LOGIN~Amber’s POV~It had happened in a sequence after Ian’s words.Confusion mixed with curiosity had taken hold but I had not let it grip me, so I turned after giving one final and utterly cold glare at Axel and walked back into that hall with my head held high, not caring for who I did or didn’t have.The ceremony had been completed with Roxanne, very much surprisingly, dropping the coldness long enough for it to be done.Then the overwhelming realization had hit that I was Queen.Amber Crystabel Moon, Queen of the Realm.It had taken a second more to settle and once it did, a part of me simply owned it. Owned the fact that I was the Queen, not the stares of disappointment, not the open contempt I encountered as I did the obligatory rounds of engaging with people, trying not to let my anger boil over at Axel and the fact that the woman — apparently Ian’s sister — was still here. Beside him. Talking to him.And even more infuriating was the fact that his eyes were transfixed on me. I r
~Amber’s POV~The cold air hit me the moment I got outside and I stopped gasping but still could not find breath.It was there, the air, all of it, surrounding me, and my lungs refused to accept it properly. I bent forward with my hands on my knees and tried, one breath, another, each one shallow and insufficient.In between I wanted to cry.No. I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to scream, pull at my hair and scream some more until whatever was sitting in the center of my chest came loose.“Princess.”My brain had already registered the sound of his voice and kept in a place where if I could, I would be happy not to recognize it because I simply didn’t want to hear it again. “Leave me alone.” I managed to grit it out despite the air situation. “I am really not in the mood, Ian.”“You remembered my name.”The gleeful quality of four words mixed with everything else already inside me and the irritation that rose was immediate and complete.Of course I remembered his name. I had
~Amber’s POV~“You look beautiful.”The smile formed before I realized it had, and it was strange that I had missed the dry factualness of her tone when I had barely had time to really know her before she left.I was kind of mad at her for not telling me she was leaving.But was I really anymore? Did I genuinely have the energy for that when I was already filled with so much apprehension for what I was about to do after my own coronation?Who was I even asking?My eyes met hers in the vanity mirror. “Well, if you say so, I suppose it must be true.”There was no reaction to that from her, not that I expected one. She stepped into the room and her eyes moved across it the way I had seen her do in the few days I had known her, taking it in, filing it away.“I was expecting a flood of Omegas in here helping you get ready.”“I wanted to do it myself.”Something moved at the corner of her mouth. The smallest raise of her lips, almost nothing, and something that looked like pride crossed he
~Amber’s POV~“Jesus Christ, Tim, do you never ever fucking clean?” I snapped, kicking away the pile of no doubt dirty clothes from the floor to create a path through.He stepped out of the bathroom at that exact moment in a towel wrapped at his waist and shot me a look. “First off, what happened to the permanent break from cursing, and two, I have told you not to bring that tone in here. I don’t need that negativity clouding my space.”“I don’t have time for this, Tim. I need you to get the coin and put Roxanne’s bitchy ass right back into me and—”“Hey. Hey.” He cut in, crossing the room until he was right in front of me, taking my face into both his hands. “The worst kind of anger is the kind that comes from grief. So I need you to take a breath.”I closed my eyes at that, deflating, and did what he said.The moment I did, everything hit me without warning or mercy. My father’s still body. The kiss. His fingers. His complete blankness after. Me going on the attack to survive the m
~Axel’s POV~I was in deep shit.I knew it the moment I watched her close off completely in my office after I had said I would feel nothing but relief, which was the truth, but I had only said it to get that exact reaction from her.The moment I saw it happen and wanted nothing more than to undo it just as fast, I knew I had been wrong about whatever this was.Being inside her once would not fix it. It would only make it worse. So as much as I had felt her, memorized every pattern of her day over the last four months, known exactly when she stepped into a room seconds before she did, her closing off and staying away from me had served me well.If serving me well meant resulting in irritation with every single thing in existence.I had known I was in deep shit before, the kind that could not be undone, but the moment my lips touched hers — not like during our mating ceremony when it had been to get a reaction out of her, this time because something would have burned through me if I h
~Amber’s POV~I didn’t know if I pulled away or simply pushed him the hell away from me and the rapid blinking started again even though my brain had caught up.Definitely because my brain had caught up.And I went through that same brain looking for some words, any word that would be a fitful reply for what he just told me while he stared down at me with a closed off expression.‘Come on Amber. Come on. You can do this, find your zeal to speak, find speech, find something.’“Are you fucking kidding me?”‘There it is.’The question came out so loud that for one imaginative moment, I could have sworn my father’s body actually stirred from how loud I was but it was all in my head.I didn’t expect him to answer because it was rhetorical.“No.”And there it was again, that damn two lettered word and the exact same way he had said it when he shot me down when I offered for us to do the exact same thing he had offered a night before, right before he told me that he would feel relief if he h
~Amber’s POV~The feeling of déjà vu hit me, and for a second it felt like I was back at the Alpha’s gathering, when Ian had just walked in and I had seen the recognition flicker in his eyes at knowing exactly who I was.Except it faded just as fast as it came, because there was nothing knowing in
~Amber’s POV~ I had imagined my mating ceremony so many times when I was a little girl that even at that age, I had been smart enough to know that I needed to stop before I hunted down my mate, not that I would know who he was at that age, just so I could make it a reality.But it always started w
~Amber’s POV~ The thing about being taken by surprise in a way that couldn’t have been expected or imagined is that it completely takes over your thought process and in doing so, it makes the seconds and everything else pass you by without you even realizing it.“Amber Crystabel Moon.”I blinked
~Amber’s POV~ Should I say something?Who was I even asking? Because there was no one else in the room except me and Axel. His back was to me, shoulders tight with tension, and he was staring at the screen like it had personally offended him. His hand gripped the remote hard enough that his knu







