Page 28 of Wolf Bonded (Rejected Moons 2)

Then, far below, I hear someone scream, followed by the sound of breaking glass.

For a moment, everyone on top of the roof freezes. Then Regine strides over to the edge and looks down.

“What is it?” Wilder asks. “Shifters?”

Oh, fuck. Not now.Please don’t let a band of shifters attack this coven right now, when I’m finally starting to accept them. When they’re being so welcoming toward me. I have no idea what a fight between shifters and the coven would do to their feelings about hybrids, and I do not want to find out.

But when Regine turns around, her face is chalk-white.

“What?” Wilder asks again.

“Ravagers,” she says. “It’s the Ravagers.”

My blood freezes.

Wilder springs into action. “Get everyone inside!” he yells. “Everyone get to a room with a fucking door andlock it! Don’t come out until Regine or I tell you it’s safe. Go now!”

There’s a stampede for the door that leads back into the building, but I run the other way, toward Emlyn.

If Ravagers are coming in large enough numbers to have Regine worried, we’re going to have to fight our way out. And I don’t love our odds against a swarm.

16

NATE

It’snotthatIwantedto go to their stupid magic ceremony. Of course I didn’t. I don’t even like ceremonies held by my own people, so standing around watching a bunch of Moon Casters dance naked in the light of the moon, or whatever the hell they’re doing up there, sounds like absolute torture.

I don’t know who I’m mad at.

Maybe I’m just pissed that Em and Milo have this life that doesn’t include me now.

Jealousy has never been a part of the vibe of our harem. Am I jealous of them now?

I mean, I’m definitely not jealous of theirrelationship. I have my own relationship with Em. For that matter, I have my own relationship with Milo. That’s why our thing works. I’ve heard stories of harems falling apart because of jealousy and infighting, but we wouldn’t do that. We all like each other.

So no, I’m not jealous inthatway.

But they’re both Moon Casters. I’m not one. And I wouldn’t want to be! Except that it means I’m literally the only person in this…place…who doesn’t have access to moon magic, and, okay, I guess I do feel a little left out by that.

But it’s fine. I don’t want to be at their ceremony. It sounds like a pain in the ass. I’m glad I didn’t have to go.

I’m thinking about this and drinking water from a sealed bottle I found in the cupboard—which seems too amazing to be a real thing—when I hear the sounds of screams.

My response is automatic. The wolf is already rising up inside me, and I just have time to strip off my clothes and fling them away. I don’t need any more of my personal effects getting torn up.

I hear the sound of glass breaking, and the wolf wants tofight. Something is wrong—something is threatening us—and the wolf wants to sink his teeth into it, drive it away, fight it off.

I race through the curtain, down the stairs, toward the sounds of the fight.

But when I get to the ground floor and see what we’re facing, horror strikes me, cold and sharp, like a blade.

Ravagers.

I know what they are immediately, even though I’ve never actually faced a swarm of Ravagers before. I’ve heard them described often enough to know.

They’re human—but they’re not.

Their skin is translucent from years living underground. Their hair is matted. Their eyes roll wildly in their heads, not fixing on anything. Their lips are peeled back, baring pointed teeth. They’re naked.

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