Justin stayed awake with me until I calmed down enough to stop crying, and then he drifted off. I tried to sleep, myself, but I couldn’t get my brain to quiet down. I kept replaying the earlier attack. How could I have been so stupid? Donna had already tried once in the same day to kill me! I should never have let my guard down.I stretched my leg a bit, testing it. The pain was still intense, but I could feel it really was already starting to heal. There was no way I would be strong enough to compete tomorrow, but still, I took some solace in feeling the healing process at work. If only there were something I could do to speed it up.I shifted a little, settling more comfortably into Justin’s arms. He didn’t wake, but I felt him tighten his hold on me. He was caring for me, protecting me, even in his sleep. I was so lucky to have him–my second chance–and I felt that winning the competition would make me, in some way, deserving of his love.As he tightened his hold, and I shifted back
I woke up with Justin’s weight on top of me. Opening my eyes, I saw him watching, smiling devilishly. “I figured one more round might be a good idea before the big match today,” he said.I couldn’t imagine I would ever want to say no to Justin, but especially not now, when every time we had sex, I could feel myself growing stronger. I would be facing my final opponent, my own sister, and I’d need all the strength he could give me if I wanted to defeat her. And I wanted to defeat her more than I wanted anything except Justin.“Yes,” I laughed. “You’re being so selfless right now. Fucking me for my own good.” He laughed too, easing into me.“My mate, you always feel so good,” I moaned. “I can’t believe I lived this long without feeling you inside me. My perfect second chance.”Justin kissed me sweetly. It was so unlike the brutal, biting way his mouth had met mine that first night together. I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him in deeper. I had never imagined that sex could be
Helen POVDiana had me pinned, my shoulders to the ground, her wolf weight holding me down. I heard King Juden begin to count, “ONE!” The crowd was in a frenzy.If this match had occurred even a week ago, it would have been over for me before it even started. It used to take me so much time to shift. But all of my and Justin’s time in bed meant I had grown into something so much more powerful than Diana could have ever imagined.“TWO!” the Alpha King bellowed. Diana threw her head back in triumph, as if she were already beginning to celebrate. But before Juden could let loose the final number, faster than anyone in the crowd could even process, I shifted, letting Joy, in all her newfound splendor, free. I flipped forward, knocking Diana back, and she yelped in surprise.Now, on all four feet, I shook myself from snout to tail, feeling my full strength as it rippled through my body. The crowd gasped in near-unison. The last time they had seen me, I was a small, unassuming, tricolor lit
Helen POV The morning was quiet. Justin moved carelessly through time as though his event wasn’t happening today. I suppose being a lycan was enough of a confidence booster for him to know that no matter the outcome, he was the favored to win. He is tantalized with the sight of me, slowly, teasingly dressing just within range of his peripherals. I was never a bold, sensual virgin but this second mate has brought a new side of me forward. I liked her, too. She was cocky and affectionate and sexy. He decided to sit on the edge of the bed, leaning back causally while I adjusted the straps of my thin tank-top before pulling them back down over my chest, then adjusting them a second time for good measure. “You’re teasing your mate,” he bit down on the words, his throaty tone palpable from across the room. “Have you not had enough, my dearest? Do you wish for more?” Joy perked at the idea of that offer. “More?” He nodded, taking to chewing on his bottom lip as I slipp
Justin’s POV The fight is my favorite part. The adrenaline, the shift, even the possible injuries. My lycan responded well to pain; too well to it at times, but I had to flicker away from the roughness he had come to enjoy with our mate these last few days. Her scent still marked me, even in this broad, muscular stance. The Game Master had called out his countdown to begin but there was hardly a waiting period. Everything moved so quick, without warning, that the shredding of skin and fur had started long before the fight was intended to. I undercut my opponent’s underbelly, latching my claws into his side and dragging it down before he managed a swipe in my general direction. It hardly hit at all, marking my wrist without a clear definition of a wound being made. My head was in a frenzy, my blood burning throughout every pulsing vein as I struck forward, sinking my teeth deep into his back before lifting to create an identical mark. He would enjoy the sight of these scars late
Helen’s POV I tilted my head back to give him access to my ear, the plane of my neck, anything he could reach through the small holes in the cell to get to me. His hand had been working overtime on my clit and the nether regions below it, drenching my bare ass against the cold floor where I let him have access through my hiked skirt. I moaned his name, his pressure going deeper while the cut on my forehead had lost its initial sting. It was begging to heal, shrinking with every pluck of his fingers, every brush of my sensitive button, and the pure hormonal desire his lycan was exuding in this small space. It would choke me eventually but I didn’t care. For all I knew, I was as good as dead, anyways. “Your mark has cleared,” he panted, his hot breath even hotter than before. “I should rip through this cage and chains and locks so I can have you properly.” “They will only find another way to retain me for murder,” I growl. His fingers drug up my inner thigh, leaving a wet tra
Helen POV “No,” I begged, clinging to the cell bars, my hands fighting the extra chains. This cell only seemed worse now, not because Justin was trying to break me out, but because he would break Scott’s neck. “Justin! Justin, no!” The Lycan was taller than the hallway ceiling, standing over Scott’s wolf as he had shifted in self-defense. It wouldn’t be a fair fight, it never will be, so seeing Scott even attempt to face the Lycan in his wolfen form only accelerated Justin’s recklessness. They collided but even on his hind legs, Scott didn’t hold a candle to Justin. “Guards!” I screamed, trying to find any buffer to put between these guys. “Justin, please!” Scott deserved his wounds, but seeing so many of them, so quickly, I couldn’t fathom how long it would take before my first mate would have his neck broken by my second. But conflict of any kind made me uneasy. This fight up close, so cruel and bloody, it made me sick. I would have nightmares for sure. Guards finally f
Helen POV Justin had knelt down beside me in our holding cell, hearing the jeers of the court from the slits in the vent overhead. They hated us, wanted to make us suffer, all while Alpha King Juden hardly could be bothered by the fact that his son was being persecuted as a monster. “How are you so calm?” Justin stared up at the vent, his hearing good enough without the advantage, though it certainly helped me tune into the riot upstairs. “I have little belief that there will be a bad outcome, my mate.” “They hated me before I exposed myself as having a pure coat.” I looked at the grimy floor speckled with my blood, my arm still wounded and healing slow; too slow for my comfort. “Now they’re speculating over what it means.” “Well, let them do our work for us,” Justin muttered. “Maybe they are all just as smart as they pretend to be.” “This is not the time for bantering with the court, they think I’ve killed someone.” “They think a lot of things, Helen. It doesn’t mean my