We’d been in the human world for two weeks now. It had been seven years since the first portal connecting our realm, Lytopia, to this human Earth opened in Ravenor Kingdom. Seven years since the Ashborne brothers stumbled into Earth and turned Lytopia’s understanding of the world upside down. In that time, wolves had learned a great deal about humans. Their technology, their customs, their bizarre obsession with small glowing rectangles called phones.
Thessa had thrown herself into research with the kind of enthusiasm she usually reserved for causing diplomatic incidents. She’d devoured every scrap of information about human culture she could find. Clothing, food, something called “reality television” that she insisted I needed to experience, though I had my doubts.
“Oh!” Thessa grabbed my arm and pointed at a shop window. “Look at that poster. It’s a book signing about wolves.”
I barely glanced at it. “We’re not here for books.”
“We’re here for research. Booksareresearch.”
“We’re here to investigate the portal instability.”
“And we can do that after I buy a wolf book.” She was already heading for the door. “It seems the author writes about all sorts of wolfy things. What if she knows, Ky? What if she’s one of us?”
“She’s not one of us.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No wolf would write books exposing our culture to humans.”
“The Ashborne brothers mated humans. Xander Silvermane mated a human. Wolves and humans are reconnecting.” She pushed open the bookstore door. “Maybe some wolf decided to spread our world through literature. It’s clever.”
“It’s a security risk.”
But she was already inside, and short of causing a scene in the middle of a human street, I had no choice but to follow.
The bookstore was small, cozy. Filled with the particular mustiness of old paper and ink that seemed universal across realms. Thessa was already making her way toward a signing table, weaving through humans with the kind of cheerful determination that had gotten her banned from three different diplomatic functions. I had no idea how the humans would react to her.
Portals had been appearing across Lytopia for years now. Ravenor, Noctherion, the outskirts of Valoryn, Wynter Kingdom, and now in my kingdom, Duskmere. Five of the seven allied kingdoms of Lytopia had portals, though there was no information about the kingdoms outside the peace alliance.
Some believed the portals were a blessing from the Moon Goddess, a sign that wolves and humans were meant to reconnect after millennia apart. Others thought they were a threat, a destabilization of the natural order.
My father believed they were a mystery that needed solving before catastrophe struck.
I believed I was going to strangle my sister if she didn’t stop flirting with the author and get back to our actual mission.
I started toward her, mildly irritated and fully prepared to drag her out by her hair if necessary.
That’s when the scent hit me. Warm vanilla, old books, and underneath, a current of electricity, the way the air feels right before a thunderstorm breaks.
My wolf slammed against my consciousness so hard my vision went white.
Mate.
The word reverberated through every cell in my body. Not a suggestion, not a hope, but a fact. An absolute, undeniable, soul-shaking fact.
My mate was here. Now.
Find her.
My claws threatened to extend. My vision sharpened, colors bleeding brighter, sounds amplifying until I could hear individual heartbeats in the crowd. The scratch of pen on paper, the rustle of pages, the soft intake of breath from someone near the counter, my sister’s happy chatter…
There.
She was sitting behind the signing table, black hair piled in a messy bun held together by a pen. Ink stains marked her fingers, a worn leather watch circled her wrist, old and clearly broken but loved anyway. Thessa sat in front of her, and they were both laughing at something.
My mate was laughing, and I wasn’t the one who made her laugh. It felt like a personal offense.
I’d stopped believing I would find her. The engagement to the Briarfield girl had dissolved years ago when my wolf refused to accept her and wouldn’t even acknowledge her presence. I’d assumed my wolf was broken, unwilling to bond. Destined for solitude.
