The realization of just how far I’d go to protect what was mine snapped the tether of some primal beast I didn’t know I had chained and caged within me. All that desperation and longing and desire that I thought was coming from him, it was all mine. And now it had broken its bonds and was free to devour anything that got in its way. “Selene,” his voice was a fervent prayer between the increasingly urgent kisses he drew from my lips. Hearing such a plea was like throwing oil on a raging fire, and it fueled the need to have more and more of him. My fingers knotted in the fabric over his chest as I clung to him. “Yes, Dmitri,” I answered his prayer. With a growl that curled my toes, his hands moved down to grasp my thighs and lift me up to him. My legs instinctively wrapped around his hips and my arms slid up around his neck to keep our lips from separating while he carried me around to the side of the bed. He leaned over me as he laid me

One day was too short. Even though didn’t spend much time sleeping, the time passed too quickly. All too soon, we were zipping through the trees towards the responsibilities and problems we’d left behind the day before. Sophie and Nathan looked anxious, standing beside Caleb down in the underground garage as we pulled in. My good mood plummeted instantly and I considered telling Dmitri to turn around and take us back out to the woods. Dmitri growled under his breath, as the rumble of the engine died, “We haven’t even been back a minute.” I ignored him and forced a smile at the trio as I hopped off the back of the bike, “Don’t just stand there and stare at us like the world is ending. Tell us whatever it is so we can deal with it.” Sophie and Nathan exchanged an unsure glance while Caleb stepped forward, oblivious to their trepidation. “The Thompsons have requested a meeting with you before the challenge, and your uncle has sent word th

Dealing with Dr Martinez was surprisingly, the easiest part of my day. On paper everyone in our secret little science experiment group was perfectly healthy. Nathan and Mark both only had a drop or two of my blood in their system, and she called them abnormally strong and healthy, but neither showed any signs for concern. I still didn’t share with her that Mark had had dreams about me that correlated to the green flame incident. Sophie and Blake had an indeterminate amount of my blood, but Isabel concluded it was less than she’d injected into Kelly, judging by how fast I healed and how little blood flowed from a shallow cut on my palm. Sophie had already showed all the markers you’d expect to see in an Alpha’s genetics, but even so, she exhibited more strength, speed and heightened senses than she had before. Isabel wasn’t sure how much of that was attributed to my blood or Sophie’s wolf. Blake on the other hand showed a marked increase, bordering somewhere between Alp

I found Dmitri and Caleb exactly where I expected too, based on Dmitri’s mood. It was the only place that Caleb could irritate him so much that it set my teeth on edge. I didn’t bother knocking; sauntering into the main office, interrupting whatever argument they were having. “I do hope that you boys are playing nice together in here.” “We’re just trying to iron out some of the finer details of persuading the other Alphas to see past Ulf’s lies,” he tried to sound like he was completely calm, but Dmitri’s tone was too clipped. “We’ve already received messengers from several packs that their Alphas would like to serve as witnesses to the trial by challenge,” Caleb’s sleazy, used car salesman smile made me feel uneasy, “and most of them would like to bring their Lunas as well to join in with Kelly’s baby shower celebration.” There it was. I sighed, not bothering to try to hide my irritation the way Dmitri did, “And why would they be so e

                Selene chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully, “I don’t know what I think of this yet.”                “You don’t have to do anything,” Sophie tried to reason with her; “we don’t know anything about who sent this, or what their intentions are. Like Dimi said, it could just be a poorly executed attempt to lure you out into the open.”                It’d been so long since my sister had sided with me against her that I wasn’t sure that I heard her correctly. “We have no way of knowing how much of this is fact and we’re already stretched thin with your impending fight against Candice. Not to mention how all eyes are going to be scrutinizing your every move be