*Isla*I’m underwater again.This time isn’t like the last time, though. I know immediately that things are different.This time, I’m more angry than I am afraid, but I don’t feel the same pressure that I did last time either. I feel like I am storming off, running away, riding my white horse off into the sunset….But I also feel like it probably shouldn’t be a white horse. I know I’ve done awful things, and I know that I’ve screwed everything up. I’m not the hero in this story….I’m the villain.Normally, I’m okay with that. I don’t mind being the one who stirs up all of the trouble. But in the back of my mind, I can’t help thinking about what might’ve happened if my plans hadn’t gone awry. Perhaps I should’ve listened to my father and not messed with the situation so entirely.None of that matters now. Dad drowned. Mom fled the moment she found out what I was up to. I am pretty sure that Wylie is pulverized, and I have no fucking idea where the driver is.It’s just me now.Me… and m
*Maddox*Isla’s scent permeates every breath as I gain my bearings, doing my best to wake my sleeping mind. I have a vague recollection of talking to her earlier this morning, before I was fully awake.She’d given me some startling information, something I needed to look into today, though I’m not exactly sure what it was now….It’ll come back to me later.For now, my hand is resting on her soft, warm breast, and with her intoxicating scent rolling around me, I can’t help but keep the hardness I’ve awoken with growing in length.The recollection that she is injured comes to my mind, and I know I should leave her be. She hit her hard pretty hard yesterday, and she has a wounded shoulder, but her nipple is hardening beneath my palm, and I can’t seem to pull my hand away.Groggily, she says, “Maddox? What are you doing?” But her voice is sultry, not at all perturbed that I’ve awoken her by massaging her breast.“I’m kissing your neck,” I tell her as I do just that. My mouth sinks into th
*Isla*When I awake again, after Maddox left to go do whatever he was going to do to check to see if my dream was real, it’s to the sound of someone moving in my room. It seems like whoever it is is trying to be quiet, but when something makes a loud clatter, and I hear Beta Seth swear under his breath, it’s obvious who it is.“What’s going on?” I ask, groggily. I roll over, pulling the blanket up around me, and look at him.“Oh, I’m so sorry, Isla. I am just… King Maddox wanted me to put a phone in your room so that you can call your parents and they can call you whenever you want. But the phone jack is behind the bed, and getting to it is being a pain in the a–butt.” He stops himself short of swearing in front of me, like I am some sort of a delicate flower.“Thanks, Beta Seth,” I say to him, smiling at his kindness. “Is there anything that I can do to help?”“No, no, I’ve got it.” He grunts a little as he strains and stretches behind the bed for a second and then sighs with a succ
*Isla*“Can I come in?”I stare at the girl, not quite sure what to say. I’m taken aback that she’s even here. What in the world could she possibly have to say to me?And yet, it’s very difficult for me to tell her to leave. She looks so sad, standing there in the doorway, her bulging stomach protruding in front of her.“Of course,” I say, gesturing for her to come over to the sitting area where I have a couple of comfortable chairs in front of the window.We both sit, and I readjust my skirt several times, not sure what to say or do. Part of me wants Poppy to come in and say she has my breakfast, so I can at least have an excuse not to be able to talk. If my mouth is full of eggs, I won’t have to say anything to this doe-eyed girl who is looking at me like she thinks I have all of the answers to whatever ails her.“I’m… Isla,” I say to her, and she nods. I have to assume she already knows that, but since no one is saying anything, I thought it might be a good way to start the convers
*Maddox*Blood coats the floor in the entryway. I could see it before I even kicked in the door. My warriors, still in their human form, join me as I walk into the house.The body of a young maid, legs prone, arms over her face, is positioned off to the side of the door. This blood is hers. She has bite marks and deep scratches from claws on her chest, neck, and face. I can see that from here, but when I step closer to her and roll her over, I notice that the blood is coagulated. She has been laying here for a while. I’m no medical expert, but I’m guessing it’s been a few hours.I have seen my fair share of bodies on the battlefield from warriors who have died early in the fight, ones we gathered much later, and the blood is similar.Her cold, empty, green eyes stare up at me. I close them for her, careful not to step in the blood as I walk away.“Be careful,” I tell the men with me. “This is a crime scene.”A whiff of the air tells me that this isn’t the only body we are going to fin
*Isla*“So she just waltzed right into your room, had a seat, and proceeded to ask you how to get with your man?” Poppy asks me as I stare at a plate of food I’m probably not going to eat much of. My stomach is still churning, and I don’t know if it’s because of the odd conversation I had with Sydney or if it’s something else.“Not exactly,” I tell Poppy because I don’t want her to think I didn’t tell Sydney she could come in. And she didn’t exactly ask me how to get with Maddox… well, maybe sort of. “She just thought I was a professional breeder or something. She was looking for advice.”“But… what about her current baby? Can you imagine her just hauling that kid around from one Alpha to the next while she tries to get knocked up again? And then she’ll do what? Leave a long trail of babies behind her?” Poppy shakes her head and sits down at the table with me, as if she is my friend, not my maid. She is my friend and my maid, but it seems so strange that she’s just sitting across from
*Isla*I am staring at the telephone, missing my youngest brother, wondering how he is doing, wishing I could see him, hug him, see his smile… when the phone rings, and I jump back into my chair at the dining table, almost knocking it over.The situation seems a little creepy. Lately, Mystica has been filling my mind with all kinds of thoughts about what could be going on with my mental state–the dreams, the memories, all of that stuff–that when I am looking at the phone and hear it break the noiseless space of my room with its high-pitched chirp, I can’t help but wonder for a moment if I did that with my mind.Shaking my head at my ridiculousness, I get up and rush over to answer the phone before the caller hangs up. I have no idea who would be calling when I haven’t given my number to anyone.My initial thought is that perhaps someone is calling the number wanting to reach whoever had this phone number before, but I won’t know until I lift the receiver.“Hello?” I say, my heart raci
*Maddox*I don’t bother to answer the voice in my head. I’m too angry, and I don’t want him to know what’s coming for him.Instead, once I’ve secured the crime scene, had my people take pictures and gather evidence, not that I need it because I am the law in this land, I move out, headed straight over to confront the idiotic asshole who’d decided to take matters into his own hands and cause all of these problems to begin with.Hill Country pack.The rest of the passengers are deathly quiet as we make the drive. My eyes focus out the window. If I remembered the images of all of the dead bodies I’d seen in my life, my mind would be full of ghastly figures, twisted, ripped open, covered in blood and gore.Only a few of those ghosts haunt me still. One soldier who was particularly close to me that I’d gone through my training with had died during an insurrection a few years back. He was a huge warrior, muscle-bound, fierce, and loyal.Somehow, he’d gotten himself into a situation where he