Dogs Stomach Rumbling

This is the sequel to "Trio of Mates" (can be found on here) and is NOT a stand-alone book. I felt as if I had just fallen asleep when flashes and fragments of dreams began to play through my mind. They are disjointed, speeding through my mind almost too fast to catch. There is Charlie holding two pups in her arms, the pack being attacked on the western front, Arya fallen to her knees sobbing in the middle of a battlefield, funeral pyres, me looking down at my pregnant stomach with Gael and Hakeem smiling down at me, whoops of victory, and wails of defeat. As the images flit through my mind, a voice enters the chaos. “A war of threes. Three deaths. Three victories. Three trios. Three losses. Betrayal. Birth. Death. Sorrow. Joy. Warn them, Meredith. Be prepared!”

“I pressed a hand to my stomach and forced myself to stand taller, even as the howls grew louder, closer. They will not take you from me, I whispered. Not him. Not the pack. Not even fate. The wind carried my vow into the night. Somewhere far away, I swore I felt a shiver of response, like Kael himself had heard me. Like he was already hunting me.” “You can run, Aria. You can hide. But the child is mine. You are mine. And I will claim what belongs to me.” The bond inside me pulsed, as if she heard, as if she trembled somewhere in the dark. I smiled then, a sharp, dangerous curve of lips. The hunt had only just begun.

When her family was wiped out, the murderer stomps on Mia’s stomach and sneers coldly: “Who do you think ordered this assassin? I wouldn’t dare do this without the approval of my Alpha, your husband, would I?” Cutting the tie with her whole life, Mia lives for her revenge when everyone thought she was dead. She can’t let them know because...this time her enemy is too powerful. He is an Alpha. When she finally got the will power and strength to take her revenge to him, her blade pressed on his throat. Not sparing any mind to his wound, he pulls her into his arms with a shivering voice: “Finally you came back to me!”

Five years ago, I was the rising star of the nation’s top chemistry research lab, but on the eve of publishing the results of my study, my husband’s crush, Grace, killed me. She made several people violate me and cut my face up. Then, she injected sulfuric acid into my stomach, crushed my teeth and bones, and discarded my body without anyone’s knowledge. At that time, I was three months pregnant. But she told everyone that I stole the project’s research results and fled to another country. Jim, my husband, personally wrote a report to the government to label me as a globally wanted criminal. Five years later, a livestreamer who did nighttime explorations found my dried-up corpse in the basement of an abandoned warehouse.

I was Brandon Sandler’s most cherished canary—pampered, sheltered, and utterly his for five years. Then came the news of his engagement to another woman. Only then did I realize his affection had been a carefully crafted revenge. He trapped me by his side, flaunting his love for another while subjecting me to relentless humiliation. Eventually, I stopped caring. But the ruthless business tycoon, who once held himself above all, clutched me with red-rimmed eyes, begging me to come home. He said he regretted everything. My hand instinctively cradled my stomach as I glanced at the man behind him. “Darling,” I murmured, “this man is scaring our baby.”

My husband, Zachary Larson, and I are holding a welcome dinner for my sister, Julia Scott. When someone asks what Julia's greatest regret is, she raises her glass and looks at Zachary dreamily. "It's probably the time I wasn't brave enough to keep his child." Everyone starts to whisper amongst themselves. I tighten my grip on the pregnancy check-up report I'm about to reveal to them. My stomach twists with the emotions swirling in my head. Julia suddenly returns to her senses and chuckles. "I was just kidding. We were only friends with benefits, so don't take it to heart, Queenie. He married you, so you're the one he loves."

My father is the First Warrior of the Moonflash pack. He often takes me to all kinds of banquets, and I always look forward to them. Today, he brings me to a banquet hosted by Judy. I take a bite of raw meat on my plate and immediately spit it out. I once ate raw meat when I was younger, and my stomach hurt for several days. I nearly died. The healer later told me that I'm allergic to the protein in raw meat, and that experience left a lasting impression on me. Judy looks hurt when she sees my reaction. "I went to the forest myself to catch that reindeer," she says. "I killed it just this morning. I didn't cook it so that I wouldn't ruin its freshness. I didn't expect Ray would turn her nose up at it." Dad is angry about how rude I am, so he chases me out of the banquet and locks me up in a cramped lounge. The lounge is hot and stuffy, and I soon start finding it hard to breathe. A sharp pain twists in my stomach like a knife. I want to find Dad, but no matter how much I bang on the door, he refuses to open it. Through the window, I can see Dad and Judy standing in the center of the hall. They're conversing happily, but no one even looks in my direction. I'm suffocating, so I lie on the floor. I want to shout for Dad, but I can't make a sound no matter how hard I try. Then, I realize that I'm standing up and can walk through the door. But why is my body still lying on the floor? That's when it hits me. I'm dead.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood as his lips brushed against mine. The warmth in his eyes made butterflies swarm in my stomach, and I pushed myself up on the balls of my feet to close the distance between us. I knew he must feel the same way I did, that the feelings between us ran deeper than either of us had admitted to. "Ember?”A man's voice made me pull back, and I turned to meet Tristan's eyes…my mate's eyes. They were full of hurt and betrayal. As if he hadn't rejected me when he found out I, a lowly Omega, was his mate. I told myself to never look back, and I won't let him bring me down again, so I averted my eyes. "Ember is no longer your concern. Get lost.” Dex growled, arm around me in a possessive way. His Alpha command making Tristan grit his jaw before the wolf beside him grabbed his arm and pulled him away to prevent him from causing a scene. I pushed down the churning in my stomach and smiled up at Dex, wanting to pick up where we left off, to show him how much he meant to me… how good we could be together, but I froze as he spoke. "No one is looking now. You can take your hands off me." His words washed over me like a bucket of ice water, though they were just low enough that no one else would hear, saving me from public humiliation. Dex pulled himself from my touch, turned, and walked away. Right, I shouldn't have wanted more. I was just his fake mate and needed to remember my place.

I woke up to the morning sun shining dimly into my room, directly into my face. The feeling of a rough hand resting lightly on my stomach, I turn over and my eyes widen with shock. How the hell did my Chief end up in my bed? What did I do last night? I tried my hardest to remember what all went down at the mandatory command picnic… I remember going out to a bar outside of base. I remember dancing, after running into a friend from my previous command, that left a year after I got there, because she got transferred to a new command. I remember her buying me shots, to celebrate our reunion and working together again. But then everything went blank….

Escaping from her abusive husband with nothing but the clothes on her back, a beaten and bruised Laura shows up on the doorstep of her estranged older brother - and President of a well-known motorcycle club, Jake Wilson. But before she can even make it into the house, she runs into a tall, dark, deep well of trouble - her brother's best friend and second in command, Talon Nash. *********** He stepped closer, closing the gap between us in one stride. His hands found my hips, pulling me into him with a firm but gentle grip. The sawdust clinging to his skin mingled with the scents of his sweat and cologne, and I breathed it in, reveling in it. “Your reward,” he murmured, his lips brushing against my ear, “is me not dragging you upstairs and ruining you right now in front of all these guys.” My breath hitched, and I could feel the heat rising in my cheeks, but I smirked. I wasn’t about to let him win this one. “No fair. That’s more of a punishment than a reward,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “I want a refund.” “NOT getting f*cked in front of the prospects is a punishment?” He chuckled, a deep rumbling sound that vibrated through me. “Fine,” he added, his lips curling into a wicked grin. “Careful what you wish for, angel.” Before I could respond, he bent down and hoisted me up over his shoulder like a sack of flour. I let out a startled laugh, my hands instinctively gripping the back of his jeans. The prospects paused their work, watching with amused smirks as Talon carried me toward the stairs. “Talon!” I protested, though my laughter betrayed me. “Put me down!”