Page 68 of A Reign of Malice
The words land heavily. Sincere. Real. A rare glimpse of the woman beneath the goddess.
Her gaze drifts between Sloane and me, distant, like she already sees the paths before us.
“Kill your brother and restore your kingdom.” She tilts her head slightly, a flicker of amusement returning. “When you’re Alpha King, everything will be right with your world again.”
Sloane starts to speak, but Aurora lifts a hand, cutting her off as she points toward the portal. “I don’t need more blood. Go. Now.”
We don’t hesitate this time, but when we arrive back in Venaris, I wonder if maybe we should have.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
SLOANE
Stepping back into the realm of Lunara after being in the god realm should feel like a return to something familiar, something safe. But instead, it feels like suffocation.
The moment my feet touch the earth, the energy in the air coils around my lungs like roots, dense and choking. This isn’t home. The land is warped. Off balance.
Worse, Estee and Theo are nowhere in sight.
I clutch Julian’s hand tighter as we walk hesitantly forward, my grip bordering on desperate. After everything, I can’t risk losing him now.
The bond between us pulses steady, and I use it like a lifeline as I scan the forest for any sign of our friends.
Before I can ask Isla or Asher where they went, my head is suddenly splitting.
“Damn you, Sloane!”Clara’s voice barrels through my thoughts, wild and laced with fury.“Where the hell have you been the last three days?”
Three days?!
I stop dead in my tracks.“We were only…”I shake my head. It doesn’t matter now.“We were forced to go to the god realm with Aurora. Without notice or I would have told you. What’s going on here?”
“Shift and go east,”she says urgently.“Don’t stop until I find you. Not even for a second. He probably already knows you’re back.”
There’s no questioning her request or asking who “he” is. I knew things would be bad when we returned, but at the same time, I didn’t expect days to have passed by either. This is going to be worse than anything I could have imagined.
“We need to run east,” I tell the others. “Where did Estee and Theo go?”
Isla’s brow tightens. “They needed time alone.”
“Well, we don’t have any.” The words snap out sharper than intended, but I don’t take them back. “We’ve been gone for three days. We need to regroup. Now.”
A branch cracks behind us. The faintthump-thump-thumpof paws slamming over the earth rips through the silence like a warning shot.
“Go. Now!” Julian snarls, just before he shifts.
His wolf explodes forward, bones snapping and reforming in a violent rush of power. He doesn’t cry out—it’s too fast for that. A deep chocolate wolf replaces him, muscles rippling beneath his sleek coat. He’s beautiful and terrifying, but there’s no time to admire the view.
I call my wolf forward just as Isla and Asher do. Isla’s lets out two quick yips, and three more echo back. That must be her call to Estee.
Julian heads toward the incoming wolves then snaps his jaws at me when I follow, but I’m not going anywhere without him. And since we’re not officially bonded yet, he can’t yell at me in this form.
Though, he can run.
Now, what is he doing?
He takes off toward the east. The snarls coming from behind us are close, but instead of questioning whether we should stay and fight, having no clue just how outnumbered we might be, I follow Julian.
Isla and Asher are already ahead, and within moments, two more wolves flank us. One is slate grey, the other a midnight black. Theo and Estee.
