A life upon which I led her astray.
When her first mate had killed her second mate, I’d had the chance to snuff out her existence and his, but Eli…he had a purpose. He needed his mother’s guidance to keep his powerful wolf on the straight and narrow. I’d let her live for his sake, and I let her live again because this was my fault.
My sins were here, in this circle. My mistakes, the errors in my judgment… I didn’t make them often, but the consequences were far reaching, and my children were still dealing with them.
Evil had sown its seeds among my children. They’d drifted from the path I’d granted them, thanks to the insular channels I’d set them on, and I needed to make amends.
Merinda was my first step toward that.
She lived again with her true mate, with their children who she could cherish rather than set aside.
It was a parallel life, not as sweet as the first might have been, but a gift nonetheless. An apology from me so long as she served Sabina and dedicated her life to protecting her and the purpose she represented.
“It’s difficult, Mother. I just needed to speak with you.”
“What is difficult, child?”
“The need to hold Knight.” She blew out a breath. “He’s so powerful. He takes my breath away. I’m—”
I sensed her fear for him. “His future is already set in stone, Merinda, and I promised his mother that he will be safe.”
She dropped to her knees at that, her hands raised to her chest. “Thank you. Thank you.” She pressed her forehead to the dirt. “My gratitude is beyond compare.”
She’d had such potential. It was such a shame that her love was stunted by an overbearing mate, who even with his second chance, had wasted his life on attacking her child when he could have lived.
I sighed, and the wind picked up, leaves floating and surging around her. Her second mate howled, not appreciating the locked ‘gate’ between him and his distressed female, but I disregarded him, focused only on her.
She was one of the mothers of change, after all.
Three women, each bearing a lineage that brought hope to our future, who should have been the strongest of the strong, but were the most browbeaten of them all.
Tears wet my eyes, and with it, the rain fell. Merinda didn’t flinch, but her mate did.
“Your lineage is secure,” I murmured, telling her the truth just as I had Sabina.
What I couldn’t tell her was that fate could be changed.
Free will…I had no say in that.
And that was my burden to bear, not hers.
“Go with peace, Merinda. Enjoy your second chance as Paul cannot now, and do not cross the circle again. Your world is not mine anymore. Your world is Eli, Sabina, Ethan, and Austin’s. Your purpose is to safeguard them. Do you understand me?”
She wept at my words, but she nodded, and in seconds, she was back as a she-wolf outside the circle, her mate at her side, nipping and nuzzling her, comforting her…
The sight brought peace to me, and the rain clouds dispersed and the wind ceased to roil.
Love could win, and I prayed that would be enough in the coming days.
Lara
“Lara?”
My brow puckered as I registered that voice.
Kali Sara, it had been so long since I heard it. So long since…
I blew out a breath.
No, I had to be wrong.
Unless a ghost could pick up a phone and contact me, I was just imagining the likeness in her voice to my sister’s.
My dead sister’s.
Things had definitely turned crazy, so maybe this was just another step toward the asylum. I’d always been headed that way anyway…
I reached up and rubbed my forehead where an ache was gathering.
The ache had nothing to do with memories of Sabina that flooded me, along with the grief and misery over her passing, but with my current situation.
I was tired of being scared.
So fucking tired.
I rubbed my temples a little harder as I squinted out of the window.
I knew he was out there.
I knew it.
He was waiting on me to come out, but I wouldn’t. Not yet. I still had a few ramen packets left. I could last a week on them. I wasn’t going to let him get me.
I wasn’t.
“Lara?”
Fuck.
The woman sounded so like Sabina, it was unnerving.
I cleared my throat in an effort not to sound petrified. If the ghost asked why I sounded terrified, I couldn’t tell her the truth. Then I really would be locked up for good. “Yes. It’s Lara Krasowski. How can I help you?”
A relieved sigh sounded down the line. “Lara. I know it’s you. God, it’s taken me so long to find you! Look, I know this is weird, but I need your help. It’s me…Sabina.”
Even as my brow furrowed, I snorted. “Yeah, right. My dead sister has access to a cellphone.” I huffed. Then, my eyes narrowed. Was this a ploy?
I had no idea how I’d been plunged into a world where men could turn into different animals, but here I was, terrified to leave my house because I knew, I knew point fucking blank, that there was a goddamn hyena out there waiting on me.
Waiting to pounce.
My mouth turned to cotton at that, and I started to sweat. My arms ached where the bastard had gotten me before, scraping me up and infecting some of the wounds so my body still ached from the depth of the tears.
I’d never even seen a fucking hyena besides on TV! When one had veered in front of my car the other day? I’d thought I was taking another step toward insanity.
Maybe I was.
Maybe this was all a hallucination.
But as painful as the wounds on my body were? They were proof too.
I’d been targeted.
By a creature.
A creature who could turn into a person. And back again.
A creature who was pissed at me.
My mouth quivered at the memory of running over what, I’d thought at the time, was a cat.
Only, when I’d gotten out, sobbing all the while as I went to see if I could help the creature who’d been injured, a second beast had come at me after I’d heard a very real, human shriek of fury.
I’d screamed, managing to scramble back as it attacked me, and only good fortune had helped me get into my car before it could hurt me further. With no other choice, I’d swerved out of the way, put the pedal to the metal, and driven home.
I’d been here ever since, and—
The howl. Fuck.
It was there again.
My entire being prickled to life, the hairs on my body standing right at attention as I processed just how that sound was viscerally plaguing me.
It kept on doing it.
Kept on reminding me it was there.
Like I could forget.
Every now and then, it would ram into my door, and I’d never been so angry with myself for deciding that a life in the woods was a better option for someone like me, someone with my abilities.
I shuddered as the howl morphed into that hideous cackle, and I clenched my eyes closed as I tried to evade it.
But there was no evading it.
None at all.
I shivered as the voice on the other end of the line sharply asked, “What was that noise?”
My mouth trembled. What was I supposed to say?
I’m being haunted by some kind of weird monster that could turn from a beast into a human?
And yeah, I’d seen that.
The hyena had been in human form when I’d driven over the other one, seconds before it had switched and started to attack me.
I wasn’t sure if I was losing my mind, but I was pretty certain that my eyes didn’t deceive me. That my feelings didn’t either.
I’d felt the rage, the hurt, the terror.
I’d known why too.
The creature I’d killed?
The other’s mate.
> A shaky sob escaped me.
How was I supposed to evade a beast that was intent on reaping revenge on me for losing someone as important to it as a mate?
“Never mind,” I whispered. “Who is this? What do you want?”
“I told you. I’m Sabina! I’m your sister.”
Okay, I was definitely going insane. “You’re dead.”
“No. I’m not.”
I swallowed. “You are. I went to your funeral.”
“You didn’t.” She sighed, and I felt her urgency down the line.
“I did!”
“Mom’s name was Catharina Klisowski before she became a Krasowski. She wore her hair in pigtails that she knotted together at the back of her head, and on her birthday, Father would give her a gold coin that she stored in a pouch that she put above the kitchen sink in our trailer.”
My heart stopped at that.
It literally stopped.
Until the hyena howled again, and when it rammed its weight into the door, I screamed as fright hit me.
The cell in my hand fell to the floor as I turned to the door, watching as the wood began to buckle, the hinges caving in with the brute force of the hyena.
As I screamed, I heard, “Lara! Lara!” bleating down the end of the line, but it was too late for me.
Too fucking late.
To Be Continued in MOON CHILD
www.books2read.com/MoonChild
Free eBook ALERT!!
Don’t forget to grab your free e-Book!
Secrets & Lies is now free!
Meg’s love life was missing a spark until she discovered her need to be dominated. When her fiancé shared the same kink, she thought all her birthdays had come at once, and then she came to learn their relationship was one big fat lie.
Gabe has loved Meg for years, watching her from afar, and always wishing he’d been the one to date her first and not his brother. When he has the chance to have Meg in his bed—even better, tied to it—it’s an opportunity he can’t refuse.
With disastrous consequences.
Can Gabe make Meg realize she’s the one woman he’s always wanted? But once secrets and lies have wormed their way into a relationship, is it impossible to establish the firm base of trust needed between lovers, and more importantly, between sub and Sir…?
This story features orgasm control in a BDSM setting.
Secrets & Lies is now free!
Also By Serena Akeroyd
For the latest updates, be sure to check out my website!
But, if you’d like to hang out with me and get to know me better, then I’d love to see you in my Diva reader’s group where you can find out all the gossip on new releases as and when they happen. You can join here: www.facebook.com/groups/SerenaAkeroydsDivas. Or, you can always PM or email me. I love to hear from you guys: [email protected].
Until I see you there or you write me an email or PM, here are more of my books for you to read…
The Five Points’ Collection
The Air He Breathes
Filthy Rich
Filthy Dark
The Kingdom of Veronia Collection
Theirs
A Dark And Dirty Sinners’ MC:
Nyx
Link
Sin
Steel
Dragon Bound
Coven
Leman
Eight Wings Academy
The Ascended
HawkRidge High
Dare You To Love Me
Dare You To Keep Me
Hell’s Rebels MC
All Sinner No Saint
The Sex Tape (Co-written with Helen Scott)
The Professor
The Caelum Academy
Seven Wishes
Eight Souls
Nine Lives
Naughty Nookie
Sinfully Theirs
Sinfully Mastered
The Gods Are Back In Town
Hotter than Hades
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo
FourWinds
Queen of the Vamps
QUINTESSENCE
Hers To Keep
Theirs To Cherish
Hers To Hold
Forever Theirs
Secrets & Lies
The TriAlpha Chronicles
Origin
Trinity
Triskele
Triad
Triumph
Trierna
TriAlpha
Los Lobos
Bound
The Salsang Chronicles (written with Helen Scott)
Stained Egos
Stained Hearts
Stained Minds
Stained Bonds
Stained Souls
About the Author
I'm a romance novelaholic and I won't touch a book unless I know there's a happy ending. This addiction is what made me craft stories that suit my voracious need for raunchy romance. I love twists and unexpected turns, and my novels all contain sexy guys, dark humor, and hot AF love scenes.
I write MF, Menage, and Reverse Harem (also known as Why Choose romance,) in both contemporary and paranormal. Some of my stories are darker than others, but I can promise you one thing, you will always get the happy ending your heart needs!
WOLF CHILD: A PNR RH Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 1) Page 38
