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Xerxes

T he shadows, and dome of soft, purple light, faded to reveal nothing but the stone of the palace ruins and trap door leading onto the beach.

Phaedra growled under her breath, the sound a mix of her own annoyance and that of her Primal. “Insolent?—”

“You thought the Queen of Nyx would listen?” I asked her in the old tongue. “Please.”

“ You— ” She rounded on me with a finger pointed at my chest. Her dark eyes shifted from grey like the clouds disappearing to the blue of her Primal “You will find them and bring them back to me. I will not tolerate disrespect in my world. ”

My eyes narrowed dangerously, and my own Primal rising in response. “You forget your place, Phaedra. You only lead us because a Prima hasn’t been born in a century. Your place at the head of the clan is tenuous at best. ”

“You would threaten me?” she hissed.

Her mate, Mavros, moved to stand at her back, now shifted into his full Primal form. A growl rippled from him, though I barely spared him a glance.

“Find them,” she said, teeth gritted. “And do not bother returning until they have been captured.”

“You would risk the fate of all the worlds because you were disrespected?” I asked, cocking my head, barely holding back a laugh as her eyes narrowed.

“And you trust them, Xerxes?” She lifted a brow, though there was no surprise in her tone.

I shook my head. It was not that I trusted them. The opposite, perhaps. But if we were wrong—if the Queen of Nyx was right and there was a chance all the worlds were doomed—then it did not matter if I trusted them or not.

Another of the shadows moved into my line of sight. The brothers remained in line, but this one hadn’t been with us when we’d sensed the newcomers.

“What is it?” Phaedra growled.

The shadow took his non-Primal form, shifting from floating darkness back into something else.

“Phaedra,” he said, bowing his head. “There was a disruption at the western shores. A ship, one unlike any I have ever seen before, docked at the Isles of Isaura. I did not recognise what they were, but there were many. And they had beasts in cages. The magic they wielded was?—”

Phaedra’s growl cut him off, and she spun on her heel. I glanced over at the shadow and nodded to him. “Thank you,” I murmured. “Rejoin the rest.”

The shadow looked from me to Phaedra and Mavros, before taking his Primal form and slipping into the darkness around us.

The eyes of the others bored into me, burning holes into the sides of my head.

Some were questioning me; I knew that without even needing to look at them.

Most here were loyal to Phaedra regardless of her role being temporary.

She was the eldest member of the clan, and when the last Prima died, all had turned to her for guidance.

I knew Phaedra did not like the fact someone with more power had come to disrupt her rule. She’d gotten comfortable leading us, and the arrival of Nyx’s Queen meant danger. Mostly, though, for her.

I had a feeling the Queen and her creatures didn’t care much for harming us. If they’d wanted to, they would have, like they had with the deteriorating rodent—the thrax .

“If the Queen is correct, then those who have come here and landed at the isles mean us harm,” I said, directing the statement to Phaedra.

“Or she could have been lying,” the elder snapped. “We cannot trust her. Not her or those creatures standing with her.”

Something about her words made my Primal react. It did not like the disrespect being thrown at the Queen. My eyes shifted, and it took all my strength keeping it in. Because I was not sure what it would do to Phaedra if I let it free.

“And if she is telling us the truth, then whoever is on that ship has just brought an army here,” I said, trying to keep my voice even and not let my Primal speak for me.

“She brought the army.” Phaedra turned on me with an accusatory tone, her eyes flaring with her Primal. “They want her and whatever she seeks.”

“There is no point in arguing with you.” I took a step back. Phaedra would not listen to me, and she would not listen to reason. She had gone so long being the one to lead us, that she could not stand having someone more powerful than her on her lands .

“I will go in search of them,” I said. Not because I wanted to help Phaedra in her bid to keep her power, but because I knew the Queen had not been lying.

There was a threat, and though it might not have been world-ending, there was still another enemy on our lands.

And if they had brought an army, then they meant to hurt us.

If Phaedra wanted to abide by her ego and lose to her arrogance, then I would step up to protect the packs—to protect our lands.

Even if that meant helping the Queen who made my Primal curious.

Phaedra’s eyes shifted again, and she listed her chin. “And you will bring them to me?”

“Of course,” I lied.

Not until after I made certain their enemy was taken care of, though.

The clan leader nodded, and with great control, I allowed my Primal out. My shift tore through me, rippling across my flesh.

My Primal caught her scent, sweet and delectable, foreign yet distinguishable. A low rumble tore through my chest as I rose onto my back feet and breathed in the remnants of her deeply.

“Find the girl and find her friends.” Phaedra craned her neck to meet my Primal’s eye. “Or do not bother returning.”