Prologue
Molly
If I didn’t get to have sex soon, I was going to kill someone. At the rate things were going, that someone was going to be my brother. I was done caring that Theo was mated to one of my best friends. He had always been protective of me, especially after we’d been forced to flee to the rebellion to escape the Council’s reach, but this was getting ridiculous. No matter where I went or who I was with, he seemed to be around every corner.
Sighing, I pulled open the dresser drawer and shoved a stack of clothing inside with more force than necessary. It was bad enough that I’d just turned seventeen and had to share a room with my mother to conserve space at the newest base we’d relocated to, but feeling like I had a personal babysitter every time I tried to interact with the male species had worn me out and left me frustrated.
I knew Theo’s overprotectiveness came from a place of love—and given the threats against us, it wasn’t completely unwarranted—but this was supposed to be my time to find myself and the mates who were supposed to be mine. How in the world was I supposed to do that with a kraken cockblocking my every move?
Returning to my suitcase, I double-checked that it was empty and zipped it up before looking around the room for a place to stash it. I hoped I wouldn’t need it again for a while. This was already the third base we’d been to in two months, but if the rumors were true, this one would be home for the foreseeable future. And I wouldn’t lie, the stability sounded nice.
When Nix and Joshua had been taken by Councilman Williams on Thanksgiving, Rini had been quick to spread word to the rebellion as well as our families and friends. I wasn’t sure if she’d been able to smell the fear wafting off the Councilman, or if maybe her bond with Ciarán had spurred a touch of prophecy inside her. Either way, she’d been prepared for the worst, though I wasn’t sure any of us could have predicted the terrible events that happened that Thanksgiving night.
Cedric had been visiting me that day to help prepare meals for the less fortunate shifter groups on the island when Rini had burst in, her eyes wild and frightened though she remained composed as she insisted it was time to pack and spread the word to flee. Cedric hadn’t even hesitated, launching himself in front of me, his lips pulled back in a snarl as though he expected council members to pour through the door after her to try and take me away from him.
The soft mattress dipped under me as I sat on the bed, remembering that fateful day. It had been terrifying and yet... a smile curved my lips as I thought about Ceddy. I hadn’t said anything to Theo yet, but I thought he might be my mate. I’d hoped some alone time with Cedric would let me decide for certain, but once Theo gathered my mom and me and had gotten us off the island, alone time had been a rarity. I was just glad Cedric and his family had escaped with us. Leaving him behind would have been awful.
Truthfully, I wasn’t sure how Nix had done it with Joshua. Every day I saw the toll it took on her and the rest of her mates. I’d never seen her so unsettled.
Flopping backward, I stared at the ceiling as I let my legs dangle over the side of the bed. Part of me felt guilty for even thinking about sex with everything we had going on with the rebellion. More and more shifters were finding their way to our ever-changing outposts. We couldn’t risk staying in one location for too long for fear that Council spies might bring our whereabouts to their attention. That the Council had brutally destroyed one of its own had many who’d previously been on the fence about joining our cause uprooting and joining us as we fled. It was either that, or their fear of remaining on the Council’s side and going up against Nix. Her notoriety had risen nearly as high as the Council’s, though her fame, and the reason for its existence, hadn’t thrilled her.
Even here, amongst the rebellion members, some watched Nix with eyes filled with fear instead of awe. She’d incinerated a council member, seemingly as easily as breathing. Add in Ishida’s lies about Nix’s involvement in his daughter Ahmya’s death—although his mind was clearly shattered—and shifters tended to give Nix a wide berth.
With Councilman LaCroix and Councilman Khan dead, we were down to four council members who posed a threat—Councilmen Rahal, Maldonado, Ishida, and Stepanov. Groomed to join the Council from a young age, Joshua had been able to denounce Nix and the rebellion and take his place filling Councilman LaCroix’s position, though it had come at a heavy personal cost. His father, Councilman Williams, ruled at his side, trying to appease the Council while also working to keep his son safe as Joshua aided the rebellion and fed us information.
And what had been just a dream to many was now very real. Our rebellion strongholds were bursting at the seams as we found room for defectors from the Council’s lands looking for shelter and protection in exchange for bolstering our numbers.
Although it was clear the Council had attempted to conceal the events of Thanksgiving, word had still spread quickly. Some of our first new members had been the servants and guards in attendance that day who had fled with their families in fear that their lives would be sacrificed to keep the Council’s weakness a secret. They weren’t overreacting either. Several shifters who had worked at the Lodge had disappeared without a trace.
More dissenters followed, sneaking off the island by boat, air, or on the backs of sea creatures able to traverse the gulf to freedom.
What had once been a small movement had turned into an ever-growing war. Never before had mythologicals and animal shifters worked side by side, though harmony was far from achieved. The unrest among the factions was a constant political undercurrent that threatened to derail us from the inside out. With victory a very real possibility, each faction strove to draw more members to their own parties, hoping to influence what the shifter world became once we reached the other side. While relations between the factions were taut, at least we were all looking toward a future that involved the downfall of the current Council. None of us allowed ourselves to think of what would happen if we failed.
I settled more comfortably onto my bed and turned to stare at my mother’s empty mattress. The comforter was rough, nothing at all like the one I had on my bed back home, and the scratchy fabric irritated my tender skin. The light spilling through the window was dim, the sun sliding just above the horizon before sinking into night—as per usual with winter in Alaska—but my internal clock knew it was nearing dinner despite the constant dusk. I missed my own room, my own bed. Even as I thought the words, I bit my cheek, attempting to wipe them from my brain. Guilt ate at me and I shifted, hugging my pillow to my chest as I struggled to ease away the tears welling at the corners of my eyes. My heart longed for the delicious smell of my mom’s baking that used to fill my house, the pictures that decorated the walls bursting with happy memories from my youth, and the safety I used to feel within that structure, though I knew what lay outside the front door was anything but.
Here, however, I was faced daily with the stark truth, the reminder of the oppression we faced under a corrupt Council. The hardship was etched into the worried lines of the refugees’ faces. Everything had changed. Now, instead of fretting over finishing high school and courting the men who’d bid on me at the Gala, I was faced with combat training and helping my mother in the clinic where she worked tirelessly treating anyone who was sick or injured. Together, we’d been preparing medical kits that could be used to triage the wounded amidst a battle, while the more experienced medical professionals were working on anti-venoms that could counteract the most powerful shifters the Council might use against us. Everyone had a place in the rebellion preparing for the war on our doorstep.