Stephen's POV‘I’m going mad from hunger,’ I mindlinked to Brian, pacing back and forth across my family’s kitchen. I opened and closed the same pantry cupboard for the hundredth time, my stomach growling at me when it realised, as I already had, that there was not a scrap of food in the house. Not one single, solitary scrap.I’d had to get away from Rhiannon and Hyacinth for a little while. I’d felt awful leaving them – but it was for the best. I was losing my gosh-darn mind and being closed in on all sides by my mate and her sister had only been making things worse. Besides, they’d seemed happy enough to comfort each other. They shared a pain I would never wholly understand.‘You’re going mad because you’re a little rascal,’ retorted Brian, sniffing disdainfully at me. ‘The hunger isn’t new. Your infatuation with Hyacinth is.’“Oh, darn it all to heck.” I groaned, doubling over and scrubbing my hands over my head. I wished there was enough hair there for me to pull at. Anything to o
Stephen’s POVThe pack announcements started off… okay.We were just listening to Alpha Caleb drone on about the tough times we were enduring and the light at the end of the tunnel, so it was easy enough to use him to distract myself from Hyacinth and Rhiannon.Why had Hyacinth sat that side of me? It opened up a can of worms if I really thought about it. Did she… had she wanted me to…‘Because your own Ma sat next to Rhi on her other side, you scallywag! How you didn’t notice that is beyond me. My eyes are aged, rheumy and weak, and yet I spotted her in an instant! You are searching for reason that does not exist, my dear boy.’ Brian shook his head at me.I glanced over at Rhi, who I’d been doing a spectacular job of avoiding eye contact with and, sure enough, Ma and Pa had sat beside her. They were conferring in low voices, consoling Rhi over the loss of her father.Which was exactly what I should have been doing. My belly balled into a knot; guilt made me sweat. I was behaving like
Rhiannon’s POV“I think we should move in together.”I gaped at Stephen. ‘He what?’ said Tiger, her eyes boggling as she stared at him. 'No, seriously, what did he just say?'‘My thoughts exactly.’ I’d just been sat in the cold with my dead dad, crying over his lifeless body, preparing mentally for his funeral tomorrow – and Stephen, the guy who had always known exactly what I needed when I needed it, was asking me to move in with him? Now?I opened and closed my mouth a few times, struggling to find the right words. I wasn’t sure where the fuck the balance between are you stable and thanks but no thanks was.Something sharp tugged on my heartstrings. I’d longed for this moment, once. Stephen and I had discussed getting our own little cabin in the Omega Quarters, how we’d share the cooking and cleaning, how we’d always have fresh flowers on the kitchen table, how he’d dance while he mopped the floors and how I’d sing while I scrubbed the dishes. It had been a beautiful dream, before.
Rhiannon’s POVI swallowed down my nerves, steeled myself, and dipped my head respectfully. “Luna Amelia,” I greeted her, suddenly realising that I had even more to be worried about than I’d first thought.If she came in, she’d see her own shampoo bar next to the shower. She’d see raspberry tea next to the kettle, which I’d stashed there for Cin. If she looked into my eyes, I was sure she’d see my guilt.The silence swelled between us, thick and potent and cloying. She peered into my eyes, into my damn soul, like she could see everything in it laid bare for her. The Luna pursed her full lips, which enhanced the sheen of gold brushed over her cheekbones as they hit the morning light. “I just came by to give you this.” She bent down and picked up a small wicker basket, which I’d been too busy staring at her to notice. “The basket is from one of my care packages… as are the tea and biscuits inside. I know it’s not much, and it will mean nothing in the wake of your sorrow, but I wanted t
Rhiannon’s POVIt didn’t matter how many times I told Alpha Caleb to go to hell, to fuck himself, to die in a hole, to go do whatever other nasty things I could think of – we kept getting pushed together. If I was working, he was there, letting me serve him hot water. If I was sat by Dad’s grave, he was passing me on his way to or from a patrol. If I was walking down the hall, he was coming from the other way. A hundred tiny coincidences – that started to feel not so coincidental the more they kept happening.He stopped asking me to talk to him after the second day. He said he’d leave me to mourn. It was almost worse when he did, because I didn’t have anything to distract me from the pain anymore. But no matter what he’d said, it didn’t stop him from bumping into me everywhere. And I meant everywhere. Even when I’d slipped into the bathroom in the pack house to tidy up my makeup, I’d accidentally left it unlocked and who had walked in but, yep, you guessed it, Alpha Bloody Caleb. If
Rhiannon’s POVI sat frozen, waiting for the inevitable, my ears straining to hear the sounds of movement, until I couldn’t take it any longer. I wasn’t some sitting duck that just let bad things happen to me without fighting back. I stood up, wriggling my hands and toes until some feeling came back into them. The cold had seeped down into my bones and was reluctant to leave.“Is somebody there?” I snarled, my hands balling into fists.Nobody answered. I turned back and forth on the spot, trying to spy out a poison dart or arrow between the tree trunks. Alpha Caleb hadn’t exactly been forthcoming when it came to how poor Sam had been poisoned, so I had to be prepared for anything. Or maybe the poisoning was a one off, and I needed to be ready for a good old-fashioned werewolf fight.The soft pad of paws slunk over the snow.I got ready to shift. Then Tiger started to laugh. ‘Smell that?’ she said.With a frown I sniffed the air. ‘Rabbit, rodent, fox. But…’‘But no werewolf. It’s a w
Caleb’s POVI just wanted to talk to her. I thought that would scratch the damn ever-present itch in my soul. To spend five minutes gazing into her steely grey eyes, to see them soften as they met mine, to just look and nothing more, would feel like heaven compared to the hell I was living through right now.And it didn’t help that someone was playing some cosmic joke on us. Everywhere I went, Rhiannon was there. It was only painful because those moments between us were so brief – the brush of her fingertips over the back of my hand as we both reached for the same door handle; the flick of her hair as she turned away from me, which sent her scent towards me and damn near had me falling to my knees; her sharp inhale as she recognised me and the slant to her full lips as she glared at me and jerked back.It was a result of the mate bond. I knew it. I’d never heard of two wolves who’d refused the call of the bond before, not without outright rejecting it, but like the way we were drawn
Caleb’s POVMarcella was trembling all over as she took me into the medical centre. I couldn’t stand to look at her. Something really, really bad must’ve happened for it to have shaken up an Omega so badly.My eyes landed on Amelia the second I stepped inside. She was on the central cot, her face sallow and sweaty, her eyes rolling in her head and glazed whenever they fixed on anything for a second. Panic seized me – for all the wrong reasons.I would’ve cared about Amelia foremost and the treaty between our packs second, before. But now, in her dying eyes, all I saw was the start of another war. As I rushed to her bedside, my heart pounding, I was already working through damage control. This was an accident, it had nothing to do with me or my Night Wind wolves; they couldn’t start another war because their daughter had died while here, under my care… oh, fuck, they totally could. And, knowing Amelia’s parents, they totally would.“Amelia?” I breathed, cupping her cheeks between my p