“Where did you run? And why did you let us think you were dead?” Lara grated out. “That was mean. And it killed Mama something fierce.”

“Boo hoo,” was all Jana had to say to that. “I had no alternative, you stupid bitch. I had to make sure that, when the time came, I had people to back me up.”

“People? What people? All I saw back there were hyena shifters who were tearing into innocents while you watched on,” I shrieked, my hands were back to being balled fists again, only punching the air wasn’t satisfying enough. I wanted to be there, wanted to beat the ever-loving crap out of her.

Growling under my breath at the distance between us, I happened to glance at Choi, and saw that he’d edged away from Lara. I knew Jana’s attention was split between us, and her focus had to be minimal, considering she looked like an extra from the Rocky Horror Show with all those slices and tears in her skin, but I had to pray Choi had a plan. Something that’d keep Lara safe while stopping Jana from pulling stupid moves on her.

Nerves hit me then as I watched him, praying that she wouldn’t notice, but Jana was so far gone that Todd could have flashed her and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her hands started shaking as she shrieked at me, “The Lindowiczs. They’re my clan.”

“Your clan?” Lara countered with confusion. “You’re not a shifter. I’d see that in you if you were.”

Her mouth tightened. “No. I’m not. But females lead the clan, and my mate is from a strong line, so his power is mine. They accepted me because of my trust fund and my gift, but I worked my way up, made them trust me. Now, I have a position. A place. You won’t take that from me.”

I scowled at that. “You purposely went to the people I spent my whole life avoiding? Are you crazy?” I screamed, hopping around with rage by now, because fuck, if she’d wanted to marry one of them so goddamn badly, she could have, and our father might have left us alone!

“No, I’m not crazy,” she snarled. “I’m very sane. I’m just protecting myself. Giving myself a future.”

“You keep saying that, but the only person who’s endangering your present is you,” was Lara’s sage retort.

Jana’s hands trembled at that, the one on the trigger, and the one she’d stacked under the gun to hold it steady. “No. I’m not. I’ve been waiting for this to happen. I knew it would, I knew it would,” she rambled.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded.

Jana’s words were a whisper, loaded down with a terror that was genuine, as she repeated, “When she ascends to the moon and becomes the guardian of the past, your future will be no more.”

My brows rose at that. “Sorry to tell you this, Jana, but that sounds fucking crazy to me.”

“It isn’t,” Lara corrected, never taking her gaze from our other sister. “But it’s happened already, Jana. What are you going to do? Shoot me now you know?”

Jana’s head whipped from side to side. “No, it isn’t too late! I’d know if you’d ascended. I’d know,” she screamed.

“Apparently not, because you know shit. Just like always. You’d see the future, but it was never the whole picture, was it? You’d see a horse winning, but you’d never see that the horse might fall over and lose. You should have figured out by now that your visions weren’t infallible, because you’re not that talented. Your gift is true, strong, but it never took one thing into account.”

Jana trembled at that. “What?”

“Free will,” Lara breathed, and as she did, Choi shifted.

I’d never seen anything like it. He was sure as hell no wolf, but a kind of… My nose crinkled as I tried to figure out what the fuck I was looking at. It was big. Almost as large as a wolf, but its bones were smaller, a little daintier somehow. The snout was more pointed, and it was bright red with gold-tipped fur. More important than any of that?

The tails.

Yep, plural.

Not one, not even two. Not even five.

Nine.

Fucking nine.

I gaped at the sight, and so did Jana. Choi leaped forward, his intent clear, to bring her down, but as he went for her throat, as he started to tug it free from her skin, Jana had the last say.

She pulled the trigger.

And Lara’s screams would haunt me for the rest of my life.

Lara

“NO!”

The word seemed to reverberate around my head as I dealt with what my bitch sister had done, at what she’d—

Fuck, she couldn’t have just died, could she? No, that was too easy. Too kind.

She’d orchestrated her own ending, she’d brought it about, but why did she have to bring about the end of my mate too?

I scrabbled over to him, rushing and almost diving onto my knees as I turned him over. When I did, I saw the blood, saw the wound, and knew I had minutes with him.

Minutes.

Barely.

Would I die too?

The prospect of a world without him in it, though I’d only known him a couple of days, made that bearable. I didn’t want this, any of this, without him.

I had knowledge, so much of it in my head. Rolling around and around, over itself and under itself in my brain, ramming me and giving me a migraine that surpassed any other I’d ever endured, but it was nothing to the pain in my heart.

Putting pressure on the wound, I started sobbing, started bawling and watched as my tears dripped onto my panting mate’s belly. I peered up at the moon, trying to assimilate the knowledge I had, to figure out how to save him, but instead, I could only do one thing.

“Mother! Please help me! Kali Sara, please help!”

When I heard Sabina call out, “Please, Mother, help her! Please, Kali Sara, help her!” I wanted to sob with thanks, wanted to hug Sabina and bless her for her ever-generous spirit. She had to know that her mates were in danger, but she pleaded with the Mother for me. For my mate.

“What is it, child?”

The voice boomed in my head, and I knew where it came from—the moon.

It was still heavy and pendulant, still full, and its aura still weeping into the night sky.

I’d done that.

I’d stopped time to make the battle come to an end. I’d used it to call Jana out, to bring her forth, because I’d known she was behind it. But equally, I’d called Sabina out. That was by accident, but I should have known she was integral to the night’s proceedings.

Proceedings that had only taken place for one reason.

My ascension.

When Todd had made me choose, though I’d had no real idea of what I was getting myself into, I’d accepted his kiss.

Just the memory of his mouth on mine, delicate at first, soft nips that showed his teasing side, tender pecks here and there, little lashes of his tongue, all of it gentle and cherishing, had made me realize I was so much more to him than I could ever know.

I only recognized that now.

His kiss offered the fox marble, a bead of knowledge that I had to swallow. It had felt like I was deep-throating his balls, because that fox marble was pretty frickin’ big, but the way he’d started our first kiss?

Infinitely tender.

Filled with a loving adoration I’d never had in my life before, that I could never have known I’d experience.