Relief almost had him collapsing onto the burning forest floor. He cautiously stepped back from a particularly vicious flame.
She called his name again, and he spun around, trying to find her in the haze. He dodged around macabre tree corpses, following the sound of her voice, but with the fire and heavy smoke, she remained hidden.
“Rance, run!” she shrieked. “Don’t let them get you!”
Who? What was she talking about? He almost shouted back, but a flicker at the edge of his sight had him focusing on a stranger in a cloak only a few yards away. The black garment covered most of his body. Two other black-cloaked people joined him. He could feel their staring as if calculating how to get to him through the fire.
Who were these people?
A whoosh of heat yanked him from his thoughts. He had to escape, but how could he avoid the strangers who probably started the fire, even if he made it through the flames? There might be more than the three he spotted.
A faint memory came to him from a year ago when his mother told him the escape route to follow if something like this happened. Had she seen this? Sometimes, the Grove’s magic showed dryad leaders flashes of the future. Warnings to help the Grove follow their best path. Unfortunately, rarely were these futures changeable. Suddenly, the travel runes and magic tracking lessons made much more sense.
Mother had told him she had found a good home for her old, diseased tree in case of emergency—an emergency she’d refused to give details about when he’d asked.
“It does no good worrying, little tree, of things that might not be.” It was one of her favorite sayings.
Now, in the middle of their destroyed Grove, he was almost positive his mother had seen this—seen it—and decided not to share the details.
The memory of her determination flashed into his head as if she was right before him. Crouching on the forest floor, she gripped his fingers and told him. “If your life is in danger, reach for the magic in my old tree. It will take you to safety. When you get there, claim sanctuary from the demi-god Anthony. It will be granted.”
She spent the rest of the day teaching him to trace her magic from afar. He had thought it was a neat trick. Now, he had to use it to abandon his mother. What if she couldn’t escape? Was he leaving her to die? Another tree exploded, and pieces of wood sizzled on his bare arms.
Rance frantically brushed away the flaming debris. Dryads were more flammable than other beings. Now wasn’t the time to test his fire rating.
“Go! Now!” she shouted as if she could feel his hesitation. “Get to safety like I taught you.”
Unable to ignore her frantic pleas, Rance closed his eyes, blocked out his pain, and focused on his mother’s magic. Strings of her power flooded his mind like multi-colored strands of yarn until he finally found the one tugging the farthest away. With a final, choked inhale, he reached out to his mother’s magicand yanked.
Rance’s body contorted in ways nature and magic had never intended. Swirls of lights spun past and were gone before he processed their import. Insanity threatened. Did his mother know what she was asking when she told him to follow the magic? Her magic. Was her desperate plea going to lead to his death? That was his last coherent thought before soothing, magical wood wrapped around him, welcoming him inside.
Cradled in the comforting scent of his mother’s tree and the gentle hum of her magic, Rance fought to stay awake. He had to tell someone what had happened. He had to. Someone needed to save his mother. Save his Grove. Rance struggled to stay awake, but the magical transport had sucked all the energy from his young body. He was asleep before the magic settled.
CHAPTER2
Katlego sipped his fruity neon-green drink, savoring the apple undertones that somehow avoided that fake apple taste he detested. Perched on a tall stool, he swung his feet back and forth while waiting at the bar for Anthony to finish his meeting. With a drink that tasted a lot like apple suckers, Kat was having an unusually pleasant childhood flashback.
He’d come to Hotel Paradise for a meeting with the Alpha Mate, Anthony, about his position in the pack and what he could do to earn his house. The pack had given him a beautiful cabin in their new housing development. It wasn’t much larger than the one he’d shared with his grandmother, but it had three bedrooms instead of two, and so far, no belligerent assholes had come banging on his door, insisting he heal their easily avoidable wounds. It also had a nice patch of fenced land for a garden. So far, things with the Moon Pack had been far superior to his previous group.
“Sorry, I’m late.” Anthony’s woodsy, magical scent reached him before his words registered.
Kat clamped down on his mountain lion instincts to show his belly and bask in Anthony’s presence. “That’s fine. Your bartender has been busy trying to get me drunk while I wait.”
Anthony laughed. “He’s new. He does a good job, but I’m unsure if this is the right spot for him.” He gave the bartender a considering glance through his lashes before focusing back on Kat.
He tilted his head back and showed his throat. All that power aimed at him made him forget to breathe until Anthony turned away to request adrink.
“How are things going with your house? Are you settling in all right? I know you left home with only a small bag and your bird, and the cabin was barely furnished when you moved in. I don’t know if anyone has told you yet, but a few of our people opened a furniture store a year ago. They offer pack members a nice discount, and your housing allowance should stretch further through them. I can give you their address if you’d like.”
“Thank you, I’d appreciate that.” Kat cleared his throat and asked the question he’d worried over since he’d left his clan. “That was one thing I wanted to talk to you about, but maybe I should be asking Alpha Silver. Am I a pack member? I-I don’t want to impose more than I already have, and I know the houses are for pack members only.” His cheeks warmed as words tumbled from his mouth with little filter. This always happened when he got nervous.
Awkwardness, thy name is Katlego.
Anthony picked up his drink, ignoring the bartender’s fawning bow. “If you want to be. We rescued you to save you from possible experimentation, not to indoctrinate the unwilling. We provided you with a place to live and additional money because we forced you to abandon your home. If you don’t want to join the pack, we can move you off our lands and give you some money to get you started elsewhere. You’re not obligated to be a pack member.”
“No!” The word burst out before his mind had fully processed his instinctive denial. Kat swallowed the anxious lump in his throat when every head in the bar snapped in his direction. Shit! He had to fix this before the other customers dragged him out of there for shouting at the Alpha Mate. From what he’d seen, they were very protective of Anthony. Even the lone vampire in the corner glared at him.
“I didn’t mean to distress you.” Anthony sipped his drink. His analytic gaze picked Kat apart. “Silver has the final say, but he wouldn’t allow you to move onto the pack lands if he didn’t approve.”
