Glamoured (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 6)

Part of me wanted to pass out, but I also refused to on the chance my body decided to check out of this life. If I let myself fall into the darkness, maybe I wouldn’t be able to hold on as strongly—and I had to stay here for my daughter. No fucking way was I giving up one more second of time with her.

Shadow and Gaster were no longer visible to me. A sheen of white surrounded my body, and at some point I must have thrown up on myself; the scent of vomit permeated the air.

There was just so much pain. And burning. And screams.

When I’d almost exhausted my strength to hold on to consciousness, darkness hovering at the edge of my vision, I felt a brush of icy energy against my senses. It felt like my wolf, but a million times stronger. It washed across the pain, and my chest heaved as I sucked in air.

For the first time since this started, I was able to fill my lungs fully, and the urge to vomit again faded. I had no idea what or who was helping me, but I was beyond grateful for the mild reprieve.

Shadow’s voice cut through my cage, and I could make out his words clearly this time. “Len is here.”

Len was here? The fae friend who might be able to help with Tabitha? I was sure I’d met him before, or at least been in the same room, but I couldn’t recall anything about him. Was it his power that felt like an icy balm over my pain? Almost as if he’d inserted a barrier between me and Gaster’s hacking into my brain.

Speaking of…

“I cannot break her block,” the goblin said. “It would break her mind. We should wait for Len to physically arrive, since he’s apparently sent his energy through first.”

First. So it was his power protecting me from the pain. But why?

“Agreed.”

Shadow and Gaster withdrew their energy, and with it the ice faded. My chest grew tighter at the loss, and I tried not to mourn what wasn’t mine to keep. Len. The name continued to swirl in my mind, but I couldn’t place the face that went with it.

Even without a face, I’d know his energy and power anywhere now—the sanity I’d clung to in a sea of pain.

As more lucidity returned, I managed to pull myself up into a sitting position, grimacing at the sight of my clothing. The vomit-strewn wedding dress was now destroyed beyond repair. I couldn’t think of a better outcome for the outfit.

Just as Gaster moved forward, looking as if he was about to help me up, a blast of icy air cut through the room, dulling the heat from the fireplace. My pulse spiked in the same instant the power wrapped around me, just as it had when I was near dying.

“Gaster,” Shadow said in a rumble of his own fiery power. “Get out of here. I’m not sure what’s happening with Len, but I need you to protect the library.”

The goblin was gone before I could blink, as a possible danger in his library drove him to new speed.

“Is Len dangerous?” I asked, still not quite able to get to my feet. My limbs were taking their sweet-ass time coming back on board, my shifter healing slower than usual. Or maybe the damage was just greater than I’d suspected.

“Yes,” Shadow replied. “But generally not to us. Something has triggered his fury.”

He shot me a long, dragging sort of look, like I’d been the one to piss off the powerful fae. Deciding it was best not to mention the soothing energy that had saved me before, I just crossed my arms and eyeballed the beast back. I might be on the floor in a vulnerable position, but that big bastard wasn’t going to intimidate me again.

This was his damn friend on the way, and it had nothing to do with me.

Right? Right.

Shadow’s gaze was pulled from me as the energy grew stronger, and as he shifted his position in front of the couch, guarding the babies, he also created a glimmering energy shield around them. How powerful was this fae that the fucking Shadow Beast was taking precautions against him?

A blast of cold shocked me, as small particles of ice appeared in the air around us. “Will the girls be safe?” I called, my legs refusing to hold my weight.

“I will protect them with my life,” Shadow reminded me, and I once again decided to trust in him.

“What do you need me to do?” I said, wobbling around like a newborn pup. The toll the spell had taken on my body was debilitating. It was really the last thing I needed when some super-powered fae was busting the library down.

“Just stay still and quiet,” Shadow murmured. “Let me deal with him.”

“Are you actually worried?”

A smoky laugh was his only response, and it did somewhat calm my panic.

Len was one of his brothers, and whatever was causing the upset in his power, surely it wasn’t directed at Shadow. Or me. There had to be a reasonable explanation.

“Brace yourself,” Shadow warned a second before the light grew so bright in the room that I was blinded. Deciding that I had to do something, I half stumbled, and half dragged myself closer to the couch, determined to get between Len and the babies. Shadow’s shield was amazing, but I had to do my part as well. As a mother, I stood between my child and danger. Always.

Alpha Lorenze had taken that from me for too long. It would never happen again.

Unable to see my daughter, I could thankfully feel her energy, and it drew me in her direction. Everyone else might think she was a dead spot, but to me she was a beacon so much brighter than even the light saturating this room. When I hit the couch, Shadow’s rumble rocked the room. The floor shook beneath me, and I would have fallen on my face if the cushions weren’t there to prop me up.

“Brother,” Shadow rumbled harder. “We are beyond blood, you know that, but you better have a fucking good explanation for bringing this sort of power into my library. Around my daughter and mate.”

There was a brief pause, and then a raging snarl as a deep, lyrical tone unfurled around us. “You hurt what’s mine. Brother or not, you had to know this was coming.”

Len’s beautiful voice vibrated through me, starting from the top of my head to settle as a deep burning heat in my center, burning in a vastly different way to the pain from Gaster before.

Branding. Claiming.

In mere seconds, I’d been broken down and rebuilt.

And something told me my life would never be the same again.