Page 3 of Shifted Existence

“There is no mirror, only the surface of the water.”

“You are not vain enough to keep a mirror in your dwelling, so I must make use of the only reflective surface I can find. Your mother read to you when you were a child. You know of the evil I have done…”

Talon waved his hands in an impatient gesture for the entity to stop speaking. “Let’s assume for a moment that you are who and what you say you are. Why should I trust you?”

“Because you believe in atonement for the things one has done in the past, and allow those who once did wickedness to make up for their actions. This is part of my penance.”

“Accosting those who are alone with some fantastical tale?”

“No, Alpha. My purpose now is to help those who cannot or will not help themselves to find their fated mates. I tell you that yours lies on the other side of the Void.”

“I have no need or desire to take one of the primped and primed females from those who are offered up.”

“Good. Because while your fated mate may be of the Conquered Realm, she is not desirous of being mated to a wolf.”

Talon looked sharply down at the mirror in the water. “Good, then she won’t be disappointed if I don’t claim her.”

“But she will never be all she could be, especially if she doesn’t live…”

“Are you saying the girl could be in trouble?”

“You are aware that those who do not offer themselves up to the training program are subjected to the Hunt of the Wolf Moon. Theirs is a harsh life. No one offers them shelter or succor, they survive on their own by their skills, intelligence, and strength. They are rejected by their society, and most do not live to age out of breedable age.”

Intrigued, Talon asked, “So she would have no one to speak for her, should I participate in this folly?”

“None,” said the mirror. “Come and take a look. Let me at least show her to you.”

Talon looked down into the stream, past the surface, and saw a buxom woman with long brown hair, a shade rarely seen in the Eclipse Province. She was in a short dress that left little to the imagination and as he gazed, the image began to shift and morph into a woman slightly older and more appropriately dressed for the rugged life she had chosen for herself. She was captivatingly beautiful—tall and strongly built with a nipped in waist, large firm breasts, and hips that a wolf could use to hold her in place. All in all, she more closely resembled a she-wolf than a human female.

In that moment, Talon felt his world, his reality, his very existence… shift and tilt on its edge. His cock began to swell and the first stirrings of a primitive need to dominate and protect began to take hold. The woman who looked back at him as she drank from a river, her eyes darting furtively all around her, was, as the Mirror stated, his fated mate.

“Mine,” Talon growled possessively.

“I thought you might think so. She is called Bailey Pierce and she is located most often in a harsh and desolated place known as Pictured Rocks in the northern province by the great lakes known as Michigan.”

“You have done me a service. What favor do you ask in return?”

“Only that you find true happiness for the rest of your days and beyond with your fated mate.”

Talon nodded, but before he could say more, the image of the mirror’s face dissipated and left only the smooth surface of the stream behind. He knew that calling for the mirror would be useless and so turned back toward the village. He would set Blitz and several of his men to the task of stocking the larder for the village.

Winter was coming, but it would appear he would have his fated mate to keep him warm in his furs, where he could make good use of the pleasure she would provide.

CHAPTER2

The Conquered Realm

How the hell had this happened? Three years ago, there had been a natural order to things. People had gone about their lives—working, sleeping, eating, falling in love, having babies with no thought that there might be other realities. Oh, some had thought there might be aliens, creatures from outer space who might someday visit Earth, but there had been nothing to prepare them for the invasion that had come from within. And no one had even entertained the possibility that they would become known as the “Conquered Realm.”

No one had known. How could they? Bailey didn’t hold the scientists to blame—not really. They were scientists, after all. It was their job to question, to explore, and to expand on their known world. The problem was no one had been overseeing the scientists’ work.

When a group had happened upon a means of linking to other dimensions, it had never occurred to them that they might be creating a problem they couldn’t solve. No one had made them ask if it was a good idea to open their world to other realities. No one had questioned trying to explore those other dimensions. No one had questioned their invincibility. They had been so wrong not to do so.

The Hunt of the Wolf Moon would start tomorrow, the byproduct of the humans’ defeat at the hands of the wolf-shifters. Bailey spat their name even in her mind— human and animal hybrids who were able to shift from man to beast. The other realities were inclined to leave those who knew nothing of their existence closed to invasion or exploration. Only those realms that existed along the fringes of the Void and that had knowledge of the multiverse were deemed to have value, but not to those of the New Moon Expanse and the Eclipse Province.

Bailey still had trouble with the whole notion of a multiverse and alternate realities. How did anyone grasp that concept? Had all of the realities started at once? At each point where a decision had to be made, had one dimension diverged from the others? It was mind-boggling and far beyond her comprehension. All she knew was that there was no going back, and the women of the Conquered Realm were forced to pay the price for its protection and peace.

Knowing she had no choice didn’t stop Bailey from wishing they could go back, wishing that her only issue was which cruise to take next, not where to hide, how to find food, or evade the shifter raiding parties during the organized hunts. When their scientists had opened the door to other realities, they’d found how unsophisticated their own reality truly was. Two allied dimensions had attacked and those in the Conquered Realm had been defeated in what seemed like the blink of an eye. The two invading realities had prevailed and had accepted a peace proposal and alliance of sorts, making a deal with the old men in power.

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