Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 113848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 569(@200wpm)___ 455(@250wpm)___ 379(@300wpm)
“I wouldn’t want to put you out.” Ren sipped an apple cider, fresh from the Ubus Realm where Chloe’s relatives lived. “And you already did so much for my birthday.” Chloe had organized a cookout with the entire pack. The night had been fun and blessedly uneventful.
“Are you kidding me? Auntie Chlo is going to spoil those kids so bad, even before they’re born.”
Ren and Chloe had grown close, as she had with Will and the two boys. Though Ren missed her loved ones from the past, she was making her home among Munro’s people at Glenrial.
Would her parents have approved of her new life, tucked away among “monsters”? She imagined what she would tell them about this place. I never thought I could recreate the unity I felt with you two and with my hunters, but I have. I’m happy.
And Jacob? She knew he would’ve wished for Ren to have what he’d found with Esther.
Chloe asked, “How did Munro react to the news?” She read Ren’s guilty expression and said, “You haven’t told him yet. I can see why. He’s a stress bucket, isn’t he?” Straight-talking Chloe.
Ren nodded. “He hardly eats or sleeps. I don’t think he’ll be right until the babies are born and Jels is dead.”
She’d delegated her plan to hunt that archwarlock to Munro and Will due to her morning sickness (which really should be called all-day sickness) and her growing need for rest.
A local witch named Mariketa continued to scry for Jels, and Loa fielded tips of sightings, but he wasn’t easy to pin down. The brothers had chased down lead after lead.
Two weeks ago, they’d run him to ground in the streets of downtown New Orleans, battling his vassals and dodging his beams. Yet once Munro and Will had gotten close, the coward had portaled away.
Since then, no sign of him outside of Quondam.
Ren and Munro had received a couple of bits of good news though. After Lothaire and Loa had informed everyone they knew that the Forgotten’s gateway was no more, the bounty had lost traction.
And Balery had rolled the bones for Ren again to find out what had happened to Dorada. Had the sorceress become a Wendigo? Or perished?
Balery couldn’t see the specifics, but she spied no Dorada threat in Ren and Munro’s future.
Yet that news had hardly made a dent in his worry, which Ren felt as her own. Over these weeks, she’d fallen for him so hard that the depth of her feelings sometimes frightened her.
Each night after they made love, they talked for hours. He’d told her the heartbreaking tale of sending away his mortal son, then returning to Tàmhas’s deathbed, and he’d confided to her more about his brother’s past. Will had overcome so much to make a new life with his mate, and the two were clearly devoted to each other.
Chloe knotted her sun-streaked hair atop her head and said, “Will told me you’re making amazing strides with your beast.”
“Amazing? And here I thought I was stumbling instead of striding.”
Each day before he and Will left to hunt for Jels, Munro trained with her. In their first session, he’d told her, “When I remove your cuff, your beast will rush to the fore. I want you to breathe deeply, and picture yourself forcing your way back to the surface.” The instant he removed the cuff, her beast had surged beyond any hope of control. Munro had quickly cuffed Ren once more.
Will had said that the beast responded to confidence. Basically, one had to out-alpha its alpha and conquer it. So Munro had made her release it and force it back, over and over. Inhale. Exhale. Off to the background, beast! Now. NOW!
Ren told Chloe, “My new record is four minutes.”
“I know you can do it. I’m a big believer in mind over matter.” Chloe had overcome much to become an Olympic-caliber athlete in her mortal life. Now she was a sword-wielding cambion. Her weapon was always within reach, just as Ren’s blade was.
“I believe I can do anything if it would alleviate Munro’s worries.” Ren’s warrior mate needed an enemy to vanquish; in his eyes, her beast was a foe, one who might steal her from him.
Yet sometime soon, she would remind Munro that only she could conquer her own beast. Ultimately, it was up to her, and she was ready to meet the challenge, ready to fight for their future.
It held so much promise. Her new life at Glenrial was a marvel.
If she wanted “conditioned” air, she used an app on her phone. If she needed new clothes for her changing body—her Dream Duds stamp had finally resurfaced and peeled away—then she went online shopping. If she craved pleasure, she only had to look at Munro a certain way and she found herself carried upstairs to bed.