Page 64 of Shifting Hearts

EIGHTEEN

The Hunt Ends

Six Months Later

Emilia

H e’s not what I expected. He’s not a rogue wolf frothing at the mouth or a monster in human skin. He’s just a man.

He’s lean and cold-eyed. Smelling of pine and old blood. And he knows Lucian’s name before either of us speaks.

“You finally found me,” he says with a quiet smile, as if Lucian’s blade isn’t drawn.

Lucian’s jaw clenches. “You killed an Alpha and claimed land that wasn’t yours.”

“I claimed what was taken from me,” he retorts.

I step forward, magic crackling faintly at my fingertips. “You murdered an entire pack.”

He looks at me then. And his smile turns bitter.

“There you are,” he says.

Something twists in my gut. “Do you know me?”

“I know what you are.” He spits. “Witch-born. Just like her.”

Lucian stiffens beside me. “Who is her?”

The man’s gaze finds mine again. “Your mother.” My entire world tilts.

He’s still speaking, something about betrayal and secrets, about how the Crystal Falls territory belonged to a line of half-bloods before the Council purged them.

“Your mother was their last witch, and she ran. She just disappeared.”

My stomach turns to ice. “You’re lying.”

He shrugs. “Ask your mate.”

Lucian doesn’t look at me. “What do you mean?”

The man smiles like the devil. “You think this was all coincidence? The three of us here?”

The pieces click together in my head. The dreams. The tarot card with the Tower, always falling. The old voices I heard whispering when I crossed the waterfall alone.

This wasn’t chance. It was destiny . Or something close to it.

With speed I wasn’t expecting, Lucian’s blade slices clean through the man’s throat. No ceremony and zero hesitation. He watches the body fall, his chest heaving, and his hand slick with blood.

I reach for him, and he steps back.

“He knew,” Lucian says roughly. “He knew what you were. What this is.”

“And you don’t?” I ask angrily, pain blooming in my chest.

He meets my eyes then. Something wild in them. Fear. Need. Possession. “I know exactly what you are,” he says. “You’re mine.”

We bury the body deep in the woods and when we return to the cabin, the silence between us stretches and hums. He doesn't speak but neither do I. But when he pulls me to him in the dark, his mouth crushing mine like it’s the last thing keeping him breathing, I don’t stop him.

I can’t.

He strips me bare and turns me around. He positions me over the side of the bed before entering me from behind. His thrusts are harsh and almost angry, but his hands are gently. He touches me all over, his hands stroking down my back before slipping around the front to cup my breasts.

He growls lowly behind me, his hips pistoning into me furiously. “You’re mine,” he rasps lowly. “You will always be mine and I will do whatever I need to protect you.”

“Yes,” I moan as his hand slips between my legs. “I am yours. Always.”

His fingers thrum my clit, and my orgasm explodes through me, the bond singing. Gabriel’s rhythm falters right before I feel him explode inside me.

Later, as we lie tangled in each other, I whisper, “You’re going to leave, aren’t you?”

He doesn’t answer right away. “I can’t stay,” he says eventually.

The words slice clean through me.

“You told me…”

“And I meant it,” he growls. “I meant all of it.”

“Then why…”

“I need to destroy the rest of them. The Council. For what they’ve done and what they will keep doing.”

“And I’m not part of that?”

His eyes soften, barely. “You’re the only part that matters.”

But in the morning, he's gone.