Conditions

Cora 

Luna just glares at him, showing her teeth slightly. ‘What the fuck do you want?’ 

She ignores his comment about being ‘challenge’ because it doesn’t matter. We will never accept him or become anyone’s mate, girlfriend, wife, or whatever title folks want to use again. I even refused the guy I’m currently fucking, and he’s an okay guy.  

Again, not interested in relationships of any kind unless it’s a fucking one until I get bored, that is. Oh, the joys of being a shifter with a high libido, mentally rolling my eyes. 

‘Oh, sure. I didn’t hear you complaining when the guy was pounding into you nine ways until Sunday the other night.’ Luna sassily says.   

‘I want to see you again. I would like for us to spend time together. I get that it’s going to take time…’ He says, bringing our attention back to the conversation. 

Luna cuts him off by snorting, still glaring, which he returns.

‘Fine, a lot of fucking time to get you to trust me, but I am willing to do whatever it takes to get you to see and understand that I'm NOT like the other fuckers. So what’s it going to be?’ 

‘Why can’t you just reject me and be done with it?’ Luna counters.

He growls. ‘I told you, I’m not fucking rejecting you. If that’s what you want, you fucking do it. Simple as that.’ 

Motherfucker. Goddess, he’s infuriating! Why can’t he just say the fucking words so we can be done with this shit?

‘Or…’ He drawls out with a hint of mischief, judging from the smirk curling on his top lip, tapping his chin with his fingers, both him and his wolf eyeing Luna up and down. 

‘You can shift so I can see and meet your human.’ 

‘You can get fucked, not happening.’ Luna bluntly answers back, and I’m mentally flipping him off, which makes Luna snort in surprise. 

‘What?’ He asks with narrowed eyes. She lifts her head, giving him a wolfy grin.  

‘Oh, just my human mentally gave you the finger, and it was hilarious, so there's your answer from both sides.’ Luna says with a smug tone. 

‘So both sides are going to be a pain in my ass then. Nice to know you’re both feisty as well as sassy no matter the form.’ He says, amused and with a hint of approval. 

What the fuck? 

Come to think of it, the more we push, annoy, or challenge him, the more he appears to like it. He’s a strange one. Most Alphas I know don’t like it when the females talk back like we have been. Well, Luna more than me. Either way, it’s weird. He’s weird. 

‘However, I’m not entirely surprised as it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why you keep begging me to reject you because if I do it, all you have to do is accept, whereas if you do it, it means revealing your name. Now, there are two reasons why you would go to such lengths: You’re hiding something or from someone, or you don’t want me to know because you know I would recognize your name or your human form or both, which means I've already seen you, heard your human’s voice or know your name.’ He says with a low chuckle, watching me closely. 

Son of a bitch! 

However, Luna doesn’t react, not wanting to give anything away. He must be fucking psychic or something cause there’s no way he’s that clever or intuitive, right? 

‘But those are your two options, so I’ll fucking ask again, what’s it going to be?’ He says with a knowing smirk, leaving no room for argument. 

‘Well?’ I ask her, starting to feel tired, wanting to go home. 

‘Honestly? I don’t think it would be such a bad idea.’ 

‘Excuse me, what?’ I say, shocked. I thought she wanted the same thing as me.

‘Oh, I do. I haven’t changed my mind about that, but since he’s not budging, how about we use that to our advantage instead?’ Giving me a wolfy grin.  

‘Explain.’ I sigh, feeling exhausted, tonight’s events catching up, and slightly claustrophobic from being inside this damn cave for such a long time and wanting, no, needing to get back to Eli. 

‘If what he said about being around him makes us stronger is true, maybe we can use that and finally get rid of you-know-who. We could finally be free, and you know the sick bastard is still looking for us and Eli. Plus, that one does have a point. We don’t know jack like we should about shifters or pack shit.’ She sighs.  

‘Look, he’s an arrogant ass, no doubt about that, but at least he’s an honest arrogant ass, I’ll give him that one. But we need to be smart as well as strong about it, so maybe he can give us the lessons we should have gotten from Mom. If we pull it off, we’re free to reject this one 'cause it won’t matter if he knows who we are or not.’

I mentally heave a deep sigh. She’s got a point, several points. It wasn’t that long ago that we saw a few of Xander’s men sniffing around town, even Eli’s school. Thankfully, they didn’t recognize us when we were at the school, so they moved on. 

‘Ugh!’ I groan. 

It’s going to be difficult due to our feelings towards him, but for Eli’s freedom? I’ll do anything. At this point, Elijah is the sole reason I’m still alive. If I had lost him like the others, I would have ended my pathetic existence a long time ago.     

Luna turns her head towards the Alpha. 

‘Well, it's about time you two finished talking.’ He mumbled.

‘How do you propose we spend time together? And to be clear, my human doesn’t want anything to do with you, so there’s no point in you seeing her. It’s that simple, hazel boy.’ Luna says, feeling drained and impatient, ignoring his mumbling. 

‘Yeah, sure, that’s the reason.’ He says clearly but sarcastically. She, again, ignores him.

‘Anyway, since you’re unwilling to let me see you in your human form, how about we meet here at night? We can run, talk, and go from there?’ He shrugs.

He walks up to me and crouches in front of her but doesn’t touch, which we appreciate as I think Luna would have probably bit him if he did. ‘I plan to be here every night for weeks, months, fuck, years if that’s what it takes for you to see I’m dead serious. And you should know, I never beg, plead all that bullshit but for you? I will, and I am, so please give me a chance. That’s all I ask.’ 

Luna stays silent, stunned, momentarily before she gathers herself, stands up, and goes around him towards the entrance. ‘We may not be here every night due to other stuff going on, but if we are, I’ll mind link you.' She says without facing him and races off before he can say anything. 

As we run, we hear Axel’s sorrowful howl, but Luna keeps running, ignoring her instincts to return his howl with her own, with Robbie joining her in his bear form until we reach the building where I live. When we reach the backdoor, Robbie gives us a quick once over before Luna pushes the door open with her snout and steps inside while Robbie stands outside just in case someone is watching. 

When I finally feel safe shifting back, and I do, I realize it's quicker and less painful than usual. 

Huh?! What? How?!

‘I think Wyatt is right, Rina. Oh, my goddess, this means you can let me out more often without it being painful! I can finally play with Eli as a wolf and not scare him!’ Luna tearfully says, and I can’t help but get teary-eyed as well. 

In the last five years, I rarely shifted and let Luna out because it was too painful, and because of that, Elijah has never seen her as we didn’t want to frighten him. He’s such a sweet, innocent little pup, and the last thing we wanted was for him to worry about us at his young age. 

I may not be the perfect mother, and I accept that because deep down, I know I’m so broken and so beyond repair that nothing can fix that, but I’ll be damned to let my son see me like that. Luna and I have given our lives and continue to do so to protect our precious pup from anything and everything, including us and our personal hell.  

‘Imagine what could happen if we saw and were around him a few more times. We may be able to go back to how we were before the bastard almost killed me.’ Luna snarls in my head. I know she desperately wants revenge for what he did to us, to Eli, but we were always too weak. Now, we can see light at the end of the tunnel.

“What’s that smile for?” Tess asks as she comes down the staircase. 

“Nothing important. Where’s Eli? Is he okay?” I ask. 

“He’s fine, sleeping, and nice try. Don’t think I didn’t hear you tearing up. What happened with Alpha Wyatt?” She asks, coming up to me and taking my hands into hers. 

“It didn’t hurt, or much anyway, Tess, when I shifted. I don’t know how or what, but it didn’t hurt!” I say, getting emotional again. 

“So being around your mate helped? Good.” She nods, keeping her composure, but I know she’s just as happy as I am.  

“Now you go upstairs to relieve Amber and get some much-needed rest. We have much to discuss tomorrow, plus you need to dye your hair again." She says, tapping my hand before letting go. 

“Huh?” I say, tilting my head to the side. 

“Your whites are showing again.” 

“Oh, right. Okay.” I nod, and a yawn escapes me, the exhaustion finally hitting me. 

“Later, and thank you.” 

“Go.” She says, tapping my butt, and I race off up the stairs. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tess 

I watch Cora go upstairs and out of view before I turn my attention to Robbie, who is still waiting outside. 

I walk out the door, quickly looking behind and around me before facing Robbie. 

“Rob, we talked about this. You can’t keep hanging around here.” I softly chastise him. 

“I wasn’t. I just happened to see the girl running and made sure she got home safely.” He innocently replied, but we both knew the truth. 

“Fine, you got a good excuse for tonight. Thank you for that, by the way, but what is your excuse for the other times?” I say, raising a brow. 

He shrugs. “Easy, I wanted to see you. You are my m…” 

I quickly put my hand to his mouth, shushing him. “Are you out of your mind?! You can’t say that! What if someone hears you?!” I hiss. 

He takes my hand away. “Why? I don’t give a fuck what anyone has to say, or who knows. When are you going to accept it? You are mine, blondie.” He says, softly growling, coming close to my face, his lips ghosting mine, making my breath hitch.  

I sigh against his lips, my palms laying flat on his chest as I look up to him through my lashes. 

We’ve been over this MANY times, and a small part of me doesn’t either, especially on the nights when I give in to him. Each time, it’s like I’ve gone to heaven, whether it’s from the mind-blowing orgasms or simply having him wrapped around me like I am in a protective bubble where the world outside doesn’t matter. 

We’ve known what we are to each other for years, but I can’t accept our bond because that would put us both in danger, and I will never forgive myself if something happened to him. 

However, it doesn’t stop the feeling that a part of my soul and heart are slowly dying. Goddess knows I would love nothing more than to give this fantastic, wonderful, and caring bear cubs or pups and just be free. 

Sadly, that’s not our reality, and I also have too many who depend on me, often in horrible states, mentally and physically. 

People praise me for my work but don’t realize that I understand these women more than I care to admit or that my fight alongside them comes with a high personal cost and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just ran off with him and left them to fend for themselves. 

I go on my toes and kiss him, which he passionately returns, wrapping his big arms around me. I let myself enjoy the warm, safe feeling of being in his arms and his lips on mine for a few minutes before pulling away. 

“I’m sorry, but I have to go. Again, thank you for watching Cora and helping us with the girl.” I whisper, quickly walking back inside and locking the door behind me. 

“One day, woman, you will wear my mark and see your belly swell with our child." He says with a growl, softly pounding his fist on the door before sighing. 

"I promise you, one day, it will happen.” He says softly, against the door, staying there for a few minutes while I silently cry. 

After the tears stop, I scrub my face and collect myself by taking a few much-needed deep breaths before heading for the door with a sign on the front reading "Basement.” 

Thankfully, no one comes down here besides me, as the women here are usually too scared of dark, confined spaces. This works out well because my other secret wants to stay hidden. 

And this secret also likes being a pain in my ass.

As I head down the stairs and enter the ground-floor apartment, the first thing I hear is her voice. 

“So?” 

I close the door behind me before turning to meet her gaze. “The Queen has awakened but not at full strength. However, she still has no idea.”

“That's okay, we have time. Meanwhile, it’s time to start putting things in motion and end this bullshit regime.” She says with a feral grin, rocking in her chair. 

I can’t help but return her expression.

“Finally.” I lowly growl.