The lines of his face are taut and strong, his eyes burning as he stares down at me. When he stops to grind his hips against mine, the pressure on my clit makes an unexpected orgasm tear through me, and my mouth drops open on a breathy scream.His nostrils flare wide, and he draws out of me, flipping me onto my stomach and plunging in again. I don’t even have time to get my hands and knees under me, but it probably doesn’t matter anyway. My limbs are shaky, and Ridge’s thrusts are so powerful that I’m not sure I’d be able to stay upright on my hands and knees even if I tried.So instead, I turn my head to one side and grip the blanket in tight fists, arching my back and thrusting my ass back toward Ridge to give him a better angle.He drops his head to press hot, messy kisses to my shoulder, shifting my sweat-dampened hair to one side.“Touch yourself,” he murmurs in my ear, the words somewhere between a command and a plea. “I want to feel you come again.”I don’t hesitate even a seco
TrystanArcher’s kitchen is alive with the smell and sound of breakfast cooking and coffee brewing. It’s the most normal, mundane situation I can find myself in these days, and it’s my favorite. Here in this room, nobody can touch us. We can laugh, we can eat, we can caffeinate, and through it all, all we need is each other.Fucking sappy, sure. But it’s my reality now.Although, this morning, none of us are laughing. It’s a grim goddamn day. Death feels like a sixth person in the room, and even the sky is gray and cloudy to match the mood.I sip my coffee, watching Sable squeeze Ridge’s arm with a small, secret smile of comfort. When Archer, Dare, and I returned last night, we found the two of them asleep in each other’s arms. It’s still such a weird sensation, looking at another man holding my mate—naked, no less—and not feeling an ounce of jealousy. All I could feel was relief that Sable had been able to calm him down. She was there for him in a way none of the rest of us could be.
SableI feel very confident about my plan until every eye in the room turns to look at me.Suddenly, my old panic rustles around inside me, and I have to fight the urge to run away from all those gazes. It shows how far I’ve come that I stand my ground. I’m a part of this pack now, come what may, and I have a voice here. I don’t have to be afraid to speak up, like I did in my fake uncle’s household.Here, I’m a part of the team.But I’m about to ask something of them that I know isn’t going to be easy for anyone to swallow. That makes speaking a little harder than it should be.I steel myself, catch Ridge’s gaze, and say, “We should ask Gwen for help.”We tracked down the solitary witch in her cabin deep in the mountainous wilderness not long ago on Elder Jihoon’s recommendation. She was barely more than legend before that point. Rumor suggested she existed, though nobody had ever seen her. Rumor also said she wasn’t affiliated with the coven, so we hoped, maybe prematurely, that she
SableElder Patrice and her team of scouts return by mid-morning the next day with more information on the witches’ bunker. Turns out, Lawson knew exactly what he was talking about.While the recon team chose not to climb the mountain for a better vantage point, since that would’ve gotten them too close and taken too much time, they were able to pinpoint a strange anomaly on the side of the mountain facing away from the interior range. Using their accounts, we spend the better part of the day compiling a full report on the area surrounding Wolfsbane Mountain. Terrain, obstacles, prime cover, vulnerable zones—all of it is mapped out and analyzed.We’re able to bring in a few other people from all three packs for deeper descriptions too. Even though many have never climbed Wolfsbane Mountain and didn’t even know what it was called, we find a couple other shifters who have visited the little town of Anatoly and seen part of the mountain range. The interviews are tedious, and the act of d
sableI snap awake, my whole body jerking from the violence of the return to my body. Beside me, Archer sits up with a gasp and turns to me, his eyes wide. For a long moment, we stare at each other, both of us considering the ramifications of what just happened.“Did that…” He shakes his head, blinking hard. “Did we just… share a dream?”I nod as I whisper back, my heart hammering in my chest. “I think so. You came into Clint’s basement while I was there.”“Then you took us somewhere else?” he verifies. “A cave? I didn’t get a good look.”Trystan groans and flails his arms, still half-asleep. “What the fuck is going on? What time is it?”In the darkness, Ridge grunts as if he’s just been elbowed or something, probably by Trystan. “Ow,” he grumbles, his voice deep and gruff. He was awake on watch, but he still sounds tired.Dare growls and rolls away from us. The whole scene is so comical that it almost makes me laugh. It would if I weren’t still reeling from the dream.On the other si
Archer“Are you ready to do this?” I ask Sable as I sit on the ground across from her and hand her a fresh mug of coffee.We’re in the back yard, just the two of us, on the heels of dawn. I put down a blanket on the dewy grass to keep us dry, and a plate with a few warmed cinnamon rolls rests between us, already missing one fragrant pastry. Steam rises in wispy strands from the surface of the coffee.Sable looks rumpled and sleepy as she licks the last of the icing off her fingers and reaches for the mug.“I think so,” she says, then pauses to sip from her cup. Her shoulders slump forward and she smiles, clearly having a moment with the caffeine.I can’t blame her. I rolled her out of bed way too early this morning to start work on recreating what happened during our shared dream. I’m absolutely positive that she was able to pull me into the astral plane—where she meets Cleo—using our mate bond. Either that, or it was an awful strange coincidence that we had the exact same dream at th
Archer she replies, her voice sounding dazed and distant. “I can feel you, but something’s keeping me from pulling you in.”I close my eyes and focus on the phantom sensation of her consciousness in mine. I give myself over to the feeling and let her wrap around me. It’s easy to give in to it. It’s all I ever want—to be as close to my mate as possible.“Pull again,” I tell her, hanging on tightly to her essence.Suddenly, the world around me dips and sways. I’m no longer aware of my body or of Sable’s warmth pressed against me. There’s only darkness and the distinct sensation that I’m flying with a cold wind rushing past my ears.Then I land on my feet in a familiar place.The mating cabin.When our wolves each declared Sable their mate at a North Pack meeting, the Elders suggested we all travel to the remote cabin used for mating rituals and give her wolf time to choose between us. Those early days feel like a dream now. So much has happened since then. The five of us have lived ent
SableWe make it down Archer’s street and onto the main road that bisects the village before we find Amora and her team.Thankfully, they all look well—no blood, no injuries, so they clearly weren’t ambushed, though they do all look exhausted on their feet. They’re already in human form, bedraggled and dusty from the long journey while they tug clothes over their naked bodies. The rush to dress isn’t something shifters usually worry about. Nudity’s just a fact of life around here.It doesn’t take long for me to see the reason why they’re pulling on clothes though. They’re not alone. Gwen’s walking with them.Gwen.Seeing the mountain witch sends a rush of memories cascading through me. I’m surprisingly happy to see her, and not just because I hope she’ll help us. I was intrigued by Gwen when we met her, and even though she’s a bit strange, I like her.Actually, maybe I like her because she’s strange. She’s different than any other witch I know.The lone witch is tall and willowy, but