Bowden Kaiya still looks doubtful. Her trust has been shaken one time too many these last two weeks, and I’m convinced she thinks I have some kind of ulterior motive for bringing her here. I do, but it's not what she thinks it is. Instead on thinking about it too much, I busy myself with the food, pretending I can’t feel her mistrust and doubt. At long last, she decides to take a seat on the blanket. The tight dress isn’t exactly designed for sitting on the ground, and she awkwardly half sits, half lies on her side. “Take off your dress,” I say. “Why?” she asks. “You’ll be more comfortable.” I look up, right into her stormy, grey eyes. “You are wearing underwear, right?” “Of course,” she says, scandalised by my insinuation. “Sexy underwear?” I ask. “No.” I laugh and take the bottles of juice and wine from the basket. “I’m teasing. I’ve seen your underwear. I know nuns with sexier undergarments than yours.” “Now you have a problem with my-” Before she can even finish speakin
Kaiya I feel exposed out in the open like this, and I have to keep reminding myself that we’re alone here in Bowden’s little haven. It doesn't work. The man just banged my brains out. He has seen me naked a few times now, and still I'm embarrassed to be naked in front of him. I try to make sense of it, but can't. All I know is that I'm naked, exposed, vulnerable, and I don't like it. For his part, my mate is completely unperturbed by his nudity. He’s strutting around like a proud rooster. That part is not too strange to me. I’d seen other Alpha males do the exact same thing. What I do find strange and a little disconcerting, is that I’ve never seen Bowden do it. Aware of my discomfort, he throws his t-shirt at me before he goes down to the pond to wash his hands, then returns to unpack the rest of the picnic. “I didn’t actually plan for it to happen this fast,” he says and gives me a sheepish grin. “I figured we’d have a little food, some wine...relax a little, you know.” For the
KaiyaI want to die of embarrassment. The first time I dare to touch my mate in any sexual kind of way, and I fuck it up. “You must hate this,” I say as I position myself on the ledge.Bowden is completely unperturbed. “No, not really. I kind of like it." He scrunches up his nose and leans over to give me a quick peck. "I look forward to corrupting you.”He sits back, takes my hand and brings it to his thick erection. My fingers don’t even go all the way around, and I’m suddenly too shy to ask him if my inability to take him in hand properly give him any kind of pleasure.He wraps his much bigger hand around mine. “Firm, even movements. Stroking. Not too hard or rough, unless I ask for it. Don't shake and jerk my cock. It's not a ketchup bottle.”I almost start laughing, but I'm way too nervous and foscused on the task at hand. For a good five minutes, he shows me how to do it, then he just lets me go and leans back, bracing himself on the ground with both hands. He has his head throw
BowdenWhen I return to my apartment, I expected to find Kaiya in my bed, but instead, she's fast asleep on the couch, dressed in the new shorty pyjamas I like so much.The meeting with the Lycans went about as well as could be expected. Finding out that the mates they loved so much were waking up, mummified and probably aware of what’s happening to them, enraged the wolves.Learning about Orion angered them less. That was a problem we could deal with. We’d come across it before and knew what to do. Griffin and Jaeger would be pack soon with a list of the Alphas that belonged to Deimos.Their packs will be cleansed, their witches brought to the castle and new Alphas will be appointed. Once we have the names of the treacherous Alphas, I can assign the individual teams of Lycans to go to clear out the packs and bring the witches here. “Why not just kill the witches too,” Elias asked.He wasn’t supposed to be at the meeting. He is still mourning the loss of his mate, and he’s a mess, but
BowdenThe week passes in a quiet, comfortable hush. I hadn’t taken an extended break from my duties for so long that I had almost forgotten what it’s like to just relax and do nothing. The fact that I had my mate by my side the entire time just made it so much better.Kaiya wasn’t that comfortable with doing absolutely nothing though. She kept trying to find work for herself. On the day we moved her into my apartment, she tried to do the Omegas’ work, and I finally had to take her outside so she’d stop pestering them.Instead of fully sharing a room with me, Kaiya decided to take up the spare room down the hall and next to my private office. I was blown away by her reasoning when I asked her about it, realising for the first time that she understood me much better than I thought she did. “You need your space,” she said when I half-heartedly objected. “There are times when you need to be alone.”I didn’t argue with her any further. I was grateful for it. She was right. I’ve had many f
**TRIGGER WARNING:** This chapter is rough and depicts scenes of dead children. Proceed with caution. Kaiya “Kaiya!” Bowden screams in my head, his voice panicked. “You have to talk to me. What is wrong?” I can’t say the words, and I can’t answer him because I’m about to lose my shit completely. I can't think. I can't even breathe. The bodies of the children are the worst. Torn limb from limb, the Stone Wood Clan men hung their parts on the trees for us to find them. Some kind of warning, I guess, not to cross over into their territory. Judging by the smell and the rate of decomposition of the different corpses, they killed Leigh last, after she had to witness her children’s horrific deaths. The ground where they tore the children apart is soaked in their drying blood and other bodily fluids. It looks as if she was on her knees facing her children, and when they slit her throat, she fell forward, bleeding out onto the ground. At least they didn't mutilate her body. My phone star
KaiyaWe leave the café and drive out of town, making sure the humans see us leave. Just outside of the town's borders, Thaddeus drives the SUV off the road and parks it behind a clutch of trees. Thaddeus and Oswald simply lower their backrests and go straight to sleep, but I have no such luck.I can’t get the images of those dead children out of my mind. Every time I close my eyes, I see them.After my time with Moon Dance, everything my father showed me, every execution and brutal attack on a smaller pack, I thought I’d seen it all, thought I understood true violence and evil, but even the dread Alpha Deimos wasn’t monster enough to do that to innocent pups.“Kai?” Bowden whispers in my head. “Are you all right now? Can you talk?”“No. I keep seeing them. I don’t know what I was thinking…I can’t do this. I can't help any of these she-wolves.”“Yes, you can. It’s always dangerous when they try to leave. Leigh knew the risks.”“I talked her into it. I promised her I’d keep her safe.”
Kaiya There’s no sign of the warriors that we sent back with Stone Wood. The handful of wolves that have the courage to stand up to us are weak, inbred to an extreme degree, and feral. It is a blood bath with almost no surivors. Dripping in blood, I shift back to human and turn around to face Oswald. “Where are their warriors?” He shifts and casts his eyes to the ground so he doesn’t have to look at my nudity. “Dead, I’d wager. Killed by rogues.” “Or they fled into the mountains,” Thaddeus proposes. Unlike Oswald, my nudity doesn't appear to bother him, and he looks straight at me while he speaks. Strangely, I prefer that to Oswald's clear discomfort. “Send warriors to sniff them out,” I say. Grinning, Thaddeus nods and runs outside. With purposeful strides, I cross the compacted dirt floor to open the door that leads to the only other room in the shelter they call a pack house. “Queen,” Oswald says urgently. “You are naked.” “So are they,” I say. “I doubt they care.” I am no