Sebastian
My body wants to stay in bed, even though my mind is fully awake and ready to go as soon as the sun comes up, just hours after I collapsed on this cot. I look around the room, the light filtering through thin blinds revealing that most of the cots are still occupied. A few are empty, and I suppose those early risers have first patrol or are preparing breakfast for the pack, that sort of thing. I wonder how many of them were up when I came in last night. Are they as exhausted as I am?
My eyes fall on Aria, who is still sleeping, but she has a V between her eyebrows, so I know she is not sleeping soundly. I imagine she’s dreaming, probably of something dark and tortuous. I wouldn’t be a very good boyfriend if I didn’t wake her.Tha
Sebastian“Mim?” I assumed it had to be Mim on the other side of the line, answering Dez’s phone, but her voice was so low, so evil, such a growl, I couldn’t even tell for sure that it was her.The fact that the woman was enraged was a pretty good clue that that was who I was talking to.“What the hell do you want, Sebastian?” she spat, not bothering to identify herself. I knew it was her, though. I locked eyes with Aria, who looked as panicked as I felt that Dez hadn’t answered his own phone.“Where’s Dez?” I asked her, trying to keep myself calm. There would be plenty of time to overreact if she was even more evil than I had thought she might be and was actually planning on hurting my co
Aria Being home, seeing it desolate and burned to the ground, is overwhelming. Feelings I’ve been pushing deep down inside of myself for months begin to resurface as Sebastian and I walk along, hand in hand, down streets I had run both in my human form and as a wolf for years as a child and strolled along with my friends as a teen and adult. None of the people I used to hang out with are at the village now. I know they had not all been killed, but some had found refuge in other packs. Others had lost their lives that night during the attack. If Wilkes is truly responsible for raiding my village that night, for destroying my home and killing my packmates, he will pay severely for all that he’s done. We came to the remains of a building that had meant a lot to me. Only a pile of bricks, charred black in many places, and other debris rema
SebastianBack in the olden days, it would’ve taken days for us to organize our packs and make it to Albert Wilks’s lands in order to free Dez and get vengeance for Aria’s parents. But now, thanks to technology and transportation advances, my father can send one of his large jets to pick us all up and fly us to an airport near his pack lands so that we can hopefully get there in time. I’ve tried calling Dez back, but his phone is out of service, and I have no idea what Mim’s number is.My father isn’t there as we load up the plane with members of Vargas and Wade, even a few from the rougher pack I ran through, Dark Forest Pack, have agreed to come because they love the taste of blood and owe a bit to Ward for their protection.There are already twenty
SebastianWe arrive at the rendezvou site to find the forces already assembled there, spread out, ready to rush in. It’s getting dark, which is good because it will give us a bit more cover. I don’t expect to make it too far beyond Wilks’s border without being detected, but I’m pretty sure the warriors I have in my group will easily beat back his thugs. After all, everyone that’s here on my side of the battlefield has an objective. Either they want to free a beloved member of their pack, avenge unjust murders, or both. Wilks’s assholes will have no reason to defend him to the death and break. I’m almost sure of it.Because we are not all from the same pack, we will not be able to communicate once we shift into our wolf forms. We have to have a good plan going in and make sure that each pack is aware of its
AriaMim’s house is far too quiet as Sebastian and I make our way through the living room, stepping around expensive furniture, over Oriental rugs, and past pieces of art that are worth more than the car my parents got me for my sixteenth birthday. I expect there to be wolves coming out of everywhere to attack us, maybe even some in their human forms, but that’s not what’s happening as Sebastian and I make our way through the house.It seems deserted, like maybe Wilks found out that we were coming and has taken off with his family. I can’t imagine that could ever be the case because Mim seems to want revenge against me for something--something I can’t quite understand since I’ve never done anything to her. There are many times I should have; if she’s done anything to De
SebastianI know something is horribly wrong with my cousin when he finally starts to reply to my mind-link messages in a groggy, almost unrecognizable voice. “Don’t come here, Sebastian,” he says to me. “It’s dangerous.”“Dez? What’s going on?” I ask him, but he won’t tell me. All he keeps telling me is not to come.When Aria and I are in the basement, and I finally make him realize that he’s not going to get rid of us, he tells me that Mim has a machine gun, and she’s planning on killing all three of us.I ask him a lot of questions about where he is and what’s happening to him, but he can’t say much of anything. Just, “Sebastian, please. Leave me. Go. Save
AriaI hear the crack of the gun just as I am lunging toward Dez, trying to reach him before the lack of oxygen makes it impossible to save him. I know that Mim has her machine gun trained on me, hoping to make me stop, but I trust Sebastian to make it to her before she can hurt me or Dez.So when I hear shooting, I am surprised. I duck my head but move forward toward my goal of helping Dez. A sharp pain pierces my upper arm near my shoulder. It feels like a bee sting, maybe a little more severe. I don’t slow down, though. Whatever it is, I can put up with it for a moment longer. If it can keep Dez alive, that’s all that matters. I hope that he is not hit, but he’s so covered in blood anyway, it’s hard to tell.I also have to pray that Sebastian is all right. I know that Mim was
SebastianSeeing Aria bleeding is heart wrenching. I know that her arm isn’t bothering her too much right now because she has so much adrenaline coursing through her body, but later, when all of this is over, it’s going to hurt like a son of a bitch. I wish she would listen to me and leave, but she is already making her way down the hallway, looking for Wilks, and she will not be stopped.Wherever he is hiding, he is doing a good job of it. Our best troops are looking for him all over the house and coming up empty handed.I wish that Dez was awake so that maybe he could help us, but then, I know how much pain he’d be in if he were conscious. I don’t know the extent of his injuries yet, but it’s clear that Mim has done quite a number on him.