I walk into the mud room to check my jacket pockets for a receipt from work when I see Chloe straightening up from putting some clothes in the washing machine. “Hey, bug. How ya doing?” I ask, calling her by the nickname I gave her when she was three and I found her lying under a tree in the backyard of the packhouse covered in ladybugs. She sniffs before answering, “Morning.” Immediately, I’m at her side. “Chloe, what’s wrong? What happened? Who am I killing?” She turns and wraps her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. “Slade, I’m so stupid.” She cries silently, her body shaking. Oh, shit. I immediately wrap my arms around her and let her fall apart while I keep her together. Years of therapy individually and together have shown me that I need to just be here for her right now until she’s ready to talk. So, I pick her up and take her outside so that there aren’t any eavesdroppers. As I walk out, I see Case and Sev by the bonfire pit. They’re standing,
Once we’re outside of the ugly ass building where we met Celeste and her toadies, we make a quick plan with Bella. We’ll all make our way back to the motel, pack, and head to Bella’s covendom. There, we’ll nail down our alliance and look for another coven of the Mother that will enter into an alliance with us. Michael and Citra can also plan their handfasting ceremony that way. Bella assures us that she has plenty of room for all of us. We make sure to say that we wouldn’t be here long. As soon as Brandon is healed in two days time, we’re leaving. We luckily have enough vehicles for all of us to pack up our things and ride in. After an hour, we are all out of our cars and receiving a blessing from Bella to enter her covendom. We are met by her sister, Iris, who brings a bag with her. In front of each of us, Bella dips a finger into the bag and uses the powder within to draw a trinity knot on our forehead. As she draws the knot, she whispers something so low that even my en
Bella takes us to a beautiful ranch style house for lunch, informing us that this is where the majority of people in the coven eat on a daily basis. Sure, all the houses and cabins are equipped with fully functioning kitchens, but Bella treats her coven as more of a family than a group of people that she’s in charge of. Unless on dates or sick, the witches of Bella’s coven preferred to be together for each meal. It was similar to the way that we run our mealtimes in the pack and it’s a nice reminder of home. Bella introduces us to her sisters. Bella is the oldest of the five and we had already met Iris at the border of their territory. Isla, Ivy, and Indigo round out the group. Apparently there was a theme going on with the girls’ names. Bella’s mother died in childbirth with her youngest sister, Indigo, nine years ago. Her biological father, who had been handfasted to her mother for about 10 years, had been the High Priest until Bella reached the age of majority at 18. He
Oh, good. Now I can get every uncomfortable conversation done at once. Then I might go take a nap. I deserve it. Treat yo’self! I quickly but thoroughly explain the deal with Casen, Severen, and Rin and their second chance mates. I mean, I’ve given the spiel twice. I know how to efficiently get the information out there. I’ve just finished talking and am looking around to see what everyone is feeling. Starting on my left sit Chloe, Rin, Slade, Kesha, Severn, and Case ending up on my right. The looks of unadulterated shock on Chloe, Kesha, and Slade’s faces are only matched by the complete misery from Severn and Casen. The only one who seems at ease is Rin. Even I'm more anxious about this than she is. Chloe looks at me, but I can see her sneaking glances at Severn and Casen. “Why would the Goddess do this?” “This has nothing to do with Selene’s will, other than you knowing it early and her wanting you to be happy. This has to do with Rin, Casen, and Severn’s relatio
I have always feared finding my mate. Having had little to no control of my life for most of it, I didn’t want to think of someone else choosing who I was going to spend the rest of my time on Earth with. Even if that someone is our Mother Goddess. Like we told Meredith last night, she-wolves were seen as inferior. They were meant for few things, and each of those things were in service of their mate. Many were treated as slaves, created to cook and clean for their mate and to warm his bed at night. The matebond wasn’t even that sacred in our pack. Many of the men frequented the pack whorehouse, the place where all she-wolves from 16, when they got their wolf, until they found their mate were taught how to “please a male.” The only reason that I had escaped that particular cruelty is that Slade had made it known that Chloe and I were his favorites. His father allowed him to keep me for one year without having to share with the other wolves. Had we not left, I would still
Case and I follow Rin out to the bonfire pit. I’m so full of misery right now. I can’t imagine not being with Rin. She’s gone from the little red head that held so much fascination for me when I was a child, to my teenage best friend and confidant, to my mate, to the mother of my pups, to the cause of my torment. I have literally shared every aspect of my life with her. Every major event, every minor detail, everything has had her in it. And now there’s the possibility that it’s over. I mean, I know that over the last couple of days, I decided that I was willing to walk away. Believe me, the irony isn’t lost on me. But, I thought that it would be because we couldn’t get it together. I thought that I would be leaving out of anger or self-preservation. I thought that I’d have some kind of righteous reason to be like, “Hey, I tried. And it just didn’t work out.” Never in a million years did I think that it would be like this. This is calm. Rin seems almost happy, not an
I wake up to see Chloe fussing with some of my bandages. She doesn’t register that I’m awake and I take a second to study her. Her face is blotchy and tear-stained and her eyes are red. It’s obvious that she’s been crying, though I’m not sure why. Her hand goes to the bandages on my chest and I place my hands on hers. “Hey. What’s wrong?” My voice is stronger and actually has some intonation in it. She blinks back some tears and gives me a fake smile. “Oh, you’re awake! That’s great! How are you feeling? Think you might be ready to sit up and have something to eat? I brought your protein shake with me.” “I’m feeling better. If you can help me sit up, I think I could hold the drink myself. You can supervise me while you tell me what’s up.” I give her a meaningful look. She snorts as she turns away to put down the bandages. “Not gonna let it go, are you?” “Not in my DNA. Ask Sev.” At the mention of Sev’s name, I see her tense and she freezes for a minute. Huh.
We start to go outside, but see that Rin is still out there, talking to Kesha now. Slade and Meredith are nowhere to be found, but it feels weird to have this conversation out where anyone can hear it. “You guys want to come to my room? We’ll get some privacy there.” There’s no ignoring the tremor in Chloe’s voice as she says this. As much as all of our minds are in turmoil with everything that’s happening, our bodies have no difficulties understanding what they want. The thought of being in a room alone with her, a room that is covered in her scent, has my adrenaline spiking, along with my breathing. “You sure, Chloe?” Sev asks. I can tell that he’s having just as much trouble fighting his body as I am. “Yeah. I mean, we’re just gonna talk, right?” Her words are confident, but her eyes are looking everywhere but at us. Honestly, I think that we have a snowball’s chance in Hell of keeping our hands to ourselves, but I’m gonna do my best. It won’t be hard if she doesn