I snarl in frustration, the sound echoing through the woods. A flock of tiny warblers takes flight to flee my anger, then the forest goes still again but for the breeze knocking through the trees. Dusk has fallen to full dark, and I can sense all the nighttime creatures slithering fearfully away from me in the inky shadows.But I can’t sense Kian.That son of a bitch.I’m not sure he even meant to headbutt me, but it certainly gave him the advantage he needed to get away while I was incapacitated.At the very least, I hope his head’s ringing with a concussion too.I sniff around a while longer, but I can’t find a good trail. Turning circles in the dark isn’t going to conjure the asshole up, so after a time, I begrudgingly set a trail back through the woods to my bike.Kian’s Harley is right where he left it next to mine. I shift back to human form and lift it up so I can dig around in its compartments.Except the saddlebags are gone.“That rotting pile of flaming trash,” I mutter and
I toss the pills into my mouth and lean down to drink from the faucet. The water’s nasty—filtered with chemicals, nothing like the fresh, delicious well water back home. When I stand back up, I confront my reflection again, my lips peeling back from my teeth.I tug a handful of dried leaves and twigs from my long dark brown hair, leaving them in a fun pile on the countertop like I’m the Blair Witch. Turning my face to the left, I run my finger beneath a raw red scratch on my right cheekbone. Another cut, deeper than the first, is angled above my eye and through my eyebrow.Like the scar on Kian’s face.Even now, I can conjure up a vision of his face. The scar bisecting his brow, his sardonic grin, the hard glitter in his unique eyes. I hate how I can remember him in such perfect detail all these years later. Memories of our night together have been assaulting me since he showed up at Joe’s earlier, never far from the edges of my mind.Fury sets my blood boiling. I rip my t-shirt off o
I jerk up in bed, shock flooding me and turning my skin to ice.The man and I stare at one another in silence for several heartbeats, neither of us moving. He’s unblinking, a ghostly, beautiful statue in the sliver of light falling through the crack in the curtains. Half his face is forged from the shadows in the corner, and the other is damn near alight from the streetlamp outside.For a moment, I sit frozen, my hands clawed into the blankets against my chest. On the heels of my dream, I’m not entirely certain he’s real. Maybe he’s just a vision—a night terror, a holdover from the dream, the way old photograph negatives could overlap in the developing process.My head feels foggy enough to lend truth to the idea. Despite my jolt of terror, maybe I just haven’t fully awakened. There’s no way someone could have gotten into my room without me knowing it.But… the ache in my head from the fight with Kian is more pronounced now. The ibuprofen I took earlier has worn off, so the throbbing
The shadow slides away from the blade pinning it to the headboard as if the knife isn’t even solid. It leaps for me, coming away from the tacky upholstered bedframe like a thick, black cloud.I launch backward, falling off the bed in my haste. On the way down, I grab my knife off the nightstand and land on my back with my legs above me, still tangled in the covers. Not the most graceful thing I’ve ever done, especially considering I’m in what amounts to panties and a t-shirt with my ass in the air in front of a stranger. But I at least manage to get my blade ready.The shadow follows me down, and I lash out. My blade flashes silver in the moonlight but does nothing to the blob. It barrels toward me, undeterred, and I roll away, wrapping myself even tighter in the blankets as I try to dodge its attack.The blond man looms over me; I didn’t even hear his approach. He punches out, his fist catching the shadow as if it’s actually a solid form. The dark cloud lurches away from me and hits
Little wisps shoot outward and dissipate into smoke. Within seconds, nothing’s left.I’m lying on the tabletop, my legs splayed and my t-shirt riding up on my stomach as I breathe heavily through the pain. My fingers are still curled around my knife, but it’s more out of a need to squeeze something so I can ignore that the skin on my wrist is scalded with third-degree burns.The blond man glances at me. He’s not even winded. His expression is hard to read, though his piercing blue eyes glitter darkly as his gaze sweeps down my way-too-exposed body.Then he lunges past me, throwing the curtains aside as he leaps through the window.Startled, I leap to my feet and stumble over my own legs to follow. I throw back the curtains to find the window open, a cool, desert breeze blowing inside. That’s how the fucker got in my room. I didn’t even think to check that it was locked before I went to sleep.His hair shines in the moonlight as he sprints through the motel lot.No time for hesitation.
I open my eyes to the blaze of half a dozen still-burning light bulbs, plus a hint of golden sunlight pouring through the crack in the curtains. I blink at the overwhelming illumination coupled with my grogginess.Sleep eluded me most of the night after the ordeal. I jerked awake at every small noise, from barking dogs to slamming doors to my neighbors’ television coming on at five a.m. Every time I opened my eyes, I expected to find Blondie standing over my bed, or to see a new shadow monster hovering over me, about to pounce.On any other day, I’d grumble and complain at the bright lights, slam the pillow over my head, and go back to sleep for a little while longer, until my irritable attitude chills the fuck out. But I’m not really interested in the dark right now, considering that’s where shadows sleep. Nor do I have time to waste lying around in bed while Kian and Blondie’s scent markers grow even colder.Last night feels like a strange dream. Rolling over onto my back, I glance
I knew not to expect my mates to be normal wolf shifters. Gwen warned me about that fact—feral shifters, she called them. I don’t completely understand what that means beyond the fact that they aren’t affiliated with a pack and are running wild on their quest to destroy the world.But the fact that their scents can just… vanish?That’s unheard of. It’s as if they can become invisible, make themselves totally undetectable to even a wolf’s keen nose.Blondie’s scent vanishes completely near a small clearing in the trees. I circle the whole clearing, trying to pick back up on his signature, but it’s useless. On my second pass, however, I find paw prints hidden beneath a dense layer of wet, dying leaves.Bingo.I follow the trail of indentations, kicking aside the fresh layer of leaves with my feet as I walk. It’s peaceful here, with the birdsong and the breeze knocking branches and the sun’s warmth beaming through like waterfalls of gold. There’s green here, lots of it, which is a welcom
Something prickles across my skin, then a strong scent wafts over me.Warm. Spicy.“You won’t break free.”I jerk at the voice. My heart picks up a nervous rhythm, and I whip my head around to face the doorway.Blondie leans against the door frame, looking for all the world like he’s bored out of his mind. He’s in khaki cargo pants and a black Henley that looks stunning next to his golden skin and insanely blue eyes. I should be terrified of him, knowing what I know about how dangerous he is, but instead, I’m just irritated he found me first.It’s easier to focus on the anger than on the way my wolf howls hungrily inside me.“You’re Ted Bundy?” I grit out.Blondie stares at me, and even though his expression doesn’t change, I’m fairly certain he thinks I’ve lost my mind.It definitely feels like I have.I jerk harder against my restraints, like that’s going to miraculously free me. “You wanna untie me? Or no?”He ignores my question. “What happened?”“I can keep yanking until the head
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