ArcherWe returned home with sadness plaguing everything.Ian was devastated; there was no other way to describe what was happening to him.Gloryn was being a good confidant for my mate at the time; somehow, she could understand what was happening to Ian in a way that I wasn't able to. I tried to put myself in Ian's shoes; I understood, but Ian's I resented.I felt guilty for letting Will leave home like that; I was unaware of the danger; I clumsily thought that if Ian's father stayed away, it would minimize the risks he was exposed to.I was an imbecile.“Do you need anything?” I asked Ian, and he denied it; then Gloryn gave me a pitying look. “I'll go to the pack house, then I'll be back.”Ian nodded without meeting my eyes, and I left with my friends.I didn't want to leave my mate alone, but given the circumstances, I needed answers about what happened with his father.The safe deposit box we had jealously guarded with Gloryn's help was the answer, but until we could get a way to
IanMy father, the man who raised me since he took me from an orphanage, was in the middle of the shed inside the mill with his guts out.I froze, perplexed, and shook my head, thinking it was some kind of hallucination, then I took a good look, and sure enough, my father Will was lying dead with his intestines out of his body from what were clearly claw tears.He lay with his eyes closed, staring into nothingness, and I felt what little hope was left in my body just extinguished.“It can't be,” I said in pain and approached my father.He was wearing the same clothes he had left Archer's house in, the ones he had said goodbye to me in. I held back a cry of pain, just felt my body go numb and closed my eyes to him and then cried loudly.My mother was dead and my father had been murdered.I closed my eyes and raised my head in search of relief, but it was impossible to feel anything quite like that when devastation had knocked painfully at my door.We must get out of here; it could be d
IanThe thread that linked Archer and me felt very much alive.And my wolf was unhinged from approaching Archer's wolf in all sorts of ways I couldn't understand. It was as if the bond wasn't completely choking him.“You're so sweet,” Archer said to my wolf, and Aldo growled in amusement. “I've been waiting for you too.”Aldo's feelings were soft, easy to understand, and I realized they were identical to my own, yet I was completely confused and overwhelmed at the situation.It was not something I expected to feel; I didn't even know how to size it up.“Whoever cast the seal spell was someone very powerful,” Tori said, and we looked at her. “It drained me completely and broke all the magic wards Ian had. Now he's much easier for others to track.”Aldo groaned, and Archer immediately stroked his ears.“We're going to be fine; I'm going to protect them,” Archer said with conviction.I believe him, so trust, said my wolf, Aldo.I trusted; maybe I trusted too much, and it was that very th
IanMy head was going to explode.“Alpha Quill was about to get married a dozen times before he met your mother,” Archer said.“Your father was a very handsome man and desirable, so he got a lot of marriage proposals. In order not to be so adamant about saying no, he used legal loopholes to buy time to meet his mate,” my father said, and I could do nothing but laugh.“Do you want to ask one of the women my father turned down for help?” I asked teasingly.“Her situation was very different; actually, they never had any kind of rapprochement; she had simply been sent to do her internship in the Reserves. She and Alpha Quill became very good friends, and over time she fell in love. Then the event happened that got her kicked off the Reservation.”“That woman will not want to see me,” I said calmly and with common sense.“She will; she'll help; she'll hesitate, but she'll give in because it was your father who stopped the Reservation wolf council from slaughtering her for using forbidden m
IanMy father decided to be my guide into the pack.Not on the populated side per se, but in the areas surrounding my biological father's hut. The situation felt a little out of place, since he was the one guiding me in a community I didn't even belong to, but it felt right.Give him a chance to explain himself, my wolf said, and it seemed like a reasonable recommendation.My father and I sat near the river and watched a couple of men hover nearby.“They are wolves from this pack; they are patrollers,” my father said, and I sighed.“How is it that this world exists and humanity hasn't questioned it?” I asked with a frown.“Some of humanity, at least the one that rules, knows about the supernaturals and the Reservation,” my father said, and I looked at him open-mouthed. “There's a silent deal about it; it carries a lot of ancient magic and dire consequences for revealing the truth in such a simple way. So let's just say the situation is much more complicated than that, but it's been ef
Archer“So you can take possession—”“I already said no!” said Ian in a deep voice, and I noticed his eyes turned a little golden.It was easy for me to tell that my grandfather was going to say something else stupid, so I interrupted him sternly.“Ian has been blunt, Grandpa,” I said, and my grandfather looked at Gloryn for help.She looked completely conflicted.“Ian is the one who decides what to do about his name,” Gloryn said. “No one can force him to take on a name he doesn't recognize as his own, so I urge you not to pressure him about it. He's got enough on the subject; that's enough for now. The important thing is for Ian to learn more about our people, our customs, and his powers so he can fit in with himself.”Ian looked at his grandmother as if she were his savior and I could tell that the two of them would get along very well. However, I was sure that the situation with my grandfather wasn't going to get any better. I knew it when Gloryn told Ian to walk her out so she co