Back at White Forest I want to groan at the sight of the huge grey castle with its flags fluttering under a dusky sky. /Nikolai might be here soon so cheer the hell up/ Priya quickly snapped back at me.
I followed Freya through a huge square courtyard, into a vaulted hall of tapestries, armour and paintings. I had been a guest at their ball when they were killed.
I don’t have a room here. Do I head towards the room Nikolai dragged me into four nights ago? I was that blinded with lust that it could have been anyone’s room. Confusion overwhelms me, all I can think is that I don’t fit in here.
“Father!” Freya cried. Alexander Romanov, still looking like a man in his prime at forty-eight was heading down a grand stone staircase.
/If he is back, Nikolai might be!/ Priya cried excitedly, sensing the air for our mate's presence.
“Genevieve, we have moved your possessions into a royal suite with Nikolai. The staff at the Shadowlands packhouse were kind enough to pack your clothes.”
His deep voice is so booming, deep, and powerful I nearly take a step back. Brown eyes, almost black, are burning at me, yet it should be his son's face I stare at. “Here,” he gestured, pointing up the stairs where I followed one step behind him as he silently walked me through my new life.
Huge, grey stone walls and corridors flanked the red-carpet walkways. Fire torches, candles and chandeliers were all ready to be illuminated once night fell. Cragstone, my packhouse, had been wooden, basic, and homely. This castle felt cold, and harsh.
/Please be there, please be there/ Priya chanted but I already knew the answer. The door swung open, and I saw a fabulous bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Everything is richly decorated with royal blue linens, mahogany furniture, and gold ornaments.
But no mate.
Just the slightest hint of spice suggesting he was briefly here. Like chasing the edge of a shadow.
“Nikolai, where is he-”
Alpha Alexander cleared this throat awkwardly. “He had to take care of some business. He will be back soon. Is this room acceptable?”
“Oh, of course, it’s very generous of you,” aware of the disappointment in my voice.
“Excellent, excuse me Genevieve….and I am deeply sorry for your loss,” he added as an afterthought. I slumped onto a navy-blue sofa and hugged a cushion to my chest.
Today was about having to say goodbye to my parents. I sniff and wipe away a brimming tear. Living in this grim, grey castle that looks like it’s populated by a million ghosts is going to be a different challenge.
I miss Shadowlands so much. Alphas live quite separately from the population here in White Forest. Like their full moon ball, it’s a prestigious event for highly ranked individuals.
In the Shadowlands Pack entire villages get together, often touring to another town for the night to perform a dance under the moonlight.
Freya came to find me, sitting on another blue sofa as I told her all about the traditions and rituals. “It sounds so…rustic. Imagine if you had been mated to a normal person!”
I scoffed at her idea, “my best friends are all normal, as you call it. Would it have been a bad thing? To have someone not pack royalty be your mate?”
She rolled her eyes, “I’m saying, Nikolai will understand you better than anyone. If you’d been mated to the local baker or something, there’s a gap. You wouldn’t think the same. You can’t truly be equal because of the differences.”
“I don’t think I can agree with you Freya, seeing as right now, a mate who was a working man would at least be present in this room!” I couldn’t help my anger getting the better of me. “It’s not like Nikolai and I are equal now is it? I don’t even have a clue where he is!”
“Phillipe is here, there, and everywhere. The sooner you get used to not having them around all the time the better,” Freya replied lightly, playing with the gold tassels of the cushion. Her huge brown curls dominated her petite face. Her eyes were a fiery brown paired with pouty pink lips.
My green eyes and long blonde hair felt washed out in comparison.
“It’s just not what I thought the mate-bond was,” I muttered, trying to change the subject. “My parents spent every minute together.”
“So do mine. I guess it’s just how our men are. I’m not saying you don’t miss them,” she added tenderly, “especially newly mated and going through your grief, he really should be here. I don’t think well of him at all right now. Phillipe said the same.”
Wonderful, they’re one of those couples that have one mind.
Finally getting rid of her I shut the heavy double doors to the suite and crawl into bed. God I miss home. I want Franz and Zeke to tease me with impersonations and stupid puns. I want to watch Matilda hide in a tree just to jump out and scare her younger sisters.
I’d even hang out with Beta Kharkov as he demolishes every pie in sight. I’m stuck here, in this miserable old castle with my only company being a girl gullible enough to think her absent mate is perfect.
/He probably is. You’re just lashing out and being a bit of a bitch/ Priya scolded, her voice flat and level. /Our mate is perfect too in his own way./
My mate is pointless, I snap back. My heart and wolf have been stolen by a thief in the night. A thief with a dangerous past that he hasn’t bothered to inform me about.
The competing thoughts and memories keep me awake. Every footstep creaking down the hall in this cavernous suite makes me anxious. Imagining Nikolai has returned, full of apologies, warm embraces and hungry kisses.
Except I hear crying. After a few minutes it is more like wailing.
Desperately sad wailing that echoes around the walls. A woman, tortured with misery. I step out into the hallway wearing a flimsy, long white cotton nightgown only to hear a door shutting, the sound muffled away to sobs.
“Hello? Who’s there?” I call, getting only silence in reply. “Hello?!”
I am definitely not wanted here. Freya and Phillipe are polite enough but clearly, having the grief-stricken mate of her brother around is cramping her ceremony planning. It has been almost a week since the funeral pyre. Ten days since I last saw Nikolai. Ten days since my brother suggested there is something sinister about him. Questions I cannot possibly ask of his family, I am still a stranger to them. His lack of presence defines me. Every servant, courtier and member of the public sees me on my own. I imagine I am the Lonely Luna or some other cruel nickname. Does he regret marking me? My fingers frequently run over the small, raised bumps under my collarbone. I remember how he did it. I was on top of him, naked, riding his dick and moaning my way through a third, maybe fourth earth-shattering orgasm when he just did it. No asking, no checking it was what I wanted, he just bared his teeth and sunk them in. I’m not complaining. It gave me a blindingly intense orgasm. My bo
The soft click of the door clicking shut is the only sound for several seconds. When a second clunk rings out, I realise he has locked it too. That simple fact makes my pulse rocket up another notch. /He’s staying/ Priya murmurs excitedly. My eyes drink him in, as he unclasps his black cloak and casually throws it onto the dark blue sofa. He’s wearing thick black leather riding boots, tight around his huge calves. Black pants wrapping his solid thighs before skimming inwards to his toned waist. The waist that I knew contained a perfect, sculpted torso. The memory of me licking in and out of the dips and rises last time we were in a room together bounced into my vision like a camera flash. Every step of his boots clumped heavily on the wooden floor as he headed towards me.“So…you’re back then?”“For now.” His voice was deep and gravelly, all the authority of an Alpha. Priya was pushing to the forefront, I knew my green eyes would have pink flecks in, unable to hide the fact I was ab
I felt him smile against my shoulder, the grizzle of his chin like electric static. /His wolf likes us enjoying this. He wants to please us/ Priya purred in delirium. He kept his hand in place, but I got a much rougher nip, making me jump in surprise. As I flinched, he pinched my clit between his finger and thumb. My legs went weak.Suddenly I was rocketing out of my own mind. His thick fingers were twisting, turning inside me whilst my clit and nipples were pinched and teased into submission. All my weight was now resting on him. My free arm wrapped around his neck, my fingers buried in his hair. My other hand remained planted against his, shadowing the rough thrusts of his thick digits inside my soaked pussy.“Nikolai, Nikolai,” I gasped as I felt myself slipping over the edge and everything spasmed. His fingers were clamped inside me as I unravelled under his touch.Holding on I kept his hand pressed inside me. I didn’t care what he thought, what anyone would think of me. All I k
It was meant to be an in and out job. Scratch the itch and get the hell out. Stomping back to my bike I am dazzled by the dawn rays. I feel like ripping something apart, getting up some speed on the bike will have to do.Every one of my senses had been burning to feel her touch. Each day apart, increasing the agonising pull. Almost without realising my route headed further from the northern territories, inexorably back to the castle of Silver City.I know what you're doing, I scolded my wolf as I pulled up the loud, powerful bike. Leaving away from the square castle courtyard of prying eyes and servants I looked up at my home and sighed.I knew what room she was in without trying, treading softly under the cover of darkness. My wolf followed her scent so damn easily. As though she had laid out a teasing trail of string for me to follow through the maze of stone corridors. Surely every shifter for miles could pick up on her honeyed scent?/It is just for us Niko. You already know she
Every day I remain in White Forest I laugh at myself. What the hell am I doing?Two weeks, two whole weeks have passed since Nikolai came to my room. There is no sex so good that it is worth the humiliation of being abandoned.It was so good though. My toes curled just thinking about how he prowled around commanding me.It was like peering behind the curtain of a show. I had seen behind the pleasant platitudes and witnessed the raw passion that can come of such a connection. Priya and Nikolai’s wolf were swirling, heady messes of adoration.I know I love Nikolai. He would probably vanish like a ghost if I told him such a thing. But I do.Every line and shape comprising his face is etched into my memory. I know I can make him smile, maybe even make him laugh and it kills me to not have any chance to build on the small moments of connection he has dangled before me.So now it is a compromise of my dignity. I crave him yet I must pretend to accept his baseless claim that his feelings are
The figure turned around and was unmistakably Luna Helena recognising her huge brunette curls. At the ball she had been sleek and polished. Chocolate ringlets crowning a silken gown, draped in jewels and poise. In her ragged nightgown and grey hollowed eyes sockets she appeared almost monstrous.Except there was no anger in her presence, it was all sadness. Every expression and step her weary body took was exhausted sadness.“Cherish?”She tottered towards me, mistaking me for my poor mother. We both had long blonde hair, I suppose in the night it was an easy mistake to make even if my eyes were green, not blue like hers and Cillian. “No, Luna Helena I am Genevieve, Luna Cherish’s daughter.”“Of course, of course,” looking up and down the walls.“Have you seen anything? Any clues? Nobody will tell me anything, but someone must know!”Unable to stop her she wandered into my open room, looking around like an inquisitive dog. “Luna Helena, you cannot blame yourself for what happened to m
Freya sprinted into my room waking me up with a delirious squeal. “You healed my mother!”“I swear I didn’t, we just talked!” I groaned into the pillow, wincing as Freya clambered onto the bed like a cat.“What about, what did you say, do you think she will be well enough for the ceremony now?”Of course. The number one priority in Freya’s world. Her mouth was racing away. "I wonder when she'll be fit enough to visit the ceremony site, I hope she likes what I chose-"“I really don’t know, get off my you lump,” and she shuffled down to the far end of the mattress, her huge smile disarming my initial grouchy reaction to being woken up by bodily impact. “I found her crying and we had a talk-""She was crying?" Freya's eyes widening. I lifted my legs up, wrapping my arms around and resting my chin. My blonde hair fell about my shoulders as I yawned into life. "She was but when we spoke she calmed down. She thought I was my mother.""Oh she thought you were Luna Cherish!""Only for a second
I only lasted a week. A single week and I’m back here like a fool. I was fine until this morning, then my mark was going crazy. Burning and tingling at my skin so sharply I had to pull up on the bike before I steered into a rabbit hole. Stood under the morning sun in the middle of a dry, arid cornfield I was completely alone yet It felt as though she was right there. I even shivered, closing my eyes, allowing myself to imagine the sensation was her running her hand over it, sending pulses of lust through every nerve ending.How am I meant to follow up leads and investigate with shit going on? I’m having the wolfsbane vial secretly analysed by a master craftsman I trust. A bag of gold and a threat to take his throat if he loses it should keep it safe. Something about that silvery tube just feels off. When I roll it in my hands, the feel of the metal seam, it’s too unusual. There has got to be a link to the culprits through this item.At the same time, I’ve been trailing Cillian, ret