Rhiannon had no memory of the minutes she had spent in the company of the Goddess after her death when she was only ten years old. She couldn’t remember the moment Raksha had been bestowed on her or when her body had changed... The only memory that lingered in her mind was that she had saved the world from a destroyer summoned by the Goddess herself to wipe out the corrupted race of lycans.That night she had not only saved a baby but an entire race. However, she had allowed herself to forget that the Goddess’ destroyer had remained on Earth alive, latent, and unnoticed... and that it was her responsibility.It was only logical then that he had been an outcast all his life, it was logical that his mere presence made the lycans nervous, and it was truly fortunate that he had been cautious enough to know how to control himself with silver since the power of a Royal Alpha was little compared to the power a destroyer of the Goddess was capable of invoking... and right that moment, the que

No one had touched a single hair on King Caerbhall’s head since he had been locked up in one of the cells of the compound, perhaps that was why he was angrier than could be expected. Mind you, the gag hadn’t been removed either so he wouldn’t disturb, so the mixture of drool with blood and sweat had brought His Majesty down a couple of notches on the seat of royalty.Finally, around noon, he felt himself being dragged out of the cell and into the center of the complex. There was no auditorium there, but it seemed that everyone had settled where they could to see what was about to happen.Eleven elders served as jurors, and the trial was presided over by Dereck, the Alpha of the European packs.Rhiannon stood off to the side with two of her paladins because Maddox was busy patrolling back and forth along the compound wall, from one tower to the other, as if readying himself for some attack from the outside.“Everything all right with him?” Alanna asked Rhiannon pointing towards him, an

“Are you sure about this?” Maddox murmured who was very close to her, and Rhiannon turned to meet his gaze.“Am I sure I can execute my family’s murderer?” she asked, raising a contemptuous eyebrow. “What do you think?”Around them the lycans began to move toward the grounds outside the compound. Ano ver two hundred yards perimeter was made with a double line of soldiers guarding it along with the paladins, Cedrik, Dereck, and General Gallagher. None trusted that Caerbhall’s plans were restricted to the duel alone, for they all knew that, according to the ancient laws, even victory did not guarantee him freedom.“If he kills me—” she said, turning to Maddox.“Don’t even think about it!” he interrupted her.“If he kills me,” she insisted, “don’t let him get out of here alive, okay?”“If he kills you, we won’t have a queen for this rebellion,” Maddox scolded her.“No, you’ll have a martyr, which is much better.” She laughed sadly. “Without Caerbhall and Aidan there would only be Erea. I

There was not a single cry from the crowd, either of horror or surprise, to indicate that they disagreed with the way that freed wolf was tearing his lycan apart; and by the time the Keqzhara’s circle of protection vanished, Milo, Alissa, Hikaru, and Raksha were already restraining him, for it was evident that he was severely unhinged.Rhiannon gestured Alanna to leave them alone; after all, Aidan couldn’t hurt her without hurting himself.The field gradually cleared until only Aidan, his Beta, Rhiannon, and the stony figure of Maddox, ten yards away, remained; no word or gesture form Alanna had made him leave the place.Rhainnon released Brennan’s bonds, and Brennan untied Aidan’s.“You could have fought for him,” Rhainnon murmured. “He was a murderer, but he was your father.”“I know I could have fought, but I wouldn’t sacrifice Akela to a deranged wolf,” Aidan growled, staring at the ground as he wiped tears from his face. “I swore to protect him before anyone else, and my word is

No one knew exactly what was said in the conversation between Rhiannon of Isrion and Dimitri Smirnov, but forty-eight hours later, three transatlantic cruise ships were leaving New York, carrying nearly seven thousand lycans to the United Kingdom.Two weeks at sea wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, but it gave them time to get organized for what would happen once they arrived.Restoring the old Isrion lineage was no easy task, but at least in Europe, they were looking forward to it, and Rhiannon tried to help as much as she could with the distribution of lycans to their new reserves and support for those with special needs.Fortunately, there were still huge families that could not be separated. During the years of persecution the resistance had created their own packs, and it was not wise to break them up either, so one of the last options was to turn to the Wales reserve.Since it had been adjoined to the Watchtower prison for so long, no pack had been able to claim it, but Rhiannon

“Were you planning on inviting me or were you just going to leave me out?”Aidan raised his head to look at his mother and his face became a mask of discomfort. Coming home after his father’s death had been difficult, but Erea not showing a single sign of feeling sorry for it had made him question his whole life entirely.Her only insistence was that he ascend to the lycan throne, crown himself as the new king, and wage a new war for control that Aidan neither wanted nor needed; so arguments with her were the order of the day.The only reason he had returned to the royal house was because, however much he disliked it, the name Casthiel was still powerful regardless of his father’s death, and he hoped he could use it to influence the Alphas of America.“No, I wasn’t planning on inviting you, and I would definitely prefer that you not participate,” he stated with determination.“Well, whether you like it or not, I’m still the queen, so everything is done with my approval, or it’s not,”

“Get out of here!”Brennan didn’t know if that growl was coming from Aidan or from Akela, but he felt himself being pushed down one of the side corridors until he tripped on the stairs and rolled down fifteen steps.“Go away!”“I’m not leaving you!” said the Beta as he made an attempt to climb up the stairs again, but a look from his Alpha stopped him.“She’s only going to hurt me, but she’ll kill you, you know that! Go, get help!”The door leading to the stairs creaked open, and Brennan leapt to the foot of the stairs, bolting for the lower floors while Aidan just closed his eyes, praying to the Goddess to allow his Beta to escape unscathed.He didn’t know if it had been hours, days, or just minutes when he opened his eyes again. He smelled smoke and singed fabric, so it didn’t take him too long to realize he was somewhere in the royal house that had been set on fire the night of the coronation.He tried to remember what had happened before he got there, but all that went through his

He was fighting so hard to free himself that his body was aching in places that shouldn’t even exist, but Aidan Casthiel was well aware that his struggle wouldn’t last more than a day or two. The silver was wreaking havoc on his system and would not even allow him to fight.He watched his mother approach for the tenth time, holding some sort of concoction that she forced down the tube she had managed to shove down his throat. By now, even his head was strapped to the plank and he could finally understand what it must have been like for Rhiannon to feel the helplessness of being reduced by silver.It was unbearable, but knowing that her mother was recreating the rituals to subdue Akela again was far worse.He listened to her pray with passion and closed his eyes, feeling the effect of the concoction throughout his body. The last one had filled his dreams with horrible nightmares where his wolf was chasing him and dismembering him bit by bit. Akela had had to calm him down for several h

Hiro growled over Alanna’s shoulder, and the she-wolf moved backwards, bumping into him.“Hey! I don’t think your mate appreciates your invading my personal space, so... shoo, shoo!” she protested.“How come in all these centuries you haven’t got yourself a boyfriend?” replied Hiro, and the she-wolf gave him a hateful look. “If you keep opening your eyes like that, people might think you need some eyedrops!” Hiro teased her and Alanna snorted with frustration.“We’re supposed to be on an important mission. You shouldn’t be joking so much.”“Oh, for the Goddess sake! Look at us!” Hiro opened his arms, showing all the mud they had smeared on their clothes to hide the smell as they approached the royal house.“Will you two shut up?” Maddox scolded them. “Even Milo isn’t as annoying as you two.”“Shshshshshsh... I can hear Brennan’s wolf.” Alanna whispered, and indeed, not two minutes had passed when they saw Ballard slink past them.He was limping, and blood was pouring from a wound in o

She could barely stand, but it looked like the Keqzhara were touched by the Goddess after all, because the adrenaline hit was enough for Raksha to come out of her body without being able to materialize, but ready to fulfill her role.However, minutes passed and she still wasn’t able to free Akela. Something that took only seconds before was now a difficult struggle between the two wolves.“Raksha... what’s wrong?” asked Rhiannon, feeling weaker and weaker with every second Rhiannon was having her outside of her.“He won’t come out...” the fangs of her she-wolf’s spirit struggled over Aidan’s body, but only a dejected howl could be heard from Akela.“I hurt him... I hurt him...” he repeated like a broken record. “He won’t love me anymore...he won’t love me any—”“Akela, Aidan will always love you,” said Rhiannon with difficulty.“But I hurt him badly... I hurt the brat...”“And he’s going to die unless you help him. You’re both going to die.” Rhiannon slipped out of Maddox’s arms and w