The cold wind from the mountain moves in across my skin and bites down at me, causing me to shiver despite wolves never really feeling the cold. My heart pounding, my nerves taut and my head in chaos as I stand on the boundary and stare into the darkness awaiting the sun to start to show hints of rising. The eerie silence despite rows and rows of assembled wolves unnerves me and Leyanne and Meadow to my right, Carmen and Sierra to my left, stand solidly still, waiting, we’re all just waiting.Tension high, the stillness is painful and the quiet is deafening. I’ve never been more scared in my life and it’s not just because we are on the dawn of the first war battle of my life. Asif that wasn’t bad enough. It’s that our enemy are our loved ones and death blows will be dealt today to forever change everything in our world. No matter what side wins, we all lose the ones we care about most.The plan is set…. We all know our place, our ro

Colton comes at me, lifting his claws in the air for a final blow and as the sun glints on the red stained mess of his sharp talons I look at his face one last time. His human form, the face of the boy who devastates my soul with just a look and even now, it melts all my defenses away. I've missed this face, even if his mind is not behind it.That tanned perfection of a handsome male, the straight dark slash of eyebrows over unfamiliar soulless eyes. His squared jawline, his subtle etch of dimples, even though he's not smiling but scowling instead. Even like this, about to deliver a last blow, I can't hate him. My heart belongs to him and fills with the fresh ache of finally seeing him as his own face once again, after so many days, and I start to softly cry. Resigned to a goodbye and glad that it will be this sight I leave the world with.Colton makes his move, no hesitation in his purpose, and I squeeze my eyes shit tight as I tense and prepare for the piercing pain

Lorey, what in the hell is going on?Colton walks to me in the open hall space and closes the gap between us, pulling me to him and focusing full back on me. Finally looking for answers now he’s done what was needed and I catch sight of Meadow and Cesar turning human and embracing several feet behind him. My heart happy with the sight of her, okay, and reunited with her mate. My heart swells to bursting and I can finally feel at peace, feeling that my pack are all intact and safe. My gut confirming it.Colton pulls me to him as he stays in wolf, linking me mentally and cradles my face in his hand, careful not to hurt me with his claws. Being so gentle it just breaks down my last defenses and despite his filthiness, I curl against him and hold on tight. Embracing one another for a moment, feeling the high rate of his wolf heart and the excessive heat coming from this mountain of a body. He pulls me backwards to look at him and I just gaze adoringly, drink

“Ten years ago, it was about all wolves… a species that dared to kill his woman and his unborn child for merely existing. When he found out she lived and died at the hands of the Santo pack and he thought his child too, he concentrated his hatred on one pack alone.” Leyanne wanders casually across the floor, shrugging as she goes, and all eyes follow her. An awkward quiet around the room instantly as we all digest this.“That’s why the fog stayed only with us and them … nothing further out. We saw no vampires in our entire trip to find Leyanne.” Meadow fills in the blanks, adding to what I guess she spoke to the witch about, and brings my mind to the truth of her observation. Outside the Santo domain, we never picked up on a single vampire in eight hours of cross-country travel. Not one sense of them, no scent in the air at all. It’s why Leyanne didn’t care about leaving us out in the darkness alone. She knew we weren&rs

The day passes like a blink and it feels like time is sand in my fingertips, that I can’t stop from filtering away no matter how hard I try. Clinging on with anxious determination, yet it slips right through. Like an awful countdown to something I don’t want but can’t run from, and I know this is inevitable and everything before was leading us back to this moment.To the mountain that was once our home, to the man that started everything and the fight we have been avoiding, to stay alive. Fate really did make sure that we had no choice but to come full circle, ready to battle and put things to rights in the oddest turn of events. The wars, the prophecy, the people involved in everything that came before…. we are all convening in the place where it began. The mountain. The Santo Valley.Jasper is coming back to the place that I watched him walk away from with my family a decade ago, to avenge their death, whether I want him to or not. Everything