GoodNovelChapter Two Hundred Eighty-Three
ANASTACIA
Taul? What is going on? Why is he in here?” With a whimper, | stumble back into the wall. Paul's head snaps
around, his eyes flashing gold and circling the blue when he spieson the landing. “You don’t know what you
have done!” | cry, shaking.
“Anastacia,” Paul shouts. “Get back in the room!”
If Jarl is inside, it's only a matter of tbefore Draco’s magic crawls through the walls and finds me. I should
have done something to make certain this place was guarded before | fell asleep. Why didn’t | place wards
around the house? And cast a sleeping spell on the grounds?
Iam an idiot.
“Get him out of here! | screech. “Please!!!”
Fuck! | have to hide.
How did that fuck even get in here?
Why did the shifters not stop him?
With a deep breath, | scramble back into Paul’s room and linger haplessly next to the bed, pacing like an agitated
prisoner. | don’t want to leave here. | don’t want to leave Paul. But Draco’s poison is in his house and now it’s
only a matter of tbefore Draco’s shadow seeks
A voice like a whisper, floats between my ears, “Hell try to suck your will Into his, the way he did before... you
must be bonded to stop him
from it
That thought comes out of nowhere and | clutch my chest, gazing up at the ceiling as if | can see through it into
heaven.
Gran, is that you?
Attempting to block out everything else | can hear, | focus on my heartbeat until the sounds fade away.
Gran? | call out with my mind. Gran are you there?
| wait... nothing happens.
Gran, what do you mean | need to be bonded? Bonded how? To what? Grat?!
“Bonded?” Paul’s voice cuts through my meditation so loudly | startle. “Anastacia? Who are you talking to? Your
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtgrandmother?”
Spinning around, my eyes jolt upward in shock, “1-1 wasn’t speaking, | whisper, stuttering.
He heard me! He heard....
my Goddess. He really is my true mate.
A swell of love, pure and warm, surroundsfor a second, and before can stop myself, | jump into his arms.
Catchingto him, a blaze ignites between us. Electric connection crackling at the tips of my fingers.
Everything around us fades away hs he watches me, his eyes narrowing, pupils batting back and forth as he
searches my gaze for only heaven knows what. The flex of his muscles are like bands of molten steel as his arms
close around me, drawingforward until my chest is pressed against his. Jarl is long
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Chapter Two Hundred Eighty-Three
forgotten when my nipples ruigainst the cotton of my shirt, just below Paul's deliciously prominent pectorals,
Wetness glazes my sex. my core pulsing between my thighs.
Goddess... he’s so perfect.
Paul inhales sharply, his fangs elongating. “Stop this,” he commands halfheartedly, pullingcloser despite his
plea
My hands slide down from his shoulders and stretch over the smooth skin of his powerfully built chest. “Why?” |
hum, with a bite of my lip, my eyes heating as they draw over the chiseled lines draped in slightly bronzed flesh.
“I like this. I like you
“You're charming me. You're making feel things. | don’t like it,” he snaps with an angry growl before stepping
back and releasingwith obvious reluctance.
“Y-you don’t like it? You mean... you don’t like me.” My body is instantly cold with the sting of rejection. “And I'm
not trying to charm you!” | snap. “I am not! | haven't! Not even one thave | tried! And | can’t anyway! And
that’s the truth.
te doing
His jaw clenches as he steps closer once again. He glares down at me. “You were trying” His eyes dart around in
annoyance. “You're it again. Stop it?”
My head rears back as if he’s slapped me. “Doing it? Doing what? What the fuck are you talking about, Paul?”
“You're are casting!” He snarls, “I don’t like it.” He spins around the room, waving his arms in the air like an idiot.
“What in the blue devil are you doing? Dancing?”
My eyes scatter around the the space, watching the untethered magic as he plucks and pinches at different
portions of the open air.
“This fucking purple mist shit! He snaps.
“It’s all around you whenever you're casting.”
What did he say? Purple mist shit?
“P-purple mist?” | gasp, turning in a circle and seeing nothing but my magic. | suppose it does look a bit like
mist. “You can see it?”
He freezes, staring atwith disbelief. “You know that | can. The sway | can see the purple in your eyes. |
am a wolf shifter. Our eyesight is better than a human's.”
That may be true, Pretty Paul, but you shouldn't be able to see it.
That's why it couldn't move through him before,
when | tried to keep the door closed. It’s because he’s my mate! The Gifted cannot cast ir mates. It's against the
rules of the universe. Because he is my true mate, my magic will not affect him. It cannot touch him. Cannot
harm him nor compel him. It is just the way of things.
| can almost hear my grandmama’s whispering again, saying Just tell him baby. Tell him how it is.
But | ignore that for the moment, deciding to turn my hurt into rage. | was never good at listening anyhow. I've
always been much better at fucking up my life than accepting sound advice when it’s given.
“Fine Paul! Think what you want. But tellthis,” | snarl, getting up in his face. “With all six of you down there?
How did that fucker get inside? Ituh? Do you have any idea what you have done?”
“He didn’t get inside, Paul growls, his eyes scorching with hot anger. Staring down at me, a muscle ticks in his
jaw. “We caught him and brought him inside.”
“Wh-what?” I'm so stunned that | think | lose my mind for a moment. My hand races up toward his face so
quickly that | can almost hear it crack against his skin, but | don’t because it never makes it. He snatches my
wrist right before | can make contact and | want to scream at him.
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Chapter Two Hundred Eighty-Threo
“You said you would protectI cry out, tearfully. “Why wedd you
“You spoke
sleep, Anastacia, You told us what to do with them to wash away their taint or so you called it. You said that we
should wash him in the ocean water at dawn. So when we heard of the root, | sent someone out to snatch him off
of it?
|
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm
| gasp. He's right, | think. Somewhere deep inside of me, | know it’s ina
Another whisper in my head... Shadow hounds are extremely susceptible saltwater.
So you brought him in here,” | say, chuwing on one najl as | try to think “There was only one of them on the
roof?” | ask
With a
a nod, | close my eyes, scouring the deepest recesses of my brain for more memories of my visit with Gran. |
remember her words almost too easily someone has finally breached Brace’s barrier over you heart. You are free
now.”
Someone... Paul... but howe did he do it? When?
When you heard him howl for the first time. That's
when
“Oh my goodness,” | say to myself.
“What?” Paul hisses. “What is it?”
He'll try to suck your will into his, the way he did before... you must be bonded to stop him from |
Ill never be safe,” | say gravely. “And it’s all because of you.”
“What makes you say that? Why would you think that?”
| whirl on him, closing my arms around myself protectively. “Because until | am bonded with my true mate, my
heart will be vulnerable to Draco’s shadow.”
Paul's eyes flare with something like anger. “How is that my fault? Maybe you should stop playing games and go
out and find him. You-"
“You are him, Paul. You are!”
He shakes his head and a crushing pain erupts across my chest, the fire of it so maddeningly painful that | drop
to my knees in anguish.
“Fine, “I say sudden clarity, ignoring the tears that fall from my eyes. “Then | no longer need your help.”
| stand, my eyes blurry, my body tired, and with heavy sadness in my heart.
“What do you mean?” Paul says as | attempt to walk by him. One hand, shoots out and seals around my bicep.
“Where are you going?”
am so very tired of running,” | whimper without looking at him. “I am going to give myself up.”
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The Pack: Rule Number 1 No Mates.
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