I ignore the bodies gyrating around me as my legs take me towards the vast open expanse of the sands, a large dragon circling in the distance. No doubt Saff is restless to get back to her egg. I don’t blame her. After centuries, she was finally reunited with her young, only to be told she would have to leave them again. Her anger towards Fury and me was palpable when we discussed our plan on the island.
She trusts no one after the God wars, including the God who created her.
Shifting hasn’t always been a privilege I was afforded. I’m not even sure I would call it a privilege. We were wolves first, my brothers and I. Until Orion decided to make us into something else entirely.
The humans would only ever trust us if we were in a form they understood, so we were given the ability to shift skins.
My booted feet find the expanse of open, sandy tundra. It’s no forest, but it will do. Shrugging my clothes off, I pile them neatly beside a stone archway. With the heat from my wolf burning through my human body, the strange, green drug no longer has a hold on my system. I suspect the silvers inside the city will be going all night, leaving me plenty of rhythm to go for a run. Plus, the songbird hasRivern to look after her. And I can’t forget about the omnipresent God in her head. She doesn’t need me breathing down her neck as well.
My body knows what to do as it starts to shift, growing bigger in every way. Fur replaces my skin, a wet snout forms from my nose, claws grace my hands and feet. Falling forward, I shake out the tail that springs from my tailbone, my body shivering. My senses sharpen inextricably, the only smell of any consequence finding my lips—springtime honey.
A rumble makes its way up my throat, and I burst forward through the sand. I will not think about Dove or the way her perfect breasts heaved in ecstasy as her bonded brought her to climax. Or how her eyes burnt with fire when she saw Moyrie trying to proposition me.
I will run.
Run the songbird out of my mind. She will be nothing but a name on the wind henceforth. A job. Once completed, I will give her back to the other males who are vying for her attention.
Back to the God who can protect her people the way they need.
Back to the fae prince who is more suited to the songbird than I will ever be.
I’m too jaded, too beastly, too untamed to be enough for her.
eight
Rivern
Iwatchher.Theslow,even breaths she takes. Her eyelashes flutter in sleep. The sconces are enough to linger over her body, highlighting her beauty, her reverence—my angel.
The scars on her neck stand out in contrast to the rest of her skin. They only endear her to me more, her past a testament to the woman she has become. A woman I will lay my life down for.
She found her way back to me.I don’t know if I will ever forgive myself for leaving without her. Dove has forgiven me. I could feel it in her heart when we joined. She holds no animosity towards our separation, only unconditional love—forme.
Love.Even that doesn’t feel like the right word for it. Our souls are connected like our threads have been woven together by the Goddess herself, never to part, even beyond the veil.
Soon, I will find a way to draw matching lines over her skin. It is an ancient custom the newer fae have forgotten. I choose to keep with tradition, branding the markings of my soul on my skin. Once you find your bonded pair, it is customary to weave their soul markings through yours. I can already see how we will come together on my skin and hers.
Pulling her body impossibly closer to mine, I place my lips on Dove’s forehead, breathing her sweet vanilla scent. I will give everything up for her—my kingdom and my people.
Maybe it was the sex, the silvers’ potion or the bond talking, but I don’t think it was any of those things.
It isher.
Everything up until this point has led me to her.
It was my need to explore, my sense of something bigger than myself. I was always searching for Dove. I just didn’t know it until I laid eyes on her.
And now there’s a God.How is that even possible?Of all the creatures I could have claimed as my own, I found the one who has awakened a God. I don’t doubt it. I can’t. Not after we connected, and I could sense him down the line of our bond.
His power.
I couldn’t access it. She could.
Sensing him was one thing, but hearing him was something else entirely. Another bond sits beside mine in her heart—a stark reminder I can’t be the person who can fulfil all her needs.
I will make sure I fulfil all the ones that count, even if I have to share her.
Now that we are bonded, her knowledge is my knowledge. All I have to do is ask the question, and the answer finds its way to me. Dove is completely open to me—to him as well.
