Stubborn as a Shadow (Willow Lake Pack #2)

Prologue

UH OH…

MORGAN

I missed the dragon shifter.

He’d been placed in a cage just like the rest of us in this yucky old warehouse, but he hadn’t moped. He’d been full of music and defiance. Then he disappeared. Right out of his cage. One minute he was there, and the next—

Poof! He was gone!

I’d never seen anything like it. It was like a fancy magic show people go to see in Vegas or something, except I knew for a fact there hadn’t been any smoke or any mirrors.

It shocked the sparkle right out of my rainbow, and I wasn’t the only one taken by surprise. The phoenix shifter had even burst into flames. And things in the warehouse hadn’t been the same since.

The dragon hadn’t been here long, but he’d made a big impact.

And best of all? He’d left me with a present: an earworm. That’s a weird word, right? Because I don’t think anyone wants a writhing worm in their ear. But I liked the earworm the dragon gave me.

Splish Splash had been splishing and splashing in my head for days now. I couldn’t remember anything more than the first two lines, but I didn’t care. Thinking about them was so much better than listening to the phoenix moan about how weak her heart was.

I felt sorry for the bird. She had gone up in flames shortly after the dragon had arrived, and again when he’d disappeared.

Doing that twice in less than a week had to be rough on a body.

But I was getting bored nodding along sympathetically to her complaints.

Under normal circumstances, she was probably a lovely woman, but these were not normal circumstances, and she was dulling the colors in my world.

So, I closed my eyes and bopped along to what I could remember of the song.

It was so much better than crying. Because that would be disastrous. My tears were a safety hazard. When they hit, everyone needed to take cover. It was all “Danger. Code Red. Run away as fast as you can.”

Nope. Unicorns don’t cry. Or least they really, really shouldn’t.

“Quit humming that stupid song,” the rabbit shifter across the aisle barked at me.

For a prey shifter, he could bark surprisingly well. I thought about complimenting him, but I suspected he wouldn’t like that. He didn’t like much at all.

Should I suggest we sing along to a different song? The dragon had made it seem so easy, but trying to find a song I remembered all the words to was impossible. The only one I could think of was “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, and the rabbit didn’t seem ready to twinkle with me.

Note to self: If—no, not if—when I got out of here, I was going to learn more songs.

Before I could suggest something else, a wave of whispers flowed from cage to cage in a susurrus, reminding me of the aspen trees behind my uncle’s house.

The air felt charged—almost magical. Although I doubted that’s what it was, since neither I nor any of my fellow captives could access our magic.

That didn’t bother me as much as it did some. As a unicorn, I’d never shifted much. My uncle had been too scared someone would see my glorious unicorn beauty and do bad things to me. I’d always thought his fear was unwarranted—because, seriously, people love unicorns! Everyone knew that!

But, um, yeah… He might have had a point, because now I was sitting in a cage.

That said, heaps of other supes were caged too, so I didn’t think my abduction had anything to do with my being a unicorn. Nope, these jerks didn’t seem to be picky about what kind of supe they captured and tossed in a cage. They were just collecting us like Pokémon cards.

But my life wouldn’t end like this. I knew it wouldn’t. I was too spectacular. And I didn’t deserve to die a virgin. Someone was going to punch my V-card, damn it! I shuddered. Okay, that was a horrible saying. At least I hoped it was just a saying because being punched during sex sounded horrible.

So yeah, I was sure I would lead a super amazing life outside of this cage. That’s why when something happened in the warehouse, I paid attention.

And these whispers? They were definitely something new. Something exciting.

As the whispers drew closer, I squirmed in my cage, straining to hear what was being said.

“He’s back,” the phoenix said.

“They caught him,” a fox shifter muttered.

My heart sank. There was only one person they could be talking about, because there’d only ever been one person who’d escaped. The dragon.

And wasn’t that just enough to scrub the rainbow from my sky?

I slumped in my cage, the metal bars cold and hard against my back.

I’d always heard magic couldn’t be contained.

That anyone trying to lock up a supernatural being needed to be vigilant about maintaining their magical hold over a caged supe—it didn’t matter who was doing the locking up or who was being locked up.

My uncle had talked about it a lot when the Supernatural Council had decided to imprison bad guys instead of…

um… ixnaying them. He said it’d be a nearly impossible task.

So how could these not-nice people keep so many of us here? They couldn’t possibly be stronger than the SC. Which meant it was only a matter of time before someone else escaped.

Who knew? It might even be me.

And if it was me, I’d channel my inner superhero and get everyone out. No supe left behind. All for one and one for all. Or something like that.

But honestly, I’d make a fantastic superhero. I would look amazing in a cape. Although maybe less amazing in a skin-tight bodysuit. Puberty had come and gone and I’d never bulked up, so I doubted I would now. Not without a lot of gym time, and that just sounded miserable.

Besides, unicorns were lean and magnificent. We didn’t need bulky muscles to be beautiful.

I wiggled my bare toes. My toenails were getting long, but I doubted our captors would be passing around nail files anytime soon. Hmm… how long would it take to file through a metal bar? Probably a really, really long time.

As I imagined whittling away at the bar with my imaginary nail file, a new rush of excited whispers swept across the cages like a wave.

“Someone found us.”

“Help is here.”

“Someone’s come to rescue us.”

The sound of heavy, hurried footsteps came down the aisle.

The squealing wheel of one of the trolleys they used to move the cages around shrieked alongside them.

Everyone leaned forward, eager to see what was happening.

The troll Vala, and her human friend Edgar skidded to a stop in front of my cage.

“Come on, unicorn boy,” Vala said, as they yanked my cage from its spot within the grid of cages. My cage tilted precariously as it—with me inside—dropped the few feet to the waiting trolley. Instinct had me clinging to the metal bars, as if that would save me. Metal clanged against metal.

I cried out as I jolted to the left, before the cage was shoved upright again. Blood filled my mouth. They’d made me bite my tongue.

“Oh, shut up,” the troll muttered.

They pushed me down the long aisle of cages. All the other captives stared at me as I was wheeled by. Well, this was interesting.

When we rounded the corner at the end of the aisle, I heard someone shout.

“Morgan!”

I looked up. Why would anyone call my name? Was it the dragon? Maybe he hadn’t been caught at all. Maybe he’d come to save us. Was he wearing a cape?

But it wasn’t the dragon I saw. It was a chubby black cat. His eyes were wide, as if he was in shock. Oh! Was he part of the rescue team the other caged supes were talking about?

I waved at him. Heroes needed to feel welcome, right?

Then my trolley kept on rolling and rolling until I went right into a shimmering portal.

The first thing to hit me when the cage rolled to a stop on the other side of the portal was the silence.

The second was the stale and dusty air. The heavy stink of body odor and fear and…

other things… was gone. I blinked into the blackness and realized the room wasn’t completely dark.

Thin bands of sunshine pierced through cracks in the wooden walls.

What was this place? There wasn’t even a door.

I don’t know what I had expected to happen when Vala grabbed my cage and rolled me down the aisle of the warehouse, but it wasn’t this.

This didn’t look like an improvement. Being isolated like this couldn’t be a good thing. Then again, being in that warehouse wasn’t a good thing either.

Hmm… Now what?

The portal shimmered a few feet away. Was someone going to follow me here? I stared at it for a long moment.

A small pouch sailed through the portal and landed just beyond my reach beside my cage.

Again, not what I expected.

Then the portal vanished.

I blinked into the darkness for several long minutes, waiting to see what would happen next. When nothing did, I leaned back in my cage.

No one had ever accused me of being a patient person, and I had no intention of waiting around here. Not if I could figure out a way to escape.

I just wished my tongue wasn’t throbbing so much. Sheesh. Had I bitten right through it? I poked at my tongue with my finger. It seemed to all be attached still, so there wasn’t anything to do about how sore it was. It’d heal. Eventually.

Now what?

I looked around for inspiration. Nothing came to me. But Jack Reacher wouldn’t let something like this stop him. Angus MacGyver wouldn’t either. I could brainstorm this. My uncle always said I had more ideas popping up in my skull than popcorn at a movie theater.

“Okay, start with the lock,” I said. I winced when my sore tongue banged up against my teeth. Maybe talking was a bad idea. I brushed my finger over it again, as if that’d make it feel better.

Then I reached through the bars of the cage and felt around the lock.

There was no key—not that I’d expected one, but a unicorn could hope.

I knew the lock had been reinforced with magic; some of the others had figured that out pretty early in our captivity.

And now I swore I could feel the magic under my finger like an invisible entity that made my skin tingle.

“What in the rainbow…?”

Magic zinged along my finger, across the back of my hand, and up my arm. Oh. Was this my magic finding a way to break through the lock?

After finding out I was a unicorn, my uncle had conducted a lot of experiments. All those stories about unicorn tears? Yeah. They were all hooey. But what if my spit was magical? Or my blood?

Could that be enough to break through the magic sealing the lock? I shook the door. It was still stuck.

I yanked my hand back inside the cage and gathered up a big mouthful of bloody spit, then dropped it into my palm. I smeared that on the whole mechanism. My hand was tingling all over as I worked my spitty concoction into the lock.

Something clicked.

My heart pounded. Was this it? I stared at the door for several long seconds before testing it. The door swung open.

I gaped. Then I was scrambling out of the cage I’d been trapped in for way too long.

My legs were all wiggly and jiggly as I tried to stand.

How long had it been since I last did this?

I had no idea… and apparently my body was a teensy bit forgetful, because I was like a newborn colt trying to keep my legs under me.

The pouch was sitting on the floor, mocking my escape. As long as they could track me, I’d never be free. I opened the pouch, thinking it was some kind of witch’s bag with a tracking spell, but the contents weren’t magical. A little rectangular object tumbled out. It had to be a tracking device.

That would never do.

I snapped it in half.

Then I remembered the bump on my arm. I bet they’d put something in there too.

All the caged supes complained about similar bumps.

I used the sharp edge of the broken tracker to dig into my skin.

It took longer than I’d have liked, but I finally got the second device out of my arm.

I broke it in half like the other one. I wasn’t a super strong supe like some, but I could do that much.

I rubbed over the rest of my body to see if I had any other strange lumps or bumps, but I didn’t feel anything.

Yes! I shimmied. I was absolutely rocking my escape.

Now to get out of this… whatever it was… and find my way home.

I just wished I knew where I’d been before I was pushed through that portal.

Then I could help all those other people too.

But if I could break free, everyone could!

I truly believed that. Especially if the whispers were right, and the heroes were already on site.

Yes, I could feel it right down to my hooves (or, at least I would if I was shifted)—everything was going to be brilliant from here on out.