Elly Streams of hot water crashed against Elly’s bruised and battered body but she felt nothing. It could have been worse. It should have been worse. Her hand wandered up to her shoulder and thought of how much pain she was in. That wound was terrible. Rowan’s wolf tore her open yet there wasn’t even a scar. Her hand kept moving up her shoulder until she felt a shockwave of pain shoot through her body. What was it with random werewolves biting her? She didn’t know enough about them to know if that was normal. Rebekah thought educating her was important but it was obvious that education was limited. ‘Werewolves are dangerous, they killed her mother, and they want to kill her,’ was the extent of what she was taught. The bite on her neck was swollen. It made it hard for her to move her head. She was grateful to her aunt for teaching her how to block out the mark from Dane and the tether from Darren. Keeping the wall up in her mind took so much energy and she was so tired. Elly was begin

Rowan There was a lot to think about and not enough time in the day for his brain to process it all. Rowan had been running on the bare minimum amount of sleep for weeks. Ever since the wolves of his pack started losing control and becoming violent. An out-of-control pack was a sign of an incompetent alpha. There was no way Rowan could sleep. The witches of Eternal Flame were very attentive. They checked on the progress of the injured wolves frequently while still giving them privacy to discuss pack matters. At one point they even checked on Rowan, Luke, and Fox. Since Rowan was an alpha they showed him back to the room they reserved for special guests in the main cabin. He wondered if that was their covenstead or if it was just Cecily and Austin’s house. The way it was located centrally to the coven and the way everyone came and went as they pleased showed it was the heart of the village. Yet it was nothing like the covenstead at Silver Moon. Theirs had a cold and unwelcoming envir

Elly A moment of coolness settled Elly from her nightmare into a dreamless sleep. In an instant, that coolness evaporated and a rush of heat snapped her out of sleep. She sat up in her bed gasping as the heat threatened to overwhelm her. To Elly’s surprise, Cecily was sitting on the bed beside her trying to soothe her as Abby and another healer prepared a new set of bandages for her. “My mom wants me dead! I disappointed her and dad.” Elly sobbed uncontrollably into Cecily’s shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re okay now,” Cecily said over and over again. She helped her out of bed and into the shower. “We just need to lower your temperature a little. You’re running way too hot.” The lukewarm water helped calm her enough to get back in bed. She was surprised when she got back to the bed and saw them drawing a symbol at the center. As Elly approached the symbol dissolved into the sheets and wave a of cool blew against her. “This way hon, the sigil will keep your sheets cool and keep your tem

Elly The longer the night wore on the more exhausted Elly was. Her fever was back full force and she was chugging anything with ice to keep herself cool. Everyone fussed enough over her. She was tired of making them worry. That didn’t mean she wasn’t worried for herself. There were about three days left until her birthday. On some level, she was still resigned to believing that it would be her last day. It was almost devastating, sure. If anyone asked her a couple of days ago how she would feel about dying on her birthday she would have said it would be a relief. There wasn’t a single day of her life that she could remember feeling anything other than exhaustion and pain. They didn’t need to beat her. Instead, they drained her of just about every drop of energy she had and trapped her in that god awful glamour. Elly’s hand wandered to her face. It took nearly twenty years for her to find out what she looked like. Every time she looked in the mirror she had a hard time recognizing h

Rowan Watching her run off made Rowan fight the urge to go after her. He was at his limit with problems but was short on resolutions. His mind was tired and his body was restless. He sat staring into the first and bouncing his leg. Eris has been eerily quiet and it wasn’t helping. They were two sides of one coin. For whatever reason, he was being iced out by his other half. Despite not talking, Eris was close to the surface. It felt like he could take over with one solid push. He didn’t know what he expected from Elly. Just looking at her weakened state it was clear she wouldn’t be any help. Out of everyone around him he felt a pull to her. Like maybe she had the answers he was looking for. Wishful thinking. As the night grew darker and the fire grew brighter he couldn’t handle sitting any longer. He got up and started walking. In the blink of an eye, he realized he was about to knock on Elly’s door. Rowan’s long fingers wrapped around the doorknob and started to twist. He shook h