The Lycan King And His Human-fated Mate

gh the stillness of the Blackwood home, each resonant tick a taunting metrono

t felt like an eternity of drifting, mired in the ashes of shattered dreams, she finally had a destination in sight – the tantalizing

nds to be gathered. Which was how Lily found herself puttering about the immaculate confines of the Blackwood home'

spurned all the cozy trappings of domesticity, was now consumed with playing the consummate hostess. But then, she reasoned wi

e silence, causing Lily to practically jump out of her skin. Whirling around, she found herself face-to-face with her mother

ilt that had been soothing Lily's battered soul since childhood, "you'd th

elve. "Sorry, Mom," she countered with an entirely unapologetic smirk, "but you know how I like to ma

uld only be borne from decades of parenting a headstrong, troublemaking daughter. "This 'guest' of yours wouldn't happen

t? No! No, of course not!" she sputtered, silently cursing the undercurrent of panic that had crept into her voice. "It's...it's just a colleague of mine. A ph

orn she detected the faintest quirk of a smile playing at the corners of the older woman's li

ontention between them, a relentless source of strife and heartache. She knew her unconventional career path had been a bitter d

n igniting in her chest like a slow burn these past few weeks. "That's just it, Mom," she said, injecting her vo

ing with a chaotic profusion of notes, images, and research materials. With a deft flick of her wrist, she up-end

that now littered the desk space. "Months' worth of digging – into the Drake family history, their suppo

journalistic crusades. "This is it, Mom. This is the story that's going to blow the lid off everything we think we know about the w

till planted firmly on her hips. Then, almost imperceptibly, her pursed lips soft

ide that caused an unfamiliar tightness to constrict in Lily's chest.

of emotions roiling within her breast, her mother had crossed the

abeth whispered fiercely. "How it broke my heart to watch it slowly smotherin

ne in a raging tempest. She fought to swallow back the lump that had inexplicably formed in h

to feel this raw, this emotionally exposed? Too d

never seen eye-to-eye with your penchant for courting danger and controversy." She pulled back, cupping her daughter's face in her calloused palms as she fixed Lily with an intense, se

ing intake of breath, she managed a tremulous nod, unable to find the words to expr

caped to trail down Lily's flushed cheeks, Elizabeth Blackwood managed a watery smile,

ou'd better finish getting everything in order for your little photographer friend's arrival. After all," h

f the storm she'd whipped up, surrounded by the scattered fragments of her obsession. With a ren