by Raye Wagner
Pig.
“Do you know where Justice and Noble are being held?” Rage asked. “He’s torturing them.”
“Torture?” she snarled, and black fur rippled down her arms. “That liar. He said he just wanted to ask them a few questions.” She heaved a breath and pointed at the castle. “They’re all in the south tower.”
One of the twins shrieked behind us, and I spun as the headmistress gasped.
Four selkie warriors held Sadie and Audrey on the shore, knives at their throats, as ten more selkies waded out of the water.
Shit.
Adrenaline coursed through me, and I wished for a blade before remembering my magic was stronger than any weapon.
“What have we got here?” one of them asked, cocking his head to the side. “A family reunion?”
‘Wait for them to get closer,’ Rage said, his chest rumbling with anger as his wolf surged to the surface. ‘If you use a lot of magic, the king’s guards will notice.’
“A royal family reunion,” another growled, drawing his blade. “Maybe now the king—”
Shadows danced behind the tree line, and then a deafening battle cry came from inland.
What the…? I blinked to clear my vision. My eyes adjusted, and I gaped as hundreds of royal guards spilled down the pathways toward the beach.
My stomach fell as I realized we’d been spotted by the royal guard.
Rock: guards. Hard place: selkies. Why were all our options total crap?
“Grab them!” one of the selkies snarled.
“Rage!” his mother yelled.
I sucked in a deep breath and gathered my magic, preparing for an epic blast.
“Careful, Nai,” Elaine shouted at me, shaking her head. “If you kill Declan’s guards, he’ll have one more reason to ask Surlama to break the shield oath and then kill you.”
Break the shield oath … can he do that?
I gulped, unsure what to do now. Did I protect us by fighting the guards, or go for the selkies who were creeping closer?
Rage shifted into his wolf instantly and bared his teeth at the selkie warriors.
“Stop!” Elaine shouted to the advancing guards, her voice deep and commanding. “Protect us from the selkies. That’s an order.”
The guard pulled his sword and pointed it at Rage. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ve got different orders.”
He looked to his right at a huge beefy dude. “Get the prince. At all costs.”
Shit.
Elaine growled low in her throat, and I knew we were screwed. Try to fight a hundred royal guards or half dozen selkies? My gaze jumped from Rage’s mom to the selkie who’d commented about the royal family reunion. He advanced on me quickly. I was distracted between the two foes and who needed my help more, Rage’s mom or Sadie and Audrey.
The selkie nearest me curled his upper lip, and I didn’t like the glimmer in his eye. I decided he was the bigger enemy right now as the guards were further away, and it looked like we were going to have to retreat back into the water. There was no way we could fight off these many royal guards. My magic thrummed just under my skin as if begging me to release it.
Rage’s wolf spoke into my mind: ‘Get selkies. Try another way to get to Justice and Noble.’
‘Read my thoughts,’ I told him and prepared to blast these water creatures back from where they came.
“Look out!” Audrey yelled, and I spun to see a selkie lunging for me from behind. Rage snarled and dove for the selkie as I sprinted forward, plunging myself between my mate and the warrior.
Pain lanced through my arm as the blade of one of the warriors gouged me. It was there quickly and then gone. I whimpered, knowing I’d caused my shields more agony. Yanking the blade from my bicep, I brandished it as my blood dripped down the cold steel. “If you touch him, I’ll gut you,” I growled.
“Come with me willingly, and no one gets hurt,” the warrior said.
I pulled my lip back in a snarl. “Never.”
And that’s when the female selkie I hadn’t noticed before began to sing.
How many Mariah Careys are there?
Before I could do anything, a hard thwack landed at the back of my neck, and pain laced through my skull, spotting my vision. Someone approached holding a black bag, and I sucked in a breath just as he or she tossed powder right at my mouth. I inhaled the acrid cloud, and a cough erupted from my lungs. My mind went hazy, and a random thought popped into my brain.
If only Kaja and her sisters were here.
“Kaja,” I mumbled drunkenly.
The image of my bestie appeared, sitting in the living room with Nell and Rue—and she turned to look at me as if she’d heard me yell her name. Then, my mind, and the world, went dark.
Chapter 6
Warbled voices entered my consciousness and I groaned. My first thought: How am I knocked out when I had the shield bond with Noble, Justice, and Rage? I remembered the powder. Some type of magic? Probably from Dark Row. Did Justice and Noble pass out too?
I shifted my weight and realized my hands and feet were restricted. Yanking my arms, I growled when I realized my efforts were futile. Not only were my hands tied behind my back, but they were tethered to my ankles. My wet clothes clung to me, not sopping, just damp. How long had we been here? My eyes flicked up to the setting sun, and panic filled me. We’d been knocked out all day. No. No. No. Too much time was passing.
Rage…
At the panicked thought of my mate, I heard his familiar groan next to me.
“They drugged us with a spell powder,” he growled.
Like me, Rage was hogtied. We sat propped up against the stone wall of a dark cave. Firelight sliced in from the entrance, giving us just enough light to make out our surroundings. Pressing my ear to the rock behind me, I noted the sound of softly lapping water against the stone from somewhere distant outside.
“Rage, we were out all day. How long do we have left to save Honor?” Panic threatened to fully seize me.
Rage leaned forward, and I peeked behind him, at his watch. Craning my neck, I took in the cold hard reality.
We had twenty-four hours to save Honor’s life or he was gone forever.
“Why didn’t they kill us?” I wondered, trying to change the subject and hoping Rage wouldn’t ask me how much time was left. I think he knew…
Rage leaned his head back and swallowed hard. “They must want something. They didn’t seem very organized, not like the times when they attacked before.”
True. There weren’t many of them, and it had seemed like they’d happened upon us by chance.
Footfalls from outside echoed into the cave, and Rage and I fell silent.
“What do you mean you’ve captured a prince?” a deep male voice rumbled.
“We were patrolling off the shore of Dark Row, and I smelled him—a Midnight heir. Got his mate too. They have identical fated mate marks.” I recognized the a-hole’s voice from a few hours ago. At some point, I’d find a way for payback.
One of them sighed, a deep Mother-Mage-give-me-patience kind of sigh. “You idiot, kidnapping royal family members needs to be cleared with King Ozark. You can’t just go rogue and do whatever the hell you—”
“They’re awake,” a female selkie said, her voice carrying musical inflection as if she were more used to singing than speaking.
I jerked my head toward the other corner of the cave opening and glared back at the two slitted eyes staring at us.
Sing, biatch. I dare you.
“Thank you, Melody,” the first man said.
The female backed away, and a heartbeat later, a tall man with broad shoulders stepped into the mouth of the cave, temporarily blocking out the firelight. He drew near, and with the shift of light, I took in his thick stature. Dressed in black army fatigues and a black wife-beater, he looked down at Rage and then to me.
“Where are our friends?” I asked, trying to assess how many people we needed to save. If Audrey and Sadie were caught, I’d never fo
rgive myself if they were hurt. Same with Rage’s mom.
The warrior in front of us glanced to the other selkie. “Chinook?”
“The queen was pulled to safety by her guards,” the asshat who’d knocked me out said. “The other two wolf girls fled in their canoe like chickens.”
Relief washed through me. As much as I wanted to defend the girls, neither of them would care what a selkie thought.
The tougher-looking warrior stepped closer to us. “Get them up, Chinook.” The male’s jaw tightened as he stared at us. “I need to take you two to the king and see what he wants done with you.”
The dude paled but nodded, crouching down and cutting the zip-ties at our feet.
I struggled to get up with my arms still behind my back and my left leg numb when the dude reached down and yanked me skyward. Rage was hauled up next, and then we were walking.
‘What’s our plan?’ I asked my mate as he glared ferally at the two selkie warriors.
‘Out of all the shifters, our relationship with the selkies is the worst.’
Clearly. They kept trying to kill us.
‘There must be something they want,’ I said.
He nodded subtly. ‘For their people to be welcomed back to the island.’
That seemed to be a running theme with every non-wolf shifter we met. ‘Why did your uncle kick the other shifters out?’
My father never talked to me about the booting of the other shifters, possibly because it happened after Crescent was exiled.
‘The island exudes magic. Those who live there get empowered with more strength and stamina. The women who live there also bear more children. Because only the wolves are there, our race is the most powerful.’
Holy mage. So the king was basically stealing magic from the other shifter clans? Wow. That was interesting and super douchebaggy of him.
I looked at my mate. ‘So, our plan?’
Rage stood tall, jutting his chin out as we walked down a narrow path on a rocky cliff face, and in that moment, I saw the king he’d make one day. A strong, level-headed, sometimes arrogant, but good king.
‘I’m going to make a deal in exchange for our lives.’
He didn’t need to say any more. Whatever deal he struck would suck for him—bad; he’d have to promise them something they wanted. All the while, the clock was ticking on Honor’s life.
Mother Mage help us.
The two males and the female, Melody, who’d sung the royal guards into a stupor on the island, walked us in silence into an open field. It was pitch black out, and we stumbled in the dark for a good ten minutes until we came upon a bunch of torches that lit a path leading to some type of campground. The path was also dotted with something else: heavily armed men stood guard every ten feet.
The selkie in the black army fatigues stepped up behind Rage and gripped the zip-ties that bound his hands, directing him where to walk like an animal on a leash. Next, Melody grabbed my hands and steered me down the path as well, jerking my shoulders when I veered to avoid a rock.
“I know how to walk,” I growled.
She just hissed at me.
‘Say the word, and I’ll blast all these fools to bits,’ I told Rage.
I could handle the few guards around us and probably the ones dotting the landscape. Then, we could struggle out of our binds and make a run for it in wolf form.
‘Try to call your elements. I can’t feel fire. I think the powder cuts us off from it.’
That was a horrifying thought, that something could keep me from my magic. I took a deep breath in and felt for the power that lingered always below the surface and frowned.
‘I can’t feel it.’
Rage nodded, ‘They’ve got us right where they want us.’
Oh frick.
My stomach turned into knots. ‘How are you so calm?’
He gave me a side glance, those piercing green eyes staring straight into my soul.
‘Protecting you keeps me focused. I’ll do anything I need to make sure you’re not harmed, Nai.’
I may have swooned a little. There was no time to dwell on it as we reached a tall, wooden fence with razor wire at the top, stretching as far as I could see in either direction. Every twenty feet or so, a selkie warrior stood guard, likely on some sort of raised platform. They didn’t mess around with security.
“I’m here to see King Ozark. He’s expecting me,” the dude in black army fatigues told the guard at the gate.
How could the king be expecting him?
Rage must have read my mind. ‘Selkies can share a hive mind when needed. It’s what makes them such good fighters.’
My eyes bugged. Hive mind selkies? He’d basically described my worst nightmare.
The gates creaked open, and with a nod, we were ushered inside. The second we stepped into the village, my jaw dropped. It reminded me of the movie Aladdin. Carpets and tapestries hung as dividers to partition stalls that held fresh fruits and vegetables; the women were stacking them into high pyramids, probably getting ready for the day of selling. A few children ran, laughing and screaming, through the alleyways, and little prairie dogs chased after them, like pets.
‘It’s the middle of the night, right?’ I was trying to get my bearings on how long we’d been knocked out, but it was still pitch dark out.
‘Selkies are nocturnal and need very little sleep.’
Wow. It turned out my father did not prepare me for life in the magic lands because I knew nothing.
As we cleared the alley, I glanced back and noticed several more paths, all of which led to a giant castle—like spokes on a wheel, and the stone structure atop the hill was the center. The women wore silks in bright, cheery colors, but their expressions darkened as we passed, and their nostrils flared. Were selkies’ sense of smell as strong as ours? Could they smell that we were wolf shifters? Or did word travel that fast, what with their hive mind?
I was just about to ask Rage where they swam, knowing they were water shifters and would need access to water, when we passed a deep, wide lake fed by a freshwater stream that led all the way to the ocean. It was dark but still well-lit by torches. Half-naked female selkie shifters glared up at me as they undressed to get into the water.
The entire walk from the cliff face to here must’ve been about twenty minutes, and that stream looked pretty deep. I wondered if they just plopped into the lake and swam downstream before they were spit out into the ocean.
One of the women shifted, and I watched as sleek gray skin crawled up her body like her legs were being zipped together, and then it climbed farther up her torso until she was gone and only a large seal remained. Silently, she slid into the water.
I stared, jaw unhinged.
“You have a lovely city.” Rage nodded first at the water hole and then the large castle. Clearly, he was better at diplomacy than I.
The man holding his tied hands scoffed. “Not bad for a displaced people.”
Ouch. That was a burn on Rage’s uncle though, not him.
I had yet to ask about Rage’s political beliefs, but he’d better not agree with his uncle turning Shifter Island into Alpha Island and stealing magic from the entire shifter race.
Before I knew it, we’d reached the castle entrance and crossed into an open-gated garden terrace with multiple women and children playing on a lush, manicured lawn.
Damn. These people looked happy. A few of the kids held wooden swords, sparring with each other as lantern light danced across their smiling faces. The clack-clack-clack of the faux weapons made me smile.
‘Stop it. Act neutral,’ Rage scolded me playfully.
I raised one eyebrow. ‘But these kids are adorable.’
Rage nodded slightly, but his expression grew somber. ‘And their father is the king, who will behead us both if I can’t talk us out of this.’
My eyes widened, and I glanced back at the dozens of children. ‘All of them? Heirs?’
‘The king has a harem of thirty wives.’
&
nbsp; I gasped, choked on my spit, and then coughed to cover it. The selkie in front of me looked over his shoulder with a sneer and then shook his head before leading us up the steps to a grand, open room.
‘Rumor is,’ Rage clarified, ‘the selkie king marries any female who becomes a widow so she doesn’t have to fend for food or shelter. He adopts the children.’
And just like that, I was conflicted. The mean a-hole who sent guards to Shifter Island to kill students and teachers also took pity on widows? Talk about a gray area. I wasn’t sure whether I liked him or hated him.
We stepped into a great room. The stone was polished onyx with dark green and blue carpets lying over the shiny black expanse. Bright silk pillows in various shapes and sizes were scattered over the carpets, some clustered in bunches and others solo. My gaze traveled up the aisle and…
Holy crap.
There, sitting on an honest-to-mage throne, was a giant of a man, but he wasn’t what stopped me in my tracks. I stood, gaping, slack-jawed, and shocked at the women at his feet, lying prostrate on the floor and … what the hell? Were they praying to him? Like he was a god? Maybe if he married me and took in all my children after my husband died, I’d worship him too. Who knows?
“What is this?” His deep voice rumbled across the space, and my attention snapped upward. The women on the floor stood, kissing him on the cheek, and then they left the room.
He was better looking than I expected. Long black hair feathered around his chiseled shoulders, slick with water, and his strong jaw and sharp nose were appealing.
“Sir…” The army fatigue dude stepped forward with Rage. “Chinook ran an unsanctioned mission and brought in—”
“I brought you the son of the alpha king, My Liege,” the asshat who’d kidnapped us said and dropped to one knee. Melody did the same, followed by the army dude.
“Indeed?” the king asked. “I thought you were instructed to keep watch over the wolves at Dark Row, Chinook?”
Chinook paled and bobbed his head. “But when we smelled them, I led a contingency of warriors there, and we followed the alpha heir back to Shifter Island where we captured them … for you, My King.”
