Uktena Clan

My vision turned crimson, and I gasped. “ I Have not! The king ordered your clan to attack and they murdered half of my pack, including my uncle, before throwing the rest of us out and for what? No solid reason was ever given!”

My wolf thumped against my skin, demanding to be freed. Whose bright idea was it to put us all together in one small area? And why was my wolf so eager to come out here and now? Maybe someone was aiming to get me killed.

“Fia.” Honour patted my thigh tenderly as he spoke, and Bravo’s gaze flicked to his hand, nostrils flaring.

 “Your uncle was convicted of a high crime by the High Mage Council. Our alpha was merely following orders from them.”

Shock ripped through me, and my mind blanked. High crime? There’s no way anyone in my pack would deliberately offend the high mages…

Dad never told me what his brother had done, just that it had brought

trouble to our pack. He would’ve told me if it was a high crime though …right? 

The five high mages ruled everything, both in the mortal realm as well as that of the magic one. Most of the time, they left our kind, werewolves, alone to be governed by the alpha king. 

Even so, we all knew no one, including the alpha king, could refuse an order from the high mages.

The fact that my uncle committed a high crime could not be true. They had to be lying—of course, they were lying. 

This was Uktena clan. I would not let them drive a wedge between me and my dad, let alone my clan.

Nice try.

“Whatever. You are the ones who have been lied to.” I crossed my arms and fell silent.

Damn, this ride was boring and never-ending. I leaned forward and glanced at the clock. Ten minutes? Ugh. I better keep on with my questioning.

“So, what are your jobs on the island? Let me guess. Security?”

If they were last in line for the throne among ten or twenty siblings, they would not even go to school. They had just been used for cushy jobs around the alpha king like security, war advisor, or breeding companion to females of good lineage.

Useless, basically.

All four boys shared a look I could not interpret.

“Something like that,” Kelly said, and the car went quiet.

The Virtues held on between themselves, talking about random guy

crap, and I tuned them out, laying my head against the back of the seat once again. I did my best to resist Bravo too. But that was easier said than done. Every time he shifted, the seat dipped, and I glid into him. 

Twenty times in sixty minutes, but who was counting? The guy must have a werewolf.

I must have dozed off. One minute, my eyes were closed and my head against the leather headrest; and the next thing I knew, I jerked awake, all nuzzled up to the most lickable male a she-wolf could hope to mate with.

 If the said male was not a member of the most treacherous clan in the world.

Oh. My. Flippin’. Mage.

I breathed and nearly groaned before thinking. My mouth watered, and my wolf wanted to see if Bravo tasted as good as he smelled. This was not right. Enemy packs were supposed to smell rebelling. Not this jar of pheromone yum.

My wolf and I needed to get on the same page—pronto. I yanked my head off of his shoulder and murmured, 

“Mmffttstff … sorry.”

Yikes.

I turned the colour of tomato but bit my tongue. The end of my incoherent babble was an apology, so it should count.

He looked down at me, and heat pooled in my abdomen.

No. With a stony expression that could cut diamonds, he said, “No worries.

This is not the first time a girl’s fallen asleep on me.”

My cheeks burned as his brothers chuckled.

“Won’t be the last.” Kelly reached out for a fist bump, and I smacked his hand out of the way.

“Grow up,” I snapped. 

“You are more likely to put a girl to sleep out of boredom—not exhaustion.”

“She’s like the sister we never had,” Moral declared, laughing as he pulled the car into a canopy of trees.

“Eww.” I crossed my arms. 

“I had rather die.”

I sat up straighter. This was not just any canopy of trees. An iridescent shimmer flickered within the opening, and anxiety tightened my gut.

This was the portal to the magic lands.

“Five dollars says she pukes,” Kelly said, narrowing his eyes. 

“The weak ones always do.”

I threw him off. Glare away, pretty boys. I wasn't going to puke.

The car crept forward, and a rainbow mist occurred between the trees.

My anxiety gave way to excitement, and the feeling thrummed through me. I squealed, bouncing up and down in my seat like a lunatic.

 “It is the portal! It is real.”

As soon as I realized we were not moving, I glanced at the guys—who were all staring at me.

Honour’s frown was filled with pity. “You have been stuck in the human world your whole life, huh?”

Bless his heart.

“Yeah, because of your Al—”

Bravo clamped a hand around my mouth. “Stop talking.”

Bravo was too manhandled for my liking. He needed to be taught a lesson. Wrenching away from his hand, I then reached up and clamped my hand over his mouth with a sneer.

Oops.

His lips were still parted, and the second his tongue hit my skin, an

electric current zipped up my spine. My thoughts fritzed—gone. What had I been saying?

I had forgotten what I’d been doing.

Why did he lick me?

Oh yeah.

“Does not feel so nice, does it?” I asked, ripping my hand away.

Ugh. Why did my voice sound so breathy?

Bravo’s green eyes were wide, mirroring my shock. He swallowed hard, but his rough voice held a note of warning.

 “I meant for you to stop talking… so you can focus.” He swallowed again. 

“Or you could be ripped in two.”

What the what?

My eyes bugged. How did my father not cover that in his brief chat on portals? 

“How do I not get ripped in two? That seems like something important you should tell me.”

“Just calm down and focus on your breathing,” Honour shared with a snicker, and I suddenly felt like I was going to faint.

Moral reached back toward me. 

“Alpha Islet invitation.”

Oh, the swirly thing my father had handed me this morning. Was that part of this portal process?

I pulled it out of my back pocket and unfolded the paper. Moral then looked at Bravo. “Orbit Clan heir summons.”

Bravo held another thick piece of paper out to his brother, and I craned my neck to try and read it. Too late. All I saw were more enchanted swirly letters and the same embossed symbol.

Moral rolled down the window.

“What is next—? Whoa!” I stared opened-mouthed as a man materialized out of freaking nowhere. Boom. One second, nothing; and the next, the guy was ten feet in front of the car … floating in the air. I looked closer. Not a man. A high mage.

My body froze and my skin tingled. I’d never seen one before.

Honour tapped my chin. “It is rude to stare.”

Holy crap.

I shrank down, half-hiding my face in Bravo’s arm but also keeping one eye out to see the race who ruled us all.

Pretty much … scary as hell. At least, I could not imagine anyone more so.

The high mage was close to Eight feet tall, thin and wiry, wearing black robes with swirling galaxies of stars that strode on the cloak. He did not walk so much as float, and the closer he got, the more his presence crawled through the car. 

The air charged with electricity, and I had to tamp down my fear. His eyes were the most unsettling because … eyes should not look like that. Like his robes, his eyes were dark with small universes swirling in slow circles within. 

My legs went weak. I wanted to ask about them, but I also wanted to live, so I kept my questions to myself.

His gaze flickered to the papers held before him.

“Another heir from Orbit?” The mage’s voice sounded like a blend of French horn and wind chimes. More discerns that were creepy when put together.

“Unfortunately,” Bravo gave in, making the high mage grin, “Rules are rules. If the council sends the summons, we will respectfully obey.”

I didn’t know Bravo well, but that sounded like sarcasm, and I did not appreciate the dog reference.

“Their last heir, sir.” Moral looked slightly less terrified than I felt.

“Well, thank goodness for that.” The high mage pinned me with a glare, and I dropped my gaze to Bravo’s knees.

I could feel the galaxy dude looking at me, assessing me like spiders crawling over my body. Was that magic? It felt like he was touching me, and my wolf didn’t like it. I could feel her cowering. Breathing in deeper through my nose, I felt my wolf unexpectedly lurch to the surface.

Now?

I’d struggled with control over my wolf form since I was a young pup.

In a fight, when instinct should take over, my wolf mostly stayed inside, so I was forced to fight in my human form. Other times, like this, she was too eager to come to the surface. She had it backwards… and was wildly unpredictable.