At some point of Shadow dragging me along on our journey, I took a little nap. Angel’s words had hit me harder than almost any advice I’d received in my adult life, and I was legitimately going to try this new thing where I didn’t fight every person who tried to help me. Napping on a beast-god while he half-dragged me along was step one in this plan.
Shadow, Angel, Midnight, and Inky—I’d legit found myself a pack without even knowing I’d been looking for one.
When I finally woke from my short power nap, I did feel better, and as I opened my eyes, I found that I’d made it half onto Shadow’s shoulder. He was carrying me in his usual fireman-style hold, but since he was so huge, he didn’t actually have to throw me all the way over to hold me comfortably.
“Where are we?” I asked, yawning and stretching, relieved that a decent portion of my energy had returned. I actually felt pretty good.
Shadow paused, and then slowly… so fucking slowly, he lowered me to the ground. He was strong enough that there was no need for our bodies to be this close as I all but slid down his hard frame. He’d done that deliberately.
And I liked it.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked.
“Much,” I told him.
Shadow seemed satisfied by that, finally lifting his hands from me. “We’re not far from Kristoff’s place. If he still lives there, of course. He was an old royal when I knew him, and so very set in his ways. I imagine that hasn’t changed.”
“Sounds good,” I rasped out before taking another few steps back so I wasn’t existing in the energy of his orbit. It was a lot to handle, being this close to him and not jumping his bones. There was only so much to be expected from my self-control.
Backing up farther, I hit Angel, and she shot an arm out to steady me. “Sorry, friend,” I said in a rush.
Her smile was knowing as she looked at me before her gaze flicked across to Shadow. “No worries.”
“Hurry up,” Shadow called to us, and I had no idea what had him so cranky. Knowing him, it was some complex situation that he was running through his head and no one else would have a hope of understanding.
God problems, amiright?
Angel and I caught up, and I reached out to brush my hand against Midnight as it wrapped around me.
Your energy is stronger.
“I feel much better,” I confirmed. “No leicher scourge will get this shifter down. I’m made of tougher stuff than that.”
I sensed Angel wanted to smack me in the back of the head since I was tempting fate like a true dumbass, but she dug deep into her thousands of years of maturity and refrained. I was still getting the lecture, though.
“Please, no more risks with your life,” she cautioned. “Despite recent events that suggest you’re tougher to kill than anticipated, we’re still fairly certain you’re not immortal. You bleed and you can die.”
It’s hard to love a mortal when you are not, Midnight said unexpectedly.
Its words saddened me.
I was the mortal in this situation.
The one who would die.
I’d never have to mourn them, and that was the best news of my life, but it sucked to know that one day they’d have these adventures without me.
“Shadow can visit me in the dead lands,” I said with a little huff. “Maybe you can as well?”
Angel shook her head, her face falling. “The living can’t talk to the dead. Not in that way.”
“So I’ve heard,” I muttered, noticing the smug look Shadow shot my way. Bastard was listening in, clearly, and he was still completely full of himself. No doubt dying to say I told you so.
“No one likes a know-it-all,” I snarked.
His smile didn’t disappear, but thankfully, before I had to attempt to beat a god to death, we arrived at our destination. A… cliff?
Shadow made his way right to the edge, looking down into a large pool of water, capped by a waterfall off in the distance. I wondered for a moment if his friend’s house was down in the canyon, or perhaps hidden in the side of the mountain.
“Kristoff!” Shadow shouted, cupping his hands and sending power out into the world.
He shouted again, not in English. Instead, a lyrical language spilled from his lips. It was beautiful enough to give me goosebumps, even though I had no idea what he’d said.
He paused, giving his friend a moment to appear, but even as we all stood there, nothing happened.
Shadow turned back, looking worried. “Maybe my sister got to him.”
A deep, booming laugh filled the cavernous space, and I heard more of that lyrical language, so loud, it made my ears ache. At first, I wondered if this was an attack, but when Shadow smiled, raising his arms and returning his focus toward the waterfall, I finally understood it was his friend.
Pushing closer, I peered over the edge, wondering if I’d missed something below. A house maybe, hidden on the edge of the water? Before I could find anything, a figure appeared with a near silent pop, standing on… air? Directly opposite Shadow.
It was a male, a big booming, larger-than-life male, with red hair that brushed against his shoulders. His red was a strawberry blond, a color close to the ends of mine.
He walked toward Shadow. Or more like floated across the divide, while still taking steps. When the pair of them were near eye to eye, I was surprised that he was the same height as Shadow. A lyrical conversation started up, and Angel sidled closer to translate for me. “He’s having trouble believing it’s truly Shadow,” she whispered. “But apparently, our friend here has some secrets on this guy that no one else knows.”
Okay, that was good. It meant that he could prove his identity faster, and then maybe we could find ourselves somewhere to sleep for the night. A place to clean up wouldn’t go astray, either.
“The hostility is gone now,” Angel continued, “but it was touch and go there for a moment.”
It was? I hadn’t noticed anything, but since their language was like a lullaby, that wasn’t a surprise. “Okay, we’re good to approach,” Angel said, nudging me toward Shadow.
Kristoff watched us closely as we walked over, his gaze probing.
“Hello,” he said in perfect English, without the slightest accent or inflection. “Welcome to my home. Any friends of Darkor’s is a friend of mine.”
“I go by ‘Shadow’ now,” Shadow told him.
Kristoff nodded his head. “Son, you will always be your appointed position to me; that name is yours by birthright. You can go by whatever you want; it changes none of the truths.”
Shadow didn’t argue, and I wondered if this was the one of the rare beings in the worlds he truly respected. “Please,” Kristoff said, stepping to the side and waving his arm in an arc. “I’m being rude holding you here when I’m sure you are exhausted and require rest and sustenance.”
He seemed to be waiting for us to move, but since some of us couldn’t walk on air, what was the game plan here?
Shadow strolled straight off the cliff, and I managed to keep my cool and not gasp, but it still shocked me. “It’s an illusion,” the beast called back. “You are safe to follow.”
“Uh…” I looked down. “Illusion or not, my brain is telling me I’ll fall to my death, and it’s insisting we stay right here on solid ground.”
Angel chuckled, the musical sound ringing out and echoing through the gully below, and now I knew how Kristoff threw his voice and made it sound so powerful.
“You got this, Mera,” she said, nudging me forward.
“Easy for you to say, chick with wings,” I hissed back, dragging my heels as I was continually pushed toward the edge.
She laughed again. “I’ll catch you if you fall.”
That did make me feel marginally better and confident enough to relax my stiff stance and take a step forward. Forcing myself not to look down, I followed the same path Shadow had, keeping my eyes locked on his enigmatic face. Most of the time I couldn’t read the beast, his thoughts shrouded and hidden from view.
Today was no different, but at least his stoic look was comforting in its familiarity, as he became my anchor point to walk toward.
“Not many have taken that first step,” Kristoff said, the smallest of smiles gracing his lips. “Especially a mortal.”
“She’s no normal mortal,” Shadow added drily.
Kristoff peered closer. “So I can see.”
Angel strolled along behind me, Inky and Midnight nearby. The mists also received a very close inspection from Shadow’s friend. “How is it that you have competing mists here?” he asked. “Whom are they bonded to?”
I raised my hand, and Midnight dashed closer, large enough that the purple tones in it shimmered in the light. Inky wrapped around Shadow, both of them answering Kristoff’s question.
“A mist bonded to a mortal,” he mused. “You, my dear, are a mystery I’d like to unravel.”
Flames appeared in Shadow’s eyes, and I wasn’t sure of the reason, but he did shift to block Kristoff’s view of me. “We do need to find out her secrets,” he said, “but she’s mine. You cannot claim her.”
My mouth and throat were dry, unlike other… parts of me. When he went all possessive alpha on me, it fucked me up mentally and physically. Shadow was my trauma and I didn’t even care.
“Noted,” Kristoff said, eyeing Shadow closer. “What about Ixana?”
Ixana. The mate.
I knew that was whom he’d just referred to, and the white-hot rage I felt didn’t surprise me—shifters were possessive, just like the beast who’d created us. Not that I wanted to think too closely about that, since Shadow was about as far from a parent figure to me as one could be.
I also had no right to feel possessive of the beast, and Shadow’s mate would probably murder me when she found out my plan of losing my virginity to the Shadow Beast.
“I haven’t seen her in thousands of years,” Shadow said quietly. “For all I know, she’s moved on.”
I paused. Why hadn’t he just explained that we weren’t a couple? It would have been easy to tell his friend that I was mostly a possession he’d kept captive for the last year.
“As far as I know, she’s never moved on,” Kristoff said softly, and I could tell this surprised Shadow.
The silence was awkward then, and without thinking, I moved closer to the beast, wanting to comfort him. As I dropped my forehead against his back, my hand lifted to rest on his firm muscles.
His breath paused for a beat.
I’d taken him by surprise.
He didn’t zap or push me away, both of us remaining like that for a moment. A moment of comfort and support. It honestly felt like a hundred years since he used to zap me when I’d accidentally touched him. We’d come so far, and that was all going to be dashed the moment his true mate walked into his life again. I’d felt the bond of a true mate before, and it was strong and all-encompassing.
If Shadow’s wasn’t a complete cuntosaurus, then I could see no reason why they wouldn’t fall back into each other’s arms.
From what he’d indicated, they’d liked each other well enough before he’d been exiled. And why the hell would anyone not want to be with Shadow? He was the ultimate prize as a true mate, despite his occasional asshole moments.
Fuck. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t lean on him any longer; that time was done, and even if we managed to get that one round of fucking in before we were torn apart, it would change nothing.
I straightened and stepped back, needing to breathe in air that wasn’t tainted by his scent and power. I had to get my head on straight.
Or I would not survive what was to come.
