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
He caps his water bottle and sets it on the arm as he answers. “I wouldn’t say they don’t trust us.”“You wouldn’t?” I quip.He purses his lips at me, but continues. “They don’t like us.”Amora takes a quick swig of water, then presses the bottle to her lower lip as a sassy smile curves her lips. “Really? How could they ever not like you, Kian?”I let out a guffaw, and Frost hides a grin behind his hand as he rubs at his jaw.Kian’s gold-ringed brown eyes narrow. “I have no idea. I’m a ray of fucking sunshine.”At that, all three of us lose it.Kian polishes off his water bottle as he waits for us to get the laughter out of our system. He never once cracks a smile, but he also doesn’t seem pissed at being the object of our amusement. Maybe he knows how much we need a moment of levity.When the last chuckle dies out, I shake my head, returning to the topic at hand. “We were Quinton’s special pets. He put us on a pedestal, treated us like we weren’t just different but better. A lot of pe
AmoraThe bean shuckingladies sure know how to cook a meal, and I devour every bit of it while hashing out plans for tackling our meeting with Felicity tomorrow.But even as I listen to Malix and argue with Kian, Frost’s silence worries me.Once the meal is finished, I polish off my second bottle of water, watching him as he quietly cleans up the remnants of our meal. He spoke up a few times during our conversation, but there’s definitely a kind of quiet exhaustion to him that I don’t remember being there before. I don’t know if it’s just the result of the fact we traveled all the way here on foot while he battled the shadows, or if Felicity’s little shadow voodoo did something to him.Frost stacks his plate on top of mine, then does the same with Malix’s plate and Kian’s. “Anyone mind if I take first shower?” he asks.Kian slumps in his armchair, legs spread and what’s probably his fifth bottle of water perched on his knee. “Go for it.”Malix hops to his feet and takes the stack of d
But this is different.Because this time, I’m naked with intent.Something crackles in the air between us, and when I reach to open the curtain, he releases it and steps back to make room for me in the bathtub. The steam grows thicker as I climb over the rim of the tub to join him. I slide the curtain back into place, trapping all that good heat in our little bubble, then turn to face him.He pulls me into his arms without a word. The water has warmed his skin, and the moment he envelops me, his heat chases away any cold I might have felt. He clings to me, holding me so tightly I couldn’t move away even if I wanted to.But I don’t want to.Clearly, his impulse to be close to me hasn’t faded, and I don’t mind it one bit. I latch my fingers behind his neck as the water beats down on my arms.Neither of us moves for some time. His flesh is satiny smooth against mine, and the water trickling between us only heightens the sensation of skin against skin. I tangle my fingers in his hair and
Frost makes a noise in his throat as my wet lips press against his. He tightens his arms around me, and I can feel the way his cock responds to our kiss, swelling and thickening between us.The immediacy of his response sends a little thrill through me. Throughout all the ups and downs I’ve been through with these men, I’ve never had to doubt whether Frost wants me, and the proof of that fact throbbing against my lower belly makes my core ache with desire.As I open my mouth, my tongue tangling with his, he thrusts against my stomach a little, grinding his cock against me like he can’t help himself. He’s unpracticed in this—I was his first, something that still fucking floors me—but the lack of finesse on his part isn’t a turn-off. If anything, it makes me even hungrier for him.I know I’m not the first woman Kian fucked, or Malix either. And that’s okay. I slept with plenty of guys before I met them, so it’s only fair, I guess.But I like knowing that I’ll get all of Frost’s firsts.
FrostMy heart is beating toohard. It should be painful, but somehow, it’s not.I feel like it’s trying to crack my ribs open so that it can get closer to Amora, but I already know that even if it could, it still wouldn’t be close enough.My eyes fall shut, and I breathe in the scent of her skin and her arousal. It hovers in the air, infusing the steam from the shower with her unique smell. In my mind, I can still picture her on her knees in front of me, her lips stretched around my cock. I can see myself thrusting in and out of that perfect mouth, see the way her cheeks hollow as she tries to drag me back in every time I draw back.I want to do that all over again. I want to come down her throat and then smear the last few drops on her beautiful lips. I want to lay her out on the bed and stroke myself until I spill my release all over her, then rub it into her skin until she’s marked so thoroughly by me that she’ll never be able to doubt that she’s mine.“I wasn’t sure if you’d be in
I need it, more than I need air.My fingers dig into her ass cheeks, dragging them wider so that I can see more of her, and Amora gasps, gripping the countertop more tightly. When I bury my face between her legs and thrust my tongue inside her, she goes up on her tiptoes, making a strangled sound in her throat.She tastes so good. Like nothing I’ve ever experienced before—something that’s only Amora.It’s addictive, and I slide my tongue all over her pussy, trying to get as much of it as I can. With my hands still holding her ass cheeks apart, I can see her other hole too, and I grunt softly as I remember what it felt like when she put her finger up my ass.I don’t know why it felt good, but it did. It pushed me over the edge of my climax, heightening everything else I was feeling until I couldn’t hold back anymore.Would it feel good for her too?Probably. She knows more about pleasure than I do.Rather than exploring with my finger, I drag my tongue away from her core, running it ov
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