by Bailey, G.
And who can blame him? Of all the people affected by Hawthorne's evil, Silas has to have been struck the worst: losing his parents to the Academy as a kid, thinking they were dead for years, only to meet them again and find out that they were brainwashed by the enemy. Their deaths—their real deaths—must have felt like the ultimate slap in the face to the dragon shifter. The icing on the cake after being tortured and nearly killed himself after I showed up.
Do I blame myself? No, but the guilt is there all the same, my mind still spinning with what ifs whenever I catch Silas's dark eyes from across a room.
Maybe that's why I start to walk when I catch a glimpse of a strapping figure sitting by himself on one of the benches by the far side of the quad. There's snow on the ground, and thick flakes of it have begun to drift down from the thick clouds in the sky, gathering in his dark hair and leaving a dusting on the bench. Pulling my coat more tightly around myself, I wade through the deep snow drifts in the direction of the first guy I shared secrets with.
His back is to me, and the snow muffles my footsteps, so he doesn't appear to notice me until I've taken a seat next to him on the bench, wrapping my arms around myself. "Hey," I say, feeling like I'm too loud in the quiet of the afternoon.
Silas turns to me, smiling. "Hey," he echoes, leaning over to press a kiss gently to my cheek. "I'm sorry I haven't seen you the past few days," he says, looking down. "I was… I guess I'm just a little out of it."
"You seem down," I venture, leaning forward to look at him. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"You're a sweetheart, Boots," Silas tells me. "I'm fine."
“It’s your parents, isn’t it?” Almost as soon as the words are out, I wince inwardly, wondering if I’ve overstepped. Silas is the strong, silent type, and even after all this time, I can still never be sure what he’s thinking.
The dragon shifter heaves a heavy sigh, shifting his body to look me in his eyes. I’m expecting him to say something—to rebuff me, or to assure me that I have nothing to worry about, but instead, he remains silent. He watches me long enough that I start to grow restless, pulling my eyes away from his just in time for him to reach up and brush some snowflakes out of my chestnut hair.
“They would have loved you,” he says, his voice sounding rusty in the cold. His hand lingers on my face, as if he hardly dares to believe that I’m here, that I’m real.
I cover his hand with mine, shifting closer to him on the bench. For a minute he’s terrifyingly unresponsive, but then he leans gently against me, tall enough that his cheek rests on the top of my head. “I would have loved them, too,” I tell Silas quietly. “They were good people, Silas. I’ve never doubted that.”
“I miss them,” the dragon shifter admits, sounding almost sheepish. “It’s stupid, I know, considering I spent twenty years thinking they were dead, but… I can’t help but feel frustrated. Like they abandoned me.”
“You lost them again,” I finish for him. “Silas, I’m so sorry.”
“At least I had time with my parents, though,” Silas says, straightening up. “You never even got to meet yours.”
“I was angry at them for a long time,” I admit. It’s the first time I’ve confided in anyone about this. “After I found out they left me on purpose, that they never wanted me in the first place… I spent so long missing them, building up this image in my mind of the family I wanted but never had.”
“Sounds like we’re in the same boat,” the dragon shifter observes. “Just a couple of battered shifters with no family to speak of.”
“That’s not true,” I tell him, pulling his face down so I can look him in the eyes. “We have each other. You’re my family, Silas. You, Landon, Shade, Hunter… I love you.”
“I love you too, Boots,” Silas tells me. “I’ve loved you ever since I met you, I think. And…” He takes a shaky breath, the heat of it coming out in plumes and calling to mind his dragon form. “And I think that’s enough.”
He leans down and kisses me; the feeling sending sparks of electricity down my tense shoulders. I’m reminded of the first time he kissed me, after revealing the nature of my hybridism to me in the face of overwhelming scrutiny from Hawthorne and the humans.
Silas’s arms encircle me, his mouth breaking from mine only so he can bury his face in my neck. His nose is cold, making me shiver, and I can’t help flinching, letting out a short giggle.
“Save some for the rest of us, Aconyte,” comes a familiar voice. I pull away from Silas and turn to see Landon making his way through the snow, seemingly unbothered by the cold in spite of how lightly he’s dressed. The siren shifter grins as he comes to plop down on my other side. “If I’d known this was where the action was, I would’ve come outside sooner.”
“You know people are going to give us strange looks if they catch us all out here together,” Hunter points out, moving to stand across from me. “You should hear the things my students are saying. “I can’t tell if they resent you or want to be you.”
“It’s not our fault we’re so fucking handsome that she can’t keep her hands off us,” comes Shade’s voice. The wolf shifter, bringing up the rear, stands behind me. And just like that, the four loves of my life are flanking me on all sides. I can’t tell if it’s real or imagined, but I could swear the temperature feels suddenly warmer.
“So did we miss any good gossip?” jokes Landon.
“We were just taking a minute to take it all in,” Silas responds.
“It’s been a hell of a ride, hasn’t it?” Hunter asks.
“Damn right,” Shade says. “But for some reason, I think we’re going to be okay.”
I smile, in spite of the snow that continues to drift down on us. Surrounded by the guys I love, safe in the knowledge that I’m exactly where I need to be, I can’t help but agree.
101 Bonus Epilogue
Milly
10 YEARS LATER
The Snow is cold as it brushes against my cheeks, dotting my nose with it’s flakes. The wind howls through our house in the forest, close to the school we all run together. Years have passed since we fought for the academy, for each other and the life we have now but sometimes, on nights like this, it is so close. My nightmares never have faded, but I’m not alone to face them and that is all that matters in the end.
Landon comes out onto our balcony, the sweet scent of hot chocolate drifting in with his scent. I grin as he hands me a hot mug of the nice hot chocolate we have before leaning on the railing next to me.
“One of those nights, huh?” He questions. I trace my eyes over him, noting how the years have only made him more handsome. The same can be said of all my men sleeping in our home. We all worked for seven months to build this house and enchant the forest and land around us so no students can come here.
About a year later, Hazel demanded her own house nearby and now there is a sweet cottage just down the path to our left.
“I believe certain hormones are making me sleepless,” I whisper. Landons’ eyes drift down to my baby bump, the wonder we all assumed would never happen. About four years ago we decided to try for a baby, not caring who the father would be but we were not blessed. At some point, we stopped trying and accepted the students at the school might be all the family we could have.
Which we accepted.
Then our miracle made his or hers arrival into our life. I’m only four months along but my bump is big. I’m yet to feel her or him kick.
He moves over and places his hand on my bump over my white cotton shirt. “Be nice to your mother, little one.”
I chuckle, even as I feel something like a flutter. I place my hot chocolate down and place my hand next to Landons’. There, the flutter becomes stronger and I blink.
“I think the baby is saying hello,” I chuckle in wonder. He falls to his knees, his eyes bright and wide, and presses a kiss to my bump.
“Hello, baby.”
About G. Bailey
G. Bailey is a USA Today and International Bestselling A
uthor of fantasy and paranormal romance.
She lives in England with her cheeky children, her gorgeous (and slightly mad) golden retrievers and her teenage sweetheart turned husband.
She loves cups of tea.
Chocolate and Harry Potter marathons are her jam and she owns way too many notebooks and random pens.
About Regan Rosewood
Regan Rosewood is a new author from England, where she lives just down the road from G. Bailey.
She has a cute cat and an addiction to reading.
I knew nothing about mates until the alpha rejected me...
Growing up in one of the biggest packs in the world, I have my life planned out for me from the second I turn eighteen and find my true mate in the moon ceremony.
Finding your true mate gives you the power to share the shifter energy they have, given to the males of the pack by the moon goddess herself. The power to shift into a wolf.
But for the first time in the history of our pack, the new alpha is mated with a nobody. A foster kid living in the pack’s orphanage with no ancestors or power to claim.
Me.
After being brutally rejected by my alpha mate, publicly humiliated and thrown away into the sea, the dark wolves of the Fall Mountain Pack find me.
They save me. The four alphas. The ones the world fears because of the darkness they live in.
In their world? Being rejected is the only way to join their pack. The only way their lost and forbidden god gives them the power to shift without a mate.
I spent my life worshipping the moon goddess, when it turns out my life always belonged to another...
This is a full-length reverse harem romance novel full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. Intended for 17+ readers. This is a trilogy.
“Don’t hide from us, little pup. Don’t you want to play with the wolves?”
Beta Valeriu’s voice rings out around me as I duck under the staircase of the empty house, dodging a few cobwebs that get trapped in my long blonde hair. Breathlessly, I sink to the floor and wrap my arms around my legs, trying not to breathe in the thick scent of damp and dust. Closing my eyes, I pray to the moon goddess that they will get bored with chasing me, but I know better. No goddess is going to save my ass tonight. Not when I’m being hunted by literal wolves.
I made a mistake. A big mistake. I went to a party in the pack, like all my other classmates at the beta’s house, to celebrate the end of our schooling and, personally for me, turning eighteen. For some tiny reason, I thought I could be normal for one night. Be like them.
And not just one of the foster kids the pack keeps alive because of the laws put in place by a goddess no one has seen in hundreds of years. I should have known the betas in training would get drunk and decide chasing me for another one of their “fun” beatings would be a good way to prove themselves.
Wiping the blood from my bottom lip where one of them caught me in the forest with his fist, I stare at my blood-tipped fingers in a beam of moonlight shining through the broken panelled wall behind me.
I don’t know why I think anyone is going to save me. I’m nothing to them, the pack, or to the moon goddess I pray to every night like everyone in this pack does.
The moon goddess hasn’t saved me from shit.
Heavy footsteps echo closer, changing from crunching leaves to hitting concrete floor, and I know they are in the house now. A rat runs past my leg, and I nearly scream as I jolt backwards into a loose metal panel that vibrates, the metal smacking against another piece and revealing my location to the wolves hunting me.
Crap.
My hands shake as I climb to my feet and slowly step out into the middle of the room as Beta Valeriu comes in with his two sidekicks, who stumble to his side. I glance around the room, seeing the staircase is broken and there is an enormous gap on the second floor. It looks burnt out from a fire, but there is no other exit. I’m well and truly in trouble now. They stop in an intimidating line, all three of them muscular and jacked up enough to knock a car over. Their black hair is all the same shade, likely because they are all cousins, I’m sure, and they have deeply tanned skin that doesn’t match how pale my skin is. Considering I’m a foster kid, I could have at least gotten the same looks as them, but oh no, the moon goddess gave me bright blonde hair that never stops growing fast and freckly pale skin to stand out. I look like the moon comparing itself to the beauty of the sun with everyone in my pack.
Beta Valeriu takes a long sip of his drink, his eyes flashing green, his wolf making it clear he likes the hunt. Valeriu is the newest beta, taking over from his father, who recently retired at two hundred years of age and gave the role to his son willingly. But Valeriu is a dick. Simple as. He might be good-looking, like most of the five betas are, but each one of them lacks a certain amount of brain cells. The thing is, wolves don’t need to be smart to be betas, they just need the right bloodline and to kill when the alpha clicks his fingers.
All wolves like to hunt and kill. And damn, I’m always the hunted in this pack.
“You know better than to run from us, little Mairin. Little Mary the lamb who runs from the wolf,” he sing songs the last part, taking a slow step forward, his shoe grating across the dirt under his feet. Always the height jokes with this tool. He might be over six foot, and sure, my five foot three height isn’t intimidating, but has no one heard the phrase small but deadly?
Even if I’m not even a little deadly. “Who invited you to my party?”
“The entire class in our pack was invited,” I bite out.
He laughs, the crisp sound echoing around me like a wave of frost. “We both know you might be in this pack, but that’s only because of the law about killing female children. Otherwise, our alpha would have ripped you apart a long time ago.”
Yeah, I know the law. The law that states female children cannot be killed because of the lack of female wolves born into the pack. There is roughly one female to five wolves in the pack, and it’s been that way for a long time for who knows what reason. So, when they found me in the forest at twelve, with no memories and nearly dead, they had to take me in and save my life.
A life, they have reminded me daily, has only been given to me because of that law. The law doesn’t stop the alpha from treating me like crap under his shoe or beating me close to death for shits and giggles. Only me, though. The other foster kid I live with is male, so he doesn’t get the “special” attention I do. Thankfully.
“We both know you can’t kill me or beat me bad enough to attract attention without the alpha here. So why don’t you just walk away and find some poor dumbass girl to keep you busy at the party?” I blurt out, tired of all this. Tired of never saying what I want to these idiots and fearing the alpha all the time. A bitter laugh escapes Valeriu’s mouth as his eyes fully glow this time. So do his friends’, as I realise I just crossed a line with my smart-ass mouth.
My foster carer always said my mouth would get me into trouble.
Seems he is right once again.
A threatening growl explodes from Beta Valeriu’s chest, making all the hairs on my arms stand up as I take a step back just as he shifts. I’ve seen it a million times, but it’s always amazing and terrifying at the same time. Shifter energy, pure dark forest green magic, explodes around his body as he changes shape. The only sound in the room is his clicking bones and my heavy, panicked breathing as I search for a way out of here once again, even though I know it’s pointless.
I’ve just wound up a wolf. A beta wolf, one of the most powerful in our pack.
Great job, Irin. Way to stay alive.
The shifter magic disappears, leaving a big white wolf in the space where Valeriu was. The wolf towers over me, like most of them do, and its head is huge enough to eat me with one bite. Just as he steps forward to jump, and I brace myself for something painful, a shadow of a man jumps down from the broken slats above me, landing with a thump. Dressed in a white cloak over jeans and a shirt, my fost
er carer completely blocks me from Valeriu’s view, and I sigh in relief.
“I suggest you leave before I teach you what an experienced, albeit retired, beta wolf can do to a young pup like yourself. Trust me, it will hurt, and our alpha will look the other way.”
The threat hangs in the air, spoken with an authority that Valeriu could never dream of having in his voice at eighteen years old. The room goes silent, filled with thick tension for a long time before I hear the wolf running off, followed by two pairs of footsteps moving quickly. My badass foster carer slowly turns around, lowering his hood and brushing his long grey hair back from his face. Smothered in wrinkles, Mike is ancient, and to this day, I have no clue why he offered to work with the foster kids of the pack. His blue eyes remind me of the pale sea I saw once when I was twelve. He always dresses like a Jedi from the human movies, in long cloaks and swords clipped to his hips that look like lightsabres as they glow with magic, and he tells me this is his personal style.
His name is even more human than most of the pack names that get regularly overused. My name, which is the only thing I know about my past thanks to a note in my hand, is as uncommon as it gets. According to an old book on names, it means Their Rebellion, which makes no sense. Mike is apparently a normal human name, and from the little interaction I’ve had with humans through their technology, his name couldn’t be more common.
“You are extremely lucky my back was playing up and I went for a walk, Irin,” he sternly comments, and I sigh.
“I’m sorry,” I reply, knowing there isn’t much else I can say at this point. “The mating ceremony is tomorrow, and I wanted one night of being normal. I shouldn’t have snuck out of the foster house.”
