“Mera!” Jaxson shouted as all the shifters around us collapsed, like they’d been released from the magnetic hold of this being.
At the same time, the shadows withdrew, retreating from the pack lands as they tunneled back into him, until once again, the world was filled with midday light.
“What the fuck is happening?” Victor roared, having finally returned to his full senses.
His eyes darted around, trying to figure out exactly who was to blame for his sudden appearance in the front of the pack house. When his gaze landed on the smoke-laced male, he blinked more than once, his anger dying off.
“Who are you?” he whispered.
The shadow dude paid no attention to the alpha, his eyes locked on me. I had no fucking idea why he was staring me down like I was the last ice cream on a summer’s day, but it was completely unnerving.
“Who are you to trespass on pack lands?” Dean asked, slightly braver—or stupider—than his alpha. “Speak now or face the highest of repercussions.”
The man’s lips tilted up, full, plump lips that again should have made this angel-faced god look sweet. They did not.
His smile was dark and sinister, his eyes filled with flames.
Flames so legit that for a second, I almost expected to feel heat wash across the pack lands. There was no denying any longer who stood before us…
“Shadow Beast,” I whispered.
For this, I was rewarded with a smile. “At your service, pup.”
Fuck me sideways with a spoon. His voice was deep and rumbly with just a hint of Scottish accent. Gasps rang out around the pack lands, and many of the shifters fell to their knees before him, bowing low.
Not Victor, though, the arrogant fuck. “What do you want?” he asked, sounding confident, but I caught the tremble of his hands. Not a surprise since standing before us was our deity. Worshipped by our kind.
The being who’d created shifters and to whom we owed a shit ton of allegiance.
Shadow Beast stepped closer to me, ignoring all the others. “You did something tonight, didn’t you, little wolf?”
I swallowed hard. “I called you?”
He shook his head. “I was already looking for you when the call came through.” He tilted his head back, tongue darting out. “Your energy tastes like the one who touched the Shadow Realm earlier.”
My throat was so dry that when I tried to speak, nothing more than a croak emerged. “No.”
Shadow Beast narrowed his eyes on me. “No?”
The heat of him was stronger now, most of the shifters shuffling back, leaving me alone.
“I didn’t touch the Shadow Realm.” I thankfully sounded more confident this time. “You have the wrong shifter.”
What did I have to lose by lying? He was probably going to kill me either way.
He stepped closer again, and I tried to run, but my feet were planted to the ground like useless tree stumps. The closer he got, the more I had to reassess his height… Fuck, he was over eight feet.
Except… As he leaned down, his height reduced until he was once again a head taller than me. Eight feet to six-and-a-half feet in an instant.Did he just morph his height at will?
I stilled as he leaned over, running his nose along my cheek. Not touching, but I felt his energy as if he’d caressed my entire body in that one stroke. “Smells like bullshit,” he murmured close to my ear, and before I could react, he wrapped huge-as-fuck hands around me and hauled me up and over his shoulder.
This snapped me out of my stunned immobility, and I screamed and fought against his hold. The asshole made a grumbling sound before a strike of pain rocketed across my skin, an electrical zap akin to a stun gun.
“Stay still and this won’t hurt,” he warned, whatever dark humor he’d been rocking earlier disappearing. “Fight me, and I’ll make you wish that you’d died during your first shift.”
“Choices, choices,” I shot back, falling into my usual response to big bullies. “However will I decide?”
He stopped moving, lifting me fully as if I weighed ten pounds, holding me so he could see my face clearly. “A shifter with a death wish. Never thought I’d see the day.”
