Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“It all makes sense now, Daze,” he murmured to the wall, his eyes out of focus. “Why she chose me to be your mate. Why she needs me to protect you, help you, and believe you.”
“Why?”
“The seven of us—you, me, Castor, Badr, Paxton, Orion, Edric—we’ve been bonded for a lot longer than a year. We were always going to end up together. We were meant to fight this fight.”
“Nyx,” I cried. “What are you talking about? Why are you saying this?”
“The shadow, Daze. The one you spoke about. He’s no shadow at all. He’s very, very real, and I met him... the day he tried to kill me.”
Chapter Two
The glass slipped through my fingertips, splashing across his pantleg and giving him a bath for the second time. “Wha— What did you say?”
“I saw the shadow, Daciana, and if that man is after Hope”—his lengthening canines pierced his blush-stained bottom lip—“then I’m not fucking going anywhere. I’m staying by your side and putting that bastard in the ground.”
“Nyx!” I grabbed and yanked him down next to me, making him yelp. “Tell me everything right now. How do you know him? What does he look like? Where is he!”
“Daze.” Something about his voice, and his calloused hands taking mine, quieted me. “I need you to stop for a minute and listen. I’m going to tell you this and you’re going to believe me. Above all, you have to believe me.”
His eyes... Nyx’s eyes were more serious than I’d ever seen them. There was no laughing glint in his light pools. No trickster’s grin on his lips. No trace of the vain clown who shook his ass in my face. This was real, and important.
“Okay,” I said softly. “I’ll listen... and I’ll believe you.”
Nodding slow, he took a deep breath. “You probably didn’t know this, but I had another brother. A twin brother named Ravi.”
My brows popped. A million questions already sprung to my lips, but I silenced them. Something told me I was about to learn plenty about Ravi, and it would break my heart.
“Ravi was strong, so very strong from the day he was born,” Nyx began, still holding tight to my hand. “Not just a strong alpha, but a strong wood wolf. He ripped a thousand-year-old redwood out by the roots when he was only four years old. To say my father was proud would be an understatement.
“Father showered him in love, attention, toys, everything, and I ad-admit I was jealous,” he rasped, voice cracking. “As much as I loved my brother, I hated him too. I used to sabotage and play pranks on him. Anything to dirty the golden boy up, but I never hurt him!”
I started at the cry.
“I swear I never hurt him physically, and I never wanted to. But that day...”
“Yes?” I gently probed when he trailed off. “I’m listening, Nyx, it’s okay.”
He bit his lip hard, nostrils flaring. “That d-day, we went into the woods to play. It was just after our tenth birthday and we’d both gotten toy helicopters. We couldn’t wait to race each other. It was a good day, Daze. There was nothing to be angry, jealous, or mad about that day. I just wanted to hang with my brother.”
“What happened?”
Nyx wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t looking at anything. “We were almost a mile in when we saw them. The ghosts.”
My brow crumpled. Ghosts?
“They were beautiful,” he whispered. “So happy. So peaceful. The pack was chasing each other through the trees, and we wanted to play too.”
“The pack?” I softly cut in. “Were the ghosts wolves?”
Nyx nodded, his eyes out of focus. “Ravi and I shifted and chased after them—laughing, jumping, running with the pack—we weren’t scared at all. Not for a second. We just knew the ghosts wouldn’t hurt us.”
But something did, or the ghosts of the past wouldn’t be living in his eyes.
“We kept following them... until they ran to him.” Nyx’s face changed so fast, twisting into a mask of hatred that made me lurch back. “He was just standing there in the middle of the clearing like he was waiting for a bus or something—so casual.
“We saw him, shifted back, and just like that... Ravi started screaming.”
“Screaming?” I croaked. “Did the man attack him?”
“He didn’t lay a finger on him, Daze. He didn’t even move. He just looked at us, and then Ravi was on the ground—screaming and clawing at his chest.” Nyx grabbed his own chest, his claws piercing his shirt and spreading pinpricks of blood on the fabric.
He didn’t seem to notice. “Before I could move— Before I could think, Ravi’s ghost ripped from his chest... and he was gone.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, biting hard on my lip. “His ghost was his soul, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Nyx, I’m so sorry.”
He gave no sign that he heard me. “After he... After what he did to Ravi, he got mad. He rushed and grabbed me—yelling and shaking me for being where I didn’t belong. I tried to fight him off but my body caught fire. It felt like someone poured gasoline down my throat and then tossed a match in after it.