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I inhaled. The sand felt like embers in my lungs, but I barely felt it. All I could think was that Cosette was in danger, and I had to get to her. But I was in the Sahara, thousands of miles away.
The shift started deep in my soul. Fur rippled along my skin as I battled for control. The human side of me wanted to ask Eli questions, but the wolf didn’t give a shit. He wanted to fight and he was more than happy to have a go with Eli.
Pain drove me to the ground and it felt like every muscle in my body was ripping and tearing and reforming into its new shape. The wolf was clawing its way free, driven by his need to find her—to get to her—to be with her no matter the cost, no matter how impossible it was—and it hit me in that moment as I screamed in pain what an idiot I was.
Only one thing could make my wolf this powerful. And with that realization, I was able to take control again. My body slid back to its fully human state, and I lay flat on the ground, trying to catch my breath.
“You done?” Eli sounded bored, but he could be bored. I was in the middle of a fucking revelation.
I’d thought I could get over Cosette with a little distance, a little distraction, but nothing was going to change what I felt for her. It was way too late for that.
Cosette was my mate. My mate.
The bond between us was tiny and weak and unacknowledged, but I could feel it now. So fragile. So, so faint. I hadn’t noticed it, but my wolf knew. He fucking knew. That’s why he was going to claim her this morning.
Shit. I slammed my fist into the sand next to me, sending the grains flying through the air. I needed to track her down, and that meant going back to where I’d seen her last. I stood from where I’d fallen, sand raining down from my clothes. “Take me back to campus now.”
“I will if that’s what you want, but she’s not there. She left as soon as you did.”
I willed myself to hold on to my shit while I figured out what the hell Eli was saying. “She’s not there?”
“No.”
“Then take me to wherever she is.”
“No. She’s at the Lunar Court. There’s no way I’m taking you there.”
Fur rippled along my skin as I closed the distance between us, ready to tear his throat out if he didn’t tell me what I needed to hear. “Is she okay?”
“So dramatic.”
I growled and he rolled his eyes, effectively taunting my wolf even more.
“She’s alive, for now. But she won’t be for long if you don’t keep heading east.”
I paced away from him for a few steps so that I could think. I knew she didn’t like being at court, but she never told me why. It never occurred to me that it was dangerous. Her mother is the queen and she had Van and a ton of other guards to protect her. She should’ve been fine. Something had to have gone wrong.
“Something has go
ne wrong.” Eli was reading my mind again, but this time I didn’t care. I wanted the answer. “The Lunar Court is destabilizing, and there’s been a hefty reward for Cosette’s head. One that’s too tempting for them to ignore.”
Motherfucker. “Then you should’ve grabbed Tessa or Dastien or someone Alpha.” I hated that I had to say it, but it was the truth. Even if it burned in my gut hotter than the fires of Hell. I was alpha—little a. Little power. “I won’t survive there. I’ll be a slave. Worse than a slave. I’d be no help to her and she can’t—”
“Not if you go to the Court of Gales first and gain more power. Or—more accurately—alter your tie to the moon.”
Everything stopped—the wind, the heat, the feeling of exhaustion that had been beating through every muscle in my body—and all I could hear were his words echoing in my mind.
Someone in the Court of Gales could change my lunar tie?
This was huge. Mind-blowing. Seemingly impossible.
But if it were true, then Eli wasn’t just going to help me save Cosette’s life. He was offering me a chance to have a future with my mate. I would be able to survive in the Lunar Court without fear of being controlled.
No. There had to be a catch. Power always came with a cost, and that level of magic—untying my werewolf from its link to the moon? That was a sell-your-soul kind of bargain.
“If it gives you a shot at being with Cosette, what price wouldn’t you pay?”
My annoyance at Eli and his shitty, patronizing tone hit me first, but was quickly obliterated by complete and all-consuming fear. Fear that made my vision speckle and gray and narrow until my knees grew weak, and I knew if I didn’t get air into my lungs soon, I wasn’t going to stay upright for much longer. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t fucking believe I was considering entering the Court of Gales alone.
