As I calm down, I feel the women back away, still staying close by. I turn slightly in Cora's arms to see what is happening. The beautiful blonde hair woman is standing the closest, beaming at me. On the surface, the gesture seems genuine but everything else about her screams of false presences. "Hello Iokaste, I'm Katherine, your oldest sister, and Luna of the Manae. It's a pleasure to meet you again," she says to me. All I can think of is how odd of a way to introduce yourself to someone. I look at her carefully. She smiles slightly and reaches out to brush my bangs out of my face. It is meant to be a caring movement, but instinctively I feel myself flinch. She seems to ignore my tiny movement, but I can see a minute change in her eyes as she notices. I don’t know what to make of it. It almost feels like she was pleased to see me react that way, but she doesn’t want to let it show. "Please, call me Kas and it's nice to meet you too," I pull myself from Cora's arms and collect my

My fangs and claws extend and my eyes turn black as Lex yanks me back and pushes forward, taking control of my body. I struggle to pull her back, but she is too strong. I can’t stop her as she lunges forward and grabs Tessa by her neck. A vision comes to my mind as my skin contacts hers. We are on a battlefield. Tessa’s eyes are an endless black abyss as she swings a mace at my head, but I duck and avoid it, except for a small graze across my forehead from one of the spikes. The momentum turns her body and I catch her gripping her back against my chest. I watch myself slit Tessa’s throat, letting her body fall at my feet. Her expressionless green eyes stare up at me. The vision fades and another comes forward. She and I struggling against each other in a bell tower. She stabs a long silver blade into the side of my abdomen and stands back with a disgusting smile. Her wolf’s black eyes again at the surface. The pain is excruciating, making me drop to my knees. She chuckles dryly and w

From the time Tyree knocks on the door, to the time her sisters walk in, it feels like all that negative energy that was filling the room gets sucked back out. I look over and see Kas looking back to her normal self. Did she just pull all that bad energy back into herself? Katherine is gripping Tessa tightly by the upper arm. She leads her to a chair and sets her down. Tessa’s eyes are puffy and watery and her nose is red. I’m not sure she knows what's going on around her. It’s kinda sad. She lost her mate, got called out for knowing he’s a pervert, had a blowout with her sister, and her wolf is a little loco. A crazy wolf never ends well for the human side. I almost feel bad for her. Almost. Once everyone’s sitting, Kas stands at the head of the table. “Thank you for meeting us here,” she says to her sisters. Even those few words, she sounds more like herself than she has all day, “I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. I let Elexis get the best of me and it won’t happen agai

“I’ll see if there’s any residue on the wall and ask Delilah if she can identify it,” James says after we’ve watched the video three times. I still can't believe it. A shadowy outline of a person came out of the wall. A glass materialized in its hands and handed it to Kas. She didn’t even look to see who it was. She just took the glass and kept on talking. No one around her reacted until I saw Marco look at her questioningly. Sure, the mood of the meeting was strained, but whatever she was drinking intensified the anger coming from her a hundred times over and spilled out into the rest of the pack. “Yeah, and what would have made the cup keep changing form?” Marco points to the screen. The glass vibrates from a regular juice glass to a heavy-bottomed hand blown glass. Every time she picks it up, the cup vibrates, changes shape, and the color of the contents changes. When I walk into the room, it just keeps changing in her hands when no one is focusing on it. The more she drinks out

As we make our way across the room, people begin to notice Bronx and me. They stop to pay their respects and smile, happy to see us together and holding hands, looking healthy. They look at him longer than usual, as if they are trying to figure out what is different about him. It’s not clear whether they notice it, but no one points out his missing eye patch. As we get to the head table, Lenora is sitting next to Codi, who claps happily in her high chair when she sees us. Lenora is digging through a diaper bag looking for something to keep Codi occupied until the kitchen staff can bring food for her. Bronx conveniently lets go of my hand before Lenora notices us and makes his way in the opposite direction to avoid her. “Au Ka!” Codi squeals and raises her arms up to me, clapping gleefully. Lenora smiles and pulls the toddler from the seat. She gives her a kiss on her chubby cheek and hands her to me. I gladly pull her into my arms and give her raspberries while she giggles and claps.