Libby POV
I have enough time to revisit the married farmer’s house and collect their personal chicken eggs for today. They said I could, said I could help myself whilst they were away.They seem to trust me, they don’t let anybody else do it.I plan to use the eggs to make pancakes for dessert tonight. Beth was looking a little bit too gaunt for my liking.I noticed at breakfast she gave Ben her sausages, claiming she wasn’t hungry.Her brother, being of the muscular type, is known for spending all his money on extra food. She must worry that he isn’t getting enough nutrients.He’ll come back later today with bags of food from the town’s supermarket. He can’t help himself.I don’t think Beth was full though, I think she is kind. But she’s not eating enough to keep her own energy levels maintained for this labour intensive workload. And it is hard work, there’s a reason it is called manual labour.Beth is a lot older than my niece Elspeth, 10 years in fact, but she makes me think of her often. Makes me wonder about both Elspeth and Rex on a daily basis. The guilt I still feel for the way I left. But I did what I felt was right at the time. They’ve been through enough because of me. I couldn’t keep endangering the twin’s lives.I return to my caravan with the eggs, opening the front door with a basic key. Not the electronic high security door locks I was used to at my apartment in the city.My old life seems like a lifetime ago now.A few of the workers have stayed behind but the majority seem to have also gone off site just like Anwir, Ben and Beth. They must have left just before I returned. I timed it perfectly.I didn’t want to explain where I was going and I know they would have asked.I grab my backpack from under the kitchen sink, placing a few biscuit bars for fuel and a bottle of water for my long hike. I never like to meet up near here, just in case my brother Reuben manages to intercept and locate me.I’m not as naive as I once was.I keep off the main roads, keeping to the woods that run adjacent to the farm lands. I had a few miles to cover yet, and uneven ground ahead of me.The trek is long, long for me anyway but I’m used to it now and I keep my mind focused on what was at the end.What I need.I keep pushing forward, ignoring that voice within me that was slowly getting louder, getting stronger. The voice had been asleep for so long.It fights back, a sharp pain hitting me in the stomach…my hand only just reaching a tree trunk to keep me upright.I can usually breathe through the pain but this one is intense, so intense that I have to stop for a moment.Sitting on the damp woodland ground rocking back and forth trying to ride the pain out.I was starting to panic. I needed to keep moving, I can’t afford to be late.Somehow, and I don’t know how, I manage to get back up on my feet and take some wobbly footsteps. I reach into my backpack and take out a cereal snack bar, hoping the sugar will help me dig deep for energy.I must walk for another 2 hours, the walk harder this time around. I’ve had to learn very quickly how to read a map and use a compass in moving here, and keeping away from technology.I can hear a car engine running as I start to exit the last field and head towards a small country car park that has become our usual meet up spot. Except for the one car the area was empty, which was odd even for usual.I climb over a fence to enter the car park, heading towards the white high end car with its blacked out windows and music blurring out loudly.She steps out, a cigarette in one hand, a brown parcel envelope in the other.We couldn’t look more different...Me a shadow of my former glamorous self now wearing muddy boots, ripped jeans and no longer part of the designer fan base and no makeup. Whereas, she was dressed as if she had an important board meeting, she was dressed in a white tight skirt power suit. Her hair now redder than the last time I saw her, her eyes also giving me the once over.“You’re late!” She tuts as she tosses the brown parcel bag towards me. My heart spiking from knowing what was inside, the relief of knowing my pains would stop again momentarily.Libby POV I don’t wait, I tear the package open with one hand and reach behind with the other to take my water bottle out of my backpack. Her eyes don’t leave me once as I take not 2 but 4 tablets. “That’s a lot…”“I’m fine, I know what I am doing.” I mutter back as I swallow 4 little green pills in one hit. These were different, not as strong as before. However, they start to work immediately. I rejoice internally as my tensed muscles start to relax, that inner voice slowly disappearing again back into the abyss. Just where I like to keep it. I take a long deep breath in, cracking my neck to the side before returning my attention to the female in front of me. She takes a long drag on her cigarette before blowing it out towards my face. She’s not the warmest of characters. “Thanks for coming so quickly, how have you been?”“Yes, yes all fine. I can’t stay…” She’s not as talkative as she normally is. Usually it was me trying to get away from her, not her trying to get away from
Libby POVThe wolf seems somewhat tame…it just keeps trying to bite at the trap around its ankle. Which when I watch Ben touch, every time he pulls his hands away as if it was hot to touch. He swears before trying to touch the trap all over again. “I’m sorry, I can’t…” He whispers to the wolf. His shoulders slumped as he finally has to admit defeat. I don’t understand what has happened and why Ben has got himself involved with helping a wild animal, the farmer couple would have shot it on site.“Here, let me take over.” I crouch down beside him, very slowly stroking the side of the wolf’s tummy, reassuring it that I wasn’t here to cause anymore pain. I keep my movements slow, not wanting to lose any fingers if the wolf decides to snap at me for handling it too roughly. “Is the trap hot?” I mutter to Ben under my breath. I don’t know why, it’s not as if the animal could understand me. “Why?”“You keep pulling your hands away as it if it is hot?” I prepare myself, expecting it to
Libby POVI have to think on my feet, as much as I like Ben, I’m not ready for my past to return to me. Even talking about it brings back flashbacks of that lake house… “I witnessed a man shift in front of me.” This isn’t entirely untrue, a big black wolf did shift the first time I was chased by werewolves. The naked delicious man is who I often dream about. “Fuck! That must have scared the shit out of you.”“You could say that.” “He let you go?” Ben presses further. It was unheard of for werewolves to shift in front of humans. But I was on the run back then and had been cornered. I didn’t know about the werewolf world back then, that fateful night giving me a crash course. “Not exactly…”I don’t elaborate further, I wasn’t let go…but escaped in the most horrific of circumstances. “Who are you and Beth running from?” I ask Ben, keen to move the topic off me. “What makes you think we are running?” He quirks an eyebrow at me. I thought I knew Ben and Beth, but all this time the
Pierce POV “How many guards are on tonight?” “20 in total Alpha. Did you want more?” “No that’s a good number. Not being on high risk anymore, that should be sufficient.” I rub the temple spots by the side of my forehead. Things have been…torturous, but not for any visible reason. The entire pack has been on alert mode for the past 6 months. I have been meticulous in my planning of late. “Did you want to start looking at options for bringing the trackers back…it has been 3 months.” Dane, my long serving beta…my second in command asks. “Can we spare anybody else to take their places?” “No right now Alpha, no. I think they need the break. It has been constant for them, and I know for a fact that they haven’t once come across any Red Stone pack trackers…” They haven’t? In 3 whole months…that surprises me. “They haven’t?” “No, are you sure Alpha Reuben has trackers out in the field?” “That’s what he said.” I stand up from my desk chair, Dane sitting on the other side of my desk,
Pierce POV I’ve visited Reuben’s and Evelyn’s new home plenty of times, but never with a purpose other than just spending time with them. If Reuben’s trackers haven’t been spotted by mine, then there was the strong possibility that he hadn’t sent any out at all.Fate had destined for Reuben and I to be in each other’s lives from a young age. Our Father’s were the best of friends until their feud, forcing Reuben and I to grow apart, to temporarily become adversaries. A few physical arguments as teenagers, I believe one being over both having a crush on the same girl…then our fates crossed again the day he carried a collapsed Evelyn in his arms out of a warehouse located on my outer pack grounds.I found immense pleasure in flirting with Evelyn so openly in front of him, even when he was denying their bond and remaining with Vicky. Now their kids call me uncle. The Royal Alpha family’s house was set away from both packs, geographically in the middle of the Red Stone and the Silver
Pierce POV “What do you mean she is safe?” I can feel my face screwing up as I ask my own question. My own mind at a loss of what he means. “Exactly that, that she is safe.” This is beggar’s belief. “How long….for how long have you known this?” “For 6 months.” For 6 months…for 6 months he has known she is safe yet he has let me think the worse. Every time I have been here I have opened up to Evely, told her how I have been struggling…no wonder he was so quiet, the prick was holding back from me. I could feel my body trembling, my beastly wolf wanting out…to punish this so called Alpha King for letting me think my own mate was possibly dead. My beast becoming ferociously dangerous in this lovely high-end designed kitchen of theirs. The only way to prevent a shift is to attack in myhuman form. The only warning I give him is the snarl that leaves my mouth. I lunge at him, it doesn’t matter there is a dinning table in my way. I knock him to the ground, our bodies rolling around
Pierce POV Reuben prepares me for a long wait. He says he has no idea where Libby has been hiding but from what he suspects, it is the other side of the country. At least, hopefully, she was still in the country and hadn’t gone overseas. That is what filled me with dread…that she would have used smugglers to get her out of the country. Libby has no trace of a digital record, something her father Odin made a point of ordering. She is on the records until she reached the age of 12 and then it’s as if she died…I even have her death certificate…and her mother’s. Claiming she died of pneumonia. We know for certain that Libby’s mother was human, which makes my mate half human half werewolf. A fact she didn’t know until she stumbled across our kind, both Reuben and I chasing her out of one of my warehouses. I have plenty of regrets with Libby. I regret letting her into this world so quickly…she wasn’t ready. She had also lived a life apart from most humans since her mother died. Her an
Libby POV It was a fresh new week on the farm and I was excited on what it might bring.The weekend had been eventful, I now know my friend’s Ben and Beth are secret werewolves with their own problems, hiding just as I am. I now had a fresh batch of tablets to suppress those stomach cramps, Ben and Beth non-the-wiser on my own part in the werewolf world….I was feeling great. Life was starting to seem less…bleak. My life will never be easy, but at least it was a life I was finally choosing for myself. Ben and Beth left my caravan and headed to theirs to freshen up. I took the eggs that Ben had left outside Anwir’s place and was busy making him his favourite breakfast on the campfire. He’ll be out of someone’s caravan momentarily and I’m pretty certain I know which one. I am crouched down by the campfire when I hear a door creak behind me, my head turning to find the culprit. “Why am I not surprised?” I mutter to myself as I witness Anwir climb out of a caravan, as soon as I start