Kaiya Around midday, Bowden comes into my office and falls down on the seat in front of my desk. “I appear to be done for the day,” he says. “Who cleared my backlog?” “Jaeger and I took care of it.” I glance up from the diary I’m trying to translate. “So you have the rest of the day free.” “Hm, no.” He grunts and rests his right ankle on his left knee. “I have to start going through the grimoires and paperwork we found at Moon Dance.” “What about the witches?” I ask. “Most are dead. I brought the most powerful ones with me. They're locked up in the dungeon. Do you remember one called Samantha?” “I wasn’t allowed to interact with the witches. They mostly kept to themselves.” I lower my eyes back to the diary and start to type the lengthy Latin phrase into the search engine. “Kaiya,” my mate says and reaches across the desk to put his massive hand across mine. “Stop that for a moment and listen to me. I need to tell you something.” At first I’m annoyed. I’m sure I’ll find somethi

Bowden“My father did it,” Kaiya insists.“How?” I ask. “He’s locked up in a silver cell. He can’t even mind link with anyone.”“His witches then?”I shake my head and lift her onto my lap. She’s frantic, her thoughts running amok, making it extremely difficult for her to concentrate on any one emotion. Unthinking, I start to hum softly, not so much that I’ll put her to sleep, but enough for her to calm down a little.I came up to tell Kaiya about Demi and change into my regular clothes, planning to head straight back down to the dungeon, but my mate is so upset that I can’t bring myself to leave her yet.“He tried to poison me,” she says. “Do you remember? When we were in Junction City.”“Not with anything deadly,” I remind her. “He just wanted to draw us out.”“He’s up to something, I’m telling you.”“Kaiya,” I sigh her name. “You are giving him too much power.”She slowly starts to relax and finally goes limp in my arms. She’s not asleep, just very relaxed. “Not all hunters are hum

Kaiya I wake up in the dead of night, all alone in my bedroom. I haven’t slept here since before Bowden left to appoint the Alphas, and I don't remember coming to my room. I do remember telling Thaddeus that I don't feel well and falling asleep in Bowden's bed. Maybe he moved me here for some reason. Perhaps he just needed to be alone tonight. An unbearable thirst nags at the back of my throat, and my head is pounding out a drum solo. I groan and swing my legs off the bed as I reach for the light switch of the lamp on my nightstand. I swallow against the drought in my throat and head straight to the bathroom, where I drink water straight from the faucet before I get under the shower to wash the cobwebs from my head. When the water starts to run cold, I get out of the shower and wrap a towel around myself. Bowden’s scent, mixed with the very strong odour of whiskey, hits me the moment I open the bathroom door. I didn’t hear him come in, but he can be very quiet when the mood takes

Bowden The Lycans formed an honour guard on either side of the path that leads to the catacombs. They’re dressed in their mourning clothes, the same as everyone else, hands clasped in front of them, heads bowed. A few of them are openly crying, including Neil. He never did take a real liking to Kaiya, but he loved her. When you live as long as we have, you start to learn that the two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. It's the only time I feel comfortable showing them all my emotions, open and raw, bleeding for all to see. They've all been here more than once, and they all know the enormity of it. The exquisite and unending pain. Jaeger and Griffin walks ahead of me to show me the place they had prepared for her. It’s a little deeper into the catacombs, but not so far that the warm sun streaming in from outside won’t catch her. Oswald came to light all the torches that had gone out while the mates were roaming around outside, and they flicker in the breeze, casting their soft,

Kaiya I open my eyes, but it’s as if I’m trying to see through a deep mist. I can’t make anything out around me. My arms and legs are trapped against my body. Someone tied me up. I let out a high-pitched scream and try to struggle out of my bindings, grunting and crying as panic wells up in my chest. “Sh-sh-sh,” Bowden’s voice flushes over me. “Stop fighting. I’ve got you.” At the sound of his voice, I relax and allow him to lift me up off the hard surface I’m lying on. He unwraps whatever it is that kept me trapped like a swaddled baby, and the more he works to undo me, the more of the world comes into view. What happened? I remember falling asleep in Bowden’s arms, and then nothing. Not even dreams. Did I make it? Were we wrong? My heart sinks when I sit up and take in my surroundings. We’re in the catacombs. The thing that bound me now lies at my feet, and looks like some kind of funeral shroud. The full moon is casting it’s glow in through the opening. Two weeks went by, but t