Eva I cracked an eye open and saw that the sun had risen. I didn’t move for a very long time. I was so tired. Tired of feeling pain. Tired of having to wake up with horrible memories of the night before. It was then that I prayed to the goddess for strength. I couldn’t do this anymore. There was only so much one could take and I’d reached my limit. For a moment, I lied on the hard rocks of the mountain and wished for death. I’d never done it before because all my life, I was raised to believe life was a gift, but my body was tired of fighting. I wasn’t sure how much time passed. I was fully conscious of everything going on around and within me. The sun was high in the sky but it was a bitterly cold day. I knew that my only solution would be to shift and I had to do it quickly or I’d die of hypothermia. However, I couldn’t find the strength to even roll to my side. Then, something incredible happened. I thought about the baby that had been inside of me—the baby I’d been carrying f
NoxAll around us, there was chaos. I could positively say that neither of us expected an ambush from Kolton. He’d taken everything from me, so what else did he want? He wasn’t here; only his men were. The one thing that saved us was that we still had a few weapons left or we would’ve been screwed. Also, Vivian’s people joined us right on time. I could tell by the way they were fighting that they had been thirsty for Redwood blood for a long time. Men. Women. Kolton didn’t discriminate. He had every able-bodied person in his pack fighting us. The only person that wasn’t here was him. Coward. What else did I expect? He loved to watch shit burn from afar. He always had other people doing his dirty work. “Where are you Kolton!?” one of the guys who had been with Vivian asked out loud as he slammed someone’s knees in with a baseball bat. “Where are you hiding!? Come and face us, you fucking rat!”Could I say we were winning the fight? I wasn’t sure. Many of the people here were strang
CyrusI stopped in front of the door to the shitty apartment. I knew somebody had to be inside because the baby was crying. I could hear it. They didn’t leave him alone, though. They never would have. By now, Kolton was dead. When Brock stopped me from making the biggest mistake of my life, I’d backed away but not without giving it much thought. He guaranteed me that he would kill Kolton as he should have years ago—the way he said it was a confirmation of everything. Our whole story. The reason why Nox left. Why things turned out the way they did. Nox had been right. It was all Brock’s fault. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that for a while. Now, I was sure that I didn’t hold it against him. It happened a long time ago, and maybe I was too grateful for everything he did for me to judge him for something he clearly regretted doing. Maybe I always knew that Nox was right. Deep down, I’d suspected it. But Brock had always been a solid figure in my life, even more than my parents we
EvaThe sound of Jace calling me interrupted my train of thoughts. I looked over my shoulder and saw him running toward me, holding something. It appeared to me like his toy superhero was broken again, and he sounded like he was going to cry. “Mommy, look!”I took the toy from him and offered him a gentle smile. “When Daddy comes home, he’s going to fix it, okay? I don’t know how to.”My son looked at his toes and made a disheartened noise in the back of his throat. I knelt in front of him, grabbed him by the arms, and said, “Hell be back soon. He just went to get something.”He huffed an, “Okay.”“Why don’t you sit down and I’ll bring you something to drink,” I said. “What do you want? Some juice? Soda?”“Juice!”Just like that, he was cheerful again, the broken toy completely forgotten. I lured him some juice and snacks, and then he sat down and amused himself with eating. I watched him from the kitchen, happy beyond reasoning. The last few years weren’t easy for any of us—but the
Eva When Head Priestess Bathsheba banged on the door to wake us up in the middle of the night, I could hardly keep my eyes open long enough to look at the closed door. My eyelids were glued together with sleep. It was only when she knocked a second time that my roommate Danna and I opened our eyes. “Girls, wake up! Alpha Cyrus is here!”We both sat up at the same time, looking at each other in confusion. Head Priestess Bathsheba must have grown impatient with us because she opened the door and didn’t ask for permission to do it first, like she usually did. “Didn’t you hear what I said!?” she asked desperately. She was dressed in her full attire, and even had the veil over her head. “What’s he doing here?” Danna asked, sleep lacing her voice. “It hardly matters!” she exclaimed. “I need two juniors with me right this instant. We must accept the Alpha of our beloved pack with the greatest respect. Dress up as quickly as you can, and meet me downstairs!”She closed the door, leaving
Cyrus My mate. I could hardly believe that I was looking at her. After years of looking expectantly and failing to find her, who would have guessed that I’d find her here, in a Convent of all places? When I became of age, I never stopped looking, until I eventually stopped some years later, coming to terms with the fact that perhaps I didn’t have one. That the goddess or whoever was up there took that privilege away from me because of the things I’d done. The crimes I’d committed. The lives I’d ruined. It was ironic how I managed to find her in the place I avoided my whole life—I’d never been a religious man, and it was never my intention to become one. I came here tonight because I’d lost a bet with my fucking ungrateful Beta, and as a dare, had to confess my sins to a Priestess.Of course, I’d never tell her my true sins. I’d only make a few of them up. Telling her the extent of my sins would probably make them tie me to a stake and burn me to the damn ground. I was the comp
Eva Nausea rolled in my stomach, and the feeling was so intense that I couldn’t sleep a wink the whole night. Goddess Luna. Give me strength. Finding out that I had a mate was…shocking, to say the least. It was perhaps the worst experience of my life. I was deeply ashamed of everything that had happened, even though none of it was my fault. That horrid man stormed in here and disregarded all our rules, and neither of us could stop him, both because we were defenseless and because he was the Alpha of our pack. Our leader.We owed him respect, and perhaps that was why he felt the liberty to treat us the way he did. I couldn’t forget the words he’d said to me as he walked away, so arrogant and pretentious. I said ‘pretentious’ because he acted all mighty and high and untouchable, but he had no faith or religion, and so that made him a lesser man. But the truth was that even if he was a religious man, I still couldn’t be with him. I made a promise to worship the goddess until the res
Cyrus When my Gammas put Eva's belongings in the back of the trunk, I felt a lot more relieved. All the priestesses, big and small, were standing in front of their sacred convent with looks of despair and disappointment. Eva stood beside the Head Priestess, wearing that veil over her face. She was doing it to challenge me, but I'd won one battle today. I'd finish the rest later. For now, she could have her veil. For now. "Ladies," I said with forced politeness. "I do hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me for this minor inconvenience."I was offered no reply, and took it as my cue to remove my checkbook from my pocket. I wrote a fairly large sum on it—certainly more than this dump cost—and ripped out the check before handing it to the Head Priestess. She accepted it readily. "For your troubles," I pointed out. It was time to leave, and I was glad. I gestured at the car, and Eva seemed to hesitate before taking a step forward. Her face was downcast so I couldn't get a