ログインFallonZayn’s hands are warm but coarse, steady, and so much larger than mine. His power radiates through his skin–an electric kind of warmth that causes a tingling sensation to erupt over my flesh. Pearls of rainwater slide between our joined hands, hovering just above my fingers. More droplets appear, shimmering like starlight, before Zayn lets out his breath, and the raindrops race into the sky so quickly that I lose sight of them. But his power buzzes all around me, cloaking me in an electric heat that burrows into my bones. It’s so different from my powers. So foreign and unique. A crackle of lightning tinged a strange blue expands overhead as clouds suddenly appear. A boom of thunder rolls over the beach, and for a moment, I feel like I’m home, watching the storms roll over the lake in Moonrise. “Did you make the storms in Moonrise, too?” I ask.His smile is soft and wanting. “No. I did not. But I would have.”“Why?”“Because I know you like them.”I’m insane. He’s not looking
ZaynTali walks at my side down the stretch of narrow dirt road weaving across the private royal island. It’s a fine day. It was, at least. I spent the majority of it avoiding Fallon at all costs, which meant tiptoeing through the house, occasionally catching glimpses of her talking to the maids, the chef, or the messengers who travel to and from Eurye. I’m staying out of her way for good reason. I almost lost my grip on the situation this morning. Tali whistles low, drawing my attention back to the moment instead of lingering on the way Fallon’s hair shimmered across the pillows in the morning light. “When’s the last time you shifted?” he asks. I kick a pebble of pumice, squinting into the sun drifting between the palm fronds overhead. “When I was challenged. Yesterday.”“I mean, when was the last time you got it out of your system?”“What?” The guesthouse comes into view. Tali halts, touching my arm in a silent request for me to stop walking. “Tali–”“You smell like a wolf on e
FallonI wake to full sunlight dusting the domed ceiling. It reflects off the chandelier, painting the room in rainbows. Groggy and unsure what time it is, I close my eyes again, wiggling under an immense amount of pressure gluing me to the mattress. Warmth like I’ve never known pins me down. It’s cozy. The coziest thing I’ve ever felt. The most comfortable and secure I’ve ever been. It’s likely that I’m still hovering somewhere between reality and the dreamworld. I feel full and slightly dizzy from what might be the longest stretch of real, deep sleep I’ve had in a long while. I’m not sure what woke me up, but I quickly assume it’s my senses blaring in warning, and with a start, I open my eyes again and realize the weight keeping me pressed to the bed is not the dreamworld or my body’s slow roll into awareness. Nope. Zayn sighs so deeply his body rattles. It hums through me because the man is draped over me in a way that’s so damningly intimate I have to suck in a breath and pore
ZaynI was twenty when my father found me on the beach, sopping wet and covered in sand. It was a strange day, to put it lightly. The weather was terrible, roiling and violent, though I suppose I was used to that. I couldn’t remember how I ended up there. I have hazy memories of him kneeling in front of me, clutching my face between his hands and shouting my name over, and over. But that was the moment. The night the stars aligned, deciding my destiny. The night everything about my upbringing ceased to matter. Father’s tenure in Meridem was supposed to be life-long. That was the rule for governors–one step below the Principate in hierarchy of wizardry. He was supposed to keep Meridem and the shifters who called it home in check, to ensure the laws of the wizards were followed, and beat into submission anyone who disagreed. Meridem was a gift, so to speak, when he became an adult. The Alexandrite mines in Meridem were the main source of the precious stone that allowed lower wizards a
ZaynIt’s well past 9:00 in the evening when Tali and I walk up the steps to his home. The first thing I see with full clarity after a hell of a long day, mostly in my wolf form, is Fallon resting in an oversized armchair with Koa draped over her lap. He’s fast asleep. Andy hangs off one shoulder, his dark eyes bright and honed on the picture book she’s reading. Gracen is perched on her other side, resting his elbow on her shoulder, his cheek squished against the top of Fallon’s head. She yawns, which makes the little boys yawn, and turns the page. “Hey now,” Tali whispers, which startles both boys. “How’d you weasel your way into staying up an hour past your bedtime?”Andy fidgets, but I expect as such from him. Little wizard boys are essentially whipped into submission from birth if they’re unlucky enough to be separated from good fathers, like he was. He slides off the armchair, but Gracen hesitates, narrowing his eyes at his father, battling some internal shifter rage at the ide
FallonZayn is doing his best to ignore me. Either that, or I hit a nerve by telling him I’m actually enjoying my, well, kidnapping and confinement in KiloKilo. He didn’t take that sentiment pleasantly, which immediately brought me back in time to when I made this decision in the first place. I promised him I wouldn’t leave. I did. I mean, I did change my mind at the very last second, so it wasn’t entirely my fault, but it’s clear his trust in me and my judgment is minimal, but if we’re going to play house, he must trust me. Which is why I plan to be the best behaved I’ve ever been. Today. Right now, at this very moment! It should be easy. I’ve been one of the only women in a room of men on countless occasions. Men who used to sneer and turn their cheek at my mother, who now bow and crawl before her. Men are easy to please in regard to diplomacy. Throw them a bone, and eventually, they’ll throw you a whole animal carcass, or whatever the hell Grandma Ella said. I can shut up. I ca
KennaEvander looks down at me and goes perfectly still.“What was that?” I whisper. It could easily have been the fireworks the elder council in the coven ordered for the festivities.Another Earth rattling boom shakes the underground temple
KennaEvander shuts the door. The lock clicks, and for a moment, the only sound I can hear is my heartbeat racing in my own ears.He looks… conflicted. Unsure–and unsteady.“You–you smell like vanilla candles,” I whisper, unsure if I say the words out lo
EvanderFlynn and Connor found us right in time. I feel like I’m hanging on to the only shred of self control I have left, and the guilt of keeping the truth of what’s building between me and Kenna is eating me alive.Flynn, thankfully, has taken over en
KennaI adjust my apron strings to stop my hands from trembling. The corridor outside my dad’s office is unusually quiet and empty. Normally, warriors and higher ranking wolves would be walking back and forth or waiting on the benches along the wall for a meeting with him. Commanders would be speakin







