by Leia Stone
I felt, rather than saw, my mate’s movement. My stomach lurched as I was ripped from Yellow Eyes’ grasp and tucked back into my fated mate’s embrace.
“You’ll die for that,” Green Eyes seethed. He released me, and the sound of bones cracking behind me alerted me to exactly how my mate intended to enforce his claim.
Oh frick.
His physical presence behind me dropped, and when my hands fell to my sides, my fingertips brushed against the soft fur of a … wolf. His wolf.
Shock fried my brain; my saliva turned to cotton. I blinked and tucked my chin to stare down at … a jet-black wolf. Baring his teeth, he snarled, a low rumbling that sent a thrill through me.
My mate is badass.
Yellow eyes grabbed my upper arm and squeezed. “Get back over here and dance with me.”
Hard.
Oh, hell no.
The rest of the room swam in my periphery, and I swiveled my head to the left, looking up to meet the yellow-eyed gaze of the dude holding my arm.
“Let go.” Fur rippled down my arms as my wolf sprang to the surface. She had an iffy record of coming out in times of need, but it looked like this time, she was ready to go.
Before he even had a chance to follow my command, the black wolf lunged, ripping into the guy’s arm and tearing him away from me.
Holy mate-shifters!
“Don’t kill him!” I yelped, afraid of what might happen to my mate. With my luck, someone would tell the king, and my mate would get the boot from the island. I lunged after the black wolf, trying to get him to calm down. “I’m okay.”
The music ground to a halt, and people spun to stare at the black wolf snapping at the yellow-eyed dude’s throat.
“That’s it,” another guy shouted from behind me. “Party’s over.”
“Everyone out!” bellowed another dude, both in matching tuxes with black, gelled hair. “Now!”
People fled the garden, running past the pool and back inside where we were. Several women screeched, darting out of the rooms half-dressed and into the hallway. It didn't take a genius to know that the impromptu liaisons upstairs were coming to an untimely end. Yellow Eyes fled, and my black wolf looked back at me as if deciding whether to go after him or stick with me. I tried to inch away toward the door, and he moved with me, growling at anyone who approached within two feet of me.
My little, sexy kisser was being possessive as hell. Just like a newly-mated male would be, except…
This couldn’t be happening. Fated mates were always from the same pack. Always.
Until now … because this obviously wasn’t Nolan. Thank the Mother Mage for that blood spell.
I reached down and dug my fingers into his fur, my tension dissolving as I stroked my mate’s neck and then behind his ears. As soon as my hand landed on his head, he tipped his muzzle up and rubbed it against my leg.
“So that was quite a display,” I said in my most soothing voice as people ran around me to the exit. “But I’m not hurt.”
I’d been in a pack for a long time and recognized all the signs of a protective mate. His wolf came out when that guy grabbed me. He was protecting me, not knowing if I could protect myself. It was sweet. My heart fluttered with the thought. I had a mate … a fated mate … who would apparently rip off the head of any male who touched me. There were only two fated mate pairs in Crescent Pack. They were rare. Less than one percent.
He licked my hand, tasting my fingers before growling at the others still in the living room.
Unfortunately, his wolf was out now, and anyone who came near me would be a threat.
“Hey, blue girl,” one of the tux-clad-clones who’d kicked everyone out said, waving to me. “Tell the wolf you have to go,” he said, eyeing the mate marks on my left hand with alarm. “If you do, he’ll let you leave and be able to calm down enough to shift back to human.”
I ran my fingers through his fur. “I don’t want to leave him.”
The mage wine was still hitting me, but the adrenaline rush had dissolved a good bit of it. Still, I wanted to stay here with my soft wolf-mate forever. I didn’t want this night to end.
The guy cocked his head. “Do you want him to rip out the throat of every man in this room?”
I gulped. “You don’t have to be so condescending—”
My wolf-mate bared his teeth at the guy, hackles raising. Then, he stalked toward the man.
Oh, wow.
My irritation evaporated. “Hey, Green Eyes,” I called to my mate. “Come back over here, and don’t hurt the dude.”
Well, whaddya know … the wolf listened, padding back over to me, sitting by my feet. Ha. I could get used to this.
Now bring me a cheese pizza.
Kidding.
“You need to leave. Now,” the tux guy said. “It’s just a matter of time before—”
Howling erupted upstairs, followed by snarls and snaps.
“Shit!” the dude muttered. “It’s happening.”
His eyes shifted from grass-green to yellow, and the last remnants of the mage wine burned out of my body in a flash. He was shifting … they were all shifting.
All that sexy-shmexy mate-desire was basically coitus-incompletus, making me a lusty-beacon to every single male wolf on campus.
“Hey, wolfie,” I muttered, kneeling to get on my protector’s level. “I gotta go. Uh … will you walk me home?”
Before I even finished the sentence, I was moving toward the door. It was a race—get out of the house before the fighting reached here. Whenever wolves fought, it took a tremendous amount of willpower to keep yourself from shifting and asserting dominance. But a fight like this would be pointless. Better to protect my mate and get the hell out of here. A fight this big was bound to have repercussions. Alpha king repercussions.
Hard pass at that.
“Thank the mage,” I said, relieved when my mate’s wolf followed me out. As I passed the guy fighting against the call of his instinct, I felt my own skin tighten, and then fur rippled down my forearms in response. Why couldn’t she do this during sparring matches at home? Right now, it felt like she had a mind of her own.
I raced out of the front door and padded along the trail, the sleek black wolf right beside me. My fingers were wound into his black fur, and my heart raced a mile a minute.
Mate.
Fated mates.
Holy frick.
He wasn’t from Crescent Clan—which was a problem. Big problem. Mating outside of one’s clan was forbidden; it diluted powers.
Besides, my father had a plan for me: I was supposed to go home to Montana, take up his position as alpha, and mate with a nice man from Crescent. My dad suggested Garret every chance he got, and the guy wasn’t bad, so I’d never been opposed to the idea. But that was before.
Intentionally mating with another alpha heir from another clan would be treasonous. But could fate be wrong?
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t even realize when we’d reached the back door of my dorm. It was dark out, the moon high in the sky, only casting a small amount of light, and there wasn’t a soul outside the building except me and my mate.
I knelt down and met the wolf’s yellow eyes threaded through with blades of green. “You can shift now. I’m safe. You don’t need to protect me anymore.”
His eyes flared from yellow back to green, and as his form shifted, he stood tall and muscular, wearing the same tuxedo and black mask.
Damn.
Only really strong alpha heirs had enough magic to shift and hold on to their clothes while they did so. My mate was powerful.
He tucked me into his body, and I nestled closer. This was where I needed to be. It didn’t matter which clan he was from or who he was beyond mine.
My mate.
Wanting him to know who I was, I tugged off my mask and peered up at him. “I’m Nai, from Crescent Clan.”
He nodded once then swallowed hard. He pursed his lips, and his jaw stiffened as if he were trying to control h
is expression, but a frown slipped over his mouth anyway.
I tilted my head and studied him, trying to make sense of his reaction as much as trying to connect the dots.
Wait … his wolf had led me to my dorm.
“I know.” His voice was rough and sounded slightly familiar. Was the spell wearing off?
I froze in shock.
Before I could draw any conclusions, he leaned in and kissed me, a quick brush of his lips against mine, before pulling back to smell my neck. My skin prickled with pleasure, and I tilted my head back to give him better access. Grinning, I faced my mate, ready for him to reveal himself.
Only … his green eyes grew somber, and he made no effort to remove his mask.
No bueno. I needed to know who he was, so if he wouldn’t take it off, I’d help him not be so shy.
I reached up, but before I could hook my fingers around the edges of his mask, he grabbed my wrists. Gently, he brought my hands away, holding them while we stared at each other, and as the seconds stretched, I realized he wasn’t going to lower his mask. The rejection sucked the air from my lungs, and my lower lip quivered.
He brushed the curls away from my neck.
“Forgive me.”
My brow furrowed as his words registered, but before I could say anything…
What the—?
He struck. The fleshy outside of his hand popped me in the neck. Before I could even gasp, blackness consumed me.
Chapter 8
A loud banging yanked me from sleep. My eyelids peeled open as the noise rattled my brain. Pain shot through my skull as the mother of all mage wine induced headaches arrived.
“No,” I moaned as I sat up, hoping to stop the incessant knocking. Memories of last night flooded my brain, and I bolted out of the dusty bed—nearly tripping on the hem of the blue ball gown.
Staring down at my left hand, I saw that last night was not a dream. “Holy mage!”
Mate marks.
Real. It was all real.
The pounding at the front door grew louder, and I stumbled through my house and tugged the heavy door open.
Kaja stood there with two to-go coffee cups in her hand. Her gaze dropped to my ring finger, which I was still inspecting, and her jaw went slack.
“It is you!” She pointed to my left hand, stumbling into the house. “You flipping found your fated mate at that party! Who is he?” she whisper-screamed before slamming the door behind her. She quickly followed me up to my bedroom where I shut and locked the door in case Nolan was nearby.
My thoughts went from the searing hot kisses to his lame-ass apology before he’d knocked me out with some karate mojo, and tears filled my eyes. “A huge asshole, that’s who! He … he left me.” I swallowed the lump at the back of my throat. “Knocked me out before I could lift his mask and dumped me in my bed without even giving me his name.”
Kaja’s face fell, and she held out the cup while shaking her head. “Whoa, that’s heavy. Probably because … it’s forbidden?”
She handed me the coffee, and I took a long swig, hoping the caffeine would prevent my head from exploding.
No more mage wine. Ever. Again.
“Yeah, I guess so. But … I wanted to know who he is.” Was it so irrational to have wanted to throw caution to the wind and forget about the rules? I didn’t care if it was forbidden. He was my fated mate! But he did care. Enough to leave me without a name, and that stung. His rejection of me over “rules” was a wound I’d never forget. Ever.
“Okay, no biggie,” Kaja said, holding out a muffin. Legit, this girl got me. Food and coffee were the things I needed first thing in the morning to function. “We can figure this out. Your mate will have mate marks, so we just look for a guy who has matching marks, and boom! Mate found.”
I snickered before stating the sobering truth: “Yeah… well, I’m not sure I want to go out to my first day of class parading this around.” I held up my hand. If the teachers saw it, or the king, I’d be kicked out so fast it’d make my head spin.
Kaja winced, tipping her coffee cup at me in acknowledgment. “Right.” She walked over to my suitcase and flipped it open. “Where are your uniforms? I have an idea, but you need to get ready for class.”
I shrugged. “Never got any. Hey, when I opened the door, you said, ‘It’s you.’ Please don’t tell me everyone is talking about the mate marks.”
Bad enough being the new girl, a year early, banished clan…
Kaja winced, and I had my answer.
“EVERYONE is talking about it. Blue girl and her black wolf, fated mates. They had to break up the party… ” Kaja pressed her lips together. “Didn’t I tell you that everyone is talking about it already?”
Frick. This wasn’t happening. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Come on. I’ve got an idea—or two.” Kaja pulled me out of my filthy dorm and across the courtyard into her castle-like house. As we approached the west wing, I could hear her sisters bickering in the kitchen.
“Nell!” Kaja shouted.
Nell popped her head into the hallway and, upon seeing me, grinned. “Hey there, Cinderella, that was some heavy petting last night with your prince. Have fun?”
Kaja shoved my ring finger into her face. “The dude never revealed his identity. Total asswipe. He knocked her out and left. Can you hide this before first period?”
Nell’s mouth popped open. “Holy crap. Mate marks? I thought that was a rumor. Figured Fiona was joking when she said she saw them last night on your hand. Well, not yours but Blue Girl.”
“Can you hide them?” Kaja repeated while I sank into my own mortification.
Hide them? I rolled the idea around in my head, frowning. Yes … that would be ideal. Mate marks were usually worn with pride, but all that was assuming one knew who their freaking mate was and it wasn’t forbidden! “Yes, please. Hide them.”
The last thing I needed was more rumors. No, the last thing I needed was getting kicked out of school before I mastered my elements, but the rumors would seriously suck.
Nell’s twin, Rue, peeked her head around the corner. She was the quiet one who didn’t attend last night. Smart girl. “He’s probably hiding his too. Scandalous.”
“Rue!” Nell snapped as her sister shrugged and disappeared back into the kitchen where I heard Fiona and Mele, the eldest Harvest girls, all gossiping.
Great, now all the Harvest girls knew my secret.
“Yeah, I can hide them, but my magic is only strong enough to conceal them for a day. You’ll need to come by every morning so I can repeat the spell.”
Relief poured through me, and my shoulders dropped.
Yes. This was good.
Maybe I could just forget this mate thing ever happened. Clearly, he didn’t want it—not to mention the fact that it was super freaking illegal and against pack law.
Nell held her hand over mine, and a cool blue light covered my ring finger. A moment later, all traces of the mark were gone.
That was easier than I expected and made me long to be as far along in my studies as Nell.
Kaja looked at Nell and then behind, through the doorway at Rue and the other sisters, “We don’t know who Blue Girl was last night, got it? And we certainly haven’t seen any mate marks. The mage wine was cray-cray.”
All three redheaded girls poked their faces out through the kitchen doorway and nodded.
Fiona, the eldest, winked. “Hoes before bros. We got it.”
They disappeared back into the kitchen, and I faced Nell. Her Harvest moon mark on her forehead was three-quarters full, and for a small second, I wished I’d been in another clan. Not because I didn’t like being Crescent, but I longed to have sisters—or any siblings for that matter.
She looked … sad for me.
“I’m … I’m sorry, Nai.” Her voice cracked, which caused my throat to tighten. Meeting your mate and then having them taken from you was about the worst feeling in the world.
“Come on, you ca
n have a couple of my uniforms. I’ve got a dozen.” Kaja pulled me away, and I thanked the Mother Mage I’d met such a loyal friend.
I had no school schedule, no uniform, no books, and no money. What the hell was my father thinking when he allowed me to come here?
Kaja had shown me where the headmistress’s office was and then had to leave for her own studies.
After hounding the secretary for five minutes, which felt like an eternity of explaining how I didn’t have a schedule or uniforms, she allowed me to speak to the headmistress.
“Come in,” the woman’s soft trill came from behind the large oak door.
I gulped. Pulling the doors wide, I stepped into a relatively small office: bookshelves stretched from ceiling to floor, filled with tomes and knickknacks—crystals and multiple different colored stones in green, blue, purple, and yellow—sculptures in dark wood; a golden candelabra; and a large white bowl. I could lose myself in here for days.
“Nai!” Headmistress Elaine, AKA Midnight Princes’ mom, AKA the freaking king’s wife, pushed away from the large mahogany desk. Her green eyes lit up when she smiled. This was the same woman who’d given birth to Rage and Justice? She seemed too cheery for that.
“I was just going to look for you.” She had a piece of paper in her hand. She smiled, and I just stared at her awkwardly. “I was supposed to have dropped this off at your dorm early this morning, but I’ve never had a student with two affinities before, so it took some working out to get you a proper schedule.”
Relief poured through me, and I returned her smile as I took the schedule.
I finally found my voice: “Thank you.”
Her smile deepened. “I believe you met my sons yesterday.”
That was the understatement of the century.
When she nodded, my thoughts bounced to Rage’s foul temper, and I muttered, “Yeah, I did. They’re … nice … boys.”
Yep. I totally lied, and she laughed, deep and heartily.
“Rage and Justice will grow on you.” She made the statement as if she didn’t believe my “nice boys” comment extended to them, and she followed it up with a wink. “Sorry about the summons mix up. The king is quite upset with whoever pulled that prank.”
