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Prologue
Erik
Battle raged all around us. Valentina and her friends were doing well. Dean had stepped into this personal vendetta against Valentina and Onyx, but they now had a team behind them—willing to fight beside them. Shifters of all kinds. Vampires. All of us were sick and tired of Dean and his bullshit.
“Erik.” The past spoke to me, freezing me in place. No matter how many lifetimes or centuries passed in my life, that one voice could coax me from the depths.
“Diana,” I said, falling to my knees. I had always bowed before her presence, not because of her goddess-like nature, but the force of my love for her was that powerful. I worshipped at her throne—even after she abandoned me. “Is it truly you, or have I died?”
“It is me, my love.” Her voice was a whisper but I heard it clearly.
“My love? How can you call me that when you abandoned me?”
She was everything I remembered. Long hair. Even the dress. It was as though her form was frozen in time. “Abandoned you? You know better, Erik.”
“I do not. I came home from feeding and there was no trace of you. No trace. You left me with nothing.”
Diana floated over. Her feet never touched the ground. There was a pink haze all around her, glittering but thick. It was her power, tethered to her like an aura. “I never left you, Erik. I was taken from you. There’s a difference.” Her hands reached out to touch me but there was no contact. She was a ghost, after all.
“Who took you? How?” Desperation laced my voice. My mate’s disappearance was a mystery that had never ceased to fill me with pain and regret. The memory of that day throbbed in my head, a migraine that lasted forever.
“I was murdered. When I went to the market. It was murder, my love. Erik…I have to help Valentina. After maybe…just know that I would never leave you. You have always been the one my soul wanted. I…she needs me. I must go.”
I didn’t miss the irony of her telling me she would never leave me and then she did just that, abandoning me for battle. But she was right. We had to finish this not only for our friends but for the good of the city and maybe the world.
Dean was a menace that needed to end.
Chapter One
Onyx
“It’s…red,” Raven said, sitting on the edge of the bed while Asher sat on the trunk that held our blankets and throws, not that we needed them. We generally nestled together in the same California king, leaving the need for extra warmth null.
I looked down at the monstrosity Valentina had convinced me to buy. A dress with a hem swishing along my ankles while the neckline plunged all the way to my navel. It was sexy, even I would admit that, but was it fit for a formal party with Asher’s high-society wolf-shifter family?
I had not a fucking clue.
“Oh?” I looked down and took the delicate skirt in one hand. “It is? I thought it was silver all this time.”
“Let’s not get into a sarcasm fight again. The last one was exhausting.” Raven stood up and came over to assess me, walking around and around my form and making me feel like prey. “I prefer you in royal blue but I understand this is a holiday-themed ball. Asher? What do you think of this gorgeous female in red?”
Asher had been staring the entire time. Without him saying, I already knew what he was thinking, and it had nothing to do with dances or the holiday and more about the bed behind him.
“I think Onyx looks sexier than ever in that dress but I don’t want her to wear it.”
I gasped. Before being mated, I hadn’t given two rhino’s asses what anyone thought of me, my choices, and certainly not my fashion sense, but now, I had these two in my life, and their opinions mattered. “Is it too much? This?” The gentle curvature of the bottom of each breast was visible even though there was a sheer fabric between that technically covered the slits. Asher’s parents were a bit conservative but I kind of liked this dress on me. It was feminine yet made me feel powerful in my own skin, which I was—powerful.
“No. It’s just enough, mate.”
I threw my arms up and let them fall against my thighs. “Then what? That’s it. I’m not going.”
One red dress and a ball in the future, and I sounded like a fucking debutante.
“I’m just…” Asher stood and came to stand next to Raven. They slipped their arms around each other’s waists while Raven reached out to touch the satin at my waist. “I’m not pleased about everyone at that party seeing what’s mine. What’s ours. We’re going to have to fight them off, aren’t we, Rave?”
“For sure.”
Scoffing, I whirled to look in our floor-to-ceiling mirror. I had to admit, I did love it. “No one’s going to look at me anyway, but, if they do, I’m hoping to have one of you nearby. It’s Raven’s turn to show us her dresses.”
