2

RAVEN

I am living in a small space: Raven's loft apartment, rented from a regular human. It works fine for me.

Over the last few months, I have learned to hide who I really am. Keeping my wolf hidden is not much harder than keeping my fae side quiet.

It would be a lot simpler if I had grown up learning how to control the wolf, learning the way most shifters do from the start. But you cannot have everything you want in life.

I need to be up early tomorrow, so I make a warm drink and head straight to bed.

I worry a little that sleep will not come easily, but the dark takes me quickly, just like it always does.

Soon, I am drifting into a dream I know all too well…

I am back in the cozy nest under the big willow tree, the one Thorne and I used to share.

His hands are on me.

We are going to spend the whole day like this, holding each other, touching, making love without any rush.

We are in no hurry at all.

There is no work to be done today.

It is the night before one of our sacred blood festivals, and everyone in the camp is out celebrating.

He says something to me, but in my dreams, I never remember his actual words.

The words do not matter.

What matters is the deep feeling as he presses his lips against my jaw, his strong hand moving down my legs, his fingers reaching out to touch me deeply.

What matters is the quiet certainty that my body belongs to him, and that we belong together forever.

I think he tells me that I am beautiful.

I feel like I am glowing from the inside.

I feel magical.

I feel strong and full of power.

And then…

I know what is coming before it even happens, because I have lived through this exact dream so many times before.

I still try to pull back from it.

I pull my eyes shut.

I try to block out the harsh sounds rising up around us.

I try to lose myself completely in the touch of the man holding me.

I cannot do it.

A sudden burst of fire and heat rips through the sky, and a voice screams out, "Dragon!"

Thorne snaps out of the moment and stands up instantly.

He pushes me away from him.

Something strange, sharp, defensive, and powerful wakes up inside my chest.

My body begins to change in horrifying, unfamiliar ways.

I feel my bones shift and snap, grinding hard against one another.

For a moment, the physical pain is total agony, so overwhelming that I cannot even focus on the chaos around me.

Then I open my eyes and look around.

I am much closer to the ground than I normally am.

I try to open my mouth to say something, to ask what is happening to me, but the shape of my tongue feels wrong.

I cannot form any words at all.

Thorne is standing right over me, looking down at me with absolute disgust on his face, like I am a total stranger he hates.

I can hear the loud noises of the others fighting the dragon in the distance, slowly bringing it down.

I know what comes next because it is what always happens when an outside shifter wanders into our space.

They will chain it up as a prisoner, and tonight is the blood ceremony.

Tonight, we will drink the blood of the dragon.

Tomorrow, every single one of us will gain its raw power.

Except right now, Thorne is looking down at me the way he looks at our worst enemies.

I have seen that cold look on his face before, and it frightens me to my core.

"You're a shifter," he says.

Even in my sleep, those exact words stick with me.

I remember the bitter, disgusted tone of his voice.

My mind has wiped away all the sweet, gentle things he used to whisper to me when we were close, but this single sentence stayed behind.

I want to fight back, to tell him that he is wrong and that I am not a shifter.

But no sound comes out.

My mouth simply cannot remember how to make human speech.

"You've been lying to us all this time," he says, sounding sickened. "I ought to kill you right now."

I have not been lying to anyone.

I do not understand what is going on.

It feels like a trap or some cruel trick.

I have never been a shifter before.

I am not one now.

I cannot be one.

Even inside the dream, knowing what happens afterward and knowing the reality of what I am, it feels completely impossible to accept.

I cannot be this thing.

He steps closer to me.

"You should have known better than to try to infiltrate the coven's hollow," he says.

"I reject you, Raven. You deserve what happens to you now. The blood ceremony is tomorrow, and you'll give the whole host the power of the wolf."

He is talking about cutting me open and drinking my blood.

He lunges right at me, and my body reacts on pure instinct.

I spring backward into the dark.

In that split second, I realize how much stronger I am.

I have tasted wolf blood before in rituals.

I have felt their quick speed, their hidden stealth, and their sharp senses before.

But I have never actually been inside a wolf's body.

I have never felt real muscles react this fast or this hard.

I realize, right then, that I can run faster than Thorne.

And I realize right after that I have no choice but to run.

He will kill me if I stay here.

He will drain my blood and share it with the others so everyone can have the strength that belongs to me.

I have only just discovered this wolf inside me, but I am already protective of it.

I tear through the darkwood, and sharp branches slap hard against my face.

I barely feel the scratches because this new body is built tough, fierce, and ready to survive anything.

Thorne shouts my name out into the night, but I do not stop or care.

I am stunned.

I am terrified.

But I am moving, and I am free.

I wake up with a jolt, breathing heavy like an animal, staring straight up at the plain ceiling above my bed.

I am safe here.

I repeat the words in my head over and over until my heart slows down.

I am safe.

Thorne and his people might still be out there searching for me. In fact, they almost certainly are.

But they will not look for me in a place like this.

They will figure I ran straight to Shadowmere.

Everyone knows Shadowmere is where the outcast shifters go when they have nowhere else to hide.

It is a refuge for creatures who lost their home.

On paper, it sounds like the right place for someone like me.

Only it is not.

Not at all.

I am still part fae, and those shifters would tear me apart just as fast as the fae would.

Sometimes I sit and wonder who my father really was, and how he ever got close to a fae woman like my mother.

A wolf and a fae together makes no sense.

How did they keep from killing each other right away?

Maybe she did kill him in the end.

I cannot rule that out.

I let out a slow breath and pull myself up out of bed.

It is still dark outside, but the edge of the sky is turning light, and I know the sun will be up soon.

If I do not want to spend the rest of my life hiding out among humans, I need to get moving and finish this job.

It is the only real chance I have at building a life for myself.