Page 73

Ivy

A mate. In the Old World.

My heart raced, and before I knew it, I shifted back to my normal self. I pressed a hand against my pounding heart and stumbled away from the unknown creature.

The voices of my other mates were suddenly louder, urging me to get out of his way. But my feet remained planted on the ground, and I was not able to shift again.

Elias appeared in my periphery, his lips pulled back from his teeth as he snarled at the other wolf-man. Maeve appeared at my other side, her nails now claws as she stepped in front of me.

The beast across from us, still hiding in the darkness of the forest, growled again. Black eyes were on me, as if unaware that anyone else was here.

Come join us, Orion said, voice tense , and let them handle the creature .

Handle…kill.

No.

Surprise filtered down his bond, but I finally made my feet move. I pushed my way between both Elias and Maeve, earning warning growls from both of them. Maeve tried to grab for me, but I stepped out of her reach.

My stomach leapt into my throat as I put my back to the unknown creature. Panic lined the faces of everyone—Hawk and Damon included.

“You can’t hurt him,” I said, my voice trembling. “You can’t do anything because he’s my mate.”

Elias stopped growling and quickly shifted back. His anger seemed to be worse, now. “What?”

I swallowed hard, but a lump formed in my throat as I nodded.

“My wolf sensed it first. And I feel it. Here.” I rubbed my chest as that familiar desire pulsed within me.

My magic reached for the seven-foot creature behind me, begging for the bond to be completed.

The feeling wasn’t nearly as overwhelming as the first few times I’d recognised my mate bonds, so anchoring my power and coming into it kept the magic at bay.

But the need to claim pulsed in my chest. the unfinished bond that recognised the creature behind me as mine reared its head.

I sucked in a calming breath and spared Elias a look before turning back to the creature. “I don’t know if you know what that means,” I said quietly. “But can you shift so we can talk?”

“I can talk like this,” he growled. I took a surprised step back, eyes widening. The creature could talk. Holy shit. Worse than the werewolves I’d read about in fiction, then.

Elias curled a protective arm around my waist. His surprise was clear through the bond, but if I knew anything about my shifter, he wasn’t going to let it show.

The others, though…

“Did that thing fucking speak?” Rowan hissed from somewhere behind me. “Shifters can’t speak.”

“He’s not a normal shifter,” Adrian muttered. “Dumbass.”

If the situation weren’t serious, I was pretty sure I’d be breaking up a fight.

The wolf-man cocked his head. “You say mate like it means more than a pairing.”

Ignoring the racing of my heart, I nodded. “It does. It’s a connection that Nyx forms for us, that connects our souls.”

A sound rumbled from the creature’s lips. “And is that what you think I am?” He sounded almost amused. There was something about his tone that reminded me of someone else.

I still couldn’t figure out why, though.

The only other werewolf-like creatures we’d seen were the ones who had surrounded us during our first few hours here, in the ruins of the old palace.

“I know that is what you are. To me,” I replied carefully. “I feel it. My magic feels it.”

“You have been hunting us for a while,” Maeve said, her voice low. “I take it your leader, the one from the old palace, sent you after us.”

The creature didn’t take his eyes off me. “Yes.”

At least he didn’t lie. But that didn’t stop the chill running down my spine. “You might be my mate,” I warned, “but I will not risk our mission. We will not be going back there. ”

The words tasted bitter on my lips. The last thing my magic wanted was to abandon one of our mates. But I would. I didn’t care who it was.

Sable’s words echoed in my head, Nyx’s warning not far behind. You need to find your mates. Complete the bonds. I had a feeling I wasn’t even close to that. The creature across from me could be as much a challenge as Hawk was.

And I was not going to force a mate bond.

Not with anyone.

“I have no intention of taking you back to Phaedra,” he replied, though he spat the last word out like it burned him to say it. “Unlike the others, I believe you. I saw the bodies.”

Bile rose in my throat as I thought of the pile of bodies left in the snowy ruins. The little girl who reminded me of Maisie at the top of the pile, like it was a threat from Dante himself. The ones we burned in our wake.

“That army you warned us of killed more than just what you saw,” he growled, voice startling me out of the memories. “An entire city was wiped out because of them.”

Guilt swelled within me. His pain was evident in the way he spoke, but it was his eyes that made it all the clearer. He mourned the creatures Dante slaughtered. And more than that, he wanted vengeance.

“You want to join us, then?” I asked carefully, uncertain.

The beast stared at me for a moment, quietly taking me in. There was no sign that he even felt the connection of a mate bond. Maybe that wasn’t something common in the Old World. I couldn’t tell if he even recognised the pulsing need to claim your mate.

Nyx, why did you have to make this all the more difficult? I wondered, tearing my eyes from his to look at the dark branches above us. You really know how to pick them .

The half-Fae male who appeared allergic to claiming me as his mate—wouldn’t even admit it aloud, except to say he didn’t even want it. And the unknown creature from a world we’d all thought had long since died, who could speak to us in his shifted form.

Fantastic.

The bond between Maeve and I opened hesitantly; I hadn’t even realised she’d thrown up blocks just in case the creature wasn’t an enemy. But now, she let our bond open completely, giving me full access to her thoughts.

Do you trust him? She glanced at me from the corner of her eyes, which flashed red dangerously.

My heart pounded as I looked between her and the unknown creature. I knew he was my mate; there was no doubt about that in my mind, not with the way my magic reached for him, begging to complete the bond that had just identified itself. The words mate, mine, claim continued to echo in my ears.

But did I trust him? After everything we’d gone through, from the epic betrayal that was Dante, to having to tie my life to the King of the Elysian Fields, and coming here, only to find that not only was this world still alive, but there was a thriving civilisation still living amongst the ruins of the Old World, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

I didn’t trust him, though my soul wanted to. It wanted to believe that he wasn’t an enemy, but I couldn’t fully believe he wouldn’t turn on us if anything happened. Especially when I couldn’t tell if he even understood there was a mate bond between us.

The only reason I trusted Damon was because I still had his soul in the palm of my hand, a very obvious reminder that his life belonged to me, so long as he didn’t betray us.

There were plenty of times where he could have left us behind, chosen to go off on his own, hurt any one of us, but he hadn’t.

And Hawk was…Hawk.

I gritted my teeth, checking in with my other bonds. Their wariness was just as thick as the tension surrounding us, and there was an impatience and frustration that was almost palpable. But they still trusted me; they believed I recognised the snapping of a mate bond.

They just didn’t trust him.

I turned my attention back to the shifter. He was no longer on high alert, with his hackles down, and ears perked. I had a feeling he had no intention of shifting into his other form, but I supposed he wouldn’t when he could communicate well enough as he did now.

I cleared my throat, stepping out of Elias’s protective embrace. Despite releasing me, he still moved to become a protective presence beside me as I addressed the shifter.

“I need your word that you aren’t here to hurt us—or take us back to your leader,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“Like I said: my magic might have claimed you as a mate, but I will put the lives of those bonded to me, and those in this party, over yours if it comes down to it. You are a stranger, potentially a danger to us all, and I will not be putting those I love in harm’s way.

” I swallowed hard when he didn’t respond or give any indication that he cared.

“We know where we need to go to find the army. Now, you can join us, but I will have to place a charm on you that will keep you from hurting any of us.”

He growled, the sound low and rumbling from his large chest. “And how do I know that you will not hurt me?”

“Because I can’t,” I replied simply. “My magic won’t allow it.

It will stop you if you prove a danger to anyone else, but I can’t physically hurt you.

Whether you believe it or not, Nyx bound us together, blessing us with a mate bond.

For whatever reason, she wants us to be together. So, I won’t hurt you.”

I thought for a moment he might shift, but there was only another rumble from his chest before he sat. “Then place your charm.”

I released a breath, surprised it didn’t go worse.

I didn’t have much on me, so I rifled through my belt pouches and came back with a piece of twine.

There were several, and I realised that someone had cut them for charm work.

It was something Adrian had begun teaching me during our one-on-one training, just like how Hawk had taught me to put charms into stones to turn them into weapons.

“Your…paw,” I said, grimacing.

The giant wolf-beast raised its huge paw into the air, and I took it.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a paw. It was more hand like, but it had the texture of paw-pads and was covered in the same thick fur.

I thought it would be rough to touch, but it was surprisingly soft.

Claws tipped his more human-like fingers, and they were coated in silver, or maybe a different kind of metal.

I tried to ignore why he’d need that, and instead wound the twine around his wrist, ensuring it wasn’t too tight. “I take it you have no intention of shifting?” I asked, glancing up at him.

The beast dropped his head, his sweet scent somehow becoming heavier.

I hadn’t noticed before that he didn’t have any…

balls, no penis, but there was a weird slit where they should have been.

A pouch, maybe, where they hid? The very few monster romances I’d read flooded my brain.

That was mostly Thea’s thing; she had a thing for the weird…

appendages. The double dicks and strange shapes.

I averted my eyes and quickly went back to tying the twine .

“It is safer for me to be in this form,” he grunted. “You will thank me for it.”

I snorted. Doubtful . But with a shake of my head, I closed my eyes and conjured the twine in my mind.

I breathed in deeply and tried to ignore the sweetness of his scent, instead focusing on the sense of protection I always summoned when making a charm.

In this case, it wasn’t a protection charm for him, but for the rest of us.

As much as I hoped he wouldn’t hurt us, I couldn’t take that risk.

I decided my intentions: protect me and my mates—plus Damon—from ill intent. If the creature considered hurting any one of us, or betraying us, the twine would turn to gold.

The twine in my head flashed red, as if to signal my intentions had been set. I opened my eyes, only to find the male watching me intently.

“There is light coming from you,” he grumbled, more curious than anything.

I looked down at my hands and found my magic manifesting across my skin.

I hadn’t even noticed it; not enough magic had been used to really trigger it.

Though, I still had no idea how that worked.

Maybe it was his proximity as an unbounded mate, but then again, it hadn’t ever really done that around Hawk.

With a shrug, I dropped his hand and stepped back. As I did, the light of my magic faded, settling beneath my skin. “It happens,” I replied carefully. “Now, I’ll know if you plan to betray us.”

He dropped his hand to the earth, and in one fluid motion, rose to his full height. “The only one I intend on hurting is the one killing our people,” he replied, voice dark. “You are nothing more than the thing he wants most. ”

My stomach dropped at the implication of his words. I took several more steps away from him, turning on my heel. “Then let’s make sure he doesn’t get what he wants,” I muttered.

Once again, I was left questioning the Goddess and her choices. Why him? And why tie me to someone who saw me as bait?

I understood the others—sort of. Hawk was one I questioned daily, but to give me a mate from this world? One who clearly didn’t know, or care, about what that meant?

I knew she had a plan, and I had to wonder if she’d forced me to come here for more than just the crown and skull. Maybe, she’d brought us here for him, too.