Standing in the courtyard, I can feel my heart racing.
It’s a strange feeling to know you’re going to die in a few minutes.I made my vow to Mireille all those years ago. I’ve been an Alpha of the North, overseen peace, and brought up our beautiful children, but this is the vow that matters. Because this promise was the one that eased my angel’s mind. Knowing we would have this final offering to the Moon Goddess and pray it is enough to free our children./I love you/ I whisper to her, noticing her hands shake. I take her hand in mine and squeeze it./You don’t have to do this/ she links back, her voice still as soft and light as the day I met her. Age has barely touched her. I am most definitely grizzled and rough around the edges. She is ethereal. Her pale green eyes shimmering with love and sadness, her white hair plaited tightly.She’s wearing a simple white dress. I insisted on wearing my huge winter fur. It seemed the right thing for me./Wait, I want something/ I urge. I have to. I place my fingers underneath her chin and tilt that perfect face up to mine, and for the final time, share a kiss.“I don’t regret a thing,” she whispered, “I have loved and been grateful for every minute I got to spend with you.”“My life didn’t start until I met you,” I reply back. “My life is you. My angel. My Mireille..”“Cyrus…” and a tear trickled slowly down her cheek. I wiped it with my thumb, “I know angel. I know it’s hard.”“The only thought that makes this okay is that we’ll be together in spirit. You promise you’ll find me?”I chuckle and plant my forehead to hers, “Immediately. Always. You’ll feel me every second. Every dream. Every day.”She sniffed and nodded as we felt the force of the full moon. It’s time. My heart wants to burst out, but my wolf is calm. At peace with the decision we have made. I swore to her that I would battle with the Goddess herself to free us.I meant it.She starts the chanting, her voice low, hesitant. I look at our children huddled together and wonder how long it will take them not to hate me for this. My beautiful Evangeline is so delicate and sweet. I fear the world’s harshness could make her wilt.Elijah and Naveen need to see the world beyond this fortress. Naveen is still a talker, forever sharing ideas but Elijah broods. They’ve known nothing but kindness and love. The apple of everyone’s eye.It’s too late for any more fatherly advice. I have none to give, really. I was lucky to find my angel, and smart enough to never let her go. Being the Alpha was easy when it was never the most important thing in my world.My eyes flicker over to Elvie and Reu. She has somehow stood up with him for this. Frail and old, she stands with her jaw tight like granite. Holding her arm is Arlen, his dark eyes buried deeply into his face, wrinkled like a mole./This is it. I love you. I'll always love you/ Mireille links as she completes the final verse of the blessing I know so well.Then I grab her. As the beam races down to the ground, I fling her to the floor and pin her. my hands around her wrists. My huge fur does the job. There is not a single inch of her body exposed to the beam as I loom over her.The beam hits me, though, and I’m burning alive. Fuck me it hurts. It’s a whole new level of pain. Like my skin is tearing off to head upwards into the light.But I can see Reu, Elvie and Arlen have stepped in as well, already on the floor convulsing.“I told you Angel,” I hiss through gritted teeth as she fights and screams at me, tears streaming down her face. “Four of us will sacrifice ourselves for your freedom. We’ve always planned this.”“No, no you can’t.”“It’s going to work. You, our beautiful children, you can leave. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.”She tilted her head back as my lungs started to cave in and arms began to shake. I felt the foam rising up my thoat and fought it back.Mireille saw the bodies of her parents and the ever loyal, always caring Arlen on the floor and covered her mouth with her hands, her screams still ripping through./Every dream, every day. I will always watch over you/“Cyrus! You can’t, you can’t! I love you stay with me, please please stay with me!” Her hands pawing at my cheeks, as my strength finally waned and I lowered heavily onto her. Her desperate kisses covered my dying face, but there was no turning back now.Her voice screaming my name was the last thing I heard before the world turned black, and I felt unnervingly light, as if untethered from gravity.But my wolf was waiting for me.Ready for our conjoined spirit to leave this earth and join the Goddess. I could see his huge furred form skipping ahead of me, excited, like a puppy. It’s worked.I found out so long ago in the archives. Four trapped souls, four lives sacrificed to the Goddess in their name. Before Mireille performed the ceremony, the four of us had gone for a walk, lit some incense, and burned small notes containing our offering to the Goddess.When the paper fluttered up to the sky completely out of sight, as if sucked in, we knew it would work. Together, the four of them will finally cross over the mountains and into the real world.Some men have a multitude of things to offer. Intelligence, wisdom, money, connections, and reputions. I have none of those. I have only my love.A force more powerful than anything in nature because I am ready to shatter the sky above in order to keep my vow.I give my life without hesitation. For my children. For my Angel.I shall find my place in the heavens and proudly watch over them all.*** THE END ***To everyone who has supported this book and enjoyed it, this final chapter has been free to read as a way of saying thanks.If you liked it, a review would mean the world. It does help encourage other people to give it a go. I have a group on my socials. I would love you to join if you want to know what other books I have on the go.Lastly, I wouldn't even be writing if it wasn't for your mad theories, constant encouragement, and amazing feedback. Thank you XXThe bunker is so much better than before. That's what they tell me anyway.Except I am fascinated by the past. I want to experience the true heat of a shifter. Trapped underground every sensation multiplies by a hundred. Uncontrollable lust. To feel waves of desire so intense the only answer is to willingly walk into a room not knowing whose hands or lips will be the one to ease the burn. How is that even possible? Surely you bump or accidentally roll onto another couple? Maybe it wasn’t really ever that dark and anonymous. I couldn’t imagine how my long silvery hair or green eyes wouldn’t be visible, even if only for a second. I tried to ask my mother, Luna Elvie once, but she simply blushed. “Those days are the past. We have things under control now,” she smiled sweetly, stroking my hand. “It was a necessity back then. It wasn’t love. Wolves are powerful, demanding spirits.”“But isn’t it what us shifters are meant to feel?” I challenge, a rare occasion for me.My mother’s face t
It’s taken weeks of driving. My fathers borrowed brown leather jacket isn’t cutting it against the cold. Living by the sea, basking in sunsets and fishing lines, I’ve known nothing but the warm glow of the sun bronzing my skin. Now I’m trailing over ice fields, barely making it over the steep black mountain passes. Freezing cold and pissed off, I’m questioning why the fuck anyone would willingly live up in the middle of nowhere.“You know it’s not going to be what you expect,” my father had grumbled as I prepared to leave the villa. “You’ve never really felt that kind of cold before. It strips your soul.”“It’s where I’m from isn’t it?” I replied sharply.“Why should that matter?” he questioned, stopping to study me. If he wasn’t so completely covered in scars we could almost look like brothers. Ridges hidden beneath his beard, other lumps and grisly patches covered the rest of him.A mixture of torture, frostbite and battle written upon him like a map. Not that it bothered my mother
I don’t want to be here. The snow is annoying, it’s too fucking cold and that bunker gives me the creeps. Most of the beige-clothed regulars freak me out too. They’re so fucking happy to be here. Mainly, I hate the fact every time I stand in this courtyard all I can see is the place my poor mother took her final breaths. My father, used to communicating in his own silent code, has lost the love of his life. He trusted this place would save her. Meaning I must now be the perfect daughter and care for him.I do want to care for him. Just not in an underground bunker.My mate has chosen six months of fresh air over being with me. No negotiations or discussion. Certainly not the fairytale I was hoping for. The full moon after my mother died, we found each other. It was stunning, even I have to admit that. The beam came down but I wasn’t even looking at it. I was skulking in a corner, fingers entwined with my father as silent tears slipped down his cheeks. My heart leapt, charged wi
When the light wasn't pure white I knew it was my fault. All those crippled pilgrims writhing in pain were my fault. Are they dead? Am I a murderer?Kidnapped before I could even apologise to my parents for ruining everything they’ve built here. Now I'm going to die. That's what one of the thugs sneered when they grabbed me. "Scream again and it's your throat. You're coming with us either way," my windpipe collapsing into a strangers iron grip. Then another, weirdly familiar voice with a sickly sweet fruit scent purred into my ear."We'll just keep your body over winter, then let it thaw out in spring." "I've done nothing, I have nothing! Let me go!""You have everything you spoiled little bitch. Talk over," followed up by a stinging slap across my face.Dragged around the rear side of the fortress my captors slid across the snow drifts as the slope steepened. Nobody ever used this side. No wonder they just rocked up unchecked.Someone put the silver cuffs on me. Then another guy,
I’ve walked into a cult. Bunch of peace loving idiots who were in no way prepared for those gun-toting cavemen. They might as well have been human instead of shifters. Fucking useless. Pathetic.“Shut up,” a female voice snaps.Was I thinking out loud?“You still are. So shut up.”I open my eyes groggily to see the golden amber eyes of Hope staring down at me, her gorgeously fiery red hair tied up into a high bun. Scraped away from her face she’s all intriguing cheekbones, freckles and pout. Not that I allow my expression to change in the slightest.“What happened?”“You stormed off to the medic thinking you were invincible. Passed out in a corner from blood loss and almost died. I’ve just finished digging the bullets out. I could get one of the peace loving idiots to have a go if you prefer?” she added sarcastically, a twist of a smile lighting her face.“Shit, did I miss the group heading out to meet the attackers?” attempting to sit up and getting a vicious push back down. Her bare
I let myself get carried away there. Now I must calm down my father. Except he won’t stop pacing the floor of his small room. He’s too flustered to sign, so I’m stuck waiting for him to communicate. Guilt hits me. What would Ryan have thought if he’d walked in on that scene? Cal’s firm, possessive grip lingering on my wrists, his face only inches away from mine. In those few silly moments of teasing my mate was miles from my mind. All I could think about was running my hand through Cal’s soft brown curls. Seeing just how hard a peak I could tease that bulge in his parts into. Thank the Goddess I didn’t go there or my father really might have killed him. His face was fascinating. Cal thinks he’s so gruff and unreadable. I felt every bit of his body flexing, twitching and moving as we traded barbs. His chest had a fine covering of soft, lighter brown hair. My fingers accidentally brushed through it as I cleaned him up. Sat on his v-line, my main worry was that he would sense m
I have never tried to eavesdrop so hard in my life. As a child it was discouraged. Especially underground in the confines of the Light’s bunker. Everyone still did it. Now I’m pressing my head as close to the silver bars as I dare, hungrily trying to catch any snippets. My hulk of a guard remains stoic and silent. It is impossible to tell how long I have been down here thanks to the lights never dimming but I’ve had two huge sleeps. So who knows. “I can’t move you know,” I growl at my keeper, knowing he will do nothing. “This is the start of my body failing!” My thinking is fuzzier. Logic, harder to come by. The only thing cutting through the haze is my guard's rosemary scent which just makes my heart ache for home. When the corridor outside of my cell starts to echo with the whoops of triumph I struggle to my feet, quickly dizzy with the exertion. In strides Alpha Raze. He has ditched his leathers and now sports a long, black fur coat, his blonde hair poking out from under a furry
Not a huge suprise but it didn't take long to confirm being underground is fucking boring. Alpha Reu storms up and down, relentlessly checking every pipe and valve for something to do. Luna Elvie has taken to her room, studying furiously as to why the light turned against Mireille. There is nothing I can do to help. I’m an inconvenient guest. Plus, I don’t care how many tricks they’ve managed to stuff into these long corridors. Little libraries, music rooms, meditation chambers. It’s all just disguising the fact that we’re prisoners. Add onto that a layer of worry that I’m going to wake up with Howen’s hand around my throat and I’m far from happy. Howen is a worry because I saw the look in Hope’s eyes at the meeting. The exact same as mine. Six months of enduring a magnetic pull. Something crackles everyone we spar and I’ve got to keep a lid on it. Whether I like it or not, when I had my hands on her wrists, her chest arching up to meet mine, there was a spike of desire between u