Fall of Embers

FALL MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS BOOK SIX

G. BAILEY

Fall of Embers © 2022 G. Bailey

All Rights Reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental and formed by this author’s imagination. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is written in British English, therefore some spellings might differ.

Cover Design by Rebecca Frank

Edited by Polished Perfection

Created with Vellum

HER GUARDIANS SERIES

HER FATE SERIES

PROTECTED BY DRAGONS SERIES

LOST TIME ACADEMY SERIES

THE DEMON ACADEMY SERIES

DARK ANGEL ACADEMY SERIES

SHADOWBORN ACADEMY SERIES

DARK FAE PARANORMAL PRISON SERIES

SAVED BY PIRATES SERIES

THE MARKED SERIES

HOLLY OAK ACADEMY SERIES

THE ALPHA BROTHERS SERIES

A DEMON’S FALL SERIES

THE FAMILIAR EMPIRE SERIES

FROM THE STARS SERIES

THE FOREST PACK SERIES

THE SECRET GODS PRISON SERIES

THE REJECTED MATE SERIES

FALL MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS SERIES

ROYAL REAPERS ACADEMY SERIES

THE EVERLASTING CURSE SERIES

THE MOON ALPHA SERIES

Map

Contents

Description

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Nakoa of the house of Mnemosyne

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Tarrent Bloodsong

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Nimue “Nimmy” Windshire

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Afterword

18.  Bonus Read of Crescent Wolves

Description

I was trained to be the dragon king’s mate. His pure, blessed by the gods, fire queen.

But my fate was never to be his.

My name is Serendipity Fall, and I’m one of the only wolf shifters living with a bunch of immortal dragon shifters in a city I can never leave. I’m the fated mate of the dragon king—Draycian of the house of Mnemosyne—and on the first full moon after my nineteenth birthday, I will be bound to him in a mating ceremony.

But I don’t want a mate.

I don’t want the dragon king god who rules my hometown from his golden castle. I don’t even know what he looks like. All I know is, anytime I mention his name, everyone blanches in fear.

He is a monster.

I have a plan to escape from his city and find my real family. To be free.

I won’t be his fire queen, because in the darkness of the embers, I found him:

The dark wolf I crave.

We will be together, even if our love is going to destroy everything.

Even if it brings the Wolven gods down upon us all.

This is a full-length reverse harem romance novel full of sexy alpha males, steamy scenes, a strong heroine and a lot of sarcasm. Intended for 17+ readers. Book six of eight.

Prologue

ARAWN OF THE VANIR.

“T here will come a day, torturer of the Vanir, that you will regret this.”

My words echo around the dark walls of my new prison. The only other sound is the dripping water down the wall and the squeaks of the rats running into their holes. I know I will be here a very, very long time.

Time is nothing in the flames.

His gold hair shines like our creator as he steps into the light, looking down on me. He has always looked down on me like dirt. He looks down on everyone who wasn’t her.

Or his dead betrothed.

How sad that was, when her blood spilled on my hands right before I turned her to ash. I smile at him, at the memories.

“I will not kill you, Arawn of the house of Mnemosyne, as rotting in here is a suitable punishment for what you have done,” he growls, embers flickering out of his lips. His body shakes, the only sign I’ve truly destroyed him by killing her. By killing all of his family and everyone he has ever loved.

I rise, smirking in the darkness. “I will be freed, and you will never, ever escape me. This is temporary.”

“May the Wolven gods find you,” he curses me, his eyes flashing gold. “Because no one else in this world is ever going to help you escape.”

I watch as he walks away, his gold wings spreading out before he takes off, and the room goes dark. No matter where he hides, I will find him.

I curl myself into the embers in my soul, letting the room burn with my fire until I can only see flames. In the flames, I see a female wolf with a coat of ice-cold snow and a fiery heart that could burn even the coldest winter into summer.

One day she will free me.

Together, we are going to turn this world into nothing but ash and ice.

Chapter

One

A  glimmering gold blade presses against the soft skin of my neck, and I grin. “Should I be impressed that your immortal old ass actually won this time?”

Nakoa growls as he lowers his blade, and I turn to face him. Nakoa is my guard, promised to the old gods themselves to protect me from any threat, which according to him, is my own clumsiness more than anything else. He might be right. In every aspect except this. I’m good in a fight. Usually. Sweat pours down my back, my forehead, and literally everywhere as I pick up my dust-covered sword my guard knocked from my hand. The gold metal glistens in the daylight shining in from high above the city, highlighting every bit of silver, gold and diamond crystals littered around the tops of the buildings. When I was a kid, I thought they were stars. I soon learnt that the real stars are in the sky outside—somewhere I will never be able to go if he gets his way.

“Coming from the pure, blessed by the gods, fire queen, who always leaves her right side open and therefore would die if a real enemy attacked,” Nakoa replies. Cocky immortal dragon shifter.

Pure.

Blessed by the gods.

The dragon king’s fated mate.

I hate every single one of those titles, and he knows it. They control my life and make every action of mine heavily judged. I just want to be free. I want to see the stars, breathe the fresh air and find out what the world is really like. If Nakoa can see the betraying thoughts going through my mind, he doesn’t comment on it. “Talk to me, Serendipity.”

“You only use my full name when I’m in trouble,” I counter, and he laughs. Nakoa is my best friend, even if he would deny it.

I look up at the sunlight, watching how it highlights everything in our city. The city of Mnemosyne. Hidden away from the world, with me locked in here with it. The cavern ceiling is tall, suggesting we are inside an enormous mountain, and it has hundreds of large and small holes that pour in the sunlight. The spiralling tower buildings stretch up from the slums of the city, like diamond pillars with the mirrors lining the sandstone to reflect light.

The city is beautiful in the day, but it’s not when the city is at its best. This isn’t my favourite time to view it. It’s at night, when the stars hang high above the sky like beams of light, shining silver beams down onto the buildings, reflecting their silver light everywhere. Every building, house and structure was designed to make the most of the starlight, and it is my favourite part of my home. The city that burns starlight.

“I love my home, Nakoa, but…I want to know what is out there,” I whisper.

Nakoa places his large hand on my shoulder, and I look up into his dark, mud brown eyes. Nakoa is a handsome shifter. There is no doubt about it, with his tanned skin, muscular form, and long black hair that is shiny even in the darkest of rooms. I remember Nakoa always training me, teaching me to fight, looking after me. He’s not the only one in my life, but he’s my best friend, and I know I wouldn’t be the person I am without his guidance. Once, a few years ago, I realised I had a crush on him, but I soon realised that he wasn’t going to feel that way about me, so I pushed those feelings down as far as I could. The dragon shifters are waiting for their mates, and they don’t date; they don’t do anything but exist.

Personally, I think it’s a giant waste. A city full of sexy dragon shifters with no females to claim as their own.

“Death is out there. It waits for you, Serei,” he gently replies. “It’s not… The people out there are not like us. We live in peace.”

“My mama—”

“Yes, but she is the queen of millions of wolves. Don’t think that one day a year really gives you a good look into her life. There is a reason you are here,” he tells me. I shake my head, but he steps in front of me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “I know you have a million questions, like any normal nineteen-year-old would have, but just wait a little longer. Our king will tell you everything.”

I resist the urge to pull a face at the affection in his tone for his king. I glance at the castle that is at the top of the city, looking over all of us with its tall glass windows and dauntingly high towers. Home sweet home.

It’s also his home. The dragon king…my fated mate and the male I’ve never met. At least I can’t remember meeting. Aunt Reine and Nakoa claim I did meet him when I was a young child and that he saved my life.

Before stealing me from my mother and leaving me in this city while he disappeared off to the old gods know where.

“This is all about the ceremony tomorrow, isn’t it?”

“You’re excited, but I am not. I am—” I pause, looking for the right word. “Frightened, Nakoa. I don’t know him.”

He smiles at me. “Serei, you are wild and fierce and powerful in ways you don’t even know yet. You face the males in this city with your head held high, when most people would fear a thousand-odd male dragon shifters. You’ve always been so brave, taking no shit from anyone. Tomorrow will be no different.”

“They are all big teddy bears,” I say, waving off his grip and walking to the edge of the sandpit we use for training.

Nakoa laughs deeply. “I’ll tell Aedh and Morcant that, shall I?”

I roll my eyes, but my lips twitch. Aedh and Morcant are the biggest males I’ve ever met, twins, and they are built like rocks. With scary attitudes to boot.

We go silent as I watch my home. I do love this place despite my fears about the ceremony tomorrow. I’ve known about the ceremony since Aunt Reine told me on my eighth birthday. I’m the fated mate of the dragon king—Draycian of the house of Mnemosyne—and on the first full moon after my nineteenth birthday, I will be bound to him in a mating ceremony. What I didn’t realise at eight was, when I got older…I’d want a choice.

I don’t care what the old gods chose for me. I don’t care that he has waited thousands of years to find me.

I just want to make my own choice.

“He’s a good male, and you are both well suited, in my opinion,” Nakoa claims. “Stubborn and, well, more stubborn. Perfect match.”

“Asshole.”

“Language,” he replies with a smirk.

“Now you sound like Aunt Reine,” I tease, and he knocks my shoulder with his, making his necklace bounce, the fire-red symbol catching my eye. Nakoa can say whatever he likes, but I’ve never met this dragon king, and I have absolutely no interest in becoming his mate tomorrow.

“You told me once that Mnemosyne was a goddess, and on her deathbed, she unleashed her magic into the world to make the first dragon shifter,” I say.

Nakoa nods. “Yes. I am one of the youngest shifters, as you know, but that is in our history books. You’d know more if you read those over the books your mum brings you.”

“Mama has taste and brings me fantasy books,” I reply. “Fantasy is just what I need to escape sometimes.”

“Why did you ask about our goddess?”

“I want to know something. Why I would be destined for a dragon shifter when I’m a full-blooded wolf?” I hedge. “Why me?”

And how do I get out of it?

“Fate wove our stories before we ever existed, Serei,” he softly replies. “You can’t fight it.”

Like hell I can’t.

I lift my sword up in the air. “Come on. I’m bored and we have another two hours until the sun sets.”

“No,” Nakoa firmly replies. “You have a big day to get ready for tomorrow, and I promised Reine that I’d send you back early. I don’t want to get in her bad books, not even for you, Serei.”

I pout. “There is no way I’m going to be able to convince you, is there?”

He winks at me. “Your Aunt Reine is more frightening than you.”

I chuckle. Yes. Yes, she is.

Aunt Reine is the mother of two of my mama’s mates, and an aunt to her growing up. When I came to live here, she came too. Aunt Reine told me that a city full of stubborn, immortal dragon shifters wasn’t all that different from her old pack. That male shifters are the same, be it dragons or wolves.

Somehow, she has all these mighty dragon shifters doing her bidding. It likely has to do with the fact she and I are the only females in the city. There used to be two older females who lived here, but they died when I was young. Other than Breelyn, my godmother who visited for a year when I was a child, it’s always been just Aunt Reine and me.

“I’m half tempted to go and hide in the city just so you get in trouble,” I reply, making him laugh.

“I’d find you. I always do,” Nakoa replies. He might be cool, but he is still an overprotective male at heart. I put my sword back on the metal holder with the other weapons and pull on my brown leather boots. My dark red dress falls to my lower knees, cut at the sides for easy movement and stitched with gold thread. It shimmers in the light when I move, and it has the brilliant magical ability to block any attack. All my clothes are made of the same material and created by Torrix. He has amazing design skills, though it took me years of begging to convince him to make me some leggings and tops. The dragon king’s mate should only wear dresses, he used to say, until I proved him wrong. Or annoyed him enough to give in.

I quickly retie the end of my braid, which has come loose, and push it over my shoulder where it falls to the middle of my back. Strings of gold are braided into my hair, gifts from Nakoa for my birthdays over the years. Each thin string of gold is meant to give me luck. He said it was an old tradition of the dragons.

Grabbing my gold cloak, I pull it around my shoulders and brush off some of the sand on my dress before heading back up the path to where Nakoa is waiting for me. I eye his red and black leather laced with gold string. I want to wear leather one day.

“So, when are you heading out?” I question. Nakoa leaves the city once every few months, and I don’t get to know what he does, but he always comes back with something new for me. “Because…some of that lovely vermillion paint would be appreciated.”

He looks down at me. “With the mating ceremony tomorrow, I won’t be leaving anytime soon. We will need to be on guard more than ever before.”

“Why?”

He looks away from me. “It’s best King Draycian explains this to you.”

I wave as we pass seven shifters doing run drills around the edges of the city, and they all incline their head back to me before running past and down the steps. The sand-covered stairs eventually flatten into a space right under the gold archway made of two dragon tails wrapped around each other in the middle. The heads of the dragons lie at either side of the stairs, their giant wings spreading out across the stone cliff. I touch the head of the gold dragon on the left, like I always do, and Nakoa smiles at me.

Despite this being a city full of dragon shifters, I rarely see them actually fully shift. Most of them prefer to shift their golden wings to make it easy to travel around the city, but I know they can fully shift their entire bodies into dragons that are the size of a building. They can also change their forms into any animal they have met, and most prefer to change into wolves when they are around me. I’ve always guessed it’s their way of trying to make me feel better and to give my wolf a pack.

But I’m a white wolf in a pack of gold.

I will always stand out.

We wind through the silver stone streets, past the sandstone houses that shimmer in the light so brightly it hurts my eyes at times. The city is silent, as usual, and I wave at a few males in the windows as I pass. I know them all, mostly, but many don’t speak to me. Nakoa explained it isn’t that they don’t like me, but they know I belong to their king, and they don’t dare anger him.

We pass through the triple silver gates, the entrance to the castle, which are left open, until we come to the larger gate right in front of the towering castle.

“Fire to you, Miss Serendipity and Guard Nakoa,” Vercintx greets, bowing low. Vercintx is very old but still as handsome as any male I’ve seen. His hair is white, clipped back with a gold clip shaped like a bird. He wears the traditional leathers like Nakoa, but unlike Nakoa, he speaks to me only like a queen on a throne and not a real person.

“How are you, Vercintx?” I question with a kind smile.

He starts opening the lock on the gate. “You need not worry yourself with my needs, Miss Serendipity. Have a fire blessed evening.”

“Fire to you,” I say, inclining my head in respect. Fire to you. The ancient saying of respect for the dragon shifters has never made much sense to me.

“I will be back tonight, Serei,” Nakoa tells me. “Don’t piss your aunt off too much.”

I flash him a wickedly sweet smile. “Why would I ever do that?”

He sighs as I waggle my fingers at him and head through the gate to open the wooden door to the entrance hall. My home always smells like a mixture of delicious food and jasmine, thanks to the jasmine plants climbing the walls in nearly every corridor. The warmth of the castle settles into my blood as I close the door behind me. Dumping my cloak and boots in the entrance hall by the storage box, I follow the amazing smell of food until I find myself in the kitchen. Aunt Reine is leaning over a pot of something that smells delicious, maybe chicken stew, and she looks over her shoulder as I step into the room.

Aunt Reine is older than I am, but very young to the immortal shifters in this city. In looks, she would pass as a thirty-year-old human, with her midnight black hair and stormy eyes, if it weren’t for the supernatural glow in her eyes, her swift movements and how beautiful she is along with the moon marks on her forehead. My mama has similar markings. I wonder if Reine’s two sons look like their mother. Reine’s sons and two others are my mama’s mates. I can’t remember them, but I feel like I know them from their gifts, letters and stories I have been told. I often wonder if my little brother looks like me or them. I know none of them are my biological father because he is dead, which is the most anyone has ever told me, except apparently, I have an uncle from my father’s side—Jesper Ravensword. But no one else.

I hope to meet him one day too.

“You smell like sweat and dragons,” she states in place of a greeting. There is a smile on her face as she says it, and while I might not be the pure fire queen that this city wants me to be, I know I’m enough. Reine tells me about it every time I falter. She reminds me that I come from a powerful line of wolves, and no matter what my fate is, I choose the ending.

It’s one of the reasons I love her so much.

“You smell like chicken stew,” I say, walking to her side and attempting to steal the spoon for a taste, but she bats me away.

“Get away, you,” she shoos. “You’re not eating until you’re in a new dress and had a bath. Plus, it is not ready yet.”

“Fine, fine,” I say, feeling a little tired. I eye the comfy chair by the fireplace and sit down, picking at the worn orange fabric, remembering every little part of the fairy-tale stories Aunt Reine told me on this chair. She told me stories of the pack, of wolves, of her dead mate and of my mother, but it was always the fairy-tale parts without the real truth.

No one tells me the truth, because they treat me like I couldn’t handle it.

“How was training with Nakoa?”

I turn to look at Aunt Reine as she wipes her hands on a towel, and I answer, “I still need to work on my defence. He got me this time. Again. I know for certain he has been going easy on me until this last year.”

“He is still going easy on you, sweetheart,” Aunt Reine says with a frown. “I saw the dragons, as wolves, rip through angels on a battlefield. He is a warrior, and you don’t ever want to feel the full force of him attacking you.”

“You never talk about the war…,” I gently start. “You came here after it was over, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” she replies, looking down. Looking submissive in a way I’ve rarely seen her. “I did what I had to for my people…but sometimes you can’t face your home when the dust settles and the moment is over.”

My heart races. “Will you ever go back?”

She looks at the plants on the window sill, at the new exotic bright pink flowers that I don’t know the name of. “Yes. When you need me no more and it is the right time.”

“After tomorrow, that might be sooner than you think,” I say, turning away from her as my heart clenches along with my hands. I dig my nails into the armchair.

“Are you ready for tomorrow, Serei?”

Her question echoes in the room. Aunt Reine doesn’t often talk to me about the ceremony, but every time she does, I can see it: the look in her eyes, the disagreement. But she never voices it. Never steps in to save me.

I look away into the dark flames flickering inside the fireplace. Every secret I’ve got is hidden within these flames, and even if she won’t save me, I will save myself with someone else’s help. My secret.

This is the only fireplace in the entire building because somehow my home keeps itself warm. But this room, these kitchens, they allow this fire to burn all day and night. The dragon shifters breathe fire, but oddly enough, they don’t have any fires lit anywhere else.

“Of course I’m not ready. I’ve told you more than once that I don’t want to do it,” I tell her, but she isn’t looking at me anymore.

She rests her hands on the countertop. “Serei—”

“Don’t say ‘This is your fate, and you will feel better soon,’” I interrupt. “If you were being forced into a mating ceremony with some stranger, you’d fight it too!”

I blow out an angry breath, and she comes over to me. Aunt Reine pulls one of the wooden chairs over from the table and sits opposite me, leaning back in the seat and crossing her long legs. “I met my fated mate and lost him. I saw him killed in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Now half of my soul is gone, because that is what a fated mate is. Your soul mate. A part of you no one else could ever be. Give him a chance, Serei. I am not a fan of his or sworn to protect him, but I cannot deny what the old gods have chosen for you. You are his and he is yours.”

“I do not want him,” I bite out, a low growl escaping my throat. “When do I get to choose?”

“Serei—”

I get up, ignoring her, and walk to the door.

“He protected you from everything.”

“I never asked him too,” I remind her before I leave the room, suddenly not hungry at all. I might be selfish to say that, but I shouldn’t owe this dragon my entire life because he decided to step in and save me. I don’t even know how he saved me, considering no one will talk about it.

I head up the spiral staircase to my room, closing the oak door behind me. My room is quite spacious, circular, with a large oval bed in the middle, but at this moment it feels like a tiny prison. Beautiful gold sheets cover the bed, matching the wallpaper with jasmine flowers. All of it so pretty and perfect. Like they want me to be. The ceiling is pure sandstone, smoothed into circular shapes, with a diamond chandelier hanging in the centre. There’s a small bathroom to the one side, and an area filled with canvas, with hundreds of my paintings looking back at me. A big portion of them are of eyes in the flames.

My last hope.

My secret in the dark, who has whispered to me for years. I don’t care what Aunt Reine and Nakoa say. I am not becoming the dragon king’s mate tomorrow. I pick up the nearest canvas and run my fingers over the glowing black eyes in the flames, my heart racing. This is the way I’m going to escape my fate. This is how I’m going to escape him.

The dragon king.

Chapter

Two

NAKOA OF THE HOUSE OF MNEMOSYNE

I  spread my wings out, gliding easily over the city. Over my home, one I know so well. Anytime I leave the city, leave her, I miss it. I hope Serei will see some of the incredible world after tomorrow. The vibrant cities that are full of wolves, humans, and angels. The beaches, the oceans, and forests. She deserves to see it all.

Even if it’s not with me.

I land in the middle of the main street, near the many small shops within the old stone buildings. Most sell weapons, food, or drinks—the three main things any dragon shifter could want. Many of my brothers are walking around, returning to their homes as I sense the sun setting above us, while others, like me, are heading into their favourite pub for a drink. Most of my brothers keep to themselves and have done since I’ve known them. As the youngest one born to the dragons, I don’t have the deep connections many of them do to others. I’m an outsider, but I like it that way at times. Especially with my position as Serei’s guard and so many of the shifters interested in what their queen is like. I’ve let one too many people close, and I am still struggling to figure out how to deal with it.

I head into the rugged pub in front of me, a sign post hanging outside with the list of special drinks they have on tonight. The pub is nearly empty, a few males sitting at various tables in the shadows, but the bar has no one else sitting at it. Perfect. I head straight up to the counter, sit on an old stool, and nod at the barkeeper, Aedh. Aedh and his brother, Morcant, run this pub and can drink anyone under the bar. I’ve learnt that the bad way.

He quickly brings me over my favourite drink, and I slide some gold coins across the bar to him. Aedh picks up the coins and pockets them. “How is our queen today?”

“Nervous,” I tell him. There isn’t any point hiding it. Many watch our morning and afternoon practices, and they all know she is out of her game recently. Usually there are bets on how quickly she learns certain moves and how quickly she will give up. When she finds out about those bets, she will make them all regret doing the bets at all.

“Shame that. She will soon be fine, and send her my well wishes,” he tells me, nodding my way and leaving me to it. I want to tell him that she is going to be fine, but I’m falling apart day by day, knowing that she’s got to go and mate with someone else tomorrow. Every time I see her beautiful green eyes, my heart stops straight and I can’t think. Her scent has me hard in moments, ever since last year, and it only gets worse with every day that passes. My trips out of the city don’t help, and I can’t focus on anything but her.

She is my best friend, a female I would die for, and I am in love with her.

How to mess up your guard job: fall in love with the queen. Check.

“You must be excited that the king is finally mating,” Aedh states as I take a long drink of the whiskey, an old brand I’ve enjoyed for years, and let it burn my throat. “Perhaps then we can all find our own females. I want a family, and I suspect many do.”

“Yes, we do,” Apollon agrees, moving to sit on the stool at my side and patting my back. “My normal, friend.”

“Good to see you,” Aedh tells him, turning to make his drink.

Apollon takes one look at me and sighs. He knows what is on my mind, and there isn’t any point in hiding it from him. He has been my friend for too long and knows me better. Apollon first guessed when he found me drunk in the middle of the street and helped me home, and after he threw water on my face, I told him everything. I expected to wake up in the prisons under the castle, but instead, Apollon sorted me out a coffee and never asked me about it again unless I brought it up. Apollon is one of the king’s five personal guards, and they live in the castle with the king. In battle, he is lethal, and he has taught me much.

Aedh passes him his drink. “On the house.”

“Fucker, his is free and not mine?” I question with a low chuckle.

He laughs. “When you’re promoted to a personal guard, then you get a free drink.”

Apollon smirks and takes a long drink. “Fire to you, Aedh.”

He inclines his head before leaving to serve someone else at the other end of the bar. I pick up my whiskey, taking a long sip, hoping the burn will block out some of the pain in my chest. “You look like shit, mate.”

I glance over at him, his white hair perfect, and there isn’t a stain on his uniform. “You don’t.”

“You know what I am implying, Nakoa,” he quietly states. “Have you found a way to deal with it yet?”

I know he means the crush on Serei, which has developed into more than a crush; it’s a full-blown issue where she has taken my heart unknowingly and I’m in serious shit. Having pressed against her today, holding that knife to her throat was torture. But every training session is, and sometimes I can’t focus on anything but the sweat gliding down her neck.

Fuck.

It’s more torture to lie to her and say nothing so I don’t fuck up her future. She’ll be happy. I keep telling myself it as I continue to drink.

She will be happy, even if it’s going to destroy me. I’ve worked out it’s better to just have her close, and if I tell her the truth, there is every chance I’ll fuck up the friendship and she won’t speak to me again.

“No,” I eventually reply. I don’t have a long, detailed answer for him. He’s loyal to the dragon king first, like we all are, but what he doesn’t know won’t kill him. The king would kill me if he knew how I felt about his queen, his intended mate.

“Have you thought more about my offer?” he questions. His tone is kind but firm, because he believes his offer is the best solution to my problem. He wants me to go and work in the pack lands, with Serei’s mother, and be a spy of sorts. One the queen would know is there, though. “It’ll get you out of the city and away from her.”

He speaks so quietly that I barely pick it up, but no one else would be able to hear what he said. Working on speaking quietly is something we have all gotten used to after living in a city full of eavesdropping dragon shifters that can hear for miles.

And have boring lives.

“I have thought about it, but I don’t know that leaving would be great for her right now. She’s in a strange place,” I say. Strange place is an understatement of how she is at the moment. I know it’s nerves, and I wish I could explain it’s just a blood binding and then she will have more freedom.

But I don’t know the king all that well.

I can’t promise her anything, but I can stay. I can be her friend when she needs me, no matter how much it tears me apart inside.

“Sometimes you must place yourself first. If you break yourself to fix her, what will be left of you?”

“I forget how old you are until you say shit like that,” I say.

He laughs. “You’re right. So am I, though.”

I grunt before I continue to drink my whiskey until it’s all gone. I’m tempted to order more and get so drunk that I barely remember going home. That way, I barely have seconds to think about her before I pass out in my bed.

The only reason I don’t buy the bottle of whiskey is that she needs me tomorrow.

“You must not interfere,” Apollon quietly reminds me. “The king…I would not be able to intervene even though you are my friend.”

I push my empty glass away. “I have no intention of interfering.”

Apollon searches my eyes, seeing what he needs and believing me because it’s true. I won’t ruin this for her.

I want her to be queen, to have the world at her fingertips and be protected from the cruelty of the world. The king can offer her that, and I can’t.

“You could be so much more, Nakoa. You’re smart, a damn good fighter, and you did a good job guarding her and training her,” he states, clutching his drink. “You could be a king’s guard one day. You have the skills.”

“Thanks, mate,” I tell him.

“Don’t let this ruin you,” he tells me. “Your mate will come, and you won’t even look at the queen again.”

A part of me wishes that were true, but I couldn’t imagine feeling even an inch about someone else like I do her. I never saw her as anything other than a friend until she turned eighteen, and then it was like a fire began to burn. Her scent wrapped around my soul. My dragon demanded she was ours, and I struggled to even be around her. She isn’t my mate, but how I feel about her is stronger than a mating bond. I know it.

Apollon places his hand on my shoulder. “The curse will end, and the fire will burn. Fire be with you, my dear friend.”

“And with you,” I reply. Hearing the curse even spoken out loud is a strange event in this city, but I know what Apollon is trying to do. He wants me to think further, away from Serei and to the hope her mating could bring to our people.

But I can’t.

The idea of her mating with anyone cuts me deep down in my soul, lash after lash, until my heart bleeds.

I stand up off my seat. “I should be going.”

“Nakoa, take my offer after tomorrow is over. Trust me and let me help you with this,” he responds, turning to face me. I look at the gold symbol of a dragon on his chest. The king’s symbol.

“Maybe I will,” I say, and he smiles, looking pleased. I walk away straight out of the door and into the empty streets, taking a deep breath. My leathers around my neck feel tighter than before, and I tug at them before spreading my wings out and flying high above the towers. I fly straight down to my quarters by the castle, through the blue fabric door on the outside into the entrance hall. I kick off my shoes before opening my wooden door to my quarters, the only place I’ve called home.

My room is smaller than most, with a double bed, a small kitchenette area and a table where I work on weapons. A crate holds all my leathers at the end of my bed, and I tug off the leathers I’m wearing and pull on a softer shirt created by humans. I like human creations. The few treasures I have around my home show off this. I pick up a football and spin it on my finger, a trick a human boy taught me when I stayed in the Fenrir Court years ago. I kick the ball into the corner of my room and look over at my table where my weapons are covered. After I create a few flame lights to hover around the room, I sit on the chair and prop my elbows on the table, running my hands through my hair a few times.

She is taking her mate tomorrow.

I have to stop loving her.

I pull back a white sheet covering, revealing a beautiful gold and silver sword in the middle of the table. It’s delicate, made for a female to wield, and I’ve been making it for many, many years. Serei will need her own weapon when she is queen, and I’m sure the king could give her any number of weapons she wanted. I hope she will like this one. If I’m going to leave, which I most likely will need to, I’m going to make sure she’s safe before I do.

Loving her is going to destroy everything about me, and the truth is she’ll never love me back.

I’m her guard, and I am not enough for a queen.

Chapter

Three

I  wait in the darkness, counting the seconds like the drops of water dripping down the stone wall outside my window. Only the sound of my own breathing keeps me company in my room, in my prison. A part of me wonders if I’m being selfish in all of this. My life isn’t so bad, I’m looked after and safe…but I’ve never felt like I had a choice. My life was selected for me, by fate or by him, I don’t know. But I am certain I want my own choice. My own fate.

Releasing a long breath, I hear the ancient grandfather clock mark midnight, its deep chimes echoing around the castle. I wait another ten minutes, listening for any sounds that aren’t the normal ones like the guards outside or the mice running around the basement, before I move. I climb out of bed and go to my other side of the room, slowly and carefully keeping my footsteps light. I feel my wolf in my mind, pushing me to shift into her and run off the nervous energy, but I manage to ignore her the best I can. Quietly, I push my wooden cabinet aside to reveal a small cubby hole decorated with white symbols that look like they were carved with chalk. I tried washing them off, but they just reappeared. I don’t know what this tunnel was used for, but I found it when I was nine. It’s also when I found my dark shadow in the fire, when he first called to me and became my friend. He told me about this tunnel, and he gave me hope when no one else did. I pull open the wooden latch before crawling through the tight space.

“This was much easier when I was nine,” I quietly mutter to myself, pushing away cobwebs and dust. The tunnel leads me down to the bottom floor before I come out inside a kitchen cupboard, behind a box of pasta. I move the pasta and crawl out of the cabinet, closing the door behind me.

The flames in the fire flicker and burn brighter as he appears, and I smile.

He speaks to me with his deep, enchanting voice before I even have a chance to call him. “You are scared, my wolf.”

“Yes,” I answer. He is my friend, and I tell him everything; I always have, and he has always known me. I told him about my mating ceremony when I was ten, and he promised to save me. I loved him for that moment, for being the only one in my life to offer me something different.

“Trust me, my wolf. It all begins and ends tomorrow, and you will be safe with me. You will rule this city, as it always shall be, and he will be gone. I promise this,” he replies as I walk over to the flames. The room is always so much warmer when he is in it, pushing away the cold. When I was eleven, he asked me if I wanted to be queen. Not the dragon king’s queen, but rule on my own. At that point, I had seen the deep sadness in Nakoa’s eyes and in so many of the males. They can never find their mates if they are stuck in here forever, following their king’s rule. He is punishing them, and I want to free them. I told my shadow that I wanted to be queen, and he promised it was my future. If I were queen, I could change so many things. I could breathe life into this city and make the fire grow.

“I wish you’d tell me some of what you have planned for us tomorrow,” I inquire. I move the chair so that I’m looking directly into the flames. The flames look normal, dark and splintering, burning orange and bright yellows, the occasional flicker of pinks. But right in the centre are dark eyes. They look like shadows, almost, that’s why I gave him the nickname my shadow. He told me he doesn’t have a name, not one spoken for many thousands of years. Shadow will do until we meet. Sometimes, when I look at his dark eyes, a shape of a face appears. A male with breathtakingly handsome features, but then it’s gone.

“My wolf, at the ceremony before it begins, a portal will be opened for you. I will deal with everything else. You only need to walk through the portal, and I will find you,” he whispers to me. Dark promises in the flames.

“A portal to where?” I question.

“Somewhere temporary. We will need an army to destroy the dragon king, and I will find us one there,” he breathes out.

Army? We never discussed this.

I slowly nod and clear my throat. “Okay. If that’s what it takes…but we won’t kill any of the dragons, right? They brought me up, and they are my family, my pack. I want to rule this city and make it better for them, not kill them.”

My stomach drops. “War comes at a cost, my wolf, for those loyal to the dragon king. But, if you wish it, we will kill none. There are other ways.”

Relief flows through me. “Okay. Will you be on the other side?”

“No, but I will find you once I—” He pauses. “I will come for you, Serendipity.”

“I can’t wait to really meet you,” I say.

“Neither can I,” he replies, his tone affectionate. “There’s no one in the world that I can’t find once you leave the city.”

“Tomorrow,” I whisper.

I always wonder whether he can fully see me through the flames from wherever he is, if he can feel what I feel for him. I’ve had a crush on the male in the fire, my shadow, since I was thirteen. He is what I can choose. He is my freedom and future. I don’t want whatever else fate has lined up for me if it means a dragon king I’ve never met nor wanted.

“You will be free soon. You can go to see your mum and have a life you choose,” he whispers back. “Meet your half-brother and uncle. Your family.”

“I missed speaking to you this week. I came every night to the fire, but you didn’t come,” I say, rubbing my hands together. “I thought you might have abandoned me.”

“Never,” he smoothly replies. “I am here. How did your training with Nakoa proceed?”

I love when he takes an interest in my life, when it’s not us talking about ruling and running away. “I did lose a fight with Nakoa, but I was distracted today. I couldn’t focus and he knew it. He cut our training short, ignored my concerns about the ceremony, and walked me home. My morning was the same as usual, I know that was your next question. Lessons in English, history and science. Lessons in magic, even when I don’t have any, and lunch in the cafe where I tried peanut butter for the first time in a sandwich.”

“A human food, no?”

“Yes,” I reply with a smile. “Have you tried it?”

“No,” he says. “But there was someone…with me who did, and I saw.”

“You saw?”

He goes quiet, the flames flickering. “We all have powers, my wolf. When you get your true powers, you will equal only me.”

I sigh. Not this discussion again. “I’m a wolf. I don’t get powers.”

“I’ve told you more than once, Serendipity of the house of Mnemosyne, that you are not just a wolf. Yes, your parents are both born wolves. That is true. But your mother was a goddess of spring and hell. Your bloodline is blessed by the Wolven gods. You will never just be a wolf. You are a queen. A queen who deserves to rule all the world and watch them bow.”

I don’t plan to rule all the worlds, but he does. He talks about it regularly. Sometimes I think it’s just a turn of phrase that he uses, because I only want this city to rule. Nothing else.

“I feel like you’ve been my secret for so long. Tell me what you look like,” I all but beg.

His laugh sends the hair on the back of my neck rising. “I am tall.”

“Tell me more,” I tease.

“Soon,” he whispers back. “Sleep well, my wolf. Tomorrow is the day we have planned in secret. Everything changes then. Our prisons end.”

“Our pris—”

“Before I leave, I need to make a connection between us,” he interrupts.

“Why?” I ask, still a little dazed from his interruption and the change in his tone. He sounds…urgent.

His voice echoes around me. “Where I’m coming from is difficult to leave due to the magic laced into the walls of my home. I do not leave often, but I will come to save you, my wolf. To set me free and to give you a promise of a portal sent out, we can make a deal woven into the flames. A promise between our fires within our souls. Put your wrist into the flames, and I promise you, the deal will be made.”

I know I shouldn’t. Deals are something I was taught about as a child here. Magical deals, something woven in words that are marked on the soul and skin, should not be taken lightly, even in wolves. Dragons use deals to get their own way, to always win. The deal always falls in their favour, and it’s a regular joke between the males here to make deals, get new tattooed markings, and see who wins. Marks mean power in this world, and they are forever. There isn’t a mark on my skin anywhere, but I’ve seen the ones on Reine and my mama. I’ve seen the markings down Nakoa’s back that he told me every single dragon has and I will receive tomorrow, binding me to this pack forever.

I don’t want that.

This is my choice.

“I trust you,” I tell him, because I do. He’s been there, he’s always been there for me and listened to me, not told me who I should be and what I should be. After pushing up my sleeve, I put my arm into the fire without looking back. Fires have never hurt me. I don’t burn, and I like touching the flames. But this, it feels different. A cold feeling laces up my arm, stinging like ice burning into my skin. I try to move, but the flames feel like ropes, getting tighter the more I struggle.

“It hurts,” I whisper, struggling to pull my arm out. I slam my other hand over my mouth to stop the scream leaving my lips as the pain intensifies. Suddenly, the flames settle, and I pull my arm out, gasping for air. I look down at my wrist, and in the middle of it is a marking made of black swirling ink that settles into my skin. It’s like a dragon, but not what I’ve seen before. It’s longer, fiercer, has sharper teeth lining its mouth and swirls colouring its body. It almost seems to move on its own.

“It’s a Wolven,” he tells me. “We will see each other tomorrow, my wolf.”

“Wait,” I say, but he’s gone. The flames flicker back to normal. I hear footsteps in the distance, and I run across the kitchen, pulling my sleeve down, and open the cupboard door right before Aunt Reine walks in. I put on my best innocent expression as I turn to her, and she frowns, shutting the door behind her.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

“Shouldn’t you?” I counter.

She smiles at me. “You’re so much like your mother, always countering a question with another question. Always thinking ahead. Too intelligent for your own good. Beautiful and yet so very unsure of herself.”

“My mum was unsure of herself?” I ask. The idea is almost laughable to me. My mama, the queen of the wolves and a literal goddess reborn, was unsure of herself. I know my mother—at least I think I do—and I can’t imagine her ever faltering.

“I know your mother had been through hell and back by the time she was your age, and it made her question so much of her life,” she tells me, looking over at the flames. “Tomorrow, she will be there and tell you everything. It’s time…but I need you to promise me something.”

“Mum is going to be at the mating ceremony?” I quietly say.

“Yes, it was agreed upon years ago. After tomorrow, you will be able to see her whenever you wish. Your brother and my sons too,” she softly explains. My eyes fill with tears because it’s something I want, something I’ve wished for…but it comes at a price I won’t pay. I won’t be mated to a stranger.

A monster, for all I know.

“Promise what, Reine?”

She looks at me, her eyes dead set on mine. “When you find out the truth, don’t let it change you. You are kind, brilliant, and will be a queen this world fears as much as it loves. Your blood, your past, cannot change your future. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Aunt Reine,” I reply, wondering what the hell she is going on about. What could I find out that would make me rethink everything? I suppose it doesn’t matter, because after tomorrow, everything is going to change, anyway.

“Can you tell me some of my past now?”

She sighs and nods once. “Let me make us hot chocolates first.”

I watch her as she breezes around the kitchen, boiling water on the stove and pouring in the chocolate powder before adding cream and a dash of chocolate sprinkles on top. Aunt Reine hands me mine, and I snuggle into the chair as she sits down.

“As you know, I was an aunt to your mother when she was growing up. I was best friends with her dear mother. Your grandmother.”

“What was she like?” I know she passed away, but no one told me how.

“She was my best friend for a reason. When I met her, she was kicking the ass of two seven-year-olds who started to try to bully her. We were both only six at the time, and since that moment, I knew she would have my back and I hers,” she fondly says. “Your grandmother was born with fire in her veins, as was your mother and as were you.”

“How did she die then?”

Aunt Reine’s eyes radiate sadness. “Our pack was attacked by angels in the wars, well before you were born. It was a bad time, and no one escaped unscathed from that. We were pretty much slaughtered, and I escaped with the few that I could and my sons with me. But there weren’t many of us, and we lost a lot that day. A hell of a lot, including your grandmother and your mother.”

“My mama disappeared?”

“Yes, she just disappeared. No one knew where she’d gone. What we didn’t know at the time, and we knew later on, is that your grandmother had an angel friend, someone she grew up with. It’s complicated, but he took your mum away and put her in a pack where the angels could never find her. The Ravensword Pack.”

“I’ve heard that name before. That’s Jesper’s last name,” I say, remembering his letters to me that are in my room. I thought it was odd he is the only one who didn’t take the last name of Fall, when he is part of my mama’s pack.

“Yes, it was your mother’s last name for a while. Her memories were all taken from her, and she did not know anything. That’s all I wanted to tell you for now. Only that she found her way to my sons, and they’d loved each other since they were children,” she softly tells me. “Fated mates always find each other.”

I try to ignore the dig at fated mates and the very thing I am trying to escape.

I take a deep drink for courage. “Who is my father?”

I see her eyes darken for a second. “All I can tell you is that he is dead, and you must ask your mother for more information on that.”

“Okay, but what or who killed him? Did he know about me? Did I ever meet him?” I question.

Aunt Reine looks away. “You should ask your mother.”

“I can’t because I only see her once a year!” I say. “She never talks about the past, about her story or how I even ended up here and not with her!”

“That’s because she can’t!” Aunt Reine snaps. Her eyes slowly widen as I freeze. “I…I can’t tell you why, but she can’t tell you. Neither can I.”

I furrow my brow. “Does the dragon king have something to do with this?”

She doesn’t say anything, and that is an answer enough. Aunt Reine gets up and places her hot chocolate on the side. “You should get some sleep.”

“None of you are doing anything to stop this, are you?” I quietly ask. “I hoped—no, prayed—that one of my family would stop this. That they would give me a choice, but you won’t. None of you will.”

“Serei—”

“No. I’m tired of wishing that one of you would set me free from this life. You can call me a spoilt brat, and in some ways, I probably am, because you’re right, I’m safe here, but being safe isn’t worth a life tied to a male who forces my family not to tell me the truth. He is a monster.”

“He isn’t a monster, even if he pretends to be,” she softly says. “I’ve known real monsters, Serei, and I pray every day to the old gods that you never do.”

I leave my hot chocolate on the side and walk out, ignoring Aunt Reine calling for me as I go. They won’t save me from this, but he will.

Chapter

Four

T he thick cotton-white dress hangs off me into a puddle on the floor, but the lace back makes me feel like I can’t breathe.

I feel like a caged wolf, and there is no escaping this. My chest feels tight, and the familiar sense of panic takes over, numbing everything out around me until I can only focus on my breathing. Panic attacks are not a rare thing for me, but usually Nakoa or Reine can calm me down, talk me out of whatever it is that has freaked me out, but this time, I don’t think that is going to happen.

Reine finishes doing my long hair into a complicated mixture of braids tied together, with my gold strands shining in the light, and I try to focus on her. My aunt who loves me, who wouldn’t put me in danger. My chest only feels tighter.

“I’ll give you some time alone,” Aunt Reine says, kissing the top of my head and leaving me in the chair, facing the mirror and struggling to control every breath out of my mouth. Struggling to make myself calm down.

Focus, Serei.

This isn’t my fate.

I blow out a long breath and remember what I need to do. I head over to my bed and pull up my skirts to strap on one of the daggers that Valentine, one of my mother’s mates, had made for me. I leave the second one in my nightstand, with a note on top to say it’s for Nakoa. My final gift to him. I pull the leather straps tight around my thigh, admiring the gold and red blade. It glows when there is danger, and it might give me some protection wherever I’m going. Five throwing blades go into my boots, hidden under my dress, and I only wish I could find somewhere to hide my sword…

I look at myself one more time in the mirror, barely recognising myself anymore. Who am I if I’m not his queen? Who am I when I am free?

Today, I find out.

I glance at my arm, the Wolven marking hidden by thick cotton-white gloves that go up to my elbow. My freedom. I know I couldn’t walk out of this room without knowing he will be there and he will help me.

He will save me.

My shadow in the flames.

The door is knocked twice, and Nakoa walks in after I call. “You look really…nice.”

I glower at him, and he tries to hide his smirk, but in all his immortal years, he hasn’t learnt that any woman can see right through him. “Ready, Serei?”

“Never,” I reply, eyeing his ceremony outfit. Leather, similar to their fighting clothes, but this is red and black, all the way up to his neck. Two swords hang off his back, the gold blades reflecting the light coming through the window. I will be sad to leave this city, even for a short time. They are my family, but family shouldn’t force you into a situation you can’t escape.

“I can hear your heart beating a million times a minute,” Nakoa claims, leaning against the door. “Today should be a celebration.”

“For you,” I snap.

He tenses and straightens, his eyes flashing with a flicker of hurt. “He is ready for you. We should leave.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean to snap at you…I just—”

“I know you’re scared, Serei, but I hate that you don’t trust me enough to know I’d never do anything to hurt you. That I’d never let him anywhere near you if I thought for a second he would hurt you,” he says, coming closer. “Trust me, Serei?”

I turn away and try to pretend I can’t sense how much I’ve upset him already. When I leave later on, he is going to be much more upset.

“Come, Serei.”

I turn and link my arm through his waiting arm, letting him walk me out of my childhood room. I glance at it one more time and sadly wonder how long it will be before I get to come home. Was this ever my home if it’s a prison?

I swallow down my sadness and nerves before holding my head high.

I’m Serendipity Fall, and I have fire in my veins, just like my mother and my grandmother, and I will choose my fate.

The short walk feels longer, the echo of every step on the stone filling my ears, along with my racing heart. Nakoa was right about that, if nothing else.

Aunt Reine is waiting outside the door in a satin red dress with twirling leather straps on her shoulders and a sweeping blood-red cloak hanging off her back.

Aunt Reine looks like a queen.

I can’t see how she can look at me and see the same thing.

Behind her waits a row of dragon shifters in two lines, one on either side of a red fabric pathway leading to the ceremony. The rows of them, all in red and black leather, make me feel like there is no escape.

None at all.

“Breathe,” Nakoa whispers to me as Aunt Reine comes to my other side, and they both step back to walk behind me.

I’m on my own.

I gulp and start walking down the pathway, looking up at the beams of light coming through the gaps in the mountain and to the bright sun outside. Soon I will see it. Soon I will see the sun and the stars, and pray to the gods as a free wolf.

My wolf howls in my chest, agreeing with me.

I feel like there isn’t enough air in my lungs as I carry on walking, feeling the eyes of every shifter I pass. Their judgment.

The pathway leads up the castle, through gates that have always been locked with magic and through courtyards filled with old moss-covered statues and towering pillars with sharp diamond-shaped crystals on the tips of them. We come to massive steel doors shaped like dragon teeth with fire blowing out from behind the teeth. I watch the doors slowly open, my heart racing faster with every second before there is silence and we continue walking. My feet stop as I suddenly can’t breathe.

He is in there.

Right behind another pair of gates is the main entrance to the castle, and I can sense him.

I can sense my mother too and so many other wolves and dragons.

“Serei, are you okay?” Aunt Reine asks.

Everything slows down as I look up at the door and see the dark shadow of a man appearing, gold light radiating off the edges of him.

The dragon king.

I watch as he steps into the light, and he takes my breath away.

If males could be described as beautiful, it isn’t enough of a word for him.

He takes the air from my lungs, crushing my soul and heart in the process. His blond hair is short, with golden tresses falling onto his forehead. He has sharp features, high cheekbones, wide lips and bright gold eyes that remind me of the bright light in the world. His skin is tanned, like he has spent the last twenty years sunbathing, and black markings curl up his neck from under his leather. He has muscular shoulders, corded muscular arms, and gods above, he looks built to be the most handsome male in this world. Gold wings stretch out of his back, resting on either side of him, and they are the biggest wings I’ve seen a dragon shifter have before.

Why couldn’t he be ugly?

The dragon king pauses on the top step, sliding his hands into his pockets and watching me with a cold, guarded expression.

One I mimic.

He tilts his head to the side, like a predator wondering why his prey isn’t running from him, and every instinct in me wants me to run.

Run as fast as I can from this male.

“Serei…,” Aunt Reine whispers, and only then do I notice I’m the only one standing. Every shifter, including Aunt Reine and Nakoa are on their knees, head bent. “Bow.”

I make sure I’m looking right at the dragon king as I reply. “No.”

He smirks, a smile that is breathtaking in itself.

Just then, I feel it.

My soul burns and I willingly let it. Flames spreading out from under my feet, swirling around like a tornado, and the mark on my wrist lights up under the glove, burning a deep blue like the flames around me.

“SEREI, STOP!” I hear Nakoa shout, but the fire explodes before I can stop it. Roars and shouts fill my ears as my legs go weak, and I start to fall backwards, into the flames behind me, and the world goes black for a few moments before I’m falling in the air.

I smack onto a hard, cold floor and gasp from the impact. I groan, slowing down my racing heart as I breathe in ice cold air, and my skin prickles.

It’s cold.

I’m outside the city.

A smile tilts my lips up until I remember the flames spreading out of me and hitting everyone I love. They shouldn’t be hurt, right?

I hope not. I never wanted to hurt them. The guilt feels like a weight on my chest as I stand up, brushing off dirt from my hands onto my dress. I pull off my gloves and slam them onto the dirty floor before having a real look at where I am. It’s a rotting building, stinking of damp, and there is little silver light pouring in from outside. I stumble around in the dark, ignoring the sound of rats scurrying nearby, and find a door, which is padlocked. I grab the lock and pull hard, using my shifter strength. It snaps and I pull the door open. Flickering yellow light beams into my eyes from a light on a tall metal stick nearby. It flickers on and off occasionally, and it gives me a chance to look up at the many tall city buildings around me, the stretch of broken road that I’m stood on, and the shell of a car nearby that looks like it was caught in a fire.

“Where the fires am I?” I mutter just as I look up and freeze.

The night sky shines bright, a million or more stars decorating the sky, with the moon looming in the middle of them all.

The stars I’ve prayed to see for so many years.

My smile is bigger than the moon as I spin around in a circle, joy filling my heart. I’m free. It’s the stars and me until my shadow finds me.

But for now, I need to find somewhere safe. I’m not sure where this is, but judging from the night sky, it’s far away from the city and the pack.

Picking up the ends of my dress, I start walking down the road, looking up at the gigantic buildings and trying to pick up what the unusual scent is. It’s not shifter…but what is it?

It has to be a human scent, if I was going to guess, but I’m not sure. I’ve scented humans on things Nakoa has brought me in the past, but it has always been faint. Humans aren’t that much of a danger, anyway. My wolf could destroy them in seconds, but I’d rather not shift and lose my weapons and clothes unless I have to.

I come to the end of the street and have a quick glance down at the bigger road. This one is filled with cars that all look old and destroyed. Rubbish of all kinds is littered across the street, and it’s silent other than the odd animals I hear running about. Going still, my wolf’s hearing picks up on a voice, and I turn to look behind me, pausing when I see a male.

Black hair hidden under a grey hat, dull blue eyes, pale skin, a nasty scar across his neck, and his features are anything but handsome. Definitely human.

My senses tell me as much, even though I’ve never met one before, and he really, really smells like shit.

“The boss will never believe we found a shifter bitch just wandering about,” he remarks in a strange accent, and two more humans step out of the shadows, both holding some kind of weapon. It’s black and long and smells like fire.

I take a step back, and the human in the middle only smiles. “Run if you want. It’s more fun that way.”

“I don’t run from a fight,” I growl low, pulling out my dagger. I’ve never seen it glow before, and now the red glow radiates between us.

The human nods at one of his friends, and there is a loud, sharp noise right before something slams into my lower leg. I cry out in pain, shocked, as I look down to see blood pouring from a small wound in my leg.

Fuck.

Without thinking about it, I try to run away, but I only manage to limp a few steps before there is a bright, white light in my eyes as a car slams right into my chest, and the world flickers into darkness.

Chapter

Five

T he scorching flames build higher around her until she is hidden within them, and for the second time in my immortal life, I can’t stop this. Sending out my own flames, I get seconds to protect my people before the flames explode. My shield holds, even if the power hits me harder than I expected, and when the flames vanish, Serendipity is gone.

“Fuck!” I roar, my wings spreading out around me. Running to the spot where she stood, I touch the boiling hot ground and pick up the black ash I find, running it through my fingers. “Bastard.”

“Serei? SEREI!” Reine shouts behind me, searching for her ward.

My mate isn’t here. She isn’t in this city anymore.

“I gave you one fucking job!” I growl, straightening up, eyeing the wolf. “To watch her until I returned.”

“I did watch her! I love her like my own!” Reine growls right back at me. She seems to realise who she is shouting at a second too slowly, and she bows her head, along with my dragons. “I don’t know how she could have done this.”

“She didn’t do this alone,” I snap, looking for the guard I assigned to her. Nakoa rises as I stop in front of him. “Tell me she can protect herself. That you taught her as well as I taught you.”

Panic and fear are old friends of mine, emotions I haven’t felt in a long time. Now they are back, and until I see my mate safe, I doubt I will stop feeling them.

If she had my flames, my power, she would be safe. I would give her all my strength and power to keep her alive, and that’s what the ceremony was about. A blood binding so she can access my power and be a powerful queen that all would fear. No one would ever touch her, and I could go back to being the silent protector.

She never had to choose me.

I didn’t expect her to.

I’m a monster, but I will protect her. I will protect my people.

I tighten my hands into fists as Nakoa answers me. “She can fight, and she is fast. Faster than most shifters. As for the flames, I see flickers in her eyes at times of anger but never more.”

“Then she is in danger,” I retort.

I spread out my wings, and I fly straight into the air, diving through the warm air to her quarters. I hear Serendipity’s mother and her mates flooding out into the courtyard, shouting and asking where she is, but they can wait. Everything can wait until I find out where she is.

I won’t lose her before I’ve even truly met her.

The castle doors are open when I land outside, the ground shaking from my power. I head to her bedroom, hoping to find some clue to where she’s gone. Her sweet scent overwhelms me, turning me on and making my leathers tight. She smells like lily blossoms and midnight fires. Fuck. I adjust myself and look around for any clues, praying to the fire that I don’t find what I suspect I will.

What I suspect I saw in the flames.

There’s only one person I know who can call blue flames like that, and I won’t believe it. I go completely and utterly still, and I’m shocked for the first time in a thousand fucking years by a painting.

In the corner of the room lies a painting, simple but elegantly done. Dark blue flames with black eyes in the middle. Eyes I know well. I spent years hunting him, and he spent years destroying everything good in my life until there was little left. Together, we destroyed everything around us before I locked him in that prison. A rage builds in my chest, and my fire explodes out of me, burning everything in the room, leaving it on fire as I walk out. I head straight into the courtyard where my five closest guards are waiting. Nakoa stands with them, and despite my urge to hang him off my chandelier for missing the clues that something was wrong with Serendipity, I decide to let him come.

She trusts him, from what I’ve seen.

“Is it him?” Apollon questions, and I nod. Each of my guards straightens, knowing what it means. What we will be walking into. My guards have been alive nearly as long as I have, and they remember the destruction caused so many years past.

The Queen of the Wolves and her four mates come running into the courtyard. “Where is my daughter?”

I eye Queen Mairin and her mates. “Gone. Isn’t that clear?”

“Where?” she demands.

“You might be queen in your pack, but here, I rule,” I growl at her. Her mates growl right back, moving to her side. “As you’re her mother, I will allow that behaviour. Don’t test me a second time.”

“Where is my daughter?” she repeats, green flames flickering from her fingers.

“You need to go and check your city, the prisons. You’re going to find that someone’s missing,” I say coldly. “Someone very dangerous. I put him in there a very fucking long time ago, and the wolves were meant to protect the prison.”

She blanches, and Alpha Valentine steps forward. “Careful of your judgment of us, dragon. There’s no one missing. We would have heard of it.”

“He’s definitely missing, because he took her!” I roar. “And now we are all in danger. Especially her.”

“Then we find her,” Silas suggests. “We send out every shifter to every inch of the world to find her.”

“No, I’m going to find her. I can track her because she is mine.”

No one argues with that comment until Queen Mairin speaks. “Maybe she ran away with him because you locked her in here! You told her nothing, disappeared—as we recently found out—and let me only see her once a year and still tell her nothing. Maybe you are the reason she trusted a stranger!”

Anger builds in my chest, and she holds my stare. “Arawn has taken her. She would not go willingly.”

“We will search with you,” Ragnar says, interrupting. “All that matters is making sure Dip is safe.”

“This is work for dragons, and you will slow us down,” I reply. “And if Arawn finds you first, you will die. All of you will.”

“What is he?” Queen Mairin demands.

“A fallen god,” I state. “My brother, in a sense.”

“Find her,” Queen Mairin demands. “And we will make sure the prison is secure for when you lock Arawn back in there.”

“This time, I’m going to kill him,” I reply and shoot up into the skies, letting my guards and Nakoa follow me. I shoot out one of the holes in the top of the mountain and into the burning sunlight. I let it shine on me for a second before I search for her.

She is a part of me, and I will always find her.

I will bring her home and crown her my queen.

Chapter

Six

“W here the fuck are you, Serendipity?”

I spin around at the dark voice, echoing around the stone-walled bedroom. There, sitting on an imposing bed made for a king, Draycian has his head bowed.

“You’re not real,” I say, taking a step back. The stone walls start to crack, and I flinch.

Draycian lifts his head, surprise lighting up his eyes as he looks right at me, and he smirks. The smile is nothing short of wicked. “Ah, we can dream walk, I see.”

He stands up and I take another step back, and the wall cracks further as I plaster my back to it. Draycian leaves no space between us as he dominates the room with his essence. He scents like the brightest sunshine, dark forests, and burning flames right before they dim out. “Tell me where you are.”

“Fuck no,” I growl.

His hand snaps out and softly grabs my chin, arching my face up to his. I have no choice but to look into his eyes. “You’re in danger, little wolf.”

“From you. Yes, I’ve always been,” I remark.

His laugh is seductive, and I clench my thighs together, hating how my body reacts to him. He takes a deep breath, his eyes flashing gold. “I was never your enemy. I was never your monster.”

“You took me away from my family!” I shout, but I don’t move. I try not to notice the large bulge pushing into my stomach and every other inch of him I can feel.

“Listen to me, Serendipity—”

“No,” I bite out. “I don’t care that you claim we are mates. I want to be free, and I want someone else. You’re just going to have to get used to that.”

He leans down, the sound of the cracks in the wall deafening, but I still hear him as clear as the night sky in summer. “Stop fooling yourself. You’ve been mine from the start, and I’ve been yours. When I save your beautifully stubborn ass, I expect you to thank me.”

Bastard. Bastard. Bastard.

The cracks in the walls suddenly give, and the room explodes around us, but we don’t move, and I glare at him until there is nothing but darkness.

“I’m not a fucking doctor, Sophie! I don’t know what to do,” a foggy female voice floats around the room, and warm hands press down on my shoulders. “We can wrap it up to stop the bleeding, but—”

“That’ll just make more of a mess,” another voice interrupts. “The bullet has to come out before we stitch it. I’ll deal with this.”

The arguing voices fade in and out before there’s more pain and a deep pulling feeling on my leg that makes me want to scream if I had the strength to even open my eyes. The darkness pulls me back under, and for a while, there is nothing but a feeling of warmness surrounding me. The next time I become aware of the female voices, there is a new voice. “She has a fever.”

“Of course she does. They poison the bullets to slow shifters down,” another says. “Don’t you remember, or have you been here that long?”

“Don’t be a bitch. How can we help her?”

“We don’t. She lives or she doesn’t,” the voice replies before everything fades once again, and the last thing I feel is someone softly stroking my arm.

I’m not sure how much time passes before I wake up again, and this time, I open my eyes and try not to panic as I search for my wolf and find nothing. Just an emptiness where she used to be. I place a hand on my chest, pushing down a cry, and touch the soft yellow blanket thrown over me. My lips are dry and cracked as I part them and turn on the bed, flinching in pain.

I feel weak, like everything is in a haze, and I can’t focus for a few minutes. My head spins as I force my shaky hands onto the mattress and push myself up. I look over to see the outline of a girl lying on a bed opposite me, curled up into a ball and snoring. Loudly. She’s fast asleep, but who in the fires is she?

The room is pretty dim except for a plain lamp on a worn wooden cabinet between our beds, and it smells like humans and shifters in here. Wolf shifters, not dragon. I try to move my legs out of the bed and flinch in pain from my leg, a small cry leaving my lips. I pull off the quilt and have a look at my leg after pulling up the white dress I’m in. Not my mating ceremony dress, but something new. I hate that someone has undressed me, and sickness crawls up my throat at the thought. I push it aside to focus on my leg, where that weapon struck me. Bullet. I remember someone talking about a bullet in my leg. It’s been taken out of my leg by the looks of it, and it’s been stitched up. It will heal in a week or so. Hopefully. I’ve never really been injured before or had a chance to heal. The worst thing I ever did was cut my arm with a sword, and even then, it was a small cut.

“It still looks red, and saw you had a bit of an infection from the poison-coated bullets,” a soft, melodic voice says. I look up to see the girl from the other bed standing next to me. I never even heard her move out of the bed, let alone come this close. She has curly red hair that falls to her knees, with two thin braids hanging on either side of her face. Her eyes are silver, and she is very pretty in a supernatural way most are. I don’t recognise the marking on her chest, but it looks like four circles with a wolf in the middle.

A white gown hangs off her shoulders, and I notice it’s the same kind of white gown I’m wearing. I also notice she looks about the same age as me, and she’s definitely a wolf shifter. “Can I sit?”

I nod once, not feeling any bad vibes from her. She sits down on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch me, and I move my legs as far away as possible.

“Who are you?” I demand.

Her brow furrows. “You have such a strange accent. Who are you?”

“I asked first,” I say. She has the same accent as the males who shot me and ran me over.

She crosses her arms. “My name is Nimue Windshire, but my friends call me Nimmy. You can too.”

“My name is Serendipity Fall. Serei for short,” I decide to say. I need to find out where I am and how to get out, and this wolf might be able to help me.

We look at each other for a moment, and she finally speaks. “It was touch and go for a bit there, even for us wolves and our healing. I have to say I was quite surprised to see you turn up here. Shifters are rare these days, and I’ve been the only full-blooded wolf for three years.”

“Shifters are rare?” I ask, confused. I cough a few times, the left side of my body hurting like my ribs are broken or at least bruised. “Where is here?”

Nimmy walks across the room past two beds, with two other females sleeping in them, and pours me a glass of water from a sink in the corner of the room and brings it back. She hands me the drink, and my hand shakes as I take it. “Drink slowly.”

I nod and pace myself as I drink the water, enjoying it like I haven’t had a sip for days. “How long have I been asleep?”

“So your question has a complicated answer. I don’t know exactly where we are, but it’s outside of old New York. I’ve been here for years, and we don’t go outside often, and when we do, it’s been night, so I haven’t seen much else but trees and fields,” she explains. “As for why we are here, we all have been captured by a human gang called Rox. They own pretty much all of what’s left of New York and deal with slaves. They used to trade with the angel king years ago, but when he died, all trade was stopped and they looked inwards.”

“Humans? Why don’t you shift and rip them to pieces?” I inquire.

“They drug our food and inject us if we just pretend to eat,” she softly explains, and I see the flicker of pain in her eyes. “It’s not a great life, and I gave up hope a long time ago that I will ever get out of here.”

My heart shatters for her, for the pain and hopelessness I hear in her voice. I can’t stop myself as I take her hand and hold it tightly. “I am going to get us out of here.”

She laughs lightly and takes her hand from mine. “No, you can’t. Thanks though, Serei. All you need to know is that humans are cruel. All males are cruel, for that matter, and I’m so, so sorry you are here.”

I ignore the fear lacing around my heart and refuse to become as hopeless as she has become. I am going to get us out of here and destroy this place when I’m done. Somehow. I just need a plan. I change the subject for a second and nod at the other two beds. “Who are they?”

“Sophie, a half wolf shifter and Devika, a human. They both have been here about two years,” she tells me. “They’re given drugs earlier because it was their night out there with the males. It’s our night tomorrow, and now that you’re awake, there’s no way they’ll let you off. I’m sorry.”

“What do they do with us, then?” I say.

“We are their amusement, in any way that our boss wants. Sometimes it’s simply dancing and drinking with them as they touch us like dolls. Those are the good nights. Other times it’s private,” she whispers at the end, and I gulp at what she means. A sense of horror fills me as I realise what she’s saying, and it’s soon replaced with pure anger.

“I’m so sorry,” I tell her. “I can’t even imagine.”

“You won’t have to soon, and I am the one who is sorry,” she replies, wiping tears from her eyes. “So, whereabouts were you hiding for so long? I didn’t know many wolf shifters were left on these lands. Most of them emigrated over, found a boat or something, and escaped. My aunt and cousin did that, and they went to a big pack over there. I always hoped to find them.”

“Fall Mountain Pack?” I question.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. But anyway, where are you from?”

Telling her the truth would be a long explanation, and I carefully skirt the answer. “Where are you from?”

Nimmy’s red eyebrows pull down, but she answers me. “I grew up here in New York with my aunt and cousin, but there was a street war between the gangs when I was fourteen. That’s how I missed the boat and lost my aunt and cousin. I couldn’t find another boat, and I was left on the streets like many kids were. I first shifted when I was seven, so I mostly stayed in wolf form and managed to hide for a year before I got caught by this bastard gang and brought here. That was four years ago.”

By the fires, her life sounds awful.

She looks at me, expectant and waiting. “I’m not from here, and it’s complicated. I shouldn’t be here.”

“None of us should. It’s okay, you can tell me more when you’re good and ready,” she softly says. I don’t know if I could be as kind as she is if my life was like hers. Still, being kind when your life is in darkness is a true miracle.

It feels weird to have a girl to talk to who isn’t my mother or aunt. Part of me likes it, but most of me is terrified of what situation I’ve gotten myself into. My entire body hurts, but I’m not too weak to get the hell out of this place. Hopefully, before Draycian finds me. He sounded pissed in my dream and yet, it might not be real anyway. It could have just been a dream about his stupidly handsome face.

I hate that I’m even thinking about him.

By the fires, I need to focus on getting out of here. My shadow should come for me soon. He knows where I am, and he won’t let these humans hurt me. I hate that I left one prison only to be thrown right back into another one. A worse one.

My life choices aren’t looking great right at this moment.

I push my legs off the bed, and Nimmy stands up, shaking her head. She lowers her voice. “Don’t do anything stupid. They will pour gas into the room, and it only makes you weaker. Trust me, Serei.”

“I don’t know you, and I can’t just sit here, Nimmy,” I tell her. I don’t mean it in a harsh way, but there is no mistaking the flicker of pain in her eyes.

“Fine,” she frustratedly sighs. “But they sell troublemakers to their clients, and trust me, I can’t imagine that is a nice life. Or they kill them. That’s the only way out of here, and honestly, I’d like to see you stay alive.”

I look at her and the door, running her warnings over in my mind. I know I should sit down and rest, build my strength and take them by surprise, but the reckless side of me wants to bang the door down until they knock me out with gas.

“Alright,” I say, sitting down and choosing to take a breather. “But you’ve been here a long time, you must have thought of a way to escape. A plan. Just something, Nimmy.”

She moves closer, lowering her voice further. “There have been sixteen girls here I’ve met, and one of them was an angel, and she got out somehow at a garden party outside this mansion. I watched her fly through the clouds, and it was like she came alive. I can’t even remember what it’s like to run as a wolf anymore, but I imagine it was like that. She flew for a bit before they shot her down, and they dragged her back for the men to…well, make sure she died. It was horrible to watch. When they were done, I was allowed to sit with her, and she told me there was a parking lot full of cars in the forest right before she died. My only plan is to get to the forest and get a car. One of them will work.”

If I didn’t feel sick before, I do now. The poor angel. Every bastard in this mansion needs to die, and they will do. I’m going to kill them. For Nimmy, for the other girls, and for myself. I assume “shot” is the word for what happened to my leg. That bullet hurt. I’ve never killed anyone before, but I think these monsters are a good place to start.

“Can you drive?”

She looks down. “No, you?”

I shrug. “I read a lot about driving but never actually tried. What about those two?”

“I’ll ask them. Sophie is friendly, but Devika is more difficult,” she softly states. “But she pulled the bullet out of your leg, stitched you up, and watched you for four nights in a row.”

“I owe you all my life,” I say.

She shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. Get some sleep, yeah?”

I nod, watching as she goes back to her bed and curls up into a ball, pulling the blanket over her small, way too thin frame.

Lying back down, I look up at the ceiling and try to ignore the sense of fear trickling into the back of my throat. I know that my shadow didn’t mean for this to happen to me. He would never put me in this position, in this much danger. He’s my friend. But where is he? I lift my arm into the air and look at the mark on my wrist. It’s not glowing anymore, nor is it moving, but it’s like a new part of me that I’m aware of. I feel weaker by the second, and I hate it. It must have been the poison and the car, and maybe Nimmy is right. Some rest will heal me.

I soon drift back into a sleep, my soul searching for someone. This time, instead of Draycian, I see dark eyes looking back at me, and I hear one single word.

“Mine.”

Chapter

Seven

W arm hands shake my shoulders with an urgency that has me jolting up, my heart racing. For some reason, I expected to see Draycian leaning over me, furious at me. But I soon realise that isn’t real, and I’m still here, a slave to humans. At least for now. Nimmy is leaning over me, her eyes wide with fear. I blink from the bright light in the room, beaming from spotlights on the ceiling and showcasing the sorry state of the damp, aged room. The walls are peeling from the water dripping down them, and now that I’m not so sick, I can smell it.

“You need to wake up. They’re coming earlier than usual,” she quickly tells me, pulling off my quilt.

“How can you tell?” I groggily question, pointing at the closed door.

“You can always hear them. Their boots on the creaky wooden steps down the hall,” she hurriedly tells me. Sure enough, when I focus, I can just about hear them, the echo of footsteps coming closer, and I know if my wolf senses weren’t dulled, I’d hear them a mile off. “Can you stand on it yet?”

Oh right, the leg. Nimmy helps me stand, albeit a little shakily, but I nod to her. It’s going to hurt to stand on it for a while, but I can deal with it. Nimmy waits to make sure I don’t fall over before nodding at the space by the wall at the head of my bed.

“They will want you to wait there.”

My eyes widen. “I—”

“Please just do it,” she asks of me. Every part of me wants to tell her no and fight her on it, but the look in her eyes stops me. She is desperate, and I swear…there is worry in her eyes. True worry.

“Why do you care so much?” I question. “You barely know me.”

“My wolf isn’t all gone, you know. I can sense what you are, and we haven’t seen your kind in a long time. It took me a while to realise what I was scenting, what my wolf was telling me. You can’t die in here,” she firmly states, looking so much stronger than I’ve seen her before. It surprises me. Maybe she has a little fire behind her eyes, too. “I will keep you alive, Serei.”

I take a step forward, my hair falling over my shoulders. “What are you talking about?”

She furrows her brow. “You’re an—”

The sound of locks clicking makes her pause, and she bolts across the room, her footsteps silent. Wow, I want to learn to move like that. Nakoa would be amazed. He is always telling me off for my heavy footsteps in training. I manage to limp over to the wall, copying Nimmy’s stance as she plasters her back to the damp wall. Glancing over, the other two girls in the room are already out of their beds, backs against the wall and neither looking my way. Three men walk in after pushing the door open, and I faintly hear the sound of music behind them. The men must be brothers or relatives of some kind, as they all look like each other, in similar plain and really strange clothing. They have beefy arms, big stomachs, and bald heads, with a mixture of markings on their arms and necks. But they aren’t magical markings. They look like a faded pen drew them on.

The one in the middle throws two sparkling wine-red dresses on the ground at his feet and points at them. “Get dressed. Now. The boss wants you to hurry.”

No one speaks or moves as they look at me. I hold the middle one’s eyes, and he bares his solid gold teeth at me in a sneer. “It’s going to be a fun night, boys.”

“Ten hundred dollars on the bitch being sold before the end of the night,” the one on the right laughs.

“Nah, we need new bitches. These are boring,” the middle one replies before they all walk out, and only then do I unclench my fists. Bastards.

I glance over at the other two females, Sophie and Devika. They’re both looking forward, completely quiet as the door shuts, and Devika turns her cobalt blue eyes on me. Nimmy is across the room in seconds, picking up the dresses and walking back to me, handing me one, but I don’t take it and push it back into her hands. “I’m not wearing that.”

“You have to, Serei. They will forcibly dress you otherwise,” she warns me and leaves the dress in my hands. She starts pulling off her own dress, and I flinch at the marks on her body. So many little cuts that haven’t healed right mark her legs, stomach and back. I swear some of them look like initials have been carved into her skin. Sickness rises in my throat, and I try to hide it from her as she turns back to me, pulling the dress on.

Needing to look away from Nimmy for a second to compose myself before I cry for her, I find Devika still watching me. Assessing me, I suspect. Devika might be human, but there is something very strange about her. She has long black hair that’s pulled up into a tight ponytail, and her eyes are nothing short of a force of nature. I’ve never met an absolutely stunning human that could pass for a supernatural, but she could. Easily. She is very thin like Nimmy, and there are several whoppers of bruises all down her arms. I don’t want to know what other bruises are under her white dress.

The other girl, Sophie, is as quiet as a mouse, and her head is bowed like the human males are still in the room. I can barely see her face under the mop of curly black hair, but I can sense a hint of wolf from her scent. It’s just buried, hidden, maybe what a half wolf must be like. I’ve never ever met one of those before, and I wonder if she can shift at all.

“Put it on, stubborn girl, for your own good,” Devika suggests. Her tone is cold and full of judgment.

“No,” I respond. “I’m not a fucking doll for them to dress. None of you are.”

“You just don’t want to get on their bad side on day one, Serei,” Nimmy adds in, looking between us. “Do you want to die?”

“I’ve got the feeling saving your big spoilt-princess ass was a waste of my time and resources,” Devika snaps, “if you’re going to throw your life away over a dress.”

I grit my teeth for a moment as I watch her. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Put the dress on then,” she retorts. “Or not. I don’t give a fuck anymore.”

I have a feeling she does care, or she wouldn’t have bothered to say a word. She is right, despite the fact I hate she is, and I pull my white dress off without thinking on it anymore. Stepping into the red dress, I start tugging on it and flinching from the pain shooting up from my leg. The sequins and the rough material scratch against all my bare skin, itching like crazy as I pull it up and run up the zip on the side. The dress is tight enough to make me feel like it’s suffocating me. I search for my wolf in my mind on instinct, as she hates being contained in anything, but my soul feels empty. Gone. I remind myself it’s the drugs and not real.

I’m stronger than this, and my wolf is part of me forever. We won’t ever leave each other until death takes us to the flames.

The matching red dress hangs off Nimmy’s thin frame. “Do any of you eat?” I blurt out.

Nimmy goes silent, but Devika answers me, walking up to me. She eyes me up and down. “What the hell’s up with you? Everyone I’ve ever known is thin. We don’t have food. No one does. We fight and die for scraps. There hasn’t been food here for years. Over fifty years, so I’ve been told. The whole of America was going downhill way before with food storages thanks to the crazy weather, way before the angel king came and destroyed half our world.”

“So this is normal for you?” I question.

“I’ve seen humans starve in the streets, and counted myself lucky that I was pretty enough to be kept alive for one bastard or another,” she sneers. “We all grew up starving, and yet you walk in here and look like you’ve been brought up like royalty, princess. Have you ever struggled for food? Where the fuck did you come from, because it wasn’t here?”

Even Sophie lifts her head to look at me, with Nimmy and Devika, for that answer.

How the hell do I tell them I appeared in a portal and I’m from across the sea?

When I don’t answer, Devika looks at Nimmy. “She can’t be trusted. Something is wrong about her.”

“Dev—”

“You’re too kind for your own good, Nimmy. She is going to get us all killed,” Devika snaps.

“I will tell you everything, if you want, but not yet. Trust is something you earn, but I’m no one’s slave, and I’m going to get us out of here. Alive,” I state.

She smiles, spreading her large lips. “I tell you what, if you manage to get us out, you’ll have my loyalty for a lifetime. That is a vow I make.”

She laughs as she walks away, but I swear I feel an electric kind of magic in the air from her words, like they meant more than just words and someone heard them.

Sophie’s sweet voice fills the room. “If you get a chance to escape, leave. Don’t risk yourself for us. Run.”

“I don’t run from my vows, and I would never leave you here. Any of you,” I tell her, but she is already looking down at the floor, and it’s clear she doesn’t want to talk to me.

Nimmy places her hand on my shoulder. “It’s most likely going to be a dance in the cage tonight because you’re new. They’re going to use you as the star attraction. Show you off. Raise up bids for you…to have first. It will be an easy night.”

“First what?” I question, even if the answer is screaming in my head.

Her face goes pale. “Males have no souls.”

We all hear the footsteps again as Nimmy runs back to her wall, and seconds later, several locks are unlatched on the door from the other side, and the door is pushed open. The men trudge inside, and one grabs hold of my arm, pulling me along without even blinking at my resistance. I hit out and scratch the man, but he shakes me, and I end up crying out from my leg as it slams into the wall. The pain makes the room spin and my stomach turn to water as I’m dragged along a corridor with a creaking wooden floor. I know humans aren’t meant to be this strong, but in my weak state, they’re definitely stronger than I am right now, even as a shifter. I can barely resist or dig my foot into the floor as they yank me along. We go up a set of creaky wooden stairs that feel like they’re about to give in at any moment, and every step jolts my leg, which is now throbbing, before we come to a thick black door.

The door is pushed open, and loud music floods into my ears, along with the sounds of laughter and chatter. The warmness of the room settles into my skin, along with the soft yellow lighting, and I breathe in the mixture of scents in the room. Most of the people in here are human, but there’s definitely an angel or wolf mixed in here somewhere, hidden well, I expect. Or maybe they are rich, and they wouldn’t be dragged around as slaves.

The fact they are here makes me want to shift and rip them to shreds for betraying their own kind.

No one even blinks as they see us being dragged in, but more than one pair of male eyes look at me in a way that makes me want to puke on them. The room is full of laughter, both female and male, to my surprise. They all wear black suits, and the women have a mixture of grey, white, and black dresses to fit a theme. They all make the beautifully decorated room look dull. I glance up at the gigantic dome ceiling and spiral oak staircases that go off in three different directions to different floors. A massive glass chandelier hangs from the middle of the room, its crystals appearing fake compared to the real diamonds I’ve seen in my city. The floors are like a black and white pattern, polished to make them shiny, and in the centre of the room is a table with a fountain. The fountain doesn’t have water in it, but instead, red wine.

Nimmy’s eyes meet mine as she turns and is guided up the staircase to the left, her back straight, and I swear I can almost scent her fear like it’s dancing with my own. My hands shake as I force myself not to be frightened, not to be scared. I won’t die with fear in my eyes, but with blazing fire instead.

As the humans drag me up the stairs, my leg smacks into every step, and the pain makes everything around me turn into a blur of colours, and I hear the fabric of my dress ripping as it gets caught on the steps. It turns out my mating dress wasn’t the worst dress I was ever going to wear. This is definitely the worst. Heaving through the pain, I lift my head as I’m stopped, and my legs press against the cold stone, which is a relief for a second. Red velvet double doors are pulled open from the inside, and I’m dragged into a dark room with little light other than a beam of white light shining down on a cage on what looks like a stage.

Five males sit on chairs in the middle of the room, a few of them sipping on brown drinks in small glasses. Behind them are several glass windows, filled with people watching, drinking, laughing, and seated right behind the glass.

All of them go quiet to look at me.

The male in the middle stands up, and I recognize him as the human who caught me that night, the one with the scar. “Ah, lovely surprise. I have to say, the white dress you wore when we met fit you better.”

I stand my ground, looking him up and down, noticing my dagger strapped to the side of his thigh. “Glad to see you’re keeping my dagger close. I will need it when I kill you.”

He smiles before laughing hard. He walks up to me, nodding at my guards, who let me go and step back. I struggle to hold my weight on my leg, but I refuse to back down. “I’m your master now, bitch.”

“Is she for sale tonight, David?” one of the other males questions.

David grabs my cheek tightly and, in the same movement, punches me hard in the stomach. I gasp in pain and shock, wanting to fall to my knees, but his grip on my chin holds me up as I heave out air. David tightens his grip until I can hear my jaw crunching under the pressure. The pain makes the room spin. “Don’t talk back to me, or I’ll use that pretty little dagger of yours to carve my name into your skin until you scream for me to stop. Then I’ll show you much worse.”

I look into his eyes, so dull yet full of pure evil. “When you die, I hope you scream.”

He laughs and the others laugh with him, making jokes about how much of a stupid little shifter bitch I am. By the fires, I hate them all. David, clearly bored with me now, drags me along and throws me into the cage, slamming the door behind me. I roll across the ground before standing up as quickly as I can, my leg fighting the idea entirely. Music starts playing, not loud but slow melodic music for slow dancing, and goose bumps skate over my skin. I look around at the humans, marking their faces, remembering them, because one day I am coming back for revenge. One day, they’re all going to pay. Every single one of them. I don’t care how long it takes me.

“Dance,” David commands, clicking his fingers at me. “Or make our night very interesting and don’t. But it’s going to hurt.”

I cross my arms. “Try it then. I’m not dancing for a bunch of weak, pathetic humans.”

I instantly regret the words when a buzzing sound fills my ears, and the floor shakes, feeling like a thousand bolts of lightning slam into me. Screaming in pure horror and endless pain, I fall to the ground, which only makes every bit of skin that touches the metal base feel like it’s burning. I scream until my throat feels raw, and yet all I can sense around me is the desire coming from the sick humans.

I scream and scream until it stops, and I don’t have a clue how long it lasted. I taste my blood in my mouth, my nose full of it, too, as I cough and cough the blood onto the floor. My arms shake as I lift myself up, and I wonder if I look wild as I face David. “Is that all you’ve got? Pathetic.”

I’d rather die than be their toy.

I expect David to set the buzzer off, but instead, there is silence for a moment. “Do you like pain?”

I neglect to answer him, which only makes him smirk at me. “Aren’t you a rare slave, then? Because really, there’s not many of the girls that like pain. They become my slave for life if I do that once. I was going to sell you tonight. I’ve had some high bids already, but alas, I’m definitely going to keep you. Show you to my boss once I’ve broken you. You could be very interesting, as beautiful as you are, as untouched as you are.”

I slowly look him up and down and humourlessly laugh. “Does hurting females make up for the fact you can’t get any female to even touch you?”

His eyes flash with anger, his face turning red. “You want pain, bitch? You got it.”

This time the buzzer goes off, and the lightning is tenfold. I feel myself screaming and screaming as everything turns to black, and my body shakes on the floor. I can taste nothing but my blood and ash on my tongue. I feel every part of my body go numb right before I’m pitched into blackness. I slowly become aware I’m dreaming because everything’s hazy, and I blink my eyes open to see bright sunlight shining through a window nearby the bed. Draycian is in the window, looking out at the city. For some reason, I wonder if he is lonely. He looks it in this moment. A lonely king. There’s a painting of a beautiful woman with long black hair, rosy lips, and bright cheeks next to the window, and I walk up to it. She’s smiling, and the painting is old, but the painter has done a good job of capturing how beautiful she is. “Who is this?”

“The most painful part of my past,” he resentfully replies. “She is dead now.”

“I’m sorry. Was she your family?” I question. He doesn’t look back at me, his back tense and his thick muscles pressing against his leather. I sigh, and even in the dream, I can feel the pain in my body as the room sways. I barely blink before I am in Draycian’s arms, his warm chest pressed against mine and his arms tight around my back.

“Someone’s hurt you,” he growls, his voice terrifying. The fury in his eyes is enough to make me want to run away, but he is holding me, and it doesn’t feel as frightening as I thought it should be.

His body perfectly moulds against mine, and I have trouble not focusing on that fact. “Yes. A human.”

“Then all humans die,” he bites out.

I wait for him to say he is joking, but when he looks at me with the same scorching stubbornness I’ve seen twice now, I have a feeling he is not.

“You can’t kill all humans,” I flatly tell him.

He tilts his head to the side and slowly runs his large hand up to the back of my neck. I shiver and clench my legs together, praying for my body to stop reacting to him like a cat in heat. He runs his hands through my hair and grips the back of my neck. “I can. I will. No one will ever hurt you and survive.”

The protectiveness of his voice makes my heart race. The sheer promise in his voice marks my soul.

“This is a dream, and you aren’t really here,” I reply, needing it to be true.

“Is this not real?” he questions, running his hand down my spine, slowly. His hand smooths around my hip, and his long fingers trace over my core, making me gasp in pleasure from the light touch. His eyes blaze with desire, the air thick with it, but I’m not sure who is worse. By the fires, there isn’t a bit of me that doesn’t feel like it’s burning now. He leans down, his lips inches from mine. “If I kissed you now, it would be real. I can scent how much you want me. This is all real, Serei.”

I push away from him, and he lets me go. He leans against the side of the window, crossing his arms and looking too smug. “It’s not real.”

“You know it is,” he replies. “We are fated. You will never feel anything close to how you feel when I’m close. When I fuck you, little wolf, you’ll be addicted to me.”

“You think mighty of yourself, don’t you?” I snort.

He shrugs. “I’m that good. Want to see?”

His eyes flicker to the bed, and my cheeks burn as I look away. “Tell me how you escaped? Who helped you with that portal?”

“It’s someone I care deeply for,” I reply. “A male who has always been there for me. Unlike you.”

His eyes burn like golden flames. “You are mine.”

“No, that’s exactly your problem. You think I’m yours because magic says so. You never gave me a chance to live and to choose my own life. Why would I ever choose you, anyway? You are the cold, smug dragon king who lives up in a castle and disappeared for my entire life. Where did you go? Why couldn’t I live with my mother?”

“You want many answers when you are throwing around untruthful facts,” he retorts.

I sarcastically laugh. “When you come to get me, are you going to force me into a mating ceremony?”

“You were never going to be forced into anything,” he growls out, coming over to me. He pins me against the window, and I flinch, feeling the pain from my body even here. I want to leave. Deep cracks appear all the way across the walls, sharper and harsher than last time. Like they’re not giving us as much time. I wonder who causes the cracks, me or him? I know it’s one of us. “You were never going to be forced into anything. I did not want that.”

“Then what did you want?”

He roars at me. “For you to be free and safe from the only threats I can’t save you from, Serendipity. That’s all I’ve ever wanted!”

“Who?”

“The Wolven gods,” he replies, cupping my cheek with his hand. “You’re my mate, Serendipity, and the mistakes of my past will get you killed. They will be coming for you.”

“Then get here first,” I ask of him, cracks bursting the walls into pieces that float around us in a black, endless world.

“I will.”

His soft lips press to my forehead as the world goes black, and even though I hate him, I don’t hate the feeling of his lips on my skin all that much.

Chapter

Eight

S creams echo around me, along with pleas for mercy that shatter my heart. The screams get louder until I feel like they are coming from me, and I can’t stop. High-pitched and piercing screams that instantly make me want to scream back at them to stop.

“STOP!” I scream, slamming my hands to my ears, but it does nothing to block out the noise. Suddenly, the screams drift away into silence, and there’s nothing but black shadows dancing around me like flames. “Draycian?”

His name echoes over and over, but nothing but the strange black flames move around me in reply. This isn’t one of Draycian’s mind dream things…so what is it? His dreams never felt like this. My heart pounds, fear spreading its way into the back of my throat right before the shadows start to collect together in front of me, and my Wolven mark burns. The flame-like shadows build slowly into the shape of a man taller than me. He is thin, with dark hair and pale skin, and yet his skin ripples like it’s not really here.

In fact, all of him is a mixture of shadows and hollow fire. His piercing black eyes are familiar, the way they are outlined by fire around him.

“Shadow?” I question, taking a step closer, even when every part of me screams at me to run. Something doesn’t feel right.

“Yes,” he replies. His voice is an echo of the one that I’ve gotten used to.

I smile tightly. “Have you come for me?”

“Soon,” he responds. “You must trust me. Only me. Not the fake dragon king.”

Fake?

I walk up to him, each footstep of mine making flames that push the shadows away. It’s brutally cold here, which is strange, as I assumed he would be warm with how he visited me in the fires. “Why did you leave me in the human land? It’s so dangerous and—”

“A mistake on my part. I am not…connected with my power yet,” he replies, lifting his hand made of shadow and stroking his smoky fingers down my cheek. It feels bitterly cold. “Haven’t I always cared for you, Serendipity?”

“Yes,” I agree, because he has. “I need to know your name, and I need to know what you are. I’m frightened.”

The shadows flicker, and a flash of anger brightens his eyes. “My name is Arawn, and I am a Vanir. A god.”

“Vanir? I’ve never heard of that before,” I say. “But, Arawn, thank you for telling me that. When you come for me, I want us to tell each other the truth. All of it.”

“I promise this to you,” he replies. “But first, there will be death.”

“For who?”

Darkness fills the corner of my vision, and my body starts falling, even when I don’t want to leave. His voice, so like the male I’ve spoken to every day for so many years, fills my ears. “I am coming for you, my queen. Together, we will rule all, and Vanir will rise once more.”

The dream spins away into nothing but darkness before I wake up from the pain of my arm burning from the marking, and I swear under my breath.

But it’s not just the marking hurting me, I soon realise. Massive welts cover my back and arms on one side. They sting with every movement, and my leg aches worse than before. I’m back in the bed, trapped in the room, but the sequined red dress is gone and replaced with the same white one. I don’t feel like they have hurt me any more than the lightning cage, but I hate that they no doubt stripped me and had a good look. Bastards.

I look across to see Devika sitting with Nimmy on her bed, talking quietly. Sophie is pouring herself a drink and mixing something, and they all look towards me as I sit up.

“So…it went well with David,” Devika humourlessly chuckles, looking me up and down. “You look worse than any of us on our first night.”

“And that comes from Dev, who bit the ear off one of them,” Nimmy tells me.

“It was worth it. No matter what they did,” Devika replies with a shrug. “Every time I see the asshole, I smile.”

I grin at her. “Maybe I should bite the other ear off.”

“Nah, it’s mine,” she replies with a wink.

Nimmy smiles at us both and focuses on me. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” I say. “But I’m done with this place.”

I try to stand up off the bed, but I instantly sway and Nimmy is there, catching me and gently putting me back on the bed.

“They have injected you a few more times to make sure your healing doesn’t work quick. So that the punishment doesn’t heal too quickly,” she tells me, sighing. “Over time, the effect of the drugs wears off a little.”

I’m not planning on being here long enough for that to happen.

I glance at Sophie, who comes over to me with a glass of water in her shaky hand, and she passes it my way. “Here. It might not have medicine in it, but on occasion I’ve been allowed to go out and collect herbs. I mixed a few in here. It might help you feel less pain.”

I barely understand what she says as she stumbles over her words. “Thank you. Are you sure you can spare this? Don’t you need it?”

“Not more than you,” she replies with a small smile before walking away. I nod and drink it all, even if it tastes terrible. I like Sophie. Actually, I like all of them. Even Devika.

Silence pours over the room, and I place my empty glass on the floor before I clear my throat.

“My name is Serendipity Fall, and I’m from across the sea. My mother is the alpha female of Fall Mountain Pack, the biggest pack in the world. She fought the angel king in a war, and her mates killed him. I was brought up in a city of dragon shifters not far outside the pack lands for my own protection. I ran away from there because I was to be mated to someone I didn’t know or want to be mated to. Until coming to these lands, I hadn’t been outside the city, and I did not know about the real world. I knew if I went through with the mating ceremony, I would be their queen and I’d never be able to leave. I’d be trapped, forever. A friend made me a portal and got me out of there. I know it was a mistake to leave me here, where it’s so dangerous.” I pause, unable to look at them. The silence is deafening. “So there you have it. I’m the daughter of an alpha female. I’m really, really not from around here, and you’re right, Devika, I’ve never starved for anything in my life except for female friends, I guess, because the only female I’ve known other than my mother is my aunt. There were no other females in the city I grew up in.”

“Please tell me someone will be looking for you,” Nimmy asks, leaning forward. “You’re…well, someone will come, right?”

“Yes. Between my mum’s pack, the angels she has in her city, my friend I mentioned, and the dragon king I was meant to mate to…someone will find me. I’m really not sure who I want to turn up at this point, but right now, we need the help of any of them,” I say, linking my fingers tightly.

None of them say anything else after my blurting-out-the-truth moment, but they just stare at me, and Nimmy is the first to move. She walks over and goes down on her knees, shocking me. She bows her head. “I knew you were alpha born and from old bloodlines. I could sense it. There hasn’t been an alpha on these lands for such a very long time. My aunt and cousin went across the sea, hoping to find the alpha and a real pack.”

“l’m no alpha female. That title is earnt in a rite, a test of sorts, my aunt explained to me once,” I tell her. “My aunt was the previous alpha female of Fall Mountain Pack before my mama.”

Devika just starts laughing. “So you really are a spoilt princess.”

I shrug. “Kinda, but I don’t want the title. You’re welcome to it.”

She calms down and Nimmy sits back on the bed next to her. “So it must have been shit growing up with a load of dudes. No females? Are they all gay?”

“Nope,” I reply. “Dragon shifters wait for their mates and will do for thousands of years.”

“Sounds boring,” Devika replies.

“They aren’t that bad. They’re great at fighting and cooking. Surprisingly, I would count a dozen of them as my friends,” I reply. “Although, I’ve never managed to beat any of them in the secret poker games I go to every Thursday night. They are very good at those.”

“I bet I could beat them,” Devika says, arching an eyebrow.

“I’d literally be your best friend if you did,” I say with a small chuckle.

She smiles. “So these dragons. Are they literally dragons, like I’ve heard in stories as kids?”

“Yes, sometimes. I’ve seen one of them fully shift before. Most of the time, they just have their wings out and maybe some scales or claws in battle. It’s usually a competition over the wings to see who has the biggest wings. I never really understood it.”

Devika grins. “Males of all races have that primal urge to compare their…wings.”

Nimmy rolls her eyes. “And yet most of them have no idea what to do with it.”

Even Sophie laughs at that, and it makes me feel normal, just for a moment, even in this place. Sophie looks at me. “So this friend that made you a portal… What is a portal?”

“I’m still finding your story hard to believe,” Nimmy says. “It seems too good to be true, but yes, what is a portal?”

“It’s something that can take you from one place to another. Believe in me, just this once,” I ask of her. “And we will get out of here. Hope over fear.”

“Hope over fear,” Nimmy tries the words. “Sounds impossible in this place.”

“I hope not,” I sadly reply.

“Do you know how to fight?” Devika questions. “Immortal dragon shifters must have taught you something.” I nod. “Good, then you can teach us some basic skills. We know nothing about defending ourselves.”

“I will teach you something. As soon as I can stand up, that is,” I reply with a smile that fades a little as I think of my friend who must be so angry with me. “My personal guard, Nakoa, taught me everything I know.”

“That’s a nice name,” Nimmy comments with a yawn. “We should get some sleep. Freedom, Dev,” Nimmy tells Devika as she stands up.

Devika and Sophie look over at me, but none of them say a word, and I can’t make them believe me for a moment when their lives have been anything but free. I feel foolish and stupid for running away from a life I thought was a trap when they were the ones really in a trap and in pain every single day because of the monsters holding the keys.

I lie down, grunting in pain as I manage to roll onto my side that doesn’t hurt, facing Nimmy who is curled up in a ball. I barely close my eyes before I’m falling back into an empty sleep.

I wake up with something being pressed over my mouth, and I immediately hit out. A female grunt echoes in the room. “Stop it and wake the fuck up!”

I pause at Devika’s voice and see she is holding a torn piece of cloth over my mouth, and the room is flooded with smoke. She coughs, holding a piece of fabric to her own mouth, and I notice her dress is ripped at the bottom. “The house is on fire. Get up!”

My ears are ringing as I sit up quickly, crying out in pain from my leg and swaying on my feet, the room spinning. After a few seconds, I manage to stand up straight, but Devika stays close, her arm around my back just as the room shakes. We both nearly fall over until it stops, and I cough on the smoke I breathe in. “Where are Nimmy and Sophie?”

“By the door!” Devika shouts back at me and helps me limp over to the door. Nimmy and Sophie are pulling at the handle around a cloth while Sophie is banging on the door for someone to come. Smoke pours through every crack in the damp and horrible walls, and it’s so thick in here, I’m struggling to see much. “All four of us need to run at the door at the same time to break it.”

I look at Devika and the door. She is right. I nod. “Okay.”

Nimmy and Sophie step back just as the door sets itself on fire at the bottom. Giant blue and black flames climb up the door, and I look at them moving so…strangely. “Stay back!”

The flames don’t burn me as they cover the floor, and I walk right through them. I swear the heat spreads up my body, and my leg stops hurting so much. I kick the door as hard as I can with my strong leg, stumbling backwards, but the whole door rattles before cracking at the bottom and giving in. The hinges snap and it falls backwards with a thud, the rest of the flames on the floor disappearing in the gush of air.

The girls don’t wait as they climb out of the room, over the door, and Nimmy grabs my hand, tugging me out after her. The corridor walls are completely covered in flames, but the floor looks okay for now. But we need to move. No one pauses as we all run down the corridor, coughing on smoke in the air. The closer we get to the end of the corridor, the more we can hear the sound of screams echoing from outside, and they are familiar.

My dream with Arawn. It can’t be him doing this…right?

I gulp and push the thought to the back of my mind for now as we climb the old stairs, and I watch as Nimmy grabs the door handle and screams as it burns her hand. “Nimmy!”

“Open it. Fire doesn’t hurt you,” Devika tells me, holding Nimmy to her side and Sophie on her other side. I grab the handle myself, and it doesn’t burn me as I turn it before pushing the door open. The massive room, once beautiful, is completely smothered in flames and dead bodies. The once imposing chandelier is on fire on the floor, several humans underneath it crying out in pain. The flames aren’t natural as they climb the walls and seem to dance around the room like they’re living creatures. They are blue and black in places, not just red and orange, and nothing about them feels right.

We all rush past the chandelier, and I look up the staircase where the worst of the flames smother the top floor as David comes rolling down the steps before stopping at the bottom and looking up. In the worst of the flames is a male made of black flames, and he flickers in and out as my marking burns along with it.

I look back at the girls, Devika mostly. “Get outside and get to the car park. Try to find a car with keys and no gear stick. Automatics are easy to use. Just put your foot down.”

“Got it,” Devika tells me. “What about you? Come with us.”

I look back at David. “I have something to do first.”

Devika looks between us, understands, and she leads Nimmy and Sophie out. Nimmy tries to argue, but she is in too much pain with her hand and likely knows I’m not leaving yet. Fire can’t hurt me.

The shadow tilts his head to me, and I know that stare. Arawn. David follows his gaze to me and sneers as I walk over to him. “Get back in your room, bitch!”

It feels really good as I punch him hard in the face, and he screams as he falls to his knees, the snapping of his nose ringing through the air. I pull my glowing dagger off him, and I slam it straight down into his chest without a thought. I always knew taking a life wouldn’t be easy, that it would shock me, but as the life drains from his eyes, I push the guilt aside for one last moment. For Devika, for Nimmy, for Sophie and every girl that has ever been in this place with this monster. I push the dagger higher through his ribs and into his heart, just like Nakoa taught me, before I grab his face so he’s looking directly at me. “I told you you’d die by this dagger, and I’m not a liar. I hope Hades burns your soul in the next life and the fires claim you forever.”

I tell him to pull my dagger out, and he shakes for a second before going still, his soul leaving for the next life. My hand shakes as I realise what I’ve just done… I’ve killed a male.

“Do not feel guilt,” the flames purr. “My queen, we will make rivers of blood by the time we are done.”

“Arawn, no,” I say, turning to him in shock. “I don’t want anyone to die. I’ve told you that.”

The flames build higher. “You will do as I tell you.”

My heart hurts as I look at him and realise I didn’t know him at all. He is just another male who has used me.

How could I be so foolish?

“Don’t come after me, Arawn. I will not be your pawn in this game,” I growl before running away. His roars follow me out and shake everything around me, sending plaster and brick crashing around me as I dodge them to get out. My leg aches, the pain coming back as I manage to rush out of the doors and into the cold night filled with a million stars in the sky.

“Soon you’ll be mine, and we will be as one,” I hear echoed throughout the mansion behind me, but without looking back, I run down the steps in a white-stoned area, with a forest right behind it. Nimmy is waiting there alone, her bright hair easy to see as she waves a hand.

She waited for me.

My heart warms, even as it breaks. I start to run as fast as I can towards her right before two human males jump out in front of me. Both of them don’t look good, burnt and angry, and much, much bigger than I am.

“You take this one. I’ll get the other,” one of them grunts.

“Run, Nimmy!” I scream at her as the one tries to grab me, but I dodge him, rolling to the side. My training kicks in, and I spin around to face my opponent. He runs at me slowly, and he makes it easy to let my body completely take over with the training that I’ve had my entire life. I run before ducking last minute and sliding right between his legs. I roll to a stop and spin before jumping up onto his back and slamming my dagger right through his neck as he tries to shake me off.

The human falls quickly, and I grunt with the impact, his blood spraying all over me. Another one dead. By the fires, I can’t think about that now. My hand still shakes as I pull my dagger out and start running across the car park to Nimmy, who is plastered to a tree. She hasn’t run. Dammit. She holds a long stick in her arm as the human gets closer, and dread sinks into my heart.

Run, Nimmy! Run!

I barely get a second to scream at her before a car slams harshly into the human, and he bounces off the hood before flying behind it as the car skids to a stop. I am relieved that the human doesn’t get up. The car is shiny red and was likely perfect before now, with the massive dent in the hood. The darkened window rolls down, and Devika winks at me. “You best get in, princess.” A smile tilts my lips, and I almost laugh as I limp across the stones as Nimmy runs to the car, too. I barely get into the back seat before the entire house behind me explodes into flames that splinter up into the sky. As Devika puts her foot down and drives off, I swear the giant flames curling up into the sky whisper my name.

Chapter

Nine

“I  feel so much better now, away from that place,” Nimmy whispers into the darkness of the car, and I lift my head off the window, dragging my eyes from watching the forests we pass. It’s all so beautiful. The sun is slowly rising above the trees, but where we are, it’s foggy and dark still. The shadows only make everything look so dramatic and vivid, and my new freedom feels pointless compared to their freedom. “Like I wasn’t alive before, and now all I want to do is run, scream in happiness, and tell the world I’m never going to be a slave again.”

“Never again,” Devika agrees, venom lacing her words. Sophie is sleeping, but I doubt she wouldn’t agree with their statement. Devika slows down to avoid a bunch of giant fallen branches and potholes in the road before carrying on down the road.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to take over?” I question. Truthfully, I don’t think I could drive as well as she has, and I know she has driven before. I have a feeling she has more secrets than she has told anyone about.

Devika looks back at me through the mirror. “You look like you might pass out at any moment, so no, I’ve got this.”

They might be feeling better, but I’m really not, and she is right. If anything, I feel worse with every passing moment. A feeling of sickness rises in my throat, every inch of my body feeling like it’s fighting a constant battle in training. I try to call for my wolf, missing her so much, but she feels foreign to me now. Almost completely gone.

“Can you feel your wolf yet?” I ask Nimmy.

She turns to me, yawning and flinching in pain from her arm that she has been cradling for hours. “Yes, and it’s relieving. I don’t know what it feels like to shift anymore, but I’m going to when we stop. I need to feel my wolf. You understand, right? Maybe we can run together?”

“Maybe,” I tightly reply. I need to change the subject. “Is your arm okay?”

“I’m not sure. I think I broke it when we were leaving the house when I slipped down the steps on some blood.” She cringes at the memory. She lifts up her arm, showing me in the dim sunlight coming through the trees now and then. “It looks swollen, but shifting will help me.”

I nod, resting back and feeling my heart racing.

“You don’t look good either, unless you always look tired and clammy, Serei. We haven’t known each other for that long, but I don’t think shifters are meant to be paler than the moon.”

I chuckle. “Unfortunately, I’ve got a funny feeling that maybe they gave me more drugs than I knew. I feel weak.”

“Maybe,” Nimmy agrees with soft eyes. I can’t stand the worry in them as her worry makes me completely panic, and I haven’t had a panic attack in…years. The first one was when I was seven, and I passed out in the end. There have been several more of them over the years, and I hate them. It shows I’m weak, even if Nakoa told me over and over it isn’t a weakness not to be able to control your soul’s panic.

That panic is natural.

But finding a way to breathe through it is a true strength.

“So, where are we heading?” I ask Devika, looking at her to find her watching me anyway with those strange eyes.

She looks back at the road. “A safe place to stay. Safe for all of us while we make a new plan.”

“But where—”

I pause as the ground shakes, and a shadow slams into the road ahead of us, shaking the air around him and brushing a million leaves off the trees. Devika puts the brakes on hard, which makes the car squeal down the road as it comes to a stop, jolting us all. I look forward through the fog as the shadow spreads its large wings out and several—five, maybe six—other shadows crash down in the air behind him. The ground doesn’t shake in fear of them, though.

I don’t need to see who it is, as I feel it in my soul. It’s like my blood burns as hot as a star crashing down out of the sky.

“I presume they’re here for you,” Devika drawls, looking back at me, but I can’t take my eyes off the male standing so close to the car.

I would know him anywhere now.

“Stay in the car,” I tell them, grabbing the silver handle and my dagger in my other hand. The coolness of the handle lets me get some of my strength back, fighting off the dizziness I feel at moving at all.

None of them say anything as I get out of the car, hoping for the best and shutting the door behind me. The slam echoes in the silent forest. It’s an effort not to visibly limp as I walk over and stop a few feet away from him.

The dragon king who wanted me as his mate.

The male who haunts my dreams and brings my body to life with one stroke.

Draycian.

He’s as handsome as he is in my dreams, but in person, it’s hard to even look at him without wanting to fall to my knees. He has black leather covering his body, showing off his powerful muscles, and yet all I can focus on is his eyes. Burning gold eyes. He looks at me, his presence dominating even the air around us, and I don’t back down.

“Serei,” Nakoa’s relieved voice fills the air that seems charged with Draycian’s energy. I look away just for a second to see Nakoa walking over in big steps, and then I’m running straight to him, the best I can with the limp. He grabs me the second I’m close and swings me around as I breathe in his scent, a shudder going through me. I missed him. By the fires, I didn’t know how much I could miss him.

Nakoa’s hand is buried in my hair, his hard body pressed to mine, and I don’t want to let go…even if this is the first time he has ever held me like this.

“Step back from my mate,” a vexed voice cuts through the air. “Now.”

Nakoa lets me go, slowly, like he doesn’t want to, and takes a step back as I turn to face Draycian, who looms over me.

“She is hurt,” Nakoa protectively starts. “Even if she is trying to hide that limp, I can smell her blood.”

Draycian looks at Nakoa like he is seeing him for the first time…like a threat. “I can sense the same, guard. Stand with the others before I make you.”

“Don’t you dare,” I growl.

Draycian looks down at me. “As for you, who hurt you and where do I need to fly to destroy them?”

His possessive tone sends shivers through me. “I’m okay. There is nothing that can’t be healed.”

I glance at Nakoa and see his expression…which is filled with relief and disappointment that cuts through my chest. The truth is, if he listened to me in the first place, I never would have been so easily manipulated into leaving with Arawn, who isn’t who I thought he was. He was never a wolf but a demon, and I don’t want to be in his clutches.

He wasn’t my friend.

I had a real friend right in front of me the whole time. Nakoa. I should have seen it. Really seen it.

“Serei, answer me,” Draycian commands, like I am one of his dragons to so easily control. I pause, my sarcastic response stuck on my tongue as I read his expression. He is close to completely fucking losing it.

“Were the dreams real?” I softly ask, wishing that Nakoa and the other five dragon shifters weren’t close by, listening.

He takes a step closer to me, gravel crunching under his feet. His massive gold wings spread out like he might pull me in with them and keep me close to him. We have been so close in the dreams that I almost don’t want to know the answer.

Either way, my heart will not stop beating fast.

“Yes,” he says, his voice gravelly and deep. By the fires, this male. “The dreams have been my one source of peace for weeks.”

I hate to admit…they have been mine in a way, too.

“My king, we should move to a more secure place to heal the queen,” one of the dragon shifters suggests, stepping forward. Draycian only lifts a hand, and the shifter goes silent.

“Where have you been?” Draycian grills me once more, and I know he won’t ask me again but the girls in the car next until he has his answer. I look behind me, wondering if I still see the black clouds of smoke in the sky, which I just about can in the far distance. I can still smell the smoke, though.

“I was in that fiery building over there.” I point at the cloud. “There’s nothing left but ash now.”

And dead bodies.

Two of them by my own hands. My own blood-covered hands, which the shifters must have noticed along with my blood-soaked dagger in my hand. The familiar sense of panic rushes through me, and I focus on Draycian to swallow it down. I’ll deal with that later.

If I can.

“My fire queen,” Draycian murmurs, his voice filled with pride. He wouldn’t be proud of me if he knew the truth. That I didn’t cause the flames.

I didn’t kill most of the people there, even if I wish I did.

The pride fades as Draycian looks down at me, a cold, guarded expression replacing it. “I know why you left, but you must know how foolish you’ve been.”

“Don’t call me foolish!” I snap at him. “I’m not a child.”

“Don’t be fucking foolish then, my mate!” he sneers right back at me. “And I’m fucking aware you’re not a child.”

“I’m not your mate!” I shout, my cheeks blazing, and a low growl fills my throat as I bare my teeth at him. Then he growls right back, matching me and making it clear neither of us will back down. I barely hear the car doors opening in the distance as a wave of weakness washes through me.

I gulp, thankful for Draycian looking away as Devika, Nimmy and Sophie walk up to us. Sophie looks like she is going to collapse in fear at any moment. Devika looks ready to kill seven dragon shifters, and Nimmy looks worried.

“Did you pick up strays, my mate?” Draycian all but purrs, waving a hand at them. “You know you can’t keep them.”

“Fuck you,” I tell his smug, arrogant face. “They are my friends.”

Draycian stays quiet. Good, he is finally learning to shut up. I can feel the condescending remarks that he wants to fly off for that comment alone, but I am thankful he doesn’t say a word.

I glance at my friends, and they all smile at me. Devika tilts her head. “Do you want to leave with us, Serei?”

“No, she doesn’t,” Draycian confidently replies.

I cross my arms. “Fine, then we’re going to protect them and take them with us back to the city, or I will not go with you.”

“No,” he simply responds. “I don’t do charity.”

Nakoa interrupts. “You could make a deal with—”

“My queen will never make deals with anyone,” Draycian tells him sharply. “Ever.”

“Deals?” I question, feeling like my deal with Arawn is burning through my mark.

“Magic. It’s a gift of mine,” he responds, bored. “They are not coming with us. Say goodbye.”

“Fine then, you will have to force me to go with you, and I’ll hate you forever for it. And I’ll try to escape again. And again—”

“Fine,” he growls, his eyes sparking with fury.

I’m pretty sure he hates me as much as I hate him.

The same shifter who stepped forward before comes a step closer. His pale hair doesn’t match his golden, tanned skin but he is good looking. He is taller than Nakoa but toned and slim. “If he is following us, we need to shield somewhere. We should move, Dray.”

“Agreed, Apollon,” Draycian replies. Dray? The random shifter knows him well enough for a nickname. Interesting. “But there’s nowhere around here with enough magic to shield us. It’s best if we just fly back straight now.”

“One of them is too injured for flying, and the queen is as well. I need time to heal them,” Apollon replies. Not all dragons in the city would even talk to me, and these five were always ones that wouldn’t. I’m happy to know one of their names. I was curious about them, always trying to follow them as a kid, and they would just disappear. It used to annoy me so much. Their black leathers are similar to all the dragons, but there’s a gold symbol on their chest, collars and bands on their arms, and they all carry strange swords that look like they are made of pure diamond. Nakoa always said they are the closest to the king but nothing else about them. He doesn’t even really know what they do.

“I know somewhere where it’s safe,” Devika states.

Draycian looks at her from head to toe, nothing but assessing, before turning to me. “Can you trust her?”

“Yes,” I say because I do. I haven’t made the best choices on who to trust, especially as I hide my wrist from Draycian’s view, but she saved my life, and we’ve been through hell and back already. Things like that, they create bonds.

He looks at Devika. “Fine, we will fly after your car. If you’re leading us into a trap, you’re about to understand why dragons stayed hidden for so long. No one ever speaks of us over on these lands because we kill anyone who betrays our kind.”

All of them shoot up into the sky after Draycian, and I watch them fly like stars into the night sky.

Sophie walks close to me on the way back to the car and opens the front door for me to sit there while she goes to the back with Nimmy.

“I fucking hate shifter assholes,” Devika states as I pull my seat belt on and she does hers. “Always ‘You do this, you do that, or I’ll threaten you with death.’”

I chuckle at her deep voice mimicking Draycian.

“Try living with just that your entire life,” I tell her.

“No wonder you left,” she tells me, and I appreciate that she could understand, just a little.

“But at least your mate has pretty large wings,” Nimmy teases, and all of us laugh as Devika starts the engine and drives us away.

With dragons trailing our every move.

Chapter

Ten

W e drive for what feels like hours, but the dodgy clock on the dashboard never changes from ten minutes past twelve. The sun has risen high in the sky, and I watched every inch of the sunrise. I breathed in the soft yellows, velvet oranges and dashes of cerise until I could almost imagine waking up every morning and seeing just that, the sunrise, and not through holes in the mountain that did little to show me even a trace of colour. My eyes slowly drift close after a while, exhaustion forcing me into a light sleep until a lump in the road jolted me awake. I lift my head, looking up out of my side window and at the dragons filling the skies above. Three of them fly ahead of us, and every time there is something blocking the road, they move it. The rest fly in a square shape across the cloudy blue sky. They look like shooting stars burning across the world. Not that I’ve ever seen one of those. Kind of hoped I would one day, but soon I will be taken back to the city, and I won’t be able to leave again.

My heart pounds, and I listen to the beat of it as it thumps away in my ear.

Devika yawns softly and I turn to face her, watching as she smoothly turns right and onto an old street, with a big sign that is covered in mud so I can’t read what it once said. This street was likely a good place to live once, with beautiful tall houses and tiny white picket fences, long trees marking the road. But now they’re nothing but shells, most of them burnt down and turned into rubble that is covered with ivy and moss, nature taking back the land. Old kids’ toys are scattered in the road, like they suddenly left them, and Devika avoids them. We drive down several similar streets, like the houses were all made to match, before we come to a stop outside one of the less ruined houses.

It’s imposing, with at least three floors and broken steps leading to a wraparound porch. White panels, which might once have been clean, are now rotting in places thanks to the green ivy and red flowers crawling over the house, all the way to the roof and chimney. The chimney lets out a steady flow of smoke, and instantly I know we aren’t alone. Along with the muddy footsteps leading up to the house, with blacked-out windows and a big wooden door. My hand tightens around my dagger. I’ve learnt quickly not to let go of my weapon when faced with the unknown.

The blade doesn’t glow, and I blow out a breath. “This place is safe, right? Is there someone here?”

Devika glances at my dagger. “Wouldn’t that tell you if there was a danger to you close by?”

“Yes,” I answer. “But who is here, Devika?”

“Trust me,” she asks quietly. “I vowed to serve you, be loyal to you if you got us out, and you did. We all would have died down there if it weren’t for you. Words don’t mean nothing in my culture, and my word is my vow.”

“That wasn’t a vow I expected you to keep,” I tell her as the dragons land around the car. I know they heard every word, and there is no way they haven’t checked this entire area for danger before the car even stopped.

“But one I will until the deathless maiden herself comes for my soul,” she simply replies, but her words are sincere and unyielding. Deathless maiden? Who is that?

I want to ask, but my door is pulled open, and Draycian offers me one of his large hands. I slide my hand into his, feeling a soft fiery buzz snap through me at the touch, and climb out of the car. Nakoa opens the door for Sophie behind me, his eyes on me, and I resist the urge to look at him for a second too long.

I try not to limp as Draycian lets my hand go and I make my way around the car. The pain becomes worse with every step, taking my breath away, and I stumble. Draycian’s eyes flash right towards my leg, and before I even blink, he picks me up into his arms. I try to push him off, but he’s like hitting a rock wall. “Put me down. I can walk.”

“No, you literally can’t. You can limp,” he corrects me.

Dragonass.

“Put me down right now, Dray!” I growl.

He smirks, his grip iron tight. “Call me that again, and I’ll never let you go, Serei. I like the sound of it on your lips too much.”

I glare at him as he carries me over to the others, who are all standing behind Devika, who is whispering a mixture of words in another language like a crazy person and holding her hands in the air.

“What is she doing?”

“Lowering a barrier,” Draycian tells me. “And no, I will not put you down.”

I should blow out a long, frustrated breath and cross my arms. He looks down at me with a smile that is heartbreakingly pretty before adding, “You’re pretty sexy when you’re angry.”

“You know that I really hate you,” I retort.

“I know,” he responds, looking pretty satisfied that he’s annoyed me even more.

I try not to look angry if he likes it so much.

Devika’s chant, which is what it sounds like, gets louder right before there is a buzzing in the air that reminds me of the time Devika made the vow to me, but on a bigger scale. I don’t see any difference, but the way Draycian tightens his grip on me, his hands warming like they are on fire, I’m guessing something changed.

Devika pauses, going deadly still as the creaky doors to the house swing open, and in the doorway stands a man who looks very similar to Devika. He blinks. Twice. He’s so gorgeous I have trouble taking in that he is real. Gorgeous thick black hair frames his face, and he has pouty lips along with a little stubble. His eyes are piercing blue, a colour I have seen or been able to create with my paints. His body is built, even underneath old clothes, and two long black blades are clipped to his hips on either side. The man looks straight at Devika, and in his eyes, I see the relief and happiness that burns quickly. They’re both running at each other within seconds, and they embrace in the middle of the pathway, the male squeezing Devika tightly as she lightly sobs into his shoulder.

“I’ve looked everywhere for you. I could only sense you a few hours ago, and I knew you’d come to me if I put up a beacon,” I overhear the male tell Devika, his voice deep and rich.

“I’m finally free. I was taken by humans, but we can discuss that later,” she tells him, and he softly puts her down, placing his hands on her shoulders. “They are dead, before you ask.”

“You know me too well,” the male retorts. “Shame, I wanted to go hunting tonight.”

“I as well, and there is plenty to hunt. Soon,” Devika smoothly replies.

Draycian, clearly bored with the reunion, slings his voice across the lawn. “Who the fuck is this male?”

The male looks right over to us, too, casually stepping in front of Devika, who pushes him out of the way and rolls her eyes. “This is my twin brother, Tarrent Bloodsong.”

Tarrent keeps his cool eyes on me, and I keep his stare, refusing to back down for a stranger. Or anyone.

“My king, are you aware of what they are?” one shifter asks, coming to Draycian’s side. He has thick curly brown hair that matches his dark skin, and amber brown eyes.

“Yes, Leucos,” Dray replies, a hint of surprise in his tone.

Leucos hums. “I’ve not seen their kind in a very long time. I actually thought they were extinct after her death.”

“So did I,” Dray agrees, his tone tense.

“Stop talking in riddles,” I tell the shifters and turn to Tarrent and Devika. “What are you?”

Tarrent crosses his enormous arms. “What your dragon friend is trying to say is that we are witches, and you are lucky to be in our presence. I am a witch lord.”

“Witch lords do not exist without a clan to lead,” Draycian dismisses him, while my lips twitch with a smile. “With only two of you, it is a stretch to call yourself that.”

“Do you want to have a sparring match with words, dragon king?” Tarrent cockily replies, and the air feels electrified with magic. “I have all night.”

“Enough,” Nimmy says, stepping forward with her arm around Sophie. “I don’t know or care about who would win in a fight, but my friends are in pain. Males with any honour would be focused on healing rather than fighting.”

Everyone goes silent, and I swear Nimmy has just made even the dragon king feel guilty as he looks down at me.

“Nimmy is right,” I say into the silence. “But, Devika, if you’re a powerful witch, why couldn’t you escape?”

Devika looks away, her jaw tight. Leucos answers me with his soft voice. “Witches were created at a similar time that we were. They were created for nature to make nature thrive, but the goddess Demeter didn’t really look too much into her prodigy after the birth of her daughter. The witches started twisting words, feeding magic into their bodies and voices instead. The first witch’s voice became more dangerous than any magic in her hands, and her child was born with the magic in his voice, and his child, and so on. Words are their magic. They hold no real magic in their hands anymore, but a carefully worded poem could make you want to jump off a cliff. They can be very persuasive and dangerous because of that.”

“If my sister could have escaped, she would have done,” Tarrent tells me, placing his hand on his sister’s back. “But the wolf is right. We should head inside to heal the females.”

“One thing we agree on, witch,” Dray growls, tightening his grip on me.

“You saved my sister’s life,” Tarrent warmly states, looking right at me. “I owe you as much as she does.”

“My name is Serendipity, but my friends call me Serei, and your sister owes me nothing,” I tell him, and this makes him smile.

Devika leans against her brother. “My brother disagrees.”

“Are you mind speaking?” Leucos questions.

“It’s really annoying after a while,” Devika replies. “Don’t be so impressed, pretty dragon.”

Leucos blushes and ducks his head, which makes me want to grin, but I swallow it down.

Draycian’s moody voice ruins the smile, of course. “My name is King Draycian, and this is my queen. You will show us respect. I don’t really care if you’re witches, humans, wolves or whatever else, but you will all die in the same flames if you betray us.”

“Let’s get the females inside,” Tarrent retorts, waving a hand at the house. “I’ve only been here a few hours, but there is a fire warming the back room.”

“It will do,” Draycian growls and looks down at me. “Once your leg is healed, we need to have a talk.”

“I believe we have been talking a lot, your majesty,” I sarcastically reply.

He growls at me, and I swear it’s almost playful.

For a second, I really look at him and then curse myself for looking at all. Draycian walks past Tarrent and straight into the house he doesn’t know, with no care in the world. The house is dim, but warm light floods a room at the back that Draycian heads right to, pushing the half-open door fully open with his foot. There is a dirty mattress on the floor by a large brick fireplace, and light pours in from gaps in the wooden boards covering the windows.

Draycian carefully lowers me onto the edge of the mattress and grabs my leg, pushing up my dress in no time, and the stroke of his hand sends shivers through me even when I know he didn’t mean it that way. Even when I know I’m in a room full of dragon shifters who can scent any tiny bit of desire as well as I can. He doesn’t even try to hide the smirk on his face, but he focuses on my leg and the nasty cut down my calf, alongside the many blisters that are on the back of my legs.

Apollon kneels at Draycian’s side, looking at the nasty, swollen bullet mark on my leg with a frown and side-eyeing the blisters. “Was the bullet taken out?”

“I took it out and stitched up as best I could,” Devika answers, leaning over. “It went deep, and there was man-made poison laced into the bullets to weaken shifters, but she should have healed by now.”

Apollon steps closer. “Will you allow me to heal you, my queen?”

“I’m not your queen,” I retort.

He simply waits for my answer, and I nod after a slight pause. Apollon places his hand over my leg, hovering above the cut. “This might hurt a little, but it will not take long.”

I feel a warmness coming from his hand instantly, and along with it, a spiking pain ripples across my skin. Gritting my teeth, a warm hand slides into mine, holding tightly. I don’t need to look to know it’s Nakoa.

I just hold his hand tighter.

The pain instantly stops, and I look up, expecting to see Apollon happy, but he is frowning at my leg just as black flames spiral out at him from my chest, snapping like a dragon, and he stumbles back, fire lacing his hands to protect himself. The room goes deadly silent. Any small talk that was going on ended, and Draycian looks down at me.

And then at my wrist, which isn’t covered up. The mark on full display.

I can feel the fire storm brewing in the air, and there’s nothing, no one, that’s going to be able to stop him. “I knew it was Arawn. I fucking knew it. How long have you known him? How long have you cared for him?”

I flinch at his words, repeating what I said in our dreams. I did, maybe do, care for him, but I’m not silly enough to not realise he has lied to me and used me for something. He put me in danger, and he isn’t what I thought he was.

I don’t even know what he is.

“Since I was a child. Arawn was my friend. He was the only one that agreed with me when I said I didn’t want to be mated off to you!” I growl. “He gave me a way out.”

“When was it that you finally realised he was manipulating you?” Draycian all but sneers at me, leaning down and grabbing my chin. Nakoa growls, and with a flash of fire, Draycian pins him to the wall with only one flick of his fingers. “Do you even know what that mark is? What your friend is?”

I want to demand he let Nakoa go, but I have a feeling it would get him in more trouble. “He said he needed it to make the portal, to get me out.”

“Arawn needed it so he could draw power from you to get himself out. By the fires, you have no idea what you’ve done. This mark is a death warrant, Serei!” he roars, letting me go and stepping back. “You won’t be able to heal, or shift, or use magic. You will die, quickly and painfully, begging for that mark to be gone. That is the fate of anyone who takes that mark.”

My stomach drops, and the world spins around me. It can’t be true. It can’t.

“What is he?” Devika demands. “And how do we break the connection?”

Draycian is pacing, ignoring Devika, and I can’t move as Leucos starts talking. “Arawn is a fallen god. A Vanir, like Draycian. They are the last two pure Vanir.”

“You’re a god?” I question Draycian, who pauses in his pacing to look down at me.

“Yes,” he dryly replies, and I snap. Completely snap.

“How would I know this? I know nothing about you other than your title, and that was because of you. You don’t tell me anything but expect me never to make mistakes. Never try to escape the prison you made for me!”

“Prison?” he barks out. “Was your pillow not soft enough? Not enough of your favourite foods or comforts to grow up with? What the fuck could you have wanted for? You have been brought up like a queen.”

“My family!” I shout back. “You stole me from my mother! You stole the life I could have had there!”

“I did not steal you,” he calmly replies. But it’s like a calmness in the air right before the night drops the world into darkness. “She gave me you willingly.”

“Really?” I state. “Every single year, when I see her, she looks heartbroken when she has to leave. I can’t believe she wanted this.”

“It is complicated,” he replies, ending the conversation, like I don’t have a right to know my own life story.

“I want to know about this Arawn,” Tarrent’s voice echoes into the tense silence. “How do we stop him?”

Draycian glowers at him suspiciously. “Why the fuck would you want to save a girl you’ve just met?”

Truthfully, I want to know too.

“Because I’m bound to her,” Devika smoothly replies for her brother. “And a debt for a debt. A life for a life. I will protect her until we are even, and my clan will always do the same. One debt to a witch is held by all.”

Draycian seems to accept this and runs his one hand through his blond hair. “The Vanir, my race, were created by the goddess Mnemosyne many thousands of years ago. Arawn was the firstborn, I was the second, and there were fifteen total born on that day, and none ever born since. We were born in the fires in the underworld, a gift from Hades for an old debt, and Mnemosyne asked the fires to shape us into powerful creatures. Dragons.” He pauses for a brief second, and shivers shake down my spine. “We were new gods, born to walk the earth with fire-touched hands and born only male. For a while, a thousand years, everything was fine. There was a massive community by this time. Many had bred with humans, shifters and goddesses to create offspring who were always born dragon males no matter their heritage, but they were not as powerful as the original fifteen.”

I pause before asking anything. “Did you have any children?”

He looks down at me. “No.”

A simple answer, but I feel there is more to it. He clears his throat and addresses the room once more. “Arawn didn’t either, because he was a lover of Mnemosyne, and she was infertile. She took over lovers, both female and male, and all of them suddenly lost their lives not long after. I long suspected Arawn was killing them, but I could not prove it. One night, Arawn killed Mnemosyne, absorbing all her magic in a way he had learnt from a god who’d given him a new power. But killing her, it cast a curse on himself. It cursed all of our people in different ways.”

My voice comes out more guarded than I thought. “Curse?”

Draycian doesn’t even look at me. “Arawn’s curse was that he had to drain people of magic, completely drain them until they died, so he could live. Live off their power, their life force. For a while, while we hunted for him, he slowly killed my people, building up power until he was nearly unstoppable. He could wipe out a whole village of dragons with a single click of his finger, and he did.”

So many horrors shine in his eyes, and I have to look away, the pressure making my heart pound. “How did you stop him?”

“He had hunted us down…so I stole power from gods I shouldn’t have ever crossed to save my people. I battled Arawn and won, but he could not be killed. The power he took…it kept healing him, and I knew I had to contain him somewhere he could not steal power from any more of my kind.” He looks at his guards and Nakoa, who is still held by flames against the wall. “I trapped him in the prison in your mother’s pack and helped the god Hades and goddess Persephone build their city around it. When it was time, I took the last of my race into what was left of our home and rebuilt.”

“Until now,” I whisper. “Can anything stop him from killing me?”

Draycian looks down at me, his gaze unflinching. “Yes. Me.”

Chapter

Eleven

TARRENT BLOODSONG

H er breathing settles into a light slumber, and I lean against the wall, watching her as she sleeps, like I’m some fucking creepy asshole. She is beautiful, enchantingly so, and if it weren’t for her scent, I’d wonder if she were a witch. Her hair is like gold, her eyes as the green sea islands I grew up on, and her curvy body is nearly unbearable. She is fucking gorgeous, and I can’t get near her for more than two minutes without the guard or the king stepping in the way. I don’t blame them. The king is clearly desperate for her to accept the mating bond, and the guard is in love with her. I don’t think she knows it yet. The arguments between her and the king are at least amusing on this trip.

When I feel she is safe and I’ve whispered enough protective chants around the house that make sure no one dangerous could get in, I stand up. The dragon king sleeps at her side, and I curiously wonder why the king doesn’t bear any weapons. He’s tremendously powerful. Old, rich magic surrounds him. He is a god, walking this very earth like my ancestors did so long ago. I don’t know who I was more surprised to see: her or him. I leave my blanket on the floor with my rucksack and whisper a chant under my breath to make me near invisible to anybody unless they are a witch.

I head outside the poor excuse of a house that stinks of damp and rotten food. No one has been brave enough to go into what is left of the kitchen. The dragon guard, standing near the door, looks back to see the door swing open and curses the wind as I walk past him. Two more guards fly in the skies above the surrounding forest, searching for any sign of danger. I admire their patterns and how they clearly have trained together to be ready for anything. They never even blink, just follow their king.

I head straight into the forest, embracing the darkness of the long, tall trees as they cover me in their protection. The forest is alive under my feet. I can feel the tremble of power as I touch a nearby tree with my palm. I don’t need to ask the forest for anything, but I know that I will be unseen while here. I lower my arm, hearing a branch crack in the distance behind me, and I don’t need to turn to know who it is.

“Your sneaking up skills need work, sister,” I state.

Devika appears out of the shadows, eyeing me suspiciously because she is pissed I caught her. She looks tired, and I know she isn’t sleeping. Too much troubles her, and she won’t let me in like she used to. We were once best friends as well as family.

“Where are you going?”

The look in her eyes is full of fear, and I wonder if she thinks I’m going to abandon her.

“I wouldn’t leave you behind, if that’s your real question,” I state.

She ducks her head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have implied that.”

“Things have changed over the years, and you have suffered. If you need me to reassure you that I’m your brother, I’m never leaving unless you demand it, and I’m going to do a real job of protecting you from now on, then I will. I will tell you that all day,” I tell her. She lifts her head, her eyes full of tears she won’t let fall. I’ve looked for my sister for years, tortured myself over where she could be, and hated myself that I didn’t protect her enough. It was like she disappeared from the world and no spells could find her. I was close after tracking down a human who claimed he was invited to a secret party where they had supernatural slaves.

I enjoyed killing him. Slowly.

The broken, cautious look in my sister’s eyes nearly breaks me, because she doesn’t want to get hurt again. “I have so many things to tell you, sister. Do you remember, when we were kids, what our mother told us of?”

“It was a story to help us sleep,” she says, a fond smile on her lips. “That we were the only heirs to a city of witches, and our father would one day come for us. He never did, though, did he? She died in your arms, and we had no one.”

I still remember my mother, her long black hair and beautiful blue eyes. She was kind and sweet and not made for this world at all. Humans killed her, and we had no choice but to run.

“It wasn’t a story. I found the city,” I truthfully say.

A little light comes back into her eyes. “How many witches live there?”

“Many,” I softly state. “We are not alone, Devika.”

“When I was with the humans, I wished for her stories to be true,” she tells me. “That you were really a witch lord and had people who would follow you. I know you are a leader.”

“So are you,” I remind her. “I will take you there once we are done here with Serei, and you’ll be safe forever. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” she firmly replies. My sister may act like a tough person, but there has always been this vulnerable side to her. She broke to pieces when our mother died, as did I, and I felt a wall go up around her, and she didn’t let anyone else in. So to see the bond that she has with the wolves, it’s more than I expected. She truly cares for them.

She only drops her guard around people she really trusts. I ask a delicate question, one that has been burning on my mind. “Are you sure that the males who hurt you are dead?”

“It wasn’t just men,” she replies coolly, and I try to hide the anger I feel. “And most are dead. The ones that aren’t? Once this is over, I will hunt them down.”

“I will enjoy hunting with you, sister,” I reply with a wicked smile. I can already feel the magic in my soul, a deep desire to protect any female in my family and get revenge for her being harmed.

“You still didn’t answer me. Why are you out here?” she asks, crossing her arms.

“I needed some fresh air,” I tell her honestly. I pull up my sleeve and show her my mark on my wrist. Her eyes go wide, and I know she remembers the mark and what it means. My mother had one on her wrist. I remember her talking to it like it was alive.

“Is that a true mate mark?”

“Yes. It appeared when I met Serei,” I reply.

Serei is my mate. The only mate I will ever have in the world, and she is far more than I could have imagined.

“How is it possible? She also has another mate?” Devika murmurs still looking at the mark. I lower my arm. “A very possessive dragon king with a massive army.”

“My army is bigger,” I reply. It’s the truth. If he banishes me from seeing her or even tries to get in my way, I will stop at nothing to be in her life. If the mating mark wasn’t there, I’d still want to protect her. I haven’t met a female like her before. She is witty, beautiful, and powerful, along with a body that I have imagined under me more than a few times. I hate any time the king touches her, and it makes me want to snap. He doesn’t deserve her, and nothing he has done so far has proven he has. He kept her locked in his city, far away from her family, and only let them see her once a year by the sounds of it. No wonder she tried to run away from him and ended up putting her life in danger. Everything is very complicated, and more important than any mate bond is finding out a way to stop Arawn from killing her. The last thing we need is a hellbent fallen god draining her life, and every hour she looks worse.

“This is fucking surprising,” Devika says, shaking her head. “The gods have truly fucked you all over.”

I have lived for hundreds and hundreds of years, never, ever expecting to find a mate. True mates are rare, as my mother told it. “It is a blessing.”

“She’s dying, Tarrent,” Devika reminds me. “A dying mate is not a blessing from any goddess.”

“We fight for her any way we can,” I respond. “She is mine. I won’t give up on her.”

She comes to my side and pats my arm. “You’re still fucked, but I’m on your side whatever comes.”

“Good, because I want to show you something,” I reply, offering her my arm. She hooks her arm through mine and walks with me through the forest. We walk for a good half an hour, the magic of nature guiding my way in the pure darkness. I know Devika feels the magic as I do, and she seems to relax the deeper we go into the forest. When the magic is heightened, we stop in a big clearing full of fallen leaves. I let my sister go and hover my hands in the air before I begin to chant. The ancient words roll off my tongue, magic amplifying and listening to my call. The magic swarms around me, and I channel it into the ground in front of me. Hundreds of leaves float into the air, making a massive circle before stretching out. In the middle, a glossy ripple of water appears, and through it, a very familiar female stands up from her seat. Her deep purple gown spreads across the floor as she walks to me and bows her head. Her dark skin makes the purple stand out, and her black hair lies in braids down her back.

“My lord, it is good to see you. Blessed be the goddess for this,” she says, turning to look at Devika. “I take it you found your sister? How blessed we are.”

“This is Cicely of the forest clan,” I tell Devika. “And Cicely, this is my sister, Devika Bloodsong.”

“It is an honour,” Cicely tells her before looking at me. “Do you wish for me to channel a portal back to the city? I can gather the hundred witches immediately.”

“No,” I say, making her frown. “It seems the goddess has seen to bless me in many ways. I found my mate.”

“This is wonderful!” Cicely replies, pure joy in her brown eyes. “But why do you look so sad, my lord?”

“It is complicated and the reason I cannot return yet,” I explain. I give her a short explanation of everything that has happened and who Serei is.

“Indeed, it is complicated. Surely Lady Devika will help you through the murky waters of this blessed mating,” Cicely finally says.

Devika’s tone is cold. “Did you know my mother?”

Cicely looks down. “No, but I knew there were two heirs, and our dearly departed lord would speak of his mate. She left our city before your birth, and we never found her, or you two, until Lord Tarrent found us.”

Devika looks away. It wasn’t the answer she wanted, and I didn’t want to tell her it. Truthfully, our mother was never quite in the right mind to make sane decisions. We starved as children more often than not, and our mother didn’t notice because she was often lost in her mind.

Cicely looks at me, and I shake my head. “I called for more than an update. Get the armies ready for a possible war. The fallen god will bring destruction to this world, and we will not sit on the sidelines this time.”

“Of course. Is there anything else you need?”

“I will call if there is,” I reply.

“Blessed be, both of you. You will be in my prayers to the goddess,” Cicely kindly says right before I close the portal and cut off the magic. The forest is silent as I watch my sister.

She eventually lifts her head to face me. “They could have found us, if he wanted.”

“He was a lazy male, from what I’ve heard. He hid when the angel king burned the world down and refused to let any witch help in the later years when the wolf queen searched for aid. He simply watched, and that was my mate’s mother,” I quietly say and look up at the stars above. “This time, the witches will not stand on the side. We will fight for us, for shifters and for my mate.”

“For your mate,” Devika agrees. “And for a safe future.”

“Shame we don’t have a drink to toast this with,” I grumble as we head back to the cottage.

“Want to brave the kitchen?” she questions. “Big brave witch lord?”

I bump her shoulder with mine, making her laugh. She rests her head on my arm, and for now, I let myself enjoy having my family back.

Chapter

Twelve

U nclouded red water surrounds me, up to my waist in the white dress I’m wearing, slowly dying the fabric a soft shade of pink. The water is still, and I look down at the bottomless pits, confused at how deep it looks. I’m slowly sinking, I soon realise as my hands slip under the water. Even though the water is completely still, it feels like thick mud latching onto my body, refusing to let me move an inch. I stare around me at the blue skies hanging high above me, the weird scent of fire and ash in the air.

And the scent of blood, which I try to pretend isn’t coming from the water.

“Dray?” I call, my voice echoing around me until it sounds like a hollow laugh. Everything feels wrong, and I know it’s not a dream with Draycian this time.

“Arawn?” I question, and this time my voice doesn’t echo at all. Arawn walks towards me, and how I thought he was anything but a fallen god, I don’t know. Maybe he hid who he really was in soft promises and acts of fake friendship until I couldn’t see who he really was until it was too late. Dark power ripples off him, even in this dream state, and I shudder as I try to move in the thick water. He walks on the water towards me, each step a deep splash, and he’s not sinking below it like me.

He towers over me as he crouches down and offers me a hand. “I can help you rise if you wish, my queen.”

I don’t take his hand, content to drown into this thick muddy water rather than take anything else from him. He is a murderer. A monster.

My heart still hurts, because he was my friend, and now every single moment I look back on seems like it was all a play on my emotions and vulnerability to get what he wanted. To escape a prison he deserved to be placed in.

He’s less shadow and flames now, and more solid man. He’s still lankier than I would have expected him to be, but his shoulders are wide, and he is tall. He has thick black hair, but it lacks the shine of Tarrent’s, and his eyes and nose are completely empty of the flame I once saw. There is nothing but still darkness and I wonder if the flame was what I wanted to see.

He tilts his head in a way that’s pure supernatural and pure predator. “Did you not miss me?”

“Not when I learnt what you are. What you did,” I say, my voice cracking. “I cared about you, and you are nothing but pure evil. You used me. You still are.”

“What sweet stories has your precious mate told you?” he counters, watching me so closely. “Do you trust him now? Believe him?”

“Yes,” I reply. “Because I can feel the truth of his words. I’m dying and it’s you who is slowly killing me.”

“Wasn’t it him that trapped you in that city all those years?” he replies, ignoring my answer completely. “Are you not so thankful to me anymore?”

“No,” I bite out. “You manipulated me, and we both know it. Stop playing this game, Arawn, and let me go.”

“Never,” he replies with a wide, creepy grin. “You are different. You’re mine.”

“I’m not and never will be,” I reply, a trickle of fear pouring into my heart as quickly as I’m sinking into the water.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet?” he questions, reaching out to touch my cheek, and I struggle to avoid his hand. He cups my cheek like a lover and leans down close to me. “Ah, you have not. You will very soon, and we will be together.”

He leans a little closer, like he is going to kiss me, and I coldly laugh. “You’re never, ever going to be anything to me. To anyone, Arawn.”

He lets me go with a huff of a laugh, and I can only watch him walk away from me, wondering what the hell he was going on about, right before my head goes under the water. I slowly start to drown, and I feel it filling my lungs like a thick paste. I can’t breathe.

I wake up with a gasp, feeling like I am still under that water, clawing at my throat with my hands until I take in the warm room, the sound of my friends sleeping, and the dragon guards outside. My body sways with a wave of dizziness, and I nearly fall back down, but a warm arm wraps around my back and my waist. Dray hardly looks awake as he looks up at me, holding me tightly, his one wing outstretched behind my back to hide me from anyone but him. It’s been three days since he found me, and we’ve travelled quite a far distance to the edge of the land where there is nothing but thick forests and the abandoned little cottage the shifters found. We’re flying tomorrow. Now we are close to the coast, and it’s apparently safe to say Arawn isn’t close by.

I almost want to tell Dray about the dream with Arawn, but I keep it to myself. No need to make him angry and deal with his grumpy dragon ass.

He looks up at me with those alluring gold eyes of his, and I stare for a fraction too long. The silence is too much. “I’m nervous about flying that long distance.”

“Is that the cause of the bad dreams?” he questions, his voice groggy. He rubs a hand over his face. “Bad dreams haunt us all, but they are not real, Serei.”

“So you’re not going to drop me in the ocean?” I reply with a small smile.

His lips tilt up. “Don’t tempt me with the idea.”

I know he is teasing me, but considering how much of a pain in the ass I’ve been for him—you know, releasing his arch enemy and risking all our lives—I wouldn’t be that surprised if he did. Draycian said it will take us four days if we fly directly and in full dragon form. But the idea of riding on top of a dragon for four days doesn’t exactly appeal to me.

I clear my throat. “I didn’t fall asleep next to you.”

I look over at Nakoa, who I did fall asleep next to, and the space where my sleeping bag was is empty. “He’s your guard and my subject. I wished for you to be close while danger is in the air.”

“Arawn?” I whisper.

“No, much worse than him,” he replies with a tight jaw.

I glance at Nakoa again, realising that I’m still holding on to some delusional fantasy of him that I have. That he could ever see me the way I see him. That he would ever risk his place in the city, with his people, for me. Dray would try to kill him, and I wouldn’t let anyone hurt Nakoa. Loving him like I do is only going to destroy me when he finds his mate.

“You have every feeling, every emotion, written on your face at all times,” Dray tells me, but he isn’t looking at me now. He stares at the ground at his feet. “A dangerous trait for a female like you.”

“A soon to be queen, you mean,” I respond.

“You were born a princess, even without your tie to me,” he smoothly replies. “You would have had to fight for your place in the pack your mother and her mates rule. They would, and still will, see you as an imposter compared to your little brother.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because of who your father is, Serei,” he replies. “Someone would have tried to kill you because of it. The pack is rich in traditions and rules.”

“Was this the reason you took me in?” I ask. “Or one of them, outside of being your mate?”

“I protected you because I am cursed. Do you ever wonder who cursed me?” he quietly questions. “What I did?”

“What is the curse?”

“No more chatter,” he replies with a tired yawn but he looks around us, like someone is listening and he is done whispering his secrets. “It’s too early.”

“Ah, so you’re not a morning person,” I reply. “Noted.”

“Careful,” he purrs, leaning in. “That comment makes it sound like you plan to stay close to me.”

His tone, the wicked seductiveness of it, makes my heart feel like it might beat so fast it could break me.

“You haven’t told us where we’re going,” I say to change the subject.

“Our home,” he replies.

“I mean after that, and you know it,” I retort with a flash of annoyance. That only makes him smile. His wing stretches around my shoulder as he sits up and lets me rest against his wing for a second. I reach out to touch his wing on instinct, not really thinking about it. He pauses, his body going absolutely still, as I run my fingers over one of the larger gold veins, tracing it slowly. So soft.

I wasn’t expecting the wings to be soft like velvet.

“Does it hurt too, like your body would hurt, if these are injured?”

“Yes, they’re very sensitive,” he replies through gritted teeth. I turn to him, realising exactly what he means when I pick up on his scent. I lower my hand, and he grumbles something about torture as he stands up and stretches his wings out before tucking them neatly behind him and making them disappear entirely. I notice he rearranges something else too, and I try not to let my cheeks burn too much as I take in the size of that part of him. Dray goes over to the corner, past the others who are sleeping in clusters around the large open space. Two fires have been built, filling the room with warm light and chasing away some of the cold chill of the air. I still don’t take my blanket off my legs or pull myself out of the sleeping bag. Some guards are posted outside this cute little cottage, watching over to make sure no threats even get close, and I see their shadows in the windows. They all do rotations, and they don’t even seem to discuss it. They just seem to know, and I admire how close they all are.

Draycian comes back a few minutes later with a glass of cold water and a piece of strange chewy cake that he managed to find. It is wrapped in plastic of sorts, and the sell by date on it is years past, but it still tastes nice as I bite into it. Very sweet.

Draycian makes me pause as he leans over and picks up a strand of my hair. It’s not blonde, it’s jet black, and I take it from his hand. “What the fuck?”

“Part of Arawn’s curse,” Dray tightly replies. “We are running out of time.”

The food suddenly tastes horrible, dread curling in my stomach as I put it down and attempt to drink some more water.

“Did you know they live like this? The humans and odd supernaturals over here?” I quietly question. My eyes stay on where Nimmy and Sophie are asleep.

“Yes,” Dray tells me. “It wasn’t always like this for this country. Time has not been kind to this part of the land. Before your time, slavery was the biggest trade for food with the angel king. Now that is gone, there are no leaders to make deals with the courts across the sea or your mother’s pack.”

“Therefore, no one can really help them,” I fill in the rest. “The gangs run most, from what I’ve picked up. They don’t seem to be short of food.”

“I doubt all slavery ended when the war came to an end,” he replies.

I know it didn’t. There are four previous slaves in this room alone. I move my sore leg, groaning at the pain. “Did you help my mother in the war?”

“For you, yes,” he replies.

“Not just because it was the right thing to do?” I counter with an arched eyebrow.

“I’ve lived through so many wars, so many rulers who all claim to be doing the right thing. I never wish to side with any of them when my own enemies are watching,” he replies. “They thought I was dead until that war, until I changed my mind and fought alongside your mother’s pack.”

“Thank you,” I tell him. “For doing that. For me, as you put it.”

“You would have died if I didn’t,” he replies coolly, and for some reason, I don’t doubt him.

“When this is over…can I see my mother’s pack? Go there for a while?”

“Maybe,” he replies and looks down at me with a guarded expression, the walls going back up. “But only for a short time. It’s for your own pr—”

“Yeah, I get it,” I snap and turn away from him.

He laughs low. “There I was, believing you could be reasonable and not act like a spoilt princess.”

I growl at him as he gets up and storms out, slamming the front door and waking everyone up. Dragonass. That is his permanent name at this point. After the lovely wake-up call, the shifters start packing, and I practise standing on my own for a little. I catch Nakoa watching me like a wolf, making sure I don’t fall, and I know he’d be there in a second to catch me if I did. I make myself walk over to him—well, limp—and sweat pours down the back of my neck from the effort.

“You should rest, Serei,” Nakoa suggests, pouring water into plastic bottles to pack into the travel bags.

“Can we talk—”

“Hi, I’m Nimmy,” Nimmy says, stepping to my side and offering Nakoa her hand.

“Nakoa,” he replies, taking her hand and shaking it with a smile. “I am Serendipity’s guard. To what end, I do not know.”

“Hey,” I say, but he shakes his head and walks away, carrying the bag.

“By the wolf, your life is complicated,” Nimmy quietly says. “Good thing sharing is part of our nature.”

“I know. My mother has four mates,” I tell her.

“Lucky mum,” she smiles. “I’d be happy with just one of these handsome shifters. I love the overprotective alpha natures. The wings are interesting too.”

I chuckle at her. “Are you nervous about flying?”

“I’ve been thinking about it all night, and I’m not sure,” she says. “But I’d do anything to leave this country and get to where my family might be.”

“We could ask my mama to look in her pack for your aunt and cousin when I can,” I suggest. “I mean, if they got there, that’s the pack they would have gone to. I remember my mum talking once about a massive boat full of wolves from the human lands, but I think that was only a few years ago. If not, there are courts to search who welcome wolves, humans, and angels. I would ask her to find them if you could tell me their names.”

She takes hold of my hands. “I’d really appreciate that, more than you could know. I never thought I’d see them again, and they likely believe I’m dead.”

“Nimmy, do you want this coat?” Apollon calls over, holding up a thick blue coat. “I found it upstairs.”

Nimmy kisses my cheek before leaving, and I hop my way back over to where the clothes I have are. I pull the worn jeans over my dress, then a thin cardigan and red coat with a thick furry hood. The coat has gloves in the pockets, two pairs, and I take one out to wear and look around until I find Nimmy and Sophie talking with Devika.

Devika catches my gaze and walks over. “Need a hand up?”

“Pitifully so,” I say, and she chuckles before grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet, as shaky as I am. “Here, I have some spare gloves.”

“I don’t need them. A simple spell will keep me warm,” she explains. “I would use my magic on you guys, but it reacts strangely with shifters.”

“Got it,” I say. “Well, can you see if Sophie or Nimmy want them?”

She takes the gloves and heads over as I look at the door. “I can do this.”

“I highly doubt it,” Tarrent murmurs behind me, stepping close. “May I help?”

“Does the oh so powerful witch lord have time to help a wolf?” I question.

He laughs, the sound lovely to my ears. “For a princess, yes.”

I roll my eyes but happily let him pick me up in his arms, his musky midnight and frost-coated berries scent wrapping around me. By the fires, he smells good. Too good.

“What is a witch lord, then?” I ask as he walks us across the room and to the front door. I don’t think he is going to answer me until we come outside the front of the cottage, the bitterly cold air brushing my skin.

“You’re a wolf, and you have alphas, right? Dragons clearly have kings or queens. We have lords or ladies,” he explains.

“So, you’re like royalty to your people?”

He looks down at me. His eyes are so bright, the blue and specks of black so vibrant. “Yes.”

“Dray said your race was—”

I go still, my words fading off as I feel a different kind of coolness in the air. I look into the thick forests surrounding the cottage, where there are shadows so dark they are impossible to see through.

Until the shadows ripple and the dagger in my coat begins to glow.

Tarrent’s grip tightens on me, and I look to Draycian, who is standing with Apollon and one of the guards, all of them watching the same spot we are. Dray looks over at me. “Get her in the house. Now.”

Tarrent doesn’t move; instead, he places me on my feet and moves slightly in front of me as Devika comes to my other side. The shadows continue to ripple until the taste of smoke fills the air and the shadows shape into burning flames.

Black flames take the shape of three wolves, bigger than I’ve ever seen any wolf to be, and they burn the ground with every step they take towards me. They growl low, baring their white teeth within the flames.

“What the fuck are those?” Devika questions.

Tarrent looks at me for a moment, and when I turn back, one of the wolves is racing towards us while the other two head for Dray and the guards.

Tarrent only smiles before he chants under his breath, looking dead at the creature. My eyes widen as the wolf halts, digging its paws into the dirt ground, and begins to rise into the air. Devika begins to chant on my other side, and suddenly the wolf begins to howl. Tarrent strolls to the wolf, pulling out his two black swords and leaping into the air. With a deadly jump, he flies down on top of the wolf with his swords down first, and the wolf’s head splatters onto the ground, the body dropping seconds later. Tarrent effortlessly lands and gives me a bow. “Your safety is secure, princess.”

I chuckle and look over at Draycian, who is covered in thick black blood, a dead wolf at his feet. The other is in pieces, Apollon and the other guard looking like they barely moved an inch.

Draycian is storming over to me within seconds and looking me over for any injuries. “A present from Arawn, I suspect?” I ask.

Draycian snaps out of it. “Yes. Darkness wolves are shifters who have had black flames breathed into their mouth, and it turns them into slaves like these.”

“They were once shifters?” Nimmy whispers from the door, looking pale.

He nods, and I look at what is left of the shifters. “We will bury them before we leave.”

“No, we have no time,” Draycian growls. “This is a teaser of what he will bring next time. We need to leave.”

Dray clicks his fingers, and the wolves begin to burn with vibrant orange flames, soaring into the sky. Anger starts to rise up within me at his disrespect. “Bastard.”

Draycian’s grumble shakes the surrounding trees. Tarrent comes up to me, handing me three flat stones. He covers my hand and utters some words I don’t understand before letting go. The three stones glow blue in my hand, and they are beautiful.

“There is an old tradition of laying a glowing stone at the grave of the dead. These aren’t the same as you’d find on the beaches, but close enough,” he softly suggests. “They were your people, no matter if you didn’t know them.”

Nimmy comes to my side, with a sadness in her eyes. She walks to the bodies without looking back after I slide two of the stones into her hand. I look up at Tarrent. “Thank you.”

“Anytime, princess,” he replies with a wink before stepping aside. I walk up to the burning body of the wolf and send a silent prayer up to the old gods and the never-ending fires that this wolf will finally find some peace.

I hear the sound of birds chirping in the surrounding silence, and I look up at the rising sun, pretending that I’m not being taken back to my prison. My hands start to shake as I stand there, and I hide them at my sides, flattening my palms to my legs.

I taste the magic in the air, feel a disturbance in the very fibre of the world, before I even turn to watch the dragons shift. When I’ve shifted, it’s quick and effortless, like breathing. It turns out the dragons and wolves have that in common. But still, it feels like the air is being sucked straight towards them and it is spiralling with strong magic that tastes like flames and ash. Soon there are nothing but gold swirls of magic smoke in front of us before there are three gigantic gold dragons a few feet away. Draycian is all I can focus on, like he is all there is to this world. He’s covered in gold scales, lighting up nearly all of his body, which is huge and about the size of the cottage behind me. As if he knows I’m staring, he seems to lift his long neck, and his tail wraps around his back legs to rest near his stomach to show off. Massive wings are folded at his side, and he has high pointed ears, a long face, but his eyes are the same in this form. Much like mine are when I shift.

He leans down, and even in dragon form, I can tell he is telling me to hurry the fuck up.

Tarrent, without a word, lifts me up into his arms, and Dray growls lightly at him, but Tarrent doesn’t even care as he walks up to Dray. I run my hand across his glittering gold scales, and I swear I hear a noise almost like purring radiating from his chest. Tarrent chuckles low.

Like I weigh nothing, Tarrent’s big hands wrap around my waist, and he lifts me right up onto the wing before jumping up himself and helps me climb up, my leg protesting the entire time. I settle into a space between some larger scales where I can hold on, and Tarrent helps Devika climb up after us. One more guard, Nakoa, Nimmy and Sophie are split between the other two dragons, and I glance over just in time to see Sophie pass out in Apollon’s arms. He sighs and picks her up, using his wings to fly onto the dragon’s back while keeping Sophie close.

I’m a little surprised as Tarrent moves to sit right behind me. His body is completely pressed up to mine, and his hands grip the scales even outside of my thighs, so close his thumbs brush my thighs.

I turn my head back, and he arches an eyebrow at me. “I bet the princess of dragons isn’t bothered by a dragon ride.”

“Never been on a ride,” I say, and he gives me a smile that can only be described as cocky.

“I can take you for a ride anytime, princess,” he purrs.

“Ew, I’m right here and related to you,” Devika interrupts, and I turn back, my cheeks blazing. The dragon under us, my intended mate, doesn’t sound impressed either, judging by the growl. At this rate, Tarrent will be lucky if Dray doesn’t drop him in the ocean.

He leans forward, his lips brushing the back of my ear, and I shiver, surprised that he remained close to me. “Don’t worry, you’re not going back to another trap. You’ll never be trapped now, not when you’re part of my clan.”

For some reason, knowing someone has my back who isn’t a dragon shifter, makes me relax a little and pushes away the panic.

I lean back into Tarrent as Dray spreads his wings and begins walking forward. He suddenly jumps on top of the cottage before jumping into the air above the tall trees. The cottage roof breaks underneath his massive claws, and I gasp from the cold air, thankful for Tarrent’s body pressed against mine and the heat coming from him. Dray flaps his wings hard, sending us straight up through the clouds with the strength of his huge body until we are gliding above the clouds, nothing but bright skies and the sun to shine on us.

It’s still freezing, and I know I’m not going to be able to feel my toes by the morning.

The sun kisses the clouds, and it’s beautiful. I can’t do anything but stare until teardrops drip down my cheeks. A warm hand leans up and wipes a tear away, and I turn to see Tarrent lick the tear from his finger.

“Just as I thought,” I hear him murmur, but I look away at the view, not letting the witch lord distract me. Even with his thick arm around my waist, and my dragon between my legs.

IT TAKES FOUR DAYS. Four long, cold, and exhausting days to get back to the city, and I don’t remember all of it, thanks to the dizzy spells and passing out way too often. Tarrent looks after me the entire time, waking me up to eat and drink, holding me when I’m freezing. I don’t know how any of the dragons are still flying without needing to stop for a sleep. We only stop twice a day to pee, and that’s only for no more than ten minutes. The last few hours, it’s been clear we must be close to the city because Draycian has gone lower and not stopped us for a toilet break. We suddenly spiral down, and I grab hold of scales tightly, scared of being pushed off in the current. Draycian softly lands near a rocky area of grass, the cave entrance to the city ahead. Not that I’ve ever seen it from here before. I look at the small hill, knowing if I was strong enough to climb it, then I would be able to see my mum’s pack.

It’s right there.

And I’m too weak to even climb off Draycian.

Tarrent helps me get off the dragon while carrying me, and Devika climbs off next with the bags, dropping them on the ground and stretching. “Well, that was a trip from hell. I can’t feel my cheeks, and my lips are chapped. Urgh.”

I chuckle at her as I look over to see Nimmy being helped down by Leucos, and Sophie’s being carried by Apollon, but she is awake. They both look as exhausted as I feel. Dray and two dragons shift back into completely and utterly naked shifters with impressive bodies. I’ve seen the shifters naked now and then, around the city when I was older. It was during that time I realised I like males and wanted to see what they looked like. Shifters do not give a shit about nudity, but personally, I like to keep my clothes on.

Dray doesn’t care one bit as he walks over to us. “Give her to me.”

“I’m not yours to command,” Tarrent replies, his tone unmovable.

“I’m way too tired for an argument, but I’d prefer to be held by the fully clothed male for now,” I say, even when my body does not agree with that statement at all. I purposely try to keep my eyes above his waist, above the rippling six pack and the V-shape that goes down to—

I clear my throat. His chest isn’t any better. It’s a swirl of tattoos and markings, muscle and golden skin that looks very lick-able.

My changing scent does nothing to make me look innocent in this, but Dray doesn’t comment on it as he stalks away for the entrance, the other naked guards following. I’m certain I’m not the only one who looks at their firm asses for a moment too long.

Tarrent looks too smug as he smiles down at me, and I turn to Nakoa, standing close. “Will you carry me in?”

Nakoa picks me up out of Tarrent’s arms, glaring at him the entire time, and I try to ignore everyone looking at me.

Devika breaks the tense silence. “Now, you never told me about the nakedness. I’m completely sold on this place now.”

Tarrent looks disgusted and Devika winks at me.

“They aren’t always naked,” I tell her.

“Shame,” she replies. “I’ve always loved a naked shifter. Plus, they fuck like gods.”

My cheeks burn as she follows her brother in, and Nakoa barely looks at me, his cheeks as red as mine.

We all follow them into the cave, past a sphere made of gold with fire within and into another corridor that reminds me of the place I come to see my mum once a year. The sight of the city takes my breath away. Its beauty always does, and I find myself just staring until I feel a gaze on me. I look up at Nakoa, who gently tells me, “Don’t run, or at least tell me your plans. I’m sorry if I ever made this not feel like your home and that I wasn’t on your side.”

The words I’ve always wanted to hear…but with the mark on my wrist, my death looming close by, they don’t hold the meaning they once would have done.

“Maybe walking her into an arranged marriage with someone she hasn’t met wasn’t a good way to be a friend to her,” Tarrent drawls. “It was a shitty thing to do.”

“Watch it, witch,” Nakoa threatens.

I look over to see Dray clipping a gold cloak around his shoulders, pinned with a dragon clip in the middle.

He goes to say something, but Aunt Reine barrels past him, her black hair spiralling behind her in the air. She runs straight up to me, cups my cheeks, and kisses my forehead, a ragged breath of relief blowing out of her mouth.

She leans back, her eyes frowning as she really looks at me. “What in the name of the gods have you done to her?”

Her fury dims as I touch her shoulder. “This is my own mistake.”

“Foolish girl,” she whispers, tears filling her eyes. “Do you have any idea how worried we have all been? Your mother is out of her mind with panic, as are her mates, as are your uncle and brother.”

I look at the dark shadows under her eyes, her pale skin. I wonder if she slept at all since I left. Guilt swallows me whole.

“He’s a kid,” I retort, not knowing what to say.

She glowers at me, and it kinda makes me feel more at home. More than the panicked Reine, who makes me feel the guilt simmering below the surface.

“None of us were right or wrong, but it is done now,” Draycian cuts in.

“Tell me everything. Now,” Aunt Reine commands, sounding like the previous alpha female who commanded so many.

Surprisingly, Draycian fills her in on everything and somehow doesn’t blame me for it all. “I have one last way to save her, and it’s dangerous. Risky for everyone. This goddess could very well decide to just kill us for power or to impress Arawn.”

“Then do it,” Aunt Reine suggests. “She cannot die. I will give up everything, even my life for hers.”

“Reine,” I whisper.

“The sentiment is shared,” Dray replies, surprising me. He would die for me? “There is a goddess, old and wise, but nothing much more than bones anymore. She may be able to break the bond for a price.”

“What would the price be?”

“Whatever it is, I will pay it,” he quickly replies. “I am already cursed, and it will be for the only thing I do not want to lose.”

He shoots into the sky, far above the city, and we all stay silent before Aunt Reine finally takes in the new additions to the group.

First, she looks at Apollon who has handed Sophie to another guard. “Send word to the wolves that Serendipity is alive and well, and I will come to explain everything soon.”

“Of course,” Apollon replies, flying off seconds later.

“Who are they?” Aunt Reine asks me, still holding my arm like she can’t bear to let me go.

“Friends,” I tell her.

“You made friends with two witches, a wolf and a half wolf already? Where did you find them?”

I blanch. “Nowhere good.”

“You will tell me everything, but after I have looked after you,” she commands, looking over at three of the guards waiting nearby. “Take the newcomers to the castle and find them rooms and food. They are to have guards outside their rooms at all times.”

“Understood,” one of them replies.

“Look after them,” I ask the one in the middle.

He lowers his head. “With my life, my queen.”

A bit dramatic, but alright.

Considering a fallen god is hunting me, it might be a promise they will regret.

“Where can you get a good drink?” Tarrent questions the guards.

“I’ll take you to a bar,” one of them suggests, nodding his head to the steps up to the city.

Tarrent looks at me before he leaves. “Call my name if you need me, princess.”

Nakoa growls. “She won’t.”

When everyone is gone except Reine and Nakoa, I lower my head. “I’m so sorry. I’ve messed up.”

Aunt Reine lifts my head with her hand. “No, we failed you, and I’m sorry. But never again, Serei.”

Chapter

Thirteen

H ome.

I should have realised it would be this city, because it’s always the people here. It was Nakoa and Reine. I should have never left them, and I hope I don’t die before I can show them how much they mean to me. Draycian’s scent surrounds me in his room, in front of a dressing table that has been brought in here recently by the looks of it. Apparently, a dragon-king-sized temper tantrum burnt my room to smithereens, and the only part of that which made me mad was losing the paintings in there. My weapons survived, thankfully.

But most of them were paintings of Arawn, and I’m happy they are gone. Draycian’s room looks just like it does in our dreams, down to the thick bedsheets and black rug and old wallpaper. There isn’t anything personal in here, and for a dragon as old as he is, I’m surprised.

Reine’s eyes meet mine over my shoulder as she finishes braiding my hair. “You’re the daughter I never had. Do you know that?”

Tears fill my eyes. “I love my mama, but I love you just as much. I’m lucky to have such amazing females as role models.”

She rests her head against mine for a second before stepping back, and I smooth my hands over my clothes in the chair I’m sitting on. Dressing in my regular clothes, a skintight silver dress with tight black leather leggings, makes me feel a bit normal, but as my eyes catch on the black mark on my arm, I remember nothing is normal anymore.

“Talking of your mother, she is furious that King Draycian won’t let her in,” she tells me, and I can just imagine.

“I’m kinda glad he hasn’t. She would take one look at me and never let Dray near me,” I tell her. “And start a war we don’t need right now when Dray is the only one who can help me at the moment.”

“Dray?” she repeats, a hint of amusement in her voice. “If you have a nickname for him, he can’t be all that bad then?”

I pick at the high collar of my silver dress and shake my head. “He’s an asshole. That’s it.”

She makes a noise that suggests she doesn’t believe me, and truthfully, I don’t even believe myself at this point.

A wave of dizziness threatens to make me pass out, and I clench my hands on my forehead for a second, my head bent. I feel so weak, but I won’t give up, even if my body seems to want to do just that. I release my clammy hands and lower them, taking in a deep breath.

“Are you okay?”

I turn to Reine, who has paused in packing me a bag to take on the trip, and I nod once. “As best as I’m going to get.”

“I always knew you’d be a special child,” she tells me as she keeps packing. “Not because of who you are to the king, but I saw something in your eyes when you were only three years old. Defiance and power. You’ve always been a special child, protected since you were born by so many who love you. You do not give up.”

She comes over to me and kneels in front of my chair, picking up my hands. “There is a saying in my old pack, which it is time you knew. These words have helped so many, including your mother, keep fighting when it feels hopeless. We endure the fall and rise in the ashes.”

“We endure the fall and rise in the ashes,” I whisper, and strangely, I can almost feel the power within the words, echoed within my blood on a deeper level than I can ever understand.

Reine searches my eyes before nodding and rising. “I won’t be the only one to bow to you, and never forget your power, Serei.”

“I doubt the dragon king will ever bow to me,” I reply.

She smiles. “If a king doesn’t bow for his queen, then he is no king at all.”

“I will come back home,” I tell her. “I’m going to fight Arawn and get this mark removed.”

She doesn’t look back at me, like she can’t manage to even face the option that I won’t come back.

“So, tell me about the witch lord and Nakoa,” she questions after the bag is packed, and I choke on thin air for a moment. “Ah, that is answer enough.”

“There—”

“I’m not even going to touch on the rising tension between you and the king. You two will set everything on fire before you admit the truth,” she replies. “But Nakoa, I saw how he has longed for you for such a long time.”

“Nakoa has a mate out there, and he’s never going to love me like I love him,” I softly reply. “And I won’t risk losing him as my friend to admit to anything.”

She makes a humming noise, and I keep blurting out everything. “And Tarrent is a cocky witch lord, whatever that means, and he flirts with everyone. I’m sure he could even charm a toad.”

“Witches are dangerous beings, and he is a lord,” she responds. “But maybe it’s time for you to just have a little fun? I enjoyed many males by your age and—”

“Ew,” I reply with a shudder, and she laughs.

“Not everything has to be binding and serious,” she tenderly replies.

“Unless you want to see an outright fight between Tarrent and Dray, who thinks he owns me, I’m going to ignore your advice this time,” I tell her, and she smiles, looking very amused. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yes,” she immediately replies. “Given that secrets caused a massive gap between us and nearly got you killed, I will break the magical bond Draycian forced on us so we couldn’t tell you certain things. I might get kicked out of the city, but it’s not right. I will answer anything you ask of me directly—if it is in my power and it’s not something your mother should tell you, as some secrets are hers.”

“Alright, that’s fair,” I reply. “Dray said he was cursed for taking power to beat Arawn, but he didn’t tell me the curse. What is it?”

“He never told me this directly, but the males in this city, well, some of them talk when they have drunk a little too much,” she replies. “I’ve heard from the other shifters that his curse is one of sleep and power. He has to sleep for years to protect the city with his power. The power around the city, the shield, all of it that hides you from those seeking, comes from him. He would be so much more powerful if he lifted the shield, but he will never do that. I believe it’s more complicated than just that, and he has strange magic to make deals, which always fall in his favour. I suspect that has something to do with the curse as well.”

“So he protects his people, and the price of that is that he has to sleep for years and years? So all these years I thought he abandoned me, he was sleeping in the castle above, protecting me?”

“Yes,” she replies. “I don’t know how you break the curse. I don’t know why it was cast and who cast it, but I do know that he pays that price.”

“I got the feeling that the other dragons are cursed too,” I reply.

“Yes,” she softly replies. “Until the king takes a mate with his fires, no one else under his protection can find love, or that love will die. That’s why they don’t take lovers and why I suspect Nakoa has never gone near you.”

“I thought they were all just waiting for a mate,” I say.

“Mates are rare, like finding a needle in a million haystacks,” she replies with a wave of her hand. “Some mates are predestined to find each other, but that is the work of the gods. This city’s suffering is the work of a curse, and it is cruel. Draycian has even brought females into the city, many times, in hopes of someone finding their mate, which he hoped would be a way around the curse because of the gods.”

“Breelyn, was she one of those?” I question. “My mother’s omega who lived here for a short time?”

“Yes,” she replies. “But the curse is strong, even now.”

“Thank you for telling me,” I reply, thinking it over. “I have one more question.”

I point over to the painting by Dray’s bed. “Do you know who that is?”

“I don’t know. I presume it’s his sister or mother,” she suggests, but I know he doesn’t have sisters or a mother. He was born of flames, and all his relatives were male.

“Maybe,” I say, not wanting to admit how much I really, really don’t like that he has a painting of some female in his room. Especially when she is as pretty as that. If I’m his mate, then who is she?

Two heavy knocks bang on the door right before Dray walks in. By the fires, he looks incredible. A thick black leather shirt is tucked into tight dark trousers, with gold lines down his arms and legs, and all of it fits him well. So, so well. I gulp as I take him in and feel my heart racing when his gold eyes flicker down to me.

And stay on me. “We’re leaving now.”

“Remember the words,” Aunt Reine whispers to me before she walks out.

Dray grabs the rucksack off the bed and straps it on. “You never carry weapons. Why?” I ask.

“I can make weapons from my fire if I wish,” he replies. “Therefore, a blade is pointless to carry around.”

After he secures the bag, he picks me up, his hand so close to my ass. “You don’t have to carry me.”

“I don’t wish to see you in pain,” he replies. “Even if you’re a stubborn queen.”

“I’m not your queen, Dray,” I reply with a sigh.

“You are my only queen,” he says, looking down at me. “Even if you reject me, even if you run, even if you never want me…you are my queen.”

My heart pounds in my chest as I look up at him, and my gaze flickers to his lips for just a second.

Something shifts in Dray’s expression, and he turns his face away from me. He starts walking us out of the room, and I touch his shoulder. “Who is the painting of?”

He decides not to answer me, and I huff.

“Ask something else,” he suggests, and there is enough strangeness between us that I find a need to find something to ask. We walk through a massive room with a raised platform at the top and five spheres full of blue flames hanging in a star shape near the ceiling.

“Alright. Was this your goddess’s home?”

“Yes,” he responds. “She created it in her love of her dragons, and each room you’ll find is gold, red or silver in tones.”

“Did she like jasmine plants?” I ask next as we go through large doors and down a steep staircase that glitters silver and gold, looking like it was painted and swirled around before it set, but it is solid metal.

“Did you love her?” I softly ask. “Is she the female in the painting that you won’t speak about?”

“No, I did not love her like that. I loved her like family and like a mother. But it was not love in the way that you’re suggesting,” he explains. “Many of my brothers felt differently about her, like Arawn.”

“I know how easy it is for him to make you feel as if you’re the only person in the world until you’re alone and have no one to turn to,” I reply, looking down.

“And you are here, fighting. He has not won.”

I look up at my dragon king and smile. Maybe for the first time, I actually agree with him.

Nakoa and Tarrent are waiting for us outside of the castle, on the balcony above the doors to my old home beneath. Nakoa has a long, heavy-looking bag on his back and several weapons strapped to his body. Tarrent has new black dragon leathers on, his swords on his back, and he slowly runs his eyes over me.

I swear there is a flash of lust in his eyes.

“How are you?” Nakoa questions, his arms crossed and his light gold wings flickering out at his sides.

“I’m…well, shit. But we are going to fix that,” I say, making him smile slightly.

Nakoa looks up at Dray, the smile slipping with whatever he sees. “Ready to fly when you are, my king.”

“Interesting you’ve learnt to show respect when you feel like it. If it wouldn’t upset Serei, I would have you hanging from the mountain top for two weeks until you couldn’t feel your balls anymore for the disrespect you’ve shown me,” Dray coldly replies.

“I think we should get going. Make the most of the daylight,” I say, wishing they would both stop this. I can’t deal with it right now.

“Keep up,” Draycian tells Nakoa right before spreading his long wings out, shooting into the sky. I duck my head into Dray’s neck to hide from the force of the wind, as my stomach feels like it has a million butterflies in it. The spiralling tower house passes us by, the beautiful crystals so close it feels like I could reach out and touch them. Dray dips in the air, right into the cave system and out of the tunnel and into the cold air. He swerves right and glides slowly.

“I should have found a way to show you this,” he tells me. “Look down, Serei.”

I frown before looking down, and my eyes widen as I take in the massive pack lands in front of me, stretching for miles, with more houses being built on the outskirts. So many people fill my senses, along with scents I don’t know, and I cast my eyes above the houses to see angels with black wings flying around, some looking up at us. Rivers flow through the lands, with houses in circles and forests dotted around them, all full of vibrant colours. My family is right down there. My pack.

“Thank you,” I tell him. “I can’t wait to paint this.”

“And you will,” Dray vows, glancing at me. His eyes are like the burning sun. I don’t tell him, but I could paint his eyes too, and I feel I’d never be able to capture how gold they truly are. I tuck myself closer to him as he picks up speed, Nakoa carrying Tarrent right behind us. We sweep past a nearby mountain and loop around it before flying across what seems like an endless range of white-capped mountains. It’s all so beautiful, and even though I feel exhausted, I keep my eyes open to take it all in, wishing I never have to close my eyes again.

Before nightfall, when the sun starts to set, Dray swoops us down, a little past an abandoned town and straight towards a tall building that looks like a fire destroyed the front of it before the rest collapsed. I suspect the top was all glass once, as we fly down into the building, past several floors and metal stairs that look like they used to move and are frozen in the middle of their cycle. Dray lands smoothly on the bottom level, and I shiver from the cold chill in the air. I think we are underground, and I look around, seeing a sign in a language I can’t read. Tarrent and Nakoa land as Dray lets me stand, keeping his arm around my waist, his wing at my side.

“Be on guard,” Dray tells Nakoa, who drops his bag from his back to his feet. Dray chucks my bag into the pile and looks to Tarrent once Nakoa nods. “Come help build a fire before my queen freezes.”

“Couldn’t have that,” Tarrent says, stretching his arms above his head. The leather tightens against his thick biceps and pulls up at his stomach, revealing a line of black hair drifting into his trousers.

Funny enough, it’s getting warm in here anyway.

Nakoa comes to my side, taking over for Dray, and I lean against him as they walk away. “This is a shopping mall, a small one compared to what humans used to have.”

I glance around at the small shops, all with different signs that I can’t read. “Walk me around?”

He moves first and I keep up with his pace, pushing the pain in my leg to the side. I can handle a little walking. We walk past a shop that just looks like it’s full of old clothes, some hanging on statues of people with no faces and pale skin. Another shop has rows of strange boxes, and Nakoa tries to explain they are movies that humans watch. The next shop piques my interest, and I stop, looking inside at all the sparkling jewellery I can see through the non-broken window. Nakoa lifts his hand up, and several spheres of pure fire spread out of his fingertips, building into spheres the size of my hand, and start to float around the room, lighting up all of the beautiful displays of jewellery that glitters under the fire. Nakoa pushes the broken door open and helps me over the broken glass, which crunches under my boots. The glass cases are smashed in several places, but it doesn’t look like much has been taken. A few rats run across the top of the glass, and I shudder, not wanting to get too close to them. They run from the light, anyway.

“I believe the only piece of jewellery you own was the necklace your mother gave you,” Nakoa murmurs at my side.

I wince. “If she ever knows I lost that diamond necklace in a poker game, she would flip.”

He laughs low and leans close. “Your secret is safe with me. Your skills at poker on the other hand…”

I whack his chest, and he chuckles low, making me smile. I limp away from him to the main cabinet in the middle of the room. On top of the display, on a black and dust-covered stand, is a stunning pink ruby on a silver chain. It reflects the fire around the shop, and it’s shaped like a diamond.

Nakoa leans around me and picks up the necklace, holding it up in the middle of us. “We shouldn’t take it. It belongs to this place and whoever owns it.”

“They are long dead, or they would have come back by now,” Nakoa replies, and I glance at the necklace. “I believe this is meant for you, and I’d be honoured if you allowed me to give you it as a gift.”

This gift feels different from the paints and rare foods he has brought back to me from trips in the past. I feel like he is waiting for my answer more than he is breathing, and my own body goes still.

“Yes,” I whisper, my voice hoarse. “I love it and will always wear it.”

His eyes sparkle as his lips tilt up, and he steps closer, pushing our bodies against each other. By the fires. He softly picks up my braid, his fingers skimming my neck and making me shiver before he clips the necklace on. It falls to the middle of my chest, and I place my hand over it. “Thank you, Nakoa.”

I expect him to move, not that I want him to, but he stays still. Both of us are so close, and I search his eyes, wishing I could see how he feels. See if I’m imagining everything between us and how it could be more than friends. At the same time, I don’t want to risk that friendship and lose him.

“It’s beautiful,” he breathes out. “Just as you are.”

My heart near enough stops, and I’m completely speechless just as he leans down and kisses me. The kiss is all-consuming, and I lean up into him, giving him full control, and he takes it, possessively, demandingly and perfectly. How I always knew kissing him would be like. He groans, his scent swiftly changing along with mine, and his hand wraps around my braid, tugging my head to the side as he deepens the kiss.

A crack of glass makes Nakoa jolt back from me and turn with a low growl at Tarrent standing in the doorframe, leaning against the wall, his arms crossed. “Our secret.”

He disappears into the shadows of the room behind him, and I turn to Nakoa, who is tensely staring at the door. “Nakoa, he won’t say anything and—”

“This can’t happen again,” he states, his voice cold and guarded. I stumble on my leg and wince. Nakoa catches me, picking me up in his arms. His eyes fall to me. “For your sake, this can’t happen. You need Dray to save your life, and I can’t save you. Your mate can.”

“And I’m not your mate, so this is nothing to you?” I snap.

“We are cursed, Serei. I cannot love you and you cannot love me, but for what it is worth right now, I’d choose you without a second thought,” he whispers back. “And the king would kill me before we ever got a chance.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” I growl.

He sadly smiles at me. “If I only get one kiss, it is worth it.”

Nakoa carries me back to the others once our scents have calmed down, but by the angry look on Dray’s face, I bet he can tell that something happened. While we were gone, they have built a fire in a metal pit and set up four sleeping bags, mine right next to Dray’s. What a surprise. Nakoa helps me sit down on my sleeping bag, and I tuck myself in, as Tarrent hands out the food Reine cooked. I can barely eat a few bites of the cheese sandwich before putting it down and giving up, my stomach turning.

Dray looks down at me and back to the others. “Sleep. I’ll take the first watch.”

They both waste no time getting into the sleeping bags, and it makes me smile that Tarrent sleeps with one of his swords on top of him, and Nakoa sleeps with a dagger in his hand. Males.

I try to sleep but end up looking at the night sky outside the building and the million stars. “Do you like the stars, Dray?”

Dray looks over at me, pausing for a long beat. “When I was first created, I stumbled out into the new world and looked up. The stars were the first light to warm me before I learnt my powers and embraced the fire. So yes.”

“I love them too,” I tell him. “One of the reasons I wanted to escape was just to be outside the city and see the stars.”

He doesn’t say anything for a long time, but I feel him looking at me. “The woman in the painting, she was my lover, partner, or whatever you wish to call it.”

Flaring jealousy burns in my chest, and I stay very still as he continues, “I do not wish to lie to you and start out whatever this will be with lies. Sallette was the only female I allowed into my lands, and she lived with me for two hundred years. She was a witch, like your witch lord, but one of the first of her kind.

“How did a witch end up in a city of dragons?”

“She came by chance to my city for refuge, somewhere to hide from a god hunting her. I was reluctant to let her in, but after so many years of being alone, it was a mistake I made. Our relationship was…toxic, but I loved her in my own way.”

“Did the god hunting her find her?” I question.

“No, I killed him before he stood a chance,” he replies. “But it was in those times, Arawn rose from the ashes. He came to the city, and he killed her in front of me. He also murdered five of my guards, close friends of mine.”

“By the fires,” I whisper. Dray keeps looking forward, like he is watching it happen all over again. “I couldn’t save her. He burnt her into nothing but ash in front of me and stepped in it, laughing. He left me in my grief, not before burning half the city.” He pauses, finally looking at me. His eyes are like burning flames, but I don’t flinch away from him. “That’s when I went to those more powerful than even Arawn. I took enough power to do what was needed, but I knew I would be punished, and I was. A curse for me, and a curse for all my people.”

“I’m sorry, Dray,” I tell him, and I truly am. I might be jealous of this woman, but seeing someone he loved die, I couldn’t imagine that pain. It still bothers me that he has a picture of her in his bedroom, where he wakes up to look at her. He looks at her every night before he falls asleep, but he is chasing me as his mate.

“Do you actually want me, or is it just because I’m your mate and the magic says that we should be together? Is that all it is between us? That desire pushed by magic?”

He looks at me, humming over my many questions. An amused smirk tilts up his pretty lips. “I like you jealous.”

“I’m not,” I growl.

I only make him smile further, and he leans close to me, and I pause in shock. His eyes search my own. “For me, it only took one look from you to make me burn. When you stop hating me, I’ll show you what else I can do to make you fonder of me.”

My cheeks burn, every passage of the dirty books I stole from the city library running through my mind, as I know exactly what he is suggesting. I only read them because I overheard so much about sex from the males talking about it, and Reine wouldn’t tell me much more than the basics. The books taught me so much more.

Dray leans back and looks at the stars again. “Get some sleep. We have a long day tomorrow.”

I lie back down, my whole body alight and unable to sleep. After tossing and turning a few times, Dray grumbles and soon his warm body presses against my back, a wing wrapping around me. I hate that, in his arms, I fall asleep almost instantly.

Chapter

Fourteen

NIMUE “NIMMY” WINDSHIRE

“A re you lost?” a male voice questions. “This castle can confuse even me at times.”

I spin around to see one of the king’s guards. Apollon. He is standing behind me, his arms crossed against his black leathers, and my cheeks blush.

“I’m sorry. Was I not allowed to search around the castle? I got a bit bored in my rooms,” I reply.

“No, you’re free to look around. May I show you some places that might keep you entertained?” he replies. The offer is innocent, that I can tell, but he is still a male. Every male I’ve ever known, other than my younger cousin, has tried to hurt me in some way. I look up at the very handsome dragon shifter, looming over me with how tall he is. I’m a bit speechless in his presence and have been since I met him. He is absolutely stunning. His white hair looks so soft, his tanned skin makes me look pale in comparison. He has a slim build, but his shoulders are quite built underneath the black leathers that show all of his body off. He must work out every day. The most workout I get is shifting into my wolf—who is very pissed with me at the moment, considering I’ve only shifted once since being free.

This male…I could have wanted once. Before I learnt how cruel males can be. This one…his presence makes me feel safe for some insane reason. I’ve never had a chance to actually look at a male and wonder what it would be like to have them kiss me because I want them to. Even being alone with this dragon is making my wolf tense up inside me, ready to shift and bite if need be.

Apollon waits patiently for my answer. “I’m quite alright, but thank you for the offer.”

My voice is sharper than I wanted it to be, but I let him search my eyes for a second, like peeping into my soul, and I wonder if he can see how much I fear males. If he can see the years of abuse and how I had everything stripped from me.

I’ve never been free until now, and I don’t know how to accept that I’m safe. “Okay. May I sit?” He waves at the bench near the window.

“I don’t see how I could stop you.”

“You simply have to say no, and I will leave,” he tells me.

I pause at his honest answer, my wolf settling down. “Okay.”

He sits on the bench, spreading out his long arms, and I turn back to continue to look out of the window. It gives me a perfect view over the city, and I can’t stop looking, finding new things everywhere I search. The tall buildings with sparkling crystals on top are my favourite parts, alongside how the light pours in from many tunnels above. It really is beautiful. I even like how they use mirrors to reflect the most light around the city, making it so bright. It’s been crafted to absolute perfection and yet hidden from sight. No one would ever know it’s here, and I like that.

“May I speak plainly to you?” Apollon asks. I glance at him and nod. “I can’t say much about your past as I do not know it all, but I can guess what happened to you—”

“It’s none of your business, and I don’t need you to feel sorry for me,” I growl.

He holds his hands in the air. “I am not offering you pity, Nimmy. I just want you to know there’s someone here who will listen if you want to shout and scream or simply talk. If you want to learn how to fight, if you want anything, come to me and I will help you in any way that I can.”

I look back at the shifter, taking in his beautiful and open hazel eyes. “Why would you do that?”

“Because not all males like to see females suffer. Some of us like to protect and cherish females they know,” he tells me, placing his hands on his knees. “I believe every female should know how to protect themselves, and that includes you.”

I believe him. “Alright. Thank you.”

“It is no problem,” he replies. “I also was told you haven’t eaten much of the food. I wanted to check you are feeling okay and don’t need a healer.”

The food here is amazing, but I struggle with it more than Sophie did. She happily tried all the food they gave us, but I couldn’t eat much at all. I look at the floor. “I’ve been used to stale bread, mould-covered cheeses, and rotten forms of food for years. Your food is vibrant, rich and full of herbs, and honestly, it was very difficult to eat because I’m not used to it.”

“I understand this,” he tenderly replies.

“How could you?” I question, curious for a moment.

“One of my missions for my goddess many years ago went wrong, and I had to stay undercover for a long time in a place that sadly had no food. I was young, not fully grown, and starving did not help my dragon grow.”

“My wolf never really got to fully grow. I hope I can change this and she can catch up,” I softly say.

“It took a few years, but my dragon grew and came back stronger than ever,” he tells me, and I think of my wolf, growing healthy and back to what she should be. We wouldn’t be weak anymore, and no one could hurt us again.

Apollon gets up off the bench and comes to the window, standing nearby but not close enough to touch me. I like that he gives me my space, and I like the normal conversation we are having, more than I ever thought I would.

As he looks over the city, I watch his strange wings, and I run my eyes over them. They’re light gold, almost yellow, but look so strong. I bet light would shine through them, and it would be so lovely to see. He catches me looking and smiles. “Have you not seen anyone with wings before?”

Sadness and fear trace their way back into my chest, and I place my hand over my heart. “I met and cared for two female angels. They were killed by the humans, and I met a few angel males…”

“All of them bastards,” he grunts. I don’t disagree with him. “My offer still stands. I have great hearing, so you can call for me anywhere in here, and I will come to you.”

“Then—”

I pause as someone’s shout echoes through the castle. “Where is she?”

Apollon moves straight in front of me, ready to protect me instantly as the floor slightly shakes. He slips out a dagger from his waistband and holds it at his side. “Stay close.”

I do as he asks as we move down the corridor, towards the shouting. His footsteps are nearly silent, just like mine. I learnt how to be silent as a kid, but I’ve never heard anyone who can move as silently as I can.

We slip down a few more corridors, hearing more shouting up ahead before coming out near the throne room. I go around Apollon, and he reaches his arm out and then puts his finger to his lips and nods ahead. In front of me is a beautiful woman, and she’s glowing a forest green colour, the floor cracking under her feet. Her blonde hair falls around her waist, and she looks very familiar.

“The wolf queen,” Apollon whispers to me, and I nod. Serei’s mother, of course. She is an alpha female, like her daughter, and my wolf instantly cowers. She looks like an absolute goddess, and she’s shouting at Reine, Serei’s aunt.

“Where is my daughter?” she demands. “I’ve had enough lies and messages. I’ve heard that she’s not well.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you’ve heard that when it’s a secret,” Reine replies. “We’re doing everything we can to save her, and that’s all you need to know.”

“Where is she then?”

“She isn’t in the castle,” Reine replies, and the wolf queen’s face drops, her skin going pale, her eyes furious.

“Why?” she asks coldly.

“It’s a long story, Mai, but she’s hurt, and the only way to deal with it is to take it to someone. King Draycian has taken her to save her,” Reine roughly explains.

“Explain to me why you would trust a king she has already run from and who caused her to get hurt?” she demands.

“She did that to herself, not intentionally, but through magic. She believed that none of us cared for her, and trusted the wrong person, who manipulated her from a young age. He secretly spoke to her, and she never told us. I didn’t suspect anything. This male is a fallen god, and only King Draycian can stop him. Arawn opened a portal, a step between worlds, and took her over to the human lands while he escaped your prisons. Things did not go well for her there, but she found friends, and she fought her way out before the king found her.”

Queen Mai pauses, taking all this in, and she looks like she might be sick. Reine keeps talking. “Where they have to go is dangerous, and they had to go instantly, so they were not here for long, or I would have called for you. I needed to care for her with the time I had.”

“I am her mother, and you should have called for me,” Queen Mai states.

“There was not time,” Reine replies, holding her ground, and the queen seems to back down.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“If there was, I would have begged for it by now,” Reine replies, her eyes filling with tears. “I love her dearly, as much as I love you and my sons.”

“Come back to the pack lands, aunt, if he will allow you,” Queen Mai softly says. “We have not spoken nearly at all in years, and I know it’s because of your guilt and missing your mate. The truth is, we wouldn’t have survived without what you did, and he would want you to be with your family. I do forgive you, you know that, right?”

Reine looks over and pauses. “We have guests.”

Queen Mai turns her gaze our way, and I realise her eyes are the same as Serei’s. Maybe Serei’s are a little darker, but they look very alike. “Come over.”

The command is clear, and I look up at Apollon. “Will you come with me?”

“Yes,” he replies, a bit of surprise in his eyes. For some reason, having him close makes it all seem a little less frightening as we walk up to the two powerful females.

Reine introduces me even though we have only met a few times. “This is Nimue Windshire, and she is a friend of your daughter’s. I believe she helped her when your daughter was near death, and they are close.”

“Then I owe you a great deal,” Queen Mai says, smiling warmly at me. “You’re a shifter, right? Your scent is a little different from any bloodlines I know.”

“Yes,” I respond with a smile.

“Before Serei left, she said that Nimmy’s family, her aunt and her cousin, came over on a ship from the human lands a few years ago, and she wishes to find them,” Reine says, and my cheeks warm.

“Is this true, Nimmy?” Queen Mai questions.

“Y-yes,” I stumble out. “I was hoping that maybe we could find them in your pack. If it’s not too much to ask.”

“For someone who helped save my daughter’s life, the princess of our pack, then it is not something that’s a problem at all,” Queen Mai replies.

“It wasn’t just me that saved her, but I looked after her,” I blurt out, and she shakes her head.

“Either way, you are a friend of the royal family,” she tells me, and I feel a warm sense of belonging in my chest.

I go to thank her when two male wolves walk in, and I move closer to Apollon. By the wolf, they look like gods. Both of them are muscular, imposing and handsome. And alphas.

I lower my head as they come closer, and see Queen Mai turn to them. “Silas, Valentine, she isn’t here. I will explain everything, but we should leave for now.”

“Are you sure?” the one called Valentine questions.

“Yes,” she firmly states and looks at me. “You’re welcome to come with us back to the city to search for your family. It would be a great honour to help you find them. I believe all families should be reunited. You’d live in the castle, have somewhere safe to stay, and food if you like to eat.”

The idea of being in a city with loads of unknown males and females overwhelms me, but not as much as the urge to find my aunt and cousin. I barely even remember what they look like anymore, but their names and scents are forever on my mind. I spent so, so many years just wishing to see them.

Apollon gently touches my shoulder for the first time. A male touches me, and I don’t want to scream and run away. “Would it help if I came with you as a guard? I can appoint someone else to run the castle, and therefore you’d have protection in the strange city.”

He looks at Queen Mai, bowing his head once. “If that is allowed?”

She smiles at us. “We welcome all dragons into our lands.”

“Yes, thank you,” I say to Apollon, and his eyes light up. Queen Mai and the alphas talk quietly with Reine for a bit before we leave, and as we step outside, I glance up at Apollon at my side. “Will you teach me to fight?”

“It would be my honour, Nimmy,” he replies, and I smile, feeling my soul rest for the first time in years.

Chapter

Fifteen

I  blink my eyes open to the sound of howling wind, and I already know that we’re flying away before I fully look around. Dray’s hard body presses against mine, my head resting on his chest, and I run a hand over my face to wake up. There were no dreams the last few nights, nor any attacks from Arawn, and I’m starting to get suspicious about why he has gone silent. Maybe he is just waiting for me to die, which will be soon at this rate. I never thought about my life ending so early, and now it’s one of the first things on my mind as I wake up, feeling my body and soul fading into the mark. Into him. I glance up at the dragon king, holding me so closely as he glides through the surrounding skies. His hair is a little damp, like mine, and gold locks are falling into his forehead that I want to sweep away.

“You’re awake,” Dray says, his voice like a whisper, hidden by the wind. “We had to move, and you passed out. Do you remember?”

The last thing I remember was us flying out of a hut in a forest that we stayed in last night after two more days of flying. Every part of me aches, and I definitely don’t remember passing out. I’m getting worse. I don’t even need to look into Dray’s eyes to see he is worried about me. His eyes, though, are full of something much deeper than worry. Dread.

“I don’t remember,” I honestly reply. “Stop looking at me like I’m going to die any second. You’re freaking me out.”

“Your hair’s turning blacker by the hour, and you are so pale, Serei,” he tightly replies. “I won’t lie to you. We are running out of time.”

“How much longer until we get there?” I question, hating that I’m not strong enough to even argue with him. To tell him he shouldn’t care about me like he does because I’m a walking disaster. I doubt he cares that much, anyway. He just doesn’t want me to die because I’m meant to be his mate and queen. That isn’t love. It isn’t real. It’s a commitment.

“Soon. We’re not stopping now,” he replies, and I lean against his chest as he picks up speed once more, flying like the wind through the air. I look around us, seeing more mountain ranges with deep canyons. These mountains aren’t snowy. Instead, they are almost dusty with orange sand, and the mountains themselves are a deep shade of brown, hinting on red. The sun is high in the sky, shining brightly down on us, and the sunlight makes Dray’s wings almost sparkle like real gold.

Dray dives straight down, turning suddenly into one of the canyons, making a puff of dust float out around us. I peep through the dust, covering my eyes just as he speeds up, straight towards a solid wall. I close my eyes, trusting him not to kill us, and when I open my eyes, we are flying right up the wall and into a hole at the top of a cave that can’t be seen from outside. He banks left, into another hole in the cave and dives us right down a tunnel. The air feels thin, and I suck in a deep breath, the pressure of the fall making my stomach jump around right before Dray spreads his wings out into a glide. We’re flying above a sparkling green lake that stretches for miles in either direction, impossible to see how far, and it’s completely still. A damp mossy scent fills my senses, along with how warm it is in here. The green water is deep and so clear I can see down into its depths, to the many strange creatures swimming around below. I swear a few eyes gleam up at me, along with a flash of sharp teeth. I cling to Dray closer, not wanting to be food for whatever is in this lake.

“See how the lake glows?” he whispers to me, his voice echoing around the cave. “It’s said to glow with the souls trapped below.”

“Souls?” I repeat. “You mean people are trapped below there?”

“Yes,” he replies. “And fierce creatures I wouldn’t ever wish for you to meet.”

“How old are the creatures?” I ask instead.

“Older than I.”

“So pretty old, then, huh?” I question, and his laugh chases away my nerves for a short time.

Dray flies us right to the edge of the lake, where there is a smooth rock platform, with two green-burning flames in metal stands.

He lets me go, watching me closely while I focus on standing without falling as I wait for Nakoa and Tarrent to land. Nakoa practically drops Tarrent onto the ground nearby, and Tarrent rolls to a stop, smoothly standing up afterwards. Nakoa lands at my side, running his eyes over me and not looking overly happy at what he sees. I must look terrible then.

“Nakoa, Tarrent. You two are to guard this door,” Dray commands them. “Any sign of trouble, you call for me. If you see Arawn, fly the fuck away because he will kill you.”

“He could try,” Tarrent replies. “And the old gods will want something for this. You should let me take her.”

“She is mine,” he replies coolly. “And I will protect her. Guard the entrance.”

“We will,” Nakoa states, cutting in. “Wasting time arguing on this will only hurt Serei more.”

“And I’d like my blonde hair back as soon as possible,” I half-heartedly joke with a nervous smile. I slide out my dagger from Valentine and hold it out to Nakoa. “I don’t need this in there, but it will give you warning. Therefore, you’ll have more time to warn me.”

“You should keep it,” Nakoa says, stepping closer and curling his hand around mine on the dagger.

“Would you refuse a gift from your queen?” Dray’s voice is pure ice, and I swear it’s nothing but jealousy. He doesn’t like that I’m giving another male a gift, and I understand it, but this isn’t the time.

“Never,” Nakoa firmly replies and takes the dagger from me. “Be safe, Serei.”

I nod, pushing down the flashback of our kiss and the burning desire to kiss him right now. Just in case I don’t walk out of this cave.

“Do not follow us,” Dray commands. “She will not let you go, and whatever you do, do not go into the water.”

Tarrent walks up to me and pulls out one of his black swords from his back and offers me it. This close, the blade is even more impressive. The onyx is gleaming, and silver symbols are etched down the edges of the blade. The handle is made of black leather and worn from years of use. “This is an enchanted witch blade. It will protect you if I ask it to. It can cut through anything, as I was told, and I’ve yet to be proven wrong.”

“I don’t—”

“Take it.” He pushes the blade into my hand, his blue eyes on mine. “The swords have never been separated from each other or out of my bloodline before, so don’t lose it.”

“No pressure,” I chuckle. “Thank you.”

Dray’s eyes are on the blade, something crossing his features like the blade is very familiar to him. “Come back to us, princess. I want to see how you can fight when you’re not sick. I believe I might have found a worthy opponent,” Tarrent says.

“It’s a date,” I reply, making his lips tilt up. I clench the sword in my hand and look at Dray, nodding once. “I’m ready.”

He wraps his arm around my waist and clicks his fingers. A spear made of burning red fire light appears in his hand, and he twirls it around a few times before he nods at a massive cave entrance. There’s a thin strip of white around the edge of the cave, and on it are symbols that I can’t read, but I get the sense they are very old. They twist and turn, like a sentence, and so many of them fill every inch of the space. “It’s a warning in one of the old languages. Do not pass this way unless you wish for death.”

“Sounds promising,” I nervously reply. “What is the goddess’s name?”

“Adrasteia,” he says, and I swear the walls shake around us in response to the name. The walls are smooth rock, but it’s bright thanks to the little trickles of green water flowing around down the walls into two small streams on either side of the corridor. The only part that freaks me out is how silent it is. There isn’t a creak, a squeak of a mouse, or even a movement in the rocks. It’s still, unnaturally so. “She has been bound to this cave for a millennium.”

“Why?”

“She was once a beautiful maiden, untouched but with beauty enough to make any male beg for her. For years, she fell in love with a mortal who helped look after the gardens around her home,” he begins to explain.

“Love is always the downfall in these kinds of stories,” I reply.

“It’s usually the beginning and end too,” he responds. “One day, he asked her to leave with him, and she did. She gave up her life, her sisters and her titles. They lived a happy life, as it’s been told, for many years until one day he brought her here and left her here trapped forever. No one knows why or what she did, only that the man who did this became a king. A very rich king of many lands. He lived a long life, longer than most mortals would.”

“Do you think someone paid him to trick Adrasteia?”

“Yes,” he replies. “She grew stronger, strong enough to lure people into her cave with her powers and feed off them in a similar way Arawn does. Her magic was always so untouched before she ran away with the mortal. She never even knew what she was before she decided to love him.”

“So sad,” I whisper. “He turned her into a monster.”

“Her magic is nearly endless, as much as her life in this tunnel is, and she can never leave,” he explains. “Do not worry, Adrasteia got her revenge. She tricked the king’s only son into coming here, lured by her beauty and charm. She became with child by the king’s son before killing him. The king came soon afterwards to try and save his son, only to find her holding a newborn baby and his son’s body at her feet. It’s said that she kept the king alive here, to watch and suffer for all eternity. Her daughter became queen at the age of eighteen, and I believe her bloodline still comes to visit Adrasteia all these years later.”

“Wow,” I whisper. “That’s…”

“Being immortal gets endless at times, and some go mad,” Dray replies. “I’ve told you this story so you are aware of who we are going to face.”

Crazy goddess. Got it.

The corridor gets darker by the second, and Dray lets me stand on my own, carefully balancing my weight. My leg is burning as he makes a ball of flames in his hand, brushing the corridor with its warm light. “She should have found us by now.”

A kind, free laugh echoes in my ears, and I turn, flinching from the pain in my leg, to search for the voice I heard.

“Dray, did you hear that?” I ask, looking over my shoulder, but I find he is gone, the flames with him. “DRAY? NAKOA? TARRENT?”

No one answers my calls, and the air starts to feel cold, freezing almost. I tighten my grip on the sword, blowing out a breath to calm my nerves.

The laughter rings out again, and this time I hear the noise coming from the wall. The wall slowly runs with green water until it’s a waterfall, and the water pools at my feet. But the water isn’t clear. There’s an image in the ripples of the water. It’s clearly my mother, without her alpha marks, and she’s younger than I’ve seen her. Her blonde hair is long, and she is thin but absolutely beautiful. She is running through a forest with a tall dark-haired male I don’t know. He suddenly shifts into a giant white wolf, pressing against my mum, and his wolf looks exactly like mine. “Your wolf is so handsome. You will make a great alpha one day.”

Alpha?

Mum doesn’t shift as the wolf howls, and they run off through the woods together. The image blurs, and this time is different. It’s at night, stars littering the skies and the trees casting looming shadows everywhere. My mama is naked, curled up in a ball on the floor, dirt and leaves covering her, along with bruises and cuts. She is crying, and each noise cuts through my chest.

“Mama,” I whisper, placing my hand in the water, and it glides around my fingers. Her cries echo in my ears, and I know I won’t ever forget them.

“Did your mother never tell you of how you were conceived?”

Arawn’s icy voice vibrates in the air around me, but I can’t move. Can’t breathe as I stare at my mama on the forest floor, blood pooling around her.

“No,” I whisper.

His warm breath blows on my ear, and I flinch. “Do you need me to say it? What your father did to your mother?”

“It’s not real. It’s not true,” I whisper, tears falling down my cheeks. I spin around, coming face to face with Arawn. “You’re playing tricks on me, and I won’t ever believe you.”

“On my magic, on my soul as a god, I vow this truth to you,” he responds with a cruel smile. I barely feel the mark burning onto my hand, the vow he just gave me and linked with his magic.

He isn’t lying.

No. No. No. No.

Chapter

Sixteen

“Y ou’re lying!” I shout, wobbling on my feet. I can’t move, my bad leg barely holding me up. Arawn looks less like flame now and more like a real male, about to kill me, from the gleam in his eyes. His eyes haven’t changed even a little since we first met. Black flames that flicker in a way that lures you in with their beauty. But now I realise I was being led into a bottomless lake to drown. He is wearing a black shirt with green cuffs and dark trousers. Like Dray, he doesn’t hold any weapons, because he doesn’t need them. He only needs the fire.

I lift the sword between us, pulling every inch of strength I have into this. I’m not going down easy.

“I am not, little wolf,” he taunts with a smile like a snake. “Why do you think your mother never told you about who your father was? All those times you asked, and she would go pale and not say a word. Secretly, I think you knew something was wrong. Secretly, in all those whispers to me in the flames, I know you have been thinking it.”

My heart hurts in my chest, and I clutch the sword tightly. “Stop it.”

He takes a step closer, letting my sword rest inches away from his face. “Your mother didn’t tell you because she didn’t want you to grow up thinking that you’re a monster just like me. She didn’t want you to know the cold, empty truth.”

“I’m not a monster,” I grit my teeth.

“Your father was until your mother’s mates ripped him apart. He was the alpha of the Ravensword Pack,” he says. “His name was Sylvester Ravensword, and you are a monster, just like him. Like the blood in your veins.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s only blood, and I never even knew him. I’m more like my mum, and she loves me,” I counter. “Even if it’s true, it doesn’t change anything.”

My hands shake, giving away that it does mean everything. I feel like my world has been ripped out from underneath me. “You believe she loves you? Truly?”

His laugh is haunting. “Did you know your mother got rid of you? She nearly instantly gave you away when you were born and begged for her memories of you to be taken.”

“No,” I whisper, hot tears falling down my face.

“I imagine she has tried to love you, but you won’t compare to her son she had willingly with her mates,” he coolly replies. “You are the hidden secret, the shame of her past. A stain she gave away willingly when King Draycian took you.”

“You’re lying,” I bite out. “I don’t—”

“You know I’m not lying,” he retorts, and I hate that he is right. “Your father pretended to be your mother’s friend and then raped and destroyed her, left her pregnant with you, and I bet every time she looks at you, she sees him.”

I’m shaking from head to toe as he runs his finger down my sword. It doesn’t cut him at all. “We were both born into the darkness. Both villains in this story, you just haven’t realised it yet.”

“I am not a villain,” I tell him sharply. That, I am sure of.

He continues stroking his finger down the blade all the way to my hand. His touch stings, and I pull my hand away. “I saw you when you stabbed your dagger into that human’s heart. The pleasure on your face. You hated yourself that you enjoyed it, didn’t you?”

“He deserved to die,” I say. “It doesn’t make me a villain. It doesn’t make me as evil as you are.”

He disappears in front of me, and I swiftly turn around to find him behind me. My heart races. Dray, where are you?

I don’t risk looking for him or taking my eyes off Arawn for even a second. “Looking for King Draycian?”

I hold my head high, even when my heart feels crushed. “He will be here soon, and he will kill you.”

“I can’t be killed,” he whispers to me, like it’s a funny secret. “Neither can you, as you’re mine.”

“I’m not yours,” I snap.

“Ah, so you’re his? Has he told you what Mnemosyne had him do? What he was born to do?”

I pause, and he sees my answer in my eyes. He smiles widely, showing off his black, sharp teeth. “They called him the torturer of the Vanir, but I always thought he should have just kept the torturer title, considering he butchered anyone Mnemosyne commanded of him.”

Torturer of the Vanir? Of his own people?

“That isn’t the king I know now,” I reply. “If he was that male, he isn’t now.”

“Ah, you are so quick to defend him,” he replies with a cool smile. “I should have known you’d break to the mate bond.”

“You don’t know anything. You don’t love anything,” I snap. “Why do you hate him so much? You killed his lover, you killed his friends. Why?”

“Because he’s declared himself king of a race that is mine. This world is mine, you are mine, and I will take it all back,” he states, but I feel like he isn’t telling me the whole truth.

“I am not yours,” I remind him.

“Oh, but you are,” he replies. “You may have a mate bond to him, but you are predestined to be mine. I saw you when I came out of the flames the very first time, and I asked Mnemosyne why I had seen this female, a female clearly not from our time. I still searched the world, just in case, while I waited to see Mnemosyne’s answer. She looked into my mind, saw you, and blanched away in fear. A goddess feared you.”

A shiver rattles down my spine. “She told me that this female would be mine in the future, but I would never be truly yours. She said the woman was pure flames, the flames she has always searched for and prayed to the gods that made her that you would die at birth.”

“Sounds like Mnemosyne had a few issues,” I taunt, knowing he once was her lover and killed her in a jealous fit. “Just as crazy as you are.”

His eyes flash with anger, black flames flickering around his body. “I will be whatever you wish when we are finally connected. Together, we will rule this world.”

“I don’t fancy it, sorry,” I sarcastically reply. “So if you will kindly get the fuck out of my way, I need to find Adrasteia.”

He laughs and I freeze. “Adrasteia is busy with Draycian, making sure he cannot leave this cave. You could say she’s an old friend of mine. A lover.”

“Is there anyone you haven’t slept with?” I snap, the last bit of hope I had drifting away. Without Adrasteia’s help, I can’t break the bond.

“You will feel different soon, my little wolf,” he smoothly replies, taking a step closer. I lift the sword higher, panic racing through my heart, and suddenly my hand blazes with fire. I feel Dray in my soul, connected to me, and like a wall comes down in my mind, I hear him. “Fight. I’m coming for you. Fight him!”

The sword suddenly lights up with orange fire, burning bright like a star, and for a second, Arawn looks nervous. I lift my sword, crashing it down towards him, but he moves so fast, jumping right in front of me and grabbing my wrist. My wrist snaps and I scream, the room going blurry as the sword falls from my hand. Before I can blink, he grabs my arm with the mark on it, and the second his fingers touch the mark, my knees go out from under me. Pain like I’ve never known it cracks down my spine and spreads across my body. Black flames swirl around Arawn and me as I scream.

Red, beautiful fire pours out of my chest and right into Arawn, whose face brightens in pleasure, taking every bit of my soul. Arawn looks down at me, his eyes glowing like dark stars. “When this is done, we shall rule the world.”

Black dots swim in my vision, and I feel like I’m floating, the pain drifting away, and all I can feel is Dray. I struggle to keep my eyes open, just as Dray smacks into Arawn, who is torn from me, and I fall to the ground. Blurrily, I watch the corridor burst into angry red flames as Dray punches Arawn in the face before grabbing his neck and smacking him into the wall.

“You should have never touched her, Arawn,” Draycian growls. He doesn’t look like he usually does. His skin is covered in gold scales, and silver horns curl out of his head. His wings are more scales than anything else, and fire licks up the back of them.

Arawn stands up, tilting his head to the side. “Is it familiar, losing one you love twice to the same male?”

Draycian growls and reaches for Arawn, who disappears in flames.

He reappears at the end of the corridor and winks. “You have seconds with her before she is mine, and she will come to me.” He looks at me. “See you soon, my queen.”

He disappears into black flames, and Dray frantically runs to me, collapsing to his knees at my side. He picks me up in his arms, cradling me against his chest and placing his hand on my chest.

Everything is fading so quickly that I can feel my heart slowing. I’m going to die. “I d-don’t hate you.”

His eyes find mine, softer than I’ve ever seen. “No, you won’t. I can’t see you die, because I don’t hate you either.”

“Dray,” I whisper softly, my heart barely moving anymore.

He leans down, his lips inches from mine. “Forgive me for this.”

His warm lips press into mine softly, and then they burn. He breathes pure fire down my throat and into my soul, and I know I will never be the same again.

Chapter

Seventeen

A  still dark puddle of water spreads out around the endlessly dark place. Something feels wrong, so utterly wrong, and I struggle to even remember what happened. It all hits me fast, sucking the air out of my lungs. My father, Arawn, Dray…and the kiss of fire. I don’t know what he did, but I could see the regret and desperation in his eyes before it all went black. My hands clutch a black dress I’m wearing as I stand in the empty space and wonder if I died. Is this what death is?

I touch the puddle with my hand, but it feels nothing but cold and not wet at all. I rise up and look around, wondering if I need to walk somewhere.

If there is a chance this isn’t my death.

“Hello?” I call out, my voice echoing on and on until it’s swallowed by the distance. I wrap my arms around myself. If this is my death, then there is nothing I can do but embrace it.

“This is not your death, Serendipity Fall, daughter of Mairin Fall and princess of the wolves,” a looming, deep voice states. I look to my right to see three gigantic white wolves padding through the water, which parts for them, and when their gazes hit me, I feel it. I buckle to my knees from their power, not even able to lift my head to face them. What the hell are they?

“We are the Wolven gods, and you are of the blood of our chosen,” a deep, colder voice answers my thought.

The power from their voices seems to shatter the air around me, and my hands shake as I watch them stop near, all in a line. The Wolven gods. I’ve heard of them, whispers really from conversations I’ve overheard from the shifters and even Dray. I assumed they were other gods like Hades and Persephone, who my mum told me about. No one’s ever told me what they are, but I know outright I should fear them. A deep, instinctual fear overtakes me and makes me want to bow forever.

“Why am I here?” I question out loud, my voice so quiet compared to theirs.

“We want you to kill Draycian of the house of Mnemosyne.”

The demand hangs in the air between us, and I finally manage to lift my head, to meet the wolves’ eyes. The one in the middle, his eyes are like silver stars and outright terrifying. It was he who made that command, and the way he looks at me, I’m nothing but a slave to follow his order.

“I can never do that,” I reply, giving them my answer. I don’t hate you. His words repeat over in my mind, again and again. He saved my life, fought for me, would have given up anything to save me, and I can’t kill him. “He is my intended mate. Our lives are linked, and you are demanding I cut off a part of my own soul.”

“Those feelings will pass,” the wolf on the left responds, his voice bored. “Deep down, you know he is a monster, and he will never stop being one. He took you from your family, your throne and forced himself into your life. I’m sure that you’ll find a way to hate him just as much as you did.”

“You’re asking the wrong person,” I coldly reply, forcing myself to stand. “Kill me if you must, but I will not agree to this.”

“Do you not wish to know what you will lose if you refuse us?”

My mouth goes dry, and my heart pounds. “What will I lose?”

“Your family,” the middle wolf states. “We will burn the pack lands down, hunt every shifter and angel until shifters are nothing more than an old story the humans will tell. The blood will be on your hands.”

If I thought my heart couldn’t be more broken, I was wrong. It splinters into a million pieces, and I can’t move as tears fall down my cheeks.

“Why do you want him killed?”

The one on the right, who has not spoken, takes one step forward. His voice is softer than the others, but no less powerful. “He came here, and he stole our power. He stole power that he should never have had, should never be given. Our power is not to walk this earth.”

“But he took what was not his to save his people, to save the world from Arawn. He is cursed, isn’t that enough? His people are cursed,” I plead, and something becomes clear. “You were the ones to cast the curse.”

“Yes,” the kinder Wolven god replies. “A punishment, but now, before it’s too late, we must have our power back.”

The other two wolves growl at him, and he takes a step back, his eyes on mine, and it’s almost like he is trying to tell me something.

The middle one speaks. “We do not care about the lives of mortals or shifters or anything else. We live in-between, and we exist outside time. You will do as we ask.”

I look at the puddle of water below me, seeing my own reflection. My hair is nearly all black now, save a few gold strands that shine through, but there are marks on my arms and shoulders and chest that I can see around the dress. I don’t even look like myself anymore. What did Dray do?

“You have fourteen days to end his life,” the middle one demands. “We will be watching you, Serendipity Fall, and our wrath will be mighty if you disobey us.”

Two of them disappear, the one on the right staying a little longer. His eyes stare into mine, and before he fades, I hear his voice in my mind. “Trust the witch lord with your truth.”

WARM, thick sheets are pressed around me, and I curl my toes in the sheets, opening my eyes and looking up at the mosaic ceiling. Gold, black and fire-red pieces of glass make up the entire ceiling and look like beautiful patterns. I’m back in Dray’s bedroom, and that means he brought me back to the city. His scent calms me, only for a second before everything, including the dream, comes back to me.

It wasn’t just a dream.

“We have a lot to discuss,” Dray’s deep voice nearly makes me jump. I turn on the bed, my black hair pooling around my shoulders as I face him. He is leaning against the window, looking out at the city, and his expression is clouded.

“We do,” I agree. I need to find a way to tell him about the Wolven gods and what they asked me to do, but the warning they are watching presses on me. I can’t kill him, and I can’t face losing my family.

I don’t know what to do. I push the thoughts to the back of mind, letting dark thoughts take over and sweep in. My father…

“What did Arawn say to you before I got there?”

I look at him, meeting his solid gold eyes. “Too many things.”

If he reads the pain in my eyes, he doesn’t say anything, but a tic in his jaw appears. I look down at my hands, frowning as I see twisted swirling marks peering from my middle finger all the way up my arm, and I glance at my chest underneath a white robe I’m in, finding the marks there too. They weren’t just in the dream. I don’t feel weak anymore, and my leg doesn’t hurt at all. I search for my wolf, breathing a sigh of relief when I find her tucked into my mind, desperate for me to shift.

Soon, my friend.

“What in the fires are these marks?” I question.

“You were dying, Arawn nearly took everything from you, and a second later your heart would have stopped,” Dray states, his voice so guarded it makes me cross my arms. “To save you, I had to give you my fires. The fire deep in my soul, one of immortality and bonding. I can only give it once, and only to my mate. I feared even that wouldn’t work—until those marks appeared and your heart pounded in your chest once more.”

“The fires…” I say, frowning. “What does that mean?”

“We will have forever together, my mate,” he replies. “You are my mate now.”

The words take more than a second to dig in, as I’m just in sheer disbelief. “You made me your mate?”

“Yes,” he replies. “We will discuss this more when you are more rested. You have been sleeping for three weeks.”

I grit my teeth and look away, needing time to process all of this. It’s too much. I clear my throat. “Where are Nakoa and Tarrent? Are they okay?”

His growl surprises me. “Tarrent is fine, and Nakoa is in my prisons for kissing you. Do not ask me to get him out.”

“What?” I demand, anger building in my chest. “You will let him out right now.”

“No,” he replies, his voice like venom as he storms to the door. He looks back at me, and a slow smile raises his lips up. “Don’t burn my bedsheets.”

I frown, wondering what he is talking about, but when I look down, my skin is swarming with fire. It swirls right under my skin, bright orange and red flames, but it slowly fades as I calm down. I focus on breathing normally for a second as I climb off the bed, my warm feet hitting the cold wooden floor.

I go to the mirror, looking at the marks on my body and pulling the rope over my head so I can fully look at myself. The swirls go down my chest, around my breasts, all the way to my stomach where a flame is around my belly button. The flame is really quite beautiful, so detailed, and I swear the black marks look red for a moment.

I lift my wrist, the Wolven mark still there, and I know Arawn isn’t going to just leave us alone. Between the Wolven gods and Arawn, I’m not sure who I should fear the most. Likely all of them.

Trust the witch lord with your truth.

The Wolven god’s last words flash in my mind, along with Nakoa in the prisons. I need Tarrent’s help, and he could get Nakoa out too. I find my clothes in a bag by the wardrobe and start pulling on my black leggings and leather top, bunching my soft black hair into a ponytail. The dark colour is not something I like.

Two guards wait outside my room when I open the door. “Our queen, you—”

“Don’t try to stop me,” I growl back at him. He pauses, looking at the other guard, and they both gulp. I don’t wait for their decision as I make my way down the corridor and to the throne room, knowing the stairs are on the other side.

I pause, going still when I see Dray holding a female tightly, her arms around his neck and his around her back. Her long black hair flows down her back, and she is thin but curvy in a way I’ve always wanted to be. She scents like Tarrent and Devika, confusing me. Is she a witch? If so, what is she doing here?

Dray turns to me, letting the female go, and when she faces me, it’s like the world drops out from underneath my feet.

Sallette. His not so dead after all lover.

Afterword

Hello my lovely readers! I hope you enjoyed my newest book, Serei’s story, and there will be two more books in her point of view before the series is finished.

Book Two, Reign of Embers, is already on pre-order and you can find it here- Link.

I hope you have a brilliant 2022, full of new books and adventures. I look forward to sharing more of my stories with you soon.

Thank you to everyone who helped, edited, poured me coffee or inspired this book in my mind.

Bonus Read

WANT A FREE SHIFTER BOOK TO READ? CLICK HERE.

Chapter 18

Bonus Read of Crescent Wolves

S ometimes when I look into the light of the sun, I can only see the shadows around the edges, waiting for their chance to smother what brightness is holding them back.

But looking up at the sky, as I make my way down the sloping drive, I can only see big black thunderstorms forming on the horizon. I’m only just past the top of the hill on Bowery Street, and considering how quickly the weather is going sour, the odds of getting home before it starts to rain are slim to none.

“Damn,” I mutter, pulling my backpack up higher on my shoulders and shaking my head. It’s times like these when I really wish Central High’s bus route included my neighborhood. Well, our neighborhood. Their neighborhood. Whoever’s neighborhood it is, it’s too far outside the city center for the school bus to reach, and since I don’t have a car, I’m what some might call shit out of luck. Normally I don’t mind the long walk home—in fact, I usually enjoy it. It’s a chance to listen to some music, stretch my legs after eight hours of sitting at a desk, and, most importantly, it means less time spent around Mark. When the weather’s bad, though…

Kicking myself for not thinking to bring an umbrella, I continue down the road, hoping I’ll get lucky and not end up soaked by the time I reach the house. Doubtful. All I can reasonably do at this point is try not to get water all over the front entryway and pray that Mark won’t be in one of his moods when I get in. I can practically hear him snapping at me already, slurring his words as he gestures at me with an empty beer bottle: Damn it, Millie! You couldn’t even dry off before getting mud all over the front porch? What’s wrong with you, huh?

I shake my head, feeling the first raindrop plop down on my shoulder like a warning. Yeah, I know, I think. It feels like I’m on my way to the gallows.

Okay, maybe that’s a little overdramatic. But not by much. I’ve been living with my most recent foster parents, Mark and Tonya Stone, for going on a year now, and things haven’t been peachy. It’s not like I’m not used to bad foster family situations—in fact, that’s basically all I’ve ever known, with a few exceptions. It’s like the start of every fantasy story I’ve ever read: a baby girl, abandoned at the hospital when she was born by parents she never knew, drifting from one abominable living situation to another and wondering why she was put on this planet. Except if this was really a fantasy story, a fairy godmother would have appeared at my bedroom window a long time ago to whisk me away on some whimsical adventure.

Instead, the only things that have ever appeared at my bedroom window are the eggs thrown by neighborhood pranksters and the occasional crow.

It hasn’t been all bad, though; I think as the ground levels out beneath my feet. The raindrops are coming more frequently now, and I see the horizon light up briefly with the flash of lightning. Mollie, the foster mother I lived with from when I was nine to when I was eleven, was easily my favorite of the bunch. Mollie, I remember her saying when she first introduced herself. It’s only one letter away from your name, Millie. It’s like it was meant to be.

And for a while, I almost believed it. With Mollie, I actually felt like I had a home, not just a place to stay. She showed me how to cook, let me watch her TV programs with her, and actually seemed interested in me as a person, not just a source of government-provided income. She even gave me a necklace—a little sterling silver pendant in the shape of a crescent moon—that I had worn until the clasp broke. Now I keep it tucked into the worn combat boots that I wear every day, no matter the weather. If I can’t wear it, then at least I can keep it—like a good luck charm, or something.

But, as I’ve been forced to learn again and again as I’m passed from one set of strangers to another, nothing good is meant to last. The economy took a hit, Mollie had to close down her bakery, and it was determined that she was no longer fit to support me. So off I was packed, to a new family, a new set of introductions, and a new set of disappointments. Rinse and repeat.

With every good thing in my life, shadows seep into the edges and make it impossible to stay good for long.

As I turn off the main road and into Mark and Tonya’s neighborhood, I remind myself to stop ruminating. What has that ever gotten me, other than resentment? Feeling the reassuring pressure of Mollie’s necklace against my ankle, I speed up a little, motivated to at least minimize my time outside in the rapidly increasing downpour. Once I get home, I’ll have to finish my trigonometry homework, as well as work on the English paper that’s due this coming Monday.

It’s as I’m contemplating my schoolwork that I’m hit with an increasingly familiar new wave of anxiety. I turned eighteen last month, which means that not only am I in my last year of high school, but my days in the foster care system are numbered. One would think I would be happy to be finishing the endless cycle of lousy living situations, and I am, but I’m not blind to what this next transition will mean: I’ll be on my own, for better or worse. And given my luck so far, my money’s on worse. I’m going to have to decide what to do about university, about getting a job, finding a place to live… the training wheels are coming off, and I’m in no way prepared for it.

I guess that’s something every foster kid has to face, I reason, feeling the raindrops now pelting down on me. I lift my backpack and hold it above my head like a shield, aware that my papers are going to get wet but hardly caring at this point. But not every foster kid has had as hard of a go of it as I have. I know I’m just feeling sorry for myself, but it’s almost impossible not to.

The truth is that I’ve never really felt at home anywhere, with the exception of those two wonderful years with Mollie. No matter where I go or who I live with, I’ve never really felt a sense of belonging. I’ve made friends here and there, but by the time I’m ever really starting to find a niche in one place, it’s time to pick up and move somewhere else. It’s like my life has never really begun, leaving me with a lingering sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction everywhere I go.

By now, my blonde hair is beginning to dampen, and I pick up my pace, practically jogging now in a desperate attempt to stay dry. That’s enough chewing the cud, I tell myself. Just take things one day at a time. That’s all you can manage. By the time I reach Mark and Tonya’s old, single-story house, I’m thoroughly soaked and shivering. Like a lost kitten… or something. It takes me a minute to fumble my house key out of my dripping backpack, but eventually I get the front door open, pausing on the threshold like one wrong move will set off an explosion.

And for all I know, it will.

“Tonya, honey, is that you?” I can hear Mark’s voice coming from the kitchen. Good. If I’m lucky, I can get down to my basement room and change my clothes before he’s any the wiser.

“It’s me, Mark,” I call back, hoping my tone comes across as jovial and unbothered.

“Hmph,” he says, and then goes quiet. Judging from the sound of his voice, he’s been hitting the bottle for at least an hour already. Ever since losing his job at the factory on the other side of town, he’s been taking full advantage of the unemployment checks and letting Tonya put food on the table by herself.

Tonya, a mousy woman who probably won’t ever have the gumption to divorce her deadbeat husband, pulls odd hours at the diner down the street to support his drinking habit. Funny how they should take me away from someone like Mollie and then stay silent when I end up in a legitimately dysfunctional living situation. But what do I know, right?

I manage to slip out of the entryway and down the basement stairs, doing my best not to drip water on the grimy linoleum floor. The basement is half-finished, with a pull-out couch serving as a bed and my meager possessions all crammed into the closet by the back wall. It’s more or less a glorified storage area, but at least nobody comes down here to bother me. Down here, I can re-read my worn copies of Narnia, the Harry Potter series, and yes, even Twilight, in peace, daydreaming about being swept away into a life full of purpose and magic, where tragedy and boredom were always just the precursors to a grand new adventure.

The grimy mirror on the back of the door makes me pause, looking at my blonde wet hair falling around my shoulders, dripping rainwater onto my drenched clothes. My very dark blue eyes stare back at me, daunting me with how much they look like the very water that smothers my clothes. Not for the first time, I wonder what my parents looked like. Do I look like my mother or father? Or neither of them.

But the mirror doesn’t have answers for me. Of course it doesn’t. No one does.

I’m just pulling on a dry sweater when Mark’s gravelly voice shatters the silence into a million pieces. “Millie, what the hell?!”

My eyes go wide. “Yeah, Mark? What’s wrong?”

“Get up here,” he yells, and even from down here I can hear the alcohol in his voice. Swallowing hard and bracing myself for the worst, I pad back up the basement stairs to find Mark standing in the entryway. His hulking figure makes me feel even smaller than I normally do, and with his shoulders hunched, his beer gut sagging over the top of his trousers, he looks more like a troll than ever before. “What the fuck is this?” he demands, pointing down at the floor by the welcome mat.

“What…?” I begin, taking a step closer, and then I see it. A set of streaky, damp boot prints leading to the basement door. Shit. Why the hell didn’t I take my shoes off?! “Oh,” I say, blanching as I turn to look at him again. “I, uh… I’m sorry. It’s pouring outside.”

“Yeah?” Mark rounds on me, his bloodshot eyes flashing. “Is that right? And why the hell didn’t you think about that before you went and got mud all over the floor?”

“I’m sorry,” I repeat, inching back as he takes a step toward me. “I’ll clean it up. I didn’t even think about it—”

“Of course you didn’t, because you don’t think, period,” Mark says, swaying slightly on his feet, and I can smell the stench of booze coming off him. Not beer this time, either. Something heavier. Whiskey, maybe. And there’s something in his voice that floods me with unease. Have I ever seen him this drunk before? “Sometimes I wonder why the hell we’re even keeping you,” Mark continues, running a hand through his thinning hair. “I mean, you’re useless, do you know that? We spend all this time and money providing for you, and what do we get?” He advances on me, making my heart jump to my ears. The unease is turning into full-blown fear. “Nothing,” he finishes. “That’s what.”

“Mark,” I say, my voice coming out embarrassingly small, “please… I’m sorry. Really. I’ll—”

“Did I say you could talk?” he roars, and then he does something I’ve never seen him do before, no matter how drunk he’s been. He takes a swing at me. It’s sloppy and uncoordinated, and I’m able to duck out of the way. His fist connects with the wall, and he roars in pain. “You little…” he begins, winding up to throw another punch.

Where’s Tonya? She won’t be back until dinner time, at the earliest. It occurs to me that he could do whatever he wanted to me right now, and no one would be the wiser.

He’s going to hurt me, I think, heart thundering as I continue to back up. He’s actually going to hurt me.

In that instant, with that realization, I feel something strange welling up in the pit of my stomach, something cool and insistent—a feeling I’ve never experienced before. For a moment it’s enough to draw my attention away from Mark, away from school, away from everything. The novelty of it makes me wonder if this is how newborn babies feel.

I can feel something in me waking up, something I couldn’t put my finger on even if I tried. And one thing becomes clear to me, a truth I think I’ve known for a long time but was unable—or unwilling—to face until now.

I need to get out of here.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Other Books by G. Bailey

Map

Contents

Description

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Afterword

Bonus Read

18. Bonus Read of Crescent Wolves