Shadow Kissed (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 4)

As it turned out, the four-hour trip was longer than I could’ve possibly imagined because Casey didn’t stop talking.

He’d spent the last decade messing with our business and manufacturing wolfsbane, and now, I couldn’t get him out of my car. His incessant questions had my blood pressure soaring, and I had to dig my claws into the steering wheel to keep calm. With the gas pedal pressed to the floor, I uttered a small prayer to the moon mother for patience as each mile marker flew by.

Sitting in the back middle spot, Casey leaned forward between our seats. “So, okay, I’m still wrapping my head around this whole mates thing.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore, Casey,” Savannah moaned.

“What would happen,” he continued, completely unfazed, “if you got pregnant? Would you have babies or puppies?”

I spun around. “Why, for the sake of the fates, are you here?”

Casey leaned back and tucked his hands behind his head, and I turned to the road. “I’m not letting my favorite cousin face a dead witch without magical backup. What if the old specter goes off the rails? No way I’m letting Savy get possessed.”

“Too late.” Savannah sighed. “I’ve already been possessed, just not by her.”

“What? Really?”

“It was Dragan,” she spat. “He was a fucking asshole.”

“Wow. Okay, this is all news. Either way, I’m not letting my cousin get possessed again,” he grumbled. “What I don’t get is why all this is such an emergency. Dragan’s dead. You obliterated his soul. Then, according to Mom, you just panicked and ran off.”

Savannah bit her lip, and I shook my head subtly.

“You guys aren’t telling me something,” Casey said in a suspicious sing-song.

“It’s nothing,” I muttered. “Let’s just focus on the—”

“I’m the herald of the apocalypse,” Savannah blurted, and darkness crowded in around my vision.

“What?” Casey yelped.

“This is wolf business,” I growled. “Stay out of it.”

But Savannah turned her fiery eyes on me. “I’m a wolf, he’s my cousin, and the rest of my family are going to be dead if we don’t stop what’s coming. So frankly, wolf business is everybody’s business right now.”

“Holy shit…are you serious?” Casey squeaked.

My claws extended fully into the wheel. “She is not the herald of the apocalypse.”

“The werewolves have a prophecy,” Savannah told Casey. “A twin-soul—me—will make a sacrifice that releases the Dark Wolf God. Apparently, obliterating Dragan’s soul counted as that sacrifice. I know that because the Dark God literally told me himself. We have a little less than six days until he returns, and when he does, he’s going to spread madness among the living and wipe human civilization off the map.”

Casey grabbed the seat backs. “Fuck. Prophecy be damned, but if you have a psycho-murderous wolf god speaking to you, we’ve got to tell Mom and the Order, ASAP!”

I slammed on the brakes and jerked the truck to the side of the road as my fury boiled over at last. Casey screamed, and Savy clung to my arm for dear life.

When the truck finally rumbled to a stop, I turned around and let my presence fill the cab. “You will not speak a word of this to anyone. Prophecies are unreliable. We thought Dragan would be the one to release the Dark God, so we took the bastard out. If the wrong person hears of this and puts two and two together, they might decide to do the same thing to Savy.”

Casey sank down into his seat. “Oh, fuck.”

Savannah looked out the window. Her raging emotions vibrated through the air—despair, terror, fury. I wanted to comfort her, but I had to lock this down, once and for all.

I let my eyes go brilliant gold as I pressed Casey with my full power. “You’ll tell no one until we understand what’s going on. Got it, LaSalle?”

He swallowed hard. “Got it. I’ll be as silent as the grave. I promise.”

“Good,” I said, pulling back onto the highway. “You start now. For the rest of the drive.”