Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“Not possible. But we should go; the peace in the heat won’t last long if I can’t get you to Derik and Brax,” Kai said. I knew that too. My body was sated but not enough; it knew there were parts missing.
The pack was okay now, though, and that was the main thing. So were our bodies.
We had healed faster with the mating, giving us the push in our bodies we needed to keep going and satisfy the cravings.
Kai curled me into him, pulling my hair back from my face as I traced the lines of his abs.
“One hour, Little Luna. Then we leave, okay?” he said.
I nodded sleepily, my eyelids drifting closed. I tried to keep them open; I wanted to reach my shadows out to Zale and Enzi, I wanted to feel Derik and Brax, and I was terrified that if I closed them, I would wake up and be back in that damn cell.
“I don’t want to sleep,” I whispered, but I was already drifting. And then I was asleep.
Kai’s rough voice was in my ear, waking me up an hour later. It felt like I hadn’t slept at all, but it would have to do.
The heat was still thrumming in my body, and the urge to take Kai as soon as I woke up was strong, but I wanted to see the others just as badly. So I sat up, rubbing my hands over my face.
“We have to get you back, Little Luna. This heat is strong, and the others are…”
“Desperate?” Brax bit out through the link, his need saturating it. It panged through me, and I sucked in a breath. He was desperate.
“Impatient,” Derik said, and even he sounded and felt more strained than usual. His handle on his emotions wasn’t as clean cut this time, and I knew I had to get to them.
“Zale and Enzi are okay?”
“Unaffected,” Brax said, then moved back from the link.
“They’re keeping us sane, beautiful. But I don’t know how long that will last. With your magic back, the wolves are powerful, and we feel it,” Derik said, his voice half a growl.
I looked over at Kai and nodded toward the cave entrance. “Is it safe?”
“As safe as it’s going to get,” Kai said, standing up. He was only in his underwear too.
“I’m going to shift and run us to the city. We’ll get there faster,” he said.
“You can turn?” I asked. He rolled his shoulders back with a nod.
“Let’s go then.” I headed toward the entrance and pushed my shadows against the magic shield. As soon as I let the barrier drop, my shadows pushed out to check for threats. I kept my magic close.
My shadows sensed something immediately.
I growled under my breath and slammed the stalker against the side of the cave as we climbed out of it.
They were going to regret coming between me and my mates, me and my family. I was one pissed off hybrid with magic and shadows ready to consume.
20. The Pleasure
LORELAI
“Braxton sent me!” the frail, ghostly girl beneath my hands said, holding her arms up in surrender. I tightened my grip on her throat and bared my teeth.
“He said nothing about sending you.”
“Rogue,” Kai snarled.
“Heather. And you can ask him. I know you’re mates. He said if I helped him get you back, then he would help me,” she said. She was not trembling beneath my grasp, but the wariness was there in her eyes.
Brax wasn’t answering the link.
I bared my teeth again.
“I swear. I met him at the lake. Us rogues are fucked, okay? We don’t have anywhere to hide with the vamps everywhere, and we are taking the brunt of this war. I needed food and shelter. He offered it to me in exchange for helping you.”
“He let you in the city?!” Kai barked.
She shook her head quickly. “No, he said that was up to the luna. He gave us the water villages while the humans aren’t there. It means there is shelter from the cold. He has been leaving us food. Now I’m fulfilling my deal to help. I know where every camped vamp is on the route home, and I brought some clothes and food with me.” She nodded down to the bag she had with her.
“I’ve been waiting for you to be finished in here. I figured the heat was keeping you occupied.” She smirked and looked over us both. I snarled at her for her leisurely gaze at Kai.
“Mine, rogue. Careful where your eyes wander,” I warned.
She laughed. “I have no interest in your mate, Luna. I was admiring his survival success after two stints with the vamps. Their captivity is no joke.”
“And you know how?” Kai demanded, grabbing the bag she had brought with her.
He snatched the clothes out. They would fit, and I would prefer arriving in the city with clothes. My scars weren’t completely healed despite feeling better. Neither was Kai.
“We should get going. The vampires will get your scent soon if we don’t move from this spot. Patrol passes around this time,” Heather said and looked at me, waiting for me to release her throat. Her pulse was steady. She didn’t care that I had her life in my hands. That was either brave or reckless. Or both.
I let her go, and Kai handed me clothes, watching the rogue with wary eyes.
“Don’t call her Luna. She is not your luna,” he said as I pulled on the peasant dress.
The familiar itch of the wool was strangely comforting as it slid over my skin. It reminded me of home, of Mom, of the village life before the city.
Everything had changed so much, and I wouldn’t go back, but sometimes the reminder was nice.
“Seems disrespectful not to,” Heather said before turning and heading down the steep rocky cliffside to the forest below.
“Rogues can’t use our titles?” I asked Kai before we left with her.
He handed me an apple from the bag, and I took it. He grabbed out another and took a huge bite, half the apple gone.
“No. They lost that right when they were declared rogue.”
“You don’t trust her?” I asked. He narrowed his eyes on her as we started climbing down before he shook his head.
“Rogues live for themselves; it’s why they are rogues. They couldn’t put their pack needs above their own. I don’t trust a rogue at your back or with your life, so no, Little Luna. I don’t.”
I left it there and concentrated on climbing. It was strange that Brax trusted her and Kai didn’t. They usually had differing opinions, but Kai was usually the reckless one.
Brax trusting a rogue? Helping her? As much as I understood her plight, it did concern me what she wanted from the wolves. I needed to talk to Brax and find out, but that would come later. First, was the heat.
“Do you not feel the heat?” I asked her as we stopped in a dark part of the forest covered in overgrown moss and weeds. She nodded.
“I do. But we cycle independently from the pack. The pack heat is brought on by the realm. If a mating needs to happen, a pregnancy, or a power surge–the heat will happen, and the pack will feel it. For a rogue, it’s a singular event every lunar cycle like clockwork. Since there is no moon in winter, we don’t get the heat until there is.”
Kai ignored our conversing and stripped. He rolled the muscles in his body before nudging me further away from him. Then he shifted. It was slow and painful to watch as we stood guard. But finally, Kai’s black wolf stood in front of me.
I always forgot how big he was as a wolf. It flared my heat, and I had to work through every breath. He was impressive, and I wanted to show him how happy that made me.
“We don’t have time for your heat right now if you want to make it back before the vamps realize you’ve been hiding out here,” Heather raised her brow at me. I scowled at her, then climbed onto Kai’s back.
She nodded and shifted.
Kai growled, and I ran my fingers through the thick fur coat at his neck.
“A rogue wolf near my mate pisses me off, Little Luna,” he said in the link.
“We have to get home, Kai,” I replied, lying down along his spine. He sighed, and then he was running.
Heather kept up well; her small wolf looking fragile against Kai’s.
She tried to keep the lead, I was guessing to show us where to go since the vamps were still hunting us, but Kai ignored her. He really didn’t trust her. Brax did.
And I had no idea who to trust anymore. I just knew that I wanted to get back to my family. It had been too long without my mates touching me, and it had been too long without my babies in my arms.
Kai ran fast, but the heat ran faster. The urge started polluting my blood, my core bubbling away with need and desire. My skin was hot and prickly, and the faster he ran, the more I needed.
And then it was there. The wall, the city, they were right there.
Gray stone had never looked so damn good. I looked for the mansion, to the window with the balcony, and knew I would see them. They were there.
Kai ran harder, rushing up to the gates that were already opening.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?