ASENA Three Weeks Later A soft gasp escaped me as the wicked tension began to coil between my thighs. I bit my lip and drew a deep inhale. Citruses. Another gasp escaped me, one followed by a shudder that coursed through my body. I opened my eyes, chasing away the remains of sleep. I was lying on my back with my legs spread and my King between them. He lifted his head, and a sly grin spread across his face. “Now that you are awake, my little one, shall I stop or continue?” I tilted my head back and groaned. My skin was already feverish, and all my sensitive parts demanded immediate attention. My humidity grew. My chest rose and fell erratically as his fingers splayed on the inner side of my thighs, inches away from where I needed them. “Your choice, my Queen,” he purred. “Don't stop,” I murmured, pushing my hips toward him. He laughed before dipping his head and drawing his wicked tongue along my sensitive center. I cried as he teased every nerve within me, pulling me closer to t
I shouldn't have been here. My father would have killed me knowing that I had sneaked out of our shabby cottage house… again. I should have prepared for tomorrow's Mating Ball. I should have tried to find myself a dress worthy of entering Alpha Cadoc's castle. I should have tried to get some sleep. But was I doing any of it? No. I was standing in the old, abandoned hut at the top of the hill with my heart pounding in excitement. My eyes were locked on the door. My breath was erratic. My hands were shivering. Kylar should have been here by now. I hadn't seen him for over two weeks, and I couldn't wait to feel his strong arms around me again. I wished we could have seen each other like normal couples did. I wished I could have held his hand while walking through the center of Hilalville. I wished Alpha Cadoc had blessed my relationship with his son… I wasn't that lucky. My wolf was a sleeper. I felt its presence in the depths of my soul, but I couldn't turn into my wolf form. I might
I leaped behind the first tree, which I found broad enough to work as a hideout. I crouched down and plastered my back to the trunk, listening to the sound of footsteps. What I heard was two feet, not four paws, but I was yet to determine whether it was a good or bad sign. My heart rate increased as the footsteps became louder… This powerful being was coming this way.I cringed in my temporary hideout and held my breath, focusing on the sounds. Suddenly, the footsteps stopped, and what came next was a faint splash of water. I was almost certain that moving from my position was a terrible idea, but I couldn't stop until I satisfied my dumb curiosity. I twisted my body, barely keeping my balance, and leaned out from behind the tree.“Damn,” I breathed out, locking my eyes on the man who crouched by the shore.Illuminated by the moonlight, he seemed almost godlike. He looked like an incarnation of darkness, packed in the most alluring body I had ever seen. I mean, Kylar had a nice body,
I must have fallen asleep at some point of tossing and turning in my bed because I had seen the black wolf from the woods again. This was an odd dream. I wouldn't call it a nightmare, but it was... disturbing.The beast stood among the trees, looking at me the way he was back then when I had seen him first. He came closer but kept a safe distance between us as if he didn't want to frighten me. Then he howled and cried, lowering his large head before me. Something inside me knew he was trying to warn me, I only didn't know what he was trying to warn me from.I woke up with a sharp gasp, shivering from the intensity of what I had just seen. Everything in the vision I had was strangely vivid—too vivid to be called a simple dream. Groaning, I glanced through the window at the lazily rising sun and crawled out of bed.Unsurprisingly, Ellaria and my father were still asleep, but they hardly ever got up early in the morning, especially my father. Never even once had he gotten up before noon
I stood numbly and stared at the thin stream of light coming through the door crack. My heart had just broken into pieces. Had I been wise enough to listen to my survival instincts, I should have run the hell out of that castle or out of this pack's territory. Yet I stayed still, refusing to acknowledge that what I heard was true.“I'll gladly watch that bitch squirm in pain and die.” Sloan clasped his hands together and laughed.“Actually, if that's Asena, I'm hoping for a bigger audience,” Kylar said coldly. “I'm planning to do that in the ballroom, in front of everyone.”Something within me snapped. The pain of betrayal faded, and rage surfaced. My hands fisted into balls as I slowly dragged myself out of my stupor. A wave of heat washed over my senses, and I knew that I was running out of time. As much as I wanted to barge into that room, I was still wise enough to know I couldn't fight them. Grinding my teeth, I turned around and started running, the further from Kylar, the bette
For a moment, everything turned silent, still... I stared into Kylar's gray eyes, awaiting the pain.“No!” I heard a heart-tearing cry coming from the side of the ballroom. It was my sister. My head slowly turned toward the sound, and I saw her pushing through the crowd and running to the dais. “How could you reject her?! She will die!”I looked at my sister and gave her a weak smile. And then I felt it—the searing ache in my chest that slowly spread through every vein in my body. I raised my eyes to Kylar and saw nothing more than a faint wince twisting his features. Surely, he didn't feel the ounce of pain that began to consume me.Every inch of me began to rattle, and I collapsed to the floor. “She's in pain!” Ellaria screamed. “Help her! Silas, help her!”“I'm sorry, Ellaria,” came Silas's mournful voice. “The consequences of the broken bond cannot be healed.”The fire that started inside me slowly drifted to the surface, making the wolfsbane poisoning seem like a gentle rash. The
I had become a wolf without a pack—or rather, a shadow wolf without a pack. I was also kind of… homeless… and dead. Well, maybe not in an unalive-dead way, but in the dead-to-the-world kind of sense.This was frustrating. I thought that living in a pack where everyone thought I was a nuisance had been difficult, but this? This was like building my life back from scratch. Of course, I had enough common sense to know I couldn't have survived another day in my old pack, even if Ellaria hadn't proclaimed me dead. Here in the mountains, at least I could live and be free. Unfortunately, I had yet to figure out what this new life and freedom could mean…“Think about it as a unique opportunity.” Riona smiled warmly as we sat in her hut, drinking herbal tea. “You can start over. You can be who you always wanted to be.”My lips twitched into a wry smile as I turned my head to the window overlooking the narrow path leading down the mountain and toward Eastern Valley Pack's territory. Ellaria and
Three Years LaterI stared at the two all-muscled guys in front of me and smirked. The audience had already gathered around us, forming a large circle in the middle of the training grounds. Since it hadn't rained in more than a week, the ground beneath my feet turned dry, forming a fine layer of loose sand—yet another weapon within my reach.The two men before me sneered, their eyes running up and down through the length of my body. “Are you sure you want to do this, princess?” One of them, Efrain, chuckled. He ran his hand over his bald head and then rolled back his broad shoulders.“Scream if you want us to stop.” Efrain's friend, one with curly brown hair, Demir, gave me a wicked grin, and a wave of laughs and snorts spread around the circle—a short and faint wave. Unluckily for Demir, he hadn't noticed that the majority didn't find his words funny. He gaped at my tight leather jacket, enforced with a tailor-made bustier, and dragged his tongue over his bottom lip. “I'll free your