by Kamryn Hart
“My darling Sorissa, there is little time. I can’t change this, so we must make the most of it. You and your werewolves made a dangerous deal with the King of Wolf Bridge, but I’m going to do my best to ensure you win.”
She looked at each member of Phantom Fangs with cool hazel eyes, inspecting and assessing. She rested her gaze on Caspian. “Training starts now.”
CASPIAN
I was wary of the witch. I knew she was important to Sorissa, but that didn’t exactly comfort me. The witch explained why she did what she did, and it seemed like Sorissa was able to forgive her. Now she was here to make sure we defeated the king? That seemed mildly convenient. Mostly, it was strange. Then again, so was Sorissa’s random “prophetic dream” to come to Howling Sky. Prophetic dreams weren’t in Sorissa’s arsenal after all. It was all the witch’s doing. I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
“I see you have bonded, the five of you. Or at least, you have started to,” Babaga said, “through Sorissa.”
“She kissed us on a full moon,” I said. “What do you mean ‘bonded’? Do you know what she did?”
“Surely you know this by now. Her kiss was akin to a claiming bite.”
My jaw snapped shut. I knew we had all been thinking that, talking about that, but four of us? Together? From a werea?
“It’s like that, but it’s much more powerful,” Babaga said, “because Sorissa made the proposal on a full moon night and each of you reciprocated. However, it’s not perfected because you didn’t completely commit to her or her offer despite kissing her back. There are doubts among you.”
My gaze went to the ground, the cracked, once whole, lunalite trail that led up to the steps of the castle. It was amazing how it could look so beautiful in its destruction. Some of it was shaved down to fine particles, like stardust fallen straight from the night sky. But it was eerie, more than anything, especially when I glanced at the skeletons stacked up high on either side of the staircase.
“So, what does any of this have to do with defeating the king?” I asked and forced myself to raise my head.
“If you solidify this bond, perfect it, you’ll be able to draw on each other’s power, moonlight included,” Babaga explained. “The five of you together would be many times stronger than the king, than any individual by far.”
“Even you?” Rodrick asked, arms folded. He looked like he was itching to grab for his gun again, but he and Aerre had lowered their firearms after Sorissa embraced the witch.
“You’d rival me in a way, yes. If Caspian alone could solidify his bond with Sorissa, that would be enough to solve your current problem, but it’s not going to be that easy because Sorissa didn’t ask only Caspian to keep her heart.” Babaga affectionately patted Sorissa’s arm. “Leave it to this little troublemaker to pick a complicated pack. Only if you put aside your differences can you truly become one.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, a growl in my throat. “You said her kisses were like a claiming bite, but you keep using ‘bond’ instead of ‘mate.’ They don’t sound like the same thing.”
“I haven’t been using ‘bond’ and ‘mate’ synonymously because there is a difference. As you know, a claiming bite doesn’t mean the Mate Claim has been fulfilled. The Mate Claim itself demands sex to seal the deal. Sorissa’s proposal is a bit more complicated than that.” Babaga pointed at Todd, her knobby finger looked a bit threatening, like a claw; I knew the power those fingers held without having seen it myself. “He has already sealed the bond that Sorissa proposed. Between the two of them, the Mate Claim and this bond are perfect. They are on the same wavelength. They can probably hear each other’s thoughts right now.”
I scowled. Todd’s face went very, very red.
“You have to figure this out, all of you. You have to accept or reject Sorissa wholeheartedly, and therefore the others, because she picked all four of you, not one exclusively.”
“Okay.” I held out my hands. “What?”
“Todd bit me and we had sex,” Sorissa said.
My heart sort of did a weird jump in my chest, like it body slammed against my rib cage, jostling my whole damn body. Aerre’s eyes went wide. Rodrick’s lips twitched.
“You didn’t see the bite on her neck when you braided her hair?!” I turned on Aerre who stiffened and clenched his fists.
Sorissa took off the white-ribbon accessory she had around her neck, the one I hadn’t commented on before but found odd when we had left early this morning. “None of you would have seen it unless you had been looking,” she said. Sure enough, there was a prominent scar left on her neck from a frenzied claiming bite. It was still new, apparently, but it was already sealed over with shiny scar tissue.
Babaga slowly shook her head and said, “That’s not all of it.”
Sorissa cocked her head. “He said he loved me, that he was happy to have me and Phantom Fangs all together, that we were his pack. And he meant it. I meant it, too.”
Babaga gave a small smile that surprisingly didn’t look too terrifying against her aged and wrinkled skin. I had never seen so many wrinkles in my life. “That’s right,” she said. “And it was enough. Sex, the words ‘I love you,’ whatever got you to that point of understanding, of synergy, has solidified a portion of the bond. Sex has sealed Sorissa’s body to Todd, a fulfilled Mate Claim. However, Sorissa’s body is open to you three as well. Her body won’t be completely sealed until all four of you have mated with her. It’s the spiritual connection that we need to focus on, though. It’s what will allow you to exchange moonlight. You can deal with your mate issues later. That has nothing to do with me or why I’m here.” Babaga gave the slightest hint of disgust in the wrinkle of her brow.
I didn’t know what to say. Neither did Aerre or Rodrick. I worked my jaw a few times before I managed to spit out something. “So, we should have one big orgy?!” I sputtered, nearly hysterical.
“No,” Babaga said, exasperated. “I mean, you could. But that isn’t going to solidify your bond if the feeling isn’t there. It’s love, werewolves. Love. Todd was able to let his love show through sex. He and Sorissa are bound spiritually and physically. That spiritual element isn’t necessarily part of mating just like mating isn’t necessarily part of love.”
Todd cleared his throat, and his face went even redder.
“You’ll have to figure this out quickly if you want to keep each other safe,” Babaga said. “It’s your decision.” She gestured to the open double doors at the top of the staircase. “You can sleep inside of the castle. I cleared it out for you. It’s still plenty sturdy and will work just fine. I recommend the king’s bedchamber. I’ll be back later.”
She hobbled over to one of the piles of skeletons, touched a skull, and murmured, “May peace be with you.” As if on command, the skeletons disintegrated into dust and dispersed in the wind. She did that a few more times, going from one skeleton pile to the next, until the castle grounds were cleared. It was like a weight was lifted at the same time. The air was lighter, clearer, and oxygen-rich. I wondered if the witch could end the world with her power if she wasn’t bound by those rules of hers. I had never seen anything like this.
“Let’s get our stuff and move into the castle,” Todd suggested. He spared Babaga’s work a short glance as the witch wandered off to Gods knew where while disintegrating skeletons. He went to the roader and started untying the ropes we used to hold down our supplies. He was surprisingly okay with all of this, nonchalant—probably because he could read Sorissa, hear her thoughts, knew she trusted Babaga implicitly.
Could the four of us really share Sorissa?
I thought back to the night she first kissed us. I remembered the powerful connection I had to her and this team. I didn’t mind it, did I? It was kind of amazing. Maybe sharing wouldn’t be that bad. But what about when sex and mates were thrown into the mix? Todd was Sorissa’s mate now? Gods, I couldn’t believe Todd and Sorissa had sex. Todd!
“Why did you wait unt
il now to tell us?” Aerre asked.
“We didn’t know how you would take it,” Sorissa said as she took Todd’s hand. “I want all of you, but I know you have some reservations. I don’t want to break anything, but I want… more. I need more.”
Rodrick smirked. “I could have been first, but apparently I don’t have the same kind of stuff Todd has because I didn’t follow through. Did I, Sorissa? I could have been the first to seal your body.” He chuckled and shook his head. “The first tethered to seal a werea. How does that even work?”
“Pig,” Aerre growled.
“Jealous?”
“Never jealous of you, Rodrick.”
“Actually, Caspian could have been first,” Sorissa said and looked at me thoughtfully.
I cringed when Aerre shot me a glare.
“But why does being first matter?” Sorissa asked.
“It doesn’t,” I said bitterly. It couldn’t if this “pack” was going to survive.
Aerre and Rodrick continued growling at each other. It had been a while since those two fought. I wondered if this would come down to fists. I rarely used moonlight and my authority as their alpha to control them, but I would if it stopped them from killing each other. A tethered was forever bound to the werewolf that made them. They didn’t have the luxury of finding a new pack like a normal werewolf. They were my responsibility, and I took it seriously. I growled low in my throat, prepared to give them a warning.
Todd interrupted, “I want to stay with all of you. Maybe it doesn’t make a difference, but you are my pack. I never knew what that was like before Phantom Fangs. We’re a group of misfits, and it seems like there’s always a fight going on, but we work. You’re not the faceless collective that makes up a kingdom.”
“You’re all important to me,” Sorissa said. She went to Todd and started helping him with our supplies. “Even though I’m an outsider, even though this world outside of my woods is strange and confusing, you make me feel at home. It was easy to fall in love with you.” Todd gave her hand a quick squeeze, and she smiled in return.
How had this timid, and frankly socially challenged, werewolf been the first to seal Sorissa? Todd was amazing in many ways, but I couldn’t imagine him with her… I didn’t want to. Jealousy, denial, I could barely stand it.
And then there was this whole thing about “love.” I always thought Todd was the most distant, but that was wrong, too. I never fully understood him. Was he a tech addict? Certainly. Was tech all he cared about? No. Not at all. He always put our safety first, didn’t he? He always worked hard on his tech to keep us safe. He didn’t have to join my team, but he did anyway. And—apparently—he knew more about “love” than any of us.
What a strange situation we found ourselves in. The two youngest of our “pack” had everything figured out.
Love.
Love was something I had been chasing for a long time. I craved it from someone after my mother died. My father. My brothers. Aerre.
Since my mother died, I was convinced I had become unlovable. My father grew cold. My brothers turned to malicious teasing. Aerre rejected me over and over. The world shut me out, and I shut out the world by pretending I didn’t care. I kept bugging Aerre because I was determined to get something out of him. I did get something, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I was certain no one would ever care for me as much as I cared for them. Because I did. I cared too much about too many, and I never got anything in return. I acknowledged that, but I had done my best to eliminate “love” from my vocabulary because it made it bearable.
Admitting that I might love Sorissa or any member of Phantom Fangs or anyone at all would be the thing that finally broke me. Not killing. Not hatred. Love.
Sorissa thought she loved us, each member of Phantom Fangs, including me, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t say it back and mean it. I couldn’t risk rejection. The biggest rejection I ever had was when my mother died and left me alone in a cruel, loveless world.
Frustrated, I turned and began walking away. Sorissa ran over and caught my hand. “Where are you going, Caspian?”
I ripped out of her grasp. It stung, not because her nails dug into my skin or anything like that, but because it went right to my heart like a punch, like a break.
“I need to be alone,” I said, and I kept walking without looking back.
“Let him go,” Aerre said. I hated the dismissal in his voice. I hated how he always dismissed me like this. Come after me and apologize for once, you bastard. I hated that he used me to gain power. He said he hated being tethered, but he was the one who wouldn’t shut up about it. He was the one who came to me, only me, said it had to be me, that this would keep his family safe, that he trusted me. How could I fucking say no? Because that was what I wanted, right? I wanted to be needed. I wanted to be irreplaceable.
Damn you, Aerre. Damn you.
I moved faster, down the slanted, broken road we took to get here. Then I veered off course to avoid the broken pieces of lunalite. They reminded me too much of moonlight. Moonlight reminded me too much of Sorissa’s kiss and what it meant.
I cursed myself.
A lump formed in my throat, blocking my airway. I could hardly breathe.
I was a worthless, nameless prince, and I always would be.
I told myself Todd was responsible for the word “phantom” being used in our name. But it was me. I was the phantom.
CHAPTER 22
AERRE
TODD AND SORISSA MATED. They had sex. I couldn’t believe it.
It was well into the night, I was tired, and I was more agitated than ever. I wanted to break something, demolish it and make it unrecognizable. This was my worst tic yet. I would’ve preferred foot-tapping or something else less destructive, but I felt like I was going to explode.
I was helping, unloading the roader, bringing our month-long supplies inside of the castle like Sorissa wanted because Babaga told us to. I didn’t care anymore. The physical labor was the only thing keeping me from losing it. I didn’t talk to the others. I avoided them as I tried to focus on the task at hand. And where was Caspian? By the time we found the king’s bedchamber, an hour had passed since he left, and I hadn’t seen a trace of him.
The king’s bedchamber was big enough for all of us to sleep somewhere comfortably. It was nested nicely inside of the castle with a balcony and stairs leading out to private overgrown gardens and probably a courtyard beyond. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all made with the largest seamless pieces of lunalite I had ever seen. It was whole, entirely untouched, like this room had been spared the siege.
Plenty of other rooms were dilapidated. If Babaga thought the castle was sound, I hated to see inside of the other buildings left in Howling Sky. None of them looked good on the outside. This would have to do. At least we had an immediate exit route out the balcony if the castle’s guts caved in. None of us were too keen on separating—at least I wasn’t—because who knew what other things were lurking in these ruins? Babaga cleared the place? Great. I didn’t trust Babaga.
Right now, it was quiet since I was the only one in the king’s bedchamber at the moment. I set down our bedding and stared at the large bed centered in the room. The bed posters reached all the way to the damn ceiling and bowed inward to create a dome. A purple duvet sat on top of the bed, silky and glistening like it had just been washed. There wasn’t a speck of dust. I wondered if Babaga had used a magic spell to banish it. Had she been working to clean the place before Sorissa arrived so she wouldn’t have to see all the skeletons of dead werewolves? Or had she left them piled there at the entrance for a reason, to make sure Sorissa saw them first? They had a strange fucking relationship as far as I could tell.
I unzipped a sack holding a couple sleeping bags just to snap the zipper partway through.
“Fucking piece of junk.”
I ripped it open with my bare hands, tearing through the fabric like it was brittle paper. Blue mist leaked from my hands, my moonlight reserves reac
ting to the call of my subconscious. The sound of ripping fabric was strangely satisfying. So, I ripped it again. And again until it was in two pieces.
Then Todd walked into the room. He had his pactputer with him, angled in one arm so he could access the glowing screen with his free hand. He was probably collecting and inputting data like he always was. I didn’t know if there was a point to doing that here, though. The place was pretty dead. We wore our combat belts in case we had run into any problems on the way here, but we didn’t have our intelibands on us—though Todd was sure to bring them and everything else just in case.
“You okay, Aerre?” he asked, lowering the pactputer to his side.
Why did he look so wary? Then I realized my hands were still full of active moonlight, holding a shredded piece of fabric like I had been a sore loser during a pillow fight and went savage.
Wait a minute.
I stiffened. Why was he asking me if I was okay? He never asked things like that. He just stayed silent and worked on his tech, letting the rest of us fight things out the way we always did. Todd won Sorissa?
I slowly turned to face him. He was giving me this wide-eyed look, amber-brown eyes unassuming and much more reminiscent of a child than an adult. “What were you thinking?” I gritted out.
“What do you mean?”
“You and Sorissa. Did you think about the consequences? If what Babaga said is true, you sealed her to you.”
“But not exclusively,” he reasoned. “Babaga also said this is about all of us.”
I let out a tiny hysterical laugh. “That’s great. So, you and Caspian can fight over getting her pregnant. The Mate Claim has absolutely nothing to do with me or Rodrick.”
“I think sealing might be a little different here, more about her body only being receptive to the four of us and probably vice versa, with the way her claim seems to work,” Todd said as he sat down in a corner of the large room and placed his pactputer in his lap. “I don’t know. It’s beyond what I know about our biology and instinct at this point. Wereas never made claims in the past, and if this was solely about biology and the drive to reproduce like the Mate Claim always has been, Sorissa probably would have picked Caspian alone since he’s the best suited. Maybe that’s why she was able to make this proposal in the first place, an addition or precursor to the Mate Claim. Usually, a werewolf is more powerful than a werea, right? But that’s not true in Sorissa’s case. The strong survive and live to reproduce. It’s evolution.”
