QUILLA
The small moon temple in the back yard is quaint and surrounded by a pretty flowering garden.
I follow Neo up the path and past milling wolves who bow their heads as we approach.
Multitude of eyes stare at me making sweat break out under my dress in just about every awkward place possible.
“Just follow me.” Neo whispers, reaching to give my hand an encouraging squeeze as she leads us up the path toward the white pillared temple.
She nods gracefully to the standing wolves who beam their happiness at me.
I have no idea what in the hell I’ve done to earn this level of inspection and admiration.
The whole place looks and feels like something out of a fairy tale book but I barely see it all.
My vision zooms in on Viggo, standing ahead, with a small group of wolves around him.
I almost trip as he looks over the heads of the wolves and his gaze fixes fully on me dragging down my body in a lazy, hungry inspection that rattles me to my core.
He frowns for a moment at my neck where his mark is well hidden by the dress's high neckline, but then resumes his inspection not even listening to whoever is speaking to him.
He stares at me like he can see through the damn form-fitting dress. His golden eyes rake my figure unashamedly and I hate to admit its not nervous sweat dampening between my thighs.
Fuck my life my body is out of fucking control.
Kyra revels. I don’t know what the heck is going on with her. Viggo’s approval, his desire, burns within the bond inside me and there is nothing I can do about the fact that he is so fucking irritatingly handsome and sexy my eyes devour him in return.
How could I not?
I may abhor the lycan, but there is no denying the raw power oozing from him. He overshadows every male that surrounds him. Taller, bigger, imposing and beautiful, power reeking from him magnetizing everyone nearby.
Everything about Viggo, the way he moves and speaks commands attention and obedience. A combination that is wrecking havoc on my panties and I am not the only female affected.
Midst the wolves holding court before him a single she wolf, with a full figure and a mane of raven hair, stares and pouts prettily at Viggo.
The bitch from the hallway.
Her eyes and scent are filled with unguarded lust and I am not the only one who notices.
Kyra, already angry at the encounter earlier and what it did to me, surges forward with a low warning growl rumbling through my head. I feel her anger, her outrage, and her jealousy as the buxom she wolf reaches forward to touch Viggo’s arm and draws his attention back to the group. She flicks her green eyes at me for the briefest of seconds.
I’ve never felt Kyra like this before, I’ve never been scared of her taking over me, or doing something I don’t agree with. But right now I am scared. Mostly because I agree with her. How dare this bitch look at him and touch him like he’s on the damn menu. It’s a fucking matter of principle.
I barely notice the taste of blood in my mouth as my canines descend, the growl that started in my head escapes from my throat cutting short whatever Viggo was saying and drawing the attention of the stupid female.
“Quilla?” Neo says as she catches the low rumble in my throat. Her hand squeezes mine but it’s too late.
I yank my hand out of hers and step toward the she wolf holding her gaze. The lust in her eyes fast turns to fear as Kyra leaps into mine enraged and I flash her a toothy grin. I feel a power unlike anything I’ve felt before surge in my blood.
Do I look like I share?
It takes me a second to comprehend that the voice I heard speaking in my head was not confined to my head space but vocalized. I don’t even sound like me. My voice taking on a deeper resonance.
Around me the woods fall silent and the she-wolf flushes red and bends her neck, her wolf submitting under the force of my words and glare.
She takes a step backward from Viggo.
“Kisha, leave immediately. Return to the pack house.” Alpha Bryce orders the chastised she wolf who bows her head and slinks away.
I don’t even watch her go.
Viggo’s eyes hold mine and I see worry fill his as Kyra retreats, satisfied she’s achieved whatever the fuck she was doing.
I jolt as Neo steps next to me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Quilla are you okay?”
I turn to my mother.
“No. I’m not.” I mumble not hearing what it is she says next as I turn away, veer right, and storm off blindly into the woods.
My head and skin crawl with embarrassment over what I just did and only one thing can fix how I feel.
As soon as I’m behind the tree line I shift, not caring as I shred my mother’s pretty dress in the process.
Kyra surges forward, she knows what I need. We run. Hard and fast in a full sprint, she hurdles rocks, and weaves through trees and bushes, pushing us harder and harder until pain forces us into a slow run, then a walk, and then we stop.
Panting we look around sensing we have managed to stay on pack lands but I have no idea where we are.
I scent water in the air and follow the liquid smell to a gently flowing creek.
Lapping water to quench the burning thirst from our run, a rustle in the woods behind us has Kyra on alert.
Kyra freezes in place as Viggo’s lycan walks toward her, his massive jaw hovering over us as he crouches before us.
I am Kyros mate, and you are beautiful. The voice pushing through my thoughts, invading my head space is Viggo’s but not.
I don’t like the feeling of the intrusion in my mind. It’s been one thing to accept that of the wolf inside me, this is something else. I push back and Kyra helps me block out Viggo’s kycan pressing into my head space.
He tilts his head and reaches forward to run his claws through Kyra’s thick brown fur and I’m more than surprised, thrilled, and ecstatically proud when Kyra nips his fingers and snarls showing him a flash of canine.
I could cry. I send my wolf all the love I have in my heart for her. I know in an instant my wolf and I are together in this. The pull of the mate bond is one I know Kyra finds irresistible, that little show at the temple all but announced to the world how she feels about Viggo, but she is my wolf, she knows how I feel too about what he did to me and her loyalty to me is absolute.
Kyros puffs his chest out and it rumbles with a displeased growl which Kyra reciprocates baring her teeth at him before she rises and walks several meters away to find a nice grassy spot to lay down in.
Her disdain leaves Viggo’s wolf in confused silence as he stays frozen in his position staring at us for several minutes before he rises to take a seat, leaning against a tree, his burning gaze never leaving me.
Kyra ignores his low grumbles of displeasure as she languidly licks her paws and sinks into the cool grass.
As Kyra relaxes under the star lit sky, utter exhaustion begins to fill our limbs. The emotional and physical toll of the last two days finally getting the better of us.
I don’t know what it is but somewhere between the peaceful quite of the forest and Kyros’s smoke and leather scent, peace finds me and I close my eyes for a moment.
A moment that stretches unconsciously well into the night and when I wake the moon is low and the sky tinged purple with the burgeoning dawn.
Kyra stretches and yawns then jolts as delicious sparks tingle under her fur and we find Kyros curled around us.
The fucking cheek.
I push her to move but she indulges for a moment, relaxing into Kyros’s heat. His black fur is thick and as ridiculously soft as we imagined. Kyra whines her contentment which make Kyros flick his eyes open.
Golden eyes stare at me and I give Kyra a mental kick which gets her off her simping ass.
She stretches and yawns then as she walks off gives the ground a small kick with her hind legs sending a flurry of grass, leaves and dirt into Kyros’s face before walking down to the creek for a drink.
I hold in my laugh as Kyros growls, dusting his face as he rises to his full height.
Viggo presses into my head again but Kyra keeps him in place, locked out as we begin the walk back to the pack house.
Kyros wisely keeps his distance and silence but there is not a second of the walk back every sense I have is not aware of him.
I have a sneaking suspicion Kyra secretly loves the fact she has this giant lycan wrapped around her claws. I still want to kick a field goal with Viggo’s head.
Viggo may be hot as fuck, but he is arrogant and it irritates the heck of out me when I see the conceit and triumph in his eyes every time he looks at me. I know he thinks he has this mate bond in the bag.
We finally reach the moon temple just as dawn breaks over the treetops casting a golden glow over the white temple.
I walk away and head to the pack house. I’m going to have to shift outside the bedroom and rush in since I destroyed Neo’s dress. I hope she’s not pissed about that.
A crackle of bone catches Kyra’s attention and she turns just as Viggo completes his shift and bends to pick up his dress pants laid out on the steps of the temple.
Blow me to the moon and back, Viggo’s ass is something out of this world and there is not a thing on this earth that could stop me or Kyra from staring with complete, hungry fixation at the bare muscles flexing abovet his powerful thighs as he slips on his dress pants. We haven’t even had breakfast yet, can anyone blame us?
I’m still staring gobsmacked when he turns with his dress shirt hanging open and unbuttoned from his broad as fuck shoulders, the ridged landscape of his abs peeking through as he hangs his belt over his shoulder.
Kyra hums her approval at the deliciousness on offer as he walks toward us.
I have real concerns about how long I can keep this lycan at bay, and do I even want to? Kyra may be on my side for now but I feel her wavering indecision every time Viggo does a little strip tease. Stupid mate bond.
“I hope you are feeling better after your run and rest, mate.” Viggo’s deep sandpaper voice runs my soul ragged. Does everything about him really have to be so fucking sexy? Ugh.
As he opens the door to the pack house a loud crack followed by a shrill scream resonates from the forest. Viggo stiffens on alert, his eyes glazing over and out of nowhere, Viggo’s lycans step out from the treeline to surround us.
The crack and scream repeat over and over making my skin crawl. I want to shift but I have no clothes.
Viggo steps in front of me protectively as Costas comes running toward us through the woods.
“Alpha Bryce is whipping a wolf.” He says, tension fixed on his broad shoulders answering Viggo’s unspoken question.
“I can tell that much,” Viggo growls, “Who is being punished?”
Costas glances at me and I tense.
“Kisha, the Beta’s sister.”
Now I do have to shift. I push Kyra back moving forward.
“Look away,” Viggo orders Costas and his lycans as my fur gives way to skin.
“Put this on,” he growls, yanking his shirt off as he steps in front of me to hide me from view, then throws his shirt over my bare back.
I stand, buttoning up quickly, then turn around. The shirt might as well be a blanket and does a perfect job of covering my nakedness to my knees, cocooning me in his scent.
An unsettled feeling sinks in my stomach as I turn to face Viggo.
“Why is he whipping her? Was it because of me?”
Viggo’s pause is answer enough.
“This is a very traditional pack, they still do many things the old way. Kisha disrespected our mate bond which dishonored the pack. She insulted you and she is paying the price.”
My mind reels and I feel sick to my stomach.
“If I hadn’t said anything would she have been punished? I mean everyone could see what she was doing? She may as well have put herself on a platter for you ”
His jaw ticks before he answers.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. It is unfortunately a fairly normal reaction of unmated she wolves around unmated Alphas. Our bond is in a complicated situation. You carry my mark but you have not accepted me, and we have not mated. In the eyes of some she-wolves that makes me available, but I assure you mate, she was no temptation at all for me.”
I frown and step back from him.
“You didn’t answer my question. If I had not said anything would she have been punished?”
He frowns again, running his hand through his long hair.
“Probably not. The only person who could call that behavior out is a mate. You are the marked Luna Queen you made it clear her behavior was unacceptable and Alpha Bryce could not let the insult to you pass.”
He steps forward reaching out to me but I step back out of reach. His hand falls to his side balling before he speaks again.
“As Luna Queen you have power that you will need to learn to use with discretion.”
I step back again, anger and frustration returning into the pit of my stomach.
“I don’t want it. I never asked for it, and you didn’t give me a single chance to make my own choice about it.” I glare into his golden eyes.
“You marked me, you set this bond in place, it’s not me that should have called her out, you should have. This is all your fucking fault.”
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