Everlasting: The Queen's Alpha Series, #2
By W.J. May
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Book 2 of USA Today Bestselling author, W.J. May's new series, EVERLASTING brings you deeper into the world of shifters, fae, and magic.
I will fight for those I love.
When the crown prince puts a bounty on her head, Katerina and the gang find themselves facing trouble at every turn. It's a race to get the safe house in time, but will they pull together to work as a team, or will their differences pull them apart?
Strengths and weaknesses are put to the test, as Katerina is plunged headfirst into a magical world she never knew existed. Fiction becomes reality, as the characters from her childhood fairytales come to life, bringing with them secrets she could never have imagined.
Her bloodline gives her the right to call herself their queen, but is the division between the royal family and the magical kingdom too great? How can she mend the damage of the past?
More importantly…can she be the one to unite her people?
Be careful who you trust. Even the devil was once an angel.
Queen's Alpha Series:
Eternal
Everlasting
Unceasing
Evermore
Forever
Boundless
Prophecy
Protected
Foretelling
Revelation
Betrayal
Resolved
The Omega Queen Series:
Discipline
Bravery
Courage
Conquer
Strength
Validation
Approval
Blessing
Balance
Grievance
Enchanted
Gratified
W.J. May
About W.J. May Welcome to USA TODAY BESTSELLING author W.J. May's Page! SIGN UP for W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies! http://eepurl.com/97aYf Website: http://www.wjmaybooks.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149?ref=hl *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* W.J. May grew up in the fruit belt of Ontario. Crazy-happy childhood, she always has had a vivid imagination and loads of energy. After her father passed away in 2008, from a six-year battle with cancer (which she still believes he won the fight against), she began to write again. A passion she'd loved for years, but realized life was too short to keep putting it off. She is a writer of Young Adult, Fantasy Fiction and where ever else her little muses take her.
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Related to Everlasting
Titles in the series (13)
Eternal: The Queen's Alpha Series, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evermore: The Queen's Alpha Series, #4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unceasing: The Queen's Alpha Series, #3 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everlasting: The Queen's Alpha Series, #2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundless: The Queen's Alpha Series, #6 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Forever: The Queen's Alpha Series, #5 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Prophecy: The Queen's Alpha Series, #7 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Protected: The Queen's Alpha Series, #8 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Revelation: The Queen's Alpha Series, #10 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Foretelling: The Queen's Alpha Series, #9 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Betrayal: The Queen's Alpha Series, #11 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Queen's Alpha Box Set: The Queen's Alpha Series Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Resolved: The Queen's Alpha Series, #12 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
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Reviews for Everlasting
15 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hooked! I am so glad that I happened upon this series. I also love the fact that each book seamlessly connects to the one before it.
Book preview
Everlasting - W.J. May
Have You Read the C.o.K Series?
C:\Users\wanitajump\Documents\CoK Series\CoKBanner.pngThe Chronicles of Kerrigan
Book I - Rae of Hope is FREE!
BOOK TRAILER:
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How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?
Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.
Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?
As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.
Find W.J. May
Website:
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C:\Users\Wanita\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\Content.Word\W.J. May Logo Black.pngEVERLASTING Blurb:
When the crown prince puts a bounty on her head, Katerina and her friends find themselves facing trouble at every turn. It’s a race to get to the safe house in time, but will they pull together to work as a team, or will their differences pull them apart?
Strengths and weaknesses are put to the test as Katerina is plunged headfirst into a magical world she never knew existed. Fiction becomes reality as the characters from her childhood fairytales come to life, bringing with them secrets she could never have imagined.
Her bloodline gives her the right to call herself their queen, but is the division between the royal family and the magical kingdom too great? How can she mend the damage of the past?
More importantly...can she be the one to unite her people?
The Queen’s Alpha Series
Eternal
Everlasting
Unceasing
Evermore
Forever
Boundless
Prophecy
Protected
Foretelling
Revelation
Betrayal
Resolved
The Omega Queen Series
Discipline
Bravery
Courage
Conquer
Strength
Validation
Approval
Blessing
Balance
Grievance
Enchanted
Gratified
Contents
Have You Read the C.o.K Series?
Find W.J. May
EVERLASTING Blurb:
The Queen’s Alpha Series
The Omega Queen Series
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
UNCEASING Blurb
The Queen’s Alpha Series
The Omega Queen Series
Find W.J. May
More books by W.J. May
The Chronicles of Kerrigan
Chapter 1
D ylan, is that you ?
The wolf met her eyes for a moment before dropping its head with yet another frustrated sigh. A sigh that Katerina had heard many times before. A sigh that promised a furious lecture soon to come.
There aren’t many things you can utter when the guy you’ve been travelling around with for the last month and a half suddenly turns into a wolf. And he failed to tell you.
Katerina wracked her brain. Trying to come up with anything remotely appropriate.
She bypassed the standard exclamations of shock. The cheesy one-liners designed to hide her bug-eyed surprise. She even avoided all her defense-mechanistic jokes—resisting the urge to throw a large stick and see whether or not he would fetch it back. In the end, she opted for a strange sort of comradery. She’d held a secret from him—even though he’d known all along—but that wasn’t the point. She thought about how he’d reacted when she told him she was the missing princess. A bizarre empathetic response she happened to think was both kind and comforting, while others, historically, did not. All this was running through her head as those blue eyes stared—or possibly glared—at her.
Tell him something about yourself. Something weird. Fair is fair.
Her confidence soared, and she was about to confide a story about how she, too, used to run around pretending to be a creature of the forest. Back with Kailas when they were both still children and he hadn’t yet tried to kill her. But before she could get a chance to speak, the image in front of her changed.
A loud voice rang angrily through the clearing. You STUPID girl!
It turned out Dylan had enough words for them both.
Gone was the chocolate fur. Gone were the razor claws. Replaced instead with a guy so beside himself she’d be surprised if he didn’t lift right off the ground. He didn’t. He stormed across it instead. Coming to a stop just inches away from her.
Completely naked.
What the heck were you thinking?!
The birds cringed away from his voice. Taking to the skies and leaving the volatile scene in the little clearing far behind them. The princess was not so lucky.
There was this kid,
she started to say, although by now it seemed a rather transparent deception. He was crying, and I was trying to—
I don’t care about some KID!
Dylan thundered, completely oblivious to the rays of sunlight glinting off his bare chest. WHAT did you DO?!
She had wandered off. Left Tanya behind. Disobeyed his direct orders. The anger was understandable. His choice of words, however, was not.
"What did I do? she repeated, trying her best to understand whilst forbidding her eyes to stray anywhere beneath his neck. There was enough going on right now without adding on the first naked body she’d ever seen.
I’m trying to tell you. Wait... What do you mean—"
I couldn’t track you!
he shouted, eyes wide and feral. I couldn’t find you!
However impossible it seemed, she suddenly found herself more frightened than she’d been at any point during the fight. It was his voice that did it. And the look in his eyes.
She’d never seen this side of him. The loss of control. The panic. The only time she’d even seen him flustered was when they’d been in Bernie’s cave; to be fair, he’d thought there was a legitimate chance he was about to be turned into soup.
Then all at once, it clicked.
Alwyn’s spell...
she murmured. Her eyes widened as they lifted to the forest trees, but before she could gather her thoughts she was abruptly grounded by that angry voice.
What?
Dylan had kept a firm hand on her ever since the paws had disappeared and he had hands to use. Even now, with both her attackers lying in pieces, he seemed incredibly reluctant to let go.
I had a spell put on me when I left the palace,
she was quick to explain. A spell to make me impossible to track.
Her eyes flickered down to his hand and her cheeks flushed with guilt. It was supposed to have worn off by now. I didn’t think—
No, you DIDN’T think!
he thundered. You NEVER do!
The words echoed violently among the trees, but even as he shouted them he pulled her closer. Searching her over for damages. Combing his fingers through her hair. Lifting her chin to check her eyes for a concussion. Running his hands along the base of her skull, the top of her collarbone. Down her arms and all the way to her wrists. It was there that he stopped. Breathing heavily. Holding her tight against his bare chest.
She closed her eyes and leaned against him. Trying to stop shaking. Taking a strange sort of comfort in the proximity, no matter how enraged he’d become.
You just go wandering off in the woods, chasing after crying children. Picking fights with vampires. Stumbling upon giants and bands of assassins! No matter how many times I tell you not to! No matter how many times it comes back to BITE US IN THE ARSE!
Katerina flinched, and her eyes filled with tears. In her periphery she saw Cassiel and Tanya rush into the clearing, weapons drawn. They took one look at the carnage and stopped short, staring warily at the couple standing in the middle of it all.
Why should I have expected anything different from you?
Dylan released her in a single motion, spitting on the ground as he paced to the other side of the clearing. Little streams of crimson were dripping down his back, like he’d wandered out of some macabre portrait, but Katerina didn’t think any of the blood was his. The only wounds Dylan had sustained in the fight were internal. Though he was doing his best to exorcise them now.
Chasing after some kid...
He paced and cursed, muttering furiously to himself for another moment, before whirling back around and focusing all that rage on her. It doesn’t matter how many squirrels you eat, how many bogs you sleep in—you’re just a stupid, spoiled little princess.
Their eyes met and something between them died.
That’s all you’ll ever be.
He stormed away without another word. Without a glance behind him. Without addressing the fact that he still wasn’t wearing any pants. He left Katerina standing behind him, feeling like a hole had been stabbed right through her chest. If he’d used a blade, it couldn’t have cut any deeper.
...because he’s right.
A feeling of hopelessness settled over her. One that had very little to do with the attack, and far more to do with the reprimand afterwards. She’d been expecting some degree of sympathy. A hint of concern. Or perhaps even a casual explanation for how the hell the man she’d been travelling around with had suddenly turned into a giant dog.
What she hadn’t expected was the truth. But Dylan Aires didn’t shy away from the truth.
It didn’t matter how hard she tried to fit in. It didn’t matter what skills she learned, or what sacrifices she made, or what lengths she’d gone to adjust to her new reality.
She was just a princess. A scared, sheltered little princess whose tragic naivety was bound to get either herself or someone around her killed.
Tanya would never have wandered off like that. Cassiel would never have believed the boy. Dylan would have been able to defend himself. What the heck was I thinking?
She didn’t know how long she stood there. It must have been a while, because some of the birds had ventured back to their overhead perch by the time Tanya placed a sudden hand on her shoulder. Katerina jumped, then glanced over in surprise. She’d almost forgotten the others were still standing there. Waiting. Just as she realized she was waiting herself.
The shifter flashed her a sympathetic smile, gazed out towards the trees, then broached the subject with all the grace of a battering ram. So...he can turn into a wolf, huh?
IF THE MORNING HAD started badly, the rest of the day wasn’t looking to be any better.
The booze and medical supplies were wrapped in blankets and tucked safely into Tanya’s pack. The rooms were closed out, and the bar tabs were settled. They hit the forest trail an hour later than expected and started moving at a near frantic place to make up the lost time. According to the men, who had apparently made the journey before, it was a virtual nightmare. The more ground they could cover each day, the better chance they stood.
But it wasn’t the logistics that had Katerina concerned. It wasn’t the grueling pace, or the treacherous journey, or the fact that it seemed frightfully cold for the middle of summer.
Dylan didn’t speak to her. Not a single word. For the next eleven hours.
At first, it was scary. Then it became depressing. Then it grew almost impressive as hour eleven stretched into hour twelve. The man may have come from nothing, but he’d certainly mastered the art of holding a grudge. No matter how many times Katerina tried to catch his attention, he kept his eyes locked firmly on the horizon. No matter how many times she tried to prompt him with a soft question or a quiet observation, he acted as though she wasn’t even there. When she tripped over a log and went tumbling down the side of a ravine, he motioned to Tanya to help.
The sun rose and fell in the sky but, still, not a single word.
At first, the deafening silence was hard to ignore. But by the time they stopped for the night to pitch the tent and start a fire, Katerina found herself welcoming the quiet. At the very least, it gave her a chance to think. From the second she’d seen the wolf, standing in all his majestic glory, a dozen little things had started clicking into place.
The fact that he was able to hear more than he should. The fact that he was able to see more than he should. The fact that he recognized the pack of wolf shifters down by the wagons.
Everything, right down to that effortless grace with which he carried himself, spoke to being blessed with some otherworldly power. In a way, she was surprised she hadn’t guessed it sooner.
That’s why he hugged me, that day on the road. It wasn’t affection; he was learning my scent.
She remembered it like it was yesterday. The way she’d scampered down the hill, wearing her new dress. The way he’d walked out to meet her, pulling her in for an unexpected embrace. The way his hands lingered on her clothing, his face brushed against her hair...
But why didn’t he tell me? Her mind wandered as she tossed down another handful of kindling for the fire. Why didn’t he just tell me he was a shifter? Why keep it some big secret?
In spite of her best intentions, Alwyn’s final words of warning echoed sharply through her head. ‘Never trust a shifter. They are loyal to the crown.’ Her eyes flickered up to Dylan, settling a moment on his handsome face. Well, he certainly didn’t have any love for the crown, but he was a shifter. And she was trusting him with her very life. What would her old mentor think about that?
Nice face.
They were the first words that anyone had said in a while, and Katerina looked up at Cassiel with a start. He was staring at Dylan with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, tired of his friend’s passive-aggressive campaign. His long legs were stretched out on the ground beside the fire, and the corners of his lips twitched up as he stared across the flames.
Dylan glanced up in surprise as his hand drifted automatically to his face. ...What?
Cassiel tilted back his head with a smile, the light of the fire dancing off his long white-blonde hair. You look like you spent the day chewing on half the king’s militia. That’s all.
Oh, crap. Here we go.
Tanya spat out a mouthful of ale. Katerina paled, and glanced quickly across the flames. Sure enough, the left side of Dylan’s face was still smeared with a generous helping of dried blood. She’d assumed he’d cleaned himself off around the same time he vanished into the woods to retrieve his clothes, but apparently he’d been a bit preoccupied and missed a spot. It was a testament to how fiercely he’d been ignoring her that she hadn’t noticed it until now. And it was a testament to how utterly socially awkward Cassiel was that he’d dare to make a joke.
It isn’t entirely unflattering,
the fae continued helpfully. Quite the contrary. I think it brings out the seriousness in your eyes.
Cass—shut up!
At this point, Tanya was frozen between a gasp and a snicker. Katerina felt as though she was going to be sick. Dylan didn’t say a word. He simply lifted his eyebrows as if to say really? But Cassiel played rough. His beautiful face shone with innocence as he gestured casually across the fire.
I think you have a piece of bone in your hair.
THAT’S IT!
Katerina threw down her plate, about to give him a piece of her mind, but at the same time Dylan pushed abruptly to his feet. There wasn’t a shred of