Novel-novel oleh Noah

Billie POVDavid threw me into the foyer and slammed the front door. I knew he’d be mad, but I didn’t expect him to be violent. The intensity of his hand against my shoulder resonated through me until I felt numb standing there in the parlor. He radiated heat behind me while I stared at the floor holding back all the excuses I’d composed in the car. I thought I’d be ready to face David, but what I didn’t anticipate was Colt beside me angry too, and I didn’t know if he was angry at me or something else. David stepped closer and both of us tensed.“Not only did you directly disobey me, but you interfered with business that could have gotten you killed,” David said, each word growing harsher. “Do you care about maintaining order in your pack? Or is the only thought in your head about yourself? Because it seems to me you don’t give a shit about anyone, least of all me, when you get up in the middle of the night and disappear!” He grabbed me again, this time turning me around to face him.

I had glimpsed what Billie Jesper was capable of when she wasn’t being brushed aside by the Hexens. There was a valiant wolf hiding inside that quiet human girl. That was the Billie Jesper they had never allowed me to see.Colt climbed into the passenger seat, leaving David the last one to enter the truck. He stood beside it and turned hollow.“I suggest you don’t trespass again until you can call the Dalesbloom territory your home. You aren’t one of us, Gavin. Not yet.”It was a warning to keep my nose out of his business, let him deal with the dragons, and stay away from Billie. But I was growing less and less inclined to abide by his warnings.Once he got into the truck and slammed his door, I watched the truck pull away, vanishing into the darkness in a puff of smoky exhaust. I made sure to lock the door behind me once I got back into the house.Aislin had been lurking in the kitchen, eavesdropping.“He’s really pushing the merge on you. He didn’t actually threaten to keep the dra

Gavin POVOnce Billie was inside, I could finally think clearly. She’d given me too much to think about, so much that there were a hundred things I wanted to say to her, to ask her, but nothing I could articulate without risking sounding too interested. I tried not to be interested in her—her smell, her lean little frame, her darkened eyes—but I couldn’t help wanting to know more about the enigma of my girlfriend’s baby sister hiding right under my nose all these years. Because now, that enigma was my fated mate. David didn’t even let her go outside. He was hiding the world from her. Or… hiding her from the world. There had to be more to the story than Billie just being David’s runt of a late-blooming daughter.Fatigue made David’s face look heavy as he stood before me, hands in his jean pockets, withdrawing a cigarette. I’d only known him to smoke when he was stressed.“How’d you find her?” he asked, flicking a lighter.“I smelled the dragons first. Called my pack to let them know an

“I want to be strong enough,” I said nonsensically.Gavin grimaced. “Strong enough to who?”Myself? Everyone?“David,” I said.“Did someone put you up to this?”I staggered over the thought. As if David would encourage me to endanger myself. That sounded more like something Catrina would do.“No, I snuck out.”“You just decided to screw David over by sneaking out and getting killed?” Gavin’s grimace became a sneer.“I didn’t expect dragons,” I said calmly.“Yeah, well, they don’t belong in Dalesbloom territory. They’ll be chased out soon and you can piss David off without getting torn to shreds.”He let go of my arm and stepped back, sounding vexed, this time being the first to look away.My arm still felt warm. The same warmth spread across my chest as Gavin expressed something like concern over me.“I don’t mean to piss him off.”“You don’t mean to do anything wrong, do you?” he drawled, stoking my warmth into angry embers.“Is it so wrong for me to want to go outside every once in

Billie POVThe attention of strangers made me uncomfortable, so I was glad it was Muriel in the spotlight instead of me. I stood to the side with the damp, hot washcloth on the back of my neck, soothing the ragged gashes made by dragons’ teeth as I listened to Muriel. My whole body rang with pain.“I’m from Montana, where I lived with my daughter,” she began. “It was just the two of us. Unicorn shifters no longer live in herds; it’s too dangerous for us to cluster together like that. My daughter and I had been hiding for years before we were found. I don’t know how exactly, but I suspected our whereabouts were leaked from the Mythguard; they’re the only ones who knew about us.”Aislin looked concerned. “The Mythguard are supposed to protect shifters. Why would they expose you to dragons?”“It might have been a breach, but I’m only guessing.” Muriel shook her head. “The dragons kidnapped my daughter and I. She escaped shortly after and I haven’t seen her since. Then a couple of months

They turned away, writhing over each other as they forfeited the fight.My body was heavy. Adrenaline drained into fatigue as I turned and loped after my pack, the unicorn a beacon. I stalked behind them, keeping guard in case the dragons returned, and studied them. Aislin, Niko, the runt. A unicorn. I had no idea what I was going to do with them.Pressing into Grandbay territory, I reconsidered taking Jesper based on the way she scrambled my brain when I dedicated too much thought to her. It would look bad to Catrina. David would question my intentions. But the sensation I felt when I stood over Jesper, claiming her from the dragons… It was intoxicating.We reached an access road with Aislin’s truck parked in the trees. Our clothes were each piled up on the seats; after turning human, I put on my jeans and reluctantly dropped my shirt in front of Jesper to wear, still wolf. Then I looked at the unicorn.Why had it even stayed with us?“Ais, you got any spare clothes?” I asked over my