Page 27 of Ember's Claim

“A single drop of your blood over the point on this heart will summon me to you.” He runs his finger over the area before the entire thing disappears into my skin.

“What are you?” I repeat more firmly this time. “And what did you do to me?”

“I gave you my calling card.” He sighs. “Let’s hope you never need to use it. And it’s not necessarily the term I prefer for my kind or my gifts, but you’ll likely know me as a druid.” He keeps me stuck in the ridiculous trance as his hand finds my jaw. He thumbs my skin, keeping eye contact. “You may remember our exchanges, but speak of me to no one, unless you trust them implicitly.” The haze of fog that disappeared from around him earlier returns, and I lose all ability to pick up his scent. “I’m no shifter, but your wolf seems antsy. There’s a full moon just around the corner.”

My head tilts as my wolf preens. “There is.”

“She’ll be happiest if you allow her the opportunity to hunt.” He shrugs, booping my nose. “I tried. Your human is awfully stubborn, which I’m sure you know.” A slow smile tugs at his lips. “I bet you are truly a magnificent sight when fully shifted.”

My heart races as my chest rises and falls rapidly.

He’s going to leave us.My wolf whines in my head. She doesn’t want to allow him to go, which is concerning as hell.

Veryn is our mate, I remind her. It seems like, maybe, this druid needs to hear that information too.

“I have a mate,” I sputter, glancing down at my wrist where the spell or whatever it was disappeared.

Lorcan chuckles. “Little wolf, you most certainly have more than one.”

The energy changes as my eyes fly up, but scanning the room produces no result.

He’s gone.

Chapter Ten

Ember

From the moment I slide into my vehicle, my wolf is petulant and moody. The full moon always seems to amp up the animalistic side of my personality, but this is worse, and I don’t know why she took Lorcan’s words as an invitation to visit pack lands.

She continually pushes her will into my mind. Over and over again, she tries to force me to give in to her commands. We’ll be driving right by shifter territory, and she doesn’t see why it’s a problem to stop in. She wants to run through the unobstructed forest. Maybe hunt a little. She even reminds me that we can peek around for Ethan Sanders.

Being a shifter is a balancing act.

We’re one and the same, but we occasionally have different goals. We also tend to differ on how we think it’s best to make those things happen. Her thoughts and actions are more baser than mine, but during my teenage years, my father and Uncle Ridge taught me how to coexist with her.

It’s complicated because I do find myself thinking of her as a different entity, but in reality, she’s just another facet of my personality.

We share one consciousness.

If I’m injured in human form and shift into my wolf, my injuries transfer to her body and vice versa.

That’s why it’s so hard to constantly fight her desires. On some level, it means I’m also intrigued by running through the North American Alpha’s territory.

Everything is complicated by the fact that my biological family on my dad’s side ran that pack for hundreds of years. Add on that female wolves have been endangered for hundreds of years, and it makes it even more dangerous for me to poke around where I don’t belong.

Wolves have extended lifespans, but outside of the ancients—the first wolf shifters to migrate to the human realm—we aren’t immortal. We just age exceptionally slowly.

The lack of female births in the wolf community wasn’t a problem at first, but like Lorcan mentioned, after several hundreds of years of the same, it’s become a real issue.

Females are still born, but at a rate of something like fifty males to one female. That makes it dangerous for a she-wolf who doesn’t have a strong alpha to protect her.

Thankfully, I did.

I mean, I still do.

Dread and Dash are demon shifters. Either my father or my brother could fight in an alpha challenge to defend my right to turn down a suitor I wasn’t interested in.

My wolf chuffs her displeasure in my mind, reminding me that we are an alpha shifter.And the rightful heir to the North American Pack.

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