze, losing himself in those irises. They were like autumn, he thought, brown and gold and, right now, lit by heat like the curled ends of a crisp orange leaf. He did not dare dip into the depths of her pupils, wide and honest and glittering like the stars above.She cupped her mulled cider between both hands and blinked up at him. “So?”His brows pinched together. “So what?”Her lips twitched. He never wanted this moment to end – chilled by the night air, warmed by the firelight, with Lily beside him, teasing and smiling and speaking to him like – like she liked him.“I said, ‘What did you want to talk to me about?’ In private,” she added, with a slight quirk of her eyebrows.Atticus could feel the truth
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-TWO | CROOKED
LilyLily couldn’t quite believe what she was doing as she walked down to the training fields. Her canvas sneakers squeaked with every step as they met dew-damp grass. Everything about this felt wrong, crooked somehow, distorted from the norm - from the way it should be.“I’m so proud of you,” her dad was saying, his chest puffed out and his eyes, so like hers, round with fondness. “Taking a stand with Alpha Atticus. It’s right, you know? You were destined to be his Luna, after all.”Lily swallowed hard. “I just agreed to train with him this morning, that’s all.” Her voice wavered; she swallowed again, hating the quiver of uncertainty. “I don’t… I don’t know what I’m going to say to him yet. And as for being his Luna…”He clapped her shoulder with a calloused palm. “I know, you’ve got that Alpha Elijah now. But this is your home, Lils. This is where you belong.” He paused; Lily turned to look at him as his eyes flicked up to the sun-streaked dawn sky. “I think this had to happen. It’s
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-THREE | UNDERWATER
ElijahThe mossmen were everywhere. Elijah’s arm sagged; he hoisted it back up and drove it through the wooden belly of the nearest mossman. It creaked and groaned and then, before Elijah had even blinked, another sprouted from the hedgerow and took its place.He couldn’t see Caslein anymore. His Gamma was under there somewhere, still fighting, if the grunts and curses coming from his direction were anything to go by. Elijah sought out a glimpse of dark skin or textured hair, but there was only moss and branch and stone.But he wouldn’t give in. These were creatures bound together by magic, not mortal enemies of flesh and blood. They were harder to defeat, but Elijah had something they didn’t. The capacity to love.He dove into the fray. Bony hands yanked at his hair, at his ears; he winced, his self-consciousness so ingrained that he was afraid of even the mossmen seeing the truth about him. He thrust his sword in all directions, tingles scraping down his spine like chalk on blackboa
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-FOUR | HALF MAN, HALF WOLF
LilySlim fingers knotted together. Lily paused, the pads of her fingertips brushing over naked skin where once a garnet ring had sat. Still she missed the feel of it, the metal warm from her body heat, the red stone glinting in the summer sun. That sun was long lost now, as well. Autumn was settling in, the leaves as red as the garnet had been; some drifted slowly to the grass, twirling downwards, back and forth, with a sad air to them that she couldn’t quite place. A leaf couldn’t be sad – could it?She bit her lip and turned away from the window. The kitchen felt too still and too quiet. Lily turned her eyes away from her father, latching them onto the flowers at the table’s centre. Her heart warmed momentarily, thoughts of her mother easing the tension she could feel rising rapidly between them. It formed an invisible wall, thickening with every second that passed in silence.Her dad knew what she was going to say. It had settled into every crease of his face, from the crinkles a
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-FIVE | A WRITHING SEA
AtticusNight had passed back into morning by the time Atticus heard that Lily had gone.Dew speckled the grass, sparkling in the last silver sliver of moonlight. A moon that was still a little over three weeks away from growing full again. It was a haunting sight, one that made fresh wounds rip open in his heart. Atticus stared at it helplessly, hovering above the horizon line, mere moments from dropping below it. Caught between this second and the next, he thought, as was he.The moon fell. Struggling to comprehend the swelling tide of emotions writhing desperately in his hollow chest, Atticus stalked across his grounds. Remnants of the Mabben decorations still hung in the trees, not magically disposed of as they usually were. They made him think of Lily, and his heart – his whole body – ached with the loss of her.He’d saved her. She’d betrayed him.Collapsing against the base of the same tree she’d sat by only a matter of days ago, he curled his hand around a bunch of grass and ri
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-SIX | OAK AND IVY
LilyIt was strange, Lily thought, as she retraced the same steps she’d taken before, so many months ago now, that her father was with her. He walked with a permanent scowl, though it was neither malicious nor unkind; it was a scowl of defeat, of questioning a choice too long after it had been made to do anything about it now.“I’m glad you came,” she said, eyeing him sideways. “So am I,” he replied, too quickly.Lily smiled wryly. “No, you aren’t.”He sighed. “It’s getting dark. And I just realised…”“That you have no real bed?” she finished for him.“Exactly.”“We have a tent. And bedrolls. And blankets.” She shrugged. “We’ll be fine.”He wrapped his arms around himself. “It’s autumn.”“And?”“And it’ll be cold. We can’t light a fire, I know, but…”“I know, Dad. I’m sorry.”“You don’t have anything to be sorry for.” His mouth twisted. “I wasn’t going to let you go alone.”Lily let the silence swallow them both. She knew what he wanted her to say: let’s go home, Dad, and I’ll force
The Broken Alpha EIGHTY-SEVEN | THE LENGATHUL
ElijahA tentacle wound around Elijah’s leg. The world moved in slow motion around him as he was dragged below. His mind coughed up a series of half-forgotten rhymes, each one more disturbing than the last: swim up, fly down, don’t turn around, toe to toe, heart of woe, don’t look at the creature below…He gulped in his last breath of air, and then the water swallowed him whole. It was dark as pitch; something slimy writhed against his skin, somehow both wet and sticky. A glimmer of white broke through the darkness, snake-like but puckered with suckers. Elijah shuddered, though he told himself it was from the burning in his lungs rather than repulsion at the being that held him.His hair streamed across his face. He scrabbled blindly at it, wiping straggly clumps of it away from his nose and mouth. Not that it would help. Nothing would. He kicked and struggled, but the tentacle just tightened further. If he could just lift his sword a bit higher – Caslein screamed. Elijah had never
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