Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Grey spent time with his pack and his family tonight, because of an important visit tomorrow from members of The Collective.
This makes me shudder.
He invited me to come with him, but he let me off the hook in nearly the same breath as inviting me; likely seeing my panic. And sensing it. Because it’s not like I’m great at hiding it. Though I could sense his immediate frustration as he let me off that hook.
Beyond not looking forward to being judged by people including Tyson Savage and his mate, not to forget the other council members who were attacked by Wyatt the other day, the mere mention of the Supernatural Council Collective had me quaking, though I didn’t explain this to Greyson.
Fear was struck into the hearts and minds of every single member of my pack from a young age about the dangers of outsiders, particularly humans and The Collective, the group of corrupt supernatural police that look for every opportunity to take from their perceived lessers. At least that’s how Father described the SCC. The story goes that elders and alphas before my grandfather’s time had run-ins with them back when we were the Silver Mountain pack. Word has it that they robbed us several generations back, around the time the collective first formed.
This was when our pack’s territory was a beautiful village in the mountains of Alaska, a place with the most pristine blue lake – lore is that our then-alpha’s four beautiful daughters were abducted to be paired with ranking SCC officials including vampires, warlocks, and Fae before our alpha was murdered and the rest of the people in our pack were run off from that location, fleeing south, to where we are now. Where we now suffer.
I heard from Mal that these old stories were made up. Mal said it’s to make people distrust anyone from outside the village. He said there’s a lesser-known story that states someone from the SCC fell for the alpha’s daughter and the alpha lost it and took revenge against the SCC officer, which meant sanctions for our alpha. I don’t know what’s true, but I did hear that Silver Mountain is one of The Collective’s headquarters, only now it’s known as Argentia Mountain.
I haven’t been able to stop wondering what became of Malachi. I was relieved it wasn’t his scent when I was brought to the cabin the other day to identify the two dead shifters. Jeremy used to be so sweet and kind. But that didn’t take long to change after he shot up with a growth spurt in height and then Wyatt put him into training to build bulk and use him as an enforcer. Jeremy transformed before all our eyes into someone else. Someone who won’t be missed by most. Thorn was cruel and conniving. And he went out of his way to belittle me whenever Wyatt had me spend time with him. Thorn was always whispering gross things to me about Addy and doing the same to about Addy about me, taking pleasure in being cruel.
How involved was Mal in my brother’s recent actions? Will he be part of whatever is next? And has he taken up with my brother’s way of thinking or is he just doing what he’s told until there’s an opportunity to do what we talked about? The last time we spoke was just a few days before I had to leave to go to Drowsy Hollow and Mal was frustrated, ready to bail on the pack like so many others had, even suggested I go with him, but I refused to abandon everyone and pleaded with him to give it a bit more time to see if new opportunities could arise to change things for us. I told him I had a loose plan that wouldn’t work if we lost more of our pack, losing more of the decent pack members who could be right for a change in leadership.
The day before I left, Wyatt sent me to spend time with Mal in the cottage. It made me sick to my stomach. I’d never been with Mal that way.
Mal didn’t lay a finger on me. He did tell me my brother had insinuated some things about us were possible, and Mal got right into my orbit instead of respecting my space like he usually did. His eyes darkened with lust and suddenly my childhood friend felt like a predator. Like the others. I was relieved that he didn’t mount me.
Later that day my brother suggested he could pair me and Mal up when I got back, if I accomplished the tasks he had for me.
I didn’t want Mal that way, but one male – a kind one – would be heaps better than what I’d been enduring. And Malachi has always been good. Kind. Fair to everyone. If any of the remaining betas in our pack are capable of helping make things better, I figured it could be Mal.