NIKOLAI The wind whipped around us, lifting fine dust from the snow and swirling it in the air, obscuring the path ahead. But I pushed forward, relying on my nose instead of my eyes. From when I’d first gotten my wolf, I’d always had a strong sense of direction. Once I traveled a path, the scent stayed with me, etched in my memory like a map. My mother had been the same. Something hitched in my throat at the thought of her. Although I had remained calm that morning, Terri had ascertained correctly that it was difficult to hear of others' mothers and to be reminded of her. What I wouldn’t give to hear her strong opinions today, as much as they had always annoyed me. Terri came closer and whimpered. My attention instantly went to her. What had happened? Was she okay? Nothing seemed amiss. I tilted my head at her in question. But she just looked at me with puppy eyes, as if she could sense what I had been feeling and her own mood sobered correspondingly. It was eerie. But I pushed it
NIKOLAITerri pranced along the perimeter of the summit, radiating pure joy. It was infectious. A force tugged at something buried deep within me. Slowly, a rare smile crept across my face, waking muscles that had lain dormant for ages. Then it hit me—a realization so startling it shocked me to my core. I was happy.I couldn’t remember who started it—whether it was an unspoken agreement or some shared, instinctive understanding—but before long, we were play wrestling each other, rolling around in the snow, barking and growling with delight. I nipped at her dark fur—fur that was full and glossy under the sun’s rays. Absolutely stunning. She licked at my face and I returned the affectionate gesture. Before long, our tongues were touching, licking at each other as we lay on our sides. Our paws rested against each other’s faces, and our hind legs tangled. Heat radiated throughout my body, but I refused to advance things further. Especially when she couldn’t verbally confirm it was what sh
NIKOLAIBefore long, Terri’s legs were shuddering against my cheeks, her nails were digging into my scalp, and her moans were echoing off every surface of her bedroom. I ate her as if this were my last meal. Her moans turned to a euphoric scream, her thighs trembled against my ears, and I drew every bit of orgasm I could out of her. When I finally withdrew my mouth, she was left panting and limping, finally collapsing into her bed. “Wow!” she said, as she spread out in a starfish position. “You’re amazing at that.”Pride radiated throughout my body. My shoulders straightened in pleasure, basking in the vision of her rosy, glowy skin, the rise and fall of her chest as she caught her breath, and satisfaction on her face. I couldn’t help myself from climbing into bed with her, pulling her into my arms, and nuzzling against her neck to inhale her sweet, musky scent, now ripe from the day and what had just gone down.I jolted; a surge of shock coursing through me at the sudden touch of he
NIKOLAIWhen she finally lifted herself, and lined her entrance up with my cock, I was a goner. Any other misgivings I may have had were wiped from my consciousness.I let out a deep, appreciative moan as she lowered herself onto me in a slow grind, rocking her hips to allow each bit of my length to methodically enter her. The inner walls of her pussy clench around me. My hands dug into her thighs in reaction. I couldn’t believe such a beautiful angel was allowing me inside her, packing every inch of me into her. She continued to slowly and carefully lift and lower herself onto me until she was filled to the hilt.“Fuuuuck, you feel so good!” I cried out.She smirked and lifted her arms over her head, elevating and emphasizing her sporty, pert breasts. I couldn’t take my eyes off them as they bounced with every movement. Using only her thick, well-muscled lower body, she easily slid up and down the length of my cock, impressing me with her display of athleticism.I wrapped my large ha
THERESAI stirred awake, blinking against the lamp light. Had I fallen asleep? I glanced upward to find a pair of silver eyes meeting mine.“Oh, shoot! Sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I stammered, scrambling to get up. Gosh, last thing I needed was for him to think that I believed this to be a relationship where we spent the night together and stuff. Moreover, my family was likely getting back soon, and it was in my best interest to scram before they figured us out.As I sat up, readying to grab my clothes and get out of his way so he could leave, his hand closed gently around my wrist. “Wait.”I glanced back at him, searching his face for a clue to his thoughts. As usual, his expression was unreadable.“Would it be wrong to want to spend a little more time with you?” he asked.“Oh,” I replied, caught off guard.“When we can speak to each other,” he added.I blinked, then smiled faintly, the tension in my shoulders easing. “Look who wants to talk all of a sudden,” I teased, play
THERESAI shook my head, pushing the thoughts away, and then continued. “Everything changed this past spring. I came home for summer break after my sophomore year of college. By then, I’d mostly gotten used to the idea that I’d stay a virgin until I met my mate. And then... I met him. My now-ex.”My mood darkened at the thought. Kolya seemed to sense it, as he gave my upper arm a squeeze.“Honestly, I didn’t even like him at first. He was a friend of a friend of a friend. My friend Kaylynn had a crush on this warrior who she invited to a party she was throwing. He had duty and couldn’t make it, but he asked her to invite one of his friends in his place that he said was kind of a loner. Said he was trying to get him to meet more people. And Kaylynn, of course, agreed.“We were all just sort of hanging out. I’d made some silly joke, teasing him in a flirting sort of way. And instead of laughing, he flipped me off. I don’t even remember what I said, but I’m sure it wasn’t anything that r
THERESA“I know you probably think I’m stupid for not breaking up with him sooner. I guess a part of me cared about him. He’d had a tough life—his parents were chosen mates, not fated ones, and they fought constantly. When he was a kid, it sometimes got so bad that they’d forget to feed him. He didn’t have many friends either. Really, his only friend was that warrior I mentioned before, and even that friendship wasn’t a close one.”Desperate to justify myself, I added, “If I’m being fair, not everything was bad. Some things were good—really good. We’d have times where we’d just hang out and talk, and he could actually be sweet. Those moments made it harder to walk away.“Sometime in early August, I told him I was ready to have sex.” Kolya tensed beside me. “We did it one afternoon while his parents were at work. It was horrible. One of the worst experiences of my life. He was so nervous that he couldn’t get it up, and he took it out on me. He kept being mean, blaming me. I can’t even
THERESAI’d spent my whole life under the weight of constant criticism and impossibly high expectations from my parents, never stopping to think how deeply it affected me. Of course I had stayed. It felt familiar.My breath hitched. “I never even realized…”Maybe that same crude judgment was what had drawn me to my ex in the first place—without me even recognizing it. It was why I felt so at ease around him, why his behavior hurt but never felt out of place.I let out a deep breath. For the first time in months, the idea of forgiving myself felt possible. But I was too exhausted to unravel all the complex thoughts that had suddenly formed.Instead, I glanced at Kolya and smiled faintly. “You still owe me an answer to a question.”He raised his eyebrows but didn’t speak.“What is the Russian pack after? Why did they go to war with you?”His muscles stiffened against my body and he pinched his lips together.“You promised,” I reminded him.With a resigned sigh, he sat up and crossed his
TYSONUpon our return, we sank into the seats that had practically become our second home in my office. I mindlinked Liam, telling him to stop by when he had a moment.He entered within minutes.“Good news, Alpha. I checked the weather reports and flight conditions. The skies will be all clear tomorrow morning. We’ll be able to head down to Anchorage. I’m making sure the runway is cleaned off and the plane is fueled as we speak.”"Beautiful," I replied, nodding in approval."We’re back on track," Nikolai said as soon as Liam left.For the first time in days, I allowed myself to relax—just a little. We had a plan. We were moving forward.But something still nagged at me."I don’t get it." I furrowed my brows. "Why take Terri and Gigi? Were they just easy targets? But why? What does someone want from my pack?"Across from me, Nikolai shifted in his chair. His gaze flickered to the side before settling back on me.Unease crept up my spine.Then he cleared his throat. "Tyce," he began.I
TYSONWhen we reached the penitentiary, I yanked open the back door of my car. Joe flinched but didn’t resist when I grabbed his arm and hauled him out. He moved stiffly, but he didn’t fight. He’d be stupid to.Nikolai followed as I dragged Joe into the cement building. We passed rows of cells, the few prisoners inside watching silently. A guard stepped aside, his face impassive, as I pulled open the heavy metal door leading to the basement and forced Joe through.The temperature dropped as we descended the narrow staircase. The dim, flickering lights cast jagged, erratic shadows along the damp cement walls, making them seem alive. The steps creaked beneath our weight. The harsh stench of fear mixed with the odor of bleach and stale air.Once we made it to the bottom, I shoved Joe into an old wooden chair that was darkened by stains from those who had sat there before him, most of whom had never walked back out.“Stay,” I commanded with my alpha aura.Joe whimpered and his body locked
NIKOLAI“Joe Shmoe,” Tyce spat from the driver’s seat. We were back in his car for the fourth—or maybe fifth—time in two days.“His name is Joe Shmoe?” I asked, raising a brow.“Joe. Joe nobody. Joe should-be-fucking-ashes.”Once again, Tyce was knuckling the steering wheel with his foot hitting the gas far too hard. At least the weather conditions had improved, and the roads were freshly plowed. But the tension inside the car may as well have been a storm in itself.The barely contained rage was rolling off Tyce in thick, heavy waves. Even as someone that wasn’t part of his pack, I could sense his alpha aura. He was in it to kill it at this point.I understood. The moment I’d smelled this man’s—if you could even call him a man—scent, I’d wanted to lose control too. My fingers twitched, aching to wrap them around Joe’s throat.“We need to keep him alive,” I said, just as much to myself as to Tyce.“That motherfucker doesn’t deserve it,” Tyce snapped, his anger palpable.“I don’t disa
NIKOLAIThe warriors continued to battle the terrible conditions well after Tyce and I had given up, working late into the night. But, in the end, they had no better luck than we had. Any scent of a werewolf that may have existed at some point was wiped away by the storm. Sophia was gone, vanished along with her scent.“You look like shit,” Tyce remarked the moment I stepped into his office the next morning.I dropped into the chair across from him with a heavy sigh. “I haven’t slept in two nights.”Tyce lifted his head, finally making eye contact. His sharp gaze flickered over me. After a long pause, he leaned back and folded his arms across his chest. "You really do care about her, don’t you?"I nodded in confirmation.Silence settled between us as we both sank into our chairs. Tyce lifted his coffee mug, taking a slow sip. I drank mine too—more out of habit than necessity. The caffeine had long stopped working, but at least it gave my hands something to do.Tyce finally broke the s
NIKOLAITyce’s hands trembled at his sides. His shoulders rose and fell unevenly, like he was barely keeping himself together. For a moment again, he looked young and lost, like a boy whose world was unraveling piece by piece. But he quickly shook his head and straightened his shoulders."I’ll do my best. I promise." Tyce’s voice was raw, quieter than before. His fingers flexed at his sides before he turned away, blinking hard. I recognized the move. The sheer, bone-deep exhaustion of trying to keep it together when everything inside you was falling apart. Finally, he turned back and said, “Give me something with her scent on it. Alpha Nikolai will help too.”Sophia’s father rushed back into the house, returning seconds later with a winter hat. He handed it to Tyce, who passed it straight to me.I took a deep breath, inhaling the Sophia’s scent, locking it into memory before handing it back.I was sure Tyce felt the same as I did. Someone had reached Sophia before we could. And now, s
NIKOLAIThe silence between us stretched thick and suffocating, broken only by the rhythmic tapping of Tyce’s fingers against the wooden desk and the occasional muffled sound of a voicemail message cutting in and out.Every few minutes, he tried again. Calling. Mindlinking. His expression flickered between frustration and outright fury every time the connection failed.Each passing minute felt like an hour.Tyce was relentless. Again and again, he dialed, pressing on the chosen contact of the moment, only to be met with the same voicemail box recording. Calling and mindlinking like a maniac.I couldn’t deny I wouldn’t have done the same. I just didn’t have the same means to attempt contact. So, I determined, my job, albeit impossible, was to attempt to keep him calm.Honestly, I wasn’t doing any better. My mind screamed for action, but all I could do was sit there, forcing myself to remain still. I kept blocking out the worst-case scenarios. If I let myself think about Terri in the ha
GINGERAs I woke, I fought against a dull, aching exhaustion pressing down on me like dead weight. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy. My mouth was dry, my head pounding. Every muscle in my body throbbed with soreness, as if I’d run a marathon the day before.This has to be the worst hangover of my life.Slowly, the fog in my mind began to clear. I inhaled the scent of crisp air and wet earth. Was I outdoors? I groaned, trying to roll over. A sharp clink echoed through the silence.My eyes snapped open.Coldness nipped at my skin—no, at my fur. My stomach dropped as my sluggish brain scrambled to make sense of it.The room—was it even a room?—was cloaked in darkness, the only illumination coming from the faint glow of my red night vision. The outlines of my surroundings took shape: cold, empty space, stone walls, and metal bars blocking the only exit. The scent of damp earth and frost hung heavy in the air.I tried to move, but the harsh clink of metal stopped me short. I looked down. M
TYSONI finally understood what it meant to straddle the edge of sanity and madness.I hadn’t slept in days. The world around me felt surreal, like I was walking through a dream—or nightmare. Every time I bumped into a wall or grazed a piece of furniture, I’d catch myself wondering why I hadn’t just passed through it. I felt like a ghost, a shadow of myself. Losing Gigi was like losing my purpose. Without her, what was the point of any of this? I scrolled through our old messages, rereading the last text she sent me:Gigi: Love you, send you some snaps laterAs if the words might change. As if they could tell me where she was now.But the screen remained the same. No new messages. Just a string of my frantic ones.They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, here I was, proving it. I must have called and texted both Gigi and Terri a thousand times. At this point, my fingers were moving on autopilot. The result
NIKOLAIAs feared, by the next morning, Tyce still hadn’t heard from Gigi or Terri. The thick and suffocating dread was settling in. It was looking to be less and less a case of a couple of lost cell phones.While everyone else was at the morning temple service, Sasha and I met Tyce in his office, where he was seated in the same spot I’d left him the night prior.Tyce looked exactly how I felt, like hell. His eyes were bloodshot, shadowed by dark circles. His hair was even more disheveled than it had been the prior day. Overgrown stubble dusted his jawline. He appeared a ghost of his former self—an alpha taken down by his biggest weakness.He arrived in the same clothes he’d worn the prior day, now wrinkled from his clearly sleepless night. The muffled sound of a generic voicemail box rang through the air.He let out a heavy breath and rubbed his temples before running a hand through his hair. “Flight conditions are still a no-go,” Tyce muttered in a voice that was rough with exhausti