Limitless: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Crystal Lake Pack Book 1)

by Candace Wondrak

  Addie turned to climb over the sleeping figures beside her, one way or the other, but when she looked down, she was no longer in the bed. She stood on her own two feet, totally freezing and cold. Where the heck was her jacket?

  A man sat, hunched before her. Brown, messy hair. Muscles that meant he was a shifter. Not fifteen feet away, she could see the wounds on his back. Cuts littered his tan flesh, deep and nasty, a dark red color, the blood pouring from them nearly black. Fresh wounds, wounds too clean to have been accidental. Deliberate and slow. She couldn’t imagine the pain he was in.

  Addie took a hesitant step closer to him, asking, “Landon?”

  He started to turn, getting to his feet in spite of his wounds. His body wore nothing, but it didn’t bother Addie. His legs were practically covered in blood, as was his backside.

  “Landon, are…” Addie was about to ask if he was all right, a stupid question, really, because with one quick glance in his general direction, anyone would know how not all right he was, but the question died in her throat.

  He wasn’t Landon. He…he had no face. Only bone, missing its cartilage and tendons, all the muscles and veins and skin that made a face a face. The hairline was the only part of his head that looked normal. The rest was downright frightening.

  Addie stumbled backwards, falling on her butt, wanting to look away but wholly unable to.

  Two red eyes were set inside the skull of a face. With no eyelids, they did not blink as they bore down on her, a skeletal hand reaching for her. The closer he came, the deader he grew, the less of him that was covered in flesh. Addie could not move, couldn’t even crawl away. She was frozen, gazing into those monstrous, unreal eyes.

  Its lower jaw unhinged, its teeth separating. Though the being had no lips, it managed to speak, its voice deeper than was natural, echoing through her very soul and rattling her core. “You, girl, are mine.”

  As it spoke, its eyes flashed an even deeper red, the color of old, dried blood. The fog around her began to rise, growing thicker, and she breathed it in, choking instantly. Her vision turned red, and she collapsed back, falling to the ground. Only…there was no ground.

  She fell.

  Was falling.

  Addie was in freefall for what felt like ages, the world around her entirely black. Not a single shred of light, yet she was able to see her arms and legs flailing about her. Why was she falling? Why did she feel so desolate, abandoned, completely and utterly alone? She shivered, exhaling slowly. Her heart felt as if it was slowing. Thump, thump. Thump.

  She breathed in again.

  Thump.

  “Death will have you,” the voice spoke into her mind.

  Thump.

  “I will have you.”

  Her flailing limbs slowed, her eyes fluttering closed. This was it. This was the end.

  But of course it wasn’t—because it was only a stupid dream. A dream that nearly gave her a heart attack, but a dream nonetheless.

  Addie woke with a jerk, her breathing erratic and goosebumps on her arms. She trembled with the memory of the dream, the skeleton Landon, and that voice. It was the same voice that had spoken to her before, the only difference being the most recent dream was a nightmare, and the first…the first had really happened.

  Who was he? What did he want with her? Would she ever find out? Based on her dream and her vision with the creepy man, Addie didn’t know. Not that she believed in prophetic visions, but she didn’t think things looked too good for Landon, either. If that bizarre, weird man had him, it might already be too late to save him.

  Either way, it begged the question: what did he want with the wolves?

  And what made her so special to him? Why would he want her so badly? Addie thought of another startling question. Could he intrude upon the minds of the shifters, or just her? She didn’t even want to think about what it could mean.

  Addie got out of bed, finding she was alone in her room. No, not her room. It wasn’t her bedroom, and this wasn’t her house. She had to be careful. In spite of it all, she was starting to feel more at home here, especially with Maze and Dylan, and it was something she couldn’t allow because…well, just because her mother had told her it was all right if she wanted to stay didn’t mean it actually was okay.

  After changing her clothes, for she was in a dire need of a new outfit after everything that happened the day before, Addie left the room, wandering into the hall. As she passed Dylan’s room, she found he was not there, nor was he in the bathroom. Her feet took her downstairs, and she found Dylan sitting at the table, munching on…another corndog?

  Was that all he ever ate?

  He wore a tank top, no fabric touching his injured arm and shoulder. The skin was not as red as it was the day before, but it was obvious it still hurt. His precious, obscenely-thick book rested before him, opened to the page he was on. Dylan held the stick of the corn dog with his other hand, pausing as Addie walked around him, sitting beside him.

  She could’ve sat across from him, or even stood by him, but for some reason she wanted to be close to him. It had to have been because of her dream, her nightmare. Whatever she wanted to call it, she guessed the two bodies she was snuggled in between before finding Landon’s skeletal form belonged to Dylan and Maze. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

  “A corndog?” she asked with a smile. “At—” Addie glanced to the clock on the microwave. “—nine-thirty in the morning?” She was the kind of person who firmly believed there was never a good time to eat a corndog, but to have one at nine-thirty? Seemed a little extreme and a whole lot of disgusting.

  Dylan looked a little embarrassed, his dark eyes flicking down to the table behind his glasses. “I never got to eat the one I made yesterday, and besides you, it’s all I could think about.” As he finished speaking, he hesitantly lifted the corndog to his mouth. Addie had to look away before he took a bite.

  It was one food she would never like.

  In fact, she might go so far as to say she had a hatred for the things. A burning hatred. She would rather eat cow liver for a week straight than have meals consisting of corndogs, and it was not because of her inner wolf.

  It was only after her mind wandered she realized what he’d said before. Slipped it right into the middle of his sentence, so calmly and nonchalantly she nearly missed it. All Dylan could think about was corndogs and her? She wasn’t thrilled to be put on the same level as corndogs, but a good feeling rose within her knowing he’d been thinking about her, even while in pain.

  She was in more trouble than she realized with these guys, wasn’t she?

  Addie was about to change the subject, because all the feelings she currently had she did not want to face, but another person walked into the room, coming from the living room. The last person she wanted to see.

  Henry.

  The old man looked rather chipper, considering everything that had been going on in his pack. He was not as wide and muscular as the younger wolves were, but he still could hold his own. He was bigger than all the other old men she’d seen in her life. Not like she’d spent every minute of every day looking at seventy-year-old men, but it was obvious he was still strong. Stronger than her at least, underneath his well-pressed clothes.

  “I was waiting for you to wake up,” Henry said. “We have some things we need to talk about.”

  Talking about anything with Henry was the last thing Addie wanted. She’d rather go back to sleep and have another nightmare. She’d even rather go back to the other side of the lake and walk into that pain-inducing—what did that guy call it? A barrier?

  Besides, what the heck did she and Henry even have to talk about? He wasn’t going to force her into staying, and Addie didn’t trust him not to try something to make her stay. Just because he was her grandfather, just because he was part of the equation that equaled her mother and therefore her, did not mean she had to bend to his will. Sometimes blood did not run thicker than water. Sometimes the word related meant abs
olutely nothing at all.

  “Primarily, this pack,” Henry went on, oblivious to the dour expression on Addie’s face and the look Dylan gave her. “What your role will be in it, what will be expected of you. Of course, Dylan, you are free to sit in and weigh in when you think necessary, since she will be your mate, but—”

  Okay, that riled Addie up.

  “Who the hell do you think you are?” Addie practically shouted, getting to her feet. She shot a glare in Henry’s direction, but the old man hardly blinked at her outburst. “Even if you’d been around my whole life, even if you were actually like a grandfather to me, you have no right to tell me what to do. Wolf or not, I don’t care. You don’t get to say what I can and can’t do, and you sure as hell don’t get to tell me who I’m going to spend my life with. That is my decision, not yours, not the pack’s. Not anyone’s but mine.”

  Beside her, Dylan remained silent, though his eyes grew wide, as if he could not believe anyone could speak to a pack elder like that. Well, Addie wasn’t a part of their pack. She didn’t follow their freaking rules. She would talk to Henry however she damned well wanted to.

  And she was an adult, her mother nowhere in sight. If she wanted to swear, she was going to swear. No one was around to tell her not to, and now seemed like a really good time to start.

  “You,” Henry spoke with a frown. He did not raise his voice as she did, but she could tell inside he wrestled with his anger. Probably fighting his wolf, too. Both Henry and his wolf wanted to teach her a lesson.

  Well, the joke was on them because Addie wasn’t in college anymore. She was done with lessons.

  “You are an insolent pup,” Henry said. “You will learn sooner or later, pup, things do not work in the pack like you’re used to.”

  Still the old man assumed she was going to join the pack and still Addie felt like yelling.

  “Maybe I don’t want to be part of your pack,” Addie hissed, letting her anger take over. She got out of her chair, shaking her head furiously. She really hoped Dylan wasn’t taking anything she said personally, because she didn’t mean anything toward him. Or Maze. “You don’t get to take away my choice. You don’t get to tell me who I’m going to be.” Addie felt her hands curl into fists at her sides. “Maybe my mom didn’t leave just because she fell in love with someone else. Maybe she left because she couldn’t deal with you.”

  Henry sneered. “You have no idea why your mother left. You think it was because she was in love?” A vicious laugh came from him, and it only fueled her anger. “She was in the middle of a mess, and the only way to get herself out of it was to leave. She did not trust the pack to have her back, and I see she instilled the same in you.”

  “Does everyone else know how big of a dick you are, or do you save it for me?” Addie asked, genuinely curious.

  “Addie,” Dylan warned. “Maybe we should all take a step back and—”

  “Hush,” Henry told him. “This is not between us three. It is between Addie and me. If she thinks a few harsh words will change my mind…she’ll soon find out things could have been much easier if we’d done it my way.” He shook his head, mouth frowning between his grey goatee, and then he left the house, slamming the front door as hard as he could, rattling the metal fixtures on the walls.

  Addie felt, well, she felt about the same as when she did after receiving that C-minus. She felt like she could scream, could punch something. Not someone, but close. The wall, maybe?

  Dylan was beside her, trying to swallow a mouthful of corndog before saying, “Henry only wants what he thinks is best for the pack. Don’t let him rile you up. Lately, there just hasn’t been…”

  “Hasn’t been what?” Addie did her best not to snap at him, but she wasn’t sure how well she did, because Dylan flinched at her harsh tone.

  “Most of our recent births have been males, and the females born have usually been human. I think there’s only been one or two shifter females born in the last year.” Dylan twirled the now-empty corndog stick between his fingers. “We’re…” He couldn’t say it.

  She could though, and she did quietly, “Dying out.” These shifters were going extinct, just like all the animal species humans were driving towards extinction. She was one of them. She had an inner wolf, too. Could she really turn her back on them? She didn’t want to pop out a dozen babies, but…

  God, Addie hated this indecision with a burning passion.

  And of course, all of that was to say nothing to the missing wolves, to the magical barrier seeming to line the other side of Crystal Lake.

  It was a long moment of silence before Addie realized something. Not another sound came from anywhere in the house. No running water. No footsteps. Nothing. “Where is everyone else?” Somehow, someway, maybe because of her nightmare, she already knew.

  “Forest is gathering a scouting party to investigate the other side of the lake. Maze is with him,” Dylan said.

  “No,” Addie muttered, shaking her head. Forest hadn’t seen enough, apparently. He wanted more, and he would hurt other wolves by trying. She sent a glare to Dylan, angrier at herself for not telling Forest the night before than at him. “Take me to them.”

  Dylan nodded. He went to throw the stick in the trash, carefully closing his book after folding the corner of the page. A dog-ear kind of person, not a bookmark reader. Huh. Addie wasn’t sure why it mattered, why she noticed the particular detail, but she did. She liked knowing little things about him.

  Damn it.

  She liked it. She liked Dylan and Maze. What use was there in denying it? Addie would only be denying her feelings and hurting everyone involved. But letting Henry dictate what she did and how she acted? She would never let it happen, never let him control her like that, and she would be damned if she wouldn’t stick up for herself, for her own choice.

  It just so happened her heart had already made the choice, and now it was up to her mind to catch up, to realize Addie could not leave Crystal Lake.

  She had to join the pack.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As Addie and Dylan walked through the town, Addie could not believe herself. All the back and forth, indecisive, I’m staying then I’m going, she had made up her mind. A terrible time to have made up her mind about staying, but she could no longer deny her growing feelings for the twins. And her inner wolf, the sad, depressed beast, needed to be around her own kind.

  Addie needed to be around her own kind. She wanted to. Wanted to learn what it meant to be a shifter, wanted to run with the pack. And of course she wanted to spend more time with Dylan and Maze, not to mention help them find their missing brother.

  The jury was still out on that one.

  But her declaration, or whatever she had to do to join the pack, would wait—and when it came, when it happened, whenever Addie pledged herself to the Crystal Lake pack, she would have nothing to do with Henry. He did not deserve to have her in his life. Not even a little.

  Forest had gathered a group of about ten, including Maze. They stood at the edge of the lake, the rest of them watching their alpha with respect. Ten muscular, solid wolves stood, still in their human form, all beefy and reeking of testosterone. Maze was the first to notice, though she knew they’d all heard her and Dylan walk up. They probably were able to smell her before they heard her.

  “We don’t know what we’re dealing with,” Forest was saying, turning to look at each of the pack members before him. “Whatever it is, it’s not visible to the naked eye, and it affected Dylan and Addie differently. I don’t know how it will affect us today, or if it will even still be there, but it’s up to us to figure it out.”

  Addie met Dylan’s eyes. She knew the wolves hoped it would lead them to their missing pack member, maybe even to the ones who’d been taken before, but they had no idea what they were dealing with.

  Freaking magic.

  She broke away from Dylan, saying loudly to make sure each and every wolf present heard her, “You can’t go back there.”

&n
bsp; Forest turned his blue eyes to her. Where there was normally a calmness, there radiated an intense heat. He was riled up, ready for a fight. He wanted a fight; Addie could sense it, and she wasn’t even a wolf yet. “Your concern is noted but ignored, pup.” The wolves around her chuckled, though a few were too serious to even crack a smile.

  Pup. Oh, how she hated it with all her being. Her entire soul hated being called pup. Really, Forest was not that much older than her. She would somehow make him realize she was no freaking pup.

  “You don’t know what you’re dealing with,” Addie said, stepping toward him. Forest was, muscles and height included, the most impressive man she’d ever seen. Her stomach twisted and turned, and it was hard standing up to him, harder arguing with him, but it had to be done. He had to know what she’d dreamed.

  He rose a single black brow, the gesture making him look almost boyish. “And you do?”

  Exhaling, Addie glanced at Dylan, who just shrugged. He had no idea what she was talking about; she’d kept it to herself as they’d walked here, because she wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it without sounding utterly mad and crazy—and she was already crazy enough, wanting to stay with these wolves.

  “It’s magic,” she said, wishing for all their sakes it would be enough of an explanation. Addie knew it wouldn’t be.

  Even the wolves that hadn’t cracked a smile before started to laugh. Forest remained the only serious one, his expression darkening, his stare narrowing and lips thinning. Luckily for Addie and her knotted tummy, he turned his glare to the laughing wolves. “Why are you laughing? You know as well as I do magic is nothing to laugh at.”

  The laughter died down.

  Addie added, “It’s a barrier. I don’t think we can cross it.”

  “If it was a barrier,” Forest said, “it should have reacted the same to you and Dylan.”

  “Before we got there, it was like I could sense it,” Addie said. “It’s why I told you all to stop. Maybe it didn’t react the same because I’m not a wolf yet.” It seemed as good of an explanation as any, although it did not explain her dream, why he wanted her. Whoever the heck he was.