“Thanks, Cade,” I muttered, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t talk to him even though that was the truth.

He’d made the offer and it was kind of him.

“You’re welcome, even though I know you won’t take me up on it.” He heaved a sigh. “You’re a dumbass, Knight. You have what millions of people the world over wish they had, but aren’t happy.”

My brow puckered. “That isn’t fair.”

He snorted. “Life isn’t fair.”

Grace hummed under her breath. “He’s right. Life isn’t fair, Knight.” She cast me a glance that, I had no idea why, drew all my nerve endings up tight.

It was cool.

Not loaded with the warmth I was used to.

Disinterested.

When she was never that way with me.

Discomforted, and unsure of what was going on, I wanted to argue. I knew things didn’t always have to turn out the way I wanted, I wasn’t asking for miracles, just a bit of peace, I guessed. Everything I had, everything I would gain in the future, it all came at a price.

I felt that price like the burden it was. Yes, I had mates, and I knew that made me lucky, but they weren’t simply a gift. They came at a price.

A price that might see me lose everything if we didn’t win.

Maybe I felt that more than they did because I was in touch with Daniel. They barely knew him. Hell, in all honesty, I didn’t know him that well, but he wasn’t a stranger to me like he was to them.

He’d known we were his mates before we’d even known what the term meant, but look at him? He was on the run. Mates were no good luck charm.

“You’re overthinking things,” Cade muttered, elbowing me in the side.

“Since when were you a mind reader?” I retorted grumpily.

“You only frown like that when you have to think.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know, I’m the dumb—”

“Enough!” The bark had both me and Cade freezing in place. Grace was used to the pair of us bickering and rarely said anything, but her hard tone had both of us turning still before, slowly, we turned to look at her.

Eyes bugging out as I took her in, I licked my lips, well aware that whatever was going on, wherever we were, it wasn’t a regular place.

“Grace?” Cade asked warily, and the brave little shit took a hesitant step forward toward her.

It always amazed me how big his balls were considering I doubted his hadn’t even dropped yet and that he’d never shifted. Of course, it was different for him. Kumiho, which he was, or would be when his grandfather passed over, had an unusual life path.

We’d had to lie to the packs and tell them that he’d had his covenant, but he hadn’t. I wasn’t even sure if kumiho had them at all.

Moving forward with him, we both reached her at the same time, and only when we touched her did she return to some semblance of normalcy. Her hair, locks that had been flying around her head like each strand had its own motor and could move of its own volition, her eyes, gleaming like the sun was shining onto the moon, her skin, glittering like she’d received a glitter bomb in the mail.

This wasn’t the first time we’d seen her do odd stuff, case in point tonight, but something this bizarre was definitely up there, especially when the book in her hands was no longer actually in her hands but floating a few centimeters above them, like it was magnetically attached to her.

When a low throbbing sound seemed to ping through the air, I wasn't altogether shocked when the book surged out of her grasp, and like a bird hovering in mid-flight, flew overhead. Just out of reach, but near enough to witness the magic that was unfolding.

The tome began to rotate, turning over and over, the pages flittering like a million butterflies, tiny speckles of glitter emanating from around it, creating a gassy aura that seemed to spread, wider and wider, surrounding us all in its path.

Cade and I gasped simultaneously as with an explosion of light, pages were torn from the book, destroying it from the inside out, each piece of paper disintegrating, like they’d been set alight, as if time was sped up and each sheet was nothing more than burning ashes before the flames even had a chance to appear.

I almost expected the wind to carry them away, to take them into the atmosphere here, wherever this heaven was, but it did and it didn't. The ashes didn't disappear, instead, they moved to Grace, swirling around her as if she was the epicenter of power, before it seemed to slam into her en masse.

One second, the book was flying above us, the next it was dust that collided with my mate.

Cade and I rushed over to her, our hands reaching out as we smoothed our fingers over her arms, her shoulders, her face. I touched her chin, her cheeks, smoothed my fingers over her hair, trying to ascertain if she was okay as I felt her skull, wondering what that explosion had done to her.

In my world, I was used to seeing unusual sights, but this took the cake.

Turning into a wolf was nothing in comparison to what I'd just witnessed.

We'd always known that Grace was special, that her destiny meant that she was fated for more. We'd always known, as well, that her brother was exactly the same. Except she was the good cop in the situation, and he was definitely the bad cop.

But, along the way, though she had revealed unusual traits to us, this was the first evidence I'd seen that she was Mother-blessed.

This place, the book, what just happened... It sent shivers down my spine.

Though talking to Ashley had been a strange rebellion of mine, a disloyal one I knew, something I had done to rage against the machine that was a pre-destined life plan, something I had no say in whatsoever, coming face-to-face with this, being here, it changed things. Made me see, with my own eyes, that I was a prick.

I was fortunate Grace couldn't remember what had happened before she'd fallen asleep, because I knew she would have taken the betrayal to heart. Unfortunately for me, Cade remembered, and he’d be a pain in my ass about it, and he would protect Grace for me for a long time to come as a result of my actions. I wasn't saying that I didn't deserve that, and I was glad he was protective toward her, but those had been the actions of a boy. No excuses, no bullshit.

I'd gone to bed a boy, a teenager. Perhaps not in my culture, because once we could shift, we were considered adults. At least, in a sense. It wasn't like we could fuck yet, make a family, or buy our own property. It was just a cultural thing.

But now, here, I knew Grace needed a man.

And it was about time I stepped up to the plate, stopped digging around, stopped wailing about a fate that made me fortunate enough to have a woman like this at my side, and took the bull by the horns.

We were here for a reason, and it felt as if that reason had just hit me smack in the face.

Two thousand miles away in Louisiana…

“It has begun.”

The shudder whispered along the priestess’ spine, sending gooseflesh along her nerve endings in a wave more furious than a tsunami.

She wasn’t the kind of woman who felt fear.

Neither did she experience anxiety.

She was a female who’d seen the worst humanity was capable of, who’d been touched by the Father and knew what true evil was.

The Mother.

This touch was Hers.

Hers.

A hiss escaped her, making her shoulders hunch, her back arch, as pain tangled with distress.