Series: Werewolves of Wall Street Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78974 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 395(@200wpm)___ 316(@250wpm)___ 263(@300wpm)
Maybe she’s not fully broken.
“I asked the Warden if it would be better if she were fully grown. He says the decision is made. He doesn’t want to take the chance that she’ll become unclean.”
Unclean. As if a mature female who’s explored a little more of her sexuality and is more confident in making choices for herself is “unclean.” The Warden doesn’t want to wait for these young females to be old enough to know better, to fight back. My insides burn with rage.
Oma would say something about sacrificing for the good of the pack, but I won’t spit that bullshit to my friend. I will not allow another generation to be victimized like this. I might not have much power, but what I have, I will use for good.
I take a chance and speak in a murmur, “Keep your head down. Don’t speak of this again. As far as anyone’s concerned, you are looking forward to the ritual.”
Liora blinks her dark blue eyes. I’m asking her to practice deceit. It’s not really in her nature. But she nods.
I inhale her scent–wintergreen mint and wild herbs with a touch of pine. Something about it is familiar.
I reach for Liora’s hand. Mine is cold and bony, but she grips it like a lifeline. “I’m going to find a way for Oriana to be free of the ritual.” For all of us to be free. I have no idea how I’m going to do that, but I feel the certainty in my chest as I make the promise. I can almost feel the approval the Grandmothers–but I shut that out as best I can because I don’t want another vision to come on right now.
“Thank you, Seeress,” Liora whispers. I squeeze her hand before I let her free. We sit in silence a moment before we become aware of the guard pacing outside the door. “I should go.”
“Be blessed,” I say, and, on impulse, I reach out and rest my hand on her forehead. A true blessing. Connection.
She closes her eyes and receives it before rising and making her silent way out the door.
Once again, I’m alone. I’m still weak–but she left the rest of the broth. I’ll drink it and savor the scraps of meat, then call my wolf to chew the bones.
It’s not much, but it will give me a bit more strength that I can use to figure out how to get us out of this mess.
Noah
I sit in my rental car, hidden on the side of the highway, behind a copse of trees. Twenty feet from where I parked marks the boundary line of the Adalwulf Pack land and Blackthroat property. When Madi was Brick’s assistant, she helped him procure this land for the Blackthroats, swiping the sale out from under Aiden’s feet.
If a member of either pack caught me here now, it could start another outright war. Or end my life. But that’s the risk I have to take.
I maneuver the controls on one of the drones I bought to survey the Adalwulf compound, homing in on a stone tower where the bug I placed on Aster has remained for the past week. The bug is in her handbag, and she hasn’t left the compound since she returned, so it makes sense the bag wouldn’t move. But based on the conversation I recorded between Aster and Aiden, I suspect she’s locked in that tower. The same one from my dreams.
It always looked like some kind of prison to me.
But the young woman in the museum didn’t look like a prisoner. She looked every inch the high society bitch one would expect from one of the oldest and wealthiest families in New York. Like Catherine Adalwulf.
Then again, from the details Madi let slip, I think her mother-in-law was as much a victim of the family’s terror as my mother is.
Maybe it’s a misguided savior complex, but I have a fierce desire to liberate every female born to that pack. To dismantle the twisted underpinnings of the sick cult that breeds females and uses them like slaves in the name of religion.
Aster is one of those slaves.
No, I don’t know that. But it’s possible she could be flipped. She might be willing to tell me information about the location of Moonborn in exchange for the tiara. I left the tiara in a safehold in the city because having it close seemed to give me a headache.
My burner phone lights up, warning me of an incoming call from Moon Co. I left my actual work phone in my apartment but forwarded all messages and calls to the burner, so I wouldn’t miss anything.
I keep the drone hovering and free a hand to check my messages. A shock runs through me when I see the transcribed voice message is from Brick.
Noah. Answer your phone.