by Kamryn Hart
“Caspian,” I said. “I met you first.”
“And yet I’m last,” he said quietly, but his smile was radiant. “Hardly fair.”
“Kiss me already.”
And he did. He kissed me like no one else was here. I had all but forgotten about everyone but Phantom Fangs. I was lost inside of each kiss, but this one was the most intense. Caspian was prepared. He grabbed the back of my neck, angled my face just so, and kissed me hard and with a vigor none of the others had because I didn’t give them a chance to warm up. He sucked on my bottom lip. I was helpless and let out a just as helpless whimper as my entire body burned brightly. My sex tingled, and I pressed as firmly into this Phantom Prince as I could. I wanted his skin on my skin. For just a moment, I felt his hardness.
Caspian broke away from our kiss—against my delirious wishes—and looked right at my bite. The moonlight flared and then disappeared with a spark and a pop. Only smooth bronze skin remained like I had never been bitten in the first place.
“It’s gone,” he said, amazed. “It’s really gone.”
The sounds of all the other werewolves was a white noise slowly becoming clear. Gasps sounded off when moonlight burst around me and Phantom Fangs. It was a bright blue almost too bright to look at. My moonlight reserves had never filled so quickly. And then the moonlight flare was gone, leaving only the trickling flow of moonlight coming down from the full moon that wasn’t perfectly aligned yet. It was like it had popped into alignment for that one moment, and then it phased back to where it should have been.
A restless energy crawled beneath my skin. When I looked at Phantom Fangs, they seemed brighter somehow, like they were marks on my vision that would never disappear. The energy in my body was pulling me toward them. Like magnets. No, more than that. They felt like an extension of my own body. I knew what they were going to do before they did it. I swore I could hear whispered thoughts not my own swimming around in the back of my head. They had familiar voices, the voices of the werewolves standing in front of me.
“It can’t be,” Philip said. A vein was bulging in his forehead. His teeth were clenched. “The Mate Claim made on the full moon. Legends of such a thing… But a werea making a claim?” He was struggling for words. “Four mates?! Two tethered?!” His vein looked like it was going to pop out of his head.
Alarms ripped through the air.
Fire lit up the east wall.
A deafening explosion followed.
And the world descended into chaos.
CHAPTER 27
CASPIAN
“PROTECT SORISSA!” I ORDERED. My team formed a circle around her, and each one of us stood ready to shield her from anything that might come. Werewolves around us were all growling with their hackles raised. Some of them were exuding moonlight and shifting. Others were grabbing weapons. Others were circling the king and my brothers. Wolf Bridge was under siege, but it hadn’t reached the gardens yet.
“What’s happening, Todd?” I demanded.
He was paler than usual, staring at his inteliband. It was a good thing he insisted on being connected to the Heart, and the system, at all times. I didn’t have mine. Neither did Aerre or Rodrick—not that any of us had the same access or knowledge Todd did anyway.
“Part of the east wall. Someone blew a hole in it.”
“I pretty much knew that already. Why didn’t we see it coming?”
“Someone breached my system? The Heart is okay. Things look normal. I don’t know! It was a big-ass bomb. We’re under attack,” Todd barked hysterically.
“It’s because of you!” Aerre growled and turned toward Rodrick. “You were in contact with your agitators. You snuck out. You’ve been stealing tech, haven’t you? You told them to come here tonight. You gave them information that allowed them to blow up our wall like it was nothing!”
He was hysterical too. I felt my own heart racing as if I were the one accusing Rodrick. I also swore I felt Rodrick’s own reaction, a stutter, a pinch of guilt? I was hyper-aware of everything, and it didn’t have anything to do with the adrenaline pumping through my veins—even though it heightened my awareness too. I felt like my thoughts were being invaded, my body. The susurrus of unfamiliar thoughts crowded the back of my mind like a high-pressure air leak. It was like having extrasensory perception, but I couldn’t make sense of it. Not yet.
“What are you doing?!” Aerre cried.
I looked behind me to see Sorissa stripping. I expected her to just tear out of the expensive dress, knowing her, but she slipped through it seamlessly instead. I turned forward again, averting my gaze and watching for any enemies sneaking into the gardens. Gods, but I was weak. And I wasn’t the only one.
I peeked over my shoulder, matching the others on my team. Sorissa’s eyes were closed. Her arms were held slightly away from her sides, palms open to the moon. Her chest was open like her heart was the focal point of receiving moonlight. Her perfect breasts were perky, nipples hard from chilly air. Her bronze skin started to glow blue with moonlight. Like flames, the energy rose up, and her hair danced in the embers. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Nothing compared. Absolutely nothing.
“Aerre’s right,” Rodrick said suddenly. “I have been in contact with the rebels. I stole tech. I told them about the Lost Princess. I was supposed to bring Sorissa to them tonight.”
“I fucking knew it!” Aerre shouted.
“I wasn’t going to follow through! I couldn’t. They would hurt her.” Rodrick shook his head. “No, this isn’t the work of human rebels. I can promise you that. This wasn’t the plan. It’s something else.” I couldn’t explain it, but he felt sincere.
“I’m shifting,” Sorissa said, her eyes snapping open with a burst of moonlight. I had never seen such a dense concentration of energy, not even from the Heart itself.
I looked forward and tried to speak. “Sorissa—”
I didn’t get a chance to finish. The crackling of bones reshaping cut me off. I looked behind me again to see that Sorissa had called upon her moonlight form. I had seen it only once before. But this was different. We had to widen our circle. She was a huge black wolf with slick fur. Her eyes were almost white with moonlight. I couldn’t fathom how much of it was inside of her. Never had I seen such transfixing eyes. Such power. They hadn’t looked like that before when she shifted. Before they were dull, a result of having hardly any moonlight to spare. These eyes contained a power that might have touched the Gods. If she had been the enemy, I might have cowered with fear, my tail tucked in between my legs. Instead, I was struck dumb, lost in awe.
“Rodrick is telling the truth.”
I flinched as Sorissa’s voice sounded in my head. It was as if she had spoken directly into my ear. But that was impossible. We couldn’t speak in our moonlight forms. I wondered if I was hallucinating at first, but I saw the confused looks on my team’s faces. I wasn’t the only one who heard it.
“I can feel it. Rodrick is telling the truth.”
“How are you doing that?” I asked. “How are you speaking directly into our minds like they’re linked to each other?”
“I don’t know.”
“Heads up,” Todd announced, drawing the small handgun he and the rest of us kept on our person at all times. “They’re here. It’s Paws Peak, not rebels after all.”
Werewolves all in moonlight form sped through the gardens, emerging from bushes and flowers, jumping through trees. They filled the night like yellow-eyed demons. They bared their teeth and their growls mixed with our own, polluting the air and drowning out the blaring alarms.
It all happened so fast. I had barely drawn my gun and a maelstrom-level gust of wind almost blew me over. A blur of black and blue streaked across my vision. A howl filled the night, louder than everything else. And it was all Sorissa.
She moved faster than any werewolf I had ever seen. I had to activate my own moonlight and really concentrate it in my eyes to even keep up with her. She was like lightning. When she struc
k, the ground trembled. She was mowing down werewolves like it was nothing, catching them in her jaws, tossing them to the side. This kind of strength… No one knew this was what the Lost Princess would be capable of. Everyone said she would be the perfect breeder for a new generation of werewolves, but no one thought she would be more powerful than any werewolf, than many werewolves combined. She wasn’t like any werea I had ever seen or heard of. She was a monster. A beautiful, captivating monster.
Paws Peak thought tonight would be the perfect night to wage a war with Wolf Bridge after the long standstill in order to reclaim the Lost Princess. But they were wrong. She didn’t belong to them. She didn’t belong to anyone.
I thought I saw something lurking in the shadows, but an enemy werewolf in moonlight form leaped at me from my right, drawing my attention away. I dropped to the ground and held my gun ready as the wolf overshot me, flying harmlessly over my head. I fired when he was about to land, hitting him square in the chest. He let out a pained whimper and dropped dead. I had hit his heart, and there was no recovering from that. Unless, maybe, you were Sorissa.
“Caspian?”
“I’m fine.”
I took a quick look to make sure I had tabs on Sorissa and Phantom Fangs. They were all engaged, fighting valiantly. Phantom Fangs delivered quick killing blows. I noticed Sorissa hadn’t killed a single werewolf, but she beat them bloody and broke bones.
“Sorissa, take them out!” I growled. “This isn’t the time to be charitable.”
“Like you have room to talk!” Aerre shouted at me as a werewolf barreled into him with a snapping jaw. Aerre managed to shoot his soft underbelly and shoved the big wolf off of him as he fired a kill shot.
Then I spotted Prince Charles in his base form. He had his firearm aimed for Sorissa, and she wasn’t moving at the moment because she was laying into another werewolf. He would be able to hit her, but I wouldn’t let that happen. I raised my gun and fired before Prince Charles could decide if he had lined up his sights or not. The bullet I fired ripped through both of his wrists and his gun fell with a thunk onto the grass below.
I fired again immediately. This time, I hit him in the chest. The armor he was wearing saved him, though the impact sent him to the ground. He curled up in a gasping, wheezing ball. I marched over to him and pressed my boot down on his windpipe.
“You made a mistake,” I said. Then I put a bullet in his brain. I flinched. Barely. But I still flinched.
I watched as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and blood oozed from the wound. He wouldn’t be getting back up. A blow to the brain was as effective as one to the heart. He was dead. No amount of moonlight would save him. Why had he even come? He didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
Paws Peak was retreating—the werewolves who could anyway. It was all over so quickly, within the span of a couple minutes, but they had taken heavy losses. I took out two werewolves. Sorissa probably went through thirty or more on her own. But everyone in the gardens did their part. Wolf Bridge took losses, but it was nothing compared to what Paws Peak just endured. They had utterly failed. This was a half-assed and ill-prepared attempt probably led by Prince Charles himself. I had a strong hunch King George hadn’t approved this. He would have been better prepared. And I wondered what that meant.
The blue flames that blazed all around Sorissa had died down. They were almost snuffed out. I had no idea how much moonlight she went through to accomplish what she just did, but it was a lot, and she was running on empty. Todd rushed over to her as she shifted back, midnight-black fur receding in place of bronze skin. There wasn’t a mark on her, but she was exhausted. She grasped Todd, and he held her in place. I tried not to burn at the thought of his hand on her bare back, near her firm ass, her breasts and thighs pressed into him. I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time for that.
And something caught my eye. Something in the shadows, the same thing I had spotted earlier. This time, I noticed it too late. Something sharp cut my throat, and warm blood sprayed down my neck, soaking my chest, my clothes. My carotid artery was severed clean. I was choking.
“Caspian!” Sorissa screamed.
My brain was going fuzzy, but I managed to fire up my moonlight reserves, concentrating it all on healing. Surviving a serious wound like this took every ounce of moonlight I had. I was lucky my reserves had just been filled. Without it, I would have been dead.
When I regained clarity, I realized someone was restraining me. The sharp object was at my throat, a gleaming knife. It barely pressed against my skin and it cut through, but this time it was just meant as a warning, nothing more than a superficial wound. A scratch.
Blood-red nails stuck out against ashy skin that held the cold, metal knife steady. A female said, “Stand down or I kill him.” Then I felt fangs and a hot tongue licking away some blood that had dripped down my arm. She would have gone for my neck if she had been taller.
“You picked the wrong werewolf to take hostage, vampire,” I informed. “I’m expendable.” I would have ripped out of her hold, but vampires were stronger on average than humans and even werewolves at night—unless moonlight was involved. And I was out of moonlight. The tiny trickle coming in from the moon wasn’t enough.
I silently cursed when I realized vampires were everywhere. They had used the werewolves from Paws Peak as cover to get into place. They left their caves during daylight to set this up. They must have been hiding away in their sunlight-resistant vehicles, just waiting for the right moment. Prince Charles gave them the perfect opportunity. Did they know he was going to attack tonight? They were certainly prepared. They must have done something to Todd’s system. Paws Peak wouldn’t have been capable of that. I didn’t think anyone was. I was so wrong. The vampires had the high ground and heavy-duty revolver guns raised and ready to blow this place to bits. The gardens were at their mercy. With this, the royalty in Wolf Bridge would be annihilated along with a great portion of the guard and all of our wereas. Wolf Bridge could fall tonight. Just like that.
That was the thing about war and simply existing. It was unpredictable. It could go on for years or end in the span of a single breath.
“Stop,” Sorissa demanded. “What do you want?” It was the king’s place to talk, but, just like Sorissa had stolen the show during the short-lived fight, she took the king’s place now. Nobody made a move.
“I want you, werea. Moonlight Child blessed by Lureine,” the vampire replied. “Give yourself up, and I won’t kill a single werewolf.”
“Bullshit,” I growled.
She pressed the knife harder against my throat, cutting just a little deeper. “Silence, Phantom Prince.”
All Phantom Fangs’ eyes were on me. Aerre’s face was twisted in pain. I looked at him first because I felt that pain like a throbbing wound in my chest. I wondered if he was hurt, but I didn’t see anything serious if he was. Rodrick’s veins were popping in his arms, his muscles coiled tight, ready to spring forward. I could feel his rage. Todd’s lips were curled into a ferocious snarl. I could feel his despair. Then there was Sorissa. She had tears in her eyes. I was pretty sure my heart would physically break from the weight of them all. Right here, right now, my entire world consisted of a single werea and three werewolves. They didn’t believe I was expendable at all, not like my brothers. Not like my father. I could feel it. I knew it was true.
“I’ll do it,” Sorissa said as a tear fell down her cheek and left a streak of moonlight. “Keep your word, and I’ll do it. If you don’t, I’ll hunt down and kill every last one of you myself. Don’t think I won’t.”
“No need for threats,” the vampire replied. “I know what you’re capable of. I watched the whole thing. I will keep my word.”
“Sorissa!” I pleaded and ignored the vampire cutting into my throat a little deeper. “What are you thinking?”
Todd let her go. She walked toward me and the vampire, tall and proud, chin raised. Her bronze skin looked silver in the night, a perfect complement to
the moon. The Moonlight Child. Most beautiful creature ever born.
“Todd, stop her!” I demanded.
“I-I can’t.” I noticed his pale hands shaking. I felt the resistance against a much more powerful resolve. Sorissa was holding him back like an alpha who had given a command. But she hadn’t spoken a word. And she didn’t have to. She bound us together after she kissed each one of us. It was like the king was trying to say before. We were connected. We belonged to her now.
“Don’t do this, Sorissa,” I implored. I had been reduced to begging. I wanted to fight the vampire anyway, do my best to escape her grasp despite the likelihood of her killing me as a result, but I was hit with the same overbearing wall of resolve that Todd was. That all of us were. I couldn’t move. All I could do was clench my hands into shaking fists. Sorissa hadn’t left us any room for debate.
“They’ll kill you!” I screamed as she kept advancing without even a hint of hesitation.
She stopped when she was standing right in front of me. For some inexplicable reason, the vampire standing behind me let me go. I wanted to move, but I was frozen in place by Sorissa’s iron will.
“I’d like to see them try,” she said. Then she reached her hands up and placed them on my cheeks. I saw a flash of residual moonlight in her dark eyes when she blinked. “Goodbye for now, Phantom Fangs. Until I see you again.”
“Sorissa.” I choked back a sob that came from a puncture in my heart. The hole grew wider, a manifestation of my own grief as well as my teammates’. It was too much to bear. It was worse than any physical wound. Useless tears escaped my eyes as if trying to relieve some of the pain. “Please.”
