登入I’m back in chains. We all are: heavy-duty chain links around our arms and tied to the pews we’re sitting on. This time, however, I’m chained in a chapel. It’s run down like everything else in Penbrook, but Nester still spared no expense turning it into some sort of fucked-up ceremony venue. Red banners stream overhead, ribbons wrapped around the creaking benches. There are flowers; lilies, poppies, forget-me-nots, already dying because there’s no sunlight here to nourish them. But above all that, roses. Dozens of roses bunched up around different parts of the venue. My stomach churns. Is that supposed to be a sick reference to that thing Everest calls her? Little rose? “What the hell is all this shit?” I grunt, straining against my iron-clad chains. The boys don’t reply. I face them, assessing them once again for any horrible injuries, but they’re fine. A few cuts. A few bruises. But nothing that’ll end their lives. I wish that made me feel better. “That bastard still has Ol
If I didn’t know Alpha Rick, I’d assume this wasn’t the same man: on his knees, pleading, switching his wide gaze between myself and Nester. His brother. My heart quickens as I back away from them both, but Nester isn’t about to let his Little Rose get far. He clasps my forearm, nails digging into my skin. “Brother, stop this!” Alpha Rick roars. He struggles forward, but Nester’s followers drag him back. “I should stop?” Nester casts Ricklan a quizzical glance, his nails sinking deeper into my skin. “That is always your advice, isn’t it? To stop? Stop fighting for the rights of humans, even though half of me is human. Stop helping Quinn. Stop helping in the war. What was it you did to Olivia? Stopped fighting for her freedom and let her go to Lycroft to die?” My eyes lock on Rick as he turns to me desperately, begging, “It wasn’t like that. You know it wasn't like that. I did what I did to give you a chance to survive—” Nester stomps in front of me, towering angrily over his bro
I 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
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’
“Axel,” my dad whispers, like he’s looking at a dream version of me. “My son. So good to have you here.” He’s talking. He’s actually talking. My stomach roils at the smell of antiseptic. He looks horrible; his eyes are sunken in, his face puffed up from whatever medicine they’ve been giving him.
Everything in me is itching for a drink. I need the bitter bite of whiskey burning down my throat, churning in my belly, turning my brain into the right kind of slop that can forget everything that’s happened to me. My hand shakes over another textbook, sick of this searching. Hunter left the l
I should have left you in that starving house. I knew that; I've always known that. Somewhere in the back of my mind, past all the partying and sex, I always feared when Axel would tell me that bringing me home was a mistake. But I thought he’d let it slip by accident—at least then I would have k







