Sweat drenched my skin as my pulse vibrated in my ears. Snow swallowed my boots, making my gait slow and clumsy. I dodged trees, ignoring the branches snagging my clothes and hair. I pumped my arms.

  A roar from my right, and I veered in that direction. Up ahead, dark shapes bounced about. A newfound energy exploded within me and raced toward them. My feet kept slipping outward, but nothing would stop me.

  Fail and we all paid the price.

  I cried on the inside. Begging Talin to stop. Where the fuck had Rek come from, anyway? Why had he crossed our path? But he knew where the cursed object was, so I could convince him to tell us where he’d hidden the item. We’d break the hex tonight. Then we’d return to the castle, laugh at the close call, and breathe normally for a change.

  “Raze, hold Talin back!” I yelled.

  The shadows dissolved into the night, and I emerged on the scene, my pulse hammering into my breastbone.

  He lugged Talin away by an arm. Raze’s cloak fluttered behind him, as if the wind aided him.

  Rek was in bear form, dragging himself in the opposite direction. His legs lay limp, and wounds riddled his brown coat.

  Talin growled, blood dripping from his lips.

  My feet were glued to the ground and terror shacked me. Tingles filled my muscles with the urgency to run and help Raze.

  “Bee,” Raze growled, “I can’t hold on.” His body shimmied with the telltale sign of the change coming.

  Ice daggers pierced my chest. Darkness slinked through me as well.

  “Hold him!” I couldn’t stop shaking. This was my nightmare, facing off with bear shifters or unleashing my evil side if this didn’t work.

  Raze’s arms trembled, but he snarled and hauled his brother farther backward.

  I scrambled after them.

  Except Talin turned and catapulted himself at Raze, bellowing.

  Raze’s face paled, his eyes widening with horror.

  The pair crashed into a tree. Talin’s mouth latched on to Raze’s shoulder.

  I screamed.

  Raze growled, his face distorted with torture, his menacing eyes blazing with rage.

  Instinct took over, and I swiped a branch off the ground, then closed the distance between us. I brought the weapon down across Talin’s head. The sudden release of pressure had the stick cracking in half.

  I shuddered, my gaze swinging left and right as I searched for something to defend myself with. My mind drowned in the horrible death coming my way and a strangled cry rolled from my throat.

  Talin flinched, staggering on all fours at first, shaking his head. His brother grimaced and pushed himself to his knees, yet he swayed on the spot.

  “Raze, get up,” I bellowed and bent over, patting for my pouch in my boots. Nothing there. Shit! I must have dropped the herbs.

  Talin’s jerky movements had me retreating, but he pivoted toward Rek and charged with a mighty growl.

  At first, I hesitated, torn between being scared out of my head and confronting a savage Talin. I burst after him. “Talin! Please, don’t do this.”

  The moment he crashed against Rek, his claws tore at his cousin’s throat, so fast and deep, red splattered the snow and trees.

  I halted, a hollowness swallowing me whole. Our efforts lost. Wasted.

  Rek slumped in the snow as his body shook and changed form back into a human.

  The world tilted beneath me from our poisonous predicament. I yelled from pure frustration, the hopelessness, the rage burning me up from the inside out. I stood unmoving. My life had become one twisted pile of knots.

  And yet Lilita was in my head, howling with laughter.

  Talin snapped in my direction, his mouth gaping open, blood staining his teeth and chin. No humanity was left in his cold, wild eyes.

  Shivers climbed my spine.

  Talin had killed his cousin.

  Did that mean all-out warfare? Worse yet, I had no way of finding out what object he’d used for the curse. And to top things off, the slicing ache of Lilita shoving herself forward pierced through me.

  In a flash, Raze darted up behind Talin and whacked him in the head with a huge rock. Raze’s eyes rolled upward as he fell to his knees, then face-planted into the snow. Raze tossed the stone aside and pushed his brother onto his back, still in his mid-transformation form.

  “Shit! Is he going to be okay?” My words shook, and grief tore me apart. Rek was dead and so was our chance to find out from him the location of the cursed object that could break the spell. Anguish surged forward, and tears flooded my cheeks.

  Raze joined me, and his skin twitched as his eyes glazed over. Blood tainted the corner of his mouth. Before I could say a word, he had me in his arms, our mouths plastered together. And goddess forgive me, but even surrounded by death and chaos, falling beneath Raze’s passion undid me.

  He clenched my hair in his fists, tilting my chin up as he drove me up against a tree. His hardness pressed into my lower abdomen, grinding against my stomach, and I mewled. A growl thundered in his chest.

  His tongue surged into my mouth, and I tasted something coppery, metallic. Blood. His along with mine.

  In that same moment, a spark of energy rattled me at the core, and threads of energy zipped down my flesh like hundreds of blades cutting into me. Raze flinched against me.

  A calmness flooded me. Lilita disappeared within an instant, along with her echoing screams.

  Raze broke free, gasping for air. “Did you feel that?”

  I gulped for air. “There’s magic in the air, and it’s affecting all of us.”

  “It’s eradicated every urge from my bear. Your earlier kisses pushed him aside, but not like this.”

  So maybe I’d been wrong, and the connection wasn’t sexual but linked to our blood? I gasped for air, struggling to understand how this worked. What could I do to save the princes? It felt as if the answer stared me right in the face, but I was blind to it.

  Raze kissed my nose. “If we ever get out of this, I promise you I will never leave you. I want you like no other, and it’s not just the lure of the curse, but to do something other than running for our lives. To show you how beautiful White Peak is, and that it’s not all danger and gloom. To take you around realm. To make love to you at every exquisite place we find.”

  “How can you say that, Raze?” I cried. My emotions turn ragged and my insides constricted. “You’re a prince. I’m a nobody who only brought death to your doors.”

  His brow pinched together. “Do you care for me? Do you want a future together?”

  I nodded, my throat thickening, and all I craved was to crawl into his embrace, or any of the princes, and forget myself. But when I looked over at Talin, my heart broke. Like the other brothers, he’d touched me, showing me that beneath the insanity of their predicament, he was a shifter who wanted peace for his people. And I couldn’t deny my attraction to each brother equally, yet for such different reasons.

  “Each one of you means the world to me.” I hiccupped on my breath. “But this isn’t the place to talk about emotions.”

  I pulled free from Raze’s hold and moved to Talin’s side. “What are we going to do about Rek? And we need to get Talin warm before he freezes to death.” But before Raze responded, I wiped the blood from Talin’s lips with a thumb, assuming it was from Rek.

  I recalled the way the coppery tang on Raze’s tongue had shoved Lilita into her place. And that got me curious. The curse had bound us, connected us, so what if… I touched the open wound on Talin’s collarbone. Red dripped down my hand. I sucked on my finger. A metallic and salty taste coated my mouth.

  Without waiting, I bent over on my knees and kissed Talin. Immediately, the energy crackled across my skin. Leaving me shaking as if lightning had struck me.

  Talin’s body morphed into his human form, his shirt shredded and only the collar barely hung on him.

  “How did you do that?” Raze lifted his brother into his arms.

  “I think we’re all connected through blood. And it keeps our dark sides away.” Just as our intimacy did, but I also suspected my blood was needed for the exchange.

  “Fuck. That’s great, right? How can we use it against the curse?”

  My voice faltered, and I ached all over from exhaustion. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Well, let’s leave before anyone finds Rek dead. We’ll say he attacked Talin first, but we have more pressing problems.”

  Raze walked away from Rek without a look back.

  Drawing on my last bit of strength, I reminded myself tomorrow was the full moon. We’d lost the chance to save ourselves, but I’d discovered new things, like how tasting our blood pushed aside our curse. Now to determine how I could use that to help us survive the full moon tomorrow night when the curse would kill the princes.

  “Quick,” Raze said, speed-walking, his brother slumped in his arms.

  I dredged onward in the snow, trying to rack my brain for a blood spell. I blinked hard as dizziness flooded me. Back on my feet, I pressed on, my breathing labored as fatigue pulled at my every step.

  Despite the ugliness of what Rek had done to the princes, part of me hated that we’d left him there without a burial or at least bringing him to his family—we’d left his mistress’s newborn child without a father. Albeit, he was a father who scarified people, so perhaps it was for the best.

  The night carried a heavy coldness. At the edge of the woods, I stared at the manor’s front gates in the distance, hidden by shadows. Being so close to the place left me itching to run in the opposite direction. No guard manned the front door. Were they in the forest searching for us?

  I scanned the surrounding yard, the building, the woods.

  “Where’s our carriage?” I asked.

  Raze set down the unconscious Talin, propping him up against a tree. “Stay with him. I’ll collect it.”

  “You have a massive bite mark on your neck. And blood everywhere on your body. How will you explain that?”

  He checked his injury, as if just noticing his wounds. He pulled off the cloak he miraculously still wore, folded it longwise, and flung it over the bite mark on his shoulder and under his arm like a bandage. The rest of him was completely naked.

  “Better?” Nerves danced beneath his voice.

  “Sure. If you’re going for the sexy injured look.” I cleaned the splashes of blood across his cheek and chin with my hand. “Please be quick and careful.”

  With a smile and a quick kiss that heated me, he darted toward the house.

  Kneeling in the snow next to Talin, who was still in half-bear, half-human form, breathing heavily and out of it. I rubbed his arms to keep the circulation going. “We’ll find a solution. No real idea how.” Staring into the forest from the direction we’d come, I sent my prayers to Rek’s family. To his mistress, Gwenth, and their newborn child, who hopefully wouldn’t be tossed out of the manor. Goddess, please send them protection.

  I waited for what seemed like an eternity, shivering not just from the cold, but from the idea that anyone who found Rek would raise the alarm. Would they blame the princes? Though, as Raze said, how could they prove who’d killed him?

  As heartless as it sounded, my worries revolved around the dangers we all still faced as the full moon approached.

  When the familiar clip-clop rhythm of hoofs hitting the ground found me, I jerked to my feet, finding the black carriage passing the gates and leaving behind the manor.

  “Oh, damn.” My nerves twitched. He’d done it.

  By the time Raze reached us, his face blanked. “We have to leave now. They’re sending out a search party for Rek.”

  I trembled and rushed to open the door. Raze carried Talin inside and set him down on a seat.

  “Get in,” Raze insisted as he jumped out. “I’ll be out front to steer the horses out of here and fast.” And just like that, my pulse jackhammered once again. I climbed inside the carriage. As soon as Raze shut the door behind us, we lurched forward, the rapid movement throwing me flat against my seat.

  Chapter 23

  Talin slept inside the carriage, unconscious, and in his human form. We’d covered him with two blankets for warmth. In the opposite seat, I curled up, my head in Raze’s lap as he stroked my hair. His softness calmed me. We’d left behind the duchy once ruled by the duke.

  “Who would look after that manor now, with Rek dead?” I asked out of curiosity.

  “He has a younger cousin who will step into the role.”

  “Do you think Ash and Leven are all right?” I wasn’t ready to face additional terrible possibilities. Sleep tugged on my mind, and even the smallest thing seemed difficult.

  “They’re resilient, and I prayed they are safe. When we changed, they would have transformed as well, and the curse would have driven them to bolt back to the castle.” His tone darkened.

  “I hope you’re right.” I swallowed past my dry throat. “We lost the chance to break the curse.” Anguish burrowed through me. “Rek would have stashed the cursed object it in a private location. And with him now dead, I doubt we’d have the chance to scour the manor for secret compartments.”

  Talin still hadn’t snapped out of his state or stir. How hard had Raze hit him across the head. Goddess, please aid his fast recovery, and I pictured an invisible white bubble around him, sending him healing energies.

  “It never occurred to me that Rek would bring a voodoo witch from Tritonia. I assumed someone local practiced dark magic.”

  “Rek was a fuckwit and let jealousy drive him to madness. He used to joke that if Talin didn’t find a wife soon, he might challenge us for the throne. His father had always loathed our parents. He loved our mother and could never forgive losing her to our father.” Raze sighed. “My dad would tell us that a kingdom will fall if all families are not in unison.”

  “There’s always a relative who stirs problems, causes heartache for others.” With only Dad and me left, I was lucky not to have that problem. But most of my friends had troublemakers in their families.

  “True, but I think what my father had in mind was that despite squabbles, the king would bring all the other three dukes under the same direction. To provide a better life for all bear shifters in White Peak. Not that we’d squabble amongst ourselves for higher-ranked positions.”

  “Your father and I would have gotten along well.”

  Silence fell over us. We jolted about with every pothole we crossed over. Raze raked his fingers through my hair. Heaviness tugged on my eyelids.

  I bathed in their company. Where Raze’s caring nature showed, where Talin wasn’t trying to eat someone.

  The world softened beneath me, and I startled awake. I opened my eyes and stared into Raze’s smiling face. Behind him lay the fishnet material covering the four-poster bed I’d slept in the first night I’d arrived at the castle.

  “How did I get here? Where’s Talin? What about Ash and Leven?” Night still cloaked the sky outside, and I must have been in deep sleep to not feel Raze carrying me indoors.

  “It’s all fine. Talin is in his bedroom, stirring. I found the other two had crashed from exhaustion in the library. Ash loves that room, even when he’s under a curse, it seems. So I carried them both and locked them in the cage. I worry they’ll fight, but not as if I had any other option.” Raze chuckled, his eyes creasing at the edges, and his fingers stroked my cheek. “It’s late. Tomorrow will be long. Good night.”

  He pulled away, but I leaned the side of my face against his hand, kissing his palm. “Don’t leave, please.” After the insane day we’d had, I yearned to be held and forget how close we’d been to breaking the curse. I cringed because it felt as if we were starting from the beginning again.

  Raze nodded without a hint of hesitation. “Move over.” He kicked off his boots and took off his shirt.

  An orange glow from the fireplace lit up his layers of muscles, which had me chewing on my lower lip. I unbuttoned my coat and shuffled my arms out of it. My dress had dried, even if was torn at the hems, but I didn’t care when Raze got into bed alongside me. The mattress indented under him, and I rolled toward him.

  I shifted to face away from him, and he pressed up against my back, both of us spooning. My head cradled on his bicep, and his hand sailed around me, his musky scent comforting me. Raze seemed to calm my nerves with a single touch. Here, we could pretend we weren’t facing the end of the world tomorrow night, but instead that I’d simply found the most amazing shifter, and he was into me too. All four of them affected me in the best possible way, and I lost my breath each time I thought about losing them.

  I wasn’t sure I’d recover from such a loss, and that terrified me more than anything.

  “You okay?” Raze asked, his sweet lips on my neck. “You’re shaking.”

  I nodded, unable to find my words when it felt as if I suffocated in my mind.

  His arms coiled around me tighter, and he kissed the skin between my neck and shoulder. “I’ll always protect you, Bee.”

  My next breath hiccupped, and the words poured out. “But what if—?”

  “No. Don’t think like that. I believe in you, in our future, in everything my parents had built.”

  Swallowing past the boulder in my throat seemed an impossibility. “I want that too, but I’m scared.”

  His breath washed across my jawline. “Even if I had an hour left in this world, I wouldn’t want to spend it fretting.

  Shuffling about on the bed, I turned to face him. “How do you push everything aside? My brain feels as if it might explode from the panic gripping me.”

  He placed a peck on my nose. “What’s the use of worrying about something now if you can’t do anything about it? Our problems aren’t going anywhere, but don’t carry the burden with you.”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Easier said than done, but I understand what you mean.”

  With his hand gliding up my arm, his hand brushed across the top of my dress, I gasped. “Sometimes,” he teased, “a distraction might help with the stress.” He offered me a devilish grin.

  The moment his mouth brushed across mine, my world faded. His attention eased away the knotted tension in my muscles. It shoved Lilita back into place quicker than any hour-long meditations could.

 

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