SWNOVELS Glamoured: Chapter 6
Mera left me to race after Shadow. I took the opportunity to tear off the lacy bottom of my dress so it was no longer dragging on the ground. The veil was next. I ripped it free along with the millions of pins until my hair fell in curls down my back. I allowed myself a moment to breathe deeply and let the wild in my soul free.
My wolf rose and howled, the icy power flowing through my veins as some of the weight that had been resting on our soul lifted. It sucked to know that if I’d just opened up to my friends, I might have avoided the last couple of years of turmoil, but there was no going back.
I shouldn’t be too surprised; I’d been conditioned to shoulder my own burdens. No one had ever stepped in and taken any of life’s stresses from me, so it was true to character that I’d decided to handle this situation without outside help.
And yet, somehow, help had still arrived. Right when I needed it.
Fuck. Maybe the Fates didn’t hate me completely. I’d been sent a fiery angel and her shadowy mate at the final hour. Please let this be a new path forward for Tabitha and me.
A minute later Mera and Shadow were back, and the look on Shadow’s face reminded me why I’d been hesitant to tell them this secret.
Celebrated too quickly.
Dread swelled in small increments within me, and if I’d had anything in my stomach I would have vomited. “Why are you angry?” I finally asked, too tired and stressed to care that I was questioning the Shadow Beast. “I will fight you to keep my daughter alive. I don’t even care if you can smite me with a mere thought.”
He regarded me closely, like he’d never really seen me before. The icy energy rose as my wolf lifted her head and faced her creator. “You are no ordinary shifter,” Shadow said, and there was thankfully no fury in his clinical tone. “What is your heritage?”
I shook my head. “You know as much as I do. My parents must have thrown me away at birth. I spent years in random packs until I ended up in Clarity.”
I had never mentioned to any that I could shift long before my twenty-second birthday, and I wasn’t about to start today. I needed Shadow to trust and help me, not be more suspicious of my genetics.
“I could search your mind?” Shadow offered, and I was already shaking my head.
“Too many have claimed ownership of me, my mind, and my body. For now I’d like to keep my thoughts to myself. The priority is finding my daughter. Can we do that?”
There I went again, demanding shit of the Shadow Beast, but just the knowledge that I might be able to find and help my daughter had impatience slamming against my soul until it felt like my wolf was about to burst through my skin. Every part of me felt out of control.
Mera grasped my hand once more. “Shadow is not angry with you or Tabby,” she said to me. “He’s just beating himself up that once again alphas he created are tapping into their megalomaniac side and hurting the shifters they should be protecting.”
Flames shot up around the Shadow Beast, and it didn’t escape my notice that his daughter popped her little hand out and started to play with the fire. A small giggle followed, and I was starting to see what Mera meant about her powerful child.
“You can fix the alphas,” I told the flaming beast. “They just need checks and balances. Until now they’ve been the ultimate power, and we haven’t even had any shifter wars to keep them in line. Time to step in and remind them who the supreme god is and what happens if they break the fucking rules.”
Shadow’s flames grew larger, and the shadowy façade of his beast washed over his features before he got himself under control. “Don’t worry, once we deal with your alpha, then I will deal with all of them.”
Good. It would be nice to know that not just my pack but all packs would finally be safer. What happened to Mera and me wasn’t an isolated incident. I knew—from rumors—that Shadow and his friends had been dealing with a lot of end-of-world shit, so it was understandable that they’d been busy. But, when it was quiet, he also needed to deal with the race of beings he created here.
Mera wrapped her arm through mine, the pulse of her power against my skin warm and familiar, with a touch of new strength that bordered on uncomfortable. We followed Shadow as he led the way to Alpha Lorenze.
Everyone was still frozen in place. “Are they aware of what’s happening?” I asked, looking at the statue-like shifters.
“No,” Shadow said shortly. “At the moment, it’s as if they’re all asleep standing. But the alpha is about to find out what occurs when you piss me off.”
Bastard deserved that and more.
When we reached the bottom of the red carpet, Shadow didn’t hesitate to slam his fist into the alpha’s face. It was odd to see, since the frozen form didn’t move, but I couldn’t help but wince at what looked to be many crushed bones.
At first, I thought he’d just been hitting him for fun, but then I realized it was Shadow’s way of touching the shifter so he could sift through memories and thoughts. A swelling of power had my wolf reacting, and we almost howled again, but this time I managed to keep her locked down. Years of training were coming in handy, even if it did annoy my beast to no end.
“Can you read his thoughts?” Mera asked in a low voice.
Shadow shot her a look of disbelief, and I had to chuckle. They were funny together. I hadn’t expected that.
“His mind is a fucking mess,” Shadow said with a huff. “I’m wading through some depraved shit to get to anything of substance.”
“Always here to help,” Mera said with a wink in my direction. “But, seriously, take your time, love. It’s all good.”
A puff of flames and steam surrounded her briefly as he sent fiery power her way, but she just waved it off. Thankfully, since her arm was still through mine, she kept me from being fried. I couldn’t wave off fire like these two.
“He’s got your daughter held in a pack safe house in the forest,” Shadow murmured, his gaze shifting off into the distance as he probed the alpha’s mind. “She’d been there the entire time, hidden in plain sight. There’s usually about eight guards around her. He’s scared of you, Sam.”
That look of uneasiness the alpha had given me earlier today hadn’t been the first, but his hold over me was strong enough that I’d never made a move against him. “I’d have tried to kill him many times over the past couple of years if he wasn’t in control of my daughter’s health. My rage—” I cleared my throat “—my wolf’s rage was enough that I think we would have succeeded.”
“You can have the opportunity today, if you’d like,” Shadow said with a shrug. “His mind tells me that he’s beyond saving. Mera’s choice is generally to strip their wolves and make them human, but I support death as well.”
Mera hugged my arm a little tighter. “I think living as a human is a huge punishment, one that can go on for years, while killing them is so quick. You know?”
I examined her face, seeing the duality of personalities there. Part of Mera remained the shifter with empathy for others, while the goddess side was more vengeful. I wasn’t sure which path I’d take with the alpha; my only focus for the moment was on Tabitha.
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” I said. “I really just want to get to the safe house.”
“I’m starting to think this bastard’s mind is a mess for a reason,” Shadow said suddenly. “I never searched the other alpha’s mind before I torched him, but I wish now I’d taken the time. This doesn’t feel natural. It has a tinge of manipulation from another source.”
Mera released me to take a step forward. “Do you think someone is targeting shifters to get to you? Could this be more mental manipulation like Dani was so fond of?”
I expected Shadow to laugh that off. I knew that the packs weren’t always handled well, but Lorenze and Mera’s old alpha were the only ones I’d heard of being true psychopaths.
“We will find out soon enough,” Shadow told her. “The world appears to be giving us a small break at the moment. No life-or-death situat—”
“Whoa!” Mera all but shouted. “You can’t just put that out into the universe. Holy shit, Shadow. You’re going to bring the damn apocalypse down on our heads.”
This time he did laugh, a low husky sound that sent tingles down my spine. “The universe belongs to me. I’m not worried about what comes next.”
Mera didn’t look so convinced. “I’ll be sure to say I told you so when the time arises,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
Shadow’s expression lightened, but he didn’t speak again, spending the next few minutes probing into the stationary alpha’s mind. “Okay, Tabitha is easy enough to find,” he said, “but the only reference to her health is a bunch of stones that he appears to put under her bedding at night. They’re recharging her energy from what I can tell.”
That was it? Stones were keeping her alive.
Questions spilled from me. “What sort of stones? Can we just take the ones he has? What is it that stops her from aging and being healthy? The alpha told me that if he didn’t administer his cure, she’d start to weaken and lose life force. I assumed it was some sort of potion or elixir.”
I’d had years to go over every possibility. Stones hadn’t even made the list.
Had it been that simple all along? Once again, I’d screwed up and lost time with my precious daughter. Time I could never get back, but I could change it from today.
Today we would be free.