*Tilly POV*Anna shows up with Onyx right behind her and a big, proud grin on her mischievous face. I told her we were fine with only four people, but did she listen? No, because she is a strong-minded alpha’s daughter and the grin on her face just makes me wonder what else she talked to him about. It doesn’t take that long of an exchange to ask someone for help, and my curiosity is getting the better of me. “She looks mighty pleased for someone who just asked for help.” Harriet says, stepping up to my side.“It’s Anna,” Henry says. He has been the warrior training with Anna for the past few days to better his technique. “She is probably thinking about killing someone.” He shudders at the thought and Harriet and I break out laughing.Anna does not hold back in training, and her cheery nature while decimating her opponents has purchased her many fun little nicknames. My current favorite is Anna the Annihilator. She, however, hates it, which makes it that much better. “I hear you only
The last couple of days of training have gone by in a blur. I’m sure how we made it to this point, but here we are. Warriors ball day. The day all the warrior females preen and giggle, making themselves presentable for their mates. All the while, the males do—well, I’m sure they do something. Like sleep in and eat a hearty breakfast. Not me though. Nope. Not on Anna’s watch.This chick has had me up since five this morning sipping on herbal tea that’s supposed to help with my bloat, which is great because I did not know I was even bloated. She even slapped some gooey gold things under my eyes for my bags that tell everyone how tired I am. Again, I’m not sure I ever noticed they were there. “You know what’s fantastic for the bags under my eyes?” I ask Anna as I sniff then put aside the nasty ass tea with a grimace. “If you say ‘sleep’ I will come out there and throttle you.” She hollers from within her tiny closet. “It’s true, though.” I mutter.“I let you sleep in, Tilly.” “Lies!
My nerves are an utter mess as I check the clock over and over again, watching the minutes tick by painstakingly slowly. I just have to see him. That will calm me down, even if it’s just a glimpse. It’s a feeble thought. I know seeing him will only lead to me wanting to kiss him, which I won’t be able to do in public. There are rumors about me and Onyx, with his blatant favoritism there were bound to be. But the thing with rumors is, what makes them exciting is the mystery of whether they are real or not. Touching him the way I want to would turn rumor into fact, fairy tale into reality. As much as I want to live this fairytale, I’m not sure I’m ready for what it all entails.My hand taps my thigh while I crane my neck, looking from side to side. Anna and I have long since abandoned our station after the last person signed in. Now free to mingle, eat, and be giddy with everyone else. Anna was too happy and getting a little violent with her random excited slaps or screeching, so I sen
Onyx stands, unmoving as he watches me with hopeful eyes, gauging me, waiting for me to utter the word in confirmation. I revel in his scent and his heady gaze, never wanting to be removed from either again. “Mate,” I utter the words. The gravity of their meaning leaves me weightless as I push reality aside and relish this dream. Here I can achieve anything, here we can conquer the world together. The moment reality seeps into this happy bubble is one moment closer I am to losing him forever.“I knew it,” he whispers the words victoriously to himself, sauntering closer to me with each calculated step. One, two, three and he is right in front of me. His hands reach out, framing my face with a glorious, radiant smile. He completes me and I him. I can feel it in the electric sparks that dance along my skin, see it in his eyes that promise a future I know we don’t get to have. “Onyx…” I murmur, my resolve cracking under the weight of his loving gaze. This is real. The sparks are here an
My fear slowly melts away as Bill reaches out to help me up. I slap his hand away with a sneer and he frowns. He has never once been kind to me, even when the Alpha was looking. I highly doubt it’s going to change now that I’m a rogue. He sighs heavily and frowns. “Look, if I had known…” He pauses and runs his hands through his hair. “I didn’t realize–”“What the hell are you doing out here?” I scoff, standing and dusting myself off. “Come to gloat as I cross the line and fully become rogue?”He shakes his head in shock. “What? No! I picked up my mate’s scent and followed it.”I snort and dry chuckle. “Poor girl probably realized it was you and ran.” I mutter.“Yeah, kind of my worry too,” he responds. I stand in front of him awkwardly, waiting for him to excuse himself or for me to grow a pair and cross the border. Instead, we both avoid eye contact and stand in silence. After a moment of swinging my arms, waiting for something, anything, I huff out a sigh.“Well, I’ll be going the
*Onyx POV* My back aches as I stand from the ground, hating that this fucker got the better of me. Well, fuckers, since there are five rogues fighting me at once. That’s the thing with rogues. They can’t measure up one on one, so they team up against one person, hoping to overpower them. I glance around, watching my warriors fight as valiantly as they can. The cry of wolves losing their mates before their eyes echoes through the pack grounds and it drenches the remaining fighters in fear. Of all the nights to attack, they chose to night. They had a reason for tonight. They wanted to create this chaos to invoke fear. All it’s doing is effectively pissing me off. The five assholes in front of me lunge forward at once, and I drop to the ground at the last minute. I use my elongated claws, slashing across their middles, cutting through flesh like a hot knife through better. I turn to see two of them fall to their knees, trying to scrape up their intestines as they whine in pain. The
*Tilly POV*Run.Run faster. The only thing I can allow to go through my mind as I rush through the barrage of trees and forest foliage is to run. There is no time to slow down and look back, no time to let my mind wander worrying about my best friend and my mate. My mate. Onyx.My pace slows, and I look over my shoulder, regretting it immediately. I’m alone out here. Completely and utterly alone, and I did it to myself. I rest my hand on the rough bark of a tree, allowing myself a chance to breathe as my emotions win and everything I am trying to run from floods back in. Anna has to be okay. There is no way in hell that girl would ever fall. Not with her skill and determination. She is the ultimate apex predator. Onyx, though I’ve only ever seen him train, has to be a top fighter if he has won the right to train all the warriors for years in a row. My stomach lurches, bile rising as I imagine him injured on the ground. My stupid brain’s active imagination is trying to make me tu
“How did you find me so fast?” I ask Anna and she snorts. “Please, you think you can ever escape me?” She jokes and I sigh. “I’m serious, Anna.”She glances at me, her eyes full of curiosity and worry. “I left the second you left the pack grounds. I was with Onyx when he felt the bond on your side disappear.”“And you just knew which way I was running?” I ask her.“You have a scent, Til. I tracked you.” a frown crinkles her brows. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”I don’t miss her accusatory tone and I scoff, like I don’t know what she is talking about. She rolls her eyes and groans, clearly annoyed. “Onyx is your mate!” she announces, and I feel a soft pang in my chest, an ache in my heart.“Was. Anna, I rejected him.” I say, standing from the ground and realizing how naked I am. I grumble in frustration. Cursing the asshole who forced me to shift and ditch my bag. “Here.” Anna says, choosing to drop the subject, but I know it’s only for now. She tosses me a bag and I catc