Page 1 of As Darkness Fall
Chapter One
Iwas supposed to be free.
With my own two eyes, I watched as a god, a literalgod, severed the bond between the man whom fate had chosen as my mate and me.
Spoiler, I’d rejected his cruel, arrogant ass because I deserved better than that, and I knew it.
Unfortunately, rejecting him had all but driven me insane, to the point that I had asked the god to kill me because I couldn’t resist the pull for much longer. But I’d been given a third option, one I’d never known existed until that moment. The god had offered toseverthe bond. Setting me free.
Or that was how it was supposed to go. For a brief three point one four seconds, I’d experienced the sweet, sweet, cool peace of freedom. That blissful recognizance in my brain had been somewhere between the euphoria of winning the lottery and the most mind-blowing orgasm possible. It wasgood.
The choices I should have had!
My life would finally be my own again. I should have been free to choose whom to love. Whonotto love. True, I’d never have a Soulbond again, that potential having been cut from me by the sharp point of a god’s spear. But that was okay with me, because I would have been able tochooseinstead of fate forcing it upon me.
I should have been able to forge my own love. Should have, being the key phrase. Even that had been robbed from me. Like everything else in my life this past year.
Soulshift night, that wonderful first shift, meeting my wolf, being granted a mate, and starting my own family?Laughablydenied to me on all points except the shifting part. And even that had been a close thing, with the she-bitch inside me nearly consuming my mind and turning us Wild.
Speaking of family, I’d been denied the chance to create my own, but on top of that, the one I’d had was stolen from me! My parents were gone and likely buried in a ditch somewhere, though I had no real idea. They had just disappeared.
Even my freedom to live a life on my own, mostly away from my pack, had been taken from me when the magic of our species decided I should be bound to the one man I hated the most. My ex-boyfriend. The man who had destroyed my relationship with my parents and ended up trying to kill me.
It has been a wild ride. I don’t think it’s unfair for me to be upset that this freedom I’d longed for so badly had been taken from me almost immediately.
No, not upset. Upset is spilling a freshly poured drink. Upset is forgetting to put the ice cream back in the freezer. Upset is when gas prices rise. No, I wasn’t upset.
I wasenraged.
Someone had stolen my freedom from me. They had forced a Soulbond on me. After a god had severed it, he had gone and lethimselfbe tied to me.
And I wasn’t about to take that lying down.
I reached out to the power around me. Lying on the floor of a temple in the ancient shifter city of Shuldar, surrounded by swirling clouds of wild violet energy, I wasn’t weak. I wasn’t a plaything.
In this place, at this time, it wasIwho had the power.
“You will free me,” I growled, sucking in that power, letting it enter my body. “Now.”
The chamber shook as I prepared to fight for my freedom.
To fight a god.
Chapter Two
“Dani?”
That was Vir. He was a god. Yeah, immortal, super powerful, all that stuff. He was also about eight feet tall in his natural form, with a wolf’s head on a human body and a golden spear that would spit me through with casual ease if I let him use it.
He was the Champion of Amunlea, Empress of the Gods. A formidable title for sure, even if the goddess herself no longer existed. But it wasn’t going to stop me from kicking his ass.
“Howdareyou?” I rumbled, sitting up straight, my bruised, battered, and naked body straining even to do that much. The energy coursing through my veins wasn’t doing much to repair the wounds, but then again, I didn’t care right now.
“Danielle Wetter,” Vir intoned as he looked down at me, unimpressed.
When your mother uses your full name as a child, youknowyou messed up. But let me tell you. When a god does it, it’s an entirely different level of “oh fuck.” Even then, with power the likes of which I’d never experienced surging through me and around me, I was scared.
But scared wasn’t the same as giving up.
