My third mate steps into the room and crosses his arms over his thick chest, his gaze leveled on me.He’s shorter than Kian and Frost, but his body is chiseled and muscular in all the right places in a way that makes his t-shirt look illicit. He has smooth, dark skin, short-cropped black hair, and thick eyelashes around the most vivid violet eyes. Tattoos identical to those on Kian and Frost paint up and down his arms and peek out from the collar of his shirt.A new scent joins Frost’s spicy warmth—fresh air and sunshine. The smell of racing through the open plains, cool mountain wind in my fur and the Montana sun beaming down. Freedom and contentment. The new man’s scent wafts around me, mingling with Frost’s spicy warmth until I think I’m going to suffocate. My body reacts to this man with the same alarming need I’d had for Kian the night we met, and again last night for Frost.I don’t like this unbidden reaction. My body is a fucking traitor, making me crave these men despite the f
I have every intention of changing that though.Malix turns away from me to address Frost in a low voice. “She was poisoned too?”Frost nods. His pale hair shifts with the movement, and I can’t help but imagine that hair like spiderwebs over my stomach. My thighs.Fuck, I hate this.Malix lets out a long breath and rubs his hand over his cropped hair. “Shit. She’s never been able to use shadows like that before.”“No.”“That’s something else, man. And her timing was impeccable.”“A little too impeccable,” Frost agrees. His black tattoos do that odd shimmering, wavy thing I saw last night, as if reacting to his inner emotions. Then they settle again on his golden skin.They’ve both apparently forgotten I’m even still in the room. And I don’t think I’m the person they’re talking about, except for Malix’s reference to me being poisoned. I lean against my restraints, cringing at the raw pain in my burned wrist. “Hello? Who’s she?”Neither one of them acknowledges me.Malix sighs and claps
A truceThe asshole looks almost… victorious as he says the words. His lips tilt up, and a gleam lights in them. As if my agreement is some kind of unspoken contract that he’ll use to control me.I resist the urge to change my mind immediately and tell him to go fuck himself instead.It’s a strong urge, but it would run counter to what needs to be done. I have half a dozen reasons that prove this is the best way to complete my mission, as long as I can play my part well.So I don’t give in to the anger boiling through my veins.Clenching my jaw, I nod, then add, “A temporary truce.”Without a word, Frost crosses the room and leans over me as he begins to untie my knots. Up close, his warm, spicy scent wraps around me until I can’t smell anything else. It’s like a drug that sends every one of my senses into overdrive. I lean into him, unbidden, and sniff the air, desire pooling through my body.He pauses, his long fingers stilling on the purple ropes, and I know he’s scented me, too.I
The hallway outside the bedroom is a little more run down. Paint peels from the walls, and the wooden floorboards are scratched and covered in years of sticky dirt and grime. We pass a ridiculously small kitchen that’s empty of appliances, and a living room with two ancient couches spilling stuffing onto the floor. The floor’s covered in takeout boxes and cups, and there are three sleeping nests of blankets.I lengthen my stride to catch up with Malix. “You live here?”Malix shrugs. “It’s where we’re living today.”Well that clears that up. I roll my eyes, but don’t ask him to clarify. Clearly, they’re as nomadic as I am.We reach the front door, and Kian opens it, spilling sunlight into the dim interior. The cabin has a shallow front porch with three narrow steps that lead down to a dusty lawn. Trees surround us on all sides and I can’t hear any hint of traffic, indicating we’re well off the beaten path.As we cross the lawn, I speak to Malix again. “What are you?”Before he can answ
Malix laughs, and Frost punches him in the arm.Kian kicks up the stand on a newer-looking Honda and hitches his leg over the black bench seat. His gold-ringed gaze latches on to me as he slides forward, opening up a space behind him. “Get on.”My eyebrows shoot up. “You have to be kidding. I’m not riding with you halfway across the fucking state.”“No, you’re not,” he grinds out. “We’re going to go get your bike, as long as you don’t force me to kill you first.”God help me. Between the sight of the blood on his upper lip, the venom in his tone, and the threat of bodily harm, I’m more turned on than I have any damn right to be. If I get on that bike with him, he’s going to know it. If I don’t get on that bike with him, he’ll have won.Son of a bitch.Kian stares at me in silence as I march to his bike. I throw my leg over the seat and sit, careful to keep several inches of space between us.But Kian grabs both my knees and hauls me forward.I slam against his back, my legs widening e
I strip off my tank top and unbutton my jeans to shimmy them off my hips. I never mince moments when I’m undressing to shift, because the moment I’ve made the choice to do it, I’m raring to go.But as I step out of my blue jeans, I realize all three men are standing still, watching me.Nudity is a fact of life in shifter culture. I could walk around pack lands in the buff without blinking an eye, surrounded by dozens of other naked friends.This is different.I might have spent a night with Kian years ago, but he’s still a stranger. They all are. Their gazes on me feel equally uncomfortable and erotic. They’re all three gorgeous enough that I’m sure they’ve had their fair share of naked women in their beds, so I know I’m not an anomaly. But their gazes feel hungry and… admiring.I shift quickly, covering my nudity with my fur and pacing away from them. Although there’s a little voice inside me telling me to turn around for a peek, I keep my eyes firmly on the nighttime horizon while th
Ridge slaps his cards to the table with a triumphant grin. “Royal flush.”We’re on his back patio sitting in mismatched plastic chairs, a pile of crumpled twenties in the center of the table and a cooler between us. It’s Montana summer—lush, green, hotter than a Sunday in hell. I’ve got my bare feet propped up on the cooler, which is a few degrees cooler than the lava in the concrete. The kitchen window is open behind me, and I can hear Sable cooing at the baby and talking to Trystan as they start dinner together.I stare at Ridge’s winning hand fanned out atop the glass tabletop, then at my own, still in my fingers. Raising an eyebrow, I wrinkle my nose at him. “You’re cheating.”His honey-colored eyes dance with laughter as he reaches out and pulls down the top of my cards for a peek. One pair. Two tens and a bunch of other shit cards. Maybe the worst hand I’ve ever held against one of his rare winning hands.Ridge sucks air between his teeth and chuckles, releasing my cards as he l
A few stragglers race toward me, and the shadows give chase, bounding across the ground with preternatural speed. I watch in horror as one creature takes down a mother holding her toddler. Her scream cuts off abruptly, and her baby cries.Then I’m flying backward. The ground moves away from me, and the big picture becomes clearer. I keep going, further and further, until I can see the whole country, the whole continent, then the earth itself.Everything has been taken..Conquered.Decimated.I close my eyes and try to scream, but nothing comes out. When I open them again, I’m back in Ridge’s backyard.The witch, Gwen, stands on the lush green grass, her face pale and grave and framed by waves of bright auburn hair.“Go,” she says.I jerk awake, shooting up from the cold desert dirt. I clutch at the ground beneath me, struggling to breathe through the panic that stays with me in the moments after waking. My heart pounds painfully in my chest, and I swallow against the beating, trying t
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