Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
The man—who could pass as my brother—stood over Griffin and me as my mate held me in my wolf form. The joy of having Griffin beside me eased some of the aches that racked my body, despite his concern wafting through our bond.
I loved him so damn much.
The full moon was high in the sky, shining as if informing me we’d been in battle longer than I realized. It had to be just after midnight, and there was still a chill in the late spring air that felt good on my hot skin.
Because of the full moon, my wolf body was twice the size of a normal wolf, which made me a larger target; that was partially why I’d almost been shot in the first place. Julius had just pushed me out of the path of a bullet fired by one of my enemies, but the reason why was worse than death.
In fact, he was the worst enemy here. A man from my own race, working to hand me over to someone who wanted to use me as his personal breeder.
Someone who wanted to take me from my fated mate and hold me hostage for personal gain.
Who wanted to rule over my race—the rare silver wolf—because we had ties to the moon and were stronger than other wolf shifters.
Who wanted to breed his own personal army.
It was a future that I refused to accept. I’d rather die than submit to someone like that.
The only person whose children I’d ever bear was my mate, Griffin’s.
You’re hurting. Griffin’s deep, sexy voice rang in my head. We have to get Rosemary to heal you.
I ’ m okay. The words were bitter despite them not being spoken aloud. Julius…knocked me out of the way. I’d almost said saved me , but that wasn’t what he'd done at all. He wasn’t saving me from evil—he was just making sure that I survived long enough to fulfill the evil plan that would benefit him.
I bared my teeth at Julius, allowing my wolf to surge even more. We were in some sort of stare-down, and this asshole wouldn’t win. Whether he realized it or not, I was more dominant—my brighter silver hair told us everything.
He’d also mind-linked with me, which shouldn’t have been possible.
I lay in the grass only a few yards away from three fighters dressed in all black. Two of them were still shooting at Killian and Sierra, while the third held a phone to his ear. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, though, because I was in some sort of stunned state when I should have been ripping out Julius’s throat. It would be so easy while he was in human form and I was still a wolf. It would eliminate yet another threat—but I couldn’t get myself to do it. The bond that had formed between us was causing both of us issues.
His silver eyes had darkened to a gunmetal gray, and his smoke-colored hair was disheveled from all the fighting. Only alphas and their bloodlines had silver hair, with the true alphas having the lightest shade, like mine.
“I’d heard you caused problems, but I didn’t believe it until now.” Disgust wafted off him and into me through whatever demented bond we shared as he clenched his hands at his sides. His scent—a mix of Mom’s and Dad’s—made my eyes burn. “But the world revolves around you, so I shouldn’t be surprised.” She must have done something to me.
Griffin growled, “If you say one more word about her, I’ll kill you even slower than I’d already planned.”
Wait...
Julius thought I’d done something to him . The idea was laughable. I’d been minding my own business—trying to live my life and move on from the slaughter of my pack—and he’d kidnapped me. Now he blamed me for something happening to him ? Annoyance flared through me, calming some of the inner turmoil. I haven’t done a damn thing to you.
Eyes widening, Julius stepped back like I’d slapped him. “Stop doing that.”
“Like hell I will.” Griffin‘s hazel eyes glowed with his own alpha wolf.
My mate thought Julius was talking to him, but it was me.
Before I could intervene, black wings whooshed past me, and someone slammed into Julius, forcing him past me. Rosemary screamed with unbridled rage as she punched him in the jaw and kept swinging. “There’s more where these came from if you don’t get in line.” Her long mahogany hair fell over her shoulders, and her large angel wings stretched behind her. She turned her head, and her purplish twilight eyes scanned me for signs of injury.
Watching her punch Julius bothered me way more than it should have. After all, she’d refused to kill him earlier because she’d been raised to protect silver wolves. However, she wasn’t using fatal blows, so he wasn’t at any risk of dying.
The ski-masked gunman dressed in all black, who had just fired at me, must have been in shock because he suddenly yelled, “What the hell, Julius? We were told to kill her if things got out of hand.”
Of course they’d be more upset over Julius knocking me out of the way of the bullet than care that he was getting the shit beat out of him by the angel. And the idiot just stood there like he expected an answer.
Gunfire hadn’t ceased, even if it felt like time had stopped for those few moments. Bass Guitar and the other gunmen continued to fire at Killian and Sierra, ensuring they couldn’t advance here to help us, while the gunman Julius had thwarted continued to gape at him.
“Get her off me,” Julius grunted at me as he grabbed Rosemary’s wrists, restraining her for the moment. She ’ s going to stand there and do nothing.
The angel used her wings as weapons, curling them around her body and stabbing him with the tips of her feathers. For feathers that looked so silky, they sure turned into armor or a weapon when she needed them to.
His pain radiated through me, and I hated that the silver moon had connected the two of us tonight. Our mind-link was going to cause problems.
But once again, how were we able to link? We weren’t mates or pack. This shouldn’t have been possible. Maybe you shouldn ’ t have tried to capture your own kind , I retorted back to him.
He gasped and released his hold on Rosemary, his eyes searching for me. One eye was already swollen from her attack, and blood dripped down his arms. This is so strange. Why do you keep talking to me like this?
My heart broke with the realization that he must have been raised as a lone wolf for him not to understand how mind-linking worked—but at least that meant he couldn’t link with anyone else to alert them to what was going on. Or he was playing some sort of demented game? I couldn’t rule out the latter.
The guard who had just shot at me raised his gun, pointing it at Rosemary. No! I screamed in terror.
“Move, Fallen,” Julius growled. “He’s aiming at you.”
Rosemary paused and snarled, “Don’t call me that.” She jerked her head toward the guard and wrapped her wings around herself as he fired at us once more. The bullet bounced off her, leaving her unharmed.
“What the hell?” The guard’s eyes widened, and he glanced at the gun barrel.
How I wished the damn man would shoot himself in the eye. What an idiot. You never pointed a gun at your face—even if it was empty.
I got back to my feet and forced myself to step away from Griffin’s warm embrace.
“Hey, easy,” Griffin said softly.
Yeah, I was about to piss him off, but the battle wasn’t over. Pushing away the pain, I raced toward the gunman who’d attempted to shoot me and then Rosemary. The other two guards were still focused on keeping our allies at bay, so this guy didn’t have help.
He pointed the gun back at me, but it was too late. I lunged at him, and he fell back and shot skyward, completely missing his mark. I landed on top of him and ripped out his throat, and even more blood coated my silver fur, mixing with that of the bear shifter I’d killed just minutes ago.
For whatever reason, these men were trained to fight with guns and knives and not their animal sides. Using my wolf was always my first instinct, with my knife being second. I’d been trained with weapons because we couldn’t ignore them…but these people used their animals only as a last resort. It was a weakness that we’d been able to exploit in our defense.
“If you want my help, you better stop beating the shit out of me,” Julius rasped to Rosemary. “Their numbers may be dwindling, but they should’ve already called for backup. We’ve got to get out of here.”
My stomach sank. Just when we had only two opponents left…the threat of more coming meant we’d be back to being outnumbered. He was right, we needed to leave. I wasn’t sure we could last another round.
But did that mean he planned on coming with us? Surely not.
“And we should trust you why ?” Rosemary asked. “You could be trying to trick us so you can attack when we’re fighting.”
We didn’t have time for a strategy discussion. I turned my focus to Bass Guitar, who had just smelled his friend’s blood. He jerked his head in my direction, then stiffened and winced a little, probably due to the pain of his shoulder injury from where he’d been shot. That little bit of a reaction was all the extra time I needed to get to him.
“Ernie, we’re the last two left right now.” Bass Guitar’s voice didn’t sound quite as deep with panic setting in.
Great, he was going to get his buddy to help take me down. Maybe I wouldn’t make it out alive after all, but that would be a better alternative than some mystery asshole thinking he could use me to make a silver wolf army.
“They’re going to kill her if we don’t help.” Concern laced Julius's words, and it must have been enough for Rosemary to somewhat trust him.
She stood and hissed, “One wrong move, and I’ll punch you without a moment’s hesitation.”
The two guards stopped firing as they turned their focus on the most immediate threat. Bass Guitar’s dark eyes flicked toward Julius. “Get her. Don’t just stand there.” He turned his focus back on me and put his finger on the trigger, but Griffin lunged straight toward him.
His sculpted face was tense with anxiety, and his normally perfectly styled honey-brown hair flopped with each step. His light, hazel eyes with flecks of green locked on Bass Guitar. My mate was twice as large as my attacker—his six-and-a-half-foot frame towered over the guy, despite him being about twenty feet away.
Griffin aimed his gun, ready to take on the enemy. Seeing him like this, with so much raw power, filled me with adoration. Despite us not having the same sort of training growing up, Griffin was formidable with a gun.
A millisecond before Bass Guitar pulled the trigger, Griffin shot the guy through the head. He crumpled dead on impact.
Another gunshot fired, and I turned to find Rosemary’s wings wrapped around her once again. I was jealous of her ability—getting shot hurt like hell.
Griffin turned toward the man focused on the angel and shot him between the eyes. The last guard in black dropped.
Do you know how damn anxious I ’ ve been? Griffin ran back to me and pulled me into his arms. That blood. Are you injured?
His unique scent of leather and myrrh filled my nose, easing a part of me now that I was back in my mate’s arms. Just minutes ago, I hadn’t known if I’d see him again or feel his skin on mine once more. I rubbed my head against his chest, needing him close. The fight wasn’t over—not yet—but I needed to take a moment for my own sanity. Being in human form would have been ideal right about now, but if I shifted back, I’d be completely naked, and I wasn’t comfortable with that.
“We’ve gotta get out of here in case what he said is true,” Rosemary said as she marched toward Julius again.
I begrudgingly pulled away from my mate, but I needed to shift back to human form. I need my extra set of clothes.
Griffin nodded. “I’ll be right back.” He jogged off in the direction of the car as Killian came into view.
Killian’s warm, dark-chocolate eyes lasered in on me, and his jaw relaxed. He rushed over, his cappuccino hair flapping in the wind. He stopped when he reached me and looked me over. “Next time, I’m with Griffin. This was way too stressful. I can’t do that again.”
My head nearly came to his shoulder tonight as I nuzzled against him, letting him know that I was fine. Nothing bad had happened—well, except for everyone we’d had to kill.
Before Griffin reached the tree line, Sierra stepped from between the cedars and redwoods and passed him with a black duffel bag hanging from her shoulder. Her gray eyes sparkled as if all the stress had left her body. Her sandy-blonde ponytail bounced with each step she took as she raced toward me, with Griffin following close behind.
He reached for the bag, and she turned, leaving him to grab air. She winked at me and threw the bag in front of me. “He’s pouting,” she said. “He wanted to bring you your clothes, but I was coming back with the bag already. I saw you shift and figured you might need this.”
I nodded and took the bag in my mouth, then ran into the trees. I quickly shifted back to human form and dressed, listening to Griffin get louder while talking about Julius. “You expect me to just let this asshole walk away after he planned to kidnap my mate? She almost died—yet again—because of him!”
“We can’t kill him,” Rosemary said, upset. “I’m supposed to protect them.”
“You just punched the shit out of him, girl.” Sierra chuckled. “I’m thinking that doesn’t count as protecting him.”
“Well…I didn’t kill him,” Rosemary retorted. “I mean, I wanted to do much worse, and if he doesn’t tell us all he knows, then I might make an exception.”
“I can’t stay here.” Julius tensed. “I have to go with you.”
“Nope,” Killian growled, sounding almost as upset as Griffin. “He can’t be trusted. We leave his ass here for someone to find him.”
“No!” The word was out before I could take it back. But I couldn’t let anything happen to Julius. The two of us were connected, and I wanted to understand why. What if he really was my brother and had been kidnapped at birth? It wouldn’t be his fault that he’d wound up like this, if that was the case. I locked gazes with Griffin. He saved me.
So he could give you to the asshole who wants to control you , Griffin growled, and his jaw twitched with rage.
Maybe, but he and I can mind-link. He had to understand that this was important to me. That if Julius was hurt, I’d feel his pain, too. My hands are tied.
Griffin closed his eyes and rubbed a hand down his face. This keeps getting better and better.
“Look, if I don’t go with you, I’m dead,” Julius slurred from behind a fat lip. “One of them called their alpha and ratted my ass out while I was preoccupied with Sterlyn. Besides, I know how these guys work, so I can be an advantage to you.” One of his eyes had swollen shut. “Backup will be here within thirty minutes. The farther away we get, the safer we all will be.”
“We?” Killian laughed maniacally. “You think you’re actually going with us?” He walked over to Julius and clenched his fist.
It was time for me to do something before things got out of hand.