Glamoured (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 6)

Alpha Lorenze’s energy filled the room a beat before he entered himself. He was here to escort me down the path, and while I knew this was my duty, I didn’t move.

I’d been mentally preparing myself over the last few years, pushing away friends and shutting my emotions down, all so I could deal with this fucking moment. And yet… my feet wouldn’t move. Instead, I was overwhelmed with an urge to kill the alpha. Unfortunately, he was the only being with information I needed, so I could do nothing.

I’d spent a lot of time over the past year beating myself up for not talking with Mera.

Maybe she would have been able to help, but I didn’t trust the Shadow Beast not to just decide this was too big of a problem before wiping us from existence.

I didn’t trust male shifters period, and he was the fucking god of them.

“You better be making your peace with your life,” Alpha Lorenze spat from behind me. Clarity’s alpha was always growling, spitting, or rumbling. The stupid asshole never just spoke in a normal tone. Trying too hard to sound alpha was the weakest move of all.

“There’s no peace,” I murmured, giving my reflection one last look before turning to face him. “But I will not back out. You know that. You’ve kept me dangling here until your son was of age to be mated after his first shift. I know what my duty is, but once it’s done and you have your heir, you better keep your side of the bargain or I’ll rip your fucking head off and dance in the blood.”

My words were smooth, matter-of-factly. The alpha knew how I felt about him, so he didn’t even blink at the threat. It wasn’t the first I’d made toward him and wouldn’t be the last.

“First pup you produce, then you can have the mongrel. That’s the terms of our agreement. I want a powerful heir, and you’re the best chance for that.”

I shook my head with a sad sigh. “I was his brother’s mate, not his. I had to exist here watching him start a life with another while you refused to let me leave. What makes you think it’ll work any better with Grant—?”

His slap rocked my head back. My wolf roared up in my chest, snarling and raging to tear through this bastard, but somehow I managed to hold on to her before she forced our shift and destroyed the white dress.

“I waited for my fucking son to pull his head out of his ass,” Lorenze snarled. “I even released you from the pack in the hopes he would see what he was missing, and when he didn’t I killed him.” He had, the psychopath. “Grant is the same blood. The same. So the same mate will work. Now get your ass out there, and don’t forget to smile.”

My lips parted as the corners curved up, and he blinked. No doubt it wasn’t a nice smile, and he appeared a touch nervous as he backed away. I had no idea what he’d just seen in my face, but my eyes were burning as fury pulsed within me. The skin on my cheeks and neck was on fire, partly from the slap and partly from my wolf pushing forward.

I stepped from the tent onto the red carpet that lined the path toward where the pack had gathered. I could see them all below, and the rest of the scene was nothing short of magical—no expense had been spared for the alpha to be. The backdrop was lined in flowers and candles, lighting up the shadows cast by the forest, and to an outsider it would be the perfect romantic setting for a wedding. For me, it was akin to walking to the gallows.

No friendly faces turned my way. The pack used to think I was staying to keep them safe, since initially I’d negotiated their safety when I’d negotiated for everything else, but that had changed when the alpha’s insanity grew. I’d had to focus all of my attention in one area, which meant the pack went back to being the punching bag of an insane alpha.

If I could have saved them, I would have, but there was a being more vulnerable than all of them who needed me more.

Grant waited at the end of the red carpet alone. This might be a weird mashup of a human and shifter mating ceremonies, but they’d drawn the line at bridesmaids and groomsmen. Probably because I had no friends to fill those positions.

Two beautiful, laughing faces crossed my mind; my heart ached for Mera and Simone. We could have been true friends; I knew that as certainly as I knew that this was the worst day of my life. But, again, I couldn’t dwell on what might have been. I had to focus on what I could control now, and now… it was time to get mated.

Grant didn’t look any happier than me as I closed the distance between us. I was thankful my legs didn’t tremble as I stopped beside him, and we both faced Alpha Lorenze. There wasn’t a noise from the crowd behind, and it appeared that even the wildlife was in hiding, because the clearing was deadly silent until…

“We are gathered here today…” the alpha boomed—I swear this megalomaniac bastard wanted to be human with the ways he was emulating their ceremonies today. “…to celebrate the strong mating of my son, future-alpha of Clarity pack, Grant Patche, with his true mate, Samantha.”

The lies spilled so effortlessly from his lips.

My wolf raged at the falsehood of this bond, but I had her locked down hard enough that all she could do was cut her claws into the palms of my hands hanging uselessly at my side. I welcomed the pain so I could feel something other than sorrow. A quick glance down told me that the sides of my dress were spattered with red. It felt fitting that the purity of the white was already tainted. Just like this mate bond.

The alpha continued for a few minutes, speaking in raised roars about the strength of this pack, the alpha in this bloodline, and the brilliance of his future offspring.

“The Shadow Beast will cower before us on the day the next generation is born. We will command him,” he finished with a growl. His son and the rest of the pack howled, while I remained silent.

Command the Shadow Beast. He truly had lost all rational thought and reasoning. There was only one being who could possibly, on occasion, when she really worked for it, command that demon of darkness. And it sure as fuck wasn’t this pathetic alpha who couldn’t even protect his own pack from his lack of sanity.

When the howls died off, there was a cold change in the air, icy winds whipping around us in a sudden frenzy. I wasn’t the only one to glance up in time to see the sun’s strength fade under a sudden cover of clouds. What in the…? No natural storm could blow up that quickly.

The alpha didn’t care, his determination to mate us today his sole focus. “The next step, in the full moon tonight, is for my son’s first shift and the consummation of this bond.” He had to shout over the rumbling of the dark, ominous clouds. The winds picked up too, until leaves were flying around us. “Today, you will mark each other, and combine our bloodlines.”

I could barely hear him, but Grant was already moving, facing me with a determined look on his face. His first shift was tonight, hence the need for the ceremony today, but he had enough power to already partially shift his jaw to mark me on the shoulder. An ancient act between mates, which was in general no longer practiced.

The alpha wanted the bite and our later consummation in human and wolf form to take place in front of the entire pack. Old fucking pervert that he was. But I just had to get through this shit to save the most vulnerable little girl. I had to give myself up to the pain and shame, let it go, and move on with my life as best I could, knowing that Tabitha was safe.

One heir. That’s all I was obligated to provide, and then I was taking off for a new life.

“Shift, bitch,” the alpha commanded me.

The storm picked up its intensity, as a few chairs went flying past. The clearing was now so thick with forest debris I could hardly see the pack, but nothing was deterring Alpha Lorenze today.

When I tried to draw on my wolf, who’d been hovering under the surface of my skin all day, she refused to rise. Please, I begged, he will kill her. You know he will, and she’s our pup. We can’t let that happen. We are strong enough to withstand what she cannot.

My wolf was wild and untamed. She had been since I was very young, when I shifted long before my twenty-second birthday. I’d never told anyone, pretending my first shift was the solstice after I turned the age of shifter adulthood. The abnormalities in my life had never been broadcast and I wasn’t about to start now. I just had to hope my beast would bend for Tabitha.

The change started slowly, surging up from deep in my gut, bringing with it the icy energy that I associated with my wolf spirit. If I hadn’t known we were dark-furred with auburn undertones like my hair, I’d have expected she would be white, to match the ice in her veins.

The bones in my jaw finally cracked as wolfish features formed, including the sharper canines required for this part of the ceremony.

“Now!” Alpha Lorenze screamed.

Grant leaned over toward me, prepared to make first mark as was the alpha-to-be’s right. Somehow, I didn’t flinch away. Somehow, I didn’t slash my claws across his throat to rip his head from his shoulders. Just as I felt the first scrape and break of skin on my shoulder, the storm around us died in an instant, and Grant stopped moving.

Blinking, I looked between Lorenze and Grant, wondering what the fuck was happening.

They were both frozen, mouths partly open, Grant’s face still partially shifted. Sending my wolf back inside, her icy energy faded as I turned to take in the mess that was the rest of the pack and wedding zone. Only a couple of chairs and members hadn’t been blown away, and they too were frozen on the spot.

Who in the worlds had the power to stop a…?

I didn’t even finish that thought before it hit me suddenly. There was only one being who could do this. The Shadow Beast.

The Shadow Beast whose name had been invoked by the alpha right before the storm started.

Had he called him just in time to stop this ceremony from happening? And if so, where was he and would he have Mera with him?

I knew one thing for certain this time: Mera would not rest until she got the truth from me.

One way or another.

I just had to hope that the truth didn’t cost the most important being in the worlds to me.

My daughter.