“Are you even listening to me?” he demanded.
I blinked at him. “Sorry. I figured if you wanted me to listen, you’d have ordered it. Like everything else.”
He stood—a giant, scary beast—and I lost the ability to move or speak or breathe. Everything inside shut down, and while my mind was screaming, I couldn’t force any sound from my lips.
“I could kill you without laying one finger on you,” he said, almost conversationally, and this time I was definitely listening. “Even better, before I kill you, I could make you hurt in ways that you’ve only imagined in your worst nightmares.”
If I had the ability to panic, I would have. As it was, not breathing was definitely taking its toll on me. If he didn’t loosen his hold soon, I was going to pass out, leaving me in a very vulnerable position with this devil. Thankfully, he released me just as dark spots danced across my vision. I collapsed forward, coughing and choking, my starved lungs desperately attempting to suck air in.
He retook his seat, relaxing, his legs wide in what used to be my favorite man-spread until I’d met this megalomaniac. “As I was saying,” he rumbled, “I need you to tell me exactly what happened on your pack lands earlier today. I felt your energy touch the Shadow Realm.”
His voice lowered on the last two words, growing colder, and I had zero clue what that meant. Shadow Beast was an enigma, and I had no reference for his tone changes. He was not shifter or human, and I was way out of my fucking element.
His chest rumbled at my silence and I gave myself three seconds to decide what to do.Lie or truth?Which gave me the better odds of survival? I had no idea if touching the Shadow Realm was forbidden or not.
“I really don’t know what happened,” I said, deciding part-truth was the way to start.
His scowl appeared like an old friend and I was already growing used to seeing it—Shadow’s signature look.
“I’m not trying to be difficult,” I said to him. “I really have no idea. Tonight was my first shift, solstice full moon and all that.” I refrained from adding my opinion on the stupidity of his rule, just in case he was easily offended. As much as I wanted to ask him why the age of twenty-two, now just didn’t feel like the right time.
“Your first shift?” He moved forward in his chair and I was almost certain I’d never had this sort of focused attention on me before. Shadow certainly knew how to make a girl blush.
And… piss herself from fear.
“Yes. First shift, and when the sun started to rise, I found my true mate.” I paused as the remembered pain sliced through me again. The unfulfilled bond was like a ragged piece of soul dragging across rough ground.
“Your mind has trouble staying in one place, I see.”
Shooting him my version of an angry face, I hurried to finish the story. “Anyway, as I was saying, first shift, got rejected by my asshole of a mate, got attacked, and because of the soul-deep pain of my rejection, my wolf went ballistic. This was when my vision doubled over, and I could see shadowy figures that definitely didn’t exist in the normal Earthly plane.” I swallowed roughly at the memory. “I’m fairly certain no one else could see them.”
“You touched one.”
Statement.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Can you do it again?”
I blanched. “Why the fuck would I do it again? It was scary and felt… unnatural. Yeah, not a fan.”
He steepled his fingers. “Let me rephrase. Youwilldo it again, or I’ll kill you and everyone you love.”
Fuck. “Well, when you put it like that…” I trailed off, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me. “The only problem is I have zero idea what I did, and replicating it is not going to just happen.”
This was probably the point he exploded and ripped me into million pieces. I really just hoped it was quick.
“Shift.”
“What…?”
“You’re a shifter. Shift.”
Fuck this guy. Fuck him right to hell. One without a library.
I spat my words out between gritted teeth. “Remember how I told you it was my first shift? I can’t change on command yet. Rules of the Shadow Beast.”
Should I really be reminding you of this, asshole?
