Her Night Wolf (Fall Mountain Shifters Book 5) Read online

  Contents

  Other Books by G. Bailey

  Map

  Description

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note:

  Her Guardians Series

  Her Fate Series

  Protected By Dragons Series

  Lost Time Academy Series

  The Demon Academy Series

  Dark Angel Academy Series

  Shadowborn Academy Series

  Dark Fae Paranormal Prison Series

  Saved By Pirates Series

  The Marked Series

  Holly Oak Academy Series

  The Alpha Brothers Series

  A Demon’s Fall Series

  The Familiar Empire Series

  From The Stars Series

  The Forest Pack Series

  The Secret Gods Prison Series

  The Rejected Mate Series

  Fall Mountain Shifters Series

  Royal Reapers Academy Series

  The Everlasting Curse Series

  Map

  Her Night Wolf 2021 (c) All Rights Reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by Rebecca Frank

  Edited by Polished Perfection

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Other Books by G. Bailey

  Map

  Description

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Valentine

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note:

  I was once a rejected wolf, and now I’m the queen of the Fall Mountain Pack.

  I’m their alpha female.

  After escaping King Cenwyn and his court, I find myself back with my alphas, who are now my mates. I have everything I’ve ever wanted and more, but the gods have a different idea of freedom for me. Persephone’s using the soul bond to connect to my mind and control it, but none of us knows what she truly wants. King Cenwyn’s armies are at our borders, and he isn’t alone.

  The Levi are now an army, controlled by an angry goddess, and if we aren’t careful, she will destroy us all.

  We endure the fall and rise in the ashes.

  Fall Mountain Pack will not stay down for long. Wolves always bite back…

  This is a full-length reverse harem romance novel full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. This is book five in the series. Intended for 18+ readers.

  To you, may you find your Fall Mountain Pack family.

  Persephone with Hades, in their end.

  “They say I’ve gone mad, but you’re still here, still fighting for me in the darkness that sweeps our world apart.”

  My words float around the stillness of our home, hidden deep within the city walls that will hold, even when we die within them. We will die in this place, but we won’t ever leave the prisons that await.

  The darkness shimmers as he walks out of it. Smooth golden skin, dark eyes like the night sky, he shows nothing but flawless beauty. He was born to bewitch the world into the shadows. Hades has always taken my breath away.

  He never pauses as he walks to me. No fear, no hate for what I’ve done, just love.

  His cold hand tilts my jaw up, forcing me to look into his eyes, and once I’m there, I can’t look away.

  “You’re only mad to those who do not understand the darkness. I breathe it. I adore it. I love you, Persephone. No matter who wishes to come between us, no matter the curse of the seven, nothing and no one will come between us.”

  My voice breaks, just like my heart. “I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t—”

  “Shh, my love,” he coos, stroking his hand up into my silky hair. “All mortal things come to an end, and even we cannot fight this. Our love will be as eternal as our souls.”

  I rest my head against his chest, and he holds me, even as we both struggle to accept the ending that we have been given in this life. The Wolven gods have cursed us, and it’s all my fault…but I will find a way to fix everything.

  There is no peace in the darkness without my alphas.

  Something hot, scenting of death, coats my hands, and I become keenly aware of the familiar sickly feeling as I wake up. Everything’s just spinning around me, reminding me of the times I would spin around with Ragnar under the tree outside my house. This time there is no laughter, no joy, as I reach for my mates...and even that deep bond is blurred. My head is banging like it was hit with a bat, and there is a dull headache that won’t quite go away even as I try to focus my thoughts. What in the name of the gods happened? My mind spins as I try to focus on where I am at least. The scent of death that lingers in the warm air is mixed with the metallic tang of blood, the fresh wood scent of books, and old dust. My wolf howls in my mind, stretching and itching like she’s been locked up, and her strength pushes the dizziness away just a little more. I can’t focus my eyes, relying on my other senses, but I can’t sense much over the smell of blood and books.

  I remember being with my mates after the mating, connecting with the pack, and feeling the pack bond. I should be able to speak to them right now...and it scares me that the bond is so silent. Terror for my mates freezes my heart as I remember everything in harsh, jagged memories that assault my mind, making the headache so much worse. I remember hearing Persephone in my head, her voice so strong, like she was really in this world and far more real than the connection our souls has, as she ripped my soul apart to make room for herself. The crown, the Apple of Discord, was all the power she needed to breach this world and take my body over.

  “Wherever you are, Persephone, I’m so done with your bullshit! Goddess or not, this is my goddamn body!”

  My shout echoes around wherever I am as things start to look less blurry. Persephone doesn’t reply, which is a blessing, considering she can lock me out of my own body, and slowly I see the high bookshelves of the library, the familiar books, and warm shadows. I’m lying on the floor, facing a row of books that are all a faint purple, aged and worn down with a light sprinkle of dust covering them. Sitting up, I glance down at my hands that shake from sheer fear of what Persephone has done. My fingers are covered in silver blood, and so is my white dress and black cloak wrapped around my shoulders. I didn’t put these clothes on. I feel sick as I stare at the blood, almost terrified to look around with the pressure of the guilt choking me already.

  Small snow-white flowers bloom at my feet, and I follow a path of them, disapp
earing down into the shadows of the library, along with drops of silver blood dotting the path. I crawl to my feet, walking past the flowers, which change from brilliant white to rose maroon purples. They glow with their own light, and the further I go, the more flowers there are, until I find a collection of them blooming around a small broken table. One of the legs has been snapped, and now there are so many flowers crawling around it, moving like they are alive.

  But on the table is a pretty little creature. Dot. Her grey hair matches the pool of blood around her waist where a dagger is completely pushed all the way through her stomach. The dagger is so big that it’s ripped her apart, but she’s still alive as her wide eyes look at me. Flowers are blooming around her on the table, and I realise they are growing from her blood. Life growing from her death. There is something beautiful in it, even as the sight of her makes me want to fall and beg for forgiveness.

  Persephone—well, I—did this.

  I’m not aware I’m even moving. With nothing but a roar filling my ears, I crawl over the flowers and kneel in front of the table where Dot lies. She looks like a broken doll, crushed, and her white eyes are lacking the glow of life I’ve always seen in them.

  “Who did this?” I gently ask. I don’t want to ask, knowing the answer already, but I need to know. I feel like I can’t breathe until I do. I search for my mates one more time, but there is nothing but a dull buzz where the bond should be.

  “You, but not you, Astra,” she breathes out, her voice cracking and struggling.

  “I should call guards, or anyone, to get a healer, and we—”

  “My fate is written in the song of time, like yours, and no healer could fix me.”

  I don’t really know what to say to that, but I don’t call for anyone. Dot might not have said it, but no one should be alone while they die.

  “Why did Persephone do this?” I whisper.

  “I have much to tell you, Astra. Much,” she begins, finding some strength to even speak. I know these are her final words, and the only respectful thing I can do right now is to listen and remember them. That’s all anyone wants, in the end, to be remembered. I can’t save her, and I doubt any god or healer in this entire pack would know how to. “My daughter was sweet and born under three falling stars, each of them a blessing to what she would become. Smart. Beautiful. Pure.”

  This story reminds me of my own names and the reason my mum gave me them. “She was born in spring and was everything the stars could have told us mortals of beauty and grace. She was so beautiful, and I named her Persephone because she reminded me of a particular flower that I always saw on the brightest of days.”

  I go still, my thoughts racing a million miles a minute as I process what she just told me. She is Demeter, the mad goddess I saw in Persephone’s memories. Her mother who didn’t want her with Hades. I’m speechless. “I became more frightened every month that passed when she grew to adulthood, that the other gods would notice her. I lost her to Hades as you well know.”

  There is so much bitterness in her voice. I swallow hard. “I didn’t always used to look like this, by the way. This was once a doll I gave Persephone as a child, and I was cursed by Hades and Persephone to be trapped in it forever, bound to a library full of dead trees. Do you know what that is like for me? Goddess of nature and everything living? This is hell.”

  I struggle for words. “Why would she do that to her mother?”

  “I deserved it,” she replies, her voice flat.

  “You truly believe that?” I question.

  “Yes,” she replies, her voice stronger than a second ago. “I started and fought in a war to get my daughter back from Hades. He took one look at her and fell in love, and I think she loved him, too. But I didn’t understand that, back then. I assumed that he’d taken her by force, tricked her mind as he could, and I killed anything in my way to get her back. I killed so many, and there is so much blood painted on me that it would flood this entire castle. Don’t feel sorry for me, Astra. I am a villain in the hearts of so many, including my own daughter.”

  “Then be a hero and help me. How do I stop Persephone from controlling my body?”

  She faintly smiles. “Hero...that is not a word for a god or goddess. We are all power, all destruction and nothing more.”

  I don’t believe that for a second. She tore the world apart, killed for her daughter, and that comes from love. Even if it is the twisted kind. “Persephone never let me close to her, never let me understand her life, and she certainly told no one but her dark god her secrets. Everything she did was for him. She loved him as you love your alphas.”

  “And you loved her,” I reply. “And she did this...”

  “Yes,” she softly replies. “I do not hate her for it, and neither should you. She’s been many things, my daughter, but in her heart, truly deep down, she is good. Mad, but good.”

  I don’t think a statement from Demeter about being good is really worth much.

  “Is there anything I can do for you?” I quietly question.

  “No. Only the ones that cursed me could kill me and set me free. I don’t know whether my daughter did this as a payment or a kindness, but I am finally to be free from this library.”

  I stay silent as she looks away from me and up to the ceiling, her breathing laboured. “When I’m gone, you need to ask the library for what you need, and it will show you all its secrets. Thousands of years’ worth lie in here, and any help you need can be found in these books. Books are a greater power than the gods.”

  “Thank you,” I reply, watching as a single tear glides down her yellow cheek, so much paler than I’ve seen her before.

  “To stop Persephone, if it’s even possible, you should speak with the Wolven gods. If anyone could tell you that, it’s them, and they will answer your call. Your blood will secure the connection not many ever have,” she softly tells me, her voice like a summer breeze. “We will meet again, Astra. Do what I could not and save her.”

  Demeter’s eyes glaze over, and she breathes out deeply one more time before going still. Her blood still drops, making more flowers that are growing up on the bookcases and shelves. I swear I see her spirit float up in the air, nothing more than a shimmer in the air that feels like all the seasons in one. The heat of summer, the crisp air of autumn, the freshness of spring, and the brittle chill of winter.

  “We endure the fall and rise in the ashes. Leave Fall Mountain Pack in peace and rest with the gods, Demeter. You will be remembered.”

  I sit in the flowers, watching her dead body until I feel nothing but the warmth of the library soaking into my bones, and my tears falling off my cheeks onto the flowers. I just watched a goddess die, and despite the horrors she committed, I feel a deep sadness that she was gone just like that.

  There isn’t a single sound in the library, and I swear it is mourning with me as the shadows seem to tighten and go cold. I pull off the cloak from around my shoulders, and I cover up her small body, closing my eyes as I do for a moment. The blood on my hands makes my body shake, and I try to ignore them and look away as I search for the bond. The emptiness and sorrow and fear end up knocking me to my knees as I gasp for air.

  It’s one thing to have your enemy outside the walls of our pack, but it’s another to have an enemy literally taking over your body.

  I wrap my arms around myself, feeling my power lashing out in streams around me, picking up strands of my air in the breeze.

  Persephone won’t win. I’ve been through too much and have too much to lose to let her push me to the side.

  The second I decide to fight, the alphas’ bond connects to me like an electric current, snapping us together once more. Whatever magic kept us apart hasn’t worked for long. My mates. I can feel them attached to my soul, bonded deeply to me and woven so far into my heart that there isn’t an end of me and a beginning of them. We are one. I instantly feel their panic, their urgency as they search the castle for me, like it’s my own.

  I hear their voi
ces inside my mind, each one of them more panicked and frantic as they search for me, coming to a pause when they sense the bond burning to life one more time.

  “Mai, where are you? Talk to us,” Henderson all but begs, pleads, and it hurts my heart to hear the raw worry in his voice.

  “I’m here, in the library of the castle,” I send back to them, each of them, testing this new level of communication.

  “Are you okay? Why did you leave?” Valentine asks, his voice so worried. Instead of telling them, I show them in my mind everything that has happened, projecting my memories to my mates. I feel their emotions, from fury and panic to feral rage at Persephone for this.