LOGINThe gravel under my boots was cold and loose. Behind us, the drop-off fell three hundred feet straight down into the roaring white water at the bottom of the gorge. In front of us, twelve Tribunal enforcers stood in an iron arc, their dampening shields humming with that sick, violet light.Marcus didn't rush. He walked out from behind the line of armored vehicles, stepping around a puddle of rainwater with practiced ease."Look at you all," Marcus said, stopping ten yards out. "A rogue hunter, a half-starved warlock, a disgraced vampire, and a wolf who lost his title yesterday morning. Is this the army that was supposed to tear down the High Council?"Brecken took a half-step forward, his shoulder blocking me from Marcus's line of sight. His gold eyes were blazing, his fangs fully extended, but the violet hum coming off those shields was making his hands twitch violently."I don't need an army to rip your head off, Marcus," Brecken growled."You can barely stand, Holt," Marcus replied
The screaming resonance of the warlock tag blew out from the door frame like a shockwave.Outside on the porch, three men shrieked in unison as their protective amulets shattered against their chests, blinding their senses and overloading their wolf instincts with raw magic feedback.Cade didn't wait for the sound to fade. He kicked the heavy oak door right off its iron hinges, sending the timber crashing outward into Beta Thomas's chest."Move!" Cade barked.The heavy roar of Cade's shotgun shattered the morning air as he dropped the first scout on the porch steps.Brecken exploded out of the doorway right behind him, a terrifying blur of muscle and gold eyes. He caught the second scout before the man could recover from the magical flash, driving him back into the wooden railing until the timber snapped, throwing both of them onto the rocky slope below.Lucian moved past them like a shadow, taking out the third scout on the far side of the porch before the man could even raise his ta
The three slow thuds on the oak door echoed through the small cabin like gunshots.Brecken moved without a sound, placing himself directly between the wooden door and my cot. His broad back was tense, his knuckles white around the grip of his hunting knife. Beside him, Cade kept his shotgun leveled at the latch, his finger resting flat against the trigger guard."Aria," Thomas called out again from the porch. His voice was rough, raspy from years of heavy smoking, exactly the way I remembered it from the pack house kitchen. "Don't make this difficult. I have eight men surrounding this rock hollow. You have nowhere to run."I stood up from the cot, my legs surprisingly steady despite the cold sweat on my neck. The warlock anchor inside my chest was humming, cool and quiet, keeping my wolf and vampire natures from exploding at the sound of his voice."Thomas," I said, my voice cutting through the thick cabin timber, sharp and clear. "You're a long way from the Frost Pack territory."A d
The cabin looked like a black shadow pressed against the granite cliff face.It was small, built of heavy pine logs with a low overhang roof weighted down by flat stones. Years of rot and pine needles had turned the wooden porch gray, but the structure itself sat deep inside a natural stone hollow that cut off the mountain wind completely.Cade hit the small porch first, his boots silent on the damp wood. He checked the rusted iron latch on the door, pulled a thin steel shim from his pocket, and slid it into the frame with a quick, practiced flick of his wrist. The lock popped with a dull click.He pushed the door open three inches, holding his breath as he listened to the dark interior."Clear," Cade whispered, stepping inside.We scrambled over the threshold, and Lucian pulled the heavy oak door shut behind us, throwing two iron slide bolts into place. The room went pitch-black, smelling faintly of dry wood, old soot, and cold stone."Keep away from the front window," Cade instructe
The skiff's aluminum hull scraped against jagged river rocks with a harsh, metallic screech that made me wince.Lucian killed the outboard motor, and the sudden quiet was deafening, broken only by the steady lap of river water against the gravel bank and the distant drip of rain off pine needles."End of the line," Lucian said, stepping out into the knee-deep black water without hesitation. He dragged the bow of the boat onto the gravel bank, tying the line off to a half-submerged hemlock root.I swung my legs over the side and dropped into the river. The mountain water was bone-chillingly cold, soaking straight through my leather boots and sending a shudder clear up my spine. My knees buckled slightly as my feet hit the slick river stones, but a heavy hand caught my elbow before I could spill into the current.I looked up. Brecken was standing over me, his hand locked around my arm. His grip was tight, almost painful, radiating a fierce, protective heat that burned right through my d
The secondary boat was a battered thirty-foot aluminum skiff, hidden under a low granite overhang where the black waves sloshed against the barnacles. It smelled of diesel, old fish scale, and rusted steel.Lucian untied the mooring ropes with quick, silent efficiency. He primed the small outboard motor, and it sputtered to life with a wet, raspy cough before settling into a low thrum.We slipped out of the cove into the open water just as the fog rolled in off the bay. The fog was thick, gray, and heavy, swallowing the towering cliffs behind us until Lucian’s estate vanished entirely.I sat near the stern on a cold metal bench, wrapping my damp jacket tighter around my shoulders. My body felt hollow, like a dry creek bed after a flash flood. The warlock bond was still humming beneath my ribs, steady and quiet, but my muscles ached from the sheer stress of the night.Soren sat two feet away, leaning against the gunwale with his eyes closed. His left hand was cradled against his stomac
He didn't get to finish. Not because he changed his mind. Because halfway through the first sentence about my father, a sound cut through the house that nobody else seemed to notice.A heartbeat.Not mine. Not even his of course he didn't have one I could track properly, just this low slow thing th
Gareth was already in the car the light of the SUV kept flashing through my eye's. Chants kept replaying on my head. My witch side has been quiet but observing. Showing things that might take forever to figure out. My wolf curled inside me. My vampire side kept raging. An urge to something or someo
I lay there in the big bed staring at the ceiling for a long time after Brecken left. The t-shirt he gave me smelled like him. Pine and storm and something warm that made my stomach feel weird. I pulled the blanket up higher and tried to ignore it. My body still felt weak. Like I had run a maratho
I know everyone says omegas are weak, well we actually are. and personally my case is different my name is Aria Frost and i am about to let you in my world. I am what you call a Tribrid. Rejected and now four alphas would do anything to claim me. *** I stood there in the middle of the ballroom w







