جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 610

BrieI like to think I’m a faithful believer in the Moon Goddess. I never skip church. I celebrate Her holidays, say Her prayers, and dedicated at least ten years of my schooling to Her lore and scripture. I squint at the sky through my window in the tower, frowning at the moon. She’s up there laughing at me, isn’t She? Is She entertained by my predicament? The mate bond She ordained to ruin my plans? I sink onto the bench under the window and rest my arms on the windowsill, watching the clear, brilliant night sky slowly rotate over Veiled Valley. The buildings and bridges glisten in the moonlight, but across the lush, green valley, lights twinkle against a sea of emerald. The Fortress, as my siblings and I have called it since we got a grasp on vocal vocabulary, is nothing more than a big, square, gray block built out of the far mountainside. I’m sure it was a foreboding, albeit lovely, sight to look at way back in the day, millennia ago, when it was built, but now I’m glaring at

LoganCaptain Louis watches me as I lean against the wall in the cockpit, looking through the manifest I picked up from the port master. I scan the document, memorizing every ship scheduled to leave the port tonight along with this yacht. The captain chuckles, turning back to the helm where he sits and begins pushing buttons that light up his control station. The second officer, Charlie, arrives, saying, “The crew’s been briefed. We’re just waiting for the green light from the port master.”“I doubt we’ll be moving anytime soon in this fog. It’ll be a long night.” Louis swivels back to me, arching a brow. “Commander Evander said you have some naval experience.”I look up from the manifest. “A bit.”“I was told you served for a few years under the Alpha King of Oasia in Serpentia, captaining a naval cruiser along their coast.”I run my tongue along my lower lip and tuck the manifest under my arm. “That’s correct.”Louis smirks, shaking his head as he turns to the controls again. “A ma

LoganBrie keeps toying with her coffee mug. It’s like a nervous tick. Like she needs to do something with her hands at all times. If I were in a different state of mind, I’d probably be thinking about what those hands would feel like braced against my chest. I would again be questioning why I rejected her, ignoring and damn near forgetting why I needed to in the first place. But right now, I’m blinded by absolute, stunning rage. “Brie–”“Not many,” she says under her breath. “Maybe… ten Alphas.”I close my eyes, trying to pull myself together. Of course, I’ve seen the headlines, which are normally dominated by Blake, who tends to put himself in precarious situations at night clubs and other seedy establishments in Crescent Falls… but whispers about Brie have been more common since she turned twenty-one. She confirms where my thoughts are headed when she says, “The public has a special interest in us now that we’re nearing maturity. I’m twenty-two. Blake will be twenty-one this wi

LoganI stalk down the hallway at a near sprint, cutting around the corner that leads to a narrow stairwell to the bottom of the boat where the crew quarters are located. Down another narrow hallway, the engine room fades into view, but I’m not looking for the chief engineer. I cut into a room, slamming my entire weight against the door, which pops open, revealing the man I’d just found in Brie’s suite. He jumps, startled, and presses his back against the wall of what looks to be a bunk room. I slowly shut the door behind me, turning the lock. “Your name?”“Now, why the fuck would I tell you that?” he growls. I eye the toolkit on one of the bunks. The other three beds are unmade. The room is a mess, actually. I slowly draw my gaze back to his. “Name.” I crack my knuckles for emphasis. “Trent.”“What pack do you belong to?”“You think I’d be scrubbing the fuckin’ floors on some rich bitch’s yacht if I had an Alpha?” he sneers, snickering. His tone betrays the way he’s trembling,

MaeveThis isn’t real. None of this is happening.I can’t really be pacing the halls of the palace in Maatua, wringing my hands until they blister. I can’t be craning to hear the voices drifting in from the foyer, where my parents talk in low tones, their voices so wrought with anguish they’re unrecognizable. This morning, before the sun rose, I woke abruptly to Mom screaming bloody murder and Aris shaking me awake, his eyes wide with shock. That was… hours ago. It’s nearly nightfall now. The deep red sunset–the sky after a brutal storm that swept through the islands surrounding the capital of this sea-faring kingdom–paints the hallways crimson as my shadow stretches toward what’s left of the sun. I’m not sure my heart is beating anymore. How can it when it’s lost at sea?“Fuck.” I sink into a crouch, bracing my back on the wall. I bow my head, pressing my face into my hands. In the distance, I hear Mom’s strangled voice as she talks to… Maddy? Yeah. Maddy’s still here. She was he