Azul Valley Series Book 1: Another Half
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Rio Luna
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Blade spent a year enduring her mate’s cruelty before making the only choice she had left—run. Armed with her family’s secrets and a baby in her arms, she vanishes into the night, determined to survive, even if it means living mateless and in exile.
Rex’s public rejection was more than humiliation—it shattered his identity. Consumed by vengeance, he drowns himself in war and power, clawing his way to the top. But no victory fills the void inside him. When duty demands he choose a new mate, Rex faces a brutal truth: no one will ever measure up to the bond he lost.
Chapter 1: The Anniversary Dinner
NORTH BAXTER PACK
In principle, poisoning someone and drugging them to sleep are essentially the same thing. Blade’s grandfather taught her that both require the same skill set and, most importantly, stealth. The difference is that your subject will either eventually wake up or die.
See? Not much difference.
Blade was around five when her grandfather Felix Zamora started training her as a spy. He was determined to have Blade follow in his footsteps as their pack’s spymaster.
Now, several years later, Blade stood in front of the kitchen sink as she tapped a few crystals of coarse white powder from a tiny black envelope into an empty wine glass.
She then poured one drop of water from the faucet into the glass and waited for the granules to dissolve, then congeal, and finally dry into a clear substance at the bottom of the glass, where the stem met the bowl of the wine glass.
This all took seconds, but it was enough for Blade to continue to remember her grandfather’s words. How she missed him! She missed him every single day.
“Abuelo, why can’t we use a cute little pink envelope instead?” Blade had asked when she was about nine. “Pink instead of the black one, and lavender instead of the white envelope, abuelo. Don’t you think that would be cute?”
“You can use whatever colors you want when you have your own kits and are doing your own poisoning,” he had said with a wink. “Just don’t get the envelopes mixed up, mija. Do you understand why that would be bad?”
Blade had quickly nodded. “I don’t want to kill someone when all I want is to knock ’em out.”
After all these years, not for the first time did Blade wonder how many grandfathers taught their young granddaughters how to poison people.
Blade dismissed the memory and looked up at the clock on the wall. 7:40 p.m. Ten minutes ahead of schedule.
Nick would be home soon. He was busy all day as the beta in charge of the pack in the alpha’s absence and would arrive at dinner at around eight. More importantly, the alpha and his family took Nadine, the alpha’s sister, on their weekend trip.
The entire situation was fortuitous, but Blade clenched her jaw until it hurt so as not to clench her hand that held the wine glass. The mere thought of Nadine made Blade’s stomach turn with nausea. It was Nadine’s fault that her mating bond with Nick never flourished.
Nick and Blade never had a chance to become a mated pair. Last weekend had been a prime example of Blade’s diminishing chances of Nick loving and marking her as his mate.
He had barged into Blade’s room in the basement and turned on the bright light while it was still dark outside. Blade immediately woke up confused and blinked rapidly at the light, shielding her eyes from the brightness before letting out a single scream as ice-cold water poured over her head.
Nick stood fully dressed above her with an empty plastic bucket. “Get up! It’s late! Why are you still in bed?! Nadine and I are hungry. Make us some breakfast,” Nick had said early last Saturday.
“And make it good too. None of that gruel-shit you call oatmeal. Eggs. Sausage. Bacon. Toast, preferably not burned this time. And hurry up! Get dressed. I don’t want to see your body. Nadine will eat me alive if you show up naked like that.” He snickered. “Eat me. Like she doesn’t already.”
Blade had sat up in bed, wiping water from her eyes, her throat closed so tightly it burned. “Nadine and I are going to the beach,” he had announced. “Pack us a picnic basket with all our favorites. You know the ones. Include a bottle of that red wine you have. The one Felix gave you for Christmas.”
“That’s my favorite chocolate wine,” Blade managed to croak, her throat tightening painfully. “It was a special gift from my grandfather.”
“Look at you, so selfish so early in the morning! He gave you two bottles. I know you have the other one hiding somewhere. Make sure it’s chilled,” Nick had said as he turned his back on her.
Blade nodded. She never told her grandfather she had only enjoyed a glass of the expensive wine he had bought for her because Nick drank the rest of the first bottle. And now her grandfather was gone. They all were.
“You’ll never amount to anything, you stupid omega,” Nadine had hissed at her when Blade gave her a picnic basket full of food. “Nick is a beta and deserves a worthy she-wolf, one that will make him proud. You’re a waste of space. Another servant.”
Nadine’s voice echoed in her head. Presently, Blade dismissed the bitter memory and raised Nick’s wine glass to the light, focusing on the bottom, and saw a clear blob that would immediately dissolve with wine.
Perfect.
She placed the wine glass at Nick’s usual place at the end of the table. “He was useless as a mate anyway,” Talon said in her head, “and he’s useless as a beta too. We don’t need that level of incompetence in our lives.”
Blade smiled at her wolf’s unflinching loyalty. She put away the black and white envelopes in her stuffed backpack in her bedroom. Before closing the door, she ensured Andy was still comfortable, a pacifier in his mouth and asleep in his car seat.
She checked her makeup in the mirror and tugged at the brand-new beige and gold-sequined dress she wore. It was too tight across the chest and too gaudy for her taste, but it was the least offensive dress she found in Nick’s closet.
Blade had realized several months ago that Nadine kept clothes, including sexy underwear, in Nick’s second-floor master bedroom.
Meanwhile, Blade had been a permanent tenant of the guest bedroom in the basement, a detail Nadine never failed to mention when she could. “An omega’s place is in the kitchen, the basement, or the barn,” Nadine had said with a smirk. “Lucky for you, we have too many horses in the barn.”
As a result, Blade felt no guilt in borrowing one of Nadine’s brand-new fancy dresses and matching shoes. Gold sequins over beige. Gross.
At exactly 8:10 p.m., Blade heard Nick’s car in the driveway, and she went into the kitchen. This would be their last dinner together, and she had asked the pack house’s cooks to prepare for their beta a special dinner with his favorites: grilled salmon, creamy mashed potatoes, and roasted vegetables.
They had delivered everything hot over half an hour ago, and now everything was ready.
The deep-red tablecloth was perfect for this occasion. She even borrowed fine china from the pack house. She took a quick sip of her fine California Chardonnay and hid it behind the coffee maker.
“What’s this shit?” Nick said as he entered the dining room.
“Happy anniversary, my darling,” Blade said in her sweetest voice.
Talon gagged in the back of her mind and pretended to throw up. “You worthless piece of shit,” Talon murmured in the privacy of Blade’s head. “You’re a horrible mate. You never even marked us, much less completed the mate bond. I hope your dick falls off and rats eat it! They’ll probably die, though.”
“Anniversary? Whose?” Nick said, confused. “And what’s with the cheap dress and cheap shoes?”
Blade’s throat contracted painfully. She blinked rapidly until the tears that threatened to form disappeared. Of course, he didn’t remember. Why would he? And she was sure the awful dress and shoes would be elegant if Nadine were wearing them.
“Of course, my darling,” she said with a patient smile. “We met exactly one year ago today, remember? At the Mating Festival. Please get the wine in the fridge while I light the candles?”
Nick sneered. “Where’s the fucking punk?”
Blade felt cold suddenly, but she managed a gentle smile. “Andy is asleep. He will not bother you.”
Nick shrugged and turned on his heel toward the kitchen. “Got any more of that chocolate wine?”
Blade flinched, feeling the stab in her chest. “No, darling. My grandfather only gave me two bottles.”
“Too bad. Best wine ever. Which wine should I get? What goes well with salmon?”
“Whichever you like will work,” Blade said, feeling she had coached him enough on fine wines for his question to merit no other response.
Nick soon came back with a wine bottle and a corkscrew. Blade stared as he popped open a bottle of port, aghast that he would choose a heavy dessert wine to go with a fatty dish such as salmon.
She wanted to say something, but she watched him pour himself half a glass of port and then walk over to her side of the table and put the bottle next to her glass.
Nick didn’t look at her, his pale-green eyes set on the glass before him, which was just as well. He sat and raised his glass. “What should we toast to?” The quaver in his voice betrayed him. He gulped and shakily raised his wine glass.
Blade sighed heavily. Even on their last day, he wanted to be anywhere but with her. “To our long, happy life together. Of course.” Blade raised her glass solemnly, and Nick followed suit, his lips pressed together.
“Of course,” he said, looking down and smoothing out the tablecloth with his hand.
“Maybe by this time next year, we’ll be properly marked and mated,” she said, making one last effort.
“Blade,” he said, his voice thick with warning. “I already told you. I’m not ready to be mated to you yet. Being mated to an omega is like asking a man to give up his dick.”
He laughed at his own joke.
Blade pressed her lips together, poured herself a quarter of a glass of port, and took a small sip of the overly sweet red wine while Nick drank all of his in one gulp. She glanced around the room. The curtains were drawn, and the rest of the house was dark.
No witnesses. She heard her grandfather’s voice in her head. Well done, mija. He won’t know what happened until it’s too late. You learned well. Proud of you…
Blade began to eat, and she half enjoyed the cold salmon and mashed potatoes, but didn’t touch the ghastly sweet wine again. Relief washed over her when she heard a hard thump on the table, and she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Nick was slumped at the table. His face had landed on his plate of food.
Blade stared with wide eyes at her mate’s head on the table. She had seen countless people, thieves, mercenaries, spies, all enemies of her grandfather, fall to her poisons, but Blade had never thought she’d use them on her own mate.
Then she looked away, down at her watch—almost nine o’clock. It was time to leave.
She got up.
