Julian stared at her.
Dread dragged slow fingernails through his gut. “They want the world?”
“Haven’t you heard? It’s a new era. Shifters are tired of hiding. But there’s no point in revealing yourself to the world if you’re not going to rule it.” She tugged on his arm. “Come.”
He planted his feet. “You said they’re going to Antarctica—”
“They saw what Harper managed with your magic. They want more of that. They’ll kill you, so that Lance’s side doesn’t have access to dragon magic via your power, and capture your family, so thattheydo.”
She pulled on his arm again, and this time, he went with her.
How long was it since he last set foot on the ice? Too long. Long enough to lose everything that mattered.
Like all shadow dragons, he’d grown up in Antarctica, and like all shadow dragons, he’d left as soon as he could. He’d barely been grown when he farewelled the only people he’d ever known to explore the outside world.
All shadow dragons left for the same reason. To find a mate and bring them back to the hidden fortress in the ice, to raise the next generation of dragons and continue their sacred vigil.
He hadn’t found his mate. He’d found Gerald Harper—a shifter who’d hidden his psychopathic cruelty behind a mask of friendship until Julian was fully in his clutches.
Harper had promised to show Julian what the world was like. One corner of it in particular: the private island where he held other shifters prisoner and forced them into bloody gladiatorial matches for his amusement.
Harper made an art of luring shifters with the promise of a sanctuary where they would be among others of their kind. And Julian was his enforcer. Try to leave, and the shadow dragon would drag you back.
Because, if he didn’t, Gerald Harper would kill the only family he had left.
So when this woman, hismate,said his family was in danger now, Julian knew it wasn’t true.
He had no family left in Antarctica to protect.
They were all dead.
Which meant there was only one thing the people heading to Antarctica could be after.
The reason for the shadow dragons’ secret fortress. The reason his clan had lived secluded on the frozen continent for so long. The great evil they were all sworn to keep from ever being released on the world again. The secret that Harper had never found, even as he slaughtered the remaining shadow dragons.
The secret Julian had thought was safe, while he rotted here in the forest so far from home.
The Soul-Eater.
And if that was true…
Cold fingers closed around his heart. Scales twitched beneath his skin. If enemy shifters were targeting the Soul-Eater, it wouldn’t just mean the end of the shadow dragons.
It could mean the end of the world.
2
Francine
Julian Rouse was her mate.
Julian Rouse—the subject of every twisted conversation she’d overheard since the world started crumbling around her, the tasty treat at the heart of gossip that made her gut clench—was her goddamnedfated mate.
The knowledge burned, so hot she couldn’t bear to look at it, let alone touch it.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in fated mates.
She just didn’t believe in them for herself. Fate was meant to smile on good people. Not people like her.
