CHAPTER 132: Ally~Nick’s mom’s hands gripped the armrests on her chair.“It is. I was there when they realized they were mates, months ago. Evan also witnessed this. This is very true,” he responds patiently.“What-” her voice breaks. “Months ago?”Nick inhales deeply, taking a strong inhale of my scent while my hand involuntarily clutches his shirt.“Yes mom, months ago,” he affirms. “One of the best moments of my life.”I can’t watch any of this. I can feel Jake’s empathy, Nick’s love for me and his anxiety over what will happen next, his mom’s pain and shock laced with anger. It’s a lot. And while I have practiced blocking out auras and emotions, several werewolves and their super intense feelings wasn’t something I had much experience with. They feel so big, so much.Nick holds me steady and bends slightly to kiss the top of my head. He can likely feel some of this and is trying to calm me through the bond. It helps, but I still feel like someone at the bottom of a well feeling

CHAPTER 134: Jake~ The tension has been building for hours. The sun moved slowly through the sky. And while I was thankful for all the time to prepare, it was almost too much time. I’m an overthinker as it is. All this build up didn’t help that. I heard movement coming up the stairs and picked up her scent right before she spoke. “Jake. Come here,” Rachel said softly. I walked slowly and we met in the middle. I’d come into my office again to freak out a bit without any witnesses. She wrapped her arms around me and I held her tight. “Breathe,” she said into my chest. I did. Long slow breaths, taking in her calming scent and her touch. It lowered the pressure that had been building inside me, like letting a little air out of an overinflated tire. I felt my shoulders come down, my heart rate lowered, Aamon seemed to breathe out too. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, muffled into my shirt. “Well, it’s not going to be easy. And we’re probably going to lose some people. But

CHAPTER 136: Ally~ I was starting to break a sweat. Where did they get all these people? How was one guy really convincing all these people to join his cause? Why were they following him into this massacre? They had the numbers, but overall, we were putting up the better fight. I’d seen twice, if not three times as many of them go down than our side. But they still just kept on coming in, like a swarm. I was able to patch the shield a few times to slow things down, but it was too hard to balance that with attacking the people in front of me. Nick stayed by my side the whole time, popping in out of the shield I threw around myself. I could feel it each time he came in, and it assured me he was still doing okay so I could stay focused. I’m hitting again, making a vampire bend over in pain when I see a bit of blond hair. It’s her. Maxine. I move forward and head right towards her. “Max!” I yell, my anger coming from the depths of me. She turns and her expression is one I can’t nam

CHAPTER 138: Jake~ We’re losing this. Right when I thought things were going in our favor these Soul Eaters appeared. And they are next to impossible to kill. I knock one down, and it just comes up again after some recovery time. And it just takes so da*n much to get that much done. I just can’t figure out how to destroy them. They just don’t burn like other things. They don’t get hit by other things. I throw everything I can and it's barely enough. I know if it weren’t for Rachel with me - I wouldn’t be knocking them out for this long. My team leaders report that they can't even knock them out. They just try to hold them off as much as they can and they’re barely doing that. So we keep pulling back, closer to the packhouse. I’m trying not to panic but we’re running out of ideas. We weren’t prepared for this. Witches and vampires? Sure. Maybe a handful of Soul Eaters? Probably. But we had no idea there were maybe a hundred of them. Aamon was in the driver’s seat for most of this a

CHAPTER 140: Evan~ I kept expecting her to wake up in Jake’s arms. That somehow, his tears would bring her back. But she just lay there, like a ragdoll, in his arms. If it weren’t for how strikingly pale she looked, I would have told anyone she was sleeping. But she didn’t wake up. It’s hours later and Nick was barely able to get Jake inside. We cleared the field as best we could, bringing in the injured and putting the dead together. Amber had removed all traces of The Collective while we had sat there with Jake. I don’t like how shell shocked she was. She didn’t seem to be actually experiencing all of this and I worry for when those feelings will surface. I know she didn’t like those people. But they still raised her. She told me about jokes and kindnesses that she received in little bursts along the years. She’s basically just lost her family. But she doesn’t want to talk about it. She hasn’t even cried about it. And I can’t say I don’t understand that. I can’t even im