LOGINI take his hand, a plan forming. My palm is soft in Nester’s. He beams at me as I whisper through my hesitation, “Okay.”“Okay?” “Okay,” I repeat, heart pounding. “I’ll be your Luna. Your queen. Whatever it is that’ll make me powerful, I’ll do it.” Nester’s body hums with life. All the excitement he’d been hiding since he met me slams into him with full force. He pulls me to his chest, and I stifle my urge to throw up. “I’m going to give you the world,” he purrs by my ear. “You just wait, Quinn.”Quinn. I freeze. His arms feel heavy on my shoulders, but he doesn’t let go. Doesn't even recognize his mistake: all these years, and it’s always going to be my mum for him. I gulp, overlooking it. I wouldn’t want to frustrate him before the next thing I have to tell him. “But I have a few conditions.” He stiffens. Nester pushes me back gently, his eyes careful as he gazes at me. “Okay.” “You have to let the CrestRidge boys go.” He cackles as if he expected it. “Olivia, once our mati
Gravel crunches beneath our feet as we move stealthily through the messy Penbrook terrain. I step on something that squelches and gag. I didn’t think saving my girl would be this nasty. “How much further do we have to go?” Liana asks, her voice a whisper. But it doesn’t matter, because it still echoes off the dark-stained buildings. I tense. “Not much further,” Axel says, sounding as sure as an Alpha should. As sure as I never will. The distance between us may only be a few steps, but I feel like there’s an entire universe separating Axel and I. The fight still feels fresh. I look at him, standing in front of our mismatched bunch. He’s bent slightly, his head crooked to search for threats. Being Alpha comes naturally to him, in a way it may never do so to me. Something snaps in the distance, and I stand at attention, ready to get out my knife. I swivel my head in the foggy direction of the noise, squinting into the darkness with a pounding heart. “Everyone stay quiet,” A
He doesn’t deny it. All this time I thought Penwood was an open grave, or a meeting place for the dead, but it’s never been that. It’s where all my people are. I stick the knife out, urging him not to take one more fucking step closer. Nester regards it with curious eyes, “You would still kill me, after knowing I saved our people?” “My people,” I snap. “And you didn’t save anyone. You turned them into mindless animals in your bitterness. They serve you blindly.” “That may be true, Olivia. But they serve me well.” I want to scream and never stop. How could he do this to humans? The bed feels too intimate to back myself up against, yet there is nowhere else for me to go. Nester stays standing at the edge; hands folded behind his back, neck a little crooked as he waits for my next words. “So what caused you to kill my mother then?” I snarl. “She came to you, didn’t she? After you started enslaving humans?” His face goes grave again, and violent heat floods me. What right does
I should kill him now. I have the chance, so I should take it. But my fingers are trapped around the picture frame. No matter how hard I try to release it, my hands don’t comply. “What is this?” I ask again, unable to hide the warble in my voice. Nester edges closer, the smell of death on him suddenly unbearable. “Maybe you should sit down-” I jerk away from him, toppling onto the bed. “Don’t tell me what to do.” Nester shakes his head. “That is the last thing I will ever do. You are the goddess herself to the people of Penbrook. If anything, you will soon tell them what to do.” His hand clasps my shoulder, “but first you have to listen to me.” The air thins. I struggle to gulp in the right amount of breaths to keep me standing and listening to this asshole. Me? A Goddess? How? And why to them? He gently pries the frame out of my shaky hands, his gaze hazy as he stares at the photo with a thin, reminiscing smile. “We were all so close then,” he starts wistfully, “all so young
It’s like I can feel the mark tattooed into my skin. Something that I haven't noticed in however long suddenly feels hot and heavy on my body. I run my hand over it painfully, as if doing that enough times will eventually rub it off my skin. Maybe by the time the door opens I'll look down at my ankle and see there was nothing there after all. “Ryker,” Hunter says soothingly, “Calm down.” How can I calm down? I'm in the dark. I'm chained to my brothers, and apparently I've been marked by Nester. “No no no no no.” I panic, rubbing harder, faster, trying to get this evil thing off my skin.Fingers snap around my moving hand, and from the slenderness of their touch, I know it's Talon. “Rye, it's okay,” he says gently, but he must think I'm stupid not to hear the tension in his voice. “It's okay for you.” I don't keep the panic out of my tone. “You're not the one with Nester Rist’s mark on your skin.” “Rubbing it isn't going to change anything,” he tries to keep his voice steady. F
The sack over my head comes off, and I stare up at Nester’s hulking frame.Every blood cell in my body freezes. “Miss Blackwood,” he says, “it’s such an honour to have you here.” He’s here. He’s actually in front of me. My brain falters as it tries to think of words to say, but Axel’s low growl beats me to it. Nester doesn't even acknowledge him. “You’ll have to forgive my… methods of getting you here.” Nester raises the sack. “I didn’t know how else to have a formal meeting with you. I’d insisted Everest try to convince you to come, but I guess that was an error on my end. He isn’t always… amicable.” A million responses come to mind, but I can’t get any of them past my lips. This is the man who murdered my mother. This is the reason all the humans other than me are dead. This is my greatest enemy. My biggest threat. And he’s so… polite? “Um,” I start, finally managing to put words together. “Hello.” Nester smiles at me, a full set of white teeth gleaming in the darkness.
“I hope you grabbed everything, dear?” Theresa tells me outside her door the next day. I decided it’d be best if Talon spent the day in his house, calming down from everything that happened. Now it’s the next morning, and we’re both stable enough to return to our unstable lives. “I think so.” I sm
Shock freezes me to the spot. Alpha Rick and Marjorie say more things, things I should probably be listening to, but I can't. My brain buzzes with static. There’s too much to process, from fated mates to the boy from the fire—when there’s only one boy I've ever known who survived a fire—to this N
My heart feels like it's being squeezed. My head feels like it's going to fall off my shoulders. All this time I thought the council was the risk. I foolishly thought Clarissa was a problem, but the animal who killed my mother, who can suck me dry, is hunting me. I have to keel over a little wh
I hate that I never know what to do without my packmates. As Ryker whirs away, speeding off into the sunset, I feel the panicked urge to follow him. What if he gets hurt? What if he has a run-in with Everest? What if, what if, what if… What if, for once, I took a fucking break? Axel’s and I’







