This was home, where I was always meant to be. Even though I know they wouldn’t, it felt like his arms wrapped around me like this could shield me from all the evil and pain in the world. Here in the dark, no one would ever find us. I stretched against him and tried to look around our room to determine what time it was. My cheeks burned as I took in all the twinkling lights watching us from the dark inky depths of the Aether. When had I willed myself here? No, how had I willed myself here and pulled Dmitri in with me? Sitting up, I was taken aback by the golden thread of light that seemed to be wrapped around us over and over again like a cocoon. It shielded the fact that we were naked from all the eyes watching us, but it didn’t feel like that was its purpose. It felt like it was a part of me, or us, I couldn’t tell which. I looked around again, trying to find the black furry form of Arkadi, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. His abse

“What time is it?” I pushed through the pain in my head and tried to climb out of bed, “There still enough time for me to knock Caleb on his ass before breakfast?” “Maybe you should give yourself a few hours to recover from whatever the hell it was that you just went through before trying to pick a fight with another Alpha,” Dmitri tried to tuck me back into bed. “Really?” I stared up at him and brushed his hands away, “After everything that you just witnessed, you think that smug meat head can beat me? Even on my worst day I think I could still knock him down a peg or two. So move.” He held up his hands in surrender, “Yes Ma’am,” he gave me a sly smile. “Don’t try to distract me,” I climbed past him out of the bed and walked into the closet to throw on some leggings and a sports bra. He’d already slipped into a pair of basketball shorts and a sleeveless shirt, one of my hair ties dangling in his fingers as he waited o

I could already feel the headache forming in the back of my skull, “I don’t see how I’m going to make it through these daily meetings without wringing his neck. I know that he’s supposed to be helping us use this to our advantage, but I really don’t want to sit there and listen to him tell me that Candice should be pampered and catered too.” Sophie wrung her hands before her as we walked, “I could always kill her on accident for you and claim it was because I was still new to this whole shifter thing.” I smiled at her, “No, if anyone is going to kill her it’s going to be me. Besides, I’m trying to show that female shifters aren’t the defect everyone believes them to be. So you’ll have to be an example of control and strength for me.” “That sounds a lot less fun than I thought this was going to be,” she pouted. This time Blake chuckled, “It will be after your first moon. When your wolf finally gets to stretch its legs a

‘I’m on my way up to check on Sophie,’ I wasn’t sure where Blake was, but he should’ve made his way back down to the office already. ‘Is everything ok?’ ‘Samuel is halfway across our territory, on patrol and he’s trying to make his way back as fast as he can, I thought it best if I didn’t leave her alone.’ Blake was too good at knowing what I needed from him without my asking. ‘When I get up there, maybe you should go spend some time with Kelly. I’m sure that she would appreciate the extra attention.’ I could feel his gratitude as I closed out the link and continued making my way up the stairs. Hopefully Dmitri could contain Caleb’s overzealous ideas to start some kind of revolution in my absence. I didn’t know if I could force him to block out memories or not but I also didn’t want to have to try. I had enough on my plate to deal with and even that was spiraling out of my control. Blake was pacing back and forth in th

Sophie looked disappointed when she noticed I wasn’t returning from the direction of our suites. “So you didn’t take a minute to yourself to do some relaxing,” she frowned as she teased. “You don’t actually think we sleep when we go to bed at night do you?” I teased back. “Eww gross,” her face scrunched up, “I know I started it, but can we just not?” I shrugged, “I can’t wait to tease you about this stuff. We really need to figure out how to find your mate.” “And have to share my cookies, no thank you.” She pushed her way into the kitchen, eager to get the cookie dough out and start baking. “You’re still going to make me share these with Kelly aren’t you?” she pouted as she hugged the bowl against her chest. “I’ve just come back from going toe to toe with your brother, I’m not about to do it again for your sugar addiction,” I laughed, hopping up on the counter to watch her. She’d done this part often e