by Tara West
“So you think they met the same fate as the Devoras?” Jovan slapped his palm with the flat side of his gleaming axe.
Expelling a shaky breath, Boris rubbed one arm across another in a discreet attempt to scratch the unbearable itch, hoping his brother didn’t notice. “Ancients, I fucking hope not.” Damn, his arms burned so badly, he wanted to scrape off his skin with the sharp end of his blade.
“We need to close that portal.” Jovan glanced at Boris’s arm, then quickly looked away.
He knew Boris was getting sick. Damn. Boris didn’t want his brother worrying about him. “The goddess told Amara only the witch can close it.” His chest felt tight. Was the sickness settling in his lungs?
“Then where the hell is she?”
“The goddess said she’d reveal herself when she’s ready.” Boris hoped she’d do it soon.
The massive doors flew open, and Drasko emerged as a human, clutching his cellphone in one hand and an axe in the other. “Fuck that! She needs to reveal herself now.”
Annie followed close behind him. “I agree.”
Drasko pocketed his phone. “Get inside, Annie. It’s not safe out here.”
She stood her ground. “Someone needs to go after the witch.”
“I know that!” he boomed. “Get inside.”
She didn’t even flinch. “I’m going after the witch.”
“I’m not sending a woman.”
“Who the hell do you think saved Luc and the Moosenecks?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Drasko, I saw the Strongpaws. I heard your thoughts.”
“What is happening with the Strongpaws?” Boris asked.
Hopelessness swirled in Drasko’s golden eyes. “They are petrifying.”
An icy chill tickled the nape of Boris’s neck. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard the ring of Katarina’s grating laughter in the wind. “Petrifying?”
“The same thing happened to me when I was bitten by the Devora werewolf.”
The burning of Boris’s skin became a dull throb. They were turning into werewolves. He was turning into a werewolf, which meant none of the tribe was safe. Eilea, Amara, his grandchildren... he was a threat to those he loved most. He absently rubbed his arm, numb from shock and grief. Finally, he summoned enough brainpower to manage one coherent thought. “We need to find this witch.”
“It has to be Geri.” Drasko grimaced. “I’m the only protector immune to the virus. I’m not leaving my people.”
“We can’t send our brother there by himself,” Jovan protested.
When Jovan looked to Boris for confirmation, Boris had to look away. What other option did they have?
“We have no choice,” Drasko said. “We need to find the witch.”
Annie stepped between Drasko and Boris, tossing her long, black curtain of hair over a shoulder. “I’ll go with him.”
Drasko’s eyes lit with fire. “Like hell you will.”
“You do realize that if we don’t find this witch, we’re all dead? Either I die helping Geri, or I die later. Which is it?”
Damn, the girl had a good point. Boris didn’t envy Drasko’s decision. It went against the Amaroki code to willingly put their women in danger.
He handed his axe to Annie. “Go, but run at the first sign of trouble.”
She took the weapon, slinging it over her shoulder like it weighed nothing. “I’m not leaving Geri.”
“Yes, you will.” Geri emerged from the shadows.
Boris studied his brother. Something in him had changed, and he smelled like Eilea? When Jovan gasped, Boris knew he’d picked up on the scent of Eilea’s fluids, too.
Geri gave his brothers an apologetic look. We did not mate, brothers. Peace. We have bigger problems. He turned to Annie. “You’re running, Annie,” he continued. “You’re not coming with me otherwise.”
“Fine,” Annie huffed. “Where do we start?”
“Start with the Cloudwalkers,” Drasko said.
Annie’s features scrunched. “They’re fucking weird.”
“Exactly,” Drasko said. “The goddess said the witch was a woman. If anyone in our tribe is a witch, it’s their mate.”
“Fine.” Annie waved at Geri. “Let’s get going.”
“Do you remember where they live?” Drasko asked.
“I know my reservation. We’re wasting time.” She waggled her fingers impatiently. “Keys.”
When he pulled them out of his pocket, Geri stepped in front of Annie. “I’ll drive.”
She reached around him, snatching the keys from Drasko and running for the truck.
Geri gave Boris a hopeless look. Grasping Boris’s hand, he noticed the faint bumps circling his wrist. Brother, you are unwell.
Boris choked back the lump of sorrow that had suddenly formed in his throat. As long as I have breath in me, I will fight.
Geri’s eyes glossed over, but he didn’t shed a tear. And I will fight for you, for all of us. He hugged Boris and then Jovan before jumping in the truck with Annie.
Boris’s breath hitched when they pulled out of the drive, tires spinning and gravel flying like she was being chased by the hounds of hell. Then again, maybe she was. Maybe they all were.
He pulled his sleeve down and said evenly, “What if they can’t find her? What if our people start turning into werewolves?”
“They will have to be killed,” Drasko said flatly, his eyes as cold as stones.
Boris didn’t want to die, but he’d rather do that than be a threat to those he loved. “You think you can kill them all? Your brothers? Your mother and fathers?”
Drasko shook his head, his eyes softening. “The government knows. They have a backup plan.”
“Was that who you were talking to on the phone?”
“Yes.” Drasko’s mouth draped in a heavy scowl, his glowing eyes narrowed to slits. “It appears they’ve been alerted by someone on the inside.”
Jovan’s eyes and nose shifted. “We should’ve killed that skunk when we had the chance.”
“Leave him alone.” Drasko leveled Jovan with a stern look. “If anything happens to him, they won’t hesitate to press the button.”
Boris’s heartrate came to a slow, grinding halt. “Press the button?”
“The humans will not put their own at risk.” The lack of inflection in Drasko’s voice was unsettling. Had he already intuited that their survival was hopeless?
Boris’s jaw hardened, the tension winding around his shoulders and neck so tight, the pain was the only thing rooting him to the ground. “They’re going to nuke us, aren’t they? What about Eilea and the immune shifters?”
“I will make sure they escape,” Drasko answered.
“Did they say when?” Jovan asked, his voice as rough as sandpaper.
Boris felt Drasko’s fear in the marrow of his bones.
“We have eight hours to close the portal,” Drasko answered, “or we’re all radioactive.”
“YOU’RE STAYING IN THE truck when we get there,” Geri told Annie as she put the truck in four-wheel drive. He looked at the full moon that peeked from behind the trees, a premonition making his hairs stand on end. They were running out of time, but they should travel at night.
He cringed, clutching the grab bar when she swerved sharply, narrowly missing a pothole. In all his years, he’d never been driven by a woman. Never mind how inappropriate it was for him to be alone with a female destined for another pack. The Alaskan tribe was on the brink of extermination. They were past right and wrong.
“I’m not staying in the truck,” she said. “The Cloudwalkers live off-grid. Even if you find them, they won’t recognize you.”
Damn her, she was right. He didn’t want to have to rely on her. If anything happened to her out there, he’d never forgive himself. There’d been a few packs like the Cloudwalkers in Romania once upon a time, mistrustful of outsiders. Too feral to acclimate to the growing population of humans, they’d been killed by poachers. His thoughts shifted to Katarina, the dead m
ate who’d been killed by a gun. Had her violent death caused her to turn into a tornaq or had she always been evil? Probably the latter. She’d always been a selfish bitch, nothing like Eilea, who worked tirelessly helping others.
He remembered hurting her. His definition of a whore had always been a human who slept with many different humans without bonding with them. The Amaroki looked down on that kind of behavior, but he thought humans enjoyed being whores. Why would they refuse to acknowledge the name assigned to their actions?
When Annie continued talking, he wondered if it was just a diversion to mask her fright. As she rambled, he sensed the undertone of fear in her voice. She went on about her plans to spend the summer with her brother, who’d been transferred to Texas, and how Amara was teaching her photography. Geri let her talk, only half-listening, constantly thinking about Eilea crying in bed. He’d seriously fucked up.
“Drasko said the Cloudwalkers live near the portal,” she said pulling Geri from his thoughts. She clutched the steering wheel, her face scrunching as she focused on the road.
Near the fucking portal? Why hadn’t anyone mentioned that to him before they left? The portal was a dangerous place. Had he known, he’d have said goodbye to Eilea or at least tried to make amends with her. “What do you know about the Cloudwalkers?”
“I know they’re fucking strange. Both generations live in a cave and rarely come out as humans.”
In that case, he needed Annie. The Cloudwalker males wouldn’t respond well to another man coming near their mates.
She stopped the truck and clutched her hair.
After scenting the air, he reached for the axe at his feet. The smell of dark magic was strong. Had she smelled something else? “What is it?”
She turned to him. “What are you thinking?”
He squeezed the wood of his gleaming axe. “What do you mean?”
“I haven’t heard your thoughts since we got in the truck.”
He tried to make sense of her words, then remembered Amara telling him that Annie was a mind reader. “You’ve been listening to my thoughts?”
“No. That’s the point. I can’t hear a damn thing. First Amara stopped having visions, and now I can’t hear your thoughts. Are you thinking anything?”
“I have a lot on my mind, but it’s none of your business.”
Ignoring her hurt gasp, he wondered what her waning powers meant and if Amara would soon lose her power to heal common sickness. Or worse, what if the Amaroki lost their ability to shift? Damn Katarina for bringing this curse to their people. What would happen if they couldn’t find a witch to close the portal?
“Are you going to drive, or do you need me to?”
She put the truck back in gear. “You don’t know where you’re going.” She peeled out, her face a mask of stone as she kept her gaze centered on the road.
Great. He’d pissed her off, too. What was one more woman angry with him?
Chapter Thirteen
EILEA STOOD ON THE precipice of fate, staring at what she knew would seal her destiny and her doom. She glided across the mist toward the table with the solitary goblet on it as if she, too, was made of vapor. Why did she move toward her undoing? Why didn’t she turn and run? She had no idea if she was being propelled forward by her own free will, by a higher power, or by her desire. Not just sexual desire, but the longing to have four caring men put together the shattered pieces of her life. To fill the void in her heart left by her dead family. To never abandon her when she needed protection and comfort.
She gazed into the swirling red liquid. The blood of the Ancients. Her ticket to a strange new world. Her body would forever be changed, her life forever altered.
She traced the rim of the goblet, her heart pounding wildly in her ears.
Could she throw her life of independence away for four brothers whose prejudice might not let them reconcile with her human past? Four shifters who’d risked their own lives to protect her? Dear Goddess, what should she do?
The goddess’s words came racing back. I’ll bring you back one more time.
This was it, her one chance to become a shifter. If she didn’t drink it, she’d remain human and very different from the men claiming to be her mates. Men she was inexplicably drawn to.
She reached for the goblet, pulled back, then reached again, but it was no longer within her grasp. What was happening?
She was being pulled backward across the mist. She fought it, kicking and pleading to be let go as the goblet disappeared from view. Then she fell through clouds that descended into darkness.
She woke with a silent scream on her lips, staring into the scowling face of Nakomi Strongpaw.
“Wake up, human.” The shifter violently shook Eilea’s shoulder. “You have rested long enough.”
Her dream came back: the heavenly mist, the goblet, the goddess’s warning that she’d have one more chance. Had the prejudiced she-wolf destroyed her one opportunity to become a shifter? To finally belong?
“Omigod!” She shot up, shaking Nakomi off her. “The blood wine. I didn’t get to drink it.”
“You’re making no sense.” Nakomi flexed her fingers, her nails lengthening and lips pulling back in a feral snarl. “I smell your mating fluids. Did you have sex with a Lupescu?”
Was the bitch trying to threaten her? Eilea refused to be intimidated. She turned up her chin, eyes narrowing. “It’s none of your business.”
Before she could react, Nakomi had her by the throat, pressing her into the wall and digging her nails into Eilea. She struggled against her captor, but the more she fought, the deeper Nakomi’s nails went.
Fearing the crazed bitch would puncture her jugular, she stopped fighting, and that’s when she got a good look at the shifter’s face. She looked more like an eagle than a wolf. What the hell? She didn’t know the Amaroki could shift into other creatures.
Nakomi loosened her hold. “Did you have sex?” she hissed. “Because if you did, I’ll peck your tits off.”
What? “N-no.”
Eilea thought she saw a flash of sorrow in the shifter’s hooded eyes, right before her beaked nose retracted. The goddamn bitch was a bird shifter? What kind of magic was this?
“Did you not hear what I said?” Nakomi snapped. “Human and Amaroki unions are an abomination.”
“I heard you,” she choked out, worried she’d run out of air when Nakomi tightened her hold, her nose once more turning into a beak before retracting again.
Nakomi released her. “If you let them take your virginity, I will kill you.”
Clutching her neck, she inhaled a shaky breath, trying not to lose her composure when blood ran over her fingers. “You don’t have to worry about that, because I’m not a virgin.”
“You have already given yourself to another?” Sheathing curved talons, Nakomi’s eyes lit with amusement.
After wiping blood on the blankets, she reached for the bottle of water by her bedside. “Long time ago.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Nakomi chuckled. “Humans are whores.”
She was unable to control the trembling in her hands as she uncapped the water, sloshing it down her neck. “I’ve already heard that. Thanks.”
“Good.” Nakomi gazed at her blood-tipped fingernails. “You cannot bond with Amaroki without virginal blood.”
Eilea nodded for no other reason than to get the crazed bitch away from her. “Do you mind getting the hell out of my room now?”
She wiped more blood off her neck and tried to recall everything she’d learned about the Amaroki. Never had she heard of bird shifters, but she knew without a doubt she’d seen a beak and felt Nakomi’s talons. How was Nakomi able to transform into other creatures? Could she be the witch? It made no sense. If Nakomi was the witch, surely she would’ve closed the portal rather than watch her mates suffer. At least Eilea sure as hell hoped so.
GERI WAS GETTING USED to Annie’s driving. Truthfully, it wasn’t all that bad. He realized his nervousness earlier was unfound
ed. Perhaps he’d judged her harshly because she was a woman. Perhaps he’d misjudged Eilea, too. He couldn’t get the look of Eilea’s heartbreak out of his mind. He shouldn’t have called her a whore, but he’d thought humans didn’t mind such labels.
He remembered Annie had lived among humans most of her life. He wondered if she could help him understand what had happened. “Can I ask you about human women?”
She gave him a smug once-over before turning back to the road. “Sure.”
“Is it offensive to call them whores?”
She made an odd snorting sound. “Um, yeah.”
“Oh.” He wondered how he could repair the damage he’d done. “How offensive?” He prayed he hadn’t ruined his pack’s chance to claim Eilea as their mate, even if they couldn’t complete the bond.
“Very offensive.” She shot him a look of derision. “Why would you think it wouldn’t be?”
“What about a human woman who slept with different human men and had no intention of bonding with them?”
Annie gaped at him as if he’d grown a second head. “Please don’t tell me you called Eilea a whore.”
Maybe he shouldn’t have told Annie about this. “She’s been with three men.” His voice rose along with his ire when he thought of them touching his woman. He regretted the words as soon as they left his lips. He shouldn’t have told Annie about her men. Eilea hadn’t told him he could share. He silently berated himself. How else would he screw up this night?
“Do you understand what a whore is?” she asked.
“A person who does not commit to a pack.”
Annie let out a bunch of expletives he wasn’t used to hearing from a woman, especially not one so young. “It’s a derogatory term. Very derogatory. Eilea is a medical doctor. In her world, she is treated with respect, reverence. Being called a whore is the worst insult imaginable.”
“I didn’t know that.” He looked out the side window, shame flushing his cheeks. “She was very angry.”
“Of course she was angry.” She laughed. “Jesus, you wolves are thickheaded. How could you not know this? Don’t they have televisions or computers in Romania?”