My vision replayed, just the same as every night. Nikolai approaches a shaggy brown-haired woman with a wide, crazed smile. There looked to be floorboards but that was about it. There was so little to go off. I didn’t know if this woman was an enemy or friend. Even a lover. Although Priya growled so sharply at that sleepy thought that I woke up with a start, squinting at the sunlight with a groan.“Good timing, we’re here. Freshen up in this village then we’re on foot.”Skye was just as tense as yesterday, except now he had dark circles under his eyes from driving all night. His skin was goose pimpled with cold from the morning air as I unfurled myself like a cat from underneath a blanket.“Morning, how are you?”“Ready to head home.”He remained as chatty as ever. “Look, Luna Helena picked you, she said to ask for you so there must be a reason.”When he said nothing again, I couldn’t help muttering, “must have been for the thrilling conversations she knew we’d have.”He slammed his h

These brief moments are what make us whole. Except as I float to earth I realise Nikolai has pulled out and released onto the leafy forest floor. He also never called me Vee. /Does that mean it was a mistake in the cell?/ Priya wondered as I tried to stop myself from falling over.Legs still shaking, leaning up on my elbows on the bonnet I feel him gently tug my black panties and jeans back to where they belong. My ass is stinging and fiery hot where the pink skin still tingles. I want affection after the heat. It’s not enough to just lose my mind with him anymore.“What’s going on here Nikolai?” I huffed. Redressed, I reached out for his hand. Except he swiped his away, pocketed into his jeans. He might as well have slapped my face as I bit my lips between my teeth and tried to fight the pulsing humiliation. My face flushed red anyway, frustration causing me to get snappy real quick. “What is your problem?”“I don’t have one, you’re the one confusing the situation,” snapping back,

Waking in my old room was a bizarre experience. Like time had reversed, I expected to hear Cillian banging the packhouse door as he left for a run. Or the sound of my parents laughing as they headed into the study after breakfast. Instead I got silence. I had arrived in the dead of night. Cillain, Alpha Cillian now, was absent. So my arrival back home started with being surrounded and almost attacked as a pack of Beta Guards surrounded my motorbike. After flashing a torch in my face a grizzled, tired-looking Beta Kharkov smiled and called out to the snarling forms surrounding my bike, “it’s just Gen!” a sense of home washed over me. I was always Gen here. It wasn’t the same thrill as being Vee, but Genevieve is way too formal. Heading down the stairs there were new faces in the kitchen. No sign of Matilda, so I grabbed a coffee and went to find some information. What I found was a porch rocking chair and the spectacle of seeing Beta’s Kharkov and Jackson schooling Franz and Zeke i

The dark wooden corridors of the Cragstone Packhouse were claustrophobic rather than comforting. Even so, the idea of returning back to White Forest made me nervous. I wondered if the suspect Nikolai arrested had even survived the journey back without his wolf killing him. /We were wrong about who hurt poor Skye, do not always think the worst of him! We hurt him when we doubt!/ Priya cried. There is no doubt in her heart that Nikolais wolf is some kind of misunderstood saint. It is incredibly annoying. This will be my third night away from him. I’m doing everything I can not to think of him. And failing miserably. It doesn’t help that my mark prickles and burns, as if he was right there licking or tickling it. It sends waves of heat between my legs as I try to pretend he isn’t everything I want. Instead I run a hot bath, focus on my breathing and try to relax. Surrounded by a stupid amount of candles, their cloyingly perfumed scent already irritating my nose I settled into the tub

Does he truly have no idea what he does to me? I was sunk the minute he wrapped his cloak around my shoulders. Tousling my hair dry until I giggled it felt as though the very plates of the earth were shifting beneath me. Nikolai being fun? Being innocently charming? Wearing a soft, never-before-seen grin of amusement as I fought against his towelling? That had never happened before and it was addictive. I grabbed the shirt from him intending to keep it light-hearted. It was playing with the most enticing, tempting kind of fire as I tried to gauge his reaction. Except with him being taller than me as soon as I tried to reach up for his hair he just grabbed my wrist like a ninja. “Hey!” I complained with a sulky pout. My struggle against his grip was pointless, except that my resisting arm parted his black cloak. Underneath my soaked, clinging silk pyjamas were doing nothing to hide my drenched body. Or the scent of my arousal. I whimpered softly with a teasing smile, “You’re not