Caleb’s POVI raced upstairs to tell Amelia everything, desperate to share the news that the Eternal Winter seemed to be ending, though I’d left my heart back in the gardens with Rhiannon. Separating myself from her, for now, was painful but necessary. I was so hopped up on passion and joy and the swirling highs of the mate bond that I was prepared to tell Amelia the truth about everything. It was the only way to get us through this. She could be with Kieran and I could be with Rhiannon – no harm done.I swung the door open. I’d seen the lights were on from outside, so I knew she was awake. “Ames?” I called, smoothing a hand over my sex-ruffled hair. Oh, to hell with it. She was going to find out soon enough.She lunged at me with her teeth bared. Her hand balled into a fist at my collar, digging into my throat. “You,” she spat, her upper lip curling as she glared at me. “You bastard, Caleb!”She shoved me back against the door. I stumbled, taken by surprise. “What?” I winced, rubbin
Caleb’s POVI slept uneasily, waking up every hour, tossing and turning through the night. Amelia didn’t try to hide the fact that she was wide awake; she sat up and stared at her hands, twisting our mating band around her finger, over and over and over again. Even when I dreamt, I dreamt of her sitting there, twiddling with that ring, sometimes looking at it, others looking at me. By the morning, I didn’t know which parts of the night had been real and which I had dreamt.She spoke to me as the sun rose. Neither of us had closed the curtains. I let its warm, golden light wash over me and tried to find strength in it.“What are you going to do about this mess?” Amelia asked, her voice as cold as it had been last night.I sat up slowly, wishing I could prolong the inevitable. “You know what I’m going to do, Ames. I’m going to do what I have to.”She nodded. “Good. I’m going to tell the others about the blossom. I’ll check in on Harley, too, if you’d like.”“I’d appreciate that.” I clea
Rhiannon’s POVI just stared at Caleb’s back as he walked away. I wasn’t going to run after him or beg for him to come back. Fuck that. He’d treated me like dirt for the last time.I’d thought this was it. I’d thought we’d chosen each other. Apparently, I’d been wrong. Really, really wrong. My bottom lip quivered; I bit down on it, hard enough to draw blood. I wasn’t going to cry over someone so callous and cold – even if I was curling in on myself, my head too light, my breaths too shallow. He’d gone and taken my soul with him.I don’t know how long I stood in the doorway. My fingers had long since gone numb from gripping the wood. It was the only thing I had to hold me up. A small, red body wound around my legs. I laughed, the sound choked by a sob. “Hey, Foxy,” I murmured, reaching down to scratch his little head.“I tried to feed him, but he wanted you – Rhi? What’s wrong?” Hyacinth’s worried voice spilled out into the hall. “Are you crying?”I took a deep breath, picked up Foxy
Stephen’s POVIt was hard, to begin with, pretending to Rhiannon that I didn’t know she’d cheated on me. It was hard, but it was worth it – because, as the days blurred into weeks, we found our feet again. Things weren’t quite the same between us as they’d been before, of course, but I’d managed to set aside the scandal, for the most part, and move past it.Some days were harder than others. Some days, all I could hear was the remembered sound of Rhiannon groaning Alpha Caleb’s name.Then there were the days that were even worse than that. Those days had nothing to do with Rhiannon, though, and everything to do with her twin sister.I never told a soul, but I ached for Hyacinth. I tried to shove it aside, to focus on Rhi, but it was like knowing that she’d cheated had given me an out. It made my feelings for Cin grow stronger and stronger – not that I’d ever tell anyone that. On the inside, I was a scrambled-up mess of feelings. On the outside, however, I was Rhiannon’s doting mate.I
Stephen’s POVMy hands grasped at nothing but air as I stared after Hyacinth. I felt thrown by the whole thing. What had just happened?‘What just happened, young man,’ huffed Brian, ‘was that you let yourself forget you’re a committed man! Back in my day, you would have been thrown in the stocks until you learnt your lesson!’‘Back in your day?’ I rolled my eyes at my weirdo wolf, eager to cling to that slice of normality. Everything else felt so strange that his particular brand of oddity felt comparatively safe. ‘Do not try to pull the wool over my eyes! Do not attempt to push aside your fiddle-dee-deeing and put the blame on me!’‘My what?’ I muttered, squinting at nothing. ‘My fiddle-dee-deeing?’‘A-ha! Precisely!’‘Brian.’ I sighed. ‘Look–’‘No, Stephen, you look.’ He sounded more serious than usual and I froze, still stood in the doorway where I’d kissed Cin. ‘I understand how you feel. I feel it, too. It makes my old heart trip over itself and my eyes turn to hearts whenever
Stephen’s POVShe let go of my mouth for me to talk. “I, I, I…” I couldn’t conjure up a lie quickly enough to save my skin. A second ago I hadn’t thought it possible, but Marcella’s face paled further. “You know,” she breathed.“Know what?” I frowned at her. She narrowed her eyes right back. “Tell me why you were following me.”I gulped. “I, uh – look, I thought you seemed suspicious, all right? The basket, the hood… but to be honest, Marcella, it had nothing to do with you. I’ve got a lot going on right now and I wanted a distraction.” I went to hold my hands up but she held them firm. “I swear, that’s all. I don’t know anything.”“I don’t believe you,” she whispered, her voice quaking. “Then… what?” I liked the girl, but she sure couldn’t do anything about her disbelief. We were both Omegas, but I trained harder and was stronger. “I can’t let you go. I’m sorry.”Before I could respond, she held a cloth up to my nose and mouth. I inhaled in my shock – and breathed in a lungful of
Rhiannon’s POVWhen I heard that mindlink, telling me that Alpha Caleb had been poisoned, I went through something similar to the five stages of grief.The first wasn’t denial, though. It was a weird-ass sense that justice had been served. I felt vindicated, glad that the man who’d been such a bastard to me had met his comeuppance. Then came anger – anger that I hadn’t been the one to do it. It seemed Tiger felt the same. ‘If anyone was going to kill that arrogant ass, it should’ve been me.’‘We would have done it fairly, too,’ I agreed, letting her rage merge with mine, twin flames growing and burning bright. ‘Not taken the coward’s way out and poisoned him.’And, instead of bargaining, next came guilt. I felt guilty for my initial reaction and knew it was all a way for me to cover up the truth of how I felt. I felt guilty for not being there for him, for not foreseeing this. Though it had weighed on everyone’s mind, the return of the Eternal Winter had taken front and centre in th
Rhiannon’s POVWith our cloaks on and our hoods up, covering our faces and my distinctive hair, we snuck out of the Omega Quarters to over to the pack house. The closer we got, the more my heart started to thump. It wasn’t pulling me to Stephen, though. It was pulling me to Caleb. My eyes darted around, suspicious of every rustle in the bushes, wary of every bt of wind rattling the trees. It was overcast, the sky thick and heavy with the burden of snow clouds; everything was cast in a dull, grey light that hung, oppressive, over everything, like a veil draped atop the gnarled branches and dead lawns.Hyacinth and I spoke in mindlinks as we moved.‘I’ve tried to talk to him, too, and he hasn’t replied,’ I told her. ‘How did he sound?’Anxiety was gnawing at me from both ends. My soul yearned for Caleb, but my mind knew that Stephen had to be in danger. Weirdly, though, I couldn’t feel anything of him through the mate bond. There were no emotions at all, least of all the pungent fear