Justin POVI scooped my mate at the mention of her father in Vegas, let alone right outside the front door. Helen groaned at the movement, limp in my forearms as I kept her close to my chest.Geoffrey had craved her blood instantly for the long-lasting bite and I didn’t want any other vampires looking at her like a blood bag. She’s my mate. I will protect her.“This way,” Geoffrey said.He nodded us down the hall and back into the open club dancefloor. He waved for the music to stop and it did right away. Everyone watched my mate, knocked-out in my arms like road kill would appear to a buzzard bird.I kissed her temple, hoping if she could somehow feel the tension in the air now, that she would ignore it with my cradling, defensive hold.“My clan!” Geoffrey called. “We have an uninvited wolfen guest!”A low rumbled traveled through the velvet club.“You cover their tracks and you deny their existence,” he called, pointing to my mate and me. “They are one of us!”I felt light as he led
Helen POVThe sight had spun out of control quicker than I could wake up. Justin was tearing into Geoffrey, the vampire struggling to hold his own in the fight against a full Lycan.His claws were sharpened to their longest point. He wasn’t going let this vampire walk away from a fight with a slight wound. He was charging to kill something already dead by most standards, something that doesn’t bleed or feel pain.Whatever caused this fight didn’t matter to me. Justin couldn’t get hurt in it.I pushed myself off the bed, trying to shift into my Snow White wolf but I fell to the ground, the metal collar smaller against my wolf’s throat than it is on my mortal form’s neck. I coughed to breathe, pulling on the metal collar in angst.The metal beeped once, and I yanked at it harder, frustration consuming me all over.“Ouch!”I screamed, a harsh point stabbing the back of my neck and pricking through my surface. I could feel blood trailing down the ridges of my spine, pooling into the jacke
Helen POVI shouldn’t have been surprised to see warriors charging through the suite. It had been hours since my mate ran off into the mortal world, destroying everything in his way while experiencing a rage over my near-death.They dragged me from the bedroom, ruthlessly throwing me into a cage in the back of a van waiting downstairs. It was Lone Wolf pack, I could tell by their attire, and the sight of them wasn’t even alarming.Justin must have tipped off our location without a chance of us hiding out anymore. I looked through the kennel, feeling like a rabid and stray rogue, seeing familiar chains looped on the floor that must have been waiting for Justin’s capture.One of the warriors walked up and kicked the side of my cage, speaking through a buff snarl. “Where is he?!”My labored breath hadn’t got much better after being poisoned and bit twice by a vampire. “I don’t know—he jumped out the window—and I couldn’t stop him.”“Tell me what you know, mutt!” He kicked the cage again,
Helen POVWe sleep in the car for most of the trip, driving until we will inevitably run out of gas. We have nothing left from our lost luggage and the missing trinket of my necklace and rings still brings tears to my eyes.I stroke my neck, starving and exhausted.“Maybe you were right,” I said, speaking to the stars that fly over our heads. “At least with Juden at Lone Wolf Estate, we had a shower and warm meals.” I toyed with my torn jacket, the only clothing I had at this point. “And clothes sufficient for the cold wind.”The car Justin hijacked was topless and the chilly air had done little to calm my unsettled nerves.I wept into my palms, starving, thirsty and full of anger.“Hey now,” Justin purred, pulling the car over to the side of the wooded road. He came around to open my door, allowing me to throw myself into his arms. “It’s okay, Helen. We’re going to be okay.”“And what if we’re not?!”He patted my head into the crane of his warm neck. “We will be. We always are. You w
Helen POVThe wizards and the Fae have dinner at one massive table. It’s a large event with dancers and magic and delicious food. We sit on small pillows around the low hanging table suspended from the larges branch of the pine trees above.This place is beautiful, and I’m envious of their sense of community.As a wolf in a pack, I was never allowed to eat let alone sit at the dining table with my so called family. But here they hand out plates to the little ones first, letting them pick through the dishes in the middle of the table before the adults can.Wizard Olu, who had found Justin and I on the road, handed us a plate next while mentioning we are the Fae’s distinguished guest. Something tells me they haven’t been around many wolves, like we haven’t been around wizards.There was a hint of tension, but it was small enough to ignore with ease.They gawked at our every movement; Justin ridged in his movements while I hung onto the robe I was given to wear. It puddled at my ankles a
Justin POVHelen slept on the floor, curled up over a little pile of blankets and a stiff cot. Wizard Olu had little else to offer, his home a woodsy open room with a couple piles of similar beds for himself and his daughter.I looked forward to getting to lay with my mate tonight, even in these impoverished conditions, but for the moment it seemed right to have a drink with Olu on the deck of his home, overlooking the vast and dark forest below.“This place is beautiful,” I hummed, admiring their perfect craftsmanship and the attention to detail on the railings strung with thick ropes to prevent incident. “I would have never guessed Wizards lived like this.”Wizards, in contrast to vampires, seem a lot more hospitable.“I always though rogues were dangerous and unpredictable,” Olu said, looking briefly to the home where my gentle mate whimpers in her sleep. “You both have exceeded my assumptions as well.”“You haven’t seen us at our worst yet,” I grumble admittedly. “I don’t think yo
Helen POVI wanted to scream and scrap and tear into that woman, and also into my mate for being in this situation, but when he tells me to run, I know it’s for good reason.Joy was stronger than she was since the wolfsbane prodded into my bloodstream. I shift into my white wolf, wanting to get my necklace but knowing better than to stick around here any long.Justin tore into his Lycan form and charged the naked temptress, Joy forcing me to run into the woods that had once been scattered with wandering, gathering wizards. It’s colder now, bare of any creatures, and the shift of life to nothingness puts an eerie shade over things.It doesn’t take long before I recognize the trailing scents of wolves in these woods. Juden’s warriors won’t stop hunting, won’t stop chasing, and I fear their plans to use me against Justin.It was the purpose of the collar that had been demolished, to be used against Justin for something. I just don’t know what yet, and I don’t think I should stay to find
Helen POV“You missed a spot,” Scott purred, kissing my bare, bruised back as I hunched over to scrub the tile floors. He stepped over me like I’m a bug he would prefer to squish. “If you behave tonight, maybe I’ll let you sleep in bed with me.”“Never,” I hissed, throwing the sopping wet sponge at his back.He stopped walking away and turned with a raised brow. “Oh, so you want to keep being punished?”“It’s better than being with you,” I barked. “You cannot keep me here forever, Scott. I will make it back to my mate.”“I am your mate!”“You will never be my mate again!”I stood, fighting the chains on my wrists and my legs, hating how Scott treats me like my Lycan mate is being treated by his father. He wants to humiliate me into submission. It will never work.“You want some perfect coated white wolf but you will never really be my mate! I will never be your Luna and I will never submit to you!” I lock my jaw, speaking with so much hate I don’t recognize my own voice. “I am glad yo