RAYA BANKS“Hurry! Intruders in the castle!” A large-breasted woman dressed as a Walmart version of Lady Aphrodite screamed, promptly before her head was snatched up by a shadowling.The Burning City banquet hall was being attacked! It had taken longer than I would have liked for me to realize it.I had seen the creatures, one of them, standing haunched in the obsidian blackness beyond the blue-tinted window panes of the banquet hall tower.I had been distracted by Alpha Nikolai’s angular face, the incandescent din of his baritone that buzzed deliciously in my ears and thought the beings as phantoms of my imagination.Not until they moved, the jagged ends of their skewered faces contorting as I noticed the willowy bulbs of their luminescent blue eyes watching me almost hungrily.“Lady Artemis,” I gasped imperceptibly, tugging on Nikolai’s bulky arm uselessly and following his eyes to see that the man on the stage, the King Alpha of the three cities had had his heart ripped out by what

NIKOLAI“Where is my brother?” I asked The Burning City’s chief assassin for the second time, the words passing harsher through my clenched teeth as I watched the skinhead cross his hands over the beefcake muscles on his chest.Hagrid was quiet as we stood face-to-face in the foyer, the nurse men still loitering about, scraping off the remaining bits of flesh and gut from the grooves in the concrete flooring of the stairs and banquet hall.“Are we speaking to a fucking oak tree Hagrid sama?” Igor bellowed, spigots of spittle flying from his mouth to spray the burly man’s face and I watched as a muscle ticked in Hagrid’s stern jaw.I heaved a heavy sigh, inhaling the fresh scent of wet earth as I threw my head back to gaze at the mass of stars sprinkled like confetti in the night sky, the flesh at my sides still strained and stung from the Shadowlings attacks.I had known already after I’d burst through the double doors of the banquet hall tower with Olivia cradled in my arms, her limp

RAYA BANKSI felt the Alpha’s needled fingers hook painfully in my hair as he jerked my head closer to his face so that I noticed the way his skin lacked any pores, the marbled porcelain contorting with hate and displeasure.“Answer me, wench, I will not have a man who whores around in MY own Castle! Do you understand me?” Alpha Toph bellowed, the wind from his mouth brushing harshly over my face so that I had to squeeze my eyes shut, feeling tears drop from the squinted corners as I tried to reach the iron grip he had on my hair.“Y-Yes Your Majesty,” I cried, feeling the sizzle of hair tearing from my scalp as he shoved me roughly to the side, making me stumble and fall on my ass, my legs splaying embarrassingly in front of everyone who cared to swing their head to the side to watch.I tried to still the wobble in my lips as something bitter burned in my chest while I jerked my hand away from the floor behind me to wrench the gown that had ridden up downward, catching a few of the l

NIKOLAI“What the hell are you going to do Niko? Are you planning to let the woman stay here? Permanently?” Igor whisper-yelled, jogging beside me to keep up with my long strides as we stormed across the sunlit stretch of hallway, the smell of wet earth coming from the stone walls muting the thoughts that threatened to overwhelm me.I sighed heavily, resisting the urge to roll my eyes back into my head as exhaustion seeped into my pores, making the darkness I fought to press down in my head and stretch a little more.What was it going to take for a man to get some peace and quiet in his own damned castle?“I don't know Igor, can we just focus on finding that damned Shadowling?” I seethed, watching the blonde rogue’s eyebrows raise dramatically before his midnight-black eyes fitted away from me and he clapped his hands together, contrite.Thank the freaking saints.I didn't know what game the moon goddess was playing, throwing a Shadowling at me when I was fighting for my mate. A mate

ALPHA TOPH”Take her to the dungeon Hagrid, where the other maidens are,” I growled testily, watching with delight as the woman’s eyes widened with fear before she doubled her efforts, fighting against the bulky frame of the guards that had pinned her right little body between them.Bloody hell, I loved seeing a woman struggle more than anything else, they were always the most...exciting. I swallowed the thick drool that had pooled in my mouth, fisting the hardness in my trousers discreetly as the guards carted her away and I followed behind.“You won't get away with this Alpha Toph! Nikolai would come to get me! I know he will!” Raya’s frantic screams sounded in the foyer as I turned to wave dismissively at some of the brown-nosed council members that had stopped to stare at the debacle. “I highly doubt that mi amor, seeing as my brother is set to be wed to the lovely Olivia Burns, retired whore as she is...a suitable bride for the bastard.” I guffawed, gloating in the silence that