Killian scooped me up and put me on his knee.“Look at this face.” He caught my chin and turned it side to side as if to display my lovely angles.I turned my head in pretty poses as if to show my innocent, sweetness.“Oh, I see it.” Aviari said. “She’s a tiny, evil, blonde version of you. Equally as dreadful.”Killian clucked in mock outrage.Both my little brothers were snickering behind their hands.I shot them a venomous look then remembered I was supposed to be revealing how angelic I was.Least that’s what Killian always said.That’s why he’s my favorite.“Fair bit of demon in her.” Aviari teased. Giving me a broad grin.“Not in the least!” Killian defended “She’s virtually perfect!” Killian said. Giving me a wink through one of his laughing blue eyes.***Aviari had walked ba

“How will I know you’re okay?” I asked Aviari in the memory. My small body was jerking with the weight of my grief. I didn’t want any of them to go.And I was so little and felt so helpless at the thought of all my older siblings leaving me. I imagined seeing a breakfast table where only half of our family sat.Instead of a room brimming over with laughter and teasing.“We’ll write you.” Baila Lae stepped behind Aviari and dropped a hand to his shoulder as if to give him strength. She gave him a gentle squeeze.“Dad is going to bring letters back and forth so none of us will feel alone.”“I can’t know where you are?” I looked up at her. Wanting to cling to her dress and beg her to stay with me.“No, Sweetheart.” She dropped to her knees next to Aviari to look at me. “It’s not safe for any of us that way.”“What if you&r

Lyra met with me later and told me she’d let me know when it was time for us to go.But I found myself increasingly impatient. Agitated enough to spend half the night pacing.Every night for the last sevennight.And I knew that Hunter had been sneaking beyond the wall under the tenuous guise that the Alpha had given us permission to do so, though he’d not condoned it yet.It’s a dangerous game for Hunter. And I was often awake worrying for him until he got home.Looking weary and exhausted and flopping into his bed miserably.Indicating to me, he’d not yet found the house I so desperately needed to see.Come on. I pleaded Heavenward. Where is it?I was sure that if Hunter couldn’t find it, no one could.***HUNTERHunter had been sneaking beyond the wall in the evenings to search for the house as Vanna Rae had asked. Knowing

The pain I felt was suddenly overwhelming as I missed them.Aviari came back to me in flashes of him taunting me mercilessly.  A cocky smile and a jokingly rotten nature that often drove him to hold toys above my head. Or hide my favorite doll.But then there was Baila Lae. And I saw her face in a sudden flash. Haloed by light from the window behind her as she laughingly swatted at her brother and told him to be nice to their baby sister.As if I were something precious to be guarded.Then I thought of dancing blue eyes and wild dark waves and knew that I was remembering Killian who was tall in his own right but nowhere near like Aviari. He looked much more human.Normal. Almost.But I thought he was surely the most handsome young man in the world. Because he was my hero.And as he’d left, he’d hugged me tight and whispered to me that he’d always come back and he’d always be watc

I stamped down my fear and tried to be rational. Tried to speak in a soothing tone hoping it might make him ease some.Be gentler in what he was going to do to me.“Just calm down, Van.”He hissed through his teeth. “Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! Do you know what you just nearly risked?”I was quiet, knowing that if I said yes, it’d only make him angrier and if I said no, he’d be angry that I was playing at less intellect. He’d never buy it anyway.“Now ready yourself, mate. I’m taking you until you learn you can’t trifle with me. And you don’t. Keep. Secrets. From. Your. Mate.”Then he entered me viciously.“Vanquish!” I called. Near to begging for mercy. Feeling him probing deep into my core. His hard length impaling me like a solid branch. Unrelenting and unfeeling.So unlike him.***This