Filed to story: The Wolf Prince’s Fated Love
It was exactly as the Fetya had foretold, except?-
Pure-white light blasted out of Shay, brighter than the sun and as violent as any explosion. I screwed my eyes tightly shut, but held on for dear life as her body jerked against my chest.
This time, I heard the screams, but there was nothing I could do. The threads of time seemed to warp, as if someone was snatching the weft in a way it was never meant to go. Whether a minute passed or twelve hours, I could never say. All I knew was that when the feeling passed and I cracked my eyes open again, the light was slowly fading, sinking into her skin.
THIRTY-ONE
Shay
My entire body felt like it was floating. There was nothing at all except a tantalizing scent. Cedarwood, with hints of bergamot and something distinctly male and delicious. I wanted to roll around in it, wrap myself up in it like my own personal cocoon on this sea of… Hold up.
I couldn’t float. We were in a field. That was illogical.
Wait.
We were in a field, waiting on… our plane. Preflight checks? Yes. So why was I floating? And who was I sniffing?
I opened my eyes, and a concerned, handsome face stared down at me. One I’d seen before in a very hot dream.
And just like that, everything clicked.
The attacker, Brielle, me getting stabbed, Dirge shifting- I gasped and clutched at my chest, but there was no pain, no wound that I could feel, just a torn shirt sticky with half-dry blood. How long had I been out? I really had to stop getting mortally wounded. It sucked.
“Not long, my love.”
“I- But the wound is gone. How has it not been long?” I mumbled the first idiot thing that came out of my mouth before clamping my lips shut. I was clearly not fully back with it yet and lay dazed in his arms as I searched his eyes.
Goddess, he was beautiful. He’d probably hate that description-shifter males didn’t like anything that poked at their masculinity, as far as I could tell-but it was the truth. His hair was tousled, dark chestnut and straight, almost to his chin. He had olive skin and the most piercing hazel eyes I’d ever seen. And now that I was seeing them in the daylight, I knew without a doubt that the dream had been a mere shadow of the man.
He was stunning and powerful and wholly overwhelming.
“I don’t know. It’s a miracle.”
“Umm…” I tried to bring myself back around to the present, but when he was staring at me so intently, it was hard to focus on anything except my very needy pussy. She wanted him, pronto.
Chill out, Shay. It’s not a good look to be drooling over him while you’re covered in blood.
“A miracle? More like some badass magic. Holy shit, Shay. You got stabbed. It was bad. Blood everywhere, instant shock, you were pale and fading, and you fucking died on us
-we were all gutted, by the way-then BAM! Bright lights and holy shit, you’re awake again.” Leigh’s eyes were wide, hair wild as if she’d run her hands through it a hundred times in the minutes I’d been out.
Minutes? It just didn’t make sense.
“Leigh, if I died, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
I scanned the group, waiting for confirmation, but Dirge was still holding me-in his lap, I realized belatedly. When I moved to sit next to him, he held me tighter around the waist, as if I were going to disappear into a wisp of smoke if he let me go.
I mean, I guess if he thought I just died, I couldn’t blame him. But that clearly wasn’t the case. Hello, I’m still here.
But when my gaze landed on Brielle, and I saw her shell-shocked expression, I started to believe it a little bit more.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked, fingers twining into Dirge’s chin-length hair. Even if I did feel awkward sitting on his lap with all our pack mates around, touching him soothed me on a primal level. Anchored me.
Aroused me very inappropriately for the number of our friends staring at us.
“Everyone but the assassin, thanks to you,” he said, nodding toward the corpse a few feet away.
I looked only long enough to see that there was, in fact, a dead body not ten feet from where we sat in the grass, before quickly jerking my gaze away from the grisly sight.
“Assassin?” My brain processed slowly, as if I were coming back to the present in a big bubble of molasses or honey.
“Assassin,” Gael agreed, from his position kneeling next to the body. He seemed the least rattled of us all, focused on the task at hand and not on whatever had revived me.
Holy hell, had I really died? It didn’t seem possible. I felt fine. Better than fine, actually. Energetic. Ready to take out a dozen assassins.
“He’s carrying a sword, the knife he used on Shay.”
Dirge growled beneath me at that reminder, so I brought my other hand up to rest on his bare chest, trying to calm him as Gael continued.
“A pouch full of all kinds of vials, possibly poison? To be determined. He’s also got a pistol, both wolfsbane and devil’s trap bullets, and a sat phone.”
I blinked at the laundry list.
“Is he a shifter?” Kane asked from where he was crouched next to Brielle, hand on her shoulder. She had both arms wrapped around her knees, and she couldn’t seem to stop staring at me.
“It’s harder to tell postmortem once the essence fades, obviously, but I don’t think so. He’s got pointed ears and magic I’ve never felt before. The ears narrow it down to elf, goblin-mixed, given he’s not green-fae, or… I’m not sure. Pixie, maybe? He doesn’t smell like any of those.”
“Drakenia guild.” Dirge spoke, still holding me tightly yet cautiously, like I was a precious china doll he was scared to break. “Rare to see them this far from Europe, but clearly, the payout was big, since he’s here.”
I blinked at that. I’d never heard of the Drakenia guild, and I had no idea what kind of payout he was talking about.
“But why would a Drakenia killer be here in Alaska? Do you think they were after Kane, trying to wipe out Alpha Kosta’s entire line?”