SableI’m alone, walking through a cold, damp cave. I can hear the trickle of water on stone, feel the chill breeze of the underground, but I can hardly see my hand in front of my face. The darkness is so absolute that it feels like a physical entity, watching me, urging me on. My heart races, and I have a strong urge to turn back.Wake up, Sable, I tell myself.But I don’t. And something inside me keeps me moving.The ground beneath my feet is uneven, littered with loose stones that make me slip and slide on even the slightest incline. Considering the path I’m on is steadily sloping downward, I almost fall more than once. So I grip the rock walls on either side of me to stay on my feet, though they’re wet and slippery with algae too.After a while, the two cliff faces on either side begin to press in on me. It’s too dark to see it happening, but I can feel it when I reach out to balance myself. I had to stretch before, or choose just one wall to break my fall. Then, suddenly, I don’t
sableWhen Dare comes and rests on my other side, completely enclosing me between the four of them, the fight starts to drain out of me. Their closeness, their palpable worry for me, and the support I can feel flowing through the bond—it all finally starts to break through the tidal wave of blind panic that rose up inside me earlier.Shift back, Archer tells me, his voice still soft. It will be easier to fight the magic in human form.Lacking any other option since I can’t move at all, I obey.I’m not the only one who shifts. Trystan releases his hold on me, and his body morphs on top of mine, while Ridge and Dare step away and shift as well. Tears spill over my cheeks the moment the wolf is gone, joining the dozens of black marks currently painting my body.Trystan slides over to get his weight off me, then pulls me into his arms, tucking me against his broad, warm chest. I bury my face in his skin and realize I’m shaking uncontrollably. Then Dare and Ridge are behind me, lending me
ArcherI blink awake, groggy and disoriented from the weirdly deep sleep I clawed my way out of to be here. The room is shadowed and still, filled with small snores and light breathing. Trystan’s back burns hot against my legs, and I think, Jesus, he’s like a furnace. How does Sable sleep next to that?I’m sitting up, my back against the headboard and my head angled down awkwardly in a position not meant for sleeping. I tilt it the other way, hoping to pop the crick out of my neck. The bones crackle like rapid gunfire, and I groan with relief, sagging back against the headboard and glancing toward the window. Outside the glass, light creeps through the crack in the curtains, and I can taste dawn on the horizon. I must not have slept well, considering how hazy and exhausted I feel.Then I jerk fully upright, adrenaline surging through my veins.I fell asleep on watch. I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping at all.What the fuck is wrong with me?I never do that. Falling asleep when your pack
“We should have listened to what she was saying back at Elder Jihoon’s house,” I mutter to Dare under my breath as Trystan leads us out the door a few minutes later. “It’s easy for us to say ‘we’ll figure it out.’ We aren’t the ones going through what she is.”“I guess.” He shakes his head as we start heading up the road, his jaw hard. “Shouldn’t she trust us? We’re her mates. We wouldn’t steer her wrong.”“But what do we really know about any of this?” I scrub a frustrated hand through my hair. “We’re the assholes, Dare. Not Sable. We could easily steer her wrong without even knowing we’re doing it. She’s the only one who knows what it’s like inside her head, what the witch magic is doing to her. We should’ve put more stock in her opinion. She knows finding another witch is a risk, so if she still felt like she needed to do it, there’s a reason for that. It’s because this is bad. Worse than we knew.”“Fucking hell.” Dare’s lips press together, worry darkening his eyes. “I just wanted
SableI run at a breakneck pace, my paws thudding on the ground and my lungs pumping with cold, fresh air. I can smell the crisp scent of pine and snow that I always associate with the mountains, and there’s another scent that makes me think of dawn and the steady awakening of the earth. Everything around me is sharp and perfect, and I want to roll around in it all, get these scents on me until I’ve forgotten everything else.If I focus on the way it feels to be out here racing toward the wilderness, it blocks out some of the burning ache in my heart and the worry about how pissed the guys are going to be when they finally wake up from my spell. I don’t let myself worry about how risky this venture is, especially for a wolf like me who has no business being alone out here, chasing down a woman no one knows how to find.A woman who may or may not actually exist.If I focus on the sights, smells, and sounds of the journey, I don’t notice the way my heart is breaking.This will break my
sableHe stalks toward me, hulking and broad-shouldered with his hands curled into fists at his sides. His ash brown hair is windswept from his race after me, and his honey-colored eyes are unblinking as he looms over me.Fear creeps into my consciousness, and I cringe away from him. I’m not used to being scared of Ridge—he’s the one who has been most like a protector to me, my champion since the night he dragged me out of Devil’s Ditch after I fled from my uncle’s truck. Ridge is firm but gentle, gruff but kind. Unlike some of my other mates, he never gets this caught up in his own fury. But right now, the heat in his eyes smolders hot as the sun.“What the hell were you thinking?” he roars, throwing both arms out as if to indicate our current location deep in the middle of nowhere.I gasp at the harsh sound of his voice and back away, everything in me screaming to put distance between me and Ridge’s fury.But he follows me, advancing as many steps as I take backward. “Why the fuck w
SableI was making good time before my mates joined me, but now, with their comforting presence around me and their voices in my head as we run, time breezes past like it doesn’t even exist at all. Now that they’re here—and they know I’m safe—some of the tension has dissipated.Something seems to have shifted between all of us, and I think it’s because we’ve all accepted that we have to allow for more give and take. I’m slowly coming to realize that although the mate bond binds us together, connecting us on what feels like a soul-deep level, it doesn’t guarantee everything will be perfect between us all the time.It still takes work to build a strong relationship. It takes open communication and mutual respect.The sun moves across the sky overhead, and we keep up a steady pace in wolf form. The forest thins, turning into a rolling landscape that’s partly barren but incredibly beautiful, filled with small canyons, steep hills, and rocky terrain. Then we pass back into the woods, where
SableI don’t know if Archer is surprised by my kiss, but he certainly doesn’t seem to have any objections.His arms wrap around me, pulling me closer as his lips move over mine. His tongue darts out to taste my lips as a soft noise spills from me. The air is growing cool as the fire starts to dwindle, but Archer’s bare skin is warm against mine.I’m starting to like the fact that we have to strip before shifting. It allows moments like this to happen easily.Our kiss starts out deep and slow. Archer’s hands move up and down my back as his tongue strokes gently against mine, as if he’s trying to comfort and reassure me through his touch. But it doesn’t take long for the pressure of our lips to become more urgent, our hands groping each other shamelessly.As I slide my fingers through his blond hair, scraping my nails over his scalp, I realize that the voices of my other mates have died out. The world around us has gone quiet except for the soft sound of insects humming in the distance