Page 74 of Locke

The Goddess didn’t make a mistake, that was for sure. Emm was a real fighter. Taking men, twice her size, down with single blows. Her combat skills are incomparable, even for when I trained. For a female—hell for a human - she had more skills than most of our pack.

She wouldn’t be the timid Luna you often see hosting boring tea parties. She would be a warrior and the backbone of the pack.

I did something unspeakable—but being the possessive bastard I was, I did it anyway. Bonded mates can look inside each other’s minds. Emm wouldn’t be able to do it as well as me yet, but hell, I could pry inside hers without her noticing.

I dug deep, wanting to know every last detail about her while I fucked her. I saw things I shouldn’t have, like flashes of past lovers, and that was when my rut became worse. Fenrir hated it. His claws would grow, our fangs would descend, but our mate wasn’t in our life then. I had to remind him of that.

My mate didn’t fully understand what she prayed for, all those years ago. Her grandmother told her what to say, how to feel and, like an innocent child my mate was, she hung on her every word.

We owed her grandmother much.

Now, I fear my mate will worry about my true intentions. Yes, our mating will save The Iron Fang, form them into a pack and save countless lives. But it wasn’t just about that—

If I knew that my mating to Emm would have destroyed everything I had built for these souls— I would have let it happen.

I would have let the Iron Fang burn.

Because, as my mother said, it is best to be the villain and get your happiness.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Emm

Idrifted in and out of consciousness, like waves lapping against the shore. Amidst the haze, I could discern Locke’s voice. I think he was yelling at someone on the phone. His urgent commands echoed in my ears, piercing the silence. Each time, my body would shudder with distress, as if an electric current jolted through my veins. Overwhelmed, I would surrender once again, plunging deep into the abyss of sleep’s obsidian embrace.

There are other times I’m watching a scene of a movie. Two children playing in a primitive village. When I say primitive, I mean it was just that. Dirt roads, log cabins, there wasn’t any electricity, and there was an obvious caste system to the dreary town.

The two children I felt the urge to follow each day, had it better than the rest. They looked healthier, stronger. They didn’t fightlike the rest. They didn’t look— so feral. And the little boy’s eyes were just so green and lively I could easily get lost in them

I knew I was sleeping, I kept trying to wake myself with a pinch or a shake of my body, but my mind would bury itself deeper into the dream, more immersed in it.

Right now, I was watching these children on the day where the girl called Amaryllis would start her training to be alpha. It was an important day, I figured, by the announcement that the large male yelled over the crowd.

Koen, the young boy with a beaming smile, settled on the sidelines, perched on a rough log. I observed Amaryllis, a determined little girl, brimming with pride. However, as I observed the other children of the pack I saw them to be undernourished. A nagging sense of unease washed over me.

It was a loveless—pack; that was the word often used. These were horrible creatures—the wolves that I saw trotting through the town. The warriors of the pack would kick and hurt the weak, and when I first came here, I often tried to push them away.

My efforts were in vain. My hand would fall right through. I knew one thing, though, I didn’t want to have anything to do with a pack if this is how it was run.

I waited, stood in the crowd full of children and adults, watching as Amaryllis stood before her father, the alpha. My panic rose when the alpha waved his hand on the other side of the crowds and easily made a circle.

“Something is not right,” I muttered to myself, my head swept through the crowd. I couldn’t understand why no one else could sense it, but I certainly did.

A person walked up beside me; I felt the cool wind that accompanied them, but didn't turn to see who they were. No one answered me when I tried to talk to them.

“You are correct. Something isn’t right.”

Startled, I jumped, my heart racing as I swiftly turned my head towards her. She stood before me, adorned in a pristine white dress that flowed elegantly around her. Her hair, a shade of white so pure that it seemed to possess a faint bluish tint, glimmered under the sun. As her gaze met mine, her ethereal blue eyes locked onto me, captivating and mysterious.

I opened my mouth to speak but closed it again.She didn’t belong here. Hell, neither did I.

“This is the Blood Rose pack. The pack was named after the blood-red roses that would grow inside its territory, before it was tainted.”

I still couldn’t find words to speak, which was rare for me. I just continued to stare at this woman who didn’t look human at all.

“It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? Seeing where your mate had grown up?”

I let a strangled puff of air out of my throat and glanced at the little boy sitting on the log, with a knife and a block of wood in his hand. He didn’t look at all like Locke. Sure, he had the same dirty blonde hair, maybe, the same colored eyes, but this boy looked loved despite the pack he lived in.

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