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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Tessa Hale
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July 7 - July 7, 2025
We hid a lot, Mom and me. Like what our real names were and who we were running from. Like the fact that I was half wolf and half caster. But most of all, that I couldn’t just take on the world’s feelings. I could heal them. Only if I wasn’t careful, that healing might make it so I never woke up again.
I took a deep breath and focused on my heartbeat the way Mom had taught me. “My Little Wren, listen to the song inside you. As long as you hear your voice, you’ll always be able to come back to yourself.”
I’d lived in at least a dozen different places in the eight years since I’d broken free of my father’s reign of terror. I’d painted elaborate lies for my past. But they added weight every time I told them.
Anger coursed through me, the kind of rage I knew would take hours of sparring to work through. My fingers itched to move, to trace the scar running from the top of my forehead down my cheek. Even now, all these years later, I could still feel the bite of the blade, the white-hot pain as I screamed and begged for mercy. But there was none. Never at the hands of Bastian Boudreaux.
There was only one thing I never changed. My first name. It was an homage to my mother—the only piece of her I still carried with me. Because each time I heard someone call my name, I heard my mom’s voice in my head. “My Little Wren, listen to the song inside you. As long as you hear your voice, you’ll always be able to come back to yourself.”
Many female fighters sparred in shorts and bra tops. I didn’t have that option if I didn’t want to answer questions about the scars riddling my body, so I opted for leggings and a long-sleeved workout shirt. You could see a couple of the scars on my hands, but most people assumed I had been in a car accident of some sort. Because that made sense. No one would think my own father had inflicted the wounds.
Stopping the treadmill altogether, I hopped off and did a quick set of stretches. An exaggerated groan sounded to my right. “Wren, you are killing me,” Juan muttered. “When are you going to give in and marry me?” My lips twitched as I glanced over at him from my forward bend. “When you can best me in the ring.”
One corner of Clyde’s mouth kicked up. “Got to town about a month ago. Name’s Wren. I have to admit, I didn’t think a little thing like her should even be in this gym. But damn if she didn’t prove me wrong.” I watched her move, darting forward and sweeping Franco’s legs out from under him. It was a thing of beauty. But as he leapt back up, and they circled one another, I couldn’t help but notice that she was holding back. “Can’t even have her truly sparring with any of our women. It’s too unfair. Hell, I wouldn’t even put her in the ring with half our men. She’d level them.”
My wolf bristled. He was already on edge, wanting to rake his claws down the chest of the man who’d hurt his Little Warrior.
“I’m Puck. You must be Wren. Dina told me all about you. Well, minus that you’re fucking gorgeous. But I’m not surprised there. She always leaves out the important details.”
“If you’re trying to drug me, I’ll cut off your nuts and feed them to you.” My lips twitched. “Violent little thing. I like it.”
“There’s only one person who will always have your back. Yourself.” I flipped both grilled cheeses over. “Not if you find the right people.” Wren shifted on her stool. I could sense something in her, something she was shoving down. A yearning, maybe. “Sometimes, even the right people wear masks,” she muttered. King was right. Someone had hurt her. Broken her wings. And that sent a blaze of fury ripping through me, one that had me fighting back a shift as my wolf snarled at the thought.
“Birdie?” There was concern in Puck’s voice now. “Oh, were you talking?” I asked, forcing humor into my voice. “I thought I heard the buzz of a gnat.” Puck chuckled. “Not only is she violent, she’s vicious, too. I think I’m in love.”
“Fuck, King. I’m in love. Please, let me fight her,” Puck begged.
“Kingston,” I growled, putting everything I had into a blow to his ribs. “Fight back.” His jaw hardened. “I don’t make a habit of hitting women.” That only fueled the fire. “Then don’t look at me as a woman. Look at me as someone who’s about to kick your ass.” I heard some hoots from the crowd. “You’ll be in good company, boss,” Juan called. “Pretty sure she’s kicked all our asses at some point.”
I shifted, moving so I could take in the little human. So tiny, yet she’d fought with such ferocity. I admired the hell out of that.
A laugh bubbled out of me. It couldn’t be helped. But as I turned to head for the soda gun, I stopped in my tracks because Puck was staring at me like I’d grown a second head. “What?” He blinked a few times, seeming to come back to himself. “Don’t think I’ve ever heard you laugh. It’s fucking beautiful.”
“The fact that you haven’t asked me to marry you in the past hour is kind of freaking me out.” My lips twitched. “Birdie, let’s run off to Vegas. Elvis can link us for all eternity.” She snorted. “Hound Dog does kind of seem like an appropriate theme song for you.”
“Arcane is my bar.” I crossed to a sideboard, opened one of the cabinets, and grabbed a tee. Wren’s mouth opened and closed, then opened again before any words came out. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I shrugged and handed her the shirt. “You didn’t ask.” She snatched it from my grasp, dropping her tray onto the couch along the wall. “Turn around,” she ordered. “Bossy little thing. I like it.”
Those words coming from her lips were so shocking that my gaze automatically moved over my shoulder. Wren was facing away from me, pulling the T-shirt over her head, but her back was completely on display. A back riddled with scars. Different sizes and depths. Various stages of healing. She’d been beaten. Tortured. Over and over again.
“Romeo, if you haven’t noticed, I can take pretty good care of myself.” There was no flicker of amusement in Puck’s expression like I’d hoped. He just kept staring at me, so much emotion in those green eyes. “Even if you can, it’s sometimes nice to know someone has your back. And I’ve got yours, Birdie.”
Wren’s gaze moved to Ender, her eyes flaring. “What the hell happened to you? Did a priest try to exorcise the devil out of you?” She held up two fingers in a makeshift cross. “I just say no to projectile green puke.”
“Puck! Behind you!” It was as if it happened in slow-motion snapshots. I took in Puck and the two mages he was fighting in front of him, then the mage approaching from the back, sword at the ready. I didn’t think, I simply lunged between the mage and Puck. I tried to block the blow, but I wasn’t quite fast enough. The sword pierced my side, sending white-hot pain coursing through me. Spots danced in front of my vision. So much pain.
King had been right to name her Little Warrior. She was tiny but so incredibly fierce. So much so that she hadn’t hesitated to dive in front of a sword to protect Puck.
Something shifted in the air. A scent. It laced the fury as if coating it. My jaw went slack as I stared down at Wren. The room went silent as we gawked at her unconscious form. It was her scent we smelled. That same wildflowers and rain as before, but with a different root now. She smelled of wolf. And of caster. But more than that, she smelled like…home.
“Why do you hide your true nature? Having two supernatural sides is a gift.” Tension radiated through her jaw and down her neck. “It’s complicated.” “Wren—” “I’m getting pretty tired. You know how healing can take it out of you. I’m going back to sleep for a bit.” I knew when I’d been shut down. I’d give her this, her space. Time. “I’ll never force you to talk about something you don’t want to,” I said softly as I stood. “I was only trying to understand.”
“Let her go,” Ender muttered. “For all we know, she’s the one who tipped off the dark mages about our location.” My jaw dropped. I wouldn’t even do that to him alone. Certainly not to the rest of the guys. “Hey, shit for brains,” Puck shot back. “Remember the part where she stepped in front of a sword for me? Doubt she’d do that if she was working for the dark mages.” Ender’s jaw worked back and forth as his eyes started to glow. “She could’ve done it to ingratiate herself to us.” “Dude,” I muttered. “You might have nice beds around here, but that isn’t worth a sword to the gut.”
wasn’t sure what shocked me more: that a tiny kitten had made her home with a bunch of wolves, that it was Ender who had brought her here, or that her name was Princess.
“When the shelter has cats with more complex health needs, they usually call Ender,” Kingston explained. “Sometimes, he fosters them until he can find a permanent placement for them, but with Princess, he kept her.” “That cat runs his life,” Puck muttered. “He video calls her when we’re on missions.”
“Are you telling me that the most cantankerous of all of you, the assassin, is also…a cat daddy?”
A deep chuckle sounded, and everyone froze, turning slowly toward Brix. Puck’s jaw dropped. “Did you just laugh?” Brix snapped his mouth shut and glared at Puck. “I laugh.”
King looked at Brix in silent question. It was then that I realized Brix must be Kingston’s beta, and he was asking for his opinion. It was so different from how my father ruled. His opinion was the only one that mattered.
“I don’t know, King. She just…it feels like she fits. Like it was all meant to be. Maybe the fates are bringing her to us because we don’t have a true mate. Either way, she feels like ours. Like we’re hers.”
“Wren,” I began, keeping my voice as calm and steady as I could. “When’s the last time you ran with a pack? The last time you had touch of any kind?” Wolves were pack animals. We needed contact with our kind. It kept us mentally healthy. If we went too long without it, our animals could turn on us. Pain filled Wren’s eyes—so much agony it could drown us all. “Years,” she croaked.
“You need contact, release.” I did everything I could to keep my voice restrained and my wolf in check. Her eyes flared, realization dawning. “You mean…” “We’re going to give you all the touch your body’s been craving for years. We’re going to make you come, and then you’re going to let your wolf free.”
“That’s it. We want to hear all the sounds you make. Want to drown in your moans and pretty little gasps. Want to make your body weep.”
“Fuck, brother, I wish you could feel how tight she’s gripping me, how greedy she is for my fingers. You gonna take my cock the same way?”
“Come on,” King said, clapping Puck on the shoulder. “Let’s get home. It’s late.” Ender made a noise that sounded like a cross between a huff and a scoff. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have been frolicking in the woods at two in the morning, leaving us to watch your asses.” Kingston’s expression hardened instantly, his whole body taking on his alpha energy. He stalked toward Ender, getting up in his space. “I didn’t once ask you to stick around to watch my back. You wanted to be here. Because as much as you want to lie to yourself and the rest of us, you feel drawn to Wren, too. Grow the hell up
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“Cats don’t speak,” I growled. Wren arched a brow at that. “Yours certainly does. She made it very clear what she wanted.” My back teeth ground together because I knew damn well Wren was right. Princess had a way of expressing her every want and need. A smile spread across Wren’s face. “And what Princess wanted was to show me her house. You built her a cat castle. Or should we call it a pussy palace? That kind of has a ring to it, don’t you think, Cat Daddy?” I glared at the woman who’d done nothing but get under my skin for the past two weeks.
Wren’s smile only widened, and fuck if that didn’t hit me somewhere in the vicinity of my chest. I’d seen her cast a quick grin at one of my brothers but not smile full-out like this. It was devastating. The kind of beauty that could bring a man to his knees. Maybe it was designed that way.
Ender
“Wait,” I commanded. She stilled, and I stepped in closer. Fuck. I was drowning in wildflowers now. My fingers grazed her elbow. The skin was so soft. But I saw hints of those scars peeking out from under her tee. I swallowed hard, trying to focus. “Lift your elbow. You form one long line. See?” I traced my finger from her elbow to her knuckles, keeping my touch featherlight. Wren sucked in a breath, her head turning, and her gaze colliding with mine. Suddenly, a new scent teased the air, one that had my wolf growling with pleasure. Her need. I could smell it clear as day, and every part of me
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my ears were trained for any signs of movement. Any hint of Wren. Brix had informed me that she’d gone target shooting with Ender. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to leave the two of them alone with weapons was beyond me. And I needed proof of life, stat.
Ginger eyed the sandwich on her husband’s plate as if reconsidering her choice. Amos chuckled. “You wanna split?” Ginger nodded, a beaming smile stretching across her face as she glanced up at me. “He knows I have a hard time choosing, so he always orders my second pick just in case.” A pang lit in my chest. It was such a small thing, but wanting to make sure his wife always had what she wanted most was a sacrifice, nonetheless.
“Okay, I’m just gonna be the one to ask it,” Juan said, leaning forward. “What the hell is going on with all of you?” Franco smacked him upside the head. “Nothing that’s any of your damn business.” Juan shrugged. “Maybe not, but I got a curious mind.” “You mean a sex-obsessed mind,” Clyde muttered. “Amen to that,” Dina echoed. “A healthy appetite,” Juan argued. Franco just shook his head. “A need for a life of his own.” Then he glanced up at me. “If you’re happy, we’re happy. And the way all five of them watch you whenever you’re in the same room…it’s like their hearts are walking around
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“You’re okay. I’ve got you,” I promised. “You’re safe.” She shuddered again. “Not safe. Dark isn’t safe.” My arms tightened around her. “Why isn’t the dark safe?” I pressed gently. We needed to know. Had to know who she was running from so we could protect her. Panic flashed in Wren’s eyes. “They leave me in the dark for weeks. There’s no way out. They hurt me in the dark.”
As far as I could tell, Wren hadn’t had anyone. She hadn’t had a friend to help her battle back to the land of the living. She’d had to do it all on her own. But she had. Because that’s how strong our Little Warrior was. She’d make it through this, too.
“Wren,” Kingston began, and my gaze moved back to him. “Can you do me a favor and drop your scent shields for a moment?” I stiffened. The guys might’ve scented my supernatural sides before, but I didn’t make a habit of allowing it. I’d trained myself to keep the barriers up so none of my secrets could be discovered. The training was so ingrained in me that it had become second nature. “Why?” I asked, suspicion lacing the word. Locke shifted next to me, taking my hand in his and squeezing. “I did some research while you were out. There have been cases where true mating bonds were blocked
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Locke leaned in, placing his forehead against mine. “It doesn’t matter if we are or aren’t,” he said softly. “I want you. You have me, all of me.”
“You feel that,” Brix growled low. It sounded more like a command than a question, but I answered anyway. “I feel it. It’s the bond.” Wonder filled Brix’s eyes as he studied me. “You should’ve run when you had the chance, Little Warrior. Because now that I know what it’s like to have your touch? You’ll never be free.”
