Helen POV I blinked up at the sight of my mate. He ran upstairs so fast I hardly had time to crawl into the room to change clothes. He bore daggers down at me without mercy. I shuddered. “Mate, what exactly are you doing?” I hollowed my throat with a gusty inhale. “I was—it wasn’t like—” Part of me was still so struck with his aura, with his power over our bond, but I had grown stronger too. I was no longer the tricolor wolfen with such a disappointed family and a bleak future. I was pure now, more beautiful than I had ever felt in my life, and Alpha Justin is still my mate. Climbing to my feet, I slung a finger into his chest. “You lied to me? You know the bloodsucker?” Justin’s gaze narrowed at my newfound courage. “I never claimed to not know him, Helen.” “You never claimed to know him, either!” I spun around quick, marching towards the bedroom to change but the grip of his hand on my wrist stopped me. It hurt, but not enough to cause a mark. He would never do that
Helen POV I pressed into my mate, fairly brave as of lately but not right now. Vampires surrounded us all around, Geoffrey prancing toward the wall nearby and grabbing a key off the holder. I watch him above the others, his presence like an Alpha to his subordinates. He plays with the keys, waving his vampire buddies from their trance on me and Justin. “No, no,” Geoffrey cheers. “They’re my personal guests tonight. Everyone else gets a blood shot on me!” Everyone cheered and went back to dancing, Justin and I ushered to follow the dazzling vampire around the club until we’re back in the hallway. We were nudged into a little velvet room. Geoffrey locked the curtain in place with a strap and pins it to the wall. He hides the key into his pocket when he’s done. I turned to examine the room, eyeing a particular device on the far wall. It was a giant X made out of wood, four leather cuffs nailed into each appendage of the contraption. While staring at it, Justin found a seat on the
Helen POV“A tie?” I breathed, my mate pulling a strip of simple cloth off the wall. “Out of everything you chose, why that?”Justin stood over me, his hungry glare pulling at the warm and wet sensation in my core. I couldn’t help but press my spine into the contraption, feeling so small and helpless at his every whim.The fire in my blood had spread from the bite, forcing me to moan at every single touch Justin laid onto me. Shivers prodded at my frame, snapping my blood vessels like an explosion within my body just while my mate had tied the cloth around my eyes.“I’m in control,” he muttered, pulling something off the walls by the sound of his movements.I opened my mouth to speak, to agree, but a harsh slap pressed into the side of my ass. I yelped alive, the leather paddle most likely leaving a mark. He was toying with me, and as much as I enjoyed that aspect, I felt the heat was preventing me from breathing right.“I—Justin—please!”“I know, I know,” he hummed, kissing my jawlin
Justin POVI scooped my mate at the mention of her father in Vegas, let alone right outside the front door. Helen groaned at the movement, limp in my forearms as I kept her close to my chest.Geoffrey had craved her blood instantly for the long-lasting bite and I didn’t want any other vampires looking at her like a blood bag. She’s my mate. I will protect her.“This way,” Geoffrey said.He nodded us down the hall and back into the open club dancefloor. He waved for the music to stop and it did right away. Everyone watched my mate, knocked-out in my arms like road kill would appear to a buzzard bird.I kissed her temple, hoping if she could somehow feel the tension in the air now, that she would ignore it with my cradling, defensive hold.“My clan!” Geoffrey called. “We have an uninvited wolfen guest!”A low rumbled traveled through the velvet club.“You cover their tracks and you deny their existence,” he called, pointing to my mate and me. “They are one of us!”I felt light as he led
Helen POVThe sight had spun out of control quicker than I could wake up. Justin was tearing into Geoffrey, the vampire struggling to hold his own in the fight against a full Lycan.His claws were sharpened to their longest point. He wasn’t going let this vampire walk away from a fight with a slight wound. He was charging to kill something already dead by most standards, something that doesn’t bleed or feel pain.Whatever caused this fight didn’t matter to me. Justin couldn’t get hurt in it.I pushed myself off the bed, trying to shift into my Snow White wolf but I fell to the ground, the metal collar smaller against my wolf’s throat than it is on my mortal form’s neck. I coughed to breathe, pulling on the metal collar in angst.The metal beeped once, and I yanked at it harder, frustration consuming me all over.“Ouch!”I screamed, a harsh point stabbing the back of my neck and pricking through my surface. I could feel blood trailing down the ridges of my spine, pooling into the jacke
Helen POVI shouldn’t have been surprised to see warriors charging through the suite. It had been hours since my mate ran off into the mortal world, destroying everything in his way while experiencing a rage over my near-death.They dragged me from the bedroom, ruthlessly throwing me into a cage in the back of a van waiting downstairs. It was Lone Wolf pack, I could tell by their attire, and the sight of them wasn’t even alarming.Justin must have tipped off our location without a chance of us hiding out anymore. I looked through the kennel, feeling like a rabid and stray rogue, seeing familiar chains looped on the floor that must have been waiting for Justin’s capture.One of the warriors walked up and kicked the side of my cage, speaking through a buff snarl. “Where is he?!”My labored breath hadn’t got much better after being poisoned and bit twice by a vampire. “I don’t know—he jumped out the window—and I couldn’t stop him.”“Tell me what you know, mutt!” He kicked the cage again,
Helen POVWe sleep in the car for most of the trip, driving until we will inevitably run out of gas. We have nothing left from our lost luggage and the missing trinket of my necklace and rings still brings tears to my eyes.I stroke my neck, starving and exhausted.“Maybe you were right,” I said, speaking to the stars that fly over our heads. “At least with Juden at Lone Wolf Estate, we had a shower and warm meals.” I toyed with my torn jacket, the only clothing I had at this point. “And clothes sufficient for the cold wind.”The car Justin hijacked was topless and the chilly air had done little to calm my unsettled nerves.I wept into my palms, starving, thirsty and full of anger.“Hey now,” Justin purred, pulling the car over to the side of the wooded road. He came around to open my door, allowing me to throw myself into his arms. “It’s okay, Helen. We’re going to be okay.”“And what if we’re not?!”He patted my head into the crane of his warm neck. “We will be. We always are. You w
Helen POVThe wizards and the Fae have dinner at one massive table. It’s a large event with dancers and magic and delicious food. We sit on small pillows around the low hanging table suspended from the larges branch of the pine trees above.This place is beautiful, and I’m envious of their sense of community.As a wolf in a pack, I was never allowed to eat let alone sit at the dining table with my so called family. But here they hand out plates to the little ones first, letting them pick through the dishes in the middle of the table before the adults can.Wizard Olu, who had found Justin and I on the road, handed us a plate next while mentioning we are the Fae’s distinguished guest. Something tells me they haven’t been around many wolves, like we haven’t been around wizards.There was a hint of tension, but it was small enough to ignore with ease.They gawked at our every movement; Justin ridged in his movements while I hung onto the robe I was given to wear. It puddled at my ankles a