Chapter One
1813
The battlefield was already lost.
Smoke choked the air, clinging to Saffron Walsh’s tongue and stinging her eyes as she crouched behind the jagged ridge, her nails digging deep furrows into the frozen ground.Musket fire cracked like thunder in the distance, mingling with the guttural cries of men who had long since accepted that death would claim them tonight.The sharp tang of blood and gunpowder pressed against her senses, but beneath it all, she could still smell them—her sisters, her coven.And the two men pressed close at her sides—Alaric and Ryan.
Her mates.
Her future.
And they were breaking.
“No, Goddess, please,” Ryan rasped, his voice hoarse, raw.His hands shook where they braced against the earth, veins standing out beneath skin dusted with ash.He lurched forward, every muscle taut, ready to launch himself into the chaos below.His wolf clamored beneath his skin, pushing, tearing, desperate to break free, but Saffron placed a hand against his shoulder, hating the way he shook.
Alaric was no better.His jaw clenched so hard she swore she heard the bone creak, his broad shoulders quaking with the effort of holding himself back.His brother’s scream—the death cry of Liam—still echoed through the valley, carried on the night wind like a dirge.Liam had stepped in front of the blade heading for his twin brother Jacob.
And Jacob—dear, fierce Jacob—his scent of pine and cedar cut off in an instant as his body fell lifeless to the trampled earth beside his brother mere moments later.
Saffron squeezed her eyes shut, willing the hot sting of tears away.She couldn’t afford them.Not now.
Below, Libby—sweet Libby, who had only just found her joy in her fated mates—fought with everything she had.Her power sparked in the air, bright and defiant, but Matthew was ready for her.His warlock brethren circled, their chants dark and steady, weaving a net of power designed to smother the light from her soul.And when she finally collapsed, her scream ripped through the night like glass shattering.
The sound shattered Saffron, too.
Ryan lunged forward, but Saffron’s hand shot out, catching his wrist.Her grip trembled with her own grief, but her voice—Goddess help her—remained steady.“You can’t,” she whispered fiercely.“Not now.”
He spun on her, eyes glowing molten gold, his wolf a breath away from breaking free.“They killed her.They killed them.Liam.Jacob.Libby—” His chest heaved, words strangled by rage.“And you tell me to stay?”
Alaric’s fists slammed into the dirt, his knuckles splitting, blood smearing across the frozen earth.“We should be down there.We should avenge them.”
Saffron’s heart tore anew, because she wanted nothing more.To leap into the fray, to burn Matthew to ash, to hold Libby and tell her she wasn’t alone in her last breath.To fight beside Ryan and Alaric as she’d promised.But destiny was cruel, and tonight was not theirs to change.
Her voice cracked as she forced the words out.“You have to trust me.Please.”
Ryan’s eyes narrowed, fury and anguish mingling into something that nearly undid her.“Trust you?While my brothers’ blood soaks the ground?”
Saffron’s throat burned as she swallowed back a sob.She shifted closer, her palms pressing against their broad chests, feeling the tremors running through them.“We spoke of this.We knew what was coming.”
Alaric’s head snapped toward her, his dark hair wild around his face, eyes bright with unshed tears.“You knew,” he growled, the words scraping like broken glass.“You saw it in your visions, you felt it in your bones—and still, you held your tongue.You let us believe we might save them.You let us stand here, powerless, watching my brothers be cut down while you carried the truth.And still, you did nothing.”
Her chest caved at the accusation, even though it wasn’t truly meant for her.She had seen it—in dreams, in visions, in the threads of fate the Goddess had shown her.And she had borne the burden alone, because telling them would have broken them sooner.
Her voice dropped to a raw whisper.“If we stop this now, if we try to change it here, we lose everything.Matthew has the Council’s blessing.His magic is tethered by power beyond ours.If we fall tonight, the curse takes root with no chance to unravel it.We lose not only your brothers and Libby, but every chance of balance for the world.”
Alaric’s breath came ragged, his great hands trembling where they gripped her arms.“Are you sure that what we do here, now, in this godsforsaken place, will save our kind?”
Her vision blurred, tears spilling despite her will.She couldn’t lie to them.“Yes.”The word cracked, breaking her in half.“Because there is more at stake than our happiness.If we don’t play the long game, there will be no future.No wolves.No shifters.No balance.Nothing.”
The silence that followed was unbearable, broken only by the clash of steel and the crackle of spellfire in the distance.And then, with a groan of despair, both men surged forward—not toward the battle, but into her.Their arms wrapped around her, crushing, desperate.She was trapped between their heaving chests, their sobs muffled against her hair.
Ryan’s voice shook against her ear.“Goddess forgive us.Goddess forgive you.”
Saffron clung to them, her own sobs tearing loose now that there was no stopping them.She buried her face against Alaric’s shoulder, inhaling his scent—oak and storm—knowing she might never breathe it in again.Ryan pressed a kiss to her temple, his lips trembling, his own scent of iron and wild clover wrapping around her, fierce and grounding.The strength of them, the weight of them, anchored her even as her heart splintered beyond repair.
The final cry from the battlefield—a silence where Libby’s light had been—ripped through her soul.
Saffron screamed into the night, the sound raw and keening, echoing across the blood-soaked fields.She cursed the Moon Goddess, cursed every deity who had woven this cruel fate.She cursed herself most of all, for making the choice that would tear her from her mates, that would demand she live while those she loved were slaughtered.
