MagnusIf that little girl thinks she can challenge me, I will make her regret it.“Don’t worry. I won’t let her get away,” Henrar promises and I believe him.I will show that insolent female what it means to provoke me. She will be my Luna whether she likes it or not. She is too old to go looking for her mate now and she wishes to lead. I am giving her a chance to do so in more than her pack. Strong as the Waterend pack might be, mine is one of the three original packs in our world. The Luna position is an honor and she will have her chance to prove herself. I would have explained all that to her if she wasn’t so stubborn.“You should have led with that instead of threatening her sister.”Henrar excels in sarcasm once more but he doesn’t understand. I have enemies. Enemies that look for ways to hurt my pack. Since Antiope is not my true mate, I can’t trust her, not right away.“The Hunt!” Sigvard booms next to me. “Chace your chosen, get her to submit and you are bonded under the eye
Antiope“You will regret every minute of this,” I swear turning to Magnus.A harsh smile spreads on his face. He won this round and he knows it. We are in front of the King once more to seal the bond. Even if he didn’t mark me-“Why didn’t he? Doesn’t he like us? Henrar was so-” Max is whining over the same thing over and over.That stupid bitch - pun intended - was ready to bare both neck and ass to that asshole’s wolf. I regret submitting but there was no other way. He was going to kill Noah and I was not going to sit and watch that. I thought of attacking but that would only fuel his aggressiveness. I am no match for that gigantic wolf. So I did the only thing I could to save my friend. And I submitted to the worst of them all.“Like you weren’t checking him out.”I did, so sue me. There was an impressive male, butt naked in all his muscled glory standing there. I am a woman. So yeah, I checked him out from his pecks to his V and he looked good. Does that make him any less of an as
AntiopeIt is not the jet lag. It is the realization of what has happened as I look out the window of Magnus’s private jet. The landscape is breathtaking but it’s not home. Not home. The thought makes my stomach tied in knots but with Magnus sitting across me, studying my every move I am not going to reveal any emotion.“You are staring at me,” I say.“Am I making you nervous?”“You are making me annoyed.”I glance at him with the corner of my eye. He hasn’t slept at all, reading reports and conferring with his guards in that annoyingly perfect language of his. It was the only good thing in the whole flight. That and the fact that Magnus seems to be a workaholic. That works great with my plan to avoid him like the Devil avoids Holy Water.“We are landing in a while,” Magnus passes a few papers to one of his guards that he never even introduced to me. “We are going straight to the pack house.”“I want to call my family.”“We’ll see about that.”“Even fucking prisoners get a freaking ph
MagnusThis is genuinely weird for me. It’s been years since I last slept in the Alpha residence. When I stopped doing that and decided that the couch in my office will do just fine, I was alone in here, in that deafening silence I couldn’t bear.And now I am back. And there isn’t silence. There is a female fighting with her clothes two rooms down. I am picturing Antiope taking all her frustration on her few belongings, on the wardrobe door, on the shelves and drawers and I smile. She looks fiercely cute when she gets mad. Which is all the aspect of emotions I have experienced with her.I am sitting on my bed, a bed that seems so foreign to me, and I am listening tentatively. I hear her open the door to the indoor bathroom and I shift uneasily. When the faucets turn and the water runs, I know she will be naked in there.“Can’t we join? We need a bath, too.”It has been a drag to keep Henrar in check. From the moment Antiope and her wolf Maximo submitted to us he is bugging me to compl
AntiopeI am up since dawn and I am sitting outside on the balcony. The view is so beautiful, so calming, so peaceful it makes me want to cry. I’ve been wanting to cry ever since Magnus dragged me down the Alpha King’s platform. If I could, I would sit here all my life, away from my problems.That’s when I hear the slide door open at the other side of the vast veranda and Magnus walks out. My serenity is shattered by his presence but he still doesn’t know I am here. He is wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else.“Great Mother, that is a fine male,” Maximo purrs excited.Max is not wrong. I have seen males while training but no one even came close to what Magnus offered. Every inch of his body was sculpted not to make him look good. To make him look lethal. And he is. When he turns I see on his back, a long thick scar. If that rumor is true, I am fairly certain that all the others will be too.“Don’t ogle him,” I chastise Max and I get up to get away from him.“Antiope,” his thic
AntiopeI am holding the receiver almost trembling but since we are in Magnus’s office and he is watching me closely, I am not going to show any emotion. When the line is open and starts beeping, I turn my back to him, striving to get some privacy but Magnus simply moves to a position that would allow him to be able to look at my face.“Do you mind?” I ask.I frown at him and grind my teeth but all he does is make himself comfortable on the desk chair, place an elbow on the arm and regard me with defiance. He has allowed me to make a phone call to my parents but he never agreed that I’d be alone while it.“Beta Everstone,” my father’s voice startles me.“Dad?” I hate how I sound like a little girl right now.“Thank Goddess!” My father lets out all his agony pour out. “Where are you? I looked for you after the Mating Hunt and I was told some incredible tales.”“Well,” I throw my head down, “if it involves Alpha Magnus, those tales were pretty accurate.”“You are mated with Alpha Magnus
MagnusI am looking at the clock. I never do that while I work. If their weren’t for the regular food brought in, I wouldn’t know how time passes by. But now I do. And it seems to pass painfully slow. Why isn’t it 7 already?I thought of finding an excuse and go back to the residence but I fought against it. Why would I want to see the most infuriating woman in existence? I am fine here, in my office, doing...“Damn it!”I close the file I am working on and get up. It’s still early but it’s my home and I will come and go as I please.I go down the stairs and cross the bridge in a hurry. The moment I step in I am greeted by absolute silence. I sniff. She is still here. I go up the stairs and stop in front of her door.“Antiope?”Nothing. I listen and hear her breathing, light and even. She is sleeping. For a while, I just stand there. And then I act. I grab the doorknob and try it. Unlocked. I am relieved in a way. She doesn’t think I’ll harm her anymore. Or she knows a flimsy door wou
AntiopeI wake up with the sound of the door of Magnus’s room and then the shower running, I glance at the clock at my bedside. 6 o’clock. I slept through most of the day, tossing around, fighting my exhaustion, my guilt, my spleen and the freaking jet lag.I decide to have a shower as well and get ready for dinner. Which I desperately need. I haven’t eaten anything all day but judging by breakfast, I doubt I’d get a full meal. How the hell does he keep so built?I enter the shower trying to remain unimpressed by the all-wood bathroom with the window to the lake and the minimalistic aesthetic. This place is really good. Any other girl would love it here. I can’t enjoy it.I let the spray of water fall down my shoulders as I place my hands on the wooden wall and pretend for the millionth time that I am not going to cry. I inhale deeply and remain unmoving as the place gets filled with steam, the window in the shower fogged exactly as my mind is.I want out, I want to go back. I want Ce