PROLOGUE
“I’m scared.This- this can’t be the only way,” the soft voice pleaded as its owner looked back at her mate with desperate eyes, then back at the small frame in front of her.
“Do you trust in Fate?” The gentle smile on the being’s face did nothing to calm the worry brewing in her spirit.
What kind of question was that? Of course she trusted Fate; she would’ve been a fool if she didn’t. Fate had bestowed great power upon her bloodline. So many times, Fate had shown favor upon her when it looked like she would fail. If her memories weren’t enough to remind her of her favor with Fate, then surely the pure white hair growing in that replaced her normal black locs would be another indication.
However, that still didn’t stop her fear, not when it came to her offspring. She’d give anything to keep them safe. Fate had already shown her the destiny for her offspring. One that was filled with prosperity and happiness, but there was an “if”… A giant “if” that meant doing something she’d only read about in ancient spellbooks. Mages Light and Dark alike hadn’t been able to recreate these spells successfully. As far as she knew, the Mage who cast the spell would end up losing their life, along with the one they tried to cast the spell on.
Now Fate wanted her to give over her offspring to this… this... she didn’t even know what the being in front of her was. It was clear the being came from Fate; the markings all over her body told her origins. The power radiating off her was intimidating. She thought the bloodline she came from was the strongest of the Light Mages, but the being in front of her said otherwise. The being was far more powerful than any other Light Mage she’d ever seen.
“I do, but I know the Phoenix spell. It isn’t safe.”
“It isn’t safe because Fate did not give the ones who tried it permission to use it. This spell is one of the direct abilities that comes from Fate. Fate once trusted, but then the one who was trusted with the knowledge betrayed Fate by spreading the knowledge of the spells to the many, when the few were supposed to know. Like fools who hungered for power, they tried to use Fate’s own magic against Fate. From that day forward, death would come upon anyone who tried to use one of Fate’s spells unless Fate gave them permission. We have Fate’s permission. You know it in your heart.”
“I do, bu-”
“No more buts. Are you going to do as Fate has called you to do?”
A defeated sigh escaped her lips as her eyes met the strong white eyes in front of her. Fate had never given her any reason not to trust. She wouldn’t start now.
“Okay. We can do it.”
Chapter One
KENZO ATALLAH
“She really likes you.”Halo smiled widely at me. Her daughter with Creeland, A'Miracle, for some reason liked to follow me around whenever I found myself on the Kismet Packlands.
While the majority of the pups were scared of me, this six-month-old pup had no fear of me. Creeland was livid when A’Miracle took her first steps while trying to follow me. He hadn’t stopped talking shit since, and that was when A’Mircale was nine months old. She was one now.
“She does,” I agreed with Halo with a small head nod.
I didn’t know how or why, but I’d found myself sticking close to the Kismet pack. No, I didn’t want to become a part of the pack. Bears didn’t do the pack life per se. We lived close by each other in the Hollow Mountains. We had our own city center where the majority of the bear shifters went shopping, out to eat or just mingled when we got the urge. Unlike wolves, we didn’t need to be in a close-knit pack. We didn’t have one leader either like most wolf packs.
Bear shifters had a council that was made up of the five original families. Each family shifted into a different type of bear. The Moreno family shifted into Brown Bears and otherbears in their subcategory. The Maruska family members were the Panda shifters. The Monroe family members were Polar Bear shifters. The Gonzalez family shifted into Sun Bears.
And then there was my family—the one Fate favored, bestowing the strength of all bears into our family. We were the ones who stuck out like sore thumbs among shifters. We were stronger, bigger, faster and smarter than any of the other Bear shifters, and we were the leaders of the Black Bears. Fate had taken all the best abilities from the other bear shifter and given them to our family, which caused us to be larger than all other bear shifters in our human and bear forms.
We were also able to mate with any other Bear shifters without complications. The majority of Bear shifters were mated within their own race of bears. The few times others tried to mate outside of their race, their cub would never make it past delivery. Most Bear shifters believed Fate didn’t want us to mix races because the majority of fated mates were within the same race of Bear shifters. Mixed bear couples were frowned upon and never really happened. It was even more frowned upon to mix with other shifter races all together. Of course, Fate thought it would be funny to make my fated mate a she-wolf. As if that wasn’t hard enough to deal with, my fated mate was a whore.
Another way Bear shifters were different among shifters was that our females waited until they mated before they had sex because of how possessive our Bears were over our mates. If a female bear did have sex before she was mated, she ran the risk of being killed by her mate for the betrayal.
Male Bear shifters had more freedom when it came to permitted sex. Although it was frowned upon to be mated to a shifter outside of the Bear shifter race, fucking them was a different story. As long as it was just to fuck, male Bears were allowed to stick their dicks in whoever. Experience wasmandatory. We were expected to know how to make our mates cum in an instant.
I could say I’d had my fair share of different female shifters from other races, and I could also say she-wolves were my favorites. They stayed hot and ready, never backing down from a challenge, no matter how big. If you ever fucked a Bear shifter, you knew our dicks were bigger than most. Bear shifters had high-sex drives without being mated, but once we were mated, all bets were off. Fucking became second nature with your mate. There had been times when fated mates would find each other and be fucking five minutes later. In the shifter worlds, Felines were supposed to like to fuck a lot, but when they were compared to bears, that wasn’t true. Felines were more promiscuous in the sense that they would fuck anything and everything, but when it came to fucking their mate, they didn’t have anything on us.
I was okay with being mated with a she-wolf because they had similar sex drives, especially with their mates. I just wished my mate wasn’t a slut. Many turned their noses up upon seeing me with my mate. Many of my fellow Bear shifters had the pleasure of fucking my mate, which led to me fighting the few foolish enough to try to disrespect me. After easily killing those few, no other Bear shifters dared to speak about my mate. However, the council found issues with who my fated mate was like I picked the shit out. I told those old-ass fuckers to take their issues up with Fate. The council wasn’t crazy enough to try to take the Atallah family. It would’ve been a suicide mission for them, and the council knew it, which was why they “allowed” me to mate with my mate, but they couldn’t stop me if they wanted to. With regular Bear shifters, it was a death wish to get between a male bear and his mate. Trying me was asking to have your entire bloodline wiped out.
Many feared us and said we were too powerful, but they knew they couldn’t beat us.
Our ancestors had no desire to rule over all bears like some shifter races did, but they also saw what happened when you let one shifter have all the power, so they came up with the council, where majority rule was the law. So far, it had worked, keeping the Bear shifters growing and thriving for generations.
I was due to join the council in a few more years. I really didn’t want to, but it was my duty since my father had fallen ill and died years ago, with my mom passing away from a broken heart shortly after, leaving me in the care of my grandparents, who loved me greatly. My grandfather was getting older, and my time to replace him was coming. Despite me not wanting to, I had to be mated. A year ago that was no problem, but now, I had no idea what I was going to do.
“You probably be giving her candy. You know my baby girl is greedy. That's the only reason she likes you.” Cree came up next to me with a frown on his face as he looked at A'Miracle in my arms, babbling away like I was her best friend.
“A'Miracle knows greatness when she sees it,” I teased Cree. He was another unexpected relationship that happened. Over the last year, I’d grown closest to him and Halo. I couldn’t explain the natural pull I felt toward them.
