AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Both Diego and Tyr got me in different ways. I would be happy with either of them.
I skipped another rock, this one jumping three times as well.
You can be happy with both of them.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Aya’s suggestion to choose them both plagued me. It was such a tempting… selfish option. My gut clenched as guilt from my past life surfaced.
I’d gone through this before, with Baldur. I tried so hard to ignore how he made me feel because I was married to Tyr. I wanted to stay true to my vow.
And yet, Tyr didn’t mind.
He wasn’t oblivious to my interactions with Baldur, and yet he never stopped it. He never seemed to mind that I loved him and had eyes for another.Maybe it wasn’t a problem, and neither of us knew how to discuss it then.
I stared at the new rock in my hand. Maybe it wasn’t a problem now. Would they consider the option? Could I handle balancing both of them, and possibly be okay with them eventually seeking companionship elsewhere as well, so it was fair?
A gust of wind blew through the forest, rustling the leaves of the trees. I lifted my gaze and glanced around.Why am I at the lake?
Tension twisted up my spine, my senses screaming. Something wasn’t right. If I learned anything from my training with Kirby, it was to trust my instincts. It understood things I didn’t yet.
And I was outside the magic barrier.
I jerked my attention to the woods when a twig snapped. I gasped at the sight of the large shadow approaching.
I stepped back.
And another step.
Three more.
The trees shuddered again, as if angry, and the shadow emerged.
My heart raced into my throat and my instincts screamed for me to run, but also to fight. The conflict frazzled my mind as the black wolf prowled toward me.
He was huge, but not as large as Fen, maybe half the size, and his frame was slimmer, less muscular. There was a feeling of emaciation or sickness about him. A large scar cut across his face, and in my frayed state, I remembered Tyr telling me he had attacked the wolf shifter that had killed me.It’s the same mark Diego saw in that vision last night.
The wolf’s golden eyes pinned on me, and his lips pulled back, showing off his terrifying toothy maw as he chuckled.“The pretty little witch is all alone, with no one to protect her… again.”
His words hit my mind and ears in the same way Fen’s did when he spoke in his wolf shape. The sensation, normally only strange to experience, grated on my panicking brain.
I scrabbled backward, my breath hitching and pulse racing to the point of pain in my chest. My throat throbbed as memories and phantom sensations of my deaths surfaced.It’s him.
My heel caught on something and I fell backward, crashing to the ground. My body shook and fought to lock up as I tried to get away. The wolf prowled closer, chuckling more and taking pleasure in my fear.
Everything I’d trained for these last two weeks,poof, gone. I couldn’t remember a damned thing. I could only focus on the shifter that had killed me as he prowled closer to repeat the past.
He snarled and lunged. I screamed and threw my hands up, my eyes clamping shut. Power exploded out of me and I heard athud. I peeked through my lashes, finding the shifter recovering from being thrown back.
The wolf shook his head and chuckled again, licking his chops. The sound grated on my senses.“Looks like you’re going to be fun this time.”
I swallowed and desperately tried to consciously draw up my magic—to summon my wings and armor—hell, to remember how to fucking run. Something!
The shifter’s paws dug into the earth, and he came at me again. I panted and panicked. A black blur flashed in my periphery and then my brain registered barking and snarling.Angel?
I watched Angel lunge at the large wolf, teeth bared, and making the most aggressive sounds I’d ever heard from her in my life. She snapped her teeth at the shifter’s face. The shifter snarled and backed up, whipping his head back and forth, trying to follow the smaller dog.
My heart leapt into my throat when he snapped his massive teeth at her. Fen was always gentle when he took on his wolf form to play with Angel, but this wolf was not Fen. He’d kill Angel without a second thought.
My familiar deftly darted under him and went for his feet before lunging for his throat. The wolf howled and thrashed when she latched on. He wrenched free, throwing Angel to the ground—hard.
