[Hyacinth] “Close your eyes, Bash,” a voice from inside me speaks, a voice that is not quite me. “I don’t want you to see this.” I wait until I see his eyes are closed before I focus my attention on the wolf man breaking his way through. Closing my eyes, I feel his flesh beneath my hand and I sense the power bubbling underneath the surface of his skin. It feels unnatural. He was never meant to be a wolf. He is in pain. “You can help him,” the voice inside me confirms. “You can heal him.” “How?” I no don’t waste time asking the voice who they are or where they come from. I know now that she is my wolf and I welcome her assistance. “What do I need to do?” "Do you sense the wrongness, the thing that doesn't belong?" she asks. "Feel with your mind, grab it with your thoughts, and pull it into you. Your body was designed for this. Trust me." Imagining a hand reaching from my mind through the connection I have with the wolf man in front of me, I grasp the wrongness with invisible

[Drew]The car is dark and smells of wet earth. Glass is strewn everywhere. My head is pounding and for a moment I forget where I am and how I got here but then it all comes back in a rush of emotion. My eyes snap open. We were attacked and there was an accident. Rogues. Rogues that Cindy said were not real rogues but transformed humans. An impossible truth unless you know that witches are real and never fully died out in the wars. “Cindy?” I call out into the dark. “Bash?” A woman in the distance screams in defiance and pain, followed shortly by another scream of anguish and heartbreak. Unbuckling my seatbelt, I wiggle out of one of the broken windows and into the cold night air. Without thinking I shift into my wolf form and sprint into the forest toward the source of the sound. On four legs I bound forward with the speed and grace of a true alpha wolf. I am larger than most, a true apex predator. My wolf, Drake, moves through the trees like night itself, our black fur blendin

[Hyacinth]Bash was looking back over his shoulder at where Drew disappeared. “Is he going to be okay,” he wonders aloud as he stumbles across the bridge. His small limbs are exhausted from all the running he has done so far and his steps falter. Fighting back my own exhaustion I scoop him up into my arms. “I don’t know, sweetheart,” I admit honestly. “But he told us to run to his friend, that he will find us somewhere safe.” His little arms wrap tightly around my neck. “Drew wanted us safe, so we are going to do that. For him,” I insist. I feel his little head nod against my neck and I give him a little pat on the back as I hurry to the other side. My brave little wolf. He is trying so hard to be strong, but I know that he is still worried. I’m worried for Drew too, but I don’t want his sacrifice to be wasted. Seeing the rogues and the behavior of Slate and the rest of the pack, I can understand why he is worried for our safety. Something is going on at Gold River Pack. Something t

[Slate]“You will do what I say,” Ash hisses in my ear, her hand on the same star necklace that condemned me all those years ago, “Now.”It is getting harder and harder to fight the compulsion. For some reason, she has not been able to control me completely, causing her no end of frustration. Most of the time I do exactly what she wants, exactly what she tells me to do. But there are two things she cannot force me to do anymore, even with all of this magic forcing me to act and speak with her will and words. She cannot force either myself or Sage to mate with her. Especially Sage. He is a virgin in every sense of the word and has no intention of mating with anyone but his mate. He is waiting for her, mourning her loss. I appreciate his strength and completely understand. I wish I had his willpower years ago. She also cannot convince me to kill or harm anyone that I love. She has tried more than once to get me to seek and kill Hyacinth. She also wants me to harm Drew. And while on th

[Hyacinth] “We need to come up with a plan,” I insist as we get into yet another car. We’ve been traveling up and down the state, shifting directions, not staying in one pack for more than two or three days, for the last week and a half. Every time we stop, we change cars as a way of keeping those who may be following us off of our scent. Originally, when Gregory told me the plan to go down the River City, and then out to the coast, I thought that would be the end of the journey. What he didn’t tell me was that it was only the first leg of our adventure. I miss Slate with my entire being. When I think of him, I am filled with a deep ache that goes all the way into my bones. In some ways, I think it would have been better if I had never known he was my mate. Had we never found each other, never mated, I wouldn’t long for him the way that I do. My heart wouldn’t be broken if I had never filled it with his love. You cannot miss something that you have never experienced. “You know t