I’m very excited to have book three in the Rune Wolf series packed and polished and ready for readers! But please don’t read the excerpt below if you’re new to Elspeth’s world. Instead, start with book one.
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Chapter 1
I clenched flat human teeth against the urge to shift as wolves brushed past my legs in the dark, the tide of togetherness threatening to drag me into my fur. But I couldn’t give in. Not with Luna’s small hand trembling in mine.
“Elspeth,” murmured the girl we’d recently rescued from the Council. “Are we really going to become part of this pack?”
“Only if you want to,” I answered, drawing her a little closer in case the proximity of Orion’s wolves was part of the reason for her nerves.
“No pressure,” my mate added. His role of alpha meant his words were more effective than mine had been. Meanwhile, he jerked his head to win us a little personal space, and Luna’s rigid fingers gradually loosened in mine.
Glancing sideways in what was intended as a thank you, my eyes found beauty and stuck. Orion’s muscles were gilded by starlight, begging to be traced for the very first time. No wonder the mere sight of him made my insides thrum.
For one long moment, I forgot where I was and who I was with. There was only him, me, us…
Then our moment was broken by a whisper from the five-year-old Orion carried. “Me too?”
“You too,” Orion agreed, one large hand reaching up to cup the back of Billy’s head. With two children soothed, Orion’s hot gaze swept across me before cooling and continuing on across the starlit desert expanse toward the two young men rescued at the same time as Luna and Billy.
They seemed fine, but Luna’s age mate, Nova, was less so. She walked stiff-legged and high-chinned before us, trying to pretend we didn’t exist. Still, her eyes kept darting in our direction and I caught the glint of a knife in her right hand.
I wasn’t surprised by her standoffishness. At the girls’ age—ten—I’d already been fully indoctrinated into believing the Council was good and shifters were evil. From the little I’d heard, Nova’s childhood sounded very similar to mine.
No wonder she’d decided a midnight outing among werewolves was something better undertaken armed.
Orion’s lips quirked as my attention made him aware of the weapon. “Transplanted pack mates can be like transplanted vines,” he rumbled via the mate bond, his words reaching my mind but no one else’s. “First they sleep. Then they creep. Then they leap.”
“…at you with a knife?” I countered.
Orion’s silent shrug was full of amusement. He was confident in his ability to handle Nova.
I, on the other hand, was suddenly full of doubts looming like the massive sandstone outcropping beginning to block out the night sky before us. I’d prepared for this crisis of confidence, though. Was prepared to air my doubts then let them go.
The painful truth: Thoughts of joining a pack reminded me of trust and bonds that had gradually grown between myself and my aunt during the short period I’d spent as a member of Vega’s pack…only to have that bond severed in a searing instant.
The counter-argument: It had been my choice to break free from Vega’s leadership, and she’d let me go when I asked her to.
Plus, I trusted Orion implicitly. This new bond wouldn’t be like that old one. I had no expectation of ever wanting to leave the pack I intended to become part of tonight.
My nerves should have settled as soon as I ran through that familiar litany of worry and rejoinder. But my past pack bond wasn’t the only thing that came to mind as the rocky outcrop materialized into a flat-topped expanse wide enough for a helicopter to land on, the top glowing despite lacking a natural light source.
I’d been here in daylight and had found altar rock a suitable spot for a full-pack gathering. On a night without a moon, however, the unnatural roundness and strange illumination proved eerily familiar. Together, the combination of features reminded me far too much of the smaller stage I’d stood upon when swearing my allegiance to the Council, binding myself to an organization that pulled my strings for much longer than Vega had.
Back then, harsh spotlights had made my eyes water. The oath I’d sworn tasted sweet during the swearing then turned to ash on my tongue. My decision to become part of the Council had led to dark trails walked with the best of intentions, trails that dished out untold pain and suffering to the werewolves in my path.
Then the real world reasserted itself, scented with sage and wolf fur as Orion spoke within my head. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he rumbled, reassurance pulsing down the mate bond between us. It wasn’t lost on me that he was offering the same gentleness he’d used on the ten-year-old whose hand I held.
“I know,” I answered, not quite able to add on the obvious rejoinder—that I did want this. That I was ready.
Because I’d been ready an hour ago. Now I wasn’t so sure.
As if they smelled my uncertainty, the wolves around me skittered sideways, taking the sensation of pack togetherness with them. That loss of connection, so similar to what I’d experienced when leaving Vega’s pack, hit harder than I’d expected. I could barely keep my feet moving forward rather than letting them do what they wished—breaking and running back the way I’d come.
I needed to get my head on straight before I blew this for my mate and for the kids.
So I reminded myself of the facts yet again. The formality of the upcoming binding was for the sake of the children. They needed this connection, needed pomp and circumstances they could look back upon to mark the end of one phase of their lives and the beginning of another. And I wanted to once again be part of a pack, wanted to be part of my mate’s pack.
Unfortunately, my upcoming decision loomed as large and dark as the ominous landscape feature that now covered up nearly all the stars.
I’d tried to keep most of those thoughts to myself, but part of my inner turmoil must have slipped down the mate bond along with the words I’d purposely broadcast. Because Orion’s already square chin firmed up further. Billy made a tiny whimper of complaint as if he’d been squeezed too tight.
“Sorry, buddy,” Orion said aloud. Then he was setting Billy on his feet and leading us all up steps carved into sandstone, steps worn by so many pairs of feet that they dipped down into moon-like crescents in the center. Nova would need to go slowly since she had only the barest hint of incipient wolf inside her, not enough to boost her night vision. So I hung back, letting wolves push past me and Luna, my own doubts growing along with the distance between myself and my mate.
Finally, though, the way was clear. I picked my way upward while listening to snippets of conversation from those who’d shifted back to humanity. A teenager jostled his friend, laughing about a recent hunt some had bombed and others excelled at. A young woman steadied a much older one, murmuring words of encouragement. Orion rumbled further reassurance to Billy, whose silence warmed as his alpha spoke.
Then we were all at the summit…well, no, not quite all of us. Peering down, I saw Nova hadn’t even attempted the ascent. Did she need help?
I raised my eyebrows in question, but the girl didn’t notice. She’d turned to stare off into the darkness, probably as a way to avoid Luna’s frantic beckoning. The latter itched to turn the pair into sisters while Nova had absolutely no interest in forming a connection of that sort.
Then my own sister was naked and laughing beside me. There at the back of the crowd of jostling werewolves, Celeste pulled her mate up behind her and emoted: “We’re really doing this!” As she spoke, her hand squeezed Finnegan’s so hard the skin of their knuckles whitened.
“If you are, I am,” he agreed.
Celeste was so exuberantly excited and Finnegan was so willing to follow her lead. I envied their ability to ignore what we’d been taught, to forget the way Celeste’s own father had betrayed her and the fact that neither had even known they could shift into wolf form until a week ago.
I wanted to share in their joy, to cast aside my doubts as easily as they had done. So, forcing a smile, I agreed with my sister.
“We are.”
It took a few minutes for the pack to calm down enough for words to be heard, and when that happened it was Donovan rather than Orion who spoke. “A pack bond is a sacred vow,” Orion’s brother-in-law intoned from a pedestal upon which he sat in his wheelchair. He hadn’t run here alongside us. Had arrived early, presumably so he could take his time getting up onto altar rock without working legs.
And yet, he was 100% part of the pack as he eased us into a ceremony that almost felt like it emerged from the desert itself.
“Alpha,” Donovan continued, addressing Orion with a faint smile on his lips. Nothing about his tone suggesting he resented the role not falling to him as everyone expected, passing to his best friend instead. “Do you accept the burden of these newcomers? To guide them and shield them every season until one of you dies?”
I blinked, and in my mind’s eye I was atop another raised platform, hearing similar words spoken by the man I’d thought of as my adopted father. “Do you accept the burden of safeguarding humanity?” Julius had asked me. “To use any means necessary to vanquish unnatural evil, never resting until all innocents are safe?”
The bite of Luna’s small nails into my palm combined with Orion’s verbal response brought me back to the present. “I welcome all those who embrace the ways of the pack,” my mate intoned.
Despite the similarity of wording, this ceremony and the one I’d been part of seven years ago bore little else in common. Then, the only special effects had been spotlights that made it hard to see my adopted father and the other Council members. Now, flickers of magical light billowed out between Orion’s lips as he spoke, rolling slowly across the crowd.
One pocket of wolves after another wriggling like pups as the magic broke across them. This was the reason we’d traveled away from pack central to complete the ceremony, the reason we’d come beyond the edge of Orion’s territory and into unclaimed outpack. Because the land itself was powerful here, capable of creating effects like this.
Effects I didn’t entirely understand or trust. Shifters ahead of me jostled against each other in their impatience to be treated to the light show, and even moths fluttered closer. But I found myself leaning backward. It took all of my self control not to step sideways and avoid the onslaught.
Then magic struck my face and I understood why everyone else had been so glad to immerse themselves in it. Because the electrified sparks carried with them a warm wave of acceptance, exactly like the look in Orion’s eyes last week when I’d admitted I meant all those soppy statements declared while trying to save his life. The magical light reminded me of my joy when Orion and I had solidified our mate bond. It felt like the sure knowledge that we were better together than we’d ever been apart.
Joining Orion’s pack wouldn’t be a hardship. I knew that with my heart…just not with my head.
“Anyone who wishes to bind yourself,” Donovan intoned, “step forward now.”
The word bind popped the sweet bubble the glowing magic had enfolded me in. Julius had talked of binding also when I swore myself to the Council. No wonder my feet failed to move in the direction Luna indicated when she tugged on my hand.
For once, the girl didn’t cling. Just released my fingers and pushed through the crowd of wolves, stealing Billy’s spot even though the boy was ready and willing to go first.
“Me,” demanded Luna. “I want to be part of your pack.”
“Luna, do you swear to obey your alpha?” Donovan asked, once again using words that reminded me of Julius’s.
“Do you swear to obey the Council without question?” my adopted father had asked me. Seven years ago, even my starry-eyed self had hesitated over that one. Obeying without question seemed like a lot to promise…
Then Julius had graced me with one of his rare, proud smiles and I’d raised my chin just like Luna was doing then proclaimed just a little too loudly—
“Yes!”
Someone chuckled within our audience atop the raised rock outcrop while several wolf-form shifters yipped out pleasure. They weren’t laughing at Luna’s exuberance or chiding her for it. Instead, they were joyfully agreeing with the sentiment behind her affirmative shout.
Meanwhile, Orion’s two hands settled onto Luna’s two shoulders. “Then you are pack. Welcome, Luna.”
A visible surge of magic pulsed between them. As it did so, the brittleness and fragility that had seemed to cling to the girl ever since I met her eased. Her lips stretched so wide I thought she might pull a muscle.
I should have been glad to see Luna’s pleasure. Still, in the ethereal glow of the magical lights, her facial expression looked not quite sane.
Then Celeste and Finnegan were lining up behind Billy, with the rescued young men shoulder to shoulder behind them. One by one, each of the five was welcomed, every pack mate silent and still as they watched the proceedings with an intensity usually reserved for stalking prey.
My attention, in contrast, had wandered to the darkness beyond altar rock. Where was Nova?
It was harder to see her now with the magical glow around Orion ruining my night vision. Still, I caught a glimpse of motion that I suspected was the other ten-year-old transferring her weight from foot to foot in the shadows.
“Would anyone else like to join this pack tonight?” Donovan asked. Only a few minutes had passed, but Orion had already worked his way through the lineup. Oddly, each of those newly bound to the clan leaned toward their alpha in an eerily similar manner. All six chins were canted upward; all six pairs of eyes were as wide as their smiles.
The change in their demeanor grated on my nerves. Those first few years after vowing to do the Council’s bidding, I’d looked like that also. The organization was all I’d talked about to Celeste during our daily phone calls, squeezed into her busy freshman year at college and my first jobs inserting myself into problematic packs.
It wasn’t until much later that the rot at the heart of the Council made itself clear to me. It wasn’t until much later that I’d realized the error of my ways.
Old mistakes don’t have to darken a bright future, I reminded myself, forcing my legs to move me forward. I’ve learned from the past. I won’t repeat it.
Plus, I’d made a calculated decision to bind myself tonight. I just needed to get the job done.
As if he could sense my reluctance, Orion didn’t reach out immediately when I made my way down the aisle of parted wolves toward him. Instead, he peered past me, at the girl still lost in darkness. “Nova?”
Light flowed across the rocks toward her, illuminating the way the girl’s arms crossed protectively. She looked so alone down there, exactly the way I’d felt as the sole person able to shift within Julius’s household. The sole person—I’d thought—who had within me the same sort of evil I was being trained to fight against.
“Not interested,” Nova bit out.
And my mouth opened before I could think my own words through. I wasn’t quite sure if it was for Nova’s sake or my own that I said the opposite of what I’d intended.
“I’m not quite ready either,” I said to my mate.
Chapter 2
Behind me, a wolf huffed out something that didn’t sound complimentary. Claws clicked against stone as feet shuffled. Orion had said there was no pressure, no time limit. But his pack clearly felt differently, at least when it came to their alpha’s mate.
So my first thought was relief when a distraction intruded. Information flowed down a pack bond to Orion, who opened our mate connection wider so I could be privy to the exchange as well.
“Alpha!” This was Ari, a teenager a couple of years younger than I’d been when I swore myself to the Council. Three nights ago, I’d been by Orion’s side when this same teenager had stood tall in front of his alpha, asking for permission to head up a patrol.
“I learned a lot as an ambassador,” Ari had said then, eyes shining with a mixture of determination and nervousness that reminded me of my own early days with the Council. Had I ever looked this young, though, pimples dotting my forehead and limbs gawky with new growth? “I’ve been practicing,” he continued. “Plus, Sue said she’d be willing to follow where I lead.”
“You’re ready.” Orion nodded then set up a first assignment that was entirely safe. Far from enemy territory, close to the entire clan as we gathered atop altar rock. Ari could be bailed out in the unlikely event his patrol ran into trouble. It was intended to be training wheels, but those training wheels appeared to have fallen off.
Because now, via the mate bond, I received a flood of information including the current view through Ari’s eyes. “We need your help!” the teenager managed as he tried to push himself across the desert faster than even a wolf could run.
His thoughts were a muddle, nothing like the carefully memorized speech he’d presented to Orion when requesting this chance at leadership. Was there some sort of trap he’d missed? He’d walked right across that patch of sand and noticed nothing. If there’d been a trigger, why hadn’t it caught him? He wished it had. He was in charge. Sue was his responsibility. He had to save her…
Meanwhile, close enough to be visible yet far enough away so Ari could have no impact on the outcome, a scene unfolded that was almost too horrible to comprehend.
Sue was falling, the previously solid desert floor betraying her. Flat sand transformed into a voracious pit, steep sides collapsing inward like the merciless jaws of some colossal desert beast. In her wolf form, she scrabbled for purchase, claws raking uselessly against the treacherous incline. Then, in a last-ditch effort, she shifted to humanity. But her middle-aged body was less adept than her lupine one had been. Fingers only grasped at air as the pit deepened, swallowing her inch by excruciating inch.
“Go back!” she yelled at Ari, trying to save the boy a third her age who she’d willingly obeyed until this point.
Blinking back to the reality of my own location, I found the organized chaos of the pack’s response both impressive and alien around me. Orion must have opened up the pack bonds to let everyone see what I was seeing, because instructions were being barked in a manner that felt far more organic than what I was used to within the rigid hierarchy of the Council. Wolves were as likely to volunteer as to be assigned to roles; children were being handed over to temporary guardians or were becoming guardians themselves.
“I’ll take Billy,” Luna offered, opening her arms to the small boy who hadn’t willingly parted from Orion in the week since we’d found him. But right now, the alpha needed to be where Sue was. Every available adult needed to be there. And these children were too young to shift and run with the pack…
It was almost impossible to make myself retain my human skin long enough to speak. Still, I forced focus, not wanting to be like Julius when he barked out demands and expected unquestioning obedience. “You’ll be okay staying here with Maya and Donovan?” I asked both Luna and Billy, expecting a tantrum from one or the other.
To my surprise, Billy’s hands released his preferred person and reached in the opposite direction without protest. Luna was part of Orion’s pack now, and that meant she was an acceptable substitute for the alpha who usually kept the boy safe.
“Thank you,” I told Luna, who was also prone to clinging but who had stepped up when needed. Hopefully she understood how proud I was of her without additional conversation. Because my final word had been swallowed up by my shift as I joined the pack.
Sprinting to catch up to my mate and the other wolves, the exuberance of fur form washed over me. Senses sharpened while past and future were replaced by one endless together now.
The simple joy of running with the pack momentarily overwhelmed my fear for Sue. But Orion had stayed focused. He led the way, knowing where the patrolling duo was located without needing to wrest information out of them.
Which was good since neither had the head space to offer further words. In the seconds that I’d spent speaking with the children, Ari had ignored Sue’s orders to back off and had reached the edge of the still deepening sand pit. Now the scene bounced back and forth between their perspectives in dizzying flashes as both pack mates opened themselves fully to their alpha.
Through Ari’s eyes, the world took on a frantic, skittering quality as his gaze pinballed between Sue’s rapidly sinking form and the terrain around them. Panic amplified the musty stench of earth, the slither of displaced grains, his own frantic panting. He had to focus, had to find a way to get Sue out of the quagmire that showed no signs of stabilizing. He needed a branch, a rope, something to reach her. But he’d been lupine and had carried nothing with him while patrolling. Stupid, stupid! Why hadn’t he thought ahead?
From Sue’s perspective, the world was contracting, compressing. She blinked back tears, both because something was stuck beneath her left eyelid and because she knew the boy would be broken by this. Oh, bother, the earthen tide had reached her mouth now. She gulped in one last deep breath, still worrying about Ari. He’d needed to rebuild his confidence ever since the old alpha was killed in front of him. Orion had promised this patrol passed through territory where the greatest danger was a thorn in a paw, which made it a good bet for a teenaged attempt at leadership. Now Ari would lose all of the momentum he’d—ah, now her nose was covered as well.
I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time but instead I stretched my muscles and ran harder despite the fact that, yes, I did have a thorn in my paw. The pang each time my foot landed matched the pang from my own memories of the few fleeting moments I’d spent with Sue.
I’d deceived everyone in Orion’s pack when I first infiltrated, but Sue was the one I’d deceived most of all on that initial day. Unlike others, though, after I’d moved in she’d embraced me fully with no reservations due to the past.
Just yesterday, she’d let me pick through her closet, doling out insight as well as clothes. “Some things take time,” she’d murmured as I paused to consider the stationary tattoos on my arm before pulling on another top better suited than mine to the desert heat. I hadn’t wanted to talk about my worries that the matebrand’s magic might never fully reawaken, and Sue hadn’t pushed the matter. But her few words had soothed something inside me that needed soothing. Like Ari, it wasn’t long before I considered Sue an honorary aunt.
Now, I wondered if she’d been right about the tattoo. If, perhaps, my matebrand might be the solution to what seemed an unsolvable problem. If Orion and I were able to use our connection the way we had before, we could tap into the deep power of the desert and eject Sue from the deepening pit…
But the magical ink on my foreleg that had been dormant all week remained unwilling to respond to me. And my honorary aunt kept disappearing into the sand.
I was still running when Sue’s burning lungs forced her to accept the fact that she wasn’t making it out of this one. Her last thought was another round of regrets that she’d failed Ari.
Then her thoughts were replaced by a choking void.
Chapter 3
As we lost Sue from the pack bond, Ari lunged forward even though the pit walls continued growing steeper and deeper before him. His right front foot slipped and…
“Back away!” Orion demanded, alpha order evident in the words he sent silently to the youngster. I was pretty sure I was the only one who felt the deep thread of guilt and loss spiraling through my mate as he added: “Mark the spot. We’re close.”
There was no longer any information flowing toward us from Sue. Depth of earth, unconsciousness, or worse had severed her experience from her alpha’s. Meanwhile, through Ari’s eyes, we saw the earth shiver—a shiver I also felt the tiniest bit beneath my own paws. Then the hole that had eaten Sue disappeared completely. It was as if someone had shaken a pan of mounded sand and flattened it out into a perfect expanse without a single plant or stone left to mar the surface.
Through all this time, I’d been running as fast as I could, side by side with Orion while the rest of the pack traveled close behind us. Now, we rounded a cluster of cacti and the unnaturally smooth sand came into view with Ari pacing its perimeter.
“Stop,” Orion ordered, commanding the entire pack as easily as he had one teenager. “Come,” he added, this time to Ari. And as the teenager retreated to join us, his alpha traced the teenager’s footsteps in the opposite direction, back to the spot where Sue had been swallowed up.
Everyone except me seemed to accept Orion’s decision to put himself in danger without backup. Some ranged out around the perimeter, sniffing for clues. Others simply watched Orion pick his way across ominously smooth sand.
I didn’t accept it. Instead, I sped up until I was matching Orion step for step. This close, our proximity felt like an open circuit. Electricity raised his fur and my fur. Our bodies curved toward each other without conscious volition. The yearning that always flowed between us turned into an imperative to come together. Starlight made our shadows intertwine.
We ignored the pull that tried to draw our bodies closer though. Now wasn’t the time with Sue lost somewhere beneath us, her body growing more starved for oxygen by the second. Instead, we focused on the sand in front of us. Where Ari’s footsteps ended, the strangely unblemished earth created a circle more than fifty feet in diameter. But Orion stalked to the center as if he knew exactly where Sue had disappeared.
“You can sense her via the pack bond?” I asked silently.
My mate shook his head, a wordless explanation flowing toward me via our own intangible connection. He was guessing. He could no longer feel Sue, the same way he couldn’t feel sleeping or unconscious pack mates.
Or dead ones. Rather than shivering, I used my forepaws to scuff sand away from the surface. Then I dug frantic as a dog searching for its favorite bone, flinging a spray of earth away from the spot Orion had indicated.
Rather than joining my efforts, Orion stood tense and still above me. He was waiting for whatever had swallowed Sue to reawaken. I don’t think he meant to send the thought toward me, but I saw his intention to grab me by my ruff and fling me away at the first hint of danger.
“Dig,” I countered as gritty sand filled my mouth, the taste of minerals coating my tongue. One wolf wasn’t going to get Sue out of this, not if the third-hand mental image I’d seen was any indication. She’d plummeted such a great distance before the earth closed back up above her. It would take me hours to disinter her alone, hours Sue didn’t have.
Orion still failed to move. I knew this about him—his pack had been his entire world until he met me, then he’d placed me above them. My safety was now his top priority.
Which might have been sweet if mate protectiveness wasn’t about to get Sue killed.
I couldn’t send words down the pack bond the way Orion could. But when I yipped, my sister understood me. She and Finnegan trotted forward, eying their new alpha warily. When Orion didn’t argue, they settled down nose to nose with me in a three-point pattern. Then we were digging, digging, endlessly digging…
The rhythmic motion was hypnotic. My world narrowed to the scrape of claws against sand, the burn in my muscles, the desperation driving us forward. Eventually, my pads began to bleed and someone nudged me out of the way. Bleary-eyed, I saw that Finnegan was pushing Celeste into giving up her spot while Orion had already taken over Finnegan’s. Each one of my mate’s paw strokes moved twice as much sand as anyone else’s. No wonder the hole had expanded outward, wolves in a larger circle behind us working the loose earth further backward so it wouldn’t cave in on top of the diggers.
Together, we might reach Sue in time. Perhaps.
I gasped in much-needed oxygen, oxygen Sue wouldn’t have access to. The night air, previously cool against my fur, now felt oppressively hot after my bout of frantic digging. The hole appeared so small compared to the circle of unnaturally smooth sand that hid our pack mate. It would be so easy to miss our target.
It was time to think of alternatives, to reconsider the faster solution I’d tried earlier. The matebrand had failed me then. But perhaps it wouldn’t fail us now?
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