**Lilly’s POV
“It’s all right, honey,” my mother said, smoothing my hair. “We’ll be alright. Just stay quiet for a bit longer, and then the wolves upstairs will go, and we’ll be safe.”
I looked up at my mother and nodded, but wasn’t sure I believed her. We had run down here, my older brother, my mother, and I, about an hour ago, when we’d first gotten word from the village guard that there were unknown wolves spotted in the woods near our hos. So of the other villages nearby had been attacked recently, so we’d been on high alert. None of us had slept for the last few nights.
We’d heard that there were more warriors on the way to protect us, but so far, we hadn’t seen any.
Upstairs, the floor creaked, and so glass broke. I held my breath, terrified.
I thought about all of my friends from school. Would I even be there tomorrow? We were supposed to have our seventh-grade assessnts.
It should’ve been the last thing on my mind.
“We should shift, Mom. and you need to be in our wolf forms,” whispered my older brother, Blake, who was twenty-two. “We need to be ready to run!”
My mother hesitated, but I wasn’t sure why. Then, when we heard the weight of paws closer to the door that led downstairs, she nodded.
But before she shifted herself, she carefully lifted the cover to the vent next to us. It was our only chance of getting out undetected.
She had an ergency bag she could scoop up and put on her back as a wolf.
We could only hope that our father, who had volunteered to help with the village guard, would be okay, and we could et up with him again sowhere down the line.
“You run south, as fast as you can,” my mother instructed my brother. “Put Lily on your back, and do not look back. For anything,” she told both of us, looking us each in the eye.
We both nodded. I knew that she’d be able to talk to Blake using the mind-link once he shifted, but it wasn’t the sa.
As quietly as he could, Blake shifted into his wolf form. I was surprised when I saw my mom gesture for to pick up the backpack. I did as I was told, and Blake went first through the vent to the tunnel that led out of the basent. My mom nudged to go next just as we heard more breaking glass and the sound of the door at the top of the stairs.
Using the mind-link, my mom shouted, “Run! Run kids, run!”
Blake and I ran through the tunnel. I kept my eyes on his tail. There was no room for to get on his back down here. He ca out of the forest ahead of . He stopped as soon as we got out, and I climbed on top of him. I kept my eyes trained on the forest ahead of us, my big brother running as fast as he could as the sounds of shouting and howling filled our ears. I rembered what my mom said, and I didn’t look back. But I wanted to.
Because I didn’t hear her behind us.
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**Ethan’s POV
“I miss you.”
“Oh, how I miss you, too,” I said, running my hand along Rosalie’s soft cheek. “I miss you so much.
We were lying in bed, and she was in my arms, her head on my bicep, her eyes dancing as she smiled up at .
“I wish this was real, and we were together again.” Her voice was so soft and sultry. It was just a whisper in the wind.
And that’s how I knew it wasn’t real.
These dreams – or rather, nightmares – always started the sa way. I knew that in a few monts, she wouldn’t be lying here anymore, lovingly gazing at my face anymore.
No, in a mont, she’d be screaming.
She’d be falling.
The ironic thing is, when she fell, she didn’t scream at all. I never heard a sound from her.
Maybe if she had scread, if she’d called a b*stard, if she’d let out so sort of wail of anguish, this would’ve all been easier.
“You want to stay, don’t you?” she asked, pushing up so that she was hovering near my lips.
I didn’t answer her. I never answered her.
If I did... maybe she wouldn’t go away.
But I couldn’t. It was as if my tongue no longer worked.
“Ethan? Don’t you love ?” Rosalie’s eyebrows furrowed, and she stared at more intently for a mont until we were no longer on the bed.
We were on the cliffside. And I was too far away from her.
I couldn’t reach her.
“Don’t you want ?” she asked. “Don’t you love ?”
Still, I could not answer, and then, just like always, her arms ca out. She reached for , but I couldn’t reach her. Then her mouth – that beautiful mouth which produced all those perfect, calming lodies that always soothed my soul – flew open, and she was screaming.
An ear-piercing, shrill, banshee-like scream hit my ears before she was hurled over the side of the cliff.
Just like that, she was gone.
In a flicker.
The bat of an eyelash.
Rosalie disappeared, and I was standing there, shouting after her, “NO!”
Beep, beep, beep...
The sound of my alarm made bolt up, my heart racing, a cold sweat covering . I quickly hit the button to stop that awful noise, though it wasn’t nearly as unsettling as the sound of Rosalie’s nightmarish scream that still echoed in my head.
I dropped back onto my pillows, waiting for my heart to recover before I pulled myself out of bed.
I’d just co here to lie down for a few minutes before I went back to work. Normally, I didn’t even fall asleep whenever I ca back to my room to rest, but clearly today I had.
I wished I hadn’t.
Dragging my hand down my face, I sat back up, rembering that I had work to do. The attacks on the villages in the northern forests continued. Just because I had had a bad dream didn’t an I could lie there and wallow in self-pity.
I pushed my feet back into my shoes and went into the bathroom to splash so water onto my face.
In the mirror, the man that stared back at was a stranger.
My face was thinner than I’d ever rembered seeing it before. I had heavy, dark bags under my eyes, and even though I’d shaved earlier in the day, I hadn’t done a very careful job of it. I couldn’t recognize myself.
A knock at the door drew out of the bathroom.
Talon looked at with worry. “Alpha, are you okay? Did you get to sleep at all?
“Yes, I’m fine. What’s up?”
“They’re here!”
At first, I wasn’t sure who he was talking about. My Beta didn’t seem panicked enough to an that the enemy’s wolves had shown up at our gates.
Then I rembered. The witness brought useful information from the borders, and we were able to send help to rescue the citizens being attacked by the rogues. So of them co to the capital seeking shelter.
Talon and Vicky had both been very busy trying to put together the resources to help the people who were coming in.
Up until yesterday, none of the transport vehicles had arrived yet, though.
“They’re here?” I repeated, staring at Talon. “Finally, so good news.”
“King Jas is out near the gate, greeting them as they co in,” Talon said, an expectant look on his face. “Vicky is with him and a few others.”
“That doesn’t surprise ,” I said, returning my gaze to the map.
Talon cleared his throat. Frustrated, I looked back at him. “Yes?”
“He... wants you there as well.”
Sighing, I placed both hands on my desk and leaned forward, knowing I didn’t have ti for this. I had more important things to do than greet the displaced citizens as they ca into the capital. Yes, I felt bad for them, but my ti was better spent trying to figure out why the villages were being burned and the people were being killed.
“It will have to be quick.” I growled as I walked out from behind my desk.
The two of us headed out to where the transport vehicles were coming through the gate, letting the citizens off. Vicky and several other people, mostly won but not all, were telling the refugees where to go.
As soon as I saw them, the emotions I’d felt inside changed. The frustration was still there, but it morphed, mingling with the anger and twisting around with another emotion I rarely acknowledged.
I felt...bad for these people. They had been displaced from their hos. So of them were wounded. All of them were scared. Most of them were dirty and so had bloodstains on their clothes. A few were crying.
It was a sobering, heartbreaking sight that made want to personally hunt down the culprits so that I could rip their hearts out and shove them down their throats.
“What’s your na, honey?” I heard Vicky asking a dark-haired girl. She was standing with a tall, lanky boy who was probably only a few years older than her. They looked similar, so I imagined they were siblings.
“My na is Lilly,” she said, tears streaking her cheeks. “This is my brother... Blake.”
“We can’t find our parents,” Blake said. His bottom lip was quivering as he spoke. I knew that face. He was trying to stay strong, to show his sister he wasn’t afraid, but on the inside, he was terrified.
The girl, Lilly, wiped at her tears. “Our father was in the village guard. He might be dead.”
Vicky pulled the little girl into a hug.
“Try not to think the worst, sweetheart,” she said. “I know it’s scary. But you’re safe now, and there are a lot of people here to help take care of you.”
Vicky’s voice was sweet, calming. For a mont, it reminded of Rosalie, and I wished that she was here. If she could sing for these children for just a mont, they would feel so much better.
She wasn’t here, though. It was pointless for to let my mind go there.
“Ethan.” Jas’s voice cut through my inner thoughts. He was pacing next to . “What are we going to do about this?”
“We’re sending in help from adjacent areas,” I said, “but we need to continue the evacuation of the northern villages. With the war going on, we have limited n to spare there.”
Jas nodded. “We need to make sure that we have all of the resources necessary to take care of the citizens once they arrive here in the capital.” As the King, his priority was to ensure the citizens were settled down.
Talon replied, “We have secured public locations for them to stay in—event centers, chapels, those sorts of places.”
“Good.”
Before the king walked away, he signaled to follow him.
Once we were in private, he looked in the eye.
“Ethan, what’s your plan with Soren?”
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