Amora.He mentioned the shadows that attacked us, and Frost being poisoned, and tracking down the potion to heal him. But not once did he indicate we weren’t alone. And he lied so easily.In fact, something I’ve come to realize in the past two weeks is just how easily Kian can lie. He fucked Amora three years ago and never told us what had happened, not even when she showed up in Oscura and came after us. Now here, blatantly withholding information from his Alpha…I’m not sure I’m comfortable with how good Kian is at lying.It makes me question everything he’s ever told me.But keeping Amora out of the story was the right choice, so I keep my mouth shut. Quinton doesn’t need to know about her. He doesn’t even need to know we’re capable of having a mate, much less that we’d all been destined for her.Before the potion broke us apart.He’d see her as a distraction. Or worse, he’d track her down, imprison her, and use her to make us work longer and harder.Quinton speaks again, but the r
AmoraJust my luckthat I found my ex-mates’ hideout during an oncoming blizzard.I lie on my belly on a ridge about half a mile from their pack’s village while the sky spits snow and the temperature plunges. I have to hang back far enough away that they won’t scent me, especially on these heavy winds. Thank fuck I had the presence of mind to stop in Denver and pick up some cold weather clothes. But even the thick jacket and hiking boots I threw on after I shifted to human form can’t chase away the chill, and the thin layer of snow building up on my legs is making my jeans wet. I almost chose to stay in wolf form, since I’d be a little more impervious to the cold and snow that way, but it’s hard to hold binoculars with paws.Rue’s magic necklace worked like a fucking charm. I followed the black smoke on my bike until the road ended in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then I shifted and lugged my backpack on foot, the necklace dangling from the strap in my periphery, leading me every step
AmoraShock rootsme to the floor, my heart lurching in surprise as the shadow marks on Kian’s body wave like a flag of warning.What the hell?Rue’s potion should have put him so far under that even a nuclear explosion wouldn’t wake him. His shadows, that goddamn magic inside him, warned him of impending danger like they’re fucking sentient.Before I can slam the knife between his ribs, Kian’s hand shoots up, quick as a striking snake, and his fingers latch onto my right wrist. He twists, and my hand seizes from the pressure on my joints. I let out a pained grunt and lose my hold on the knife. With his other hand, he slams his forearm into my left wrist as my blade goes skittering across the floor.Motherfucker.I snarl at him, throwing a punch at his jaw. My knuckles slam into his unshaven cheek, and I feel the impact all the way up my arm. He growls, obviously undeterred by the blow even though I know I split his skin with my knuckles, then lunges for me. His palm slams into my neck
I angle the knife as best I can between our bodies and jab into Frost’s heavy warmth. The blade slices through the jacket, and Frost cries out, his weight vanishing. Flailing my arms, I toss off the jacket and hold out the knife.The three of them surround me. Kian is still cupping his junk with one hand, looking a bit queasy, and Malix has a bruise blooming on his temple.The angle and pressure were too awkward to actually stab Frost, but I managed to nick him through his sweatshirt. Only the slightest amount of blood blossoms on his gray hoodie, but the sight of it freezes me in place for a moment.Frost was the one to tell me about how the shadows hurt. How he walks around day to day in excruciating pain because of the shadows burrowing inside him.And I added to that pain.With the blade of my knife, with the force of my hatred, I hurt him.Is that really what I want?As a confusing mix of emotions tighten my throat, a new sound fills the room.Howls. From outside.Other wolves in
KianThe imageof Amora naked and furious with another man’s hands on her skin makes me want to rip eyes from sockets. All of them. Every man standing around the circle watching as Quinton’s guards haul her away deserves to lose eyes, ears, dicks, everything, and my furious need to be the one to do it scares the fuck out of me.Instead, I stand still, powerless to help her, careful to keep my expression empty. My whole body is tense as I watch the whiteout on the horizon where her struggling form disappears little by little, until she’s swallowed by the snow.Nudity is a fact of life for shifters. We grow up with it and don’t think twice about shifting to human form naked. But this is different.This is Amora. Vulnerable. Exposed. Her body on display for half the village to see.The body only I should know. Only her mates.I banish that thought immediately. She’s not my mate anymore. I’ve worked too damn hard to cut her out of my life to fall down that rabbit hole. Instead, I key into
“He’ll kill us,” Frost says, his tone distracted.“Fuck off,” I snarl at Malix. “You fucked her, too. We all know it. Frost and I came back from hunting, and her scent was all over you.”“She’s my mate,” Malix snaps. “If I want to fuck her, it’s my prerogative.”“Was your mate,” I correct him.“Yeah. Whatever. Another one of your brilliant fucking ideas.”I grit my teeth and look to Frost for support, but he’s closed off. His gaze is distant, looking beyond me like I’m not even sitting across from him. He’s drawn into himself, more so than usual, and there’s almost something like anger glinting in his icy eyes.“Frost!” I say loudly, snapping my fingers. “Snap out of it, man.”His gaze swivels to me, but he doesn’t speak. It’s like staring at a goddamn brick wall.“So what’s the plan?” Malix grunts, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “You got Amora into this mess. How are you going to get her out of it?”“It’s not my fault she showed up here,” I growl. “That’s on her. We
AmoraQuinton called this place a “cage,”and that’s exactly what it feels like. I’m like a trapped animal, and I hate it.The small jail building at one edge of the village houses three cells. I’m in the one farthest away from the entry door, my view of the doorway partially obscured by the thick metal bars that run from floor to the ceiling around my cramped cell.I sit on a cot barely long enough for me to stretch out full-length. The only other object in my cell is a rusted metal bucket stained by ungodly fluids, and the two cells beside mine are empty, their tiny beds made up as if they’re shitty hotel rooms.The emptiness of the place doesn’t bode well for my future. Quinton may take prisoners often enough that he needs a jail in his pack lands, but it appears he doesn’t keep them long.At least the scratchy gray wool blanket from the cot is big enough to encompass my entire body. It chases away some of the cold, but for the most part, this stone cottage is as frigid as the world
I cling to that memory of kneeling in the woods while they callously cut themselves off from me, and I use it to shove away the last little bit of emotion vibrating between us. I embrace the void; grip it like a life raft on stormy seas.In the absence of phantom affection for Frost, my anger steps up.I rouse all the fury I have over everything the three of them have done to me and let it wash over me, erasing anything else I have left.“I’m going to kill you,” I growl, wrapping the fingers of one hand around the metal bar. I squeeze it like I want to squeeze his fucking neck.Our gazes lock, and I fight back the rising sensations inside me. Not the mate bond, but something else. I don’t want to have feelings for him. For any of them.The only feeling I want to have for them is hatred and the driving desire to see them dead.“I’ll kill you all,” I repeat, leaning into the bars, letting my anger burn in my gaze. If I say it over and over like a mantra, maybe I can will it into existen
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