by Bella Jacobs
Maybe less.
It’s time to seize the day, to seize every instant and squeeze every bit of life from it I can. Starting now.
“Dust, do you know my real last name?” I lean forward in my seat as we wind up a scenic byway into the mountains, keeping my voice low so as not to wake Luke or Kite, who have fallen asleep in the back seat on either side of me.
He glances over his shoulder. “Wander.”
“Wren Wander.” I touch my fingers lightly to my lips as I try the name on for size and find it good. Right.
Mine.
“But not all who wander are lost,” Dust whispers, making me smile.
“No, they aren’t,” I agree, gazing up at the looming mountains and the glorious peak of Mount Baker, still snowcapped in early June.
I’m not lost anymore.
I’m not found, either, but I’m on my way.
I ease back into my seat, resting my head on Kite’s shoulder as I close my eyes.
I’m asleep in seconds, falling into a dream of a moonlit forest by a clear stream, where the red fox waits for me again.
But this time, she doesn’t stay a fox, she rears onto her hind legs and throws back her head, lifting her nose to the sky as she transforms into a woman in a long red cloak, her silver-streaked raven hair the same color as mine.
Mama, my soul cries out, knowing her instantly.
It’s my mother, my birth mother.
I know her as surely as if I’d spent my entire life looking into her kind eyes, seeing her smile that crooked grin, smelling the flowers and turpentine scent clinging to her clothes.
“Wrenny Roo.” She reaches for me, her fingers giving off silver sparks as she moves.
“I remember,” I say, the nickname bringing back smells of fresh baked cherry cobbler from our orchard and long afternoons in the sun and laughing with Mama and Daddy and Scarlett until I couldn’t breathe.
I fall into her arms, hugging her close, tears filling my eyes as I feel how cold and thin she is beneath her cloak.
“Mama,” I whisper, my throat tight. “Oh, Mama, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too, love, but I’ve always been here. Waiting for you to be strong enough to see me.” She smooths a gentle hand over my hair, making me feel like a little girl again even though I’m several inches taller than she is. “And I’ll still be here, for as long as you need me. I’m not going anywhere until my girls are safe.”
Pain shoots through my heart like a sliver of ice, shoved deep.
I pull back, tears falling as I tell her the terrible truth. “She’s gone, Mama. Scarlett…she’s dead. She died a long time ago, in a terrible accident.”
Mama smiles, sparks dancing in her eyes now as she shakes her head. “No, love. She’s alive.”
I blink faster. “What?”
She lifts a hand, pointing to the sky where a crescent moon hangs low above the trees. “She’s hidden far away, pretending to be something she’s not to give you the chance to grow up. But her time is running short. She doesn’t know that you’re free. She doesn’t know that it’s time to stop hiding and start fighting.”
I shake my head. “What do you mean?”
“She’s been pretending, but he knows she’s not the Fata Morgana now,” Mama says, bringing her palm between us as she turns back to me. On it sits a tiny version of Scarlett made of moonlight. She sits in a tower high in the mountains, surrounded by a sea of clouds. “Atlas knows. And he will kill her for it as surely as he will kill you for daring to lay claim to his throne.”
“I don’t want his throne,” I say, panic clawing at my throat. “I just want to save our world and keep him from hurting anyone else. And to see Scarlett, to save her. Mama you have to tell me where she is.”
“I can’t find things in the human world, not anymore. But one of them can show you the way,” Mama says, her entire body flashing with sparks now. Sparks that flare and fade, taking pieces of her away as they die. “One of your four has the answer locked inside of him. He doesn’t remember, but it’s there. You have to set the secret free.”
“But how?” I reach for her, trying to catch the folds of her cloak, but my hands go straight through her. “Mama, don’t go. Please. Stay. Help me.”
“Wake up, Wren,” she says, her voice going deeper. “Wake up.”
“Mama, no! Mama!”
I wake with a start to find Luke’s hands under my armpits and his face inches from mine as he urges me, “Wake up, Wren.”
I shake my head, my thoughts still dream fogged.
I try to ask Luke what’s wrong, but my lips won’t cooperate, and my query as to why he needed me to wake me up so badly he decided to pick me up off my seat goes unspoken.
Pick me up…
I give my legs an experimental wiggle, but they aren’t touching the seat or the floor of the Hummer. They’re dangling in the air, and when I glance to my right, my clothes are lying in a puddle, as if some evil witch cast a spell and magicked the Wren right out of them.
I cock my head sharply as I glance back at Luke.
Much to my surprise he laughs beneath his breath. “Yeah, that was our response, too, princess. Never seen someone shift in her sleep before.” He gives me an appraising glance up and down. “But you’re cute like this. A lot less dangerous than when you’re on fire.”
I bare my teeth, and a soft growl emerges, but Luke only laughs again.
“You are cute,” he insists. “See for yourself.”
He shifts his grip beneath my front legs until he’s turned me to face the driver’s seat. He lifts me higher, and in the rearview mirror is the reflection of a gorgeous red fox with amber eyes and a fluffy white chin.
As I catch sight of it, I smile, and the fox’s lips curve, too.
Thank you, Mama, I think, honored that my first animal form is like hers.
“Now we just have to figure out how to keep you from shifting in your sleep,” Dust says, ever the practical one. “Or Kite might roll over in bed and crush you.”
“Lies,” Kite mumbles, his eyes still closed. “I know exactly where Wren is, whether I’m awake or asleep, whether she’s a girl or fire or a fox or anything in between.”
“A fire fox. Isn’t that a search engine?” Creedence asks. “Can you turn into a search engine, Wren?”
I wrinkle my nose, and Dust rolls his eyes with a huff.
“I’ve been awake for almost two days straight. These are the jokes when I’m this tired, people.” Creedence drives both hands through his wild hair, making me realize we’ve stopped on the side of the road. “So where to now? What have the people in charge finally decided? Please don’t tell me we’re headed in the wrong direction, or I may have to jump out and scream a little.”
Dust holds up his phone, spinning the screen to face Creedence. “No, we’re going the right way. See, the new safe house is up there, right on the Canadian border. When the times comes, we should be able to make the crossing at night in animal forms without getting caught.” He casts a fond smile my way. “Especially now that Wren has a more…forest-friendly shape.”
I grin as I flick my tail, tossing it in a wide arc as I squirm free of Luke’s hands and drop lightly to the seat between him and Kite.
Still sleepy, I crawl onto Kite’s lap and curl into a ball with my tail wrapped around me, eyes sliding closed in bliss as he begins to stroke my fur.
“Why do I feel like I’m watching something I shouldn’t?” Luke grumbles, arching a brow as Kite’s fingers dig deeper into my fur, hitting a sweet spot that causes a warm, whirring sound to hum from my chest.
I’m purring, I realize with a thrill. I didn’t realize foxes purred, but it’s a lovely feeling…purr-fect, if you will.
“Because they’re rubbing it in,” Creedence says. “Shoving our faces in their happy, glowy new-mate bond.”
“It’s a good thing.” Dust turns back to face the road ahead, his shoulders stiff. “The bond will make Wren stronger faster.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t be a little jealous.” Creedence winks at me in the rearview mirror, and I flick my tail slowly back and forth in a way I hope he can tell means, “Play your cards right and maybe you won’t have to be jealous for long.”
Judging by the wicked grin that curves his full lips, he got the message loud and clear.
I have no idea which of my four men knows where Scarlett is, or how to “set the answer free” the way my mother said, but getting closer to each of them couldn’t hurt.
And it’s my destiny to form these bonds, not simply my fate.
Fate is something that happens to you no matter how hard you might try to stop it; destiny is something you fight for, no matter what stands in your way.
These men—strong, fierce, but oh-so-gentle Kite; serious and secretly tender-hearted Dust; dangerously sexy Creedence, and just plain dangerous Luke—they all belong to me.
I can feel it in my whiskers, a truth vibrating in the air between us, assuring me I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, making it acceptable to snuggle in for a nap as Creedence pulls back onto the road, getting us closer to the safety with every passing mile.
To be continued in
UNTAMED—Available Now
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Sneak Peek
UNTAMED is Available Now
Once upon a time there was a very good girl, who followed all the rules.
That girl is dead.
I am no longer Wren Frame, the bird with the broken wing. I am Wren Wander, a rare shapeshifter determined to take back everything the cult stole from me—my health, my hope, and most importantly, my family.
My sister is still out there somewhere. Alive.
And with the help of the four brave, formidable, sexy-as-hell alphas destined to be my mates, I intend to keep her that way.
All I have to do is gain control of my unpredictable new powers, learn hand-to-hand combat, avoid capture by a mad scientist out to rid the world of shifters, and stay ten steps ahead of a Big Bad Evil hungry for my blood.
And that's not the worst of it.
In order to fully control my powers, I have to form bonds with all four of my mates. But for a woman who’s been betrayed by every person she’s ever loved, trust doesn’t come easy, no matter how much I'm coming to adore these incredible men.
Can I win this battle of the heart in time? Or will the enemies closing in end our fight for the future before it even gets started?
UNTAMED is part two of the Dark Moon Shifters series, a red-hot reverse harem paranormal and urban fantasy romance. Expect pulse-pounding action, suspense, swoon-worthy romance, and four sexy shifter men who will make you wish you had a bear, wolf, lynx, and griffin of your own.
Excerpt from UNTAMED c. Bella Jacobs
I have no idea what I’m doing.
Absolutely no clue.
As I sit in this cramped hotel room in the wilds outside Spokane, watching two of the four men in my life prowl the flowered carpet like caged animals, while the third seethes in a tattered wingback chair in the corner, and the fourth broods on the bed beside me with a still sadness that breaks my heart, I am struck by how utterly unqualified I am. I am not fit to be the glue that holds five people together in a relationship—any relationship, let alone a supernatural union that is the only shot at survival for ourselves, the planet, and everyone we love.
I’ve never had a steady boyfriend.
Aside from my adopted parents, I’ve never even observed a functional union up close. My girlfriends in high school were all wallflowers like me, or in intense, secretive, highly sexual relationships with other band nerds. In college, I was too busy volunteering at the shelter and trying not to die to have time to be part of a couple, and the few illicit liaisons I witnessed at work always ended badly.
My sister had one serious boyfriend when she was in high school, but Chad vanished from the picture pretty quickly once Scarlett was sent to rehab. He did show up to her memorial service with a bouquet of lilies, but we all knew that was more about assuaging guilt than expressing affection. He was the one who’d given Scarlett the drugs that landed her in rehab in the first place, and his offering only proved he hadn’t known my sister at all.
Scarlett hated lilies. They made her sneeze.
They make her sneeze, I correct myself.
My sister is still alive. For now. And as long as there is breath in my body, I intend to keep her that way. Which means we have to decide our next move. Fast. Before our enemies catch up with us again.
I force my lips to part, and more uncomfortable words to come out. “I know this is hard, and that we’re all tired and scared, but we have to decide on a place to settle. We can’t keep running in circles.”
“Agreed.” Creedence’s voice is a soft rumble, but I know he’s still angry.
Enraged is a better word. His blood is running so hot I’m sure it’s kicking up the temperature in the already warm room a couple degrees.
“A decision has to be made,” he continues. “Preferably one that ends with all of us staying alive. Which would be easier if certain members of our happy family would quit lying every time they open their fucking mouths.”
“Nastiness isn’t productive,” Kite says with a sigh.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Pooh-bie.” Creedence presses a hand to his chest as he leans forward in his chair, his amber eyes blazing. “I apologize for not being as Zen as you and your old lady, but I figure we have enough enemies out there.” He jabs a thumb at the window, where the trees droop in the summer rain, their heavy leaves looking as dejected as I feel. “Half of creation wants to take us out. If we can’t trust and depend on each other, we might as well put a gun to our heads now and save the bad guys the trouble.”
“Please don’t talk that way,” I beg, my stomach churning sickly as flashes from the attack on the reservation rush through my head. It’s been a week since we fled east, but the memories of carnage are still way too fresh.
Every time I close my eyes, I see blood, tears streaming down terrified faces, and a hole exploding in the center of a man’s forehead as he begs me for help.
A hole Luke put there with his gun.
A hole Luke doesn’t regret for a second.
A hole that inspired Luke’s everlasting contempt when I made it clear I’m serious about showing our enemies mercy, even when mercy feels impossible.
I peek at him beneath my lashes, but Luke’s gaze remains fixed on the carpet as he paces from the sink to the silent television and back again, sticking to his side of the space by unspoken agreement with Dust, who paces a slower, shorter path between the bed and the door.
When I shift my attention Dust’s way, his gray eyes are filled with equal parts frustration and a helplessness that worries me.
Dust is our captain. If he’s lost, what does that mean for the rest of us?
It means no one is steering the ship. They’re fighting over the wheel, and you’d better step in and take charge before you all end up smashed against the rocks.
But how do I take charge?
How do I lead, when I know for a fact that at least one of my potential mates doesn’t want to follow me—or to be my mate at all? Luke’s only in this for the fake ID he’s been promised when we cross the border. And then there’s Creedence, who thinks I’m a naïve child, Dust, who’s having an existential crisis, and Kite, my first mate, first love, first everything, who is quietly slipping into depression in the wake of the deaths of his family and friends.
I tighten my grip on Kite’s hand, wishing I could spare him this pain, that I could take it into myself somehow. But I can’t. All I can do is hold his hand and be there for him when he wakes up crying out in the night and promise that I’ll never give up on him or on our mission.
If I give up, if we fail, then all those deaths, all that su
ffering and loss, will have been for nothing.
“Dust has apologized,” I say in my most soothing voice, “and explained why he made the decision he made. We may not agree with it, but I understand why he felt it was the right call at the time. He was trying to give us some stability, to keep us from being any more frightened than we were already.”
“With all due respect, Slim,” Creedence says, “I’m a grown man, not a child who needs to be sheltered from the big bad world. I’m also more than this mark on my ass. I have experience slipping by the authorities. I was helping my sister make fake IDs before I could ride a bike without training wheels.”
“And those are skills we can put to use now,” Dust says, speaking up for the first time in several minutes. “We’re going to need—”
“I don’t give a fuck what you need!” Creedence surges to his feet so fast his shaggy golden hair flies into his face, errant strands sticking to the beard he’s grown while we’ve been living on the road. “I don’t work for you, Captain.” The last word is spoken in a sneer so cutting it makes me flinch. “You aren’t calling the shots around here anymore.”
“Then who is?” Dust shouts, clearly done apologizing. “You? You think you’ve got what it takes to run a mission I’ve trained two years to lead? Just because you hail from a family of thieves and con artists?”
“Thieves and con artists who got away with millions,” Creedence pops back. “Most of it without getting anyone caught or killed. We both know you can’t say the same. How many casualties have you chalked up so far? Fifteen? Twenty?”
Dust stiffens, his jaw clenching tight.
Creedence jerks his head toward Luke. “And if it hadn’t been for Mister Paranoid Puppy over there, we’d be dead now, too. Just like those innocent people, those kids we might as well have slaughtered with our bare hands for all the—”