NATHANWhat was she playing at? Thinking she could get me to spill away my guts to her.And about Layla.I hadn't spoken about her in years. It felt like a different lifetime altogether. It'd been so long ago I felt like… it hadn't happened.I hadn't lost a family.I wasn't going to think about that. I made deliberate attempts to divert my thoughts towards something else. I hadn't had my hands in her ginger hair as much as I'd like.I hadn't even realized how much I'd wanted her until I'd had to pull away last minute from her last night. It'd taken a lot to walk away, knowing I couldn't talk about the things she wanted to hear. I turned from my room window, the sight too plain, a reminder of all I'd lost here in the Black Saint pack house.A reminder of all I'd fucked up. My mistakes stared me in the face every morning, blinding me with my apparent faults that hadn't been so apparent at the time. I decided not to seek Patrice out, no matter that I badly wanted to ask her what t

FAYEThe underground parking lot was busy, and it cost me minutes I did not have trying to get a space to pack in. I pulled into a space at the end, and walked all the way back to the elevator. Axel stayed in the penthouse here, just one of his many places.He was mostly here, if not at the pack house.I pressed the button for the penthouse and rode the elevator to the first floor, getting off at a brisk walk. I hoped he was in. What would I do if he wasn't here with the moonstone?If I couldn't fix this fast and get the moonstone back to it's vault before any of the elders discovered what was going on?I tried to shake off the thought. I couldn't afford to dissolve into panic now. I got to his door and rang the doorbell. I waited for someone to answer the door, but nothing happened.I didn't have time to waste, I tried entering the code he'd given me before. I keyed in the numbers and waited for the click of the door unlocking. The door remained locked. I keyed in the numbers

FAYEI gaped at the elders, not sure how to handle the situation now. Granger and Deindre trooped past Yvonne and me to the living room, not bothering to wait for us to invite them in. We all moved to my dining room wordlessly, the tension palpable, and settled down, all five of us.It was painfully obvious that one of us was missing."Axel took the moonstone."Yvonne nodded, her mouth pressed into a thin, hard line.Granger's eyes blazed with fury. "So this was what he meant when he said he would show us."All eyes turned to watch him. "Show us what?" I asked him, not sure I really wanted to know the answer but needing to hear it still."He was furious that you wouldn't mate with him. He said if the council didn't dethrone you, we would have hell to pay."My heart dropped so hard it fell to the floor of my stomach. I felt a little light-headed and I had to swallow and try hard to focus and not give in to the darkness.Yvonne had been right all along.Axel wasn't just punishing me

NATHAN I went out to Zelda's cabin, hoping she'd have found something else now. Anything from the decay of Rhea's body before we'd buried her. Lannon had gone on a sort of recon with the twins while I'd been to work to check in and back. It had just been a day since we'd found Rhea, and I was wondering if I should have gone out on the town with Lannon to search for answers. Pack matters had to be kept private and within the werewolf community. For that reason, we couldn't involve the police or private investigators. We had our own in various places for these reasons though,and Lannon was currently meeting a police officer for reports on any recent deaths we might have not heard of similar to what had happened to Rhea. The man was a werewolf, whose sole purpose at that precinct was to conceal any information concerning our community. Hiding our affairs from the prying eyes of the world. I knocked once and pulled the door open, walking into her living room. I followed the

NATHANShe's given in to me in someway but she still remains stiff on the bed, occasionally throwing me glares when she thought I wasn't looking.I can tell that our deal is pissing her off. I can tell that the fact that she had to give in to me is making her mad and just a little bit on edge. With the way she's vibrating with her dislike of the situation, I'm grateful for this. Now she'll have to put up with me and tolerate my presence for as long as it took for us to find Axel and the moonstone.Which I hoped was a little long. I wanted Faye back, and this was just the right opportunity for me to make amends for the past.It looked like that amends would have to include heavy grovelin because she was fighting me, even when silent.She wanted me. I could hear her little breathy sighs and sense the sexual tension. She didn't plan on acting on it though, I could see.She was really convinced that is being together had brought about this chaos. It made sense that she didn't want to re