Midnight
NOAH
I was in the middle of a battle when it happened. When I felt it.
When I felt my mate being ripped away from me.
My knees buckled and my body forced me to shift back to human form as a shooting pain shot
through my body starting from my heart. I lay on my side, and I could feel myself shaking in agony.
“Noah!” I heard someone calling, but they seemed far away. “Noah, fuck!”
A face appeared leaning over me. Alex.
“Noah, can you stand?” He was checking my body for signs of injuries that would explain my
collapse, but didn’t find any.
I shook my head, my breathing heavy.
Alex’s arm wound around my waist, helping pull me up to stand. He motioned for someone to help,
one of the warriors.
The pain eased off and I was able to take some of my own weight, but that didn’t last long.
Another sharp pain shot through my body, bringing me back to my knees. When I woke up, I was in
the hospital.
OSCAR
I knew he was going to bite her, but nothing at all could have prepared me for the agony of my mate
being marked by another man, by our bond being ripped.
When Elijah’s teeth sunk into Ava’s neck, my knees buckled, sending me to the floor. Dionysus was
screaming in pain in my head, trying to break free, trying to sprint towards the wolf that had the
audacity to mark my fated mate and rip him to shreds.
I could feel Callum’s pain, how much he was hurting. Jeremiah and all the warriors we’d brought with
us fell to one knee, their heads bowed at the sight of their Queen being marked against her will.
Before I could even work out what to do, Elijah picked Ava’s unconscious body up, bridal style and
started walking towards the north of the clearing. We were the only ones who got to do that. We were
the only ones who could touch her. We would rain hellfire down on him for even thinking he had the
right to do this.
Once he moved about twenty metres away, he placed Ava back down, leaving her curled up in a ball
on the ground.
Callum growled, a dangerous, furious growl, and sprinted across the field towards Elijah. The
warriors behind him tried to stop him, but none succeeded.
Elijah spun on his heels, staring straight at Callum, before whistling to get someone’s attention.
A witch.
He had a witch.
“Callum!” I screamed, “get out of there!”
He shook his head. “I can’t,” his voice was low, his pain clear to see. “I have to try.”
When he was about twenty metres from Elijah’s original position, he froze in position as if something
was stopping him from moving. And then I saw it.
Black vines appeared in front of me, stopping me running towards my brother and mate, whilst more
were wrapping around Callum’s legs, working their way up his abdomen towards his chest.
Swearing surrounded me as the same started happening with the warriors both around me and that had
come with Callum.
We were all powerless to stop him as Elijah bent over Ava, pulling her up to stand with his hand
around her neck. Once she was upright, the same vines wound around Ava, stopping her from falling
down, keeping her head tilted to the side exposing Elijah’s mark.
Callum growled uncontrollably, his eyes were flickering between his own and his wolf’s.
Dionysus growled, trying to force the shift when Elijah’s canines sunk into Ava’s neck again and
again, repeatedly biting her neck, filling her system with his venom, trying to do whatever it took to
make the bond stick.
It was clear the mark wasn’t sticking, but Ava wasn’t healing either.
Artemis must have been unconscious.
Elijah’s hand wound in Ava’s hair, yanking her head to expose the other side, the vines moving to
support her head again. I saw the flash of his canines as he sunk his teeth into the other side of her
neck again and again, flooding her body with as much venom as he could.
It would be like a poison. If her body started to shut down, if her organs started to fail, the bond would
stick. It would save her, but she would be bonded to the Rogue King.
Once he’d left her neck a bloody mess, he looked up, meeting my eyes, walking to stand in between
my brother and my mate. I could just about see the witch a few metres behind him.
“You have a choice, my dear boy,” Elijah snarled. “You can only make it to your mate or your brother.
Choose your brother, and your mate is mine. I’ll bite her again and again until it takes, or she dies.
Choose your mate, and I’ll kill your brother. What will it be?”
This was definitely a trick.
There was absolutely no way he would let Ava go.
He’d kill Callum whatever happened, and he’d just get me close enough so he could kill me too.
So, it was a trap.
Now I just needed to work out how to get both my brother and my mate out of it alive.
I’d trade myself for either of them in a heartbeat, but somehow I couldn’t see Elijah accepting that
trade.
CALLUM
Nothing could have prepared me for the feeling of Ava, my mate, being ripped away from me. I still
couldn’t shift, but I could feel Ares’ pain. He was in agony, it felt like we were being ripped apart
from the inside out.
I couldn’t stop myself from running straight at Elijah. I knew it was a bad idea, but I had to try. I
couldn’t stand there and let my mate be forcibly marked. I had to try to do something.
I just really didn’t plan to end up bound in magical vines, and I definitely didn’t plan to put Oscar in a
position where he would have to choose between Ava and I. Mate or brother? At least we know what
the choice was that Selene prophesied is, I guess.
Now I just had to convince him to choose Ava.
AVA
The darkness was peaceful.
I could talk to Artemis when I was in the dark.
I loved my wolf, I had missed her.
When I was awake, I was in agony. My body felt like it was on fire, my veins were burning, and I
could feel Artemis screaming in pain.
I wanted to give up.
I didn’t know how much longer I could handle the pain, I just wanted to give up.