Page 159 of The Crown of Nyx

Before, when she claimed we had amate bond, I’d wanted to ignore it. To ignore the way my Primal reacted to her. To the sound of her voice, to each silent look she spared me. Her laugh, when she allowed herself to do so. She was much softer when she wasn’t in immediate danger. When facing off with Phaedra, she had been hard, a Queen.

But amongst her mates, she was something else.

I thought back to before, when we’d gathered around the stones of light. I hadn’t stayed man for long. It was clear the others were uncomfortable with my body, though seeing her blush when the dark haired, pointed-eared male explained a knot to her…it’d taken all my strength not to let her reaction go to my cock.

And then her eyes when I explained that as Primals, we mated in our Primal form…She hadn’t expected that. But hearing how the others claimed theirfatedmates was interesting. Most of that knowledge was lost when the land had been purged, and we’d been created in the ashes.

We paused far enough away from the village to not be seen by any who patrolled.

The weak male and the red-headed one inched closer to the forest boundary, the silver-haired male closebehind. I was curious about her other mates. They were all powerful, even the one she had not claimed, though he was the least powerful of them all. He also kept his distance from her. The others, their scents marked her, and hers them. But him…there was no sign of his mark upon her, and because he stayed away, there was no scent claim, either.

I’d decided not to question it before, and I knew not to ask. These sorts of dynamics were uncommon for our people. Sometimes, one female mated with many males. Sometimes, one male took many females. It depended on survival, on breeding.

The three males moved to different sides of the roads. A tingle ran down my spine as I watched her move to stand with them. Together, they worked their magic, weaving it together to create a barrier between the trees that would halt any of the enemy army from stepping foot on the road.

Violet light danced across her body. She said it was her magic, but what was happening on her skin wasalive.

I couldn’t understand why my heart reacted to her the way it did. Again, I felt a tug in my chest, an urge to go to her.

But holding myself back was the only thing I could do.

It took only moments, but the light around her settled before disappearing.

Her eyes flickered up to meet mine. A ring of gold surrounded the dark brown of her irises, turning them the colour of freshly harvested honey. My heart leapt into my throat. There was a pink tinge to her cheeks as she stepped into line with the weak male and the demon king.

Another tug in my chest almost had me falling out of line. The desire to take her into the mating ritual rushed through me. I barely even knew her name, andyet, a part of me was ready to bind my life to hers in the way she’d explained.

The male shifter looked at me. His eyes were glowing, not the same green from earlier. He made a quick movement with his hand, which he’d earlier explained would mean ‘follow’.

I bowed my head and dropped onto all fours. A moment later, he shifted into his wolf. He was large, though smaller than me and a lot of the beasts the enemy had. There was, however, an air about him that was odd. Powerful. He emitted a strength that most others would submit to. Though not her other mates.

The female bowed her head once and spared her—our—mate a look before turning to me and making the same movement with her hand.

With one last look ather, at the one who claimed me as her fated, we left the safety of the barrier and escaped into the disappearing darkness.

The further we ran,the more the stench grew. The nests ofthraxwere close to the village, so it was a wonder the decaying creatures hadn’t been alerted to the presence of the army.

Thraxnests were hidden sometimes in ruins, other times in forests. Here, though, they were in old burrows that once housed the dead mortals who lived on the old shifter lands. As a child, I’d seen the nests here up close.

The burrows were small, circular buildings made of stone. Long ago, ceramic and stone urns filled the walls, holding the ashes of the dead, harbouring the memories of old bloodlines lost to mortality. Thethraxhad dug their way into them and now bred their young within.

We didn’t have to get close to smell their rotting flesh. Even when they were specks in the distance with only the slow-rising sun to cast any light over the mounds, we could smell it.

The female brought something up over her nose, a covering of sorts, but her eyes turned from blue to red as she scanned the hillside. The mounds scattered the hill, long grass obscuring most of them. But I knew we were far enough away that once we drew them out, we would not be caught.

The wolf stalked forward, and looked over his shoulder—not at us, but towards the forest, where the other teams were on the move.

She would be waiting with the weak one and the demon for our distraction. We needed to draw the army as far away from the village as we could.

We held our breaths as we waited for the first fire to be lit.

Sparks lit the sky, embers leaping from what we could only assume was the first large fire that needed to be set. Smoke danced towards the darkness, and at the first sounds ofpops, the wolf turned his head to the burrows and let out a howl.

I added to it, and together we called upon thethrax. The stench of death thickened the air, the sweet rotting of their flesh washing her scent from my fur.

It didn’t take long for them to rise from the burrows. The sound of popping continued from the village, but soon enough, the whines of the cursed beasts could be heard over our howls.

“Let’s go!” The female started for the village, her speed faster than anything I’d ever witnessed. But it didn’t take long for the wolf and I to follow, our footsteps hard. My paws crashed against the hard earth, the soundsof thethraxclaws and their flesh falling from their bones sounding behind us.

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