Page 48 of Shared By the Werebears
Thorne.
He had found us and now we were all going to die.
26
GOLDIE
But Thorne’s Bear couldn’t get through all at once. Long ago, when I first built the Lust Hut, I put in plenty of security measures. One of them was an invisible barrier in the doorway which wouldn’t allow anyone who wished me harm to pass.
The grizzly hit the invisible barrier with a roar that shook the entire Lust Hut. The wards around the doorway shimmered, flickering like heat lightning before they pulsed outward in a blinding flash of white. For now, the barrier held—but I could feel it weakening with each swipe of the bear’s claws, each push of his massive body against the magic.
“Shit!” Ronan growled, tugging hard at the cuffs that bound him to the headboard. “You have to let me up, Goldie. That’s Thorne—I can smell him. He’s coming through!”
“I’ll stop him!” Finn was halfway across the room already, naked, fists clenched and body tensed to Shift.
“No! Stop—don’t Shift!” I cried, throwing out a hand.
Both men froze, instinct and magic warring in their eyes.
“If either of you let your Bear out now, the potion won’t work! It hasn’t finished brewing,” I told them. “If you Shift before ourHeartmate Bond fully seals, you’ll be stuck that way! And I’ll be locked in here with three feral Werebears and no way out!”
“Fuck—she’s right.” Ronan growled.
“What do wedothen?” Finn demanded, glancing toward the door where foot-long claws were scraping across the wards.
“I don’t kn—” I began, but then my eyes caught a flicker of light in the far corner of the hut. What in the name of the Goddess…?
I looked closer. A soft, shimmering glow pulsed from where my jacket hung on a wooden hook.
Suddenly I understood—it was the Veil of the Goddess. It was glowing like a fallen star, threads of pearlescent light dancing in the air around it. I remembered that Whimsy had said it would let us know when to use it—clearly the time was now.
My heart thudded against my ribs like it was trying to get out but I knew what we had to do.
“That’s it,” I whispered, the words forming in my mouth almost before I could think them. “The Veil of the Goddess—that’s what we need. It’s time.”
I pulled off Ronan and ran to the veil, tugging the silky square of starlight from my pocket where it had folded down to the size of a tissue packet. Unfolding it felt like unwrapping magic itself—cool and tingling in my hands, enormous and endless and weightless. Just touching it calmed me.
Be still child…all will be well,I felt a voice whisper in my head, as though the Veil was talking to me.
“Ronan—get up,” I said, straddling him one last time and clicking the magical cuffs open with a murmured word.
“What the hell are we going to do?” he grunted, rubbing his wrists as he sat up. The wards were flickering again around the frame of the door. “Thorne’s coming through—your magic won’t be able to stop him.”
“We don’t need to stop him,” I said, speaking much more calmly than I felt.
“Don’t need to stop him? What are you talking about?” Finn sounded slightly panicked. “What are we going to do if we don’t stop him?”
“We’re going to use the Veil,” I said. “You and Finn—spread it out. It’s going to catch Thorne when the barrier breaks. I’m trusting you,” I added. “The Veil has to make contact with him—the more contact, the better.”
“All right—you got it.” Ronan nodded and took one end of the Veil. Finn took the other. Without hesitation, they moved together, catching the corners of the shimmering silk and holding it like a net between them, crouched on either side of the Lust Hut’s threshold. They weren’t a second too soon.
The moment they lifted it, the barrier shattered.
Magic cracked like lightning and the door burst off its hinges, flying against its frame in a spray of splinters. Thorne came barreling through, a massive wall of snarling fur and muscle and rage. But he didn’t see Finn and Ronan. Didn’t smell them either. He smelledthe magic—the Heartmate Bond, the potion,me.
I could feel it all with my Succubus senses—his rage and desire and the burning lust that motivated him to follow my scent—the same scent I’d left in their cabin when I’d pleased myself on all their beds. It was me he wanted…me he had to have.
And I would have to give him what he wanted if any of us had any hope of living.
