Werewolf girl turned demigod.
Lone wolf turned dedicated mate.
Table of Contents Table of Contents
Front Matter Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Signup for my Newsletter
Author's Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Back Matter Pack Amber Ash Cover
Allison's Adventures in Underland Cover
Adamson All-Boys Academy Covers
The Secret Girl Chapter 1
Keep Up With The Fun
More Books By C.M. Stunich
About the Author
Pack Ivory Emerald
Pack Ivory Emerald© C.M. Stunich 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
The For information address Sarian Royal Indie Publishing, 89365 Old Mohawk Rd, Springfield, OR 97478.
www.cmstunich.com
Cover art and design © Amanda Carroll and Sarian Royal
The The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.
this book is dedicated to
B & D
much love, forever and always
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Author's Note
Welcome back to the world of Zara Wolf and her seven mates! This is book four out of seven in the series, the sequel to Pack Obsidian Gold. This is just a reminder that when the original pre-order for that title went out, some folks received the incorrect version. The final version has twelve total chapters; if you have twelve chapters you are good to go! Keep reading!
If you don’t have twelve chapters, go to Your Account on Amazon, then click Your Content and Devices. You can then search for Pack Obsidian Gold and there’s a button there that says Update Available. Click that, and you’re all done! You have the most updated version.
If you need help or have any questions, feel free to email me at [email protected] or message me on Facebook @ facebook.com/cmstunich
Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy the continuation of Zara’s story!
Love, C.M. Stunich
Reading Order:
The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf Series
Pack Ebon Red
Pack Violet Shadow
Pack Obsidian Gold
Pack Ivory Emerald
Pack Amber Ash
Pack Azure Frost
Pack Crimson Dusk
My breath came in short, sharp bursts as I held one hand to my throat and kept the other hanging loosely by my side, just in case I needed to use it. I was still bleeding from the cut on my neck, but I could feel the edges knitting together as I took in the scene around me.
Two distinct conflicts, no easy solution.
In front of me, two demon princes circled an angel with a sword. To my right, a sea of Bloods waited with a traitor as their leader.
“Silas,” Allister Vetter said, his voice low and even. Easy. Calm. He did not sound like a man who’d just lost his wife. My eyes flicked between one problem and the next. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Vengeful angel with a sword … pack of Bloods with a werewolf to guide them.
I turned toward Allister, content to leave Noc and Nim, the two demons Montgomery and I had freed in exchange for saving his sister’s life, to the angel. They were more than powerful enough to take him on together, and I had other problems to worry about just now.
“Allister,” Silas replied, his voice rough with emotion. His father had always been cruel, so there was no love lost between the two of them, but I knew it hurt Silas to see his dad’s betrayal in the bright light of day. We were wolves; we were Pack. And a traitor was a thorn in all our sides. “You killed Mom.” There was a hitch in the voice of the Pack Obsidian Gold Alpha-Son. He’d acted like losing his mother was an inconvenience at best, but I knew better. Beneath the tattoos and the cigarettes and the bad boy smirk, there was a man with a heart that was just aching to be loved. His Mom had never given it to him and now she never would.
“Don’t stand there and act like she mattered to you,” Allister said, his gold eyes flicking across all the wildcards in this scenario: two demons, one angel, one witch, one faerie, and one vampire hybrid. If I was certain they were all on our side, I might not be so nervous about our current situation.
“She was my mother!” Silas snarled, and magic whipped out and away from us, knocking loose a large limb from the oak across the street. It fell and scattered the gathered vamps, but of course, it didn’t hit a single one of them. We weren’t lucky enough for that. “She was my mother,” he repeated and in some silent command from Allister, the gathered Bloods came right for us.
I hoped somebody had a big ass glamour for this one because we, we weren’t going down without a fight.
A woman with long dark hair and sapphire eyes came right at me, the sunlight warming her pale skin and making my stomach twist into knots. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to seeing vampires traipsing about in the sun. But I pushed my reservations aside and let go of my throat, feeling the tiniest bubble of blood spurt and drain down my skin before the wound healed completely. The boys and I would certainly make an impressive haul for Kingdom Ironbound; if they got us, it was all over.
There was no losing this battle because it would also mean losing the war.
Montgomery stepped in front of me, wooden sword drawn and ready while Silas took off after his father. That was a nightmare just waiting to happen. I shoved between my boys, even as they tried to form a protective circle around me, and took off after Silas.
“Zara!” Nic shouted, right there on my left like always. Sometimes, it felt like he would be forever in my orbit. I hoped so. “You’re going to get yourself killed!” But if I let something happen to Silas, I’d never recover. These seven mates of mine were both a strength … and a weakness.
I was halfway across the street before I realized that Harlem was with us, her cheeks pink and her eyes squinting in the sun. It’d just broken through the gray clouds above, gold bars of sunlight slanting down across the three of us.
Allister had fled back in the direction of the house after siccing the vampires on us … and he’d led his own son right into a trap. A pentagram flared up around Silas’ ankles, locking him in place at the end of the walkway that led to the house.
“Whitney!” I screamed, my voice cutting through the din with a wild sort of sound, more wolf than human. But the witch girl was still on the angel’s chain, and even though he was now busy fighting off both demon princes, she wasn’t free yet. Aeron was there, simultaneously keeping her safe and trying to remove the metal shackles from her wrists, ankles, and neck, but there was no immediate help to be found there.
Nic grabbed for my shoulder, but I tore out of his grip and lifted my wrist
up, feeling the coiled magic in the black rose tattoo, frothing and bubbling inside my skin. Before I could even make a conscious decision on what I was going to do with it, magic was lashing out in a wave that I couldn’t see but that I could sure as hell feel.
The edge of the magical circle that Silas was trapped in broke, and he collapsed to his knees on the cement. Nic and I were right there, taking up a position on either side of him, Harlem behind us. She so desperately wanted to be Pack … If I could give her the chance to shift, maybe she’d make a good beta? A bridge between the wolves and the Crown Aurora vamps?
Allister was waiting on the porch, behind a set of wards that I could feel like the flames of a massive bonfire, heat licking at my face, warning me that I was standing way too damn close. The way he was watching the four of us did not bring me any sort of comfort.
He wasn’t just waiting—he was waiting for something specific.
A sound cracked the air above the house just before a witch on a broom appeared.
Some clichés existed for a reason, and brooms held a lot of power. Sweeping didn’t just clean up dirt and debris, it rounded up negative energy and stored it. That’s why it’s so important to bury an old broom and buy a new one every couple of months; I wished most humans knew that. It would certainly save them some trouble.
First, it was just one witch. Then two. Then … three.
The Three.
“Grab Silas,” I told Nic, keeping my eyes on the three women as they circled us like vultures. My proud Ebon Red male tossed my other mate over his shoulder like he was as heavy as a feather pillow and took off in the direction of the SUV. “Watch his back,” I told Harlem, like she was one of my own wolves. I didn’t exactly trust her, but if she was going to betray us, it wouldn’t be in this moment.
Backing up, I turned and found the battle raging right there on the sidewalk in the middle of Eugene, just blocks away from the university. Somebody had thrown up a glamour. That, too, I could feel as easily as if there was a metaphysical map drawn over the scene. My biological father’s mark—the mark of the Forest Spirit—hummed and throbbed, revealing a world within a world, one that I felt like I’d always been a part of but had somehow been blind to.
Until now.
I broke through the ranks of the Bloods and paused next to Monty just seconds before he severed a vampire’s head and spattered my clothes with crimson. Jax, in wolf form, had his back while Tidus kept any would-be attackers off Aeron and Whitney. Che and Anubis, both in wolf form, were at the edge of the sidewalk, using a tag-team approach to thin the ranks of the Kingdom Ironbound vamps.
‘We need to get out of here,’ I sent out in wolfspeak and then turned to Whitney, kneeling down and trying to see if there was some way to help free her from the angel’s shackles.
“The Three are here,” I whispered, but I could tell from her wide eyes and shaking hands that she already knew that.
“They’re here for me,” she said, lifting her chin up and locking her brown eyes to my black ones. “They’re here for you. We need to run.” Lifting her hand up, she stared at the metal wrapped around her wrist, nostrils flaring in frustration. “Although I have a feeling I’m not getting out of here just yet.”
“Think again,” Noc—or was it Nim?—said as he dropped a bloodred sword on the chains and severed them with a single slice. I glanced past him and found his brother in a deadly dance with the angel, their weapons poised and ready to strike. While Nim—or Noc—was grinning, the angel was panting and bleeding from both wings as well as a deep gouge to the forehead.
“Why the fuck would you wanna help us?” Whitney asked, rising to her feet as Tidus pressed his body close to mine. We exchanged a small glance, the newness of our mating still fresh in my mind. Too bad that wasn’t the only thing taking up real estate in my brain. Ah, to be a regular college student, lying on my back in a dorm room and dreaming about my first time with a new boy. Goddess, it sounded about as far from the life I was living as a fantasy novel.
“Does it matter? Do you so enjoy looking a gift horse in the mouth?” the demon asked, flicking long red hair over one shoulder. Now that I thought about it, this one, with half of a shaved head, was definitely Noc.
“No, and we thank you for your help,” I said, rallying my boys with another call in wolfspeak. The witches were still circling above us, chanting a spell that I could somehow hear, like the ringing of bells. I didn’t know what they were up to and frankly, I wasn’t waiting around to find out. Even with the help of our unlikely allies—and I had no idea if the demons or Harlem would stick around to fight The Three—this battle would be long and bloody, and we’d most probably lose.
The Crone was more a match for my mother, the current alpha, Nikolina Castille, than she was for me.
“What are they trying to do up there?” I asked Whitney as we ran for the SUV, collecting my boys as we went. Che and Montgomery took up our left and right sides respectively and helped carve a path through the remaining Bloods. They’d backed off a bit, like they were waiting for whatever the witches were currently up to. Already, several of the downed vampires were healing their wounds and standing back up. Those with more serious injuries—or the ones that’d actually been killed—would soon be on their way to coming back as the undead.
“I don’t know,” Whitney said as the sleek black length of the Yukon screeched up next to us and we piled in. The witch girl, the former Maiden of Coven Triad, paused for a moment to lift her brown eyes up to the sky. “But I’ll be fucked if I’m waiting around to find out.”
She slid in beside me and we took off, just like we’d done a few nights ago when fighting the revenants.
Good thing Nic was one hell of a driver.
My clothes were drenched with blood when we stumbled from the SUV and carried Silas into the Pairing House. Some of it was mine from the slice to my throat and that scared the shit out of me. In fact, it terrified me because it meant I’d inevitably left some of it behind with the witches.
Blood magic was a powerful, powerful thing.
Nikolina came through the door, naked and wild, just as we were laying Silas on the couch. I sat beside him and pushed his dark hair back from his sweaty forehead. He was still breathing which was good, but I needed to figure out why he was passed out in the first place.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on my mark and let Nic explain what’d happened to my mother and, arriving just seconds later, her betas.
“Selena,” my mother hissed out, her nostrils flared when I glanced back and found an angry pinkness in her cheeks. She didn’t often show a lot of emotion; this was akin to an angry fit for her. “I knew I should’ve killed her when I had the chance.” She exhaled sharply and locked her dark eyes on mine. “You’re lucky to be alive,” she said, looking me over for a moment. “Although Allister and The Three are expected; the angel is not.”
The Alpha Female of Pack Ebon Red turned to her betas, her dismissal a subtle command to attend to my Obsidian Gold mate. Although—and I wouldn’t admit to this to her just yet—he came first for me. I’d have gladly ignored and pissed off Nikolina to save Silas Vetter.
“Wake up,” I whispered, cupping the side of his face and feeling this weak flitter in my mark. With my other hand, I lifted his arm and pressed his wrist to the side of my face, listening for the thumping beat of magic inside the black-green rose tattoo.
It was empty.
“They drained him,” I said, and although the room was quiet, it got even quieter. The panting stopped, the rustling of clothing. I looked up and found Whitney watching me.
“What did the spell look like?” she asked me as I dropped my gaze back to Silas’ face. In an instant, Montgomery and Anubis were there, one of them with a glass of water and the other with a cold rag. I laid the washcloth carefully over Silas’ face and then had Che help me set him up so I could dribble some liquid between his lips.
“Gold pentagram,” I said as my mothe
r moved outside to the front porch. I doubted she enjoyed having witches, faeries, and vampires on pack property let alone inside the Pairing House. Every instinct in her was probably begging to rip the girls apart. But that wasn’t the sort of future I was going to build for Pack Ebon Red … for any of the packs. “A circle around it.” As I thought back on the spell, something else came to mind. “There was a symbol in the center of it.”
I didn’t even have to ask before Anubis was presenting me with my phone, the stylus already popped out and in hand. I scribbled what I could remember of the symbol, the rune, whatever it was, across the screen and held it out to Aeron. She took it in an unglamoured hand and started to pass it to her girlfriend.
When she stopped and just froze there, staring at it with sloe-eyes and pursed lips, I knew we were in serious trouble.
“This mark is fae,” she said, the corners of her mouth turning down even further. The longer she stared at it, the more frustrated she seemed to become. “Seelie.” Aeron gave the phone to Whitney anyway, the bruise around her eye getting puffier by the minute. She must’ve had one serious tussle with the angel in those precious few minutes that I was distracted.
That scared me, how easily he’d been able to sneak up on us.
I didn’t believe in coincidences either. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen an angel in person and yet, here we had a book written in Seraphim about an alpha female and her seven mates and then an angel just shows up?
The fates were weaving a tight knit with the threads of my life, but I wouldn’t let them work a tapestry that wasn’t a design of my own making; I would determine my own fate.
“I don’t know shit about this spell,” Whitney said, handing the phone with its dangling wolf and moon charms over to Che. “It’s just a spell circle with a faerie rune.”
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