AvaI return back to the old house. Taking my time again. It feels empty without Kylar, Sasha, Luca and Kyle. Stranger than it ever did when I first returned. Having them around made it feel like a different place. Now it’s just the home I had as a child, and I’m the only person left from my family. I shut the door behind me, and heat up and take out leftovers from the night before. There’s not much else in the house, no one is living here. Not really. I drop down on the sofa, peering at my phone with a sigh, it needs charging again. I swear the battery is dying faster every day. I flick through the channels, watching true crime as I stretch out. The house is cold, even in the middle of summer, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s how I feel I about it. Cold and lifeless. I feel sad that the home I loved doesn’t have a purpose now. I have no intention of being with Josh and becoming his Luna. But perhaps, I can bring my boys back to visit and spend time with their cousins. I ca
The chopper is already landing in the field outside the village. Josh is behind me, helping me back to my feet. I stare at the kitchen without seeing it. Then I’m running. Sprinting up the stairs, I grab my bag and everything within seconds and with my phone stuffed into my pocket, I’m running out the door. It slams behind me. I can hear Josh’s boots thudding into the ground behind me and I look back, nodding as I notice he’s carrying my medical kit. I didn’t even need to hear the messages on my phone to know that the chopper was coming for me. Time slipped away in a heartbeat, I’m focused and I’m getting on that chopper. It barely has time to land. The blades starting to slow before I’m across the grass, ducking as I go. Josh is beside me, throwing in my heavier duffel as I climb up. It’s Kyle who is pulling me into the seat. Waving to Josh as he helps me buckle up.It feels like everything is happening in double time and the ground is falling away. My hearing is numbed by the angr
Kylar holds me tight but the embrace is still brief. He turns and I’m following him, half running to keep up with his longer strides. Elder Marie approaches us both, holding out her hands to me. I blink before tearing off my bag from my shoulder and passing it over with a nod. ‘This will be quicker on four feet,’ Kylar agrees. He hesitates, looking around at the trees that surround us. We’re not quite in the middle of the village yet, but it’s not exactly private either. I don’t care. I shrug him away and start stripping off my shirt. I turn around, keeping my back to Marie as I pull away my clothes, kicking off my boots and shoving my pants down my legs. I close my eyes, taking in a deep breath as I stand naked. I can hear Kylar shedding his clothes behind me and block him out. I concentrate on the feel of dirt beneath my feet. My toes are buried in the spongy moss. I inhale the scent of the forest surrounding me, and I’m hit with the overwhelming pheromones of the future Alpha a
My mother was a powerful magic user in the Pack. When I’m feeling cynical, I wonder if my Dad really loved her, or if he loved the power of having her as his Luna. I don’t really remember her, except that she had dark hair like me and Bella, but blue eyes. Blue as a delicate cornflower on a summer’s day. She smelt like strawberries and ice cream and had a hug that could wrap up both her twins tightly. I don’t really remember the years either side of her death, it’s like my memories have captured her from when I was younger. When I was younger than my boys are now. I remember her, as a toddler remembers their Mumma, always soft and loving. She was always ready with a smile. Yet even now I can see the depth in her gaze, the far off look that was often focused on something beyond what I understood. It was magic that killed her. Or rather, Rogue’s who were employed by my Father’s rival pack the Bloodied Horizon. They don’t exist any longer. Rogue’s took up a bounty to take out the So
I wake and Kylar is gone. There’s a dry feeling on my tongue, I’m dehydrated. Even my eyes are itchy. I stay still, reluctant to face the day. To accept that I’m lying on an inflatable mattress in a tent, because my sons were stolen. I feel broken from the inside out. But lying here won’t find them either. I roll off the bedding and ease out of the tent. It’s still early morning and I stare at the grey light that surrounds me. The campsite feels as though it’s asleep. It’s quiet except for a soft call of birds. I can see half a dozen tents along with trailers and more quads and atvs that I can count.Everything is neatly organised, as though Midnight Forest has mobilised an entire army into the Forest. I feel a lump in my chest, they really have. They’ve called everyone in for my boys. I’m so incredibly grateful and frustrated at the same time. I can feel the connection between myself and the rest of the Pack. Fainter than it was yesterday. There is some relief in that. Yet I know
Kylar The last few days have been a nightmare that I can’t seem to wake up from. Every time I thought I was connecting with Ava and getting closer to her, she managed to pull further away. We were sat on the sofa in her childhood home, and I don’t know if she couldn’t sense it, but the whole house smelled like her. Even if the smell was faint, like the smell of old books in a library. The house was so familiar, even though I’d never been there before the trip. It was part of her. Part of what made her, just like Silver Stream and its current Alpha. There’s a connection there, a shared history that I know I can’t fight. She’s a grown woman, making her own choices. Even if it took everything I had not to jump across the coffee table and rip out Alpha Josh’s throat. How dare he ask her to be his Luna?! Couldn’t he sense that she belongs to me?Sabre was growling at him, and I felt his own Alpha rise against my own. Because no, I’ve not marked Ava. She hasn’t consented to that. But we
AvaEverything hurts. My mouth is dry, tongue scratching against the roof. My lungs are tight, every breath a struggle. I fight to open my eyes, but my head is pounding and I’m reluctant. I just want to curl up, burying beneath the covers and sleep. Am I in a bed?I frown as my eyes adjust. I peer out at the world. It’s grey, darker than I expected. But what did I expect? Where am I? I try to stretch out and realise that I can’t. Maybe that’s why my chest and lungs hurt so much. My arms are bound behind me, locked at the wrists and elbows. I struggle, trying to fight against the rising sense of panic. What has happened. Where am I? I feel sick, as though I’ve drunk too much tequila before falling into bed. I’ve never been so thirsty and my head feels as though someone is hitting it with drumsticks. I close my eyes again. I need to focus.Sore head, dehydration, memory loss, confusion....I go through my symptoms and feel the bile rise in my stomach again. I really am going to be si
Don’t panic, don’t panic. I’m stern with myself. Fighting against my own rapid breath. I can breathe, I remind myself and I close my eyes once more. Blocking out the world. I wish this was just a bad dream. But it’s not. I’ve felt like this before, when I was Banished from my pack. I breathe a little easier. That was worse. That felt so much worse, physically. As though my soul was pulled out of my chest. As though I was bleeding from a hundred different stab wounds. This doesn’t feel like that. I feel panic, I’m in pain. I’m under the affect of whatever drug they gave me and the dehydration. But I don’t feel as though the very essence of my soul has been splintered. Breathe, I remind myself. Separating someone from their Wolf. I’ve heard of it happening but pain usually kills both parties. I’m not in that kind of pain, and for the first time in my life, I feel grateful for the pain of Banishment. It gives me something to compare my current agony with. It’s not that. So Seren isn