This whole part of this story has been a crossover, but the war is definitely a crossover to the other Next Gen books.
I wake in Cohen’s arms, sore, but smiling. His hands are roaming over my arms and hands. When I turn to look at him over my shoulder, I see him watching me closely. “How do you feel?” he asks, kissing my nose. “Loved,” I say, smiling. That brings a huge smile to his face. “You will always be loved. Any regrets about last night?” I shake my head, no. “You?” “Only one,” he says. I feel my smile start to fade. “That my mark isn’t still on your neck,” he says quickly, seeing my concern. He leans in and kisses the spot, making me shiver. “Kaelen and I loved seeing our mark on you, even if it was only for a short time.” “Soon it will be permanent.” “Not soon enough,” he growls. “Come on, we need shower and get going, but I want to have lunch with you today,” he says, standing and helping me off the bed. When I stand, I can feel the soreness between my thighs and inside me a little more. “Are you okay? Sore?” “A little. Keena will heal me soon, I’m sure. At least once that lazy wo
My mate is everything a Guardian is meant to be, only more. She is graceful and deadly all at once. I’m not even sure she realizes how incredible she is. She stood beside me, protected me, while I felt the tethers of my pack members snapping. Too many, and one in particular, much too close. My grandfather. I dread going inside because I know my grandmother, and many others, will be mourning the loss of their mates, or at the least, the ones who didn’t die instantly. I felt those tethers snap too when the mates of my fallen warriors let go and followed their mates to the Moon Goddess’ realm. This is my first real test as an Alpha, and it is one I will never forget. It’s one thing to lead a group of self-sufficient, happy, productive people, but it’s quite another to lead a pack that is in mourning and is devastated by a battle and by the losses of their friends, their family, and their mates. I begin to focus on what is right in front of me, the injured. I know my mother was taken to
It’s a hard shift, knowing I need to be here for my mate and my pack and not back home, fighting with my family. But I know that Cohen and I need to be here to protect this pack. Canyon Ridge took the first wave of battle and because of that, we took the hardest hit. Hours later, we’re still checking on our injured, consoling the mates of those who have died, when we get the news that the war is over. Some witch got away, but the wolves that attacked us and the witches that participated in the war have all been killed. I don’t care about them, we’ll burn their bodies. But there are wolves that I knew back home that died protecting their mates and the pack, and I do feel their loss. We heard about Emlyn’s massive power, and from the sprites, we heard about Maeve’s as well. She and her family fought hard against the witches and kept the sprites and other pack members safe. It makes me think that we should consider having a witch in every pack now. The witches haven’t been treated equal
Today, like every day since the war, has been long and exhausting. I haven’t seen Malin all day and I need a dose of my mate to energize me for the rest of the evening. When I ask if she’s joining me for dinner, she let’s me know she’ll be there soon. I smile at the excitement in her voice as I drag myself into the dining area, forcing myself to stand tall. I notice that everyone is silent, more silent than usual. I stop, taking in the emotions of the pack. There’s an uneasiness, a feeling of repugnance, but underneath that, there’s a desire to please. “What’s going on?” I ask the room. I’ve never felt these emotions from my pack before. Everyone looks around the room at each other, at the bowls of food in front of them, anywhere but at me. I growl softly, just enough to let them know I’m not going to let them ignore my question, but not enough to scare the pups who are here and also picking at their food. “Alpha….” one of my warriors begins. “We don’t want to offend our Luna,”
“I ruined dinner,” she cries, her tears running down my chest as I gently begin rocking the swing back and forth. I press my lips against her forehead. “It was your first try. You said so yourself. You’ll get better,” I tell her softly. She shakes her head. “It was supposed to make the pack feel better, comfort food because of everything that has happened. I can feel how sad everyone is and I just wanted to do something nice for them, and I ruined it,” she says and by the end, she’s sobbing again. I hold her while she cries, rocking her gently as the night breeze blows over us. “The pack knows why you did this, Malin. They appreciate your efforts. If they didn’t, trust me, they wouldn’t have tried to eat it,” I tell her. “And you’re so tired," she begins as if I didn't say anything. "You’re taking on so much of the pack’s emotions, taking it all on yourself since I’m not your official Luna yet and now, here you are having to console me too. I bet you wish you were mated to someon
I can’t believe how kind and generous the pack is being to me. I should have trusted Cohen, it was his pack first, after all. But I just assumed that in their grief, the pack would be angry at one more thing that went wrong. I couldn’t have been more incorrect in my judgement of them. Maybe it shouldn’t make a difference, but knowing that Cohen has his own insecurities helps me to feel better about my own. Unlike Cohen, who is an incredible Alpha, I know that I’m a terrible Luna. Well, maybe not terrible at everything, but definitely terrible in the kitchen. This morning, I wake up with Cohen and we head to warrior training. The place where I feel the most confident, other than at my mate’s side, is on the sparring field. As a Guardian, my family has been training me to be the best fighter I can be since I was born. When my father went easy on Quinn and I, my mother battered hard against us, knowing that we could take it and more. So, as I walk out onto the training field with Cohen
It was great getting to spend time with Uncle Liam. He and my father have been close my entire life, so he’s very familiar with the inner workings of this pack. So, while I know that he’s checking to see if I need anything from an Alpha’s perspective while my father is away, I also know that he’s here to talk to me about his daughter. It doesn’t take him very long to the get to the point. “Malin seems a bit…unsettled.” I sigh. Rather than sit across from him at my desk, I sit beside him in a seating area where we can speak more casually. I sip my bourbon thinking through my response. My mate is working hard to become independent, and I don’t want to undermine that by speaking to her father behind her back. Uncle Liam is a fixer. If something’s wrong, if you need something done, someone checked, someone taken down, he’s your guy. The only subtle part of him comes from Aunt Angel. There’s nothing subtle about Uncle Liam. He’s all Alpha and you get exactly what you see with him. He sip
I’ve grown up with the children of the Guardians. Celebrating birthdays, Alpha ceremonies, and mate bonds is something that all of our packs have done. Since our families are so close, I’ve always known whose birthday was when, which is how I know that Cohen’s birthday is coming up soon. Now that he’s an adult, his birthday won’t be celebrated by anyone other than our pack, although I’ll invite his brother and sister and check to see if Aunt Cara and Uncle Rik will be home in time to join us, and since this is a perfect opportunity to contact my twin, I go to my office and dial her number. “Safe Haven pack, how may I help you?” she answers. “Is this Luna Quinn?” I ask. “Malin!” “How are you, my sister?” “I’m doing okay, still learning this Luna stuff.” “I hear you. It’s not as easy as Mom and Leana made it look.” “It definitely isn’t. Did mom and dad stop by before their big vacation?” “They did. It was nice. I didn’t realize how accustomed I was to talking out my problems wit