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“Silence!” Eiden’s twin spits on my face, unbuckling the belt at his waist.

My mouth is throbbing from the blow, and I can feel blood trickling down my chin, merging with his spit.

“Eiden, I love you. No matter what happens.”

Eiden

She loves me.

She loves me even though I am pitiful and cannot help her.

This sweet, joyful doe shifter, who romps in her new nest and skips with bunnies in the Royal Woodland, who is passionate and giving.

She does not judge my weakness.

Nor me.

She believes in me.

And she believes in my stag.

Unworthy.

The specters of my past taunt me, but their power wanes.

Reality slams into the daze and I see—reallysee—what is happening.

The two sides of me that have sat separate and distinct, that even Nox, with all his love and acceptance, could not mend, come together like a thunderclap.

They come together for my Fawn.

Fawn

The air crackles. A savage roar of a raging beast. Only filling the room is not the stag I have met before. No. It is a bipedal beast with glowing blue eyes. A towering form with the head of a stag and the body of a huge, impossibly muscular man.

Beast Eiden spreads his arms and roars.

Then his head dips, and he charges his twin brother, Crael, who is caught, eyes wide in horror.

Eiden’s huge antlers slam into his brother, lifting him high before tossing him against the nearby wall. He falls to the ground in a broken heap.

A high scream rents the air.

“Guards!”

Another scream. A roar of men shouting and a clamor behind the door.

I scramble backward.

The remaining two brothers shift to their stag forms. Marigold darts behind them.

Eiden roars again and charges. They are no match for him. Their screams echo off the stone walls as he skewers them and tosses them aside, broken and bloody.

Distracted, I don’t notice Marigold approaching until she is on me. Grasping my hair, she yanks me to my feet. A cold glint of metal catches the light, and I freeze.

“Come any closer, and I will slit her throat.”

Eiden snorts out a breath, turning to face us slowly, his chest heaving and his body is smeared with blood.