by G. Bailey
The Shadow Wolf
The Familiar Empire Series
G. Bailey
Contents
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Description
Prologue
1. Anastasia
2. Anastasia
3. Anastasia
4. Anastasia
5. Liam
6. Anastasia
7. Anastasia
8. Anastasia
9. Anastasia
10. Anastasia
11. Alexander
12. Mason
13. Anastasia
14. Anastasia
15. Anastasia
16. Anastasia
17. Mason
18. Anastasia
19. Anastasia
20. Anastasia
21. Anastasia
22. Anastasia
23. Anastasia
Epilogue
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Excerpt from Winter’s Guardian…
The Shadow Wolf Copyright © 2020 by G. Bailey (Midnight Publishing Limited)
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands, and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Edited by Polished Perfection.
Cover design by Sylvia Frost.
Created with Vellum
Her Guardians Series
Her Fate Series
Protected By Dragons Series
Lost Time Academy Series
The Demon Academy Series
Dark Angel Academy Series
Shadowborn Academy Series
Dark Fae Paranormal Prison Series
Saved By Pirates Series
The Marked Series
Holly Oak Academy Series
The Alpha Brothers Series
A Demon’s Fall Series
The Familiar Empire Series
From The Stars Series
The Forest Pack Series
The Secret Gods Prison Series
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The houses of Dawn and Violeta have declared war, and I must stop them.
But I’m not alone.
After finding out secrets that have been hidden for years, now more than ever, I need to stop my sister before it’s too late.
My name is Anastasia Noble, and I have to go against my family to save everyone I love.
They say dreams don’t always come true.
But mine do.
When gods and familiars go to war, not everyone can make it out alive.
18+ RH. The final book in The Familiar Empire Series.
Prologue
Diana Violeta
Many years ago…
Running a blade through the masked man’s chest, I can barely contain my scream of anger and fear. His death means nothing to me; his existence and why he is here means so much more. The assassin’s body falls to the leaf-covered floor at my feet as the smell of blood and fire attack my senses. I can’t hear anything over the car on fire and the whipping wind of a storm coming in. My familiar cat, White, jumps onto my shoulder, curling herself around me like a scarf for comfort as I ignore the screams behind me. Clive, my dear husband, moves fluidly, killing the assassins sent after us, like they are trees he is cutting down with an axe. The ones the humans send, the ones they think will have a single chance at killing us? They won’t.
Clive will never die from a human hand.
Neither will I, it is not my fate.
But our sweet girls? Our babies could.
“Are you alright?” Clive asks me when he is finished with the humans, rushing in front of me and checking for injuries. This night was meant to be our fresh start. We just moved to a new town, hoping to escape the humans who hunt us and the Familiar Empire who are always following, but it hasn’t worked. It never does. We are always on the run, always trying to breathe underwater when no one is helping us. I nod, wrapping my arms around myself as I stare at our car on fire nearby, the embers flickering and spitting onto the nearby trees. Falling to my knees, I thank all the familiar magic in the world for the simple fact our children were not with us today in that car. Oh how differently this night could have ended for us all. Clive kneels in front of me, holding me like he can make all of this simpler with just his love.
But he can’t.
“If we left now, they would follow us and leave the children alone,” he suggests, the same suggestion he has asked me a million times.
“Leaving them… How can we leave our sweet children? Bethany? Anastasia? Phoebe?” I cry.
He looks down, a single tear falling from his cheek into my hand. I feel his pain like it is my own, mixing with my own into something so unbearable I can’t breathe right. “Because we know they will never stop coming for us, and they will never be safe.”
I want to fight. I want to be with my children, but my husband is right.
I can’t do both.
Gods forgive me.
I can’t stay.
Chapter 1
Anastasia
Secrets are the lies we keep…
Clive Dawn and Diana Violeta stand in front of me like no time has passed at all. Like time has just frozen them, with no feeling or care for the pain it would cause.
My mother still has beautiful blonde hair cascading down her back, strands moving with the wind. Her eyes, so much like Bethany’s and Phoebe’s, shine with a blue hue, and she looks like a distant memory that has somehow come to life. My dad has the same eyes as the cloaked god, my friend who gave me the map to come here, to find out the truth, but otherwise, he looks like my dad on the last few days I remember of them. The same crisp brown suit, a hanging pocket watch chain appearing out of his jacket pocket. They hold hands as they both stare at me, and I’m speechless. Utterly speechless. Tiny cracks in my heart, the ones they created when they died, now blast open, cutting me more deeply than they ever have before. Abandoning us, their children, is far worse than them dying and being forced to leave. Nothing they could say will make this better. Nothing.
Alex and Mason help me stand up, and I cross my arms, like the tiny movement could protect my heart from the shock. I want to shout, I want to cry and hit them, but I freeze instead.
“Who are they?” Alex asks, his arm staying wrapped around my waist as Mason takes my hand. Liam catches my eyes for a second, and it feels wrong to even admit the truth. To say who they are out loud for the world to judge and hear. They shouldn’t be here. I went to their funeral. I cried for them for years, wishing they would just come back to life. Now they are here, but it feels like a betrayal and nothing like what I wanted for all those years.
“Meet Clive Dawn and Diana Violeta. My parents,” I grit out. I can’t stop looking at them, my heart aching to hold them and see if they feel the same about me.
“I thought you looked familiar, Diana,” Alex growls. If she is remotely frightened, she doesn’t show it as my dad takes a step forward in front of her, as if Alex is the threat. It’s almost funny that he thinks that. Diana was Alex’s mum’s best friend, and he mourned her death. “I was a kid, but I remember you. I remember my mum crying for days and wishing things were different when you just left. She always thought you’d come b
ack.”
“How I wish your mother were still alive. I see her in your eyes,” my mum claims. Alex’s hand shakes, and I reach out, touching his shoulder to calm him however I can.
“You have grown up to be a beautiful woman, Anastasia, but I never expected to see you again,” my dad speaks. The words don’t come across like he wants them to; they miss their mark. I can’t see the compliment, I only see him abandoning me.
“Because pretending to die and hiding on an island was a nice gift to me?” I all but spit out. “I hate you both. Nothing you can say will fix this, and I didn’t come here expecting to see you. A friend, a god, sent me for help, but you know what?” I laugh, shaking my head. “I don’t want anything from either of you. It’s best we leave and pretend we never met you.”
“You can’t!” mum protests, rushing forward. “Let us explain what happened. Please…we never wanted to leave you three. You are our children, and we love you.”
“You don’t abandon those you love,” Liam gently interjects, but I can hear the disgust in his voice that he hides so well. “I think we should leave and gather our thoughts.”
“You are not leaving,” my dad coldly states, lifting his hand into the air, and purple energy flickers around his hand almost effortlessly. The ground shakes, knocking us all over as our familiars move closer, protecting us. I look back to see our helicopter sinking into the sand, disappearing from sight until there is nothing left of it, and then the ground stops shaking. Pulling myself to my feet, I smirk at my dad.
“If you think that will keep us here, you are mad. We aren’t normal familiars,” I remind him, holding my own hand out to Shadow. He pushes his head into my hand, and without so much as a thought, purple power blasts out of my hand and into him, turning him into a hawk.
“Try us,” Alex remarks, my guys changing their animals as effortlessly as I do. My dad and mum look between each other, a tiny smile on their lips like they are proud. I hate that I enjoy the look.
“There is a forcefield around the island that we lowered for you to come in, but it is back on now. You would greatly harm yourself and your familiars trying to break through it,” mum warns us. I freeze, my hand going to my stomach and the unborn baby inside it, even as Mason’s eyes find my own.
“We could try,” he whispers. “It isn’t safe here.”
“No,” I reply, closing my eyes and letting Shadow turn back into his normal wolf-like self. The guys eye me with caution, likely wondering what the hell I am doing, but I can’t tell them the truth yet. At the same time, I don’t want to be with my parents after what they have done. Every memory of Bethany, Phoebe and me since their “death” flashes before my eyes until I can’t focus on anything but Bethany attacking me. How she has turned into a killer, a woman who is so hellbent on taking over the world that she would kill her own family.
All of the darkness in her heart started the second our parents died, but I didn’t see it. I only saw my sister, my best friend, and I could never have seen her do this.
“Bethany and Phoebe…and me. Did you ever think about the consequences of what you did to us?” I ask, my words echoing around us like the world wants my parents to hear them one more time. My mum halts, staring at me with a moment of sadness, like her sadness could wipe away all the years of her being alive while her children needed her. I look to my dad, and I see nothing but resolve for what they have done.
“The island and our people needed us. Some things are worth more than family,” dad counters. “I understand your pain like it is my own. When you have your own children, you will realise how far you’d go to protect them.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. Nothing means more than those you call family,” I reply, glancing at my guys. “But blood doesn’t make you family. Family is those you would die for.”
“That is your perception, perhaps,” dad sourly replies.
Liam steps forward, catching all our attention. “What is this place? What people are you talking about?”
“On this island, familiars are free and live in peace. Come and see what could be possible for you and your people,” dad suggests, waving his hand behind him at a footpath through the trees and two Jeeps that are parked just at the side of the path. “Come and see what we built for you, knowing you would one day come to us, Anastasia.”
When none of us move, dad takes mum’s hand and says, “I can see you all need a moment. We will wait at the cars.” With one more painful look in my eyes, mum follows dad as they walk away.
I wait until they are a good distance before turning around, and my guys circle around me. “I don’t trust them. They might be my parents, but he is a god, and that means he is hundreds of years old. I could be one of thousands of children for all I know.”
“How did you get us here?” Liam asks after a long pause. “I know you wanted us to trust you, but we need to know now.”
Clearing my throat, I wonder how crazy they are going to think I am. “Since the day I became a familiar, a man in a cloak kept turning up in my life. He saved me from the car crash, he has always been there, and finally he came to me. He died, but before he did, he revealed that he was a god, and then he showed me this place. Like a map in my mind.”
“So he left out that your parents were here?” Mason scoffs in annoyance. “Not like that is important or anything.”
“He has been showing me dreams, which are actually visions of the past and the future. I’m scared what being here means for us all,” I reply, rubbing my hands together. “And how do I tell Phoebe our parents are alive? That they are well and just didn’t come for us? Would it help Bethany to know, or would it make her even more unstable than they currently are?”
“I don’t know, but you won’t be alone, Tassie,” Alex tells me, and it helps a little bit. “Maybe if Bethany knows, she might calm down her psycho rule-the-world vibes she has going on.”
“No, I actually think it will make her worse. Bethany could never get over them leaving her, and she doesn’t have anyone left,” I say, feeling firm in my judgment on her. “The only one who can stop her is me, and I will. I won’t let anyone else die because of Bethany.”
“I don’t think that will be your choice for much longer,” Mason gently reminds me, placing his hand over mine. I link my fingers with his, looking back at the cars where my parents are watching us.
“We stick together, got it?” Alex demands, and I turn back to meet his brown eyes.
Breathing in the thick smell of the saltwater and the pine from the trees, I answer, “And if that isn’t enough, we get the hell off this island no matter what it takes.”
Chapter 2
Anastasia
I have a secret, but this city? I bet it has more…
The Jeep driven by Alex jolts every few seconds as he follows the car in front that my parents are in. Now that the sheer shock has worn off, I can’t feel anything but a wave of burning anger that they are still alive. I want nothing more to do with them, but clearly they are more manipulative than I would have given them credit for. Heartless and manipulative. I now know exactly where Bethany got it from. I assumed it was my aunt, but it wasn’t.
Thinking of my aunt, I wonder what she would think to find her precious sister alive and well. Another subject to bring up with my mum at some point. I want to get her away from dad; I want to know how much of this was all of her choices. From the look in her eyes, I felt like she was hurt by leaving her children more than anyone else.
“You okay?” Liam softly asks me, his hand linked with mine, resting on my knee. I look up at him, admiring his locks of blond hair, how they fall over his forehead, and he brushes them aside when they get close to his eyes. He really is a handsome man, striking to look at and kind on the inside. Even with how messed up the world is, Liam is one of the good things I know I can count on.
“That’s a two-way question,” I murmur. “I’m okay in the sense my shoulder only aches now, and the scar is not pretty, but I will cope with i
t. I’m not okay in the sense my parents are alive and they have effectively grounded me for the first time in their lives.”
And the fact I’m pregnant, and I haven’t told anyone here. I never expected to be shipping us into danger, but I have done, and it was a shit thing for me to do. Every day I keep the secret from them, the worse I feel. We should be talking about the baby and figuring out the future together, and here I am, too scared to find a moment with all three of them to tell them the truth.
Liam frowns, brushing his lips against my cheek. The little contact sends shivers through me.