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026 | HOLLOW
I stared at her, stunned. “To kill him?” I repeated. I felt stupid, numb. This should have made me ecstatic. So why did it feel like my heart was breaking?
Mum nodded excitedly, her face pulling into one of its rare smiles. Her bright blue eyes flashed in the lamplight. “Yes. We can free you soon, sweetheart. You won’t have to spend much longer pretending to love that monster.” Her upper lip curled, and her eyes roved over the scars on my face. “What has he done to you?”
I swallowed around the razor-sharp lump forming in my throat. “Nothing more – nothing since I sent you that letter.”
She raised an eyebrow at me. “Did he not attack you on the way here? I had assumed – you were clearly lying, after all, sweetie, you are a terrible liar–”
I snorted. “I know. I was lying – but not about him.” I sighed heavily. “It was Stede and Ta
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I felt strangely nervous about showing Ares my bedroom. I had no real reason to – after all, it was far nicer than the cold grey stone and the views of endless snow that made up his chambers in the mountain, but it was another piece of me that I was offering up to him.He already had too large a part of my soul held in his heart. Every time I revealed something new about myself, he took it and claimed it as his own. Damn mate bond.I bit back a sigh and pushed the door open.I half expected him to make a sarcastic remark or, at the very least, smirk at me. Instead, he stepped inside quietly – even taking small, timid steps – across the floorboards, and said nothing as his gaze roved over my belongings. My space. My home.It was tidy in a way that spoke of my absence: the blanket folded over the end of my bed just-so; the chair tucked in under the wide wooden desk; the books stacked neatly on their shelves, rather tha
Alpha Ares 028 | UP IN SMOKE
I stared at him and he stared back at me. Our noses brushed; we were so close I could hear every shaky inhale of breath he took and every thump of his heartbeat. He eyed me ravenously, as if I were another meal he could never get his fill of. I remained unguarded, the walls I had so meticulously built to keep him out catching fire in the heat of his burning blue gaze.He swallowed noisily. I watched as his throat bobbed. Stars, he was handsome. He made me dizzy in all the best ways – although that might have been the concussion. If I even had one. It was a convenient excuse, so I decided I most definitely did.My morals went up in smoke as his lips brushed mine.“I’m not pretending,” he murmured, his breath warm and his lips soft. A shiver ran through me. “You have claimed me, heart and soul. I did not think it possible, Haile, but despite all odds I find myself consumed by you. That is why…”“Why what?&rdq
Alpha Ares 029 | AN ALLIANCE OF FOES
For the first time in my life, I didn’t feel safe in my own home.I held Ares’s hand as we walked down to the meeting room. The back of my neck bristled with tension at the simple touch; I felt as though every Blue Moon wolf that passed us was judging me for it. Thoughts of Tarar and Stede clouded my usually logical mind, turning friends into foes everywhere I looked.But I ignored the hateful whispers, imagined and real, as clusters of Omegas slunk past us. Because Ares and I had agreed to pretend and, judgement aside, it was far too easy for me to do so. It didn’t feel like we were pretending – and that terrified me.Ares squeezed my hand. I glanced up at him through my lashes, my cheeks warming as I met his intense blue gaze.“Are you ready for this?” he murmured, his gravel-and-honey voice catching in his throat.I lifted my chin. Ready to listen to his lies? Yes. Ready to ignore everything that came ou
Alpha Ares 030 | A SOUL AT WAR
“You know,” Ares said, his deep voice unusually soft, “I would do anything for you, beautiful.”My heart swelled and my stomach churned – the same nauseating duo that I had become all too accustomed to as of late. It had followed me back from the Blue Moon Pack, all the way up into the mountains of Winterpaw Warrior. My body and mind were at war, my heart and soul lost to conflict, and I was left to pick up the pieces. A muscle in my jaw ticked. Stupid mate bond.I couldn’t be honest to him – couldn’t say that I knew he was lying. So I forced my lips into a smirk and put a hand on my hip, and leaned back to survey him as I said, “I do know. You called a retreat when your pack had the upper hand in battle. I’d say that counts as a pretty big anything, Ares.”He reclined further on the bed and patted the empty space beside him. Joy and irritation sparked at his invitation; I shoved down the
Alpha Ares 031 | DUSK AT DAWN
“What happened, Haile?” Ares's voice sounded gentle – too gentle. I levelled my gaze at him across the table. We’d gathered in the council room, and I could feel Nazte and Cendres sending burning stares directly at my flushed face. My throat worked on a swallow. The fire behind me suddenly felt too hot – much too hot. I ran a hand beneath my collar. This was the first time I’d felt warm in Winterpaw, let alone boiling. The one saving grace for me was that this meeting intercepted neatly with morning training – meaning that Hans and Hanna, the Senior Warrior Wolves with seriously big sticks rammed up their backsides, weren’t able to come. Someone had to keep the pack running, after all. And cancelling morning training because of a murder would cause mass hysteria. It was such a terrible shame that they couldn’t come, I thought, struggling to keep my lips from twitching into a smirk. “I was running.” My voice sounded ca
Alpha Ares 032 | MY CRUEL ALPHA
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Alpha Ares 033 | VENGEANCE
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Alpha Ares 034 | THE TRUTH OF THE LIE
My good sense slammed back into me, all at once. “Ares!” I cried, leaping up onto the platform behind him. I grabbed his forearm just before he grasped the man’s prone neck and yanked it back, making him stumble slightly.He glanced at me with a frown. “What is it? Do you want to kill this one?”I shook my head. I had to be honest. I couldn’t let innocent men die because of my lie. “I don’t recognise him, actually,” I hedged, gradually towing Ares back towards the edge of the wooden platform.Ares’s frown deepened, lines cutting into his brow and crinkling the corners of his too-damn-pretty blue eyes. “Well – have a closer look. Walk between them, Haile. Your attackers are here. I am quite certain of it.”“How do you know for sure? There must be hundreds of men that match that description…”He grabbed me by my wrists and hauled me back towards the men.
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- Alpha Ares 141 | EPILOGUE
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