Chapter One
Bomber leaned against the tree. “You should be down there with the rest of them. She was your best friend.”
Zio didn’t answer. Crouched in the branches, fists clenched, he watched through hooded eyes as Emma was brought forward to be scattered in the forest clearing where so many wolves had been scattered before her. He didn’t believe in the afterlife, but she had.I hope she wasn’t disappointed.
Varian, alpha of the northern pack, stepped up to perform the sacred cutting ritual that would finally set Emma free. The ancient rope was uncoiled from the urn carrying her ashes and severed with a dagger older than every supernatural being gathered in the clearing. A breeze whispered through the forest. Leaves rustled. Birds took flight.
It began to rain. Light drizzle turned to fat drops that sent mourners hurrying for shelter until only wolves—only pack—remained.
Varian gathered them close. “Emma was our healer and our sister. The imprint she left on our lives will never fade, but we must go on. Our time for grief is short. War is with us, and it will be until we can find peace with the southern packs.” His gaze drifted skyward, letting Zio and Bomber know he sensed their presence. “Peace was something Emma craved. She dedicated her life to it. From this day forward, our quest for it will mean more than ever.”
The words washed over Zio as the rain battered him, soaking through his clothes, running down his face in place of the tears he’d never shed.Peace. He curled his fists tighter, letting his claws slide out and bite into flesh, grounding himself in the scent of his own blood, fighting the urge to bend the earth to the tune of his rage. Peace was a joke. Too many lives had been lost. All that was left was revenge, and Zio meant to take it.
He would take it, whether the war continued or not. Tired of life and hungry for death, he was the perfect killing machine, the perfect soldier for Varian’s combat squad.
And until Emma’s killers were burnt to dust, that was all he’d ever be.
Chapter Two
Devan entered the old church Shadow Clan favoured for important meetings. Years ago, a summons like the one he’d received from the elders would’ve terrified him, but he wasn’t a freshly changed teenage boy anymore. Shifter life was the only life he truly remembered, and Bratislava was home.
The church was quiet and still, but Devan sensed the presence of those who had summoned him, and in the crypt, he found Dash and Luca waiting for him.
Dash greeted him with a warm embrace, Luca the cool nod that was typical of him. The mated elders were fire and ice. Light and dark. The warm sun and frigid sea, though Devan knew Luca to be far friendlier than his reticence belied.And he used to be a vampire, remember? He’s died twice to be here—human, vampire, shifter.
Even in the supernatural world, it was a tall tale to accept, but Dash’s healing powers were legendary. He’d found his mate in a dying vampire and saved him, bonding them forever.
Devan envied their love. Craved it. Not being able to hunt for his own mate was his only regret at choosing the safe life in Slovakia Dash had offered him.
One day.
“Take a seat,” Dash offered when the pleasantries were done. “This shouldn’t take long, but you’ll need to focus.”
Ah, focus—the one trait Devan had retained from his human self, or rather, an inability to do it unless he was strict with his thoughts.
He took a seat, settling against the engraved wood. “What do you need?”
“We have a task for you,” Dash said.
“A mission,” Luca interjected.
Dash rolled his eyes, the gesture allowing his boyish features to belie his great age. “Yes, all right. Call it a mission if you like, but the particulars of that are semantics. Devan isn’t a soldier.”
Truth. Devan could fight—he’d proven so many times—but that wasn’t why he’d been changed. Why his human life had been upgraded to the supernatural. Do no harm. Life, not death. Though he lacked Dash’s centuries of experience, he was and would always be a healer. “What’s my mission?”
“We need you to travel to England,” Luca said. “Join up with the Northern Wolf Pack.”
Wolves. Devan struggled to keep the shock from his face. “You mean, theonlynorthern pack left. Why?”
“Their medic was killed in action a few weeks back,” Dash said. “There are no wolf healers left in northern territory now, and with the pack wars still raging, their need is greater than ours.”
“What do we care about that?”
“We always care,” Dash said. “But this pack is... special. I think the world would be darker without them.”
“You want me to join them as their resident healer to keep them alive.”
It wasn’t a question, more a collection of words Devan had to speak aloud to legitimately believe, but Dash nodded, and Luca folded his strong, corded arms across his chest.