Justin POVI paced the living room, her scent still stuck on everything around it. It ached my body to think of her at my father’s estate. What will Juden do to her now?The last time he got ahold of her, he sent my Lycan in a rage while she laid dying in the street. I was able to heal her, but I don’t know how much more she can take.Eventually, she will fall to her many, terrible wounds.That means I have to work fast to get her back.Randy charged through the front door and held a small camera in his hand, panting as he caught his breath from the run. I haven’t seen Helen in almost three days and I’ve tried to get Randy close enough to report on if she’s okay or not.Something tells me he finally has caught a glimpse of my poor mate.He displayed the video on the wall, the two of us in silence since I scolded him for allowing this to happen. My mate should have stayed back, but now I have a hundred wizards roaming around my pack grounds and a happy Fae, but no mate.She’s the only
Helen POVThe night was worse than the daytime.At least the damn wizard had backed off by now, leaving some kind of leverage over my body to make me stay in place, humiliated in the town square while bloody and beaten. I kneeled, needing sleep, my eyes swollen and my throat tight from being seized by power so often.I just need Justin to stay back. He can’t come after me. I don’t know how Juden will do it, but his plan for me to kill Justin scared me more than anything else ever could.If Justin is safe, then I’m fine dying out here.I leaned back, the cold breeze slipping past my freezing, battered body. I could hear the steps but I stopped caring who it was anymore. It didn’t matter. Everyone here hated me anyways.“Still hanging on, I see,” my father grumbled, throwing a blanket over whatever is left of my figure. He sat down, legs crossed leisurely before him, uninterested or concerned for my wellbeing.At least the blanket brought me some semblance of warmth.I tipped my head ba
Justin POVRandy wasn’t ready for us to descend, but it’s not up to my Beta.It’s up to me.I hung back at the edge of the pack lands, my mate fallen in a heap of exasperation and blood. She looked so close to death I could smell it in the wind as it blew by.“We need to wait,” Randy groaned. “The full moon isn’t safe for you, not yet.”“Do you see my mate, the pack Luna, over there bleeding to death, or is it just me?”Randy lets his head fall. “I know, I know. If don’t get her the first time, I am worried they will kill her. We need to be precise, Alpha. I’m just trying to help you achieve that.”“We get her tonight,” I readmit. “Tell the warriors to surround the pack. We strike in an hour when everyone is in position.”Randy nodded and left my side. I didn’t want to be alone with Russo but it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice. Russo is kneeling beside me, his eyes anxiously pacing my mate, so battered and in pain.I just want to take all of those pains away, forever.“She’s s
Helen POVJustin’s face fell as he realized what had been done. His father, the Alpha King, bent over and grabbed the back of my scalp, forcing me to watch as my mate writhed and ached in pain.The blade was poisoned, I could feel it in my palm when he handed me the knife, and there was nothing I could do to stop the command laid over me.The wizard on Juden’s side of this battle is overwhelming, in the shadows, working as the puppet master to my whole mind and body.I just wish he didn’t make me remember stabbing Justin.I could die after watching that happen. He looked at me with the most unbelievable expression of shock, of ultimate betrayal, and I couldn’t even explain what happened.I just wanted him to know I loved him and if he never comes back for me, I understand.As long as he lives.“Helen,” Justin growled.My mate was struggling in standing but finally he did, just wobbly in doing so. He cocked his brow, seeing me at the behest of his father who just spent day and night be
Justin POVIt happened so fast.And it didn’t make any sense.Gwen worked on my back again, having to redo her work every hour on the dot just to pull the poison from my blood stream. I laid on our bed, suffocating myself with Helen’s scent, and growling every time I inhaled it.I missed her so much and that’s what she does in return? She betrayed me!Gwen tweaked with my spine and I snarled in response, Randy and the Fae holding back nearby as though ready to pounce if I were to attack our frail little healer.I shouldn’t be surprised because fury is all my Lycan felt now. It’s all I had left to deal with. I needed something to cling onto and it wasn’t Helen—not anymore.“It doesn’t make sense,” Randy growled, slamming his fist into the wall; again.“She may have been confused, Lycan,” Russo offered. “She would never betray you, I know she wouldn’t. She worked so hard to free those wizards so why would she turn around and want to stab—”“ENOUGH!” I roared. “She pierced me with the bl
Helen POV“I want you to count them this time,” Kelley purred, holding the whip behind me so I couldn’t see her next movements. “If you pass out again, I’ll just start over when you wake back up. Understand me, mutt?!”“Yes, Luna,” I breathed, my lips cut and swollen in bruises.I don’t know how long we’ve been back on Fiery Cross pack lands but I knew it had been a lot of time I’ve been down in this cell. My father would beat me with his belt, complaining that his pack hadn’t yet returned.He took in a few rogues as warriors. They stayed in the pack house, only adding to my torture.None of it matched my step-mothers. I guess technically, my aunt. She threw her sister out like Diana did to me and I couldn’t imagine doing that to my own family.Of course, I never imagined hurting Justin.I couldn’t stop seeing his face in my nightmares. He truly thought I had stabbed him, and now he’s dead because of me. I wished Kelley would just end my suffering but she wasn’t interested in that.My
Helen POVRusso held open the door to the vacant house and I fell inside immediately, unable to have any more strength to go further than the foyer. Russo made sure to lock the door, falling beside me so he could see my face, covered by my matted, bloody hair.“Little wolf, are you okay?” he gasped, his voice a stark difference than it was at my father’s packhouse. He is so calm and concerned. I’m glad he isn’t the ruthless and callous Fae he was pretending to be at the dinner table. “Helen, I’m going to pick you up, okay?”Before I could stop him, he lifted me off the floor. I gasped alive, my back on fire as it pressed into his forearms. My fists curled into the fabric of his shirt, begging to be cut loose.“Here, here,” he panted, lowering me into the bathtub. I slid onto my side, trying to alleviate the pain on my back. Lifting up the back of my shirt, Russo groaned, “moon goddess… Helen, your back…”“Whipped,” I breathed. “Nine—nineteen times.”“Why, Helen? Did your parents do th
Helen POVI kept my head down, knowing Kesler had one thing on his mind when desperately wanting to make me suffer. He is an alpha male, a dark coated wolf who reminds me too much of Scott.Now, above ever before, I wished that Kesler had the same fate of Scott.Maybe this would be over quickly. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt as much as I think. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll black out and be granted unconscious to avoid feeling anything at all.Kesler reels back his boot, brining it across my temple and throwing me into the side of the bathtub. Blood marks the floor already, but now there’s more. Crimson is such a terrible, painful color and it lines everything now.“Fuck, that felt good,” he mumbled, inhaling like stepping out into fresh air. “Let’s get to the real fun, though, little Luna.”He straddled my lap and I just tried to stay calm, knowing what is coming but not knowing how I would handle it. I laid back and shut my eyes, feeling him rustle around as he tried to get comfortable while I w