Page 13

–Callum–

I HAD NEVER experienced a more impactful, humbling, empowering moment than when the full moon brought forth Storm’s wolf painlessly, and I gazed into her eyes for the first time after shifting alongside her. I could have waited, but I wanted my wolf to be the first thing she saw. The first thing she felt. And it locked us into a connection that drew me to her in a way I knew would be everlasting.

In fact, the moment our beasts first touched after her tentative approach and my wolf spoke to hers, our connection amplified so strongly that gentle flames emanated from her pelt like they'd rolled over her skin, and I was thrust into one of her fiery visions alongside her.

Or should I say, looking down at her through the fiery waters of her mind?

This time, however, there were no leathery wings keeping me from her.

Unlike Bain with Naya, I wasn’t there in person but in a dream, pulled to her across time during her darkest hour. Helpless to be anywhere else the moment our eyes connected. She wasn’t a wolf then, but it didn’t matter. I saw the wolf inside her and prayed, even as I longed for it, that it would never find her, yet it had, regardless.

“You knew,”

I whispered into her mind, unsure if she heard me in this strange in-between place because I was in human form as I had been on that fateful day. “You knew, at that moment, what was coming for you. Had to come for you to bring fated mates together across time.”

She didn’t respond but instead reached out to me, wanting me and me alone to save her this time—me to see her to the surface. Needing no further prompting, desperate for her, my wolven eyes flared, and I reached out, slipping my hand into hers, only for the water to buckle around us at the impact. It was so powerful, pulling us together in a whole new way, that it took me a moment to register the terror in her eyes at something behind us.

I had just enough time to look over my shoulder and see Tadc there. When I did, it filled me with such fury that it took several moments to hear Gráinne’s roar in my mind to return to her.

Blinking, startled to be snapped out of the dream and back in my beast, I tried to make sense of what happened, only to realize everyone was gone, except Gráinne, who had been trying to rouse me from my trance.

“Come on.”

Her light tan wolf darted off. “Storm went this way. Conner and Broderick are in pursuit.”

“What happened?”

I asked, racing after Gráinne through the caves in a northerly direction, trying not to panic, angry at myself for not remaining by Storm’s side, whether influenced by her magic or not, because that must have been what transpired back there. “Where did she go?”

“I could not say other than you two were a sight to behold coming together before her fiery coat flared brighter, she cried out in distress and took off.”

Gráinne banked right down a smaller tunnel. “If we go this way, we’ll be able to intercept her in the forest because she’s fleeing the caves.”

“She’s doing what?”

I exclaimed, pushing my muscles to the limit to get to her. I had a terrible feeling this had to do with Tadc’s appearance in our mutual nightmare. “How did she know where to go?”

“I couldn’t say other than her beast might be small, but it’s powerful, so sniffing out exits few of us know about is possible.”

Gráinne raced left down an even tighter tunnel, pushing images into my mind of what she had witnessed on the cliff. “You should have seen her when you two bonded as wolves. You should have seen yourself.”

I almost lost my footing on slick rocks as I saw the two of us come together beneath the full moon in a blaze of magnificent flames born of magic. Born of fury and fire because I knew they had been. Somehow, she had created the fire that fateful day, and I provided the fury to keep her from Tadc’s clutches even then. How I did it remained a mystery, but it was all part of our wolves finding each other across time and space.

All part of us becoming Fated Mates.

Something that was closer than ever as Gráinne and I shot out of the tunnel shortly thereafter and fell in beside Storm and Conner when they raced past with Broderick right behind them in human form. Almost the moment I joined Storm, desperate to stop her, I knew I could not, should not, because this run, our first run as wolves, was all it would take to finish our Fated Mate Cycle.

I felt it as our wolf's eyes connected briefly as we wove effortlessly through the forest together, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Just as she had predicted, a storm was coming, sweeping dappled moonlight into dark, sinister shadows. Yet still, I felt the same rush of pleasure in her mind I experienced because running as a wolf with your fated mate was almost as intense as lying with her.

“Why did you leave me?”

I asked, feeling both our mutual pleasure and then a rush of fear that troubled me. “We should turn back. ‘Tis far too dangerous out here.”

“He’s out here,”

Storm replied, a worried edge to her internal voice. Adapting well to her wolven form, she raced flawlessly over the rugged woodland terrain. “The time of day might be off, but just like my dream, the grey pup is out here somewhere, Callum, and he’s in grave danger because I feel Tadc now. The minute our eyes connected beneath the fiery water of our mutual trance, I felt him.”

“And I saw him,”

I growled, my fury building again. Not at her, never her, but at our enemy. If what Storm said was true, and I sensed more by the minute it was, Tadc was back in this era, and the grey pup was in mortal danger.

How was he even out here? When so many were supposed to be watching over him, why the hell was he roaming the woodlands alone during such a dangerous time? While it was safe to say I was already furious at Tadc for every reason imaginable, now I was also angry at my kin. The pups were everything, so how could they have looked away for even a moment? How could Ceara have? It made no sense.

Yet, as I fumed and cast blame, I swiftly turned that blame on myself for having left them behind, essentially abandoning them, and I felt it to my core. Felt shame for failing pups that meant a great deal to me, even if they were not mine. They were within my soul, and that’s all that mattered. All that should have mattered.

“And it did, Callum,”

Storm said, her wolven voice soothing my troubled mind despite battling her own fears. “If you hadn’t come to me, they wouldn’t have been protected like they need to be in the end, and we both know it because we’re both sensing it more by the moment. These pups need all of us coming together as fated mates. All of us coming into the power that will keep them safe and finish off Tadc once and for all.”

Interestingly—or perhaps not, given how magnificent Storm appeared, racing through the dark and stormy woodland with painless flames curling over her stunning auburn pelt—more wolves, Rogue wolves, began falling in around us as we ran toward danger. More telling? They fell in around us, knowing they would be bonded to Storm for life because this was her True Moon Shift.

I bit back emotion as more and more joined us until we raced through the increasing rain and lightning flashes alongside every last Rogue Wolf of Ossary. Wolves willing to bond not just with Storm but also with me, and I was humbled and honored yet worried because they were at risk of exile.

“They know it, too,”

Gráinne said. “More so, they are willing to follow you into exile just as they made clear earlier when they rallied around you in the Cliff Dens. They are willing to follow you and your fated mate from our shared fiery nightmare to the defeat of all that threatens our pack.”

“Then all of you have my eternal thanks,”

I said into their minds, wishing they hadn't risked going into exile with me but grateful regardless. They were much-welcome allies, and I would be remiss not to acknowledge their devotion. “My mate and I are honored and thankful to have you here.”

“We are,”

Storm agreed, flying around trees as if she had been doing it her whole life. “That said, be careful up ahead because I sense great danger—”

she hesitated as if feeling out whatever her magic told her— “and unpredictable outcomes.”

While I didn’t like the sound of that, we were dealing with Tadc, so it was to be expected. He was a slippery sort before he was exiled from the Wolves of Ossary and only became worse over time. Evil in ways most who were turned were not.

As Storm warned our fellow wolves, I also sensed she warned Broderick because he wasn’t one of us. Although I remained wary of the Scotsman, I could readily admit my emotions primarily derived from being territorial. Broderick had been there for Storm in ways I could not and across time, no less, when I wish I could have been.

“Because I am a dragon,”

he grunted into my mind, there when I would rather he not be during my first run with my mate, yet there was no helping it.

“Your wolf might have turned her had you gone to her sooner, and you know it,”

he went on, irritating me whether he was right or not because it seemed he’d figured out the real reason I stayed away, and it appeased his frustration with me for not protecting her the moment I knew she was my mate. “So she turned to the dragon even though she always wanted the wolf.”

I heard the emotion in his voice and felt the pain in his heart. Pain I had seen in his eyes on more than one occasion when he looked at her, and I didn’t blame him. I would feel the same way if I were in his position. I sensed he appreciated that I’d fought my need for her and stayed away, giving her a chance to live a normal life. One we now knew was never going to happen, but at least I had tried.

I knew she listened to our conversation and hoped we found peace, but I wondered if we ever truly could, despite how thankful we might be to each other for protecting her over the years. Despite how cordial we tried to be, was it possible for two people in love with the same woman to truly become friends?

Whether possible or not, I pushed it to the back of my mind when I sensed the grey pup up ahead at the same time as Storm because we both slowed. Like me, she lowered her head to the ground and sniffed, trying to catch the pup’s scent only to catch something I obviously didn’t because her head shot up and her ears perked forward.

“The pup’s looking for us, mate,”

she exclaimed, emotion in her voice. “He’s trying to catch our scent just like we’re trying to catch his.”

She bolted forward, and I was right after her, as concerned about the pup as she was, and with good reason, given her nightmare about him. Again, what was he doing out here? Especially during a storm? I couldn't help but vaguely wonder...was Tréan behind the current conditions because I knew he could occasionally control the weather? And wolves didn’t see as well in these conditions.

“This way.”

Storm shot off to the left in the direction of my castle only to fly through the clearing in which our wolves had connected in a dream, then back into the forest only to slow again.

“That’s it,”

she said. “It might have been daytime, but that’s where I saw the grey pup. That’s where I saw...”

Storm trailed off, and her hackles rose before she released a low growl and bolted ahead yet again. She had seen the pup before the rest of us as he made his way into the clearing, nose to the ground, trying to sniff us out, oblivious to his surroundings.

“Oh, God, no,”

Storm exclaimed in anguish, racing toward the pup when Tadc came out of nowhere, heading in that direction.

Everything happened swiftly after that.

Rather, because I couldn’t get there fast enough, everything seemed to slow down and speed up all at once as Storm's wolf, minus its fiery magic, made it to the pup first, protecting him from Tadc’s mighty dark brown wolf, who was only moments away from pouncing on her.

And he would have landed and changed my world in a heartbeat had my sister, Mave, not come out of nowhere and slammed into him. Before I had a chance to process that, pure mayhem unleashed. Mayhem, much like the night Ceara had been returned and Tadc had killed our former matriarch, his own mother no less.

Having been tracking the pup, too, Tadc’s wolves poured into the clearing, many in human form, and fighting exploded all around me as the Wolves of Ossary’s Rogue beasts fought back, protecting Storm and the pup for all they were worth.

“Get him out of here,”

I roared into Storm's mind. Shifting to my human form, I skidded to a halt in front of her and withdrew the Viking sword when one of Tadc’s wolves nearly got to her. Running my blade through its neck before it could pounce on her, I spun and crashed swords with another in human form, glad to see fiery sparks on the metal again.

Snarling, I drove the man back, then kicked him hard in the midsection before slicing his throat when he hit the ground. I swept my gaze over the fierce battling and homed in on Mave and her pack fighting Tadc and his men with a fierceness I appreciated. The same fierceness I had seen in my sister when she protected Storm and the pup, and I was grateful for it.

As if she sensed my thoughts, Mave roared into my mind, “Do not stay and fight, brother! Get them out of here now! Save Storm and the pup because they are everything.”

“You cannot defeat him,”

I replied, liking the sound of brother on her internal tongue for the first time in a while. “Pull your pack back, Mave. Let me fight—”

“No,”

she replied, her telepathic tone calmer now. Focused. “Now is not the time for you to fight but to protect. My pack and I have a plan. Take advantage of it for Storm and the pup’s sake. For the sake of those who follow you now and all of the Wolves of Ossary. I can take care of myself.”

Although I felt an acute pinch in my chest because my inner beast didn’t like this one bit, I had no choice but to accept her offer when she did the last thing I saw coming and released the acute scent of going into heat, then bolted into the forest.

“Bloody hell,”

I cursed under my breath, struggling within myself as I had never struggled when many of Tadc’s newly made pack members raced after her, unable to fight the craving to breed with her. In swift pursuit, several of her pack members followed, including her two male partners, desperate to protect her.

“Go,”

her female partner roared into my mind, staying behind to fight Tadc and those not so easily swayed by Mave’s scent. “Do as your sister asked, Callum, because she loves and protects you above all others. Surely you know that.”

“Go,”

Gráinne agreed, falling in beside me as I fought, wanting to cut down every last man until I could wrap my hands around Tadc’s neck and finally end him. Snuff his life out until he returned to the dark pits of whatever hell he came from. May he fester and never return to torment another.

“Agreed,”

Conner said, falling in on my other side mid-battle, shooting me a look I could not mistake. “Get out of here and protect my peanut and that pup, or I’ll fucking kill you myself.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Trust me on that.”

He may not be as big and powerful as me, but I knew he meant every last word. Conner might be a wolf born of a million bites and of the future, but he could hold his own and was clearly a protector of those he loved.

“I agree as well,”

Broderick said, falling in beside us, cutting down all that came at him with the prowess of a seasoned warrior, thus far honoring Storm’s request not to shift.

“Where is Storm?”

I drove my sword through the man rushing me and scowled at Broderick. “Why are you here when you should be with her? Protecting her?”

If I had thought anyone would remain by Storm’s side, it was the Scotsman, yet here he was, testing my patience yet again. Granted, he tried to come to my aid, but the best way to do that was to protect my fated mate and pup.

“See reason and go, Irishman,”

Broderick ground out, punching one warrior while spinning and slicing his dagger through the neck of another. “Protect her as only you can.”

Something about how he said it thrust me beneath the fiery waters of our beginnings together and allowed the truth about me and Storm to shine through. When it did, it struck me so hard my latest opponent nearly got past my defenses, but I ducked and took him down with my Viking sword when he slipped in the mud.

“Storm and I have completed our Cycle,”

I whispered, shocked I hadn’t felt it sooner because it poured over me now like soothing moonlight on my soul. Like a rush of exhilarating energy that made everything seem brand new. From the taste of the icy rain pouring down my face to the sharp, refreshing burst of pine in the humid air to the metallic scent of blood on my blade.

“You have.”

Gráinne nodded at me once as she sliced her sword across a warrior’s midsection, only for Conner to finish him off with a blade to the heart. “Now protect her as only you can. We will return to you soon.”

I had suffered a lot of difficult moments in life, but nothing like this one, as so many fought for me so I could flee like a coward because was this not that? Yes, I desired nothing more than to protect my fated mate and the pup, but leaving others to fight my battle felt cowardly in every sense of the word.

“Not cowardly,”

whispered through my mind. “But strong in all the ways you need to be right now. A true alpha.”

Tréan? Surely not, because I had been exiled, so all communication should be severed. Yet somewhere deep down inside me, whether it was my maker, alpha, or, above all, my brother, the voice got through, and I heeded it. Then again, in the end, I had no choice but to give in to my inner beast’s desperation to go to Storm and protect her.

Not before I nodded at the others, though, thankful for their courage because despite his numbers dwindling quickly in this mini-battle, Tadc hadn’t fled yet.

“He will soon, though,”

Gráinne assured. “Already, he edges back into the forest, rallying to fight with far more later.”

What she didn’t say, but I knew, was he rallied to fight after half his newly made males sniffed after Mave, their instincts getting the better of them and masking the terror they should feel for fleeing their maker in pursuit of a wolf in heat.

“Go protect who you were always meant to protect.”

Gráinne’s tone broached no room for argument and held a dark warning now that I best listen. “Protect what matters most.”

So I did, shifting into my wolf and flying into the woodland until I picked up Storm’s scent and moved faster. So fast, pushing my muscles to the limit in desperation, it was a wonder I didn’t get to her sooner, but yet again, she was hidden away well.

More so, she was hidden away in a place that might just bring the wrath of hell down on everyone I cared about. If that were not enough, I picked up another scent and knew she was in mortal danger.