by Kimber White
Gregor started to stir. The pain made him shift into his wolf. I could sense his struggle to shift back. He tried to rise on unsteady legs. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
Luka felt it too. Denall’s magic had hurt him. My God! I didn’t think he could shift back.
“Viktor,” Mia said with horror in her voice. She could sense the problem too. Acting on instinct and compassion, she made a move toward Gregor.
It was just an innocent gesture. A calming touch. But Mia let her guard down for just a split second. In his feral state, Gregor was confused. He sensed what she was. What she really was. And he sprang.
His teeth sank into Mia’s wrist. I was on him before I even made a conscious decision to move. I drove Gregor backward, away from her.
A keening wail filled the air. Mia’s blood. Fae magic. It happened in a split second, but Denall and the other fae saw exactly what she was.
“No!” I screamed. If they knew she was a full-blooded female shifter, all bets were off. They would want her. They would tell the Ring. They would try to take her from me.
Mia’s wolf went into a defensive crouch, her teeth bared. She drew them to her. Denall, the other fae.
I had one chance. One choice. I made it.
Before Denall could react, I jumped on his back and sank my fangs into his neck.
His blood poured into my mouth as I ripped his jugular to shreds.
No light could save him now. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Luka shifted. His wolf arched through the air, aiming for one of the other fae.
But it was too late. The pair of them vanished into points of light.
“Oh, God,” Mia screamed. “They know!”
Luka shifted back, his face drained of blood. Gregor hadn’t moved from where he lay. His tail twitched, his chest heaved, mortally wounded.
“Luka,” I said, my voice ragged.
“Go!” he shouted. “Viktor, you have to go. You have to run. They’ll be back. They won’t stop.”
My eyes locked with Mia’s. Tears ran down her cheeks.
“There’s no time,” I said, gripping her by the shoulders. “There’s no going back for either of us. We have to leave it all behind. Now.”
Blinking hard, she gave me a nod. Then, she shifted back into her wolf. I shifted into mine. Then, we ran for all we were worth.
Chapter 14
Mia
I matched Viktor’s stride. Trees whipped by as danger closed in from behind. His pulse thundered through me. His fear. His protective rage.
Terror gripped my heart, but it thrilled me. Behind us, the warning echoes of Luka’s howl drove us forward.
They’re coming. They’re coming. Only I didn’t know where from.
I stayed glued to Viktor’s side as he veered sharply east, tearing through the thickest of the forest. With agile grace, he leaped over fallen logs and dips in the terrain. With each stride, I felt my power growing. I was born for this. Even in the throes of danger, I’d never felt more alive.
I sensed it as we came to the edge of the Clairmont property. I don’t know whether I picked up on Viktor’s thoughts, or some baser instinct inside of me. Maybe both, but his step faltered just once as he made the decision for us, which way to turn.
South.
I still had enough of the logical side of my mind. South was dangerous. I didn’t know how close we were to the Kentucky border, but it couldn’t be far. He couldn’t mean to cross into the Neutral Zone...or worse. Could he?
It was a split-second decision. I felt Viktor’s hesitation. A new fear blossomed in his heart. Then he made his choice. I felt what pulled him. The mountains. We’d cover hundreds of miles to get to them. I’d never run this fast, this far. But I knew in my heart we could.
There was a choice for me as well. The Ring was after him now. Denall was dead. His companions weren’t. I tried to get my bearings, but my mind and heart filled with just one thing.
Viktor.
Was I safer with him or without him?
Viktor growled and snapped his jaw. A shock of electricity went through me. Of course he could read my mood. Then, before I knew what was happening, my body answered for me. As Viktor began to run, I followed.
He drove southeast, through the state lands. We crossed the border into Kentucky. For hours, we drove onward. I never tired. I soared. By the next day, the Appalachians loomed before us. He was headed for the Cumberland Gap. I’d never, ever ventured this far. And yet, it felt familiar, as if I’d seen it in a dream. Part of me knew that even without Viktor at my side, I would have known the way.
Viktor turned, heading for a rocky path at the base of the mountains. I knew without him telling me that he meant to climb. Thunder cracked. I wondered if the lightning that followed was true or something else. Dark magic. Fae magic. I had no idea how they tracked.
Then the rain came down, making our path slicker. I never lost my step, though. We gave each other strength as we climbed impossibly higher.
We reached an apex and then climbed down the other side. Dawn came, then the sun rose high before we finally came down into a hidden valley.
Green grass and wildflowers stretched as far as I could see. It was as if Viktor had found a tiny pocket of paradise, hidden from view.
Finally, he stopped running. His tail high, he padded to the edge of a small reservoir and dipped his head to drink. He let out a chuff, calling me to his side.
I took a long, slow drink, feeling my sides about to burst. Then, exhausted, I sank into the tall grass, shifting beside Viktor.
His hair was wild. Sweat poured from his brow. He came to me, gathering me into his arms. I felt limp and boneless.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice filled with worry.
“Never better,” I flapped a hand. “Where are we?”
Viktor’s face went a little white as he shielded his eyes from the sun and looked up at the surrounding mountains.
“Somewhere safe,” he said. “For now.”
“How can you know that?” I asked, pulling myself into a sitting position. “How well do you know fae powers?”
He raised a brow. “Well enough. But I know Luka and the others better. They’re drawing them away from us.”
I sat straighter, alarm racing through me. “Drawing them away? Viktor. They’ll kill them. Or worse…”
The gravity of our situation started to settle over me. “They rely on you,” I said. “They consider you their Alpha.”
“That’s for me to worry about,” he snapped.
“God,” I said. “Gregor…”
I couldn’t say it. I saw his lifeless eyes in my mind’s eye. He was dead. He had died for me. Viktor’s grief etched lines into his face. Gregor had died without hesitation. He had served his Alpha well. And yet, they weren’t even truly a pack.
I got to my feet. This place. There was something special about it. It wasn’t random. We hadn’t just lucked our way into it. It was my turn to shield my eyes from the sun as I scanned the mountain range.
I knew the boundaries by heart. It was my job. Since I was eighteen, I’d scouted locations, safe zones to bring shifters looking for respite from tangling with the Ring and the human government.
We were deep within the southern Appalachian mountain range. North of us was Oasis Territory. To the east was the Neutral Zone. West and south were Ring occupied. How far south had he brought us?
“Viktor,” I said. “Where are we?”
His expression turned grim. “We’re safe enough here. The Ring doesn’t patrol here.”
“I can see why not,” I said. My God. It was perfect. Like a hidden Eden. With the small lake and vegetation, there would be plenty of places to hunt undetected. I couldn’t sense any humans or other shifters for miles. The terrain would be far too treacherous for the more mundane search planes. Any shifter looking to get here would have had to cross through occupied territory and border checkpoints. I felt certain that only someone who knew exactly
where he was going could make it here safely.
Just like Viktor had.
“This is yours,” I said. “Isn’t it?”
The value of this spot was priceless. He’d been here before. Many times. Even now, I could detect Viktor’s faint scent from previous hunts.
“Do they know?” I asked.
“Does who know?” he answered.
“Anyone,” I said. “Everyone. The Ring. Denall.”
“Denall’s dead,” he snapped.
“What about your friends?” I said. “Viktor, if you were interested in protecting Luka and the rest of them, why aren’t they already here? Why did you bring them to Clairmont?”
His eyes flashed. Viktor rose and sniffed the air. I did the same. We were alone. Utterly, completely alone.
Slowly, the answer to my own question dawned on me. “No one knows about this place,” I whispered. “Viktor, you could have stayed here. You could have hidden…”
I knew what this meant. This was Viktor’s own private hideout. His honey hole. There were places like this all over the country. All over the world. But not many. Shifters killed to protect these kinds of secrets. It was the nuclear option for most of us. We weren’t meant to live in solitude. But it was better than living under forced subjugation to the Ring.
“They don’t know,” I said. “Not even Luka.”
Viktor went to the water’s edge. He cupped his hands and doused himself with water, letting it roll over his head and down his back.
“I was hoping I’d never have to use it,” he said. “I was hoping Clairmont…”
“It’s not big enough for Luka and the others. Maybe a few of them. But the more shifters you bring out here, the more likely somebody somewhere is going to pick up your scent.”
The gravity of what he’d done became clear. Trusting me with the knowledge of this place meant one of two things. Either he meant to share it with me...or he meant for me never to leave here alive.
I took a step back. Viktor’s entire mood changed. His eyes widened, and he lunged for me.
“Mia,” he said. “You’re safe here. For now.”
“For now,” I said. “Viktor, you killed Denall.”
“He saw what you are,” he said. “He’d tell the Ring. Then they’d never stop coming.”
“What about the other two?” I said, fresh horror heating my blood. Everything I’d hidden from my whole life was about to come crashing down around my ears.
Viktor knew I was a shifter. Members of the Ring...fae...knew I was a shifter. And no matter how much he trusted Luka and the others, they knew it now too. If they were still alive.
I needed a minute. I needed to think. I just...needed. We’d planned for this, my father, my uncles and me. Viktor wasn’t the only one with a honey hole of sorts.
“Mia,” he said. “I need you to know this wasn’t part of my plan. Not any of this.”
“What was your plan?” I asked.
“I was stalling for time,” he said. “That’s all. I wanted to get you out. All of you.”
“How were you going to do that?” I asked. “God. You’ve pretty much been making this up as you go, haven’t you? The Ring was never going to let you have control of that big of a pack. Not without assurances that they could control you.”
I joined him by the water’s edge. Lord help me, even now he affected me. I could barely stand not touching him. Not having his arms wrapped around me. Not having him...in me.
“Mia…”
“No,” I said. “You said you didn’t know what I was. But you were going to use that thing on me. Against my will.”
“No!” he shouted. “Not after I got to know you. Not after we…It’s different now. You’re not just some bounty. You’re…”
I didn’t want him to say it. I knew it in my bones and yet somehow the words would make it even more real.
“You’re my mate. My fated mate. You know it. You feel it. You can’t deny it. That changes everything.”
“Fate.” I spat the word out.
“You know the truth,” he pressed on. He put his hands on my bare shoulders. So hot. So good. An involuntary groan came out of me. I ached for him. Even now, my sex pulsed, wanting to be filled by him.
“We can’t have fated mates,” I said. “Not without sanctioning by the Ring.”
“I was working on that,” he muttered. “I just needed a little more time.”
“You wanted too much,” I said. “Me? Luka? You thought they were going to give your chosen mate and your pack? What did you promise them in return? Tell me the truth!”
His jaw twitched. The truth was right there. Dammit. I wished he’d marked me already. Then I would have known exactly what he was thinking. What he was hiding.
“I’ve already proven myself to you,” he said, his voice low and flat.
“What?”
“I brought you here. Just you. You’re right. Luka and the others don’t know about this spot. It was...my father told me about it when I was just a kid. Before the war started. He said he saw it in a dream. I thought he was crazy. How could he be so sure about a place...a country he’d never been to? I was...just a kid.”
“They killed him?” I asked. “The Ring?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, his eyes went hard, and it sent a shiver of ice through my veins. For a split second, I could have sworn I saw hatred in his eyes. For what? What could I possibly have had to do with whatever happened to his father?
“He was killed,” Viktor answered. I knew it was a half-truth, but all I could get from him for now.
“I’m going to do a perimeter check,” he said. “I told you we’re well protected here. I just want to make sure nothing more sinister than a skunk has been through here lately. Just stay put. Wait for me.”
I shouldn’t have trusted him. My whole life, twenty-five years of teaching told me I should have run for the mountains without him or knocked him on his ass or drowned him.
Except he was right. I’d seen it with my own eyes. He’d killed a fae for me. He’d drawn blood against a member of the Ring. For me. Gregor died for me too. And he’d left Luka and the others to fend for themselves. I shuddered, thinking about what might have happened to them in our wake.
They could be dead. If they were lucky. More likely, the Ring would send reinforcements after them. They were betas. They would be tortured before they were allowed to die. And it meant they would never stop hunting for Viktor.
Or me.
I sat with it. The warm grass tickled my legs as I drew them up around me. He came here because of a dream? Whether he knew it or not, fate had driven Viktor his whole life. Who was he? Really?
I waited for him. Later, Viktor came down from the mountains. He was calmer. He brought an armful of rabbits. I started a fire. As the moon rose again, we ate together in silence.
Safe. Warm. For now.
When the stars came out, I let Viktor come to me. I answered the call our bodies demanded. It felt good. Natural. Right.
It would have been easy to just pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist. But come morning, I would let it back in. Viktor had been making decisions for me for weeks now. I’d let him.
Now, it was time for me to take back control. No matter what it cost me.
Chapter 15
Mia
“Come on,” Viktor said. Early dawn broke through a haze of clouds ringing the mountain range. Viktor’s hunger became mine. I sensed a herd of deer moving to the west of us.
“Is it safe?” I asked. “If we leave the valley…”
“We won’t leave the valley,” he said. “I’ll run them toward you. Do you think you can pick one off? I mean, have you ever…”
“Yes!” The word came out of me in a whoosh. I could barely contain my wolf after that. Viktor’s smile grew as I shifted and pricked my ears. The hardest part would be waiting. Though, with the glint in Viktor’s eye, I didn’t expect it would be long.
He came to my side, running a hand
over my back. My fur stood on end. Pleasure stirred in my belly. After the hunt, I would need to sate myself in a very different way.
Viktor shifted in one breath. That midnight black fur made him nearly invisible in the dark. Now, in the shining sunlight, I could see he wasn’t pure black at all. The light captured every strand, giving him a blue shimmer.
He was beautiful. The most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen.
Viktor snapped his powerful jaw and took off running. His thunderous pulse tripped mine. I pricked my ears and closed my eyes. It was almost as if I could see things through Viktor’s eyes.
He took off along the banks of the stream, heading uphill. I sensed the deer. Three of them. Two mature bucks and a yearling grazing in the tall grass on the other side of a small hill. They were completely unaware of the threat about to barrel down on them. Here in the hidden valley, they’d never encountered a human before. They’d certainly never known a wolf.
It would almost be too easy. Viktor could have simply pounced and dropped the biggest before the others even knew what happened. He sensed my hunger as well as his own.
Viktor kicked up a grouse and caught the attention of the deer. They froze for an instant, as deer do. Then Viktor let out a howl that spurred them into action. They took off in two different directions, but the biggest headed downhill.
I sprang. As Viktor chased our quarry toward me, I came straight for him. Too easy. Just like Viktor, I could have pounced and grabbed the buck. Instead, I wanted to run.
Minutes. Hours. Centuries. Hiding. Suppressing. Cloaking. This was who I was. This was what I was meant to be. Adrenaline coursed through me. I wasn’t like my father. I had no wings. But at that moment, I knew what it was like to soar.
My heat bubbled up. I burned from the inside out. Viktor’s howl sent a shiver of desire through me. Lust and hunger. Rage and joy. I was all things. But above them all, I was free.
As the buck tried to leap across the stream, I moved in. I flew in an arc, catching him between my teeth. So quick. So strong. For an instant, I became part of him.