It’s not Felicity, because it’s a male wolf. Huge and red-furred, with brilliant green eyes. He cocks his giant head at me as silence stretches out over the rocky landscape around us.Frost’s gaze bores into me. I know the Silver Crest wolves probably find it strange, maybe even alarming, that he’s looking at me instead of them. But it’s for their own good.If he falls back into the darkness, I won’t be able to keep any of these other shifters alive.The wolf with red fur stalks forward, but his pack members hang back. As he draws closer, I realize he’s nearly as big as Kian, who’s quite possibly the largest wolf shifter I’ve ever seen.He’s still not as big as my men’s shadow wolf forms though. If things go south in a hurry, I can only hope Kian and Malix can take on the entire group themselves. Of course, if things go that far south, we’ll be on our asses and without a plan for the third damn time.The wolf leader stalks past me, sniffing the air. He could be testing my scent for an
Cormac glares at me, speaking up over the low snarls of the wolves. “You have the audacity to come onto our land with these… monsters,” he snaps the word, baring his teeth at Kian, “and demand an audience with our Alpha?”I was starting to think he wasn’t capable of speaking in full sentences, so the formality in his tone gives me pause. The guy’s overbearing “bro” attitude is just an act, I realize. Meant to keep others from realizing he’s in charge.Realizing he’s a threat.“They aren’t monsters,” I reply, careful to keep my voice even despite the anger his slur dredges up in me.“Yeah, well, they’re also not welcome here,” Cormac shoots back.Shit. I’ve got to get this conversation back under control.Frost’s tenuous hold on his emotions is wavering beside me. I can feel it. His fingers are wrapped around my bicep like vises, bruising and immovable.“Look, I know you have no reason to believe me,” I say. “But we’re no longer in communication with Quinton. We’re not allied with him.
AmoraCraningmy neck to glance over my shoulder, I look up at the new arrival.Felicity… isn’t what I expected. She’s of average height, stocky, and with arms more toned than Frost’s beneath her wide-sleeved tank top. Her wavy blonde hair spills around her tanned shoulders in the quintessential surfer girl look, tousled and bleached from the sun.She arches one brow and stares down at me with eyes so dark brown they’re almost black. Her round face, high cheekbones, and soft features make her look younger than I know she must be, but her eyes seem old. Like she’s seen more than most people do in their entire lifetimes.“Who are you?” she asks, shifting her gaze from Frost to me.I readjust my hold on him and stammer, “Um, Amora.”Her appearance has thrown me a little. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.Quinton is showy, larger than life in the worst kind of way, while Felicity’s demeanor carries a different kind of weight. More regal, less violent. Even though she’s
Malix hooks a thumb at Cormac and says, “It was working just fine, until your right-hand man here started eyeing up our girl and set off his inner beast.”“Mal,” I say warningly. The last thing we need is him flippantly telling the entire pack what a threat Frost is. “He’s fine. He had a moment, but he’s fine now. It takes a lot out of him to fight off the shadows.”I cut a glare across the pack, then shift my focus to Felicity, daring her with my eyes to say something she’ll regret. My entire body vibrates with tension as I wait to see if anyone is going to move. To attack us, or to attack Frost because he has too much shadow in him.In the midst of our silent standoff, Frost opens his eyes. His pupils contract and focus on me with a kind of gentle concern, then he carefully sits up, moving slowly so as not to alarm anyone. He surveys our surroundings—the rocky terrain, the pack, and Felicity, whom he clearly recognizes.His hand rests on my knee as he asks, “Everything all right?”Bu
AmoraFelicity remainsin human form as she leads us through the blistering sunlight. I don’t blame her—I don’t like ruining my clothes if I don’t have to, either. Her wolves, however, remain on four legs and surround us… a little too closely. They pin us in, giving us no chance to run even if we had the inclination to do so.But where would we run to? The landscape is beautiful here, rocky and slightly wooded, but we don’t know the terrain like they do. We’d have a hard time escaping and covering our tracks, especially with an entire pack breathing down our necks.I walk hand in hand with Frost, while Malix brushes up against my other side. I’m still wary, still worrying over Frost’s safety, which, surrounded by a bunch of unfamiliar wolves, feels as tenuous as his link to sanity.As if he can sense my thoughts, Malix brushes against me again and meets my gaze. He gives me a little half-smile that goes a long way toward easing my mind. On his other side, even Kian doesn’t appear to be
I wait for him to explain, but in true Kian fashion, he doesn’t.Malix leans over and murmurs under his breath, “That’s the box that used to hold Quinton’s shadow realm stone.”“Oh,” I say, zeroing in on the unobtrusive object. It doesn’t feel all that magical, but I know, logically, that this must be how Felicity has access to the shadow magic she’s used against us in the past. If my men sense any kind of shadow realm magic creeping from the crudely cut box, they keep the knowledge to themselves.Felicity taps the top of the stone vessel, her expression thoughtful. “Power seeped from the stone into its container over the many years it was encased in this box. But the magic in the box is fading. It fades further every time I use it.” She drops her hand into her lap and laughs bitterly, then catches my gaze. “I wanted to take the stone too. When I stole the box, I thought the stone would be inside. My ex-mate, though… he’s too smart. He knew before I did that I would be leaving him, and
Her eyes open, and she looks down at Frost with an almost motherly protectiveness. “How dare he do this to you?”Frost doesn’t open his eyes to acknowledge her, but I can tell it’s because he can’t. Whatever the shadow magic is doing that’s allowing Felicity to sense the problems inside him, it’s causing him pain. I tighten my grip on his hand to root him to the moment and remind him that I’m here.Felicity shakes her head, still staring down at Frost’s twisted, pained expression. “If this is how he’s creating feral shifters now, it will end badly. Very, very badly,” she says, almost to herself. “They’ll be unhinged. Violent. Deranged. Unstoppable.”Her words pierce through my worries over Frost, but quite frankly, I’m not in a position to care about an army of unhinged shadow shifters forced into service by her ex when I just want my mate to be safe.“Can you fix him?” I ask her.Her long golden hair slips around her face as she stares down at Frost’s torso. “Perhaps. I don’t think I
MalixI leanover to look past Amora, peering out the window. Cormac is the only one who’s kept his human form. He’s across the street, standing on the porch of the cabin facing ours. I’m not sure if that cabin is occupied or empty, but either way, the big man doesn’t look like he’s got any intentions of leaving it anytime soon.My nose wrinkles. “What the hell? Do they think we’re going to run off?”Amora scowls. “No. They just don’t trust us. What do they think we’re going to do? Wait until they’re all asleep and burn down the village?”Kian drops the curtain and ushers us away from the window with a jerk of his head. “Probably something like that, yeah.”We fan out into the living area. The place is small but serviceable, even if it’s so beige I feel like someone turned off the color in my goddamn eyesight. I circle around a coffee table made of recycled pallets, and settle onto one end of the couch, thankful to finally be off my feet. Hopefully, we’ll get to kick back for a couple d
Fuck. Could Amora even survive what exists in the other realm? Unease prickles up my spine at how close we just came to losing her.We need to take those shadows out, I tell my brothers. As fast as we can.We’re yanked back into combat as several of Quinton’s wolves burst into our little circle, breaking up the party.I pounce on the nearest Blood Moon wolf, taking him down to the ground, while Malix and Frost tag team a shadow shifter. Picking up the wolf with my teeth, I fling him at two more advancing wolves, taking them down like pins in a bowling lane.When I glance back up, Malix and Frost are having trouble with their shadow shifter. The beast is big, and he must’ve been pumped full of more shadow magic than the rest, because he fights almost like a Berserker, wild and brutal. I leap over one of the fallen wolves and head toward them to help, only to stop cold as Amora screams my name.Kian!Whirling around, I find her darting over the uneven terrain in a mad zigzag pattern whi
KianJust like thenight when Quinton nearly executed our mate with a bullet to the head, I don’t hesitate.I’m in the air a split second after my old alpha’s paws have left the dirt. I intercept his leap and slam into him in mid-air, angling so that I hit his head with my chest. He’s so massive that it feels like a rock wall slamming into me, and I huff out a pained breath. If I were any smaller or weaker, I have no doubt his skull would have broken a few bones in my torso.Quinton flies away from me while I fall to the ground, winded. I barely manage to land on all fours as he skids away from me, kicking up dirt and stones and clumps of grass. All around me, chaos breaks loose as the Silver Crest wolves and Blood Moon pack launch into an all-out war.In the very short half second I have before Quinton stands, I glance around and consider our odds. We’re on Felicity’s turf now, and there are more of us physically than there are of them. Both will give us an advantage. Unfortunately, t
AmoraFuck. Not Quinton. Please, don’t let it be Quinton. We’re not fucking ready.I’m not sure who moves first, but within seconds of the piercing howl outside, the four of us are racing across the dark, silent cabin toward the front door.Kian reaches the door first and flings it open, launching himself out into the night with Malix and Frost right behind him. As I come even with the door and prepare to shift, I pause for a fraction of a second, mesmerized by the sight of them leaping from the small front stoop.They trail black smoke as they shift, morphing like shadows. It’s beautiful in a deadly sort of way, as if they’re more than limbs and torsos and heads, but something more metaphysical. More fluid. A macabre dance of shadows.Then they land on the dusty front lawn in full shadow wolf form and take off. I hurry to follow behind, letting my own shift take over my body in the split second after I leap off the porch stoop.Another howl lights up the night, and I put on a burst o
AmoraI surfacefrom a dreamless sleep to the deep, dark of night, cocooned by the warmth of the three men sleeping around me.I’m on my back, completely pinned in by them—something that, once upon a time, would have sent alarm bells clanging through my head. Instead, it’s peaceful and comforting, if a little too warm.The ceiling is barely visible in the blackness, small cracks in the paint standing out like spider webs made of ink. I take a couple of deep breaths, staring up at them as I try to figure out where I stand. How I feel.The past few weeks still weigh on my shoulders, although I imagine that’s not something that’s just going to go away. Things still aren’t good here. We lost against Quinton, and I’m not naïve enough to think he won’t retaliate. Felicity is dead, and that’s a pretty permanent problem that’s going to throw her whole pack into a state of flux for a while.On the other hand, for the first time in a while, I’m okay. Even if the external world is chaos, my inter
In this moment, it’s just me and my men.Finally, Malix lifts his head and drops a kiss to the tip of my nose. “God, I love fucking you,” he murmurs.“Good.” I chuckle. “Because I’ve got lots of plans for more of this.”He waggles his eyebrows. “Dirty girl. You really are my fated mate.”I breathe out another laugh at the idea that my dirty mind is the true proof that we’re a fated match, shaking my head and grinning at him as he draws back, his cock sliding out of me.Frost, Malix, and I all look toward Kian next.The final piece of the puzzle. My third mate.He’s kneeling on the bed beside me, and when I reach for him, he comes willingly. He settles between my legs, his cock hard and thick. But he doesn’t slide into me right away. Instead, he trails one hand down my stomach, and all four of us watch the path of his fingers as they move lower and lower. When he reaches my pussy, he dips two fingers inside. I moan at the feeling, and heat flashes in his eyes.“You look so stunning lik
His gold-rimmed eyes gleam darkly, as if he knows exactly what I’m doing—trying to get a rise out of him. But the heated possessiveness never wavers in his expression as he gives me an answer.“Because I want to look at you. I want my brothers to see what’s theirs. What’s ours.”Oh.Oh fuck.I didn’t expect his answer to turn me on so much, but after everything that just happened between us in the bathroom, every word he just spoke is loaded with meaning.So I don’t push back against his order, staying still just like he told me to and allowing the three men to stare down at me. Frost reaches down to grip his cock, and I wonder if he’s squeezing himself to get a little relief or to try to get his arousal under control. Maybe a bit of both.That thought makes me whimper softly, and although I make no move to reach for the feral shifters, I can’t resist reaching down to slide one hand between my legs.“Shit, kitty,” Malix chokes out as I use my fingertips to spread my pussy lips, giving
“Fuck prophecies,” I repeat as I swipe at the tears threatening to crest over my eyelashes. “I make my own fate. We’ll make our own fate. Together. And it won’t end in murder. Got it?” I jam my finger into Kian’s chest and cut a glare toward Frost. “We aren’t going to go down like that. Not like them. I couldn’t stand it. I can’t even stand the thought of… of hurting you or killing you. Jesus. I can’t believe I ever tried—”Suddenly, Frost’s arm snakes out and hooks around my waist. He yanks me to him, my arms crushed between us as my fingers still cling to my towel, and his lips cover mine, cutting off my rant.There’s a salty, spicy taste to his skin, and when his lips part in that tentative way of his, I’m surrounded by the familiar scent of his body. Warmth unfurls in my belly, heating my skin, and I tilt my face up to his, opening to his kiss.It’s soft at first, but then he catches my face in his hands and deepens the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine with deliberate possess
AmoraHeat risesin my eyes as I flip the water on in the shower and climb inside. I don’t even wait for the water to warm, and the shock of cold zings through me, giving me a rush of adrenaline to chase away the sheer exhaustion that’s settled over my bones. The cold quickly fades, replaced by lukewarm water. Another twist of the pipes gives me the scalding temperature I need to ease the emotional turmoil I feel.Weeks of grime slosh off my body beneath the shower head while my tears disappear into the water on my face. I dump shampoo on my hair and scrub vigorously with my fingernails, scratching harder than necessary. If I focus on the little pinpricks of pain, maybe I can get the sight of Quinton standing over Felicity’s body out of my head.If only for a moment.His mate.His mate.How could he do that?I turn, ducking my head under the water to rinse out the suds. I grab the bar of soap off the ledge beside me and lather my hands, then use my nails again to scrub at my face.How
So we travel quickly, digging deep into our energy reserves to race headlong across state lines. Micro-naps and brief pauses to eat or drink are the only breaks we allow, and surprisingly, nobody falls behind. I assume the weaker shifters are still running on pure adrenaline.Most of the adrenaline has faded by the time we cross the state line into Wyoming, but it doesn’t matter. We keep pushing anyway.When we finally reach the Silver Crest pack’s boundaries two days later, a heavy feeling falls over the group. Felicity’s shifters slow, as if dreading to bring the news of her death to those left back home.Many of the wolves limp or nurse wounds that have yet to fully heal, and it doesn’t take more than a glance to understand every one of them is completely demoralized by what happened. It’s late in the day, and although the last rays of the sun paint the buildings with a warm, glowing light, despair hangs around us like a weight in the air.When pack members begin to emerge from the