~Meadow’s Point of View~ “She must die, she’s lied to us all for decades. She’s kept you from Georgia, and Little Ben was just…” Sebastian trailed off. Coral shivered, remembering our brief time with the boy. He was so hopeful, curious. Yet he knew his days were numbered, how depressing. There was too much having us all on edge, especially since we were waiting for word about my father. Clearly I didn’t have the same attachment to Athena as everyone else, as her own son would. But if this was how he felt about it… Our eyes darted to Ben. “Fifty years of banishment, then we reconsider. Give her the same courtesy she gave to me,” he finally said. Numerous others murmured in agreement. “On the matter of Georgia I’m not as easily able to decide. We’re going to give her a chance to prove herself. I believe we define ourselves on the decisions we make and while some … have to be made in the blink of an eye, they can still very much have very real consequences. Georgia has lost, she ha

~Meadow’s Point of View~ *Are you happy now,* I whined, scolding Coral. She didn’t answer, but instead played like she was asleep. Jerk! This was now the third night I’d been in the mountains with my mate, and while I’d felt the heat mostly subside a few hours ago we still couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I was beyond exhausted and not at all sure my legs would work. “And that position was called the hill but since I can levitate us I can actually hit you from underneath with a bit of acrobatics,” Ben said, running his fingers over my butt. I laid breathless, my head in a pillow, totally spent. I just wanted to sleep for a couple days, how the hell did he have this kind of stamina?? I mean he practically died just a few days ago! *Males always make an effort when it comes to their release,* Coral said, yawning. I had no doubt that was the absolute truth. When I had said I wanted to spend time in the coven’s library learning, I hadn’t realized I already had my own personal

~Ben’s Point of View~ I barely had to wait another minute for several vampires to try swarming in. Oftentimes there are some creatures that will take on a not so common alliance for the sake of a power grab. I knew in my bones that’s all this was, unless this sister had taken one as a mate. While you’d expect Godfrey to perhaps have reservations about killing his own kind, he absolutely didn’t. As a councilor, he took that shit pretty seriously. If they wanted to fuck around and be stupid, test the waters well, that was on them. I stood still watching as numerous Shadow vampires, witches and fairies seemed to descend from nowhere, and I also recognized two of Godfrey’s children. He likely called them through their bond, but I was pleased for the support. I bounced around, throwing some fireballs from my fingertips and even conjuring up some various weapons such as shurikens or ninja stars, which were one of Godfrey’s favorite things. Only it was hard for him to touch silver unless

Ben and I had talked about doing an actual ceremony, for him it was an important thing. Tradition. He assured me ours would be completely different from anything he’d done before, that the vows he made with other women were somewhat superficial. More of a just a promise they could join his family and that he was willing to have a child with them. More like a guarantee he’d get to sleep with them on demand. I still struggled with that sometimes. How do I just walk around knowing that all these women had shared something so special and intimate with MY mate? It wasn’t like they were one night stands. I knew it would get better, the more distance I could put between them and him, but it still tugged at my self esteem. It was even harder trying to help care for Dorothy and Calista’s children, especially since even now they still asked for their moms. Sometimes they cried out for them at night. A few times we both slept in their rooms with them. Dorothy was banished for five years, then