Atticus
The weight of the sword in his hand was nice, Atticus thought, swinging it in time with his long strides. A light wind caught his hair. He closed his eyes for a moment, revelling in the feel of sunlight on his face.
Even though he’d been walking for what felt like forever, nothing could bring down his mood. How long had he been waiting for this moment? If this walk felt like forever, then he had been waiting an eternity to see his beloved again. Beloved! He snorted at the idea of it, though it settled like a vice around his traitorous heart.
Even here, even now, he could not admit the depth of his feelings – not even to himself. He gripped the hilt of the sword tighter, peering into the distance in the hope of seeing some sign of the Red Ripper pack. Or, better still, some sign of Lily.
Lily. Her name felt like a caress, fluttering through his body until he was sure his muscles were melting
LilyMorvand’s cold, bony fingers locked around Lily’s arm. He yanked her down the path to the cells without a word, his brows pinched and his mind lost in thought. Lily took it as a small blessing; his words were either condescending or cruel, and she had no time for either such conversations.Her own brain was spinning with half-baked plots and plans to free not only herself, but Eryne as well. She was a victim of Red Ripper just as she was, and Lily had no intention of leaving her, quite literally, to the wolves. If she wouldn’t allow her to staunch her bleeding or check her injuries, then Lily would set to work creating a plan to rip her from Red Ripper’s greedy grip.Lily was so distracted that she almost didn’t feel the way her heart started to beat faster. She was so distracted that she almost missed the blooming sensation in her chest, the second heartbeat echoing hers ricocheting against her ribs.
LilyElijah stood where the door had once been. His chest heaved with exertion, but his grey eyes blazed as they met Lily’s. A thousand words were spoken in that one, singular gaze.Smoke coiled between them, wafts of it twirling like dancer’s dressers before it dissipated into nothing. Lily breathed deep, watching Elijah through the fading barrier. Forgiveness did not come easy to her, but she stepped into the space between them and knew, as his eyes widened, as his throat bobbed, that she wanted to forgive him. And she hoped that he forgave her, too.“Hi,” she said, her voice croaky and rough-edged. He smiled at the sound of it, his shoulders losing their tension.“Hi.” His lips twitched.“You came for me,” Lily whispered, taking another timid step towards him. He was her every dream made manifest, from the basil-and-citrus smell of him to the gentleness in his gaze and th
Elijah Even though he didn’t want to leave Lily behind, Elijah couldn’t stop smiling. His mouth pushed at his cheeks, her emboldened heartbeat echoing alongside his and reverberating through his chest. Every ache and pain in his body vanished, leaving behind only light and buoyant, radiant joy. She hadn’t left him. She hadn’t run. She loved him. Elijah curled his lips inward, desperately trying to get a hold of himself as he prowled between the cells. He stayed in the shadows, pressing his back to the walls whenever footsteps neared. Without his sword he felt naked, but the raw power of his flames gave him strength. He could do this. He could save Lily and the witch, and end Red Ripper’s tyranny once and for all. For the first time ever, he tucked his hair behind his ears. He told himself it was so that he could hear better, but the heady thump of his heart and the rush of heated blood through his veins told him other
AtticusAtticus had won, but it didn’t feel like a victory.Not when his hard-won prize looked at him like he was a monster. Not when Lily’s cheeks held onto the gauntness they had taken on during her time as Red Ripper’s captive. Not when her eyes, the eyes he had fantasized about for so long, were flat and so dark a brown he could only see his own reflection in them. There was no fire in her, not anymore.Lily was broken, and in the month since Atticus had so bravely saved her from Red Ripper – and saved his own pack as well – he hadn’t been able to fix her. In fact, Atticus wasn’t even sure that she wanted to be fixed.He huffed under his breath and reached for her. His fingers froze a half-inch from her shoulder. The duvet had slipped down, but her skin was far from bare. She was always cold, now. Anger burned hot in Atticus’s belly. She wore his t-shirt and his sweater
LilyThe last month had been a blur. No – it had been a whirlwind for Lily, sending her heart lurching in turbulent circles whenever it escaped from the cage she had so meticulously built for it.Every day, she stared at herself in the mirror as she dragged a comb through her dark blonde hair and tugged it into a loose braid down her back. It had grown, and as the autumn crept in, carried on the cold breeze that shook burning leaves from the trees, it was starting to darken in colour, too. Her eyes were her own, although they were set back further into the hollows of her eye sockets and glazed in a perpetual way that spoke of more than pain – it was an ever-present ache that ate away at her flesh, day and night, dawn and dusk.That was what the gaunt look to her features and the pallor to her olive skin spoke of, too. Even her plump, red lips appeared thinner and paler.Lily scowled up at the ceiling. She&r
ElijahIt had been a month.Scratch that. It had been the worst month of Elijah’s life – worse than when his parents had died, forcing him to shift young at age twelve and take on the responsibility of being Sea Pine’s Alpha. It was worse than when Leahne had rejected him. It was worse – It was worse than everything, because he had been so close. He had almost saved her. She had been in his grasp, and then… She was gone. Just like that.“What do I do?” he mumbled, looking over the cliff’s edge and down, down, into the sea. He was a fire faelen, but sometimes it felt as though the water were his only friend.He twisted her mother’s garnet ring around her finger. At first, the knot of emotion in his chest had swelled, too thick and too fast and too full of guilt, for him to be glad he had it. He knew he should’ve encouraged her more to keep it, but as the weeks had bled into one another Elijah had been glad of the small comfort it afforded him. He had a piece of her, even if she no lon
LilyWinding her long, wavy hair into a braid, Lily could finally meet her eyes in the shadowed mirror. With every day that passed, she felt more herself – and more lost than ever. The grief was beginning to still, to quieten, but as it did she felt further from the life she had grasped, for so short a time.Strands of her dark blonde hair stirred slightly in the cool autumn breeze, spilling in through the ever-open window. The curtains rustled, drawing her attention to the purpling twilight outside.Soon, the shift would be upon her. Twisting the length of ribbon around the end of her braid – in the same citrine colour as the bunting she and Atticus had prepared for the festival of Mabben tomorrow – she hardened her resolve. She knew what would be waiting for her beyond the walls of this now-familiar bedroom. Lily had spent too many hours staring at it through the long nights spent in Atticus’s bed.Biting back a sigh, she pulled on a cloak and shoved her feet into a pair of well-wor
AtticusThe sound of Lily’s howl made something earthen, something primal, roar to life in Atticus’s chest. He howled back, an Alpha calling to his Luna, to his mate. There were no complications here, like this: there was just the craggy silhouette of trees above and the rumpled earth below, with darkness filling every cavern in between.It was not the darkness of hate or shadows; it was the cool balm of the shade on a summer’s day, the comfort of solitude shared with another. Atticus revelled in it, his huge black body blurring with it as he moved through the woods.It should always have been this way. This was right; Atticus felt it in every part of him, in the pulse of his blood and in the shards of his bones. As Lily slowed, he did too. They were one: light and dark, shadow and sun. He nudged her with his nose, playful, joyous. This was right. This had always been meant to come to pass.Her words from before stung, but they had lost their barb as she’d shifted with him. This was a