A potion flew through the air above me, smashing somewhere in the distance and making someone scream.
I grimaced and glared over my shoulder at the bitch who'd shot me. She lay motionless on the ground, the gun a few feet from her right hand, a blade lodged deep in her throat. Bodie's blade—the one he'd given Aubry at the beginning of this shit show.
Scratch that earlier thought. If she hadn't knifed that chick then pushed me, I might've taken a fucking bullet to the head.
As it stood, a bullet to the chest was not much better. Agony sizzled through me as my entire body seized and blood gushed through the wound to the erratic beat of my heart. I stumbled and crashed to the ground. The pain caused my eyes to see double.
This wasn't normal. Not that I'd ever been shot before, but seriously. Something was very, very wrong. Usually, if a shifter suffered a terrible injury or wound, all we had to do was shift—into one form or the other, it didn't really matter, and inevitably our bodies would begin the healing process. But I couldn’t shift, and there was damn well no healing going on.
Aubry dropped to her knees on the ground beside me, her fingers shaking as they hovered over my bloody white t-shirt. Her lips moved as if she were screaming at me, but I couldn't hear the sound or comprehend what she was saying. A marching band was playing in my head, symbols crashing together over and over, pain a humming vibration that undulated through my bones. I was in a daze… and the only thing I could sense for sure was blood-curdling anguish.
The wooden waiting bench in front of us wasn’t much of a barrier. Wood sprayed through the air and Aubry ducked down beneath the bench’s back and covered her head, a bullet just missing her.
No! Shit! Not her.
I wanted to do something. To get up and protect her. To beat the fuck out of whatever dumbass mage had turned his back on her. But I couldn't even move.
Aubry's head popped back up when the coast was clear, and before I even realized what was happening, she was behind me, dragging me farther back between two rows of pew-like bench seats. My eyes squeezed shut against the urge to vomit and when I opened them again, the world was spinning. Smoke curled from my chest, tainting the air with the scent of burning meat.
Oh fuck. The bullet that hit me must've been silver. That would explain my inability to shift, and also the reason why my body was fucking barbequing itself alive right now. I needed to get it out, and fast.
I flopped a heavy hand onto my chest and fumbled with numb fingers, trying to find the source of all my pain. My hand slid through the mess of hot, sticky blood, but it all felt the same to me—excruciating.
"Silver!" I tried to shout, but I had no idea if my lips even moved.
Aubry's brown eyes drifted down to my chest before she grabbed the material of my shirt and ripped it apart. Under different circumstances, I might've gotten hard at a move that sexy, but at the moment, it was all I could do just to stay conscious.
Her eyes fluttered shut and she bit her bottom lip before plunging her fingers deep into my flesh. My chest spasmed and it felt like my entire rib cage had caught fire. My muscles tensed like I was screaming, squeezing hard until I cramped up everywhere, my mouth frozen in a grimace, my eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Then suddenly, the sizzling sensation was gone. My eyes flashed and a roar ripped up my throat as my bear finally took over my body. Cells and tissues mended back together as my body stretched and realigned. Bones broke and extended. My skin sprouted golden fur and my nails elongated into claws.
I'd taken on full-bear form for less than a second, when my body shifted back, putting me through yet another invigorating round of rapid healing. By the time I was human once more, the wound in my chest had stopped hemorrhaging. All that was left was a sore, meaty hole and a soaking shirt-full of old blood.
"Easton!" Aubry cried as she leaned down and latched onto me.
Finally I could hear the beautiful sound of her voice. Before I could think better of it, my fingers raked through her silvery hair, and I held her tight. I wanted so badly to take her face in my palms and kiss her for all that she'd done. Saving my life over and over again. Making me feel alive in a way I never had before. She was like the first day of spring, like emerging from the darkness of a cave and the cold of winter and being hit with the scent of life and warmth.
She leaned back and as I gazed up into her precious face, she slowly shook her head.
"I'm so sorry, Easton. I…" Tears fell from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks, creating clean rivers in the wake of all the dust and soot and blood spatter on her face. "I'm so fucking glad you're okay. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if you'd…"
Again, she trailed off. She swiped a hand across her cheeks, smearing the dirt and debris like mud.
A window shattered and magical wind blew shards through the room. Only our bench saved us as the glimmering slivers pierced the wood like a thousand tiny daggers.
My chest clenched once more, but not from my wound—from my fucking heart. She was about to break me all over again, I just knew it.
More tears left her eyes and her chin quivered as a sob escaped her throat. "I care about you, and that's why this hurts so fucking much. But I made a promise to Bodie. A promise to give us a real shot. And I can't do that if my heart is still half attached to you."
My breathing grew shallow. It was like I wasn't getting enough oxygen. She cared about me? Her heart had felt attached to mine? It wasn't all some sick, one-sided infatuation on my part?
Not that it mattered, now that she had just cut me loose…
I licked my cracked lips, trying to process all she'd said and all she'd meant beneath the surface of her words.
"Aubry," I croaked as I struggled to find something to say, anything that might make her change her mind. "Please, don't—"
"I'm sorry," she said, quickly cutting me off. "I'm so sorry. But I have to go. I'll send Bodie over to get you when the fighting's over. Just… stay safe, Easton."
She bent down and, ever so slightly, brushed her lips across my forehead.
I took a deep breath, committing her smell to memory. Like an orange orchard. I memorized the feel of her delicate skin on mine, warm and silken like honey. The way she said my name, it rose like a bubble inside my chest, but instead of being filled with air, the bubble held all the unspoken words, the emotions that spun through the air when we saw each other.
And suddenly, my eyes flashed once more. I didn't shift. Not physically. But something inside of me definitely changed.
It was like my soul had just exploded into a million metallic pieces, all of the shards drawn like a magnet toward the fae in front of me. Pure, unadulterated love coursed through my veins like molten lava. My heart filled with it, overflowed with it, drowned in it.
The kiss she'd placed atop my head had inadvertently awoken nature's most primal bond…
I gazed up into Aubry's wide, chocolate brown eyes and I knew she was feeling exactly the same things I was. Shock. Wonder. Fear. Excitement. Gravity.
She had suddenly become… my everything—dark, winged, fierce, and beautiful. She had the power to wreck me like an apocalypse, or save me like a miracle; to reject me and punch a hole through my chest, or accept me and offer me every tomorrow with her at my side.
She may have been Bodie’s mate, but she was also mine.
My mate.
I was usually the peacemaker, the compromiser, the self-sacrificing dude-bro willing to take one for the team.
But not with this.
If one of us was going to walk away from the best thing that ever happened to us, then I knew who I was betting on.
Because it damn well wouldn’t be me.
The End
Continue the Hot and Sexy Adventure with Aubry and her mates in Fae Unchained!
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to all of the people who helped us get these books together. A huge thanks to our husbands who not only watch our crazy kids but also help support us and turn our dreams into reality.
A huge round of applause goes to our beta readers for their feedback to make these books better than before. We’re listing them in alphabetical order so we can’t be accused of playing favorites. Allison, Brittany, Ivy, Jessica, Jessica, Lysanne, Raven, Thais.
Thanks to Sue for being our British phrasing consultant.
And thank you Lori Grundy for the beautiful covers.
About the Authors
Ann and Elle are both cool and amazing people. If you’ve read their books before, you’ll know that one of them is sweet and the other is a demon with a human mask.
In their free time, they like to… wait, what free time? Both women are mothers. Elle has three wonderful children. Ann has two. Add husbands on top of that and you might as well nickname each of them Miss Hannigan (aka the witch that ran the out of control orphanage in the musical Annie). Oops. Ann’s theater nerd popped out. It does that sometimes.
Unlike Ann, Elle is totally cool. One of her favorite things to do is play video games. Which is totally fun. But if you add wine or brownie batter, it’s even better.
Both of them hope you enjoyed this book. Or at least don’t want to use it to start a forest fire. Because forest fires are bad. So says Smokey the Bear. And Easton… also a bear.
And with that ramble, we’ll let you peruse a few of our other books.
Also by Elle Middaugh
Taken by Storm (Storms of Blackwood Book 1)
A Crown of Blood and Ashes (Enchanted Royals Book 1)
Also by Ann Denton
Magical Academy for Delinquents (Pinnacle Book 1)
Knightfall (Tangled Crowns Book 1)
Fae Captive (The Mage Shifter War Book 1) Page 27
