Bonus being the odd little snippets I've made for this book but was never able to fit in a scene anywhere. And bonus scenes that haven't been cannon and cute scenes. The Exclusive part is a sneak peek at The Wolf's plot, involving Eliza (who's POV it's in) and her past.

Hope you all enjoy this random mess of words!

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.
-Holly Black

“Emma?” Uncle JJ opens my door, sounding strong but hesitant. My head snaps over to him, worried. 

Did I do something wrong?

I hum in reply, my uncle sighs, his hand pinching is brow. “The police are here to ask you some questions...questions about your mother.”

Having been sleeping on his stomach, arms wrapped around my pillow as I rested against his back Xavier growls under his breath, subconsciously knowing something’s wrong as I tense. A massive arm swings out and latches around my waist, keeping me in place against him.

“They want to see you, now.” Uncle JJ barely bats an eye at this movement, more than used to my boyfriend’s behavior at this point. “Better get moving. I don’t want them in this house, I’m a lawyer because I don’t like cops not because I wanted to be one.” He leaves without me responding.

“Good to know.” I mutter, turning to my Wolf boy and run a hand over his black hair -stirring him slightly, enough so his eyes begin to flutter open. “You should wake up Xavier, I need you.”

“Why? Ready for round four Princess?” The Devil asks smugly, a small smirk taking over his tired face before he yawns. A blush overtakes my face, nearly making me shove him off the bed to wipe the look off his stupid sexy face.

“Not unless you want to share between a few cops.” I say, instantly getting his attention like I wanted to-though he is thoroughly alarmed.

My boyfriend sits up, his arm flex against me. “Not in hell.” Xavier snarls. “Why are the police here?”

“Because of my mom, that’s all I know.” I shrug, frowning. “I want you with me, if you’re not too tired.”

“Don’t worry about me. Let’s go see those fucking lumps of stupid.”

Getting up with minimal stretching but lots of growls and grunts, Xavier and me walk to the door -him shirtless, shoeless, sockless and me in his shirt, shorts and his socks. They’re fuzzy, since it’s the middle of winter, but the clearly made heel part is in the middle of my calf.

Bah.

Tall people.

This is what I get for dating a 6’5 guy, which is just poor planning for a 5’2 girl.

“Are you-” An officer looking down at a paper begins to ask me before I can open my mouth, before the door is closed behind me. “-Emmeline Rose Carter?”

“Who’s asking?” Xavier butts in, large frame standing between me and the police.

The other officer, as there’s only two, scoffs. “The police department, Devil. We’re not here on any bad terms, and of course, you’d know what bad terms are.”

I flinch at this, but Xavier doesn’t bat a blue eye. His look becomes feral, just as feral as it had been when he pinned Aspin to the wall at the fair. “What is this about, you government mutts?”

Brave words coming from a Wolf himself.

“Her mother filed a missing person’s report. Said that someone,” If all of them weren’t looking at my Wolf boy then they are now. “Tricked her into leaving. That the Thatchs took her in to get her inheritance, because her best friend told them about it. She was very emotional.”

“Yeah? I bet she was drunk and high too.” I say, venom lacing my voice. “Don’t bring him into this, it was my decision. I got away from her because she’s bad for me, she’s abusive. And every time I would file such reports, they got dismissed by you.”

“He’s the Devil-”

“AND YOU’RE A COP!” I suddenly explode with rage, stepping forward but a hand on my ribcage stops me. “You’re supposed to catch people like her, not defend them! You’re supposed to make people in my situation safe, not judged and unwanted. If your police department worked for justice instead of recognition, money and racial affairs then my mother would have been jailed long ago.”

“Miss Carter that is no way to speak to an officer of the law.” The first cop scolds me, glaring down at me.

“You’re not a officer of the law, you’re a officer of your large ego and low morals. You can tell Grace Carter to go suck your dicks if she hasn’t already!” I exclaim, spinning around to head inside.

Xavier’s growl backs me, his sharp teeth no doubt on display. “You heard her. And if her mother’s not there to do the trip, I’m sure helping one another isn’t past you. Night,” He pauses, and I hear one of them suck in a breath. “Officers.”

We have never heard the devil's side of the story, God wrote all the book.
-Anatole France

“You still salty, Devil?” I ask, teasing Xavier, as we both sit on my bed. He merely huffs, blue eyes staying focused on the camera as he goes through the photos. “I didn’t know that you didn’t like your picture taken, honestly, that’s my bad.”

In a second the camera- -that he stole from me after he realized what I was doing- -is turned on me, his steady hands taking picture after picture as I try to block myself with my notebook -there’s no way I’m going to be able to finish my English essay in this environment.

“Zay!” I squeal, having somehow managed to shift onto my back to avoid the camera and kick my feet to keep him away from him. “Stop it! You’re such a dick!”

“But I’m your dick, so stop complaining. Now, drop the attitude.” Xavier smirks, hands grabbing my ankles to pull me up to him. 

The camera is forgotten as the Devil traps me under him, legs straddling me so I can’t escape, his smirk feral.

“And then your pants.”

This causes me to squeak, glaring as he instantly relaxes and flops down beside me -officially happy with the fact that he’s made me flustered.

Turning my head to the side a small gasp nearly escapes me, and my hands fly up to Xavier’s face. “Dimples!” His smirk is gone, in place is a smile. “I love your dimples.”

He laughs, hands coming over my own letting me feel his stubble. “Not the only thing about me that starts with a ‘D’ that you love.”

I scoff at this, pulling away from him. “You dirty-”

“I am not dirty. I was gonna say DNA, because you know…” My Wolf boy bites his lip, sharp teeth flashing lethally. “You like all of me.”

Humming in reply I make a split second decision and stand up off the bed, unbuttoning my jeans and wiggling out of them. Xavier sits up, and already having gotten permission before we even sat on the bed, his eyes focused on my body. “What are you doing Princess?”
“You told me to take off my pants.” I shrug, lifting my shirt overhead and dropping it onto the floor. “I thought I should get comfortable.”

The Devil scoffs, hands gripping the side of my mattress. 

He has permission to look -seeing as he had to take a picture of me for our class, an assignment I’m not allowed to look at. 

But not to touch.

“Come on Xavier, let’s go swimming…” I tease him, an idea popping into my mind -nobody’s home right now, so it should work out.

“You don’t  even like swimming.” My boyfriend grunts, leaning forward slightly. “Why would you suggest doing it?”

“It’s swimming with dumbasses like Cameron and Jessie that I don’t like, because I know there’ll be trouble. I didn’t mind swimming with you at Heaven, and that was some creepy murder cave.” At this Xavier scoffs, but doesn’t interrupt me. “I won’t mind swimming with you here. So? I’m going with or without you, and I think I might just jump off the roof. It’s really fun don’t you know?”

I’m growl out, the deep sound bouncing off my wall and smacking me in the back of my head. “You’re not jumping off anything.”

“Yeah? And are you coming with to prevent that? Or just going watch from the doorway, growling and glaring?”

Before he answers I turn around, dashing to my door. A giggle leaves me as I hear him get up, following me with- -wait for it- -a glare and a growl. 

It seems like the Devil doesn’t like to be teased much.

Bah.

Bad boys.

A woman being never at a loss... the devil always sticks by them.
-George Gordon

Xavier finally pins me to the wall, one large hand holding down my wrists with one and his hips pressing into mine. His other hand comes up to tilt my chin, fully exposing the damage. The Devil delicately thumbs away the streak of blood on my cheek, saying nothing as he examines my split lip and black eye though the darkening blue of his iris says enough. After a moment of hesitation, or confusion, or just a pause to piece something together he looks me straight in the eyes. "Who did this to you?" His deep voice is quiet, tense, his anger barely restrained as it sounds more like a growl than anything human.

A rebel adult often seems like a glorious savior, whereas a rebel child often seems like a little devil.
-Criss Jami

"Do you regret any of it?" I ask Xavier, murmuring my words softly in his ear as I stare down at Eliza and Xander.

Our son is lying on his back on the small hospital bed, not having grown into his height yet but already annoyingly taller than me, Xander almost looks fierce. One could tell almost instantly that he's protecting our daughter, who is curled around him on her right side.

She's still learning day to day life with broken ribs, and how to manage a broken wrist without being able to get a cast due to what those people did to her.

When she first came back, I have to train myself to be able to look at her.

Once I got over everything else besides the fact that my baby was home, being around her was easy.

She makes it so easy.

I don't know what's happening in my life anymore, where to go from here.

But my family is here, we are all whole.

Eliza is back, my baby wolf is back and she'll never get hurt again.

Every day after school Alexander is given the option of going home, to stay at school before soccer practice starts or to the hospital. And every single day he chooses his little sister.

I know I would do the same, if this was Jessie or Cam, but I can see it's putting a strain on my son.

Everyday the circles under his greys eyes I gave him darken, yet he still comes to the hospital, he still goes to practice and his matches, he still makes time for Celeste and his friends.

He's still the best older brother I've seen.

Though he doesn't understand what Eliza went through completely, he understands enough to know she's fragile.

Never in my life would I have thought I'd have to tell my daughter I've gone through what she has, not like this.

And everyday my Wolf boy, or man now I should say, tells me it's not my fault.

But Grace is...was my mother.

I should have known better, I should have stopped her. I shouldn't have taken Eliza to the graveyard with me, I knew I wouldn't be in my mind.

The worst part is, I don't even know when she was taken, from where. I don't even know if she screamed, she won't tell me.

She won't tell anyone but her doctor specifics.

Eliza Wolf, taking after her father, is feral. She is also the bravest person I have ever met.

We're still learning sign language, even her doctor is. Me and Elle, who pick up languages the easiest, are getting good at ASL while my husband and son are still getting the hang of it.

Without her knowing, all of our family is learning it for her.

She has selective mutism. Nothing is wrong with her voice box physically, but something about her trauma was specific enough that she stopped talking altogether.

"None of it." Xavier gets my permission before squeezes my waist, scraping his teeth against my neck. "If I did, and I changed something I might not have them. I might not have you, or our life. Look at us," He whispers, sharp teeth flashing as he grins. "We have a beautiful family, a good life. Something bad happened, it's life. We will survive. She will always survive, a quality she got from you."

Now that I know how to see his smile in his eyes, which didn't take me that long to find once I stopped checking for dimples, I'm surprised to find he's usually always smiling at me.

Then a smirk overcomes his features and the hands that are wrapped around my lower ribs pin me against the wall. "Plus you have a pretty sexy husband if I do say so myself."

Suddenly a pillow that had been launched at the back of the Devil's head causes our noses to collide, which doesn't hurt more than annoy me.

Xavier growls as he turns, only to stop with a noise of regret as he finds out thirteen year old glaring at us, and since cuss words are the first thing she wanted to learn in ASL besides "Where's the library?" she proceeds by calling her father a man-whore and scolding me.

"Get a -Get a bank?" I question, quickly realizing what Eliza is actually saying.

Get a room.

Their blue eyes stare at one another-  -each of them so different in every way except mind and eyes, which as I've said gets creepy at times- -and mutual defiance lets me see just how alike the Devil and my daughter really are.

"Did you wake up from us?" Xavier asks, making me blush and make a face.

Please God, don't let her say yes.

Elle shakes her head, signing "Thankfully." to show she didn't want to have to say yes, either.

Bah.

Married people.

"Did you need something Baby Wolf?" Another shake of her head. "What woke you up?"

"Pain." Our daughter signs this, causing Xavier to stiffen behind me and hold me tighter. "It's okay, D.A.D."

She's still learning, but at least Xavier is better at reading sign than signing it.

Pain shoots through me, my hand wraps around my dragon necklace subconsciously. My husband's hands tighten on me, reminding me that he’s here.

He’s here and nothing bad will happen again.

The End

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